till he died, and in all that time had no conversation with his wife, who, however, was delivered of this child about the time of his death: whereupon a verdict was given for the defendant." * Transatlantic Varieties, Or Selections from NO. XX. QUICK SAILING.-We omitted, in yesterday's Gazette, a fact worthy of remark. Captain Lee, in the packet ship James Mrnroe, has performed his voyage, complete, in 72 days, making both passages in 42—and, a passenger, who came home in her, had been only absent from New York 49 days, and transacted important business in London.---(New-York Gazette, 26 April, 1822.) CHURCH-YARD MUSINGS.-The following lines were yesterday hung upon our Hook. We transmit them to our columns as a specimen of correct feeling, well expressed : Here is a spot, and lo! 'tis holy ground! Here stand the sculptur'd monuments around! Here solitude invites the pensive mind; Here is the bed to which all are consigned: Here tears of sorrow fill the weeping 1 eye: Here shall affection vent her parting fate : Here endeth Man! Mortality in dust! (Ibid.) K. REMARKABLE OCCURRENCE.--On Saturday evening about half past 8 o'clock, Mr. John Fullmer, of Cal lowhill street, on his way home, near the second turnpike gate, on the Germantown road, was struck by lightning. The one horse gig wagon in which he rode, stopped at the turnpike gate. The gate keeper came out to receive his toll, and after some time ascertained that Mr. Fullmer was dead, sitting upright in the gig. His clothes, hair, and eye brows, were not singed, but on the right side of his forehead was a chocolate coloured mark something in the form of a Z, and this was the only mark discoverable on his body or clothes. His remains were interred on Sunday in Spring Garden church burying. ground.-(Philadelphia Nat. Gazette, 4 June 1822.) AMERICAN PATRIARCH.-Mr. Samuel Welch, now living at Bow, in this State, about eight miles from this place, has advanced more than eight months in the one hundred and twelfth year of his age. He was born in Kingston, Sept. 1, 1710. His father was from Ipswich, Ms.--was a soldier at the siege of Louisbourg, and died,immediately after his return to Kingston. His grandfather emigrated with the earliest settlers of Ipswich from England. We lately visited this old man, and found him sitting in his chair-his present wife, now 84 years of age, smoothing his white locks with her comb, and exhibiting the utmost interest in his welfare. He is now unable to walk, except by holding upon chairs or the arms of his attendants, though his health does not appear rapidly to decline. When at the age of 105, he used to work about his little farm, cut his firewood, &c,; and until the last two years he walked out of doors without assistance. He is in person rather above the middle size, of Grecian features, with dark penetrating eyes. His locks are of a clayed white, looking as if they had already mouldered in the grave. His frame is now feeble-the least movement causes his bones to grate at the Compare p. 227 of our third volume. joints; and we feel a momentary chill at the presence of a man whose appearance speaks such a lesson of decay and gradual dissolution! His hands are withered, dry and coldthe expanded veins standing out in ruddy fulness. His countenance is fair, though wrinkled with the cares of a century and an eighth. His mental faculties appear to be little impared; his memory, however, as his wife informed us, begins to fail, and he cannot connect his ideas with much precision. He is still amiable and social, and were it not that his hearing is somewhat affected, he would be a most interesting person in conversation. We asked him many questions, to all which he made very sensible replies. His life, he said, was but a span though he had lived more than half the time since the landing of our fathers at Plymouth rock. It had now become a burden to him, and he was willing to depart when it should please the Almighty.-(New Hampshire Patriot, May, 1823.) ANTIGUE BRIDEGROOM.-Married, at the River Rouge, (near Detroit,) Major Thomas Maxwell to Mrs. Eleanor Heacock. The Major is in the 82d year of his age, and has served in the British, Continental, and American, armies, nearly seventy years. He was at the battles of Fighting Island and Bloody Bridge, during the Pontiac War, and was , one of the few who escaped the latter catastrophe.--(New-York Commercial Advertiser, 10 Oct. 1823.) A POOR TRADE.-The first number of a weekly paper has made its appearance at Yorkville, in the State of South Carolina, by the title of The Pioneer, edited by Paddy Carey. Whether the nominal editor be a real person-the identical hero of the merry song, we cannot say.-One thing he may be sure of. He has taken up a trade, by which he will starve if he sticks to it.--Nat. Int. (Baltimore Republican, 29th of Aug. 1823.) 66 YANKEE PUFFING -The Cortes Hat-Since the construction of those hats, such has been the demand for them that I have not been able to supply my friends with this much-admired and improved shape: it is acknowledged by those that wear, and those who have seen the Cortes Hat, to be the most consistent, the most easy, and the most becoming hat, that has been in fashion for the last 20 years. The Hats of the late fashion were 9 inches deep, with a very broad top, thereby becoming an unwieldy load for the head to support. The Cortes Hat," in front is seven and a half inches deep, varying half an inch on the sides when on the head forms an arch over the ears, with a graceful pitch to the front. It is remarkable, that many gentlemen, when inquiring for those Hats, will call them the Mina Hat, (meaning the Cortes Hat,) in honour of that invincible chief, whom I trust, may become the Washington of his country. I have now a general assortment of those Hats, which are offered for sale wholesale or retail. J. HURLEY, 07 3t 7,Chatham st. opposite the City Hall.---(New York Mercantile Advertiser, 8 Oct. 1823.) AN OLD PAPER.--The 12th instant completed the term of 63 years since the establishment of the Newport Mercury, it having been first published on the 12th of June, 1753, by James Franklin, and is now the oldest Newspaper establishment in the United States.--(New York paper, June, 1821.) AN OLDER PAPER.---The editor of the Baltimore Federal Republican, by reference to the manuscript history of Maryland, by Thomas W. Griffiths, Esq. has discovered that there is a paper thirteen years older than the Newport Mercury. It is the Maryland Gazette, which was first established in 1745, by Jonas Green, Esq. and which is now very ably conducted by Mr. Jonas Green, who is a de AT THE SAME PLACE. I lost my sight all in a moment, AT WREXHAM, On a great contributor to the church, a Mr. Yale: Born in America-in Europe bred, ́ In Afric travell'd, and in Asia wed, Where long he lived and, thrived-at London died. Much good some ill he did so hope all's even, And that his soul to mercy's gone to heaven. The sexton of Wrexham church told me that the yard was famous for rare compositions in that way, which have been effaced by time. He gave me the two following, but I find one of them in Pennant, and both are rather apocry phic: Here lies John Shore, I say no more; Who was alive in sixty-five. Here I lies with my three children dear, Two are at Oswestry, and one is here. ON AN INFANT, WHICH DIED AT So very quickly I was done for, AT DEAL, ON JOHN THOMAS. To a hundred and one he liv'd stout and strong; *This has been attributed to Mr. 'Tis a hundred to one you live not so Canning, but upon no authority. Some long! ON THE TOMBSTONE ERECTED OVER THE MARQUIS OF ANGLESEY'S LEG, AT WATERLOO.* Here rests, and let no saucy knave wag has inscribed upon the same stone, another epitaph, "far more pithy, and much less complimentary, viz. "Here lies the Marquis of Anglesey's limb, The devil will have the remainder of him." LONDON--Printed and Published by T. Walks? Camden Town. THE MILLER'S THUMB.-In Chaucer, the miller is thus describedWell couth he steale corne and told it thrise, And yet he had a thombe of gold parde, A white coate and a blew hode weared he, &c. Tyrwhitt observes on this passage: "If the allusion be, as is most probable, to the old proverb, Every honest miller has a thumb of gold,' this passage may mean, that our miller, nothwithstanding his thefts, was an honest miller-i. e. 'as honest as his brethren." "I suspect," says Mr. Ellis, "the Miller's Thumb' to have been the name of the strickle used in measuring corn, the instrument with which corn is made level and struck off in measuring. Perhaps this strickle had a rim of gold to show it was standard; true, not fraudulent." PUTTING THE MILLER'S EYE OUT.-In the Gentleman's Magazine for November, 1783, the inquiry after the meaning of the expression "Putting the Miller's Eye out," when too much liquid is put to any dry or powdery substance, is answered by another query:-" One merit of flour, or any powdered substance, being dryness, is it not a reflection on, or injury to the miller, or vender of such substances, when they are de based or moistened by any heteroge nous mixture?" TO BEAR THE BELL." A bell was a common prize,' observes another writer in the miscellany just quoted: "A golden bell was the reward of York;" whence the proverb for sucvictory in 1607, at the races near cess of any kind, "To bear the bell;" or in Ray's English Proverbs (which seems to be the genuine reading), "to bear away the bell." Another writer inquires, "If the proverb bearing away the bell' does not mean carrying or winning the fair lady (belle)?" |