Many happy years were spent in the homestead and around the old door stone before the roof of the one was mossy with age and the other was worn with oft-repeated crossing. They were years of happiness, because years of labor. She may have assisted her husband in his labors in the field, as many pioneer American women have done. This accounts for the appearance of Holmes's

THE FARMER'S PLOW.

Lo! on he comes behind his smoking team-
With toil's bright dewdrops on his sunburnt brow,
The lord of earth-the hero of the plow.
First in the field before the reddening sun,
Last in the shadows when the day is done.
Line after line, along the bursting sod,

Marks the broad furrows where his feet have trod;
Still where he treads the stubborn clods divide,
The smooth, fresh furrow opens deep and wide,
Mottled and dense the tangled turf upheaves,
Mellow and dark the ridgy cornfield cleaves.
Up the steep hillside where the laboring train
Slants the long track that scorns the level plain,
Through the moist valley, clogged with oozing clay,
The patient convoy breaks its destined way.
At every turn the loosening chains resound
And swinging plowshare circles glistening round,
Till the wide field one billowy waste appears,
And weary hands unbind the panting steers.

But she did not neglect her own peculiar household duties. In the care of a large household she found work enough to do. Perhaps these stanzas were inserted for her children to read after she

was no more:

BEAUTIFUL HANDS.

Such beautiful, beautiful hands!
They're neither white nor small,
And you I know would scarcely think
That they were fair at all.

I've looked on hands whose form and hue

A sculptor's dream might be,
Yet are these aged, wrinkled hands
Most beautiful to me.

Such beautiful, beautiful hands!

Though heart was weary and sad,
These patient hands kept toiling on
That children might be glad.

I almost weep, as looking back
To childhood's distant day,

I think how these hands rested not When mine were at their play. Although busy with innumerable household cares, the compiler of this scrap-book found time to read. The scrap-book itself is proof of this.

Besides, the several selections in the collection that evince cultivated literary taste indicate this. Surely there is in this work of her hands an insight into her mind and heart that should make it a precious heirloom among her descendants.

XVI.

An old book, its leaves yellow with age, its type and binding after an antiquated pattern, is of more interest to a class, and to an extent to all of us, than one just fresh from the press, superior in every respect.

A friend recently presented me with two unique little volumes, scarcely above a half century old; and yet they represented a department of letters in which such vast progress has been made as to add seemingly a century to the figures on their title-pages. They are volumes one and two of "Miscellanies from the Public Journals," compiled by one whose name is well known in newspaper history-Mr. Joseph T. Buckingham. Of course Mr. Buckingham borrowed the idea from England; he could not have done otherwise at that early day, when nobody read an American book! In the preface to the first volume, which is dated at Boston, 1822, he says: "If this volume is received with kindness, it is my intention that it shall be annually succeeded by one similar in nature. . . If, however, its ill-fortune should forbid all future attempts of the kind, some indemnification for pecuniary loss will have been realized in the pleasures derived from the collection and preservation of these proofs of the genius of my The next annual is dated two countrymen." years later.

The selections that compose these volumes are altogether from American journals. Intrinsically they are but scrap-books of more modern times. As a study, with the history of American literature and journalism to refer to, they are of value. In the reflex of the newspaper press, which they doubtless give, they are curiosities. The question arises instinctively-what a vast book the compiler would have to make at present if he undertook in an annual to give any adequate reflex of the current newspaper press?

At the time these volumes were compiled, Prentice had not introduced his brief, pungent paragraphs, which afterward revolutionized the American press; cable and telegraphic despatches were unknown; the itinerant newspaper reporter,

who won the palm against the mother country in the discovery of Livingstone, was a character unborn, and many leading journals now were among the things of the future. It was possible then for a small volume to represent all the papers in their essays and poems with such as were of permanent worth; but now what an undertaking it would be! The papers from which the miscellanies were taken belong naturally to the Eastern States, although a Charleston Courier, of the South, and a Missouri Intelligencer, two Cincinnati papers, and a Vincennes Western Sun, the first Indiana paper, yet in existence, of the West, are represented. The first volume contains obituaries of the wife of ex-President Adams and of Queen Caroline of England; an article on the disinterment of André, of recent occurrence, and a sketch of Farmer's Brother and Red Jacket, though the latter, not yet immortalized, was living, in which the cunning, treachery and eloquence of the "red king" are exhibited in a notable instance. There are also thirty or forty pages of the comic by an amateur with the pen; a Jeremy Broadcloth, who was extremely lucky to get under cover in this volume, since it is likely he never would have done so unless at his own expense. There are four articles reviving, at least in the mind, a Tar of letters now ended, entitled "Literary Sparring," in which England's attitude toward American letters is written up in a commendable spirit. It remained for Irving in a similar article a few years afterward to write the only account we now care to read. The theatre is represented, and Cooke, Keene, Barns, and others, doubtless lions of the stage, are mentioned; while Charles Sprague, the poet, writes the prologue for the New York Theatre, September, 1821. The prologue, as Sprague's poetry in general, is good, at But little idea of the day's doings is conveyed except by methods indirect. The first volume contains a great variety of poetry; but nothing beside "Old Grimes," the well-known serio-comic poem, that is read at present. It is here taken from the Providence Gazette. A New York paper brings to light a document at the time a hundred and fifty-six years old, wherein a Ralph Hall and Mary, his wife, are indicted for witchcraft. It is represented as the last witchcraft case on record in New York, although Connecticut affords instances more modern. The parties were found guilty; but their mischief was not great,

any rate.

and they were released from custody on their good behavior, three years afterward!

The second volume of the Miscellanies is enlarged in scope, though not in size. It is divided into five books, as follow: I. Historical and Descriptive; II. Fictitious, Moral and Sentimental; III. Humorous and Satirical; IV. Biographical; V. Promiscuous. Among the descriptive articles is a poem of a hundred royal hexameter couplets on the trees, birds, beasts and fishes of New England, written in 1629, and published in an old memorial of the Plymouth colony. Extracts from a traveller's portfolio picture Richmond and Jamestown as they then were.

In 1821 a Mr. Bennett, of Pennsylvania, memorialized the House of Representatives asking for the exclusive right of navigating the air in a machine of his recent invention. This created a breeze of excitement which called forth a number of articles, three of which are here presented. The Charlestown Courier said: "Men do not deserve wings. Poor, sordid, groveling creatures, they come out of the earth and their affections are built on the earth and they sink into the earth; and not one-half of them ever dream of the beautiful canopy over their heads and the unseen spirits that observe them from above. A miser once essayed to fly; but as he was nothing without his gold, his pockets were too ponderous for his flight, and he fell, amid shouts of contempt, into the mire to which he belonged. . . . Intellect and innocence are the wings of life; love is the breeze which impels them; joy is the atmosphere through which they pass, and happiness the haven to which they fly." The Charlestown City Gazette discusses in "The Interior of the Earth," Captain Symmes's theory of a hollow globe, then occupying a good deal of attention. A few such articles as these alone refer us to events of the day. How different would be a compilation reflecting the newspaper press of to-day! Essays, poems, and other standard literary products find their way to the public through the magazine; while papers are more especially devoted to news. Fifty years ago the newspaper was a principal medium for the publication of poems of sterling worth. Percival's "Ode to Athens" is found in this volume, the opening lines of which are as follow: The flag of freedom floats once more Around the lofty Parthenon.

The gem of the collection in poetry, however,

is "The Coral Grove," from the same author, originally published in the Charlestown Courier. This poem is so well known that it does not need quotation to bring it to mind. It is here in its finished, classic style. It is a fact somewhat significant that it first reached the public through the newspaper.

XVII.

A newspaper is an ephemeral thing. Abundant and created to satisfy the present demand, a day's age is a dead line for its brief career. It is read, and it is not. This is its short history. In my library I have a few newspapers a half century old. This is but a brief period; but for a news paper it is a long time. The paper is sere and yellow of age, and the quaint old type and illustrations tell me of a date long passed. They were presented to me by a man who subscribed for them in their original issue. This, it seems to me, adds a few years and no little interest to them.

The old newspapers to which I refer are copies of The New Jersey Advocate, published at Rahway, New Jersey. A characteristic feature is that the first page is devoted to advertisements. A A cut represents a stage coach en route, with liveried driver, flying whip, impatient steeds and happy passengers. Below it a magnificent steamer is plowing the billows of the deep, the very ideal of speed. Nothing is said of railways, Pullman coaches, cables, telegraph wires, telephones, electric light, etc.; for a very good reason, no doubt. There is some little display of type in the advertisements, but as a general thing the space is compactly filled. Advertisements in an old paper constitute very interesting reading. Perhaps the most interesting of these papers refer to that blot on our social system now removed. Here is one headed "Stop the Runaways!" All posted in the history of American slavery understand at once what is meant. A mulatto woman, twentyfour years of age, with her mulatto child, had "run off," and a reward was offered for their arrest by their white master. "Whoever will stop said wench," so the advertisement reads, "will be liberally rewarded." On another page of the same issue is the following:

In connection with the foregoing the following should be inserted:

A GLORIOUS TRIUMPH!

The people of Illinois have decided against the introduction of slavery into that State by a majority of nearly 2000 votes.

A prominent feature of the Advocate is that while it is a home paper it is scarcely local in its news. It comes as a bird of passage with the news of every other quarter in its bill, to tell the little community that subscribes for it just what the rest of the world is doing. There is no local column. There are no brief, pungent paragraphs, and the elaborate essays do not cover the field every time in the absence of despatches. The public capacity for gossip was in a healthier condition then than at present. There was little news to be taken at once, and then there was ample leisure for digestion. Hence we find a news item, in itself short, introduced sometimes with a brief essay and followed by philosophical moralizing.

By far the most valuable issue of the Advocate is dated September 28th, 1824. Lafayette was then on his famous visit to this country. Twothirds of the issue are devoted to the visitor. At Bergen the inhabitants presented him with a goldmounted cane of the wood of an apple-tree that furnished a shade for him and General Washington in 1779. At Newark a vast assemblage met the general. Attorney-General Theodore Frelinghuysen made a speech of welcome. At Rahway, Robert Lee, Esq., delivered the address of welcome. At Woodbridge he was addressed by James Stryker, Esq. These addresses are all preserved entire. Lafayette's replies are only outlined, and not fully at that; but the somewhat imperfect annal of a great man's visit to our country forms interesting reading. Poetry as well as oratory conspires to welcome Lafayette, and the bard's numbers flow through the columns.

In the same issue of the paper is found the will of Bonaparte, which had just been published by a London house in French and English in pamphlet form. The will was dated at Longwood, St. Helena, April 15th, 1821.

In 1824 there was such a character in enlightened and free America as a prisoner for debt. In the issue of the Advocate, so well filled with an account of Lafayett's visit, is the following, copied from the New York Statesman:

"HARD IS THE FATE OF THE INFIRM AND POOR."

"Messrs. Editors :-In your paper of Friday last is given an account of a twelve years' imprisonment of an old Revo. lutionary General, William Barton, of Providence, Rhode Island, in which an appeal is made to our country and to Lafayette for his liberation. If the old general has been suffered to lie in prison twelve years already, and the government has forgotten that he languishes there, I think it is time for those who are acquainted with the circumstances of

his case to make it known to the nation in order that measures might be taken as soon as practicable to effect his enlargement. If he is a rogue, let justice bind him; but if he is an honest man, let mercy be shown him. Now is the time, when we are all on tip-toe to render all possible honors to General Lafayette, that we ought to lend a helping hand to the distressed General Barton.

"I have yet to learn by what authority he is confined— whether by the State of Vermont, or by the general government. I do hope that those who know, will be so obliging as to make it public; and that if poverty is his only crime, he may be restored to his family and friends without any unnecessary delay. We think that honor conferred for noble actions is a laudable stimulus to aspiring youths; if so, we must naturally suppose on the other hand that the

Still another reference is made to the prisoner for debt in 1826. Samuel Woodworth, the author of the "Old Oaken Bucket," appears in a small volume against the law. It remained for Whittier to fasten public condemnation to the nefarious law by his poem. By the way, was General Barton the subject of Whittier's lines? But changes have taken place since 1824-26. These changes have affected not only mechanical appearance and editorial management of newspapers, but they have affected the world. It seems strange that this is the same country, as we look back at these old newspapers with their records of almost barbarism.

THE earnest stand taken by many of the leading representative women of both America and England, aiming to give woman her proper place in this work-a-day-world, recalls the brave and faithful championship of a few noble women who a half century ago did good and loyal services in the same cause. Among those no name shines forth with brighter and more untarnished lustre than that of the late Mrs. Jameson, an excellent likeness of whose kind and noble face is contained in this number of the MONTHLY.

Mr. Fields, in his charming article on Barry Cornwall and his friends, says: "During many years of her later life Mrs. Jameson stood in the relation of counsellor to her sex in England."

Women in mental anguish needing consolation and counsel fled to her as to a convent for protection and guidance. Her published writings established such a claim upon her sympathy in the hearts of her readers that much of her time for twenty years before she died was spent in helping others, by correspondence and personal contact, to submit to the sorrows God had cast upon them. She believed, with Milton, that it is miserable enough to be blind, but still more miserable not to be able to bear blindness. Her own earlier life had been darkened by grief, and she knew

from a deep experience what it was to enter the cloud and stand waiting and hoping in the shadows.

Eminently domestic and womanly, the story of her life is full of sadness. And as is often the case with women whom fate has debarred from the duties for which they are most peculiarly fitted, that of wife and motherhood, she took into her kindly heart the woes and wants of others, especially those of her sister women; showing ever the largest intelligence on the subject of woman's needs, and a brave desire to do the best and say the best for the cause of woman's advancement.

She was the daughter of Murphy, painter-inordinary to the Princess Charlotte, and was born about the year 1795. In her girlhood and early womanhood she was governess in three different families of rank. Of her pupils in every case she always spoke with the greatest affection, as they of her.

The great mistake of her life was her marriage with Mr. Robert Jameson, Vice-Chancellor of Canada. Although a man of talent and fine artistic taste, they were so utterly unsuited to each other in every respect that after vainly striving, after repeated trials and patient efforts, to assimilate her

self to his most peculiar nature, they separated; and henceforth, putting aside any idea of a home life, she threw herself into a literary career, and lived for the public weal more than for her own private aims.

Her first literary effort, "The Diary of an Ennuyée," was published to relieve the embarrassments of her newly-married husband, who was constantly involved in financial difficulties. It met with the most remarkable success, although she was always ashamed of it, it is said. From this time she seems to have been fairly launched upon the great flood of literature, and never to have given up her life and interest in it.

Her literary life may be said to divide itself into three epochs. The first including works of foreign travel, full of social and art criticisms, volumes of critical essays. "Winter Studies, and Summer Rambles in Canada," is one of the most remarkable of this series; and she always spoke of it as containing some of her best thoughts and truest impulses. The "Characteristics of Women," a book full of well-digested criticism and

with vitality, warmth and poetic strains. At her death she was engaged in the last of the series, "The History of the Life of Our Lord," which has since her death been completed by Lady Estlack.

Her accurate judgment and subtle perception of the points of a painting, together with her vast and patient research, make her art books of most peculiar value. She used to declare, "A picture is like plain writing to me;" and she seemed to

see, the instant she looked at it, for what purpose it had been wrought. The strange, mystical symbolism of the earlier mosaics was a familiar language to her. She would stand upon the polished marble of the Lateran, or beneath the shadowy splendors of the Basilica of Sta Maria Maggiore, and read the meaning and expound the thoughts and intentions of a thousand years before.

In

The third group of Mrs. Jameson's writings includes her works on the subject of "Woman and Her Work." all her writings of this class are found largehearted reflections, showing how keenly she felt all the necessities of a change in the morale of woman's career. During all the later years of her life she gave expression on all public occasions to her ideas on the education, position, and training of women.

acute judgment of the prominent females in Shaks. peare, as well as her "Lives of Female Sovereigns," established her right to a front rank among the writers of her day.

To the second series of her writings belong her more elaborated works on art-proper, beginning in 1842, when she issued, "A Hand-book to the Public Galleries of Art in London," and continuing to the large and copiously illustrated volumes of "Sacred and Legendary Art," "Legends of the Monastical Orders," and "Legends of the Madonna." These charming volumes, full of true historic and legendary lore, are enriched with etchings of famous pictures, and are filled

Belonging to no clique, she ever threw the great influence of her name, her high social position, her well-balanced mind and clear judgment in favor of every measure which had for its aim the advancement of women. When the bill passed through Parliament securing to married women their own earnings, her name headed every petition. She read her two lectures, "Sisters of Charity at Home and Abroad" and the "Com