The Exeter Times, 1888-8-9, Page 3'"ROUGHING IT .11\1:::.T.:11E: ..RUSR.;":
CHATTER IV. On the ground—like a man who had lost his
TOM Witsofe's Emicatanziow. ideae, and wee diligently employed in
searching £ortbem, I chanced tomet bim
"Of all odd fellows, Ude fellow was the oddest. i one day in this deemny moo4.
ham seee many strange 11811 in my do, 8, tut I never " I3ow do you do Mr. Wilson?" He
• met vritte his equal"
stared at me for several minutes as if doubt.
About a roontlipreviona to our emigration fulsof my preeetce or identity.
to Inenada, my husband_ said to me " venn "What was it you said?"
need not expeet me home to dinner to-dey ; I repeated the.question ; and he answered,
I am going with my. friend Wilson to Y with one of his moredulous smiles.
• to hem Mr. 0— lecture upon emigration , " W AB it to me you apone ? ' Oh, I am
to Canada. He has juat returned frora the quite well, or I should no be welkin Imre.
North American provinces, sun his lecture By the waY, did You see ray dog?" '
• are attended by vaat numbers a persons who "How should I know your dog?"
are anXiOnn to obtain imformation on the They say he resembles me, He's a queer
subject:- 11 got a note from your friend dog, too; but I never could find oup the
B— Bens morning, begging me to come ikeness. Good night 1"
over andnisten to his palaver ; owl as Win This was at noonclan ; but Tom bad a
•son thittlin, of emigrating in the spring, he habit of taking light for darkness, and, dark.
will be my walking companion." nen for light, in all he did or mid. He
"Tom Wilson going to Canada I" said I. must have had different eyes and earn and
as the door closed oil my bettenhalf, " Wnat a different way of seeing, hearitg, and oom.
a back -woodsman he will make! What a prehending, than is posseesed by the gener-
loss to the single ladies of S — I What silty of his species ; and to such a length
will they do without him at their belle and did be carry this thstrection of aour and
plonks ?" sense'that he would often leave you abrupt -
One of my sisters, who was writing at a ly in the middle of a sentence • and if you
table near me, was highly amused at this chanced to meet him some weeks after, he
unexpected announcement. She fell back would resume the conversation with the very
in her chair and indulged in a long and word at which he had out ehort the thread
hearty laugh. I am certain that most of my of your amours% ,
enders Would have joined in her laugh, had A lady once told him in jest, that her
they, known the objeot which provoked her younger brother, a lad of twelve years old,
mirth. " Poor Tom la such a dreamer," bad called his donkey Brauer°, in honour of
said my sister, "it would be an act of char- the great singer of that name. Tom made
ity in Moodie to persuade him from under. no answer, but started abruptly away.
taking such a wild-goom chase; only that I Three months titer, ahe happened to en -
fancy my good brother is possessed with the counter him on the same spot, when he
same mania." • accosted her, without any previous salute-
" Nay, God forbid ! ' said I. "1 none tion.
this Mr. --, with the unpronounceable "You were telling me about a donkey,
name, will disgust them with his eloquence; Miss—, a donkey of your brother's—
for B---- writes me word, in his droll Braham, I think you oalled him—yes,
way, that he is a coarse, vulganfellow, and Braham ; a strange name for an ass 1 I
lacks the dignity of a bear. Oh 1 I am cer- wonder what the great Mr. Brabant would
tain they will return quite sickened with fay to that. Ha, ne, ha ?"
the Canadian project.' Thus I laid the "Your memory must be excellent, Mr.
flattering unotion to my soul, little dream- Wilson, to enable you to remember such a
ing that I and mine should share in the Miffing eiroumettince all this time."
strange adventures of this oddbt of all odd "Trifling, do you call it? Why, I have
creatures. •thought of nothing else ever since."
It might be made a subject of curious in From traits such as these my readers will
quiry to those who delight in human absurd- be tempted to imagine him brother to the
ities, if ever there were a character drawn animal who had dwelt so long in hie
in worka of notion so extravagantly ridicu. thoughts ; but there were times when he
Ions as some which daily experience presents surmounted this strange absence of mind,
to our view. • We have encountered people and could talk and act as sensibly as other
in the broad thoroughfares of life more ec- folks.
centric than ever we read of in books; peo. • On the death of his father, he emigrated
ple who, if all their foolish saying and doings to New South Wales, where be contrived to
were duly recorded, would vie with the doze away seven years of his valueless ex -
drollest :neatens of Hood, or George Col- 'steno°, suffering his convect iervante to rob
man, and put to shame the flights of Baron him of everything, anti finally to burn his
Munthausen. Not that Tom Wilson was •dwelling. He returned to his native village,
i
a roeriancer ; oh no 1 He was the very prose dressed as an Italian mendicant, with a
of proporwman in a mid, who seemed afraid monkey perched upon his shoulder, and
of reeving about for fear of knocking his playing airs of his own composition upon a
head 'against a tree, and finding a halter hurdy-gurdy. In this disguise he sought
suspended to its branches—a man as helpless the dwelling of an old bachelor uncle, and
solicited his charity. But who that had
once seen our friend Tom could ever forget
him? Nature had no counterpart of one who
in mind and form was • alike original. The
goonnatured old soldier, at a glance,
die covered MS hopeful nephew, received him
into his house with kindness, and had
afforded him an asylum ever since.
One little anecdote of him at this period
will illustrate the quiet love of miscbief with
cumstances of the elder Wilson. Still, his i which he was imbued. Tcavelling from
family held a certain high rank and stand-
- a big in their native country, of which his
mil courses, bad as they were, could not
wholly deprive them. The young people—
and a very large family they made of sons
and daughters, twelve in number—were ob-
jects at hoiden and commiseration to all
who knew them, while the worthless father
was justly held in contempt. Our hero
was the youngest of the six sons ; and from
his childhood he was famous for his nothing -
to doishnesa. He was too iudolent to en-
gage heart ancl soul in the manly sports of
tie comrades; and he never thought it
a, eve' ary to commence leorning his lessons
en& the school had been in an hour. As
and as indolent as n baby.
Mr. Thomas, or Tom Wilson, as he was
familiarity called by all his friends and am
quaintauces, was the son of a gentleman
oehopossessed a large landed property in
thn neighborhood; but an extravagant and
preffigate expenditure of the income which
he derived from a fine estate which had des.
°ended from father to son through many
generations; had greatly reduced the cir-
W— to London in the stage -coach (rail-
ways were not invented in these days), he
entered into conversation with an intelligent
farmer who sat next leim ; New South
V oleo, and his residence in that colony,
forming the leading topic. A dissenting
•minister who happened to be his vis.a.vis,
and who had annoyed him by making sever.
al imp° tinent remarks, suddenly asked
him, with le sneer, how many years he had
been there.
"Seven," returned Tom, in a solemn
tone, without deigning a glance at his core
panion.
I thought so," responded the other,
thrusting his hands into bis breeches
ne grew up to man's estate, he might be I pockets. "And pray, sir, what were you
seen dawdling about in a, black frock.00at, sent there for?
jean trousers, and white kid glovers, making
Lazn bows to the pretty girls of his an-
quamtance ; or dressed in a green shooting -
jacket, with a gun across his shoulden
sauntering down the wooded lanes, with a
brown spaniel dodging at his heels, and
looking as sleepy and indolent as his
master.
The slowness of all Tom's movements was
strangely contrasted with his slight, elegant,
and symmetrical figure; that looked as if
it only awaited the will of the owner to be
One most active piece of human machinery
that ever responded to the impluses of youth
and health. But then, his face! What
pencil could faithfully delineate features at
once so, comical and lugburious—features
that one moment expressed the most solemn
seriousness' and the next, the most grotesque
and absurdabandonment to mirth? In him,
all extrerr es appeared to meet ; the man
was a contradiction to nimself. Tom was a
person of few words, and so intensely lazy,
that it required a strong effort of will to
enable him to answer the questions of in-
quiring friends ; and when at length aroused
to exercise his colloquial powers, he perform-
ed the task in so original a manner, that it
never failed to upset the gravity of the in-
terrogator. When he raised his 'large,
prominent, leaden -coloured ayes from the
ground, and looked the inquirer steadily in
the face, the effect was irresistible ; the
laugh would come,—do your best to resist
it.
Poor Tom took this mistimed merriment
in very good part, generally answering with
a ghastly contortion which he meant for a
smile, or, if he did trouble himself to find
words, with, "Well that's funny 1 What
makes you laugh ? At me I suppose ? I don't
wonder at it ; I often laugh at myself."
re Tom *mild have been a treasure no an
' ndertaker. He would have been celebrate
d as a mute ; he looked as if he had been
orn in a shroud, and rocked in it mifian pedition,
couanswer
The gravity with which he , ll a ? "Mr. C--- must have been very elo-
ridiotelous or impertinent question mum quent, Mn Wilson," aaid 1, "to engage
pletely disarmed and turned the shafte of 1 your attention for so ninny hour's."
malice back upon his oppcment, If Tom "Perhaps he was," returned Tom, after
was himself an object of rliacule to many, 1 a pause of some mimetes, duriog which he
he had a way of quietly ridiouling others, seemed to be moping for words in the min
that bade defiance to all cotopetibion. He cellar, having deliberately turned out its
could gine with a amile, aud put down in. content e upon the table -cloth. "We were
solence with an incredulous stare. A grave hungry after our long walk and he gaye us
wink from them dreamy eyes would destroy 1 an excellent :Shiner."
the veracity of a traVelled dandy for ever. "But that had nothing to do with the
Tom was not without une in his day and substance of hie lecture."
generation ; queer and awkward as- he was, " It was the substatoe. after all," said
he was the soul of truth and honour. You Moodie, laughing; "and his audience seem -
might seeped his sanity—a matter always ed to think to, by the attention they paid
doubtful—but his honesty of heart and pur-
pose never.
"Stealing pigs," returned the incorrigible
Tom, with the gravity of a judge. The
words were scareely pronounced when the
questioner called the coachman to stop, pre
•ferring a ride outside in the rain to a seat
within with a thief. Tom greatly enjoyed
•the hoax, which he used to tell with the
merriest of all grave facts.
Besides being a devoted admirer of the
fair sex, and always imagining himself in
love with some unattainable beauty, he had
a passionate craze for music, and played
upon the violin and flute with considerable
taste and exeoution. The sound of • a
favourite melody operated upon the breath
ing automaton like magic, his frozen facul-
ties experienced a sudden thaw, and the
stream of life leaped and gambolled for a
while with uncontrollable vivacity. He
laughed, danced, sang, and made love in a
breath, committing a thousand mad vagaries
to make you acquainted with his existence.
My husband bad a remarkably sweet -
toned flute, and this finte Toni regarded
with a species of idolatry.
" I break the Tenth Commandment,
Moodie, whenever I hear you play upon
that fLote. Take care of your black wife,"
(a name he had bestowed upon the coveted
treasure), or 1shell oertainly run off with
her."
"1 one half afraid of you, Tom. I am
sure if I were to die, and leave you my black
wife as a legacy, you would be too much
overjoyed to lenient my death."
Such was the strange, whimsical being
who contemplated an emigration to Canada.
How he succeeded in the speoulation the se-
quel will show. ,
It was late in the evening before my hus-
band and hia friend Toni Wilson returned
from V---. I had provided a hot sup-
per and a cup of coffee after their long le elk,
and they did ample juatice to my care.
Tom was in unusual high spirits, and rep
peered wholly bent upon his Canadian ex•
When you met Tom in the etreets, he was
dressed 'with iti�h neatness and care (10 be
sure it took him half the day to make hire
toilet) that it led many persons to imagine
that ten very ugly yotilig tam cOesidered
himself an Adonis; end 3. must confess that
I rather inclined to this opinion, Re always
paced the public atreete With a slow, delib-
erate tread, and With his eyes fixed intently
to it duriog the discussion. But oorne,
Wilson, give my Wife mime moment td the
intellectual part of the entertaitment."
"What 1 give an acoount of
the lecture? Why, my dear fellow, I never
listened to one word of it 1"
"1 thoogne you we it to Y—en pur-
pose to obtam inforthation et the eubjeet of
innieratimi to Canada ?»
"Well, and go 1 din ; but Whet the fele ,
lew walled but his pamphleti Mid said; that h '
contained the eubetance of hie bon re and
only cost a shilling, I thought that it was
better to secure the substance than endeavor
'tti Patch the eluidow—so 1 bought the book,
and spared myeelf the pain a liseening to
to the oratory of the wreter. Dire. Moodie 1
he had a shocking delivery, et drawlikg, vul-
gar voice; and he spoke , with such 4 nasal
twang that I mold not bear to look at leim,
or listen to him. He made aunt grammati.
cal blunders,that my sides ached 'with
laughing at him. Oh, I wish that yea mend
have seen the wretch 1 But here es the do-
cument, written ia the same atyle in whith
it is spoken. • Read ib; you have a treat in
store."
I took the pamphlet, not a little amused
at his deaoripinoe of Mr. 0—, for whom
1 felt an uncharitable dislike.
"And how din you contrive to entertain
yourself, Mr. Miami, during his long ad-
dress ?"
"By thinking bone many 'fools were col-
leoteO together to listen to one greater than
the rest. By the way, Moodie, did you
notice Farmer Flitch ?"
"No ; where did he sit ?"
"At the foot of the table. Yon must
have have seen lum, he was too big to be
overlooked. What a delightiul squint he
had 1 What a ridiculous likeness there
was between him and the roast pig he wee
carving 1 I was wondering all dinnentime
how that man connived to cup up that pig;
for one eye was fixed upon the ceiling, and
the other leering very affectIonately at nee.
It was very droll; was it not ?"
"And what do you intend doing with
youraelf when you arrive in Canada ?" mid I.
"Find out some largo hollow oree, and
live like Bruin in the winter by sucking my
paws. In the summer there will be plenty
of mad and acorns to eatiafy the melte of
an abstemious fellow."
"But joking apart, my dear fellow," said
ray husband, anxious to induce him to
abandon a scheme so hopelese, "do you
think that you are at all qualified for a life
of toil and hardship ?"
"Are you ?" returned Tom, rasing his
large, bushy, black eyebrows to the top of
his forehead, and fixing his leaden eyes
steadfastly upon his interrogator, with an
air of such absurd gravity that we burst
'into a hearty laugh.
"Now what do you laugh for? lam sure
I asked you a very serious question."
"But your method of putting it is so un-
usual that you must excuse us for laughing."
"1 don't want you to weep," said Tom;
"but as no our qualifications, Moodie, I
• think them pretty equal. I know you
think otherwise, but I will explain. Let
me see; what was I going to say ?—ah, I
have it I You go with the intention of
clearing land, and woiking for yourself, and
doing a great deal. I have tried that before
in New South Wales, and I know that it
won't answer. Gentlemen can't work like
labourers, and if they could they won't—it
is not in thein, and that you will find out.
You expect, by going to Canada, to make
your fortune, or at least: secure a comfort-
able independence. I anticipate no such re-
sults; yet I mean to go, partly out of a
whim, partly to satisfy ray curiosity
whether it is a better country than New
South Wales; and lastly, in the hope of
bettering my condition in a small way,
which at present is so bad that it can scarce-
ly be worse. I mean to purchase a farm
with the three hundred pounds I received
last week from the sale of my father's
property; and if the Canadian soil yields
only half what Mr. 0— says it does, I
need not starve. But the refined habits in
which you have been brought up, and your
unfortunate literary propensities—(I say
unfortunate, because you will seldom meet
people in a colony who can or will sympa-
thise with you in these pursuits)—they will
Wake you an object of mistrust and envy to
those who cannot appreoiate them, and will
be a source of constant mortification end
disappointment to yourselt. Thank God!
I have no literary propensities; but, in
spite of the latter advantage, in all probabil-
ity I shall make no exertion at all; so that
your energy damped by disgust and disap-
pointment, and my laziness will end in the
same thins, and we shall both return like
bad pennies to our native shores. But, as 1
have neither wife nor child to involve in my
failure, I think, without much selnflattery,
that my prospects are better then enure.'
This was the longest speech 1 ever heard
Tone utter; and, evidently astonished at
himself, he sprang up abruptly from the
table, overeeb a cup of coffee into my lap,
and, wishing us good day (it was eleven
o'clock at night), he ran out of the house.
• There was neore truth in poor Tom's
words than at that moment we were willing
to allow; for youth and hope were on our
side in those days, and we were moat ready
to follow the suggestions of the latter.
My husband finally determined to emi-
grate to Canada, and in the hurry and
bustle of a sudden preparation to depart,
Tom and his affairs werefor a while for
gotten.
How dark and heavily did that frightful
anticipation weigh upon my heart 1 As the
time for our departure drew near, the
thought of leaving my friends and native
land became so intensely painful that it
haunted me even in sleep. I seldom awoke
without finding my pillow wet with tears.
The glory of May was upon the earth—of
an English May. The woods were bursting
into leaf, the meadows and hedge -rows
were flushed with flowers, and every grove
and oupsewood echoed to the warbling of
birds and the humming of bees. To leave
England et all was dreadful—to leave her at
such a season was doubly so. I went to
take a laat look at the old Hall, the beloved
home of my childhood and youth; to wan-
der came more beneath the shades ot its
venerable oake—to rest once more upon the
velvet swend that carpeted their rooto. It
was while reposing beneath those noble
trees that I had first indulged in those de-
licious dreams which are a foretaste of the
enjoyments of the spirit -land. In them the
soul breathes forth its topirationa in a lan-
guage unknown to common minds; and
that language is Poetry. Here annually,
from year to year, I had renewed my friend-
ship with the first prinermes and violets,
and listened with the untiring ear of love to
the spring roundelay of the blaokbird,
whistled from among his bower of May
blossoms: Here I had discounted sweet
words to the tiAling brook, and learned
from the melody of waters tho MUSIC of nat.
ural sounds In these beloved eolitudert
*all the holy emotions which stir the human
mat in its depth had been freely pourecl
orth, and fourid a eesponse in the thertnom
ions voice ot Nature, bearing 'deft the choral
Song of earth to the throne of the Creator.
Ho* hard it tvas to tear myself from
scenes endeared to me by the inoet beatitiful
and sorrowful recolleotione, let those who
have loven and suffered as 1 did, say. How- I
ever the wend has /roweled upon ine, Ne.
ture, atrayed th her green lovelineas, had
ever smiled upon me like an indeilgene
mother) funding oub her loving arms to en.
fold to her bonnie her erring but tleented
• Iear, dear Englated 1 why Waft I forded
by a nern nemesity te leave you / What
heinous crime bed X committed, that /, who
adored you; abould be torn from youremored
bosom, to pine out my joyleee exigence in a
foreign clime? Oh, that I might be permit-
ted to return and clie upon your wave en.
circled thorn), an4 net eny weary head and
heart beneath your daisy -covered 1104 ab
1404 1 194, them are vain outbursts of feen
thg—melancholy relapees of the spring home.
sioknese 1 Canada 1 thou art a noble, free,
and rising country—the great foatering
mother of the orphane of chilizetion. The
offepring of Britain, then meat be great,
and. I will and do love thee, land of my
adoption, and of in children's birth; and,
oh, dearer still to a mother's heart—land of
their graves I
"Well, tire. Moodie, I am off," said Tem,
shaking hands with my dater instead of Ule:
"1 antennae 1 shall see Moodie in London.
What do you think of my dog ?" netting him
affectionately.
"I think him an ugly bead,' said C—.
"])o you mean to take him with you ?"
"An ugly beast 1-1thohees a beast? Why,
she is aneerfect beauty 1—Beauty and the
beast I He, ha ha 1 I gave two guineas for
her last night." ' (I thought of the old adage.)
"Mrs. 1400die, your sister h no judge of a
dog."
"Very likely," returued —, laughing.
"And you go to town tonight, Mr. Wilson?
I thought as you came up to the honse that
you were equipped for shooting."
"To be sure; there is capital shooting in
Canada."
"SoIhavn heard—plenty of nears and
wolves; I suppose you take out your dog
and gun in attempt:Mon?"
"True," sold Tone.
"But you surely are not going to take
that deg with you ?"
"Indeed I am. She is a most valnab e
brute. The very ben venture I could take.
My brother Charles has engaged our pais.
sage in the same vesseL"
"It would be a pity to part yon," said I.
May you prove as lucky a pair as Whit-
tington and his cat."
Whittington 1 Whittington 1" said Tom,
staging at my sister, and beginning todream,
which he invariably did in the company of
women. "Who was the gentlemen?"
"A very old friend of mine, one whom 1
have known since I was a very little girl,"
said my abater; "but I have not time th
tell you more about him now. If you go to
St. Paul's Churchyard, and inquire for Sir.
Rithard Whittington and his oat, you will
get his history for a mere trifle."
'?Do not mind her, Mr. Wibon, she is
quizzing you," quoth I; "1 wbh you a safe
voyage across the Atlantic; I wash I 'could
add a happy meeting with your friends.
But where shall we find friends in a strange
land ?"
"All in good time," I said. "1 hope to
have the pleasure of meeting you in ithe
backwoods of Canada before three months
are m er. What adventures we ehall have
to tell one another 1 It will be capital.
Good-bye,"
"Toni has sailed," said Captain Charles
Wilson, stepping into my little parlour a
few days after his eccentric brother's last
visit. saw him and Duchess sale on
board. Odd as be is, I parted with a full
heart; I felt as if we [never should meet
again. Poor Tom 1 he is the only brother
left me now that I can love. Robert and I
never agreed very well, and there is little
chance of our meeting in this world. He is
married, and settled downfor life in Wales;
and the rest, John, Richard, George, are all
gone—all !"
parted
Tom in good spirits when you
r,
"Yes. Be is a perfect contradiction. He
always laughs and cries in the wrong
place. 'Charles,' he said, withit loud laugh,
tell the girb to get some new music against
I return: and, hark ye ! if I never come
back, I leave them my Kangaroo Waltz as a
legacy.'"
"What a strange creature ?"
"Strange, indeed; you don't know half
his oddities. He has very little money to
take out with him; but he actually paid for
two berths in the ship, that he might not
chance to have a person who snored sleep
near him. Thirty pounds thrown away
upon the mere che.nec of a snoring compan-
ion Besides, Charles,' quoth he I can-
not endure to share my little cabin with
others; they will use my towels, and combs,
and brushes, like that confounded rascal
who slept in the same berth with me com-
ing from New South Wales, who had the
impudence to clean his teeth with my tooth-
brush, Here I shall be all %bone, happy
and comfortable as a prime, and Duchess
shall sleep in the after -berth, and be my
queen.' And so we parted," continued Cap-
tain Charles. "May God take care of him,
for he never could take care of 1,;xneelf."
"That puts me in mind of T ,•1 reason be
gave for not going with us. He was afraid
that my baby would keep him awake of a
night. He hates children, and says that he
never will marry on that account.'
(oo BE emennumen
Pride.
There are people who are constantly mak.'
ingthemselves miserable by thinking over
their slights. Some one says something
that they think includes it reflection upon
them, or does something that is intended to
humiliate, or fella to pay them as much at-
tention as they believe they are entitled to,
and they take it up, brood over it, magnify
its hnportanceipout, sulk, scold, denounce
and calumniate without reason or measure.
It is possible, Of course, for them to injure
some one by it, or to interrupt some good
work. But usually they have no effect up-
on anybody but themselvon except to excite
their spirit of merriment and ridomle, Cul-
tivating such a habitproduoes another equal-
ly bad, which is that of looking out for
slights, as if with the fixed intention of keep-
ing up a eupply of material for the chronic
freteing and backbiting. There grows up
in the minds of all such people a feeling that
whatever anyone says not in the line of
their thinking is an attack mean them, and
they therefore put on the me o en air, the
martyr countenance, which eN • eases their
sense of oelamity, herb has enny ways of
eacrificing itself, or rather him that ohorishos
it, but none of them is more suicidal than
this one.
They Quit Even.
Dusenberry memo lounging into the gro.
eery.
"What a stock of beets, turnips and cab -
began" he commented. "Why, you're quite
a green grocer. Sittoe I think of it, send me
round ten pounds of coffee, I'll pay you
next week."
"1 may be a green grocer, but I am not
green enough to trust you, the thopman
said.
"Isa ban policy to trust."
Dusenberry rubbed his thin and gazed at
the fleet in it ruminating way.,
" Yes, it's it bed polieyn he assented.
" Still, there's it worse one."
" What ote, pray V
One that's run out"
inhey•thook hands and oneeed that they
had quit even.
BRAZIL'S EMANCIPATED SLAVES, 1 Contentment.
limn Gratitude to the ItOrti natiniy—rub.
Ile ithioleines bit J[10 Janeiro.
Reiter Basta Cordeire, an attache of tbe
Braziliau Legation at Washington and a
member :pf the Emperor's housebold, receiv-
ed a batch of leteera from Brazil recently
telling how the abolition of •elevery had
been reeelved, "The country is enjoying
the greatest quiet and pewee," said Senor
Cordeire. "My letters may that the former
novae are cheerfully working for wages for
their old masters.
They are creating no disorders, committeas
no thef to, nor are they idling away thew
time. In Rio Jatieiro wheu the Princese Ben
geot appears in the streeta the blacks strag-
gle with mole other for the privilege of kiss-
ing ber dress or sometimes her hand, and
uttex their gratitude he houts and others.
The final act aboliehing elavery took effeen
May 13, and for fifteen days there was public
feasting alt over the empire. In Rio Janeiro
business was ausnended, and the entire pop-
ulation gave up the time to amusement and
rejoicing. The four rating duns united and
gave rams every day without charge. The
newspapers combined, and issued May 13 o,
paper written by all the editors, The the-
aters were free to every body. There were
greanpublic talolea pread for all to eat, and
balls in every park and square.
It is impossible to eay how many slaves
were liberated. In 1883 there were 6,00n,
OK Since that great numbers have been
voluntarily freed, and I suppose that there
were not more than 2,000,000 freed by law,
The causes which led to emancipation were
the Emperor, the pride of the Brazilians,
and the small profits in slave labor. Brazil
was the only tivilized country in the world
bolding slaves. Brazilians are liberty loving
and progressive, and ,the press and the
Emperor stirred up a powerfunpublio sen-
timent for emancipation. Only nine Deputies
voted against it.
To be Abreast with Society.
"De faotoff der matter vas ," says Uncle
Jacob, "dot we spends shuns about
half of our money beoause somebody elite
vas do it. Ve sheet pays mit a tribute mit
society. If Mr. A beans mit his fence,
den Mr B, if he vas an enderbriz-
ing man vas shut baint his. Effery
body could get along mitout 8. goot many
tinge dot dey haf, but live would
not be pleasant mit dem. I might say to
my vive •und daughter: Now den, dere
vas no use in paying out blendy off money
for der abider's clothing. Here vas gram -
sacks und furtilizer bags dot Nati goot
vane cloth. Ve vill vash dot mid make
dot into clothes und keep vertu und heady.'
Now, dot could be done und off ve vas
lifing mit some desert island vere nobody
vas griticize, I haf no doubt dot ve you'd
year sheet tinge mid be sheet as happy
as never vas. But yen ve goes iu mit der
society off any gommunity ve vas shust
haf to come up mit der standard off dot
gommunity mit our dress mut our vale off
lifing und all dese oder tinge. Der
conseguence vas dot ve knows vas uzeless
Ghost incense oder benne does it and ve
tinks it vas fearful dot we falls behind.
Der trouble nth sooiety vas dot it vos
gultivate bride so fast dot ve vas ingrease
our oxpense shust like a snow -boll vile ve
vas keep up mit it."
A Spider and a Frog.
A gentleman tells us that in company with
another he was walking along the banks of
a stream when their attention was drawn to
a noise near them in the water. It was as-
certained that the noise was caused by a
fight between it monster gender and a frog.
Whenever the two would come together the
spider would seize the frog with his poison-
ous fangs; the frog would then by a supreme
effort shake his enemy off and hop away th a
peculianlooking plant which grew near, and
after biting off a portion of its leaves and
eating them would return to the combat
with renewed energy. The two gentlemen
watched this itteresting combat for a long
time, when one of them concluded he would
keep the frog away from the plant, which it
seemed to be using as an antidote for the poi-
son of the spider. So when the frog, as usu-
al, started for the plant after being bitten,
he kept him away; the poor fellow made
frantic efforts to get at it, but was prevented
and in a few moments the poison of the epi.
der, not being counteracted, took effect, and
the poor frog expired immediately.
Waking From Sleep.
The author of "On Blue Water"'gives
some curious observations upon the manner
in which we recover possession of our senses
whenever we are awakened. He thinks
that it is the sense which is most violently
assailed that is first to wake up. He says:
I know no place where it man has so
many opportunities for observing the phen- •
°mem attending the awakening ftom aleep
as on board ship, where half the people are
awakened from sound sleep at least three
times it day.
Often the bright light of my cabin lamp,
just lighted, has been visible to me some
seconds before I could hear or undergtand
that I was being called to gat up. I have
otten called it man, and received an answer
which bed me to believe he was wide awake,
though he was unconscious of having an -
severed at all.
You may even hold it long and animated
conveteation with some men at eight bells
without waking them up.
mennenemenne----
Bug,ar From the Golden Province.
From a report which is published in the
columns of the Colonist, it appears that the
soil and climate of British Columbia are
specially favourable for the raising of beets
suitable for the manufacture of sugar. The
report is based on m analysis of Auger beets
grown by persons who had no particular experience in the cultivation of the roob» It
is stated that the analysis proved that the
beets were fully up to the standard of those
used in Germany as regards richness in sae -
chorine matter. Much interest' is ta ii iu
the subject, and it few months ago th an.
couver City Council made a grant f he
purchase of beet seed for distributio
the farmers of the province, with th
of incluoitm them to experiment bit the
tion of the sugar -producing crop. The lope
is expressed by the Brinell Columbia press
that within it short time the manufactore of
beet root sugar will be an importatt
dustry of the province.
The Sins Failed,
"Do you believe in signs ?" asked the
old lady of superstitious proclivibien "I
did believe in them once," said Fogg, "but
when I read one setting forth that goods
were selling at less than eeds my faith
was slightly shaken, ancl after I had trial
to eat it mega addled egga, a black sinithn
apron netequerading as fried ham bread
really venerable and butter etronger than
Samson, in a place whine bore over its
portal the word 'Refroshineutsin I beam°
ootfirmed sceptio, No, ma'am, to be
frank with you, 1 don't believe in slime."
Nothnig more was Med about signs. the
( comtereation going off at a tangent
Don't be afraid. We are not going a
write it homily on contentment,nor needeour
readers fear a onion of alt the plonitudee of
that some whet bentkiumed min ect,e The world.
has had a sonnet of food of tuat elescripteono
and yet the family of the discontented is as
large and as clamorous as ever. Men still
never are, but only to be Mennen and muitne
tudes are atilt crying, as of old, "Who will
show xis any good ?" The shorter cater:inane
still,as in the other daya, condemns all "i bit.
contentment with our own estate, envying
or grieving at the good of our neighbor, and
all the inordinate tenons and affection's toe
anythiug that be hien And yet :pod Pres-
byteriana who, like the two Presidential'
candidates, have been bought up on tban,
sub:tetanal though occasionally somewhat inn
digestible fare, are j ust as ones tisfied AB °there
with their QWU environmentene and are
often taking a powerfully envious -like minion
at their neiglebors' " leatlaern cotevenience,"
which in the unregenerate language of the
earth is knownas "a carriage.' Preachersby
the hundred are taking up their parablu.
on the same 'mined and are doing their bean
to set fettle full "contentment with mine
own condition" as at once a duty and en
privilege, while they ane all the while
wormong their own lives out in wishing for
a trip acrose the Mimetic, or in grumbling;
at soine fortunate "brother" who has
secured this "happy deepatch" who is an
liks csongrega,tione expense and yet "hipped
to death" because he wanted the donation,
big enough th take his wife as well and,
could not manage it.
There's Talmage a week ago last Sunday
took a regular "bender' on the beauties of
bread and water and with his twenty tie forty
thousand dollars jingling in his pocket flaw-
ed at Nehuohadnezzer and made a regular cir-
cus in contempt of Cleopatra's 110136 and of
Napoleon's greatness and gout. The dear
man 1, This apostle of sweetmeat and presentee
owner of something better than the *nen
honoured tale of the cynic had, no doubt),
something which bothered him on that Satur-
• day night and it is possible that he dreamed,
on Sunday morning of something he wanted
but had not got. Why in that one oration,
he had a whole crowd of classical allusions,
any half of which would have gladdened a.
school boy's heart and filled th repletion a
girl's wonderful " commencement ' theme..
It weee•a perfect quarry, out of which juven-
ile moralists couldtake without stint their
finest corner stones 1 with perorations
galore which would have made the
maternal heart sing for joy. The whole
field wan ranged, and Nero, Nebudchad-
nezzar Naboth and Napoleon, with Ahl-
thophel, Byron, Cadmus, David, Cromwell,
Catharine, and William the Conqueror, to
say nothing of .Alexandcfs duet helping_
to make a bung for a beer barrel and multi,
tudes of othera too numerous to mention in
any advertisement," all passed shadowily
aoross the stage. Why, if a man were not
thankful and contented after such ae
cataract of cornmonplacea had been
poured on his head,, he oughe to be
tied --as Robert Hall, the great Baptist,
preacher, phrased it—" to the tail of thee
great ren dragon and whipt round the nether.
regions to all eternity." By all means, Iit
each and every man be "oontented"—and the
preacher first—though perverse people erne/
say that discontent 1. the spring of all the ac-
tivity that is going and that but for it men
would scarcely even yet have got beyond the
era of fig leaves, while Talmage's Tabernacle
would be still en minibus. One does not
know. Men try to show how "full cone
tentment " and the eager reatlessness by
which the world is at present driven are
compatible with each other, but the precess
is tedious and the distinguos are too many
and too nice for ordinary use. Even the
preacher is on the drive and ten chances to
one the Brooklyn ortor murmurs in bis
sleep something about "fifty years of—say
Brooklyn—being "worth a cycle in Cathay.
It is, in short, a nice thiog, contentment,
but where is it to be had and how, when se-
cured, is it to be retained ? Even Talmage
is sceptical about the efficacy of his own
declamation, for after all this fine elegiacs over
the "Vanityof !Comm Wishes," with "bold
Neptune Plutarch and Nicodemus " and
multitudes of other by -gone worthies "all
standing in the open air," he finishes off with
the following not very jubilant no triumphs
Yet, my friends, notwithstanding all these
inducements to a spirit of contentment,
have to tell you this morning the human.
race is divided into two classes—thoso who
scold and those who get ecolded. The ear-
penter wants to be anything but a carpenter,
ancl the ftlegi022 anything let t a maim, and
the banker anything but a, banker, and the
lawyer anyt hing but it lawyer, and the min-
ister anything bet it minister, and every-
body would be hl L py if he were only some-
body else. The anemone wants to be a. '
suellower,and. the apple orchards throw
down their blossoms because they are
not tall cedars, and the scow wants -to
be a schooner, and the sloop would like to be
a seventy-four pounder, and parents have
tho worst children that ever -were, and
everybody has the greatest misfortune, and
everything is upside down, or going to be.
Ah! my friends, you never make any ad -
vanes through such a spirit as then. You
cannot fret yonmell up ; you may fret
yourself down. Amid all this grating of
tones I strike this ening of the Gospel
harp Godliness with contentment is
great gain." We brought nothing into the
world, and it is very certain we can carry
nothing out; having food and raiment let
us therewith be content.
He evidently knows that his advice will
not be taken, but like the good man as he
is, he will. --es John Foster hints that the
inoon might be supposed vie do as it loolced
out be its silvery sadness over this weary,
wicked earth--" say his say" in any ease
and "semen," mane though no goon. might
follew and no one might take his advice.
The Power of Kindness.
Eau Burritt, speaking of the power of
Montage, says: There is no power of love
so hard to:get ann keep as a kind voice. A
kind hand is deaf and dumb. It may be
rough in flesh and nloocl, yet do the work of
a soft heart and els; it with it soft touoicalent
1 there is no one thing that love so much teeing
as it sweet voice to tell what 11 means and'
bels; and it is hard to gee and keep in in
the right tone, One mush stare in youth.
and be on the watch night and day, at worn
and play, to get and keep a voioe that abet
speak at all times the thoughts of a Inini
heart. It is often in youth that one gets e:
voice or it tone that is *harp, and it sticks/
to hirn through life, and stira up /Hewitt
and grief, .and fells like a drop of gall on
the aweet joys of home. Watch it day by
day as a pearl of great prim, for it will be
worth more to you in days to come that the
best lean hid. he the sea. A kind vOine is
to the heart what light is to the eye. Ie
is
it light that sings as well as shines.
Euler Irishman (plotting op it net, ounce
bottle from, the counter)—" Good marninn
yer Mom. What would be the prim of a
Mettle this size ?" Druggist—" TWO cents;
but if you are going to have anything put iit
it it tvill met Only one mot" Iriehman
"Faith, them yet honor, thole a cark in."