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Those who jump into your proposals immediately, are not so safe to deal with as those who wait to weigh them.

Married,

In this town, by Rev. Mr. Hill, Mr. Levi A. Dowley, to Miss Calista Corbet, daughter of Otis Corbet, Esq. all of this town.

We have received the circular of the publishers of the "Philadelphia Album," but it|| being too long to be conveniently inserted in our small paper-we shall give a short sketch only. "New works are noticed, immediately on their publication, briefly, but with integri-than Going, Jubal Harrington, Esq. Attorney In this town, on the 9th inst. by Rev. Jonaty and truth. Nothing of foreign growth finds at Law, to Miss Lucretia Keyes, both of Woradmission here unless it bears the stamp of cester. sterling merit. In making selections the most assiduous attention paid to beauty of style, chastity of thought, and purity of sentiment. All the foreign magazines and domestic periodicals of worth are at the command of the Editor; quarterly engravings accompany the publication, illustrating American Scenery, History, and Public Institutions. We can add cheerfully that we have long esteemed this paper to be one of the best of the kind published in this Country that has come within our notice. Its terms are two dollers fifty cents per

annum.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.-The essay "On the pleasures of a single life," by " A Bachellor," is under consideration. The Editor although he has no doubt of the comparative happiness of the two situations, a married and single life, being in favor of the latter, yet has some

In Brookfield, Mr. George Howe, to Miss. Susan B. Walker.

Died,

In this town on the 9th inst. Charles D. Walker, only child of Mr. Dwight Walker, aged 17 months.

In Petersham, Oct. 29, Mr. George Wetherell, aged 66.

In Uxbridge, Miss Lavina Raidsan, daughter of Capt. Simeon R. aged 22.

In Ashby, Susan, daughter of William and Elizabeth Gates aged 15. She had lately parted with a limb, in the feeble hope of preserving life.

In Shirley, Miss Mary Hammond, aged 27.
In Grafton, Mr. Robertus Flagg, aged 73.
In Springwater, N. Y. Mr. Edward Walker,
formerly of Brookfield.

In North Brookfield, Lieut. J. Bush, aged 87.
In Lancaster, Mr. Varnum Gibson, aged 23.

POETRY.

STANZAS.

While softly falls yon silver ray
Upon each sleeping thing,
How sighs the spirit o'er the harp,
As memory sweeps the string;

To thee, to thee was breathed the fire
That first awoke to song,

And thine the last sad murmur now,
That steals its wires along.

Like the fair rainbow forms we trace

Around the setting sun,

On which we gaze until each tint
Of loveliness is gone;

Thus came the day-dreams of my youth,
But brighter, lovelier far

Than ever curled the golden cloud
Around that sinking star.

The laugh of morn, the midnight's sigh,
Were music to my ear,

I heard a deep and thrilling voice,
Forever breathing near,
Knelt to my heart's creations wild,
Bright forms of purity,
And loving, living, dreaming thus,
How could I turn from thee?

Oh never-and though thou art dead,
No touch shall cross the chord,
In solitude, like thine, my harp,
Be all its sorrow poured,
And mirth and youth and revelry,
For heart and harp shall bring
Only the spirit's lonely sigh,

As memory sweeps the string.

THE STARS.

Yes bright and glorious are ye set,
In unalloyed and stainless light,
Like gems around the coronet

That gilds the dusky brow of night. High-high above the darken'd earth Your mystic course hath ever been, Shedding the same pale radiance forth; Upon the dim abodes of men.

Earth's glories pass-her proudest things
Give token of their sure decay-
The shade of final ruin clings
Around the beautiful and gay.

The tower that guards the monarch's form
Is numbered soon with visions past-
The oak that battles with the storm
Lays down its verdant head at last.

But there ye shine-in light and love,
As pure as at creation's dawn,
When through the glorious realms above
Your anthem hailed the rising morn!
The chance and change of human ill
Affect ye not-nor stain of crime,
But there ye shine in beauty still,
Unsulled by the wing of time.

The earth has much to lift us up
Beyond its scenes of care and strife,
And mingle in our bitter cup
The foretaste of a happier life;
But nought of all created things
Hath power like yonder stary sky
To lend the soul etherial wings,
And lift the chainless thought on high.
Salem Courier.

From the German of Gleim. MY NATIVE COUNTRY. My native land, on thy sweet shore Lighter heaves the breast; Could I tread thy soil once more,

How I should be blest!

Heart so anxious and so pained,
Fitting is thy wo:

My native land, what have I gained
By wandering from thee so?

Fairer green decks thy fields,
Lovelier blue thy skies,
Cooler shade thy forest yields,
Dew brighter on thee lies.

The Sabbath-bells a sweeter note
Echo far and near;

Thy nightingale's melodious throat

Thrills more sweet the ear.

Softer flow thy lavish streams

Through the meadow's gloom Oh, how beautiful the dreams 'Neath thy linden's gloom! Fair thy sun and temperate, Genial light and heat: To my father's household gate Let me bend my feet; There forgetting all the past, I will rest my limbs at last!

NIGHT PRIMROSE.
Oh! Faithful to the darkling hour
When the last sunbeam on the sea,
And evening dews fall on the flower,

And mountain winds breathe o'er the lea; In that soft time-when whisper'd love, Finds rapture in its favourite bower. The pale blue star that shines above

So coldly from its western tower, Brings more of joy, lone flower, to thee, Adorer of the silent night.

WORCESTER TALISMAN. Published every other Saturday morning, by DORR & HOWLAND, Worcester, (Mass.) at $1 a year, payable in advance.

Agents paying five dollars will be enti tled to receive SIX copies.

Letters, intended for THE TALISMAN, must be post paid to insure attention.

GRIFFIN AND MORRILL....PRINTERS.

THE

Worcester Talisman.

NO. 18

NOVEMBER 29, 1828.

POPULAR TALE.

FOR THE TALISMAN.

MARY BENSON.

CONTINUED FROM OUR LAST.

"Fashion my child, I am well aware, has established such a custom; but for a creature formed like man, so fully a votary to habit, it will not answer to follow fashion through all her devicus paths; we may indeed be her disciples, so far as relates to external embellishments, harmlessly; (unless there be harm in a gratification of vanity,) but when she would entice us to follow her into the road of destruction, into that path, by pursuing which we shall destroy all that is noble in ourselves, and blast the powers of an immortal mind, of how high a cast soever they may be; then, I say, we must alienate ourselves from her. The heart of man is of so malleable a nature that it may be moulded into any form, and if its propensities are of such a cast as to lead it into the polluting vices of the world, it soon becomes divested of all those mauly qualities which seem native in it, and is rendered a cold and callous, a degraded and despicable thing. The dignity which is natural to a being placed in so high a station of the universe as that which is occupied by man, is brought down to inevitable destruction."

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VOL. X

minding you of my former charge, I shall say no more."

Mary discovered herself to be in no very enviable situation. Should she satisfy her own inclination, she would do it in direct opposition to the will of one whom she loved and honored, and the thought was agonizing that she should incur her severe displeasure. But this thought was partially mitigated by placing too much confidence in her own judgment respecting James, and, in the waywardness of youth, in believing that her mother had been building up imaginary castles of sorrow. She could not steel her mind to look upon James, otherwise, than as the person with whose destiny, through life, her own was to be cast.And it was her joy to look upon him as such; she loved to believe that she could lean upon him for support, and that he would shield her, beneath the banners of the purest, the most unsullied affection. Poor devoted child of sorrows, how vainly were all those bright imaginings cherished, those fancy pictures of ideal happiness brought into fictitious existence. The time was to come, and was not, even then, far distant, when all her delightful expectations of enjoyment were to be forever blasted. Futurity was not to clothe those day-dreams of happiness with reality, but it was destined to open a book of sorrows, too accurately foreseen in the mind of her pa

rent.

Perhaps," said Mary, "you may call me giddy, but I cannot perceive the benefit of so Vice cannot forever shield itself beneath much moralizing. This philosophy always the panoply of deceit, and the character of a looks with a cold and ungenerous eye upon person, be it of what description it may, will the life of man; it turns away, indignantly, follow him, although he may cross the trackfrom the bright and sunny side of human ex- less ocean to flee from it. James had resided istence, and prefers to rest entirely upon those but a few months in the town of Mary's naparts which are shrouded in darkness." "Tru- tivity, ere unfavorable rumors respecting his ly;" rejoined her mother, "a strict examiner, || character were circulated, even among that and thorough investigator of human nature, class of people by whom he desired that his discovers so little that is really what you de- life might be considered the most unexceptionnominate "sunny" in the dispositions, pro-able. Reports, derogatory to his honor, were pensities and passions of man, that it cannot find a sufficient space of brightness whereon to rest; 'tis true, like Noah's dove, he may discover some diminutive spots of that for which he is seeking, rarely interspersed, and may pluck an olive branch of goodness therefrom, but there is no room for rest. But I am wandering into words uselessly, as it seems that all this conversation has fallen upon your ear unheeded; therefore, after re

received from places at which he had formerly resided, and his acquaintance of respectable standing in society began to look upon him with jealous and inquisitive eyes. It was evident that he was a man of good education, and had been bred in a family of elevated rank in life. His affable manners, his gentlemanlike appearance and his courteous demeanor, recommended him to the highest classes of society. But alas, there was that

lurking in his bosom, which was the bane to || houses, which thought they made nogreat every thing that is good, and caused him to figure without, were very snug and com. place more satisfaction in the loud clamor of fortable within, and accorded very well drunkenness, than in the high places of refinement to which he had easy access. It is in-with their circumstances, which were but

deed mournful that there should be such char-moderate. One of the houses had sunk acters in the world; that there should be at one of the corners a few inches, in those who know the superiority, and the value consequence of some little defect in the of virtue, and yet will so deface themselves as foundation; but this had happened twenty to walk in the dark and contaminated shades of vice. And not only this, but will put on years before, and the building had ever the beautiful mask and clothe themselves in since remained perfectly stable, being the pure garment of seeming virtue, to delude reckoned not the least injured, or the the world; and finally, as the climax of their worse for its eccentricity of shape. The baseuess, and the fruits of their hypocrisy, will other house had some little defect in the bring down the young, the virtuous and the innocent, to unmerited misery. But we must chimney, which although it might as well for there are such. not have been there, was no serious conmourn, sequence. Both lived perfectly content, and if a wish would have removed these effects, they would hardly have taken the

After people had been busily engaged for a while, in circulating these reports, they began to question concerning the circumstances which had led James to take up his abode among them. What wonder that they had not thought of that before! No answers to this question could be given that gave satisfaction, and it was soon discovered, that his conduct had originally compelled him to leave his home and seek a refuge wherever it could be found.

James at length discovered that his character was divulging itself before his acquaintance, and, instead of endeavoring to redeem it from its stains, he rendered it the more despicable by abruptly and secretly departing without taking leave of any class of his acquaintance, or even one solitary individual with whom he had associated. We will not trace his character and conduct through their dark and disgraceful shades, or paint those scenes in which he was a conspicuous actor, at the recital of which the heart would sick en with disgust, and which proved him to be a person, at whose presence even infamy her

self would blush.

Mary endeavored to bear her afflictions with fortitude; but where is the heart so steeled against the ills of the world, that, when all

the hopes which it had on earth were wreck ed, could brave the tempest unhurt? But she finally overmastered her feelings with a man. liness of spirit, and came forth again into the world initiated into its secrets, and with a bosom prepared to meet its woes. She discovered and acknowledged the justice of her parents advice, and her heart learned to cling with more fondness around her who had thus guided her in the paths of rectitude. She wept at her own want of discernment, and was assured that there is a material differ

ence between sober experience and youthful mpetuosity.

CLARENCE.

MISCELLANY.

FROM THE MIRROR OF TRAVELLERS.

I once had two near neighbors, who lived in a couple of old fashioned Dutch

trouble to utter it.

In process of time, however, the spirit of improvement got into our part of the town, and some great little busy body, suggested to the owners of the two houses, the perfect ease with which the sunken corner and crooked chimney, might be remedied at a trifling expense. At first they wisely shook their heads; but the advice was repeated every day, and every body knows that the perpetual repetition of the same thing, is like the droping of water--it will wear away a stone at last. My two neighbors at length began to talk over the matter seriously together, and one day came to consult me on the matter. "Let very well alone," said I, and they went away, according to custom todo exactly contrary to the advice they came to solicit. The owner of the house with the sunken corner, and he of the crooked chimney, accordingly the next day went to work under the ditection of the disciple of public improvements, to remedy these mortal inconveniences which they had borne for more than twenty years with the most perfect convenience. One got a great jack-screw under the delinquent corner; the other raised a mighty beam against his chimney, and to work they went, screwing and pushing with a vengeance. In less than fifteen minutes, the crooked chimney, being stubborn with age, and withal infirm, instead of quietly returning to the perpendicular, broke short off, upon the garret floor, carried that with it, and the whole mass stopped not to rest, till it found sol

MADRID.

id bottom in, the cellar. It was well that the dame and all the children, were out of The ordinary sights of Madrid are adoors, witnessing the progress of the ex-musing. On entering in the morning periment. Here was an honest, comfort- by the gate of Toledo, or the Place De able little Dutch house, sacrificed to the || La Cenada, where the market is held, improvement of a crooked chimney. nothing is more striking than the confusThe man of the sunken corner, succeed-ed mass of people from the country and ed to his utter satisfaction in placing the the provinces, who variously clad, are four corners on a level, and was delighted arriving and departing, going and comwith his improvement; until going into g. There a Castilian draws around with his improvement; until going into him with dignity the folds of his ample his house, he beheld with utter dismay, that the shock given to the old edifice and cloak, like a Roman Senator in his tothe disturbance of its various parts which ga. Here a cowherd from La Mancha, with his long goad in his hand, clad in had cemented by time into one solid mass, a kilt of ox-skin, whose antique shape had crooked his walls, so that they looked like a fish net, dislocated the window bears some resemblance to the tunic worn by the Roman and Gothic warriors. sills, removed the ends of the beams from their ancient resting places, in short, hair confined in long silk. Others, Further on may be seen men with their wrecked the whole establishment. It was become like a sieve, and the next wearing a kind of short brown vest, striped with blue and red, conveying the time it rained, the whole family came idea of the Moorish garb. The men who out like drowned rats. There was not a wear this dress come from Andalusia.dry corner in the whole house, nor a They are remarkable for their lively dry thread on its occupants. black eyes, their rapid utterance, and expressive animated countenances. At the corners of the streets and places of resort, are to be seen women preparing refreshments for all those who have no permanent abode in Madrid.

The poor man set himself to work to remedy these inconveniences, and from time to time laid out a great deal of monney, in stopping crannies and setting the dislocated limbs. But all would not do The whole frame of the edifice had been shaken to the centre, by the disturbance of its parts. There was no mending it; and nothing was left but to pull it down, and build a new one, with all the modern improvements. The man of the crooked chimney resolved to do the same. But the man who begins to dig a new cellar, very often commences undermining his own prosperity. The houses were at last finished, and very fine houses they were-but they did not belong to the owners. They were mortgaged for more than half they were worth, and in process of time money growing very scarce, they were sold for just enough to satisfy the creditors. The end of all was, that my neighbors had changed the little houses, with the sunken corner and crooked chimney for an immense mansion without walls or chimney. They were literally turned out of doors. "I wish we had let very well alone," said they to me, as they departed to the wilderness to begin the world anew.

On arriving, we observed long trains of mules, laden with skins, containing wine and oil; and large droves of asses under the care of one person, speaking to them incessantly. We were met by carriages also, drawn by eight or ten mules, ornamented with small bells. A single coachman guided them either at trot or gallop with wonderous dexterity, making no use of reins, and urging them forward with his voice alone, shouting most savagely. These mules are trained all to stop at the same instant by one long shrill whistle. They might be mistaken for teams of stags or elks, by their long tapered legs, the height of their stature, and the bold lofty carriage of their heads. The shouts of the coach drivers and muleteers, the constant chiming of the bells of the churches,→ the various dresses of the men,-the more than sufficient show of southern energy displayed by their gestures and loud sonorous cries in a language we did not understand, their manners so unlike our own; all contributed to give

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