and noted washer and ironer" and her daughter,
a " house girl," whom it may be presumed
makes herself generally useful. A new home
is also wanted for " Joanna, an extra A No. 1
cook, washer, and ironer, and her twin girl
children, aged six months;" and it is added
that "mother and children must be sold in the
city, as her husband is here, and we will not
separate them."

One is also glad to see, that even in a
beleaguered city people are expected to buy
brocatelle furniture, crimson upholstery, splendid
carpets, beautiful pianofortes, and easy
armchairs. The cannon thunder, shells burst, but
life flows on much the same. People breakfast
and dine, buy and sell, dance and sing, and,
despite the poetical maiden whose song I have
quoted, marry, and are given in marriage; else
how are armies to be maintained if the war
lasts as long as Mr. Disraeli and President
Davis imagine it may?

The wants of civilisation are not suspended.
While governor, mayor, and general commanding,
are calling citizens to arms, and warning
non-combatants to take refuge in the interior,
people are advertising for houses and pianofortes,
school teachers and French governesses.
A singing school wants pupils, and the soldiers
want books sent to their army libraries. But,
above all, recruits are wanted in army and navy,
horse, foot, and dragoons. The books published
are chiefly on military science and surgery; but
one reads with some surprise a list of new school
books for the public schools of the city and state.

"Attention British Guard, Co. B." Here is
an item now, coming through the blockade.
Who of us, I wonder, knew that there was a
British Guard among the defenders of Mobile,
with two companies at least, for B supposes A,
and may be followed by C, D, and E, up to a
full regiment. Is there such a corps as a
"British Guard" in the Federal Army? It is
probably the only organised nationality that
could not be found embodied on the side of the
Union. Not only are English musket-holders
in battle array, but English pen-holders are at
the service of the Confederacy. Englishmen and
English goods are at a premium.

The blurred, brown, and ragged newspapers,
in all this mêlée, are not destitute of humour.
The soldiers of a marching regiment are
supposed to have annexed a flock of turkeys to
their ordinary rations, and the unfortunate
hotel-keeper from whose premises they were
transferred, suggests that the turkey be adopted
as the national emblem of the Confederate States,
as he is satisfied that if placed upon their
banners, the Confederate soldiers would follow
even the picture of one to the devil.

A little quiet fun is made out of the examinations
of the candidates for the posts of surgeons
and engineers. "Suppose," says the examining
surgeon, " a man should fall headforemost into
a well that was being dug forty feet deep, and
strike one of the digging implements, what
would you do?" Answer—"Let the man be,
and fill up the well." Says the engineer to his
candidate, "Suppose you had built an engine
yourself, performed every part of the work without
assistance, and knew that it was in complete
order, but when put into a vessel, the pump would
not draw water, what would you do?" " I should
go to the side of the vessel to see if there was
any water in the river." It is to be hoped that
this ingenious youth got his commission.

Noticeable among the wants, are those of men
not liable to be drafted for military duty, such
as are exempted by age or otherwise being the
only ones to be relied upon for permanent
employments. The able-bodied men, under fifty,
may be called upon at any moment to fight. As
for the boys, they are only too impatient for the
time to come when they may be soldiers. The
tone of the newspapers is only too confident.
The only fear seems to be that the country is
not sufficiently awakened to a sense of its
danger. They make the mistake of despising
their enemy. They have beat him at long odds,
and imagine that they can always do it. They
are ready, with a single steamer, as in the case
of the Tennessee, to fight a whole Federal fleet,
but in running such risks they must sometimes
be beaten. Otherwise, it must be confessed that
the spirit of these papers is admirable. There is
nothing of false excitement, or brag, or bluster.
Their language is moderate, and their statements
are apparently modest and truthful. They can
endure the heaviest disasters with a calm patience
that seems like constitutional stoicism, but which
more probably comes from habitual self-reliance,
and a never-failing confidence in ultimate success.
It is certain that the Confederates have
disappointed alike their friends and their enemies in
the qualities they have developed. They were supposed
to be rash, excitable, impetuous, fickle,
brave no doubt, but wanting in firmness,
discipline, and perseverance of character. Prior to
the war, few would have believed that in such
an event the South would have the calmest and
wisest statesmen, the ablest generals, the best
disciplined armies, and firm, patient, and devoted
people. Whatever the termination of the great
struggle for empire or independence, no one can
deny to the Southern people the qualities they
have manifested in four years of privation and
war; and there would be required no better
evidence of their existence than I find in this
blurred bundle of newspapers, that show many
signs of having come through the blockade.

SHOTS AT ELEPHANTS.

PROBABLY no man ever shot so many
elephants as Major Rogers, once of the Ceylon
Rifles. He kept an account of the number he
had killed until it amounted to the moderate
total of twelve hundred. He then got tired of
keeping the score, and it is supposed that after
that he shot a couple of hundred more. This
is no mythical legend. It is a well-known, and
recognised, and undisputed fact. He would
undertake sometimes to do strange things in the
shooting line; for instance, to kill two elephants