detected but by sight. These hyanas are not very formidable, and will, at any time, rather fly from, than attack a human being. DOMESTIC UTILITIES. [We should feel greatly obliged by those of our readers, who take an interest in the domestic happiness of the million, sending us approved receipts in cookery, suggestions for household management, or any kind of home hints of usefulness, for insertion in this department of our MIRROR. We should also wish what is sent, to have a signature as a guarantee for its authenticity.-ED. F. M.] Ac NECESSITY is the mother of invention, says the old adage, and all of us have opportunities very frequently of verifying its truth. A few days ago, I lost one of my cork socks, and whilst searching for it, I espied a strip of Brussels carpet. The idea at once suggested itself to make it a substitute for the missing sock. cordingly I cut it to the required shape, and placing it in my boot, found that it proved more comfortable than the regular article, which was soon displaced from the other boot also, and ever since I have, without a joke, walked upon "carpet," deriving additional comfort from the fact, preserving my stocking, and saving my purse.-A READER. PICKING OAKUM.-A labour which, light as it would appear, is one of the most difficult and unpleasant that can be conceived. "Oakum is the technical term for bits of old navy ropes and junk, which, having been thoroughly saturated with tar, have formed into a solid mass. It is the duty of the prisoners to unpick these masses with their fingers; and, so hard is the work, that the hands of the roughest navvies often bleed under the operation. STEWED ASPARAGUS. Take fifty heads of Asparagus, an endive, a small lettuce, and a small onion, and shred them very fine; then put a quarter-of-a-pound of butter into a stew-pan, to which, when melted, add the shred vegetables. When they have stewed ten minutes, season with pepper and salt, strew in a little flour, shake them about, and add half-a-pint of gravy. Let them stew till the sauce is thick, and pour all into a dish. Garnish with the small tops of the Asparagus. ONE CAUSE OF INDIGESTION AMONGST PREACHERS.-Dr. Hall, in the "Medical Journal," asserts that one great cause of dyspepsia in ministers is eating too soon after preaching. For two or three hours the tide of nervous energy has been setting in strongly towards the brain, and it cannot be suddenly turned towards the stomach. But the mental effort has occasioned a feeling of faintness or debility about the stomach, and a morbid appetite; and if food is taken at all largely, there is not the nervous energy requisite to effect the digestion, for the brain will be running over the discourse. IMITATION OF MOCK TURTLE.-Put into a pan a knuckle of veal, two fine cow heels or two calves' feet, two onions, a few cloves, peppers, berries of allspice, mace, and sweet herbs; cover them with water, then tie a thick paper over the pan, and set it in an oven for three hours. When cold, take off the fat very nicely, cut the meat and feet into bits an inch and a half square, remove the bones and coarse parts, and then put the rest on to warm, with a large spoonful of walnut and one of mushroom ketchup, half a pint of sherry or Madeira wine, a little mushroom powder, and the jelly of the meat. When hot, if it wants any more seasoning, add some, and serve with hard eggs, forcemeat balls, a squeeze of lemon, and a spoonful of soy. This is a very easy way, and the dish is excellent. A WORD TO YOUNG WIVES. Do not be in a hurry, directly you are married, to hire a kitchenful of servants. Consider first what your means will properly allow, and what will really add to domestic comfort, rather than what will gratify your own regard to appearances. Let the young wife remember then that much of her husband's success is in her power. As to the necessity of keeping more than one servant, listen to the following rough rhyme which we met with the other day : "When I a servant had, I had one then; When two-I had but half a one; and when I had three servants-I had none at all: Thus was I served by one, two, three, and all." If, on commencing housekeeping, you feel that you are rich enough to hire one servant, choose a good one; she will be less expensive and more useful than one who requires to be taught everything. If your means appear to warrant your hiring two, consider whether the second is likely to prove an addition to your comfort, and whether the money that would be so spent might not be more wisely laid by for a rainy day. OLD RECIPE FOR GOUT. Some tales are told a passing hour to cheer; 'But, stop! "said he, "I'll first run down the stairs." Feed your mind as well as your body, for that, you know, must go into the scales at last. TRUTH-Truth is the most beautiful of all things, and the love of it the characteristic of a noble mind. LYING.-Nothing gives such a blow to friendship as detecting another in an untruth. It strikes at the root of our confidence ever after. APPETITE.—A relish is bestowed upon the poorer classes that they may like what they eat, while it is seldom enjoyed by the rich, because they may eat what they like. A GOOD SIGN.-It's a good sign to see the colour of health in a man's face. It's a bad sign to see it all concentrated in his nose. DRINKING.-All diseases from drinking spirituous or fermented liquors are liable to become hereditary, even to the third generation, and gradually to increase, if the course be continued, till the family becomes extinct. 1 ORIGINALITY OF EXPRESSION.-A gentleman visiting the London Deaf and Dumb Institution, asked one of the pupils "What is eternity?" and received for answer in writing, "It is the life-time of the Almighty." HOPE.-Hope ushers man into life. She flutters around the light-hearted boy; her magical shrine inspires the youth; with the grey-beard she is not buried, for when he closes in the tomb his weary race, he planteth Hope even on the grave. DEATH.-The autumn with its fruits provides disorders for us, and the winter's cold turns them into sharp diseases, and the spring brings flowers to strew our hearse, and the summer gives green turf, and brambles to bind upon our graves. ARABIAN PROVERB.-By six causes a fool may be known:Anger without cause; speech without profit; change without motive; inquiry without an object; putting trust in a stranger; and wanting capacity to distinguish between friend and foe. POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES.-The rose of Florida, the most beautiful of flowers, emits no fragrance; the bird of Paradise, the most beautiful of birds, elicits no song; the cypress of Greece, the finest of trees, yields no fruit. A LADY'S REPUTATION.-There is a tree in Mexicana, which is so exceedingly tender, that a man cannot touch any of its branches but it withers presently. A lady's credit is of equal niceness: a small touch may wound and kill it; which makes her very cautious what company she keeps. REFORM OF UNITS. The Chinese have a proverb— If every man would see To his own reformation, You might reform a nation. CHEERFULNESS AND SONG.-If you would keep spring in your hearts, learn to sing. There is more merit in melody than most people are aware of. A cobbler who smooths his wax-ends with a song will do as much work in a day as one given to illnature and fretting would effect in a week. Songs are like sunshine; they run to cheerfulness-to fill the bosom with such buoyancy that for the time being you feel filled with June air, or like a meadow of clover in blossom. TRUE POETRY FROM THE PERSIAN.-The heavens are a point from the pen of God's perfection; the world is a bud from the bower of his beauty; the sun is a spark from the light of his wisdom; and the sky is a bubble on the sea of his power. His beauty is free from the spot of sin, hidden in the thick veil of darkness, he made mirrors of the atoms of the world, and a reflection from his own face on every atom. MINT OF HUMOUR. A woman may laugh too much. It is only a comb that can always afford to show its teeth. If you wish to cure a scolding wife never fail to laugh at her with all your might, until she ceases-then kiss her. If an old woman in a scarlet cloak met a goat, what two transformations would take place?"-The goat would turn to butter (butt her), and the woman to a scarlet-runner. There was a Magazine article once published in which the clause "woman is the sharer of man's joys and happiness," was made, by the misprint of a single letter, to read-" woman is the shaver of man's joys and happiness." From what small causes great effects may come? An auctioneer's hammer is a little thing, yet it is capable of knocking down the largest house, and breaking up the most extensive establishment. The House of Representatives of the Illinois Legislature has enacted that a fine of 500 dollars be hereafter imposed on any lady who shall lecture in public in any part of the State without first putting on gentleman's apparel. Tobacco-chewing in America, like cigar-smokingin England, seems among certain classes to be the test of manhood. "What do you mean," said a stripling to a judge in the United States, "by calling me a boy? I've chewed these two years. "Pompey, why is a journey round the world like a cat's tail?"-"Well, I doesn't adzactly see any semblance 'twixt the two cases."-" Well, den, I spec I'll have to tell you; bekase it am fur to de end ob it.' "Our prospects is very dark," said Bread the baker on the occasion of a rise in flour. "Yes," said Mrs. Partington, "and so is your bread; but," said that inestimable lady, looking benignantly at him through her specs, "your loaves are light enough." Horace Walpole tells a story of a Lord Mayor of London in his time, who having heard that a friend had the smallpox twice, and died of it, inquired if he died the first time or the second. Quite a laugh was raised in one of the courts, by an official, who, when the judge called out for the Crier to open the Court, said," May it please your Honour, the Crier can't cry today, because his wife is dead!" A Sunderland shipowner, during the war, having sent a new ship to London without naming her, was asked the reason for his doing so. Oh," said he, "I'm waiting for the next licking the Rooshians get, and then I'll call the ship after the victory.' A resident from the Sandwich Islands was at an American watering-place lately, where, notwithstanding the heat, the ladies and gentlemen indulged in a dance. After looking on some time at the perspiring Terpsichoreans, he called his friend to him, and whispered, Why don't they let their servants do this for them?" A correspondent of the Richmond Inquirer tells us of a negro woman now living in Virginia, who is one hundred and twenty-six years old! She can thread a needle, and sew nearly as well as she ever could. She has never been sick, and never took a dose of medicine. She don't belong to any of the 'pathies." Two friends meeting after an absence of some years, during which time the one had increased considerably in bulk, and the other was very thin. Said the stout gentlemen, "Why Dick, you look, as if you had not had a dinner since I saw you last."" And you," replied the other, "look as if you had been at dinner ever since." The only class of men in the world who are not in the habit of disparaging their neighbours are the assessors of taxes; for it is well known that they never "underrate' any body in the slightest degree. The following lines are taken from a hymn-book a young lady had incautiously left behind her in chapel:I look in vain-he does not come; Dear, dear! what shall I do? I cannot listen as I ought Unless he listens too! He might have come as well as not! "If Shaming the Sinners.-When a Mr. Moody was on a journey, he called on a brother in the ministry, on Saturday previous to spending the Sabbath with him. He offered to preach, but his friend objected on account of his congregation having got into a habit of going out before the meeting was closed. that is all, I must, and will stop and preach for you," was Moody's reply. When Mr. Moody had opened the meeting, and named his text, he looked around on the assembly, and said:-“ My hearers, I'm going to speak to two sorts of folks to-day-saints and sinners! Sinners! I am a going to give you your portion When he had first, and would have you give good attention." preached to them as long as he thought best, he paused, and said: "There, sinners, I have done with you now; you may take your hats, and go out of the meeting-house as soon as you please." But all tarried and heard him through. G. M. F. G. E. T. W. &c.-Those desirous of contributing to our Family Pastime, will be good enough not to exceed twenty lines in each separate communication, whether it be Enigma, Charade, or Rebus. SHAKSPEARE (Gainsborough).-We are obliged by your offer; but however good your tale. may be, we cannot, at present, accept it, our arrangements being completed for some time to come. W. E. LANE.-As our columns are intended to be devoted, as much as possible, to ORIGINAL and USEFUL matter, translations from the French are inadmissible, unless they are particularly good, or have something of novelty about them, to induce their insertion. C. A. (Wales).-An open umbrella carried over the shoulder has been suggested as a security against the garrotter, and we know of nothing better to recommend. T. M.-Try as you may the passion will show itself. People that are in love with each other may fancy themselves in a kind of Calypso's Island, and be astonished when a strange sail is seen approaching the coast. But there is, in point of fact, no paradise that has such a low and thin fence as this; every passer by can see through it. G. TAYLOR.-It has now long been disused, but the consumption of Hair Powder by the soldiers of George the Second was something enormous. It was calculated that, inasmuch as the military force of England and the colonies was, including cavalry, infantry, militia, and fencibles, 250,000, and each man used a pound of flour per week, the quantity consumed in this way was 6,500 tons per annum; capable of sustaining 50,000 persons on bread, and producing 3,095.353 quartern loafs! a dreadful waste of the bounty of heaven. A. R. T.-It is the ancient mark of emphasis. In a toll case tried at Bedford, Mr. Devon, who was brought from the Record Office to produce some translations from the "Doomsday Book," stated, in his evidence, the singular fact, that in many old manuscripts, when particular empha sis was given to words, it was customary, instead of underlining them, as at the present day, to run the pen completely across the words, in the same manner as we now crase them. INVALID. Those warm climates in which consumption is really less frequent than in cold, derive the comparative immunity simply from the people being forced by the great heats to live more in an unpolluted atmosphere. It is not sending people to warm climates that always cures consumption-it is sending them to pure air. To contine consumptive persons to close heated apartments is but to hasten the ravages of their disease. On the contrary they should live as much as possible in the open air. It is illusory to think of curing the consumptive by means of food cr even medicine, without the amplest access to the fresh air. An ounce of oxygen is worth tuns of fish oil or iodine, or any amount of respirators. JOHN MARKS (Bermondsey.) -"Who and what are the Zouaves? Are they Africans or Frenchmen?" The Zouaves are natives of the French provinces of Algiers, disciplined and exercised by French officers. They hold exactly the same relation to the French army that the Sepoys in India do to the regular British troops. FAMILY: [As we intend devoting a portion of onr space to this kind of innocent and intellectual entertainment, contributions from our numerous subscribers towards it are solicited. Ed. F. M.] 10 I bring your wife to widowhood, Of purest mirth without alloy- 11. My first often varies-as many things doThough it treats all alike from the slave to the peer. My next is a bird with a plumage that few For a reason I do not intend to explain; But leave it to others to guess-if they canAnd prove my assertion correct in the main. G. M. F. G. 12. Complete I quench the thirst now and then, but if reversed I sail in triumph o'er the troubled main ; When beheaded, I become an ill omen unto some, By exhibiting an instrument of pain. Curtail me and you'll see a game that ought to be In my opinion-done away with quite: For 'tis neither more or less, than a snare to cause distress, And inveigle those who'd otherwise act right. Again curtailed I show a phrase you ought to know, Frem having heard it mentioned here and there; This, decapitated, will show that which we when ill, Or injured, oft make use of-so beware. A. B. C.-You are not singular in that respect, indeed few persons have an idea of the origin of the word "puff," as applied to a newspaper article. In France, at one time, the coiffure most in vogue was called a pouff. It consisted of the hair raised as high as possible over horse hair cushions, and then ornamented with objects indicative of the tastes and history of the wearer. For instance, the Duchess of Orleans, on her first appearance at court, after the birth of a son and heir, had on her pouff a representation in gold and enamel, most beautifully executed, of a nursery; there was the cradle and the baby, the nurse and a whole host of playthings. Madame d'Egmont, the Duke de Richelieu's daughter, after her father had taken Port Mahon, wore on her pouff a little diamond fortress, with sentinels keeping guard -the sentinels, by means of mechanism, being made to walk up and down. This advertisement, the pouff, for such it really was, is the origin of the present word puff, applied to the inflations of the newspapers. In X. Y. Z.-The power of words is certainly great, but so is the power of commas. the Priory of Ramessa there dwelt a prior who was very liberal, and who caused these lines to be written over his door: "Be open evermore, O thou my door, To none be shut, to honest or to poor." But after his death there succeeded him another, whose name was Raynhard, as greedy and covetous as the other was bountiful and liberal, who kept the same lines there still, changing nothing therein but one point, which made them run after this manner, "Be open evermore, O thou my door, To none, be shut to honest or to poor." Afterwards, being driven from thence for his extreme niggardness, it grew into a proverb that for one point, Raynhard lost his priory. A YOUNG MOTHER.-Be gentle in your correetions, for children teach us one blessed, one enviable art-the art of being casily happy. Kind nature has given to them that useful power of accommodation to circumstances, which compensates for many external disadvantages, and it is only by injudicious management that it is lost. Give him but a moderate portion of food and kindness, and the peasant's child is happier! than the duke's; free from artificial wants, unsatiated by indulgence, all nature ministers to his pleasures; he can carve out felicity from a bit of hazel twig, or fish for it successfully in a puddle. What is more heart-stirring than to hear the boisterous joy of a troop of ragged urchins, whose cheap playthings are nothing more than mud, snow, sticks, or oyster-shells; or to watch the quiet enjoyment of a half-clothed, half-washed fellow of four or five years old, who, sitting with a large rusty knife and a lump of bread and bacon at his father's door, might move the envy of an alderman. MERCY.-You must judge for yourself, but we cannot help saying that young ladies too often marry men, of whose character and antecedents they know very little. Such conduct is worse | than silly, and tempts us to believe in the old gentleman's sarcasm when he said, that he had found woman afraid of everything except getting married. As marriage is such a serious condition, it should be based on mutual respect, and that cannot be the case when one of the parties is ignorant of who and what the other really is. Besides, mystery is the mother of suspicion and doubt, and those act on the moral system like a cancer on the physical. They wear it away; and, in the one case, comes death, and, in the other, a violent revolution. In married life, if there be no mutual confidence to start with, there must, eventually, come distrust, anger, and probably, brutality, separation, and crime. We cannot engage to return rejected manuscripts. All our literary arrangements are complete. Published at the Office of the "FAMILY MIRROR," No. 9, Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, where all communications for the Editor are to be addressed. Jan. 2nd, 1857. of such How far the gloomy predicted in reference to the future of Adela, should she be united to the destiny of a wealthy nobleman, it is impossible to say, had they not been suddenly terminated by the voice of the Naturalist, breaking the atmospherical calm which surrounded Treadunder, by shouting at the top of his organ the name of "Ainslie!" to the no small alarm of several rooks, which owned the topmost tower of the fortress as their tenement. But, however these tenants of the sable wing might have felt such a disturbance, it was as nothing when compared with the flutter into which it threw our unsuspecting lovers. These were so absorbed VOL. I. in their own feelings and fortunes, that they had utterly forgotten that they had been accompanied by any other person, whilst they had likewise totally neglected to take the most cursory view of the Castle, of which it had been the purpose of Dorrington to have made a slight sketch. Whilst the Otterwell was still round the walls of the Castle, and every moment, drawing nearer and nearer to their position, Dorrington and Adela emerged from the embowering bushes, which overhung and sheltered the Lovers' Spring; not, however, until he had hastily imprinted on her burning brow one of those fervent kisses, which pure and unsophisticated affection treasures for ever in its remembrance. There was no time to utter a single word; to breathe even an audible whisper, as the wandering footsteps of our indefatigable explorer of nature, could already be heard, painfully making their way from rock to rock, towards the sweet little oasis which, for the past half hour, had been the scene of such passionate alternations of feeling between the hero and heroine of our story. At length, as he had just got himself fairly pitched upon a rock, he stood, like a magnified chamois, which has grouped its four feet together on the point of some Alpine ledge, and was preparing to renew his vociferations with tenfold energy, when a glimpse of the top of the hat of Dorrington saved his lungs from the continuance of an exercise in which they seemed to enjoy a high degree of excellence. "Hah!" he cried, with a humorous leer, "you are there, are ye? Hah, ah! and we have been searching for you in all the nooks and corners in Treadunder." "We are here, Mr. Otterwell," exclaimed Dorrington, with a smile that served to carry off the appearance of any trepidation which the scene through which he had just passed, still caused him to feel. "I see you are. Been a-drinking of the Lovers' Spring, I suppose," continued the Naturalist, "whilst Mr. Ilbert and I have been conjuring up all sorts of imaginary terrors as to your fates. He is in a pretty way about Miss Adela, and is so anxious to By my stars! there is one of my runts again. It is the same one that passed us before, now on his way back from some marauding exploit-let me see; where was I-yes; anxious to get home." It was fortunate that the flight of this species of pigeon came so a propos within the scope of Mr. Otterwell's vision, as it saved Miss Ilbert from any particular scrutiny which he otherwise might have given her countenance. By the time, however, that he had followed until it was out of sight, the bird which had so suddenly interrupted the original tenour of his speech, she had been able to assume an appearance of composure, sufficiently natural to deceive a keener observer even than Mr. Otterwell. Accordingly, without exciting the smallest suspicion in the breast of that gentleman, they all three hastened towards the archway, in which they found the Magistrate awaiting their arrival. "Where have you been? were his first words to Adela, marked by a slight irritability which the task they had imposed upon his patience had engendered." An explanation accompanied with gentle smiles was given by Adela, eked out by a few lively remarks of Dorrington, and some humorous observations of the Naturalist, regarding the difficulties and dangers he had encountered in his humane search after "the lost romantic gentleman," restored the good humour of Mr. Ilbert, who now saw that the carriage was waiting for them at the foot of the steep, to return with them to Willowbranch. He and his daughter, accompanied by Dorrington and the Naturalist, proceeded to wend their way down the hill, at the bottom of which they parted, as the Magistrate and Adela entered the carriage, assisted by the others;-the old gentleman by Otterwell, and his daughter by Dorrington, the last pressure of whose hand upon hers, sent through her heart a thrill, which brought crimson to her cheeks, and which a little restiveness in the horses at starting, served to conceal, ere the carriage rolled away steadily upon its journey. Dorrington watched it until a turn of the road closed it from his view, when he hove a suppressed sigh, as he accepted the arm which the Naturalist extended to him, and proceeded towards the coast, to visit a huge natural chasm known as the Witches' Cauldron. The walk towards this curiosity was beguiled by that kind of conversation in which it was the delight of the Naturalist to indulge. There was hardly a spot in any way marked by some peculiarity in its appearance, that did not recall some adventure in which he had been engaged, in the capturing of a bird or quadruped, which had helped to increase the collections in his museum. Every old tree had its memorial, every rock its association, and every brook its reminiscence. The few years of Mr. Otterwell's retirement from business seemed to have been so completely occupied, that one would have thought on hearing him talk, that scarcely a moment had passed without its being noted by the occurrence of some incident worthy to be treasured up and repeated on every occasion when opportunity served. It must be confessed, however, that the mind of Dorrington was not in a suitable condition to appreciate the various and interminable natural histories which the exhaustless brain of his companion rehearsed with ardent and untiring energy. The late scene at the Lovers' Spring occupied the greater portion of his thoughts, whilst the attachment of his former years, had been renewed, and already increased to such a degree, that he sometimes scarcely felt the ground under his feet, from the rapturous giddiness which his affections had excited. In this way they soon arrived at the Witches' Cauldron, the approach to which was by a narrow broken footpath, tracked through a few enclosures, whose thin herbage was barely sufficient to maintain a couple of goats, which were there; and which, in their condition, bore testimony to the slender nature of the provender upon which they regaled. The surface of the ground was scattered with rocks, and gave a somewhat wild, dreary, and forbidding aspect to the general nakedness and desolation which on every hand were spread around. In the calm of the day, the distant murmuring of the sea might be heard, as it broke, in tiny waves, upon the beach; whilst a solitary sea-gull filled the air with its scream, as it turned its snowy breast to the sun, before it dipped into the liquid blue, to rise again in a curving sweep over the expansive element which it claimed for its home. The Witches' Cauldron was but a little way inwards from the edge of the cliffs, which at this part of the Devonian coast, overlook the sea with a stern and rugged grandeur. It was nothing more than a huge hole, of great depth, of a circular form, and bearing some resemblance to the shaft of a coal mine, only rendered more terrific by the black and jagged rocks which lined its sides. On looking into it for some time, the eye distinctly beheld the white shells and spar which the sea had rolled into it, and left upon its sandy bottom with the returning ebb. The fact of its being open to the admission of the tide was no doubt the cause of its receiving the strange name by which it was known. That superstitious cast of mind which is not yet entirely extinct amongst our peasantry, prevailed to a much greater extent at a period long prior to the date of our story, and then it was that this cauldron received its extraordinary designation. When the wind is high from the south or south-west, it raises and rolls the sea with all its force against this part of Devon, which, to an appalling height is lashed by the fierceness of the waves. Into every fissure of the rock they are driven; and wherever they can find an entrance, they hurl the whole force of their fury, as if they would rend the earth asunder, and scatter its elements before the white foam of their wrath. On these occasions, the Witches' Cauldron, as Mr. Otterwell said, resembles nothing more apt than a boiling pot. As the waves roar into it, they fling their spray up through the mouth of the vent far into the air; which, falling again in white wreaths, as the Naturalist averred, in the dusk of the evening, "has as ghost-like an appearance as any thing that can well be imagined." "Is there no way of getting down the cliff, and entering it by the beach?" inquired Dorrington, who was lost in amazement at the wild and wonderful appearance of this natural phenomenon, which he could easily imagine heightened into sublimity by the addenda which Otterwell had so imperfectly described. "Yes, yes," returned the other, "but the path is a rugged one, and by no means-- -By my stars, if I had my gun that guillemot would not disport himself so near the cliffs-let me see, where was I-yes, by no means unattended with difficulty and danger." " Never mind the difficulty," cried Dorrington, " and as for the danger we'll willingly risk that, for the sake of becoming, for a few minutes, one of the ingredients in this Witches' Cauldron." "Very well," said Otterwell, who led the way along the |