and to reflect in her smooth face the uneasiness of his. But their pastime was of short continuance. It was melancholy pretence. There was nothing hearty in it, except the dance of the child's forehead locks tossed to and fro in the clear moonshine. I soon found out the cause of this depression. He was beginning to be pinched under an ugly coalition, an increasing family, decreasing business, and times taxed to the utmost. The gentlefolks, living about the great squares, did not spend so much money as formerly, in decking their windows and balconies with early flowers and rare exotics, and this was an important source of Wilson's revenue. He bore up, however, with sad patience, for a long time, till hunger thinned and stretched the round faces of his children, and his wife's endearments, instead of coming with hope and encouragement, seemed like tokens of love growing more spiritual and devoted under despair; they were embraces hallowed and made sublime by fame. All this was more than the poor man could bear. The failing voices of his unconscious children, were like madness bringing sounds in his ear; and one night, losing in the tumult of his thoughts all distinction between right and wrong, he rushed forth and committed robbery. I shall never forget, as long as I live, the hour when he was apprehended by the officers of justice. A knock was heard at the outer gate; and on Mrs. Wilson's going to open it, two men rushed by her into the house, and seized her pale and trembling husband, who, although he expected and dreaded such an event, was so staggered by it as to lose, for a few moments, his consciousness of all about him. The first thing he saw on coming to himself, was his wife stretched at his feet in a fearful swoon, and as he was hurried off, he turned half raving, and half imploring, "look there, look there!" It would be vain to attempt a description of the wretched hours passed by him and his wife in the interval which elapsed between this period and the time of his trial. The madness of his utter despair perhaps, was less intolerable than the sickening agitation produced in her mind by the air built hopes she dared to entertain in weary succession, and which were only born to be soon stricken back into nothing. This is indeed a ghastly and withering conflict. The poor woman, after enduring it for three weeks, could not be easily recognized by her old acquaintances. There were no traces left of the happy, busting wife. She moved silently among her children, her face was emaciated, and hectic; and her eyes were red with the constant swell of tears. It was a mighty change. The day of tri at length came on; Wilson was found guilty, and sentence of death was passed on him. The laws in their justice had enforced the taxation, the hard pressure of which had so mainly assisted to drive him into the crime. But the world is inexplicable. His wife did not survive this news many hours. She died in the night without a struggle. It was of no use to let the condemned man know this. I knew he would never ask to see her again; for their meetings in prison had already been tormenting beyond endu rance. I visited him in his cell two days before the time appointed for his execution. He was silent for many minutes after I entered, and I did not attempt to rouse him. At length, with a voice quivering under an effort to be composed, he said: "Although, Mr. Saville, I do not request (I was going to say I do not wish, but God knows how false that would be,) to behold my wife again in this bitter, bitter his eyes towards her with a heart bro-world, because such a dreary meeting ken expression, calling out in a tone would drive her mad; yet I think it would do me good if I could see my make some arrangements with the gaoler, who was walking close to the door. I had not, however, been thus engaged for five minutes, before I heard something fall heavily, accom child, my eldest girl, my little Betty. I I know not why it is, but I have an idea that her soft prattle, ignorant as she is of my fate, would take something away from the dismal suffering I am to undergo on Wednesday:panied by a violent scream, and rushtherefore bring her, will you, this afternoon; and frame some postponing excuse for my poor wife. These, dear sir, are melancholy troubles, but I know you are very good. In the afternoon accordingly I took the child, who asked me several times on the road why her father did not come home. As we walked along the ing into the cell, I saw the unhappy convict lying on the floor, and his little girl clinging round his neck. The gaoler and I lifted him up, and alarmed at the hue of his face, called on the medical attendant of the prison, who soon told us the poor man was dead. The account given by the child was-that after she had finished sing gloomy passages to his cell, she clunging, her father started, then looked close to me, and did not say a word; it was very different, poor thing, to the open and gay garden about which she was used to run. The door of her father's miserable dungeon was soon thrown open, and the child rushed into his arms. "I do not like you to live in this dark place," she cried, come home with me and Mr. Saville, and see mother, who is in bed." "I cannot come just now, my child," he answered, 66 you must stay a little with me, and throw your arms round my neck, and lean your face on mine." sharply in her face, and with a strange and short laugh, fell from his chair. I suppose she had sung him into a temporary forgetfulness of his situation; that she had conjured into his mind, with her innocent voice, a blessed dream of past days and enjoyments, and that the spell ceased when her melody ceased; the truth of things had beat upon his heart with too stunning a contrast, and it had burst. M. L. C. ANECDOTE OF A ROBBER.* At the second encampment of the English in Bojepore, one of the offcers had a horse stolen by a native, who missing the road, before he could clear the tents, was detected and brought back. The gentleman highly pleased at recovering his horse, and much surprised at the fellow's dexterity in carrying him off, while six or seven grooms were sleeping around him, was more inclined to admire the address and expertness of the thief, than to punish him for the robbery. The next morning, when his resentment was entirely subsided into curiosity; he ordered the Bojeporean to be brought before him, and enquiring by what contrivance he had effected *The Zemindars of Bojepore employ a great number of thieves, who pay them a certain part of the booty collected from travellers. his design; the fellow answered, that | he could not clearly relate it, but that if his honour desired it, he would show him the mode in which he had conducted the theft. "Well then," replied the officer, "since you are so bad at verbal description, let us see how you did it." Being arrived at the pickets, the fellow crept softly under the horse's belly, "Now, sir," said he, "pray take notice-this is the manner I crawled over the grooms: the next thing I had to do, was to loosen the horse's ropes behind, which I accomplished thus; I then put a halter-observe, sir, if you please-over his neck, thus." "Admirably clever, by Jove," exclaimed the officer, laughing and rubbing his hands." "In this manner," continued the thief, "I jumped upon his back, and when once I am mounted, I defy the devil to overtake me." In saying which, he gave the horse a kick, and galloped away in an instant, to the astonishment of the gaping croud, and the mortification of the cajoled officer. CURIOUS VARIETIES OF TASTE, IN FEMALE BEAUTY AND DRESS. The ladies in Japan gild their teeth; and those of the Indies paint them red. The black teeth are esteemed the most beautiful in Guzurat, and in some parts of America. In Greenland, the women colour their faces with blue and yellow. However fresh the complexion of a Muscovite may be, she would think herself very ugly if she was not plaistered over with paint. The Chinese must have their feet as diminutive as those of the she-goats; and, to render them thus, their youth is passed in tortures. In ancient Persia, an aquiline nose was often thought worthy of the crown; and, if there was any competition between two princes, the people generally went by this criterion of majesty. In some countries, the mothers break the noses of their children; and, in others, press the head between two boards, that it may become square. The modern Persians have a strong aversion to red hair: the Turks, on the contrary, are warm admirers of these disgusting locks. The Indian beauty is thickly smeared with bear's fat; and the female Hottentot receives from the hand of her lover, not silks, or wreaths of flowers, but warm entrails and reeking tripe, to dress herself with enviable ornaments. At China, small eyes are liked; and the girls are continually plucking their eye-brows, that they may be small and long. The Turkish women dip a gold brush in the tincture of a black drug, which they pass over their eyebrows. It is too visible by day, but looks shining by night. They tinge their nails with a rose-colour. An ornament for the nose appears to us perfectly unnecessary. The Peruvians, however, think otherwise; and they hang on it a weighty ring, the thickness of which is proportioned by the rank of their husbands. The custom of boring it, as our ladies do their ears, is very common in several nations. Through the perforation are hung various materials; such as green crystal, gold, stones, a single and sometimes a great number of gold rings.-This is rather troublesome to them in blowing their noses; and the fact is, some have informed us, that the Indian ladies never perform this very useful operation. The female head-dress, is carried in some countries, to singular extravagance. The Chinese fair carries on her head the figure of a certain bird. This bird is composed of copper, or of gold, according to the quality of the person the wings, spread out, fall over the front of the head-dress, and conceal the temples. The tail, long and open, forms a beautiful tuft of feathers. The beak covers the of top the nose; the neck is fastened to the body of the artificial animal by a spring, that it may the more freely play, and tremble at the slightest mo tion. The extravagance of the Myantses is far more ridiculous than the above. They carry on their heads a slight board, rather longer than a foot, and about six inches broad: with this they cover their hair, and seal it with wax. They cannot lie down, nor lean, without keeping the neck very straight; and the country being very woody, it is not uncommon to find them with their head-dress entangled in the trees. Whenever they comb their hair, they pass an hour by the fire melting the wax; but this combing is only performed once or twice a year. To this curious account, extracted from Duhalde; we must join that of the inhabitants of the Land of Natal. They wear caps or bonnets, from six to ten inches high, composed of the fat of oxen. They then gradually annoint the head with a purer grease; which mixing with the hair, fastens these bonnets for their lives! "We are all born equal," says the Declaration of Independence. SOUTH CAROLINA LAW. The following notification, was handed last week to several individuals of the clergy and laity of Charleston, South Carolina. City Council, Jan. 15, 1821. Resolved, That the marshal be instructed to inform the ministers of the gospel and others, who keep night and Sunday schools, for slaves, that the education of such persons is prohibited by law, and that the city council feel imperiously bound to enforce the penalty against those who may hereafter forfeit the same. Extract from the minutes, JOHN J. LAFAR, City Marshal. REMARKABLE INSTANCE OF COURAGE IN A MOHAWK INDIAN. In the beginning of the French and Indian war in 1757, this was exemplifed in one of those savages encamped at Fort George, in Canada; occasioned by a sentence being passed upon a soldier to receive five hundred lashes for intoxication. An Indian known by the name of Silver Heels, from his superior agility, as well as his admirable finesse in the art of war, and who had killed more of the enemy than any one of the tribes in alliance with Great Britain, accidentally came into the fort, just before the soldier was to receive his punishment; and expressed his displeasure that a man should be so shamefully disgraced. He went up to the commanding officer, and asked him what crime the soldier had committed: the officer not choosing to be questioned, ordered one of his men to send Silver Heels away, and to inform him that the company of Indians was not agreeable on such occasions: "Wa! wa! oh! oh! oh!" replied the savage, "but what is warrior tied up for?" "For getting drunk," answered the soldier. "Is that all?" said Silver Heels, "then provide an other set of halberds, and tie up your chief, for he gets drunk twice a day." Having said so, he instantly left the fort, telling the soldier he should quickly return, to endeavour to prevent the punishment being inflicted. Soon after the delinquent was tied up, and the drummers in waiting to obey orders, when Silver Heels returned; and going up to the officer, with a tomahawk and scalping knife, said to him, "Father, are you a warrior, or do you only think yourself so? If you are brave, you will not suffer your men to strike this soldier whilst I am in this fort. Let me advise you not to spill the good English blood which to-morrow may be wanting to oppose the enemy." The officer, turning upon his heel, answered with an indignant look, "that the soldier had transgressed, and must be flogged.” "Well! replied Silver Heels, then flog him, and we shall soon see whether you are as brave a warrior as an Indian." About two days after, the officer was riding at some distance from the fort, and Silver Heels was lying flat on his stomach, according to his usual custom when he watched to surprize an enemy. The officer passed without perceiving him, when he instantly sprung up, and laying hold of the horse's bridle, told the officer to dismount and fight him. The officer judging it improper to risk his life against a savage, refused to dismount, and endeavoured to spur his horse.— Silver Heels perceiving his intention. tomahawked the horse, who fell down suddenly, and the officer rolled on the ground without being hurt. "Now," says Silver Heels, we are on equal terms, and, as you have a brace of pistols and a sword, you cannot have any objection to fighting me." The oflicer still refusing, Silver Heels told him, "that he thought himself a warrior when he ordered one of his white slaves to be flogged for a breach of martial law, but that he had now forgot the character he then assumed, or he certainly would have fought him; and looking very sternly, added, that he had a great mind to make him change his climate; but as that mode of proceeding would not answer his purpose, and sufficiently expose him among his brother warriors, he might walk home as soon as he pleased; and that to-morrow morning he would come to the fort with the horse's scalp, and relate the circumstance." officer rejoiced to escape so well, though he was obliged to walk a distance of three miles. The The next morning Silver Heels arrived and asked to see the officer, but was denied admission into his presence. Some of his brother officers came out, and inquired his business; he related to them the circumstance between the officer and himself, and exhibited the trophy; adding, "that to-morrow he intended going to war, and should make a point of taking an old woman prisoner, whom he would send to take command of the fort, as the great chief was only fit to fight with his dog or cat, when he was eating, lest they should have more than him." Then asking for some rum, which was given him, he left the fort to fulfil his promise; but was soon after killed in an engagement, fighting manfully at the head of a party of Mohawks, near the Bloody Pond, joining to lord Loudon's road, in the way to Albany. EXTRAORDINARY PROVIDENCE. A foreign paper gives the following account of the interposition of Divine Providence in favour of a widow and her family, near Dordrecht, in the province of Holland. This industrious woman was left by her husband, who was an eminent carpenter, a comfortable house, with some land, and two boats for carrying merchandize and passengers on the canals. She was also supposed to be worth above ten thousand guilders in ready money, which she employed in an hempeu and sail cloth manufactory, as the means not only of increasing her fortune, but of instructing her children (a son and two daughters) in those useful branches of business. One night, about nine o'clock, when the workmen were gone home, a person dressed in uniform, with a musket and broad sword, came to her house, and requested lodging. "I let no lodgings, friend," said the widow; "and besides, I have no spare bed, unless you sleep with my son, which I think very improper, being a perfect stranger to us all." The soldier then shewed a discharge from Diesbach's regiment, signed by the major, who gave him an excellent character, and a passport from Comte de Mailliebois, governor of Breda. The widow believing the stranger to be an honest man, as he really was, called her son, and asked him if he would accommodate a veteran, who had served the republio thirty years with reputation, with a part of his bed. The young man consented, and the soldier having been hospitably entertained, withdrew to rest. Some hours |