NOTICES OF AN INDEPENDENT PRESS. [I HAVE observed, reader (bene- or male- | siderate those eyes of Aristarchus, "whose volent, as it may happen), that it is cus- looks were as a breeching to a boy." tomary to append to the second editions of Then do I perceive, with vain regret books, and to the second works of authors, of wasted opportunities, the advantage short sentences commendatory of the first, of a pancratic or pantechnic education, under the title of Notices of the Press. since he is most reverenced by my little These, I have been given to understand, subjects who can throw the cleanest sumare procurable at certain established rates, merset or walk most securely upon the payment being made either in money or revolving cask. The story of the Pied advertising patronage by the publisher, or Piper becomes for the first time credible by an adequate outlay of servility on the to me (albeit confirmed by the Hameliners part of the author. Considering these dating their legal instruments from the things with myself, and also that such period of his exit), as I behold how those notices are neither intended, nor generally strains, without pretence of magical pobelieved, to convey any real opinions, be- tency, bewitch the pupillary legs, nor ing a purely ceremonial accompaniment of leave to the pedagogic an entire self-conliterature, and resembling certificates to the trol. For these reasons, lest my kingly virtues of various morbiferal panaceas, I prerogative should suffer diminution, I conceived that it would be not only more prorogue my restless commons, whom I economical to prepare a sufficient number follow into the street, chiefly lest some of such myself, but also more immediately mischief may chance befall them. After subservient to the end in view to prefix the manner of such a band, I send forward them to this our primary edition rather the following notices of domestic manufacthan await the contingency of a second, ture, to make brazen proclamation, not when they would seem to be of small util- unconscious of the advantage which will ity. To delay attaching the bobs until the accrue, if our little craft, cymbula sutilis, second attempt at flying the kite would shall seem to leave port with a clipping indicate but a slender experience in that breeze, and to carry, in nautical phrase, a useful art. Neither has it escaped my bone in her mouth. Nevertheless, I have notice, nor failed to afford me matter of chosen, as being more equitable, to prereflection, that, when a circus or a caravan pare some also sufficiently objurgatory, is about to visit Jaalam, the initial step that readers of every taste may find a dish is to send forward large and highly orna- to their palate. I have modelled them mented bills of performance to be hung in upon actually existing specimens, prethe bar-room and the post-office. These served in my own cabinet of natural curios'having been sufficiently gazed at, and be-ities. One, in particular, I had copied with ginning to lose their attractiveness except tolerable exactness from a notice of one for the flies, and, truly, the boys also (in of my own discourses, which, from its suwhom I find it impossible to repress, even perior tone and appearance of vast experiduring school-hours, certain oral and tele-ence, I concluded to have been written by graphic communications concerning the a man at least three hundred years of age, expected show), upon some fine morning though I recollected no existing instance the band enters in a gayly painted wagon, of such antediluvian longevity. Neveror triumphal chariot, and with noisy ad- theless, I afterwards discovered the author vertisement, by means of brass, wood, and to be a young gentleman preparing for the sheepskin, makes the circuit of our startled ministry under the direction of one of my village streets. Then, as the exciting brethren in a neighboring town, and whom sounds draw nearer and nearer, do I de- I had once instinctively corrected in a From the Universal Littery Universe. Full of passages which rivet the attention of the reader. Under a rustic garb, sentiments are conveyed which should be committed to the memory and engraven on the heart of every moral and social being. We consider this a unique performance. . . . . We hope to see it soon introduced into our common schools... . Mr. Wilbur has performed his duties as editor with excellent taste and judgThis is a vein which we hope to We hail the ment. see successfully prosecuted. appearance of this work as a long stride toward the formation of a purely aboriginal, indigenous, native, and American literature. We rejoice to meet with an author national enough to break away from the slavish deference, too common among us, to English grammar and orthography. Where all is so good, we are at a loss how to make extracts. . On the whole, we may call it a volume which no library, pretending to entire completeness, should fail to place upon its shelves. From the Dekay Bulwark. We should be wanting in our duty as the conductor of that tremendous engine, a public press, as an American, and as a man, did we allow such an opportunity as is presented to us by "The Biglow Papers" to pass by without entering our earnest protest against such attempts (now, alas! too common) at demoralizing the public sentiment. Under a wretched mask of stupid drollery, slavery, war, the social glass, and, in short, all the valuable and time-honored institutions justly dear to our common humanity and especially to republicans, are made the butt of coarse and senseless ribaldry by this low-minded scribbler. It is time that the respectable and religious portion of our community should be aroused to the alarming inroads of foreign Jacobinism, sansculottism, and infidelity. It is a fearful proof of the wide-spread nature of this contagion, that these secret stabs at religion and virtue are given from under the cloak (credite, posteri !) of a clergyman. It is a mournful spectacle indeed to the patriot and Christian to see liberality and new ideas (falsely so called, they are as old as Eden) invading the sacred precincts of the pulpit. On the whole, we consider this volume as one of the first shocking results which we predicted would spring out of the late French Revolution" (!). From the Higginbottomopolis Snapping-turtle. A collection of the merest balderdash and doggerel that it was ever our bad fortune to lay eyes on. The author is a vulgar buffoon, and the editor a talkative, tedious old fool. We use strong language, but should any of our readers peruse the book, (from which calamity Heaven preserve them!) they will find reasons for it thick as the leaves of Vallumbrozer, or, to use a still more expressive comparison, as the combined heads of author and editor. The work is wretchedly got up. We should like to know how much British gold was pocketed by this libeller of our country and her purest patriots. From the Oldfogrumville Mentor. The We have not had time to do more than glance through this handsomely printed volume, but the name of its respectable editor, the Rev. Mr. Wilbur, of Jaalam, will afford a sufficient guaranty for the worth of its contents. paper is white, the type clear, and the volume of a convenient and attractive size. . . In reading this elegantly executed work, it has seemed to us that a passage or two might have been retrenched with advantage, and that the general style of diction was susceptible of a higher polish. . . . . On the whole, we may safely leave the ungrateful task of criticism to the reader. We will barely suggest, that in volumes intended, as this is, for the illustration of a provincial dialect and turns of expression, a dash of humor or satire might be thrown in with advantage. The work is admirably got up. This work will form an appropriate ornament to the centre-table. It is beautifully printed, on paper of an excellent quality. Full From the Bungtown Copper and Comprehensive Tocsin (a try-weakly family journal). Altogether an admirable work. of humor, boisterous, but delicate, of wit withering and scorching, yet combined with a pathos cool as morning dew, of satire ponderous as the mace of Richard, yet keen as the scymitar of Saladin. ... A work full of We mountain-mirth," mischievous as Puck, and lightsome as Ariel.. We know not whether to admire most the genial, fresh, and discursive concinnity of the author, or his playful fancy, weird imagination, and compass of style, at once both objective and subjective. might indulge in some criticisms, but, were the author other than he is, he would be a different being. As it is, he has a wonderful pose, which flits from flower to flower, and bears the reader irresistibly along on its eagle pinions (like Ganymede) to the "highest heaven of invention. We love a book so purely objective. Many of his pictures of natural scenery have an extraordinary subjective clearness and fidelity. " In fine, we consider this as one of the most extraordinary volumes of this or any age. We know of no English author who could have written it. It is a work to which the proud genius of our country, standing with one foot on the Aroostook and the other on the Ri Grande, and holding up the star-spangled banner amid the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds, may point with bewildering scorn of the punier efforts of enslaved Europe. .. We hope soon to encounter our author among those higher walks of literature in which he is evidently capable of achieving enduring fame. Already we should be inclined to assign him a high position in the bright galaxy of our Amer ican bards. From the World-Harmonic-Æolian-Attachment. vealed. " Con pre Speech is silver silence is golden. No utterance more Orphic than this. While, therefore, as highest author, we reverence him whose works continue heroically unwritten, we have also our hopeful word for those who with pen (from wing of goose loud-cackling, or seraph God-commissioned) record the thing that is reUnder mask of quaintest irony, we detect here the deep, storm-tost (nigh ship wracked) soul, thunder-scarred, semi-articulate, but ever climbing hopefully toward the peaceful summits of an Infinite Sorrow. Yes, thou poor, forlorn Hosea, with Hebrew fire-flaming soul in thee, for thee also this life of ours has not been without its aspects of heavenliest pity and laughingest mirth. ceivable enough! Through coarse Thersites cloak, we have revelation of the heart, wildglowing, world-clasping, that is in him. Bravely he grapples with the life-problem as it sents itself to him, uncombed, shaggy, careless of the "nicer proprieties," inexpert of elegant diction," yet with voice audible enough to whoso hath ears, up there on the gravelly sidehills, or down on the splashy, indiarubber-like salt-marshes of native Jaalam. To this soul also the Necessity of Creating somewhat has unveiled its awful front. If not Edipuses and Electras and Alcestises, then in God's name Birdofredum Sawins! These also shall get born into the world, and filch (if so need) a Zingali subsistence therein, these lank, omnivorous Yankees of his. He shall paint the Seen, since the Unseen will not sit to him. Yet in him also are Nibelungen-lays, and Iliads, and Ulysses-wanderings, and Divine Comedies, - if only once he could come at them! Therein lies much, nay all; for what truly is this which we name All, but that which we do not possess? Glimpses also are given us of an old father Ezekiel, not without paternal pride, as is the wont of such. A brown, parchmenthided old man of the geoponic or bucolic species, gray-eyed, we fancy, queued perhaps, with much weather-cunning and plentiful September-gale memories, bidding fair in good time to become the Oldest Inhabitant. After such hasty apparition, he vanishes and is seen no Of "Rev. Homer Wilbur, A. M., Pastor of the First Church in Jaalam," we have small care to speak here. Spare touch in him of his Melesigenes namesake, save, haply, the -blindness! A tolerably caliginose, nephe more..... legeretous elderly gentleman, with infinite fac- From the Onion Grove Phoenix. A talented young townsman of ours, recently returned from a Continental tour, and who is already favorably known to our readers by his sprightly letters from abroad which have graced our columns, called at our office yesterday. We learn from him, that, having enjoyed the distinguished privilege, while in Germany, of an introduction to the celebrated Von Humbug, he took the opportunity to present that eminent man with a copy of the "Biglow Papers." The next morning he received the following note, which he has kindly furnished us for publication. We prefer to print it verbatim, knowing that our readers will readily forgive the few errors into which the illustrious writer has fallen, through ignorance of our language. "HIGH-WORTHY MISTER! "I shall also now especially happy starve, because I have more or less a work one those aboriginal Red-Men seen in which have I so deaf an interest ever taken full-worthy on the self shelf with our Gottsched to be upset. "Pardon my in the English-speech un-prac. tice! "VON HUMBUG." He also sent with the above note a copy of his famous work on "Cosmetics," to be presented to Mr. Biglow; but this was taken from our friend by the English custom-house officers, probably through a petty national spite. No doubt, it has by this time found its way into the British Museum. We trust this outrage will be exposed in all our American papers. We shall do our best to bring it to the notice of the State Department. Our numerous readers will share in the pleasure we experience at seeing our young and vigorous national literature thus encouragingly patted on the head by this venerable and world-renowned German. We love to see these reciprocations of goodfeeling between the different branches of the great Anglo-Saxon race. [The following genuine "notice" having met my eye, I gladly insert a portion of it here, the more especially as it contains one of Mr. Biglow's poems not elsewhere printed.-H. W.] From the Jaalam Independent Blunderbuss. An' leetle fires danced all about The chiny on the dresser. The very room, coz she wuz in, She heerd a foot an' knowed it, tu, He kin' o' l'itered on the mat, Some doubtfle o' the seekle; His heart kep' goin' pitypat, But hern went pity Zekle. An' yet she gin her cheer a jerk Ez though she wished him furder An' on her apples kep' to work Ez ef a wager spurred her. "You want to see my Pa, I spose?" "Wal, no; I come designin' "To see my Ma? She's sprinklin' clo’es Agin to-morrow's i'nin'." He stood a spell on one foot fust Sez he, "I'd better call agin"; Sez she, "Think likely, Mister" ; The last word pricked him like a pin, An'-wal, he up and kist her. When Ma bimeby upon 'em slips, All kind o' smily round the lips Her blood riz quick, though, like the tide SATIS multis sese emptores futuros libri professis, Georgius Nichols, Cantabrigiensis, opus emittet de parte gravi sed adhuc neglecta historiæ naturalis, cum titulo sequente, videlicet: Conatus ad Delineationem naturalem nonnihil perfectiorem Scarabai Bombilatoris, vulgo dicti HUMBUG, ab HOMERO WILBUR, Artium Magistro, Societatis historico-naturalis Jaalamensis Præside (Secretario, Socioque (eheu!) singulo), multarumque aliarum Societatum eruditarum (sive ineruditarum) tam domesticarum quam transmarinarum Socio -- forsitan futuro. PROEMIUM. LECTORI BENEVOLO S. Toga scholastica nondum deposita, quum systemata varia entomologica, a viris ejus scientiæ cultoribus studiosissimis summa diligentia ædificata, penitus indagâssem, non fuit quin luctuose omnibus in iis, quamvis aliter laude dignissimis, hiatum magni momenti perciperem. Tunc, nescio quo motu superiore impulsus, aut qua captus dulcedine operis, ad eum implendum (Curtius alter) me solemniter devovi. Nec ab isto labore, dauoviws imposito, abstinui antequam tractatulum sufficienter inconcinnum lingua vernacula perfeceram. Inde, juveniliter tumefactus, et barathro |