CARDS. ELIZA COOK'S JOURNAL. We have very curious accounts handed down to us of the invention of cards, as the contrivance of a painter in 1390, for the purpose of diverting Charles the Sixth of France, who had fallen into a deep melancholy. Some say the four suits were designed to represent the four Cœurs, or hearts, were used principal classes of society. for the emblem of choir-men, or ecclesiastics; but the Spaniards have copas, or chalices, instead of hearts, though in allusion to the same character. The nobility, or prime military part of the kingdom, are represented by what the French call piques, the points of lances or pikes; to which, from our ignorance of the meaning or resemblance, we gave the name of spades, from the Spanish word espadas, swords, which the Spaniards have painted on their cards, instead of pikes. Carreaux, diamonds, square stones, or tiles, appear to have been a hard-strained representation of citizens, merchants, or tradesmen; but the peasantry, or class of people engaged in the pursuits of agriculture, had a much more appropriate type in what the French called trefles, trefoil, or clover-grass, instead of which the Spaniards using bastos, staves or clubs, in the corresponding suit of their cards, we have absurdly annexed the Spanish signification to the French figure. Others will have it that the four suits are all military emblems; that hearts imply courage to defend our country; that the arms then in use were piques, lances, and heavy arrows to be shot from crossbows, and shaped like carreaux, the diamonds on cards; and lastly, that trefle, trefoil, served to remind a general that he should never encamp, without good opportunities for forage. In the same spirit of allusion to war, we are told, that the ace is, in fact, the Latin word as, signifying literally a piece of money, but, in a general sense, wealth; and that aces, accordingly, have precedency before kings and all other cards. For as riches are the sinews of war, the most powerful monarchs submit to their control; and the question of peace or war must, in a great measure, depend on the finances and resources of a country. The four kings were intended as portraits of David, Alexander, Caesar, and Charlemagne, to represent the four monarchies of the Jews, Greeks, Romans, and Franks. Each of the kings had his faithful ecuyer, or armour-bearer, called in the middle ages valet, or knave, a title then honourable, though now used as a term of servility or contempt. The four queens, under the names of Argine, Esther, Indefatigable research and ingenious conjecture have His wars As regards the introduction of cards and dice into families as amusements, we have generally observed that are happy in being permitted to select a few remarks on they produce bad effects on temper and manners, and the subject from the manuscript of a medical writer, wherein he says-" But how shall I dissolve the charm that chains so many votaries to the gaming table? What fatal delusion? Shall I unite the rigid doctrines of the language shall I make use of to dispel the fascinating and moralist with the zealous concern of the physician, and describe the propensity to gaming as a vice equally subversive of principle and ruinous to health; debasing those who practise it to a level with the meanest depredators, and rendering their personal infirmities objects of that compassion which they do not deserve? "I know my arguments and reproaches would be equally lost upon the callous, the shameless, the professional gambler; but I will address myself to those persons, who look upon a game at cards or backgammon as an agreeable and innocent way of spending their leisure moments; and, under this false impression, acquire by degrees so great a love for it, that it at last constitutes their only enjoyment. "As I do not think such persons incorrigible in their error, I shall beg leave to inform them, that the supremacy of cards or dice in any company is inconsistent with true politeness, good sense, and a well-cultivated It is really an acknowledgment on the part of all taste. advocates for that method of murdering time, that they are incapable of communicating or receiving, of imparting to others or enjoying themselves, the pleasure of rational conversation. What a pitiable person that must be, who, the moment the tea-table is cleared, becomes dull and impatient till the cards are brought, and is incapable of any sallies of cheerfulness, but what are excited by a lucky trick, or the blunder of an adversary! "I have often indulged a fond expectation, that a taste for music and private concerts would supersede cards in a more absurd and more unhealthy abuse of time, than social society; for I defy any man breathing to point out for sets of people, or parties who call themselves welltable; to remain for hours together in a sitting posture; bred and social, to take their places round a gaming the interchange of improving ideas and liberal sentiments roding passions, fear, anxiety, disappointment, vexation; suspended; they themselves often the victims of cor Many entertaining books have been filled with anec-always exerting the powers of calculation, judgment, dotes of chess-playing in particular. We shall select only two, as instances of its fortunate and unfortunate effects. In the chronicle of the Moorish kings of Granada we find it related that, in 1396, Mehemed Balba seized upon mind; and frequently continuing the unprofitable amusememory, in a manner most detrimental both to body and ment to so late an hour, as to interfere considerably with the health and temper of the next day." RHYMES FOR YOUNG READERS. PUSS AND DASH Sir Dash had long held sole possession Of parlour place by day and night, And seemed to think it great oppression For any to dispute his right. He slept upon the sofa seat, He mounted on the stools and chairs; He lived upon the daintiest meat, At length his master's heart was smitten Sir Dash no sooner saw her form, He raved with passion, snarled, and snapp'd,- The master thought a day or two Alas! they both behaved so badly, That those around could not endure it; Bad temper reigned so very sadly, The master knew not how to cure it. A dish of milk was on the floor, Puss wanted some, and so did Dash; 'Twas big enough for many more To lap out of without a splash; And did their best to spill and waste it. The garden was in lovely order, Trampling and spoiling all around; Their master sent them both away. They soon discovered to their cost, What a good home they thus had lost. Dash was obliged to wear a chain, Which galled his neck, and gave him pain; A dirty kennel was his bed, And often he was poorly fed; Most fervently poor Dash repented Where no sweet milk and meat were set, But mice were all that she could get ; Had they been somewhat more inclined To friendship-sociable and kind; Had they put jealousy aside And both laid down their selfish pride, Both had escaped such dire disgrace, Thus far too often do we see Brothers and sisters disagree; Too often do we hear loud blaming, With ill-bred speech, and rude exclaiming ; If Puss and Dash had thought of this, Brothers and sisters all take warning, To loud dispute and spiteful deed; Yield to each other, and be sure ELIZA COOK. Printed and Published for the Proprietor, by J. O. CLARKE, (of No. 9, Hemingford Terrace, East, in the Parish of St. Mary, Islington, in the County of Middlesex) at his Printing Office, No. 3, Raquet Court, Fleet Street, in the Parish of St. Bride, in the City of London. Saturday, May 26, 1849. GEORGE STEPHENSON. THE life of George Stephenson will form a highly interesting chapter in some future edition of "The Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties." No one of the numerous self-educated men whose histories are given in the pages of that fascinating book, had greater difficulties to encounter, or overcame those difficulties more triumphantly than he. George Stephenson had no advantages of birth or education; and he never cared to conceal from those whom he addressed, that he was only the son of a poor pitman, and was sent into the coal-pit to work for his bread before he had received a vestige of school education. He was born at Wylam, a colliery village on Tyneside, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, in the year 1781, and he was only six or seven years of age when he was sent down the pit as a "trapper." No employment can be imagined less congenial with a boy's tastes than this. His duty is, to sit behind a trap-door, in the dark, for ten or twelve hours together, and hold open the door as the trams pass through. They pass, and he sits there solitary till the next waggons come up. He must be in the pit as soon as the work of the day commences, in winter before daylight; and, according to the old system, he could not leave the pit until the work of the day was at an end. Hence, the "trapper" rarely saw the light of day, except on a Sunday. In this solitary confinement, in the dark, were the early years of George Stephenson spent. He was afterwards a "picker" at Wylam, employed in picking out the slates from the coals, at a wage of 4s. or 5s. a week. He then went to Callerton pit, where he got promoted to the post of driver of a "gin." While here, an engine was put on to pump the water out of the pit, and George, who had the character of being "a steady lad," and was now about seventeen years old, was appointed foreman, at a wage of 10s. a week. He behaved himself well, and, in due course, was advanced to the situation of engineman. He was still quite illiterate, but sober and well-conducted. He was getting strong and able-bodied, too, and proved this by soundly pommelling, one day on the pit-heap, a quarrelsome fellow, considered "the terror of the neighbourhood." While at Callerton, he went a-courting. He was now about 20 or 21, and resolved to marry. He set his affections at first rather high, upon a Miss Hindmarsh, the daughter of a respectable farmer of the neighbourhood. But as George was as yet only a poor working man, he was not considered a suitable match, and his proposals were declined. He was, however, resolved to be married, and as the mistress would not have him, he offered himself to the servant, and was accepted. He married her; she proved a good wife; and Robert Stephenson, now M.P., was the issue of the union. Shortly after Robert's birth, she died, and, in a few years after, George again [PRICE 14d. offered himself to Miss Hindmarsh, and this time he was accepted. This second marriage was a prosperous one, and the pair lived long and happily together. George Stephenson left Callerton to go to Walbottle pit, as brakesman, attending the engine while drawing up the coals from the pit. While here, his wages were advanced to 12s. a week, on which event he declared, on his coming out of the pay-office, that he was "made a man for life." Thence he went to Willington ballastcrane, in the same capacity, and remained there for several years. When about 22 or 23, he began to learn to read, for he had already felt the disadvantages of his early want of elementary instruction, and, in his after years, he never omitted an opportunity of urging upon young men to avail themselves of the increasing facilities for such instruction, offered by the mechanics' and other educational institutes throughout the country. He left Willington for Killingworth, where he again acted as brakesman, at an advanced wage. Here he made the greatest progress. He had always been a steady and advancing workman; but now he felt aspirations for higher things rising up within him. He was attentive, assiduous, and active-minded. Watching the engine as he did, he in time came to understand it thoroughly. He occasionally made several new adaptations of machinery in the working of the engine, in the pumps, pullies, &c., so as to cause considerable saving to his employers, and to win for him their respect and esteem. The steamengine grew familiar to him; he studied it, and his mind became awakened to the contemplation of its powers, its weaknesses, and its capabilities. It is well observed by an able writer in the "Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal," that "there is something in the steam-engine which is a spell and a charm to the beholder; something more, and something else than the love of a sailor for his ship; such as the weaver feels not at his loom, nor the smith before his anvil. The smith or the weaver is the maker, the hammer or the shuttle works as his hand lists; but the steam-engine stands as with life and breath in it, working of itself, earnestly, steadily, and manfully, by day and by night, in its youth, and its elder years, when scores of men who wrought with it have sickened and breathed their last. To the working man it is a thing of care and love, and its sight seems to give might to those who behold it, and to teach them the cunning which is in its own make. Thus, boys who watched, strengthened it with cords and chains of iron; thus, a toy in the hands of Watt, it claimed his life for its care, and grew to unwonted growth; thus, time after time, have master and workman nursed its childhood, and helped it onwards to its mightiest strength; and Stephenson had not been among the least of these." We may here mention an interesting circumstance in Stephenson's career, while working as brakesman at Killingworth Pit. There were three brakesmen, who took the shaft was cleared of water. The circumstance gave him a name, and he proved equally successful in the cure of other pumps which would not draw. He became a skilful pump-curer. He now also understood the steamengine so well, that he made several improvements in its working, and in its adaptation to pit machinery. His prospects began to look brighter; he was called in to do the work of an engineer; putting up steam-engines under ground, laying down tram or waggon-ways, and similar work of an engineer; and, as his earnings steadily increased, emigration was no longer thought of. He the "night-shift" by turns. This night-shift lasted for eight or ten hours; and as there was little work to be done during that time-only drawing up and letting men down-the brakesman's time hung heavy on his hands. Stephenson, however, always regarded time as precious, and carefully turned every minute to account. During these night-shifts he took his first lessons in arithmetic. When he had worked his sums on a slate, he sent them off next morning to a schoolmaster in the neighbourhood to correct, who in turn sent him new questions to answer. For this service the eager scholar paid his master the humble tribute of four pence a week. The rest of his Years passed by, and George Stephenson became a time he occupied, during the night-shifts, in cleaning the prosperous man. His manly and upright character, and pitmen's clocks and watches, for which he was paid. He his devoted attention to his calling, gained him many also cut the pitmen's clothes out, and gave instructions and powerful friends. He earned the esteem and in the art of" cutting out" to the pitmen's wives, usually confidence of all with whom he came in contact. not very handy at such sort of work; and it is said, that to was straightforward and open-hearted; hard-working, this day there are pitmen's wives at Killingworth, cutting and a zealous self-cultivator; always observant, always out clothes according to the instructions then given them improving, always advancing. Among the most interestby George Stephenson. He also made shoes in these ing of all subjects for contemplation and study, by a lone nights by the engine fire, and occasionally made pre-scrutinizing mind such as Stephenson's, was that new sents of them to the poor relations of his wife, and their and wondrous machine, as yet in its infancy, the locochildren. He turned his ready hand to anything. Among motive, and its adaptation to the iron roads now laid others of his works was a sun-dial, still fixed over the down in many parts, but especially in the county of door of the house he lived in while at Killingworth; and Durham. Steam had already become a great industrial to the last day of his life, he felt a pride at the sight of power in England, and was doing the work of hundreds that sun-dial. Not long before his death, while survey- of thousands of horses. It had revolutionized the whole ing the line of the Newcastle and Berwick Railway, he domain of human industry. It was driving mills and drove a professional friend somewhat out of his way to machinery, rolling iron, spinning cotton, grinding corn, have an admiring look at the dial. and impelling ships through the waters. But the invention of the locomotive, which was to bring cities together, nearly annihilate space, and confer on man as much new power and enjoyment as if he were endowed with wings All the little money which Stephenson thus made by the cleaning of clocks and watches, and the making of shoes, he devoted to the education of his son Robert. He had felt the want of education in his own person, and set a high value upon it; accordingly, he determined early to give his son the best culture he could afford. Robert was sent accordingly to Bruce's school, in Newcastle, where he received the rudiments of an excellent education. At a public dinner held in Newcastle, in his honour, not long before his death, Mr. Stephenson thus referred to this fact in his early career:-"I have worked my way," he said, "but I have worked as hard as any man in the world, and I have overcome obstacles which it falls to the lot of but few men to encounter. I have known the day, when my son was a child, that, after my daily labour was at an end, I have gone home to my single room and cleaned clocks and watches, in order that I might be able to put my child to school. I had felt too acutely myself the loss of an education not to be fully sensible of how much advantage one would be to him." This we must always regard as a beautiful feature in Stephenson's character; and it is gratifying to state, that the future reputation and well-won honours of the son, amply repaid the early care and self-denial of the father. About the year 1800, when he worked at Killingworth, distress was abroad in the land, and much suffering was experienced by the colliery population in the neighbourhood. This was the time of the long-remembered "dear years," when bread was scarcely to be had at any price. So straitened was Stephenson, and so down-hearted with the prospects of the times, that he had made up his mind to emigrate to the United States with one of his fellow-workmen, where they intended to try their hands at mechanics and farming; but his heart was bound to his kindred, and he could not tear himself from home. A happy incident detained him, and opened the road to fortune. He had, every morning, in going to his work, to pass a newly-sunk pit, whence the workmen were day after day fruitlessly endeavouring to draw the water. In one of his walks he stopped to look on, and could not help observing, that if they would let him try, he would "soon set them to the bottom." Though the remark was laughed at, the workmen were too glad of help, come from what quarter it might, and he was allowed to try his skill. In a very short time his efforts succeeded, and this great invention was yet but in its infancy; the locomotive was a rude and clumsy machine, more of a curiosity than an efficient motive power, when George Stephenson directed all the powers of his strong mind to its study, and in the space of a few years brought it to the perfection it has now attained. Various experiments had been made with steam as a motive power on tram-roads or railways, and numerous patents had been taken out for inventions of this kind, prior to 1814, when George Stephenson built his first locomotive. As early as 1804, Trevithick's engines were running on the Merthyr Tydvil Railway, in South Wales; and one of the same engines was, many years after, sent down to Wylam colliery, where Stephenson first saw it. He could not fail to be struck by the sight, and his active mind at once set to work as to the means of improving the machine, for it was as yet very imperfect and inefficient. He soon commenced building a locomotive, and was supplied with the requisite money by Sir Thomas Liddell (now Lord Ravensworth) and the other partners in the Killingworth Colliery, who had every confidence in his skill. In this engine he first adopted his great improvement of double cylinders, Trevithick's being only a single cylinder engine, and therefore very irregular in its action. The new engine succeeded admirably, and by the aid of his powerful friends, he was shortly after enabled to take out a patent for it. The next year he erected his second engine, with further improvements, which we need not here stop to detail. He was also engaged as a coal-viewer, and as an engineer in laying out railways. His hands were full, and his prospects were bright. His son had by this time, after receiving an excellent education, completed at the University of Edinburgh, joined him as under-viewer and assistant-engineer. He was also engaged with other projects, amongst the most important of which was the invention of the safetylamp. Although Sir Humphrey Davy is the reputed author of this valuable invention, there seems sufficient reason to believe that George Stephenson is entitled to the claim of priority of discovery. Doubtless, as in several other inventions, many leading minds were at the same period engaged upon the subject, and were alike hovering on the brink of the discovery. There is no doubt, however, that Stephenson had long been experimenting with his lamps at Killingworth, before Sir Humphrey Davy's discovery was made public, and that he had ordered his first lamp and tried it in the colliery, before any of the other claimants to the discovery had brought theirs to the test of actual experiment. His townsmen of Newcastle have always strongly supported Stephenson's claims; and in January, 1818, they testified their conviction of his merits, by publicly entertaining him in the assemblyrooms, at Newcastle, and presenting him with a silver tankard, together with one thousand guineas, being their testimonial to him as "the discoverer of the safetylamp." Railways gradually began to attract the attention of advanced minds, and the Engineer, James, was projecting the great lines of railway between London and Liverpool. Nearer home, in the county of Durham, Stephenson was at work on the Stockton and Darlington Railway, of which he was appointed Engineer. The works were commenced in 1822, and this was one of the first railways in England worked with the new locomotives, though it was, at first, merely a coal railway. Stephenson now commenced a locomotive workshop in Newcastle, which afterwards expanded into the gigantic establishment which we now find it. He was also still studying and improving himself; he had never done inventing and contriving improvements of his locomotives. Hence he was enabled to keep ahead of all competitors; one proof of which was, that his engine, the Rocket, carried off the £500 prize, on the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, of which also he was Engineer. We need scarcely proceed with the history of his progress further. He was carried on the full tide of railway prosperity, and contributed, in no small degree, to the development of this great civilizing power. He also derived for himself the personal advantage of large gains, which, at length, accumulated to a large fortune. Stephenson was not the creator of railways, nor was he the inventor of the locomotive; he was an energetic, hard-working man, full of the best practical qualities, and, by directing his mind to the subject of steam locomotion, he was enabled to effect improvements of the most valuable kind in the construction of the locomotive, and thus to impart a stimulus of no ordinary character to the industrial energies and capabilities of his country. George Stephenson died at his seat at Tapton, Derbyshire, in August, 1848, in his 67th year. In conclusion, we may quote the words which he himself used on the occasion of a recent public dinner at Newcastle: "I may say," he observed, “without being deemed egotistical, that I have mixed with a greater variety of society than, perhaps, any man living. I have dined in mines, for I was once a miner; and I have dined with kings and queens, and with all grades of the nobility, and have seen enough to inspire me with the hope, that my exertions have not been without their beneficial results-that my labour has not been in vain." LAWS. THERE is not a good code of laws in any single country. The reason is obvious; laws have been made for particular purposes, according to time, place, exigencies, and not with general and systematic views. It appears, that the greater part of mankind have received from nature a sufficient portion of what is called common sense for making laws, but that the whole world has not justice enough to make good laws. Laws have proceeded, in almost every state, from the interest of the legislator, from the urgency of the moment, from ignorance, and from superstition, and have accordingly been made at random and irregularly, just in the same manner in which cities have been built. Pen and Ink Portraits. THE "JOLLY" OLD TRADESMAN. THAT "there is more in heaven and earth than is dreamt of in our philosophy," was the opinion of that prince of characters and Denmark, Hamlet; so, also, is there more than a mere expression of mirth embodied in the adjective "jolly." We take it to be the alphabetical symbol of the conjunction of generosity and benevolence,we take it as a verbal representative of glorious feeling, originally formed by a junction of the heart and soul. It has a full, rich, rotund sound, filling the mouth, as it rolls along the tongue, with an almost epicurean pleasure. It is a diamond, sometimes set in base metal, but even then, lending a particle of its effulgence to its less worthy surrounding. Had the Pantheon Senate met in conclave at a nectar party, for the express purpose of coining a seal for the receipt stamp of felicity, the gods could not have found a more expressive word. It is an index of healthy minds, and a phrenotypic of "happy memories," the jacko'lantern of life, which gambols in merriment upon the face of humanity, lighting every nook in their breast; the staff of heaven which hearts may lean upon, and set grim despair at defiance. We have entered upon an etymology of our own of this word, that our readers may clearly understand us as we proceed; so that starting from the same point, in the same mind together, we may arrive at a similar conclusion, viz., that trade is not of necessity an arithmetical process, whereby the warmer qualities of the heart become invariably subject to ossification; for, it will be seen that although some men-perhaps the majority, have no other pleasure than business, there are others, who, by a wise use of the chemical, jollity, extract pleasure from everything, while they impart it to everybody-for among good hearts it is an epidemic. Jollity, in fact, is a spirit in which the human heart has only to be immersed, to be preserved from the decaying powers of care and avarice. The "Jolly" Old Tradesman, belongs to, we hope, a large class; but, we are sadly afraid they are not so large as they ought to be. Their trading brethren consider them like spots on the sun, disagreeable dottings on the orb of trade, and bad exemplars to the rising stars of the £. s. d. horizon, and accordingly, do all they can to discountenance the race; but it will be long ere illnature and illiberality can entirely extinguish the flame of good feeling. Without leaning too much to the Caesarian penchant for "fat, sleek-headed men, such as sleep o' nights," we affirm that the generality of "jolly" tradesmen have an obese tendency, that is, they are round and fair to look upon, with no more angles physically than mentally. They are like a perfect circle upon a true plane; all can be seen at a glance, nothing is hidden. As for his dress, it is in the fashion of his time, and ever regulated by his weight of years and the atmosphere, and you can always see, that although too old for a gosling, he is too young for a goose. His The cheerful old gentleman is a living illustration of "a place for everything, and everything in its place;" and his circle of existence, taken as a whole, is easily divisible into quadrantal parts or stages. First, socially. He entertains a horror for the habitual use of a publichouse, and although he does not hate tobacco, he seldom deifies it in the gin-and-water pantheon of a tavern. home is the theatre of his existence, and he is fastly embedded in its centre, as the toad, report saith, was incarcerated for centuries in stone. His house is his castle, his "ain fireside" the altar, and his wife and family, the terrestial deities, to whom he sacrifices the cares of his outward existence. The "Jolly" Old Tradesman may be seen at the British |