Imatges de pàgina
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er surnamed 0, ed by marriage, 1 and bows, and he far-famed and venerable teacher usiness. At this om is increasingly month it opens its ow shoot out their isplays its glory, and .ons. 'Tis matter for → hundred years. I rognostic is good, also The stars are bright, In every succeeding 1 for many a generation

1853.

THE LONDON AND PARIS LADIES' MAGAZINE FOR JULY, 1853.

same, adorned with a bow of broad ribbon on each sleeve, and one at the waist, and a row of deep lace round the skirt. First chapeau, of white gros de Naples, with satin ribbon in long ends on each side. Cap inside, of pink roses.

Second ditto, of rose silk, trimmed with ribbon and feathers. Bonnet of blond, with embroidered satin bands placed on it, fastened behind with a bow of the same colour.

Caps of lace and blond, with ribbon and velvet trimmings. Sleeves of muslin and net.

DESCRIPTION OF MODEL.

The Model given with this number is of the fashionable round cloak or pelerine termed Talma; it consists of three pieces the pelerine, which hangs full, and is set into the smaller piece, the fullness being at the back; the collar in scollops, and is attached to the upper part of the small piece; this manteau is pretty, trimmed either with ruches, frills, or lace, and is usually mode of black taffetas.

THE LITTLE QUAKERESS WHO WAS IN A HURRY TO GET MARRIED.

AN amusing matrimonial story is told of the olden time in New England. It so fell out that two young people became very much smitten with each other, as young people sometimes do. The young woman's father was a wealthy quaker-the young man was poor, but respectable. The father could stand no such union, and resolutely opposed it, and the daughter dare not disobey -that is to say, she dare not disobey openly. She "met him by moonlight," while she pretended never to see him-and she pined and wasted in spite of herself. She was really in love-a state of "sighs and tears," which women oftener reach in imagination than in reality. Still the father remained inexorable. Time passed on. She let no concealment, like a "worm in the bud," prey on that damask cheek, however; but when her father asked her why she pined, she always told him. The old gentleman was a widower, and loved his girl dearly. Had it been a widowed mother who had Mary in charge, a woman's pride never would have given way before the importunities of a daughter. Men are not, however, so stubborn in such matters, and when the father saw how his daughter's heart was really set upon the match, he surprised her one day by breaking out-" Mary, rather than mope to death, thee had better marry as soon as thee chooses, and whom thee pleases." And then what did Mary? Wait till the birds of the air had told her swain of the change, or until her father had time to alter his mind again? Not a bit of it. She clapped her neat plain bonnet on her head, walked directly into the street, and then as directly to the house of her intended as the street would carry her. She walked into the house without knocking-for knocking was not then fashionable and she found the family just sitting down to dinner. Some little commotion was exhibited at so unexpected an apparition as the heiress in the widow's cottage, but she heeded it not. John looked up inquiringly. She walked directly up to him, and shook both his hands in hers. "John," said she, "father says I may have thee." And John got directly up from the dinner table, and went to the parson's. In just twenty

CELESTIAL LOVE LETTERS.

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In the Celestial Empire love matters are managed by a confidant, or go-between, and the billets-doux written to one another by the papas. At Amoy a marriage was recently concluded between the respectable houses of Tan and O; on which occasion the following epistles, copied from the Panama Herald, passed between the two old gentlemen:

From Papa Tan ::-"The ashamed younger brother, surnamed Tan, named Su, with washed head makes obeisance, and writes this letter to the greatly virtuous and honourable gentleman whose surname is O, old teacher, great man, and presents it at the foot of the gallery. At this season of the year the satin curtains are enveloped in mist, reflecting the beauty of the river and hills, in the fields of the blue gem are planted rows of willow close together, arranging and diffusing the commencement of genial influences, and consequently adding to the good of the old year.

"I duly reverence your lofty door. The guest of the Sue country descends from a good stock, the origin of the female of the Hui country likewise (is so too). You received their transforming influences, resembling the great effects produced by rain, much more you, my honourable nearly-related uncle, your good qualities are of a very rare order. I, the mean one, am ashamed of myself, just as rotten wood is in the presence of aromatic herbs. I now receive your indulgence, inasmuch as you have listened to the words of the match-maker, and given Miss S. in marriage to the mean one's eldest son, named Kang: your assenting to it is worth more to me than a thousand pieces of gold. The marriage business will be conducted according to the six rules of propriety, and I will reverently announce the business to my ancestors with presents of gems and silks. I will arrange the things received in your basket, so that all who tread the threshold of my door may enjoy them. From this time forward the two surnames will be united, and I trust the union will be a felicitous one, and last for a hundred years, and realise the delight experienced by the union of the two countries, Chin and Chin. I hope that your honourable benevolence and consideration will defend me unceasingly. At present the dragon flies in Sin Hai term, the first month, lucky day. I, Mr. Sue, bow respectfully. Light before."

From Papa O:-"The younger brother surnamed O, named Tus, of the family to be related by marriage, washes his head clean, knocks his head and bows, and writes this marriage-letter in reply to the far-famed and virtuous gentleman surnamed Tan, the venerable teacher and great man who manages this business. At this season the heart of the plum-blossom is increasingly white; at the beginning of the first month it opens its petals. The eyebrows of the willow shoot out their green, when shaken by the wind it displays its glory, and grows luxuriantly into five generations. 'Tis matter for congratulation the union of one hundred years. reverence your lofty gate. The prognostic is good, also the divination of the lucky bird. The stars are bright, and the dragons meet together. In every succeeding dynasty office will be held, and for many a generation

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family surname will enjoy all the afore-mentioned felicity -more especially will your honourable gentlemen who possess abilities great and deep, whose manners are dignified and pure. I, the foolish one, am ashamed of my diminutiveness. I for a long time have desired your dragon powers, now you have not looked down upon me with contempt, but have entertained the statements of the match-maker, and agree to give Mr. Kang to be united to my despicable daughter. We all wish the girl to have her hair dressed, and the young man to put on his cap of manhood. The peach-flowers just now look beautiful, the red plum also looks gay. I praise your son, who is like a fairy horse who can cross over through water, and is able to ride upon the wind and waves; but my tiny daughter is like a green window and a feeble plant, and is not worthy of becoming the subject of

verse.

"Now I reverently bow to your good words, and make use of them to display your good breeding. Now I hope your honourable benevolence will always remember me without end. Now the dragon flies in the Sin Hai term, first month, lucky day. Mr. Tu makes obeisance. May Mr. Tu makes obeisance. May the future be prosperous."

In external appearance, these letters, as we learn from the Panama paper, are equally curious:-"Each of them is about the size of one of the Citizen's pages, and consists of a rich frame composed of something like our papier maché, inside of which is artistically folded a scroll of richly-tinted crimson paper, studded with the golden letters that convey the words of love and modesty. The outer surface is likewise emblazoned with a quantity of raised work, representing robes of honour, tails of distinction, the smallest of all small shoes, peacocks' feathers, and a variety of other equally tasteful designs, which are supposed to be emblematic of the vast accession to the wealth and honour of both contracting houses, that may be expected to flow from the union of the gallant Su Tan, junior, and the accomplished Miss Tu O."

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FATHER MARQUETT'S EXPLORATION.

Or the early travellers in America the Jesuit missionaries were the most remarkable for their zeal, devotion, and enterprise; and foremost among them was Father Marquette.

Born of an eminent provincial family in France, the youth of Marquette, led by the direction of a pious mother, was given to the discipline of the Society of the Jesuits, which he entered at the age of seventeen. In his twenty-ninth year he sailed for Canada, then a promising field for missionary enterprise. Here he was employed in studying the Indian languages of the west, preparatory for his work, till in 1668 he embarked on the Ottawa, the great route in those days to the Hurons, Lake Superior, and the Illinois. He begins his missionary work at Sault Ste. Mary's, and is transferred the following year to the distant station on Lake Superior of Lapointe. A letter descriptive of his experiences at this point is as remarkable for its candour as its trust and hopefulness. Here the good father meditated geographical discovery in an overland journey to the Illinois on the south; but he was to reach the towns of this favourite people of his mission by another route. Turning back on the waters of the lake, with his band of Hurons fleeing from the terrors of savage war, he establishes himself with them on the point of Mackinaw. The next incident of his career is his appointment with Jolliet to visit the nations on the Mississippi river. In May 1673 he embarked in a canoe for Green Bay, ascended the Fox river, and reached the Mississippi by the Wisconsin, in a journey of one month from the waters of Lake Michigan. This was his famous voyage of discovery. He descended the river to the mouth of the Arkansas, fully establishing the southern course and outlet of the mighty stream of which there were such vague notions and ideas. He returned feeble in health to Green Bay, from which he again set out in 1674 for the establishment of the Illinois mission. It was in the middle of winter, his health was broken, and he was compelled to linger on the Chicago river. By prayer and fasting, and the energy of hope, he resumes his way, and reaches the Indian town of Kaskaskia in April. He turns homeward to his beloved Mackinaw, the home of his faithful flock, and traversing in a canoe the castern waters of Michigan, pauses one day, utterly exhausted, at the mouth of a little river, and points out an eminence as the place of his burial. This was the scene of his heroic Christian death, on the 18th May, 1675.

Looking now to his journey on the Mississippi, we find him thus narrating its early marvels::

FATHER MARQUETTE'S MISSISSIPPI. "Here then we are on this renowned river, of which I have endeavoured to remark attentively all the peculiarities. The Mississippi river has its source in several lakes in the country of the nations to the north; it is narrow at the mouth of the Miskousing; its current, which runs south, is slow and gentle; on the right is a considerable chain of very high mountains, and on the left fine lands; it is in many places studded with islands. On sounding, we have found ten fathoms of water. Its breadth is very unequal: it is sometimes three quarters of a league, and sometimes narrows into three arpents (220

THE LONDON AND PARIS LADIES' MAGAZINE FOR JULY, 1853.

yards). We gently follow its course, which bears south and south-east till the forty-second degree. Here we perceive that the whole face is changed; there is now almost no wood or mountain, the islands are more beautiful and covered with finer trees; we see nothing but deer and moose, bustards and wingless swans, for they shed their plumes in this country. From time to time we meet monstrous fish, one of which struck so violently against our canoe, that I took it for a large tree about to knock us to pieces. Another time we perceived on the water a monster with the head of a tiger, a pointed snout like a wild cat's, a beard and ears erect, a grayish head, and neck all black. We saw no more of them. On casting our nets, we have taken sturgeon and a very extraordinary kind of fish; it resembles a trout with this difference, that it has a larger mouth, but smaller eyes and snout. Near the latter is a large bone, like a woman's busk, three fingers wide and a cubit long; the end is circular and as wide as the hand. In leaping out of the water the weight of this often throws it back."

This was on the Upper Mississippi. His party has presently a noble reception from the Iroquois, to whom they turned aside on the left bank of the river.

COURTESIES OF SAVAGES.

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"At last, on the 25th of June, we perceived footprints of men by the water-side, and a beaten path entering a beautiful prairie. We stopped to examine it, and concluding that it was a path leading to some Indian village, we resolved to go and reconnoitre; we accordingly left our two canoes in charge of our people, cautioning them strictly to beware of a surprise; then M. Jolliet and I undertook this rather hazardous discovery for two single men, who thus put themselves at the discretion of an unknown and barbarous people. At the door of the cabin in which we were to be received was an old man awaiting us in a very remarkable posture; which is their usual ceremony in receiving strangers. This man was standing, perfectly naked, with his hands stretched out and raised towards the sun, as if he wished to screen himself from its rays, which nevertheless passed through his fingers to his face. When we came near him, he paid us this compliment:- How beautiful is the sun, oh Frenchman! when thou comest to visit us. All our town awaits thee, and thou shalt enter all our cabins in peace.' He then took us into his, where there was a crowd of people, who devoured us with their eyes, but kept a profound silence. We heard, however, these words occasionally addressed to us :-Well done, brothers, to visit us!' As soon as we had taken our places, they showed us the usual civility of the country, which is to present the calumet. You must not refuse it, unless you would pass for an enemy, or at least for being impolite. It is, however, enough to pretend to smoke. While all the old men smoked after us to honour us, some came to invite us on behalf of the great sachem of all the Illinois to proceed to his town, where he wished to hold a council with us. We went with a good retinue, for all the people who had never seen a Frenchman among them could not tire looking at us: they threw themselves on the ground by the wayside, they ran ahead, they turned and walked back to see us again. All this was done without noise, and with marks of a

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finished my speech the sachem rose, and laying his hand on the head of a little slave, whom he was about to give us, spoke thus:-'I thank thee, Blackgown, and thee, Frenchman,' addressing M. Jolliet, for taking so much pains to come and visit us; never has the earth been so beautiful, nor the sun so bright as to-day; never has our river been so calm, nor so free from rocks, which your canoes have removed as they passed; never has our tobacco had so fine a flavour, nor our corn appeared so beautiful as we behold it to-day. Here is my son, that I give thee that thou mayest know my heart. I pray thee to take pity on me and all my nation. Thou knowest the Great Spirit who has made us all; thou speakest to him and hearest his word: ask him to give me life and health, and come and dwell with us, that we may know him." Saying this, he placed the little slave near us, and made us a second present, an all-mysterious calumet, which they valued more than a slave; by this present he showed us his esteem for our governor, after the account we had given him. By the third, he begged us, on behalf of his whole nation, not to proceed further, on account of the great dangers to which we exposed ourselves. I replied that I did not fear death, and that I esteemed no happiness greater than that of losing my life for the glory of Him who made all. But this these poor people could not understand. The council was followed by a great feast, which consisted of four courses, which we had to take with all their ways. The first course was a great wooden dish full of sagamity; that is to say, of Indian meal boiled in water and seasoned with grease. The master of ceremonies, with a spoonful of sagamity, presented it three or four times to my mouth, Jolliet. For the second course, he brought in a second as we would with a little child; he did the same to M. dish containing three fish; he took some pains to remove the bones, and, having blown upon it to cool it, put it in my mouth, as we would food to a bird. For the third course, they produced a large dog, which they had just killed; but learning that we did not eat it, it was withdrawn. Finally, the fourth course was a piece of wild ox, the fattest portions of which were put into our mouths. After this feast we had to visit the whole village, which consists of full three hundred cabins. While we marched through the streets, an orator was constantly haranguing, to oblige all to see us without being troublesome; we were everywhere presented with belts, garters, and other articles made of the hair of the bear and wild cattle, dyed red, yellow, and gray. These are their rarities; but not being of consequence, we did not burthen ourselves with them. We slept in the sachem's cabin, and the next day took leave of him, promising to pass back through his town in four moons. He escorted us to our canoes with nearly six hundred persons, who saw us embark, evincing in every possible way the pleasure our visit had given them. On taking leave, I personally promised I would return the next year to stay with them and instruct them."-Shea's Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi.

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