392 



NEW ENGI.ANI) FARRIER. 



June 25, 1830. 



MISCELLANIES 



LOVE'S DISSENSIONS. 

 Alas ! — how light a cause may move 

 ni<Hcmioiibclweeii hearts Ihat love ; 

 Hearls that the world in vain had lied, 

 And sorrow hut more closely tried ; 

 That stood the storm when waves were rough, 

 Yet in a sunny hour fall ofT; 

 Like ships, that have gone down the sea, 

 When heaven was all tranquillity I 

 A something, light as air — a look, 



A word unkind or wrongly taken — 

 Oh ! love that tempests never shook, 



A breath, a touch like this, hath shaken. 



And ruder words will soon rush in. 

 To spread the breach that words begin ; 

 An.! eyes forget the gentle ray 

 They wore in courtship's smiling day ; 

 And voices lose the tone, that shed 

 A tenderness round all they said ; 

 Till, last declining, one by one. 

 The sweetnesses of love are gone, 

 .\nd hearts, so lately mingled, seem 

 Like broken clouds — or like the stream. 

 That smiling loft the mountain's brow. 



As though its waters ne'er could sever. 

 Yet, ere it reach the plain below, 



Breaks into floods, that part forever ! 



The following elegant and amusing paper was written 

 in 1801, for the lioston Palladium, by Fisher Ames. — 

 It is well worth a republication annually, not only for its 

 finished composition, but because it contains a sensible 

 reproof to those caterers for the press who feed their rea- 

 ders upon little else than dire catastrophies and horrible 

 events, instead of occupying their columns with useful and 

 necessary information ; it is, n-oreover, still more applica- 

 ble now than it was twentyseven years ago. — Philan. 



TO PRINTERS. 



It seems as if iiewsp.-iper wares were niaile to 

 Buit a m.irket, as inucli as any other. The starers, 

 anil wondcrer.s, and gapers engross a very largo 

 sliarc of the attention of all the sons of tlie type. 

 Extraordinary events multiply ii[)on us surprising- 

 ly. Gazettes, it is seriously to be feared, will not 

 long allow room to any thing that is not loath- 

 some or shocking. A newspaper is pronounced 

 to bo very lean and destitute of matter, if it con- 

 tains no accounts of murders, suicides, prodigies 

 or monstrous births. 



Some of these tales e.xcile horror, and otiicrs 

 disgust ; yel the fashion reign.s, like a tyrant to 

 relish wonders, and almost to relish nothing else. 

 Is this a reasonable taste ; or is it monstrous and 

 worthy of ridicule ? Is the liistory of Newgate 

 the only thing w.)rtli reading ? Arc oddities only 

 to be hunted ? Pray tell us men of ink, if our 

 free presses are to ditVuse information, and we, the 

 poor ignorant jieople, can get it in no other way 

 than by newspapers, what knowledge we are to 

 glean frotn the blundering lies or the tiresome 

 truths about thunder storms, that, strange to tell! 

 kill oxen or burn barns ; and cats that britig two 

 headed kittens ; and sows, that eat their own pigs ? 

 The crowing of a lien is supposed to forbode 

 cuckoldom, and the ticking of a little bug in the 

 wall threatens yellow fever. It seems really as if 

 ournewspapurs were busy to spread supcrslition. 

 Omens, and dreams, and prodigies arc recorded, 

 us if they were wortli minding. — One would think 

 our gazettes were intemled for Roman readers, 

 who were silly enough to make account of such 

 things. We ridicule thr papists for their credu- 

 lity ; yet, if all the trumpery of our pa|(crs is be- 

 lievcd, we have little right to laugh at any set of 

 jicople on earth ; and if it is not believed, why ig 

 it printed ? 



Surely, txlraordinanj events have not the best 



title to our ^tU(li()Us attrntiori. To stiidy nature 

 or man, we ought to know things that are in the 

 ordinary course, not the unaccountable things that 

 liajipcn out of it. 



This country is said to measure seven hundred 

 millions of acres, and is inhabited by almost six 

 tnillions of people. Who can doubt, then, that a 

 great many critnes will be comtnitted, and a great 

 many strange things will happen every seven 

 ycaVs ? There will be thunder showers, that 

 will split tough white oak treses ; ami hail storms 

 that will cost some farmers the full amount of 

 Iwenty shiltitigs to mend their glass windows ; there 

 will be taverns, and boxing matches, and elections, 

 and gouging, and drinking, and love, and murder, I 

 and running in debt, and running away, and sui- 

 cide. Now, if a man suppose eight or ten, or 

 twenty dozen of these amusing events will happen / 

 in a single year, is he not just as wise as another 

 man, wlio reads fifty columns of amazing particu- j 

 lars, and of course, knows that they have hap- [ 

 pened. ] 



This state has almost one hundred tiiousand | 

 dwelling houses ; it would bo strange, if all of 

 them should escape fire for twelve months. But I 

 is it very profitable for a man to become a deep I 

 student of all the accidents, by which they arej 

 consumed.-' He should take good care of his, 

 chimney-corner, and ))ut a fender before the back 

 log before he goes to bed. Having done this, he 

 may let his aunt or grandmother read by day or! 

 meditate by night, the terrible newspa|)er arti- | 

 cles of fire ; how a maid dropped asleep reading ai 

 romance, and tlie bed-clothes took fire ; how a boy 

 searching in a garret for a hoard of nuts, kindled 1 

 some flax ; and bow a mouse, warming his tail, 

 caught it on fire, and carried it into bis hole in the 

 floor. 



Some of ilic shocking articles in the papers, 

 raise simple, and very simple wonderg ; some ter- ! 

 ror ; and some horror and disgust. Now what in- | 

 struction is there in these endless wonders? 

 Who is the wiser or happier for reading these ac- i 

 counts of them ? On the contrary, do they not 

 shock tender minds, and addle shallow brains? 

 They make a thousand old maids, and eight or 

 ten thousand booby boys, afraid to go to bed 

 aloge. Worse than this happens ; for some ec- 

 centric minds are turned to mischief by such ac- 

 counts as they receive, of troops of incendiaries 

 burning our cities: the spirit of imitation is conta- 

 gious and boys are found unaccountably bent to 

 do as men do. When the man flew from the 

 stee|ile of the North church, fifty years ago, every 

 unlucky boy thought of nothing but flying from a 

 signpost. 



It was once the fashion to stab heretics : and 

 Ravaillac, who stabbed Henry the Ith of France, 

 the assassin of the duke of Guise and the duke of 

 Buckingham, with many others, only followed the 

 fashion. Is it not in the power of newspapers to 

 spread fashions ; and by dinning burnings and 



urders in every body's ears, to detain all rash | 

 and mischievous tempers on such subjects, long! 

 enough to wear out the first impression of horror, 

 and to prepare them to act what they so familiarly I 

 contemplate ? — Yet there seems to bo a sort of) 

 rivalship among the i>rintcrs, who shall have the' 

 most wonders: — and the strangest and most lior- ' 

 rihie crimes. — This taste will multiply prodigies. 

 The siipcrstitous Romans used to forbid reports 

 of new prodigies, while they were performing sac- 1 

 rificcs on such accounts. ' 



l^viTV horrid stury in a newspaper produces a 

 shock, but, after some time, this shock lessens. 

 At length, such stories are so far from giving pain, 

 that they rather raise curiosity, and we de.-ira 

 nothing so much as the particulars of tcrril/la 

 tragedies. The wonder is as ea.«y as to stare ; ami 

 the most vacant mind is the most in need of siicli 

 resources as cost tio trouble of scrutiny or reflic 

 tion ; it is a sort of food for idle curiosity, that il 

 ready chewed anil digested. 



On the whole, we may insist that the ineren- 

 sing fashion of printing wonderful tales of crimei 

 anil accidents is worse than ridiculous, as it cor. 

 riipts both the public taste ami morals. It niulli 

 plies fables, jirodigioiis monsters, and crimes, and 

 thus we make shocking things familiar ; while 

 withdraws all popular attention from familiar trutl 

 because it is not shocking. 



Now, Messrs Printers, I pray the whole hog 

 orahle craft, to banish as many murders, and boi 

 rid accidents, and monstrous births, and prodigic 

 from their gazettes, as their renders will |>erni 

 them ; and, by degrees, to coax them back to con 

 template life ami manners ; to consider commoil 

 events with some common sense; and to study 

 nature, were she can be known, rather than in 

 those of her ways, where she really is, or is rei>. 

 resented to be, inexplicable. 



Strange events are facts, and nss'.ich shoiihl he 

 mentioned, but with brevity and in a cursory 

 manner. They afford no ground for pnimlar n-a. 

 soning or instruction ; and, therefore, the horrid 

 details, that make each partici'.r hair stifTen and 

 stand upright on the reader's head, ought not tc 

 be given. In short, they musi be mentioned ; 

 but sensible printers and sensible readers will 

 think that way of mentioning them the best, tha 

 impresses them least on the public attention, 

 and that hurries them on most swiftly to be forgot 

 ten. 



Ten Dollars ReirarJ. 



Stolen on Tuesday evening, June l,fiora the front (iu 

 den of House No. 22, Franklin Place, a Flower Pot, cor 

 gaining a fine Noisette superb Cluster Rose Bush. Iiv 

 feet high, with fifty buds on llie same. A reward of t« 

 dollars will be given by the subscriber, for information 

 (lie thief or plant. JOSEPH P. BRADLEE. 



June 11. 



Choice Perry. 

 A few dozen bottles of Choice Perry, made in Ne 

 Hampshire, for sale at J. B. Russell's Seed Store, i 

 North Market street, at $2,00 per dozen. June 4. 



JfUmoCs Superb Stratcberry. 



For sale at the Seed Store connected with the Ne 

 England Farnlcr, 52 North -Market-street, 



Several roots of W'ilmot's Superb Strawberry, in pc 

 one thrifty pl.mt to a pot — price 124 cts. — also a few po 

 with 4 plants to each, in f'lne onler, most of ihcm lnin 

 in flower, and many with the fruit set, 3"4. May 7. 



Published every Fridny.nl 53 per nniium,pay»blc nil 

 end of ihc year— bill those who pay "iihiu siil\ €|nysfriiiMt ' 

 lime of subscribing, are enlilledio n <led-jcli«ii o( lifiy c<-ii; v 



(i;7"No paper nillbcscnilo adiaiancc »ilhouipay m. 

 inp made in advnnce. 



Primed lor J. H. RessELl.. fiy I. R- Hutts— by m 

 all descriplioiis of Priuiing can be execulod lo mecl the » - 

 ofcusiomiTS. Orderslor priming received liy J. H. U1.--11 

 at Ibe .\ericnllural Warehouse No. .SS Norib Mnrkci.'^i 



AGISTS. 



Km I'or*— G TiiuRuuRN & Son, (T? Liberty ■alroei. 



riiilaJtIphia- U. Ic U LAHnKETH. 85 CheslDUI-ilreei. 



naUimore—i.i. II. Smith, Ollice of ihe American Fornier. 



^/Adtii/— Hon. JrssK ItiKl.. 



Flushwg, N. Y. \Vm. I'KiNCK&SoKS.Prop. Li:i. IU>l.(iari 



//.irt/iiri/— (iooiiwiN A: Sons. 



Haltfai. N. S.— P. J. lloi.LAifK. E«q. Recorder OfTicc 



MoHlrtal, L. C— A. UowMASt, Bookscflcr. 



