Newspaper Page Text
(glimpses of Jfnu Books.
~ IJEIIIXD THE SCENES.
We have a friend —a man who would ra
ther do us a good turn than an ill one, if the
former gave him no more trouble than the
latter, which is about equivalent to the friend
ship David felt for Jonathan, or Damon for
Pythias —allowing for the modern deprecia
tion of social currency. He lives, when he
has done stock-broking, or whatever he calls
it. in a pleasant villa at Notting Hill, where
lie has a phaeton and three horses, and most
of Edwin Landseer’s prints, and a capital cel
lar. and a meerschaum, silver-mounted, and a
wife, and many other luxuries. Something
put it into this foolish stock-broker’s head
that he wanted to go “behind the scenes.”
For nearly a year he kept poking his wish
at us in various forms, and over various wines
and spirituous liquors. Now, although in
reality “behind the scenes” is a far more
harmless place than any club, from the House
of Commons upwards, or than a good many
drawing-rooms where we have met doctors
in divinity; and though the ladies or gentle
men of “the profession” are just as likely to
encourage or allow a stranger to commit him
self in any way as Alboni is likely to stop
in the middle of her divine Non piu mesta to
ask M. Costa what he means to have for
supper—there is in lady-minds a prejudice
against the green-room. And we had—have
—a considerable respect for our friend's wife,
inasmuch as she never lets him give a dinner
party without asking the present writer. So
we were as deaf as a railway clerk. But
when, finally, deliberately, and with open
and advised speaking, our friend, Paul Ho
lieyball, demanded of us an introduction to
the green-room of a certain theatre, very dear
to us, what could be done ! We ejaculated
something, neither mentally nor ornamental
ly, obtained managerial permission, and this
is Paul’s report of the result: “Now, then,
as Mrs. Paul’s gone, try that Burgundy, and
I’ll tell you all about it. I went to the stage
door, and sent in your note. Presently a
man came and told me to ‘come this way.’
f followed him through a dark place, with
many turns, and I kept knocking my hat
against something soft (not my head—ha.!
ha! put that in your next play, my boy,) and
then I came upon the lady of the establish
ment. She had a sword and a shield, so we
could not exactly shake hands: but she spoke
in a ringing, merry voice, and asked how you
were. Before I coujd answer, she rushed on
the stage, and defied a fellow, all over hair,
to fight her. I wanted to see the fight, so 1
went forward, when a man, in his shirt
sleeves, told me 1 was in sight of the au
dience. ‘Oh!’ I said, and went somewhere
else. Then another man told me I mustn’t
stand there. ‘Oh!’ I said, and changed my
place ; when I felt something hot going down
inv neck; and looking back, a deacon was
shaking a fiery torch, lull of rosin, at the la
dy. I ran back, when a scene was suddenly
shoved up, and I was fixed against a white
wall. L bawled, and the prompter looked
round, and swore at me for making a noise.
“It’s a sad thing, hut prompters will swear.”
“I wriggled out, when a scene-shifter came,
begged my pardon, and said he should be
glad to drink my health.” “He was glad to
do it 5 so am I. Well?” “ YVell, I was all
over white, so I went into the green-room—
d’ye see —put that in your next play ! Eve
rybody looked at me, and then took no fur
ther notice. So I asked a young lady, with
pink legs, if she was fond of acting. She
said she never acted ; then she went away.
A man came in, with a brown George and
grey stockings. I recognised him, and told
him he had often made me laugh. He look
ed very grim, and said I did him proud, and
went away. Then a sort of lady’s maid came
with a basin and towels, and a rouge-pot and
a woman’s dress in her hand, and all the
men were turned out of the room—something
nbout a ‘quick change’—l didn't understand.
So not knowing what to do next, I went up
some steps, and looked out at the window of
a castle. In a minute I heard a roar of
laughter, and found I was in front of the au
dience: but before I could retreat, an old man
in a king’s dress pushed me away, told me I
was mad, put his head out of tile same hole,
and said he wasn’t at home. I came down,
hut could not get away, for about twenty dir
ty soldiers, with halberts, informed me I must
wait till they ‘went on,’ so I stood stewing
there for half an hour, w hile they grinned at
me. Presently they all levelled their wea
pons, shouted very loud, and ran upon the
stage, every one trying to push me over. 1
had enough of it, so l got out, thanks to a
little girl who piloted me; and you don t
catch me there again, I can tell you. It s all
very dull, except what’s very disagreeable.
—Gavarni in London.
§© 2J If 1 mIIE El 2a al?gft AIE ‘tf ® ASIETTINS*
THE QUEEN'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS.
Her Majesty is, undoubtedly, one of the
most accomplished ladies in her dominions.
She is mistress of all the modern languages,
in which she expresses herself with equal
grace and fluency. Her love of music de
veloped itself at a very early age; she plays
with great taste and expression on several in
struments, and has inherited her royal grand
father, George the Third’s, predilection for
the organ. She is said to evince a decided
preference for Italian music, but she takes
great delight in the compositions of Handel,
Haydn, Beethoven, and Mozart. Her voice
is a remarkably sweet mezzo soprano , and
her singing is not only scientifically good, but
very pleasing. Her Majesty inherits her
great musical talents, not only from the royal
family from whom her descent is paternally
derived, but also from her illustrious mother,
who is herself a composer.
The Queen’s talents for drawing are so re
markable, that one of her masters, before her
accession to the throne, when speaking of
his royal pupil, of whose progress he was
justly proud, said, “The Princess Victoria
would have made the best female artist of
the age if she had not been born to Avear a
crown.”
Her Royal Highness told this gentleman
that her pencil was a source of great delight
toiler; and that, when fatigued by severer
studies, it was always a refreshment
mind to devote an hour to drawing. b * r *j-
ployment in which she would hr < mv jj r ‘j
speni more of her time than ;,t ... s
So affable was this tvref) , ,
deportment to her instru* call .
beloved by them all. C bv a nd , „;. , Jlt
masters ventured to mak, ;,, v V(
al Highness, that a lady , je t j, t , .
expressed the most arden >u
something sketched by her a _
“Indeed,” replied her Roy 1
a smile, “I wish it were in my: * ‘qt
ify the wish of every one as ECiit . -ad
dipping a pen in the standish assh v . spoke,
she rapidly executed a free, graceful sketch
of a horse’s head, in that peculiar style call
ed etching, and kindly presented it to Mr.
Westall for his friend.
The lady was astonished at the beauty of
the design and execution, but observed that
no one would believe that it was really the
work of the Princess Victoria, unless it were
distinguished by the autograph of the illus
trious artist.
When this remark was repeated to the
Princess Victoria, she very good-humoredly
completed the happiness of the fortunate pos
sessor of this valued drawing, by adding her
autograph.
Her Majesty writes a very fine hand, free,
bold and legible, yet the character is perfect
ly feminine. She is also an excellent arith
metician, and examines the most complex ac
counts with the ease of an experienced finan
cier.
Soon after her accession to the throne, one
of her Ministers submitted to the youthful
Sovereign’s attention papers containing state
ments of a variety of matters connected with
the financial department. Her Majesty took
her pencil, and, after rapidly summing up the
figures, whose lengthened phalanxes might
have appeared somewhat formidable to a more
experienced calculator than a young lady
scarcely nineteen, returned them with these
words, uttered with her usual impressive dig
nity, “My lord, these accounts are, as I ex
pected to find them, correct.”
In her private expenditure, Her Majesty is
both economical and generous. She has been
more liberal in her gifts, and more magnificent
in her hospitality than any of her immediate
predecessors; yet the privy purse is unem
barrassed. We have afforded, in our pre
vious detail, a solution of this apparent enig
ma : Her Majesty is an excellent accountant.
—Miss Strickland's “Queen Victoria:' 1
Imperfectness of Human Knowledge.—
The caterpillar, on being converted into an
inert, scaly mass, does not appear to be fit
ting itself for an inhabitant of the air, and
can have no consciousness of the brilliancy
of its future being. We are masters of the
earth, but perhaps we are slaves of some
great and unknown beings. The fly that we
crush with our finger, or feed with our viands,
has no knowledge of man, and no conscious
ness of his superiority. We suppose that we
are acquainted with matter and all its ele
ments, yet we cannot even guess at the cause
of electricity, or explain the laws of the ior
mation of the stones that fall from meteors.
There may be beings, thinking beings, near
or surrounding u~, which we do not perceive,
which we cannot imagine. We know very
little, but in my opinion we know enough to
hope for the immortality, the individual im
mortality, of the better part of man. — Sir
Humphrey Davy.
®l)c Jlouter ©arircti.
For the Southern Literary Gazette.
HINTS FOll THE SEASON.
Mr. Editor: 1 know not how 1 can more
pplitably or more pleasantly employ a few
nnments, than by offering a few hints to your
reiders —the fairer portion of them especially
—on the necessary attention due to their
pirterres and shrubbery, preparatory to the
il-coming year. I am delighted to observe,
ii the South, a progressively growing zeal
for the cultivation, not merely of fruits and
vegetables, but even of flowers and ornament
al shrubbery. I am aware that there are
many well-meaning, matter-of-fact persons,
who incline to deride a taste for the orna
mental in Horticulture, and to quote slight
ingly any one, especially a gentleman, who
exhibits it. With such, I have no quarrel.
I will merely ask them to enjoy with me (as
I am sure they will) the following beautiful
lines from Mary Howitt’s “Birds and Flow
ers, and other country things :” j
‘ * lllE fSJf or 1
1 £'’} ?ni<cht ha\4 bade the earth bring forth
“Xnougli for great and small—
; ’Lik-tree and tbe cedar-tree
„ Without a flower at all.
. >rew ir<
I t v.JJpRht have bad enough, enough
:?i> r ‘ I,v want ofours,
Till 1 r ur - v ’ ine( b°^ nt N :u *d toil,
~ J *Sud vet have had no flowers.
j'.etv
‘r.p
he ore within the mountain mine
Rcquireth none to grow ;
‘ Nor doth it need the lotus flower
I o make the river flow.
Th pud- might give abundant rain,
1 ithhf ‘m'ghtly dews might fall,
A. \% herb that keepetli life in man,
Alight yet have drank them all.
Tin ii wlv I'efore, wherefore were they made
A ll >d with rainbov-light,
All d with supremest grace,
Up -prinyug day and night:
springing in valleys and low, . 1
And 04 the mountains'iiigh,- /
And in the silent wilderness
Where no man passes by ‘l
Our outward life requires them not—
Then wherefore had they birth 1
To minister delight to man,
To beautify the earth ;
To comfort man —to whisper hope,
Whene’er his faith is dim,
For whoso careth for the flowers,
Will much more care for him !
But, I assure you, I did not take up the
pen to write an objurgatory lecture. We
have, in the South, even at the foot of the
mountains, very few days, during the Win
ter, when the ground may not be easily and
advantageously stirred. Independently of the
immense destruction of the larvae of hyberna
ting insects by exposure to the cold—as well
as the increased mellowness imparted to the
“sluggish clod” from alternate freezing and
thawing—much may be done in the way of
actual culture, that will amply repay all the
labor expended. All early-flowering shrubs,
if intended to be removed, should be attended
to now. One in particular we will mention
—the Japanese Flowering Quince —which
should be immediately planted, if a good
bloom is wanted in January and February, as
its flower-buds are now forming, and a late
removal will give it a check which twelve
months will scarcely overcome. The same
may be observed of all early flowering shrubs.
Having, then, cleared tbe beds of all weeds
and stems and stalks of dead plants, turn it
up, a foot deep at least, breaking the clods
thoroughly with the spade. Rake all smooth
ly. Your ground is then ready for the re
ception of many seeds of plants which, being
intended for early Spring flowering, will grow
much larger nnd stronger, and flower much
better, it committed to the earth at this sea
son, than if their planting he deferred till
March or April. Nay, some whose bloom is
extended into Summer, and even to the latest
days of Autumn, g'.ve more pleasure if sown
now.
Passing over the Hyacinth, Tulip, Ane
mone, Crocus, Jonquils, Iris, and Lilies, not
forgetting the gorgeous Paeony, (though it is
not entirely too late to plant them even now.)
1 will direct your readers’ attention to some
half-dozen specimens of fall-sown flowers,
which deservedly command universal admi
ration :
1. The Double Rocket Larkspur. There
arc four varieties of this lovely plant—white,
purple, rose, and pale blue. One who has
never cultivated any of this large family but
the old branching larkspur, can form a very
faint idea of this —growing, as it does, when
carefully sown, a foot and a half to two feet
high, with fine, close spikes of flowers, rare
ly under twelve inches long. If you have
but few seed, sow in circular patches, mixing
the colors; otherwise, sow broadcast, and
rake in very lightly.
2. Escholtzia , with its gorgeous varieties
of yellow and orange. This may he man
aged as the Larkspur; only as it is very lux
uriant in its growth, and spreads very much,
it must he sown thinly. The above two spe
cies must be sown where they are to stand
and bloom, as they are very impatient of re
moval at any period, having long tap-roots.
3. Petunia. Very small seed; scatter thin
ly over the bed, and do not cover them at all,
but merely pat the ground gently with the
back of the spade. As they are rampant
growers, they must be thinned out to a few
plants in the bed.
4. ]fcart's Ease. Should be sown broad
cast, and the same course pursued as with
the Larkspur.
5. Drummond's Phlox , or Texas Pink, of
great variety, from very pale spotted pink to
the richest crimson-scarlet. Can be trained
very easily. Same as the above.
G. Portulacca. Crimson-purple, and scar
let. Same treatment as the Petunia.
The four last-mentioned varieties may be
transplanted very easily—all arc perfectly
hardy, and can bear any weather, however
severe, that we ordinarily feel in the South.
My advice is, to select six beds, and assign
one to each of the above. They will form a
coup d'odl which cannot fail to give great
pleasure, particularly if the beds are so.group
ed as to be readily contrasted.
Should the above hints prove acceptable,
they shall be followed by others, either orig
inal, or selected from the best authorities.
EREMUS.
Ijomc Correspondence.
For the Southern Literary Gazette.
NEW-YUItK LETTERS—NO. 31.
Uatiibun Hotel, New For/c, )
Nov. 29, 1848. )
My dear Sir: What amusing incidents one
will sometimes observe at a large table d'hote.
The other day, my vis-a-vis at dinner was a
verdant individual from the country, who
seemed to have a great antipathy to the ser
vices of the waiters, demanding, instead, first
of one neighbor and then of another, the
dishes he required. One of these gentlemen,
after submitting pleasantly to several calls
from the troublesome guest, answered a fur
ther one for the salt, which stood before him,
by summoning a waiter and requesting him
to hand the article to the gentleman on his
right, at the same time anxiously enquiring
of said gentleman if there was anything else
in which he could serve him. On another
occasion, there sat near me a shrewd Down-
Easter and his gal, hut neither of them over
burdened with the savoir faire of society.
Mistaking the fancifully moulded sauce of a
pudding for some delicate confection, he lirsf
helped himself and then Sal, to a bountiful
supply ! The waiter interposing, suggested
to him the true nature and purpose ot tae
article. For a moment Jonathan v\as embar
rassed, but calling up his natural tact, he
gave Sambo a look mingled of anger and pi
ty, as he replied, “Wall,to be sure its sarse!
Don't I know that, you darned fool! Whv
don’t you fetch on the pudding 1” ApropoT
343