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TURN WOLD, GA., OCTOBER 6, 1862.
To J. D.
Both your quarters have been received,
and the paper sent volt regularly (since
the receipt of the first one) to Co. D, 2Qth
Beg. Geo. Vols., Savannah, Ga.
Wasn’t Pressing Hint.
Bill H , so called in his schooLboy
days, but now Wm H , Esq. of Thom-
asville, Ga., was at college in Pennfield.—
A committee on contributions for the pur
pose of building a church, called on him
for some money. Bill told them that his
exchequer ran low, and he needed what
little money he had to pay his debts'
“ But,” said a member of the committee,
“you owe a debt to the Lord!” “Very
true,” replied the inimitable Bill : “ but
the Lord isn’t pressing me like the balance
of my creditors.”—The committee of course
had -to cave,
Chinese Notion of England.
“A Chinese treatise on geography con
tains the following description of England :
‘The kingdom of Yingkeihh (England) is
a dependent or tributary state of Holan
(Holland !) Their garments, aiid manner
in eating and drinking, are the same. The
males use much cloth, and like to drink
wine. The females, before, marriage, bind
the waist, being desirous to look slender.
Their hair hangs in curls over their necks.
They use a short garment and petticoats,
but dress in a larger cloth when they go
out. They take snuff out of boxes made
of gold and threads.” This is a fit paral
lel to the account given of our country by
the Greek monk Malalus, in the Paschal
Chronicle : ‘Britain is a city built by Clau
dius Ca;sar, on the borders of the ocean !’ ”
— 1842.
Guessing.
Why will many of the Southern people
persist in imitating the Yankees in some of
their worst provincialisms ? To do this was
bad enough, before our separation into two
governments. Even when North and South
were held together in a kind of mechanical
mixtifte, without any chemical affinity, as
oil and water are sometimes stirred togeth
er, all Southerners ot good taste avoided
these Yankeeisms in language, as they
would the plague ; and now that we have
cut loose from them and their isms forever,
we should much more carefully and rigidly
clear our skirts from all Yankee peculiari
ties, whether of opinion, manners, dress or
dialect. Let us eschew the devil and his
works.
Of all the peculiarities that have served
T H E COUNTRYMAN.
to render Yankees supremely ridiculous in
the eyes of Englishmen, none has contribu
ted more to this end than their habit of
“ guessing.Orators, poets, novelists, es
sayists-, conversationalists, have all united in
satirizing and expressing their contempt for
this truly disgusting slang. They seem to
feel a horror for it, which is*sometimes
really amusing.' We are all now striving
to convince the world that Yankees and
Southerners are two* distinct races of. peo
ple, and that we are not to be held account
able for any of the sins of the former. Of
late, the world has shown great willingness
to be convinced, yet there are those among
us who retard the good work by “ guess
ing.” .
Eor the sake of our reputation, fellow
Southerners, let us watch each other care
fully, kindly, and strive with all our might
to point out and prevent all miserable
aping ! Do let us have some self-respect
and independence ! w. w. t.
v -
No l T se for Quinine.
“ Mr. Editor : I beg to make public,
through the medium of your paper, the fol
lowing certain, and thoroughly tried cure
for ague and fever : 1 pint of cotton seed,
in 2 pints of water boiled down to one of tea
taken warm, one hour before the expected
attack. Many persons will doubtless laugh
at this simple remedy, but I have tried it
effectually, and unhesitatingly say it is
better than quinine, and could I obtain
the latter article at a dime a bottle, I
would infinitely prefer the cotton-seed tea.
It will not only cure, invariably, but,
permanently, and is not at all unpleasant
to the taste.—You^s truly, II. G. D.
Brown, Copiah County, Mississippi.”
Dancing.
“ A recent number of the American Ec
lectic contains a review of the Journal of
two Parsees, descendants of the ancient
fire-worslnppers of Persia, who spent two
years and a half in Great Britain. As
they were persons of some consequence at
home, they received considerable attention
while in England, and among the wonders
of the great metropolis were taken to see
the performance of a celebrated danscuse
at the Italian opera. They took but little
interest in it, and in their journal made the
following remarks, which we commend to
the notice of some of our own citizens :
‘ Only think,’ they exclaim : ‘one hun
dred and fifty guineas every night to be
paid in England to a woman to stand, for
a long time, like a goose upon one leg,
then to throw one leg straight out, twirl
round thiee or four times with the leg thus
extended—to courtesy so low as to nearly
seat herself upon the ground—to spring
occasionally from one side of the stage to
another, all of which jumping about did npt*.
on her part, occupy an hour, and to get
more money for that hour, every evening,
than six weavers in Spitalfields (who pro
duce beautiful silk for.dresses) would earn,
all of them, working fourteen hours every.-'
day, in twelve months ! It does appear so
absurd that a dancing woman should thus
take out of English pockets, every night,
for an hour’s jumping, more than would
keep six weaveis of silk, their wives and
families, for a whole year ! Had we not,
•seen instances that convinced us the Eng
lish were clever people, we should have
thought them very foolish indeed thus to
pay a dancing puppet..’ ”—1842.
Indian Juggler.
“His attendants having removed the cut-,
lery, he called me to examine his eyes,
which he opened very wide, and rolled
about in every direction. They were clear,..
liquid, and expressive. He then closed
the lids, put his hands upon his hips, gave
a strain, then opened the lids, and in place
of- his natural eyes, were two balls as of
finely polished steel. He closed the lids
again, strained again, opened again, and
the steel balls were gone, and a pair of r
burnished brass ones in their stead. Once
more he closed the lids, and on re-opening
them, looked at me with the eyes I had just .
before examined. During the performance
of this trick, he never took bis hands from
his hips, and I was the only person near
him. On rising, he called to his son, and
made him stand before him. He then ask
ed me to inspect very clcsely the youth’s
left side, to press my hand heavily upon
it, to rub it upward and downward, and
to be sure that there was no lump below
the skin. I did as I was told, and could
feel nothing but the ribs. The father then
placed his finger on a particular spot, and
with an instrument like a lance, made a
slight puncture, and got hold of a piece of
coarse thread, which he drew forth, at in
tervals besmeared with blood. He con
tinued to draw forth the thread, in one
piece, until 30 or 40 yards lay upon the
ground, and said he would go on as long
as I wished, or that I might draw it out
myself. 1 declared myself satisfied, and
he then clipped the thread close to the
skin, gave the place a rub, and nothing re
mained to show that any operation had
been performed.”
Solon says “advise not what is most
pleasant, but what is most useful.”