Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Reviews.
are told , at p . 32 , in reference to Dr . Spuvzheim and the new system of phrenology introduced into America about 1834 , " Phrenology became the rage . Plaster-casts of heads , and lithographs marked with the organs , were sold by thousands . There was a universal feeling of heads . Lecturers went from town to town , explaining the new science , aud giving public and private examinations . Periodicals
were published to promulgate the new philosophy , and a library of phrenological books was rapidly published . I have no doubt that in a few years after the advent of Dr . Spnrzheim , there were more believers of phrenology in the United States than in all the world beside . " So it was with Mesmerism , so with Physiology , so wi th Biology , and so it is now with Sp iritualism .
Of drunkenness , which is touched upon in the chapter on " Religion and Morality , " we have a very rational explanation as to why it so extensively prevailed , and of the violence of the reaction which set in against drinking , even of tho most innocent character . Liquors were cheap , there being no excise on spirits and wines of native manufacture . " Cider was free as water . " No wonder then
when everybody invited everybody to drink ou the moat trivial occasion , that great numbers of people , many of the highest ability and position , fell into habits of drunkenness . " There were drunken lawyers , drunken doctors , drunken members of Congress , drunken ministers , drunkards of all classes , if one may classify a people who claim to bo ' free and equal . '" Tho reaction set in . A temperance
movement was begun , and culminated in the Maine Liquor Law , the wisdom of which act , however , does not seem very apparent to Dr . Nichols , who not unjustly thinks it led to much secret drinking , much smuggling , and a general disrespect for law . The chapter on American " Peculiarities and Eccentricities " will
delight every class of reader . Many are already familiar with Yankee eccentricities of speech , but more of them are collected together in this chapter than are generally to be met with in so small a compass . The western vocabulary , in the author ' s opinion , is even more copious than that of the Yankee proper , in evidence of which the following ;—
" A Western man ' sleeps so sound , it would take an earthquake to wake him . ' He is in danger * pretty considerable much , ' because ' somebody was down on him , like tho whole Missouri on a sandy bar . ' He is a ' gone ' coon . ' He is down on all' cussed varmints , ' gets into an everlasting fix , ' and holds that ' the longest pole knocks down the persimmons . ' A story ' smells rather tall . ' ' Stranger , ' he says , in bar hunts I am numerous . ' He says a pathetic story sunk into
his feelings ' like a snagged boat into the Mississippi . ' He tells of a person ' as cross as a bar with two cubs and a sore tail . ' He 'laughs like a hyena over a dead nigger . ' He ' walks through a fence like a falling tree through a cobweb . ' He ' goes the whole hog . ' He raises * right smart of corn , ' and lives where there is a ' smart chance of bars . ' ' Bust me wide open , ' he says , ' if I didn ' t bulge into tho creek in the twinkling of a bedpost , I was so thunderin' savagerous . '"
" In the south-west , " continues Dr . Nichols , " is found the combination of Western and Southern character and speech . The Southwestern man was' bora in old Kaintuck , raised in Mississippi , is death on a bar , and smartly on a painter fight ! He ' walks the water , out hollers tho thunder , drinks the Mississippi , '' calculates ' that he is ' the genuwine article , ' aud that those he don ' t like ' aint worth
shucks . ' He tells of a fellow ' so poor and thin , that he had to lean up agin a saplin to cuss . ' He gets ' as savage as a meat-axe . ' Ho ' splurges about , ' and ' blows up like a steamboat . ' " The quaintness of American expression is no doubt familar enough to Englishmen . A case in point is tho evidence of a witness in a life insurance case , when the death was caused by the blowing up of a
steamboat on the Ohio . " Tho witness knew the missing man . Ho saw him on the deck of the steamboat just before the explosion . ' When , ' asked the lawyer , ' was tho last time you saw him ? ' ' The very last time I ever set eyes on him , ' said the careful witness , ' was when the boiler burst , and I was going up , and I met him and the smoke pipe coming down !'"
Barnum , of course , is introduced as one sort of a model Yankee . The following adventure of his , is not , wo are told in his published autobiography . " He was on his way up the river from New Orleans , where he had been to spend the winter in some speculation . Some of the sporting gentlemen , who make their home on the river , engaged in the
favourite betting game of poker , a bluff or brag game , in which the skill consists in managing so as to have the best cards , or in boldly betting on the worst . It was hard , we think , to beat tho great showman in either , but luck was against him , and he was dead broke . He landed at a small town in Mississippi , where he found the chances of winning money at play very small , in consequence of a revival of religion that was going forward . But ' P . T . ' had more than one
string to his bow . Not long before this time ho had been a preacher , as it happened , a Universalist . He announced his profession , and obtained a place to preach , but found his creed anything but popular . The Southerners are orthodox in their religious notions , and like strong doctrine . The revival was attracting crowds to the Presbyterian meeting house . Something had to be done , aud the exhibitor oi dwarfs and prima donnas was equal to the occasion . He dismissed his small and indifferent congregation , walked over to tho Presbyterian
meeting , and aunouu > : -.- , !?•< -. , 1 ' oniahed and delighted assembly that he had been c ^ . wc ; .. ¦ .. v , :: \ n his errors . There was great rejoicing ; he was invited to preach , was rewarded with a good collection , resumed his voyage , and had good luck at poker all the way to St . Louis . "
It must be pleasant travelling on a iirst class Hudson river boat , which , wo are told , " is more than four hundred feet long . Its pudpaddle wheels r . ro sixty feet in diameter . It draws only foui feet of water , aud glides along ono of the finest rivers ii m the world , through scenery of ever varying beauty and grandeur , afc tho rate of twenfcy-four miles an hour . A thousand passengers arc
Reviews.
lounging in the grand saloons , or reading under the awnings ou the promenade deck ; but there is no crowd . When the dinner-bell rings they all find seats at the long ranges of tables in the great cabins . They are served with every luxury of the season , from soup and fish to the fruit and ice cream . And the trip of one hundred and sixty miles , including the dinner , has cost seven shillings . I have known it to be as low as five—less than tho cost of a very poor meal at an English hotel . "
But the American cannot bo a pleasant fellow-traveller—as regards his spitting propensities at all events . He is refined , no doubt ; polite to ladies , giving them always the best seats in theatres and on the cars , but too many of them indulge in this odious habit of spitting , so that in any public vehicle and place of amusement you are liable to this nuisance .
One more sketch and we have done . Tho recognised hero of tho Texan War of Independence—General Sam . Houston was , says Dr . Nichols , " an extraordinary character . A few months after his marriage with the daughter of an ex-Governor of Tennessee , he abandoned her , without giving a reason , and went to live among the Cherokee Indians , beyond the Mississippi , by whom he was adopted
as a chief . In Texas he was known as an inveterate gambler , a drunkard , a liar , whose word could never be trusted , and , as I have been assured , was as great a coward as he was a rascal . His adopted Indian fellow citizens gave him the name of ' Big Drunk . ' But ho was tall , handsome , plausible , eloquent in the highest degree , and swore with equal profanity and sublimity—swore as a Homer or a
Milton might . This man , who was often seen airty , drunken , living with a band of Indians and squaws , borrowing half-a-dollar of any stranger who would lend it , and losing it the next moment at the gaming-table—so utterly debased , and so utterly cowardly and dishonest , had yet that gift of eloquence by which he could control the people as he willed , and induce them to elect him to the highest offices in their gift .
" General Houston late in life married a young and beautiful wife , who had influence enough to make him a teetotaller , a Charoh member , and a respectable member of society . " It is impossible to give more than an idea of the vast amount of valuable information , as well as genuine fun , which is to be met with in these pages . Dr . Nichols , too , is an excellent hand at describing scenery as well as people , so that the reader will glean much , not
only of the American people in different of the United States , but of the principal towns , rivers , mountains , & c . With these remarks we take leave of Dr . Nichols , with hearty thanks for the agreeable hours we have spent in the perusal of his narrative . We only hope he will be able to fulfil tho promise he makes in his preface , and that we may shortly renew our acquaintance with him by the medium of his " Twelve Years of English Life , with Insular and Continental experiences . "
Le Monde Maronnique for February and March contains , besides the usual budget of news of French Freemasonry , a very interesting account of the progress of tho Craft in Pern , " Le Mouvement Maronniquc au Pe " rou , " an address to Initiates , "Discours aun Initios , " and a capital London Letter by Bro . H . Valleton .
The Scottish Freemasons' Magazine ( Part 6 ) contains , among other contributions , an excellent article on " Progress in Masonry" and " Music VI by Bro . J . B . " " Tho Diary kept by Bro . John Peters R . W . M . Royal Arch Lodge , No . 153 , Pollokshaws . during a pleasure trip extending over 14 , 000 miles , " will interest mauy . The present number has a Supplement , containing many items of Masonic Intelligence , for which tho ordinary limits of the periodical were hardly sufficient .
The visit of the Right Hon . the Lord Mayor and the Sheriffs to the City of London Lodge , which , by an unfortunate transposition of dates , was stated last week to have been fixed for Saturday , the 13 th instant , will be paid this evening , and is looked forward to with great interest .
as a most important event in connection -with Freemasonry in the City . It was stated at the Lodge , on Saturday , that the arrangements were already completed , that a considerable number of eminent members of the Craft would be present , including a number of present and past Grand Officers ,
besides representatives of Grand Lodges of Scotland , Ireland , and in America . The Lodge will be opened punctually at 4 p . m ., in the Pillar Eoom , and the banquet
will take place in the Large Hall , at six o ' clock . Tho band of the Grenadier Guards will perform a selection of music during dinner , and several eminent vocalists will enliven the intervals between the toasts with glees and songs .
Bro . Headon , the retiring W . M . of the City of London Lodge , has announced the highly-gratifying intelligence r . hat his list , a ^ Steward for the next Festival of the Girls ' School , to be held during the month of May , already exceeds the sum of 170 guineas .
Ci . uv Housx PIATI . VO GAUDS . —Mogul Quality , picked Is 3 d per pri"t , lis icr dozen pucks . Do . seconds Is per pack , lis per dozen p . t-ks . If by lost ljd per pack extra . Cards for Piquet , Edzimie , EcavW , Ac , . Mogul Quality lod pot pack , Os per dozen packs . —London : W . W . MH-L-IW , 67 Barbican , B . C .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Reviews.
are told , at p . 32 , in reference to Dr . Spuvzheim and the new system of phrenology introduced into America about 1834 , " Phrenology became the rage . Plaster-casts of heads , and lithographs marked with the organs , were sold by thousands . There was a universal feeling of heads . Lecturers went from town to town , explaining the new science , aud giving public and private examinations . Periodicals
were published to promulgate the new philosophy , and a library of phrenological books was rapidly published . I have no doubt that in a few years after the advent of Dr . Spnrzheim , there were more believers of phrenology in the United States than in all the world beside . " So it was with Mesmerism , so with Physiology , so wi th Biology , and so it is now with Sp iritualism .
Of drunkenness , which is touched upon in the chapter on " Religion and Morality , " we have a very rational explanation as to why it so extensively prevailed , and of the violence of the reaction which set in against drinking , even of tho most innocent character . Liquors were cheap , there being no excise on spirits and wines of native manufacture . " Cider was free as water . " No wonder then
when everybody invited everybody to drink ou the moat trivial occasion , that great numbers of people , many of the highest ability and position , fell into habits of drunkenness . " There were drunken lawyers , drunken doctors , drunken members of Congress , drunken ministers , drunkards of all classes , if one may classify a people who claim to bo ' free and equal . '" Tho reaction set in . A temperance
movement was begun , and culminated in the Maine Liquor Law , the wisdom of which act , however , does not seem very apparent to Dr . Nichols , who not unjustly thinks it led to much secret drinking , much smuggling , and a general disrespect for law . The chapter on American " Peculiarities and Eccentricities " will
delight every class of reader . Many are already familiar with Yankee eccentricities of speech , but more of them are collected together in this chapter than are generally to be met with in so small a compass . The western vocabulary , in the author ' s opinion , is even more copious than that of the Yankee proper , in evidence of which the following ;—
" A Western man ' sleeps so sound , it would take an earthquake to wake him . ' He is in danger * pretty considerable much , ' because ' somebody was down on him , like tho whole Missouri on a sandy bar . ' He is a ' gone ' coon . ' He is down on all' cussed varmints , ' gets into an everlasting fix , ' and holds that ' the longest pole knocks down the persimmons . ' A story ' smells rather tall . ' ' Stranger , ' he says , in bar hunts I am numerous . ' He says a pathetic story sunk into
his feelings ' like a snagged boat into the Mississippi . ' He tells of a person ' as cross as a bar with two cubs and a sore tail . ' He 'laughs like a hyena over a dead nigger . ' He ' walks through a fence like a falling tree through a cobweb . ' He ' goes the whole hog . ' He raises * right smart of corn , ' and lives where there is a ' smart chance of bars . ' ' Bust me wide open , ' he says , ' if I didn ' t bulge into tho creek in the twinkling of a bedpost , I was so thunderin' savagerous . '"
" In the south-west , " continues Dr . Nichols , " is found the combination of Western and Southern character and speech . The Southwestern man was' bora in old Kaintuck , raised in Mississippi , is death on a bar , and smartly on a painter fight ! He ' walks the water , out hollers tho thunder , drinks the Mississippi , '' calculates ' that he is ' the genuwine article , ' aud that those he don ' t like ' aint worth
shucks . ' He tells of a fellow ' so poor and thin , that he had to lean up agin a saplin to cuss . ' He gets ' as savage as a meat-axe . ' Ho ' splurges about , ' and ' blows up like a steamboat . ' " The quaintness of American expression is no doubt familar enough to Englishmen . A case in point is tho evidence of a witness in a life insurance case , when the death was caused by the blowing up of a
steamboat on the Ohio . " Tho witness knew the missing man . Ho saw him on the deck of the steamboat just before the explosion . ' When , ' asked the lawyer , ' was tho last time you saw him ? ' ' The very last time I ever set eyes on him , ' said the careful witness , ' was when the boiler burst , and I was going up , and I met him and the smoke pipe coming down !'"
Barnum , of course , is introduced as one sort of a model Yankee . The following adventure of his , is not , wo are told in his published autobiography . " He was on his way up the river from New Orleans , where he had been to spend the winter in some speculation . Some of the sporting gentlemen , who make their home on the river , engaged in the
favourite betting game of poker , a bluff or brag game , in which the skill consists in managing so as to have the best cards , or in boldly betting on the worst . It was hard , we think , to beat tho great showman in either , but luck was against him , and he was dead broke . He landed at a small town in Mississippi , where he found the chances of winning money at play very small , in consequence of a revival of religion that was going forward . But ' P . T . ' had more than one
string to his bow . Not long before this time ho had been a preacher , as it happened , a Universalist . He announced his profession , and obtained a place to preach , but found his creed anything but popular . The Southerners are orthodox in their religious notions , and like strong doctrine . The revival was attracting crowds to the Presbyterian meeting house . Something had to be done , aud the exhibitor oi dwarfs and prima donnas was equal to the occasion . He dismissed his small and indifferent congregation , walked over to tho Presbyterian
meeting , and aunouu > : -.- , !?•< -. , 1 ' oniahed and delighted assembly that he had been c ^ . wc ; .. ¦ .. v , :: \ n his errors . There was great rejoicing ; he was invited to preach , was rewarded with a good collection , resumed his voyage , and had good luck at poker all the way to St . Louis . "
It must be pleasant travelling on a iirst class Hudson river boat , which , wo are told , " is more than four hundred feet long . Its pudpaddle wheels r . ro sixty feet in diameter . It draws only foui feet of water , aud glides along ono of the finest rivers ii m the world , through scenery of ever varying beauty and grandeur , afc tho rate of twenfcy-four miles an hour . A thousand passengers arc
Reviews.
lounging in the grand saloons , or reading under the awnings ou the promenade deck ; but there is no crowd . When the dinner-bell rings they all find seats at the long ranges of tables in the great cabins . They are served with every luxury of the season , from soup and fish to the fruit and ice cream . And the trip of one hundred and sixty miles , including the dinner , has cost seven shillings . I have known it to be as low as five—less than tho cost of a very poor meal at an English hotel . "
But the American cannot bo a pleasant fellow-traveller—as regards his spitting propensities at all events . He is refined , no doubt ; polite to ladies , giving them always the best seats in theatres and on the cars , but too many of them indulge in this odious habit of spitting , so that in any public vehicle and place of amusement you are liable to this nuisance .
One more sketch and we have done . Tho recognised hero of tho Texan War of Independence—General Sam . Houston was , says Dr . Nichols , " an extraordinary character . A few months after his marriage with the daughter of an ex-Governor of Tennessee , he abandoned her , without giving a reason , and went to live among the Cherokee Indians , beyond the Mississippi , by whom he was adopted
as a chief . In Texas he was known as an inveterate gambler , a drunkard , a liar , whose word could never be trusted , and , as I have been assured , was as great a coward as he was a rascal . His adopted Indian fellow citizens gave him the name of ' Big Drunk . ' But ho was tall , handsome , plausible , eloquent in the highest degree , and swore with equal profanity and sublimity—swore as a Homer or a
Milton might . This man , who was often seen airty , drunken , living with a band of Indians and squaws , borrowing half-a-dollar of any stranger who would lend it , and losing it the next moment at the gaming-table—so utterly debased , and so utterly cowardly and dishonest , had yet that gift of eloquence by which he could control the people as he willed , and induce them to elect him to the highest offices in their gift .
" General Houston late in life married a young and beautiful wife , who had influence enough to make him a teetotaller , a Charoh member , and a respectable member of society . " It is impossible to give more than an idea of the vast amount of valuable information , as well as genuine fun , which is to be met with in these pages . Dr . Nichols , too , is an excellent hand at describing scenery as well as people , so that the reader will glean much , not
only of the American people in different of the United States , but of the principal towns , rivers , mountains , & c . With these remarks we take leave of Dr . Nichols , with hearty thanks for the agreeable hours we have spent in the perusal of his narrative . We only hope he will be able to fulfil tho promise he makes in his preface , and that we may shortly renew our acquaintance with him by the medium of his " Twelve Years of English Life , with Insular and Continental experiences . "
Le Monde Maronnique for February and March contains , besides the usual budget of news of French Freemasonry , a very interesting account of the progress of tho Craft in Pern , " Le Mouvement Maronniquc au Pe " rou , " an address to Initiates , "Discours aun Initios , " and a capital London Letter by Bro . H . Valleton .
The Scottish Freemasons' Magazine ( Part 6 ) contains , among other contributions , an excellent article on " Progress in Masonry" and " Music VI by Bro . J . B . " " Tho Diary kept by Bro . John Peters R . W . M . Royal Arch Lodge , No . 153 , Pollokshaws . during a pleasure trip extending over 14 , 000 miles , " will interest mauy . The present number has a Supplement , containing many items of Masonic Intelligence , for which tho ordinary limits of the periodical were hardly sufficient .
The visit of the Right Hon . the Lord Mayor and the Sheriffs to the City of London Lodge , which , by an unfortunate transposition of dates , was stated last week to have been fixed for Saturday , the 13 th instant , will be paid this evening , and is looked forward to with great interest .
as a most important event in connection -with Freemasonry in the City . It was stated at the Lodge , on Saturday , that the arrangements were already completed , that a considerable number of eminent members of the Craft would be present , including a number of present and past Grand Officers ,
besides representatives of Grand Lodges of Scotland , Ireland , and in America . The Lodge will be opened punctually at 4 p . m ., in the Pillar Eoom , and the banquet
will take place in the Large Hall , at six o ' clock . Tho band of the Grenadier Guards will perform a selection of music during dinner , and several eminent vocalists will enliven the intervals between the toasts with glees and songs .
Bro . Headon , the retiring W . M . of the City of London Lodge , has announced the highly-gratifying intelligence r . hat his list , a ^ Steward for the next Festival of the Girls ' School , to be held during the month of May , already exceeds the sum of 170 guineas .
Ci . uv Housx PIATI . VO GAUDS . —Mogul Quality , picked Is 3 d per pri"t , lis icr dozen pucks . Do . seconds Is per pack , lis per dozen p . t-ks . If by lost ljd per pack extra . Cards for Piquet , Edzimie , EcavW , Ac , . Mogul Quality lod pot pack , Os per dozen packs . —London : W . W . MH-L-IW , 67 Barbican , B . C .