bbiso back my fjlowers.
» Briiiff liack my flowers !” said a rosy child,
As she played by the streamlet’s side,
And cast down wreathes of the flowerets wild
On the ever-hurrying tide.
But the stream flowed on, and her treasures
bore
To the far-off sparkling sea.
To return to the place of their birth no more,
Though she cried, “ Come back to me,
Ye fairest gems of these forest bowers ;
Oh, stream
bright stream ! briug back my
flowers.'
a Bring back my flowers !” said a noble youth.
As he mournfully stood alone.
And sadly thought on the broken truth
Of a heart that was once his own,—
Of a light that shone on his life’s young day.
As brilliant as man e’er knew,—
Of a love that his reason had led astray.
And to him was no longer true.
“ Return I" he cried, “life’s brightest hours I
Oh, stream of time ! bring back my flowers.’
“Bring back my flowers 1” a motber sighed,
O’er the grave where her infant slept;
And where,' in her stubbornness and pride,
She her tearful vigils kept.
“ Oh, why does the cruel hand of Death
Seek.victims so lair as slio t
Oh, why are the loved oues of ofhers left,
While mine is tims snatched from mo ?
Who gave to thee, Death, such cruel powers?
Oil, grave I dark grave I bring back my flow
ers."
“ Bring
back my flowers !’’ said a gicy-baircd
man,
For the friends of his youth were fled ;
And those ho bad loved and cherished most,
Were slumbering with the dead.
But a faith in his G-od still cheered him on.
Though the present was dark and drear, ^
For he kuew that in lieavon he’d meet again
The-frionds upon earth so dear.
“Come, Death!” ho cried, “for in Eden’s
bowers
Our God will restore our long-lost flowers."
liOMES AlVi) SCIIOOES FOB
CHIEDBEN.
FOR OE-
GOOD TEMPLARS HOME
PlIASS, VALLEJO, CAL.
Children betwen 2 mid 12 years
of age are received here, and are
retained till after 14. The sources
of revenue are : 20 per cent of the
Graiul Lodge per-capita tax;
State aid, uiitler the law of Cali
fornia relating to orphan asylums ;
donations of lodges and individu
als, and revenue derived from the
siip[iort of childien whose surviv
ing parent, guardian, or friends
inav pay a niontlily " stipend.
These sources of revenue are sta
ted to be amply sufficient for the
wants of the home, which, in
1874, sheltered 55 children—39
boys and 16 girls.
The report for 1874 states that
all the laws of California in rela
tion to granting State aid to or
phan asylums emanated either
from this Grand Lodge or from
this board; and the act of the
legislature of last session, con
cerning the guardianship of or
phaned and abandoned children,
was passed at the suggestion^ of
this board. Under the operation
of the statutes now in force, the
State contributes a large and sat
isfactory proportion of the cost of
maintaining the orphan asylums
of the State, and in such equita
ble proportion to each as the num
ber of inmates entitled them to.
With the existing laws the board
is now content, believing they
have been enacted in accordance
with the suggestions of experi
ence ; and their practical opera
tion has justified their wisdom.
The children here are instruct
ed in the common school branch
es of education, and an effort ^ is
being made to provide some in
dustrial training also.
HARTFORD ORPHAN ASYLUM, CON.
This institution was organized
in 1819, and has received on an
average 60 children annually. It
is well supported, and is doing a
steady and creditable work.
NEW HAVEN ORPHAN ASYLUM,
This institution had its origin
some forty j’ears ago in the ef
forts of about twenty-five benev
olent ladies, who, after discussing
the needs and sufferings of the
destitute children of the city, or
ganized the New Haven Female
Society for the Eelief of Orphan
and Destitute Children, out of
which grew the New Haven Or
phan Asylum, incorporated in
May, 1833.
Its officers are a board of fe
male managers, consisting of a
president, cliief manager, treas
urer, corresponding secretar^^, re
cording secretary, provider, and
forty managers. These control
the appropriation of the income of
the asylum and have the general
management of the internal and
domestic concerns of the institu
tion. The constitution provides
that the board of managers shall
be chosen from the different Prot
estant evangelical religious de
nominations of the city.
Besides this, nine gentlemen
are elected annually by the soci
ety as a board of trustees, whose
duty it is to take cliarge of the
property ot corporation, both per
sonal and real. They are ex-officio
counselors of the board of mana
gers, and act as advisers to them
in all cases of necessity.
Many of the children received
have friends who pay a merely
nominal sum weekly, in order to
retain tlie control of their chil
dren, hoping some time to be able
to care for them.
Children are not received be
fore they are 2 years old or after
they have completed their tenth
year, and they are rarely kept in
the asylum alter the}' are 14 years
of age. Then they are placed in
some family wheie they can be
taught soiue trade or employment
and also attend school during a
portion of tlie year. The by-laws
contain the following provisions
on the subject;
Persons taking cliildren into
their families must be married or
keeping house, regular attendants
of a Protestant place of worship
and be recommended by their
pastor or other respectable per
sons.
No child shall be indentured to
sewing-room, w'here several sewing
machines are kept in constant
operation, making and mending
the children’s clothing. On the
next story are the apartments of
tlie matron and teachers, the boys’
and girls’ rooms, nursery, bath
rooms, &c. Above these are the
sleeping-rooms and hospital. Each
sleeping-room contains fifteen or
twenty little iron bedsteads, and
the care of the beds is delegated
to one or two of the larger boys
or girls, and tliroughout the whole
house those who are able to work
are initiated into all the mysteries
of housekeeping.
In the basement, beside the
hot-air and steam-furnaces which
heat the building, are two large,
separate play-rooms for the boys
and girls. Here each child has
a little closet or box in whicli he
keeps his own playthings, and
they are made the means of
teaching the children neatness and
the difference between ‘mine’ and
thine.’
The present number of cliildren
in the asylum is ijot far from 110,
and the total number who have
found a home in it since its or
ganization is considerably over
000.
The accounts of the asylum
have been very carefully kept,
and there is ground for felicitating
the ladies on the fact that ^n
institution managed entirely by
them has not lost a single cent by
carelessness in keeping the ac
counts in the forty years of its
liistorjL The records show that
when the asylum was first founded
the average cost of maintaining
each child ivas $1 per week ; in
1847, it was 75 cents; in 1848,
77 cents; and in 1870, 64 cents.
The discipline of the asylum is
of the most careful sort, and eveiy
endeavor is made to mitigate in
the cases of these desolate children
the absence of a mother’s care and
father’s watchfulness. The school
connected with it is in excellent
condition and reflects great credit
on its teachers. It has also
valuable children’s library of
several hundred volumes, which
has been replenished for some
time past by annual donation of
fifty dollars.—Bureau of Education.
of
EOKD MACAEEAY.
perform labor under 12 yean
age ; the term of service shall be
discretionary with the board ol
managers.
Employes will be allowed two
months’ trial, at the expiration of
which time, if either party is dis
satisfied, the child may be return
ed to the asylum.
Great care must be taken by
the board to secure to the chil
dren a comfortable home, kind
treatment, and a thorough indus
trial, moral, and religious educa
tion.
The grounds are very beauti
fully laid out and the' building-
large and convenient. The deep
front yard is covered with a soft
and rich turf and shaded by a
number of large and elegant ev
ergreens, wdiile in the rear ol the
house jire the ample play-grounds
and a neatly-kept kitchen-garden.
Entering the building, one finds
on the ground-floor the parlors
and sitting-room ol the lamily,
the large dining-room for the
children, the capacious kitchen,
wash-room, pantries, &c., and the
The publication of the biogra
phy of one of the most influential
wiiters that has ever made use of
the English language is almost
national event; and to the admir
able biography of Lord Macaulay
just published by his nephew,
Mr. Trevelyan, there attaches
this unique interest, that it is, to
an extent perliaps quite unprece
dented, a revelation of the char
acter of the man. We cannot
the astonishment with
express
which we were affected when we
found that, until we read this
book, we had never known the
true Macaulay. Opinions, we
were aware, might differ concern
ing him on several points; but
all the world, we fancied, must
agree that a polished, lance-like,
crystalline clearness and hardness
ranked among his most character
istic qualities. Of him, almost as
confidently as of Goethe, we
would have said that ‘he never
wept, or that his teais were as
dro[)s of water trickling over ad
amant.’ And now it is demon
strated beyond possibility of
question that Macaulay was one
of the most tender-hearted of hu
man beings, a creature whose
organization was intensely emo
tional, whose very life depended
on the nearness of those he loved.
As a child he would cry for joy
when his mother returned to him,
after a few liours’ absence, and
she, ‘till her husband put a stop
to it,’ often made an exhibition to
her friends of her power ol work
ing on the little fellow’s Lelings.
He died at last of heart complaint,
brought to a crisis by the pros
pect of having to bid his sister.
Lady Trevelyan, farewell, on her
departure for India. His delight
in children was the unaffected,
buovmnt, sympathetic deliglit of
one who, in heart, remained
throughout life a child. He
would laugh with them, romp
with them, rhyme with them, ad
dress beautifully versified valen
tines to them, but never forgot to
treat them with a reverential del-
licacy of loving care. Think of
this—it is Macaulay himself who
writes—“Alice was in perfect
aptures over her valentine. She
begged quite pathetically to be
t fid the truth about it. WPea we
were alone together, she said, “ I
am going to be serious.” Down
she fell before me on her knees,
and lifted up her hands : “ Dear
uncle, do tell the truth to your
little girl. Did you send the val
entine V' I did not choose to tell
a real lie to a child, even about
such a trifle, and so I owned it.”
His lun with children was often
good enough for their elders; and
ins pet hatreds, always manly and
rational hatreds, found their way
into it. He cordially hated and
despised, for instance, that truly
hateful and despicable thing, Pu-
seyish, and it is as follows that
he announces to two of liis nieces
how he intends to celebrate the
solemn Puseyite festival of Mich
aelmas at Claphan :—“ Michael
mas will, I hope, find us all at
Clapham over a noble goose. Do
you remember tlie beautiful Pu
sevite hymn on Michaelmas day?
It is a great favorite with all the
Tractarians. You and Alice
should learn it. It begins—
“ ’Thttugh Quakers scowl, though Baptists
howl,
Though Plymouth Brethren rage,
We Churchmen gay will wallow to-day
In apple-sauce, onions, aud sage.
“ ’Ply knife and fork, and draw the cork.
And have the bottle handy ;
For each slice of goose will introduce
A thitnblo-ful of brandy.”
It is good? 1 wonder who the
author can be. Not Newman, 1
think. It is above him Perhaps
it is Bishop Wilberforce.” It was
not o ily his own nieces and ne
phews that he loved ; tho thought
of any child that was desolate and
unhappy affected him to tears,
and a paragraph in a prayer about
the suicide ot a girl would make
him cry. In all that related to
money he was extremely gener
ous, and Dickens himself could
not have been more easily im
posed upon by a tale of distress.
With quite romantic, and, indeed,
almost absurd munificence, he
insisted upon it that Mr. Adam
Black, the eminent Edinburgh
publisher, who had exerted him
self to secure his return from
Edinburgh, should pay nothing
for those exquisite biographies of
Buuyan, Goldsmitli, Pitt aud
others, which form brightly green
oases in the sand}' expanses of
the Encyclopiedia Britamiica,|and
were separately published in a
charming volume. The gen
uineness of Ills emotional displays
being thus attested, we can have
no suspicion of affectation when
we hear of his crying like a girl
over tlie woes of Priam and the
death of Hector as described in
the Iliad. In short, this keen
reviewer, this laughter to scorn
of Eobert Montgomery, this grim
executioner of Barrere, this man
who was thought to have a two
fold share of coldness, first as a
literary artist and secondly as a
Whig, was one of the most affec
tionate and tender men that ever
lived.
The secret—for a secret it cer
tainly was—could not, we think,
have been kept if it had not been
for Macaulay’s almost morbid,
carefulness as a writer. He made
a rule for himself, Mr. Trevelyan
tells us, “to publish iiotliing which
was not carefully planned, strenu
ously laboured, and minutely fin
ished ;” and it is just tho traces of
emotion which the labor of the
file is apt to remove. We doubt
whether there is anything so
striking in Macaulay’s published
writings as some of the mere
dashes and random touches of his
pen when he writes amid sur
rounding din, or in some snatched
moment of exciteipent to his
sisters, or when he jots down a
remark in liis journal without a
thought of its being published.
Take this, apropos of Moore’s life
of Byron :—“It is a sad book.
Poor fellow ! Yet lie was a bad
fellow, and horribly affected.”
That is a complete critique of the
biography, aud a condensed esti
mate of tlie poet. Still finer, in
espect of execution, is his por
trait of Brougham, as he saw him
for the first time when they both
sat in the .House of Peers. “A
strange fellow ! His powers gone.
His spite immortal. A dead net
tle !” AVe restrict our praise of
this to its merits as a portrait by
a literary artist. There is noth
ing so wildly strong in his books
as his description of the scene in
the House of Commons when the
Tories were beaten on the Eeform
bill in 1831 : “Then again the
shouts broke out, and many of us
shed tears. I could scarcely re
frain. And the jaw of Peel fell;
and the face of Twiss was as the
face of a dammed soul; and Her-
rio.s looked like Judas taking his
necktie off for the last operation.”
This strikes us as combining the
manner of Jlichael Angelo with
that of Eembrandt, with some
thing added from the liumor of
George Ci’uickshank in his most
sardonic mood. AYe have no
hesitation in sa}'ing that the repu
tation of Lord Macaulay as a
literary man will be raised by tho
specimens of his off-hand work
given in this biography.
But, after all, the most impor
tant consideration relating to the
boundless pojmlarity of Macaulay
is that it rests on the basis of
sound moral teaching. Wo sliall
not say that the moral tone of his
writings proved ultimately to be
so high as it at one time promised
to be. He began with the Puri
tans : in his later life lie studied
the base generation that shouted
1 and drivelled round Charles II.