The Wit and Humor of America, Volume V. | Page 4

knew very well that he never had the smallest idea
of limiting the number of his pupils, and that if twenty more were to
apply, he would take them every one, however full his school might be.
"Do pray, Mr. Gummage," said Mrs. Atmore; "do try and make an
exertion to admit my daughter; I shall regard it as a particular favor."
"Well, I believe she may come," replied Gummage: "I suppose I can
take her. Has she any turn for drawing?"
"I don't know," answered Mrs. Atmore, "she has never tried."
"Well, madam," said Mr. Gummage, "what do you wish your daughter
to learn? figures, flowers, or landscape?"
"Oh! all three," replied Mrs. Atmore. "We have been furnishing our
new house, and I told Mr. Atmore that he need not get any pictures for
the front parlor, as I would much prefer having them all painted by
Marianne. She has been four quarters with Miss Julia, and has worked
Friendship and Innocence, which cost, altogether, upwards of a
hundred dollars. Do you know the piece, Mr. Gummage? There is a
tomb with a weeping willow, and two ladies with long hair, one dressed
in pink, the other in blue, holding a wreath between them over the top
of the urn. The ladies are Friendship. Then on the right hand of the
piece is a cottage, and an oak, and a little girl dressed in yellow, sitting
on a green bank, and putting a wreath round the neck of a lamb.
Nothing can be more natural than the lamb's wool. It is done entirely in

French knots. The child and the lamb are Innocence."
"Ay, ay," said Gummage, "I know the piece well enough--I've drawn
them by dozens."
"Well," continued Mrs. Atmore, "this satin piece hangs over the front
parlor mantel. It is much prettier and better done than the one Miss
Longstitch worked of Charlotte at the tomb of Werter, though she did
sew silver spangles all over Charlotte's lilac gown, and used chenille, at
a fi'-penny-bit a needleful, for all the banks and the large tree. Now, as
the mantel-piece is provided for, I wish a landscape for each of the
recesses, and a figure-piece to hang on each side of the large
looking-glass, with flower-pieces under them, all by Marianne. Can she
do all these in one quarter?"
"No, that she can't," replied Gummage; "it will take her two quarters
hard work, and maybe three, to get through the whole of them."
"Well, I won't stand about a quarter more or less," said Mrs. Atmore;
"but what I wish Marianne to do most particularly, and, indeed, the
chief reason why I send her to drawing-school just now, is a pattern for
a set of china that we are going to have made in Canton. I was told the
other day by a New York lady (who was quite tired of the queer
unmeaning things which are generally put on India ware), that she had
sent a pattern for a tea-set, drawn by her daughter, and that every article
came out with the identical device beautifully done on the china, all in
the proper colors. She said it was talked of all over New York, and that
people who had never been at the house before, came to look at and
admire it. No doubt it was a great feather in her daughter's cap."
"Possibly, madam," said Gummage.
"And now," resumed Mrs. Atmore, "since I heard this, I have thought
of nothing else than having the same thing done in my family; only I
shall send for a dinner set, and a very long one, too. Mr. Atmore tells
me that the _Voltaire_, one of Stephen Girard's ships, sails for Canton
early next month, and he is well acquainted with the captain, who will
attend to the order for the china. I suppose in the course of a fortnight

Marianne will have learned drawing enough to enable her to do the
pattern?"
"Oh! yes, madam--quite enough," replied Gummage, suppressing a
laugh.

"To cut the matter short," said Mr. Gummage, "the best thing for the
china is a flower-piece--a basket, or a wreath--or something of that sort.
You can have a good cipher in the center, and the colors may be as
bright as you please. India ware is generally painted with one color
only; but the Chinese are submissive animals, and will do just as they
are bid. It may cost something more to have a variety of colors, but I
suppose you will not mind that."
"Oh! no--no," exclaimed Mrs. Atmore, "I shall not care for the price; I
have set my mind on having this china the wonder of all Philadelphia."
Our readers will understand, that at this period nearly all the porcelain
used in America was