We have often heard it said that men are curious, and we can well
believe it; but now we find it recorded that there has been at least
_one_ curious woman. Read the following extract from the "Salem Gazette"
of 1795:--
Married at Andover, Mr. Aaron Osgood to the _curious_ Miss
Ester Wardwell.
* * * * *
"AWFULLY GOOD."
In our opinion the oft-repeated words "awfully good," "jolly fine," and
similar expressions, which sound so "charmingly sweet" from the lips of
interesting young ladies, are quite cast into the shade by language used
in the following extract from the Portsmouth, N.H., "Oracle of the
Day," Nov. 24, 1798:--
MARRIED]--In this town, on Sunday evening last, by the Rev.
Dr. Haven, MARK SIMES, Esq. Deputy Post-Master, &c. to the
elegantly pretty and amiably delicate Miss MARY-ANN BLUNT,
youngest daughter of the late Capt. John Blunt, of
Little-Harbour.
_Genius of Hymen; Power of fondest Love!
In showers of bliss descend from worlds above,_
_On_ Beauty's _rose, and_ Virtue's _manlier form,_
_And shield, ah! shield them both, from time's tempestuous storm_!
* * * * *
A FEW years since, a young gentleman at the University in
_Cambridge_ asked of a Collegian the loan of his _W_irgil.
The inelegant pronunciation of the word _Virgil_ was
burlesqued by the young Collegian in the following story,
with which his invention readily supplied him:--_Lately_
(says he) _I set out on a woyage to Wersailles, with one
Captain Winal, in a British wessel called the Wiper; but we
soon met with a wiolent storm, which drove us into a port in
Wirginia; where one Capt. Waughn, a wery wicious man,
inwited us aboard his wessel, and gave us some weal and
wenison, with some winegar, which made me wery sick; so I
did womit like wengeance;_ (and added, reaching out the
book) _You may have my Wirgil, and welcome_. This humor had
the desired effect; the young gentleman saw the absurdity of
doing such w_iolence_ to the letter V, and has ever since
spoke like other people.
_Salem Gazette,_ April 26, 1791.
* * * * *
What Mr. Welby, an English gentleman, saw when he was in the United
States in 1821. A very flattering picture of the West.
More Travellers' Stories.
_From the National Gazette._
A new book of Travels in America has been recently issued in
London which rivals the volumes of our old friends Weld,
Ashe, Fearon, &c. It is entitled "A Visit to North America
and the English Settlements in Illinois, with a winter
residence in Philadelphia; solely to ascertain the actual
prosperity of the Emigrating Agriculturist, Mechanic, and
Commercial Speculator"--by Adlard Welby, _Esquire_, of South
Rauceby, Lincolnshire. This esquire has said enough, should
he be believed, to settle ultimately the point of the truth
or falsehood of Godwin's notable doctrine, that we owe the
increase of our numbers chiefly to emigration. No sane
European would venture among us after having read Mr.
Welby's book. He discovered that, in Philadelphia, living
was _very dear_, comfort _very uncommon_, and good manners
still more rare. Throughout his journey he found in the
taverns "a system of impertinence, rudeness, rascality, and
filth, rendered more intolerable by an antipathy to the
English, in the brutal manifestation of which most of the
Colonel, Doctor, and Squire, keepers of the taverns, were
pleased to indulge." When he asked an hostler to call him
early in the morning, he was answered that--he might call
himself and be d----d. In the Western country he found no
symptoms of hospitality--witnessed only idleness and
licentiousness, and experienced every where brutal rudeness
and unbounded extortion. The western people usually combine
in cheating all travellers, and sometimes "_rifle_," that is
_shoot_ residents among them who do not choose to descend to
their own level. In Illinois "a party proposed to each other
_coolly_ to go and shoot neighbour *****, who had behaved
ill to them sundry times; it was agreed upon; they went to
his field, found the old man at plough, and, with unerring
aim, laid him dead." And Mr. Welby adds that the country
would be desirable to live in, did not the folks _shoot_
each other thus, and were they not half savages. The
_shooting_ case reminds us of a traveller's story which we
heard at a dinner table abroad. A gentleman and esquire of
strict veracity, like Mr. Welby, related, in order to shew
how common was the calamity of the _coup de soleil_, or
stroke of the sun, in the Island of JAVA, that sitting once
in the house of an opulent merchant of Batavia, drinking a
_cool_ glass of Madeira after dinner, with the merchant's
wife in the room, the lady was, in the twinkling of an eye,
_reduced to a heap of ashes_ by a _coup de soleil_; when the
husband observed to his guest, "don't be alarmed--we are
accustomed to this;" then rang the bell with great
composure, and on the appearance of the servant, _coolly_
said--"Boy--sweep your mistress out, and _bring us clean
glasses._"
In the neighborhood of Mr. Birbeck's settlement in Illinois,
Mr. Welby could obtain neither eggs, milk, sugar, salt, nor
water; and when he and his party sent a request to Mr.
Birbeck for some water, the answer returned was, he made it
a general rule to refuse every one. Mr. Birbeck is
represented as having deceived and disappointed most of the
English who were lured to his settlement by his "Journal."
Mr. W. could discover none of "the snug cottages, with
adjoining piggeries, cowsteads, gardens and orchards," which
Mr. B. had introduced into his canvass. He found nothing but
the primitive log building, that served the whole
family--"for parlour, for kitchen, and hall." "The strange
heterogeneous mixture of characters," says Mr. W. "which are
collected here by the magic pen of Morris Birbeck, is truly
ludicrous. Among many others, a couple now attend to the
store at Albion who lately lived in a dashing style in
London, not far from Bond-street; the lady brought over her
white satin shoes and gay dresses, rich carpets, and
everything but what in such a place she would require--yet
I have understood that they have accommodated themselves to
their new situations, hand out the plums, sugar, whiskey,
&c., with tolerable grace, and at least 'do not seem to mind
it.'"
In one of the principal literary journals of London, Mr.
Welby's book is recommended as "carrying on its front the
stamp of plain dealing, _truth_ and candor, and entitled,
from internal evidence, to the highest authority amid the
conflicting statements and opinions respecting emigration to
America." The reviewer adds:--"From a country so destitute
of moral beauty as the author depicts it, so disgusting in
its human externals, and so low in the scale, not merely of
refinement, but of good principles, we are happy to
withdraw." As Mr. Welby spent a winter in Philadelphia, and
had acquaintance here, it is probable that such of the
latter as have not seen his book will be pleased to know the
complexion of its contents.
_Salem Register,_ May 18, 1822.
* * * * *
In the "Essex Register" of July 18, 1833, may be found the following
notice of two well-known American authors:--
DISCOURSE ON GENIUS. The Richmond Compiler speaks in terms
of great praise of a discourse delivered recently in
Richmond, before a Young Men's Society, by Joseph Hulbert
Nicholas. A number of extracts are also given in the
Compiler, as specimens of the performance, from which we
take the following notices of two of our
fellow-townsmen.--_Boston Courier._
Of Charles Sprague, of Massachusetts, no language can be
spoken but that of unqualified praise. Forsaking the modern
school of writing, he is contented with being simple and
natural. Sublimity, tenderness, wit, elegance, and
beneficial satire characterise his muse.--The only complaint
I have ever heard made of him is that _he does not write
more_.
Of Nathaniel Parker Willis, a native of Massachusetts, and a
fellow-student with myself at Yale College, I come now to
speak. Of him I shall speak familiarly, as of an intimate
friend; and impartially and justly, as one who wishes him
well. Willis, I venture to pronounce the most remarkable
genius our country has yet produced. I do not call him
remarkable merely for his unusual precocity of song, but
remarkable for the possession of that rare genius, which by
any man, young or old, in our land, I do not think has ever
been displayed. Nature has done wonderful things for him;
but alas! he has thus far done but little for himself. The
great pieces he has sometimes given us have cost him but
little effort, and he has thrown out his productions, in
prose as well as poetry, with a profusion and a variety that
seem miraculous; and yet, of all our bards, he has met with
the most severe and merciless censures. In some measure he
has deserved the treatment. In College he would not
condescend to study, and charity only for his high genius
enabled him to gain a degree. Besides, he gained his first
and best reputation by pieces founded upon scriptural
subjects, and he stood committed to the world as a
_religious_ man. Many who had never seen aught of him but
his productions, and had formed the loftiest estimate of his
personal character from the pure tendency of his effusions,
were astonished and grieved when introduced to the
author.--His head made giddy by the praises of young and
old, he forgot himself, and possessing most shrewd good
sense, he would talk the reverse. He became fantastic in
apparel, as he did likewise in his style of writing; made
himself too common, and almost broke a pious father's heart
by deserting the altar of that divine Jesus upon whose Bible
he had founded the fairest fabric of his fame. My friend, of
whom I so sternly speak, is now in Italy; and should these
remarks, per chance, ever meet his eye, I beseech him by our
past friendship, by our walks "by moon or glittering
star-light," through the Eden groves and avenues of
New-Haven, by the love he bears to his parents, and above
all, by the love he bears that Saviour, upon whose image and
the scenes of whose mortal pilgrimage he is rapturously
gazing, in the matchless pictures of the Italian masters, I
beseech him, when he returns to his native land, to wear no
longer a ridiculous mask, but to appear in his own native
strength, dignity, and surpassing loveliness.
In the "Salem Observer," March 8, 1834, are to be found the following
references to well-known young ladies of the day. Miss Silsbee is
supposed to be the daughter of the Hon. Nathaniel Silsbee, of Salem,
Massachusetts senator in Congress. She afterwards married Jared Sparks,
the well-known historian, president of Harvard College, etc.
HIGH LIFE AT WASHINGTON. The Washington Correspondent of the
Boston Morning Post, in describing Gov. Cass's soiree, thus
notices some of the young ladies who were present:--
Miss Keyser of Baltimore, uniting youth and beauty,
possesses an eye as dark as the absence of all light,
beaming with a lustre that eclipses all. I never saw a
countenance betoken such perfect happiness; it was like a
star-lit lake, curling its lips into ripples in some dream
of delight, as the west wind salutes them with its balmy
breath and disturbs their placid slumber. I never before
realised Byron's idea of
"Music breathing o'er the face;"
till Miss Keyser's brought it home to the business and
bosom.
Miss Silsbee, of Salem, with a form of great symmetry,
possesses a countenance not only beautiful, but entirely
intellectual--the most so of any you have met with either
here or elsewhere; it is of the Italian model; and should
have basked beneath an Italian sky. She is very easy,
graceful and modest in her deportment, and dresses 'rich not
gaudy;' the cameo necklace that graced her person was only
the foil that set off the diamond.
Miss Harper of Baltimore, with a fine face and form, is
particularly unrivalled for a bust of unrivalled symmetry;
it would furnish a model for a Canova; and reminds me of
Greenough's Medora.
Miss M'Lane of this city, with many separate charms that
could not fail of attraction, unites with them the finest of
fine forms.
And last, not least, the younger Miss Cass possesses the
most perfect _Madonna_ countenance I have ever seen clothed
in living lustre. It was one of the first that attracted my
attention when I entered the saloon, and the last that
received my parting glance when I retired; it seemed to be--
"While in, above the world;"
I am told it is entirely characteristic; that she is in
heart and thought, what you behold in her
countenance--happy, but not gay; serious but not sad;
devout, yet not a devotee.
* * * * *
In the "Salem Gazette" of 1815 is the following curious information
about Scott's novels, which shows how easy it is for people to be
mistaken.
William Erskine, Esq. is said to be the author of the new
and interesting Novel, "_Guy Mannering_."--Walter Scott had
been pronounced the author.
WAVERLY.--It is not yet decided to whom this very
interesting novel belongs. It came into the world with all
the advantage that the name of Walter Scott could give it;
but Guy Mannering's appearance seems to have dissolved that
connection. An article in our first page attributes the work
to Wm. Erskine; but in the last North-American Review we
read the following:--"An English Magazine says, the author
of Waverly and Guy Mannering is a young gentleman of the
name of FORBES, the son of a Scotch baronet." The Review
remarks, that the extract in the title page of the latter,
from the _Lay of the Last Minstrel_, was a delicate way of
informing the public that they were under a mistake in
attributing the former to Walter Scott.
* * * * *
On the 16th June, 1806, there was a total eclipse of the sun. The
following is all the "Salem Gazette" of the 17th has to say of such a
remarkable event.
Yesterday the great Solar Eclipse took place, agreeably to
the calculations which had been made. The day was very
favourable to viewing it. The air was remarkably clear, and
there was not a cloud in the hemisphere. As the sun shut
in, the stars appeared, and many were visible at the time of
total darkness. A considerable alteration in the temperature
of the atmosphere was felt during the continuance of the
Eclipse.
* * * * *
In the "Boston Palladium" of 1819, copied from a London paper, is Lord
Mansfield's opinion about a word in Johnson's Dictionary. In the
original editions of this work are to be found many very curious
definitions, some of which bore so hard upon the government as to be
construed into libel.