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those who are not kuown as beggars , to ask for
a present in money.
I was once called on by a street officer for a
present, on the occasion of my opening a school
for the free instruction of the children of the
neighborhood. The officer seemed to think
that I ought to signalize the occasion by making
him a present. I sent word to him that, if it
was customary to pay money when schools
were opened, under the direction of Chinese , I
was willing to make a present. I was told in
reply, that it was not customary. Os course I
paid nothing. The officer knew that the child
ren of the neighborhood would be taught free
of expense , and instead of appearing willing to
assist in the benevolent plan, he was willing
that / should pay him for doing the children a
favor.
1 related the case to a brother missionary, and
ho told mo that it was just the way they treated
him, when he opened a free dispensary. Some
of the officers of Jtho neighborhood called on
him, to signalize the occassion of opening the
dispensary by making them presents.
They themselves have such sordid views, and
the love of money has such a strong hold on
their hearts, that it is sometimes hard for them
to learn that a foreigner’s motives for pursuing a
particular course, are free from selfishness. They
are frequently puzzled to know, how it is that a
missionary is supported, as they see that the
missionary is engaged only in distributiug tracts,
preaching and other business of a kindred char
acter. They sometimes think that there is some
base motive at the bottom of all they do—per
haps to obtain possession of the children who
attend the mission schools, and send them to
England or America and enslave them. When,
however, they are led to believe that it is not
love of money that rules the missionary, they
in a very warm manner express their approval
of so much benevolence and acknowledge that
our religion must be good.
They will sometimes act as if they believe
that money will be a consolation to them, when
they have lost some of their nearest relations.
A missionary, with whom I am well acquaint
ed, had under his charge several Chinese little
girls. He fed them and clothed them. He went
on the water one afternoon with some of these
little girls. The boat was capsized and one of
them was drowned; the missionary barely es
caped with his life. The father of the little
girl, on hearing of the circumstance, showed
more anger toward the missionary than love for
his child. Ho said that the missionary had in
tentionally caused her death aud he insisted on a
sum of money being paid as a present, on ac
count of it Here, at a time when we should
naturally have supposed that the all absorbing
feeling of the heart was sorrow, do we find that
heart the seat of avarice. The base-hearted
Chinaman acted, as if money could repay him
for the loss of a child. He would, iu all proba
bility, have sold that child while it was alive,
and now that it is dead, he would make himself
richer by its death.
The missionary did not yield to his unreason
able demands. This circumstance taught the
missionary and the missionary circle a useful
lesson, and that is, never to receive a child in the
manner in which the little girl was received,
unless the parents of the child sign a piece of
writing, by which they declare that, if the child
should die while under the care of the mission
ary, the missionary is not to be regarded as re
sponsible for its death.
The son of a murdered Chinese officer was
once bribed with one hundred thousand dollars,
to allow twenty men to bo considered the in
stigators and accomplices of the murderer. In
our country, the relatives wish the guilty person
brought to punishment, but in China they
sometimes are willing, for the sake of money, to
have an innocent person punished. Here is the
case of a man who regarded money as a conso
lation on the death of a father. If it be said
that persons in our country have killed parents
for the sake of money, we reply, such instances
are rare, and we have never yet known the case
here, of a man whose father was murdered, be
ing satisfied with punishment falling on any but
the guilty one. If we should know of a case of
the kind, we should at once conclude that the
son himself was a party in the transaction.
There is so much selfishness among the Chi
nese, that, though sometimes showing them
selves capable of the exercise of the best offices
of friendship, yet they more frequently desert
their friends in time of trouble. They aro very
much afraid of being involved in trouble, and
will seldom face danger for the preservation
either of the character or the life of a friend.
They are non-committal iu expressing their
opinions and in acting; they seek their own
happiness and, for the attainment of this, will
resort to the meanest measures, if they believe
that there is no probability of suffering for their
conduct.
They are cruel and hard-hearted. —Of the in
habitants of heathen countries it can frequently
be said: “ The poison of asps is under their
lips, their mouth is full of cursing and bitter
ness, their feet are swift to shed blood, destruc
tion and misery are in their ways.” In China
especially, the words of inspired writ are proved
true—“ The dark places of the earth are full of
cruelty.”
Any one who has lived in China, cannot fail
to be struck with the hardness of heart which
characterizes the people.
Some of the laws aro of the most cruel kind.
Magistrates are made responsible for crimes
committed within their jurisdiction. If criminals
are not apprehended, the magistrates are in dan
ger of being punished. This gives a temptation
to magistrates to lay hold on the innocent, for
they are bound to put some one to death, when
a crime is committed which, according to law, is
punishable with death.
The following have reference to imperial in
terests :
“ Whoever, unautliorizedly and without suffi
cient excuse, enters the imperial temple, burying
place, hall of sacrifices, palaces, gardens or cita
dels of Pekin, shall be punished with the bam
boo, and whoever, in like manner, enters apart
ments in the actual occupation of the Emperor,
shall suffer death by being strangled.”
“No person shall presume to travel on the
roads or to cross the bridges which are express
ly for his majesty, except only such as belong to
his retinue, who are necessarily permitted to
proceed upon the side paths thereof.”
“ During the imperial journeys, all the sol
diers and peoplo except those who are attached
to his royal person, must make way for his ap
proach, and whosoever fails to do so and in
trudes within the lines, shall be condemned to
death."
With regard to fires, the following is the law:
“ Any person who accidentally sets fire to his
own house, shall be punished with at least forty
blows; if the fire reaches other buildings, he
shall receive fifty blows ; if it causes the death
of any person, one hundred blows shall be inflict
ed, and death shall be the punishment, if it
reaches any of the imperial buildings.”
Iu some cases, a husband my striko a wife
(his principal wife) and not be punished, but in
all cases, if the wife strikes the husband, she is
80VSXSXUB VXS&S AEB IX&ESXBK.
to receive one hundred blows with the bamboo.
In Fokien province, a husband cut off the
head of his wife and another female, and carry
ing them in his hands, went before the sitting
magistrate and avowed the deed, expressing his
readiness to die, if the law so required. He was
not only acquitted, but rewarded for the fero
cious act. Now,,it is far from being the case
that every magistrate in China would have acted
thus, but we hardly think it possible to find in
a Christian land any magistrate that would thus
have passed by so awful an offence and reward
ed the offender.
In Sheuse province, a creditor was abusing a
young man that was indebted to him. The
young man was so much excited that he took up
a stone and threw it at him. When the creditor
perceived the stone coming, he avoided it by
stooping. The young man’s father was behind.
The stone struck him and killed him. The young
man, for unintentionally killing his own lather,
was sentenced to death. If ho had intentionally
killed him, he would have suffered the slow and
ignominious death of being cut to pieces, but as
the act was unintentiona ’, the sentence was exe
cuted by the decapitation of the young man.
When a man is known to have money, it
sometimes happens that crimes are alleged
against him for no other purpose than to obtain
it from him. He is tortured until he confesses
the crime; he is then banished or beheaded, and
his accusers receive a part of his property; or,
perhaps, before confessing, he promises money
if his keepers will release him. Those who are
tortured, are sometimes made to place their bare
knees upon a coil of chains; at other times they
are tortured with fire.
Prisoners, too, are allowed to torture fellow
prisoners newly arrived, iu order to obtain
money, and friends will sometimes pay the
money, in order that the sufferings inflicted by
their fellow-prisoners may be discontinued.
The method of conducting prisoners from
place to place, is cruel. They are carried in
cages and chained in the cages. They suffer
much pain on account of being obliged to sit
with the head bent forward.
A writer who had visited prisons, in speaking
of places of confinement in China, says: “No
pen is adequate accurately to describe the hor
rors of a Chinese prison. Suffice it to say that
they would surprise and shock even those who
are best acquainted with the sordid and cruel
character of the jkoi’j. Truly, in China a
prison is a mine of v .etchedness and woe, a sis
ter to the tomb.”
One who had witnessed the execution of some
Chinese, tells us that the executioners seemed
delighted in their work. He says: “ The cool in
difference of the executioners, rather approach
ing to exultation at the opportunity of exerting
their skill and indulging their desire of gain,
was of a nature sadly disgusting, and altogether
presented a scene of butchery rather than the in
fliction of the law.”
In the common transactions of life, there is
constantly apparent the greatest lack of sympa
thy, when their fellow creatures are in suffering
circumstances.
In going to the mission-chapel one morning, I
saw a poor man with his food in an earthen jar.
He let it fall. As is generally the case, any
thing of this kind is broken that falls on the
stone walk; so it was now—the jar was broken.
His food was partially spoiled or entirely lost.
There was one general laugh among the Chi
nese around. None seemed to pity. In addi
tion to being under the necessity of bearing his
loss, he was likewise under the necessity of
knowing the mortifying truth that his loss fur
nished amusement for others. At the same
time it is very probable that he too would have
joined in the laugh, if another and not himself
had been the loser. In a Gospel land this would
have afforded amusement to some —to playful
boys and thoughtless young men- -but here it
affords amusement to all. In a Gospel land the
poor man would have met with some pity, but
here he met with none. Truly is it the case,
that ignorance blunts the social feelings of the
heart. Nothing short of the prevalence of Gos
pel principles will be the means of showing ful
ly to the benighted their duty to their fellow
men.
I once saw an instance of one of the wretch
ed methods of punishing children, sometimes re
sorted to by the Chinese. A woman put her
little boy in the water for the sake of learning
him obedience to her commands. She had a
bamboo pole and would push him with it, in or
der to frighten him, after she had driven him in.
A crowd was near, laughiug at him, whenever
ho received a fresh fright. She allowed others
too to frighten him. One young man threw wa
ter in his face, and she joined in the laugh when
he cried out from fear of danger.
A few days before this I had seen a man tie a
rope around a little boy and let him down into
the water, while a crowd looked on.
The Chinese, in punishing their children,
show, alas! a spirit of revenge and not a desire
for the good of the child. The propriety of pun
ishing a child in such away that others should
not see it, does not seem once to enter their
minds. Every fresh act of this public punish
ment doubtless has the effect of souring the
child's disposition. The child that is laughed at
by his play mates when he is punished, will
daubtless laugh in turn at them when they are
punished. Miserable system! With the tenden
cy constantly to foster in the rising generation,
tho spirit of vindictiveness and to beget an un
feeling heart, no wonder that when the Chi
nese arrive at maturity, their hearts are so little
affected by the miseries of others. There are
some parents in Christian countries, who have
no objection to others joining them in teasing a
child that has offended. For the honor of Chris
tianity, it is to be hoped that such cases are com
paratively rare.
One, who had an opportunity of knowing the
truth of what he writes, has said: “The Chi
nese, in some measure, even seem gratified in
speaking of the distresses of others. They al
most invariably laugh, when speaking of the
death of people known to them, and even of
those they called their friends. They will speak
of going to the house of a friend to mourn over
him, and speak of it with a smiling, happy face,
as if talking of their friend’s approaching wed
ding "
1 have myself seen the dead body of the in
fant upon the Canton river, and when I have
asked, “what is that?” the answer would be
given, with a smile on the countenance, of the
one who replied to my question.
It is sometimes the case that tho eyes of the
Chinese aro filled with tears, in relating cases of
misery, but it is from excess of merriment and not
from grief.
I have seen a person fall down in a fit and
the bystanders gather around him, none offering
the helping hand, looking at the unhappy man,
more as if they were looking at a show than at
a human being in distress.
I have seen the mother punish the child by
methods so severe, that it would seem almost a
miracle that the child was not disabled for life.
The thing that is nearest the parent is at once
taken up, although it may be of a most weighty
material, and sometimes tho head and sometimes
the face of the child receives the heavy blows.
On one occasion some incendiaries were sen
tenced to be starved to death, as a punishment
for their crimes. They were exposed to public
view.J and there were those who beheld them
that found amusement in the ravings of such as
had become delirious from starvation.
The treatment which females receive in China,
is a proof of the cruelty of the people. The
Chinese will sometimes put their female child
ren to death, and when reproved for it, will say,
“it is only a girl.” Ask a Chinaman who has
male and female children, how many children be
has, aud he very probably will mention the
number of his boys, but say nothing about his
girls.
Sons are regarded as so great a blessing, that
offerings are made to the gods, accompanied
with petitions that sons may be born, and that
father is considered one of the happiest of men,
all of whose children are sons.
A missionary, in speaking of visiting a small
village in China, says: “ From the number of
women in the crowd which turned out to greet
us, we were pretty well persuaded that they
were under as little restraint as the men in in
dulging their curiosity, and upon inquiry found
it to be so. We were conducted to a small
temple, where we had the opportunity of con
versing with many who came around us.
“On a second visit, while addressing them, one
man held up a child and publicly acknowledged
that he had killed five of the helpless beings,
having preserved but two. I thought he wms
jesting, but as no surprise or dissent was ex
pressed by his neighbors, and as there was an
air of simplicity and regret in the individual,
there was no reason to doubt the truth of what
he said. After repeating his confession, he ad
ded with affecting simplicity: ‘lt was before I
heard you speak on this subject. I did not know
it was wrong. I would not do it now.’ Wish
ing to obtain the testimony of tho assembled
villagers, I put the question publicly: ‘What
number of female infants, in this village, are de
stroyed at birth?’ The reply was: ‘More
than one half.’ As there was no discussion
among them, which is not the case when they
differ in opinion, and as we were fully convinced
from our own observation of tho numerical ine
quality of the sexes, the proportion of deaths
they gave did not strike us as extravagant."
The wives are bargained for, for a price, and
tiken to the bridegroom’s house. They do not
choose tlieir husbands, consequently they are
in effect the slaves, not the companions of their
husbands. And so strong is the feeling, in
China, that this is right, that even a female
writer, in addressing her sex, tells them that
they ought to be content with tlieir condition,
and that submission will prove that they are
good wives.
The compressing of tho feet of the females,
in China, is a most cruel custom. Those per
sons labor under a very erroneous impression,
who suppose that this is attended with no pain.
The child will frequently tear off the bandages
on account of the suffering she experiences.—
She is told, however, to bear the pain—that the
custom is respectable, and that by means of it
she will be regarded as having a claim to res
pectability.
The eyes of children are sometimes put out;
though this is said frequently to be done from a
fear on the part of parents that they will not be
able to support their children ; yet for parents
to act thus is the exhibition of a most unnatural
feeling of the human heart. “ Without natural
affection,” is one of the marks of some of tho
ancient heathen, as given by Paul. It is like
wise one of the marks of some of the heathen
in modern times, and we frequently behold it
among the inhabitants of the Chinese Empire.
Improvement. —We should bear in mind, in
contemplating these revolting pictures of a
heathen nation, that it is only the Gospel of
Christ that has made us to differ. It is this
that will be the nieaus, in the' hands of God, of
causing man to look upon his fellow-man as he
should, and feel towards him as a brother and a
friend. Blessed Gospel! Such will be one of
the many of the mighty changes which thou art
destined to accomplish in our sin-stricken world.
Go to heathen countries where idolatry reigns.
Let the Gospel bo preached, and let the princi
ples of the Gospel be carried out, and behold the
results: The wife who, before this, has been
in a state of almost the greatest possible degra
dation, is now honored aud exalted in the eyes
of the community: no longer the servant, the
slave of her husband, but his confidential friend,
his companion, his equal. No longer is the in
fant thrown upon the waters of the Ganges; no
longer is the aged man left to suffer and die ;
no longer do multitudes cast themselves beneath
the wheels of the car of Juggernaut, or perish
in their devotions at the shrine of Gaudama.—
Even the cannibal lays aside his savage heart
and savage acts, and lives, by faith, upon “ the
bread of life.”
Under the influence of this Gospel, the time
is destined to arrive when “ men shall beat
their swords into ploughshares and their spears
into pruniug-hooks, and nations shall learn war
no more." The noise of battle will then be ex
changed for the song of thanksgiving and praise.
Were it not for this Gospel, some of the
fathers and sons and mothers and wives and
daughters living in our midst, might have been
in the same condition as some in heathen lands.
The fathers may have been destroyed by their
sons, mothers by their daughters, children by
their parents, and wives by their husbands.—
Were it not for this Gospel, ignorance and su
perstition, in their darkest forms, would cover
our land; our country would be the abode of
cruelty, and the vices which we so much detest,
and which are prevalent in the heathen nations
of the earth, would be the vices of our citizens,
allowed by us, and, perhaps, transformed into
gods and worshipped.
hbw
Papier Mache. —Some improvements in the
manufacture of sheets of papier mache have giv
en an extended application to that peculiar sub
stance. These improved processes are for the
manufacture of pressed articles from pressured
sheets instead of pulp, and for the production for
such prepared sheets. The apparatus consists
of a table, having a rack on either side, by which
it is traversed backwards and forwards under a
roller, so supported as to give the required de
gree of pressure to the material, and at the same
time capable of being varied in its elevation, in
order to reduce or increase the amount of pres
sure—or a weighted roller may be used for the
purpose. The material used for the manufacture
of such sheets of papier mache as are suitable
for the panels of steam vessels, and for similar
purposes, is composed of thirty parts of flour
and eighty parts of water, thoroughly incorpo
rated, so as to reduce the mixture to the consis
tency of paste, and to this are added at the same
time nine parts of alum and one of copperas.
With this paste are then mixed fifteen parts of
rosin, previously dissolved by heat, also ten parts
of boiled linseed oil and one of litharge. These
ingredients having been mixed in the order
named, are then incorporated with about sixty
parts of rag dust, or papermaker-’s half-stuff, or
pulp deprived of its moisture. — [Exchange.
[For the Southern Field and Fireside.]
IDUKT PARNASSUS
BT AX AMERICAN IX PARIS.
Yesterday I made my semi-annual journey to
Mont Farnasse —not the Grecian, but the
French one. I never had a call or aspiration to
ward the former ; to the latter I love to go as
often as twice a year. The difference between
tho two is as great as between the winged Pe
gasus, bestruddled by poets, and the modern om
nibus, atop of which I took my yesterday’s
drive ; as between the nine muses and number
less grisettes ; as between Bellerophon and your
correspondent, or a Pindaric ode and the prose
(if not prosy !) eleveuth chapter of My Travels
in Paris.
Mount Parnassus is the popular name given
to the suburban district lying just outside the
barrier of the same name on the south eido of
Paris, and offers to the gaze of the curious tra
veler, on a pleasant Sunday or Monday, a most
varied picture—or rather, gallery of pictures—
of popular manners. To transfer a copy of them
to paper—anything that could claim to be a faith
ful copy—would require an art far beyond mine.
From all my visits, I have only brought away a
few rough outline sketches of the more striking
pieces. It would be impertinence, not modesty,
to say that they were carelessly made. My re
spect for those to whom I now present them,
bound me to do my best ; I have not intention
ally dashed in exaggeration of drawing or ex
travagant contrasts of light and shade as sham
substitutes for truthful vigor and effect beyond
the reach of my talent. I meant that they
should be, if not .completely faithful, at least
honest sketches. But they are taken, of course,
from my point of view ; and the real “ local
color," may be changed in spite of myself by
the medium, that is the mood of mind through
which I saw the original. [Having been inter
rupted at the close of the last sentence a n hour
ago, by the entrance of cmcierge Martin with
letters from home, I was just running my eye
over what I had written, so as to recover the
thread of my discourse, and observed that in
the above two brief paragraphs the word mod
esty slips in once, while tho first personal pro
noun finds eighteen occasions to present itself,
absolutely or possessively—“ One half-penny
worth of bread to this intolerable deal of sack 1”
Let me borrow my apology or what, I beg you,
sir and madam, to accept as such, from Mr.
Thackeray’s Luck of Barry Lyndon —a book,
by the way, which though only brought into a
little notice by the brilliant success of his later
productions is, as a work of literary art, not sur
passed by the best of them. “ Pardon me for
putting so many I’s in my discourse, said the
candidate; but when a man is talking of him
self, ’tis tho brightest and simplest way of talk
ing 1 In which, perhaps, though I hate egotism,
I think my friend was right.”]
What I was meaning to confess to, or point
out, is the extreme difficulty of describing a
thing as it really is. We do not see things, but
the images of them reflected, refracted, colored
and distorted, as found in us. The Battle of
Solferino was one thing : the Austrian battle of
Solferino is another ; the French ditto is not dit
to by any means. When I last had tho fortune
to greet friends at home, after an absence of
some years, I found Democrats, Whigs, Repub
licans, North and South, Homoepaths and Allo
paths, and Christians of all sects among their
number; no two of whom agreed in the ac
counts they gave of tho political state of the
country, or my bilious symptoms, or the shortest
road to a better world. Though that they were
all honest, sincere, truth-trying-to-tell gentlemen,
I am sure.
None of us ever read a book of travels in the
United States, whether by Mr. Lyellor Monsieur
Ampere, by Mrs. Trollope or Madame Grand
fort, that we did not find blunders, both of fact
and opinion. Do not suppose that American
travelers, in Europe, are keener observers or
sounder judges. 1 ouly promise to do my hon
est possible—considerably worse than Sir Charles
Lyell, not so absurdly bad as Madame Grand
fort. Apropos of modesty, I shall write only
three or four chapters; do not meditate a book ;
have ray own reasons for calling this Chapter
eleventh; there is not any first. And with this
more than enough of prefatory parenthesis, to
return to the barriere.
Paris is surrounded by a stone wall twelve
or fifteen feet high, and a foot and a half thick.
It is not this that makes Paris an “ oppidum ab
opi dictum , quod munitur opts causa, übi sit
though its purposo does not contradict tho rest
of the learned Varr j’s definite n: “Et quod opt a
est ad vitam gerundam." The great line of for
tifications, 22 miles in circuit, which, after the
first of next January, will form the new limits of
the town, lie much further out.
This, of which I speak, is worthless in a mil
itary point of view ; but financially, it is a wall
of defence for the city and State treasury, and
of offense to the pockets of all producers with
out, and of all consumers of tho fruits of the
earth within. It is the Octroi or customs wall.
No edibles, potable or combustible or combusti
ble provision can come into the town, save
through one of its fifty gates or barrierts ; where
it is first stopped, examined and taxed accord
ing to a regular tariff. No pleasure carriage,
unless it belong to the Imperial Household, that
must not pull up there, for an instant at least,
that the ferret-eyed officers may see whether,
for the nonce, it bo not a business carriage, with
a leg of mutton, a basket of fruit, a couple of
bottles of wine inside. A pound and a pint—
enough for one meal—may pass free. For gros
ser vehicles and their contents, the inquisition is
closer, and the instruments of it most various.—
Every basket is opened, every cask is tapped.—
Here comes a stupid looking carter with a solid
looking load of sand. The custom officials do
not trust to up)>earanees. One of them mounts
the cart, and with a long, sharp-pointed iron
skewer four or five feet long, worms and writr
gles away through the sand in sll directions, till
satisfied that it conceals no underlying contra
band stratum. But to slightly change the pro
verb, “ Man cannot invent what man cannot cir
cumvent.” Human law presupposes its violation.
Hangmen and gaolers, (not to say lawyers) are
the complements of legislators and judges. Jus
tice is aptly represented with a sword ready to
baste the scamps who are weighed and found
wanting in her scales. All of which sententious
remark is only a roundabout way of saying that
sometimes, though rarely, despite sharp eyesight
and keen sent and all sorts of probing irons, a
little wine leaks through the barriers, and legs
of mutton jump over them in a very ingenious
manner. I mean that the conveyance of these
articles is very ingenious, not my manner of con
veying the statement Thus a pretended market
man brought thro’ the Montmartre gate for seve
ral successive days last year, a load of innocent
looking water melons, which finally excited sus
picion, and proved on trial to be sly hypocrites
of temperance, each one having its inside filled
with anient spirits. The present ample style of
female dress (would you believe it madam!) hath
been turned to like base uses, gracefully shroud
ing flesh, fish and fowl:
vt turpiter utrum
Desinat in piscem mulierformosa supreme.
And here let me relate what I saw the other
day with my own eyes, as I rode on the dili
gence from Le Puy into the town of St. Etienne.
Tne conductor, a merry, good-natured soul, had
behind the banquette where two fellow-travelers
and myself sat with him, a champagne basket
more than half full of different kinds of game,
which he had bought that morning at cheap
country prices in the little town of Ysingeaux,
with the intent of turning an honest penny by
selling them forty per cent, dearer at the market
rates in the large town of St. But the
octroi would reduce the profits oneflH| at least.
He laid the case before us, recounting at the
same time with great glee and real humor, his
lucky escape from the perils of detection, to
which he had exposed himself in previous sea
sons, ani, opening the basket and showing us
the corpora delicti, took us all into consultation
how they were to be avoided now. The stout
Lyons gentleman who sat next him volunteered
to stow four partridges in his small leather trav
eling-sack, and put two more in the pockets of
his paletot. A hare was wrapped in the goat
skin overcoat of the driver, [not coachman, if
you please, my hypocritical friend,] puss's head
shoved well down into one of the arms, and the
shaggy raiment then arranged with an air of
negligent ease behind and partly beneath the
worthy follower of Jehu. Then, the jovial con
ductor, first stauding up to take an observation
up and down the road, whipped his blouse over
his head, opened his waistcoat to the ultimate
button, lined it with eleven birds, and buttoned
up over all again, looking now as plump as one
of his own partridges. Two fine hares re
mained to be disposed of. A poor invalid artil
lery man, who was packed away among the bag
gage behind the banquette—one of the many
reversed glories of the Italian campaign whom
we met on our journey—expressed
regret that his knapsack was too full to take
them in. But, like an old campaigner, as he
was, fertile in devices, he suggested a plan for
masking from the enemy this attempt at victual
ing the town, which was adopted. It was no
other than to make allies of the two foreigners,
ray friend L. and your servant. The two hares
were popped into a bag, which was partly con
cealed under the boot of the banquette and
ours, and still further concealed from suspicion
by our Anglo-Saxon phlegm, by our supposed
ignorance of the language, and our national
character for honesty 1 I ought to say that,
by virtue of our accent, we passed, with the
conductor and passengers, for Englishmen.
When we reached the octroi, we observed an in
nocent silence, as the only reply to the question
whether there was anything to “ declarethe
cheery conductor did the vocal lying in the
most nonchalant manner, and so we all came
safely through the gate. As we drove towards
the diligence office, the conductor looked hard at
a youug fellow who happened to be looking up
at him from the side-walk, and who straightway
followed our course, and happened to arrive in
the court-yard of the office as soon as we. The
conductor disappeared for a moment, to return
shrunken in his fair proportions, to deliver the
baggage and bid us good-bye, and take the pour
lories. I noticed that the bag with the two
hares was tossed in a very careless manner to
the-young fellow, who happened to be standing
ready to catch it. I leave it to casuists to decide
whether we were wrong or right in the small
share we took in that defrauding of the reven
ues, and in letting the moral quality of the act
go to tlie account of another “nationality." It
is high time to get back to Paris. It is plain,
from what has been said above, that provisions
are cheaper out of town than in. The conse
quence is, that just outside the gates, especially
of those giving ingress and egress to and from
the more populous and poorer quarters of the
city, there are established numerous eating
houses. These are much frequented by the
humbler classes, particularly on Sundays and
other holidays, not only for economy but for re
creation. For there are dancing halls and gar
dens as well, and cases for their amusement.
There, too, the suburban air is a little freer than
in their close lodgings; and the promenade is
enlivened by the performances of nomad jug
glers and athletes; by various inexpensive
games, aleatory and other, by the facile elo
quence of dealers in small wares, who have
their stands on the side-walks ; by the brilliant
ly painted eidolon of mammoth infant, sesqui
pedalian dwarf, bearded lady, learned seal, of
the armless man who writes with his toes, or the
miraculous mathematician who calculates as fast
as you can lisp in numbers, or of some equally
prodigious lusus naturae or lusus artis, whose
original may be admired within the painted tent
for. two sous, etc., etc. And more than all these
sights and wonders, there is the chiefest at
traction of the crowd, the crowd itself. No ob
ject in nature that Frenchman or Frenchwoman
so much enjoys as the presence of Frenchmen
and Frenchwomen. No people with whom
there is such practical exemplification of the
proverb: “Like will to like.” Monsieur Ville
main, the Academician, the eloquent and learned
critic, in an able and most interesting essay on
the Souvenirs et Correspondance of Madame Re
cauvier, Monsieur Villemain, I say, at the outset
of that article, published in the last number of
the Correspondant, quotes approvingly from I do
not know whom, the following proposition:
Si I'homme est un etre sociable, nul n’estplus horn
me que le Francais. With all due respect—and
great respect is due—to M. Villemain, I will not
agree that the French are more social, and
therefore more human, than the rest of the
world, than we Americans, for example. Social
is not the word; but they do seek other’s so
ciety more than we; they have an instinct, ten
dency, talent, faculty, call it what you will, for
being together, which we have not, and which
is, to an American observer, one of the most
striking and pleasing of their national traits:
But here reflections and observations flock in so
numerous, that what is to be said of French
Gregariousness, will make a chapter by itself.
Mais revenons a nos montons. That is to
Mount Parnasße; though just let me tell what a
French sign-painter, with whom I made ac
quaintance on a passage from New York, once
told me. He was intelligent enough, had been
doing very well in New York—plenty of work
and good pjy. Then why undergo the hard
ships of a steerage passage, and return to less
work and less pay in Paris? You say you
lived well in New York; that you think it is a
fine city ; that you enjoyed the liberty of say
ing what you thought and doing what you
would? My steerage friend acknowledged all
that freely. Mais Monsieur, vouz savrz — la bas
voyez vouz—il n'y a pas de barriers le dimanche,
no barrier to go to Sundays. And so ; but
this chapter is straggling beyond reasonable
limits.
A little plant is found upon the prairies
Texas, called the “compass flower,” which, un
der all circumstances of climate, changes of
weather, rain, frost or sunshine, invariably
turns its leaves and flowers towards the North,
th ns affording an unerring guide to the traveler
who, unaided by the needle, seeks to explore
those vast plains alone.
•
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