me stories about by-gone times, and, in ready answer to my questions, related instances of the mutations of our human affairs. It was truly an interesting spectacle to behold the good old gentleman, standing like a sturdy oak, strengthened by the storms of eighty winters in the midst of his men-childrenwhose children's children may, as I warmly hope,

"Make smooth the pillow of his final rest."

To convey a striking idea of the manner in which the brothers ("the boys" as their father calls them) live together, I need only mention, that as long as they have been in business, and notwithstanding the difference of expense of each one, according to his mode of life or the size of his family, they have never kept any separate accounts or had any settlement with regard to monies drawn from the house for their separate support.

The sheet, which is published annually, and which is called their "Trade List," shews the vast number of their current publications, both standard and occasional; and it is also to be remembered that they have issued hundreds and hundreds of transitory books, which are at present entirely out of print. They sometimes get letters from the West Indies and other distant parts where the last Waverley novel still forms a topic for conversation-for some work, which was published by them many years ago, and of which no vestige remains, except, perchance, a thumbed, worn, dilapidated copy in the nook of some out-of-theway circulating library. Had either of them taken care to preserve a copy of each of their publications, he would have possessed a curious library, in strange and various styles of typography. What book ever published by "the Harpers," think you, most sagacious Public had the largest sale? You will hardly guess it. "Abercrombie on the Intellectual Powers." It is a volume of the Family Library, and its sale, to this date, has exceeded twenty thousand copies. The other volumes in this valuable collection have sold "excellent well," varying from seven to twelve thousand copies each. There are eighty-five volumes in the series. Bulwer's novels come next in the order of sale. Of the "half-dollar edition" of Rienzi (incredibly cheap!) fifteen thousand copies were sold. -Among American writers (strange as it may appear!) Paulding's works have commanded the widest circulation. A different idea from this is probably entertained by those persons who chuckled over Mr. Willis's late slashing review in the Corsair; which, by-the-by, I regretted to see transferred to the newspapers, although there was an antidote in the Courier and Enquirer, such as it was. statements were untrue. Mr. popular and his works do sell.

Mr. Willis's Paulding is Moreover,

:

they were never sent to the editors of the Corsair for their commendation, as was intimated at least they were never sent by the publishers. The cause of Mr. Willis's attack was a "secret grief," "a silent sorrow. " You must know that he is quite a "preux chevalier," a gentleman who is extremely punctilious with regard to matters of personal attention and etiquette. He would probably be less disturbed by the most desolating criticism of his poems than by the least personal disrespect. When Mr. Willis was ruralizing with his then coadjutor, General Morris, on the romantic banks of the Hudson, Paulding was in the vicinity at the house of his relation, Hon. Gouverneur Kemble. Willis was never called upon by the Kembles or invited to their festivities, and he attributed the slight to the influence of Paulding."Hinc illa lachrymæ!" The critic gave out that he was incited to his severity by the fact of Paulding's having abused his early productions in the Courier and Enquirer; but the least inquiry would have satisfied him upon that point; for Col. Webb is not the man to have hesitated, a single instant, to declare himself the real author of all the pasquinades, which had appeared in his journal, about Mr. N. P. Willis.

tons.

I have fallen into this digression purposely to make known the true issue in the case of Willis v. Paulding; but revenons à nos mouI should have used the expression American novelist, not writer, in speaking of Paulding; for none of his productions can have been sold to the extent of Stephens' "Incidents of Travel," or Miss Sedgwick's domestic tales "The Rich Poor Man and the Poor Rich Man," "Live and let Live," &c. It is not difficult to account for the extraor

dinary success of "Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia, Petræa and the Holy Land." Just after its publication, Mr. J. S. Buckingham arrived in New York and commenced his lectures. He drew ten thousand people together, and to his audience he commended in high terms the work of Mr. John L. Stephens. This he also did in other parts of the country. The consequence was an unprecedented demand for the book and the furnishing of the author's pockets to the pretty amount of some five or six thousand dollars! Look, besides, at the sacred associations which these Travels suggested! They passed over the very scenes of the Bible; they told the old names, with which our ears had long been familiar; and our minds, as we dwelt upon them, were filled with a "dim, religious light," and a pleasant, solemn music, like that which floats under the arches of a vast cathedral. The second series, "Incidents of Travels in Greece, Turkey, Russia and Poland," was successful on the name of the first, but was far inferior. Besides being much less interesting, it lacks the quiet sim

plicity and perspicuous ease.

The author

of these works is now preparing for his mission to Guatemala-he is to be accompanied by Mr. Catherwood, of panoramic celebrity, who will take drawings of the famous ruins of the city of Palenque in South America, for the purpose of illustrating a work that Mr. Stephens proposes to write. Before Mr. Stephens shall have attained his "middle age "he will accumulate a competent fortune from his writings an extraordinary fact in the history of American authorship, and the more remarkable when it is considered that he was not educated to literature.

THE ALABASTER BOX.
BY MISS H. F. GOULD.
AND, who is she that, bearing
The Alabaster Box,
Is thus, neglected, wearing

Her long and silken locks?
Her form is fair, but o'er her
A shade of grief is cast,
That speaks of wo before her,
Or bitterness that's past.
Oh! whither is she going?

And what is it to seek,
With sorrow's fountains flowing
On either pallid cheek?
Behold! her steps are tending
To him who sits at meat.
'Tis Mary! see her bending
To weep at Jesus' feet!

And while her tears bestrew them,
As pearls that scatter there,
Her lips she presses to them,

And wipes them with her hair.
And, of a heart that's broken
For sin that she forsakes,
She gives the precious token-
The alabaster breaks.

From ointment now, that's gushing
To pour on Jesus' head,
Sweet odours forth are rushing,
And o'er the dwelling spread.
But they, who see her spilling
The spikenard fresh and pure,
Rebuke her, as unwilling

To sell it for the poor.
While he, whose eye possesses

The hidden, inmost thought, Pronounces good, and blesses

The work by Mary wrought.
He sees her heart is riven,

And bids her sorrow cease.
To them, he says, "Forgiven,
She shall depart in peace.
"The poor are with you ever!
For them your treasures save.
But she, before we sever,

Anoints me for the grave!"
Fair penitent! when breaking
For thee, the stony tomb,
With sweeter odours waking,
Thy spirit he'll perfume!

THE "MONOPOLY" AND THE "PEOPLE'S LINE."

[From "Sketches of the Times."]

"

NOT many years ago, there lived on LongIsland, a jolly, well-to do, honest, old Dutchman, who drove a stage from Brooklyn to Jamaica for two dollars a passenger. This had been the charge since Adam was an urchin, or since the time whereof the memory of man "runneth not to the contrary.' It was sanctioned by immemorial usage, and had all the crust of antiquity about it. Nobody thought of disputing the matter. It was settled, like the laws of the Medes and Persians, and was a thing not to be sacrilegiously meddled with, or altered on any account whatever. The proprietor's great-grandfather had driven the same route, and so had all his other ancestors, and none of them had managed to realize more than enough to make both ends meet when Christmas came round. But it was left for these degenerate days, and for modern innovators, to work wonderful changes in the destinies of Jamaica, which was then a mere dot on the unexplored map of Long-Island. You might have held it in the hollow of your hand, or Major Noah could have put it into his breeches pocket. It has assumed vast consequence since that periodwhich was before the discovery of lithography, unquestionably the most magnificent and imposing art of modern times-and is an incorporated city-in embryo !-with its mayor and its aldermen-its commodious edificesits steeples, domes, and court-houses-its spacious taverns and its heaven-aspiring liberty-rods, and all the other requisites of a thriving American metropolis! If the future greatness of Jamaica may be gathered from the thousands of building-lots that have been laid out and disposed of for slow notes of hand, and if one may at all rely upon the prophecies of the eloquent and disinterested speculators of Wall-street, "who look into the seeds of time, and say which place shall grow and which shall not," then is Jamaica, without the shadow of a doubt, predestined to become the capital of the world!

Oh, Lithography! let me apostrophize thee! Thou art indeed a mighty wizard and hast performed more miracles in our day and generation than all the soothsayers, seers, and necromancers of the olden time! There is no obstacle that thou canst not overcomeno difficulty that thou canst not surmount! Does a mountain oppose thy onward march -one wave of thy wand, and it hides its diminished head and disappears for ever! Is a valley too deep and broad for thy lofty purposes another flourish of thy potent staff, and lo! it is as level as the plain! Is a river inconvenient to ford, and does it endeavour to frustrate thy plans, thou hast but to will it

-and, presto! its waters recede, and the warm and genial earth, beautifully checkered and converted into streets, avenues, spacious squares and desirable building-lots, remains in its stead! Thou canst people the wilderness for the woods, like those of Birnam, will "unfix their earth-bound roots," and move before thee-and thou canst command the "desert to bud and blossom like the rose," and it is even so! Thou canst found settlements, villages, towns, and cities wherever thou listeth in the interior, by the running river, the quiet lake, or on the more boisterous borders of the ocean? 'Tis all the same to thee, Lithography. Thou canst do anything every thing all things-on paper.

But I am wandering from my subject; and must take care that, in my admiration for the most sublime of all modern inventions-always save and excepting the "noble science of money-making "I do not lose the reader as well as myself in the labyrinths of imagination and metaphor.

In the course of time, travelling increased on the Jamaica turnpike; the Dutchman had his stage full every trip, and began to thrive. But the star of his good fortune, although it had risen clear and unclouded, was not long in the ascendant; for, one fine morning, there came another stage driver, the owner of a new turn out, as fine as a fiddle, who put in his claims for patronage.

He was a full grown stripling, of little credit, but some ready money, and he secretly resolved upon bearing off the palm from the quiet but covetous Dutchman. At first he demanded the usual rates, and divided the business with his old-established rival; but finding that he had less custom, that he was looked upon as an interloper, and that all faces were set against him, he resolved to cut down the fare to a single dollar-and he did so, greatly to the satisfaction of the applauding multitude.

This was a sad blow to the prospects of the poor old Dutchman, whose carriage was instantly deserted, all the fickle populace instinctively flocking to the glossy vehicle of his adversary, who cracked his whip in high glee as he dashed along the dusty and unpaved streets of Brooklyn. At first Mynheer did not know what to make of the matter, so he lighted his pipe and looked to St. Nicholas for the solution of a mystery, altogether too profound for his comprehension. One day, however, a friend unravelled it to him, and suggested the propriety of a reduction also of his price; whereupon the whole truth flashed upon him in the twinkling of an eye, and he instantly resolved, in defiance of the good examples of his forefathers, to humble himself to the insignificant fare of his pestilent competitor. Now all was right again, and things went on as swimmingly as before, until the new-comer again lowered the fare

called his omnibus the " People's Line," and branded his opponent's "The Monopoly;" upon which the Dutchman flew into a violent passion, broke his pipe into a thousand pieces, and swore by all the saints in the calendar, that he would thereafter carry his passengers for nothing! And so strange was his demeanour, flying hither and yonder, in a hurricane of hot haste and hotter disdain, that all his neighbours stigmatised him as the "Flying Dutchman;" a name which he has never been able to get clear of to this very hour.

The "People's Line," not in the least disconcerted by this unexpected calamity, also came down to nothing! and painted on the panels of the carriage the figure of a fiery old man addressing a multitude, and begging them to ride in his carriage gratis, with the motto,

"Nothing can come of nothing; try again." This was evidently intended as a hit at the "Flying Dutchman," who retorted by staining the "Interloper," as he always persisted in designating the "People's Line," with certain Dutch epithets, which respect for our readers prevents us from translating into veritable English. Fierce were the animosities

bitter the feuds and arduous the struggles that ensued between the belligerents. Long they lasted, and fatal promised to be the consequences to both. Every expedient was resorted to; but as neither would yield an inch of ground to the other, they both went on, season after season, running the stages at their own expense, and annoying everybody who would listen to them, with a full and particular recital of their wrongs, their wrath, and their wranglings. At last, the owner of the

66

People's Line," fairly wearied out by the obstinacy and perseverance of the redoubtable Dutchman, caused a mammoth handbill to be struck off and posted from the EastRiver to the Atlantic Ocean, in which he stated, in ponderous capital letters, that he would not only carry his passengers for nothing, but that he would actually pay each and every one the sum of twenty-five cents for going! To the unhappy Dutchman, this was the drop too much; and it effectually did the business for his now unpopular and detested "Monopoly," which was denounced at every tavern by the road side, as a paltry, mean, and "unconstitutional" concern, while the "People's Line" was lauded to the third heavens for its liberality and public spirit. The Flying Dutchman flew no more. spirit was evidently broken as well as his prospects, and his horses crawled daily to and from Jamaica, at a snail's pace, equally unmindful of whip or rein-evidently sympathizing in their master's disappointment and discomfiture. Yet go the Dutchman wouldhe had become accustomed to the occupation -it was second nature to him; and, as he could not easily overcome the force of habit,

His

he preferred working for nothing and finding himself, to relinquishing the road entirely to his indefatigable annoyer. "His shirtless Majesty!" as some audacious poet has impertinently called the sovereign people! however, generally gave its countenance and support to its own line, which still kept up its speed and its reputation. It speaks volumes -volumes, did I say? speaks ten thousand libraries for the intelligence and good feeling of our locomotive countrymen; and, as faithful chroniclers, we are bound to record the fact, that not a single individual ever applied for the two shillings, that had been so generously and disinterestedly tendered, every one being actually contented with going the whole distance gratis, and with being thanked into the bargain!

One day, however, a long, thin, lank-sided, mahogany-faced down-easter chanced to read the mammoth bill with the ponderous capitals; and without a moment's hesitation, he decided upon bestowing his corporeal substance snugly in the back seat of the "People's Line;" and so it fell out that he was the only passenger.

The down-easter was a talkative prying, speculative, jimcrack of a fellow, who propounded more questions in a single minute than one could answer in a whole hour; and, in less time than you could say Jack Robinson, he was at the bottom of all the difficulty, and in possession of every particular respecting the rival lines. He was "free of speech and merry;" joked with the proprietor; ridiculed the flying Dutchman, called him a cockalorum, and finally denounced him as an inflated, overgrown, purse-proud capitalist, who advocated a system of exclusive privileges contrary to the spirit of our glorious institutions, and dangerous to the liberties of the country? and he even went so far as to recommend that a town meeting should be immediately called to put the old blockhead down, and banish him from the sunshine of the publick favour for ever!

"I will put him down !" said the driver. "And he shall stay put when he is down!" replied Jonathan, with an approving nod of the head.

At the various stopping places, Jonathan— who was not a member of any of the temperance societies, for those institutions were not founded at the time of which we are writing -to show his good fellowship, but with no other motive, did not scruple to drink sundry villanous bar-room compounds, at the expense of his new acquaintance, who, that day, was so overjoyed to find that the stage of the "Monopoly" was compelled to go the whole route entirely empty, that his hilarity and flow of boisterous humour knew no bounds, and he snapped his fingers, and said he did not care a fig for the expense-not

he!

"Here's to the People's Line!" drank Jonathan.

"The People's Line for ever!" shouted the driver.

"And confusion to the Monopoly !" rejoined the down-easter.

"With all my heart!" echoed the friend of the people.

"The Flying Dutchman is deficient in public spirit ;" said the landlord, a warlike little fellow, who was a major in the militia.

"Behind the age we live in !" remarked a justice of the peace.

"And he deserves to run the gauntlet from Brooklyn to Jamaica for violating the constitution!" responded all the patriotic inmates of the bar-room.

"I say mister! you're a fine specimen of a liberal fellow," said Jonathan, as his companion paid the reckoning, resumed the ribands, and touched up the leaders gaily. "You deserve encouragement, and you shall have it. I promise it to you, my lad," continued he, as he slapped the "People's Line" on the shoulder like an old and familiar friend, "and that's enough. The Flying Dutchman, forsooth! why he's a hundred years at least behind the grand march of improvement, and, as he will never be able to overtake it, I shall henceforward look upon him, as a mere abstract circumstance, unworthy of the least regard or notice."

Jonathan weighed every word of the last sentence before he pronounced it, for he was, upon the whole, rather a cute chap, and had no notion of letting his friendship for the one party involve him in a law-suit for a libel on the other.

The overjoyed proprietor thanked him heartily for his good wishes and for the expression of his contempt for the old "Monopoly," and the lumbering vehicle thundered on toward Jamaica.

Arrived, at last, at the termination of the journey, the driver unharnessed the horses, watered them, and put them up for the night. When he turned to take his own departure, however, he observed that Jonathan, who, after all said and done, candour compels us to acknowledge, had rather a hang-dog sort of look, seemed fidgetty and discontented; that he lingered about the stable, and followed him like a shadow wherever he bent his steps.

"Do you stop in this town, or do you go further?" asked the driver.

"I shall go further, when you settle the trifle you owe me," replied Jonathan, with a peculiar, knowing, but serious expression.

"That I owe you?"

"Oh! but there's no mistake at all," said Jonathan, as he pulled a handbill from his pocket, unfolded it with care, and smoothed it out upon the table. It was the identical mammoth handbill with the ponderous capitals.

"That's what I mean. Look there, Mr. People's Line. There I have you, large as life and no mistake whatever. That's your note of hand-it's a fair business transaction

-and I will trouble you for the twenty-five cents, in less than no time; so shell it out, you 'tarnal crittur."

"My Christian friend, allow me to explain, if you please. I confess that it's in the bill; but, bless your simple soul, nobody ever thinks of asking me for it."

"Did you ever!" ejaculated Jonathan. "Now, that's what I call cutting it a leetle too fat! but it's nothing to me. I attend to no. body's affairs but my own; and if other people are such ninnyhammers as to forgive you the debt, that's no reason why I should follow their bad example. Here are your conditions, and I want the mopuses. A pretty piece of business, truly, to endeavour to do your customers out of their just and legal demands in this manner. But I can't afford to lose the amount, and I won't!What! haven't I freely given you my patronage-liberally bestowed upon you the pleasure of my company, and, consequently, afforded you a triumph over that narrow-contracted Monopoly? and now you refuse to comply with your terms of travel, and pay me my money, you ungrateful varmint, you! Come, mister, it's no use putting words together in I'll expose you to "old Monopoly' and everybody else, if you don't book-up like an honest fellow; and I won't leave the town until I am satisfied."

this way.

that all remonstrance would be in vain, and that he was irrevocably fixed in his determination to extract twenty-five cents from his already exhausted coffers, at length slowly and reluctantly put into his hand the bit of silver coin representing that amount of the circulating medium.

Jonathan, we blush to say, took the money, and what is more, he put it into his pocket; and, what is moreover, he positively buttoned it up, as if to "make assurance doubly sure," and to guard it against the possibility of es

cape.

"Mister," said he, after he had gone coolly through the ceremony, looking all the while as innocently as a man who has just performed a virtuous action; "mister, I say, you must not think that I set any more value on the insignificant trifle you have paid me, than any other gentleman: a twenty-five cent piece, after all, is hardly worth disputing about—it's only a quarter of a dollar-which any industrious person may earn in half an hour, if he chooses the merest trifle in the world—a poor little scoundrel of a coin, that I would not, under other circumstances, touch with a pair of tongs and which I would scorn to take even now-if it were not for the principle of the thing! To shew you, however, that I entertain a high respect for the 'People's Line,' that I wish old cockalorum to the devil, and that I do not harbour the slightest ill-will toward you for so unjustifiably withholding my legal demands, the next time come this way I will unquestionably give your stage the preference unless the

Flying Dutchman' holds out greater inducements than you do, in which case, 1 rather calculate, I shall feel myself in duty bound to encourage him!"

WILLIS'S JOTTINGS DOWN, 1839.

No. VI.

WHEN London shall have become the Rome or Athens of a fallen empire, (qu. Will it ever?) the termini of the Railways will be among its finest ruins. That of the Birmingham and Liverpool track, is almost as magnificent as that flower of sumptuousness, the Royal Palace of Caserta, near Naples. It is really an impressive scene simply to embark for "Brummagem," and there is that utility in all this showy expenditure for arch, gateway, and pillar, that no one is admitted but the passenger, and you are refreshingly permitted to manage your baggage, &c., without the assistance of a hundred blackguards at a shilling each. Then there are "Ladies' Waiting Rooms," and "Gentlemen's Waiting Rooms," and attached to them every possible convenience, studiously clean and orderly. I wish the President and Directors of the Utica