Newspaper Page Text
m t s e; e x. s. as r.
From Trumbull's Genius of Italy.
A SUNSET AT ARONA.
“We have arrived at Arona, in the Sardinian
States, a considerable village at the Southern ex
tremity of the lake, when it stretches into a wide
and magnificent expanse of water, the upper
por lions being narrow and secluded. After re
freshing ourselves at the principal hotel, we saun
tered through the place, which is filled by a poor
and cheerful population. As it is evening, the
majority of the inhabitants are enjoying them
selves in the open air; some seated upon benches
smoking their pipes, other lounging under the
shadow of the trees, or chatting with their friends,
ollicrs sauntering in the principle square; and
others listening to the music of a couple of stroll
ing singers, one of’ whom plays the harp with
tolerable grace, and the other a tambourine as an
accompanyment. Two or three cases are filled
with eager political talkers. Under the shadow
of the trees there, a group are gathered, discuss
ing with earnest look and gesture a protocol of
Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, who has given
a pretty liberal constitution to his people, the ne
cessity of which no one acquainted with the state
of Sardinia will question. This monarch sits un
easy upon his throne, lie has more ambition than
}>ower, more cunning than virtue. Should he
maintain his position as a prince, he may deem
himself extremely fortunate. As to his being
the saviour of Italy it is pure ‘humbug.’
“ lint let us go towards the brink of the lake.
The last rays of sunset are tinging, with supernat
ural glories, the tops of die trees, some of which run
down into the water, and cast long shadows in its
pellucid depths. A few light clouds are hanging
on the horizon, giving hack the amber radiance of
departing day, and shading ‘the deep serene ’
which reposes far above, reminding us of those
lines by James Montgomery, in which he so
strikingly describes the beauty of a dead girl.
“ 1 And clustering round licr brow serene,
ITer golden tresses lay,
As sunburnt clouds on summer lake
Are hung at close of day.’
“White skills are gliding here and there, like
shadowy spirits, and far ofF in the distance a
small steamer is ploughing the placid waves.—
Masses of shadows are beginning to fall upon the
other side of the lake, and deepening in the low
grounds to our right. A lute-like sound nowand
then breaks upon the ear, apparently from one of
the skiffs. Now it swells and vibrates over the
waters with a sweet ringing tone, and then again
dies away. All is hushed except the ripple of
the waves upon the pebbly shore, or the splash
of a distant oar. It is as if the spirit of heaven
had cast its shadow upon the earth.
“ ‘ It is a bounteous evening, calm and free ;
The holy time is quiet as a nun
Broathless with admiration; the broad sun
Is sinking down in its tranquility ;
Listen! the mighty Being is awake,
And doth with his eternal motion make,
A sound like thunder—everlastingly.’
“Yes, silence in such a scene becomes vocal.
The heart listens while God himself speaks.—
His infinite voice resound within the chambers of
the soul, like the echo of distant thunder.
“Still as it is here, so still as to seem instinct
with divinity, what is Italy, in her great centres,
doing at the present moment? Who can tell?
One thing, however, is certain, her restless spirit
is awake, and panting for freedom. Already has
the struggle commenced ; and the issue cannot
fail to be glorious—if not now; at least hereafter.
“ But the shadows are deepening around us,
and night settles upon hill and vale ; one after
another the stars look out from the sky and mirror
themselves, like thou gins in the heart of a good
man, in the broad bosom of the lake. The light
of the moon is gilding the towers of the old ‘Col
legiate Church,’ for Arona boasts such an edi
fice, and burning with ‘an unconsuming fire’ in
the ‘leafy umbrage’ of the tall trees. Slowly we
retrace our steps to our temporary home for the
night, drinking the beauty of the scene, and con
ning, as we go, the rich verses of Ippolito Pinde
monte, the friend of Alfieri and Folcolo, and one
of the most gifted and elegant of the modern Ital
ian poets.
“ ‘Night dew-lipped comes, and every gleaming star
Its silent place assigns in yonder sky ;
The moon walks forth, and fields and groves afar,
Touched by her light, in silvery boauty lie
In solemn peace, that no sound comes to mar;
Hamlets and peopled cities slumber nigh:
While on this rock in meditative mien,
Lord of the unconscious world I sit unseen.
“ ‘How deep the quiet of this pensive hour !
Nature bids labor cease—and all obey,
llow sweet this stillness in its magic power,
O’er hearts that know her voice, and own her sway !
Stillness unbroken, save when, from the flower,
The whirling locust takes her upward way ;
And murmuring o’er the verdant turf is heard
The passing brook—or leaf by breezes stirred,
‘“Born on the pinions of night’s freshening air,
Unfettered thoughts with calm reflection come;
And tanev’s train that shuns the daylight’s glare
To wake when midnight shrouds the heaven with
gloom:
Now tranquil joys, and hopes untouched by care,
Within ray besom throng to seek a home;
Where far around the brooding darkness spreads
And o’er the soul a pleasing sadness sheds.’
“ Are these rooms to let ? ” said a polite gen
tleman to a handsome young lady as he placed
his loot across the threshold. “Yes, sir.” “ And
are you to he let with them ? ” “No sir ! I’m
to be let alone ! ”
A THIEF STORY.
Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal contains an in
teresting article on the properties ol the Datura
or Narcotic Plant, from which we make the follow
ing extract :
The common datura of Bengal is described by
our correspondent as a rambling thorny plant,
with a very large and hcautilul while flower ; and
it may he interesting to our medical readers to
know that its when heated by being held
over the fire, are used by the natives for assuaging
pain in the head. The root, however, supplies a
powder which is turned to a less beneficiel account
Thuggee, as every body knows—thanks to the
energetic measures of the British Government, so
u .
zealously carried out by Col. Sleeman —is now
almost, if not entirely, unknown ; but it has been
succeeded by a kind of robbery, into which murder
no longer enters as a necessary part of the crime.
The victim is not, as formerly, strangled or pois
oned, hut merely drugged —or hocussed, to use a
slang expression—and this is ejected in a simple
manner, by throwing a little of the datura powder
into the Hour which the traveller is about to pre
oarc for his dinner. Now and then, it is true, the
druggee dies ; hut this is an accident, and by no
means desired by the practitioner, whose interest
it is that his patient shall merely he reduced to a
state of temporary insensibility. The effects ol
a liberal dose sometimes last for a couple of days.
Although the powder retains ils energy for a long
time, the robber makes it only in such small quan
tities as may be reaaily concealed upon the person;
and indeed, he has no occasion to do otherwise,
as the plant is common, and grows throughout the
country. The thoroughfares are beset with these
people, who get into conversation with the way
farers they meet, and induce them to join compa
ny. If the traveller only consents to dine along
with his new friend, he is undone. An account
of the process may he given from the mouth of
an approver, as the Indian King’s evidence is call
ed, and we shall put into the witness box a gen
tlemen of the name of Sookoo. “ I first learned
the business of drugging,” said he, “ from 11am
kishen, whom 1 met in Calcutta, some four years
ago. He asked me to find out a good subject, and
I told him of a man who had some 500 rupees’
(.£6O) w r orth of property. Ramskishen hired the
house adjacent to this man’s, and next day picked
up his acquaintance. Two days after that he
contrived to put some powder in his shrub, and he
became insensible. We then broke open his box,
and went off with 409 rupees’ worth of property
and jewels, which we realized and divided. Some
time after this as I was going along the Gradd
Turk road alone, I met a man returning from
Calcutta. We began talking together, and walk
ed to a well close to a police ollice, and around
which there were some eight or ten travellers as
sembled. I drew up some water, and gave him
to drink, asking him at the same time, to eat some
of the food I was myself eating, he did so. I
mixed a little powder into the portion I gave him,
and in ahoutan hour he became insensible. Some
of travellers and the policemen asked me the
cause. I told them he had been drinking freely,
and was tipsy; they believed me, and I attended
to the insensible man until I secured his purse,
containing some 10 or 20 rupees. 1 then went off’
on some pretense, leaving him at the police ollice.
About seven months after this affair, I and a friend
met two merchants w T ho had been to Patna to sell
goods. We got leave with them, and put up for
the night at a scria; they brought some Hour,
and went to the well for water, and I managed to
put some of the powder into it. In an hour or
less they both became insensible, and we took
their property —some 300 rupees. We then want
ed to get off, hut found the door of the serai
was shut. On sa} r ing, however, that one of us
was ill, we got out and made off*. About two
years ago, I and Ramsha met a man on the road
with a tin box ; we walked together some way,
and on coming to a toddy shop stopped to drink.
He would not leave his box, and requested me to
bring him a little grog; I did so, and we walked
on. In about three-quarters of an hour lie fell
down insensible, and we relieved him of his box
and all his clothes. We got nearly 800 rupees
from the sale of the contents (jewels, ornaments,
&c.) About 17 months ago, I and Gungaram met
four men and two servants, and consented to carry
their luggage for them ; and we all slept in a house
in the village of on the second night, and
there they wished to dismiss us, hut we begged to
he entertained for a few marches father on to
wards our homes, and they agreed. The man
whose box I had charge of bought some Hour, and
I contrived to drug it, he ate, and became insen
sible. His companions were all asleep, and I,
after five hours work, broke open the box, and,
with Gungaram, made off’ with its contents.”—
The class to which Soopkoo belongs do not, like
Thugs, mingle religious notions with crimes, they
are thieves, who do their spiriting as gently as they
can, and are satisfied with small gains. In India
a laboring man or servant can keep himself, his
wife and four or five children for four rupees a
month; and it is no wonder, therefore, that so
many should he tempted to have recourse to the
datura powder, and that drugging, though less
deadly in purpose, should become a crime less eas\
to he dealt with by the Government than Thuggee.
Out of 350 persons who arrived at St. Louis
on Thursday of last week from New Orleans, 70
have since died of cholera.
PRESENTIMENTS.
D. P. Thompson, of the Green Mountain Free
man, in an interesting article on Presentiments,
relates the following anecdote :
“It was once our fortune to be thrown into a
social circle, in which were the near relatives of
some of those who perished in the conflagration
of the Richmond Theatre, in 1812, which so
widely scattered the weeds of woe among the
first families of Virginia. Two or three remarka
ble instances of presentiments were told us as
havingbcen felt and avowed previous to the fire,
i)V those who become victims, but we have treas
ured up one more peculiar than the others, be
cause, instead of being followed by the death of
him who was the subject of the premoniton, it was
the direct means, in all human probability, of sa
ving him and a family of accomplished daughters
from destruction. The play for that night was an
attractive one. The gentleman to whom we al
lude, had proposed to his family to attend the
theatre with him, and several times through the
day spoke of the pleasure he anticipated in wit
nessing the performance. But towards night he
became unusually thoughtful,and, as theappointed
hour drew near, lie took a seat with the ladies, and
commenced reading to them a long and interesting
story, evading all conversation about the theatre.
This he continued until interrupted by one of the
wondering circle, who suggested that it was
time to start. Again evading the subject, he
went to reading till he was a second time inter
rupted, and told they must go immediately or they
should certainly be belated. Finding he could
not put them off till too late to go, as he had
hoped to do, he turned to them and earnestly
asked it as a favor that, they would all forego the
promised pleasure of the play-house, and remain
with him at home through the evening. Though
deeply surprised and sorely disappointed, yet
they dutifully acquiesced ; and in the course of
the'evening, while engaged in their quiet fireside
entertainment, they were aroused by the alarm of
fire ; and in a few minutes more by the appall
ing tidings that hundreds were perishing in the
Haines of the burning theatre, in which, but for
the request which seemed so strange to them, they
too would have been found to be numbered
among the victims. The next morning the gen
tleman told them in explanation of his conduct
the evening before, that as the hour set for the
performance approached, he became unaccount
ably impressed with the idea or feeling that some
fearful calamity was that night to fall on the com
pany assembled in the theatre ; and that the pre
monition, in spite of all his efforts to shake it off,
at length became so strong and definite, that he
secretly resolved at any cost to prevent them from
attending.”
THE LIGHTNING ROD.
“So early as 1783, I find Maximilien called
upon to defend an important cause. The recent
discoveries of Franklin had been adopted in
France ; and even in the province of Artois a
rich landed proprietor, M. de Vissery de Boisvalle,
had erected a lightning conductor on his property,
much to the scandal of the worthy citizens.
4 What!’ said they , 1 shall we rend the lightning
from the hand of God? Shall man presume to
intercept the wrath of the Deity. If God wills to
destroy houses or farms, it is his will and pleasure
—man’s duty to submit. These lightning con
ductors are but the impious thoughts of Deistical
philosophy! Away with them !’ Thus reasoned
these obese and stupid citizens of Arras. Nay,
more ; they not only reasoned, they threatened
the demolition of the conductor. They applied
to the Echevins of St. Omer, to order its removal;
and the municipal authorities, equally bigoted,
yielded to their request. M. de Vissery was not
so easily to be conquered: he determined to try
the cause ; and selected Roberspierre as his ad
vocate. Robespierre’s practice was in the upper
council, a court of appeal having an extensive
jurisdiction, lie pleaded several times before the
council, and obtained not only the compliments
of his judges, but what is more rare, those of
his brethren of the bar. This, however, was the
first important cause he had received. He began
by publishing an essay on the subject, in which
the question was treated both legally and scien
tifically. The pamphlet made some little noise,
and when the trial came on (31st of May, 1783)
he was triumphant.” — Life of Robespierre.
Improved Machinery for Spinning Yarn. —Mr.
George H. Dodge, of Attleborough, Mass., has
invented a valuable improvement in machinery
for spinning winding yarn, being a combination
of the self-acting mule and throstle, and having
many advantages over the common method of
spinning, and equally applicable for filling and
warp. In the room usually occupied for 1,000
spindles, 1,500 maybe placed, which will do the
work of 3,000 spindles. It occupies the usual
space required for warp spinning, but will, it is
said, spin 50 percent more yarn to the spindle
than the best ring bobbin spindle in use, and with
a saving of two-fifths of the power. It is esti
mated to spin 100 per cent more yarn than the
flyer spindle, and with one half the power com
pared to the quantity. The spindle is more du
rable than the common one in use, being tapered
to the top, and their being no bobbins or check
pins used, it maintains its balance at any speed
required. It is not liable to get out of order, and
is much more convenient to piece up the endg
when broken than the bobbin frame. Messrs.
Dodge & Son have their entire mill upon fiji 3
method of spinning, and say that from twenty
nine years practical experience with other spin
ning they believe it to be the best in use, and
know that it is worthy the attention of manufac
turers.
They are daily producing more yarn from
2,320 spindles, than they were able to do from
about 4.G00 spindles of the old plan commonly
used, and have averaged the product of the
above 2,320 for nineteen successive weeks, with
out making any allowances for stoppages, or hin
drance from other causes, and have spun 61,.
257 J lbs. yarn No. 30 —seven skeins to the spin
dle—per day. They invite all practical men and
others that feel an interest in improvements, to
call at their manufactory in Dodgeville, and ex
amine the same. — Merchant's Mag.
‘From the German of Jean Pavl. —The sun is
like God, sending abroad life, beauty, and happi
ness ; and the stars like human souls, for all their
glory comes from the sun.
Does not the echo in the sea shell tell of the
worm which once inhabited it ; and shall not
man’s good deeds live after him and sing his
praise ?
The mind makes all the beauty on earth, as the
sun all in the heavens.
What is the universe but a band flung in space
pointing alway s with extended finger unto God !
The pitying tears and fond smiles of woman,
are like the showers and sunshine of Spring;
alas! that unlike them she should often miss her
merited reward —the sweet Howers ot alleclion.
How like rain is the human heart—having no
beauty in itself, but beneath the smile ot God,
showing forth with all the rainbow’s glory ; or
how like a star, which, though but dust, can yet
be cherished into a semblance of the fountain of
its light.
The songs of birds, and the life of man, arc
both brif, both soul-filled, and both as they end,
leave behind whispers ol heaven.
Business First and then Pleasure. —A man who is
very rich now, but very poor when a boy, was
asked how he got his riches. “My Father taught
me never to play till all my work for the day was
finished, and never to spend my money till 1 had
earned it. If I had hut half an hour’s work to
do in a day, I must do tliat first, and in an
half an hour. After this was done I was allow
ed to play; and 1 then could play with much
more pleasure than if I had the thought of an
unfinished task before my mind. —I early formed
the habit of doing every thing in its time, and it
soon became perfectly 7 easy to do so. It is to this
habit that I owe my prosperity.” Let every bov
who reads this go and do likewise, and he will
meet a similar reward.
Pcstalozzi. —Pestalozzi may be termed the first
founder of the Ragged schools. At the age of 22,
when he had purchased a small estate, at New
hoff, in Switzerland, and determined to lead a
simple country life, he became aware of the
wretchedness and ignorance of the peasantry. —
It was then that lie determined to devote his life
to the benefit of the. poor, and assisted by his wife,
whom he married the year after he settled at New
hofF, he began to collect poor children, and even
beggar children, into his house and instruct
them. His efforts were treated by his neighbors
and the world as all such eflbrts are—they were
ridiculed, and pronounced to be actual folly 7 and
insanity. Every well-in formed reader knows
through what opposition, misfortune, and trouble,
arising from the exhaustion of his own means, the
revolutionary disturbances of the times, and the
wranglings of those who even came forward to
assist in his plans for elevating the people Pesla
lozzi passed his life. His plans, however, succed
ded, and have been introduced, more or less, into
all popular systems of tuition, and to him the ed
ucation of the people owes more than to .any’ other
man who ever lived.
Good manners are useful to rich and poor. —
They make the rich man more admirable and
more influential, and they pave the way before the
poor man, and promote his advancement in life by
means which are wholly unknown to himsell.—
They secure his friends, who are gradually wooed
and won, and who feel an increasing interest in
his welfare, and finally, perhaps present him with
a favorable opportunity of rising in the scale of
society. They can never be a loss, at all events ;
and we have no hesitation in saying that they
never fail to bring a reward, in some mode or
other, so as to make the condition of the wearer
better with them than without them.
Poverty, —Poverty has, in large cities, very dis
sent appearances. It is often concealed in splen
dor, often in extravagance. It is the care of a
very great part of mankind to conceal their indi
gence from the rest. They support themselves
by temporary expedients, and every day is lost in
contriving for to-morrow.
There is a man in Grant County, Kyr, who is
so very miserly, that whenever he sends his negro
sevant down into the cellar for apples, he makes
him whistle all the way down to the apple box,
and back, to prevent him from eating any oi the
fruit. Fact.