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duced at Court, and easily initiated into all the dis- tess, as he hoped by his seeming grief for her sipations of an indolent and luxurious nobility.- bereavement, to create an interest in her feelings; His rank, fortune and position, caused his ruin. and the first intimation he received of the failure Becoming attached to one of the maids of honor of his diabolical plan, was by a printed notice, to the Queen, who was distinguished for her beauty, which a man put into his hand, and then hastily gayety, and courtly accomplishments, he fled from retired among the passing crowd. This sudden the society of princes and nobles, and sought only information, so different from what he expected, to please the one, who, by her smiles, had so en-acting on an excited brain, threw him into a fever, chanted him. Thinking his attachment was re- from the effects of which he will probably never turned, he was happy. The young Marchioness, recover. His disease has left him an idiot-he like most of her sex among the Italians who figure was formerly raving, he is now perfectly quiet. in the highest rank of society, was fond of pleasure, and a perfect coquette. It was her constant aim to have many suitors, and she possessed the rare faculty, of making each one believe, that he was the first in her affections. This coquetry cost her dearly; no less indeed than her life.

stranger.

His friends, thinking a change of air and scene might be beneficial, have sent him to be confined in the place where we found him. His features are fine, but there is a vacancy about the eyes, which affords but little hope, that he will ever regain his reason. Bad as his situation may be, Among her train of lovers was a young accom- perhaps it is more fortunate for him, that he should plished Neapolitan Count, of ready wit, and pleasing remain as he is; at least, while an idiot, his conmanners. Playing beautifully on the flute, which science is at ease, which, should he recover, would was his favorite instrument, he frequently accom-inflict upon him torments to which he is now a panied the Marchioness on the piano: it was on one of these occasions he pressed his suit, and was We should be doing injustice to the keepers of accepted. Scarcely was this known by the Baron, this asylum, did we not, before we close, remark, ere his love was turned to hatred, and all his that the inmates were neatly clad, and their apartthoughts bent on revenge. ments clean and airy; in every way as far as their It is customary during the heat of summer in situation could be made comfortable, their comfort Naples to avoid the noon-day sun; and in the even-was consulted-and indeed it was a source of ing, to seek recreation by a promenade along the pleasure to observe the kind and fatherly treatlovely walks of the city, or by a ride to the beau- ment of all to these perfect wrecks of human tiful villas in the neighborhood. Such had been nature, few, very few of whom, it can hardly be the innocent amusement of the Count Ludovico hoped, will ever recover. To the ambitious, the and wife on the day after their marriage; Fear-covetous and worldly-minded, what a lesson does a ing no danger, they were leisurely driving into visit to a madhouse afford! Here it is, that human town, when a man, masked, and on horseback, rode up to the carriage, and ordered the Count to alight, and follow him. This he had hardly refused to do, ere a carbine was discharged into the cabriolet, and his interesting bride became a corpse.

frailty appears in its most humiliating form, and
the folly of all worldly things is made manifest.
After such a visit, well may we exclaim, “ Vanity
of vanities, all is vanity."
Malta, 1841.

POETRY IN THE ALLEGHANIES.*
"Down went the sun, and up rose the yellow moon."

The sky was clear, the stars were bright,
The air was sleeping soft and still,
When slowly wheeled the Queen of Night,
Above the hemlock-crested hill:
The shadows sprang from plain and dell,
Like frightened ghosts, at break of day;
The silver'd streamlets seemed to swell
Beneath each dancing, fairy ray.

The assassin, aware that his shot had taken effect, from the groans he heard, turned his horse's head, and fled to Naples. The Baron felt amply repaid for his services, in blood, rejoicing as he did, at the supposed death of his rival, and of the chance afforded him of becoming again a suitor to his widow-for, little did he dream how his villainy had resulted. On the succeeding day placards were posted at the corners of the several streets, and criers employed to make known that Count Ludovico would pay a large reward to him who would discover the murderer of his wife. The Queen had interested herself, and the police were actively employed in attempting to detect the perpetrator of the crime. The Baron, fearing that he might be suspected, so true it is that a guilty conscience is never at ease, remained for a week in his palace-giving it to be understood by his friends, that he was so seriously indisposed, as to be con- The scene lay among the Alleghanies-and the interlocufined to his chamber. On his first going into pub-tor was a retired lawyer, of some celebrity in his day and lic, he had prepared himself for a visit to the Coun- neighborhood.

From laurelled nook to mossy stone,

The flood of radiance leap'd and ran,
And castled cliffs with glory shone,

Which mocked the daring tread of man.
*The incident detailed in these lines is literally true.

It was a scene, whose loveliness
Eye had no scope to measure well;
The soul might feel its eloquence,

But mortal tongue were weak to tell!

An ancient man, whose hair was gray
With gathered wisdom and with time,
Sat gazing on the gorgeous way,

Where held the orb its march sublime.
The light of youth came back once more
Unto his dim and dazzled eye,
His withered cheek, unwonted bore
The flush of poet's ecstasy!

His lips were parted-o'er his brow,
The breeze on lazy pinion strayed,
And, ling'ring, cooled the new-born glow
That o'er his raptur'd features played.
He spoke-His tones knock'd at our hearts-
Their burden swell'd these lofty lines-
"Stranger! the moonbeams in these parts,
Looks very pretty through them pines!"
October, 1841.

W.

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LINES,

WRITTEN ON THE EVENING OF THE BURIAL OF A STUDENT
OF MIAMI UNIVERSITY.*

With music's soft and saddest tone,
With slow and measured tread,
They bore him to the narrow house,
And laid him with the dead.
Above his grave no useless words
Of sorrow were expressed-
But silently they buried him,

And left him there to rest.

Lone and companionless he lies

No other grave is there;

Oh, who would wish their last, long home To be so bleak and bare!

Yet over him the fairest birds

Will chant their thrilling tone,

And they will hover around the spot,
Nor leave him all alone.

The low and dirge-like midnight wind, Is wailing sadly now;

And bends across his silent tomb,

The slender beechen bough.

His damp and solitary head

Is curtained by a cloud,

His sleep no brother's voice may wake, He slumbers in his shroud!

No cherished and familiar friends
Were weeping at his side,

But stranger forms were gathered there
Around him when he died.

No Father leaned above his couch,

To catch his parting breath;
Oh! who can tell what agony

'Tis thus to meet with death?

*Young John Jamison, of Ross county, Ohio, died at Miami University, May 28th, 1841, and was the first who was interred in the College burial ground. His remains repose in a secluded spot beneath the shade of a beautiful Beech.

TREATMENT OF SLAVES IN THE SOUTH-WEST. There is no subject so little understood abroad, as the treatment of our slaves-nor is there any thing to which reference is more frequently made in the journals of America and England. Those who write on this subject, seldom descend to partienlars (unless it be in the slanderous caricatures of fanatical incendiaries ;) and I have thought that a statement of facts might be useful.

During the earlier period of manhood, I devoted much time to the solution of the problem of general emancipation with safety to both classes; but the impossibility of giving it a practical solution, has long since become manifest to me, and I am now satisfied that we must await the pleasure of the Almighty Disposer of Events.

In the meantime, the civilization of our slaves is proceeding as rapidly as is consistent with their safety; and public opinion is operating sensibly to lessen the hardships of slavery.

The amelioration of the slave's condition, however, is considerably retarded by the efforts of fanaticism, which cause the master occasionally to tighten the chain of servitude.

As to the food of slaves in South Alabama, (and so far as I am informed generally in the South West)

The men have three gallons of meal per week; women, two gallons; boys from twelve to fifteen years of age, the same; and all others in proportion. This allowance is so uniform, when there is a limit, that it may be considered universal.

The meat served out to them consists generally of bacon cured on the farms, to which, if the supply be insufficient, is added Western bacon or mess pork; some planters use the latter article entirely; of which-the usual allowance-for a man, or boy above 15 years of age, is three pounds a week; and for a woman, or a boy between 10 and 15, is two pounds per week; and to all others, in proportion. To this is frequently added the

"The following," continues Mr. T., “is the expenditure of a laboring man, with a wife and six children at present.

6 gallons Flour,
1lb. Meat-suet,
1lb. Butter-1lb. Cheese,

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product of the dairy. Sometimes, although but weekly, and lived on two gallons of bread and one seldom, the allowance of meat is lessened one pound of butter-cost 5s. 9d. third; they have milk sufficient for two meals in the day. On some farms, the meat is given out to the cook daily, and not unfrequently half a pound of bacon per head is the daily allowance to all the laborers, including a large portion of boys and girls. The spare products of the garden, and often the most substantial vegetables raised in the fields, such as potatoes, cabbages, tomatoes, black-eyed peas, and the like, are furnished in great abundance. In connection with this, it may be mentioned, that on most plantations, the more provident part of the slaves raise fowls, and manufacture small articles of wood for sale,- -as tubs, pails, cans, &c.—also shuck-bottomed chairs, mats, shuck collars, brooms, and the like.

lb. Soap-lb. Candles, Potatoes, Starch, Yeast, etc.

Total,

66

"I might insert numerous other examples of laborers' dietaries; but I trust," says Mr. T., the above will be sufficient to show, in some degree, how their wages are expended. They, however, are insufficient, as they do not show the quality of the articles procured. For instance, since the price of corn has risen, many of the laborers have been compelled to resort to an inferior sort of flour, termed 'sharps,' in order to obtain a sufficiency of food." Mark the contrast.

Molasses, sugar, coffee, rice, with any thing else which is to be found at the table of the master, are unsparingly supplied to them when sick; and to prevent any loss to them in bartering their poultry for such articles at other times, the mistress Clothing. Our slaves in the South-West are angenerally exchanges them at wholesale prices. nually supplied with two cotton oznaburgs shirts, a Now, contrast this with the food of the laboring suit of strong woollen cloth, a pair of woollen socks classes in Surry and Kent, England, as it was on or stockings of home manufacture, a suit of strong the 1st March, 1841. "I will first describe," says summer clothing, two pair of brogans, a hat and Mr. Tuffnell, in his Report on the economy of the blanket, and to this is added, very frequently, other laboring classes in Surry and Kent, made to Par- articles for their beds; and when a slave's apparel liament, March 1st, 1841, "I will first describe becomes particularly ragged, an additional suit the cottage and mode of living of a Sussex laborer, is given. The cloth and other means for mending whose family is such as to make him one of the their garments are furnished liberally.

most distressed of his class. He has a wife and Houses. In the settlement of the country, both seven children, the oldest of whom is a girl aged twelve, and all the rest happen to be girls, except one boy five years old.

masters and slaves have been obliged to be content with indifferent log cabins; nor is the master generally much better accommodated in this res"They purchase six gallons of flour weekly, which pect, than the slave. The climate is mild, and is made into bread or cakes with potatoes. They the houses are generally not so bad as to prejudice drink tea made with burnt crusts, China tea being the health of the slave. Every new cabin, howtoo expensive now. Since the price of sugar has ever, is better than its predecessor, and ere long, risen, they have been obliged to give up its use; but I think they will have nothing to complain of in a quarter of a pound is bought weekly to sweeten that respect. the pap for the baby. They have no meat, except Labor. The labors of the slave commence at on Sunday, when a meat pudding is made; and dawn, and continue till twilight. To compell him none of the family ever tastes beer, except, per- to work diligently, the application of the lash is haps, the man gets some now and then from his sometimes necessary, as it is with sailors and solmaster. The man is in constant work at 12 shillings diers. Those managers are uniformly preferred, who a week; but sometimes he gets piece-work and then remain constantly with the slaves, and thus render earns 15 shillings weekly. The cottage is rented a resort to the lash less frequent. Any punishment, at 2 shillings weekly. not necessary to make the slave perform the usual

"The actual weekly expenditure is as follows- labor, or which is not inflicted as a correction for

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In the article on "Northern and Southern Sla-1 very" in the April Messenger, it is stated, that the wife of the poor white man at the North, brings her wood from the forest.

THE SPARROW'S LESSON.

[The muses may be as successfully wooed from the cot, as from the palace. Some of the richest and the sweetest strains of poesy, have been tuned and sung in the humble dwellings of the poor. Burns strung his harp in poverty, and in the midst of want, poured forth the richest strains of

Our Southern slaves have too much gallantry to require their wives to get wood. The men and boys uniformly supply the fuel, and only require their wives and sisters to wash and mend their minstresly. So too with Lydia Jane. The beautiful notes clothes, and perform those duties which pertain more especially to female management. The cooking is done twice a day by a female, for all the field laborers-but at night every one likes to prepare a mess for himself, that he may luxuriate between nodding and eating, (a negro never eats hastily,) an hour or two before he settles himself for the night.

Perhaps it may not be amiss-although not within the scope of my subject—to say, that very exaggerated accounts of the profits of the cotton planter have been promulgated. The expenses of The average a cotton plantation are very great.

product for each laborer is about two thousand pounds nett cotton in the best cotton countries, and fifteen hundred pounds on older lands, or in more unfavorable regions; and when all the expenses are estimated, but a fair living profit is left to the planter-say from eight to twenty per centdepending on the soil, climate, management, and

seasons.

That humanity, custom and law require our slaves to be well provided for under all circumstances, certainly relieves them from much of the mental anxiety so harassing to the poor freeman; and if the condition of the wives and children of the free laborers at the north be as bad as represented by the writer alluded to above, I should say that the animal condition of the slave here, is preferable to that of the wife or child of the poor laborer in the Northern states. (How much better than the poor laborer in England!) But as an American citizen, I cannot but hope, that that picture is too highly colored. I must think better of my countrymen, whether in the North or South. Surely those who feel so deeply the necessary evils of domestic slavery in other states, cannot impose on their own neighbors, a servitude more insupportable than that of the slave, of a different and inferior race.

With regard to religious duties-I would say one word. I should be greatly pleased to see the custom become general of reading a portion of the Scriptures judiciously selected, to all the slaves on a plantation, every Sabbath day. It would serve to temper their wild enthusiasm, improve their morals, and make them better and happier. They are generally a light-hearted race, and no one would suspect they were slaves, unless he saw them at labor in the fields-but such a course as I recommend, would give them more rational and substantial happiness than they now enjoy.

Perry, So. Ala. May 1841. A PLANTER.

of her lyre proceed from the home of the poor and needy. With a 'scanty store' and 'sad heart' pressing her down, still she sings her touching lays in measures that fall upon the soul, like the sound of soft low music upon the ear. There is an air of simplicity, a touch of true poetry, and a moral in the following beautiful lines, (and we have others in store from the same pen, not a whit their inferior,) which induce us to commend them to the particular attention of our readers. We should be most happy to see this lady receive the encouragement which her talents deserve.]— Ed Sou. Lit. Mess.

THE SPARROW'S LESSON.
Weary, and wrung with grief and care,
I sat me down and wept;

I heard the footsteps of despair,
For hope was faint and slept.

Cold winds were whispering in mine ear,
'Winter is at the door!'

And my sad heart, with thoughts of fear,
Dwelt on my scanty store.
But as I wept, a little bird
Alighted at my feet,

Looked meekly up-'twas then I heard
Its carol loud and sweet.

This lesson, me, that warbler read:

'Praise for the ceaseless care,
Which Jesus, Lord of all, has said

The little sparrows share.
'Since, first upon the breast of Spring,
'Close sheltered from the day,
"With feeble form and callow wing,
"I took my devious way,

'Thou, God, hast given daily food,

'And sheltered me from ill;
And, when the whirlwind rent the wood,
Thy care preserved me still.

With gladsome heart, I sung thy praise
'Amongst the summer flowers;
'And still arose my grateful lays

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'Amid th' autumnal showers.

'Now, fitful winds and pale decay
Have warned me from the grove;
But with a hymn, I'll take my way
'To Southern lands of love.

'Praise to the Lord, who cares for all!
'He heeds the raven's cry;

'And not a sparrow e'er shall fall
Unnoticed by his eye.'

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ON BOTANY.

"Wondrous truths, and manifold as wondrous,
God hath written in those stars above;
But not less in the bright flowrets under us

for here the distinctive marks are very few and little obvious. The discovery of the class and order is in general attended with little difficulty; though there are some exceptions; as, for instance, with Stands the revelation of His love."-Longfellow. reference to the artificial mode of classifying the The purpose of the following cursory sketch, is, Asclepiadeæ; with reference to the natural, Itea. an endeavor to point out the advantages accruing, In some cases, besides the species, we have to in my estimation, to members of the medical pro- find moreover a variety. From what has been fession, from the study of Botany. The advanta- said, I think that we can scarcely fail to perceive, ges which we derive from the study of any science, that in this science, a very nice, constant, and full may be divided into two sorts: first, the improve- exercise of the discriminative faculty is absolutely ment which results to particular faculties of the necessary. mind; and secondly, the advantages flowing from Now if there be any faculty of the mind whose the knowledge so acquired. As to the first class, full exercise is particularly demanded in the pracI shall only mention those strengthened by the tice of medicine, it is this of discrimination. When study of botany, whose improvement is peculiarly a physician is called upon to visit a patient, the advantageous to the physician with respect to first and great object is of course to discover under these, I have followed common classification rather what disease he is laboring; and to accomplish than the analyses of Browne and Mill; because this he must attend to the symptoms. But many the former way appears to me a more practical symptoms are common to several diseases; many mode of viewing the subject. As to the second diseases indeed can scarcely be distinguished from class, I shall only mention those advantages which each other until several stages have been passed are in some measure peculiar to medical men; and through. In order then to distinguish a disease not those which they have in common with per- from those with which it is liable to be confounsons belonging to other professions or pursuits. ded, the physician must have regard both to the 1. The faculty of discrimination is particularly ex- symptoms which they have in common, and to ercised by the study of botany. That portion, which those in which they differ. This, necessarily vais most generally studied, is systematic botany; rying according to the nature of the disease in and the chief faculty of the mind here employed, is point, requires, on the whole, much discrimination. that of discrimination. For instance: on finding an The same remarks are applicable, whether a phyunknown plant, there are two, three, or four steps sician endeavor to find out the name of the disto be taken. We have first to find the class to ease, and then treat it according to rules laid down which it belongs, next the order, next the genus, in books for the particular disease; or whether he and lastly the species. Now, each of these steps, pursue a more philosophical plan, not seeking a derequires some degree of discrimination; varying scription of the disease by name, but endeavoring in the relative and absolute amount in different to discover by the symptoms the organ diseased, families of plants; and also according to our know- and then apply remedies accordingly; indeed if ledge of allied genera or species, and by reason of any thing, in the latter event, discrimination would some other circumstances. But there is always be more requisite. In forming a final decision, in some difficulty in finding the name of a plant, either order to arrive at a correct diagnosis, three things at one step or another: and perhaps, there is no are to be considered: first, the present symptoms; science taken generally, in which the faculty of dis- secondly, his own experience; and lastly, the dicta crimination is more constantly required and exer- of books. With respect to the symptoms, he has cised, than in botany. In almost every genus we also to attend particularly to the consideration, have several species; and of many of them, in this whether they are the result of the disease in point, country, from twenty-five to fifty species; in some or of some other under which the patient may be from fifty to a hundred-as for instance, Solidago, laboring at the same time; and moreover how far Aster, Ranunculus. And in searching for the they are idiophatic. And this leads me to the name of a plant which we have discovered to be- cause: with respect to this, we have first to discolong to such a genus, we have to examine each ver the right one, amongst many other things one of these, more or less minutely. The distinc-equally ostensible as such; secondly, we have to tions between one species and another, depend too, pay due regard to the questions asked the patient for the most part, upon differences which an ordi- concerning it. We have to consider what quesnary observer would not notice at all; such for in- tions it is proper for us to ask the patient, as to stance, as whether a leaf be sessile or not, whether the disease and symptoms generally. To ascerthe flowers be in a cyme or corymb, whether they tain the disease with any degree of certainty, these are axillary or lateral. Similar difficulties occur and similar circumstances must be taken into conin tracing out a genus. This is particularly the sideration; and hence to form a correct diagnosis case with respect to genera belonging to very natu- much discrimination is requisite. Similar remarks ral families; as Gramineæ, Cruciferæ, Umbelliferæ;' apply to the treatment. With regard to the ad

VOL. VII-98

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