Year: 1870

mankind be not in the wrong direction.
That marriage was in vogue centuries
and centuries ago, the records OF an
tiquity adduce ample evidence to
prove, but it was not condition attend
ant upon barbarism, and that its present
prevalence is not relic of barbarism |
have yet to meet arguments to convince
me. II did very well when man could
take two or three centuries to make up
his mind reflect three or four centuries
upon his decision, and even then have a
score of decades to enjoy his bliss but
in these rapid days, man had better
hold hard with one hand and cling fast
with the other. Some one has said


marriage is lottery but if a lottery,
it is a swindling one, for nothing but
prizes are advertised and nothing but
blanks are drawn. A wife, dare say,
is occasionally a very good thing to have,
which, when you want it, is there, but
then bear in mind, Scratchabout, when
you don't want it it is there too" No
one can do otherwise than acknowledge
this spicy old gents argument to be
sound, his reasoning logical, and his
conclusions, all but those with their
necks securely in the moose, will heartily
indorse and unhesitatingly approve.


Your facetious Roundabout" by ere
ating nomenclature of the matrimonial
market, has done good service to so
ciety and to humanity, AT this point
each of his several classifications have
their representatives the determined
to-marry-or-die beau, however, is very
scarce. This individual is valuable
commodity to anxious mammas, with
daughters bordering on that period of
life graphically termed shady yet,
under certain circumstances, he becomes
a great bore For instance, when the
mamma is not anxious and the offspring
not shady" he is nuisance and an
annoyance that should be abated The
g constant beau " is in brisk demand, but
the supply is wholly inadequate. The
f" occasional is drug in the market,
and is relentlessly elbowed about without
consideration or sympathy. The other
stock is about as usual. their value being
regulated by the vacuity of their brains,
their dancing qualities and the length of
their mustaches and imperials.


1a eiFaTl FASHION f'
at Niagara is at rather low ebb There
are some pretentious shoddies and mani
fest petroleums who assume many airs
and play the nabob with awkward assu-
rance and brazen impudence, but they
are ostracised by all decent people, and
get nothing but ridicule and contempt
for their display,


Some of the residents of the place,
who have grown rich from travellers, have
handsome turn-outs, but very few visitors
have brought their own carriages;
though if they drive much, it would be
economy to do so, for the hack charges,
whatever interested parties may say to
the contrary, are unjust and hugely
beyond all reason Every one here
seems bent on killing the goose that
lays the golden egg, and all seem to
conspire in the effort TO " do travellers
numerically. Sensible people make up
their minds to submit to certain
amount of swindling in this world, and
as a general thing their expectations are
more than fulfilled, but sensible people,
too, know when thing is carried too
far, and some of these days Niagara will
find the patience of the public exhausted
and travel directed to some perhaps less
attractive but less eXtortionate points.


a4l d. SCRATCHABoUT.