A considerable number of the inhabitants of this part of the State have for many years employed themselves in peddling several kinds of articles, of small value, in many parts of this country. The proprietor loads with these one or more horses; and either travels himself, or sends an agent, from place to place, until he has bartered or sold them. In expeditions of this nature considerable numbers have spent no small part of their lives.

The consequences of this employment, and of all others like it, are generally malignant. Men, who begin life with bargaining for small wares, will almost invariably become sharpers. The commanding aim of every such man will soon be to make a good bargain and he will speedily consider every gainful bargain as a good one. The tricks of fraud will assume, in his mind, the same place, which commercial skill and an honourable system of dealing hold in the mind of a merchant. Often employed in disputes, he becomes noisy, pertinacious, and impudent. A great body of the inhabitants in this part of the country are exempted from any share in these remarks; and sustain the same respectable character, which is common throughout New-England. Still, I believe this unfortunate employment to have had an unhappy influence on both the morals, and manners, of the people, so far as it has extended. 1

We may be sure that Tim Twilight was a different kind of person. Mr. Thomas certainly believed in him, and that too in spite of the misfortunes of "my neighbour Spinage," who, according to the Farmer's Calendar for October, 1830, "last season, purchased of an honest pedlar a pound of wooden cucumber seeds!"

1 Travels in New-England and New-York, New Haven, 1821, I, 306.

I

FIRE!

N 1799 the Almanac contained a series of observations on the prevention and extinction of Fire. They are thought to be the work of Benjamin Dearborn (17451838), and are particularly amusing from their anecdotical character.

[The following is inserted at the request of the Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society.]

I.

DIRECTIONS for preventing CALAMITIES by FIRE.

K

EEP your chimnies and stove-pipes clean, by sweeping them at least once every month.

2. Never remove hot ashes in a wooden vessel of any kind, and look well to your ash-hole.

3. After sweeping a hearth, see that the brush does not retain any particles of fire, before you hang it up in its usual place.

4. Oblige all your servants to go to bed before you, every night, and inspect all your fire-places, before you retire to rest. - For fear of accidents, let a bucket of water be left in your kitchen every night. The writer of these directions once saved his house from being consumed by fire by this precaution.

5. Do not permit a servant to carry a candle to his bed-room, if he sleeps in an unplastered garret.

6. Cover up your fire carefully every night in ashes. Let the unburnt parts of the billets or chunks of wood, be placed next the hearth, but not set upright in the corners, by which means no sparks will be emitted from the wood. Pour a little water upon the burning ends of the wood which are not completely covered by the ashes. Place before the fire a fender made of sheet iron.

This contrivance was well known in England many years ago, by the name of Coverfeu. It has lately received (from a top being added to it) the name of Hood.

7. Remove papers and linen from near the fire to a remote part of the room.

8. Shut the doors of all the rooms in which you leave fire at night. By thus excluding the supply of fresh air, you will prevent a flame being kindled, should a coal or spark fall upon the floor, or upon any of the combustible matter in the room. The smoke which issues from this smothered fire, will find its way into every part of the house, and by waking the family, may save it from destruction.

9. If sickness or any other cause should oblige you to leave a candle burning all night, place it in such a situation as to be out of the way of rats. A house was once destroyed by a rat running away with a lighted candle for the sake of the tallow, and conveying it into a hole filled with rags, and inflammable matter.

10. Never read in bed by candle light, especially if your bed be surrounded by curtains.

11. Strictly forbid the use of segars in your family at all times, but especially after night. May not the greater frequency of fires in the United States than in former years, be ascribed in part to the more general use of segars by careless servants and children? -There is a good reason to believe a house was lately set on fire by a half consumed segar, which a woman suddenly threw away to prevent being detected in the unhealthy and offensive practice of smoaking.

In case of fire attend to the following directions, to prevent or restrain its terrible consequences.

1. Do not open the room or closet door where you suspect the fire to be, until you have secured your family, and your most valuable effects, nor until you have collected quantity of water to throw on the fire, the moment a fresh supply of air excites it to a flame. Where water cannot conveniently be had, try to smother the fire by throwing two or three blankets over it. A