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KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



TEARS AND SMILES. 



BY HELEN HETHERIXGTON. 



Cold blows the wind over moor, hill, and moun- 

 tain ; 

 Wildly the tempest sweeps over the plain ; 

 Icicles hang from the edge of the fountain, 

 And dark cheerless clouds hover over the main. 

 We shall welcome the Spring, 

 When the Winter is gone ; 

 And the Summer will bring, 

 Her rich treasures anon. 



But heralds of joy are already appearing, 

 And decking the wood-side with many a gem ; 

 Half hiding themselves 'neath the leaves, as if 



fearing 

 To brave the cold storm on their delicate stem ! 

 Beautiful flowers ! 



Oh rest ye awhile ; 

 Let Winter's dull hours, 

 Be cheer'd by your smile ! 



A Faint ray of sunshine is now and then cast 

 On the bed where the snowdrop and crocuses lie ; 

 The gay laurestinus defies the cold blast, 

 And cheerfully bends as the breeze passes by ; 

 The Robin is singing. 



His fond tale of love ; 

 And flow'rets are springing, 

 Wherever we rove. 



The Spring furze now blooms with its bright yel- 

 low flowers, 

 The ivy-leaved speed-well and dark aconite ; 

 The simple wood - strawberry braves the cold 



showers, 

 And vi'lets and primroses gleam with delight. 

 Oh, haste thee, fair Spring ! 



The sad hours beguile, 

 With the fair joys you bring, 

 And thy bright bonny smile ! 



Thus Nature, kind Nature, e'er smiles through her 



tears ; 

 Though winter's hard laws may be rigid and stern, 

 She cheerfully tells us (to banish our fears)— 

 That Spring with its treasures again will return. 

 The gardens and hedges, 



She sprinkles with flowers — 

 All dear little pledges 

 Of happier hours ! 



CHEAPNESS AND MEANNESS. 



SO CLOSELY ALLIED IS MEANNESS WITH 



cheapness, that we have coupled them 

 together. They are inseparable. Let any one 

 " chew the cud " of this remark, and its truth 

 will be confirmed. We have, all of us, some 

 acquaintances who delight in the " cheap." 

 Let us confess, that they also partake largely 

 of meanness. Say what we will, it is so. 

 Now, we love liberality. A man may show 

 a liberal heart in the disposition of frac- 

 tional parts of a shilling. 



We have heard certain people boasting of 

 late, that they have not given away anything 



either at Christmas, or at the beginning of 

 the new year. They chuckle at the idea, and 

 glory in talking about what they have saved ! 

 Mean wretches ! Such people shall be no 

 associates of ours. This, by the way. 



No one will attempt to deny that we are 

 now living in an age, when " cheapness " is 

 the order of the day. Every shop window 

 has goods ticketed in the window ; and most 

 of the proprietors avow, in black and white, 

 that their property " is being sacrificed at 

 some 20 per cent, below cost prices." Do 

 people believe this? Most assuredly they 

 do. 



We mentioned in our last, the grave calcu- 

 lation that nine-tenths of our whole popula- 

 tion were " fools ;" and that the tenth part 

 was the " wise " one which preyed upon the 

 nine. This is really the fact. Hence is it, 

 that we see so many large firms " selling off" 

 at awful sacrifices — all the goods " obliged " 

 to be cleared off in a given time. These 

 " awful sacrifices," invariably bring the 

 owners of the goods 20 per cent, more than 

 the usual prices. They mark an article 10s. 

 and write underneath it, "worth 40s." Let 

 us for one moment imagine, how many of the 

 " nine- tenths of the population " pass these 

 windows in a day ; and then let us imagine 

 their delight at seeing goods worth 40s. 

 offered for 10s. Their eye is caught, their 

 heart is captured. The goods now selling at 

 such " an awful sacrifice " must be cleared 

 immediately — and to-morrow, perhaps, it will 

 be too late to secure a bargain. The victim 

 enters, smiling ; is leisurely robbed within ; 

 and comes out delighted wdth her great bar- 

 gains. On taking them home, she is told 

 by "a kind friend," that every bargain is a 

 swindle ; and that she has paid at least 

 four times more than the value of the 

 goods she has purchased. This is a matter 

 of hourly occurrence. Indeed, we are sorry 

 to say that nearly all our great houses 

 carry on this fraud systematically. The 

 proprietors cannot help it ; it is forced up- 

 on them by the extreme meanness exhibi- 

 ted by lady purchasers, who enter their 

 shops determined to cheat them — if they 

 can. It is therefore coute qui coute* 



* Our readers will readily remember a large 

 establishment, not one hundred miles removed 

 from the Regent Circus, who were thus selling off, 

 some little time since, " at appalling sacrifices." 

 The hook (beautifully baited we confess) caught 

 such a multitude of (flat) fish, that not only was 

 the really extensive stock sold off at excessive 

 profits, but every night (by a side entrance) loads 

 innumerable of fresh goods (purchased to con- 

 tinue the farce and fill the coffers) were secretly 

 poured in. Day after day, " the alarming sacri- 

 fices " (400 per cent, profit at least) went on ; and 

 day after day, increased hundreds of " bargain 

 hunters " were fleeced to their hearts' content. 

 This fact is notorious. 



