1872. Who disappeared, and presently there stood Yet scarce a guest perceived that she was there, The listening guests were greatly mystified, She came and stood, all blushes, at his side. Then I command you as Chief Magistrate." 1878. O Lord! before thy path They vanished and ceased to be, With thine horses through the sea! 1878. NATURE. As a fond mother, when the day is o'er, Leads by the hand her little child to bed, By promises of others in their stead, Which, though more splendid, may not please him more; Our playthings one by one, and by the hand Scarce knowing if we wish to go or stay, Being too full of sleep to understand How far the unknown transcends the what we know. 1878. VENICE. HITE swan of cities, slumbering in thy nest WE So wonderfully built among the reeds Of the lagoon, that fences thee and feeds, As sayeth thy old historian and thy guest! White water-lily, cradled and caressed By ocean streams, and from the silt and weeds Thy sun-illumined spires, thy crown and crest! Are rivers, and whose pavements are the shifting I wait to see thee vanish like the fleets Seen in mirage, or towers of cloud uplifting 1875. 1880. A CHAUCER. N old man in a lodge within a park; The chamber walls depicted all around With portraitures of huntsman, hawk, and hound, Of painted glass in leaden lattice bound; The Canterbury Tales, and his old age uu BORN in Prince William Co., Va., 1807. DIED at Huntsville, Texas, 1881. A FRANK PRO-SLAVERY ARGUMENT. [Cannibals All! or, Slaves without Masters. 1857.] THE negro slaves of the South are the happiest, and, in some sense, the freest people in the world. The children and the aged and infirm work not at all, and yet have all the comforts and necessaries of life provided for them. They enjoy liberty, because they are oppressed neither by care nor labor. The women do little hard work, and are protected from the despotism of their husbands by their masters. The negro men and stout boys work, on the average, in good weather, not more than nine hours a day. The balance of their time is spent in perfect abandon. Besides, they have their Sabbaths and holidays. White men, with so much of license and liberty, would die of ennui; but negroes luxuriate in corporeal and mental repose. With their faces upturned to the sun, they can sleep at any hour; and quiet sleep is the greatest of human enjoyments. "Blessed be the man who invented. sleep." "Tis happiness in itself-and results from contentment with the present, and confident assurance of the future. We do not know whether free laborers ever sleep. They are fools to do so; for, whilst they sleep, the wily and watchful capitalist is devising means to ensnare and exploitate them. The free laborer must work or starve. He is more of a slave than the negro, because he works longer and harder for less allowance than the slave, and has no holiday, because the cares of life with him begin when its labors end. He has no liberty, and not a single right. We know, 'tis often said, air and water are common property, which all have equal right to participate and enjoy; but this is utterly false. The appropriation of the lands carries with it the appropriation |