The Bangkok Recorder.

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“I Hold Still”

Tribulation means THRESHING, and Trench, in his excellent treatise on the study of words, has carried out the fig- ure, showing that it is only by threshing us that God separates the wheat from the chaff. Here is a precious little mor- sel which somebody has clipped from an old paper and sent to us, credited “to the German of Julius Sturm,” and which will speak touchingly to many a heart which has been put into the FURNACE of affliction.—-RELIGIOUS MAGAZINE.

God’s breath upon the flame doth blow,

And all my heart in anguish shivers,

And trembles at the fiery glow :

And yet I whisper, as God will!

And in his hottest fire hold still.

He comes and lays my heart all heated,

On the hard anvil, minded so

Into his own fair shape to beat it

With his great hammer, blow on blow;

And yet I whisper, As God will!

And at his heaviest blows hold still.

He takes my softened heart and beats it;

The sparks fly off at every blow;

He turns it o’er and o’er and beats it,

And lets it cool, and makes it glow;

And yet I whisper, as God will!

And in his mighty hand hold still.

Why should I murmur? for the sorrow

Thus only longer lived would be;

Its end may come, and will, to-morrow,

When God has done his work in me:

So I say, trusting, As God will!

And trusting to the end, hold still.

He kindles for my profit purely

Affliction’s glowing, fiery brand,

And all his heaviest blows are surely

Inflicted by a Master’s hand :

So I say, praying, As God will!

And hope in him, and suffer still.

The Karens.

A few numbers back, we promised to return to the Rev. Dr. Mason's interesting pamphlets on the Religion, Mythology and Astronomy among the Karens. We terminated our last notice of the subject with the Rainbow,—-the bow of promise to the descendants of Abraham and one of the most beautiful objects in nature. The Karens were apparently ignorant of how it was formed. They now know all about it. According to Dr. Mason, the Karens entertained the opinion that the waters are inhabited by beings, whose proper form is that of dragons. But they occasionally appear as men and who take wives of the children of men. These are Naida, who in the belief of the ancients were water nymphs, female deities, who preside over rivers and springs. In ancient Mythology the world is supposed to be full of nymphs, some celestial and some terrestrial. They are the goddess- es or guardians of mountains, meadows, forests and plains.

The Karen Naida differ from those of classic antiquity. They never take the form of females, but always appear as men. "A water spirit called Mau lau kwie, figures largely in the Karen Myths. A girl is represented as having formed an acquaintance with this personage, Mau lau kwie, and as holding clandestine meet- ings with him, when she went down to the stream to draw water. Standing on the bank she sung,

"Mau lau Kwe come let us but be together

Mau lau kwe come let us wash our faces together.

Mau lau kwe come with beads and rings.

Come Come as thou art wont.

Mau lau Kwe came and they washed their faces together, and combed their heads together.

Dryads and Oreads are two classes of nymphs, one presiding over woods the other over mountains as their Greek origin imply." The Karen elders relate, obser- ves Dr. Mason, that Mount Kie ku in the Bghai country, and the people Tha Kau beyond the seas had a quarrel and engaged in war. The combatants have been fighting ever since and the quarrel is not ended. As these supernatural per- sonages use thunderbolts and crocodiles in their warfare, it will be some gener- ations before the supply is expended.

Brownies are good natured spirits which appear in Karen stories. In Scotland among superstitious people a brownie "is a good natured spirit, who was suppos- ed often to perform important services around the house by night, such as thrash- ing churning &c."

Dr. Mason furnishes the following Karen story. "The elders say that there was once a poor orphan boy, that owned nothing but a dog which had seven tails. On one occasion he noticed his dog go and bark on a hillock in the field near the house, but when he went there he found nothing so he came away. Still the dog remained barking and he went again and dug into the hillock, when he found a cavity with an egg in it. He took the egg intending to eat it, put it in a basket and went to work in his field. During his absence the spirit in the egg cooked the poor boy's rice and curry for him, when he came home, he found his meal ready prepared for him, but he was afraid to eat, and he went to the neighbours to inquire, if they could explain the matter. They replied to him roughly. "Thou art an orphan, thy house is nasty and dirty, who dost thou think would go up into it? He returned to his house and being very hungry he said to himself, "If I die, I will eat." So he ate and nothing happened to him.

The same thing occurred the next day. His food was cooked and ready for him on returning from his labour. The fol- lowing day, he determined to watch, so after going away he returned cautiously and he saw a young woman come out of the basket. She went to the brook, and brought water and then cooked the rice. He showed himself to her and she no more took the form of an egg, but be- came his wife. She said to him "my name is Miss Egg, but never speak my name. If thou dost, I shall disappear and thou will see me no more." It is men- tioned that the young man, incautiously uttered the name and so lost his wife, but found her again by means of his faithful dog.

In regard to Feticism, Dr. Mason re- marks, that the Karens in some of their observances come very near to the worship of "stocks and stones." Many keep stores in their houses which they suppose pos- sess miraculous powers, and which seem to represent the household gods of the ancients.

All material things have certain magical properties, said to be attached to them. Hence the MAGIC RING is a story which the Karen elders repeat as one of their traditions. There was an orphan child say the elders, who was brought up by his grandmother. He was so lazy that he would not open the skins of the plantains, when he wanted to eat them. He would do nothing but play. He got the name of Mr. Laziness. His grand mother got rid of him by sending him off on a trad- ing boat. Here he would do nothing, but when the boatmen were away he would watch the boat, and for this ser- vice he received an occasional bit of silver. One morning after the boat men had all gone on shore, he heard that one of the people was about to kill a cat. He bought it. About noon, he heard that another person was going to kill a rat. He bought that too. Near evening several persons brought a crocodile along which was also to be killed. He bought the crocodile from its owners. He also bought a dog for a quarter of a rupee. He thus owned a dog, a cat, a rat and a crocodile.

When the crocodile was placed in the boat, it spoke and said, "Master thou hast had mercy on me and bought me,"

and I shall not die. The reason that I devour men is, there is a gold ring in my head. The ring is under the flesh in my head, and whatsoever I desire I obtain. Chisel it out, take it for yourself, and let me go into the water. So he took a chisel belonging to one of the boatmen cut the gold ring out of the crocodiles head and let it go free into the water. He put the gold ring on his finger, and when he de- sired silver, silver came into his box, and when he desired gold, gold come into his box. The boatmen came back at night to the boat, but knew nothing of what had happened.

Many marvellous things are related of the man and his magic ring, which we regret we are unable here to reproduce. We must defer our closing notice to an- other day. These interesting topics give us an insight into the character of the Karen mind and of the different objects, which have been held in oral tradition among them for many centuries past.

The Present Congress.

This body entered upon its duties with a spirit which electrified the nation. Its first important act was the creation of a Joint Committee of Fifteen on the Recon- struction of the Union: a committee which the President now calls an "Irresponsible Directory;" a committee which is fortun- ately irresponsible to the President. What was the foundation of that memorable Committee whose fame has since filled the world? Its charter is the following resolu- tion:

"RESOLVED (by the House of Represen- tatives, the Senate concurring), That a Joint Committee of Fifteen members shall be appointed, nine of whom shall be members of the House, and six members of the Sen- ate, who shall INQUIRE INTO THE CONDI- TION of the states which formed the so- called Confederate States of America, and report WHETHER THEY OR ANY OF THEM ARE ENTITLED TO BE REPRESENTED IN EITHER HOUSE OF CONGRESS, with leave to report at any time by bill or other- wise."

Is not this resolution explicit? Does it not enjoin upon the Committee something more than the petty task of determining the loyalty of certain so-called MEMBERS ELECT from the Southern States? Does it not impose the duty of inquiring whether the SOUTHERN STATES themselves, or any of them, are "entitled to representation!" This resolution was passed, this Committee formed, so long ago as December—and not only Thaddeus Stevens, but Henry J. Ray- mond, voted aye. The measure, at the time, commanded the almost universal as- sent of the Republican party—even of those journals which have since eaten their own words to shout for the President. But, on Washington's Birthday, Mr. Andrew Johnson, speaking the wish of the copper- heads and rebels who composed his fit body-guard in that scene of humiliation, denied the RIGHT of Congress to inquire whether or not any of the late rebellious states are now so unrebellious as to be "entitled to representation," 'but main- tained that each and all such rebellious states must be taken for granted as entitled to representation, and must be im- mediately admitted to seats in Congress. His exact words (if any of his words on that day could be called exact) stand in the amended report as follows:

"By this rule," he says, "it is assumed that there must be laws passed recognizing A STATE AS IN THE UNION, or its practic- al relations to the Union as restored, be- fore the respective houses, under the Con- stitution, can judge of the elections, re- turns, and qualifications of their own members. What a position is that!"

No, Mr. Johnson, the issue is not, nor has it been, nor will it be, that "there must be laws passed recognizing a state as in the Union." On the contrary, the ques- tion whether or not the states were ever out of the Union does not enter into the President's controversy with Congress. The disputed question simply is, whether or not as yet these States, or any of them, are "entitled to representation." If they are entitled to representation, they are of course in the Union; but it does not fol- low that, because they are in the Union, they are entitled to representation. If the States were never out of the Union, they were not out during the war; but were they entitled to representation in the United States Congress during the war—I say, for instance, while their armies were driving McClellan out of the Peninsula? No. Let us grant, for argument's sake, that the rebel States always WERE in the Union, and so are in NOW. If therefore, during the last five years, these States could be IN the Union yet OUT of Congress, can they not still be IN the Union and OUT of Congress?

Now, what will finally entitle these States to representation in Congress? Nothing short of permanent good behavior. There is but one opinion on this point among the great Party that sustains Congress. Until these States shall be willing to keep the peace for themselves, they must have the Federal Government keep it for them. Who, therefore, is to decide as to when they may be safely "let alone!" Shall Congress! Shall the President! Or shall the rebel States themselves? The answer is, Congress. The President has no more voice than the rebel States.

But how shall Congress make up this de- cision? The question to be decided is based upon facts. Congress must therefore master these facts. This is exactly what the committee of Fifteen are doing—work ing night and day; sending for persons and papers from all parts of the South; collect- ing evidence as to the condition of the re- bellious states; developing astounding proofs of the prevalence, of turbulence, hostility, and treason; recounting almost incredible instances of cruelties to negroes; demonstrating that some districts are hardly more loyal to-day than after the first battle of Bull Run; and exhibiting a catalogue of inhumanities which, when it shall be published, will set the country aghast at the fires which yet are burning under the ashes of our civil war. The strange at tempt of the President to pre- cipitate the re-enfranchisement of those states against the prerogative of Congress, and against the mountain of forbidding reasons already piled on the records of the Joint Committee, is judicial blindness.

Meanwhile, is the country impatient of the spectacle of a reconstruction of the Union still uncompleted? And are the people seeking to hurry Congress faster than a judicious circumspection will war- rant? Not at all! If, in the momentous task of reconstruction, the President was allowed ten months, from April to Decem- ber, to achieve a failure, shall complaint be made of Congress because it has not in three months, from December to March, perfected a success? Moreover, the Pre- sident, during his ten months, had no Con- gress opposed to him; but Congress, during its three months, has had a constant op- ponent in the President,

At present, in surveying the obstacles to a speedy reconstruction, let us take for an illustration of the Southern mind the most hopeful instance which has yet been offered to Northern consideration—the speech of Alexander H. Stephens; who, as he comes like a Greek bearing a gift, is therefore to be watched.

Mr. Stephens re-asserts his life-long creed of the inequality of white men and black in spite of the Declaration of In- dependence which teaches that “all men are created equal.” He re-erects what he calls “the great barrier of races which the Creator has placed between this of[?] inferi- or class and ourselves”—whereas, the South itself has never found this barrier to be of the thickness of a bed-curtain. He re-babbles Andrew Johnson's maundering of a “war of races”—though both the former vice-president of the Confederate party and its present President know full well that the only possible inciters to such a war are white-faced rebels, and not black-faced loyalists.

Let us quote once more from the Mil- ledgeville meditations:

“We are in the condition,” says Mr. Stephens, “of a man with a dislocated limb or a broken leg, and a very bad compound fracture too at that. How it was broken should not be with him a question of so much importance as how it can be restored to health, vigor and strength. This re- quires of him” as the highest duty to him- self, to wait quietly and patiently in splints and bandages until nature resumes her ac- tive powers, until the vital functions per- form their office. The knitting of the bones and the granulation of the flesh re- quire time.”

Exactly so. The great question with the Southern States is, how they can be “restored.” And what is the pre-requisite to this restoration? Mr. Stephens states it forcibly. “The highest duty,” he says, “IS TO WAIT QUIETLY AND PATIENTLY IN SPLINTS AND BANDAGES.” What advice can be better? IT IS JUST THIS COURSE OF TREATMENT THAT CONGRESS HAS PRE- SCRIBED IN THE CONCURRENT RESOLU- TION. Congress thus says to those States, “Wait until the vital functions perform their office.” And we are glad that the rebel vice-president comes to the only loyal conclusion, which is, “The knitting of the bones and the granulation of the flesh require time.” Thank you, Mr. Stephens? And, to reciprocate, we hereby beg an indulgent Congress to grant to these slowly recuperating states all the time they so greatly need before their full and final restoration!

Meanwhile, to the radical Party in Con- gress, to the Joint Committee of Fifteen, and to the Concurrent Resolution (if Mr. Beecher will lend us the use of his favorite punctuation) we exclaim, “AMEN AND AMEN.—-N. Y. INDEPENDENT.

A Pleasing Fact.

On the 26th of May, I was much en- couraged in my visitation amongst the crew of the Thames, by the following in- cident.—A young sailor on board the SA- RAH asked to speak with me in the fore- castle.

With tears starting from his eyes he shook me heartily by the hand, saying, "I thank you, sir for the copy of the BRIT- ISH WORKMAN that you gave me some few months back; it has made me TURN ABOUT... The pictures were so good, and the reading so taking, that I read it through before I stopped; and then I was touched, and I cried like a child. Think I, what a fool I am, I'll stow it away. Well, I did so; but after a while, I took it out and read it again, and it made me THING A BIT; at last I said, 'I'll try to go without my 'drops' for one month.' I did so, and I can say, that at the month's end, my HEALTH was better, and my TEMPER was better!

"I then said to my wife, 'Phœbe, I'll sign the pledge if you will!' Well, sir, we both attended a meeting that evening, and we both signed—Well, this was a great thing, for, although a young man, I had been a great drunkard and a swearer I thought I was now a new man, but alas! I found very soon, that I was got all right. Coming up to London one voyage, we had to encounter a very heavy gale, and we thought we should all be lost,—and oh, sir, very soon did I find that TEMPERANCE alone will not save a man. I trembled all over, and, for the first time, began to pray. The Lord in His mercy preserved us, and I promised THEN and THERE, that, if religion was to be bad, I would have it, come what may.

"On my arrival in London, I went to the Seamen's Chapel, in Commercial Road, and inquired for you, and bought this Bible. Thank God, it is now my greatest delight to read and think it over, and the best of all, I can say, that through faith in Christ, my sins are all forgiven. Hall- elujah, praise the Lord! I am happy day and night; I can sing, yes, BELOW or ALOFT, I can sing.—

My great Redeemer’s praise.'

The happy-looking sailor went on to say:—

"My wife has now taken to religion, and our two children are in the Sunday- school, and most heartily do I thank you for your visits, and the British Work- man, for it was the first thing in God's hand, in making me a thinking, praying man."

We knelt down, in company with three others of the crew, and gave thanks to God for the work of grace in the heart of this once dissipated swearing sailor.

A BRAVE FELLOW.—On the 28 ult., at Laughland, an engine driver of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, was driving a freight train down the line, on crossing near the curve two miles west of Com- wall he saw a drunken man sleeping on the track. He immediately whistled "down brakes," which the conductor and brake- man applied as quickly as possible; but the distance was so short that it was im- possible to pull up in time. Laughland immediately ran out on to the cow-catcher, and as the locomotive came up he stooped forward and seized the man by the neck, and endeavoured to pull him on to the cow-catcher, but being unable to do so he jumped off with the man and succeed- ed in shoving him clear of the train. The whole train was in the place before it could be stopped. On learning the facts the authorities ordered that two day's pay should be handed over to Laughland as a slight reward for his conduct.

THE WAR OF A SNAKING COAT.—A cor- respondent of the United States Times, writing from the Winterhous, says:—- "An extraordinary snake affair occurred in this neighbourhood a few Sundays ago. A large snake of the cobras tribe, about 4 feet 6 inches long, got uncoiled into a farmer's house, is supposed on the Saturday afternoon, and concealed him- self under a harmonium. On the Sunday afternoon, the children being at school, the farmer and his wife were quietly oc- cupying themselves reading, the wife sit- ting in front of a window. The snake quietly crawled out, got unperceived under the good woman's crinoline, and twisted itself round her leg from the ankle to the knee, which position it kept for upwards of half an hour. The farmer's wife, at the while thinking it was her favorite kit- ten, took no notice of it, until it length, wishing to eject the intruder, she slightly raised her dress for the purpose. Judge of her surprize on finding a deadly creature twisted round her leg. She at perfectly still, not even looking at her husband lest he should disturb the reptile. At last it uncoiled itself, and then twisted itself about her foot. The shoe fitted loosely, and she softly withdrew her foot, made one bound across the room, and called her husband's attention to the cause of the disturbance. The savage creature now charged the wife, and was only kept off by the husband with his Sunday coat. Not so retarded, got under a footstool, putting out its head as if to threaten death to any one who should approach it. A stick was brought to the farmer, who struck a terrible blow at its head, but his stick instead, shivering the stick to pieces. This exasperated the creature, which darted out at the farmer, and was again kept at bay by the coat. It at length retreated into the bedroom, where it was killed."

Prompt and Pungent.

A benevolent lady was once threading her way at night through a back street of Philadelphia, on an errand of charity. A rude fellow accosted her with the im- pertinent question, "Where are you go- ing?" Her ready reply was "To ETFR- NITY, sir; just where you are going." He got more truth than he bargained for, and carried away a heavy shot in his con- science.

Bangkok Recorder.

It requires but a glance at the dai- ly shipping report, to notice the fact, that business is not in a very prosper- ous condition. When the report dwindles down to one, or two arrivals in a week, and some weeks none at all, it is certainly low days for Siam, and makes us long for the good times we had in the earlier days of the Trea- ties. When we have plenty of rice, and the indications are so far good for the next season, it is certainly to be regretted, that prices here, and the demand abroad are not such, as to pay men to buy and export.

The Siamese fleet however is evi- dently loading with something, and one by one the vessels are dropping down, and departing on there annual visit to China. The long chain of ves- sels but a short time ago anchored in the river, have nearly all disappeared. This must be certainly a relief to ma- ny of the commanders, some of whom have been laid up for the last half year or more.

We are now enjoying the cotton season, and the whole fleet of cotton boats from the north, are anchored on the left hand side of the river, in front of wat Bang lam poo. They are long boats of shallow draught, and well calculated to ascend the river at low water. Anchored with one end to the river, and turned up at the stern, and stern, they present rather a peculiar appearance. We counted over a hund- red of these boats the other day, and did not get through, and suppose that the whole fleet this year will consist of about two hundred boats.

So far as we could see the cotton trade this year is confined chiefly to Hainan, and the small junks from that island, which have been lying in the river for months, were apparently waiting for these boats to arrive, and they are now loading up rapidly.

The resume of a week here in such times as these, gives but little that is interesting, or startling. Some are selling out, and evidently preparing to leave the place, whilst others to relieve the dullness, and monotony, are get- ting up yacht clubs, which is perhaps a new feature for Bangkok. Several regattas have already taken place, and more are said to be in contemplation. Such an enterprise in this place, if properly conducted, may be made highly beneficial. Any thing which tends to increase the speed of sailing craft, and the skill in handling them, and at the same time affords whole- some exercise, and recreation, is cer- tainly commendable.

A matter of importance in its bear- ing upon the future of the kingdom, has transpired this week at the Royal Palace. The young Prince Chow Fa, heir apparent to the throne, has really entered for a time, the holy or- ders of the priesthood, without which in the estimation of his Royal Father, he would not have been fully prepared to occupy the throne of Siam. Wed- nesday and Thursday were devoted to these ceremonies.

Preparation for the Cholera.

In our last issue we published a va- luable extract from one of our exchang- es on the treatment of Cholera. We judge it timely and benevolent to do so, as there seems to be much reason to fear a visit of that scourge during the present season. We hope and fer- vently pray that it may please Almigh- ty God to avert it from this city and kingdom. Yet not having the faith of assurance that our prayers will be answered in the affirmative, we feel in- clined to pursue this road of benevo- lence a little further. While we hope and pray for exemption from the Cho- lera, it seems to us unquestionably wise to do what we can by anticipa- tion to strip it of its deadly power should it come upon us as we fear. And it strikes us that the city autho- rities should promptly do all they can to fortify the city against it. Should a Burman or Cochin Chinese army threaten to attack the city in the course of this summer or in the au- tumn, no one could question the wis- dom of government in giving great at- tention to the work of fortifying the city against the treated attack. We hear of the Cholera raging in many parts of Hindostan and Bengal. And the last mail brought intelligence of its having broken out in Batavia. From the latter city to this there is a high way opened for it to come sud-

denly upon us. Merchant vessels trad- ing between that port and this may bring it hither any day. Still we do not for this reason regard it at all cer- tain that it will come on that route, nor indeed on any other. The Cho- lera has been rife more than once at Singapore, if we recollect rightly, and did not take passage to this city by any of the many trading vessels which came from that port. Nevertheless it cannot but be wisdom for the citizens of Bangkok, and for the city authori- ties to take warning and prepare for it. Now facts have most thoroughly proved the wisdom of guarding cities and villages against the Cholera, that this disease, terrible as it is, can be greatly controlled by suitable precau- tionary measures, and that cleanliness and perseveringly practiced in any ci- ty or hamlet, forms a powerful barrier against it.

We propose in the present article to call the attention of government, and private householders to the impor- tance of clearing out all sewers or drains about the city. Many of them are now so clogged up that they can- not disgorge themselves into any canal or creek, and hence the filth they con- tain becomes more and more concen- trated in them and are unquestionably the sources of much disease now, and would become the very hot beds of Cholera should it visit this city. Our attention has been called to notice particularly one such place in the rear of the Portuguese village, adjoining the Baptist Mission premises. We are glad to learn that through the influ- ence of A. J. Moor Esqr. Portuguese Consul, and Rev. W. Dean D. D. of the Chinese Mission, this most pro- bable source of a deadly typhoid fever, which has carried off an American Missionary, and the wife of a Danish Master Mariner, and well nigh took the life of two or more unacclimated Europeans, has quite recently been opened out into the river, so henceforth all the flood tides will have free access to those sources of fever and dysentery, and wash away any pesti- ferous influences that would otherwise collect in them.

Now work like this, not only as preparatory for the Cholera but also for the promotion of general health, should be performed all about the ci- ty. There are very many similar sinks of filth and sources of disease in this great metropolis. The Cholera com- ing here, in the course of the summer or autumn would find its citizens eminently prepared for the display of its deadly power. And yet we think there is scarcely another city within the tropics that might so easily be made cleanly as this. Though it be situated on a sea-level plain it can with little trouble be dai- ly washed by the flood tides. It has a magnificent body of water running through it, and canals traversing all parts of it. By far the greater part of the citizens of Bangkok have the privi- lege of living either on one of the banks of the river, or on a bank of a canal, or a small ditch daily washed by the tides. Those who do not en- joy such a privilege can easily make a drain from their houses to the nearest canal or ditch, where they can have the filth which naturally accumulates about their dwellings daily washed away.

But the great mass of this people are too indolent to be at the trouble of making any effort to be cleanly about their houses. While they can hardly avoid washing their persons many times daily for the pleasures of bathing, they can endure an unutterable amount of filth in and under their houses, taking no kind of care to make any drain by which it shall ever be carried off. What we wish to do now is to induce the government to make laws by which every householder shall be obliged to make at least the lower story of his own house clean, and keep it clean. To this end it must be made a punishable offence to throw out their slops and filth where there is no drain to carry them away.

This we hold should ever be an im- portant part of the care of city autho- rities. It is regarded as such in the great cities of Europe and America. And we hear from all parts of those countries that this year, very extraor- dinary care is being taken for the cleanliness of large cities and towns in preparation for a visit from the Chol- era. Let the enlightened king of Siam follow the example of kings and queens and presidents in the western world in this regard, and he will be a saver of his people indeed, and worthy of the greatest name among the kings of the Eastern world.

The Literature of Siam.

After the Wats, and priests, which constitute the schools and school-mas- ters of the kingdom, a brief article in reference to the language, and litera- ture may not be unacceptable. The language is evidently one of no very ancient origin, and in its more primi- tive state, must have consisted chiefly, of a few simple monosyllables, and was consequently vague, and inex- pressive. But as the English language has been burdened with additions from the Latin, Greek, French &c., so that to find the Saxon we must go back to some rare old work, which has been long out of print, so the Siamese has received additions from the Bali, Cambodian, Burmese, Peguan, Chinese, Laos, and some few words from the Sanscrit. But it is also still a ques- tion, whether the Saxon has been real- ly improved by its numerous additions, so the additions to the Siamese really do not enrich it, or make it the least bit more expressive, but on the other hand fill it with pleonasms, so that we oftentimes find them using a double expression meaning the same thing. We saw the other day, wheren gentle- man of deserved reputation as a Siam- ese scholar, had used in a translation, the Bali word Sákara, to adore, to esteem, to salute, &c.—and immediate- ly after it, the Siamese expression náp thiu, meaning the same thing. Either one of the expressions alone would have been more expressive. This is an error however into which we are frequently lead, by teachers who are desirous to show off their learning.

There are also two, if not three lan- guages. The Court language, and phrases strictly speaking, are nothing but a transfer of the Bali.

There is then the better language in use among the Princes, and nobles, and still a lower language full of vul- garisms in use among the common people.

It is to be expected therefore, that a language such as this, and in a coun- try where knowledge has hitherto been so little appreciated, would in a great measure be devoid of literature. Such is the case. Their literary works are few, and of an inferior quality. Their principle historical work is the Pongsawadan, or Siamese history, and which is deservedly their best work. It commences with the Laos king, who ruled in Chieng-rai. It is written in rather a vigorous, and chaste style, and may be taken as the best model of the language. It is the Tacitus of Siam.

The next is the Samkoke,—-a fa- bulous history of China. Three noble- men, of the royal Counsellors all as- pire to the throne, and hence arise a series of wars. This work, on account of its military bearing, is popular among the princes and nobles, and many of whom, it is said, after finishing the labors of the day have their ser- vants read to them at night. What Jomini is to the European world, Sam- koke is to the Siamese. We don't know however that it possesses any peculiar literary value. They have al- so what they call Rachatirat,—a his- tory of Pegu.

Also a number of Medical, and As- trological works. There laws too have been printed by the Proprietor of the Bangkok Recorder, and when bound up in European style, form two respectable octavo volumes.

By far the greatest part of their works, are plays or Lacon books. These are the most popular among the common people. They are most- ly written in a kind of verse, and some of them are decidedly vulgar. Although the Siamese are naturally poetical, and can spin love rhymes by the yard, yet they have no poetical works of any merit.

Add to those already mentioned their religious books, which are le- gion, and we have the principle part of the literature of Siam.

LOCAL.

We are much gratified in announcing to our readers that the American Steam-screw-frigate Shenandoah may be expected to arrive here daily.

We also understand that in future, American Men-of-war will make fre- quent visits to these waters, and in the course of six months, it is expected, that Admiral Bell, the commander-in-

chief of the East India squadron, will pay his respects to the Siamese Go- vernment in the Flag ship Hartford, accompanied by other ships of the squadron.

This certainly is good news as the frequent arrivals of American national vessels-of-war will tend to enlighten this government in regard to the posi- tion of the United States, or at least it will give them to understand that such a nation does really exist.

We have again to inform our readers that the Editor of the Recorder left his residence in this city for Pet- chabureo at 10 A.M. on Tuesday the 17th inst and expects to return before the next issue of the paper.

A Card.

M. ARNAL DUCLOS, French Baker at Santa Cruz, desires hereby to apolo- gize to his patrons, for the dark colour of the bread he has lately been sending to them. He would assure them that the bread is made of unadulturated wheaten flour, faulty chiefly for its dark complexion—-that it is the best he can at present procure, and that as soon as a winter quality can be obtain- ed he will send them better bread.

The young Prince Chow Fa, heir apparent to the throne of Siam, was inducted into the Buddhist priesthood with appropriate ceremonies on, Wed- nesday and Thursday of this week. A number of the European community were present.

Died.

On the morning of the 17th inst. PHYA P'HAI SONGKRAM, of dysentery, aged 44 years.

The deceased was a son of Som- detch Ong Yai, and half-brother to their Excellencies the Prime Minister and the Praklang. His office was that of a Military commander of the front rank, under the second King.

THE CHOLERA.—-HALL’S JOURNAL OF HEALTH gives the following suggestions which, if properly observed, will do much toward making the scourge of cholera which threatens to attack us next summer, much lighter than it otherwise would be.

1st. Every householder owes it to him- self, to his family, to his neighbors, to the community in which he resides, to have his house, from cellar to garret, from the street curb to the rear line of his lot, most scrupuously cleansed, by sweeping, washing and white-washing.

2d. Every man who has any authority in city or town government should con- sider himself bound by the oath of office, and by every consideration of humanity, to give himself no rest until every street, alley, close gutter and sewer is placed in a state of as perfect cleanliness as pos- sible, and kept so until the frosts of next summer come.

3d. These cleanings should be done now in February and March, because, if put off till warm weather, the very effort necessary for the removal of filth, will only tend, in the essential nature of things, to hasten the appearance of the disease, to increase its malignity and to extend the time of its devastations.—-Lo. Co. Nurs.

WHAT OF THE PRESIDENT'S VETO?

There is a man now in Washington who, when President Buchanan vetoed the Homestead bill, made a terrible speech against that veto, and said:

"I have always a great respect for a man who fills the place of the President of the United States, irrespective of party, and it would be very natural for me to have more respect for a President of my own party than for any one of opposite politics. But does the fact of the Pre- sident's speaking change the nature and character of great principles and truths? Does it make wrong right, or right wrong? If there is a great fundamental principle in this measure, connected with govern- ment and the great cause of humanity, the fact that he withholds his signature does not change my opinion; but if there were forty Presidents, with forty assis- tants, to write out vetoes, I would stand by this bill, and give it the sanction of my vote and support.

"I am constrained to say that I look upon this objection to the bill as a mere quibble on the part of the President, as being hard-pressed for some excuse in withholding his approval of the measure: and his allusion to foreigners in this con- nection looks more like the AD CAPTANDUM of the more politician and demagogue than a grave and sound reason to be of- fered by the President of the United States in a veto message."

So spake Andrew Johnson, in the Senate of the United States, against a veto by a President of his own party! The speech, like a fly in amber, is preserved in the CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE of June 22, 1860. Now, if "the President's speaking" did not avail to "change the nature and character of great principles and truths" in 1860, can it do so in 1866?—-N. Y. INDEPENDENT.

African Fashions.

Dr. Livingstone, in his recently publish- ed account of his voyage up the great river of Eastern Africa, says the sister of one of the chiefs wore eighteen solid brass rings, as thick as one's finger, on each leg, and a toe of copper under each knee; nineteen brass rings on her left arm, and eight of brass and copper on her right; also a large ivory ring above each elbow, or seventy- one rings in all. She had a pretty bead neck-lace, and a bead sash encircled her Waist. The weight of the brass rings around her legs impeded her walking and chafed her ankles, but as it was the fashion she did not mind the inconvenience, and guarded against the pain by putting soft rag round the lower rings. So much for fashion.

Your Mother is Praying for
You.

Early one evening S.—-said to his mother, "Mother, I expect to be absent this evening until perhaps a late hour. I have made an engagement, with other young friends, to attend a ball this even- ing; and notwithstanding your strong prejudice against that kind of amuse- ment, I really hope, mother, in this case you will not object to my wishes. I shall aim to keep within the bounds of be- coming respect for myself and others, and you well know it would greatly mar my anticipated pleasure to feel that you were opposed to my being gratified."

This appeal to his kind mother called forth an answer worthy to be imitated by all mothers who love and pray for the salvation of their children:-—"My son, long have I prayed that you might be- come a Christian, and thus be happy yourself, and a blessing and comfort to me as my sun goes down, and my spirit passes to its final home ; but I fear that I must lie down and die without receiv- ing an answer to my many prayers for you. If so, I must leave you in the hands of God. As to that engagement for this evening, I have only to say that you well know my wishes, and you are old enough to judge correctly as to what is right or wrong in the sight of God, who will bring you and me into judg- ment; and now as you go to meet your engagement, remember, my child, when amid that gay circle and in the merry dance, that YOUR MOTHER IS AT HOME PRAYING FOR HER ONLY SON, that he may be turned from these fleeting vanities of time, to seek those things that are eternal in heaven." As he entered the place of amusement, he rallied his youthful man- hood to meet his companions with cheer- fulness, but every countenance in the gay circle seemed to say to him, "S—-," your mother is at home praying for you." Even the music of the dance seemed to echo, "Your mother is at home praying for you."

Overwhelmed with these feelings, he suddenly took leave of his companions, and hastened to his home. As he was about entering, he heard her well-known voice pleading before God for herself as a lonely widow, and for the salvation of her dear son. Almost instinctively he opened the door, rushed in, and threw his arms around his mother, exclaiming, "Dear mother, pray on for my poor soul. I am sinking in despair. Lord, save or I perish !"

It was not long ere that son was led by faith to lay hold on Christ.—-Preist

Fashionable Dances.

We extract from the ATLANTIC MONTHLY the following paragraphs. The strictures of the writer are none too severe :

What a glaring inconsistency is there manifested in the toleration at one time of postures which, under any other cir- cumstances, would blast a reputation! No pure woman would suffer a man to retain her hand in his, much less to encir- cle her with his arm, in the ordinary re- lations of social life; and yet, as the bid- ding of fashion, and because the addi- tional stimulus of music is superadded, she will not only permit these liberties, but will remain willingly strained to his breast for a quarter of an hour at a time, publicly exhibiting herself in a position which in itself she virtuously condemns.

Favors which would properly be de- nied to the most favorable of her ac- quaintances off the dancing floor are there accorded freely even to a notorious libertine, for no guarantee is required from those to whom fashion intrusts the persons of her female devotees, further than proficiency in an art chiefly acquired by young men through association with the most degraded of the other sex—all mental or moral disqualifications being condoned by the single merit of dancing well.

Many a young girl who intuitively shrinks from the endearments innocently proffered by her affianced lover, unthink- ingly subjects herself to the contamina- ting embrace and irreverent comment of debauched witlings, whose every thought is a concealed insult. Not that we would imply a sweeping censure upon the male portion of the community; for many—- perhaps most—-are gentlemen, and as such, incapable of harboring an idea re- pugnant to female purity.

But in so composite a society as ours some evil characters are inevitably intro- duced; and, even of those whose ante- cedents and position should vouch for their refinement, there are many whose coarse tastes and dissipated courses render their contact with virtuous women almost a sacrilege.—-Lo. Co. News.

Studies in Parliament.

As Lord Stanley waxes in impor- tance in the House, Mr. Disraeli can- not but wane. Both, indeed, are alike in one thing-—the perfect and singu- lar coldness of their intelligence. But Lord Stanley’s intelligence is in the cold sense of a man of business, which measures everything by a clear and visible standard ; Mr. Disraeli’s is the cold, superficial insight of a sprite which throws a fitful, will-of-the-wisp- like gleam on everything, and is bet- ter content with producing a pictur- esque illusion than discovering a stu- pid truth. There is no man who has discovered so many marcs’-nests in history as Mr. Disraeli-—the sort of generalizations which, when we re- member them suddenly in solitude, make us laugh aloud to ourselves with- out even the stimulus of sympathy. When Mr. Disraeli brought in his In- dia Bill No. 2 in 1858, with that won- derful provision (due, no doubt, to some such historical generalization of his own) directing that a certain num- ber of the Indian Councillors should be elected by the political constitu- encies of five great commercial towns —-Belfast, Glasgow, Liverpool, Man- chester, and Birmingham—-Lord Pal- merston said in the House that when- ever a man met a friend in the street he found him in an uncontrollable fit of laughter, and as soon as he was able to speak and explain himself, it was always found that he was laughing at India Bill No. 2. Well, that is how we laugh privately if something sud- denly brings to mind one of Mr. Dis- raeli’s favourite historical generaliza- tions—say, for instance, the statement that Charles I., in breaking with his Parliament on tonnage and poundage, became “the holocaust of direct taxa- tion.” No man ever had such a won- derful faculty for false generalizations, for constructing a wide and novel the- ory on the basis of a hundredth part of a fact—in short, for what used to be expressively called clever “viewi- ness.” Now a “viewy” man is not a man to lead the Conservative party. We can only wonder he has been tol- erated by them so long. Mr. Disrae- li is a “stranger upon earth,”-—assur- edly at least on this part of it; and in- deed his intellect is not one to find a home anywhere, is not so organized as to draw up its sap and nutriment through fixed roots at all. His liter- ary impressions are quick, bright, and picturesque, like a stranger’s impres- sion of a new land. He notices much that few native intellects would notice, just because he is quite unable to take for granted what all native intellects would take for granted. His assump- tions are not those of the English or any other people—the Semetic includ- ed. Probably there is nothing that we can strictly call moral assumption in Mr. Disraeli’s mind at all. His in- tellect is like a cut flower stuck in the earth, and yet, such as it is, it does not fade, though fed from no root.”

LORD CRANBORNE.

There is no better debater in the House than Lord Cranborne. He re- ceives the arguments of his opponents on a hard and perfectly inelastic men- tal surface, so that they seem to drop down like dead weights from the shield of his impassive scepticism. A perfect self-possession, a studiously common place tone in both speech and action-—he stands well out on the floor of the House in an attitude of charac- teristic solidity, and with exactly as much composure as if he were talking to the Speaker on his own hearthrug, with his hands clasped behind him—- an incredulous scornfulness, which is not quite a sneering manner, held al- ways in readiness for interpolated ex- planations, a true man of the world's disposition to believe that, of alterna- tive theories of his opponents' actions, the worse is always the more likely to be the true one, an adroitness in deduc- ing homely inference from admitted facts, a vigilant eye for the critical point of a discussion, and a keen party feeling, are qualities which make Lord Cranborne most telling and dangerous in reply. He has not, like Lord Stan- ley, a judicial intellect, for he is far too much imbued with party feeling and strong class-prejudices; but of all the men of his party, Lord Cranborne is probably the one who is best able to select-—we will not say either the most telling, or the most ingenious arguments (for the stupider Conserva- tives are often more telling), and Mr.

Disraeli is far more ingenious,) but certainly the least vulnerable argu- ments against a proposed reform, though he is seldom effective in de- fence of the threatened abuse.-—The Friend of India.

Carlyle at Edinburgh.—-Mr Conway. in a letter to the Common- wealth, gives us this picture of the great Scotchman, as he appeared during the delivery of his address before the faculty and students of Edinburgh Uni- versity :

“When Mr. Carlyle made his appear- ance, the cheers with which he was greet- ed, in repeated long surges, were calcul- ated to amuse one who remembered those old denunciations of ‘tremendous cheers.’ Carlyle seemed, indeed, rather astounded, and I am sure was asking himself, ‘Have I done anything wrong, that I am re- ceiving these plaudits?’ He stood for a while, as if in wonder; and he was a royal-looking man. He had on the Uni- versity’s Lord-Rector’s robes, with deep and wide sleeves of rich crimson velvet, and it was amazing how he became them. Above them was the face, full of grim humor and of silent force, of the nine- teenth century John Knox. It was an impressive scene. Scotland’s leading uni- versity crowning Scotland’s greatest liv- ing son! The youth of nineteen, who, with flaming eye and words full of feel- ing, presented to the Vice-Chancellor, as the elect of his fellow-students, ‘the greatest living Scotchman,’ who, over fifty years before, had left their halls, seemed to touch Carlyle with every word, and he arose and bowed solemnly and low to the young man. He then threw off the fine robes which were put on him to be spoken, with a gravity which sent the ripple of a smile around, and coming for- ward, began the wonderful address. I have never listened to an address of which so much was lost by being put up- on paper. You will see the good hits, the wise sayings, the reporter’s notes of ‘applause and laughter;’ but you cannot get the eloquent blood flaming up the man’s cheek, the depth of feeling in his kindled eye, the impressive tenderness of his voice, and the drolleries which came out! Without the least action of arm, or hand, or body, standing motionless, there was a whole dramatic company re- presented in his tones and the expressions of his face. His humor played along every lineament of his face, like sheet- lightning, then gathered itself anon into bolts, and struck around us with great crashes.”—-N. Y. INDEPENDENT.

How People Take Cold.

The prevalence of colds has again induced the query so often agitated as to the immediate cause of the "cold in the head" "the cold in the throat."

A gentleman who endeavored to trace the cause of his cold, came to the con- clusion that he caught it going to bed in his bare feet. The real cause of many colds may be attributed to the long talks which people indulge in on the corner of the streets. One of Boston's most celebrated physicians now an octogenarian, when stopped in the street invariably remarks: "I will talk if you will walk." This should be a hint to button-holding friends.

Under Your Hat.

In this country every man of sound mind is a capitalist. You, Sir Reader of the thread-bare coat, and vacuous wallet deny it utterly. You insist that your brain is healthy and well furnish- ed, but intimate with a sneer that if any conjurer will make discovery of your capital, you will doff your capless hat to him, and be his to command for evermore. Sir, put on your rusty bear- or, and we will tell you where your capital is Right under it. We will suppose there is common sense, a fair stock of worldly knowledge, and plen- ty of energy within the circle of felt that you have just crowned yourself withal. That's capital—" working capital" of the best kind,

If you don't think so, you are over modest and the sooner you get rid of your diffidence the better for you and yours. Why, man, such a head is better than the philosopher's stone. It is an engine only requiring to be set at work, to procure you all the com- forts and enjoyments that a rational being can desire.

As to wealth—-its elements are lying in their crude state on every side of you, and only require persevering manipulation to convert them into the circulating medium. Indigent! With brains and health you have no right to be indigent in a country whose magnificent resources are out of all proportion to the number of heads and hands there are to develop them. Fifty roads are open to you. Take the one suits you best and push ahead. But you must push not loiter. Take this piece of homely advice, and our word for it, your coat hereafter shall be of glossy broadcloth with all acces- sories to match, don't lean on friends, don't borrow, don't wait for dead men's shoes, don't tarry for something to turn up, or ten to one it will be the world's nose at your lack of pluck and industry. Employ the capital under your hat. Work it wisely, honestly, resolvedly, and the returns are sure to be satisfactory.-—Exchange.

The Devil Right.

Dr. H-—, who is pastor of an orthodox church, had been for some time annoyed by the forwardness of a lay-brother to “speak” whenever an opportunity was offered, to the frequent exclusion of those whose remarks had a greater tendency to edification. This had been carried so far that the pastor, whenever he stated that an “opportunity would be offered for any brother to give an exhortation,” had always a secret dread of the loquacious member.

On one special occasion, the latter prefaced a prosy, incoherent harangue with an account of a controversy he had been carrying on with the great adver- sary. “My friends,” said he, “the devil and I have been fighting for more than twenty minutes. He told me not to speak to-night, but I determined I would. He said some of the rest could speak better than I, but still I felt that I could not keep silent. He even whispered that I spoke too often, and that nobody want- ed to hear me; but I was not to be put down that way—and now I have gained the victory, I must tell you all that is in my heart.” Then followed the tedious harangue aforesaid.

As they were coming out of the ses- sion-room, the good pastor inclined his head so that his mouth approached the ear of the militant member, and whisper- ed, “Brother, I THINK THE DEVIL WAS RIGHT!”—-PRESBYTERIAN.

Comfort after Loss.

On the 10th of last February a young missionary, Charles H. Lloyd, died at Umvoti Station, in South Africa. He was thirty-two years old. He had been on his field barely two years. It seemed strange to call him away so soon. After it was settled that he was to die, he said to his fellow-labourer—-"Do you remem- ber, Mr. Grout, that there is a little tree standing about thirty feet from the door of your new chapel? Bury me there. Mrs. Lloyd will inclose the spot. Your congregation will see it as they pass. They will remember that the dead man came to preach to them." The request was complied with. All about the village, by the river bank, and in the fields, the little natives could be heard ringing the songs Mr. Lloyd had taught them during his brief stay. And what did Mrs. Lloyd do? Did she sit down and wring her hands, and nurse her grief? Let us see. On July 10th, Mr. Grout wrote from Umvoti:—-"Yesterday was one of our bright days." It was bright, because thirteen new members were added to the little church. And among the occasions of this increase, he mentions this:—- "Since the death of Mr. Lloyd, Mrs. Lloyd has taken hold of our work with both her hands. I attribute, in good part, to her labours the result. Her pra- yers and labours have been literally "in season, and out of season.""—-Priest

Purity of Character

Over the beauty of the plum and a- pricot, there grows a bloom and beauty more exquisite than the fruit itself—a soft delicate flush that overspreads its blushing cheek. Now if you strike your hand over that and it is once gone, it is gone forever, for it never grows but once. The flower that hangs in the morning, impearled with dew—-arrayed as no queenly woman ever was arrayed with jewels—-once shake it, so that the beads roll off, and you may sprinkle water over it as you please, yet it never can be made again what it was when the dew fell silently upon it from heaven! On a frosty morning you may see the panes of glass covered with landscapes, mountains, lakes and trees, blended in a beautiful fantastic picture. Now lay your hand upon the glass, and by the scratch of your finger, or by the warmth of the palm, all the delicate tracery will be obliterated. So there is in youth a beauty and purity of character, which when once touched and defiled' can never be restored a fringe more delicate than frostwork, and which when torn and broken, will never be re-embroidered. A man who has spot- ted and soiled his garments in youth, though he may seek to make them white again, can never wholly do it, even were he to wash them with his tears. When a young man leaves his father's house with the blessing of his mother's tears still wet upon his forehead, if he once looses that early purity of charac- ter, it is a loss that he never can make whole again. Such is the consequence of crime. Its effects cannot be eradicated; it can only be forgiven—HENRY WARD BEECHER.

The Art of Being Polite.

First and foremost don't try to be polite, it will spoil all. If you keep over- whelming your guests with ostentatious entreaties to make themselves at home, they will begin to wish they were there. Let them find out that you are happy to see them by your actions rather than words. Always remember to let bashful people alone at first. It is the only way to set them at their ease.-—Trying to draw them out has sometimes the contrary effect of driving them out—of the house! Leading the conversation is a dangerous experiment. Better follow in its wake, and if you want to endear yourself to talkers, learn to listen well. Never make a fuss about anything—-never talk about yourself—-always preserve perfect com- posure, no matter what solecisms or blun- ders others may commit. Remember that it is a foolish proceeding to lament that you cannot afford to your guests a better house, or furniture or viands. It is fair to presume that the visit is to you, and not to these surroundings. Give people a pleasant impression of themsel- ves, and they will be pretty sure to go away with a pleasant impression of your qualities. On just such slender wheels as these the whole fabric of society turns; it is your business, then, to keep them in revolving order.-—Lo. Co. News.

How to Control the
Lower Nature.

"The true art of moral culture is to balance extravagant tendencies by quick- ening those which are languid. Growth is a safer means of producing harmony than repression." How often have I felt- and said this! You cannot descend to the regions of the lower nature, and wrestle with success there. You must go above and fight them as Perseus fought the dragon that would have destroyed And- romeda, on wings in the air. The lower is subdued, - not by repression, but by making it simply an instrument of the higher. No fasting, for instance, will make the soul pure; but a noble attach- ment will keep all base feelings in check, and ennoble them. By the by, that is a better remedy than Cato's; that was the very essence of St. Paul's system; that was the gospel according to him. Not repression, coercion, law—that only pro- duces dreadful conflict. "Ye cannot do the things ye would."—"Walk in the spirit," - the higher life of loftier motiv- es—"and then ye will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh;" and that is true, particular- ly, as well as generally. No courtmartial or provost marshal's could[?] would stop thieving in a regiment or make a coward brave; but an esprit de corps and honor have done it again and again.—ROBERT- SON'S LIFE AND LETTERS.

Natural Eloquence.

Says a clergyman:—-"At an early stage of my ministry, I spent some time in the low country of South Carolina in mission- ary service. Most of the negroes in the region where I lived were very ignorant, and as vicious as ignorant; for there is a natural affinity between ignorance and vice. But there were some striking excep- tions; some who were evidently 'taught of God.' Being ignorant of the technical language of the Scripture, 'they spake as the Spirit gave them utterance.' Such a one I overtook when riding some forty miles to exchange with my nearest brother. After remarking upon the weather, a stand- ing topic, I introduced the subject of relig- ion, and as death was a matter of common interest, I spoke of the importance of being prepared to die. 'Yes, massa, when the wicked man come to die, then he be scar'd; he groan like a cow, he hollow like a bull; his eyes stick out like two coal fire; but when the Christian come to die, he ain't scar'd at all—just like snuff of candle gone out.'

"With this power of illustration, what an impressive preacher this poor slave, so rich with wealth earth cannot give, might have become if suitably educated for the ministry."—-PRESBYTERIAN.

THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE was read in China forty-three days after it was read in Washington. It was telegraphed from Washington to San Francisco, and carri- ed thence to China by a sailing vessel, that made the remarkably quick passage of forty days

ANOTHER POINT OF DIFFERENCE.-—The President has recently ordered the remo- val of a prominent Postmaster in Indiana, who refuses to abdicate until his succes- sor has been confirmed by the Senate. That body will probably not do so, and if not done the Johnson appointee will appeal to the United States Court to put him in the place; and the question will then be settled, whether the President possesses the right to remove an office- holder and put another in his place with- out the consent of the Senate, while that body is in session.

THE SUBMARINE TELEGRAPHIC cable connecting Vancouver's Island, in the Pacific, with the mainland, was completed last week, and found to work success- fully. The event was celebrated with much enthusiasm in the island, and in Oregon and British America.

UNITED STATES BONDS—-The confi- dence of Europeans in them has been gain- ing so rapidly that now they even prefer these securities in preference to their own At home, the supply of Gold-Bearing Bonds is very limited, and it is with difficul- ty that large orders can be filled. It is, therefore, predicted that with an easy money market United States securities will soon advance to a point beyond the highest yet reached, which was 114, early in 1864. Should foreigners continue to hold our Bonds as they have in the past a heavy rise must inevitably take place, but, should large quantities return, they would create a check to any further ad- vance. It is a gratifying fact that one year from the close of our civil strife we are able to state, that in a financial panic abroad United States securities ONLY have remained firm, while all other Na- tional Bonds have fallen heavily, some, in fact, lower than at any time since the Crimean War.

REVENGE.—-A story is told of the re- venge taken by a Nantucket ship-master against a United States Consul, who was very rarely found in his office, although upon his sign were these words, “In from ten to one.” The indignant captain, after trying to find the consul several days with- out success, took a paint brush and alter- ed the official’s sign, so that it read, “TEN TO ONE that he is not in.”

GENUINE ELOQUENCE.—-There are no people in the world with whom eloquence is so universal as with the Irish. When Leigh Ritchie was traveling in Ireland, he passed a man who was a painful spec- tacle of pallor, squalor, and raggedness. His heart smote him, and he turned back.

“If you are in want,” said Ritchie “why don’t you beg?”

“Surely, it’s begging I am, yer honor.”

“You didn’t say a word.”

“Of course not, yer honor, but see how the skin is spakin’ through the trow- sers! and the bones cryin’ out through me skin! Look at me sunken cheeks, and the famine that’s starin’ in me eyes! Man alive, isn’t it beggin’ I am with a thous- and tongues?”

WANTS THE “SIDEBOARDS” ALSO.— The editor of the ROME (N. Y.) CITIZEN recently had a wheel-barrow stolen. He intimated in the next issue of his paper that the thief had better come after the sides, since they were no longer of use.

The next day the following note was sent to the office :

“Mister Sanford deer ser i seen a no- tis in yure Paper That sumboddy Stole yure Whelebarrow i Kuwwed that be Fore i seen it in the paper you sed That if The Man what Had it did not want to fetch it Back you would let him have The side Boards if you will leave side Boards right in frunt of the flower and food store to Morrow nite I will caul and git them and mutch obligd the wheel was Brok But i got it fixt i pade 2 shillin to git it fixt could you leve a 25 cent stamp With the side Boards where I can find it i shell Want the Bords by frida morning fur i want to wheel some gravvle. yures Trueley.”

THE HOLY FATHER.-—The French Legi- timist UNION gives the text of the reply made by the Pope the other day to an ad- dress presented to him in the name of a vast number of strangers now sojourning in Rome. What above all struck his hear- ers, it is reported, on this occasion, was the “majestie rebuke” delivered by the Pope to those “Catholies, whether lay or eccle- siastic,” who have the pretension to offer him advice, or show him the path he ought to pursue. “I alone,” he said to such, “despite my unworthiness, am the succes- sor of the Apostles, the Vicar of Jesus Christ; I alone have the mission to guide and direct the barque of Peter; I am the way, the truth, and the life. They who are with me are with the Church; they who are not with me are out of the Church —they are out of the way, the truth, and the life. Let men well understand this, that they be not deceived or led astray by any DISSANT Catholies, who desire and teach something quite different from what the Head of the Church desires and teaches.” The Pope, it is added, was “full of dignity and grandeur” when he pronounced these words.—-WEEKLY SCOTSMAN.

Rothschild and Girard.

The insufficiency of mere wealth alone to confer happiness is strikingly illus- trated in the Life of Nathan Myers Roth- schild, the Jew, who died in London some thirty or forty years ago, one of the most devoted worshippers that ever laid a withered soul on the altar of Mammon. For years he wielded the purse of the world, opening and closing it to kings and Emperors as he listed; and, upon certain occasions, was supposed to have more influence in Great Britian than the proudest and wealthiest of its nobles— perhaps more influence than the houses of Parliament taken together. He once purchased bills of the government, in a single day, to the amount of $20,000,000; and with the profits of a single loan, pur- chased an estate at the cost of $750,000. Yet, with all his colossal wealth, he was a miserable man, and, with sorrowful earn- estness, once exclaimed to a gentleman who was congratulating him on the gor- geous magnificence of his palatial man- sion, and thence inferring that he was happy:

“Happy! me happy!”

The late Stephen Girard, when sur- rounded by immense wealth, and suppos- ed to be taking supreme delight in his accumulation, wrote thus to a friend:

“As to myself, I live like a galley slave, constantly occupied, and often passing the night without sleeping. I am wrap- ped in a labyrinth of affairs, and worn out with care. I do not value fortune. The love of labor is my highest emotion. When I rise in the morning, my only ef- fort is to labor so hard during the day that, when night comes, I may be enabled to sleep soundly.”

Dangerous Guides.

It is a sad truth, and one to be heeded, that the women who to-day ordain the prevailing mode in Paris, are not the wo- men whom it is sweet or wise to imitate. To them we owe that bizarre and sense- less display of the last few months ; the taste for morocco and ugly ornaments ; the use of tinsels, cameos and bullion ; the tendency to extravagant and foolish out- lay. It is women who can attract and keep the attention of men only through continual surprises of daring toilettes—- women without the sweetest womanliness and grace of culture—-graduates of a school, by no means pure—-who study dress as a bad means to a worse end—- who are devising the pronounced styles and OUTRÉ shapes at which our belles to- day demurre, though certain to-morrow to accept them.

In these days, when hotels and steam- boats display such miracles of upholstery and decoration as private fortunes cannot compass ; when those accessories of wealth whose only value is the ease and culture they bring, are flaunted by vulgar people as an offensive ostentation ; when elabor- ate and costly dress is the armor and the badge of a class of women who are mer- cenary, vain, frivolous, and unwomanly, do these possessions seem things eagerly to be desired ? Reflect whether a man may toil for gold, year after year, and not lose something of his manliness ; whether a woman may give her time, and thought, and care to dress, and visiting, and the pretentious ordering of her household, and not lose something of her womanliness. And when you have re- flected, buy the muslin instead of the silk and the grenadine, put the money saved into United States securities, or make any other wise use of it, and be happy.—-TRI- BUNE.

Thrive Slowly.

It is dangerous for a man to grow rich and strong faster than he grows good. I do not think it is wise to grow rich too fast, at any rate. I do not mean to say there may not be men of such stature that they can grow rich rapidly without being hurt by their riches; but generally God makes the road to wealth one of care, so that the process is one of educa- tion, and so that, when a man has attained his competence, he has gone through that which is a strengthener, a patience, and which prevents his being much injured by it. But when men come into the pos- session of wealth without having earned it, it are apt to be injured by it, be- cause they have not received that educa- tion which is necessary to enable them to administer it properly.—BEECHER.

The Creator Still at work.

Prof. Clark, of Harvard College, has written a book entitled, Mind in Nature, in which he claims that the processes of creation are going on as really as “in the beginning.”

He regards law as the only ordinary mode of action of the Father of life, who he believes not only created all organized beings at the first, but repeats the act of creation from time to time as conditions require. All living beings, he tells us, are composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxy- gen and nitrogen combined not in accord- ance with chemical affinities, but with a vital affinity or principle of life which is the direct gift of God. The simplest forms of animal life are not chemically distinguishable from a drop of gum or starch, yet they not only take in food but enjoy the power of voluntary motion. They perish in a heat less than that of boiling water, and yet have been repro- duced abundantly in flasks of beef juice, dissolved gelatine and sugar, long heated to the boiling point, and deprived of all air which has not been thoroughly burn- ed by passing slowly over red hot iron. The flasks are closely sealed and in a few days living organisms are invariably de- veloped, a repetition of the act of crea- tion in our own time and under our own eyes. Still as of old "in the beginning," on the very threshold of life, "the spirit of God moves upon the face of the wa- ters." Mr. Clark alludes to the fact that "when a pond or stream or a whole tract of country dries up, as oftentimes happen in the summer months, as a natural conse- quence all the animals and plants in it which are dependent upon water for their existence, die for want of their natural element; but when the rains of autumn have refilled these streams and ponds, the aquatic animals appear again," and this in numbers and with a rapidity for which no lingering eggs or germs can reasonably account.

EXCITING SCENE AT A MENAGERIE.

While Wombwell's Menagerie was being exhibited at Stirling, D'Avey, the lion hunter, entered the den with the performing group of lions, when he was placed in rather an alarming posi- tion by one of the lionesses suddenly turning round upon him, and seizing him by the left leg. D'Avey, with great presence of mind, seized his rifle, and brought it down with full force upon the lioness's head, breaking the stock of the rifle in two, and freeing himself from the grasp of the lioness.

At the next performance, the lion hun- ter again entered the den, when the lioness immediately flew at him a second time. D'Avey was well prepared for her, being armed with a heavy stick, when a severe struggle ensued as to who was to be the master, the lioness repeatedly flying at D'Avey, and he meeting each charge and driving her back, until she finally settled down in a corner completely cowed and sub- dued. The fight lasted several minutes, and caused a good deal of excitement in the menagerie, which was densely crowded at the time. D'Avey escaped with no further injury than a slight flesh wound and a torn dress.—-

Odds and Ends.

—-Somebody describes a dinner party as “a hospitable attempt upon your life.”

-—He who lives for himself alone lives for a mean fellow.

-—Why does a duck lift up its head under water? Answer—For divers reasons.

-—Lay by a good store of patience, but put it where you can find it.

-—The three degrees of comparison in mining-—Mine—-miner-—minus.

-—It is exceedingly bad husbandry to harrow up the feelings of your wife.

-—That sincerity which is not Char- itable proceeds from a charity which is not sincere.

—-Why is President Johnson like Chimborazo? Because he’s the great- est of all the Andes.

-—Be true to your friend; never speak of his faults to show your own discrimination.

-—There are three things in this world that deserve no quarter,—hypo- crisy, pharisaism, and tyranny.

-—Dr. Chapin says: “The cause that never made a fanatic never pro- duced a martyr.”

-—How to become “small by de- grees.” Get dubbed D. D. or L. L. D., by some University.

-—If the memory is weak, do not overload it, nor fill it with fooleries; charge it only with useful matter.

-—We may be right or wrong in our choice of a hero, but the enthusiasm which takes us out of ourselves, and costs us something must do us good.

-—A westerner describing a gale of wind, says “a white dog while attempt- ing to weather the gale, was caught with mouth wide open, and turned completely inside out.

A young lady explained to a print- er her idea of the distinction between printing and publishing, thus: “You may print a kiss upon my cheek but, you mustn’t publish it.” The young man immediately signified his un- derstanding by giving her a smack on the lips which startled every one in the neighborhood, and showed that printing and publishing are very nearly synonymous terms.

Correction.

In the Tide Table of the Bang- kok Calendar for 1866, in May, June, August and October, for High read Low, and for Low read High.