212 COLLEGE REMIMSCENCES. 



my own opinion without controversy. If they have, those souls either 

 leave them, when they descend into the dark tomb of our stomachs, or 

 else they are absorbed into our own spirits. Take they their flight? — 

 They need no " pax vobiscum " from such as me : I envy their apo- 

 theosis. Do they lake the other hoin of the dilemma ? Happy mortal 

 that f am, to have imbibed so many myriads of such sinless souls ! 



I have sat down in the oysterless regions of the West, and remem- 

 bered the oyster-pots of my home. I thought of the sphenoidal shell, 

 ti^ie Oyster's Coat of Arms, then contemplated the King of Spain, upon 

 my last pillar dollar ; and O ! how gladly would I have exchanged the 

 silver for the pearl — the " Carolus Dei gtatia " for the Auster Dei gra- 

 tia ! And when I dreamed, I was ever in Baltimore; the streets rang 

 again with the musical cry of Old Moses ; the tureen smoked . 



" To live is but to dream " — with a diflerence. 



No man curseth the oyster ; for out of his mouth proceedeth bles- 

 sing only. He is disallowed of no man. Grahame courteth his smiles, 

 I'homson preferreth him even to Lobelia. Priessuitz owns him as his 

 a(iuatic ally, and even Hahnemann, who wageih war upon the coffee- 

 bean — even he blesseth the innocent oyster. The Catholic knoweth 

 well on fast-days that this meat is not flesh ; — to call it fish were an 

 abomination. The Son of Temperance himself will swallow his six 



dozen, — only touch not a thimble-full of aU ! 



P. G. S. 



COLLEGE REMINISCENCES. NO. II. 



BY AN OLD STAGER. 



It often aflbrds me a melancholy pleasure to take up the College cat- 

 aloi'uc of my Sopliomorical days and follow my fellow students through 

 their wanderings and diversified destiny of life. More than four lus- 

 tres have been written in the register of eternity, since those halcyon 

 days, and every one's character has been fully developed, and every 

 one's fate, for this world, unalterably fixed. 



] will confine myself now to the retro-examination of my own class, 

 and as 1 glance my eye down the long list, for there were fifty of us, I 

 am made sad and glad by turns. I can laugh hilariously, and, if 1 were 

 given to the melting mood, I ought to weep dolorously. Not a few 

 have graduated for life and have stood their examination before a higher 

 tribunal than a College faculty. Alas ! that vicious practices contracted 

 at College should have shortened the days of not a few ! There was 

 vouiio- Mi>rton; the idol of hi^' widowed mother — tlic dearly cheiiohed 



