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THE COUNTRYMAN.
11
not my friend found this expedient to break
the omen, I question not but half the wo
men in the company would have fallen sick,
that very night.
An old maid, that is troubled with the
vapors, produces infinite disturbances of
this kind among her friends and neighbors.
I know a maiden aunt, of a great family,
who is one of these antiquated Sybils, that
forebodes and prophesies from one end of
the year to the other. She is always see
ing appaiitions and hearing death-watches,
and was the other day almost frighted out
of her wits by the great house-dog, that
howled in the stable at the time when she
lay ill of the tooth-ache. Such an extrav
agant cast of mind engages multitudes of
people, not only in impertinent terrors, but
in supernumerary duties of life, and arises
from that fear and ignorance which are nat
ural to the soul of man. The horror with
which we entertain the thoughts of death,
(or indeed of any future evil) and the un
certainty of its approach, fill a melancholy
mind with innumerable apprehensions and
suspicions, and consequently dispose it to
the observation of such groundless prodi
gies and predictions. For as it is the chief
concern of wise men to retrench the evils
of life by the reasonings of philosophy, it
is the employment of fools to multiply them
by the sentiments of superstition.
For my own part, I should be very
much troubled were I endowed with this
divining quality, though it should inform
me truly of every thing that can befall me.
I would not anticipate the relish of any
happiness, nor feel the weight of any mis
ery, before it actually arrives.
I know but one way of fortifying my
soul against these gloomy presages and
terrors,of mind, and that is, by securing to
myself the friendship and protection of
that. Being who disposes of events, and
governs futurity. He sees, at one view, the
whole thread of my existence, not only
that part of it which I have already passed
through, but that which runs forward into
all the depths of eternity. When I lay
me down to sleep, I recommend myself to
his care : when I awake, I give myself up
to his direction. Amidst all the evils that
threaten me, I will look up to him for help,
and question not but he will avert them, or
turn them to my advantage. Though 1
know neither the time nor the manner of'
the death I am to die, I am not at all solici
tous about it, hecause I am sure that he
knows them both, and that he will not fail
to comfort and support me under them.”
“ Magnanimity contemns all, to obtain all.”
Domestic Manufactures.
This war has turned the attention of our
people again to the resources which they
have at home. Our ladies very busily ply
the wheel, the loom, and the needle : and
not only is this so, but many of them have
taken to the manufacture of articles which
they never dreamed of attempting before. I
have seen some beautiful specimens of hats
manufactured by the ladies of Putnam
county out of wheat, or oat straw. And
these sit upon their pretty heads as jaunti
ly, lovelily, and gipsily, as though a yan-
kee hand, instead of the hand of a human
’being, had made them- Nay, their charms
are increased a hundred fold by the idea
that they have rendered themselves useful
as well as ornamental.
1 pass from the manufacture of hats to
the manufacture of other articles.—I had
the honor and the pleasure, a few days ago,
of enjoying the hospitalities of Mrs. Kinch-
en Little, of this county, and I trust she
will pardon me for introducing her name
into a newspaper, as 1 do so only for the
purpose of accomplishing good, by holding
up her example as worthy of imitation by
the other matrons and maidens of the land.
In the first place, Mrs. Little showed me
some blankets which she had had woven
at home, out of cow’s hair. There was a
little cotton mixed with the hair, to make
it card well—I think only about one-third.
The thread for the filling was then spun
out of this mixture, and woven upon warp
coarse enough to be set in a bagging sley,
which was done. The material thus man
ufactured makes very good negro blankets,
and upon a pinch might be used by white
folks, in these war times. The cow’s hair
can be obtained at any tan-yard, and I
would recommend this branch of manufac
tures to our Southern women generally.
Mrs. Little also showed me beautiful flan
nel which she had had woven. The warp,
of course, was cotton : and I saw yards of
fine jeans which she had had manufactured
for the use of her family. She set before
me, too, syrup made from the Chinese su
gar-cane, and excellent ginger-bread man
ufactured from this syrup. As an experi
ment, she had been trjdng the making of
preserves, by the use of this syrup. 1
tasted some quinces put up in this way, and
although not as good as if preserved in su
gar, still, as Mrs. Little observed, the ex
periment was sufficient to show that if the
worst comes to the worst, we can even do
without sugar. This was simply an exper
iment of Mrs. L., as much for the benefit
of the country as anything else, as every
body who has ever had the good fortune to
sit down to her table knows that her laidei
is, at all times, stored with the best that
the country affords.
To crown all, Mrs. Little favored me
with a sight of some very good salt which
she was manufacturing from her smoke
house. If all the women, and all the peo
ple in the land were like Mis. Little, we
would be independent of the world in almost
everything. Who that is a Southern plan
ter or farmer, does not look around him
aud view with pride the boundless resour
ces of his little realm ? But whose cheek
i will not, at the same time, tingle with shame,
that he has so criminally neglected all
those resources ?
Pirate’s Defence.
•' Alexander the Great was about to pass
sentence of death on a noted pirate, but
previously asked him, ‘ Why dost thou
trouble the seas?’ ‘Why,’ rejoined the
rover boldly, ‘ dost thou trouble the whole
world? I with one ship go in quest
of solitary adventures, and am therefore
called pirate : thou with a great army war-
rSst against nations, and therefore art call
ed emperor. Sir, there is no difference.be-
twixt us but in the name and means of do
ing mischief.’ Alexander, so far from be-
I iug displeased with the freedom of the cul
prit, was so imprest with the force of his
appeal, that lie dismissed him unpunished.”
Magnanimity.
“In the obscurity of retirement, amid
the squalid poverty and revolting privations
of a cottage, it has often been my lot to
witness scenes of magnanimity and self-de
nial, as much beyond the belief, as the
practice of the great; a heroism borrowing
no support either from the gaze of the ma
ny or the admiration of the few, yet flour
ishing amidst ruins, and on the confines of
the grave; a spectacle as stupendous in
the moral world, as the Falls of Niagara, in
the natural ; and, like that mighty cataract,
doomed to display its grandeur only where
there are no eyes to appreciate its magnif
icence.',’
Frauds.
“ There are some frauds so well conduc
ted, that it would be stupidity not to be
deceived by them. A wise man, therefore,
may be duped as well as a fool. But the
fool publishes the triumph of his deceiver.
The wise man is silent, aud denies that tri
umph to an enemy which he would hardly
concede to a friend—a triumph that pro
claims his own defeat.”
“The virtue of Women is often the love
of reputation and quiet.”