University of Virginia Library

THE reputed author of the text to this Echo, as well as the following, both under the signature of S. P. Marten, is no less a personage than the son-in-law of the late Tim. Dexter of Newburyport, of speculating memory, the author of Political Delusion, alias the present Collector for the District of New-Haven. The above lines allude to a singular circumstance in the life of this celebrated character. Not long after the re-establishment of peace between Great-Britain and America Mr. B---p, as is stated, smitten with a strong desire to see foreign lands and foreign fashions secretly quitted his paternal roof with a small sum of money, and took passage on board of a ship bound to a port in Europe, with a view to visit the principal places in that part of the world. On his arrival he resolved to make the grand tour on foot, which he accordingly performed, having traversed great part of France and Italy in that manner, subsisting principally on the charitable donations of the hospitable. On his return to his native place, he presented the shoes in which he had performed this wonderful journey, as having had the honour of pressing classic ground, to the late President of Yale College, Dr. Stiles, a gentleman noted for his curiosity and love of antiquity; they were received and deposited with care in the College Museum. But alas! such was the want of taste, such the barbarism of one of the Tutors of that seminary, that after having occupied for some time this post of honour, to the no small admiration of the curious, they were by him rudely and without any regard to their classic dignity tossed out of the window, to “rot unheeded mid vulgar dust.”

THIS wonderful quadruped, a non-descript, as it would seem, is supposed by certain unbelievers to be nothing more than a ground hog, or woodchuck; indeed some who pretend to have seen it affirm that it is the same, with merely a variation in size, being somewhat smaller, and that it perfectly resembles that animal both in form and colour, in its food and habits. But without attempting to decide this question, it may be proper to notice one very singular trait of character which it is said to possess and which has nothing in common with the woodchuck, or any other animal that we are acquainted with, which is, that instead of consorting with one or more of its own species, it has a strange predilection for the society of a certain snake and frog, which, by the way, is an instance of a still more singular association. These three co-partners inhabit the same burrow, they give each other warning on the approach of danger, and appear to be inseparable friends. As for some years it has been our opinion that the Millennium had actually commenced, we entertain not the smallest doubt of the authenticity of this account; and although the learned Mr. Dobbs, in his Letters on the Prophecies, seems to be fully persuaded that the Millenium is to commence in Ireland, we think that he is evidently mistaken, and that instead of the shores of the Shannon or the Liffy, those of the Missouri are destined to witness the commencement of this blissful era. Many very learned and weighty reasons might be adduced in support of this theory; but this single fact of the snake and the frog living in such harmony together, is amply sufficient, and worth more than volumes of the most ingenious reasonings. Impressed with this conviction, we cannot therefore sufficiently applaud the prescience of our wise administration in obtaining possession, at any price, of a country marked with so auspicious a destiny.