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her, and placed her hand upon my head while she prayed. Ere I was old enough to know her worth, she died, and I was left much to my own guidance. Like others, I was inclined to evil passions, but often felt myself checked, as it were, drawn back by the soft hand upon my head. When I was a young man I travelled in foreign lands, and was exposed to many temptations. But when I have yielded, that same hand was upon my head, and I was saved. I seemed to feel its pressure as in days of my happy infancy, and sometimes there came with it a voice in my heart, a voice that must be obeyed,--- Oh do not this wickedness my son, nor sin against thy God."

VARIETY.

CONVERSATION.-We seek the conversation of the ladies, with a view to be pleased rather than instructed, and are more gratified by those who will talk, than by those that are silent, for if they talk well, we are doubly delighted to receive information from so pleasant a source, and if they are at times a little out in their calculations, it is flattering to our vanity to set them right. Therefore, I would have the ladies indulge with somewhat less of reserve in the freedom of conversation, notwithstanding the remark of him who said, with more of point than politeness, that they were the very reverse of their mirrors, for the last reflected without talking, and the others talked without reflecting.

den and quick in quarrel," his proud preference of his own country, his peculiar dialect, his reckless disregard of consequences, and a variety of mixed traits, seen in a moment, and yet difficult to describe, mark him even to an unobservant eye,as a Southerner, in the streets of New York.— Ibid.

An Irish gentleman being taken ill of a yelin that island, indirectly hinted to him in the low fever at Jamaica, a lady who had married him, the propriety of making a will in a counpresence of an Irish physician who attended try where people were so apt to die-the phy sician thinking his judgment called in question tartly replied," By St. Patrick, madam, I wish you would tell me were people do not dieand I will go and end my days there."

This puts us in mind of a Hibernian minister who said during one of his sermons, that if there was no such a thing as death in the world, we should increase to such a degree, that the plague would get among us, and we should die off by thousands!!!

It is said that Mr. Green, the English æronaut, on being entreated by a certain gentleman to allow him a seat in his car, at his late ascension, asked him if his temper was good. "Why, yes, Sir, it is," replied Mr. W. the gentleman alluded to; "but why do you ask." For fear we should have a fall out," replied the æronaut.

A GHOST.-We never saw a ghost; but that THE YANKEE.-A Yankee is a Yankee o- is no reason why a ghost should not exist. ver the globe; and you might know him, if The only difficulty in seeing a spirit arises from you met him on the "mountains of the moon," its incorporeality; one must have most exquisite in five minutes, by his nationality. We love eyes to see that which has neither form nor and honor him for it, where it is not carried to substance. The inhabitants of Springfield Ms. a blinding prejudice. He remembers his school have heard a very noisy ghost, and a travelling house, the peculiar mode of discipline in which New Yorker has actually seen it minus a head. he was reared, the place where he played, || That a ghost should talk at all is curious eskaited and bathed in his blithe morning of life,nough, but that it should talk without a head,.` where are the ashes of his forefathers, and is more curious still. where he was baptised, and married. Wherever he trades and traffics" on distant seas, rivers, or mountains, he will only forget his native accent, and his natal spot, when his right hand forgets that cunning for which he has such an undeserved celebrity.-Flint's

Western Mo. Review.

THE SOUTHERNER.-The Southerner is such over the whole globe. You may know him by his olive or brown complexion, on which the sun has looked in his wrath. You may see in his countenance the tinge of billious impress, and that he has inhaled miasma, and breathed morning and evening fogs. You may note in his peculiar gait, and in his erect and lofty port that he has compared himself with an inferior race of human beings,as they have walked before him in his daily task. His generous disregard of expense and economy as he travels; his spirit, ardent and yet generous," sud

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THE TEETH.

First

ligencer, that teeth require great care.
We have often said, says the Medical Intel--
let them be well set in order, by removing the

tartar, &c. with a proper instrument, and us-
ing frequently a large and as stiff a brush as
can be produced. It should be used dry two
or three times a week, for this will harden
the gums, and prevent the collection of ex-
traneous matter, and give a fine polish to the
teeth. A simple brush, however hard, can
never injure the enamel, and a soft brush is
worse than useless. The best brushes seldom
admit of use more than a month or two, when
they become soft, and good for nothing.-
Cologne water, diluted, may be used occasion-
ally, and will give a fine, clear complexion to
the teeth, and preserve the breath pure and
fragrant.

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GOSSIPIANA.

Dyspeptic Ostrich ! A fellow exhibiting an ostrich, eating nails and gravel stones, being asked if it never was sick, replied,' Never but once, and then the darned fool eat some plaguy cowcumbers.

Knights to the lists! A tailor called Knights was lately goose enough to hang himself in his own yard with a piece of list. Unconscionable cabbaging is the cause assigned for the lamentable act. He was cut down with his own shears!

Leaked out at last! Mrs. Nabby Waters died on Wednesday last in Elksville of the dropsy, brought on by excessive drinking.

Hope less! George Hope, who in the month of April weighed 276 lbs. has reduced himself by ascetic habits to the gross of 98 lbs. 6 oz.

Mush and milk. Charles Mush advertises milk at the low price of 10 cents per gallon.

Dry lake. A beast of a fellow who calls himself Lake, lately drank for a wager 12 bottles of spruce beer at a sitting.

Bond broken. Jesse Bond, of Wilbraham, fell on the 4th inst. from a barn in Easton and fractured his scull.

The Editor of the Kennebunk Journal, in noticing the prevailing fashion of publishing a newspaper for every class of people, says: "We therefore propose to publish a paper for the special reading of those persons who are afflicted with corns on their toes, to be called the Pinch Toe Gazette and Corn Plaster Advocate.

Pickering's Reports. Mr. Charles Pickering, while engaged in blasting rocks on Thursday last in Chelsa, was seriously injured by the explosion.

Finn's very last! This celebrated wag, having lately called upon a lady who was engaged in the domestic occupation of ironing, put the following conundrum to her husband. "Why is your wife like a pair of fire-dogs?" Because she is good, And irons! His last but one! Why is Noah's Enquirer like a paper fly-trap? Because it is a noose-paper! Still later! This excentric wit, being at a tea table where one lady made the following remark to another, "I have something for your private ear, immediately exclaimed, "I protest against that, for there is a law against privateering.

MEMORY.

What is memory?,tis the light

Which hallows life-a ray profound Upon the brow of mental night;

An echo-time the passing sound; A mirror---its bright surface shows

Hope, fear, grief, love, delight, regret; A generous spring; a beam which glows Long after sun and star have set; A leaf---nor storm, nor blight can fade--An ark in time's bereaving seaA perfume from a flower decayedA treasure for Eternity!

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THE TALISMAN.

WORCESTER, SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 1828.

SUMMARY OF NEWS.

Hon. J. P. Barbour, Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. James, and family, sailed for Liverpool, in the Packet Ship Pacific, from New York, on the 1st inst. Thames Tunnel. -There now exists a fair prospect, (June 14) that this novel and extraordinary enterprise will be satisfactorily effected. The Charleston (S. C.) Courier, has dared to take a stand against the hot heads of the South; for this reason-an attempt has been made to frighten the editor into submission by a withdrawal of patronage, which is not likely to succeed, the editor is firm, temperate and decided in his remarks upon this attempt. It is reported that Miss Frances Wright (the English female traveller) who has recently taken charge of a paper at New Harmony, is about to join her fortune with one of Mr. Owen's sons. A most deplorable and alarming scarcity of young la dies exists in Alabama; every respectable female, native or stranger, found there, is, as

soon as possible, hurried to the hymenial altar. The young men are as one hundred to one of the young ladies. Ladies emigrate by all means, we Yankees are too poor to marry, more than one in ten of us. An engine company in Brooklyn, has adopted the use of hot coffe instead of spirituous liquors, for refreshment in cases of fire, the members feel satisfied that they are more refreshed by it than they heretofore have been by using spirits. The Russian army has crossed the Danube and fairly got to blows with the Turks. The Sultan is marching with an army of 145,000 men to meet the Russians. The affairs of Greece are in a more flourishing condition, Count Capo d'listria has by his wise management inspired the people with confidence. The affairs of South America are in a very unpromising state. Bolivar has become supreme chief of Colombia, and is preparing to wage war against Peru. The work shops in the State Prison at Charleston, have been burnt, the fire is supposed to have been communicated by some of the convicts.

THE SPY UNMASKED.

In our last number was inserted a short notice of this work: we have since seen the work and given it a cursory perusal, and think

it a work of considerable interest, it has all the
variety of adventure, "hair breadth 'scapes,"
&c. of a work of fiction, together with the su-
perior attraction of being a narrative of facts
that have actually taken place. Those per-
sons who have read Cooper's novel "the Spy"
will peruse this work with quite as much in-
terest as they did the Spy. We extract the
following items of his history. Enoch Crosby,
the subject of the memoir, is a native of Har-
wich, in the county of Barnstable, State of
Massachusetts; he was born on the 4th day
of January, 1750; enlisted as a soldier in the
revolutionary army, and served through the
war in various capacities. He cultivates a
small farm, the product of his own industry,
since the peace of 1783; having received, for||
all his revolutionary services, only the trifling
pittance of two hundred and fifty dollars. He
has had two wives, and is the father of four
children, two sons and two daughters, who
are grown up, and settled in the county of
West Chester. For twenty-eight years, he
was justice of the peace in the town of South-
east, and for the last fourteen years, he has
held the office of Deacon in the Presbyterian
church. He is universally respected by his
neighbors, acquaintance and fellow citizens
generally; and now enjoys a "green old age,"
which, we trust, will be succeeded by a happy
immortality, for Enoch Crosby "was for years
a faithful and unrequited servant of his coun-
try. Though man does not, may God reward

him for his conduct."

To Correspondents and Patrons.-We are much pleased with the tale of our correspondent "Clarence," and hope that our paper may be enlivened by further communications from the same source. To "P." we are indebted for an original piece of poetry, in our present number, as well as, for a piece yet unpublished, which we intend for the next number, if it should not be forestalled by the author. To "The Harp" we would say, your tones are too melancholly for our taste, and your strings in some strains not attuned to the harmony of numbers. To our patrons we have to lament the loss of "The Moralist" from our exchange list. Although we have never profited by the truly original and never-to-be-mistaken remarks of its editor, yet we have found a vast fund of amusement in perusing its columns, and have

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thought that our quill moved with unwonted glibness (considering our feeble efforts) after having pored over and waded through that paper. The reason we understand why we are struck off the exchange list of "The Moralist," is forsooth, because some half dozen poor words were wanting in one corner of our last number sent, having been by some untoward accident torn off, "Prithee Poins, help us laugh a little." We wish that original pieces for the Talisman might be forwarded so as to reach us as early as Tuesday evening previous to publishing. We have receive' the first number of the "American Minstrel," a musical paper, published in Providence semi-monthly, by Mr. L. D, Chapin ; the first number gives good promise from the ability with which it is edited, of its being a work of interest and value to amatuers of music.

CONCLUDED FROM OUR LAST.

It is evident that the cause of the decay of the limbs was somewhere in themselves, (for the limbs examined were in that part next the trunk of the tree in a still flourishing condition, but the extremes of them were dead,)

as the limbs were taken off close to the trunk.

If it were the work of bugs or insects the part eat must have extended nearly or quite round the limbs before they would perish for want of sap. By the result of the investigation it appears that if any bugs or insects were in the limbs at all, their path could not have extended one quarter part of the circumference of them and of course could not have cut off so much of the supply of sap as to injure the limb. The bark of the limbs was also taken off and the alburnun and bark both carefully examined by the eye and microscope, and here seemed to be the seat of the disease, the

alburnun was at the small ends of the limbs black and discolored for half the length of them from the extremities towards the trunk

of the tree; this discoloration did not extend equally round the branch, but would be on one side an inch perhaps in advance of its opposite. The writer does not undertake to assign a cause for the fire blight, but merely says, that from a minute and careful examination, he is well satisfied that it never proceeded from the work of any insect.

POETRY.

FOR THE TALISMAN.

EVENING IN AUGUST.

The temple of the night is still,
Clad in its livery of grey;
Not e'en the syren of the hill

Chaunts her sweet dirge o'er parted day. But hark, methinks from yonder pines, Where thick the hawthorn leaflet twines, The night-wind whispers through the grove, Soft as an infants voice of love.

Peace "gushes from a thousand springs;"
In yon bright gardens of the west,
Where day drew up her gilded wings,
To slumber on her downy nest.
One lovely star is lingering-
The spirit of some happy thing
Which revels in the viewless air,
And lays its crown of glory there.

And ah! those thousand fires that light
The blue waves of that dark abyss,
And make the canopy of night

Too pure for such a world as this;
They seem like gems from beauty's eyes,
Dropped, sacred, on the vaulted skies,
And left to glisten in their pride
In that unfathomable tide.

How beautiful the waning Queen

Is smiling o'er our sorrowing earth, And spreading out her silvery sheen,

To gild the chapel of her birth.
See how her bright and bounding beams
Come leaping down, in silken streams,
Along a sky that loves to bear
Their light tread on its wings of air.

The waves of ocean dance in light,
And urge their silent revelry
In gladness, as the gleams so bright
Which hasten backward to the sky,
Seem as if formed to shine alone
In that broad firmament unknown,
Yet, venture down, awhile to burn,
But hasten on their glad return.

And ay, upon the placid waves

That rest so tranquilly above,
Where fancy deems it joy to lave,"
Methinks some beings, bright in love,
Beholding earth so calm and fair,

Have ventured down to commune there-
To linger until morning, then
Retrace their rosy paths again.

THE DAISY.

BY JOHN MASON GOOD, M. D.

Not worlds on worlds in phalanx deep, Need we to prove a God is here; The daisy, fresh from winter's sleep, Tells of his hand in lines as clear.

P.

For who but he that arch'd the skies, And pours the day-spring's living flood,

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In Charlton, on the 15th inst. Sarah Rawson Eddy, daughter of Mr. Samuel Eddy, aged years.

In West Boylston, widow Eunice Goodenow, aged 56. July 24, Dennis Manson, son of Dennis and Anna H. Harthan, aged 18 months.

In Shrewsbury, on Wednesday the 6th instant, Widow Lucy Monroe, aged 81.

In Mendon, July 20th, widow Eunis Penniman, aged 87 years, 6 moths and ten days. In Ward, on the 8th instant, Mr. Josiah Bartlett, formerly of Millbury, fell from a load of hay and dislocated his neck and died instantly, aged 51.

In Lancaster, Mrs. Lydia, wife of Capt. John Thurston, aged 56.

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 entitled to receive SIX copies.

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

GRIFFIN AND MORRILL....PRINTERS.

THE

Worcester Talisman.

NO. 12.

SEPTEMBER 6, 1828.

POPULAR TALES.

FOR THE TALISMAN.

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VOL. I.

Little Augusta, the bright-eyed darling of her parent's declining years, at this hour, when he who had been the theme of so many of her THE FIRST BORN'S RETURN. wandering thoughts was to return, could bareTHE speaking glow of gladness was painted ly suppress the mighty undulations of her hapupon every cheek, and sparkled in every eye py spirit. She trimmed the parlor for his rewithin the dwelling of Henry Dumfries. Eve- ception, with tasteful hands. Fresh festoons ry hand was employed in busy preparation for of evergreen were hanging around the walls, some joyous occasion; every heart was beat-clusters of flowers shed their delicious pering high in the anticipation of approaching fume, while they adorned the mantel piece. joy. Henry, aged as he was, united his feel- || She wrought with joyful assiduity in completings with those by whom he was surrounded, || ing her decorations, conscious that a brother, and seemed partially to renew the vigor and a brother whom she had never beheld, was hilarity of younger years. Well might he soon to gaze upon and admire her performance. throw off the burden of Nature, and join with She felt that though she had never seen him, his happy family, upon an occasion which her heart was twined around his with all a would ever gladden a parent's heart. His sister's fondness. She had listened full mafirst-born, the child of his earlier years, after ny a time, upon her parent's knee, to hear the a long protracted absence, was expected at rehearsal of tales concerning him who was far his father's mansion. She who had watched away. She had pictured him in her heart as with tenderness over the helpless years of her a companion, as one no farther advanced than son, who had beheld him spring up to laugh- herself. She had heard of his youthful sports ing boyhood, and to more manly and mature upon the verdant lawn, and had often gone to years, the image of his father; she who had play her own innocent gambols upon the self indulged, with fondness, the idea that he had same spot, even for his sake. She had been gone out into the world with a pure and un- told of his little mill that buzzed before the contaminated heart; who hoped too, that that water of their murmuring brook, and had been, purity of heart, that innocence of thought, many times, to mourn sadly over the loss of that generosity of soul with which he was that which she had never seen, and to play possessed, might promote him in the world, with the clear ripples, and imagine her brothteach him to pursue the unalloyed paths of er to be participating in her joy. virtue, and raise a barrier between him and the temptations and allurements by which he might be encompassed; she too, now felt her bosom yearning towards him with all the enthusiasm of a mother's love; and

"There is none,
In all this wide and hollow world, no fount
Of deep, pure, deathless love, save that within
A mother's heart."

Edward Dumfries had been long absent from the scenes amid which his "childhood's frolic hours" were spent. He had left his parent's roof, and gone forth into the world to meet with men, even in unexperienced years. He had early severed himself from a father, whose friendly advice might have been as a beacon-fire, and a mother, who might urge him on in the high way of virtue, or reShe rejoiced in the assurance of again behold- strain his rash impetuosity,should he rush into ing him, her darling son. But alas, she con- the baneful road to ruin. What blessings sidered not upon the changes wrought by were asked from Heaven, by the parents, uptime. Her mind ran over the years which on their favorite child, as he departed from had elapsed since his departure, during which, the shelter of their home; what prayers she was well aware that decay had been steal- were sent up, from humble and solicitous ing upon herself with slow, but perceptible hearts, for his further safety and welfare, what steps, yet she did not believe, the thought did hours of anxious solicitude were passed, what not even occur to her, that her manly off- hopes were fondly nurtured, what fears had spring was subject to adverse changes. She often involuntarily risen, for him. During hoped to find him in the prime of man- many months after his departure, Edward had hood, enjoying the high and elastic spir-written regularly to his friends, but for severits of meridian years.

al years succeeding, they had received no in

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