374 



KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



editorial condemnation of the "barbarians" who 

 have, at the same time, deprived these sweet 

 warblers of their liberty and the public of their 

 delicious out-door music. Knowing that those 

 who have the care of that noble wood are desirous 

 to preserve these sweet singers, one is surprised 

 at the successful audacity of these wholesale ex- 

 terminators ; for, considering how soon these birds 

 die in captivity, it is little better than destruction 

 to tear them from their natural haunts. Would 

 that there were as much care taken to preserve 

 these innoceut creatures, as there is with respect 

 to game ! How much more innocent gratification 

 to thousands would be the consequence ; but there 

 are few protectors of small birds like the owners 

 of Walton and Stainbro' parks. Even in this last 

 beautiful domain three nightingales, I am credibly 

 informed, were shot by a former gamekeeper. We 

 have now to go a dozen or score miles to hear one — 

 chiefly to Edlington, though seldom a year passes 

 without the occurrence of the nightingale in this 

 part. Yet we only hear it when it has fallen into 

 the stealthy birdcafccher's snare ! — Thomas Lister, 

 Barnsley. 



sands of life. May you escape them ! You have 

 asked a question, Master Tom, that it requires 

 some tact to answer.] 



The Widower. — I have often thought, my dear 

 sir, what a miserable home that must be, which 

 is deprived of its fairest ornament, — a fond wife. 

 May I give you my ideas of it ? 



Say, what sweet voice the wearied heart shall 



cheer, 

 Win the glad smile, or wake affection's tear ? 

 What form shall glide within the half-closed door, 

 What small light footstep press the silent floor ? 

 What ivory arm around his neck shall twine, 

 And say, or seem to say — this hour is miue ! 

 What voice shall cry — away, my love, away ! 

 The nightingale is now on every spray, 

 Come hear the enchanter's song, and welcome in 



the May! 

 Ah ! say why here do art and nature pour 

 Their charms conjoin 'd in many a varied store ? 

 Why bloom, by Flora's hand adorn 'd, my bowers, 

 Why dance my fountains, and why laugh my 



flowers ? 

 Along each velvet lawn and opening glade, 

 Why spreads the cedar his immortal shade ? 

 The brooks that warble, and the hills that shine, 

 Charm every heart, and please each eye — but 



mine! 



May you, my dear sir, never live to be thus bereft ! 

 Never may it be your lot to bewail the solitude 

 of " a home " without its chief attraction ! — Lucy 

 Norris, Tottenham. 

 [Amen ! kind Lucy] 



Woman, — dear Woman ! — I am a youth in my 

 teens. Yet may I ask admission for the annexed 

 little thought ? 



Who would wish to lead this life, 



If Woman were not in it ? 

 Or who would bear its endless strife 



Without her smile, one minute ? 



What do you think, my dear sir, of the above ? 

 Is it not a pretty sentiment ? — Tom E., Finchley. 

 [The " sentiment " is pretty enough. May you 

 never live to change your mind on this point ! 

 You have not yet got among the rocks and quick- 



LJpitaph on an Infant : — 



Beneath this stone, in sweet repose, 



Is laid a mother's dearest pride ; 

 A flower that scarce had waked to life, 



And light, and beauty, ere it died. 

 God in his wisdom has recalled 



The precious boon his love had given ; 

 And though the casket moulders here, 



The gem is sparkling now in Heaven ! 



Aubepine. 



Size of London. — London extends over an 

 area of 78,029 acres, or 122 square miles, and the 

 number of its inhabitants, rapidly increasing, was 

 two millions three hundred and sixty-two 

 thousand two hundred and thirty-six (2,362,236) 

 on the day of the last census. A conception of 

 this vast mass of people may be formed, says 

 Cheshire in his Census, by the fact that, if the 

 metropolis was surrounded by a wall, having a 

 north gate, a south gate, an east gate, and a west 

 gate, and each of the four gates was of sufficient 

 width to allow a column of persons to pass out 

 freely four abreast, and a peremptory necessity 

 required the immediate evacuation of the city, it 

 could not be accomplished under four-and -twenty 

 hours — by the expiration of which time the head 

 of each of the four columns would have advanced 

 a no less distance than seventy-five miles from 

 their respective gates, all the people being in 

 close file, four deep. — Helen W. 



"Let us all pull together!" — I am, my dear 

 sir, as you no doubt are aware, of a " right 

 merrie " disposition; but do not imagine that, 

 with all my merriment, I am a girl not given to 

 thought. There are few persons of my age, I 

 fancy, that " think " more than I do; and " there 

 is a time for everything." I had a long conver- 

 sation, last week, with a headstrong man, who 

 maintained that if he had always plenty of money 

 in his pocket, he was " independent of the world." 

 I fought him on this point, inch by inch. Sir, 

 said I, listen. Industry is the life and soul of 

 the world. It is essentially social. Independence 

 is a misnomer. It does not exist. It cannot find 

 a resting-place amongst us. If we are ill, who is 

 to cure us ? Death cares not for "independence." 

 No money will buy him off. It is impossible for 

 a man to improve either himself or his neighbor, 

 without neighborly help ; and to better the world, 

 is to set the world to work together. Every 

 useful invention has been carried out and perfected 

 by the co-operation of many minds ; or by the 

 successive applications of varied genius to the 

 same object — age after age. The mechanic must 

 aid the philosopher, or he must stand still in his 

 demonstrations; and the philosopher must aid the 

 mechanic, or he will work and work without 

 wisdom. The astronomer needs his telescope, and 

 the chemist his material and apparatus. The 

 sciences hang on the arts, and the arts on the 

 sciences. But without the philosophy from 

 Heaven, neither art nor science would look off 

 the earth. Industry, thus unsupported, would die 

 a natunj death, and rise no more. These were 



