every situation, and it has been said, that if you place him on a rock in the midst of the ocean, with a penknife and a bundle of shingles, he would manage to work his way ashore. He sells salmon from Kennebec to the people of Charleston; haddock, fresh, from Cape Cod to the planters of Matanzas, raises coffee in Cuba, swaps mules and horses for molasses in Porto-Rico, retails ice from Fresh Pond, in Cambridge, to the East Indians-mutton, from Brighton, at New Orleans and South America; and manufactures morus multicaulis for the Governor of Jamaica; becomes an admiral in foreign navies; starts in a cockle-shell craft of fifteen. tons burden, loaded with onions, mackerel, and other notions, too numerous to mention, for Valparaiso baits his traps on the Columbia River; catches wild beasts in Africa, for Macomber and Co's "Grand Caravan;" sells granite on contract to rebuild San Juan de Ulloa-is ready, like Ledyard, to start for Timbuctoo to-morrow morning-exiles himself for years from his home, to sketch in their own wilderness the "wild man of the woods," and astonishes refined Europe with the seeming presence of the untutored savage. When introduced to Metternich, he asks him "What's the news?" says "How do you do, marm?" to Victoria; and prescribes "Thompson's eye-water" to the mandarins of China! He is found foremost among those who sway the elements of society; is the schoolmaster for his country, and missionary to the whole heathen world. He is unequalled in tact, and instead of travelling round about ways, starts "across lots" for any desired point. He has come nearer to the discovery of perpetual motion than any other man; and if ever it is made, we guess he will be the lucky chap to do it. He is the man to Bid harbors open, public ways extend, Bid temples worthy of his God ascend; Bid the broad arch the dangerous flood contain The mote projecting, break the roaring main ; I cannot close this lecture without addressing a few words to the women of New England. Her beaming eyes and charming smiles remain to awaken and reward the pulsations of patriotism; her affection and tenderness solaced and sustained the fainting pilgrim; and in the days that tried men's souls, she gave confidence to the desponding, and energy to the weak; her kind hand assuaged the sufferings of the wounded, and her bosom. pillowed the head of the dying. Whether as a wife, a mother, a sister, or a friend, she has the strongest claims upon our affection and grati tude, and holds, of social enjoyment, the golden key. She first implants the lessons of piety, and garlands our home with flowers of love and bliss; she is the guardian angel of our lives, and guides our feet to purity and peace. I will not say more at this time, than that there is nothing which more clearly marks the degree of refinement among a people than the station of "Heaven's last best gift;" and we can add, that there is no part of the world, where, with all classes she commands the high respect, and exerts the influence that she does in New England. CHAPTER XIX. "I am Sir Oracle." "The stars have said it." "There be players that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly, who have so strutted and bellowed, that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitate humanity so abominably." "Have you the Lion's part written ?" STARS-AND-STARS MAKING ENGAGEMENTS. MR. HILL in his business intercourse with managers was just, and never exacted exorbitant terms when successful; or, as is often the case, increased his demands as the attractive nature of the performances were lessened, from frequent exhibition, or other counteracting circumstances. How managers could permit themselves to be parties to such star impositions, has often been the subject of wonder to members of starring companies, and their injured creditors, who were patiently waiting the coming of those great events, "which leave such shadows behind," for the liquidation of outstanding balances, which were to be cancelled by the profits of the great feature's drawings. Among Mr. Hill's papers were memoranda which recorded his ideas of starring, as practised at some establishments, in a form apparently intended to be published in some periodical, favorable to his views at the time of writing. Mr. Hill himself probably never entered into close calculation upon the subject, but arrived at a practical result from general ideas, and thus formed an opinion which his friends' more precise detail and business logic confirmed. With slight alterations the article is preserved, and will constitute a chapter in his life, the compiler deeming the doctrines of the "decline of the drama" thus alluded to as prevalent at this day as at any other period since the star monopoly obtained possession of the American stage. A curious anomaly is still open for discussion while the public pay enormous sums for being amused in theatres, stars become wealthy, the managers bankrupt, the stock companies wretched, and the drama is continually "going down." The Park Theatre is among the things that were. The system of management which in its day made it the theatre of the United States, might in some of its features be introduced into modern management with profitable results. The allusions to this dramatic bye-gone are not stricken out. Some of the moves in the programme of attraction" introduction, not yet perfectly understood by all the American sight-seers, which were then of occasional service, are run into the ground; yet practised on a scale of magnificent repetition by individuals whose ready dollars, and liberal outlay of them in preliminaries, defy all the competition of legitimate theatrical managers, and they are content to open their theatres for the display of the attractive article, on terms that gentleman speculators may realize fortunes, while that opened mouthed embodiment of credulity, the public, swallow the gilded doses of imposition, dipping into their pockets deeply for supplies, and fan cying, at the same time, that America contains all the foreign talent extant in the world, and the great country is generously encouraging its exodus from Europe and elsewhere. Mr. Hill, in a limited scale, gives an idea of the way it was done in his day of activity. Poor Hill! you had seen something of furors in your time. Readers and observers among the friends you have left, will judge of the progress made in dramatic doings since the days when you "strutted and fretted your hour upon the stage. "I have been behind the scenes, as every one knows, who knows me, and the reader may arrive at the same conclusion to whom I am unknown, after cogitating over this sketch of doings in theatricals. The dramatic art, as such, may be contemplated with reverence. Its teachings are of high value-its province lofty-its history glorious-its power over human nature unlimited-its true temples holy ground-its priests should be true to their mission; but if we view its rites and mysteries only as adjuncts to money-getting, the theatre and all its associations sink to the level of Punch and Judy, the itinerant juggler and his tricks of sword-swallowing and plate-spinning, or the still lower grade of carnival antics, or the shows that amuse the rabble of a foreign fair. That in the public, and not in the stage, lies the fault, is nearly as old a saying as that 'all flesh is grass,' and taken literally, one is just as true as the other. The public are in fault just in proportion as they are misled, and the stage, departing from its legitimate purpose, too frequently gives the misdirectionand then in sackcloth and ashes sits penitently deplor |