Newspaper Page Text
left my companion to rest himself preparatory
to our ride homeward, and sallied forth in
quest of the friends with whom I was pledged
to pass the evening.
It was not long before I greeted my old
friend, and recounted with him the adventures
of the long years passed since we had laugh
ed together.
“And so. Harry,” I exclaimed, “you. have,
like myself, had the happy fortune to escape
all Cupid’s snares, and are still a joyous, hear
ty bachelor-—ay, my boy
“ Bachelor!. D evil a hit of it, my old friend!
I’ve recanted, abjured all those infamous her
esies, and have become the luckiest benedict
alive!”
“Gracious heaven!” I ejaculated, with a
long-drawn sigh of intense commiseration. —
“Tell me, Harry, how it all happened, and
if the earnest sympathies of a true friend
will ”
“ Sympathy! ha, ha ! That’s a capital joke
capital: but I see, poor deluded wretch,
that you are yet in the ‘gall of bitterness and
bonds of iniquity.’ Your rambles in the Cat
skills have not been so fruitful as have mine.
All my good fortune has been quafied in these
mountains. When I had the happiness to
bring down that blessed panther and save my
Ella’s life, I struck a vein which ”
“Oh! Plato! Plato!” I ejaculated, as the
fatal truth burst upon my mind ; “Panther!
Ella! and were you , Harry, the hero of that
memorable incident, and is she your wife ?■”
“To be sure —she ‘isn’t anything else!’—
Come let us go and join the ladies, and von
shall become better acquainted with Ella;
for you must know that she has already met
you, and has taken a great fancy to you. —
You remember the lady who visited your stu
dio in Palenville. and whom you afterwards
encountered so romantically in your moon
light stroll, the other night, to the Mountain
House!”
“The fact is. Harry,” 1 replied in a faint,
sad voice; “ The fact is, I am terribly fatigued
by my travels to-day, and only came over to
see you for a moment and get you to make
my appologies to our friends here for hasten
ing home with my engagements unfulfilled.
You know it is late, and I have a longdistance
yet to travel.”
“Nonsense! nonsense! Ella would nev
er forgive you.”
“ Make my compliments to her,” I said,
tearing myself away and flying back to the
inn; “ I shall meet you soon in town —you
know my address — au revior. l " 1
I hastened hack with all speed to the
Mountain'lnn —before 1 slept addressed my
treasured glove, under an envelop, to Mrs.
Henry B****, and at day-break, notwithstand
ing Uncle Joe thought it ‘most oncommon.’
bade a long adieu to Palenville and the Cat
skills.
FAITH AND WORKS-
A person who had peculiar opinions touch
ing the “ full assurance of faith,” having oc
casion to cross a ferry, availed himself of the
opportunity to interrogate the boatman as to
the grounds of his belief, telling him that if
he bad faith he was certain of a blessed im
mortality. The man of the oar said he had
always entertained a different notion of the
subject, and begged to give an illustration of
his opinion. “Let us suppose,” said the fer
ryman, “that one of these oars is called faith,
and the other works, and try their several
merits.” Accordingly, throwing down one
oar in the boat, he proceeded to pull the oth
er oar with all his strength, upon which the
boat turned round and made no way. “Now t ,”
said he, “you perceive faith won’t do, let us
try if works can.” Seizing the other oar. and
giving it the same trial, the same consequen
ces ensued. “Works,” said he, “you see,
won’t do either ; let us try them together.”—
The result was successful ; the boat shot
through the waves, and soon reached the
wishei-for haven. “This,” said the ferryman,
“is the way by which I hope to be wafted
over the troubied waters of this world to the
peaceful shores of immortality.’"— Youth's
Magazine.
ib ait&fa as tr ©ASB'inrs*
fjornc (Homsponbencc.
For the Southern Literary Gazette.
NEW-YORK LETTERS—NO, IX.
Rathbun’s Hotel, )
New-York, June 29, 1848. )
My Dear Sir: —Since my last, I have made
my first escape from the city this season, and
have had a nice time in the wood-lands, chat
ting with echo, and flirting with butter-cups
and daisies. I always refrain from a peep at
the country, until Nature has completely
made her toilet and robed herself in her rich
est attire ; and thus my visit furnishes me a
more exquisite treat, in the greater contrast
which the green hills and meadows offer to
the parched atmosphere, the grating noises,
and the prosy hues of pent-up streets. The
exceedingly warm weather which we have
lately experienced here, has fairly set our
summer travellers in motion, and hundreds
are daily leaving the’ town. Those who can
not afford to journey far, can easily content
themselves with some of the many lovely
spots which eviron the city, and are accessi
ble in an half-hours’ travel by steamboat or
rail-way. Perhaps no place is more bounti
fully furnished, in this respect, than New
York. You may dine at the “Astor” or the
“Rathbun,” and take your after-dinner stroll
in the wildest haunts of Nature. My own
late rambles were amidst neighboring scenes
in New Jersey —a region rich in quiet pasto
ral landscape; fruitful meadow-lands, wa
tered by gentle streams, and flanked by long
ranges of picturesque hills, dotted here and
there with village and city. One of the most
attractive points, which met my eye, was the
glimpse from the Weehawken hills, looking
southward over the valley of the Hackensack,
with the singular mountain land, called
“Snake-hill,” in the distance. One can scarce
ly imagine a sweeter study for the artist than
this. Looking eastward from the same heights,
you command a noble panorama of the great
city of Gotham and the neighboring towns of
Brooklyn, Jersey City, Hoboken, etc., with
the beautiful Bay of New York, Staten-Is
land and the mighty ocean. Here I looked
down upon the movements of the “N. Y.
Cricket Club,” as the members were amusing
themselves on their greensward, at the base
of the ridge. 1 was then bound on a pilgri
mage to the studio of Ranney, the artist, who
lives hereabouts, and as l happened to descry
hint among the Cricketers, I joined the merry
company for a while, and when the match
was ended, reclimbed the bills with my friend,
and soon after reached his little cottage, in a
sequestered and highly picturesque nook of
Weehawken. He resides here, winter and
summer, with his mother and sister, and re
lieves himself from the labors of his easel,
with the country sports of hunting, fishing,
and, above all, cricketing, in which he is a
confessed master* with household cares, and
a very little sprinkling of agricultural toil. —
He delights chiefly in painting scenes of rude
forest life, with groups of rough and ready
mountaineers, dogs, horses and game. He
has acquired much reputation in the art.
which he is, unquestionally, destined to in
crease.
Avery heavy thunder-storm swept over the
city in the early part of last week, doing much
damage here and in the vicinage. In Hobo
ken, the lightning set lire to several buildings
which were burned to the ground, and in
New Y ork. the electric fluid, among other
“fantastic tricks before high heaven,” -took um
brage at the spire of Grace Church, and
dashed the huge cross from its haughty ele
vation to the earth!
Oil Tuesday evening, a large mass-meeting
was held in the Tabernacle*to express sympa
thy with Mitchell, the Irish agitator, lately con
victed of felony and transported to Bermuda.
The affair was exceedingly shabby and noisy,
and not a little ludicrous. The pompous and
indignant tones of the revolutionary orators,
would have led to the impression that they
Were ready at any moment, to step across the
Atlantic at a single stride, and with one fell
blow, “do” the British lion forever and a
day. Their enthusiasm, however, was not
great enough to withstand the cooling influ
ences of an after glass of “sherry cobler.”
The ladies, too, in our adjoining village of
Brooklyn, have been “sympathising” in a
mass meeting with the wife and daughters of
the condemned felon ! So great is this rage
for sympathising, that we may soon expect to
have mass meetings, commendatory of every
petit rogue or refractory creditor, who gets up
a little private revolution of his own, and re
organizes his relations to society or to his
creditor, by appropriating the goods and chat
tels of the one, or repudiating the claims of
the other.
The Whig Mass-Meeting for the ratifica
tion of the nominations of the Philadelphia
Convention, which was postponed, has not
yet taken place. The delay is, doubtless, to
allow time for the calming of the angry feel
ings of that portion of the party, so grievous
ly disappointed by the preference of General
Taylor over Mr. Clay. It will, in all proba
bility have the desired effect, and the party
will eventually pull together. That portion
of the Democratic party known as the Hun
kers, and approving of the nomination of
Cass and Butler, has alraady ratified the de
cision of the Baltimore Convention, in a large
meeting in the Park. The other division, or
Barnburners, refusing to come into the ar
rangement, held anew Convention at Utica
last week. At the meeting of the Hunkers,
some amusing scenes occurred. Just as the
business was about to commence, a portion
of the stage gave way, and down came re
porters and orators in one promiscuous heap,
with broken planks and a deluge of dust.—
Some poor devils were bruised a little, but
luckily no bones were broken, either of Hun
ker, Barnburner or Whig. One of the speak
ers, alluding to the preference of the Whigs
for Taylor over Clay, which he called the
power of availability over principle, said that
“the Whig party had adjourned for four
years , when it purposed bringing up Mr. Clay
again !” There is considerable poetry in this
idea, but a still greater amount of stern truth.
I was highly pleased the other day with a
visit to the India Rubber establishment, in
Broadway, of Mr. Wm. Ward, the sole agent
for the largest manufactory of India Rubber
goods in the world, and the patentee of very
many of the singular and useful articles made
of this valuable material. Here, besides Baby
Jumpers, (for which invention the mothers of
the world should call a mass-meeting to sym
pathize with the inventors and to cherish his
wife and daughters!) I found door and car
riage springs more durable and serviceable
than those heretofore made of iron ; buckets,
cups, travelling bags, trunks, and other arti
cles heretofore concocted of wood; a variety
of military “fixings,” such as knapsacks,
hammocks, canteens, tent-floors, camp-blan
kets, beds, pillows, and so on, ad libitum;
horse-blankets, hats, boots, shoes, leggings,
coats, suspenders, paper-holders, shoulder
braces and toys. Speaking of the wonderful
progress made in the manufacture of these
goods, during the last few years, and the
many important uses to which the gum had
been applied since Mr. Goodyear so success
fully combined it with sulphur and white
lead, as to render it insoluble under the action
of heat, and always flexible in the severest
cold, Mr. Ward informed me that India
Rubber had not been an article of much com
merce in this country before the year 1825,
although it had been imported in small quan
tities and in various forms prior to that date.
More than nine-tenths of all the India Rubbei
used in the world is exported now, as then,
from the little town of Para, in Brazil. The
first importation came tp Salem, (Mass.) in
1825. When the introduction here, of the
metallic shoe took place, the importation of
the foreign article decreased yearly, until in
1847, it did not exceed half a million of pairs.
In this year, one million and a half pairs of
rubber shoes were made in this country, and
the importation of the raw material has con
tinued with little variation since 1844, until
the quantity annually brought here, now ex
ceeds two millions of pounds. James Bishop
& Cos., of this city, though not the oldest, is
the most extensive house in the trade ; one
member of the firm residing permanently at
Para. The business demands a large capital,
and though the profits are small, it is safe and
always makes a sure return. In this age of
novelty, there is no telling to what strange
purposes this material may yet he applied.
Stump orators and demagogues in general,
use it with great success, to the direct end of
humbugging the dear public; and the indirect
advantage of spoiling much fair paper, and
providing uses for the surplus revenue of the
government. It would make a great bustle
in the world, if the ladies had not backed out
from that elegant and graceful article of the
toilet. It has even served me as a theme for
a long, perhaps too long, paragraph; but as
a friend of mine, who had made rather ques
tionable progress in the study of the French,
said of the yielding capacity of his over-shoes,
the subject is tres stretchee!
Yours truly, FLIT.
Sketches of £ifc.
For the Southern Literary Gazette.
THE LISTENER.—NO. IV.
NOT BY CAROLINE FRY,
THE ERROR OF A LIFE.
Most of the Summer of 184— was spent
by meat Hampton Beech, a delightful water
ing place, near Portsmouth, N. 11. The
plea upon which I had withdrawn myself
from the city, was that my health required
the change; but the actual motive which mov
ed me, was a weariness of town routine, an
inexpressible disgust which I had conceived
to all forced compliance with the formal con
ventionalities of society. What a picture,
would the detail of the winter I had just pass
ed have presented of our modern society, for
which we are fitted by modern accomplish
ments! But I will not tire you with it now.
I have only told you this much that you may
comprehend my feelings when I welcomed
the quiet sea-shore home.
Early in July, before the multitude which
throng our watering places had fairly moved
I reached Hampton Beech. I had decided to
pass a week or two atone of the three hotels,
which there keep up a friendly rivalry, and
then, when the crowd commenced, my furni
ture would be ready to place in a little cot
tage, a mile and a half from the hotels, and
very near “old ocean’s sounding waves. 15
Such an arrangement seemed to promise me
what I required tranquillity and freedom, with
out that feeling of loneliness and isolation
which unnerves us when we mourn with the
Frenchman that no friend is nigh to whom
we can say “how sweet is solitude!” With
my two children, and occasional visits from
my husband, whom business detained in town
there was enough to keep my heart warm;
and a poney-chaise, musical instruments,
plenty of new books, charming with their
novelty, and old ones with their dear familiar
faces, and my ever-open work-box, where
shone the needle whose cherful gleam is my
surest antidote to ennui and ill-humour.
With all these appliances, why should time
lag with me?
As I entered the parlor, toward the evening
of my first day at the hotel, I observed a lady
with a little child, and servant, near the oriel
window which looked out upon the sea. —
That she was a fine looking woman, with an
67