dishes, or pepper or salt. For, while you are vainly endeavoring to accomplish impossibilities, some light-fingered waiter, under pretense of changing your plate, will run off with your only chance of a dinner.

The scene presents a most ludicrous struggle for bones and cold potatoes. Or, rather, it is fearful to witness such a desperate handling of the knife; to see so many faces red with rage at getting nothing; and ladies' cheeks pale with waiting; and starving gourmands looking stupefied into the vacuum of the platters before them; and disappointed dyspeptics leaving the table with an expression on their faces of "I'll go hang myself." Add, besides, to what one sees that which he hears-the maledictions heaped liberally upon the heads of cook and provider; the clatter of what knives and forks succeed in getting brought into action; the whistling and roaring of Sambo, and the rattling of his heels; with, finally, an awful crash of chinaware, now and then a slide of plates, an avalanche of whips and custards; for, where there are several dozens of waiters running up and down the hall, like race-horses, there must be occasional collisions; and these, again, lead to fights, at least, once or more in the season, when a couple of strapping black boys knock each other's noses flatter, and make their mutual wool fly.

Truly, the Frenchman who dines on the hair of his moustache, and the end of his tooth-pick, in front of the Cafe de Paris, is a lucky fellow, and has something under his jacket, compared with these boarders at two dollars per diem.

But it is still worse dining, when it rains. The ancient roofs of some of these halls and piazzas are not made of caoutchouc; and you cannot then sit at meat without two black boys at your back-one to keep off the flies, and the other to hold over your head an umbrella. There is a good excuse for the soup being thin on such days. 'Tis, in fact, mere rain-water, with, possibly, a fly or two in it.

All the doctors lay down the rule, that the patient must drink mineral waters on an empty stomach; and, by my troth, it is easy following it, during the height of the season, at some of these springs. That organ is rarely so much occupied in its legitimate business as to be in an unfit state to receive

a glass from the fountain. It is said that Chinamen, when hard pushed for other articles of food, can subsist tolerably well on water diet; and, in spending the month of August here, one comes gradually to comprehend how the thing can be done.

"Eat a little milk, a little mush, or a very thin soup," said the mineralwater doctor, at one of the springs, after he had looked at my tongue, and was still gravely holding me by the pulse. "and drink the water ad libi

tum."

"It is well to diet a little, while drinking the spring water," said the landlord to me, soon afterwards, in the course of some conversation with him.

"They both agree in their views," said I to myself; "and what is sworn to by two disinterested witnesses, ought certainly to be true. I'll live on bread and milk for the next fortnight."

Luckily for myself, I did not die in the attempt-though the price of three or four private dinners, which afterwards appeared in my bill, indicated that I must have felt very "far gone" when I ordered them. Indeed, such rules are preposterous, and can only be observed with such a long list of exceptions as completely disproves them. If I were a doctor-peace! ghost of Abernethy-I would say to my patient:

"Drink thy sulphur-water before breakfast, O, man! if thou wilt; but if thou expect ever to derive any benefit from it, have a saddle of mutton, or good fat steaks, and sherris-sack, for dinner!"

Still, one likes to be at the fashionable springs, when the crowd is greatest. At the others, it is not so. There, he wishes to be well-accommodated-to have a large airy apartment-to be well served at the table-and to enjoy his quiet, and the society of a small circle of friends; but here, he desires to be in the midst of the grand movement. The more colonels, the better. The more pretty ladies, the gayer. He wants to talk upon politics with all the judges; attack or defend Sebastopol with all the generals; dance attendance on all the well-bred dames, and waltz with all their daughters. Half the pleasure is in the excitement which proceeds from the great number of persons collected together. Let the fashionable crowd dwindle down to a

few dozens, and you leave also. Then you can have an entire suite of rooms, and excellent dinners, with a waiter at each elbow. But, no. When you see the trunks brought down, and hear the farewells said, you are as homesick as anybody, and crowd into the ninth place in the coach, rather than run the risk of being the last man to leave the mountains. So unreasonable are we all.

XI.

THE BELLE OF THE WHITE SULPHUR.

"Miss," said the maid of the Belle of the White Sulphur-it was not her own, as it happened-" dey say you be de most handsome young lady in de Springs!"

"Who says that, Molly?" inquired the beauty, as she stood surveying the slope of her shoulders in the mirror, previously to their being veiled in muslin.

"Dat say de tall gentle'um from de Kentuck State-him wid de black mustachy."

"You're mistaken, Molly."

I

"Can't be, miss; dat be true as Baptist preachin' in de Caroline. stand in de winder, and see miss and dat gentle'um eatin' chicken salad together; and what de gentle'um say, amost make miss choke herself-he, he, he!"

"Nonsense! And what, Molly, do you think of the thin gentleman from the north, with the small, blue eyes?"

"I see him, tu, at de Spring, afore breakfast; and he so stare at miss, over de top of he's tumbler, and sigh so in he's sulph' water, that I know'd de case be done gone with him."

"And the short young man, with reddish whiskers?"

"O, miss! him's nice; him's sweet as 'taters. When he make love, never look back."

"Molly, you are very foolish. There is nobody in love with me."

"Can't be so, miss; for, Jim tell me, dat Tom tell him, dat when miss tuk her steps in de ball-room, last night, all de young gentle'um-and some of de ole gentle'um, tu-look gone distract', and a-sinkin' through de floor."

And well they might; for this young lady was of good height, symmetrically formed, with small hands and feet; and while most persons would say she was slender, others, again, pronounced her plump. There was the faintest pos

sible blush of red in her cheeks, and just enough to relieve the exceedingly delicate, yet rich, brown tint, which southern suns had lent to her complexion. The auburn ringlets fell in graceful profusion, till they swept her shoulders. Her large hazel eye was as soft as that of a fawn in these mountains. In the prevailing expression of her face, delicacy and sweetness, intelligence and affection, were equally blended. Her manners, ordinarily, were so gentle, that they might almost be characterized as languid; and yet, at times, there was a degree of vivacity in look and motion-a sprightly play of emotions about the flexible mouth, and even a dance, a very masquerade and merry-making of wits and fancies in her eyes, which gave to her whole person such an airy, buoyant expression, that the next moment you half expected to see her soar upwards, as easily as a hawk to the clouds.

Surely, the "old families" of Virginia and South Carolina are no fable. One sees in their daughters that highborn air, that easy grace, that feminine delicacy, which shows their blood is gentle; and, like oft-decanted wine, has been refined by being poured through the veins of at least three well-born generations. A native modesty, selfpossessed, and startled only by the advances of rudeness or indelicacy, indicates an education obtained more in the sweet privacy of a rural home, than in the public academies of cities-more in the society of relatives and familiar friends, than in the company to be met with at fashionable hotels, and the world's rendezvous. I have nowhere seen young ladies whose presence was more hedged about with privacy. And yet there is no lack of natural freedom, and the play of native instinct in their manners. The laugh is gay; the word leaps from the heart; the confidence is given without a suspicion of the possibility of betrayal. It is an artlessness guarded by no premeditation. But there is, at the same time, a quick, nice sense of maidenly propriety, which, though never intrusive, still is always putting a gentle restraint upon the action of the impulses, always keeping a rein, fine as gossamer, upon the swift running of the tongue, and always guiding the burning chariot-wheels of nature's passions around all the goals of early life, with grace and safety.

The accomplished belle of the White Sulphur had, to my eyes, the look of a lady who was never expecting admiration, but had been ever receiving it. From her childhood up, it could not be otherwise than that she had been continually surrounded by domestic love, and chivalrous courtesy. This long continued reflection in her face, as in the mirror of the photographist, of the tenderest and noblest qualities of the heart, had finally left there the likeness of their own beautiful form and coloring. She was, herself, the very glass of love and courtesy. Whatever was gentle and amiable in her natural disposition, had been drawn out and fostered by this atmosphere of affectionate respect, in which she had lived-as the rose unfolds more perfectly its beauty in the welltempered air of the conservatory, than when exposed to the blight and the worm, the cold and the winds of the neglected garden. And, indeed, as there is no grace which more becomes a woman, than that expression of face and manner she derives from the interchange of domestic affection, and from the adoration of men of honor and generous sentiments; so there is nothing which so effectually withers and stains the heavenly bloom of beauty as daily contact with only the vicious and the vulgar.

XII.

AMUSEMENTS.

As for amusements here, do they not consist in drinking the waters, bathing, and, three times a day, supplying the wants of nature by vigorous efforts with the trencher? A few persons bring their books with them, as an additional source of entertainment; but most are satisfied with occasionally looking through a newspaper, a magazine, or some learned treatise, that may be lying about, on the use of mineral waters. The gentlemen sit half the morning through, in easy, wicker-bottom chairs, under the trees, conversing on the subject of politics, estimating the amount of the cotton and rice crops, smoking cigars, drinking juleps, commenting on a passing lady, a horse, a stage-coach, or, indeed, merely counting, as they go by, the "niggers." Rarely does a Virginian propose a walk. He prefers to sit, two hours together, beneath the shade. An active, inquisitive Yankee will go out and explore a mountain, or look at a neighboring farm, and, return

ing, find the Southerner in the scat where he left him. An alligator, in the state from which he comes, would not lie on a log longer. The northern-born man, rising, perhaps, not much later than the sun, racing up hill and down, to get what he calls a little exercise, climbing the pathless mountains for views of the scenery, and scouring the valleys without any purpose whatever, unless it be the getting rid of half a day he knows not what to do with, is thought by him of the terra caliente a sort of madcap, flibbertigibbet, a personification of unreason. The latter will make as much effort as may be necessary to back a horse; if there is game, he will occasionally go out with dog and gun; and, in a few instances, I have seen him wet a line for trout, or it might have been cat-fish. At ten-pins and at billiards, also he will play. But on the whole, it is an axiom with him, that too much exercise, as well as too much learning, will make a man mad. He, therefore, detests both.

For any man living on the sunny side of the Union, to do nothing seems to be no labor; and he kills his time apparently without the pains of giving it a thought. After a while, indeed, all the visitors at these springs learn more or less of the art of getting through the summer day easily. One begins with taking no note of the hour of the day, then lets his watch run down, and finally forgets the day of the week and the month-all being alike, save Sunday. The morning papers, he has ordered from town, come to hand several days old, and with such irregularity that, generally, the contradiction of the news arrives before the news itself; so that, at last, he comes to the conclusion, that at the end of the watering season nothing of importance will have happened, and he sets his mind at rest.

As for the ladies, without knowing all the little ways they have of amusing themselves, one sees in their sweet faces that they are happy. They are also the cause of by far the greater part of the happiness there is in these watering places. If, by any strange fatality, the air of the Alleghanies should become fatal to ringlets, and the mineral waters wash the red out of the peach in the cheek, how soon would all these fair scenes revert to the original savages! But, fortunately, while woman lends a portion of her grace to the mountains,

the grateful rocks repay the gift, by endowing her with powers of enchantment superior even to those of old conferred on the Medea of the Caucasus. In the eyes of some man or other, every lady, here, is an enchantress. Scarcely was there a young man in the mountains, during the two seasons I spent there, who did not seem, at times, to be under the influence of illusions, more or less, soft and roseate. Even my boy, Custopol, was obliged to confess to me, one day, that when, on the preceding Saturday night, Mary Jane came out in her yellow skirt, and green bodice, with a basque to it, a purple 'kerchief twisted round her braided hair, on her feet red morocco slippers, and gold drops pendant from her ears; and when he put his arm around her waist, and they went down the boards together, while Pompey, in the corner, "picked" his banjo, and all the darkies in the place stood up and down the kitchen; and when Mary Jane, turning softly up her eyes, let him look by the half-minute together into the whites of them, or dancing round, poked her elbow in his ribs, and, grinning, pulled his whisker— even Custy was obliged to confess, that he felt the tender passion.

The imagination, in fact, is as much exalted, here, above its ordinary level, as the mountains are higher than tidewater. Hence it will happen that a man, who, on coming to these springs, had no more thought in his head of entering on the state of matrimony than he had of making a fortune, finds before he has drunk and bathed a week, that he is in the most imminent danger of making proposals. Of course, there is no such thing ever dreamed of as matchmaking at the White Sulphur. For that presupposes coldness of blood, and a lively activity of the calculating faculties; whereas life in the mountains stimulates only the fantastic fancy, and the more romantic sentiments. No

neither party is entrapped. On the contrary, what in the world is more natural when youth and maid drink together, every day, out of the same Sulphur Spring, than that they should have corresponding sensations in the region of the heart! They both look into the same pool; there cannot be two opinions between them, respecting the taste of the water; they make precisely the same exclamations in their attempts at swallowing it; they behold the self-same

expression of face, reflected in each other's eyes as they set down the cup; and so, in a multitude of instances, before the lovers, feeling decidedly mawkish, if not desperately sick at heart, get so far back on their walk as the clerk's office, or the building containing the ball-room, or, at the very furthest, the first row of cottages, the momentous question is popped and answered.

Love-making, therefore, may fairly be set down as one of the amusements of the Virginia Springs; whether it turn out to be really diverting to the parties concerned-cela dépend. But, in any event, there will always be somebody, who, quietly looking on from a distance, will extract more or less entertainment from the general aspects of the case, and who, especially if it is seen to go hard with the swain, as it often may, will really enjoy the agony, as one does a farce when they play tragedy at Burton's.

Probably there is no better place in the States, for the study of character and manners, than these springs—and, this too, is an amusement. Sometimes

half a dozen words, let fall in casual conversation, will throw as much light on the dispositions of men, and the working of their institutions, as a novel in two duodecimos-the reading of which will require half a day.

"Jim," ," said a gentleman from Louisiana, traveling by the stage-coach to the Bath Alum; " 'Jim, come inside here, and let me have your place up there."

"Massa," replied the negro, almost as confidently as if he had been his son, "dere's room enough here for two."

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Jim," again said the gentleman, after he had taken his seat by the side of the black boy, on the top of the coach, "To-night you will see Sally; for we shall meet Master William at the Alum."

"I'se right glad of dat," was the reply-Sally being the maid of Master William's wife, and probably a good friend of Jim's.

"Jim," said the master, once more, addressing the boy after half an hour's conversation with myself, "did you ever see mountains before?"

"O, yes, massa, de river mount'ns on de Mis'sippi."

"You mean when you were in Tennessee?"

"'Xactly-dat was in Ten'see."

This same Jim, shortly afterwards turning round towards another negro, like himself, about sixteen years of age, and sitting on the luggage, said,

"Cæsar, look at dat line of mount'ns yonder; up and down-jist as reg'lar as you could draw 'em with a piece of chalk!"

"Even the dusky soul of the poor African, then, in its better moods," said I to myself, "is capable of being touched by the grace of nature; and feels, in the presence of these mountain tops, its dull faculties aroused, and strangely fascinated by the unwritten Word of God!"

Another source of pleasure upon which none of the guests can refrain from relying, more or less, is the arrival of the stage-coach. Let it happen however often in the day, it is still an important event. One expects his friends; or if not, somebody may come he has met before; at any rate, he must see who is there.

Down gets the first gentleman from the coach. He is tall, with a large proportion of bone in him, and only a moderate supply of muscle. His rather long brown hair is brushed, like a Methodist minister's, off his forehead, which is a high one, but not broad. The well tanned face indicates vigorous health, though a little sulphur water will be no disadvantage to the owner's liver. The air of calm self-possession, marks the man accustomed to command; while the slow gait, and quiet motions, suggest the habit of overseeing work, instead of performing it. The blue dress coat, with brass buttons, which is neither old nor new, together with light-colored pantaloons, black satin vest, dark silk cravat, and broad-brimmed felt hat, belong evidently to a gentleman somewhat careless of personal appearance, but of independent circumstances; in short, it requires no epaulettes to convince you at a glance, that the stranger is a colonel from one of the eastern counties of Virginia.

When his luggage is taken down, you will find that it consists of a leather trunk, covered with small brass knobs, and marked with the owner's name in full, together with those of his county, and State; on the top of it is strapped a heavy over-coat, while at one end dangle an extra pair of boots. The colonel travels without a hat-box, but has, instead, a well-worn pair of saddle

bags, which are filled with the smaller articles of his wardrobe, and such "traps" as he may very likely want on the journey.

On acquaintance, he proves to be a man of good plain sense, who belongs to what he denominates the Jeffersonian party in politics, tills the paternal acres very much after the fashion of his father before him, has generally a suit or two pending in the courts of law, but is as good-natured as he is high-minded, and really hates nobody except the abolitionists. Once sure that you are not of that fraternity, he will ask you to take a julep with him.

Sons,

The general moves in more state; he arrives in his own coach and two, or even four-for this old fashioned turnout has not yet entirely disappeared in the progress of civilization and the rail. He may also have two or three outriders, in the shape of sons, on ponies, and black boys riding mares. servants, mares and horses, they are all of his own raising; but the carriage, possibly, may have belonged to his father, or some of his ancestors; for, it is after the ancient English model, round-topped, heavily timbered, and possessing the property, like Homer's heroes, of never growing old. The trunks being piled up behind, and to them attached a water-pail, the footman is obliged to squeeze himself into what of the narrow seat in front is left by the tolerably broad-bottomed driver.

The latter is an old whip, whatever his age may be. Though without gloves, he handles the ribbons with a careful precision, as if the leaders were every moment about to spring into a run; though in shoes, his immense feet hold well by the foot-board; and in a mere jacket, instead of the official capes, he produces, by means of his spread elbows, and blown-up air, scarcely less of a sensation than the coachman of my Lord Mayor of London.

When this whole affair sweeps up to the door of the hotel, the excited landlord, especially if it be a four-in-hand, rings his bell with a fury which indicates that something extraordinary has happened; and the servants come running, as if they expected to witness the arrival of a dozen stage-coaches at once. But 'tis even more than that; 'tis a Virginia general, with horses and mares, black boys, and maids, wife and children. The hair of every waiter in the