The Continental Monthly | Page 9

and he was sure he wouldn't break the
spell of silence, he picked up his hat and strode out of the house,
slamming the door after him. For a while, Mrs. Jones was struck with
consternation; she felt somewhat as the woman must have felt who, in
attempting to pull up a weed, overturned the monument that crushed
her; and, though not quite crushed by the weight of Mr. Jones's
indignation, she only resolved to give no more tugs at the weed that had
taken such deep root in his heart; and that, if he brought home another
meerschaum, (which he did that evening,) it was best to ignore its
existence. Mrs. Jones says she believes that the meerschaum absorbs
'the disagreeable' of a man's temper, as it is said to absorb that of
tobacco; at least, her husband is never so serene as when smoking one.
Indeed, it is said that the fiercest birds of prey can be tamed by
tobacco-smoke.
Don't think that after this little contretemps all Mrs. Jones's authority
was at an end; no, indeed; though she had, by stroking the wrong way
the docile, domestic animal, roused him into a tiger, she hastened to
smooth him down; and time would fail me to give even a list of her
reforms.
After having heard her story, as I did, chiefly from her own lips, my
wonder at the immense Union army, raised on such short notice, was

considerably diminished. 'Extremes meet.' Probably Union and
disunion sentiments met in the mind of many a volunteer Jones. Then,
too, I used to wonder at the ease with which men apparently forget their
buried wives, and marry again; and, as I then had a great respect for the
race, thought their hearts must be very rich, new affections spring up
with such amazing rapidity; like the soil of the tropics, whose
vegetation is hardly cut down before there is a new, luxuriant growth.
I've, however, since come to the conclusion, that the poor man,
somehow feeling that he must marry, chooses in a manner at random,
having, the first time, taken the greatest care, and 'caught a Tartar,' in
the same sense that the man had with whom the phrase originated, that
is, the Tartar had caught him.
In my childhood I was particularly fond of the hoidenish amusement of
jumping out of our high barn-window, and landing on the straw
underneath. The first few times I went to the edge--then drew
back--looked again--almost sprang--again stepped back--till finally I
took the leap. Thus old bachelors take the matrimonial leap--not so
widowers--how is it to be accounted for? Well, brother man, (for this is
the nearest relationship to you that I can claim,) you do about as well in
this way as in any other. You are destined to be taken in as effectually
as was Jonah, when he made that 'exploration of the interior,' or, as was
the fly, when Dame Spider's 'parlor' proved to be a dining-room.
Sam Slick says that 'man is common clay--woman porcelain.' Alas!
there is but little genuine porcelain. It is a pity that you couldn't
contrive to have a few jars before matrimony, to crack off some of the
glazing, and show the true character of the ware.
And you, sister woman, learn a lesson from the 'tiny nautilus,' which,
'by yielding, can defy the most violent ragings of the sea.' And, though
man is so nicely adapted to your management that it is obviously the
end of his creation, remember Mrs. Jones's trifling miscalculation in
regard to the meerschaum, and--_'N'évéillez pas le chat qui dort.'_
Abruptly yours, MOLLY O'MOLLY.

GLANCES FROM THE SENATE-GALLERY.
The comparative excellence of different periods of eloquence and
statesmanship affords a subject of curious and profitable contemplation.
The action of different systems of government, encouraging or
depressing intellectual effort, the birth of occasions which elicit the
powers of great minds, and the peculiar characteristics of the manner of
thinking and speaking in different countries, are observable in
considering this topic. A pardonable curiosity has led the writer
frequently to visit the United States Senate Chamber, and to place
mentally the intellectual giants of that body in contrast with their
predecessors on the same scene, and with the eminent orators and
statesmen of other countries and other ages; and the result of such
comparisons has always been to awaken national pride, and to convince
that the polity bequeathed us by our fathers, no less than the distinctive
genius of the race, have practically demonstrated that a free system is
the most prolific in the production of animated oratory and vigorous
statesmanship. Undoubtedly, the golden age of American eloquence
must be fixed in the time of General Jackson, when Webster, Clay,
Calhoun, Rives, Woodbury, and Hayne sat in the Upper House; and