THE FIFTH READER. PART II. RHETORICAL. 1. APOSTROPHE TO WATER. [The following, though ascribed to John B. Gough, is in truth an extract from a sketch of Paul Denton, the Texas missionary, by Charles Summerfield, the nom de plume of Judge Arrington, entitled "Paul Denton's Barbecue." An invitation had been issued by the preacher to the rough Texans of some thirty years ago to attend a barbecue where there would be plenty to eat, and "the best of liquor." The borderers came, found abundance of comestibles, but no liquor. In reply to their rude demand for it, Paul Denton burst into the following strain of inspired eloquence.] LOOK at that, ye thirsty ones of earth! Behold it! See its purity! See how it glitters, as if a mass of liquid gems! It is a beverage that was brewed by the hand of the Almighty himself. Not in the simmering still or smoking fires, choked with poisonous gases, and surrounded by the stench of sickening odors and rank corruptions, doth our Father in Heaven prepare the precious essence of life, the pure cold water, but in the green glade and grassy dell, where the red deer wanders and the child loves to play! There God brews it, and down, down in the deepest valleys, where the fountains murmur and the rills sing; and high upon the tall mountain-tops, where the naked granite glitters like gold in the sun, where the storm-clouds brood and the thunder-storms crash; and away out on the billowy sea, where the hurricanes howl music, and the big waves roar the chorus, chanting the march of God-there He brews it, that beverage of life-health-giving water. 2. And everywhere it is a thing of beauty-gleaming in the dew-drop, singing in the summer rain, shining in the icegem, till the trees all seem turned into living jewelsspreading a golden veil over the setting sun, or a white gauze around the midnight moon-sporting in the cataract, sleeping in the glaciers, dancing in the hail showers-folding its bright curtain softly about the wintry world, and weaving the manycolored iris, that seraph's zone of the sky, whose woof is the sunbeam of heaven, all checkered over with celestial flowers by the mystic hand of rarefaction-still always it is beautiful, that blessed life-water! No poison bubbles on the brink! Its foam brings no sadness or murder; no blood-stains in its limpid glass; broken-hearted wives, pale widows, and starv ing orphans shed no tears in its depths; no drunkard's shrinking ghost, from the grave, curses it in words of eternal despair. Beautiful, pure, blessed, and glorious! give me for ever the sparkling, cold water ! JUDGE ARRINGTON. 2. OUR TITLES. RE we not Nobles? we who trace AR Our Pedigree so high, That God for us and for our race Created Earth and Sky, And Light, and Air, and Time, and Space, 2. Are we not Princes? we who stand We who can call the promised land And answer to no less command 3. Are we not Kings? Both night and day, From early until late, About our bed, about our way, A guard of Angels wait; And so we watch, and work, and pray 4. Are we not holy? Do not start: It is God's sacred will To call us Temples set apart His Holy Ghost may fill: Our very food... ... Oh Rush, my heart, 5. Are we not more? Our life shall be The nature Mary gave to Thee, Adoring in Thy Heart I see Such blood as beats in mine. 6. O God, that we can dare to fail, O God, that we can ever trail Can let such starry honors pale, 7 Shall we upon such Titles bring MISS A. A. PROCTOR. 3. ENGLISH OPERATIVES IN MANUFACTURING DISTRICTS. [Southey, the late Poet Laureate of England, and the able Reviewer, is also the author of an interesting work, in prose, entitled "Espriella's Letters," from which we take the following touching picture of the actual state of English operatives. It forms a forcible contrast to the immense wealth which the work of these unpaid, untaught laborers yields to the kingdom of Great Britain.] THEY HEY are deprived in childhood of all instruction and all enjoyment; of the sports in which childhood instinctively indulges; of fresh air by day, and of natural sleep by night. Their health, physical and moral, is alike destroyed; they die of diseases induced by unremitting task-work, by confinement in the impure atmosphere of crowded rooms, by the particles of metallic or vegetable dust which they are continually inhaling; or they live to grow up without decency, without comfort, and without hope; without morals, without religion, and without shame; and bring forth slaves, like themselves, to tread in the same path of misery. The dwellings of the laboring manufacturers are in narrow streets and lanes, blockaded up from light and air; crowded together, because every inch of land is of such value that room for light and air cannot be afforded them. 2. In Manchester, a great proportion of the poor lodge in I cellars, damp and dark, where every kind of filth is suffered to accumulate, because no exertions of domestic care can ever make such homes decent. Those places are so many hotbeds of infection, and the poor in large towns are rarely or |