Page images
PDF
EPUB

Notwithstanding the contempt an Indian educa- unwilling guest. This last had now arrived at in spite of his Indian nature. He had not come tion inculcates for the fair sex, he was as sen the conclusion that he was to die, and he had to kill any one as on former occasions, but to lay sible to female blandishment as a man could be. screwed up his courage to meet his fate with down his own life; and he remained constant in Though his new wife was by no means so kind the unshrinking fortitude of an Indian warrior. his resolution.

as the old one, yet as she fulfilled the duties of He ate, therefore, in silence, but without any If it be asked why the Mandans left their vil her station with all apparent decorum, he be- sign of concern. When the repast was ended, lage in this defenceless condition, we answer, gan to be attached to her. His health improved, Payton Skah produced his pipe, filled the bowl that Indian camps are frequently left in the same he was again heard to laugh, and he hunted the with tobacco mixed with the inner bark of the manner. Perhaps they relied on the broad and buffalo with as much vigour as ever. Yet when red willow, and after smoking a few whiffs him- rapid river, to keep off any roving band of DahChuntay Washtay, as she sometimes would, self, gave it to the culprit. Having passed from cotahs that might come thither. Payton Skah raised her voice higher than was consistent with one to the other till it was finished, the aggriev- sat in the lodge of his enemies till the tramp of conjugal affection, he would think of his lost ed husband ordered his wife to produce her a horse on the frozen earth, and the jingling of Tahtokah, and struggle to keep down the rising clothing and effects, and pack them up in a the little bells round his neck, announced that a sigh. bundle. This done, he rose to speak. warrior had returned from the hunt. Then the

A young Yankton who had asked Chuntay "Another in my place," said he to the young White Otter prepared to go to whatever lodge Washtay of her parents previous to her marriage, man, "had he detected you as I did last night, the Mandan might enter, and die by his arrows and who had been rejected by them, now be- would have driven an arrow through you before or tomahawk. But he had no occasion to stir. came a constant visiter in her husband's lodge. you awoke. But my heart is strong, and I have The horseman rode straight to the lodge in He came early and staid and smoked late. But hold of the heart of Chuntay Washtay. You which he sat, dismounted, threw his bridle to a as Payton Skah saw no appearance of regard for sought her before I did, and I see she would squaw, and entered. The women pointed to the youth in his wife, he felt no uneasiness. If rather be your companion than mine. She is their silent guest, and related how unaccounthe had seen what was passing in her mind, he yours; and that you may be able to support her, ably he had behaved. The new comer turned would have scorned to exhibit any jealousy. He take my horse, and my bows and arrows also. to Payton Skah and asked who and what he was. would have proved by his demeanour "that his Take her and depart, and let peace be between Then the Yankton, like Caius Marius within the heart was strong." He was destined ere long us." walls of Corioli, rose, threw off his robe, and to be more enlightened on this point. At this speech, the wife, who had been trem- drawing himself up with great dignity, bared his His mother was gone with the child, on a bling lest her nose should be cut off, and her breast and spoke. "I am a man. Of that, Manvisit to a neighbouring camp, and he was left lover, who had expected nothing less than death, dan be assured. Nay more: I am a Dahcotab, alone with his wife. It was reported that buf-recovered their assurance and left the lodge. and my name is Payton Skah. You have heard faloes were found at a little basin in the prairie, Payton Skah remained; and while the whole it before. I have lost friends and kin by the at about the distance of a day's journey, and band was singing his generosity, brooded over arrows of your people, and well have I revenged Chuntay Washtay desired him to go and kill one, his misfortunes in sadness and silence. them. See, on my head I wear ten feathers of and hang its flesh up in a tree out of the reach Notwithstanding his boast of the firmness of the war eagle. Now it is the will of the Master of the wolves. "You cannot get back to-night," his resolution, his mind was nearly unsettled by of life that I should die, and for that purpose she said, "but you can make a fire and sleep by the shock. He had set his whole heart upon came I hither. Strike therefore, and rid your it, and return to-morrow. If fat cows are to be Tahtokah, and when the wound occasioned by tribe of the greatest enemy it ever had." found there, we will take down our lodge and her loss was healed, he had loved Chuntay Courage, among the aborigines, as charity Washtay with all his might. He could vaunt of among Christians, covereth a multitude of sins.

move."

The White Otter did as he was desired. His his indifference to any ills woman could inflict The Mandan Warrior cast on his undaunted wife brought his beautiful black horse, which he on the warriors of his tribe, but the boast that foe a look in which respect, delight, and adhad selected and stolen from a drove near the they could have truly made, was not true coming miration were blended. He raised his war club Mandan village, to the door of the lodge. He from him. as if about to strike, but the Sioux. blenched

threw himself on its back, and having listened Though one of the bravest of men, his heart not; not a nerve trembled-his eyelids did not to her entreaties that he would be back soon, was as soft as woman's in spite of precept and quiver. The weapon dropped from the hand rode away. example. At this second blight of his affections that held it. The Mandan tore open his own His gallant steed carried him to the place of he fell into a settled melancholy, and one or two vestment, and said, “No, I will not kill so brave his destination with the speed of the wind. The unsuccessful hunts convinced him that he was a a man. But I will prove that my people are buffaloes were plenty, and in the space of two doomed man; an object of the displeasure of men also. I will not be outdone in generosity. hours he had killed and cut up two of them. God; and that he need never more look for any Strike thou, then take my horse and fly." Having hung up the meat upon the branches, good fortune. A post dance, at which the per- The Sioux declined the offer, and insisted he concluded that as he had got some hours of formers alternately sung their exploits, brought upon being himself the victim. The Mandan daylight, he would return to his wife. He ap- this morbid state of feeling to a crisis. Like the was equally pertinacious; and this singular dis plied the lash, and arrived at the camp at mid-rest he recommended the deeds he had done, pute lasted till the latter at last held out his night. and declared that to expiate the involuntary hand in token of amity. He commanded the He picketed his horse carefully, and bent his offence he had committed against the Great women to prepare a feast, and the two geneway to his own lodge. All was silent within, Spirit, he would go to the Mandan village and rous foes sat down and smoked together. The and the dogs scenting their master, gave no throw away his body. All expostulation was brave of the Missouri accounted for speaking alarm. He took up a handful of dry twigs out-vain; and the next morning he started on foot the Dahcotah tongue by saying that he was side the door and entered. Raking over the coals and alone to put his purpose in execution. himself half Sioux. His mother had belonged

in the centre of the lodge, he laid on the fuel, He travelled onward with a heavy heart, and to that tribe, and so did his wife, having both which presently blazed and gave a bright light. the eighth evening found him on the bank of the been made prisoners. In the morning Payton By its aid he discovered a spectacle that drove Missouri, opposite the Mandan village. He swam Skah should see and converse with them. And the blood from his heart into his face. There the river, and saw the light shine through the the Yankton proffered, since it did not appear lay Chuntay Washtay, fast asleep by the side of crevices, and heard the dogs bark at his approach, to be the will of the Great Spirit that he should her quondam lover. Payton Skah unsheathed Nothing dismayed, he entered the village and die, to become the instrument to bring about his knife, and stood for a moment irresolute, but promenaded through it two or three times. He a firm and lasting peace between the two, na his better feelings prevailed, he returned it to saw no man abroad, and impatient of delay, en- tions.

its place in his belt, and left the lodge without tered the principal lodge. Within he found two In the morning the rest of the band arrived, awakening them. Going to another place, he women, who spoke to him, but he did not an- and were informed what visiter was in the vil laid himself down, but not to sleep. swer. He drew his robe over his face, and sat lage. The women screamed with rage and

But when the east began to be streaked with down in a dark corner, intending to await the cried for revenge. The men grasped their gray he brought his horse, his favourite steed, entrance of some warrior, by whose hands he weapons and rushed tumultuously to the lodge to the door of the tent. Just as he had reached might honourably die. The women addressed to obtain it. The Mandan stood before the it those within awoke, and the paramour of him repeatedly, but could not draw from him door, declaring that he would guarantee the Chuntay Washtay came forth and stood before any reply. Finding him impenetrable, they took rights of hospitality with his life. His resolute him. He stood still. Fear of the famous hunt-no further notice, but continued their conversa- demeanour, as well as the bow and war club er and renowned warrior kept him silent. Pay- tion as if no one had been present. Had they he held ready to make his words good, made ton Skah, in a stern voice, commanded him to known to what tribe he belonged they would the impression he desired. The Mandans re re-enter, and when he had obeyed followed him have fled in terror; but they supposed him to coiled, consulted, and the elders decided that in. The guilty wife spoke not, but covered be a Mandan, He gathered from it that the men Payton Skah must be carried as a prisoner to her face with her hands, till her husband di- of the village were gone on a buffalo hunt, and the council lodge, there to abide the result of rected her to light a fire and prepare food. She would not return till morning. Most of the fe- their deliberations.

then rose and hung the earthen utensil over the males were with them. Here, then, was an op- Payton Skah, indifferent to whatever might fire, and the repast was soon ready. At the portunity to wreak his vengeance on the whole befall him, walked proudly to the place apcommand of Payton Skah she placed a wooden tribe such as never before occurred, and would pointed in the midst of a guard of Mandans, platter or bowl before him, and another for his probably never occur again. But he refrained and accompanied by the taunts and execrations

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

of the squaws. The preliminary of smoking cases which contain the enamelled amber. The his bed-curtain, for the sake of decency; that's over, the consultation did not last long. His Tusuk bazaar (the Paternoster row of Constantinople) easily said, child; but the truth is, that for the last new friend related how the prisoner had enter- is well worth visiting; several hundred scribes are fortnight the jade Fortune has been in a most spiteed the village, and unarmed, save with his to be seen there employed in copying; and even those ful humour with me. Faro, and all his host to boot, knife: how he had magnanimously spared the persons to whom the Eastern character is not legible have been most unmerciful. The sum is but a women and children when at his mercy and manuscripts. The Koran, with its commentators, is If I had only one, I might take advantage of a lucky may still admire the neatness and beauty of their trifle of thirty pistoles. A trifle! thirty pistoles! how he had offered to negotiate a peace be- the chief object of their labours, but they condescend vein which I am positive was going to begin just as tween the two tribes. Admiration of his valour sometimes to fancy works, and the little illuminated 1 left off last night. But in eight days I am to be overcame the hostility of the Mandans. Their almanacks which are to be bought in this bazaar are married; and it's no use talking; you must in the hatred vanished like snow before the sun, and it not without elegance. The workmen of Constanti-mean time find wherewithal to pay your debt. Ah! was carried by acclamation, that he should be nople excel too in embroidering on cloth or leather you are going to be married! then it seems you have treated as became an Indian brave, and dismiss-with gold and silver thread; but their designs, though money; for alas! if you count upon my thirty pised in safety and with honour. rich, are unvaried; and, whether owing to pride or toles' 'I lean upon a rotten staff, is that your At this stage of proceedings a woman rushed rectly after a model. A large bazaar is appropriated pay you one of these days: some morning when you indolence, they have not the faculty of working cor- meaning?' 'Not exactly, child: I will assuredly into the lodge, broke through the circle of to the sale of Cashmere shawls; and another to the chance to find me in possession of the vein that I stern and armed warriors, and threw herself into embroidered silk handkerchiefs which are made in was forced to abandon last night. But, a moment: the arms of the Dahcotah hero. It was Tato- the harems, and are sometimes very rich and beau- thirty pistoles are not your entire portion?' ' Cerkah, his first, his best beloved! He did not re-tiful. The Misr Tcharchi, or Egyptian bazaar, is tainly not: by dint of washing, and scouring, and turn her caresses; that would have derogated occupied by drugs and spices from the East, and a plaiting, and starching, I have amassed about a coufrom his dignity; but he asked her how she had neighbouring quarter is devoted to the sale of con-ple of hundred ducats. The devil you have! escaped from the general slaughter at the Des Levant, and which is to be found in the greatest some purpose. And who is the bridegroom?' 'An fectionary, an article of great consumption in the Jeannette, you have indeed starched and plaited to Moines, and who was her present husband. variety and of the best quality in the metropolis. honest Norman coachee, who has promised to maFuller's Tour to the Turkish Empire. nage our little bousehold matters as carefully as he

She pointed to the Mandan to whom he had offered his breast. He it was, she said, who had spared her, and subsequently taken her to bas thought it necessary to render the distinction fie! a girl like you might do better.' Whom then The Abbassides.-The caliphs of the house of Ab-drives his master's carriage.' 'A coachman! Fie! wife. He now advanced and proposed to Pay- still more marked between their predecessors and would you have me marry? a duke, I suppose?' 'In ton Skah to become his kodah or comrade, and themselves, by a splendour in the appointments of truth, Jeannette, there are dukes who do not deto receive his wife back again, two propositions their court, and a munificence in the disposal of their serve you, and who are incapable of amassing in a to which the latter gladly assented. funds, which would have seemed incredible to the century the two hundred ducats which your little

The Mandans devoted five days to feasting poorer and more frugal princes of the house of Om-hands have put together in so short a time. What the gallant Yankton. At the end of that time miyah. And it must be admitted, that the eastern say you to me, girl, for a husband, his majesty's he departed with his recovered wife, taking monarchs, almost, perhaps entirely, unparalleled in dens?' You, M. Dufresney! you marry a washerwriters have recorded largesses of these prodigal valet-de-chambre and comptroller of the royal garwith him three horses laden with robes and Occidental history. Among the other schemes de-woman? Why not? my great-grand-mother workother gifts bestowed on him by his late enemies.vised by these indefatigable spendthrifts, for emp-ed in a garden.' A slight whispering of ambition His kodah accompanied him half way on his tying their coffers and commanding admiration, may tingled in Jeannette's ear:-'I don't exactly refuse,' return, with a numerous retinue, and at part-be mentioned their splendid pilgrimages to the holy said she, with a downeast look;-'you are his maing received his promise that he would soon city, in themselves remarkable enough, but render-jesty's valet-de-chambre, and comptroller of the ed still more striking by the contrast with the sim- royal gardens?' Even so, child.'' And in case

return.

day. As to Payton Skah, he recovered his
health and spirits, was successful in war and the
chase, and was finally convinced that the curse
of the Almighty had departed from him.
[Tales of the West.

SELECTIONS

We leave our readers to imagine the plicity, and even meanness, which their predeces- of accidents, mayhap you could become valet-dejoy of Tahtokah at seeing her child again on sors considered it a duty to display on similar occa-chambre in some other great house,—or gardener?' her arrival among the Sioux, as well as the sa-sions. Almost all the early princes of the house of I don't promise that,—but―I am a poet.' 'Oh, tisfaction of the tribe at hearing that its best man Abbas performed the hajji in this novel-style; Al- for the matter of that, your trade is not worth much. had returned from his perilous excursion alive mohdi may be fairly said to have eclipsed them all; I wash for twenty poets, not one of whom pays me; and unhurt. In less than two months Payton for in addition to immense stores of every other but Well! have you made up your mind? Skah was again among the Mandans with six kind, he carried snow enough across the desert, not Here I am-quite dressed; give me your arm;— followers, who were hospitably received and only to allay the thirst of his vast retinue, both go-we'll have the banns published immediately.' With entertained. An equal number of Mandans ac- the phenomena of ice water, but to preserve fresh poet lovingly by the arm; and in a fortnight the fair ing and returning, and to astonish the Meccans with all my heart,' said the washerwoman, taking the companied them on their return home, where an incalculable quantity of Syrian Mesopotamian starcher, whom we must now call the grand-daughthey experienced the like treatment. As the fruits, which formed a part of his provisions. Yet ter of Henry IV., was obliged to, scrub and plait intercourse between the tribes became more amidst all this glittering profusion, it is curious to harder than ever to gain another couple of hundred frequent, hostilities were discontinued, and the observe how inefficacious wealth and its immediate pistoles, her husband having spent the first in a feelings that prompted them were in time for consequences are, to refine the rudeness and soften fruitless search after his vein of luck. But in a gotten. The peace brought about as above rethe asperities of social life. It is impossible for us week afterwards, Dufresney made his appearance Jated has continued without interruption to this to go into the small details which would be necessa- with a thousand pistoles, which Louis XIV. had of anecdote preserved by the Arabic historians, that his relation, Jeannette, must not be suffered to ry even to illustrate this remark; but the rich store given him; his majesty good-naturedly observing, seems clearly to evince, that the manners even of starve for the crime of having married a great mothe higher classes were, at this time, in a sort of narch's illegitimate grandson." fluctuation between the coarseness of half barbarism The Passover of Jews-On Wednesday morning and the elegant effeminacy of a luxurious age. This at nine o'clock this important religious festival to fact may be attributed in part to the natural influ- the people called Jews commenced. ence of the Mahomedan religion, but still more to curious ceremonies are observed on the evening The following the infancy and insignificancy of Arab literature. previous to the Passover. The master of every faFrom late Foreign Journals received at this office. The peninsula Arabs, it is true, have ever been en-mily searches the different apartments of his house thusiastic lovers of poetry: but preceding caliphs for leavened bread after the following manner:Bazaars of Constantinople.—The bazaars and be- were, with few exceptions, little able or disposed to Being lighted with a small wax candle, he takes a zesteins of Constantinople are very extensive; a day afford efficient patronage to genius; and what is still whisk, gathering up all the leaven lying in his way, would scarcely suffice to walk through them all. more to the purpose, there was an almost total want As soon as he comes to the first piece of leavened Some of them are merely open streets, but the greater of those materials, books, schools, and men of pa- bread, he says "Blessed art thou, O Lord, our part are lofty vaulted cloisters, lighted from the roof, tient industry, without which the only sure founda- God, King of the Universe, who hath sanctified us and closed, when the hours of business are over, with tion of true learning and a lasting literature never with his commandments, and commanded us to clear iron gates. Each trade has its particular quarter, and can be laid. each of the many nations which are collected at Conaway the leaven." While he is gathering the pieces stantinople has certain trades assigned to it by ancient found him preparing one of his famous orations, not speak; when done gathering the bread he says Bossuet. The expression of Bossuet, to one who of bread, which are purposely laid for him, he does use and prescription. Those low-fronted shops, with the Iliad open on his table, is finely character-as follows:-"All the leavened or leavening that is without glass in the windows, and with a shutter falling half down, and serving in the day-time to place I always have Homer beside me when I make my the dust of the earth." He then ties the spoon and istic of the lofty and magnificent genius of the man have not received, shall be null, and accounted as in my possession, that I have not seen, and which I the wares upon, which are now fast disappearing from our English towns, are the true representative of the sermons. I love to light my lamp at the sun!" stall of a Turkish artificer. On this shutter he sits Royal Descent: an Anecdote.-We extract the gathered, which are kept until the next morning candle in a linen rag, with all the leavened bread at work; and though his tools are very rude and in- following from the third and fourth volumes (un-(the morning of the Passover,) after breakfast, and ferior, he uses them with great dexterity. As he published) of the "Chroniques de l'œil de Bœuf." burnt. If the master is not at home, he annuls the sits cross-legged his bare feet are quite at liberty, "Dufresney, a descendant of Henry IV. by the leaven wherever he is. and habit has made them as useful to him as a second left side, has just taken into his head to marry; but happens to fall on the Sabbath, the search is made on If the eve of the Passover pair of hands. I have often stood to admire the skill only see to what excess a poet may carry his origi- the Thursday evening previous, and the leavened with which a Turk, with no other instrument than nality. A young and comely washerwoman, whose bread burnt on the Friday before noon, a very long gimlet, which he turned rapidly by means account with the wit might be compared to a thea- utensil used for leaven removed on the Friday before and every of a bow and catgut, would bore the tube of a pipe trical piece without a denouement, made her way the Sabbath commences, receiving only two meals through a cherry or jessamine stick, perhaps more one morning into the author's apartment, and in a for the Sabbath. After breakfast on the Sabbath than six feet long. The pipe bazaar is a favourite positive tone demanded, once for all, as she termed they shake out the cloth on which they have eaten, place of resort; and many a Tartar and Janissary it, the settlement of her account. may be seen there looking wistfully into the glass exclaimed the poet, slipping on his clothes behind during the festival. The above festival lasts eight Your account!' and put away the utensils, with those not to be used

clear days, during which time the Jews are enjoined war, when it was opposed by the puritans, a race of to refrain from entering any house of public enter-men morose, stern, and inflexible. During the in-, tainment, and drinking any kind of malt liquor, terregnum it flourished with difficulty; and by untheir only beverage being rum, shrub, or raisin ceasing obloquy and reproach, was at first persecutwine. The rum must be in the same state in which ed into unpopularity, and at length to extinction. It it is purchased at the docks, and on which the seal revived at the Restoration, and in 1660 Charles II. of the High Priest is placed as an attestation of its licensed two companies, Killigrew's and Davenant's. being genuine, and is termed "Cosher rum."- From this period it continued gradually to improve London paper. in interest and importance, till at length it attained its present state of perfection.

a few weeks old.

A Monkey Trick.-In 1813, a vessel that sailed between Whiteheaven and Jamaica embarked on her A Curious Will.-A worthy and wealthy tradeshomeward voyage, and, among other passengers, man, who died a few years since, had the following carried a female, who had at the breast a child only extraordinary item in his will-as may be seen in Doctors' Commons-"I bequeath to my youngest One beautiful afternoon the captain perceived a distant sail, and after he had grati-son, Thomas, two thousand pounds, and all my luck fied his curiosity, he politely offered his glass to his in the lotteries; and recommend it to him to advenpassenger, that she might obtain a clear view of the ture at least five pounds in every scheme-such a object. Mrs. B. had the babe in her arms; she wrap- pursuit being the means that enabled me to comped her shawl about the little innocent, and placed mence trade."

it on a sofa upon which she had been sitting. Scarcely had she applied her eye to the glass, when the helmsman exclaimed, "Good God! see what the mischievous monkey has done." The reader may judge of the female's feelings, when, on turning round, she beheld the animal in the act of transporting her beloved child apparently to the very top of the mast. The monkey was a very large one, and so strong and active, that while it grasped the infant firmly with the one arm, it climbed the shrouds nimbly by the other, totally unembarrassed by the weight of its burthen. One look was sufficient for the terrified mother, and that look had well nigh been her last, for had it not been for the assistance of those around her she would have fallen prostrate on the deck, where she was soon afterwards stretched apparently a lifeless corpse. The sailors could climb as well as the monkey, but the latter watched their motions narrowly; and as it ascended higher up the mast the moment they attempted to put a foot on the shrouds, the captain became afraid that it would drop the child, and endeavour to escape by leaping from one mast to another. In the meantime, the little innocent was heard to cry; and though many thought it was suffering pain, their fears on this point were speedily dissipated when they observed the monkey imitating exactly the motions of a nurse, by dandling, soothing and caressing its charge, and even endeavouring to hush it asleep. From the deck the lady was conveyed to the cabin, and gradually restored to her senses. In the mean time, the captain ordered every man to conceal himself below, and quietly took his own station on the cabin stair, where he could see all that passed without being seen. The plan happily succeeded; the monkey, on perceiving that the coast was clear, cautiously descended from his lofty perch, and replaced the infant on the sofa, cold, fretful, and perhaps frightened, but in every other respect as free from harm as when he took it up. The humane captain had now a most grateful task to perform; the babe was restored to its mother's arms, amidst tears, and thanks, and blessings.Macdermid's Sketches of Nature.

The Drama.-The earliest patent for acting comedies and tragedies is dated 1574; and such was the rapid progress of this rational amusement, that early in the next century, not less than fifteen licensed theatres were opened to the inhabitants of London. The best plays, especially those of Shakspeare, were acted chiefly at the Blackfriar's theatre, or at the Globe in Southwark. A flag was hoisted on the front of each theatre. The price of admission to the best places was a shilling, to the inferior ones a penny or two pence. The critics sat on the stage, and were furnished with pipes and tobacco. The curtain drew not up, but was drawn back on each side. From the raillery of Sir Philip Sidney, it is doubtful whether there was a change of scenes. It is probable this deficiency was supplied by the names of places being written in large characters on the stage; stating, for instance, that this was a wood, a garden, Thebes, Rome, or Alexandria, as the case might require. The stage was lighted with branches like those hung in churches. Before the exhibition began, three flourishes, sounding, or pieces of music were played; and music was likewise played between the acts. Perukes and masks formed part of the stage paraphernalia: and the female parts for the first hundred years were performed by young men. dramatic piece composed the whole entertainment; and the hours of acting began at one in the afternoon, and lasted about two hours. The audience, before the performance, amused themselves with reading or playing at cards; others drank ale or smoked tobacco. For some time plays were acted on Sundays only; after 1579, they were acted on Mondays and other days indiscriminately.

One

Such continued the state of the drama till the civil

SELECT POETRY.

TO A BRIDE. Farewell! sweet cousin! ever thus

Drop from us treasures, one by one, They who have been from youth with us,

Whose very look, whose very tone
Are linked to us like leaves to flowers

They who have shared our pleasant hours-
Whose voices, so familiar grown,
They almost seem to us our own,
The echoes, as it were, of ours-

They who have even been our pride,
Yet in their hours of triumph dearest-`

They whom we most have known and tried,
And loved the most when tried the nearest-
They pass from us like stars that wane,
The brightest still before,

Or gold links broken from a chain
That can be join'd no more.
What can we wish thee? Gifts hast thou,
Richer than wishes ever give-
Gifts of the heart, and lip, and brow,

Gifts that thou couldst not lose and live-
Better are these than aught that we,
This side of heaven, can wish for thee.

Well then-ever may these increaseDeeper thy heart-richer thy tone

Still on thy brow be written peace, Still be thine eye's kind spell its ownStill may the spirit of thy smile

Have power, as now, all cares to lighten, And may thine own heart feel, the while,

The sunshine in which others brighten. Life be to thee the summer tide "Twill seem to others by thy side!"

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

THIS DAY is published, by JESPER HARDING, 741 South Second Street, and 36 Carter's Alley, THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPALIAN AND CHURCH REGISTER. Devoted to the interests of religion in the Protestant Episcopal Church. Edited by an Association of Clergymen. Vol. I. No. 6, for June, 1830.

CONTENTS.-The Hardening of Pharaoh-The Dream of Life" As thy day, so shall thy strength be"-Divine Providence-Public Worship-Bishop Ravenscroft-Atheism and Infidelity-The Pious Nobleman-False Reasoning-The Trinity not the only Mystery-Salutary Hints-A Brief Aecount of the Armenian Church-Watching by the DeadEarthly Pleasures-The Land of the Dying and LivingVows Broken and Renewed-The Goodness of God-Validi ty of Ordinances-An Appeal to Beauty-Errors of Modern Education-Convention of the Diocese of PennsylvaniaBishop White's Address-Bishop Onderdonk's Address-Annual Report of the Female Episcopal Tract Society-Sunday School Celebration-Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society-IntelligenceSummary.

The Protestant Episcopalian is published monthly, ta numbers of 40 pages each, royal octavo. Terms, $2.50 per

annum.

Checks, Cards, Handbills, and PRINTING of every description executed with neatness, accuracy, and despatch at this office.

No. 24.

annum.

[blocks in formation]

Published every Thursday by JESPER HARDING, 36 Car-and it was my office, at those times, to endeav-thoughts, and our conversation, consequently, ter's Alley, and 74 South Second Street. Price, $250 per our to convince him, that it was not permitted desultory and irregular. I seldom disturbed Agents who procure and forward payment for four sub- he should perish everlastingly, when he tempt- his reflections when he was in those moods of scribers, shall receive the fifth copy for one year; and so ined such a doom, but rather that he should live silent abstraction; and this evening I was the proportion for a larger number.

POETRY.
STANZAS.

BY THE LATE ST. GEORGE TUCKER, ESQ
Days of my youth,

Ye have glided away:

Hairs of my youth,

Ye are frosted and gray;

Eyes of my youth,

Your keen sight is no more:
Cheeks of my youth,

Ye are furrow'd all o'er; -
Strength of my youth,

All your vigor is gone: Thoughts of my youth,

Your gay visions are flown. Days of my youth,

I wish not your recall:

Hairs of my youth,

I'm content ye should fall;
Eyes of my youth,

You much evil have seen:
Cheeks of my youth,

Bathed in tears you have been;
Thoughts of my youth,

You have led me astray:
Strength of my youth,

Why lament your decay?

Days of my age,

Ye will shortly be past: Pains of my age,

[ocr errors]

Yet awhile ye can last; Joys of my age,

In true wisdom delight:

Eyes of my age,

Be religion your light;
Thoughts of my age,

and repent. I strove to calm his terrors by re-less inclined to do so, because I was rioting in calling the words of consolation, which had the luxury of my own meditations inspired by bound up the wounds of a heart stricken more the glorious scene which encompassed me. deeply than even his own: "If thou return to We arrived at our bench, and seated ourthe Almighty, thou shalt be built up; thou shalt selves. The ascent had wearied us a little, and put away inquity far from thy tabernacle." I was still gazing with an untired eye, and deIt was one in the many conversations we lighted spirit, upon the gorgeous landscape behad held together upon the subject, that I ven-fore me, over which the sun's setting rays tured, (I hardly know under what vague im- had spread a mantle of dewy light, when he pulse or desire,) to touch upon the cause of his addressed me.

crime, and to glance at the fearful nature of "Do you remember," said he, and there was that awful tempest of the passions, which must a slightly tremulous faltering in his voice," a surely precede and accompany self-murder. I strange wish you once expressed, to know the could perceive that I had flung open the por-cause, and all the miserable circumstances-" tals of a scene from the harrowing visions of "I do!" I exclaimed, interrupting him; “ and which his spirit recoiled with horror; his coun-I was heartily ashamed then, as I have been tenance underwent a distressing change; his ever since, of my depraved curiosity." lip quivered, his eye dilated, his brow was knit "I thought it strange," continued my friend forcibly together, his breathing was quick and in the same faltering tone of voice," to wish spasmodic, and his whole appearance like that to tear open a ghastly wound for the sake of of a man who had been suddenly accused of a seeing how hideous it looked; to stretch me on crime he could not deny, but which he believed the rack that you might count my groans, and no human tongue, save his own, could declare. take a special note of the very order in which I deplored my rashness, and at that moment I each nerve and sinew cracked; to gauge the would have given half the remaining years I depth of that anguish which hurried me to the had to live, to recall my words. abyss of perdition, and of that tenfold greater He was silent; gradually the pang I had so anguish, that unutterable agony, which followwantonly inflicted subsided, and I resolved, in ed the delirium of the moment when I sprung my own mind, never again to let my curiosity from its brink. But I have learned to know kindle at a flame so unhallowed.. that every pang that I suffer here is but a part It was several months after this occurrence, of an offended God's appointed penalty for that he called upon me one evening, and pro- guilt; and though, with the timid shrinking of posed a walk. He had often done so before; the flesh, I would have shunned the infliction but on this occasion I thought I perceived an at the time, I trust I have bowed myself meekunusual anxiety in his manner not to be denied. ly and submissively to it since. You can never It was high summer, the evening calm, cool, know what it has cost me to trace the picand beautiful; and as I looked upon the rich ture, and I shall never seek to know with what landscape from my window, bathed in the sun-feelings you have contemplated it." ny haze which so commonly succeeds to a sul- He put into my hands a small roll of paper, try day in our climate, I felt that it would be and added with great earnestness, "I have "a blasphemy against nature," (to use a poeti-borne my punishment. Such portion of my cal expression of Milton's prose) not to wander atonement as that is meant to satisfy is releasI knew a man, some years ago, who at one among her works. ed. Let it not be again exacted!" period of his life had attempted suicide, but We set forth. The walks round,where It was with a sense of deep humiliation I refailed in his intention of self-destruction. The I then lived, cannot easily be surpassed, upon ceived the roll from him; for I could not enter mere verbal critic may quibble at my designa- a small scale, for picturesque beauty and varie-into his impressions, which invested with the tion of him; but it morally expresses himself, ty. On every side rose sloping hills of grace- character of a propitiatory sacrifice what I conand his act. Had immediate surgical aid been ful form, their sides covered with thick woods sidered only as a confession wrung from newly unattainable, or its application ineffectual, he whose masses of dense foliage contrasted finely awakened remorse by the prurience of a diseas. could have suffered no more. He had gone with those portions of the ascents which were ed curiosity. He had read me a severe lesson, through all of bodily pang, and of mental anguish, either under cultivation, or left as pasturage and turned my eyes inward upon my own inowhich consciousness could make horrible. for cattle, and which ran shelving down, by a tives with a stern but searching scrutiny. What remained of life would have been slowly gentle declivity, to the rocky banks of the The writer of what follows is now a partek extinguished, with no more perception of its mazy Severn. In every direction, there were er of the great mystery of life-its end! I saw feeble and final struggle than there is of the spots so lovelily laid out by the hand of nature, him die. His death was perfect resignation to convulsive tremblings of the trunk, when the consisting of woodland, meadow, orchard, hill the decree of Heaven; but doubts and fears dishead has been dissevered by the axe of the ex- and valley, that they required only the addition mayed his spirit as the curtain fell upon this of greater space to confer upon them the high-world, and he hung trembling over the impene-

Dread ye not the cold sod: Hopes of my age,

Be ye fix'd on your God.

SELECT TALES.

THE CONFESSIONS OF A SUICIDE.

BY THE AUTHOR OF FIRST AND LAST.

ecutioner.

I knew this man. It was full twenty years est character of diversified landscape. From trable obscurity of the next. after the event of which I have spoken. He one or two of the surrounding eminences, in- I know not with what emotions others may was then religious, with something of that deed, prospects were obtained of considerable peruse what he wrote. For myself, I may truly gloom and austerity in his religion which gave extent, and the eye ranged with delight from say, the remembrance of my own is, and must it a tinge of fanaticism. This was, perhaps, the rich and luxuriant scenery immediately be- ever be, among the most painful recollections the natural consequence of his situation. His neath the feet of the spectator, to the far out-of my life: It ran thus:

[ocr errors]

nind was of a superior order: his sensibility spread level of waving corn fields, which was I can easily imagine that the vague conacute and morbid. The former would not al- terminated by a bold outline of lofty hills. templation of suicide as a last and certain relow nim to disguise from himself the enormity As we sauntered along, beneath the shade fuge, when afflictions become intolerable, has of his transgression; while the latter heighten- of a noble avenue of stately trees, consisting of presented itself to thousands, who have never ed his sense of enormity to a feeling of despair, walnut, oak, elm, and ash, to our favourite seen the moment when the burden of their sorwhen he reasoned upon the possibility of ade- seat under a large yew tree, which crowned rows could not be borne. But wo to the misequate expiation. It was sometimes frightful to with solitary and sombre grandeur one of the rable wretch who at last says to himself, Now observe the agony with which he doubted of for- graceful sloping hills I have mentioned, my I will lay my burthen down, for I faint, and can giveness hereafter. I enjoyed his confidence, companion seemed absorbed in his own go no further!

[ocr errors]

"I remember the first time I looked beyond me as a grain of the vilest dust, in comparison To me, too, it seemed as if the blade of the rathe dark vista of my troubles, and saw, as it with the riches of the east. zor had buried itself in my neck; and that I were, my grave opening its arms to me as a My resolution was confirmed. But, oh! had not power to draw it out. Of my indisresting-place. The world had frowned upon what a sickness of the heart came over me, in tinct recollections, the most vivid are, my fallmy hopes, and blighted them. I was in sore spite of myself, the moment I felt assured there ing from my chair-as I fell, flashes of fire tribulation, hemmed round with perplexities, was no to-morrow for me. It chanced, that as darting from my eyes-a sense of weight on and sick even to death with long suffering. It I returned home that night, I met a friend, the top of my head, as if my skull were crushwas then that as I stood by the margin of a whose cordial greeting smote my spirit like a ing in upon my brain with ponderous bulkquiet lake, I looked upon its smooth calm sur-malignant mockery; his smile seemed the cold the warm pool of my own blood, in which I lay face, and thought how peaceful all beneath was! malice of a fiend, taunting me in laughter with and a noise that sounded in my ears like the I cast a stone upon the waters-it sunk-and his better fortune; and his careless 'good booming of far off heavy guns. There was a the eye could scarcely discern where it had night,' when we parted, pronounced as men faint glimmering of consciousness pervading sunk, so quickly all was smooth and undisturb- bid good night, who look to meet again, fell my mind of what I had done, not unmixed with ed again. Oh, God! how I wished I were be- upon my ear like a voice from the tomb, pro-shuddering anticipations of what was so soon side that stone! And how I pondered upon the claiming that I had done with time, for this to follow.

one little step from where I stood-the plunge was my last night! It was suited to the chaos "The rest was a blank! The grave itself -the moment's strong buffetting with the of my mind,-for I fancied he ought to have could not have been more so. But it is no wave, and then the quiet sinking to the bottom, known what was about to happen, and have idle form of words to say, that language has lifeless and at rest! A dark, turbid, rolling ri- spared me such derision. no expression, no combination of phrases, which ver could not have whispered such a purpose "When I closed the door of my chamber could even faintly shadow forth the marvellous to my heart. It would have been too much and bolted it-when I took from my pocket images of two states of being, of death perfectthe image of what I was myself, to allure me two loaded pistols, and laid them gently on the ly remembered of returning life dimly comto its troubled home. But this gentle, trans-table-and when I seated myself beside that prehended-which reared themselves before parent lake, spread out in the solitude like an table, calmly and quietly-yes!-calmly and my imagination as reviving consciousness slowasylum for the wretched, seemed to woo me to quietly!-for though each artery in my frame ly unfolded itself. The doubts of what I was— its bosom. Religion had no share in holding beat wildly, and though my brain seemed as if of where I was-and the mingling, but undeme back. I resisted the strong temptation on- it were clasped in iron, and my blood-shot eyes fined, terrors of remorse and guilt, as I obscurely by the influence of that stronger principle, burned in their sockets-there was not one ly recalled the past, and yielded to the sugges the mysterious love of life, which makes us un- tremulous pulse at my heart-when, I say, I thus tions of the present-awakened emotions of willing to die, even when the chain that binds sat, and gazed upon those little instruments of such deep and thrilling awe within me, that us to life is reduced to the solitary link of our death which I had prepared-such visions grew the memory of them, even at this distant pe prerogative to breathe. upon my fancy as throng only about the dark riod, comes over my spirit like a fearful vision confines of a future world. Do you ask their of another world!”" more. I clung to a world which incessantly framed to tell, what man himself can never nature The language of man was never shook me off at each convulsive grasp. I was like a mariner who sees his bark drifting upon which he does, the moment he vanquishes the know, till he has put off his mortal attributes; the rocks, by the force of a current he cannot fear of death, and stands ready to welcome him. stem. The hours of his safety are numbered; I and he knows he must perish. It is well for speak not of that victory over death which them that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch plucks out his sting, by holy preparation for his themselves on their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall,' to tell the forlorn of their race that

"I continued to breathe-but it was no

Spirit of Contemporary Prints.

CHANGE.

"Of chance or change, oh! let no man complain Else he shall never cease to wail!" We have often been reminded of the truth of coming, whensoever he may come; but of that this sentiment of Beattie. The chances and harder victory over ourselves, which must pre-changes of life are as unaccountable as they are cede a purpose such as mine was, deliberately wonderful. The revolutions effected by time meditated and deliberately fulfilled, wherein in mind, character and circumstances, would they may work, and eat, and live. To work the intention is equivalent to the act, in all the seem incredible in picture, but when actually and eat, and live, are not the conditions of existence which will satisfy the desires of every mysterious operations upon the soul. coming beneath our observation are passed by heart. MAN has his place in society as the Lord God! what an utter oblivion of the with scarce a comment. Every day's experitrees of the earth have theirs; and the towering past and of the present there was, as I placed ence shows us in still more striking colours the cedar of the mountain will not flourish in the the muzzle of one of the pistols in my mouth, weakness of human nature. From childhood to valley, where the lowly shrub and rank weed clenching it involuntarily with my teeth, as if old age, it is still the same paradox of inconsis thrive. I felt I had my place, which I had for-to steady its aim! My finger was on the trig-tencies. Our passions usurp the reins of judg feited by no act of dishonour, and my exclusion ger-and in my left hand I grasped the other. ment, and are frequently more painful than ig I cannot tell how long I paused: it might be a norance in producing misfortune and unhapfrom it, therefore, was dishonour. minute, or an hour; for time was already anni- piness. Often are we compelled to turn away "I am giving you the picture of what I was; hilated in my mind. I only knew, that even in with disgust from the conduct of our seniors, unveiling the thoughts and feelings of a period such a moment there came over me the dread often are we compelled to look with the eye of of life when youthful hopes, and the aspirings of hideous mutilation, the possible shattering pity upon the actions of our contemporaries. of young ambition, quicken the ardent pulses of my head and face, without death, without None can pass through life without coming in of generous enterprise; when what we aim at the physical energy afterwards to complete my contact with unworthiness of character as well is that which we teach ourselves to call our destruction, and the image of a life saved, with as imbecility of mind, and few can wander right; and when less than all we seek is too a form loathsome to myself and horrible to through the briar paths of this world unaffected little to content our proud reckoning of the fu- others. I can well remember, too, when this and unharmed. But of the changes of life who ture. It is not what I am. I have now learn- thought possessed me, with what an agony of shall speak. Let the aged look back upon the ed to look upon the world as upon a crowded caution I withdrew the weapon, lest mere ac- buoyant hours of youth, when the heart was theatre, where he who has not had his place cident should realize the thing I feared; but untried in the tempest of the world, and the secured must take the best he can find; or, as that danger past, I had no other fear. My fancy painted futurity with a rainbow pencil. a much frequented thoroughfare, where all get nerves were strung for the shock itself; I had Let them seek out for the deep sources of along, because every one, in his turn, makes strained, as it were, my sinews, to bear the affection from the free well springs of delight, way for others. sudden blow: and it called for no renewed ef that then gave tone and character to the whole

"I had been worn down by self-created dis- fort to change the manner of receiving it. chain of thought and existence. They will find appointments, when I made my last throw in "It is not to inspire you with any false no-the bitter passages of life have also embittered the game of life. I lost it! Inquire not the tions of my heroism, or of the stoical apathy of the early currents of feeling-they will find atake for which I played. It matters not now. my character, that I mention the fact of my se- that a calculating and untiring influence has I lost it; and my resolution was taken; in no lecting from a case, containing several razors, deadened the early delicacies of character, that paroxysm of passion, in no frenzy of despair; the one which I considered best adapted for the mildew of trial has palsied all pure impulses, but upon what I would then have called a calm my purpose. I did do so; and I did so without and that time has thrown a shadow over the philosophical estimate of the value of life in re- perturbation. What followed, was one grim soul, which has fettered it down among the lation to its utility to myself and others. I vision of blood and horror! All I distinctly re- grosser things of earth.

placed before my mind every argument which collect is, the pain of the first incision, and the Of hope as it once dawned upon the imagiit was at that moment capable of perceiving in desperate gash with which I frantically follow-nation, and drew landscapes of beauty and favour of a further struggle, and every argu-ed it up, from a desire to abridge my sufferings, peace upon the bright world of futurity, they ment against it; but the former appeared to and from a consciousness that I must go on. give dark pictures-call her a deceitful

syren,

« PreviousContinue »