It goes for laces, feathers, rings, Toys, dolls, and other baby-things, How goes the money? Come, It goes for schools and Sabbath chimes, For missions and such things as those- How goes the money? There, A THANKSGIVING DAY. BRIGHT little damsel, dressed plainly and neat, On her well-rounded arm a nice basket she bore, Beneath its snug lid with a critical ken; All was right, and 't would seem that her movements kept time With the inward response of a musical chime, For nothing that song of her spirit could stay, Home, father and mother, and Thanksgiving Day. Then on came the cars, with a whistle and din, Some anxious, some weary, some feeble and bent, So Fancy her limning took up, and behold A village sprang forth from her pencil of gold, O land of my birth! dear New England, the clime THE ROMANCE OF NICK VAN STANN. I CANNOT vouch my tale is true, Nor say, But that could hardly grieve him much; He thought—as Frenchmen always do- Whose very charming grounds are these? "Thanks!" said the Gaul; "the owner's taste Is equally superb and chaste; So fine a house, upon my word, Of course, Monsieur Van Stann is rich, Ah! wealth must be a charming thing!" 'Tis plain to see, this Nick Van Stann Next day, our tourist chanced to pop *Nicht verstann-I don't understand. And there he saw, with staring eyes, To hear again the hackneyed phrase! And gold enough to last a life; So blest as Monsieur Nick Van Stann! Next day the Frenchman chanced to meet The Frenchman sighed and shook his head, THE DANIEL WEBSTER AND HENRY CLAY. HERE was a striking contrast between Daniel Webster and his illustrious contemporary, Henry Clay. Webster was usually distant and reserved; Clay always cordial and sympa thizing. Webster conversed brilliantly, but he required to be drawn out; Clay would take the initiative, and he always selected the subject with tact and a true discernment of the tastes and intelligence of his companions. In fashionable society at Washington, Webster stood in proud repose, with icy brow, like Mont Blanc among the lesser Alps, its summit covered with perpetual snow. He was among them, but not of them. Clay, on the contrary, had the facility to adapt himself to every situation. He could shine as brilliantly in the saloon as in the Senate. Webster would enter the party of a secretary or minister, move slowly to one side of the room, and sit down, silent and abstracted. After a while a few friends would gather around him, and the conversation, at first sluggish and cold, would gradually become instructive, sometimes warm into eloquence, but seldom grow light and lively. Clay would address himself to the ladies, engage in their conversation or amusement, and vie with the lightest of them in gayety, with the liveliest in vivacity, and with the brightest in wit. Thus Clay was always the most popular man in Washington society; a distinction which Webster never attained and never sought. Similar differences between the two were observable in their public and official intercourse with men. Webster made firm friends of the few, but held the many at a distance. He was courteous to all, but cordial only to those who had the key to his heart, and knew how to turn it. Clay made friends of all who approached him. Many who voted against him as a politician, loved him as a man. Webster inspired respect, but he was inscrutable. When you grasped the warm hand of Clay, you could look through the windows of his eyes right down into his heart and see it beat. Webster awed men-Clay attracted them. They admired Webster - they loved Clay. It re In their treatment of great questions, the difference between Clay and Webster was as striking as in their manners. minds us of the contrast drawn by a writer some years since, in a style somewhat exaggerated, between Canning and Brougham. Clay swept lightly over the surface, seized the obvious points, and adorned his subject with all the graces of wit and rhetoric. Webster toiled in deep mines, grasped the strongest points, and addressed himself to the understanding rather than the sympathies of his hearers. Clay was the more persuasive - Webster |