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YOL. I. ®l)c Georgia tUcckb, DEVOTED TO Literature and General Information, WM. HENRY PECK, Editor and Proprietor. PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY, BY PECK & L I.N ES . TERMS, INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE : One copy, per annum.. $2.00 Single copies, 5 cents. ogg~AdvertisemenU inserted at $1 a square of 12 lines, for one insertion, and 50 cents for each subsequent insertion. A llberal.deduotion made to those who advertise by the year. 4 THE WICKET GATE. Mid the fast falling shadows, Weary, and worn, and late, A timid, doubting pilgrim, I reach the wioket gate. Where crowds have stood before me, , I ptand alone to-night, the deepening darkness, 'Pray for one gleam of light. Prom the foul sloughs and marshes I’ve gathered many a stain ; . I’ve heard old voices calling From far across the plain. Now in my wretched weakness, Fearful and sad I wait; And every refuge fails!,me, Here at the wicket gate. And will the portals open To me who roamed so long, ... "Filthy, and vile, and burdened With this great weight of wrong? Hark 1 a glad voice of welcome Rids my wild fears abate— Look, for a hand of mercy Opens the wicket gate. On to the palace beautiful, And the bright room called Peace ; Down to the silent river, Where thou shalt find release; Up to the radiant city, Where shining ones await— On, for the way of glory Lies through the wicket gate. Married to the Wrong One. BY WILLIAM HENRY PECK. Nicodemus Alcibiades Flopper was a bachelor —but what his exact age •was, no man knew except himself; and even his knowledge of that im-_ portant Item was to" he questioned, for ‘ he really had not the “ most remote idea ” as to where he was born, nor when. The point, therefore, remains a pleasant uncertainty—although his female acquaintances had agonized themselves, and everybody else, in guessing at it. When we wish to as certain the age of a horse, or a sheep, we examine his mouth and teeth ; or, when the age of a tree is in question, botanists tell us we are to count the circles from the heart outward. Nei ther of these methods could have been tried upon Nicodemus ; for, as regards the first, he held his mouth so tightly closed that his lips were blue and thin with the pressure ; and as for the sec ond, it was a mooted point whether such a thing aS a. heart throbbed in • Flopper.’s bosom. He had no hair on his head save what ho purchased at the barber’s ; nor teeth in his mouth, except those placed there by the skill ful" hands of the dentists. Therefore, we may say, calling every ten wrinkles of bis crabbed old visage one year, that he wasfifty-and-five, and as tough as a boarding-horse beefsteak. As for his general appearance, ’twas not to be sneezed at. He was tall and erect, firm and easy in his gait, and excessively particular in his dress. — As for his face, he was never known to have been annoyed by beggars or organgrinders; and a good, long stare at it, was like taking a deep bite into a green persimmon ; and as for his disposition, it was captious, carping and carnivorous. He was never known to say a good thing of any one, save of himself, and even that he qualified by saying that “he was a miserable sinner —a piece of infor mation entirely useless, as ’twas known to every one. Nicodemus boarded at Mrs. Gowge mall’s, occupying a room just capac ious enough to swing a cat in, and was the terror of the landlady and the chambermaid; the former he swore at whenever she presented his bill, and the latter he pelted with his boots whenever she carried cold, instead of hot water for his shaving. Now, the female counterpart of Flopper made glorious the house of Gowgemall, in the person of Miss Ar abella Roxanna Bobbs, a maiden lady reported—whose eye-teeth were cut forty-seven years before I respeot fully present her to the reader. Nicodemus Flopper and Arabella Bobbs hated each other so intensely, that when both were in the parlor, and within touching distance, the lamps burned green. The origin of that hate was as follows : Miss Ara bella possessed that very rare charac teristic of her sex and caste—an im mense deal of curiosity—and her la bors to satiate the craving were rivals of those of the son of Alcmena.— One day, in prowling about, she found the door of the chamber of Nicode mus wide open. She glided m like a streak of smoke, and found several Sector ter Southern literature, sJeh)s, anti General Information. GREENVILLE, GEORGIA, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1861. things which tickled her dreadfully, viz : four wigs, a scratch, two sets of teeth, a padded vest, a plate of rouge, a pair of corsets and a bottle of brandy. “The rouge accounts for the red ness of his cheeks, and the brandy for the redness of his nose,” tittered Ar abella to a select party of six in the landlady’s bed-room. Nicodemus heard of the remark, and pondered upon revenge. Taking advantage of the absence of Arabella one day, when she said she was going to a prayer meeting, though, In fact, she went to see the Campbell Min strels, he entered her apartment, and made such tremendous discoveries, that he was seen to grin with delight for a week afterwards. Among other things, he found not only all the ven dible charms usually found in the apartments of antique virginity, but a love letter, in the"unmistakable hand writing of Arabella herself, and ad dressed “To the Man in the Moon,” a lunar gentleman at whom elderly maiden ladies are extremely fond of staring. This letter was partly in poetry, and one stanza ran thus: “In vain do I seek a mad on earth, And I’ve searched on shore, sea and lagoon ; Have pity on me in my husband-dearth, And com* down and marry me, Oh, Man in-the Moon I’’ This tit-bit Nicodemus, to the hor ror of the gentle Arabella, quoted at the dinner table, after keeping it to himself for a week, and it must be ac knowledged that he turned the tables on Arabella. From that day, forward and backward, they hated each other prodigiously, nor ever allowed any op portunity for mutual annoyance to slip by unused. Thus time passed on for several weeks, when the heart of Mrs. Gow gemall was made light by the arrival of two new boarders in the persons of Mr. Nicodemus A. Sparker and Miss Arabella R. Sweetly—two individuals wholly unacquainted with each other, and from different parts of Louisiana. But they did not long remain unac quainted. .r. A A.. CJ YYv/vrY.iomrr TTAlimr Mr. Sparker wasYprortnsing young gentleman of twenty-four; elegant, handsome and accomplished; and, what is a hundred-fold better, in these utilitarian times, very wealthy. He visited the Crescent City to see the lions and lionesses, and perhaps to catch a glimpse of “the elephant;” and as he hoped to see “ a wilderness of monkeys,” he forthwith put up at a boarding house. Miss Sweetly was a lovely young lady whose cheeks had been reddened by the kisses of seventeen summers ; likewise elegant, handsome, accom plished and rich. lam unable to pos itively affirm her purpose in visiting that metropolis of smells and leaky gas-pipes—iron and human—but sup pose it must have been to go to the theatres, the masked balls, the races, and to see the Fat Woman. I hazard this surmise ; being warranted therein by what I have been repeatedly told by my rural friends. But Flopper had no such common-place ideas. He thought she came to see him —for he had been introduced to her a year be fore in Vicksburg, and as he then in formed her, among several other inter-, esting scraps of his personal history, that he always boarded at Mrs. Gow gemall’s, his vanity easily led him to believe that he, Nicodemus Flopper, bachelor and man at large, was the sole attraction that had wafted the beauteous Miss. Sweetly from the su gar fields of Pointe Coupee to the scandal marts of Gowgemall. He was wofully in error. Now, Miss Bobbs entertained ex actly the same idea as regarded Mr. Sparker, for she had been presented to him five years before, during her sojourn in St. Tammany Parish, at Madisonville, a place renowned in my memory for the want of Irish potatoes in the year 1856 ? It i3 a remarkable fact, that rich young gentlemen and rich young la dies of the nineteenth century are in variably drawn together, and “ make a match of itwhile the poor penni less lads and lasses are left to grin at each other in hopeless despair. I think it must be the gold in the pock ets that causes this. Let us rectify the mistake, and pass “an act, sup plementary to an act, to amend an act to take the place of an act, &c., &c., forbidding all rich persons to mar ry any but poor persons. My friend Grumble cries, “ Hear him!”—he is poor and unmarried. The magnet of wealth played the deuce in the spacious parlor of GowgemaU’s boarding house. Bouquets, kid gloves, perfumes, patent leather shoes, and hoops rose five per cent, within five hours after the arri val of the two “new boarders.” All the unmarried, and, oh, fie. several of the married males became deeply interested in Miss Arabella Sweetly, not last, nor least, among whom was N. A. Flopper; and all the unwedded dames and damsels, widows and maids were rabid after Mr. Spar ker ; and pre-eminent among the fair and foul was Miss A. R. Bjobbs. I whisper, privately, be it understood that one, or two, or three married fe males lanched their most ravishing glances at the heart of N. A. Sparker —no, not at the heart—at the pockets of that adolescent Croesus. Many and various were the tactics of Nicodemus Flopper to win the beau tiful Arabella Sweetly, and many and. various were the warnings which thaL young lady received to guard her against his insidious approaches. Sh£ was told—annoymoqsly, of course — that Flopper was a widower, with fif teen children, all girl—red haired and cross eyed; that Flopper was a retired body-snatcher; that Flopper was a Mormon in disguise ; that Flop per used to be a Catholic Priest, but had been caught stealing swine in Ohio; in short, Flopper caught it right and left, and if report was was true, was an unmitigated, remorseless,’ cold blooded, mammoth monster. Who originated all these dreadful stories? Flopper dug grooves in his bald head with his finger-nails, tore Mrs. Gowge mall’s best sheets, in his paroxysms of rage every blessed night, and swore 'twas that vile demon, Arabella Rox ana Bobbs. Flopper was right. Flopper vengeance. Many and scandalous were the cautions which young Spar ker received against that female, hu man vampyre—Miss Bobbs. He was told, sub rosa, of course, that Bobbs was an escaped lunatic; that Bobbs had run four husbands crazy —three to California, and one to Halifax; that Bobbs had fifteen children —all boys, overgrown, lazy and as savage as Bil ly Bowlegs, who was a beauty by the side of any one of them.f that Bobbs ■ smoked cigars privately, and pipes— , V* corn cob pipes—-surreptitiously ;. that Bobbs would have been hanged "forty times, only her being a female saved her; in short, that Bobbs was a Gor gon —an Aspasia—a Borgia—a wild cat turned loose in a respectacle board ing House. Mr. Sparker, who was a very clear sighted young man, saw through all the smoke raised around him, but saw nothing distinctly, save the lovely face and form of Miss Sweetly; and it gives me much pleasure to record, that Miss Sweetly was partially blind, and beheld nothing through the fog except the handsome countenance and manly form of Mr. Sparker. lam not quite so sure, just in this instance, that the gold did the business for the amiable couple, yet I have no doubt fte metal had its effect mutually. .* “ What manly name do you think sounds the most melodious .' asked Flopper, seven days and five hours af ter the advent of Miss Sweetly. ‘‘Nic odemus, sir,” blandly replied'Miss JSweetly, dwelling so long upon HP* “e,” that Flopper felt as if he was sit ting in a tub of clarified honey. “ And I think Arabella the most beautiful of female appellations,” re marked Mr. Flopper, with a sigh, and drawing his chair nearer the njaiden, who was just then exchanging a love telegram with Sparker. “I am of the same opinion,” said Miss Bobbs, who had managed to overhear Flopper’s remark. . “ I withdraw the avowal, Madam, bo far as it is in unison with your name ?” snarled Flopper, “ and I see that Mr. Sparker is alone, for a mar vel.” ' ... . • “ J£e is what one individual is this room never was, is not, and never can be —a gentleman said Miss Bobbs, darting her sharp nose at Mr. Floppery and sailing under full hoops to the side of Sparker, where she cast anchor, - and having nothing better to say said: ' “ Os all the names, dear Mr. Spark er, that custom applies to us giddy, young things—us girls, I mean, what name do you think most enchanting to the tongue of man ?” “Arabella,” replied Sparker, think ing of the rosy mouth that had plucked his heart from his bosom with a kiss out there on the balcony, behind a window shutter. “Do you. indeed!” cried the de lighted Bobbs, too absurdly vain not to take the remark for herself. ‘ She sighed six deep sighs, much to the alarm of Sparker, who thought she was trying to go to sleep and couldj|t» and might faint and fall on him, u contact he by no ineans desired. “ And I think, and I know,” said Miss Bobbs, moving nearer to the af frighted youth,, “ that the most heav enly, the most mellifluous name that ever trembled upon a maiden s tongue? as the morning’s dew drop, pure and sweet, trembles upon the opening roseleaf, is—Nicodemus!” dwelling upon the “ o,” ala Neafie, in Othel lo’s Farewell to War. “ I am extremely obliged to you, hang me if I ain’t,” interjected Flop per, by her side, whither he had been sent by Miss Sweetly, to bring back that maiden’s richly embroidered hand kerchief which Miss Bobbs, uninten tionally of course, had taken from her lap. Ladies of the Bobbs stamp will ap propriate, unintentioually of course, pretty handkerchiefs. -“Sir,” said Miss Bobbs, drawing herself up till Mrs. Gowgemall trern bled for the back, not of Miss Bobbs, ebut of the chair in which she sat; •“ sir, or rather thing ! —it is the per son to whom the name belongs that SiKßetena or embittens a name. When llpeiik: the name of Nicodemus and ■ look at Mr. Sparker, my tongue is bathed in ambrosial sweets; but when I look at you, sir, and speak it, my mouth, my throat —metaphorically speaking—is full of gall, wormwood, tar and ashes.” “ I wish ’twas literally true, Madam, Ido by George! And then lam sure, Madam, I should never be pre sented so hideous a spectacle as your face, Madam, a second time, Madam,” snapped Mr. Flopper, blowing his nose till the piano keys rattled with the reverberation. “This is outrageous, sir,” cried a Miss Bobbs ; “ but what can one ex pect from such a Bedouin Arab as you are,” and Miss Bobbs sailed away in mighty and ineffable disgust, to loCjfe at the man in the moon, and ask •him,, soto voce, why in thunder he didri’t come down and make all things right ? - * It was not long before Mr. Sparker and his beloved learned from each other the state of affairs ; and upon comparing notes they found that Mr. Flopper had been maligning and vili fying Mr. Sparker terribly to Miss Sweetly, while the amiable Miss Bobbs had deftly done the same, as regarded Miss Sweetly to Mr. Sparker. Mr. Sparker is a wild, reckless, rakish, rash, extravagant, profane, immoral dissipated, atheistic young man, and is a regular gambler—drinks like a fish !” Mr. Flopper had said to Miss Sweetly. “Miss Sweetly will do very well to ■Hdfcr at iimiwra pins CTSe, iramWlf will not last—if she has any —and, entre nous, Mr. Sparker, she paints like Queen Elizabeth. Mr. Sparker —it’s all false, sir; besides, there were dark reports about her in Pointe Coupee, three years ago, and she has a temper like a tigress, and has no more discretion than a, than a—a bed bug by candle-light,” said Miss Bobbs, at a loss for a simile, to Mr. Sparker. “If Mr. Sparker drinks like a fish,” had replied Miss Sweetly to that character, brigand Flopper, “ it is all even Neal Dow can ask, for, Mr. Flopper, a fish drinks nothing but water,” and Mr. Flopper went to bed that night with an elephantine flea in his ear. 1 “ A bed-bug by candle-light, Miss -Se4rf>s, shows marvelous alacrity in i hiding himself,” had replied Mr. Sparker, and Miss Bobbs took an ex trapull at Wolfe’s Aromatic Schiedam Schnapps that night, and dreamed thht a bed-bug, with the head of Flop per and as huge as a rhinoceros, was nipping her in the back all night. Three months had flown by since the arrival of the “two new boarders,” the heart of Mrs. Gowgemall had been delighted as many times as she had fingers and toes ——Miss Bobbs reported that the landlady had six toes on each f OO t —and things had reached a crisis. Mr. Sparker had promised to marry Miss Sweetly, and Miss Sweetly had promised to marry Mr. Sparker; while |&rs. Gowgemall had promised to .marry anybody that would have her -I, |t)ll ■strange to say, nobody took Mrs. Gowgemall up. In fact, there had been as much promising about there as there was in the year 1855, when I was promised a S3OOO berth — and didn’t get it—bad ’cess to such promising say I. Things were in a pretty snarl, as things always are when there is much promising ; but Mr. Sparker and Miss Sweetly saw their end of the skein —had a good hold of it, and, as the reader shall laughingly admit, were about to wind it around the Hymeneal altar in glo rious style. Here is the way in which that mis chievous fellow Sparker managed the affair. He was to marry Miss Bobbs. — Very good. Flopper was to marry Miss Sweetly. Very good. And all Bur were to be married at the very same time. Excellent. Sparker was to defray all expenses. “‘Best of all,’ thought Flopper, who was economical and wore one shirt a week to shorten his washerwoman’s bill-r-and rations. And all were to be married privately and in Sparker’s room, so that no one in the whole house, save Mrs. Gowgem all should know anything of it till all was over, when each gentleman was to introduce his bride to a large com pany in the parlor, who should there be assembled at the invitation of Mrs. Gowgemall, and ignorant of the cause. Mr. Sparker procured the licenses and the parson—mj especial friend the Rev. Tyemtite. As Miss Sweetly was greatly annoyed by the vigilance of an aunt, who wishes to reserve the in comparable Arabella and her sugar fields, negroes, etc., for her son Toby Spike, then at college, it was arranged (that all should go in similar masks and dominos to the ball that evening it the Odd Fellow’s Hall, slip out and leave Mrs. Spike lost in the crowd, hurry home, and hastening to Spar ker’s appartment, get —what so many wiah thpy hadn’t got when ’tis too late —married! Sparker extorted a solemn oath from Miss Bobbs that she would not utter a word after they should leave the ball-room, till the brides were in troduced in the parlor, as Flopper was to be tricked. Her responses and his, were to be by signs and gestures, and they, themselves were to be masked. Miss Bobbs was so delighted with the idea of marrying anybody. Flopper inexorably excepted, that she prom ised like a politician. Miss Sweetly made Flopper promise as solemnly to preserve silence, as Bobbs was to be made a fool of; and to tell the truth, Flopper was so eager to possess the beauteous girl—to say nothing of her possessions, for which he cared noth ing. Sparker told Flopper, very confi dentially, and as a reason for their silence, that he intended to substitute for himself a colored friend, full of deviltry, who had agreed to take his j place during the confusion of the' ball; and Miss Sweetly had told Miss Bobbs, very confidentially, and, for the same reason, that she should slip away from Flopper in the crowd, and a colored lady in domino, like her own, would take the arm of Flopper and become Mrs. Flopper. “ Glorious trap !” said Flopper ex ulting in the expected finale, and tri umphing over Bobbs. “ Most rare device !” said Miss Bobbs; and all the day prior to the double wedding she congratulated Flopper, and Flopper congrafcateted fool the other was about to he. Af fairs ended as Sparker intended. He passed Bobbs to Flopper and took Miss Sweetly in the ball, and all has tened home. The Christian names of both parties were alike, and Mr. Ty emtite did the business in fine style. “ You are now, gentlemen and ladies, men and wives. The signing of all necessary papers may Be deferred for the present. I have neglected to bring them with me. I will hasten home and return with them, while you descend and present your brides, gen tlemen, to the company below, wdiich is very numerous,” and Mr. Tyemtite evacuated the premises like a victori ous general leaving a well-fought field. The married pairs descend. They enter the crowded parlor. Mr. Spar ker and Mr. Flopper unmask at the same moment. “ Mrs. Sparker, ladies and gentle men.” “ Mrs. Flopper, ladies and gentle men.” “Thunder! I have married Miss Bobbs!” roars Flopper, as the mask of his wife falls to the floor, and ex poses the unattractive visage of A. Bobbs. “ Oh, horrors ! I have married the wrong one ! I have married Nicode mus Flopper!” shrieks the late Miss Arabella Roxanna Bobbs. “ And I have married Miss Arabel la Sweetly,” cries the exultant Spar ker, saluting his blushing and happy bride. The company, especially the mar i ried men, crowd around to kiss that bride, but where is the other ? Faint ! ed—carried off by Mrs. Gowgemall, ! and Miss Bobbs was never heard of ; more. The steamer that left for Ha ' vana the next morning, bore away | " Nicodemus Alcibiades Flopper ! Honor to Labor. BY W. *. DEVON. Go prate of your lineage of ancient degree, Os honor bequeathed by your sire ; A fig for such hondr ’tie nothing to me, A’nd nothing but scorn can inspire ; For I have a lineage as old as thine own, Though neither a duke nor a lord ; For Adam’s my sire, and by toil I have won More honor than they by the sword. Their honor is tarnished with ravage and blood, With ruthless oppression and strife— While mine ar the honors that swell like a flood, Enriching the rivers of life. He only is noble who nobly doth live To help himself and his neighbor; Who is never a drone, but nobly gives The world a share of his labor. • Then honor to labor, the wealth of the earth, More precious than gold from the mine; And honor be paid to her nobles of worth, Who are nobles by patent Divine, Then honor be paid to the plow and the spade, And hands that are hardened by toil— The nobles who live by the bread they have made In workshop, the forge, or the soil. A hermit prefers to be left a loan. Terrible Performances. A recent work on Algiers gives the following account of some es the amusements of that lively place and its viciniage. It shows that the Arabs are cleverer than even our friend Professor Anderson, who is ne w as tonishing the Southern people by his experiments in magic: “ In a few moment the tamborines were again in full force, and the shriek ing and yelling were again repeated, but this time the number of dancers was increased. One- -of the Arabs took a sword, and having stripped to his loins, ran it for nearly a quarter of an inch into his stomach, twirling it round at the same time like a gim let. To a certain degree there was no deception in this, but the absence of blood roused my suspicions that the sword fitted into an old scar long used for the purpose, especially as it was introduced sideways. Than he ran it into the nape of his neck in the same manner, twirling it ronnd as be fore, but still no blood followed. The invisible women seemed pleased at this feat, for another ‘ lu, lu, lu !’ swelled around us, and then the frantic danc ing went on. Presently four or five instruments resembling thick kitchen shovels were brought in red hot, and I felt the sudden glow on my face as they were taken past me. When the Arabs beheld these their cries changed into another key, and by their ges tures they seemed like wild animals eager for food. Each man took the glowing iron, placed it on the shorn part of his head, and then stroked it; caressingly with his naked hand.— During this feat there was a sicken ing smell of burnt flesh, and a slight smoke arose from the skin of the per- I formers whenever, the ruddy metal ! touched it. Then having licked them | all over with their tongues they placed i them betweeu their lips, holding them • firm with their teeth, and leaping for a few moments still higher in tune to the untiring thunder of the tympana. A large scorpion was now, brought in lhin. Him Viii—kilim. i touened it witn a stick en -passant it i darted up its poisous tail, leaving no doubt as to its vitality. One of the Arabs took up the reptile by its head, placed it in his mouth, and swal lowed it, making a horrible crunching nose in the process of mastication. — How he escaped the effects of its sting is more than lean imagine; but, at all events, the unnatural meal seemed to give him new life for the madden ing orgies. One of the dancers now stepped forward with a dagger about a foot in length, and lifting up his eyelid thrust it some way in just over the eyeball, and walked about with the weapon thus apparently sticking out of his eye. Then he drew it slowly out, and the host at my request having handed it to me for examina tion, I found that it was sharp as a needle and perfectly solid. The voices of the women at this period were louder than I had heard them before, and so long did the shrill ap plause continue thatthe Arabs looked up hastily and said “hush” in the same sort of contemptuous tone with which a charity school master endea vors to stop the clatter of his refrac tory pupils, and the obedient chorus instantly subsided. Half-a-dozen cactus leaves were now brought in, and the moment the dancers perceived them they left off their frantic ges tures and grovelled like dogs on their hands and knees. The African cactus, or Barbary fig, grows around Algiers into a regular tree of 12 feet or so in bight, and the leaves are large in proportion, being generally about a foot long and half an inch thick, and are very thickly covered with strong prickles, of an inch in length. These prickles are as thick as a drugget-pin at the base, and very firm, so that the handling of the leaf is a matter of difficulty, and pain, and should the point of the prickle break in so doing, it forces itself be neath the skin and causes excruciating agony. The Arabs crawled adroitly toward the man who held the leaves, bayinglike the dogs they imitated, and as he held one forth they thrust their heads forward and took rapid bites, devouring it seemingly without the slightest inconvenience. The green fluid expressed from the herb flowed in streams over their long beards, and I noticed that when they accidentally touched each other they gave a low growl like curs who are gorging. The applause of the invisible ladies was great, but by no means so enthusiastic as before, the tambourines were again silent, and the performers fell to the ground as if the superhuman stimulus to their exertions had been removed. I drew a deep breath as I left the house, like one who has by a timely awaking been relieved from the incu bus of some terrible nightmare, and as I threaded again the narrow streets, the delicious night air cooled and re freshed me.” NO. 3.