Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

236 them, so as to commence fair when I reach America. I have a great many more accounts of my exploits since I came to Stafford, but must defer sending them until next time. I beg you will write me. for now, since a cor respondence is opened. I shall be able to tell you something about England. I know it well. I have dined with Earls, and from that down—down—down to where the knives, forks, and plates, are chained to the table, for fear they should be stolen. 1 am. my dear sir, Your obedient servant, J. R. Remington. fetters from a {Musician. For the Southern Literary Gazette. A REJOINDER. Roswell, Cobb Cos., Geo., ) November 22, 1848. ) Dear Sir , —“ A Learner” must needs re main a learner still. She (?) must be a little better posted up on scientific subjects, before she ventures on the dangerous ground of criti cism. If we have to deal with a lady—“an es teemed correspondent”—of course she shall receive due consideration; and, while offer ing our explanation-, we shall keep constantly in our mind the esteem, regard and admira tion of woman, which is an inherent quality of man’s heart. This being premised, we are obliged, by natural gallantry, to desist from pointing at “A Learner'’ as proof of the position we almost accidentally took in our third letter. “ A Learner” will he sur- 1 prised to learn that Lady Montague never, in all her letters, advocated the “ introduction of vaccination into England,” nor was vacci nation known till near half a century after her return from Turkey. All that Lady Mon tague did was to adopt the Turkish practice of innoculation. In this, she certainly exhib ited peculiar powers of mind : for it required not a little moral courage to subject her own child to so novel a practice, and then advo cate its introduction into Britain. The prac tice, however, was novel only to Lady Ma ry : for it had long been understood in Cir cassia, in Turkey, in Africa, in the South of Wales, and in the Highlands of Scotland.— Vaccination was not thought of till Dr. Jen ner began his researches about the year 1776. Does “ A Learner” know how wide a differ ence there is between innoculation and vacci nation ? or is she aware that this “ very great blessing,” introduced by the Lady Mary, was, after fair trial in England, pronounced worse than a failure. “ Although innocula tion for the small-pox may have been benefi cial to individuals, by greatly lessening the chance of death, yet it may safely be asserted that it has proved to be of no benefit to the community at large, but the reverse; which is evident by the bills of mortality, as they clearly prove that the disease of small-pox has increased in England since the introduc tion of innoculation in the proportion of 19 in every 100.” Such is the testimony of one of the ablest writers in medical science.— What, then, does “A Learner” prove, by “ instancing the case of the Lady Mary Wort ley Montague ?” “A woman’s understanding may not be capable of advancing the cause of science, but it seems she could appreciate some of its results.” Just so, madam ; and it is a wo man’s province to appreciate —seldom to illus trate. “Does Bayard make one of the little court at the bottom of the well ?” He was trying hard to get there, when the counter-jerk of “ A Learner” hauled him up again. All that an “eminent physician of his own school says,” Bayard subscribes to; and it is the glory of Allopathy, that its followers are not tied down to a single principle—to any one system, nor any “pent-up Utica; but that they roam free as the wind over the hills and dales of science.” We regret that the super numerary sense of “ A Learner” is so ‘ pain SI &IE El MV ©&BHIf IT B ♦ fully affected ;” but since she knows so well what treatment should be adopted in case of a bum, or frost-bite, we will not offer to pre scribe. “ Let the German refinements of Homeopa thy alone, and look to its effects.” This is just the point on which we wish your optics to rest. Look to the results of Homeopathy. “Are we better content to die scientifical ly?” Most assuredly, madam. Who would be willing to shuffle off the mortal coil, when it was in his power to prove some far-reach ing theory—some sublime proposition. The lower orders of animals die mathematically : and, as it is the beauty of every science to approximate nature, so, when men die “sci entifically,” they cannot but die naturally. — Read thf* “ Death of Mirabeau,” in a late No. of the Gazette, and his last words to Cabanis show what satisfaction he derived from the hope of dying secundum artem. “I am neither a fashionable lady, a dandy, a mesmerizer, a fanatic, a poet, a divine, nor a lawyer.” Tell us your genus and gender, that we may account for the sage remarks which are, like so many delicate tit-bits, scat tered through your “reply.” We beg to assure “A Learner” that no disrespect was intended by the remark she quotes from us at the beginning of her reply. It was written in all honesty, without the intention “of impugning the judgment of womeii in matters of science.” House keeping is a science, and in this they excel. Yours, most philosophically, BENEDICT BAYARD. fjomc (ffomsponitncc. For the Southern Literary Gazette. NEW-YORK LETTERS.-NO. 30. Rath bun Hotel, New York, \ Nov. 22, 1848. j My Dear Sir , —According to the couplet, “from grave to gay,” etc., I feel morally bound, alter the dose of art in my last letter, to be excessively funny in this. I have just searched my portfolio, with the desire to amuse you, and have fished up a didactic po em, “ never before published,” which you may find somewhat edifying. My friend P., the author, mourns beneath the infliction of a breakfast-put-ofl-a-tive landlady. You may imagine the high gratification of being com pelled to wait half an hour, or a whole one, , for your breakfast, when you have struggled manfully against the predisposition for a lit tle more snoose, and have bravely succeeded in reaching the dining-room, as you suppose, just in time. Remonstrance proving fruitless in the case of our poet, he penned the lines, which I shall annex, (and of which, at my request, he fur nished me a copy,) and read them aloud, the other morning, for the amusement of the ta ble and the instruction of the hostess. Lis * ten to THE BREAKFAST BELL. That breakfast bell —that breakfast bell— How punctually it tolls, At morning’s earliest (lawn, the knell Os buckwheat cakes and rolls ! The chimney may refuse to draw, The morning may be dark, But, spite of all domestic law, That bell will toe the mark ! Talk of the Lover, when he’d fly To meet that angel face; (Ere sentiment is all my eye, And love grows commonplace.) Tho’ the beatings of his heart were true, The appointed hour to tell, They couldn’t hold a candle to That punctual breakfast bell. The eastern sun may gild each cloud That lies upon his track, Precisely at the hour allow'd By Hutchings’ Almanac. But sooner would he paiut the pole, And o’er the iceberg climb, Ere our chronometer would toll One second after time. This life, alas, is but a span, And soon the hour may come When Death, that grim old gentleman, Shall call me to the tomb. > Oh! if that hour were half past seven, (Which fate can only tell.) I’m sure my music up to Heaven Would be that Breakfast Bell! Y hether the bell still tolls as regularly as before the reading of the poem, I cannot say, but, for my friend’s sake, sincerely hope ‘not.’ Apropos of landladies and boarding-houses. No place in the world is better supplied with the commodity than New York. We have hundreds, almost thousands, of every possi ble complexion. You may, in some of the by-streets, be 4 slept’promiscuously with all manner of vagabonds for three cents ora pen ny per night, and be ‘eaten’ for either price : your plates and spoons being chained to the table, and yourself narrowly watched by the argus-eyed hag of a hostess. If you do not desire to go so 4 low,’ you may board gen teelly with a private family of sixteen chil dren and twins, occupying the centre of a room —of the comers of which, four other small families are in quiet possession. These recherche places, though sadly numerous, are known only to the initiated. After the pas sage of many ascending steps in the ladder, you reach the plain and comfortable estab lishments provided for laborers and apprenti ces. Here you are boarded and lodged for some dollar and a half, or two dollars a week. You are fed on suspicious mutton, questionable coffee, and sky-blue tea, with the addition, on Sunday, of a roast joint of mutton —perchance of beef —and are treated to something in the way of dessert. These places, like the great mass of boarding houses, are kept by poor widows, or by poor er wives, whose lords and masters are drunk en, idle loafers. The next class, a very large one, is that made up of merchants’ clerks, with small salaries—of petty shop-keepers, tailors, shoe-makers, and other similar mem bers of the industrial professions. Here you are fed more extravagantly than in the last mentioned houses, always, on Thanksgiving and other holidays, being cheered to the ex tent of a turkey; if the landlady is in a re markably happy mood, and “flush,” perhaps to that of a lobster, and small, very small oys ters. There are still some disagremens , how ever, to a young gentleman accustomed to refined society. In the first place, you never can, in winter, discover in what quarter of the room the fire is kept, without a light, and usually without a better light than can be obtained. The on ly chair in your chamber has but three legs, which, after long practice, it finds scarcely sufficient to preserve its equilibrium. Your abldtionary apparatus is always cracked, and, though your towel ought to be changed weekly, it but poorly answers the purpose of an Almanac. And, lastly, your mind is for ever exercised in attempts to solve the diffi cult problem, as to how the hostess manages to cater so nicely and so closely, that there is always just enough, and never a scrap too much to eat. The next class is a peg higher in character, comfort and price. The houses occupied by these establishments are usually three stories instead of two; they are situated in respecta ble streets down town, along the line of Greenwich, Hudson, afid all the cross streets in the lower portions of the city, They are patronized by the more pretending members of the caste last mentioned. Here you dis cover the earliest symptoms of boarding house misses and landladies’ daughters, who set themselves up as bones of contention to the gentlemen, and spend their lives insetting caps for the most eligible of the green ones. Up, up, up, the scale ascends, through the two dollars and a half, the three, four, five, and even six dollars—each price offering ad ditional attractions, in elegance, comfort and society. By this time, you have entered the region of the upper ten, and find yourself in Broad street, and—if you are content with sky-par lors—in University Place, Clinton Placed Union Park, and the Fifth Avenue. This is the fashionable quarter, where you dine at 5 o'clock, at a good table, provided with- jp’ delicacies and elegances of the best hotels* Your associates are, for the most part, m er l chants and their families, lawyers, clergymen artists, physicians, and gentlemen of leisure’ Here young ladies reside, with the express end of securing an establishment; and here too, the daughters of the hostess serve as ad vertisements and attractions to the house and practice in their perfection the little arts • we have observed, in a humbler dearpp in less pretending places. They depend upon the gentlemen-boarders for new music, f or escorts to the theatres and the opera, and for all the little attentions ladies receive from gentlemen in genteel society. These houses, as well as a few of more exclusive charac ter, are kept by people fond of society, and who are thus enabled to live in an aristocrat ic quarter, maintain a certain style, ‘brinjr out’ their daughters, and dispose of them eli gibly. In speaking of the expense of this class of houses, I referred only to the attic accommodations of bachelors. As the rents range from one thousand to fifteen hundred dollars per annum, the price of board advan ces, necessarily, in a terrible ratio as you come down stairs, and is ruinous, when you reach suites of rooms, or establish yourself in front parlors. As I have already hinted, also, the inciden tal expenses here are fearful. Servants are to be bribed, the ladies want bouquets and a thousand other things ; they have birth-days wonderfully often for the sum total of their years; balls and masquerades are to be giv en, and your ward-robe must be properly supplied. Each class has a very distinctive’ character in all respects, and it would be an interesting and amusing labor to draw the line, in all its phases, between them. At some future time, I may resume the subject; turning, for the present, to other matters. We had quite a warming time here last Saturday night. No less than five fires, in different parts of town, all in successful ope ration at once. As the engines could not be übiquitous, the fire had a nice time, pretty much to itself. The extensive Stables of the Murphys— omnibus men—corner of Fourth Avenue and Twenty r -seventh street, were first destroyed, with more than a hundred of their best hor ses, twenty-five elegant sleighs, their factory, blacksmithy, etc. Total loss estimated at sixty thousand dollars, with an insurance for only twenty-five hundred. With these sta bles were also consumed a number of small tenements occupied by poor people, in the rear of 28th street; the St. Barnabas Protes tant Episcopal Church ; the Rose Hill Metho dist Church, and the Public School, No. 15. The second fire, at the corner of Broome street and the Bowery, destroyed a number of shops and stores, and injured the beautiful Baptist Church edifice in Broome street — Rev. Dr. Cone’s. The third fire, at the corner of Thirty-fifth street and Eighth Avenue, originated in a Sta ble, which was consumed, with other build ings. Estimated loss here ten thousand dol lars. Fire No. 4, raging at the same time with the three already mentioned, broke out, also, in a stable in Seventeenth street. The build ing was totally destroyed, with four valuable horses. Throughout the live-long night, the city was illuminated with the lurid light ol the conflagration, and not for an instant did the bells cease their heavy tolling. To-morrow is to be observed, through the city and State, as a day of thanksgiving and prayer. Turkeys and geese are looking mel ancholy, in anticipation of their fate.