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MISS’ SOPHY JOHNSTONE.
I scarce think that any system of education
.-could have made Miss Sophy Johnstone, one of
the fair sex. Nature seemed to have enterecimto
the jest, and hesitated whether to make her a boy
or a girl. Her taste led her to hunt with her broth
ers, to wrestle with the stable-boys, and to saw
wood with the carpenter. She worked well in
iron, could shoe ahorse quicker than the smith,
made excellent trunks, played well on the fiddle,
sung a man’s song ki a bass voice, and was by
many people suspected of being one. She learnt
to write of the Butlers at her own request, and had
a taste for reading, which she greatly improved.
She was a droll, ingenious fellow ; her talents for
mimicry made her enemies ; and the violence of
her attachments to those she called her favorites,
secured her a few warm friends. She came to
spend a few months with my mother soon after
marriage, and at the time 1 am speaking of, had
been with her thirteen years, making Balcarres
her head quarters, devoting herself to the youngest
child, whichever it was, deserting him when he
got into breeches, and regularly constant to no one
but me.
Sometime afterwards we have the following
details respecting her :- •
My own good friend Miss Sophy Johnstone, hav
ing constantly declared that her attachment to us
was such that she would never leave our family,
although she was tormented beyond measure to
share her time with others, and that she daily .ex
pected a letter from her first cousin, old General
Granville, who had been appointed Governor of
Gibraltar, inviting her to go there with his wife,
who was a dull, formal woman of whom he was
tired, and whom she had never seen, we had been
constantly expecting the arrival of this letter, but
as it never came Margaret observed that it was a
sad pity that ?liss Johnstone could not have this
letter and the pleasure of sacrificing this invita
tion to her love for us. The idea lighted the gas
of my brains, and the letter was written in a mo
ment with a good pen on a fine sheet of paper,
and I returned myself member of parliament on
the occasion. A formal unexceptionable invita
tion was sent to Miss Johnston by Mrs. Cranvilie,
to accompany her and the General to Gibraltar —
with an assurance that a little forge should be fit
ted up for her in the garrison. We supposed that
she would send her refusal in a day or two, and
meant to take measures to prevent her letter from
being sent, as the village was close at hand. We
proposed to thank hereafter wards and tell her the
truth. The post arrived, and the letter was car
ried up to her room. We dined together —not a
word was said, but there seemed to be many
cheerful hints passing to and fro amongst the
seniors of the family. Margaret and I were leav
ing the room when the cloth was withdrawn, but
Miss Johnstone in an encouruging tone bade us to
stay. She said that we had sense and discretion
above our years, and that she was not ashamed
to call us into the council which she had been hold
ing with her friends hereon a letter which she had
received from her good friend Mrs. Granville —
putting my own letter into my hand. I trembled
hom head to foot. “Well,” said I, when I had
read it, “ and you will answerthis by saying that
you will never leave 11s ? ” “Mv dear child,”
said she, “ I should wish to give that answer; but,
1 not. Though I am old—for lam now
almost fifty—they are older, and very rich. lam
poor,” —(poor ! Oh, what a ppi guard was in
that word !) “ I stm sensible of the a 1 vantages it
might be to me to be with them, and, however
painful tome, I am not only resolved to accept
their iuvitation, but I havejalready sent 6fT ray let
ter doing so. Confounded by this, and afraid to
speak, I laid down the letter, and Margaret and 1
disappeared, letting it be supposed thst we were
very sorry to lose her, but really in despair ‘at*
what we had done. Nothing remained for it out
instant confession. We threw ourselves on our
knees before her and told her all. Never did 1
see an} r body more cruelly disappointed, but her
strong, manly miad took it as a hero would the
loss of his army.” — Lord Lindsay.
THE FOSTER MOTHER.
Upon the farm of Mr. F , in New Hamp
shire, a chicken, which, through the depredations
of a fox, has been deprived of its mother when
but just out of the shell, was brought up.in the
house, and as the weather had become cold, was
allowed to remain an inhabitant of the kitchen, in
the corner of which a small box, with some straw
in it, was placed for a nest, till it was half grown.
At that time a second hen became a prey to the
fox, leaving a nest of Eggs, upon which she had
been sitting during nearly the usual period of in
cubation. As is usual in such cases, the eggs
were placed in a basket of wool, near the kitchen
stove, and in a few days eight lively chickens
were produced from them. Poor little motherless
things they were, like those hatched out in an ec
colobeon ; but the maternal instinct given by the
Creator to so large a portion of the female world,
rendered the fate of the feeble little creature less
forlorn than might have been anticipated ; for it
wrought so strongly in the breast of the elder
chicken, that unmindful of her own youth and
small size, even as we sometimes see an elder sis
ter,youthful herself, take the smaller children un
der her care, when death or sickness has deprived
them of a mother’s oversight, so did she take up
on herself the charge of those weak nestlings.—
A pleasing, an amusing, even an effecting thm 0
it was, to witness the solicitude of the adopting
mother, as she searched around for food lor her
hungry little ones; to hear the anxious tone ot
the imperfect click , with which she strove to re
call them when they had strayed out ot sight ;
and to see the fond air with which from time to
time, she stretched out her own small, wings, and
strove to warm them, whilst they nestled beneath
the imperfect shelter. Night after night did tlie
patient bird assemble her little companions m the
box which had been appropriated for her own
lodging ; and, standing in the midst ot them,
brooded them beneath her feathers whilst they
slept. One could not but be sup prised that the
power of love should have imparted not only t
will, but the strength, to perform the task belong
ing to a full grown bird.
What an admirable lesson of love and duty
may be drawn from the conduct of this little
ere at dre, belonging to a race almost proverbial
for its stupidity ! Where did she, whose whole
life has been one ol isolation from her kind, learn
the care that was necessary for the newly hatched
chicks ? Not from example, for she had no ex
perience of the care which a hen takes of her off
spring : it was the carrying out into practice the
lesson of love imprinted upon her heart by the
great Creator. Surely, “ the fowls of the air”
do “ praise the Lord.” And shall the children
of the common Father of the human race be less
ready to extend the blessing of sympathy and
charity to the bereaved of their own species, than
are the irrational animals? Surely not. Where
ever God is known he must be loved, and true
love to God will always produce, as its necessa
ry result, “ good will towards men.” —The Or
phan's Advocate.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF KINDNESS.
Only a few days since, an aged citizen of Phil
adelphia was waited upon by a stranger, who
asked to have a few moments conversation with
him in private. The opportunity was afforded
with great cheerfulness. The western merchant
—for such, in fact, he was—was ushered into the
parlor of the Philadelphian, when something like
the following conversation took place :
“You seem to have forgotten me, Mr. H. ?”
“I have an indistinct recollection of having
seen you before, and the tone of your voice is not
unfamiliar; and yet beyond this my memory
fails.”
“My name is Charles B . and twenty years
ago 1 was an inmate ot a Philadelphia prison, of
which you were a frequent —a benevolent —a
kind-hearted visitor.”
“ I remember —I remember, said the other—
brightening, smiling, and grasping the hand of
the stranger —you look so well, have improved so
greatly, that I hope, nay I feel satisfied that all
has gone right with you.”
A tear trembled in the eve of the other at so
cordial and kind a recognition; his voice failed
for a moment —but then rallying again, he pro
ceeded to tell his story. At the age of fifteen he
was a neglected orphan, and with fine natural
talents, a cheerful disposition, and a good heart,
he was thrown into the society of the vile and the
dissolute, in one of the wretched sections of Phil
adelphia county. There, in connection with sev
eral other lads, equally deserted or misled, he’
committed, was arrested for, tried and convicted
of petty theft. While in prison he was visited
again and again by the Philadelphia philanthro
pist, who succeeded, not only in eradiating tlie
vicious views he had imbibed, but in showing him
the foliy of vice, and the certainty of its punish
ment—-and inspiring him with a determination to
act correctly, the moment he should be released.
The visitor was satisfied of his sincerity, and
gradually took a deep interest in his case. At
the expiration of his sentence, he provided him
with means, and having stated all the facts in a
confidential manner to a friend in the West, ob
tained him a situation in a flourishing city of that
section of the Union. The youth was over
whelmed with gratitude. He had found a friend
for the first time in his brief, career. His course
from that moment was onward. He speedily
won the confidence of his employer, on whose
death, ten years therefrom, he succeeded to a
large share in his business.
“ I am now,” he said, “ an equal partner in the
reputable and prosperous firm of &Cos., of
St. Louis, and I have visited Philadelphia, not
only on business, but with the object of seeking
out and returning my heart-warm acknowledge
ments to my early, my ever cherished—my often
remembered benefactor.”
The old merchant wept with joy at such a re
form, and acknowledged that this single incident
had fully repaid him for the hours, and days, and
weeks, he had devoted, always prayerfully and
hopefully, to the blessed cause of kindness and
prison reform . —Philadcljthia Enquirer.
A Willing Debtor.-^ “-Sir Walter Scott, on one
occasion, was desirous of rewarding the wit and
importunity of an Irish beggar by the present of
a sixpense, but found he bad .not so small a coin
in his purse. “Here, my good fellow,” said the
baronet, “ here’s a shilling, but mind, you owe
me sixpense.” “God bless } r our honor,” ex
claimed Pat, “may your honor live till I pay
you!
“ The author of Ivanhoe was highly tickled at
the naive reply.
WEARING THIRTEEN SHIRTS.
Mr. R. Hanna, one of the defeated candidates
in Shelby county, Tenn., issued an address a few
days after the election —a sort of posthumous
letter of defence —in reply to the electioneering
attacks of his successful opponent. The follow
ing is a passage in which he vindicates himself
against the reproach of having worn too many
soiled shirts when he was in college:—
“ Now fellow-citizens, I understand the gentle
man speaks of me personally, and not politically
He says that he and myself were college-mates
together, and goes back into particulars. He
says, as I understand, that when at college, I never
changed my shirts, but as one became unclean,
instead of taking it off I placed a clean one over
it; and also that bis recollection furnishes him
with the following facts, viz : That when 1 re
turned home from college, on one occasion,
mother ordered me to unshirt myself, when, to
her astonishment, I dolled, at one shucking, thir
teen shirts, the one on over the other. This cal
umny I deny, and challenge the gentleman to the
proof. His statement is false in fact and in in
ference ; in fact, because he over-rates the num
ber, and in inference, because, fellow-citizens, X
never, in my palmiest da} r s, cherished such aris
tocratic notions as these. But Twill here inform
the gentleman, that I never had on, at any one
time more than seven shirts —and I adopted it as
an economical way of wearing my shirts in my
youthful days, to save the expense of washing,
whilst I was off from home at college ; and also
I will say to the gentleman who was my honor
able competitor, that at the time of which he
speaks, I know of my own certain knowledge,
that he himself was quite scarce of shjrts, arid I
adopted the plan to preserve my own shirts from
the use of other people.
“So vou see, fellow-citizens to what low and
cunning devices these political gentlemen stoop,
for political effect, and for party purposes. Now,
I trust I have succeeded in nailing this foul cal
urnny to the counter, and that it’s author will meet
with a just rebuke at vour hands, for uttering such
a barefaced slander, without even the semblance
of truth in it.
“Fellow-citizens, just take the matter home to
yourselves. Did any of vou ever have on at any
one time, as many as thirteen shirts. The idea
is preposterous —for I do not think that any natu
ral born citizen of this country has as many as
thirteen shirts to his name. The gentlemen has
done me great injustice in supposing such an ab
surdity.”
Economy and Comfort . —The necessary wants of
man are easily supplied even moderate comforts
and rational pleasures demaud no great outlay
of money. A man ma v enjoy all the real pleas
ures of life without overstepping the bounds of
prudence or economy ; because those pleasures
are determined by the habits and income of the
individual. There is no such thing as positive
pleasure. All pleasure is relative to the person;
and he who commands a moderate income may
enjoy as much happiness as the rich and great. —
The amount of happiness to be enjoyed depends
upon himself, and not upon any abstract or definite
idea. One glass of small may be as full as one
of large dimensions, sa} 7 s one of our moralists.
The wants of man may be lew or many, accord
ing to the individual; and as they are regulated,
so shall be his happiness. He who has fewest
wants, says an ancient sage, comes nearest to the
gods.— Boole of Symbols. .
A young gentleman who had for some time
pestered a young lady by protestations of love,
and annoyed her wherever she went, remarked
to a friend one day, that he thought the only way
to win her would be to become her tiger, and
woo her in that disguise. “Yes,” remarked his
friend, “and the change would not be so great,
fin* it is well known that at present you are her
bore.”
•\-.. * „ - v ±
One of the most comical sights to superior
beings must be to see two human creatures, with
elaborate speech and gestures, making each other
exquisitely uncomfortable from civility: the one
pressing what he is most anxious that the other
should not accept, and the other accepting only
from fear of giving offence bv refusal.
O O J
Tails. —A little girl, who said in company that
she was very fond of a tail, was told afterwards
by her sensitive mother, that she must substitute
the word “ narrative.” The next day the child
assured a gentleman visitor of the family that she
suw “such a funny dog in the street —such a
funny fellow. He had red hair and short ears
—and bandy legs—and somebody had cut his
narrative clean off.”
A Fable. —“l have something more to ask you,”
said a young eagle to a learned, melancholy owl;
“men say there is a bird, named Merops, who,
when he rises in the air, flies with his tail up
wards, and his head towards the ground ; is that
true?” “Certainly not!” answered the owl,”
“it’s only a foolish tradition of man ; he is him
self a Merops, for he would fly to heaven without
a moment losing sight of earth.”
The Help of Animals.—An a country like Eng
land, animals increase the laboring and produc
tive powers of man to four and a halftimes what
man could perform alone.
•** * • v*
Dentistry.
DR. P ANCOST has removed to Bryan street, East sid e x f
ument square,.near the State bank, where he may be r 55 |
at all hours, night or day, fully prepared to wait upon hisfri e T I
the public generally. |
N. B. Artificial teeth inserted from one to a whole set, ari(l
sured to give satisfaction to the wearer. ’ I
N. B. Charges greatly reduced. Gmo . ,
---T 4 ‘ 9
Staves.
PERSONS in the country desirous of engaging in gettma
Staves, are informed that the preparation required for tor.
export is as follows : v
To be made either out of White Oak or Water Oak Trees
Length, from 42 to 44 inches.
Breadth, not less than 4 or more than 7 inches.
Thickness, not less than 1 or more than inches on the th
part of the thinest edge. In^
The back and edge of the Stave should be dressed down f 0 I
same thickness—should have a clear clett or split, and be tree 1
knots, crooks, and worm-holes.
Staves prepared in conformity with this specification willb I
ceived-at the full market price during the ensuing autumnal
winter. Present value, thirty-five dollars per one thousand iV I
Aug 2 ANDREW LOW L Ca |
TiairpeKitifiie.
| aA BARRELS City Distilled, for sale by
JL ij Aug 2 J. G. FALLIGAN’T
SiftiatßOßa Wanted.
BY A YOUNG MAN, as Clerk or Book keep?-
good references can be given to anyr person needin- I
services. Apply at this office. mnv of
. fLOiTfiM.
piERSON & HE IDT offer for sale Clothii:
P Wholesale and Retail, at New York prices. No.
Whit nk er-street. a p r o (;
To the Public.
TJTE Subscriber, having entered extensively
into the making of BRICK of a superior quality to unr
manufactured in this city, is prepared to fill orders at the short,
est notice, and as low as any establishment of the kind in
near Savannah. “ WM. 11. LLOVB
June 21
JTI. \V flohesa.
(Late of the firm of S. Solomons Sf Cos.)
MISSION A\D FORWARDING Wm\\l
SAVANNAH, GA.
Agent for steam packets H. L. Cook and Ivanhoo.
may 10
MARSH & WEBSTER,
ATTOIIAEYS AT LAW,
175 Bay-Street —Up-Stairs.
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA.
Mulford Marsh. Andrew M. Webster
ROBERT N. ADAMS,
CABINET-MAKER AND UNDERTAKER,
No. 93 Broughton St., Savannah, Ga.,
IS prepared to execute all orders in his line at
the lowest prices, with dispatch. Orders from the country
promptly attended to. Ready-made coffins always on hand,
and made to order at short notice.
june 28 3mn
To th3 planters and Farmers of South
t’arolka, Georgia., Alabama, Tenn
essee and Florida,
T AM THE AUTHORIZED AGENT for the
A sale and purchase of the CAMELINA SATIVA ur
GOLD OF PLEASURE SEED, a native of Siberia.
1 am how ready to fill all orders for the seed, and being au
thorized by thfe Company to purchase the same, I will pay th
highest market price for all that may be shipped to me i
Savannah. \VM. HUMPHREYS, Jr.,
ipay 31 * Agent for the Company of New York.
OARR*
I'HE undersigned having re-opened, with an
. entire New Stock of DRUGS, CHEMICALS and
FANCY ARTICLES, at No. 139 (South side) Broughton
street, (formerly Walkers Marble Yard,) is now ready to
furnish any thing in his line, at the shortest notice. SODA
W ATER, made in his own peculiar way, sent to any part of
the city, and always to be had at the store, in the highest state
of perfection.
Prescriptions put up with care and despatch.
The subscriber having served the public long and faithfully,
respectfully solicits a share of their patronage.
npr 26 THOS. RYERSON-
Summer Retreat obi the Sails.
A T MONTG OMEII Y,
TWELVE MILES FROM SAVANNAH.
ABONAL D respectfully informs his Friends
• and the public generally, that from the 21st inst., lie will
be prepared to accommodate guests, to whom he promise
good attendance on accommodating terms, having good and
intelligent servants. Pdrsdns may 7 ’ be accommodated for board
per week, month or day, at the following rates, viz:
Board and Lodging, per week, $o 00
Do. do. t per day 1 50
Horses well fed and attended to for 50 cents per day-
N. B. During the season there is an abundance el Vvuk
on the place: and the table will also be prowled with all kinds
ol fish that the river will afford. ‘ apr
BOOK AND JOB PRINTING,
Os all kiuds, executed at (hit* Office, viih iiraluea
despatch.
HAVING lately put our Office in complete order
and made large additions to it, we have now the most ex
tensive Job Printing Office in the City and are prepared to
execute all kinds of PLAIN AND FANCY PRINTING,
with neatness* and despatch, and on the most accomodating
terms. Office 102 Biyan-street, entrance on Bay Lane.
Savannah, March 22d, 1849. EDWARD J.* PURSE-
A FRIEND OF THE FAMILY,
A WEEKLY SOUTHERN NEWSPAPER, PUBLISHED
EVERY THURSDAY, BY
EDWARD J. PURSE.
T E R M S:—T WO DOLLARS A YEA K-
Three Copies for one year, - or one copy three years, $5
Seven Copies, - - - - . - lO^
Twelve Copies, - - - - - - 15 11
*** Advertisements to a limited extent, will be inserts
at the rate of 50 e rnts for a square of nine lines or less, k' r
the first insertion, and 30 cents for each subsequent inserts
Business cards inserted for a year at Five Dollars.
LF 3 A liberal discount will be made to Post Masters “‘ ll}
will do us the favor to act as Agents.
Postmasters are authorized to remit money to Publi-d
nd all money mailed in presence of the Postmaster, a
uly forwarded by him, is at our risk.
IS* 3 All communications to be addressed (post-paid) f<\
E. I PURSE, Savannah,