remarks of biblical critics that this, that, or another portion of the sacred Scriptures was not written by the author to whom it is ascribed, I am reminded of the great amusement we enjoyed forty years ago in hearing of the sorrows of the critics of the Amber Witch.

THE SHAMS OF SOCIETY.

"This world is all a fleeting show
For man's illusion given."

IF I had any doubt on that subject, it was rudely dispelled by the receipt this evening by mail of a circular letter. Of the shams and humbug, the hollow deceit and shabby tricks by which people try to pass for what they are not, I have seen as much as others; but my education and intercourse with the world had not been so far extended as to bring me into acquaintance with a custom which "has long been practised in the large cities of Europe,” and is now to be introduced among the upper classes of the city of New York.

If a man has money and nothing else, it is highly becoming and meritorious to use it in the entertainment of his friends. The Bible saith that "money answereth all things." It makes up for the want of brains and culture, and helps him who has it to be useful and agreeable. A rich and hospitable gentleman will, with virtue, command the respect of his fellow-men, though his early education may have been neglected, and it is evident he was not "to the manner born." And it is now proposed to enable the stupidest of men and women to show that if "wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence," as the Bible saith, so money can buy wit, and the one who has the most of" filthy lucre" can have the most charming parties, with the most entertaining guests, and the wit and song and even the conversation shall be made by machine, at ten dollars a head. But I am detaining you

from the circular:

[COPY.]

"NEW YORK, May, 1882.

"Families, who are about giving receptions, dinner-parties, or other entertainments, will be gratified to know that persons who will assist in making these events pleasant and enjoyable can be obtained through the medium of The Bureau. These persons will not be professionals, but parties of culture and refinement, who will appear well, dress elegantly, and mingle with the guests, while able and willing to play, sing, converse fluently, tell a good story, give a recitation or anything that will help to make an evening pass quickly and pleasantly.

"The Bureau does not claim any originality in this plan, but simply complies with the increasing demands of a large class of its patrons, in thus introducing a feature of the business that has long been practised in the large cities of Europe. The attendance of such persons, young or old, male or female, can be had for the sum of ten dollars per evening each. We will guarantee them to be strictly honest and desirable persons.

I must confess to a slight sense of wounded pride on receiving this proposal, having never felt the need of such hired help at the dinner-table or evening sociable. The circular is certainly intended only for the rich and stupid. I am not

rich, and it humiliates me to know that this Bureau thinks me stupid, and sends this intimation that for ten dollars they will send a man to dine with me who can tell a good story.

I had read in the Bible and other Oriental writings of the practice of hiring mourners at funerals, whose weeping and wailing are in proportion to the price paid for their cries and tears; but it had never reached me before that, in any market or country, professional wits were to be let, who are introduced to the company as friends of the host, and are to be amusing at so much an hour. It is the misfortune of some men who are gifted with the faculty of telling entertaining stories to be "invited out" for the sake of their powers, and the host would be grievously disappointed if the wit did not pay for his dinner by doing his level best. Mr. Clark, of the Knickerbocker Magazine, was one of these amusing gentlemen greatly in demand. At a fashionable party, he was behaving himself with the quiet demeanor of a gentleman, when he

was suddenly confounded by the approach of a servant, who said, “Mrs. Stuckup's compliments to Mr. Clark, and won't he please to begin to be funny." Now, Falstaff was right when he said, "If reasons were as plenty as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion." And no wit can be summoned to order.

And what man can with malice prepense or with forced amiability produce entertainment at so much a yard? There was a time-for aught I know it may be so now-when kings had professional jesters, clowns, fools, dwarfs, and oddities of all sorts to amuse them and their guests, which is certainly a better dish to set before a king or for a king to set before his trenchermen than the fights of beasts and men which made a Roman holiday. When British ladies and gentlemen were seen dancing, the native Chinese gentry expressed surprise that they should put themselves to so much physical inconvenience for pleasure, and said, "We have our servants to dance for us."

The daughter of Herodias danced before Herod and pleased him, and the murder of John the Baptist followed, his venerable head being the price which the sensual regent paid for the evening's entertainment. But a dancing-girl before a prince, or a chorus of men-singers and women-singers such as the king in Jerusalem got for his amusement, was something quite other than this proposition made to me by letter seems to intimate. Imagine for a moment my acceding to the offer and availing myself of the opportunity to engage for the very moderate sum of fifty dollars five professional amusers—“ parties of culture and refinement," "elegantly dressed" who come to my house, comfortably filled with the sort of people who are apt to be here at an evening company. These ten-dollar amusers are to "play," "sing," converse fluently," "tell a good story," "give a recitation," or anything that will help to make an evening pass quickly and pleasantly." They are not to be known as hired performers, but are to be introduced as friends of mine, under such name as they choose to assume for the occasion.

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refinement" could I have to

play such a trick on my friends, and how much could these actors have who would go about town to perform in the disguise of gentlemen and ladies! It is becoming and it is not unusual to invite the services of singers and players on instruments to add to the pleasures of an evening, and it is perfectly proper to pay them; but that is quite another thing from passing off a stranger as a friend whose acquaintance your guests are supposed to be making, while he is only earning his wages by singing a song or telling a story.

The letter I have received very kindly offers to guarantee the honesty of these amusement-makers. That is something. They might slip the spoons into their pockets, or make a mistake in getting off with an overcoat. So we are given the assurance that they will not steal; and so far, so good. That is the only thing about the business that does not savor of sham, shoddy, and snobbery.

But it is a part and parcel of modern "society," and is a natural outgrowth of those conditions that prevail where the possession of wealth is a passport to association with what is called the best circles. Caterers will furnish guests as well as supper, and the man who has struck oil has smoothed his way into palaces that were hitherto inaccessible. Once in, and the caterer will do for him what is needed to make his receptions brilliant and agreeable. The wit of the ages may be committed to memory. The pleasantest stories that ever were made shall be ready at his word, for he has only to give the order and the bureau will produce a trained band of performers who will astonish the natives, and make them say, "What a splendid set of friends our neighbor draws about him!"

It is all sham and pretence. Good sense condemns it as weak and foolish. Religion rejects it as part of that great system of hypocrisy and lies by which poor human nature is always trying to appear to be something it is not. The lack of early culture will never be supplied by artificial helps in after years. Manners are of great value, but conventional manners, the mere forms which society has adopted by general consent, are of very little account, where kindness, virtue, and com

mon-sense rule the life and conversation. The apostle taught courtesy as a virtue. Children should learn it from the example and precepts of their parents. To be agreeable to others is a duty, and it certainly is a pleasure. And the family endowed with the ordinary gifts of education and sense will be at no loss to make their friends enjoy their hospitalities, without putting themselves to the trouble of calling in the hirelings of the bureau, elegantly dressed, able to tell a good story, and warranted not to steal.

GREAT PREACHING IN SMALL PLACES.

SINCE I wrote you from Lake George my travels have been continued. No matter where I spent the Sabbath. You are bound to have a share of all that happens in these summer pilgrimages.

It was after the morning service-when and where I will be excused from saying-that I was sitting at the shady and breezy end of the hotel piazza, seeking cool refreshment after a pulpit exercise in a very hot day. A gentleman whom I had never met before came up and expressed the pleasure he enjoyed in hearing me in the pulpit for the first time. And then he went on to say that every minister who comes here to this summer resort thinks he must preach a great sermon; he brings out a big gun and fires it off with a tremendous roar, as if he expected to astonish the natives, and us too, who are not natives, but have come here for repose and refreshment. "What pleased me," he said, “in your preaching was, that you did not give us anything of that sort, but just a simple gospel sermon that everybody could understand, and that ought to do us all good."

'Thank you,” I answered; but inasmuch as I had preached as much of a sermon as I ever did or could, one on which I had spent more time and labor than I ever expect to bestow on another, I was rather taken down by the man's thinking