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' 3 i i?4 " t j VOL. Ill -NO. 51. SELECT POETRY. IT IS ALMOST .MORNING. BY J. h. BATES. I. ' - Watching lone one stormy night, ()'.-r a daughter's pillow, AVhtle the hark in wild affright Leaned the hounding 'billow, And the ;ale moaned wide and wild, Willi :i voice of warning, .'Thus a mother soothed her child : "It is almost morning ! " II. A!i! how oft the weary heart, . Bowed in utter sorrow, I-ng hath watched the hours depart, Waiting- for the morrow ! And, when hope hath almost fled, Hailed the weieome warning: "Lift once more the bended head, It is almost morning!-" III. Often hath the erring soul , Through the midnight dreary, Prayed for faith to make it w hole, Waiting, worn and weary ; ..Watehing, longing for the day, And the joyous w: riving : " He hath wiped thy sins away, . It is almo.-t morning '. '' IV. Patriot, for thy native land . Though thy uenrt be bleeding; Slave, beneaili a tyrant's hand -V:,inly interceding; Dark although the night may be, " - ' Not a star adorning, . Lo ! the daylight gilds the sea ! "it is almo.-t morning ! " V. To thv unaeeu:otneil feet "' Thongh the way be weary; Thouuh thy brow the storm may beat, , Life seemed void and dreary ; Moon nor star make glad the skies, With its solemn warning ; Look aloft w?lh Faith's d.-ar eyes ; I ."It is almost morning!." VI. From .the unfortiiveii jn That hath bowed, thy spirit ; ' From the evil thoughts within That we all inherit ; From the - wronjj so hard to bear : From the cold world's .seeming ; From the midnight of despair; " It is almost morning ! " - VII. Dark although the night inay be, Mad the billows hoary, Morn ng walks along the sea, Morning, .light, and glory ! Breaks for thee the niirht of life : List, a double warning : From all earthly care and strife, " It is almost morning! " (iratid Rapids, Mich., Aug. 7, 1S5L . " ' ' , Knirherlsoclier. SELECTED STORY THE COLLISION liV vm. i.',:c.; kti y. The Active sU,p- .f-unr had been laving all dav becalmed, in mid ocean, and u .i- rolling and pitching about in .a-heavy ground swell, which was the only trace of the gale she had lately encountered. The sky was of a- lender'.and se rene a blue as if it had never b en deformed with clouds; and tji.e atmosphere., was"; bland and pleasant, although the latitude and the sea son might both have led one to expect different weather. Since the morning watch, wheu the wind alter blowing straight an end tor seeral ,1-n-o- t...t ,..r ! i-i.l .ii.-, -n. , .-n.v awav. tht ift had not been enough air stirring to lift the dog- j Vane from its staff! down which it hung in mo- tionless repose, except', when raised by tie heave and roll of the sea. ' 11. r coiiises had been haul ed up, and she lav under her three topsails, bra ced on-tlie opposite tacks, read) to take ad van f,age of the first breath of wind, tivm whatever quarter it might come The-'creiv were . -dispo-ed in various groups about the deck, some idling away in listless ease the interval of calm,, some with tin-ir clothes ba-s beside them, turnmg it to account in over-1 hauling their dunnage, while others moved fid. gety about on the forecastle aud in the waste, eyeing, ever and anon, the horizon round, as if already weary of their short holiday on the ocean, and impatiently watching for some sign of a breeze. , To a true sailor there are f..v circumstances more annoving than a perfect calm. The same principle of our nature which makes the traveler on lamL tlu.n.rh iournevino- without anv definite 0. j .-.- object, desire the postillion to whip up his horses and hasten to .the end of his stage, is man in a striking degree among seamen. The end of one voyage is but the beginning of another, and their lives are a constant succession of hardships and perils ; yet they cannot abide that the ele ments should grant them a moment's respite. As the wind dies away their spirits flag ; they move heavily and sluggishly about while the calm continues; but rouse at the first whisper of the breeze, and are never gayer or more ani mated than when their canvas swells out to its utmost tension in the gale. On the afternoon in question, this feeling of restlessness at the continuation of the calm was not confined to the crew of the Active. Her commander had been nearly all day on deck, WILLIAM D. COOKE, EDITOR I PROPRIETOR. A Bctotrtr to all tije 3n walking to and fro, on the starboard side, with quick, impatient strides, or now stepping into one gangway, and now into the other, and cast ing anxious and searching looks into all quar ters of the heavens, as if it were of the utmost consequence that a breeze should spring up and enaM" him to pursue his way. . Indeed, it was whispered among the officers that there were reasons of state which made it important they should reach their point of destination as speed ily as possible ; though where that point was, or what those reasons were, not a soul on board knew, except the captain and he was not a man likely to enlighten their ignorance on the subject. Few words indeed, did any one ever hear from Black Jack, as the reefers nicknamed him ; and when he did speak, what he said was not generally of a kind to make them desire he should often break his taciturnity. He was a straight, tall, stern-looking man, just passed the prime of life, as mighl le infer red from the wrinkles on his thoughtful brow, and the slightly grizzled hue of the locks about his temples ; though his hair elsewhere, was as black as the raven. His face bore the marks both of storm and battle ; it was furrowed and deeply embrowned by long exposure to every vicissitude of weather; and a deep scar across the left brow told a tale of dangers braved and over come. His eyes were large, black and piercing, and the habitual compression and curve of his lip indicated both firmness and haughtiness of character indications which those who sail ed with him had no reason to complain of as de ceptive." Hut' notwithstanding his impatience, and the urgency of his mission, what ver it was, the Ac tive continued to roll heavily about at the sport of the big round billows, which swelled up and spread and tumbled over so lazily, that their glassy surface were not broken by a ripple. The suu went down clear, but red and firey ; and the sky, , though its blue faded to a duskier tint, still remained uu fleeted by a single cloud. As the broad round disk disappeared beueath the wave, all hands were eaded to stand by their ham mocks; and when the stir and bustle incident to that piece of duty had subsided, an unwonted degree of stillness settled on the vessel. This was owing in part, no doubt, to the presence of the commander, before-whom the crew were not apt to indulge in any great exuberance of mer riment ; but the sluggish and unusual state of the weather had probably the largest share in the effect. The captain continued on deck, pacing up and down the starboard side ; the lieutenant of the watch leaned over the taffrel, his trumpet idly dangling by its becket from his arm ; and the two quarter-deck midshipmen walked in the gangway, beguiling their watch with prattle about home, or gay anticipations of the future. " We- shall have a dull and lazy night of it, Vangs,'' said the master's mate of the forecastle, as he returned from adding on the lo" slate an other " ditto" to the long column of them w hich recorded the history of the day. The person be addressed stood on the TTeel of the bowsprit, with his arms folded on his breast, and his gaze tixed intently on the western horizon, from which j the daylight had n w so completely faded, that it required a practiced and keen eye to discern where the sky and water met. He was a tail, lHre-framed, aged looking seaman, whose thick " v &- beaten face, and w hose shaggy overcoat, button ed to the throat, covered a form that for forty years had breasted the storms and perils of every sea. He did not turn his head, nor withdraw his eyes from the spot they rested on, as he said, " We shall have work enough before morning, Mr. Garnet." " Why, where do vou read that, Vauga V in- ' n.,t...-1 tltst .-. t ,1a I . I...... n . t U . .... I. ..-.,1..'... 1 ; 1 . 1 " I read it in a book I have studied through many a long cruise. Mr. Garnet, and though my eves are getting old, I think I can understand its meaning yet. Hark, ye youug meu, the hammocks are piped down, and the watch is set, but there will be no watch in, this night, mark my w ord." " Why, Vangs, you are turning prophet," re plied the master's mate, who was a rattling young fellow, full of blood and blue veins. "I shouldn't wonder to see you strike tarpaulin, when the 8 UP riS outin a brotul brim and straight toogs, and ship the next trip for parson. " Mv cruisings are pretty much over, Mr. Gar net, and my next trip, I am thinking, is one I shall have to go alone though there's a sign in the heavens this night makes me fear I shall have too much company." " Why, w hat signs do you talk of, man ?" said the young officer, somewhat startled by the quiet and impressive tone and manner jot tneoiciquar ! ter-master. " I see nothing that looks like ii .... i . i ii change of weather, and yet I see all that there is to be seen." I talked in the same way oncn, I remember," sajd Vangs, "when I was about your age, as we lay becalmed one night in theiold Charlotte, East Indiaman, heaving and pitching in the roll f a ground swell, much as we do now. The next morning found me clinging to a broken topmast, the only thing left of a fine ship of se ven hundred tons, which, with every soul on board of her, except me, had gone to the bot tom. That was before you were born, Mr. Garnet." "Such things have been, often, no doubt," said Garnet, ' and such things will be acrain nay, may happen as you say, before morning. But because you were once wrecked in a gale of FAMILY NEWSPAPER-NEUTRAL IN POLITICS. tmsts of Cf)c Souti), Citeraturt, frw RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA, SATURDAY, wind that sprung up out of the calm, it is no reason that every calm is to be followed by such gale. Shbw me a sign of wind and I may be lieve it ; but for my part, 1 see no likelihood of enough even to blow away the smoke of that cursed galley, which circles and dances about here on the forecastle, as if it was master's mate j of the watch, and was ordered to keep a bright j look out." i 'Turn your eyes in that direction, Mr. Gar- j net. Do vou not see a faint belt of lifht. no ; I broader than my hnger, that streaks the sky , where the sun went down ? It is not daylight, j for I watched that, all fade away, and the last glimmer of it was gone before that dim brassy streak began to show itself. And carry your eye in a straight line above it do you notmark' how thick and lead-like the air looks ? There is that there,' said the. old man, (laying his hand on the bowsprit, as he prepared to sit down be tween the night-heads,) 'will try what stuff these uuioers aie maue ui oeioretne morning oreaKS. i Young Garnet put his hand over his brow, j and'half shutting his eyes, peered intently in the j direction the old seaman indicated ; but no sign j pregnant with such evil as he forebode, or no appearance of the wished fo- breeze, met his j vision. Imputing the predictions of Vangs to those megrims which old sailors are apt to have ; in a long calm, or perhaps to a desire to play j upon his credulity, he folded his peacot more , . i. i i ?! oosely about him, and taking his seat oiJtethe nettings in such a position that he could lean back against the fore-rigging, prepared io setie hinised'dow n in that delicious state of repose, between sleeping and waking, in which he thought he might witli impunity doze awav such a quiet watch as his promised to be. lie had scarcely closed his eyes, however, when a sound wrung in his ears that made him spring to the deck, and at oi.ee dispelled all disposition : to slumber. It was the clear-trumpet-like voice of the captain himself, hailing the fori castle. ' Sir 1' brawled the ma.-ter's-mate. 'Have your halliards clear for running, sir ! your clueliness led along, and the men all at their stations.' .'.'Ay, ay, sir! sung Garnet in reply, and then muttered to himself, 'here's the devil to pay, and no pitch hot. What is the meaning of all this. I wonder ? Has the skipper seen old Yang's streak of brass too . or does he hope to coax the wind out, by raising such a breeze on deck V and he stepped upon a shot box, and cast anoth er long, searching glance into the western hori zon, but there was no sign there which to his inexperienced eye boded any change of weather. 'Fo'castle, there ! again sounded from the quarter-deck, but it was now the voice of the lieutenant of the watch, hailing through the trumpet. ' Sir'.' answered the" mate. ' Send the fo'castle men aloft to furl the fore sail. Quarter-gunners and afterguard, do you hear! lay aloft lay out furl away !' These and other similar orders were quickly obeyed, aud stillness again succeeded. But the attention of all on deck was now aroused ; and every one watched in silence for some less ques tionable foierunner of wind than was yet visible to their eyes. They all noticed, however, that the sky had grown thicker and of a dingerer hue, and that not a single star peeped through the gloom. But there w as a breath of air yet stir ring. The topsails continued to flap heavily against the masts, as they were swayed to and fro by the motion of the vessel; the lower yards creaked in their slings; and 'the ship headed now one way and now another, as she vawed and swung round, completely at the mercy of the swell. The seamen gathered in groups at their several stations, and waited in silence the result which all now began to apprehend. But while these feelings of indefinite fear were entertained by those" on deck, the watch below were disturbed by no such anxiety. The officers in the gun-room were variously occu pied according to their tastes and inclinations; some amusing themselves by reading, some writing, and others stretched upon the chairs or in their berths, dreaming away the intervals of rest. The midshipmen in the steerage had gathered round their mess-table, and were en gaged in lively chat and repartee, and in crack ing nautical jokes and witticisms upon each other. Their discourses were plentifully interlard ed with seaphrases ; for these juvinile sons of Neptune however slender their seamenship in other respects, have commonly great volubility in rattling off' the technicals of their profession, aud surprising facility in applying them to the ordinary topics of conversation. With the omis sion of a single letter, the distich describing Hudibras might be applied to them, or, if a poor pun be allowable, it may be said to fit them to a t, for Tbey cannot ope Their mouths, but out there falls a rope. One of the merriest and noisiest of the group in the. Active's steerage was a little, rose-cheeked, bright eyed reefer, whose flaxen hair curled in natural ringlets around his temples, and was surmounted by a small, low-crowned tarpaulin hat; cocked knowingly on one side, in amusing imitation of the style of the full grown jack tar. 'Hullo Jigger, how does she head now?' cried the little wag to one of the messboys, as his ban dy legs made their appearance down the com panion ladder. 'She head ebery which way, Misser Burton,' answered the black, his shining face dilated with a prodigious grin, showing he relished the hu mor of the question. 'It is a dead calm on deck, you know, Misser Burton, and de main yard is brace frat aback,' 'O, I see,' rejoined the urchin, 'they have hove her to, Jigger, to give her half a lemon to keep her from fainting. She has outsailed the w ind, and is lying by to wait for it.' 'Lying by, indeed!' said another; 'she is going like a top.' 'And if she keeps on,' added a third, 'she will soon go as fast as the Dutchman's schooner when l,n,-r r,roonf bolt - ropes, the sails havino- blown clear out of thpm at spi ' 'Oh, I have heard of that schooner,' resumed little Burton, the first speaker. 'It was she that sailed so fast, that when they broke up her hatches, they found she had sailed her bottom off.' 'Her skipper,' interrupted another, 'was both master and chief mate, and thev made the duly easy by dividing it between them, watch and watch.' 'Yet the Dutchman grew so thin upon it,'add- ... ed little Burton, 'that when he got home his mother and sTster couldn't both look at him at once.' 'And his dog,' said the other, got so weak that it had to lean against the mast to bark.' 'Come, come, take a turn there and belay,' cried one of i ho older midshipmen, who was stretched at full length upon a locker. -Come, you have chased that joke far enough. Heave about, and see if vou can't give -us something better on t'other tack.' 'Well, Tom Derrick, if you don't like our rigs tip us a twist yourself. Come, spin us a yarn, my boy, if you have your jaw-tacks aboard.' 'Xo, no, Charley Burton, I can't pay out any slack to-night. I am as sleepy as a lookout in a calm. My eves feel like the mariner's w hen his cue was served so taut, he couldn't make his eyelids meet. Hullo, Jigger, rouse out mv hammock from that heap and hang it up. You know where it is, don't you V 'Ki '. I w ish I had as much tobacco as I know which Misser Derrick's hammock is,' eas ily replied the negro. This characteristic speech produced a heartv burst of laughter ; and in chat and merriment of this sort the evening slipped away, until; the hour for extinguishing the lights arrived! and the quarter master came down to douse the glim. 'Well, Vangs,' cried the ever-ready Burton, 'it's blowing an Irishman's hurricane on deck, isn't it straight up and down, like a pig's eye?' 'It is all quiet yet,' replied Vangs, 'but the sky has a queer look, and there will be a hurri cane of a different sort before you are many hours older, Mr. Charles.' 'Is there then really any prospect of wind?' asked the midshipman whom we have called Derrick. ' There is something brewing in the clouds we none of us understand," answered the old man, in his low quiet tone. ' We shall have more wind than we want before long, or I am out in my reckoning.' ' Let it come but end foremost, if it chooses, and tne sooner the better,' said young Barton laughing ;' any weather rather than this, for this is neither fish, flesh no, red herring. Let it blow, Vangs. and I wouldn't mind if it were such a breeze as you had in the old Charlotte, you know, when it blew the sheet anchor into the t'oretop, and it took three men to hold the cap tain's hair on his head.' The old quartermaster turned a grave and thoughtful look on the round face of the lively boy, and seemed meditating an answer that might repress what probably struck hiui as un timely mirth ;but even while he was in the act of speaking, the tempest he had predicted burst in sudden fury upon the vessel. The first indi cation those below had of its approach was the wild, rushing sound of the gust, which broke upon their ears like the roar of a volcano. The j heaving and roiling of the ship ' ceased all at once, as if the waves had been subdued and j clmined dow n by the force of a mighty pressure- The vessel stood motionless an instant, as if in i stinct with life, aud cowering in conscious fear of the approaching strife ; the tempest then burst upon her, but end foremost, as Burton ex pressed it, and the stately mast reeled and fell over before it, like a tower struck down bv a thunderbolt. The surge was so violent, that the ship was thrown almost on her beam-ends, and everything on board not secured in the strongest manner, was pitched with great force to leeward. Midshipmen, mess table, hammocks, and the contents of the mess lockers fell rust ling, rattling, and mixed in strange disorder, 'o the lee scuppers ; and when the ship slow ly righted, straining and trembling in every plank, it was a moment or two before those who had been so unexpectedly heaped together in the bends, could extricate themselves from the con fusion and make their way to the upper dek. There a scene of fearful grandeur was presen ted. The sky was of a murky, leaden hue, and appeared to beud over the ship in a nearer and narrower arch, binding the ocean in so small a rouud, that the eye could trace, through the whole circle, the line where the sickly-looking heavens rested on the sea. The air was thick and heavy ; and the water, covered with driving snow-like foam, seemed to be packed and flat tened down by the fury of the blast, which scat tered its billows into spray as cutting as the sleet of a December storm. The wind howled and screamed through the rigging with an ap palling sound, that might be likened to the f hrieks and wailings of aogry fiends ; and the ship fled before the tempest like an affrighted thing, with a velocity that piled the water in a atton, agriculture, NOVEMBER 18, 1854. huge bank around her bows, and sent it whirl- ing and sparkling in lines of dazzling whiteness, soon lost in the general hue of the ocean, which resembled a wild waste of drifting snow. There was one on deck, however, who had foreseen this awful change, and made prepara- tions to meet it ; and when the tempest burst, in full, fell swoop, upon his ship, it found noth- ; i"g hut the bare hull and spars to oppose its ! ''tremendous power. Every sail was closely and ! 1 securely furled, except the fore storm staysail, j which was set for a reason that seamen will un- derstand ; but being hauled well aft by both , sheets, it was stretched stiffly amidships, and presented nothing but the bolt-rope for the wind to act upon. The mats and yards, with their I snug and well bound rolls of canvas, alone en- : countered the hurricane. But even these were i, i tried' to the uttermost. The topmasts bent and j creaked before the blast, aud the royal poles of j the topgallant masts, which extended above the ' crosstrees, whipped and thrashed about like pli i ant rods. The running ringing rattled against the spars, and the shrouds and backstays strain ed and cracked, as if striving to draw the strong bolts which secured them to the vessel. .. ; For more than an hour did the Active flee along in this way, like a wild horse foaming and j if it Were the arrowy tongue of some huge, sea' ; -stretching at his utmost speed, driven onward j monster. At this instant a wild sound of ago I in the van of the tempest, and exposed to :ts j ny, between a shriek and a groan, was heardin . fiercest wrath. At length the first fury of the that direction, and those who turned to ascer- gale passed away, and the wind, though still ra- j tain its cause saw as the vessels again separated, ! ging tempestuously, swept over her with less ! a human body, swinging and writhing at the j appalling force. The ocean, now, as if to re- ! strangers bowsprit head. The vessel heaved up venge itself for its constrained inactivity, rous- ! into the moonlight, and showed the face of poor ed from its brief repose, and swelled into billows j Vangs, the quai ter-master, his back apparently that rolled and chased each other with the wild crushed and broken, but his arms clasped round glee of ransomed demons. Wave upon wave, I the spar, to which he appeared to cling with con--in multitudinous confusion, caine roaring in from J vulsive tenacity. The bowsprit had caught him astern; and their white crests, leaping, ajid j on its eud as it ran in over the Active's side, and sparkling, and hissing, formed a striking feature in the scene. The wind, fortunately, issued from the riirht, and drove the Active towards her place of destination. The dumb pall of clouds, which from the commencement of the gale, had totally overspread the heavens, except I in the quarter whence the blast proceeded, now began to give way, and a reddish light shone out here aud there, in long horizontal streaks, like the glow of expiring coals between the bars j gave a heavy drunken lurch to starboard, till her of a furnace. Though the first dreadful violence J topmasts whipped against the rigging of her an of the storm was somewhat abated, it still raved j tagonist, then rising slow ly on the ridge of the with too much fierceness and power to admit of any relaxation of vigilance. The commander himself still retained the trumpet, and every of ficer stood in silence at his station, clinging to whatever might assist him to maintain his dsffi cult footing. ' Light, oh !' cried the lookout on one of the catheads. ' Where away ?' demanded the captain. ' Dead ahead.' ' What does it look like, and how far off V shouted the captain, in a loud and earnest voice 'Can see nothing now, sir; the glim is dous ed.' 'Here, Mr. Burton,' cried the commander, ' take this night glass; jump aloft on the. fore yard, sir, and see if you can make out an object ahead. Hurry up, hurry up, and let me hear from you immediately, sir ! Lay aft to the bra ees ! Forecastle, there! have hands by your -taysail sheets on both sides. Foreyard, there !' But before the captain had finished his hail, the voice of little Burton was heard, singing out, ' Sail oh !' ' What does she look like, and where away V ' A large vessel, lying-to under bare poles starboard your helm, sir, quick hard a star board, or vou will fall aboard of her!' This startling intelligence was hardly commu nicated before the vessel described from aloft loomed suddenly into sight from deck through I the thick weather to leeward. Her dusk and' ! shadowy form seemed to rise up from the ocean, i so suddenly did it open to view, as the driving mist was scattered for a moment. She lay I right athwart the 'Active's bows and almost uii I der her lore foot as it seemed while she pilch ! ed into the trough of an euormons sea and the i Active rode on the ridge of the succeeding wave, w hich curled above the chasm, as if to overwhelm the vessel beneath. 'Starboaid your helm, quarter-master! hard a starboard !' cried the commander of the Ac tive, in a tone of startling energy. ' Starboard !' repeated the deep solemn voice of old Vangs, who stood on the quarter-nettings, his tall figure propped against the mizzen rio-rin"-, and his arm wreathed around the CIS f shroud. ' Jump to the braces, men ! continued the cap tain, strenuously 'haul in your starboard bra ces, haul ! ease off your larboard ! does she come to. quarter-master? Fo'castle, there ! ease off your staysail sheet let all go, sir !' These orders were promptly obeyed, but it was too late for them to avail. The wheel, in the hands of four stout and experienced seamen, was forced swiftly round, and the effect of the rudder was assisted by a pull of the starboard braces ; but in such agafe, and under bare poles, the helm exerted but little power over the dri- j were doubtless eagerly awaiting them, and anx ving and ponderous mass. She had headed 'off; ious eyes strained 'over the ocean 4 to hail th hardly a point from her course, when she was j bark that never could return.' No word, no taken up by a prodigious surge, a id borne on- j whis-per ever to their fate. They who saw them ward with fearful velocity. The catastrophe was h-HsI, know not the victims, and the deep gave now inevitable. In an instant the two ships fell together, their massive timbers crashing with the fatal force of the concussion. A wild shriek ascended irora the deck of the stranger, and wo man's shrill voice mingled with the sound. All was now confusion and uproar on board both vessels. The Active had struck the stranger tic ;&terfcet0, broad on the bows, while the bowsprit of the latter, rushed in between the fore-mast and the starboard fore-rigging of the Active, and snap ped her shrouds and stays, and tore up the bolts and chainplates, as if they had been thread and vre. Staggering back from the shock, she was carried to some distance by a refluent wave, which suddenly subsiding, she gave such a heavy lurch to port that the foremast now wholly un- supported on the starboard side snapped short off like a withered twig, and fell with aloud plash in the ocean. ' The foremast is gone by the board !' shouted the officer of the forecastle. ' My God !' exclaimed the captain,' and Chas. Burton has gone with it ! Fo'castle, there ! " Did Charles Burton come down from the forevard ! ' Burton ! Burton ! Burton !-' called twenty voices, and 'Burton!' was .shouted loudly over the side ; but there was no nply ! In the meanwhile another furious billow lifted the vessel on its crest, and the two ships closed again, like gladiators, faint and stunned, but still compelled to do ba tie. The bows of the stran- ger this time drove heavily against the bends of the Active, just abaft her main rigging and her bowsprit darted quivering over the bulwarks, as driving against the mizenmast, deprived the poor wretch of all power to rescue himself from the dreadful situation. While a hundred eyes were fastened in agaze of horror on the impaled j seaman, thus dangling over the boiling ocean, the strange ship again reeled forward, as if to re new the terrible encounter. But her motion was now slow and laboring. She was evidently settling by the head ; she paused in mid career, next wave she plunged head foremost, and dis appeared forever. One shriek of horror and des pair rose through the storm and wild delirious shriek ! The water swept over the drowning wretches, aud hushed their gurgling cry. Then all was still ! all but the rush and whirl of waves as thoy were sucked into the vortex, and the voice of the storm, which howled its wild dirge above the spot. When day dawned on the ocean, the Active presented a different appearance from that which she exhibited but for a few short hours before. Her foremast gone, her bowsprit sprung, her topgallant masts struck, her bulwarks shattered, her rigging hanging loose and whitened by the wash of the spray she looked little like the gay and gallant thing which, at the same hour of the previous day, had ploughed her course through the sea, despite the adverse gale, and moved proudly along under cloud of canvas, as if she defied the fury of the elements. Now, how changed ! how sad the contrast ! The ap pearance of such-of the officers and crew as were moving about the deck harmonized with that of the vessel. They looked pale and dejected; and the catastrophe they had witnessed had left tra ces of horror stamped on every brow. The Ac tive was still near the spot of the fatal event, ha- ving been lying-to under a close reefed main sail, which the lulling of the wind had enabled her to bear. As the dawn advanced, the up per deck became crowded, and long and search ing looks were cast over the ocean in every di rection, in the hope to discover some vestige of t iose who had met their fate during the night. Such of the boats as had not been staved were lowered, and longind patient efforts were made to discover traces of the wreck. But the search was fruitless, and was at last reluctantly aban doned. The boats were again handed up and stowed ; the Active filled away, and uuder such sail as she could carry in hercrippled state, crept forward towards her goal During the rest of, her voyage no merry laugh, no lively prattle, cheered the steerage mess-table. The bright eyes of Charles Burton were closed his silvery voice was hushed his gay heart was cold his messmates mourned his timeless fate with real sorrow. In a few days, the sloop-of-war reached her port,'and was immediately warped to the dock yard, where she was stripped, hove down, and thoroughly overhauled. The officers and crew lent themselves earnestly to the duty, and a short' time served to accomplish it. In let-s than a week everything set up and all a taunto, the ship haused out again, gleaming fresh with paint and looking as proud and stately as before the disaster. But where was she that had been wrecked in the encounter ? Where and who were those that perished with her? Fond hearts not up the dead. The entire repeal of the Usury Laws in Great Bri tain, says the New York Courier, has been accom plished at the recent session of Parliament. It is now lawful in Great Britain to loan money at any rate of interest, and oh any description of proper' ty, either real utate or otherwise. TERMS, TWO DOLLIES PER ANCM &c. WHOLE NO. 155 MISCELLANEOUS. From the Child's Paper. A NEWS TIPPET'S WORTH. 'T do not want a new tippit this winter, or any thing new, dear mother," said a little girl when her mother began to tell'about buying some new w inter clothes; "rfo, mother, let me wear jny old ' ones 4" The tone and rfianner of the clnld sup prised her mother, especially as she found it no sudden freak, tbi she had said the same thing before, and repeated it now more earnestly than ever. "Not want a new tippet, when all your cousins are to have new ones?" said the mother, " w hy, I never saw a child that did not like new things." " I do not know as I do exactly," said Janette. " And why do you not?" asked her mother ; " why no?" " Because," said the littlegirl, hesitating a mo ment, " because," it makes me feel real! bad to be dressed up so, when there are so many chil dren who have no clothes to wear, or houses to live in, or bread to eat ; aud there are ever so many in heathen countries, who have no Bibles and schools, and nothing good a I have. Oh, mother, if instead of buying a new tippet, you would only let me have the money) to help them with, then I would be as glad as could be." As the mother listened to all her daughter said, tears came in her eyes, for she was afraid she had thought more of dressing her little girl in fine clothes, than of teaching her to love thers, and of finding her the means of carry ing out her love. But this had been taught Janette by her Heavenly Parent, who is called the God of love. And what does Christian love ask of you and me, and every Christian child ? That we must not live onlv to clothe and fead and improve and please ourselves. Oh no, for we have., a great many brothers, and sis ters in the world, who are des itute and wicked iiid sorrowful ; and the great God gives to us that we ma share with them. He ni ght re lieve them at once from his almighty hand ; but he sees fit to m ike us, you and me, litis agents, little agents and great ones, in this good work. And now, as winter approaches, bow many children feel like giving a beautiful new tippit'a worth to help the poor? Perhaps you are not able to give as much as that, but are you doing something As the November winds sweep around your snug littte chamber, llo you re member the poor ? As you offer your evening prayer, and how 'sweet it is to "pray the Lord your soul to keep," do you remember the poor children who are bowing down to ido gods and monster-gods ? "And did her mother give Janette the tip pet's worth ?" asks some little girl, perhaps. Yes, she did. Janette wore her old woollen tip pet, and '' the new tippet's worth" she gave away to do good to others ; and never jwas a hap pier child than she: for the Scripture says, 4 It is more blessed to give than to receive;;" and the Scripture make true statements. Whiskey and Nkwspapkrs. A glas of whiskey is manufactured from- perhaps a dozen grains of mashed corn, the value of wdiich is too small to be estimated. A pint of tfcis mix-tin-sells at retail for one shilling, and; if ag ol brand, it is considered by its consumers wen worth the money. It is drank off in a minute or two it fires the brain rouses the passions sharpens the appetite deranges and weakens the physical system ; it is gone and swollen eyes, parched lips, and an aching head are its followers. On the same sideboard apon which this is served, lies a newspaper, the -new white paper of which cost threefourths of a cent the . composition for the whole edition costing from ten to fifteen dollars per day. It is covered with half a million of types, it brings intelligence from the four quarters of the globe; it has in its clearly printed columns all that is strange or new at home it tells you the slate of th mar ket gives accounts of the last elopement, tin execution of the last murderer and the iat st steamboat explosion or railroad disaster a: d yet tor all th's, the newspaper cottB less than the glass of grog the juice of a few grains of corn. It is no less strange than true, that there are a large portion of the community who think the corn juice cheap and the newspaper dear, ' "d the printer has hard work toj collect bis dimes, when the liquor dealers are paid cheer fully. . ! How is this ? Is the body a better paymas- ter than the head, nd are things of the mo ment more prized than things of eternity ? Is the transient tickling of the stomach of more consequence than the improvement of the soul, and the information that is essential to a ration a leing ? If this had its value, woiuld not the newspaper be worth many pints of whiskey. torett .ttttj. Growing Fish. The Cleveland Ohio City Fact, says that one of the most pleasfi'g things exhibited at their late-County Fair. Was a lot of brook trout, artificially bred by Drs Garlick and Ackley, whose labors in this line we have here tofore noticed. They showed several broods of fish in different stages of growth, anjd have de monstrated that it is just as easy to grow fish as it is fowls, or any other description f food. We hope all agricultural societies will take a hint from this, and offer premiums for such a show of fish as will best illustrate the fact to far mers that they can grow the cheapest food ever produced for man upon their forms wherever they have natural . water or can make artificial ponds. Let us have the premiums !for the best show of fish artificially produced p upon any farm." It is a matter of very serious considera tion, when fresh fish sells here at the same price per pound as beef, pork ft&d muttofi. K - j I i. t- I-;. 1 4 4 i 1 si i" r. if V s--- t"' - yr S 4 v. y
Southern Weekly Post (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Nov. 18, 1854, edition 1
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