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and put them in my pocket, and, as a matter of | sensible and gone into business. He dealt in curiosity, filled my handkerchief with the greenish-yellow sand. Hearing the rest call me, I went to the boat, where I found a large number of eggs gathered. We were soon on board. I asked the captain the latitude and longitude of this singular island, and he told me. I did this because I thought it worth hoting from its odd appearance.

fertilizers and agricultural implements-choosing that line, possibly, because he didn't know a Valparaiso squash from a Cashaw pumpkin. He had my yellow sand analyzed-tried to pump from me the secret of the place—and finally, for a percentage, negotiated with a great guano company on my behalf. I received, after the matter had been fairly tested, two hundred thou

For several days we had sea-fowl eggs, in va- sand dollars, less the fifty thousand which John rious ways, until we were all surfeited. took for commission-the grasping fellow! And We arrived without misadventure. It was when I proposed in due form for Dora, I had nearly dark when we approached the Narrows. the pleasure of learning that the father and moWe came to at Quarantine, and though, after ther had suspected me all along; that the elder examination, the doctor passed us, we lay there, Banks had come to the conclusion that a young intending to come up next morning. I was im- man brought up as I was, who could exhibit patient to get home, and hired a boat to take me such pluck and industry, would make a good to the Jersey shore, where I got a conveyance to son-in-law; and that I was sent as supercargo Jersey City, and crossed the ferry. It was after that I might make the money which my share ten o'clock; but I knew that my news would of the venture brought, and so pave the way to make me welcome, and I took a hack from Cort- an admission to partnership. And that is the land Street to Banks's house. On my way I simple story of how I won fortune and Dorathought a deal about Dora. Was she well? commonplace, I admit; but you will remember Had she forgotten me? But no matter how that I warned you of that fact at the beginning. that might be, I was determined to be careful and not to let my love be seen. No! It would not be fair treatment to her father, whose kindness had bettered my fortune; and so I resolved to conceal my feelings.

I dismissed the hackman when we arrived at the house, and rang the bell. A servant came to the door and informed me that Mr. and Mrs. | Banks were at the theatre with some friends from the country. Miss Dora was at home, not being very well.

I trembled from head to foot.

"I will remain till they return," I said. have important business with Mr. Banks." I did not send up my name. No! I would not even let Dora know I was there. The servant showed me into the parlor and closed the door. There was a lady who turned as I entered. I trembled violently, for it was Dora herself. She stared at me wildly. Her face was pale. She gave a slight scream, followed by a burst of hysterical laughter, and staggering forward fell into my arms.

A FEW FRENCHMEN AND
YANKEES.

I. SOME DISTINGUISHED FRENCHMEN.
N the spring of 1848 I crossed the Atlantic

happened accidentally to have a seat next to him at table. He was going to France, to derive what advantage he could from the Revolution of February. I found him a most goodnatured, jovial companion, with a good deal of "I a certain kind of shrewdness and wit. He was extremely careless about his person, an immense feeder, and the most formidable snorer I ever met. Unfortunately for me his state-room was directly opposite mine, and as he always slept with his door open, I had the full benefit of the terrific noise he made at night. More than once, after lying awake for hours, I have in sheer desperation hurled my boots at his berth; which rather forcible protest he would always take very amiably. His proportions then were Now I put it to any man whether I was to of the Daniel Lambert order, but he has develblame under the circumstances. I ask any rea-oped considerably since. The last time I saw sonable man-yes, even the rich father of a him in Paris he was in full uniform, covered with handsome marriageable daughter-whether the orders, and a sight to behold. What a change strongest resolution would not naturally give his fortunes have undergone! To be elevated way in a like case? And could I help it, when from a sort of New Jersey squatter to be a memI discovered that a report of my death by yellow-ber of the Imperial family of France, with at fever had been brought by a vessel arriving before us, and that she had mourned me so bitterly, that I then and there told my love, and, as I think I had a right to do-taking the time, place, and circumstances into considerationthat I gave her one of those kisses which are so delicious and unfrequent in a man's life, the first kiss of an accepted lover? Who blames me?

It is useless to spin out the story. Ridiculous as it may sound in such a connection--but facts are facts-my barren rock was of as much value as a gold mine. John Van Gelt had grown

one time a squint at the throne of Naples!

The Prince used to wear on his head a very old and very rough soft felt hat, which was any thing but ornamental. Apropos of this hat, he told me that, before he left home, his wife insisted that he should buy a proper black headcovering at Leary's so soon as he reached town; that if he would not agree to do this she would not consent to see him off; that he told her he could not afford the extravagance, and if she made so unreasonable a condition to accompanying him to New York, she might stay in New

Jersey. He had with him the famous white plume which used to distinguish his father on the field of battle, or rather the whalebone remains of it.

He had acquired a great reputation in New Jersey as a horse-jockey. It was said that he would start off for a journey on the back of a sorry Rosinante, and return home, after an absence of several weeks, driving a stylish pair of horses behind an elegant carriage, the result of a series of successful swops. He had a great natural taste for mechanics; and, from his conversation, seemed to consider Mr. Stevens, of Hoboken, the greatest man of the age.

I was very much amused with a conversation I had with him one afternoon about his uncle, Joseph Bonaparte, and I will try to repeat what | he said, as nearly as I can recollect, in his own words:

"My uncle Joseph was a very estimable man, with one great weakness-his excessive and ridiculous affectation of philosophy and martyrdom. He had been King of Spain; and yet he had become resigned to live in obscurity in a Republic! He used to bore me to death with this nonsense, until one day I lost my patience, and almost lost my temper. 'I am weary of these pretensions,' I said to him. 'You are not half the philosopher I am. Compare for a moment our fates. You were born a miserable

his fortunes have constantly tended upward. I called upon him in Paris. He was not in town; but a few days later he sent an aid to me, inviting me to his country seat. Unfortunately for me my engagements at the time would not permit me to avail myself of this invitation. I subsequently saw him once, as I have intimated, at a public ceremony, but had no opportunity of speaking with him.

I have never seen but two of Louis Philippe's family-the Duc de Nemours and the Duc de Montpensier. I was in Paris in the year 1843, and went one day to the races in the Champ de Mars. The Duc de Nemours was at that time the leading patron of races in France, and he had a stand of his own on the course. The carriage in which I was, however, was stationed so far off that, although I could make out that the stand was full of people, I could not distinguish any faces. After the first race was over I alighted, with the intention of walking across the course to have a look at the Prince. When I reached the stand it was empty, and I made up my mind that he must have gone home. Lighting a cigar, I turned back until I reached the middle of the course, where I stood for some time watching what was going on. Near me was a young man, who did not particularly attract my attention, in conversation with an older one. I only observed that he was very illdressed, and had a very unpleasant lisp in speaking. After a while he took a cigar-case from his pocket, and selecting a cigar from it, asked me for a light. "Certainly, Sir," I replied, handing him my lighted cigar. A few moments afterward an officer approached him, bareheaded, and asked him when Monseigneur would have his guard. I then knew that the young man was the Duc de Nemours.

Corsican peasant. You happened to have a brother who had more brains than is frequently allotted to mankind. He grasped the sceptre of the world, and elevated you to the rank of a sovereign. You had not a very quiet time of it in your exalted position, it is true, and you were soon compelled to descend from it. But you came to the ground unharmed-not a feather ruffled; and while your illustrious brother was expiating his fate on a barren rock in the midst The Duc de Montpensier I saw at a monster of a distant ocean, you retired quietly to this concert in the Champs Elysées the next year. charming place, where you are living like a Among the pieces performed was a chorus from prince, surrounded by all the refinements of the opera of Charles VI., I think, "Jamais life, with the comfortable income of sixty thou-l'Anglais ne regnera en France-Never shall the sand dollars per annum. I, on the contrary, English reign in France." Feeling between the was born on the steps of a throne. My father two nations was running high at that time, and was shot; I escaped, with extreme difficulty, with the applause was tremendous. The Duke in his my life, got to America, and have been a poor enthusiasm split a pair of new gloves. His unNew Jersey farmer ever since. And I take lucky marriage with the sister of the Queen of things as they come, without ever thinking of Spain did as much as any thing else to precipicomplaining. I am a hundred times more of a tate his father from the throne. philosopher than you are.

He

M. Guizot I had the honor of knowing. We arrived at Liverpool on a Sunday-the is undoubtedly one of the purest public men of very day on which the election was to take place the age. I was requested to translate into Enin France for members of the Legislative Assem-glish an Address which he delivered before the bly. Immediately on landing the Prince and I went together to the Adelphi Hotel, and there learned that, as luck would have it, the election had been postponed one week. The Prince took the first train for London, crossed the Channel, hurried down to his father's native department, and announced himself as a candidate. Other arrangements had been made, and other candidates were in the field; but the name of Murat was a spell, and he overcame all opposition, and was returned almost unanimously. Since then

Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, on the Intellectual Activity of the United States. This gave me the occasion to call upon him at his modest residence several times. His character and the tone of his mind are rather English than French, and so indeed is his appearance; but when he speaks, although sober in his gestures for a Frenchman, he could not possibly be mistaken for any thing else. He is a Protestant, as is well known, and after the downfall of the King was offered the Professorship of History in the

University of Oxford, which he declined. I remember once hearing him speak when Prime Minister, in the Chamber of Deputies, in 1843. He made use of the expression "La France a besoin de se senter gouvernée-France requires to feel herself governed"-than which a truer thing was never said. This language excited storms of indignation. The Emperor Napoleon III. has shown that he believes in the same doctrine, and most intelligent Frenchmen now agree with him.

Little M. Thiers, M. Guizot's formidable adversary in his days of power, is physically about as insignificant a specimen of humanity as could be picked out of a crowd. His mental gifts are of the very highest order.

The ablest man, probably, whom the present Emperor has had in his government is M. Drouyn de l'Huys, formerly Minister of Foreign Affairs. He retired from the Ministry after the failure of the effort to patch up a peace with Russia at Vienna before the death of Nicholas, his views and those of the Emperor being understood to differ. M. Drouyn de l'Huys has one of the largest fortunes in France.

It is not generally supposed that the Emperor Napoleon cares to be surrounded by first-class men. He likes good executive officers, but prefers to do his own thinking. It is said that he never enters into a discussion at a cabinet meeting. He takes the opinion of each Minister in turn, and then announces his decision, seldom assigning reasons for it. His uncle followed very much the same system. I have had the pleasure of the acquaintance of many other eminent Frenchmen, whose names, however, are but little known to readers on this side of the Atlantic. I presume that the public men of France are, as a class, the most laborious in the world. In a clear apprehension of abstract questions and in administrative capacity they have, probably, no equals. Ever since the Revolution of 1789 the French Government, under each successive change, has always been a most ingenious and nicely adjusted piece of machinery. Only there has generally been something wrong about the main-spring.

IL-SOME AMERICANS IN PARIS.

Some years ago I acted for a short time as Secretary of Legation, and during that year we viséd over seven thousand passports. Many of our wealthy gentlemen, who go there to reside a few years, have just retired from business, having been engaged actively all their lives in cotton or pork. Their preparation, from no fault of their own, has not usually been such as to fit them to lead, advantageously to themselves, the lives of men of leisure in the capital of France. The most unfortunate visitors that Paris receives are the horde of young men, with more money than brains, who rush wildly into all the dissipation which lies upon the surface, without even suspecting the existence of all the admirable advantages which surround them, or caring for them if they know of them. I recollect once asking a young gentleman which he preferred, Rome or Naples? "Rome," he said, "because the brandy was better!" It must be confessed, too, that Paris does no good to many of our women. If it develops in them nothing worse than frivolity, that is to be deprecated. I am inclined to think it would be better for our country if there were no Paris. We are importing thence into New York every thing evil and foolish; and I have yet to learn that we have copied the French in the first of the noble characteristics which underlie their national character, or that we have studied, to any advantage, the admirable lessons in the economy of life, in science, and in art, which Paris can teach us.

Our countrymen are a droll people when they get away from home. If the traveler be a young man, the first thing he requires on his arrival is the address of a tailor, a bootmaker, and a hatter. A visit to the Louvre and to Versailles is quite subordinate to this great necessity Indeed at any time the dancing gardens, the masked balls at the opera, a petit souper at the Café Doré, or an introduction into the coulisses of a minor theatre, are greater attractions than all the picture-galleries and public buildings on the Continent. Insensate youth!

'I recollect an absurd incident which occurred many years since. I met in the street one day an American friend, and not a very young man either, who was visiting Europe for the first time. He was delighted to see me, for I spoke Our countrymen who travel abroad may be French, and he did not; and I knew all the divided into two great classes-those who are ropes, whereas he had just arrived. The first so obstinately prejudiced in favor of every thing usiness to be attended to, as might be anticiat home that they can see nothing good in for-pated, was a visit to a tailor. This was diseign lands, and those who affect to despise their patched. Then came the bootmaker's turn. own institutions and become more European than Europeans themselves. There are a few exceptions of intelligent persons who recognize some excellence and some evil on both sides of the Atlantic; but the number is not large. Those who belong to the first of my great divisions are only short-sighted; the others are contemptible.

We have a permanent colony in Paris, numbering it would be difficult to say how many, but I should think not less than two thousand. The transient travel is, of course, much greater.

This was likewise attended to. Then some pocket handkerchiefs were required, which it was desired to have very elegant. So I took my friend to Doucet's, in the Rue de la Paix. When we entered the shop neither M. Doucet nor any of his assistants happened to be in; they were somewhere in a back room. Lying on a counter were some beautiful specimens of cambric, each elaborately embroidered in one corner with a coronet. These at once attracted my friend's attention and admiration. He asked me what the coronet meant. I told him that the owner

was some nobleman.

spair the maddened Secretary hangs up a list in the Legation for signatures. Three to four hundred are soon appended; but this only includes a tithe of the people you are bound to think of without their taking any trouble in the premises. At last you send in your list five hundred strong, feeling ashamed of your own unavoidable impudence. Back comes a polite note from the Préfect. Very sorry, but you have asked for more invitations than can be accorded to all the foreign Legations combined. Be so good as to select forty names, and cards will be immediately sent. Those who finally go do not thank you; it was their right. The disappointed swear vengeance upon you. In this way a Secretary has a fine opportunity of making enemies of all his countrymen in less time than a twelvemonth.

There was a very odd fish in Paris the summer of 1855. He came from somewhere on our Western frontier, and crossed from New York to Havre in the North Star. He dressed in a complete suit of furs, and during the voyage slept on deck every night. He appeared to be a very intelligent man, had plenty of money, but was remarkably eccentric. In Paris he went to Meurice's Hotel, where he soon became the wonder of the crowds of cockneys who frequent that house. Standing in the centre of the courtyard, and describing around him a magic circle of tobacco juice, he would tell the most marvelous stories with a look which said, plainly, You had better not express any doubts if you do not want a bowie-knife between your ribs. The cockneys were at a complete loss what to make of him.

This he doubted; the coronet might be only an ornament. He had a great mind to have some exactly similar. I ridiculed the idea, and just then M. Doucet, who speaks English, came in. "Whose handkerchiefs are these, M. Doucet ?" I asked. "They belong to Prince a Russian." I thought this explanation would silence my companion, and so it did for a time. At length a happy thought seemed to strike him, and he suddenly asked the tradesman if he could not embroider an American Eagle on some handkerchiefs for him! It was as much as Doucet could do to keep his countenance. He replied as gravely as he could that undoubtedly it could be done, but that he was not acquainted with the peculiarities of our national bird. Thereupon my friend triumphantly took a half dollar from his pocket and threw it on the counter. The order was given and booked, and I presume executed; but I made no inquiry, and I took a vow that from that day forward I would never be induced to accompany an American on a shopping expedition. Fathers of family when they come to Paris, probably impelled thereto by their wives and daughters, are usually frantic about presentations at Court, and invitations to balls and fêtes. I have mentioned that I acted for a short time as Secretary of Legation. A charming position that seems to be in the distance. In reality it is a most unpleasant one. The regular duties are severe if conscientiously attended to; but that is nothing. But upon the unfortunate Secretary the responsibility of the whole Social Department rests; and this is awful. Every individual who brings a passport to be signed, whether he is acquainted with any member of the Legation or not, and whether the bearer of any letters or not, immediately expects to receive attentions from the servants of the people. Why, it would employ a messenger all the time to leave sufficient cards on all these persons to satisfy their pretensions. This is bad enough. But there is worse to come. Every crack-brained inventor-his furs proved an exception to this rule, and and their name is legion-who tumbles upon you expects you immediately to procure for him a private interview with the Emperor, which small favor is not always to be obtained. But the greatest trial comes when the Préfect of the Seine (or some other functionary, as the case may be) notifies you of an approaching ball the Hôtel de Ville, and politely requests you t send in a list of your countrymen whom you desire invited. What are you to do? All the permanent residents think they have peculiar claims to your courtesy, and that you are bound to take care of them. Whereas the transient people think there is no comparison in the case; it is all in their favor. Residents can go at any time; have been before, and may go again. They, on the contrary, will never have another opportunity. They have deferred their journey to Italy a week expressly on account of this ball. Jane and Maria have set their hearts upon it. In a word, they must have tickets, or look out for your political head at Washington. In deVOL. XXIII.-No. 137.-T T

A highly-cultivated friend of mine, who had accidentally made his acquaintance, was once guilty of the imprudence of asking him to take a walk. Now if our late Japanese visitors were to appear in the streets of Paris hardly any one would turn round to look at them, so accustomed are the people to all kinds of foreign costumes. But the big backwoodsman in

my friend soon perceived that they were attracting more attention than was altogether agreeable to his modesty. After a time they arrived at the Cathedral of Nôtre Dame, which they entered. As soon as they got in the frontiersman commenced looking round, as if anxiously searchating for something. Presently he espied a marble font or receptacle for holy water. His face at once lit up, and advancing to within six feet of it, he with the most accurate aim discharged a stream of tobacco juice directly into the centre. A sacristan who happened to be passing came up greatly excited at the sacrilege. It was some time before he could be convinced that the stranger thought the thing was a substitute for a spittoon. "What on earth else could it be meant for?" he asked.

The American students-humanes they call themselves-in the Latin quarter are a queer set. Among them were two young medical men from Louisiana, who had come over to enter the Russian service, but had never got be

yond Paris. One of them carried a card, which he seriously presented whenever introduced to a Frenchman, on which was engraved as a crest two alligators fighting with their tails, and under this, Le Baron d'Attakapas. The device of the other I forget, but he sported the name of Le Comte de Plaquemines.

OF LOSS.

TRETCHED silver-spun the spider's nets;

The blackbird's scarlet epaulets
Reddened the hemlock's topmost spire.

The mountain in his purple cloak,
His feet with misty vapors wet,
Lay dreamily, and seemed to smoke
All day his giant calumet.

From farm-house bells the noonday rung;

The teams that plowed the furrows stopped; The ox refreshed his lolling tongue,

And brows were wiped, and spades were dropped;

And down the field the mowers stepped,

With burning brows and figures lithe, As in their brawny hands they swept From side to side the hissing scythe;

"Till sudden ceased the noonday task,

The scythes 'mid swathes of grass lay still, As girls with can and cider flask

Came romping gayly down the hill.

And over all there swept a stream
Of subtle music, felt, not heard,
As when one conjures in a dream
The distant singing of a bird.

I drank the glory of the scene,

Its autumn splendor fired my veins;
The woods were like an Indian Queen
Who gazed upon her old domains.

And ah! methought I heard a sigh
Come softly through her leafy lips;
A mourning over days gone by,

That were before the white man's ships.

And so I came to think on Loss

I never much could think on Gain.

A poet oft will woo a cross

On whom a crown is pressed in vain.

I came to think-I know not howPerchance through sense of Indian wrongOf losses of my own, that now

Broke for the first time into song.

A fluttering strain of feeble words

That scarcely dared to leave my breast;
But like a brood of fledgeling birds
Kept hovering round their natal nest.

"O loss!" I sang-"O early loss!

O blight that nipped the buds of spring! O spell that turned the gold to dross!

O steel that clipped the untried wing!

"I mourn all days, as sorrows he Whom once they called a merchant prince Over the ships he sent to sea,

And never, never heard of since.

"To ye, O woods, the annual May Restores the leaves ye lost before; The tide that now forsakes the bay, This night will wash the widowed shore. "But I shall never see again

The shape that smiled upon my youth; A mist of sorrow veils my brain,

And dimly looms the light of truth. "She faded, fading woods, like you! And fleeting shone with sweeter grace; And as she died the colors grew

To softer splendor in her face.

"Until one day the hectic flush
Was veiled with death's eternal snow;
She swept from earth amid a hush,
And I was left alone below!"

While thus I moaned I heard a peal

Of laughter through the meadows flow;
I saw the farm-boys at their meal-
I saw the cider circling go.

And still the mountain calmly slept,
His feet with valley vapors wet;
And slowly circling upward crept

The smoke from out his calumet.

Mine was the sole discordant breath

That marred this dream of peace below. "O God!" I cried-"give, give me death, Or give me grace to bear thy blow!"

Io

POLL JENNINGS'S HAIR.

Abe's

is sometimes a relief to have a story without a heroine; and this distinction alone can I claim for mine. Nothing heroic or wonderful casts its halo about little Poll Jennings, the seventh daughter of Abe Jennings the South-side fisherman. Not even one of those miraculous poor cottages that are always so exquisitely clean, and have white curtains and climbing roses through all depths of poverty and suffering, held my little girl in its romantic shelter. house, lying between three of those low sandhills that back the shore on our New England coast, like waves of land that simulate the sea, was not in the least attractive or picturesque. At first a mere cabin of drift-wood, the increasing wants and numbers of his family had, as it were, built themselves out in odd attachmentssquare, or oblong, or triangular, as wood came to hand, or necessity demanded-till the whole dwelling bore the aspect externally of a great rabbit-hutch or poultry-house, such as boys build on a smaller scale out of old boards from ruined barns, palings of fence, and refuse from carpenters' shops: though no constructive magazine furnished inside or outside of the fisherman's home; it was all fashioned from the waifs of a great Destroyer-all drift-wood from the sea, that raved and thundered half a mile off, as if yet clamorous for its prey. Still uncouth and rude as was its shaping, a poet might have found it more suggestive than any model cottage in the land-if a poet be not merely the rhymer of sentiment and beauty, but he whose creative soul,

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