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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.”