On this page
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
traction of a sentence /'—it supplies an article on Method , as applied to Education , Comparison and classification of facts , Relat ion of cause and effect , all which , when fully understood , will induce the reader to examine for himself before endorsing guch an opinion . The Educational Expositor deserves success .
Untitled Article
The Administration of the Hast India Company . A History of Indian Progress . By J . W Xmie . Eichard Bentley Proqrest in Art and Architecture . With Precedents for Ornament . By J . P . Seddon . " David Bogue The Earth and its Inhabitants . By M . E . Darton . Arthur Hall , Virtue and Co The Works of William H . Setaard . Edited by G . E . Baker . 3 vols . Kedfield Capital Punishment Unlawful and Inexpedient . An Essay on the Punishment of Death . By J Kippon . w- an ( i *"• Gr . Cash An Art-Student in Munich . By Anna Mary Howitt . 2 vols . Longman , Brown , Green , and Longmans Is India to have Railways 1 John Mortimer Usque Adeo ; or , ichatviay be said for the Ionian People . By an Ionian . Saunders and Stanford JVew Zealand and its Six Colonies . Cradock and Co The Encyclopedia Britannica ; or , Dictionary of Arts , Sciences , and Miscellaneous Literature Eighth Edition . Edited byT . S . Traill , M . D ., F . R . S . E . Vol . I . Adam and Charles Black Dissertations on the Eumenides of jEschylus . From the German of C . O . Miiller . J . W . Parker and Son
Leila ; or , the Siege of Granada . By Sir E . Bulwer Lytton , Bart ., M . P . Chapman and Hall . Speech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer . J . W . Parker and Son . English Forests and Forest Trees . < Ingram , Cooke , and Co . Extraordinary Men ; their Boyhood and Early Life . By W . Russell , Esq . Ingram , Cooke , and Co . Queen Phillippa and the Hurrer ' s Daughter . By Miss E . M . Stewart . Ingram , Cooke , and Co . Universal Library . No . XIV . Ingram , Cooke , and Co . Bentley ' x Monthly Review . No . I . J . Bentley . The British Cabinet in 1853 . T . Nelson and Son . The Prospective Review . John Chapman . The Lords and Commons ; their Functions and Functionaries . With a Peerage and Parliamentary Guide . S . Adams . Work ! or , Plenty to do , and How to do it . By M . M . Brewster . J . Constable and Co . Ostentation ; or , Critical Remarks on Quakerism , or the ftfory of My Life . By S . JSlly . Hodges and Smith . Critical Essay on the Writings of Thomas Carlyle . "Whittaker and Co .
Untitled Article
GERSTAECKER'S JOURNEY ROUND THE WORLD . Narrative of a Journey HLownd the World . By F . Gerstaecker . In 3 vols . Hurst and Blackety This is an unusually interesting book of travels ; and instead of finding three volumes too much , we regretted there were not three more . Mr . Gerstaecker is a German , but with a British , rather than a Teutonic mind : one of those healthy , active , vigorous natures prompted to adventurous excitement , Not with blinded eyesight poring over miserable books , but ever ready with free open glance to look at JNTature and enjoy her , taking with frolic welcome " the thunder and the sunshine . " The man , in short , above all others , to make a journey round the world , and to make the best book about it . His narrative is fresh and invigorating . It reproduces scenes and their suggested emotions . It does not fatigue the reader with frivolous details , with " fine writing , " with biographical impertinences , with . idle statistics . What he has seen and felt , that and that only will he tell us . In South America , in California , in Australia , in the South Sea , and in Java , we find him ever the same strong , clearseeing , unaffected man , living and writing of his life . Had these volumes appeared during our dull season , we should have drawn largely on them for amusing extract ; as it is , we must be more sparing , l ^ irst read this account of the Saladeros , or
SLAUGHTEE-HOUSES OF BUENOS AYEES . " At the shed we first visited , they did not , as they said , kill that day , but were busy salting down the hides , to get them ready for shipment . The place was cleared up , and looked passably clean ; but galloping only a few hundred yards further , we heard the screams and yells of the drivers , and as we neared the place , saw three horsemen ride into a wide corral or enclosure , where a couple of hundred head of cattle were collected , and who tried to separate a part of them from the rest .
" One of the horsemen was a most conspicuous figure—an old tall bony fellow , uomo fifty-six or sixty years old , with long iron-grey locks , tough and sunburnt , and with a physiognomy as plain and readable as heart could wish . If ever thero existed a bloody murderous villain in these States , where people grow up in blood and murder , this was the man . Such have been the butchers sent by Rosas , with his orders of death into the very houses of his enemies , to cut their throats wherever they found them , even should it be at table , with wives and children around them . This man seemed to be the leader of the re « t , and was undoubtedly a dexterous hand nt this bloody trade .
" A red poncho , with dark blue stripes , hung round his shoulders , nnd he wore a chcripaw of the mime colour , with a red kerchief round bis bead , and botas taken from the feet of a horse , which looked almost as rod as \ m other garments , showing how busy he had been that morning i \ t bis handicraft . The lasso wu <* fastened on the back of his . saddle—for what would a guaeho bo without a lasso ? and in galloping along , the out-flying poncho . sometimes afforded a glimpse of a long ivoryhandled and blood-stained knife , stuck in a belt behind his back , the handle towards his right hand . A shaggy grey beard waved about bis chin , while he wan continually chewing one of his long lnoustacliios , and similar bunches of grey hair hung down over hia eyes , now glaring with a wild and burning fire . I could not remove my eye from thin old grey guaeho , and his every movement only rivetfed it more .
" Three ! of the corralu were close together—one very large one , into which tho cattle wore driven an soon us they eame in ; tho Hecond , about half as large , designed to hold a part of them , so that the drivers need not always run among the crowd , and frighten the animals more than necessary ; and the third and smallest , which would hold only forty or fif ty head , forming the killing place . In tho second wcro about thirty head standing apart from the < irnt lot , and then three ; horsemen gnl . loped in amongst these , and drove them with deafening crit-n into tho smallest corral . At first tho poor animals ran forward , seeing 1 a phicoopen for them , which might loud to liberty ; but n » booh an they Hcontcd tho fresh blood , they pressed back , though too lute , their executioners being already upon them , piiHbing koiuo forward by the weight of their horses , and frightening others by swinging their arum round , aH if they wero about to throw the dreaded lasso . Howileleml and luuf-dcaiened by the unearthly screams of their pumierH , alarmed by the scent of blood and tho matin ol utrango faces and uhapes around tho corral , they advanced
slowly , step by step , till only a few paces from the bars , which were to close upon them , when eoine of the poor creatures stood hesitating and trembling , as if insensible of the yells and blows which urged them onward . " This incensed the terrible old guacho , who turned his rerenca , and struck the heavy iron ring down on the hip-bones of the poor bellowing beasts , then dropping his revenca , which swung on a thin cord to his wrist , and plucking his knife from its scabbard , ran it , not to injure the hide , with a dreadful curse , between the hams of one unhappy animal . The rascal would have run his knife , I believe , with the same delight into a human heart . But this cruel act accomplished , the last of the herd entered the corral ; the bars closed behind them , and two minutes afterwards the slaughter begun . " The old guacho left the corral with his two followers , and all of them stationed themselves outside , where they fastened a very strong raw-hide rope to the saddlegirts of their horses , and then waited the signal for further proceedings .
" The leathern rope was a long and very strong lasso , turned with a running noose over a block , which a man held in his hand . He was standing on a kind of scaffold , right above the fence , and opposite to where the cattle had entered the corral . As soon as he received the word , the man with the lasso swung it twice or three times round his head , and threw the noose with unerring precision round the horns of one of the animals . The three horsemen saw the noose flying , and perfectly satisfied that it had taken effect , they spurred forward , and dragged the ensnared heifer down on her knees and over her side ; aud so before she could gain her feet , or offer , in fact , the least resistance , brought her to the place where the
lasso-thrower stood , when the latter , bending down , passed his long glittering knife with indescribable dexterity through her neck , close behind the horns . Then , without turning a look on his victim , he took the noose from the horns , while the horsemen came galloping back to slack the lasso ; and raising himself up to his old posture ,, opened a kind of tray in the corral , and the whole frame on which the heifer had been pulled down , glided away out with the bleeding animal upon it . It was then slid down a short railroad to an open shed , where half-a-dozen bloody hands , with naked arms and legs , and long knives , were waiting to strip off the hide , and cut up the different parts of the body .
"A strong push drove the frame "back to its old place , and the next moment the noose was thrown over another pair of horns , and the same performance was begun anew . Backwards and forwards ran the little frame , the lasso whirled , and the poor animals bellowed more and more dismally , betraying at each execution the greatest agitation and dread . With every sign of terror in their eyes , and bristling hair , they tried to escape the inevitable noose , but in vain—another and another fell , and once even two were caught together , Avithout making the least alteration in the arrangements for slaughter ; and half an hour afterwards the three horsemen trotted back to the largest corral , to drive in another lot . " Then mount an imaginary horse and BIDE ACBOSS THE PAMPAS .
" On we went . Hardly were we in the saddle when the correo cries * Gallop V cuts the pack-horse over the hips with his long whip , and away we fly across the Pampas . Hold the bridle tight in your hand , dear reader , and look well for your path . Badgers and owls have their holes here at every step , and if you do not help your horse a little with your eyes , you may both kiss the ground . The correo is already a long way in front , you have spared your animal too much . Away with you and take care of the reedy grass ahead ; for it covers a swamp . A little more to the left the ground is harder , but it is full of half-concealed holes , and yet must be passed in haste ; ^ for the night is fast coming on , and your guide will soon be beyond reach , while path and road no longer exist .
" As I came up , the old correo sat his horse stiff and motionless ; while his long and heavy poncho , streaming out with every movement , flapped against his shoulders ; and only his right arm , as it struck out with the relentless whip , « howed that he had power to move . ' On , on ! ' this was his only thought . Tho steed that bore him had no hold on his sympathies : it was only a horse ; and if it carried its load to the door of the next station , it mig ht lie down and die for all he cared . " I rode myself one of tho poorest horses I had yet seen in the Pampas : it stumbled at everv other step , and I was continually wondering why we did not
both come down together . At last we came to a low soft spot , where the grass was very luxuriant ; but tho soil , as if elastic , gave way at every tread . My poor horse bore up a good while , till , just as we were coining on drier ground , it came right down on its nose , and pitched me overhead . I was up in a second , and replacing the saddle-bags , the strap of which had been broken by the fall , got in tho saddle again , and followed the old correo and postilion , who , 1 really believe , had not even looked round after mo , to see if I was coming . Hut they wero in tho right : I was old enough to take care of myself ; and setting spurs to my horse , I Boon recovered my distance .
" It was now getting dark , and wo bad yet a long way to go . Tho appearances of the plain began to bo very peculiar . As night set in , a dump mist rose from , the low ground , to a height of from two to three feet , changing tho ' ciunpo into what seemed a milk-white , shoreless lake , to which the last rays of the sun , refleeted by the clouds nbovo , imparted at intervals a soft rosy radiance . " 1 had now lost sight of the correo , in fact 1 had forgotten all about him , and left my horne to choose his own road , just as though I wer-c not traversing a wide aud pathless plain , infested by wild tribes , and where , if I lout my leader , I might wander for hundreds and hundreds of miles without regaining the track , and ignorant of tho dangers that awaited me . But the scene around was far too intereHting to be neglected ; and still leaving tho bridle to my horse , I hardly knew , or cared whither we went , if 1 could- continue to ga / . o on this strange and beautiful sight .
" Tho most extraordinary objects in this floating sea of mist were tho grazing herds , tho upper part of their bodies alone being visible ;; and f ho fog gathering in large ) fleeicy musses , be'gan to assume ) fantastic slmpes , such hh bergs and figure's , which seomed te > flemt on the ) shining surface of tho lake ) , while loft y dangerouHlooking cliflk nnd glaciers hung above ? . " It seemeel that I was always galloping down the slope of a stoop hill , ami that the mist woulel clewe ) the nesxt minute over my he'ael , and yet I hud not left the open plain , nnd tho sward lay smooth before me . But as night e-kwed in , the niiHt rose higher and higher , and finall y became ho thick , that 1 could hardly se-o tho ground for ten or twelve ! yards em cither siele ! . But my he > rso had in tho meantime demo his best ; right ahead I could hour plainly tho hoofs of my companions e > n some hard ground ; and in a few minutes 1 reached a hard-beaten path , and wo all arrived together at the hut where we ) intended te > pass the night . " Is not that enough to set tho blood in a gallop P And how briefly , yet
Untitled Article
474 THE LEADER . [ Satwkda *^
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), May 14, 1853, page 474, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1986/page/18/
-