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LA FAYETTE IN PHILADELPHIA.

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While their free-born sons, who never will bow lighted windows. Across several of the
To kings, will bend before thee.*

Thou shalt tread the fields where our warriors trod

When the storm of battle tried thee: And fresher shall bloom the sacred sod

O'er the heroes that fought beside thee. Again thou shalt be where the war was won, t And the foe's death-blow was given : While the shade of our sainted Washington Shall smile on thee from Heaven.

Writing only from recollection, it is difficult to designate the order of the procession: the effect and interest of which was greatly increased by the pride and safe-guards of Philadelphia, her numerous and gallant-looking companies of firemen, with their beautiful banners and their elegantly ornamented hose and engines. The vessels on wheels which

contained the sailors resounded as usual

with the hilarity of the jocund tars; and the farmers of the surrounding country brought up the rear on horseback.

This was a busy as well as a joyful day to the citizens of Philadelphia. As soon as the procession was over it was time to make the final, arrangements for the illumination, the finest and the most universal ever known in our city; the effect being highly improved by the straitness, length and regularity of the streets, each presenting a long and apparently interminable perspective of

* The Hall of Independence, in which the immortal Declaration was signed by the first congress, is in the Philadelphia State House: and was fitted up as a leveeroom for La Fayette.

+ The surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia,

streets had been erected temporary triumphal arches adorned with emblematical figures, and transparencies; and these at night were splendidly lighted up. The Bank of the United States was illuminated in a singularly beautiful manner; the lamps being placed behind the columns of the lofty and magnificent portico, and so disposed that they could not be seen in front, but diffused over the whole edifice a soft clear light like that of the moon. The darkness of the

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heavens (for it was a star-less night) threw out in bold relief the pure white marble of this noble structure, which the general clearness of the Philadelphia atmosphere, unmixed with damp or smoke, preserves in unsullied freshness. The porticos of the other banks were decorated with brilliant lamps closely strung umns like wreaths of sparkling fire. on wires, and winding round the col

The windows of all the houses were

lighted up from top to bottom, from the parlours to the attics. The lamps were generally small glass globes, sometimes plain and sometimes coloured; they were closely arranged on frames of wood forming various figures,-circles, ovals, triangles, pyramids and stars. We saw a corner house in which were twentyfour front windows, each filled with a blaze of lamps representing an immense star, emblematic of the States of the Union which were then twenty-four. The hotels and taverns had transparent pictures over their doors. There was

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LA FAYETTE IN PHILADELPHIA.

one in Chestnut street so constructed by alleys inhabited by the lower classes had

the ingenious arrangement of coloured slats or grooves, that, viewed from the front, it presented a portrait of La Fayette; one side-view showed a likeness of Washington, and the other that of Franklin.

The parlour windows of the private houses were thrown open and lighted up both front and back. In many were placed superb lamps and lustres, glittering with crystal drops and enwreathed with flowers, as were also the girandoles and bracket-branches on the walls. In some parlours, lights were placed over the folding-doors with deep festoons of flowers depending from them, rich curtains being arranged in the door-way so as to form an elegant drapery. The chandeliers suspended from the ceilings were all lighted up. On many of the tables were displays of rich plate, fine china, cut glass, and other beautiful and costly articles, all filled with flowers and intermixed with lights. The windows of one house in Chestnut street had no lamps in them; but the sashes were thrown up so as to exhibit the fine pictures and pieces of sculpture that graced the walls, each work of art being shown to advantage by lamps appropriated to itself. The evidences of opulence and taste so frequent in the mansions of our citizens, were well calculated to give La Fayette a favourable impression of the prosperity of the nation whose independence he had so materially assisted in achieving. Even the little streets and

their windows lighted: many of them it is true with candles stuck in perforated slips of wood, or planted in tin cups filled with damp sand.

La Fayette in a private carriage rode round to see the illumination. It was computed that, exclusive of the inhabi tants of the city, not less than fifty thou sand strangers were in the streets that night: and though the crowd was com posed of people of every class, from the highest to the lowest, there was neither drunkenness nor fighting, nor any sort of rude nor improper behaviour, every one seeming quietly to give way to those who wished to pass. Perhaps this general civility might in some degree be attributed to the presence of so vast a number of females as were out that evening and on foot: it being much more convenient and satisfactory to walk to see the illumination than to ride; as even the carriage way was crowded with a compact body of spectators. At ten o'clock the people began to turn their steps homeward, the crowd gradually thinned, and by eleven the lights were all extinguished, the houses shut up, and their inhabitants preparing for repose.

La Fayette remained a week in Philadelphia, receiving daily and hourly every mark of esteem and honour that her citizens could offer him. The day after his arrival the children of many of the best schools were formed into a procession; and round the interior of the Independence Square they passed in re

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view before him as he sat in an arm- being all in white muslin and without bonnets. She that headed the female part of the procession carried a white silk banner inscribed with that honourable and cherished title" The Daughters of Free Men."

chair on the garden steps of the State House, the spot from whence the declaration of Independence was read to the people on the 4th of July 1776. The school-children were handsomely drest, and wore La Fayette badges; the girls

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As Laura was heedlessly running one day,
She upset a table which stood in her way:

A fine China jar was thrown down on the floor,
Which with the gay fragments was cover'd all o'er.

At the crash which it made she turn'd round amaz'd;
With grief at the beautiful porcelain she gaz'd,
Regretting her folly the wreck she had made,
And much of her mother's displeasure afraid.

Scarce able to stand, on the sofa she sat,
Determined to say it was done by the cat:
This surely would save the disgrace and the shame,
And pussy might very well bear all the blame.

But conscience then whisper'd "this cannot be right,
Your God sees you now, though no man is in sight;
VOL. VI. APRIL, 1838,

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Your mother, perhaps, this fine tale may believe,
But One is above whom you cannot deceive,
Who a falsehood detests, who knows every thought,
Who surely will punish so heinous a fault."

She paus'd and she wept with a feeling of dread;
Thank'd God who had put better thoughts in her head;
Then ran to her mother, and told her with tears
Of her breaking the jar, of her fright and her fears.

Her mamma said her anger would ne'er endure long,
If Laura was candid and own'd she was wrong;
And charged her to mind from her earliest youth,
To shun all deceit and hold fast by the truth.

THE TALE OF A TRIANGLE: OR, EVIL DONE, THAT GOOD MIGHT COME OF IT.

BY MARY HOWITT.

Ar a great public school, conducted "The Triangle;" we, therefore, will by the learned Dr. Reader, and many adopt their own appellation, and thus ushers and masters of many varieties style them. So much for their names. and branches of knowledge, there were three notable boys. The tallest boy in the school, the least boy in the school, and the fattest boy in the school; Charles, Harry, and George; who, from their remarkable names of Salmon, Lion, and Sparrow, were jestingly called, Fish, Flesh, and Fowl. They had nomen, prenomen, and cognomen. Charles was also called King, because he was above his fellows; Harry, Lord, because he possessed the fat of the land; and George, Commons, because of his spare person and somewhat meagre aspect. Others again distinguished them as Thread-paper, Apple-dumpling, and Lean-Kine. They, however, there being a sworn league of amity amongst them, had given themselves the title of

Now, the Triangle, besides their remarkable exteriors, possessed rare accomplishments; they were the best sliders, kite-flyers, top-spinners, and cricketers, in the school. They had, moreover, each his own peculiar gift, which was exercised for general edification. Charles Salmon, the tall boy, had a wonderful talent for singing; his voice was clear, melodious, and full of power and expression, and his performances in this way, often electrified the whole play-ground, when the learned head of Dr. Reader himself, in his white wig, had been seen popping out of the studywindow with an air of abstraction, or else nodding time to the tune, while it was very shrewdly conjectured, especially by those who had seen them, that ma

TALE OF A TRIANGLE.

Henry Lion, the lean boy, was a prodigious mimic, and acted with inimitable humour every whimsical character, from Punch to Sir John Falstaff, to whom, however, he was in bulk a singular contrast. Nevertheless, he contrived by some cunning of his own, to swell himself forth, and appear no Jack Straw in the performance.

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ny an usher likewise sought out such counties, had all entered the same day. commodious nooks and corners, as would They had all gone honourably and give him the melody without making speedily forward with their school-learnhim visible to the urchin crew over ing, each first in some particular branch whom he exercised authority. of knowledge, so that with mathematical, classical, and English tutors, as with the head-master himself, they stood high in estimation. It was a singular Triangle, all the three sides so various, yet, as a whole, according so perfectly; and it may be questioned, whether ever a friendship was formed between two persons, but assuredly seldom among three, in which there was a greater unity of purpose and affection. They were the David and Jonathan-the Orestes and Pylades of the school; and from the solemn Dr. Reader himself, down to the little Hans Fuggenfelt, the Dutch boy, who was the most ineffable blockhead in the school, every body gave them fair words and favour.

The talent of George Sparrow, was that of tale-telling. A very Scheherazade was he in this accomplishment. Grave or gay, horrible, fantastical or pathetic, George Sparrow had a tale for all times and humours. Happy was the boy who was his bed-fellow, to whom he would tell tales till the morning bell rang; and yet it must be confessed to his shame, that into one little fellow, who had for three months this honour, he instilled so much terror by his tales of ghosts, hobgoblins, and bloody murders, that he fell into what is called a low way, and only recovered by the intervention of his mother, who took him home and nursed him for a whole win

ter.

Other circumstances made the Triangle not less remarkable than respectable; they had never known the infliction of chastisement from either cane or ferula. Each had been at school three years, and though they came from different

So stood the Triangle after the midsummer holidays, when a great boy, half knave and half dunce, one Nathaniel, or as he was commonly called, Nat Simpkins, became a scholar, and according to his abilities, which were prodigious in this line, proceeded to set the school by the ears. The Triangle, being most conspicuous for general favour, was the first object of his jealousy. He drew a party of weak-minded boys to his side, and began by artfully insinuating suspicions of underhand proceedings on the part of the Triangle; plainly expressing his belief that they were only spared punishment, corporal punishment

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