KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



349 



early rising are the best after all ; and I shall 

 assuredly follow them.— Sylvia. 



[Well said; sweet sylvan sylph! Agreed; we 

 will wander out in Spring, at early dawn ; and 

 seek better treasures than these,— the treasures 

 of health and innocence.] 



Bees and Chloroform. — Your correspondent, 

 " Pegasus," when he described how to stupify 

 bees by the use of chloroform, did not state the 

 quantity that should be employed. AVill he be 

 so good as to mention how much would suffice 

 for the capture of one hive ? — W. C. W., 

 Devizes. 



Fancy Babbits. — Where can I obtain a first- 

 rate breed of fancy rabbits ? I have long been 

 wondering, why you have not given us a treatise 

 upon rabbits, and should recommend your doing 

 so at an early day. — P. J., Derby. 



[We cannot imagine why some of onr readers 

 persist in withholding from us their names and 

 addresses,-— especially when they require any 

 particular information. Had our correspondent 

 entrusted us with his name, we could at once 

 have referred him to a first-rate breeder of the 

 very finest fancy rabbits, who is now disposing 

 of his stock. It may not yet be too late. We 

 propose to hold some gossip about rabbits, at a 

 no distant period.] 



Voracity of the Bike. — In the year 1814, my 

 sister being desirous of obtaining some "maids 

 of honor" — a delicacy with which no doubt 

 most of your readers are acquainted — I took my 

 skiff and rowed her from Twickenham to Rich- 

 mond, where the said " maids of honor " are 

 alone to be obtained. When opposite the pretty 

 cottage called " Ragman's Castle," — and when 

 near the entrance which leads into the meadows, 

 I observed a large swan, tail erect, and with his 

 body elevated above the water. I imagined he 

 was in search of food. He however remained 

 so very long in this position, that I felt puzzled, 

 and told my companion so. As; we returned, 

 there was Mr. Swan, still balanced high in the 

 air. This was too much for my philosophy to 

 unravel ; so I called a waterman, and accompanied 

 him in his boat to see the meaning cf it. Haul- 

 ing the swan into the boat, the first sight that 

 awaited us was a huge pike, weighing about 

 twenty pounds, attached to the swan's body. He 

 had gorged the head and entire neck; but the 

 body was " one too many " for him; and being- 

 unable either to retire or go on with his dinner, 

 he and his intended victim perished together. — 

 Verax. 



EAULY EDUCATION. 



A mother once asked a clergyman " when she 

 should begin the education of her child?" She 

 added, "he is now four years old." "Madam," 

 was his reply, "you have lost three years already. 

 From the very first smile over an infant's face, 

 your opportunity begins." 



[There is so much beautiful truth in the remark 

 of this clergyman, that we direct special attention 

 to it. It should be treasured up in the heart of 

 every parent, and never forgotten.] 



MIGHT AND SIGHT. 



KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 

 [From the Hampshire Advertiser, Nov. 6.] 



We herald in the month, as usual, with varied 

 quotations from Kiixd's Own Journal, one of 

 the most pleasing companions for a country 

 resident — aye, or the denizen of towns, who can 

 occasionally steal away from them — that has 

 ever appeared. We much regret, that our friend 

 still continues to suffer such vexatious annoyance 

 from the opposition of booksellers to the circu- 

 lation of his Journal. We cannot conceive an 

 objection on the score of his work being " moral ;" 

 we really do not believe that such can be the 

 ground of their lukewarmness; but looking at 

 his title page, and seeing that the Journal is 

 published " For William Kidd," and not for a 

 bookseller, he may rest satisfied, or convinced of 

 the fact being, that the publishers do not approve 

 of any over- bold wight intruding upon their 

 domain, and trying — for it can only be trying — 

 to detract from their profits. We are not book- 

 sellers ourselves, and therefore cannot be accused 

 of battling for the craft ; but we do well recollect 

 an attempt being made by the late Professor 

 Donovan (whose works on Natural History num- 

 bered about a hundred volumes, richly brought 

 out by the Messrs. Rivingtons) to publish on his 

 own account, whereby he put the final seal upon 

 his prospects. He, as a young man, was con- 

 temporary with Johnson in his old age; and his 

 style was moulded upon, and considered almost 

 equal to, that of the classical genius of Bolt 

 Court. His life was at last eked out by the 

 allowance liberally made him by the Rivingtons, 

 for coloring the plates of his own works, when a 

 purchaser happily came — a rare chancel This 

 coloring, be it observed, was done with exquisite 

 fidelity to nature by his accomplished daughter, 

 who sacrificed her talents, youth, and prime, to 

 \hv drudgery, but the noble labor of sustaining her 

 parent. We should like to see some notice of 

 poor Donovan, and other martyrs to the " sweet 

 service " of Natural History, in Kldd's Own 

 Journal. However, our five minutes' writing 

 has run away with our proper business, which is 

 to introduce a portion of an article by our plea- 

 sant friend, appertaining to the season of Autumn. 



[These remarks by our contemporary are per- 

 fectly just. If the publishers and the trade 

 could succeed in sealing our ruin — how hard they 

 have tried! — it would be "the happiest day of 

 their life." But for our indomitable energy, and 

 Herculean perseverance, we should have been 

 entombed long since. We have been everlastingly 

 reported as "done up," "discontinued," "never 

 ready in time," " out of print," &c. ; and to their 

 great surprise, we are yet alive ! One of the 

 London publishers, who is the proprietor of a 

 cheap weekly periodical on Gardening, &c, told 

 his Dublin agent (who has the largest wholesale 

 establishment in that city), "that if he dared to 

 sell Kidd's Journal, he would at once withdraw 

 his agency, and terminate all further transactions." 

 The same unfair influence has been largely em- 

 ployed all over the country; and this, by men 

 calling themselves "our brethren! " Publishers 

 would seem to have neither a heart nor a soul.] 



