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Leader (1850-1860), 21st May 1853, Edition 1 of 1, Page 500, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      years ? I counted . Answer : two . 6 . Will questions be answered relative tonrar worldly prosperity ? The book turned . ( These turning are prompt and w takcable . ) 7 . Will questions as to success in horse-racing be answered ? B ^ mtf 8 . How long is it slice died ? The book turned at the « S ^ fc « V Various other questions were asked by persons who were amused scept ics yester day , but who now are convinced . As a firm believer now tnat ^^ *™™ f ^ munication exists , I am happy to have had those answers to the I" - *™* - " * good and evil purposes . If there be a clearer intelligence tlmn we possess that w . fan communicate with , and of whom we can ask the W f ™ - ' *™* * " * £ pursuit beneficial to my spiritual welfare ? " and the qoertxm can be resolved , how thankful may we be that it is thus opened to us . m - r ' - "" If our correspondent will again repeat those experiments with the light attempted to be shed on them in this article , we have every hope from his candourLet him analyze his sensations , and see how much expectant

      . attention and the influence of the eye has to do with it . Let him bandage his eyes , and try to disbelieve in the result . Or let the reader try the experiment for himself , under the same conditions . One remark in conclusion . We have endeavoured to explain general principles , not to frame a formula which will of itself clear up every case of table-moving . The innumerable variety of cases which the experience of hundreds of persons will bring forward cannot be met in detail . All we have thought of doing is to direct attention to the fact , that the influence of vision and expectant attention on the muscles , is sufficient to produce tablemoving ; or , should the table receive an accidental impulse , to continue the motion . It must depend on the vigilance and sagacity of the experimenters to detect the operation of this agency .

      Untitled Article

      A TETUAN CAID " RAISING THE WIND . " He was by no means scrupulous in his mode of acquiring wealth , and regularly squeezed' every individual under his government . One ingenious plan of extorting a loan from an unwilling capitalist was to tie his hands together , and introduce a couplo of wild cats into thu wide seat of his inexpressibles . This was a way of bringing them to the scratch which never failed , and by degrees this excellent ruler grew to be enormously rich . The Emperor , thinking nt last that his sponge must be full , sent for him to Fez , to have a grand squeeze .

      POWER'S EESIDENCE IN CHINA . Recollections of a three years Residence in China ; including peregrinations in Spain , Morocco , Egypt , India , Australia , and Neto Zealand . By W . Tyrone Power . Bentley . Settled down in the wilds of Kaffraria , away from libraries and books of reference , having no fear of " reviewers" to daunt him , but having a huge and weighty ennui to be cheated occasionally during the uncertain leisure of a tent life , Mr . Power , son of the incomparable and unreplaceable Power , turns over the old journals recording his nomadic life , and from their somewhat illegible pages he constructs tliia moat readable and agreeable of books . Mr . Power has not only travelled , he has lived in the countries he visited ; by which we mean that he not only saw them , but tried to realize their life ; and his sketches , even when of merely slight externals , are always vivid and suggestive . A few extracts will suffice to indicate the variety and amusement crowded into this single volume : —

      " The wretched old victim was thrown into prison and soundly bastinadoed , a process which relieved him of some of his too plethoric wealth . Strips of cotton , dipped in turpentine , were tied round his fingers and toes nnd lighted , which produced a grand haul . The wild cats continued for half an hour to produce revelations of fresh hoards . A knight templar or a Norman king could scarcely have been more ingenious in their financial experiments on a miserable Jew . Itenewed tortures produced further discoveries of treasure , till the old mun ' H last doubloon and last breath wore yielded up together . " Mr . Power ' s estimate of the Chinese is by no means flattering : a cowardly , sensual , foolish act of barbarians , for whom no interest but that of curiosity can bo excited . TTIK VATitTI ! OF AN OT < D MAN IN CHINA . " The reasonableness and placability of the natives were , on one occasion , evinced in rather a remarkable manner at Chusnn , while T was them . An Englishman hnd come ncross soino wild < luc : kH in the canal inside tho city , at which ho fired with ball , all his nhot having been previously expended . Tho bullet missed tho birds and , glancing from thu water , killed an old Chinaman who was Hitting- at his own door enjoying bis pipe . " Tlio unfortunate sportsman , horrified at tho remrit of his silly thoughtlessness , hurried away to take counsel with Iuh friends , who recommended him to try to settle the matter with the relatives of the deceased , to prevent their complaint from being laid formally before the authorities , who would he obliged to uwurd u heavy

      punishment for such reckless car « lesHiu » ss . With this view ono of hi « friends wan dispatched to visit the family , to condole with them for their Iosh , and to explain how thoroughly it was the result of accident . He deplored the unhappy circumstance which hud deprived tho family of ho valuable and ho respectahlo a member , and pointed out the cheering fact that he was very old , and , in the natural eourso of things , could not have been expected to live much longer , and that pecuniary Tccoii )|)(> iiHe should be made to console tho family for the few months society they might have anticipated enjoying with him . They admitted that lie was old , very old , and an ho could » ot have lived long , they mentioned n hundred dollars ( 20 / . ) on u man likely to have a good effect in assuaging the bittornoKH of their affliction . Thu umbiiHHtulur , delighted at hearing a demand so much more reasonable than ho had anticipated , but concealing his satisfaction , pointed out tliut tho deceased WM

      . so old that he could hardly have estimated his * arfc / etan ant , , ™* £ * ^ hf large sum ; that he had died a very quiet and easy death , and that f ***** * ** wafwanted in the other world , so that the unlucky bullet might ; be esteemed a messenger despatched by the gods . He thought , therefore , that * % d ^ ta * make a feast and burn p lenty of joss-stick and paper money would 5 ^™ H satisfactory to the spirit c-Vtheir departed ancestor . The matter was finally lefcfed to the satisfaction of all parties by the payment of seventy-five dollars ( 151 ); and I question whether one might not have shot two-thirds of the old boys of Trng-hae at the same reasonable rate , notwithstanding the veneration m which age is held .

      ART IN CHINA . ' < The drama in China is at a very low ebb . It is still in the strolling state such as might have been whenThespis and his conpany declaimed from a waggon , or rather , such as it was in the middle ages , when mysteries were performed in the open streets and squares for popular edification . ... "A wealthy citizen , or , sometimes , the parish or municipality , hire a company of strollers , who erect their stage across a thoroughfare , with little respect for the public right of way . The entertainer and his friends occupy seats in front of the stage , and the tag-rag and bobtail stand in the rear . " The actors are mere boys , who are dressed in robes of silk and satin , rich with embroidery , but much tarnished and rumpled . " The subject of the play is usually taken from the life of some hero of mythology or history of China , and the plot is constructed with an attention to the unities of the drama that would have charmed a critic of the French school .

      " The narrative begins with the earliest events of the hero ' s existence , carrying them on in uninterrupted dulness to his apotheosis . The play usually takes some hours , and some of them , I have been informed , some days . The spouting and posturing are varied by recitative singing in a shrill contralto key j and every Bcene begins and ends with banging of gongs and squealing of pipes , occasionally varied by the explosion of cracker ^ when the interest becomes thrilling , and some great event is enveloped in the noise and smoke , being left , in other respects , to the imagination of the audience . " There are some dramas which treat of the loves of the heroes , in which little is left to the imagination , although the dialogue is carried on in a lofty rant which never descends to comedy , much less to farce . With such taste , it is not surprising that this species of amusement is not in much repute , and that its professors should be classed with the mountebanks and vagabonds , to whose ranks they properly belong . " There are no moral lessons to be learnt from the Chinese drama : it inculcates

      no good principles , nor does it hold the mirror up to nature . Buffoonery , coarse ribaldry , and exaggerated passion , are its chief characteristics j one cannot wonder at the low esteem in which it is held . " Music is not more advanced . All the singing is in an unnatural falsetto key , pitched as high as possible , so that anything more hideous and ludicrous than the sounds produced can scarcely be imagined . A torn cat caterwauling on the pantiles is the nearest approach I know to the vocal music of this refined nation . ^ They frequently accompany the voice with a kind of violin , the scraping of which is sufficient to put one ' s teeth on edge . A lute with wire strings and a very wiry tone is sometimes used for the same purpose . The instrument , however , that is to be heard on all occasions , is a sort of pipe , very much resembling the bagpipe in tone .

      " The songs I have heard were all of very similar character , and were sung in short cadences , alternating with the symphony , reminding me very much of the Spanish seguidilla , as it is heard screeched by the muleteers in the mountain paths of Andalucia : only that while the muleteer screeches , the Chinaman howls in a way that would excite the sympathy o a whole kennel of hounds , compelling them to join in an obligato chorus . " Chinese poetry is on a par with the music . It either delights in nambypamby sentimentality , or puerile conceits . Graceful metaphor , subtle allegory , warmth of sentiment , a picturesque feeling or the beauties of nature , are all utterly unknown ; while plays-upon-words , and a studied arrangement of phrases , delight the most fastidious critics , and satisfy their tastes . "

      A WAKKIOB IN DEFEAT . "A curious instance of tho utter incapacity of the Chinese to cope with Europeans occurred at Chapor , where the principal mandarin fled at tlio very firBt shot , and never stopped till he reached home , an example followed by the whole of tho troops with tho greatest alacrity . When lie reached home it may be supposed that the gallant mandarin packed up bis plate and jewels , and betook himself with his famil y to the safest spot in the country . He sent for bis wives , nnd strung them up to the beam of his house , his children he strangled , and threw into a well , and then Leaping up all his valuables about Ins chair of state , he surrounded it with coml ) UHtibles , and setting fire to the pile , perished in the nanien . His futo would have been worthy of an old Roman , or a hero of Norman times , if lie hnd fought to the last gasp , and adopted such an end to show bis contempt for the enemy when nil else was lost . Hut to abandon the field of battle for such a purpose , without striking a blow- —to fly from one kind of death on purpose to seek another so inconceivably worse , shows how incapable we are of appreciating the motives of a peoplo whose idiosyncrasy is so entirely diilerent from our own . "

      Untitled Article

      THREE NEW NOVELS . The Diary of Martha Jiethuna UaUol . From 1753 to 1754 . Chapman and Hall . The Events of a Fear . A novel , liy Einiliu Carlen , author of " Tho Birthright , " Ac . 3 VoIh . T . C . Newby . Frank Merryweather . A novel , liy . Henry Q . Ainslio Young , Esq . 2 V < flH . T . O . Ncwby . TiiimE ie ono difficulty in ( M-iticiwrn which , more than all other difficulties , perplexes an ingenuous mind wishing to " do his spiriting" truthfully as well as " gently ; " the difficulty namely of regulating the standard . When a good novel is presented fo us our task is comparatively simple- ; wo aro at our case there ; tlio book moves , delights , instructs uh , and wo way bo . But when a novel is not good according to our ideal of the novel , it may bo , and most frequently is good , according to tlio novel readers' standard ; and this novel reader would bo amazed at our delighting in tho oxquisito art of Miss Austen , and at our contempt for the ignoble niolodrame of J-ugono fcluo ; nevertheless , as this novel reader employs us in tho capacity of Taator-Gonoral to inform him of what to road nnd what to avoid , if wo judge according to our standard we shall mislead him , if according to Ai standard wo shall mislead others , and seem to compromise . W < 3 generally coatrivo to got over tiiis difficulty in eomo rougli attempt

      Untitled Article

      x BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . The Threads of a Storm-Sail . By W . D . Jerrold . Birkbeck Life Assurance Office . Menzies' Tourists' Pocket Guide for Scotland . - „ ,-, « ,.,,., t , t a m ^ I The Letters and Works of Philip Dormer Stanhope , Harl of Chesterfield . By Lord _ Mahon . Y i g xCicnsrci ijenuey . The Maiden ' i Tower ; a Tale of the Sea . By E . F . Carlen . 3 vols . R . Bentley . Longer Exercises in Lathi Prose Composition . By J . W . Donaldson , D . D . y J . W . Parker and Son . Latince Grammaticce Budimenta . By J . "W . Donaldson , D . D . J . W . Parker and Son . Jflints on the Solution of the Eastern Question . j -u « Home Life in Germany . By Charles Loring Brace . Richard Bentley . The Beaeoner . Watson .

      Untitled Article

      Km THE LEADER . f 8 ATfflfoAr >

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 21, 1853, page 500, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1987/page/20/