He's tipsicum grave. He's topsey turvey. · He's thawed. He has swallowed a tavern token. V. He makes Virginia fame. He is in love with varany. He's wise. He's a wet soul. W. He has been to the salt water. He has been in search of eye water. He's wise or otherwise. He can walk the line. The wind is west with him. The phrases of the Dictionary are not, like most of our terms of art, borrowed from foreign or dead languages; neither are they collected from the writings of the learned; but gathered from domestic sources no doubt many more might be added. I was almost tempted to add a new one under the letter B, to wit, brutified, but upon consideration I feared doing injustice to the brute creation, if I represented drunkenness as a beastly vice, since every one knows that the brutes are in general a sober sort of people. This production (The Washing Day) has been generally ascribed to Dr. Franklin; though it has been also claimed for another gentleman. We have thought it fit to notice the circumstance, and its merit will be as good an apology as can be offered, should we be mistaken. I have observed, however, one custom, which, for aught I know, is peculiar to this country. An account of it will serve to fill up the remainder of this sheet, and may afford you some amusement. When a young couple are about to enter into the matrimonial state, a never-failing article in the marriage-treaty is, that the lady shall have and enjoy the free and unmolested exercise of the rights of white-washing, with all its ceremonials, privileges, and appurte nances. A young woman would forego the most advantageous connexion, and even disappoint the warmest wish of her heart, rather than resign the invaluable right. You would wonder what this privilege of whitewashing is I will endeavour to give you some idea of the ceremony, as I have seen it performed. There is no season of the year in which the lady may not claim her privilege, if she pleases; but the latter end of May is most generally fixed upon for the purpose. The attentive husband may judge by certain prognostics when the storm is nigh at hand. When the lady is unusually fretful, finds fault with the servants, is discontented with the children, and complains much of the filthiness of every thing about her-these are signs which ought not to be neglected; yet they are not decisive, as they sometimes come on and go off again, without producing any farther effect. But if, when the husband rises in the morning, he should observe in the yard a wheelbarrow with a quantity of lime in it, or should see certain buckets with lime dissolved in water, there is then no time to be lost; he immediately locks up the apartment or closet where his papers or his private property is kept, and putting the key in his pocket, betakes himself to flight: for a husband, however beloved, becomes a perfect nuisance during the season of female rage; his authority is superseded, his commission is suspended, and the very scullion, who cleans the brasses in the kitchen, becomes of more consideration and importance than him. He has nothing for it, but to abdicate, and run from an evil which he can Singular custom among the Americans, en- neither prevent nor mollify. titled White-washing. DEAR SIR, My wish is to give you some account of the people of these new states, but I am far from being qualified for the purpose, having as yet seen little more than the cities of New York and Philadelphia. I have discovered but few national singularities among them. Their customs and manners are nearly the same with those of England, which they have long been used to copy. For, previous to the revolution, the Americans were from their infancy taught to look up to the English as patterns of perfection in all things. The husband gone, the ceremony begins. The walls are in a few minutes stripped of their furniture: paintings, prints, and looking-glasses lie in a huddled heap about the floors; the curtains are torn from the testers, the beds crammed into the windows; chairs and tables, bedsteads and cradles, crowd the yard; and the garden fence bends beneath the weight of carpets, blankets, cloth cloaks, old coats, and ragged breeches. Here may be seen the lumber of the kitchen, forming dark and confused mass: for the foreground of the picture, gridirons and frying pans, rusty shovels and broken tongs, spits and pots, joint-stools, and the fractured remains of rush-bottomed chairs. There, a closet has disgorged its bowels, cracked tumblers, broken wine glasses, phials of forgotten physic, papers of unknown powders, seeds, and dried herbs, handfuls of old corks, tops of teapots, and stoppers of departed decanters;-from the rag-hole in the garret to the rat-hole in the cellar, no place escapes unrummaged. It would seem as if the day of general doom was come, and the utensils of the house were dragged forth to judgment. In this tempest, the words of Lear naturally present themselves, and might, with some alteration, be made strictly applicable : This ceremony completed, and the house thoroughly evacuated, the next operation is to smear the walls and ceilings of every room and closet with brushes dipped in a solution of lime, called white-wash; to pour buckets of water over every floor, and scratch all the partitions and wainscots with rough brushes wet with soap-suds, and dipped in stone-cutter's sand. The windows by no means escape the general deluge. A servant scrambles out upon the pent-house, at the risk of her neck, and with a mug in her hand, and a bucket within reach, she dashes away innumerable gallons of water against the glass panes; to the great annoyance of the passengers in the street. under the operation: a mahogany chair and carved frame undergo the same discipline; they are to be made clean at all events; but their preservation is not worthy of attention. For instance, a fine large engraving is laid flat on the floor; smaller prints are piled upon it, and the superincumbent weight cracks the glasses of the lower tier: but this is of no consequence. A valuable picture is placed leaning against the sharp corner of a table; others are made to lean against that, until the pressure of the whole forces the corner of the table through the canvass of the first. The frame and glass of a fine print are to be cleaned; the spirit and oil used on this occasion are suffered to leak through and spoil the engraving; no matter, if the glass is clean, and the frame shine, it is sufficient; the rest is not worthy of consideration. An able arithmetician has made an accurate calculation, founded on long experience, and has discovered, that the losses and destruction incident to two white-washings are equal to one removal, and three removals equal to one fire. The cleaning frolic over, matters begin to resume their pristine appearance. The storm abates, and all would be well again, but it is impossible that so great a convulsion, in so small a community, should not produce some farther effects. For two or three weeks after the operation, the family are usually afflicted with sore throats or sore eyes, occasioned by the caustic quality of the lime, or with severe colds from the exhalations of wet floors or damp walls. I know a gentleman, who was fond of accounting for every thing in a philosophical way. He considers this, which I have called a custom, as a real periodical disI have been told that an action at law was ease, peculiar to the climate. His train of once brought against one of these water reasoning is ingenious and whimsical; but nymphs, by a person who had a new suit of I am not at leisure to give you a detail. clothes spoiled by this operation; but, after The result was, that he found the distemper long argument, it was determined by the to be incurable; but after much study, he whole court, that the action would not lie, conceived he had discovered a method to diinasmuch as the defendant was in the exer- vert the evil he could not subdue. For this cise of a legal right, and not answerable for purpose he caused a small building, about the consequences; and so the poor gentle- twelve feet square, to be erected in his garman was doubly nonsuited; for he lost not den, and furnished with some ordinary only his suit of clothes, but his suit at law. chairs and tables; and a few prints of the These smearings and scratchings, wash- cheapest sort were hung against the walls. ings and dashings, being duly performed, His hope was, that when the white-washthe next ceremonial is to cleanse and re- ing frenzy seized the females of his family, place the distracted furuiture. You may they might repair to this apartment, and have seen a house raising, or a ship-launch, scrub, and smear, and scour, to their heart's when all the hands within reach are collect- content; and so spend the violence of the ed together recollect, if you can, the hurry, disease in this outpost, while he enjoyed bustle, confusion, and noise of such a scene, himself in quiet at head-quarters. But the and you will have some idea of this clean- experiment did not answer his expectation; ing match. The misfortune is, that the sole it was impossible it should, since a princiobject is to make things clean; it matters pal part of the gratification consists in the not how many useful, ornamental, or valua- lady's having an uncontrolled right to torble articles are mutilated, or suffer deathment her husband at least once a year, and to turn him out of doors, and take the reins the common dirt of the room, and carried in of government into her own hands. There is a much better contrivance than this of the philosopher; which is, to cover the walls of the house with paper; this is generally done, and though it cannot abolish, it at least shortens, the period of female dominion. The paper is decorated with flowers of various fancies, and made so ornamental, that the women have admitted the fashion without perceiving the design. There is also another alleviation of the husband's distress; he generally has the privilege of a small room or closet for his books and papers, the key of which he is allowed to keep. This is considered as a privileged place, and stands like the land of Goshen amid the plagues of Egypt. But then he must be extremely cautious, and ever on his guard. For should he inadvertently go abroad and leave the key in his door, the housemaid, who is always on the watch for such an opportunity, immediately enters in triumph with buckets, brooms, and brushes; takes possession of the premises, and forthwith puts all his books and papers to rights to his utter confusion, and sometimes serious detriment. For instance: A gentleman was sued by the executors of a tradesman, on a charge found against him in the deceased's books, to the amount of £30. The defendant was strongly impressed with an idea that he had discharged the debt and taken a receipt; but, as the transaction was of long standing, he knew not where to find the receipt. The suit went on in course, and the time approached when judgment would be obtained against him. He then sat seriously down to examine a large bundle of old papers, which he had untied and displayed on a table for that purpose. In the midst of his search, he was suddenly called away on business of importance; he forgot to lock the door of his room. The house-maid, who had been long looking out for such an opportunity, immediately entered with the usual implements, and with great alacrity fell to cleaning the room, and putting things to rights. The first object that struck her eye was the confused situation of the papers on the table, these were without delay bundled together like so many dirty knives and forks; but in the action a small piece of paper fell unnoticed on the floor, which happened to be the very receipt in question as it had no very respectable appearance, it was soon after swept out with a rubbish pan into the yard. The tradesman had neglected to enter the credit in his book; the defendant could find nothing to obviate the charge, and so judgment went against him for the debt and costs. A fortnight after the whole was settled, and the money paid, one of the children found the receipt among the rubbish in the yard. There is also another custom peculiar to the city of Philadelphia, and nearly allied to the former. I mean that of washing the pavement before the doors every Saturday evening. I at first took this to be a regulation of the police; but on a further inquiry find it is a religious rite, preparatory to the Sabbath; and is, I believe, the only religious rite in which the numerous sectaries of this city perfectly agree. The ceremony begins about sunset, and continues till about ten or eleven at night. It is very difficult for a stranger to walk the streets on those eve nings; he runs a continual risk of having a bucket of dirty water thrown against his legs: but a Philadelphian born is so much accustomed to the danger, that he avoids it with surprising dexterity. It is from this circumstance that a Philadelphian may be known anywhere by his gait. The streets of New York are paved with rough stones; these indeed are not washed, but the dirt is so thoroughly swept from before the doors, that the stones stand up sharp and prominent, to the great inconvenience of those who are not accustomed to so rough a path. But habit reconciles every thing. It is diverting enough to see a Philadelphian at New York; he walks the streets with as much painful caution, as if his toes were covered with corns, or his feet lamed with the gout: while a New Yorker, as little approving the plain masonry of Philadelphia, shuffles along the pavement like a parrot on a mahogany table. It must be acknowledged, that the ablutions I have mentioned are attended with no small inconvenience; but the women would not be induced, from any consideration, to resign their privilege. Notwithstanding this, I can give you the strongest assurances, that the women of America make the most faithful wives and the most attentive mothers in the world; and I am sure you will join me in opinion, that if a married man is made miserable only one week in a whole year, he will have no great cause to complain of the matrimonial bond. I am, &c. ON POLITICAL PUBLICATIONS PRIOR TO THE REVOLUTION, COLLECTED FROM THE AUTOGRAPH NOTES OF DR. FRANKLIN, AS MATERIALS FOR Hints for a Reply to the Protests of certain Members of the House of Lords against the Repeal of the Stamp Act. In the ATHENEUM at Philadelphia are many vo lumes of pamphlets, which formerly belonged to Dr Franklin. Some of these are curious from the manuscript notes they contain in the margin. A few specimens have been selected for publication, both as having an historical interest, and as being peculiarly characteristic of their author. It should here also be observed, that the notes contained in these pamphlets were penned at the very time when he was supposed, by some persons either unfriendly to his character or ignorant of his motives, to be secretly acting a part in England more accord ant to his private aims, than to the high duties of a true lover of his country. From the tone, temper, and substance of these notes, let the reader judge with what justice such suspicions have been entertained, and such insinuations hazarded to the public. As mere private records of his thoughts prompted by the impulse of the moment, without any design of their ever seeing the light, they must be admitted to reveal his true sentiments, and to exhibit the unbiassed work ings of his mind. The above" HINTS" are found in the margin of Dr. Franklin's printed copy of the Protests, written at the time (1766), from which it would appear that it was his intention to make a formal answer to these Pro tests. This purpose, it is believed, was never executed. Parliament; at least can give no greater power than he had himself. Compliment the lords. Not a wiser or better body of men on earth. The deep respect impressed on me by the instance 1 have been witness to of their justice. They have been misled by misinformation. Proof of my opinion of their goodness, in the freedom with which I propose to examine their protests. The trust of taxing America was never reposed by the people of America in the legislature of Great Britain. They had one kind of confidence, indeed, in that legisla ture, that it would never attempt to tax them without their consent. The law was destructive of that confidence among them. Other advantages of colonies besides commerce. Selfishness of commercial views. The sovereignty of the crown I understand. The sovereignty of the British legislature out of Britain I do not understand. The fear of being thought weak is a timidity and weakness of the worst sort, as it betrays into a persisting in errors, that may be much more mischievous, than the appearance of weakness. A great and powerful state, like this, has no cause for such timidity. Acknowledging and correcting an error shows great magnanimity. Small states and small republics cannot afford to do so. America not in the realm of England or Great Britain? No man in America thinks himself exempt from the jurisdiction of the crown, and of the assemblies, or has any such private judgment. The agitation of the question of rights makes it now necessary to settle a constitution for the colonies. Restrictions should be only for the general good. Endeavour to convince reasonable creatures by reason. Try your hands with me. Never think of it. They are reasonable creatures. Reasonable laws will not require force. 501 |