the monster sank to the bottom, and soon ter were willing to do whatever example after reappearing alone on the surface, and should dictate to them. Having reason to basking in the sun,gave to the horror-strick- believe that the alligator was in the river, en spectators the fullest confirmation of the we commenced operations by sinking nets death and burial of their comrade. upright across its mouth, three deep, at intervals of several feet. The nets which were of great strength, and intended for the capture of the buffalo were fastened to trees on the banks, making a complete fence to the communication with the lake.

A short time after this event I made a visit to Halahala, and expressing a strong desire to capture or destroy the alligator, my host readily offered his assistance. The animal had been seen a few days before, with his head and one of his fore feet, resting on My companion and myself placed ourthe bank, and his eyes following the motions selves with our guns on either side of the of some cows which were grazing near-stream, while the Indians with long bamOur informer likened his appearance to that boos felt for the animal. For some time he of a cat watching a mouse, and in the attitude to spring upon his prey when it should come within his reach.. I may here mention as a curious fact, that the domestic buffalo which is almost continually in the water, and in the heat of day remains for hours with only his nose above the surface, is never molested by the alligator. All other animals become his victims when they incautiously approach him, and their knowledge of the danger most usually prompts them to resort to shallow places to quench their

thirst.

refused to be disturbed, and we began to fear that he was not within our limits, when a spiral motion of the water under the spot where I was standing, led me to direct the natives to it, and the creature slowly moved on the bottom towards the nets, which he no sooner touched than he quietly turned back and proceeded up the stream. This movement was several times repeated, till, having no rest in the inclosure, he attempted to climb up the bank. On receiving a ball in his body, he uttered a growl like that of an angry dog, and plunging into the water crossHaving heard that the alligator had killed ed to the other side, where he was received a horse, we proceeded to the place, about with a similar salutation, discharged directly five miles from the house; it was a tranquil into his mouth. Finding himself attacked spot, and one of singular beauty even in on every side, he renewed his attempts to that land. The stream, which a few hun- ascend the banks; but whatever part of him dred feet from the lake narrowed to a brook, appeared was bored with bullets, aud findwith its green bank fringed with the grace-ing that he was hunted, he forgot his own ful bamboo, and the alternate glory of glade formidable means of attack, and sought only and forest spreading far and wide, seemed safety from the troubles which surrounded fitted for other purposes than the familiar him. A low spot which separated the river haunt of the huge creature that had appro- from the lake, a little above the nets, was priated it to himself. A few cane huts were unguarded, and we feared, that he would situated at a short distance from the river succeed in escaping over it. It was here and we procured from them what men they very necessary to stand firmly against him, contained, who were ready to assist in free- and in several attempts which he made to ing themselves from their dangerous neigh-cross it, we turned him back with spears, bor. The terror which he had inspired, es- bamboos, or whatever first came to hand.pecially since the death of their companion, He once seemed determined to force his had hitherto prevented them from making way, and foaming with rage, he rushed with an effort to get rid of him, but they gladly open jaws and gnashing his teeth with a availed themselves of our preparations, and sound too ominous to be despised, appeared with the usual dependence of their charac- to have his full energies aroused, when his

career was stopped by a large bamboo thrust violently into his mouth, which he ground to pieces, and the fingers of the holder were so paralyzed that for some minutes he was incapable of resuming his gun.

him directly through the middle of the back, which an Indian, with a heavy piece of wood hammered into him as he could catch an opportunity. My companion on the other side, now tried to haul him to the shore by the nets to which he had fastened himself, but had not sufficient assistance with him. As I had more force with me, I managed, with the assistance of the women and children, to drag his head and part of his body on to the little beach, and giving him the coup de grace, left him to gasp out the remainder of his life.

This monster was nearly thirty feet in length, and thirteen feet in circumference, and the head alone weighed three hundred pounds. On opening him there were found, with other parts of the horse, three legs entire, torn off at the haunch and shoulder, besides a large quantity of stones, some of them of several pounds' weight-Har. Mag.

INFLUENCE OF WOMAN.

The natives had now become so excited as to forget all prudence, and the women and children of the little hamlet had come down to the shore to share in the general enthusiasm. They crowded to the opening, and were so unmindful of their danger; that it was necessary to drive them back with some violence. Had the monster known his own strength and dared to have used it, he would have gone over that spot with a force which no human power could have withstood, and would have crushed or carried with him into the lake, about the whole population of the place. It was not strange that personal safety was forgotten in the excitement of the scene. The tremendous brute, galled with wounds and repeated defeat, tore his way through the foaming water, glancing from side to side, in the vain attempt to avoid his foes; then rapidly plowing up the stream he grounded on the shallows, and turned back Ir is by the promulgation of sound morfrantic and bewildered at his circumscribed als in the community, and more especially position. At length, maddened from suffer- by the training and instruction of the young ing and desperate from continued persecu- that woman performs her part toward the tion, he rushed furiously to the mouth of the preservation of a free government. It is stream, burst through two of the nets, and I generally admitted that the public liberty threw down my gun in despair, for it looked the perpetuity of a free constitution, rests as though his way at last was clear to the on the virtue and intelligence of the comwide lake; but the third net stopped munity which enjoys it. How is that virtue him, and his teeth and legs had got entang- to be inspired, and how is that intelligence led in all. This gave us a chance of closer to be communicated? Bonaparte once askwarfare with lances, such as are used against ed Madame de Stael in what manner he could the wild buffalo. We had sent for this wea- most promote the happiness of France.pon at the commencement of the attack, and Her reply is full of political wisdom. She found it much more effectual than guns. En- said, "Instruct the mothers of the French tering the canoe, we plunged lance after People." Mothers are, indeed, the affectionlance into the alligator, as he was struggling ate and effective teachers of the human race. under the water, till a wood seemed growing The mother begins her process of training from him, which moved violently above with the infant in her arms. It is she who while his body was concealed below. His directs, so to speak, its first mental and spirendeavors to extricate himself lashed the wa-itual pulsations. She conducts it along the ters into foam mingled with blood, and impressible years of childhood and youth, there seemed to be no end to his vitality, or and hopes to deliver it to the rough contests decrease to his resistance till a lance struck and tumultuous scenes of life, armed by

those good principles which her child has ure he supports, has an important bearing received from maternal care and love.

If we draw within the circle of our contemplation the mothers of a civilized nation,

what do we see? We behold so many artificers working, not on frail and perishable matter, but on the immortal mind, moulding and fashioning beings who are to exist forever. We applaud the artist whose skill and genius present the mimic man upon the canvass; we admire and celebrate the sculptor who works out that same image in enduring marble; but how insignificant are these achievements, though the highest and fairest in all the departments of art, in comparison with the great vocation of human mothers? They work not upon the canvass that shall fail, or the marble which shall crumble into dust, but upon mind, upon spirit, which is to last forever, and which is to bear for good or evil, throughout its duration, the impress of a mother's plastic hand.

on the interests of others as well as his own. It is the inculcation of high and pure morals, such as these, that, in a free republic, woman performs her sacred duty, and fulfils her destiny.--Ladies' Companion.

HOME AND WOMAN.

If ever there has been a more touching and eloquent eulogium upon the charms of home and its dearest treasure-womanthan is contained in the following extract, it has not been our good fortune to meet it:

Man

Our homes-what is their corner stone but the virtue of woman? And on what does the social well being rest but on our homes? Must we not trace all other blessings of civilized life to the door of our private dwellings? Are not our hearth-stones guarded by the holy forms of conjugal, filial, and parental love, the corner stones of Our security for the duration of the free both church and state-more sacred than institutions which bless our country, depends either-more necessary than both? Let our upon the habits of virtue and the benevotemples crumble and our academies decay lence of knowledge and of education.-let every public edifice, our halls of jusKnowledge does not comprise all which is tice, and our capitols of state, be leveled contained in the larger term of education. with the dust--but spare our homes. The feelings are to be disciplined; the pas- did not invent, and he cannot improve or sions are to be restrained; true and worthy abrogate them: A private shelter to cover motives to be instilled; and pure morality in two hearts dearer to each other than all inculcated under all circumstances. All this the world; high walls to exclude the profane is comprised in education. Mothers who eyes of every human being-seclusion for are faithful to this great duty will tell their children enough to feel that mother is a pechildren that, neither in political nor in any culiar name- -this is home, and here is the other concerns of life, can man withdraw birth place of every sacred thought. Here himself from the perpetual obligations of the church and state must come for their conscience and of duty; that, in every act, origin and support. O, spare our homes!whether public or private, he incurs a just The love, we experience there, gives us our responsibility; and that in no condition is faith in an intimate goodness; the purity he warranted in trifling with important and disinterested tenderness of home is our rights and obligations. They will impress earnest of a better world. In the relations upon their children the truth, that the exer- there established and fostered, do we find cise of the elective franchise is a social duty through life the chief solace and joy of our of as solemn a nature as man can be called existence. What friends deserve the name, to perform; that a man may not innocently compared with those whom a birth-right trifle with his vote; and that every free e- gave us! One mother is worth a thousand lector is a trustee, as well for others as him-friends-one sister dearer and truer than self; and that every man and every meas-twenty intimate companions. We who

A LIFE PICTURE.

BY C. D. STUART.

There are pictures in life, as on canvass, which once seen are never forgotten. I remember one such. It was years ago, on a hot afternoon, that I saw an old man leaning against a lamp-post, which he left in a few moments, evidently wearied out, for an iron hydrant, on whose square top he sat himself down to rest. There was something so mournful in his look, that I threw open the blinds of the window where I had been sitting, and, leaning over the casement, watched him with an intensity of feeling akin to anguish and tears. Over a brow, on which I should judge not less than seventy winters had pressed their feet, and as many summers their parching hands, and down the sides of which struggled a few white hairs, was drawn a faded hat, scarce shading his hollow cheeks, while his body was garbed in a covering which, though cleanly-looking, bore unmistakable marks of a past age. His feet were cased in a poor apology for shoes; and thus accoutred, with "silvery beard unshorn," in the very sun's eye, sad, yet vacant-looking, as though no bond of earth claimed, and no mortal friend cared for him, he sat silent, immovable as the seat on which he rested.

There is to me no sight more tenderly touching than that of old age. I reverence the Chinese, in that they reverence old age. Even though comfort and happiness surround it, and youth and childhood smile lovingly upon it, it suggests to me more than the ripest joy of earth. So near the verge of life, it seems to me only so much nearer to heaven, and the great mysteries of the grave, and it fills me with solemnly tender thoughts. Stranger though it may be, I see my kin, my nearest and dearest, and even my own self imagined in it, and I could no more treat it irreverently than I could mock at immediate death. But old age in want, suffering by the way-side, what so touching as that? It might be my father,

or my mother; a wife, brother, or sister: if one suffer thus, may not all? And what if one's mother were shivering with cold, or dying with hunger, or suffering from pain, with no heart to beat tenderly toward her, and no hand to shield her grey hairs; can a sight more touching appear upon earth?— Not to me!

I watched the old man for an hour, full of reflections like the above, when I ventured

out to speak a word with him, to inquire into his history, and, if he had them, his sorrows and griefs. If youth is reverent, old age seldom repulses it. There is a childhood at either end of life, and the two mingle when they meet. So I found it. Freely to my question, "Friend, are you in want?” he replied that he was way-worn, and tired, and nigh starved; an out-cast or cast-out from his own home; a home which, in other years, he had reared to shelter and make happy those images of himself who now had so foully turned him forth to beggary and death. I was poor enough in this world's goods, but infinitely rich, I trust, in the sympathy that divides what it has with the suffering, and I gave him that which I had. It was but little, yet I have a thousand times felt, and now feel, the tearful gratitude of that old man, for so small a kindness, sweeter to me than "strained honey." The memory of it flows into my heart like a rich odor.

Could I have done less for him, though I could do no more? Could I have passed by such sorrow and suffering, without dropping if only one consoling word? The breath of kindness is sometimes both the bread and water of life. Nay, I could not have done less. Within me arose the suggestion, yet a little while, O, child, now blest with sufficiency, and thy head will be silvered, and may be as poorly sheltered as this old man's. Thou, too, mayst have children who will turn thee from thy home. It was a reciprocity founded on the possibility of events far off, swelling within me, that would not be repressed; a sentiment of compassion, not altogether unselfish, which, as with God's