Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. XI.—April, 1851—Vol. II.Various
General
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. XI.—April, 1851—Vol. II.
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
Against the railings of St. Paul's Church are hung baskets and slippers
for sale, and near the public-house is a party of countrymen preparing
their bunches of pretty colored grass--brown and glittering, as if it
had been bronzed. Between the spikes of the railing are piled up square
cakes of green turf for larks; and at the pump, boys, who probably have
passed the previous night in the baskets about the market, are washing,
and the water dripping from their hair that hangs in points over the
face. The curb-stone is blocked up by a crowd of admiring lads, gathered
round the bird-catcher's green stand, and gazing at the larks beating
their breasts against their cages. The owner, whose boots are red with
the soil of the brick-field, shouts, as he looks carelessly around, "A
cock linnet for tuppence," and then hits at the youths who are poking
through the bars at the fluttering birds.
Under the Piazza the costers purchase their flowers (in pots), which
they exchange in the streets for old clothes. Here is ranged a small
garden of flower-pots, the musk and mignonnette smelling sweetly, and
the scarlet geraniums, with a perfect glow of colored air about the
flowers, standing out in rich contrast with the dark green leaves of the
evergreens behind them. "There's myrtles, and laurels, and boxes," says
one of the men selling them, "and there's a harbora witus, and
lauristiners, and that bushy shrub with pink spots is heath." Men and
women, selling different articles, walk about under the cover of the
colonnade. One has seed-cake, another small-tooth and other combs,
others old caps or pig's feet, and one hawker of knives, razors, and
short hatchets, may occasionally be seen driving a bargain with a
countryman, who stands passing his thumb over the blade to test its
keenness. Between the pillars are the coffee-stalls, with their large
tin cans and piles of bread and butter, and protected from the wind by
paper screens and sheets thrown over clothes-horses; inside these little
parlors, as it were, sit the coffee-drinkers on chairs and benches, some
with a bunch of cabbages on their laps, blowing the steam from their
saucers, others, with their mouths full, munching away at their slices,
as if not a moment could be lost. One or two porters are there besides,
seated on their baskets, breakfasting with their knots on their heads.
As you walk away from this busy scene, you meet in every street barrows
and costers hurrying home. The pump in the market is now surrounded by a
cluster of chattering wenches quarreling over whose turn it is to water
their drooping violets, and on the steps of Covent Garden Theatre are
seated the shoeless girls, tying up the halfpenny and penny bundles.
THE HORRORS OF WAR.
In a work recently published in London, entitled "Lights and Shades of
Military Life," M. de VIGNY, the author, gives incidents from
his own experience which place in a striking light some of the
unutterable horrors of war.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account