7

His father, greatly;" when, from fields of fame
Triumphant he returns, bearing aloft
The bloody spoils, (some hostile hero slain,)
And his fond mother's heart expands with joy.
He said, and plac'd his child within the arms
Of his beloved spouse :-she him receiv'd,
And softly on her fragant bosom laid,
Smiling with tearful eyes.-To pity mov'd,
Her husband saw -with kind consoling hand
He wip'd the tears away, and thus he spake.
My dearest love! grieve not thy mind for me
Excessively!-no man can send me hence
To Pluto's hall, before th' appointed time ;-
And surely, none, of all the human race,
(Base, or e'en brave,) has ever shunn'd his fate;
His fate fore-doom'd when first he saw the light.
But now, (returning home,) thy works attend,
The loom and distaff, and command thy maids
To household duties ;--while the war shall be
Of men the care;-of all indeed,--but most
The care of me, of all in Ilion born.
So saying, Hector glorious chieftain took
His crested helm again.-His wife belov'd
Homeward return'd; but often turned her head,
With retrospective eye, and tears profuse.
At length she reach'd the palace of her lord,—
The stately palace with commodious rooms,
Of Hector terror of his foes, and found
Her num'rous maids within; among them all,
Exciting sorrow!--They, with doleful cries,
Hector (tho' living still) as dead, bewailed,
In his own house ;-expecting never more
To see the chief, returning from the war,
Escap'd the strength and valor of the Greeks.

For the Southern Literary Messenger.
THE DOOR-LATCH.
RECOLLECTIONS OF A MARRIED MAN.

plaining spirit! there was no emphasis--no! not the least, on the word troubled!) "I have never seen you troubled at any thing except that door--and gladly would I remedy it, but you know that I cannot. Were a very little filed from the inside of the catch it would shut without difficulty-I should never think of it,” added she after a pause, "on my own account, but it causes you so much vexation."

It was true as she had said, that I had felt more anger in consequence of that unfortunate door than all the other untoward events which I had experienced from the time of my marriage. A heavy loss-a sore disappointment--a great calamity, I could endure with composure. The trial required philosophy for its support, and the exercise of philosophy was a gratification to pride. But a door-latch! What occasion could that give for philosophy? None, and therefore I let it gall me to the quick!!! It was, as I observed, so easy to shut it, with a little care-such a little thing, if only attended to. "True!" whispered Philosophy in my ear, "but such a little thing' to get angry about! such a 'little thing' to make you miserable for an hour every day! for shame, Mr. Plowman!" To tell the truth I did begin to feel a little ashamed when I recollected how much unhappiness it had caused not only myself-but through me my dearer wife.

"I declare, my dear !" said I," that if that door-latch had only been filed ten years ago, it would have saved each of us one year of pain before this time!"

Thomas had brought in a file before my speech was finished, and in a few moments the door shut as easily and firmly as ever door did. I swung it a few times on the hinges with an air of triumph, and I verily believe that the work of that single moment conferred more happiness on Julia as well as myself, than all his bloodbought triumphs ever yielded to the conqueror.

"The root of bitterness," said I, "is removed at last, and I can only wonder at my own stupidity in not thinking of the simple remedy before--but Heaven forgive

"Go back and shut that door!" roared I in a voice of me! I had entirely forgotten your headache: the sound thunder.

"How can you, my dear," said Julia, with a supplicating glance," speak so very loud, when I have just told you that my head is bursting with pain."

of that file must have been torture to you!"

She smiled sweetly as she leaned her head on my shoulder, declaring-although her forehead burnt my hand, and the blood was raging through her veins, that it was "quite cured, since the door shut so easily!!" Uncomplaining,devoted, self-sacrificing treasure of my heart! How could I do less than clasp her to my bosom and swear to cherish her with tenfold care, and pray—while I kissed away the tear from her eye-that my own cruel thoughtlessness might never fill its place with

"Because," said I, "I can bear it no longer. It is now ten years since we moved into this room, and ten times every day have I been compelled to get up and shut that door after one and another. I have talked-and talked--but it is all of no use: the door still stands wide open, and I cannot bear it--No! and I wont bear it any longer--I'll sell the house sooner than endure it ano-another. ther week."

Such pleasure was too rare and valuable to be interrupted at the moment of its birth-so I took my arm chair from the corner, and sitting down at the side of Julia, who, while she held my hand, looked me in the face with very much of that expression of innocent delight, which so rarely survives childhood. I pursued my cogitations somewhat in the following order. "Life is made up of moments. Our happiness or unhappiness during any one of these moments depends almost invariably upon the merest trifles. If these momentary trifles are in the scale of happiness, life is happy. Take care then of trifles, and great events will take care of themselves. (Somewhere about here I began to think "I have never seen you troubled," said she, (uncom- [ aloud!) I lost a grandfather-an amiable, excellent,

Her tiny white hand was pressed against her throbbing forehead, as I finished the sentence with a glance at her of undissembled sternness, and the mild look of patient suffering and imploring submission with which she returned my angry frown-it cut me to the heart! I could read my own death warrant at this very hour with less of pain than I felt at that moment, as she raised her blue eyes glistening with suppressed tears, and with all the innocence and affection of an expiring saint, begged me in the silent eloquence of nature to spare her whom I had promised to "cherish and to love."

7

For the Southern Literary Messenger.
ANOTHER VISIT TO THE VIRGINIA SPRINGS
OR THE ADVENTURES OF HARRY HUMBUG, ESQ.
A new version of an old story.

Too much rest is rust,

There's ever cheer in changing;

We tyne by too much trust,

So we'll be up and ranging.

Old Song.

adventures. This is the starting point of my story, and it is henceforth of course that I shall expect my gentle reader to sharpen his attentive faculty-and as Mark Anthony said to his countrymen at Cæsar's funeral, "lend me his ears." Gently and by slow degrees had we surmounted the ascent of this celebrated mountain, (celebrated at least in the Old Dominion and by all travellers to the Springs,) and now we were about to In order to recommend myself and the article, which, pass down into the valley of the warm waters. Kind to use the fashionable phraseology, is now being pre-reader, if your steps have never led you thither, I must pared for the Messenger, to the favorable consideration of its readers, I beg leave to premise that I am a gentleman of good education and respectable talents-that I am in circumstances of ease and leisure, and what is a still stronger recommendation at the present alarming crisis, I am both from conviction and expediency, a decided anti-abolitionist. You must know, Mr Editor, that besides having been afflicted all my life with that rabid propensity, which in classical dialect is called cacoethes scribendi, I have been troubled with another inconvenient and rather expensive malady, which I shall call the cacoethes perigrinantis, by which I mean, that about the time of the dog-days I am generally beset by an unconquerable desire for locomotion, an irresistible propensity to change my place of abode and all its multiform incidents and relations, and to launch forth as it were into a new creation--to look abroad upon Nature and Nature's works, and to contemplate my fellow-worms in some of their new antics and attitudes.

inform you that the descent on the western side is most exceedingly and unaccommodatingly abrupt. The pilot, however, alias driver, who in this instance at least entertained some regard for his living freight, used the precaution of locking, to speak technically, or rather of shoeing one of his hinder wheels-but no sooner had the yet untired steeds commenced their downward course, (the coach with its ton weight at least of flesh and bone rapidly following,) than spang went the lock chain asunder! and away flew the mettlesome animals as fast as their heels would carry them. Now, we plunged onward as if driving through the mountain forest,-then, suddenly turning, rolled at some distance on the margin of a frightful precipice, each moment expecting to be dashed headlong down its angry side. Here gliding as swiftly as an arrow over a tolerably smooth surface, and there jolting and rattling over some rocky gutter, which communicated its jarring vibration to each sensitive nerve-and then what confusion and consternaAccordingly, during the late summer, attracted by tion within! There was my unlucky self, for example, the fame of the Virginia Springs and the salubrious re- tossed to and fro, in a manner which reminded me of poor gion in which they lie, I deposited my frame (none of Sancho in the memorable blanket scene. First thrown the smallest) in one of those republican vehicles called in one direction, I found one of my elbows actually a mail coach, a true and happy invention by the way, goring the side of a stout nullifier from the Palmetto for bringing discordant spirits into close communion with State-then hurled to the opposite point of the compass one another—an admirable machine for levelling all ar- by another pitch of the coach, I found myself in the act tificial distinctions-a kind of itinerant temple where of suffocating a little New Yorker, whom I took to be an Patrician and Plebeian, both masculine and feminine, abolitionist. Next, by another cross movement, I dewhere mountebank and statesman, puritan and profli-tected myself almost in the lap of a fat middle aged gate, and all the moods and genders of character may lady, who weighed at least thirty pounds more than nestle together and worship at the same altar of demo-myself, and presently I came almost in contact with cracy. But for certain drawbacks and inconveniences the lips of a rosy cheeked damsel of seventeen, who which will readily suggest themselves to the reader was about to make her debut at the White Sulphur. such as the dangers of dislocation and fracture, and sundry annoyances too tedious to mention-a man of observation like myself would find it as agreeable to spend his summers in a stage coach as any where else. It is a kind of moral Kaleidescope, where at every turn some new combination or some curious variety in human character is presented to the eye. It above all imparts a refreshing hilarity to the spirits, which are too apt to stagnate when chained down to one solitary spot on the earth's surface. But this is a digression. Having deposited myself in the vehicle as before mentioned, I shall not entertain the reader as is the custom with some of the more learned fraternity of tourists, by long and elaborate details of the several points of arrival and departure-by curious and profound dissertations upon the philosophy of a coach wheel revolving upon its axis-nor by beautiful and extatic bursts about the blue skies and verdant meadows and lofty forests. Suffice it to say, that I found myself on the evening of an August day, on the summit of the Warm Spring Mountain which overlooks the first thermal fountain in the Pilgrim's path to Hygeia. Here I commence my

And then what a crowding and jostling of knees, and
what a thumping and bruising of shins! The ladies
screamed-the nullifier roared and threatened, and the
little Manhattaner protested that in case of any serious
accident to the party, the coroner's inquest would be
murder in the first degree against both the driver and
proprietor. As for me, I confess that my thoughts
were multitudinous and not very delightful. First I
thought of Capt. John Gilpin, and wished most heartily
that I might come off as well as that renowned officer
of the London militia—then I thought of that silly old
fellow Phoebus, who from paternal weakness alone com-
mitted the reins of his golden chariot to a foolish boy,
and lastly I was harrowed in imagination at the terrible
idea of Ixion revolving forever on his infernal wheel.
Neither did I forget that classical sentence which flash-
ed across my memory, and which I fear is too true in
more senses than that in which the poet used it—
Facilis descensus Averni, &c.

Fortunately, however, the genius of terror passed over us without exacting any of the usual sacrifices of broken bones and dislocated limbs, and in a short time

our Palinurus (who to do him the justice performed his | to perform quarantine in the neighborhood. Here then, part handsomely) landed us in front of the spacious said I to myself, have I at last reached the goal of my portico of the Warm Spring Hotel.

desires! This is the spot where so many thousands are sighing to come without being gratified-where so many love sick city nymphs and whiskered beaux are panting to try their luck in the wheel of life's lottery. What a lucky dog am I to have gained admittance into this region of delight!

"Lod masser,” answered Syphax, or Juba or Jugurtha, (I forget his name) "complaining will do no more good than saying nothing at all. Take a nigger's advice and keep quiet--for you ought to remember, sir, that mass Calwell don't charge not a cent for board nor lodging."

Every person in the world (I mean that portion of the world which goes to the Virginia Springs,) who knows any thing of the great hotel at which we stopped-knows that it is kept by Col. Fry--one of the most polite, accommodating and facetious landlords that ever lived from the time of "Mine Host of the Garter" I continued to soliloquize in this rapturous strain, undown to the present day. He will not only give you til Blackamore (it was night fall on my arrival) conthe best which his ample house affords, but he is always ducted me to my chamber,-where, being somewhat ready to say a good thing with a good grace, in order, fatigued, I proposed to retire at an early hour and to I suppose, to put his guests in the most comfortable rise with the morning sun, renovated and refreshed for humor imaginable. The visitors to the Springs how all the countless enjoyments of the next day. The se ever never remain long at the Colonel's Caravansera at rene current of my thoughts was, to be sure, somewhat the commencement of the season. Those who come ruffled, when on reaching my apartment I found it to from the north and east generally give "mine host" a be a quadrangle of about eight feet dimensions, with a passing salutation attended by a stout promise to de-cot and mattress on each side of the door arranged for vour his substance as they return from their merry cir- two lodgers. A couple of chairs, a wash stand, and a cuit. He on the other hand is not backward in hasten-fractured mirror about the size of the Jack of Spades, ing their return somewhat after the following manner. constituted the sum total of the furniture. "My worthy "After being well charged, gentlemen, with Calwell's | descendant of Ethiop!" I exclaimed, “here is some missulphur-well salted by Erskine and Caruthers--your take! Do you take a gentleman of my size and respecpulsations equalized-and your expectations realized by tability into a room not larger than a closet? No fire Burke--your palates feasted and sweetened at the bub-either to warm my limbs in the chilly night air of these bling fountain of friend Rogers—and your carcases boiled mountains? I will forthwith complain to the Prime and sweated by Dr. Goode--you may then safely re- Minister!" turn and be fried under my special direction." All this terrible process it seems I was destined to undergo, and | accordingly I gave my valedictory blessing to the Colonel, who take him for all in all is "a fellow of infinite jest and most excellent humor." Being again reconciled to my mail coach, notwithstanding recent alarms, I soon | found myself alighted in the spacious lawn of the farfamed White Sulphur Springs. All who visit the mineral region are bound by a law more absolute than that of gravitation to wend to this favorite spot. It is the great magnet which alike attracts the way worn valetudinarian and the votary of fashion. Imagination de- "You're a high larned gentleman," said old Cato, picts it as the very elysium of hope and the paradise of (I think Cato was the name) "but nigger speaks the enjoyment! It is the Almacks of watering places, where truth for all that. Mass Calwell not charge a four all the dignitaries of the land--the learned and unlearn-pence ha'-penny for eating and sleeping, but he charge ed--the young, the gay and the beautiful, submit to hu- eight dollars a week for use of de water." miliation and sacrifice, in order to gain admission. The Notwithstanding that I was upon the verge of permultitudes who thronged the porches of the pool of Beth-mitting the organ of my destructiveness to preponderate seda, looked not with more anxiety for the coming of over that of my benevolence, I could not forbear smiling the angel who troubled the waters, than do the hun- at the old negro's logic. "Eight dollars a week for dreds who crowd around King Calwell's throne, await water!" exclaimed I--" A fellow might drink his pint the approving smile (the Introito) of his principal Se-a day of the very best London particular for one half cretary of State. Woe be unto the luckless wight of that sum-Well, sir, we will try this precious elixir who is found at a crisis of pressure, in a public convey- to-morrow morning. In the meantime, thou worthy ance,-who does not bring along with him a flaming descendant of Ham, 1 shall be inexpressibly obliged to equipage and attendants; he is laid on the shelf, or to you if you will lead me down to the drawing room, in use the customary phrase, is turned off with the same order that I may warm these wearied and rheumatic sang froid with which a Netherlander smokes his pipe, or limbs before retiring to rest." a Westerner shoots his rifle. To me, however, the stars were propitious, and when the little Grand Vizier tipt me the nod of assent, I followed the guide to my dormitory with as light a heart and elastic a step as if I had been appointed an ambassador with full powers. "Bar room, sir!-Bar room!" I retorted, "can it be What became of my stage companions I did not stop possible that men, rational men, can abandon the Spring to inquire. I was indeed so much elated with my own--nature's own sweet medicinal compound, for those good fortune that for once I forgot my usual benevo- deleterious mixtures-those pernicious products of the lence, and it was not until the next morning that I corrupt art of distillation?" I forgot however that Cato learned that a due proportion of them were sentenced had not entered into all the elaborate views and reconVOL. I.-98

"Thou son of old Sycorax!" I replied fiercely, "do you take me for a strolling mendicant? I will teach you and your master too, and his Grand Vizier to boot, that I expect to pay for my accommodations, and must therefore have them to my taste."

"Drawing room, sir," said old Cato, "I believe there is no such thing in the whole establishment. If folks want warming here they must go to mass Plumb's bar room, which is way down in the cellar."

dite reasonings of the Temperance Society--and I forth- | civilly requested a chop-and a third I respectfully sowith checked the rein of my imagination. I found that licited to hand me a roll. I might as well have addressthe best that I could do under all circumstances, was toed my language to the door post. The menials rushed betake myself to rest, and although I must confess that by me like a whirlwind. It seems, as I afterwards I had descended some few rounds on that golden ladder, learned, that every mother's son of them had been bribed which like Jacob's of old, I verily believed had led to to wait on particular gentlemen; and if I had screamed the seventh heaven,-I consoled myself with the hope at them loud enough to rupture a blood vessel, the that to-morrow-delightful to-morrow-would spread a knaves would have been as deaf as adders. At length new and brighter coloring over my prospects. Cato I addressed myself to a juvenile looking man who was being dismissed, I retired and slept soundly for the sitting not far to my right, and who though young in space of two hours at least; at the expiration of which years was evidently a veteran in that sublime science time, I was suddenly startled by a noise immediately called Number One; for I perceived that by a good ununderneath me, which to my classical fancy seemed to derstanding with the members of the Kitchen Cabinet resemble the shrieks of the ancient Bacchæ, the Priest-and the black Alguazils of the breakfasting room, he esses of the Vine-loving God. Let that however pass! had gathered around him as many tit-bits as would have There was a mixture of music in it, or of something in-feasted a London Alderman. "Pray sir,” said I, “will tended for music, which kept me in a tolerable humor and smoothed over those porcupine points which began to shoot forth at the unpleasant disturbance to my repose. The mystery was soon solved. Cato by direction of the Prime Minister, had placed me directly over the ball room-a most confounded location to be sure for a man fond of sleep-but still I thought that every one was bound to make some sacrifice in order to promote the enjoyments of others. "Tired nature's sweet restorer," lulled me once more into oblivion as soon as the clamor and screeching (for music it was not) had some-longing appetite was appeased. Regaled it was not,— what subsided. Again had the leaden God touched me with his wand, and again were my slumbers invaded by the arrival of my fellow lodger at midnight. I began to descend a few more rounds on my golden ladder.be said to constitute the highest felicity of eating. I thought of Sancho's exclamation, "Blessed is the man who first invented sleep!"--but what, thought I, is the invention worth if a man cannot use it even in this free country.

you be so kind as to help me to one of those extra dishes in your vicinity !" The youngster looked at me with perfect amazement. I might as well have asked him for one of his wisdom teeth! By the by, I am not certain that he had cut either of them,- --at all events I was confident of one thing, and that was, that the youth had never graduated in good manners. So I let him pass. But why relate my melancholy and fruitless efforts and my innumerable rebuffs at the table. There I had to sit a full three quarters of an hour at least, before my

unless a cold mutton chop which retained the flavor of the wool, and a cup of decoction compounded by the rule of three grains of coffee to a gallon of water-can

I arose from the table and descended a few more rounds on my gilded ladder of hope. What was I to do? The rain continued to fall in such torrents that Neptune himself could not have surpassed them, had he held his throne in the clouds. Cato had informed me the over night that there was no drawing room—and I was cold my limbs were shivering. I resolved to visit the subterranean regions of the bar room and post office. There, to my unutterable grief, I found groups of indi

withal forming so complete a blockade to every avenue approaching the fire-that I stood like a statue of des

Morning at last dawned-but oh! what a morning? The rain fell in torrents-and the wind came whistling down the mountain hollows as if old Æolus had resolved that his voice should be distinctly heard and his strength clearly understood. What was I to do? To walk abroad was impossible--so I even resolved to lay quietly en-viduals gathered together in such motley disorder, and sconced in my cot, hard as it was, until my fellow lodger, who was one of the Saturnine breed, should take his departure, and the merry bell should invite me to break-pair. A cluster on my right were discoursing in granfast. My naturally sweet temper had become a little soured at my various discomforts--but my appetite was keen, and I thought with the immortal dramatist, that "when the veins are unfilled, we are neither apt to give nor forgive." When the hour arrived, I hastened with the aid of umbrella and cloak to the banquetting hall. The crowd had assembled in the long portico awaiting the signal of admission. A few only of the fairer part | of creation were interspersed, and they were any thing but fair. I presumed that the more delicate and fragile of the sex would not encounter "the peltings of the pitiless storm." The doors being opened, the multitude rushed in. What a resistless force thought I, is caused by the concurrent movement of 400 human appetites about to engage at the breakfast table. It was a new discovery in mechanical philosophy, and I felt confident that the momentum was at least equal to a hundred horse power. "Body of Bacchus!" as the Italians say, what a furious set-on there was! I sat at one end o the table in silent consternation! At length I ventured to ask one waiter for a hot cup of coffee-of another I

diloquent style on the recent discoveries in the moonanother on my left were discussing the attempted assassination of the King of the French-a third were denouncing the whole army of abolitionists and lamenting that Tappan and Thompson did not find it convenient to visit the White Sulphur Springs-a fourth were denouncing the vengeance of Judge Lynch against the Chevaliers D'Industrie—anglicè black legs,—a fifth were pouring a volley of exterminating epithets upon the head of Amos Kendall and the Little Magician; and a sixth, did not even spare his majesty King Calwell himself and his minister of the home department, for putting them in Fly Row to be devoured by those cantackerous* vermin, the fleas. I forgot that there was a seventh circle standing near Mr. Plumb's cabinet-who were very intently engaged at the early hour of ten— not in discussing domestic or foreign politics-lunar discoveries or abolition--but with all the ardor which distinguished the disputants on those several topics,

* See Mr. Forsyth's Speech in the United States Senate.