Defcription of White-Washing. Scotfman, brought him to his fenfes by a very fimple rebuke, "Had had, man, you canno put the world to rights, come, tak your foup." 23. The humane mania. Strange! that an excess of humanity fhould often produce thofe irregularities in behaviour and conduct, which constitute madness! Dr Goldfmith has, with great ingenuity, defcribed this fpecies of madnefs in his comedy of the Good-Natured Man. Perfons afflicted with this madnefs feel for every species of diftrefs, and feem to pour forth tears upon fome occafions, from every pore of their bodies. Their fouls vibrate in unifon with every touch of mifery that affects any member of the great family of mankind. Gracious heaven! if ever I fhould be vifited with thefe two laft fpecies of madness, however fo much they expofe me to ridicule or resentment, my conftant prayer to the Divine fountain of jus 91 tice and pity, fhall be, that I may never be cured of them. To thefe fpecies I might add,' 26.Mathematical manias. But thefe are fo common and well known, that it will not be neceffary to defcribe them. Upon a review of this effay, it will appear, that every man is mad, according to Linnæus, upon fome fubject; or, to quote a higher authority, that "madnefs is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead." How great are our obligations to Chriftianity, which, by enlightening, directing, and regulating our judgments, wills, and paffions, in the knowledge, choice, and pursuit of duty, truth, and intereft, reftores us to what the Apostle very emphatically calls a "found mind!" Iam, Yours, &c. Letter from a Gentleman in America to his Friend in England, SIR, TH HE peculiar cuftoms of every country appear to ftrangers fingular and abfurd; but the inhabitants confider thofe very customs as highly proper, and even indispenfably neceffary. Long habit imposes on the understanding any thing that is not in itself immediately deftructive or pernicious. The religion of a country is fcarcely held in greater fanctity than its established customs; and it is almost as fruitless to attempt alterations in the one as in the other. Any interference of government to reform national cuftoms, however trivial and abfurd, never fails to produce the greateft discontents, and sometimes danger ous convulfions; of this there are frequent instances in history. Bad cuftoms can only be removed by the fame means that established them, viz, by imperceptible gradations and the conftant example and influence of the higher clafs of people. We are apt to conclude, that the fashions and cuftoms of our own country are the most rational and proper, becaufe the eye and the understanding have long fince been reconciled to them; and yet the foreigner will `defend his national habits with full as much plaufibility as we can our own. The truth is, that reafon has very little to do in the matter, and nature lefs. All cuftoms are arbitrary, and one nation hath as undoubted a right to fix its peculiarities as another. It is in vain to talk of convenience as a ftandard ; for every thing becomes convenient by practice and habit. I have read fomewhere of a na tion, in Africa, (I think) which is governed governed by twelve counfellors. When these counsellors are to meet on public bufinefs, twelve large earthern jars are fet in two rows and filled with water; the counfellors, one after another, enter stark naked, and each leaps into a jar, where he fits up to the chin in water; when the jars are all filled with councellors, they proceed to deliberate on the great concerns of the people. This, to be fure, forms a very grotefque idea; but the object is to tranfact the public bufinefs. They have been accustomed to do it in this way, and can do it in no other. To them, therefore, it is rational and convenient. Indeed, if we confider it impartially, there feems to be no reason why a counfellor may not be as wife in an earthern jar as in an elbow chair; or why the good of the people may not be as maturely confidered, and as effectually promoted in the one as in the other. The established manners of every country are the standards of propri ety with the people who have a dopted them, and every nation affumes the right of confidering all deviations from their fashions and cuftoms as barbarisms and abfurdities. The Chinese have retained their laws and cuftoms unaltered for ages immemorial; and altho' they have long had a free intercourse with European nations, and are well acquainted with their improvements in arts and modes of civilization, yet they are so far from being convinced of any fuperiority in the European manners, that their government takes the most serious precautions to prevent the barbarifms of other nations from taking root a mongst them. It employs the utmoft vigilance and attention to enjoy the benefits of commerce, and at the fame time guard against innovations in the characteristic man ners of these people. Since the discovery of Sandwich Iflands in the South Sea, they have been vifited by fhips of different nations; but the inhabitants have fhewn no inclination to prefer the dress and manners of foreigners to their own. It is even probable that they pity the ignorance of the Eu ropeans they have seen, and hug themselves in the propriety of their own cuftoms, and the fuperior ad vancement of their own civiliza tion. There is nothing new in thefe obfervations; and I had no intention of making them when I fat down, but they obtruded themfelves upon me. My wifh is to give you fome account of the people of these new States, but I am far from being qualified for the purpose; having, as yet, feen little more than the cities of New-York and Philadelphia, I have discovered but few national fingularities amongst them. Their cuftoms and manners are nearly the fame with those of England, which they have long been used to copy. For, previous to the Revolution, the Americans were, from their infancy, taught to look up to the English as patterns of perfection in all things. I have ob ferved, however, one custom which, for aught I know, is peculiar to this country. An account of it will ferve to fill up the remainder of this fheet, and may afford you fome amusement. When a young couple are about to enter on the matrimonial ftate, a never-failing article in the marriage-treaty is, that the lady fhall have and enjoy the free and unmo lefted exercife of the rights of whitewashing, with all its ceremonials, privileges, and appurtenances. young woman would forego the most advantageous connection, and even difappoint the warmeft wish of her heart, rather than refign this invaluable right. You will wonder A what a Pennsylvanian Custom.. is: I will endeavour to give you fome idea of the ceremony, as I have seen it performed. 93 what this privilege of white-washing and the garden-fence bends beneath. the weight of carpets, blankets, cloth cloaks, old coats, and ragged breeches. Here may be feen the lumber of tlie kitchen forming a dark and confufed mafs: for the fore-ground of the picture,, gridirons and frying-pans, rufty fhovels and broken tongs, fpits and pots, joint-ftools and the fractured remains of rush-bottom'd chairs. There a clofet has difgorged its bowels; riveted plates and dishes, halves of china bowls, cracked tumblers, broken wine-glaffes, phials of forgotten phyfic, papers of unknown powders, feeds and dried herbs, handfuls of old corks, tops of teapots, and ftoppers of departed decanters ;-from the rag-hole in the garret to the rat-hole in the cellar, no place efcapes unrummaged. It would feem as if the day of general doom was come, and the utenfils of the house were dragged forth to judgment. In this tempeft, the words of Lear naturally prefent, and might, with alteration, be made ftrictly appli cable. There is no feafon of the year in which the lady may not claim her privilege, if the pleases; but the latter end of May is moft generally fixed upon for the purpole. The attentive husband may judge by certain prognoftics when the ftorm is nigh at hand. When the lady is unufually fretful, finds fault with the fervants, is difcontented with the children, and complains much of the naftiness of every thing about her, thefe are figns which ought not to be neglected; yet they are not decifive, as they fometimes occur and go off again, without producing any further effect. But if, when the hufband rifes in the morning, he should obferve in the yard a wheel-bar row with a quantity of lime in it, or fhould fee certain buckets with lime diffolved in water, there is then no time to be loft: he immediately locks up the apartment or clofet where his papers or his private property are kept, and putting the key in his pocket, betakes himfelf to flight: For a husband, however beloved, becomes a perfect nuifance during this feafon of female rage; his authority is fuperfeded, his commiffion is fufpended, and the very fcullion who cleans the braffes in the kitchen becomes of more confideration and importance than him. He has nothing for it, but to abdicate, and run from an evil which he can neither prevent hor mollify. The husband gone, the ceremony begins. The walls are in à few minutes ftripped of their furniture; paintings, prints, and looking-glaffes, lie in an huddled heap about the floors; the curtains are torn from the testers, the beds crammed into the windows; chairs and tables, bedfteads and cradles crowd the yard; VOL. VI. N° 32. Let the great Gods, "That keep this dreadful pudder o'er our heads, "Find out their en'mies now. Trem ble, thou wretch, That haft within thee undivulged crimes "Unwhipt of justice!" Clofe pent-up Guilt, "Raife your concealing continents, and afk "Thefe dreadful fummoners grace! This ceremony compleated, and the house thoroughly evacuated, the next operation is to fmear the walls and ceilings of every room and clofet, with brushes dipped in a folution of lime called white-wash; to pour buckets of water over every floor, and feratch all the partitions and wainscots with rough brushes wet with foap-fuds, and dipped in ftone-cutter's fand. The windows by no means efcape the general deM luge. luge. A fervant fcrambles out upthe pent-house, at the rifk of her neck, and with a mug in her hand, and a bucket within reach, fhe dafhes away innumerable.gallons of water against the glass panes; to the great annoyance of the passengers in the street. I have been told that an action at law was once brought against one of thefe water nymphs, by a person who had a new fuit of cloathes fpoiled by this operation; but, after long argument, it was determined by the whole court, that the action would not lie, in as much as the defendant was in the exercife of a legal right, and not anfwerable for the confequences and fo the poor gentleman was doubly non-fuited; for he loft not only his fuit of cloathes, but his fuit at law. Thefe fimearings and feratchings, wafhings and dalhings, being duly performed, the next ceremonial is to cleanse and replace the diftracted furniture. You may have seen a houfe-raifing or a fhip-launch, when all the hands within reach are collected together recollect, if you can, the hurry, bustle, confufion, and noife of fuch a fcene, and you will have fome idea of this cleaning match. The misfortune is, that the fole object is to make things clean: it matters not how many useful, ornamental, or valuable articles are mutilated, or suffer death under the operation: a mahogany chair and carved frame undergo the fame difcipline; they are to be made clean at all events; but their prefervation is not worthy of attention. For inftance, a fine large engraving is laid flat upon the floor; fmaller prints are piled upon it, until the fuperincumbent weight cracks the glaffes of the lower tier : but this is of no confequence. A valuable picture is placed leaning against the fharp corner of a table; others are made to lean against that, until the preffure of the whole forces the corner of the table through the canvas of the first. The frame and glass of a fine print are to be cleaned, the fpirit and oil ufed on this occafion are fuffered to leak through and spoil the engraving; no matter, if the glafs is clean and the frame fhines, it is fufficient; the rest is not worthy of confideration. An able arithmetician hath made an accurate calculation, founded on long experience, and discovered, that the loffes and deftruction incident to two white-washings are equal to one removal, and three removals equal to one fire. The cleanfing frolic over, matters begin to refume their pristine appearance. The ftorm abates, and all would be well again, but it is impoffible that fo great a convul. fion, in fo fmall a community, fhould not produce fome further effects. For two or three weeks after the operation, the family are ufually afficted with fore eyes or fore throats; occafioned by the cauftic quality of the lime, or with fevere colds from the exhalations of wet floors or damp walls. I know a gentleman who is fond of accounting for every thing in a philofophical way. He confiders this which I have called a cuftom, as a real periodical disease, peculiar to the climate. His train of reafoning is ingenious and whimfical; but I am not at leisure to give you a detail. The refult was, that he found the diftemper to be incurable; but after much study he conceived he had discovered a method to divert the evil he could not fubdue. For this purpofe, he caused a fmall building, about twelve feet fquare, to be erected in his garden, and furnished with fome ordinary chairs and tables; and a few prints of the cheapest fort were hung against the walls. His hope was, that when the white-washing fren zy a Pennsylvanian Custom. zy seized the females of his family, they might repair to this apartment, and fcrub, and fcour, and fmear to their heart's content; and fo spend the violence of the disease in this out-poft, whilft he enjoyed himself in quiet at head-quarters. But the experiment did not answer his expectation; it was impoffible it should, fince a principal part of the gratification confifts in the lady's having an uncontrouled right to torment her husband at least once in a year, and to turn him out of doors, and take the reins of government into her own hands. There is a much better contrivance than this of the philofopher's; which is, to cover the walls of the house with paper: this is generally done; and though it cannot abolish, it at least fhortens the period of female dominion. The paper is decorated with flowers of various fancies, and made fo ornamental that the women have admitted the fashion, without perceiving the defign. There is also another alleviation of the husband's diftrefs; he generally has the privilege of a fmall room or closet for his books and papers, the key of which he is allow ed to keep. This is confidered as a privileged place, and stands like the land of Gofhen amidst the plagues of Egypt. But then he must be extremely cautious, and ever on his guard. For fhould he inadvertently go abroad and leave the key in his door, the houfe-maid, who is always on the watch for fuch an opportunity, immediately enters in triumph with buckets, brooms, and brushes; takes poffeffion of the premifes, and forthwith puts all his books and papers to rights: to his utter confufion, and fometimes ferious detriment. For instance: 95 books, to the amount of L. 30. The defendant was ftrongly impreffed with an idea that he had discharged the debt and taken a receipt; but as the tranfaction was of long flanding, he knew not where to find the receipt. The fuit went on in course, and the time approached when judgment would be obtained against him. He then fat ferioufly down to examine a large bundle of old papers, which he had untied and displayed on a table for the purpose. In the midst of his fearch, he was fuddenly called away on business of importance; he forgot to lock the door of his room. The house-maid, who had been long looking out for fuch an opportunity, immediately entered with the ufual implements, and with great alacrity fell to cleaning the room, and putting things to rights. The first object that ftruck her eye was the confused situation of the papers on the table; these were, without delay, bundled together, like fo many dirty knives and forks; but in the action a small piece of paper fell unnoticed on the floor, which happened to be the very receipt in queftion: as it had no very refpectable appearance, it was foon after fwept out with the common dirt of the room, and carried in a dirt pan to the yard. The tradefman had neglected to enter the credit in his book; the defendant could find nothing to obviate the charge, and fo judgment went againft him for the debt and cofts. A fortnight after the whole was fettled, and the money paid, one of the children found the receipt amongst the dirt in the yard. There is alfo another custom peculiar to the city of Philadelphia, and nearly allied to the former. I mean that of washing the pavement before the doors every Saturday evening. I at first took this to be a regulation of the police; but on further inquiry find it is a reliM 2 A gentleman was fued by the executors of a tradefman, on a charge found against him in the deceased's gious |