332 



KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



IT IS SUMMEE — ALL IS BEAUTY. 



It is Summer on the meadows, 



And the earth is bright with shadows 



Of the sunbeams floating lightly o'er the sky : 

 The bells are gaily ringing, 

 And they mingle with the singing 



Of the lark that, ever singing, soars on high. 



All is brightness — all is beauty — 



To rejoice now is a duty — 

 Let us fill our hearts with gladness to the brim; 



It is flowing o'er the land, 



Scattered freely from God's hand — 

 Let our songs of blessing sweetly flow to Him. 



Let us wander o'er the mountains, 



Let us rest beside the fountains, 

 And taste the balmy odors breathing round ; 



While in garments rich and golden, 



Robes royal, rare, and olden, 

 The monarch of the day is robed and crowned. 



At noon it is too bright 



To roam beneath his light — 

 We will seek the shelter of the leafy grove ; 



There, a mossy couch is spread 



For our pleasure in the shade, 

 Till evening tempt us forth again to rove. 



On a crimson throne of splendor, 



The sun listens to the tender, 

 Soft farewells of the zephyrs, low and sweet; 



Then sinks into the ocean 



With a slow and graceful motion, 

 While the white-browed waves are crowding 

 round his feet. 



SKETCHES OF TRAVEL. 

 BY R. FOWLER, ESQ. 



The following extracts are from the 

 Note-book of a very intelligent and agreeable 

 traveller ; who, despite of public opinion, 

 speaks honestly of what he saw whilst 

 recently travelling abroad : — 



SOCIETY IN AMERICA.. 



To seize upon any peculiarity, and ex- 

 aggerate it, is easy. To represent, as cha- 

 racteristic of a whole people, manners which 

 are to be found in a mere section of it — to 

 dress them up and present them to the 

 reader in amusing language — may flatter 

 national vanity; but it is highly unfair. 

 The caricature is not the best likeness. I 

 mixed, during several months, in every class 

 of American society. The highly-bred 

 English or French gentleman, accustomed to 

 the best and most refined society, is not to 

 be found in America — there is no school for 

 such. But you will find, with this exception, 

 most native Americans (I use this term ad- 

 visedly, because the States are deluged with 

 people from other countries, who are the 

 loudest talkers and most obtrusively ill- 

 mannered) superior in intelligence and 

 manners to persons filling the same position 



elsewhere. This is peculiarly the case with 

 the lower order of agriculturists. Place the 

 small yeoman or farm laborer of England 

 by the side of the same class in America, 

 and the contrast is great. The coarse, heavy 

 clothes, slouching, lumbering walk, rough 

 speech, and lifeless stolidity of the one, do 

 not appear in a favorable light by the side 

 of the slim, active, light-clothed, intelligent, 

 inquisitive American. I have often sighed 

 to think that the figure before me, clad in 

 fustian shooting-coat, plush waistcoat, knee 

 breeches, gaiters, and half-boots, with a 

 hundredweight of iron on the soles, was a 

 fair specimen of the English " raw material." 

 Those who have been in America will, I am 

 sure, agree with me in this. Ascending a 

 little higher in the social scale, there is less 

 to reform, and therefore less superiority. 

 Still the manners of the retail dealer, easy 

 and self-reliant, are a great improvement 

 upon the cringing, humble servility often 

 found in the shopkeeper at home. Amongst 

 professional men there is not much difference. 

 Education -rubs down the salient angles 

 everywhere; but I almost incline to think 

 that in this class the scale would turn the 

 other way. Really good society is not easy 

 of access to a traveller in the United States ; 

 he must not only come well recommended, 

 but must linger long upon his road. The 

 hotel, the steamboat, or the rail, are not fair 

 places to judge of national manners; particu- 

 larly in a nation composed of such hetero- 

 geneous materials as this. Quiet, educated 

 people, in the republic, keep rather in the 

 background ; and such are to be found in all 

 parts of the Union. 



THE "LADIES" OF CANADA. 



A lady in Canada, in the strict sense of 

 the term, is none the less so because she has 

 spent her morning in salting beef, making 

 tallow candles, and other kindred household 

 duties. At home she would infallibly lose 

 " caste " — that dire bugbear ! Here she 

 does not. Servants are a great plague — 

 expensive, whimsical, and idle. On one 

 occasion a servant, who came to be hired by 

 a lady friend of mine, entered the room, and 

 immediately seated herself on the sofa, by 

 the lady of the house ; scrutinised her 

 thoroughly; asked the nature of the duties 

 she was expected to perform, and her salary ; 

 and then said abruptly — "Well, I likes the 

 looks of you, and I guess I'll come." This 

 was all that passed. How long she stayed I 

 should be sorry to say — probably three days. 

 I recollect reading somewhere, in a book on 

 life and manners in the Western States, that 

 a servant, believing that her mistress had 

 called to her, but not being quite sure of the 

 fact, ascertained it by the following question 

 — " I say, ma'am, did you holler ? I thought 

 I heard a yell." 



