128 



JOUJBNAL OF HOETICULTUSE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ February 17, 1863. 



" Lawrie Todd " was not the man to be cast down, for he 

 through life strove to do what he ought to do, and one passage 

 in his morning of life is a fair illustration of the whole until 

 the Bhades of its night closed, so we will quote but one — 



"One Sabbath morning some young men of our passengers 

 called at my lodgings. 



'"Where are vou going to-day ?' said they. 



" ' To church,'' said I. 



"'Oh!' said they, 'let 

 us go to Long Island, and 

 take a stroll in the fields. 

 Our health requires exer- 

 cise after being so long on 

 ship-board.' 



" Tou may go where you 

 please,' said I, ' but I go to 

 church. The last words 

 my father spoke, as we 

 parted on the shore of 

 Scotland, were, " Remem- 

 ber the Sabbath day!" I 

 iiave not so soon forgotten 

 ■his words.' 



"'They went to the 

 fields, I went to church ; 

 they spent a few shillings, 

 Zput a penny in the plate.* 

 Some of them earned nine 

 or ten dollars a-week ; I 

 only received five and a 

 half. They would get a 

 light waggon, driveofF with 

 some young ladies, spend 

 five or six dollars, get 

 eaughtina thunder-shower 

 — fine clothes and hats all 

 spoiled — come home hall- 

 drunk, rise at eight o'clock 

 on Monday morning with 

 aching bones, sore heads, 

 downcast looks, and guilty 

 conscience. I went to 

 church, rose at five o'clock 

 on Monday morning with 

 a 6ound head, bones and 

 body refreshed and rested, 

 •entered the labours of the 

 week with a clear head and 

 ■quiet conscience. At the 

 end of the year they had 

 fine clothes, fine hate, and 

 powdered heads, but I had 

 a hundred hard dollars in 

 the corner of my trunk. 

 They, having lived fast, all 

 died young ; while I, in 

 consequence of my regular 

 living, have not been con- 

 fined a day by sickness in 

 fifty years." 



In 1S15, a friend 

 having lent him 500 

 dollars, Thorbum 

 again commenced 

 'business as a seeds- 

 man, and from that 

 time his lite was a 

 long succession of 

 prosperous and hap- 

 py years 



The following example of his " Advertisement " in the public 

 papers, is both characteristic and historic. 



" In 1799 the subscriber commenced business with three pots 

 of Geraniums, a monthly Kose, and 15 dollars' worth of seed. 

 The seeds grew till they filled the whole continent— the Hose 

 "blossomed till it spread into a tree, and the little birds formed 

 *he.r nests under its branches. Presently there came forth a 



• In accordance with a custom in the Scotch churche», -where a plate is 

 olThe^'ongreg^. 1300 ' ° n the Sabb?,h ,0 "'"" the fr «-™> « s 



host of pretenders, boasting of what they could do ; they did 

 nothing. In 1818 appeared William Cobbett. This same 

 Cobbett, in 1793-4-5, published the ' Porcupine's Gazette ' in 

 Philadelphia ; its object was to prove to a demonstration that 

 all republics were humbugs — that kings only had a divine right 

 to reign — and that the Americans were a set of consummate 

 I rebels. The mob tore down his office, made " pie " of his types, 



and scattered his porcu- 

 pine quills in their native 

 air. He fled to England, 

 returned to New York a 

 full-blooded radical De- 

 mocrat, and opened a seed- 

 shop at 62, Fulton Street, 

 where he sold ruta baga at 

 one dollar per pound, and 

 black pigs for ten dollars 

 each. For a long space 

 of time you could hear 

 nothing in Wall or Ex- 

 change Streets, but Cob- 

 bett and his black pigs — 

 Cobbett and his ruta baga. 

 The consternation was 

 similar to that at Frank- 

 fort, when the man rode 

 through the streets with 

 the long nose, and Btill 

 the wonder grew whether 

 the nose was a paper or 

 a timmer (wooden) nose. 

 He vowed he would drive 

 Thorbum from the boards 

 with his black pigs and 

 ruta baga, in less than six 

 months. Before twelve he 

 closed the concern, and 

 again sailed for England, 

 flaked he came into Ame- 

 rica, and naked he re- 

 turned from thence ; his 

 whole goods and chattels 

 (a few minor articles ex- 

 cepted) consisting only of 

 ruta baga and smoked 

 hams from the hind quar- 

 ters of his black pigs ; he 

 shipped one case, however, 

 which by some estimation 

 was beyond all price — viz., 

 a rough Albany deal board , 

 formed into a square box, 

 and in this box was de- 

 posited the profound skull 

 and dry bones of the ven- 

 erated Thoonas Paine, au- 

 thor of " Common Sense," 

 &c. Out of these bones 

 Cobbett meant to have 

 made political capital, but 

 they were seized by the 

 custom - house at 

 London for duty, 

 and eunk (if report 

 speaks true) in the 

 deep green sea. 



" From this sub- 

 ject it may be pro- 

 fitable to observe 

 how similar are the 

 movements of poli- 

 tical quacks in all countries and at all periods. It is but a few 

 years since that our political jugglers turned the world upside 

 down ahout Morgan, his dry bones and split skull ; Louis 

 Philippe, too, and his French radicals, must needs parade the 

 hones of Buonaparte wherewith to make a bank political. 



" But enough of this long preamble. It is only meant to let 



his friends know that Grant yet lives — his eye as cl«ar, bis head 



as eound, and his health as good as in 1801 — and this beiDgthe 



1 first day of spring he is provided with the usual supply of goods 



