Harpers-Ferry free press. [volume], October 30, 1821, Image 4

About Harpers-Ferry free press. [volume] (Harper's Ferry, Va. [i.e. Harpers Ferry, W. Va.]) 1821-1824

Image provided by: West Virginia University

                
POETRY.
FROM THE COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER.
GREECE.
Land of the brave! where lie inurn’d
The shrouded forms of mortal clay
In whom the fire of valor burn’d
And blaz’d upon the battle’s fray :
Land where the gallant Spartan few
Bled at Thermopylae of yore,
When death his purple garment threw
On .Helle’s consecrated shore !
Land of the muse! within thy bowers
Pier soul entrancing echoes rung,
While on their course the rapid hours
Paused at the melody she sung—
Till every grove and every hill,
And every stream that flow’d along,
From morn to night repeated still
The winning harmony of song.
Land of dead heroes—living slaves—
Shall glory gild thy clime no more ;
Her banners float above thy waves,
Where proudly it hath swept before ?
Hath not remcmbrrnce then a charm
To break the fetters and the chain;
To bid thy children nerve the arm,
And strike for freedom once again ?
No ! coward souls—the light which shone
On Leuctra’s war-empurpled day;
The light which beam’d on Marathon,
Hath lost its splendor, ceas’d to play:
And thou art but a shadow now,
With helmet shattered—spear in rust—
Thy honor but a dream*—and thou
Despised—degraded—in the dust!
Where sleeps the spirit that of old
Dash’d down to earth the Persian plume,
When the loud chaunt of triumph told
How fatal was the despot’s doom ?
The bold three hundred—where are they,
Who died on battle’s gory breast ?
Tyrants have trampled on the clay,
Where death has hush’d them into rest.
Yet, Ida, yet upon thy hill
A glory shines of ages fled,
And fame her light is pouring still,
Not on the living—but the dead !
But ’tis the dim sepulchral light
Which sheds a faint and feeble ray,
As noonbeams on the brow of night,
When tempests sweep upon their way.
Greece ! yet awake thee from thy trance—
Behold thy banner waves afar—
Behold the glittering weapons glance
Along the gleaming front of war !
A gallant chief, of high em prize,
Is urging foremost in the field,
Who calls upon thee to arise
In might—in majesty reveal’d.
In vain, in vain the hero calls;
In vain he sounds the trumpet loud—
His banner totters—see, it falls
In ruin, Freedom’s battle shroud :
Thy children have no soul to dare
Such deeds as glorified their sires ;
Their valor but a meteor’s glare,
Which gleams a moment and expires.
Lost land ! where Genius made his reign,
And rear’d his golden arch on high;
Where Science rais’d her sacred faile,
Its summit peering to the sky:
Upon thy clime the midnight deep
.Of ignorance hath brooded long
And in the tomb, forgotten, sleep
Tire sons of science and of song.
The sun hath set—the evening storm
Hath pass’d in giant fury by,
To blast the beauty of thy form,
And spread its pall upon the sky:
Gone is thy glory’s diadem,
And Freedom never more shall cease
To pour her mournful requiem
O’er blighted, lost, degraded Greece !
FLORIO.
New York, October 6, 1821.
from Blackwood’s magazine.
BY-PAST TIME.
The sky is blue, the sward is green,
The leaf upon the bough is seen,
The wind comes from the balmy west,
The little songster builds its nest,
The bee hums on from flower to flower
Till twilight’s dim and pensive hour ;
The joyous year arrives; but when
Shall by-past times come back again ?
I think on childhood’s glowing years-—
How soft, how bright the scene appears;
How calm, how cloudless passed away
The long, long summer holiday !
I may not muse, I must not dream,
Too beautiful these visions seem
For earth and mortal man ; but when
Shall by-past times come back again ?
I think of sunny eves so soft,
Too deeply felt, enjoy’d too oft,
When through the blooming fields I roved
With her, the earliest, dearest loved ;
Around whose form I yet survey
In thought a bright, celestial ray,
To present scenes denied ; but when
Shall by-past times come back again ?
Alas ! the world at distance seen,
Appeared all blissful and serene ;
An Eden, formed to tempt the foot
With crystal streams and golden fruit:
That world, when tried and trod, is found
A rocky waste, a thorny ground !
We then revert to youth ; but when
Shall by-past times come back again ?
MISCfiLLAKY.
THE HONEST OLD HOSTESS.
Singular Fact.—In the little town of
Oranienbaum lives a woman, bordering
on ninety, by name Christophorevna, a
native of Holstein. A little cottage is
her sole possession, and the visits of a few
shipmasters coming over from Cronstadt
to go to Peiersburgh by land, when the
wind does not serve for sailing up, are her
only livelihood.
Several Dutch skippers having one eve
ning supped at her house, on their depar
ture she found a sealed bag of money un
der the table. Her surprise at this un
expected discovery was naturally very
great: some one of the company just gone
must certainly have forgotten it; but
they had sailed over to Cronstadt, and
perhaps were at sea, the wind being fair.
Seeing, therefore, no hopes of the guests
returning, the good woman put up the
bag in her cupboard, to keep it till called
ior. Jtlowever, nooociy cauea lor u. run
seven years clid she carefully keep this
deposit; often tempted by opportunities,
still ofteuer pressed by want, to employ
this gift of chance. Her honesty, however,
overcame every allurement of opportu
nity, and every command of want. Seven
years had elapsed, when some shipmas
ters again stopped at her house, to take
what refreshment they could find. Three
of them were Englishmen, the fourth was
a Dutchman. Conversing of various mat
ters, one of the former asked the Dutch
man whether he had ever before been at
Oranienbaum. 44 Yes, sure i have,” re
turned he; v41 know the cursed place but
too well: my being here, once, cost me
seven hundred roubles.” 44 How so?”
44 Why, in one of these wretched hovels,
here, I once got rather tipsy, and left be
hind me a bag of roubles.” 44 Was the
bag sealed ?” asked old Cluistophorevna,
who was sitting in one corner of the room,
and had been roused to attention by what
she had heard. 44 Yes, yes, it was sealed,
and with this very seal here at my watch
chain.” f he woman looked at the seal,
and knew it directly. 44 Well, then,” said
she, 44 by that you may be able to recover
what you lost.” 44 Recover it, mother !
no, I am rather too old to expect that.
The world is not quite so honest as that
comes to. Besides, consider it is now
seven years since. I wish I had not men
tioned it; it always makes me melancho
ly. Let us have no more of it; give me
another tumbler of punch, mother.”
While the four gentlemen were engag
ed in drowning the remembrance of the
doleful accident in punch, the good wo
man had slipped out, and was now wad
dling in with her bag. 44 See, here ! per
haps you may be convinced that honesty
is not so rare as you imagined 1” said she,
putting the bag on the table.
The guests were dumb with astonish
ment ; and, on recollecting themselves,
the reader may represent to himself their
several expressions of commendation and
gratitude. The four captains were all ra
ther stricken in years, and had navigated
the seas from Japan to Newfoundland,
and from the Cape of Good Hope to Arch
angel ; they had been in habits of dealing
with black and brown faces, with woolly
haired and powdered heads—therefore,
that their amazement was so great is cer
tainly no panegyric on our times !
IN e ver were such strong_emotions ex
cited in any human mind as in that of the
Dutchman, from the firmest persuasion
of his loss to the completest certainty of
its recovery:—the transition was too sud
den and great not to set every fibre of his
phlegmatic body in vibration. One look
at the honest woman to whom he was in
debted for this transport of joy brought
him to himself. A sudden impulse of
magnanimity overpowered him, to which
all other sensations reverently gave way.
He seized the bag, tore open the seal, and
took—one rouble out, which he laid on the
table, with a civil thanksgiving for the
trouble of his hostess !
If the astonishment of the other three
was great before, it was now effaced by a
greater. They stood looking at one ano
ther for a minute, as silent as the grave.
“ Damme!” at last exclaimed one of
the Englishmen, striking his fist on the
table, “that bag there, my lad, you shall
not carry off so. Devil fetch me but the
old woman shall have it 1” His two coun
trymen, who had been mute till now, add
ed their hearty concurrence in this pro
posal. The Dutchman turned pale, but
endeavored to console himself by the re
iterated protestations of Christophorevna
that she required nothing at all; that she
thought she had done nothing more than
her duty, and insisted that the Dutchman
should even take back his rouble. How
ever, the Britons could not so easily be
brought to strike sail. The conversation
grew warm ; the oaths followed rapidly
on each other; and the fists of - Eng
lishmen were doubled spontaneously, and
attitudes forming for putting an end to
the dispute by force of arms; during all
which time the Dutchman was striving to
get the bag into his custody.
After long debate, conducted with va
rious degrees of heat, perceiving no pos
sibility of success against the sturdy ar
guments likely to be advanced, the skip
per agreed to part with fifty roubles. The
Englishmen insisted on a hundred. The
proposal seemed to the Dutchman so un
reasonable that he declared he would
sooner encounter the whole weight of
their fists than comply with it.
“ Avast, my lads !” cried the captain
who had made the first attack on the
Dutchman’s generosity, “ I have some
what to say. The bag does not belong
to us, that is true, but a Briton will never
stand by, and not see justice done ; and,
by heaven, the woman has acted nobly,
and ought to be rewarded. Give me hold
of the bag; I will count out the hundred
roubles.”
No sooner said than done. The Dutch
man, thunder-struck at this summary
way of proceeding, had not time to reco
ver himself before the hundred roubles
were fairly counted on the table.
This brought on a truce ! Where hu
manity, gratitude, generosity, and Eng
lish fists, had made the attack in vain,
there now conquei-ed—national ,,nde.
The Dutchman insisted on it that the
Britons should let him treat them; and,
in perfect stoical resignation, parted with
a hundred of his beloved, long-lamented,
and lately-recovered roubles.—Eng. flap.
Extraordinary preservation of a wound
ed Russian Soldier.—In the disastrous re
treat of the French army after the confla
gration of Moscow, the following melan
choly .history of a poor wounded Russian
is given by Surgeon Begin, of the French
army, and is thus translated by Dr. James
Johnson, in the Medico-Chirurgical Re
view for September:—
“ After leaving Moscow,” says M. Be
gin, “ we found all the villages' in ashes,
and a dead silence reigning every where
around us. Having wandered a little from
the main route of the army, I was roused
from a melancholy reverie on the misfor
tunes of our army by the groans of a hu
man being, who appeared, by the sounds,
to be near to me. I stared around, but
could see nothing, except scattered and
half-piitrified corpses. The groans con
tinued, and I alighted from my horse to
make a more careful examination of the
place. After spvgral minutes’ search, I
discovered, in theklitch of a redoubt, and
lodged in the disembowelled carcase of a
horse, a wretched Russian soldier, whose
right leg had been carried off by a cannon
shot, and who had existed in that horrid
asylum for six weeks—namely, from the
battle of Moscow?. 1 During this time
he had lived on the carcass of the animal,
whose bones and skin served him for a
habitation. Almost every particle of
flesh was clean scraped from the interior
of the animal, the thorax and abdomen of
which protected the soldier from the pelt
ing storm. The stump was nearly heal
ed by the efforts of nature alone, and the
Russian, though pale, squalid, and hag
gard, was apparently firm in strength,
and by no means ill in health.” Ail M.
Begin could do, was to give him a dram
from his canteen, which set the poor Mus
covite almost in extacics. He left him
where he found him, but had no doubt
that the Russian army, who were pursu
ing them, would relieve the unfortunate
soldier from his dreary abode in a day or
two afterwards.
The character of a Good Fellow.
How many there are who give up eve
ry pretension to the character of a good
man for the name of a good fellow ! and
what is a g-ood fellow ? Why, a grace
less young man, who is addicted to every
vice, until by debauchery and extrava
gance, which lie does not really enjoy, he
brings the “ gray hairs of his parents with
sorrow to the grave.” This is a good
fellow ! Sometimes, in visiting the hos
pitable mansion of a friend, he corrupts
the son, or debauches the daughter; and
yet he is a good fellow ! He perhaps mar
ries, but becomes fretful and penurious
at home and thoughtlessly profuse abroad;
he dissipates that which should support
his family, returning but to insult and
distress them ; yet he is generous over a
bottle, and must be a good fellow ! At
last his money runs short, and he would
borrow of his friends; few will lend, and
those few he forgets to pay; till every
one avoids him, and he is no longer a
welcome visitor, even to mine hostess ;
for then he is no longer a good fellow !
The late general Scott, so celebrated
for his success in gaming, was one even
ing playing very deep with the count
d’Artois and the duke de Chartres, at Pa
ris, when a petition , was brought up from
the widow of a French officer, stating her
various misfortunes and praying relief.
A plate was handed round, and each put
in one, two, or three louis d’ors; but
when it was held to the general, who was
going to throw for. 500 louis d’ors, he
said, “ stop for a moment, if you please,
sir; here goes for the widow !” The
throw was successful, and he instantly
swept the whole into the plate, and sent
it down to her.
“ Mr. Toll-man,” said one (who was
half-seas over) to a toll-gatherer at the
end of a toll-bridge, “ I have been over to
the village all day, spinning street yarn.”
“I thought so,” said the toll-man, “fori
see you are reeling it off this evening.”
A
Some years ago, a witness was examin
ed before Judge-, in an action ot slan
der, who required him to repeat the pre
cise words spoken by the defendant 1 he,
witness hesitated, and affected some em
barrassment, till he had fixed upon him
self the attention of till who were in court*
and then with apparent reluctance went
on : he said—May it please your Honor
— You lie, and steal, and get your living
by cheating ! ! Turn to the Jury, il you
please, exclaimed the Judge.
The following paragraph appeared in
a provincial paper :
‘Travellers should be careful to deliver
their baggage to proper persons, as a gen
tleman a few days since, on lighting from
a stage coach, entrusted his wife to
stranger, and has not heard of her since.’
ADVENTURERS ATTEND!
FTMIERE are now regularly drawing in
i Baltimore two most splendid Lotte
ries, viz :
The Grand State Lottery,
more than half over, in which remains to
be drawn the high prizes of
S 40,000 and 20,000,
besides a proportionable number of minor
ones. The drawing of this lottery will
soon be completed.
The University Lottery
contains the rich prizes of § 30,000,
g 10,000, 3 of g5,000, 14 of §1,000, and a
very large quantity of smaller ones.
Tickets in both lotteries are now sell
ing at the low price of §10, halves §5,
quarters §2 50, eighths gl 25, but will
soon be considerably enhanced in price.
All orders forwarded to
.. W. C. CONINE,
No. 32, Market street, Baltimore, will
receive immediate attention.
Oct. 23, 1821.
t month.
Grand National Lottery,
FIFTH CLASS,
'l l THIGH will positively commence
y f drawing on the 27 ’ ’
GRAND SCj
I prize of
1 do.
2 do.
5 do.
A.
100
10
105
GO.
do.
do.
Besides an immense m
prizes, and not two bh
This is the most brilliant scheme ever
offered to public patronage, and the ob
jects for which the funds are raised, are
no less interesting to an enlightened and
benevolent community, viz: the erection
of a City Hall to beautify the Metropolis
of the Nation, and a Penitentiary for the
melioration of convicts, and the building
of School Houses for the education of the
poor
Whole Tickets
Halves
Quarters
Eighths
,12 00
6 00
3 00
1 50
Tickets and Shares, in the greatest va
riety of numbers, in the above Lotteries,
for sale at G. DAVIS’s
Truly Fortunate Lottery Office,
Bridge street, Georgetown :
Where has been sold more high prizes
than at any other office in the District of
Columbia.
ICF5 Approved endorsed notes and prize
tickets received in payment for tickets. *
October 9.
STRAY STEERS.
BURNED into my pasture, sometime
JL in August last, FIVE STEERS,
which appear to be astray. They are of
the following description:
One red and white, marked with two
crops and two underbits.
Another of the same color, marked
with two underbits.
One black and white, no mark, short
tail.
The above cattle arc supposed to be
four years old last spring.
One red Steer, his left ear cropt, his
right is swallow-forked, with an underbit.
One,red and white, his right ear cropt,
the left has an underbit ; he is branded
between the hip and tail.
The two last mentioned Steers are sup
posed to be three years old last spring.
The owners of the above cattle are re
quested to call, prove property, pay char
ges, and take them away.
PHILIP COONS,
Washington County, Md.
October 16, 1821.
WANTED TO HIRE,
4 NEGRO BOY, who is capable of
taking care of a horse; also, a Fe
male Servant, who understands all kinds
of house work. Inquire of the
, PRINTERS.
August 14, 1821.
HAGS fRAGS! ~
THREE cents per pound will be. given
at this office for clean Linen arid Cot
ton Rags.
BLAWjv WARRANTS
-/'.'.or Sate at this Office.