times a-night, which the mistrustful proprietors generally exact in advance—“ Twopence down, or you don't lodge here." The individual who can disburse, throws himself, without quitting his rags, upon a straw mattress. In these dismal chambers, open to all the miserable offspring of poverty and crime, the common bed is a long sloping plank, and the common coverlet a remnant of decayed carpeting, nailed to the wall at one side of the room, and fastened with hooks at the other. Should any quarrel arise in the night among these "strange bed-fellows," the keeper of the den makes his appearance, armed with a long and portentous bludgeon, and by angry threats, or the application of his weapon, seldom fails to reduce to order the refractory party. In such squalid resorts the chiffonniers often come in contact with robbers, of whom they involuntarily become the passive accomplices. They are not expected to take part in the crime; but to reveal the mystery of a criminal enterprise, would be to devote themselves to the implacable vengeance of the gang. An old chiffonnier, suspected of having betrayed two thieves, was found one morning assassinated at the corner of a court. The murderers had surprised him at early dawn; they had severed his head from his body, and, by an atrocious refinement of barbarity, had thrown it into his basket. ness. The chiffonniers, both male and female, talk slang; the general dialect of thieves, it would seem, in all countries, though not exclusively confined to them. The class under consideration have nevertheless a general character for integrity, which they could never have earned, much less maintained, but by repeated acts of honesty and disinterestedRestorations of recovered property are frequent among them, of which we could relate numerous instances. On the 11th of October, 1841, the widow Boursin, an old chiffonnière of the Rue Mouffetard, well known in the neighborhood of the Chaussée d'Antin, discovered in a mass of rubbish a diamond shirt-button of considerable value. She occupied the whole day in going from house to house before she found the owner, to whom she immediately restored his property, demanding the price of her day's labor and refusing all further reward. We should also make honorable mention of Père M- -, an old soldier of the Imperial Guard, a chiffonnier, and a chevalier of the Legion of Honor. This veteran had two orphan grandchildren left to his charge he dedicated his pension to the purposes of their education and establishment; and mounting the basket and crotchet on the shoulders so long familiar with the knapsack and gun, sought his own subsistence in the offal of the streets. For this he is held in honor among the tribe, who duly appreciate his virtue and self-denial. Perhaps the worse characteristic of this class is their love of strife and tumult, which shows itself in a perpetual inclination to quarrel with one another, and with all the world. In every popular outbreak, they are the first to commence deeds of violence, and the last to be reduced to order. The most stable government has trembled to its base at the mad outeries of the chiffonniers, when, at the head of a torrent of the wan and haggard population of the faubourgs, they have rushed upon the wealthy quarters of the city. The cause of terror is not the apprehension of pillage, but of the overthrow and destruction of the whole social fabric. They feel how feeble are the regulations of public order against an army of insurgents who have nothing to lose. In quiet times, the chiffonniers make war only on the domestic animals-the dogs and cats, whose carcasses they sell to the knacker. A mastiff fetches from thirty to forty sous; a dog of average size from five to ten; a cat four sous in summer, and eight in winter. The fat of the cat is used by the 'tondeur," or dog-barber, a trade peculiar to Paris; and dogs'-foot oil is in continual request among the various craftsmen of the capital. The furriers receive the skins, under whose hands that of the dog becomes the veritable black fox; and the hide of poor puss a genuine zibelline, or sable. 66 Collateral branches of this delectable profession extend beyond the walls of Paris, and provincial practitioners are to be met with in all the principal towns of the departments: but these are mostly dealers, not doers: the true chiffonnier, such as we have described him-independent, thoughtless, proud, somewhat honest, thoroughly undisciplined, and "toujours Frrrrançais"-is as essentially Parisian as the Column Vendôme or the Arc de l'Etoile. A MAIDEN who has received a natural and simple education, which has allowed her faculties to unfold themselves naturally, removing whatever was opposed to this, without itself giving any undue direction, develops her character with her form, in the most perfect accordance with all right rules; as a plant from a healthy seed, in a free soil and pure air, unfolds its leaves and flowers. This harmony of feelings and principles, of thoughts and sentiments, gives to such a woman a wonderful firmness, with which she is enabled to make a noble stand against the pressure of falsehood, temptation, and contradiction. So one sees often small but skilfully built vessels float lightly and swiftly over the smooth sea, and in the storm dancing upon the foamy tops of the swollen waves; which, nevertheless, find their way through the roaring cliffs and wild breakers, to their destined haven. With men this harmony of development is more difficult, and therefore less common. They generally move more slowly, because laden more heavily, and often far unproportionably, so that a single gale sends many of them to the bottom, whilst they, for the sake of greater speed, had spread high every sail. One lacks ballast, and the other rigging; and often while the proud ship glitters in the beams of the sun, and the bright pennant streams gayly in the wind, a skilful pilot is wanting at the helm, and powerful hands to direct and insure its course.— Jacobs. THERE are men enough who, notwithstanding all the noble qualities with which they are endowed, can yet make no right use of them, because they exist only as shining parts destitute of any common bond of connection. As in an arch that would stand, all parts must be bound together by the keystone, so there must be a middle point in man towards which all tends. Where this is wanting, there is, neither in prosperity nor adversity, any sure dependence. All scatters and vanishes like dust away. And thus it not unfrequently happens, that men who, in the ordinary course of things, seem of right to be something, with all their shining gifts, on the smallest trial, show that they are nothing, deceive the hope of the world, and to their own astonishment, sink into insignificance.—Jacobs. Without established principles, our feelings contend against evil, as an army without a leader, and are far oftener vanquished than victorious.-Jacobs. PAGE'S RUTH. THAT William Page is a man of genius, no one who knows aught of his career in art, or who has passed an hour in his company, will, we think, for a moment deny. Whether he be judged by the simple rule of Sir Joshua, that genius is but the art of making repeated efforts, or by that standard which every man sets up with more or less definitiveness in his own mind, perfectly plain to himself and perfectly inexplicable, perhaps, to others, he will be acknowledged to be a man of genius. He is a man who, with the utmost faith in humanity, believes that what Raffaelle and Titian did three hundred years ago, can be done as well in this nineteenth century, if we will but pursue, as they did, the method of nature in our attempts to imitate her; and that the secret of Titian's flesh-tints is not to be found by scraping down his pictures to discover whether he used this or that pigment, but in the simple teaching of the arrangement of material in the human body; since in art and nature like causes will produce like effects, and, as he contends, there is but one path to truth, in no other way can such effects be obtained. He does not, with all this, deny to the great masters the inspiration of genius, he is too sincere a worshipper at the shrine of art, to believe that the highest secrets of her temple will be unveiled and laid open to all who may choose to enter; but the mere mechanical execution of a certain end, namely, the imitation of nature, can be as We have been led to make these remarks, from a recent visit to Mr. Page's room, where we found his picture of Ruth just completed. We do not intend to enter into any formal criticism of this painting, since, as it has been as yet only privately exhibited, it would be taking the artist at an unfair advantage. In any difference of judgment, he cannot appeal to the public to decide between the critic and himself. When the picture is publicly shown, as we hear it soon will be, we may recur to the subject again; at present we shall content ourselves with a mere description. It is an upright painting, about nine feet in height, and the three figures, Naomi and her daughters-in-law, are perhaps slightly larger than life. The grouping is excellent and admirably expressive of the story-Naomi stands at the right of the canvass, her left hand is thrown about Ruth, who has cast herself upon the breast of her mother, and whose sinking knees and convulsively clasped hands, and tearful up-raised the intensity of the application, "Beseech me not eyes, betray the agony of the soul, and express all to leave thee." and covered it with her garment, but her hand still Orpah has turned away her face grasps that of Naomi, and it is evident the struggle although worldly considerations may weigh more is severe; she, too, feels all the bitterness of grief, than the affection of her mother-in-law. And here, we think, the artist has shown a beautiful trait of feeling. In most paintings of this oft-repeated subeasily attained now as when these master spirits ject, Orpah has been represented with a cold and indifferent appearance, serving to contrast with the wrought at their canvass. In the poetic world, the genius of Shakspeare and Milton may have de- passionate outbreak of feeling in Ruth; but here her very emotion adds more intensity to the expression parted, yet the same words that glowed in their of her sister. There is a great deal of very beauimmortal verses we daily use to express our com- tiful and very powerful color in the picture, harmomonest ideas; but in the world of art the language niously arranged and kept remarkably low in tone. itself has fled, and left us but a few disjointed phrases It is not an "Exhibition" picture; and on the walls and meaningless syllables. All modern art is to of the academy, surrounded by the chalky absurdiPage an useless endeavor to express an end by other ties so frequent there, might seem rather dingy. It than the only proper means by which it can be accomplished; as with Ali Baba in the cavern, the must be seen by itself, at a proper distance, under "Open Sesame" has been forgotten, and till this a proper light, to be appreciated. It will not be a simple conjuration has been found again, no spells who thrust their noses close to the canvass and adpopular picture; we have too many connoisseurs can open the fast closed entrance. mire "the delicate smoothness, the miniature-like Now, it does not require any particular manifes- finish." To such as these it is not addressed; but tation of the divine afflatus to be able to deviate from the man of real taste and judgment will not fail to the long-travelled and well understood highways find in the sentiment, in the remarkable relief of of art any man may do this in mere wantonness; the figures, and in the atmospheric distance with of such vagaries we have had enough, Heaven its snow-capped mountains that seem miles and knows; but where the artist, with a profound conviction of the incompetence of present method, endeavors to establish new principles, not founded in fantastic theory, but in thoughtful attempt to trace the teachings of nature and apply the suggestions of reason, we think him entitled to be considered a possessor of this high quality. Mr. Page has, in the papers he published some two years since in the Broadway Journal, logically shown that he has the authority of reason and nature on the side of his theory. Whether this theory be as correct in practice as in principle, we cannot pretend to judge; experiment only can determine whether the pigments of Benevolence that can be extinguished by ingratart can be subjected to the same laws as the mate-itude, is no true virtue, but, as it were, base tinrials of nature, and whether her processes of color- der, upon which vanity has thrown a spark, which ing are to be followed in the chemistry of the studio. is no sooner kindled than extinguished.-Jacobs. Nor can we look as yet to his own productions, based upon these principles, to solve this question; there must necessarily be, in the first attempts to establish a new system, much weakness and uncertainty. Only by repeated experiments shall we be able to discover whether we have been following blind guides and have missed the true path from its very directness and openness. miles away, much that is beautiful, and much to convince him that it is a painting of extraordinary power, the production of an extraordinary mind.— Literary World. IF ingratitude could extinguish benevolence, the world must daily be destroyed by a deluge, or in flames. Common minds are hardened by ingratitude; but to superior natures, it is an occasion for new acts of kindness. TRUE goodness of heart nourishes itself on the good which it does to others. The good loves him to whom he does good, as the bad hates whom he has injured.-Jacobs. FOR a heart that cannot escape a sense of obligation, it must be the greatest misfortune to be obliged to those who must despise it.-Jacobs. established in Glasgow, with great success; and CHEAP lodging-houses for the poor have been the number is about to be increased in different parts of the city. In the original establishment beds are furnished for 3d., and breakfast and supper for 2d. From the end of June to the end of August, the inmates have been-males, 2,399; females, 152; married couples, 113; and the numbers are steadily increasing. SMELTING BY ELECTRICITY.-The lately patented a word is said as to whether the cabins are ventiprocess of smelting copper by means of electricity, lated. How often would passengers give up all says a London journal, is likely to effect a change the finery which surrounds them for a mouthful of that will be quite prodigious. It produces, in less that article so grudgingly dispensed in steamers— than two days, what the old process required three fresh air! weeks to effect. And the saving of fuel is so vast, that in Swansea alone, the smelters estimate their annual saving in coals at no less than five hundred thousand pounds. Hence, it is clear that the price of copper must be so enormously reduced, as to bring it into use for a variety of purposes from which its cost at present excludes it. The facility and cheapness of the process, too, will enable the ore to be largely smelted on the spot. The Cornish mine proprietors are anxiously expecting the moment when they can bring the ore which lay in the mine yesterday into a state to be sent to market tomorrow, and this at the very mouth of the mine. In Australia, also, the operation of this discovery will be of the utmost importance. Ten thousand tons of copper-ore were sent from Australia to England last year, to be smelted at Swansea; and the result was only 1600 tons of copper. But Australia in future will smelt her own copper, by a 36 hours' process saving all this useless freight of the 8400 tons of refuse, and saving also the cost of the old and expensive process. In a very few years, Australia will send to market more copper than is now produced by all the rest of the world. But if our future penny-pieces are to bear any proportion to the reduced cost of the value of the metal, they must be made of the size of dinner-plates ! THE QUEEN'S COLLEGE FOR GOVERNESSES.This new college, (so named by royal permission,) having been completed, will be opened for academical proceedings in the ensuing month, for which the most eminent professors have been engaged. Its objects are to place female education upon a proper basis, and to grant diplomas and certificates of their qualifications to governesses to enable them to produce satisfactory evidence of their merits, and where the less competent can obtain an adequate and orderly preparation for their work. HE who calls reason to his aid only in the moAnd thus it is also with religion. The instrument ment of need, will have less confidence in her. does not make the artist, but practice. Of what avail is the arsenal to him who has never fired a gun? The enemy are upon him before he can put his weapon in position, and bring it to bear upon them. But can one who has made religion and wisdom the daily companions of his life ever be placed in such circumstances of doubt and peril that he will feel himself forsaken by these trusty friends? PLENTY FINERY, BUT NO AIR.-In a late newspaper, we observe an account of the decorations of a new steam-vessel which has begun plying between Glasgow and Liverpool. The painting, carving, and gilding are described as something beyond all previous efforts at steamboat embellishment. Not-Jacobs. SCRAPS.-Belief and Conviction, 201-Dr. Chalmers; Miss Eliza Cook, 210-Chinese Newspaper, 229-From Jacobs, 238, 240-Smelting; Fresh Air; Cheap Lodging-houses; Queen's Col lege for Governesses, 240 AGENCIES.-The publishers are desirous of making arrangements in all parts of North America, for increas The LIVING AGE is published every Saturday, by | twenty dollars, or two dollars each for separate volumes. E. LITTELL & Co., at No. 165 Tremont St., BOSTON. Any numbers may be had at 12 cents. Price 12 cents a number, or six dollars a year in advance. Remittances for any period will be thankfully received and promptly attended to. To insure regularity in mail-ing the circulation of this work-and for doing this a ing the work, remittances and orders should be addressed to the office of publication as above. Twenty dollars will pay for 4 copies for a year. COMPLETE SETS to the end of 1846, making eleven large volumes, are for sale, neatly bound in cloth, for liberal commission will be allowed to gentlemen who will interest themselves in the business. But it must be understood that in all cases payment in advance is expected. The price of the work is so low that we cannot afford to incur either risk or expense in the collection of debts. LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 182.-6 NOVEMBER, 1847. From Chambers' Journal. THE SKATING REGIMENT. IN Norway, the ground is overspread with snow for three quarters of the year, and not unfrequently to a depth of ten feet. When a thaw comes, it is only the surface of the mass that melts; and then the next frost of course covers the whole country with a crust of ice. In such circumstances, there is no getting along in the usual way. The people must still ascend the hills and dive into the valleys in pursuit of game; they must still traverse the hoary forests to gather wood for fuel; and they must still journey to the distant towns to bring food to their isolated hamlets. In these excursions, whether long or short, they use skates. Skating is with them neither a mere amusement nor a gymnastic exercise; it is a means of locomotion which the nature of the ground renders indispensable, and a man who could not skate would be unable to walk to any useful purpose. It is melancholy to think that one of the most delightful winter customs has, like many other things good in themselves, been pressed into the service of war. In the army of Norway, there is a company of skaters, dressed in the dark-green of English riflemen, and armed merely with a slight musket slung upon the shoulder, and a daggersword. They are likewise provided with an ironpointed staff, seven feet long, resembling those used by the Swiss when traversing the glaciers; which serves to balance them as they sweep along the ice, and which they strike deep into the ground when they desire to stop in their headlong career. The staff is also indispensable as affording a rest for their pieces when they fire. Their skates are of a peculiar construction, being singularly long; and when thus shod, it is a strange sight, and in times of peace, like the present, an amusing one, to see this light company climbing with ease the icy hills, gliding down their precipitous sides, and striding, as Klopstock says, with winged feet over the waters, transmuted into solid ground, as if in defiance of the common laws of nature. ing the famous expedition of Louis XIV., this art of locomotion was used against the Dutch themselves in one of the most curious and daring exploits recorded in history. When the states sued for peace, the terms offered by the pride of Louis were so monstrous, that the people tore open their sluices, and laid the country under water. The frost after a time, however, rendered even this unavailing; and at length General Luxembourg, one dark and freezing night, mounted twelve thousand men on skates, and sent them over the ice from Utrecht to surprise the Hague. The result is given as follows by a writer who takes his factsfrom a French historian. "When they left Utrecht, it was clear frosty weather, and the effect of the moon and stars upon the even sheet of ice, over which they swept like a breeze, was truly magical. By degrees, as they advanced, the visible horizon of earth was obscured by vapor, and they could see nothing around, above, or beneath them, but a circular expanse of ice, bounded at the edge by thick gray clouds, and canopied by the starry curtain of the sky. The strange groaning sound which ever and anon boomed along the frozen wilderness, had at first something inexpressibly terrific to the imagination; and as it died fitfully away in the distance, the space surrounding them seemed extended almost to infinity. The sky at length was gradually covered by the vapors rising, as if from the edges of the circle of earth; a veil of dull and hazy white overspread the heavens and obscured the stars; and a dim round spot of watery brightness was the only indication of the site of the moon, by which alone they could now steer their course. "A rapid thaw had come on; their skates sunk deeper and deeper into the ice at every sweep; and at last, the water gathering upon the surface, as it was agitated by the night-wind that had now risen, assumed the appearance of a sea. The wind increased; the sky grew blacker and blacker; their footing became more spongy and insecure ; they plunged almost to the knee; and the ice groaned and cracked beneath them. Every one looked upon himself as lost; and the horrors of a fate hitherto untold in story, and appearing to belong neither to the fortunes of the land nor of the sea, appalled the boldest imagination. Skating was known to the ancestors of the Northmans, if we take the date assigned by some authors to the Edda as evidence, eight centuries ago; the god Uller being represented in the Scandinavian scriptures as remarkable for his beauty, "At length a faint twinkling light appeared in his arrows, and his skates. The exercise is not the distance, sometimes seen and sometimes lost in mentioned by the Greek and Roman writers, though the varying atmosphere; and they had the satis so well acquainted with all other gymnastics; but faction, such as it was, of at least knowing the Klopstock, Goethe, Herder, and other German relative bearings of the place on which they were poets, sing the praises of the art. In Holland it about to perish. The light proceeded from a strong is practised, as in Norway, not for its graceful-fort in the enemy's hands, impregnable without ness, but for its utility; and there it is common cannon; and what added bitterness to their misery, for the country people to skate to market. Dur- was the knowledge that beyond this fort was a dike, which in all probability afforded a path, how- ten minutes, the banner all the time waving, and ever narrow and muddy, by which they could have instruments playing. They then got up, several returned to Utrecht. The fort, however, was the of them laughing under their hoods; and the banner gate to this avenue of safety; and even if they had disappeared through one of the side chapels. Thus closed this spectacle of the Banner, which had with possessed the requisite means of siege, if it was me as little significance and solemnity about it as defended for a single day, they would either be the display of the green breeches of the prophet at swallowed up by the water, in the continuance of Constantinople. the thaw, or perish miserably through cold and On Thursday, at twelve o'clock, which correfatigue. But anything was better than inaction. sponds to Friday at Rome, all occupations and The water creeping insiduously around them was amusements ceased. Every shop was closed, and a deadlier enemy than stone walls or cannon-shot; mendous peal, and were then all sent, metaphorievery vehicle laid aside. The bells gave one treand they determined at least to make a rush upon cally, to Rome, to be blessed by the Pope. În the the immovable masonry of the fort, and provoke evening the whole populace were abroad, and perthe fire of its defenders. It is impossible to account formed the circuit of the churches. In these were for the result. It may have been that the sight represented, in wax figures, all the last scenes in of so large a body of men rushing in upon them, the life of our Saviour. In one church we found a as if from the open sea, their numbers multiplied, representation of the garden of Gethsemane, in the and even their individual forms distorted and mag-dismay, while near by stood an angel with a cup in midst of which kneeled a figure overpowered with nified in the midst, struck a panic terror into the hand, and a tear in its eye. hearts of the garrison; while this may have been In another church we encountered the Court of increased by the shouts of courage or despair, booming widely over the icy waste, and mingling like the voices of demons with the rising wind. But however it was, the gates of the fort opened at their approach, and the helpless and half-frozen adventurers rushed in without striking a blow." Correspondence of the Journal of Commerce. LIMA, April 13, 1846. IN no other place does Holy-Week exhibit so many religious pageantries as here. The spectacles commenced with the entrance of our Saviour into Jerusalem. On a platform, which was carried on the shoulders of men like a bier, stood a wax donkey, on which was mounted a wax figure, intended to represent the person of our Saviour. Around were grouped wax figures, from whose hands, palms had fallen on the platform. Pilate. There stood the accusers, with menace in their attitudes, and malice in their looks; there stood the accused, in meekness and conscious innocence; and there bowed a servant with a washbowl might wash himself of guilt in the transaction. The and napkin in his hand, that the Roman governor whole representation was one that would much better become the nursery than a church. In another of the largest churches we found a representation of the last supper. At each plate was a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine; while the table itself was loaded with all the fruits, fish and fowls of the Lima market. A gourmand might have gazed with interest, but a self-denying Christian would have turned away with indescribable surprise and pain. In other churches still, the tomb and the Roman guard were represented. During Friday night the military patrolled the principal streets, with their guns trailed, and a band playing the dead march. On Saturday morning, at nine o'clock, all the bells came back from Rome, and rung out a simultaneThen followed another platform, on which stood ous exultation to represent the resurrection. Then in wax the Virgin Mary, with a sparkling crown was there one universal burst of joy. Men, women, on her head, and in a robe of purple velvet, em- and children all seemed to vie with each other in the broidered with gold, and having a long train, which amount of hilarity which they could express. The was supported by an angel. This robe cost a thou- priests clapped their hands and ran about here and sand dollars, and was a present from a lady, as an there, like men in the ecstacies of some paradisical offering to the Virgin, for her recovery from sick-dream; and even the bare-footed monks forgot, for ness. Then followed a third platform, and on it a wax tree, with a little wax man in its branches, representing Zaccheus. These platforms were surrounded and borne on by an immense concourse of people, singing and shouting. On Tuesday was the ceremony of the Banner. The great cathedral was crowded with spectators. The high altar was lit by a thousand candles. A tall priest, dressed in black silk robes, moved out in front of it, and unfurled a banner of red and black, measuring some eighteen feet by twelve. At this moment the band in the orchestra struck up. The priest waved the banner in front of the high altar some five minutes, knocking over, with the staff, one of the twelve great candles. The candle thus knocked over, represented Judas. He then turned about, facing the spectators, who dropped on their knees. As he descended from the altar, with his train flowing behind him like a vast cloud, and his banner waving in darking magnificence over head, twenty-four priests, in black robes, and through whom he passed, fell flat on their faces upon the pavement. They remained in that posture some a few hours, to beg. These jubilations continued through the day, and poured themselves, at evening, in a living tide on the great public square. The whole area of this grand "Plaza" was filled with a mixed multitude of all classes, who sent up through the moon-lit night a roar of mirth. The square was surrounded with stands, from which were served meats, fruits, cakes and liquors, of every description. Around these were grouped hundreds, who were evidently breaking their long Lent. Some were laughing, some shouting, some eating, some drinking, some fiddling, some dancing, some fighting, and some making love. This continued till daylight on Sunday morning. Thus closed Lent, and the celebration of the Resurrection! As this is a Roman Catholic country, and this a Roman Catholic festival, I wish you would ask my friend, the Rt. Rev. Bishop Hughes, if the celebration has his sanction. Ask him also, if, in case the Roman Catholic faith should predominate in the United States, the resurrection is to be represented and celebrated in this manner among us? |