Prev | Current Page 438 | Next

"A work on english grammar and composition"

--_Holmes_.
23. There is a different and sterner path;--I know not whether there be any
now qualified to tread it; I am not sure that even one has ever
followed it implicitly, in view of the certain meagerness of its
temporal rewards, and the haste wherewith any fame acquired in a sphere
so thoroughly ephemeral as the Editor's must be shrouded by the dark
waters of oblivion. This path demands an ear ever open to the plaints
of the wronged and the suffering, though they can never repay advocacy,
and those who mainly support newspapers will be annoyed and often
exposed by it; a heart as sensitive to oppression and degradation in
the next street as if they were practiced in Brazil or Japan; a pen as
ready to expose and reprove the crimes whereby wealth is amassed and
luxury enjoyed in our own country at this hour as if they had been
committed only by Turks or pagans in Asia some centuries
ago.--_Greeley_.
24. To sweeten the beverage, a lump of sugar was laid beside each cup, and
the company alternately nibbled and sipped with great decorum, until an
improvement was introduced by a shrewd and economical old lady, which
was to suspend a large lump directly over the tea-table, by a string
from the ceiling, so that it could be swung from mouth to mouth--an
ingenious expedient, which is still kept up by some families in Albany,
but which prevails without exception in Communipaw, Bergen, Platbush,
and all our uncontaminated Dutch villages.


Pages:
426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450