Foreign Items [pp. 474-475]

474 FOBEIGAT ITEJILS.
rAPR 27.
which local fanaticism, aided by local vested
interests, preserved in all their splendor for
three centuries after his coming.
The architecture of the Temple of Diana is
Ionic. Mr. Wood has very properly selected
such fragments as will show what the base, the
capital, and the order generally, were like.
Once housed in the British Museum, theyzwill
furnish materials out of which not perhaps a
complete restoration of the temple, but a new
chapter in the history of Greek architecture,
can be constructed, just as out of the fossil bones of the megatherium an Owen reconstructs
lost types in the animal kingdom.
A Canni-Ballad.
It's about an ancient cannibal man,
Who came from an island near Japan,
A cannibal man who was tough and old,
When Barnum bought him and paid in gold,
And whether the man or Barnum was sold,
You will learn in this solemn story.
His teeth were sharp as the teeth of a saw,
And he had two rows in his lower jaw
Filed and polished, and ready for use
On any customer full of juice,
Or the first fine baby that lay around loose,
For babies were all his glory.
A sad mistake for a cannibal band
To come to an almost babyless land,
For babies are strangely out of style;
You may travel the country many a mile
Without the light of a baby-smile,
Unless with the Dutch and Irish.
ButBarnum kept his man in a cage,
Though he felt quite sure, at the fellow's age,
That his cannibalistic feats were done,
Unless he should eat a man for fun;
And once, on the sly, he fed him one,
Which wasn't a wise proceeding.
For, having tasted a white man's meat,
He was always ready to kill and eat And he looked with longing at rosy girls,
Who came to the show in shining curls,
With cheeks like peaches and teeth like
pearls,
And he wondered how they tasted.
It happened once, when the flesh was weak,
That he snatched a bite from a rosy cheek;
When Barnum entered the cage to beat him,
The cannibal thought he had come to treat
him,
And so straightway began to eat him,
Without even salt or pepper.
And though he was stringy and awful tough,
For a good square meal he proved enough.
Alas! alack! what a terrible omen;
It teaches to women as well as showmen,
That whether cannibal, Greek, or Roman,
Be ever so old, you can't trust no man.
English and American Girls.
An Englishman writes: " I can assure you
that, having lived in different castles and
manor-houses of Great Britain, and being ac- t
customed to the industrious habits of duchesses
and countesses, I was utterly astonished at the ]
idleness of American ladies. No Englishwom- 1
an of rank (with the exception of a few parve- E
nues), from the queen downward, would remain I
for one-half hour unemployed, or sit in a
rocking-chair unless seriously ill. They almost
all (with hardly an exception) copy the business - letters of their husbands, fathers, or
brothers; attend minutely to the wants of the t
poor around them, and then take part in their t
amusements and sympathize with their sor- s
rows; visit and superintend the schools; work
in their own gardens; see to their household
concerns; think about their visitors; look
over the weekly accounts, not only of domestic
expenses, but often those of the farm and es tate; manage penny-clubs in conjunction with
the working-classes, to help them to keep
themselves; and with all these occupations, by
early hours, they keep up their acquaintance
with the literature and politics of the day, and
cultivate the accomplishments of music and
drawing, and often acquire, besides, some
knowledge of scientific pursuits. The late
Marchioness of Lansdowne was so well ac quainted with the cottagers in her neighbor hood that she used to visit and look at the
corpses of the dead, because she found that her
doing so soothed and comforted the bereaved.
I have known her to shut herself up with a
mad woman in her poor dwelling, who used to
lock the door, and could not be induced to ad mit any one else. Lady Lansdowne's only
daughter used one hundred guineas (given her
by her father-in-law, Lord Suffolk, to buy a
bracelet) to build pig-styes, with his permission,
at her husband's little country residence. She
educates her own children without assistance,
teaching the boys Latin, and the girls all the
usual branches of education. The late Duchess of Bedford, I accidentally discovered, when
on a visit to Woburn, had, for thirty years of
her married life, risen at six o'clock, summer
and winter, lit her own fire, made some tea for
the duke and herself, and then, as he wrote
his own letters of business, she copied them,
and they came down to a large party of guests
at ten o'clock, to dispense breakfast, without
saying one word of their matutinary avocations; so that you might have been a visitor
in the house without finding out that the duke
or duchess had transacted the necessary business of the day, before perhaps you had risen!
I rather mention those that are gone to their
reward than write of women still among us;
but you may believe me when I say that I am
constantly among those who live such lives of
energy and usefulness, but they so employ
themselves without ostentation or an idea that
they are doing more than their simple duty."
The Dutch.
Davies, author of "History of the Netherlands," published in London, in 1802, after
speaking of the "marvellous history of unsurpassed and unequalled heroism displayed
by the Dutch during their long struggle in
defence of civil and religious liberty," concludes by saying, this "people, whose country
was so small as scarcely to deserve a place on
the map of Europe, maintained a conflict with
the Spanish empire through forty years of suffering, and at last, when Holland had freed herself from her spoiler, instead of being exhausted, she lifted her proud head from the waves,
and stretched her mighty arms to the ends of
the earth; the balance of Europe quivered at
her nod, while Asia, Africa, and America, laid
their treasures at her feet."
Schiller, whose testimony will not be regarded as partial, says: "Every injury inflicted by a tyrant gave a right of citizenship in
Holland. Men pressed toward a country where
liberty raised her inspiriting banner, where respect and security were insured to a fugitive
religion.... Amid the clash of arms, trade
and industry flourished, and the peaceful citizen enjoyed in anticipation all the fruits of liberty."
Macaulay says: "The aspect of Holland,
~he rich cultivation, the innumerable canals,
the endless fleet of barges, the quick succession of great towns, thelarge and stately mansions, the trim villas, the richly- furnished
apartments, the picture-galleries, the summerhouses, the tulip-beds, produced on English
travellers in that age an effect similar to the
effect which the first sight of England now
produces on a Norwegian or a Canadian."
Sir William Hamilton, speaking of the
Dutch universities, says that " they were the
best governed of all others, and therefore at
once the resort of the ablest professors and
promoters of the highest type of scholarship."
Speaking of the Dutch scholars, the same writer says. "they were the most numerous and
learned in the world."
We are told that on the visit to Carlyle of
one of our Dutch-Church clergymen, whose
name revealed his ancestry, that brilliant writer broke out into a glowing eulogy on Dutch
bravery, adding, "The defence of the Dutch
Protestants against the Spanish tyrants is the
grandest event in modern history."
A CURIOUS libel case in Belgium has re cently attracted considerable attention
in Europe. M. Mandel, the editor of a paper
called La Cbte Lbre, branded M. Tesch, former ly'Belgian Minister of Justice, as a swindler,
and defied him to bring an action for defama tion of character. Tesch took no notice of this,
and Mandel thereupon invited all editors of
Belgian journals to meet and constitute a court
of honor, that was to decide whether or not
his course toward the ex-minister had been
justified. The editors of sixty-two papers
complied withhis request, and appointed a committee of five, which heard Mandel's testimony,
as well as that of numerous other Witnesses.
Tesch refused to appear before the court, which
finally decided in Mandel's favor. Tesch then
declared his intention to bring a suit for damages, not against Mandel, but against the members of the committee.
Rochefort is employed in the kitchen at
Fort Boyart, where he serves out his term of
imprisonment. He is allowed two hours daily
to read and'write. He is in good spirits, but
frequently complains bitterly that he is not allowed to read any newspapers. The famous
Assi, who is confined at the same place, is making plated ear-rings, and earns every day one
or two francs, with which he buys wine. Rastoul is employed as hospital steward, and is also
allowed to write two hours daily. Rochefort
has nearly completed his " History of the Empire," and a Paris publisher has offered to purchase the manuscript, but the prison authorities refuse to let him have the work.
A swindler from New York, named Schwarzfelder, has been arrested at Liegnitz, in Silesia,
for trying to engage a number of well-educated
young ladies as governesses for German families in America. Upon investigation, it was
found that he was an ex-convict of the Hessian
state-prison, and that he had fled to the United
States after committing extensive forgeries in
Frankfort. He confessed that he had no authority for engaging governesses, and that he
had only negotiated with the above-mentiohed
young ladies for the purpose of robbing them
of their baggage.
Among the prize theses for the next academic term of the philosophical faculty at the
University of Leyden, is the following: "Has
the American Republic produced a truly great
poet?" The essays on this subject may be
written in Dutch, German, or Latin. The author of the best essay receives a prize of three
hundred dollars.
474
-FOiEIG-Y ITEMS.