Soon as the rose's bloom Breaks up the social tie, And those whom winter gather'd round The cheering hearth, no more are found, But east and west they fly; Some roam the mountain, some the deep, But, ah! leave those at home to weep. 'Midst winter's sullen blast, How many a friendly band Cheered the dark moments as they passed, And bid me think they fled too fast While circled hand in hand; But summer breaks the charming spell, And makes me feel, I lov'd too well! Now, 'midst the fairest glow, The scene with clouds is drear, And _empty_ mansions crowd the street, No hand to beckon, eye to greet, Or friendly voice to cheer; The colony of love is shaken, And summer leaves our hall forsaken! Away, then, summer flowers! Thou glowing rose, away! Come let me wreathe the gloomy bowers With cypress bathed in stormy showers, Where sunbeams never stray; But let the flow'r of _snowy_ crest Impart its chillness to my breast. EQUIVOCAL GENTLEMEN. Equivocal Gentlemen! Pray, who are they? Why, they are rather a curious class of persons. But if you are in the habit of noting character, we rather think you must know them. They are to be seen in every city, and almost in every town. The equivocal gentleman has, in general manner and bearing, and, as far as a very limited exchequer will allow, in dress also, a curious smack of the real gentleman about him, of whom he is, altogether, a sort of amusing caricature. His pretensions are high, very high, and, conscious of the doubtfulness of his claims, always noisy and obtrusive. He endeavours to bully the world into respect for him. But it won't do. When he turns his back, the world winks one of its eyes, and says, with a knowing smile, "that's a queer sort of chap." It does'nt, in fact, know what to make of him--how to class him. It has, however, a pretty good notion that, with all the equivocal gentleman's pretension, he has by no means an unlimited command of the circulating medium. And this is not an incorrect notion. Scarcity of funds is, in truth, at the bottom of all the equivocal gentleman's difficulties, as, indeed, it is of almost all those of every body else. He, however, may be emphatically said to be born of a warfare between his poverty and "gentility." It is, of course, in the matter of dress that the equivocal gentleman is most anxious to establish his claim to be considered a genuine article; and it is in this matter, too, that his peculiar position in the world is made most manifest; dress being in his particular case, as it is less or more in all others, a strongly marked and faithful expression of character.