more easily governed, acts according to his orders, obeys those above him, becomes a better citizen, holds himself better, looks the world in the face, eyes front, goes forward when he is told; nay, when the time comes he makes one of a forlorn hope, and marches on to death as bravely and as well as any gentleman in the world. But even beyond this there is something. The little bits of cloth upon our soldiers' cuffs and collars mean a great deal more than unthinking people are aware of. A young fellow takes the Queen's shilling without a thought, and is draughted off to a regiment which may be a smart one or may not. But it very much matters to him. Do you think that he is not a better fellow for belonging to the 88th, the Connaught Rangers, with their yellow facings, or the 55th, the Canary Boys, or the blue facings of the Fighting 50th, or the green cuffs of the Irish regiments, or the blue of the 42nd? We do not particularise these invidiously; we know that every regiment in the British army fights well; but we know that like Havelock's Saints and Cromwell's Redcoats, there are regiments which never give in and never make a mistake, and are always "to the fore." Passing from particulars to generalizations, let us glance at the age of Elizabeth, a distinctive age, and one much distinguished by its dress. Its philosophers, statesmen, poets, soldiers and sailors equal, if not surpass, those of any other age or nation. Where is there another age which can show a Bacɔn, Burleigh, Raleigh, Drake, Frobisher, Beaumont and Fletcher, Ben Jonson, Shakespeare, not to mention the divines and martyrs which the Church then produced? But the dress was itself like the thought; grand, ornate, firm, solid, full of richness, ornament and strength. The "best of dress, undress," was as free and yet as warm and manly as it could be. The whole costume had a true nobleman look; the very women, as they should do under so great a queen, looked more than women, almost men in character and force; no luxurious dolls and playthings, no Nell Gwynnes and duchesses of the loose court and dress of Charles the Second. During this reign the clergy had their distinctive habit; and although richness ran to a great height, still effeminacy did not tread upon its heels. A little later the ladies dressed themselves more enticingly, and the Puritans sprang up, followed by the Quakers, who protested as vividly as they could in dress against the effeminacy of the age. as very used. The true shape is not understood even now. Our toes are crushed and pointed, the great toe being forced into the middle of the boot. The true shape of the shoe should be like that of a baby's foot of two years old, or like that of Henry the Eighth, with square toes, at which shape our fashionable shoemakers would stare. The head has suffered almost as much as the feet. Fashion has shaved it in front, and shaved it at back, has parted the hair down the middle, down the two sides, brushed it back, and twisted it, frizzled it, and singed it; worn it cut close within an inch of the head, or down to the middle of the waist, or has not worn it at all. What a curious book could be written upon the fashions of the head. Fancy its being considered awfully vulgar for a man to wear his own hair! Imagine for a moment one's head always being continually shaved, and yet wearing a wig as like your own hair as possible, called "a natural." Imagine not only fine ladies and gentlemen, but "butchers, bakers and candlestick makers," men of genius and men of plain business, grave dissenters and graver clergymen, all being mad enough to wear wigs. Fancy, too, a great critic saying of a great actor, that he "never could play the gentleman, because he never gave more than twelve guineas for his wig, and he defied a man to play the gentleman in any wig under fifty guineas!" Contemplate wigs bearing names such as the bob, the toupet, the pigeon's wing, comet, brush, the crutch, the negligent, the natural, half-natural, the she-dragon, the rose, the cut bob, the long bob, the detached buckle, the Jansenist bob, the drop wig, the snail back, the female pyramid-to dress which the barber mounted a ladder-the artichoke and the pigtail. Many persons now living can remember these last being worn. Our barristers and judges still continue the custom, the honor being shared with them by state coachmen on drawing-room days and other great occasions. Fancy, also, the barbers petitioning parliament to pass an act forcing people to wear wigs, so as to protect the trade, and also that the fashion was so firmly set, that even the plague, wherein many died by the infection of wigs and of hair cut from the dead bodies, did not remove nor even abate it. The hoop, which is now so prevalent, is another instance of the folly of fashion. It arose in the time of Elizabeth, and its purpose always was and is to extend the gown so as to show its richness and the expensive material. The fashion died out, and again arose in the days of George the Second, and continued for many years. No amount of satire, either pictorial or literary, seems to have had any effect on the wearers. There can be little doubt as to the inconvenience of hoops. Hogarth continually satirised them, but without any effect. The minds of men in Charles the Second's time may be taken much influenced by the loose rich style of dress, the ribbons and velvet, the curled and scented long hair, and the general depravity of taste and manners. Their minds seem to be as little as their manners. What a wonderful difference is there between the brains of such men as Lord Chancellor Bacon and Mr. Secretary Pepys, who took notes of various bows and In 1780 a pocket hoop was worn like two panniers tied on ribbons, patches and pomatums, curls and hoops, and entered These were open at the top, and may them in his diary as most important matters. It is no wonder each hip of the wearer. that Prynne wrote against lovelocks and long hair in men, and have been of some service as pockets. The numberless deaths occasioned by fires, machinery and other accidents do not seem that preachers took up texts about bare necks in women. But, to make them less fashionable in our own day; rather than do amongst all these rich dresses, King Charles, the great exemplar, walked the worst dressed of all, since his servants and at- away with the hoop, the grate was moved higher in the chimtendants used habitually to steal his new clothes to pay them.ney, to the great detriment of warmth and ventilation. How nonsensical and ridiculous they are is seen now a days in an selves their wages. omnibus, a crowded street or in a carriage, wherein ladies going to Court half hide themselves and their cavaliers by immense hoops, which are obliged to be lifted up so as nearly to cover the occupants of the vehicle. Curiously indicative of mind also are the costumes which immediately follow. There is a perfect keeping between them and the wearers. What we may well term the fooleries of fashion have always been and ever will be abundant, and are continually the food for the preachers and satirists of the day. But preaching and satire have never yet been known to sensibly diminish them. They do good, no doubt; but Wisdom crieth out in the streets, and no one heedeth her, and Fashion is far too powerful and capricious to be advised. The courtiers of Richard the Second wore pointed toes to their boots nearly four feet long, so long that to allow the wearer any progress the toes were curved backwards, and chained to the instep; and we have not only illustrations of this, but to assure us that the artist did not exaggerate, we have one example, the shoe of a knight, still extant. The Chinese custom of crippling the feet is more barbarous, but not more silly. The priests who preached against them called them "devil's claws," but the people still wore them. The foot has, since the Roman sandal, been almost always badly The subject might be continued to a great length; for, from the hat to the hose, from the shoe to the wig, there is much history to be learned from dress. As employment of some sort is always necessary for the human animal, so the frivolity of dress and of fashion has always been of service to mankind in general, if even sometimes hurtful and ridiculous to the immediate wearers. Many persons are employed upon every material of dress, and thousands of tons of steel are manufactured into ladies' hoops, Sheffield at present sending to America manufactured steel hoops for ladies' petticoats and manufactured bayonets and swords in an equal number of tons. Fashion, and even war, thus become subservient to trade and to the general good; and, after all, the most ridiculous portions of a mode are always limited to a few of the upper ten thousand, or of the ladies of fashion. A modest neatness in attire is that which is chiefly to be sought. Extremes are ever vulgar, and novelty must never be too closely followed. With one or two exceptions, the costume of the present day is all that can be desired; warm, sufficient and commodious, it is suited as well for the poor as the rich; and, if grace be sacrificed to utility in many portions of our attire, we may yet rejoice that our men dress like men, and our women like women, neither aping, as of yore, the follies of each other's dress, and moreover a superabundant extravagance, except in variety, being almost as impossible as it would be foolish and vulgar.English Magazine. AMUSEMENT FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. THE TRAVELLER'S ENIGMA. I'VE travell'd far o'er many lands, I've seen the furclad Esquimaux, Rush o'er the snowclad land in sledge, I've seen the savage Indian Snatch up his wellstrung bow, And mount his horse and scour the plain, To slay the buffalo. I've gazed upon the Chinese, too, Whose arts I've much admired; But the most strange community Was when I was in India; And now, attend to me; They build their dwellings all of mud; So firm and hard they are, Quite near together; and they form They have a reigning king and queen, But should they wander far away, And if the building be of wood, They soon destroy the strongest house; The Indian army can't subdue Now tell their name-I think you can, Go, take your seat; and, pen in hand, ENIGMAS. I. I LIVED before the flood, Undying I shall be ; I'll dwell within the homes of men To all eternity. I dive in ocean's wave. I rise above the es I've been on Eastern lains, I visit northern seas; O'er lake and land, o'er hill and dale, I spring from lower earth, I come down from the skies; The humblest beast may give me birth, I'm seldom missed by day; From me men hide their sins: I sometimes cost men naught, I'm often in the dark, When seen amid the forest's gloom; May live, may die, in one small spot, Unsought, unfound, in Nature's tomb. And then, fit emblem of the soul, From death my brightness springs; From earth I grew, and when I'm gone, To dust again my body clings. I'm freer than the wind; I know not time nor space; Come, guess, my friends! say, who am I? My name and rature trace. ANSWERS TO FAMILY PASTIME.--PAGE 61, JANUARY No. Enigmas-1. The Vowels. 2. Love. (The Chinese Aloe)-1, Three barks. 2. The outer, black and heavy. 3. Second, brown and very light. 4. Has also the proprieties of a candle. 5. When burned in the fire has an agreeable amell. 6. Inner one so precious that jewels are frequently set in it. 7. It affords a cordial in fainting fits. 8. The leaves form a covering for houses. 9. The fibres are manufactured into thread. 10. When incisions are made, a cooling liquor flows, &c. 11. The branches are eaten, and are said to have the flavor of candied citron. 12. The sharp points which rise on the branches are used by the Indians as darts. 13. Nails are also made from them. 14. The roots are manufactured into ropes, &c. Ornithological Enigma.-1. Kill-deer (plover). 2. Goose. 3. Catbird. 4. Secretary (falcon). 5. Kingbird, or tyrant fly-catcher. 6. Wax wing. 7. Harlequin (duck). 8. Frigate-bird. 9. Crane. 10. Butcher-bird. 11. Rail (or corncrake). 12. Swallow. 13. Ruff 14. Kite. 15. Quail. 16. Guinea (fowl). 17. Cross-bill. 18. Lark. 19. Eagle. 50. Black-cap. 21. Bird of Paradise. 22. Drake (Sir Francis Drake). 23. Swift. 24. Booby. 25. Harrier (hawk). 26. Rook. 27. Gull. 28. Black-bird. 29 & 30 Jay and Martin (Martyn). 31. Hawk. 32. Heron (herring). 33. Turkey. 34. Wren (Sir Christopher Wren). Charades-1. Par-don. 2. Secret. VALENTINE'S DAY. Of all the saints, we believe St. Valentine enjoys the most universal popularity. There is no acrimony, fanaticism, or bigotry connected with our good opinions of St. Valentine. He presides over our hearts and the affections: the young worship his memory, the old refer to his blessed character with pleasure. The origin of the peculiar customs of St. Valentine's Day is in'volved in mystery. Among the pleasant traditions, perhaps none is more worthy of adoption than the following: Madame Royale, daughter of Henry the Fourth of France, having built a palace near Turin, which, in honor of the saint, then in high esteem, she called Valentine, at the first entertainment which she gave in it, she was pleased to order that the ladies should receive their lovers for the year by lots, reserving to herself the privilege of being independent of chance and of choosing her own partner. At the various balls which this gallant princess gave during the year, it was directed that each lady should receive a nosegay from her lover, and that at every tournament the knight's trappings for his horse should be furnished by his allotted mistress, with this proviso, that the prize obtained should be hers. These pleasant interchanges among the "6. "young people" finally grew into a custom, and thus originated the exchange of love tokens on St. Valentine's Day. HOUSEHOLD RECEIPTS. GRAVY SOUP, OR STOCK.-1. Prepare a large stewpan by rubbing it with butter, and put into it three-quarters of a pound of ham free from fat, skin and rust; four pounds of leg or neck of veal and three pounds and a half of lean beef, all cut into thin slices; set it over a clear and rather brisk fire till the meat becomes of an amber color. It should be often moved, so that it does not stick to the pan nor burn. When the meat is equally browned, place the bones upon it and pour in one gallon of boiling water. Take off the scum as it rises and throw in at intervals a little cold water to bring it quickly to the surface. When no more scum appears, put in two ounces and a half of salt, three onions, three carrots, two turnips, one head of celery, two ounces of savory herbs, one dozen of cloves, three-quarters of an ounce of white pepper (whole), and three blades of mace. Allow the soup to boil gently for five or six hours, and then strain it. When cold, remove every particle of fat from the top, and in taking out the soup leave the sediment untouched. When required, take out the quantity demanded for table and add mushroom catsup and Harvey's sauce. 2. Cut beef from the bones, then dredge with flour, season with pepper and salt, and fry until it is of a clear brown. Stew for five or six hours, if the quantity be large, with a pint of water to one pound of beef and vegetables as above; some prefer adding two or three more onions. It may be thickened with six ounces of butter, worked up smoothly with five ounces of flour. A tablespoonful of soy, half a pint of sherry and a little cayenne may be added. VERMICELLI SOUP.-Into three quarts of clear gravy soup drop, very lightly and by degrees, six ounces of vermicelli, broken rather small. Let it simmer for half an hour or rather less over a gentle fire, and stir it often. HARVEY'S FISH SAUCE. 1o make one gallon, take five pints of the best pickling vinegar, quarter of a pound of good pickled cucumbers cut small, quarter a pouud of white mustard seed a little bruised, qu rter an ounce of fresh celery seed bruised, and one ounce of rlic, peeled and cut small. Boil all these articles until the quantity is reduced t four pints, in a stone jar before the fire. In another jar four pints of spring water, one ounce of well bruised ginger, quarter an ounce of bruised mace, quarter an ounce of cayenne pepper, one pint of India soy; boil slow in a stone jar til reduced to four pints; then mix the contents of the two jars together, stirring them well during the operation. Boil them together for half an hour and then let it get cold. Now take the outside peel of three lemons, cut them into strips, dry them in an earthen dish in an oven till they are aite brown and free from moisture. Add this lemon, hot from the oven, to the cold mixture. Cover quite close; let it stand ten days at least. Use it after straining it through flannel. TO MAKE A RICH SEED CAKE.-Take a pound and a quarter of flour well dried, a pound of butter, a pound of loaf sugar, beat and sifted, ei-ht eggs, and two ounces of caraway seeds, one grated nutmeg and its weight in cinnamon. Beat the butter into a cream, put in the sugar, beat the whites of the eggs and the yolks separately, then mix them with the butter and sugar. Beat in the flour, spices and seeds a little before sending it away. Bake it two hours in a quick oven. TO MAKE RUSKS.-Beat up seven eggs, mix them with half a pint of warm new milk, in which a quarter of a pound of butter has been melted, add a quarter of a pint of yeast and three ounces of sugar; put them gradually into as much flour as will make a light paste nearly as thin as batter; let it rise before the fire half an hour, add more flour to make it a little stiffer, work it well, and divide it into small loaves or cakes about five or six inches wide, and flatten them. When baked and cold, put them in the oven to brown a little. These cakes, when first baked, are very good buttered for tea; if they are made with caraway seeds they eat very nice cold. RICE CUSTARDS.-Put a blade of mace and a quartered nutmeg into a quart of cream; boil and strain it, and add to it some boiled rice and a little brandy. Sweeten it to taste, stir it till it thickens, and serve it up in cups or in a dish. It may be used either hot or cold. CURE OF RHEUMATISM.-Take cucumbers, when full grown, and put them into a pot wth a little salt; then put the pot over a slow fire, where it should remain for about an hour; then take the cucumbers and press them, the juice from which must be put into bottles, corked up tight, and placed in the cellar, where they should remain for about a week; then wet a flannel rag with the liquid and apply it to the parts affected. TO ESCAPE FROM OR GO INTO A HOUSE ON FIRE. Creep or crawl with your face near the ground, and, although the room be full of smoke to suffocation, yet near the floor the air is pure, and may be breathed with safety. The best escape from upper windows is a knotted rope; but if a leap is unavoidable, then the bed should be thrown out first, or beds prepared for the purpose. DEAFNESS IN OLD PERSONS.-This is usually accompanied with confused sounds and noises of various kinds in the inside of the ear itself. In such cases insert a piece of cotton wool, on which a very little oil of cloves or cinnamon has been dropped; or which has been dipped in equal parts of aromatic spirit of ammonia and tincture of lavender. The ear-trumpet ought likewise to be occasionally used. TO RESTORE HANGINGS, CARPETS, CHAIRS, &C.-Beat the dust out of them as clean as possible, then rub them over with a dry brush and make a good lather of Castile soap and rub them well over with a hard brush; then take clean water, and with it wash off the froth; make a water with alum, and wash them over with it, and when dry most of the colors will be restored in a short time; those that are yet too faint must be touched up with a pencil dipped in suitable colors; it may be run all over in the same manner with water colors mixed well with gum-water, and it will look at a distance like new. RHEUMATISM -This disease is divided into two kinds, the acute and chronic. In the acute kind, the treatment in inflammatory fever is applicable. In the chronic, the remedies ordered below will be found generally useful. When the pain is very severe at night, anodynes should always be given. 1. Tincture of guaiacum, one drachm; tincture of aloes, half a drachm; spirit of turpentine, three drachms. Mix, to be taken in half a pint of milk or gruel every night. 2. Should the pain be very severe, give the following pills: aloes, half a scruple; opium, three grains; syrup of buckthorn, to form a mass. Mix and divide into three pills; give one at bedtime. Or, compound powder of ipecacuanha, eight grains; camphor mixture, one ounce and a half. Mix, and give a draught every night. 3. Liniment soap liniment, one ounce; tincture of opium, half an ounce; oil of cajeput, two drachms; hartshorn, two drachms. Mix, and rub the parts affected night and morning. Flannel should be worn in winter. CRUMPETS.-Mix a quart of good milk with water to make a batter, add a little salt, an egg and a tablespoonful of good yeast, beat well, and cover it up, and let it stand in a warm place to rise. Clean the muffin plate, or, not having this, a frying pan, while warm over the fire, and rub it with a greased cloth, or a little butter tied up in a piece of muslin ; pour a cupful of the batter into the pan or on the plate; as it begins to bake, raise the edge all round with a sharp knife. When one side is done, turn and bake the other side. Crumpets are generally now poured into proper-sized rings of tin, which makes them all of a size and thickness. A little rye flour is an improvement. MUFFINS.-Flour, one quartern; warm milk and water, one pint and a half; yeast, a quarter of a pint; salt, two ounces; mix for fifteen minutes; then further add, flour, a quarter of a peck; make a dough, let it rise one hour, roll it up, pull it into pieces, make them into balls, put them in a warm place, and when the whole dough is made into balls, shape them into muffins, and bake them on tins; turn them when half done, dip them into warm milk, and bake to a pale brown. SCURF IN THE HEAD.-Lard, two ounces; sulphuric acid, diluted, two drachms. Rub them together, and anoint the head once a day with the ointment. TO PICKLE CAULIFLOWERS.-Choose the whitest and closest grown. Separate them into bunches, lay them on plates, and strew salt equally all over them. Let them remain in this condition three days and nights. Then place them in jars, and pour boiling water over them: tie them up close from the air, and let them stand twelve hours. After the expiration of that time, they should be taken out and dried on a sieve, when you may put them into jars or bottles, and fill up with the best white wine vinegar. Tie bladder and leather over them. KILLING INSECTS FOR SPECIMENS.-Cause a tin box to be made, sufficiently large to hold a pint, and let it have a perforated partition fixed in the middle; line the upper apartment with a piece of silk, or something soft, to prevent the tip of the wings being injured in case of the insects fluttering. Enclose your destined victim in its silken chamber, and introduce some pounded or bruised laurel leaves into the lower apartment, close the box at both ends, and the prussic acid from the laurel will effectually do its work in a few minutes. APPLE JAM.-Take a wide black jar, fill it not quite half fall of water; cut the apples, unpeeled into quarters, take out the core, then fill the jar with the apples; tie a paper over it, and put it into an oven not too hot. When quite soft and cool, with a wooden spoon pulp them through a sieve. To each pound of fruit weighed, after pulping, put three-quarters of a pound of crushed sugar, and boil it gently until it will jelly. Put it into large tart dishes or jars. It will keep for five or more years in a cool, dry place. If for present use, or a month hence, half a pound of sugar is enough. ESSENCE OF LEMON.-- Cut off very thin the rinds of any number of lemons, put the pieces of peel into a phial, and cover them with spirits of wine; after a day or two this will have taken up all the oil of the lemon-peel, and become far better in quality than that usually sold. Artificial lemon-juice white vinegar, one pint; white sugar, three-quarters of an ounce : essence of lemon-peel, thirty drops. Syrup of lemon-juice : 1. To every pint of clear strained lemon-juice, add two pounds of loaf sugar. If not thick enough, put it in a slow oven for a little while to evaporate some of the moisture. 2. Squeeze the juice of lemons in a tall jar, let it settle, pour off the clear part, or filter the whole first, and add two pounds of loaf sugar to every pint. A little of this in water makes lemonade at once. For this purp se it is better to have a little of the peel added. Seltzer water: take twenty ounces of water, impregnated by the usual apparatus with carbonic acid gas, and dissolve it in four grains of carbonate of soda, two grains of carbonate of magnesia, twenty grains of common salt. It is a mild purgative. WASHING PRINTS.-To wash prints, delaines and lawns, which will fade by using soap, make a starch water and wash them in that; then wash in two waters without any soap, and rince in clean water. If there is green in the fabric, add a little alum to the starch water. "Sarah, dear," said a husband to his wife, "If I were in your place I would'nt keep that babe so full of butter as you do." "Butter, my dear! I never give it any butter." No, but you poured about a quart of milk down it this afternoon, and then trotted it on the knee for nearly two hours. If it don't contain a quantity of butter, it isn't for the want of churning." THE RALE REPALE OF THE UNION.-One of the favorite election cries with the present President's partisans was to call him, with true democratic familiarity, "a rail splitter." His admirers, especially those amongst the enlightened Hibernian class, may carry the familiarity still further now, if they like, for they have a precedent for it, and confer on him the proud title of "The rale splitter of the Union.”—Punch. The habit of resolving without acting, is worse for us than never resolving at all, inasmuch as it gradually snaps the natural connection between thought and deed. He that sympathizes in all the happiness of others, enjoys the safest happiness; and he that is warned by all the folly of others, has attained the soundest wisdom. Misfortunes are moral bitters, which frequently restore the healthy tone of the mind after it has been cloyed and sickened by by the sweets of prosperity. Fontenelle, at the age of ninety-seven, after saying many amiable and gallant things to a beautiful young lady, passed before her, without seeing her, to place himself at table. "See," said the lady," how I ought to value your gallantries; you pass without looking at me." 66 Madam," replied 'he old man, "if I had looked at you, I could not have passed." "Pat, if Mr. Jones comes before my return, tell him that I will meet him at two o'clock." "Ay, ay, sir; but what shall I tell him if he don't come ?" "What occupation does your father pursue for a living?" The son answered with great simplicity," He is a dreadful accident maker, sir, for the newspapers." Here is a recipe to get rid of an old acquaintance, whose society you do not like: If he is poor, lend him some money; if he is rich, ask him to lend you some. Both means are certain." Once a gentleman who had the marvellous gift of shaping a great many things out of orange-peel, was displaying his abilities at a dinner party before Taeodore Hook and Tommy Hill, and succeeded in counterfeiting a pig, to the admiration of the company. Hill tried the same feat, and after destroying and strewing the table with the peel of a dozen branges, gave it up with the exclamation, "Hang the pig! I can't make one." Nay, Hill, exclaimed Hook, glancing at the mess on the table, 'you have done more; instead of one pig, you have made a litter." A countryman in the depths of dyspeptic despair called on a physician. The doctor gave him some plain advice as to his food, making a thorough change, and ended by writing a prescription for some tonic, saying," Take that, and come back in a fortnight." In ten days Giles returned, blooming and happy, the picture of health. The doctor was delighted and proud of his skill. He asked to see what he had given him. Giles said he had not got it. "Where was it?" |
