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(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