·

'Wro murders the innocents? Mr. SLASHAWAY, who writes for the Ocean Magazine, says the teachers murder them. Mrs. PRIM, who picks the mote out of other people's eyes, says the same. Mr. TRADEWELL, who comes home at night with the headache, and does not like to be troubled with the children's lessons, iterates the same grave charge. And all lazy boys and girls offer themselves as the living witnesses that they expect to die of hard study.

'We protest:

'Who sends the children to bed with stomachs over-loaded with indigestible food? Not the teacher. Who allows SUSAN JANE to go out in wet weather with cloth-shoes and pasteboard soles? Not the teacher. Who allows the little child, in cold weather, to go with its lower extremities half-bare, or but thinly clad, because it is fashionable? Not the teacher. Who allows JOHN and MARY, before they have reached their 'teens,' to go to the 'ball,' or party, and dance until the cock crows? Not the teacher. Who compels the children, several in number perhaps, to sleep in a little, close, unventilated bed-room? Not the teacher. Who builds the school-house' tight as a drum,' without

any possibility of ventilation? Not the teacher. Who frets and scolds if my child does not get along as fast as some other child does? Not the teacher. Who inquires, not how thoroughly my child' is progressing, but how far? Not the teacher. Who murders the innocents?'

THE following brace of ballads are from the ever-welcome HATTIE, our gay and fair Wisconsin-ner she who dashed whilom so boldly into the war. Soyez le bien-venue !

'Three Kisses.

'I HAVE three kisses in my life,

So sweet and sacred unto me,

That now till death-dews rest on them,
My lips shall kissless be.

'One kiss was given in childhood's hour,

By one who never gave another;

In life and death I still shall feel

That last kiss of my mother.

The next kiss burned my lips for years,
For years my wild heart reeled in bliss
At every memory of the hour

When my lips felt young love's first kiss.

"The last kiss of the sacred three

Had all the wo which e'er can move
The heart of woman: it was pressed
Upon the dead lips of my love.

'When lips have felt the dying kiss,
And felt the kiss of burning love,
And kissed the dead - then never more
In kissing should they think to move.

Unlobed.

'BROWN eyes and pale, pale face

A wondrous face that never beauty had,
But yet is beautiful; she is not young;
Nobody loves her, and her face is sad.

'Brown hair, wherein to-day

She found just one bright silver thread had crept:
Smile ye who will, 't was sad enough to her-

Poor woman, she drew out the thread and wept.

OWING to the frightful press of 'matter' in this number of KNICK, we have requested the author of the following lyric to 'please wait awhile.' His reply is prompt, painful, and expressed with interjective adjectives, informing us that unless we publish it at once, he shall send it to our rival the CONTINENTAL, and pitch into the Editor of KNICK severely. There is no alternative;' and albeit we care less about obliging him than any other man who writes for us, he shall still have the satisfaction of seeing his 'piece' in print:

Laidion.

BY CHARLES GODFREY LELAND.

I KNOW where miners seek their gold,
Where heavens kiss the mountain's brow;
But, soul of gold and front of pride,

Where in this wide world bidest thou?

Night blesses me. The heart grows sweet,
In silence 'neath dark violet skies;

But where fall now her fairy feet,

And whose and where those starry eyes?

Soul of the Eagle! If I knew

That thou but tread'st life's soil or sands!

Life of the mountain torrent, who

Hath heard thee sing in silent lands?

Unbounded one, could I but feel

Thou liv'st-though in the Infinite -
How calmly now to thee I'd kneel
And worship in the perfumed night.

ARMAND RICHELIEU AS EDWIN FORREST.-In asserting that at a performance at NIBLO's, which I once witnessed, Cardinal RICHELIEU was made to perform the part of EDWIN FORREST, the subscriber is anxious to avoid compromitting himself in any way in behalf of Spiritual Manifestations, and simply desires to assert that the Great American Tragedian and Dramatic Gymnast rises superior to the fallacy that an actor should identify himself with the part personated, and substitutes therefor the artistic position that the character should be assimilated to the actor. It cannot be denied that in this light FORREST'S 'Richelieu,' or rather RICHELIEU'S FORREST is a Great Success. The most admirable attribute of this style of dramatic personation lies in its complete disarmament of carping critics. Thus, readily as those pensters might assume that Mr. FORREST had failed in presenting the 'Richelieu' of history, they would hesitate in criticising any peculiarities presented under the hypothesis that the Cardinal's characteristics must be subordinated to and modified by those of his personator. For in giving strict adherence to matters of record in regard to the customs of the Cardinal, imagination would not only be denied its play, but some of the finest minor points in the personation would be lost, through lack of authority therefor. For instance, in RICHELIEU'S FORREST We (the audience) are made acquainted with the fact, attainable nowhere else, that at the period represented in BULWER's play, it was the custom of the Cardinal to accompany his assumption of a sitting posture, with a vocal effort between a grunt and a groan, performed in sostenuto, its duration governed by the lapse of time between the first bend and the final landing à posteriori on the straight-backed arm-chair, which it is well known was the sedentary preference of all magnates previous to the seventeenth century. The equally curious fact is beside made manifest that RICHELIEU'S FORREST was subject to the habit of indulging in frequently creating unfulfilled expectations of expectoration in by-standers by multiplied efforts at throat-clearing, which are followed by no results, not even modifications of the huskiness of voice preceding them. It is also curious to learn that the Cardinal (as FORREST) would have been in the habit of accompanying his attempts at deceiving those with whom he had dealings by nods, shrugs, and facial contortions, which would have aroused the suspicions of any others than the notoriously simple-minded courtiers and soldiers of his period. Space forbids extending a notice of this novel and highly

artistic performance, which we therefore close with self-gratulation that to the 'Richelieu' of JAMES, BULWER, and DUMAS, America has added the 'Richelieu' of FORREST; none of these having the slightest connection with the 'Richelieu' of Fact, who, no doubt was a very common-place personage, and never could have originated the bigh-sounding phrase announcing the superiority of stationery over weapons of war.

Life Seasons.

BY MINNIE FRY.

THEY say the bright moon-shine

Was cold around, when on my mother's bosom
I lay at first, a frail December blossom,
Yet cherished as a visitant divine.

It is a mystery:

I dream sometimes the angel-ones are keeping
An image of my babyhood for me,

To wonder at when I shall glide from sleeping,
And join their radiant eternity.

'There was another day,

When life out-blossomed into richer blessing,
And years of tenderness and kind caressing
Beckoned me on, as April lapsed in May.
I know not-'twas God's will
For the dream was, and is not; but its passing
Was calm as Even songsters' latest trill,
Or failing water-sounds, the meadow-grass in
When living fountains have not fed the rill.

Then Love came crowned indeed;

And singing through the summer's golden portal,
And bound my forehead with its wreath immortal -
Life's greatest glory in its greatest need.

Remains one season more

The rich ingathering, the harvest gladness,
Which love shall bear unto the purple shore,
When joy enfolded, from the fear of sadness,
Life shall grow up in glory evermore.'

As we write the Tax-Bill is being Congressed. Anent which a friend sends us 'these, to wit:'

'Dear KnickerbOCKERUS: Some gay youth, male or female undoubtedly, has given the world the following ameliorations of the Tax-Bill in these items:

'Snuff-boxes are to pay tax of $1 per year.

For every pinch of snuff given to a friend, 3 cents.

'For asking a friend to drink, 35 cents.

"For playing billiards, 25 cents.

'License to kill woodcock, $8 per year.

'Tax on moustaches, $2 per month.

'On whiskers, other than those belonging to cats and dogs, $3 a month.

'For blowing the nose in the public streets, 75 cents.

'In country roads, 50 cents.

'License to shoot rabbits, $1.

'To shoot marbles, $1. If 'China alleys' are used in the game, a further tax of

40 cents.

་

'To play euchre, $1.50. If the two bowers are held, a further tax of 50 cents. 'Hurdy-gurdies are to pay a tax of $1 a tune.

'Mocking-birds, 75 cents.

'To sneeze in the public highway, 15 cents. If accompanied with unusual noise, 25 cents.

'License to peddle fire-wood, $2 per month.

'License to beg cold victuals, $1.50.

'License to gather bones, $2.

'Every person taking au affidavit shall be assessed 25 cents.

'Ordinary cursing and swearing, to pay five cents an oath, and swearing to be mea

Bured by a curscometer to be furnished by the Secretary of the Treasury.'

'Let me add the following:

'For not reading the number of KNICK containing my articles, $100,000.

'For not hearing H. WARD BEECHER once a month 25 cents.

For all round dances,' 25 cents per pop.

'For every button on coat, 3 cents.

'For carrying cane, $1.

'For lorgnons or quizzing-glasses, $1.

'For using expressly Prepared Mucilage, 2 cents per pot.

'For using pens, $1 per annum.

'For using pencils, $1 per annum.

'On all keys in use, 6 cents.

'For kissing any body except relatives, 25 cents each time.

[N. B. Engaged couples may 'commute' for $10 per month.]

'For ringing door-bells or using knockers, 1 cent.

'For using scraper or mat before a door, 1 cent.

'For not using scraper or door-mat, $1.

'For looking at a lady any where, $10.

'For shaking hands with ladies, 10 cents.

'For squeezing said hands, $1.

For not squeezing said hands when 'circumstances favor,' $10.

'For quoting French, 25 cents.

"For saying 'in our midst,' or 'pending,' or 'donate,' or 'proven,' $1.

'For writing one's name as Marie, Pollie, Sallie, Maggie, or Judie, $1.

'For joining the Curb-Stone Christian Association, and waiting at the door to 'see the ladies come out,' $10.

'For 'chor-ing spruce-gum,' 1 cent.

'For keeping the register of 'who's engaged,' $1 per name.

'For noticing with whom any or every body walks, where they go, etc., for each indulgence, $50.

'For recording any thing not strictly your own business, $50.

'For responding in church like a blatant wild bull, $10.

'For talking in the opera, $10.

'For calling for encore, $200.

'For asking friends to take tickets to any thing, $100.

'For reading your own literary compositions to any one, $1. 'For doing same to editor, or offering to do it, $1000.

'For borrowing any thing, $1.

'For staying later than 11 P.M. when calling, $5 per hour.

'For the boorish carelessness of calling at office or other place and not leaving your name, $10.