SOME THOUGHTS ON KITES. Deep in the womb of earth where the gems grow, And diamonds put forth radiant rods, and bud With amethyst and topaz — and the place Lit up most royally, with the pure beam That dwells within them. Or haply the vast hall Of fairy palace, that outlasts the night, And fades not in the glory of the sun: Where crystal columns send forth slender shafts 255 APRIL has come again: and the kite-season has opened with great activity. Did you ever remark, when Nature begins to waken from her winter-sleep; when the woods 'beyond the swelling floods' of the rivers begin to redden; when the snow has left us, and the city-trees are about leave-ing; when the first airs of spring assume their natural blandness; when ladies are out with their 'spring hats' and carmen with their spring-carts; how innumerous kites begin to thicken in the air? Yonder a big unwieldy fellow rises with calm dignity, trailing his long tail with great propriety behind him; here a little bustling 256 SOME THOUGHTS ON KITES. creature ducks and dives, coquetting first on this side, then on that; until finally turning two or three somersets, it almost reaches the earth; but soon rises at a tangent, and sails far up into the bright blue firmament. Look! the air is full of them! It is a charming amusement, this kite-flying of the boys. We greatly affect it, even now, although we are 'out of our 'teens!' There is something ethereal in it; something that lifts up the young admiration. 'To that blue vault and sapphire wall and the mysterious realm that lies beyond its visible confines. Our metropolitan juveniles do n't know how to construct 'em. Thin, tissue-paper things, with no shape to them beyond that of a confused sexagon, no place for a head, and less for a tail, these are the machines you see fluttering and bobbing, ducking and sidling, in the sky of Gotham. How unlike the walnut-bow and cedar-shaft kite of the ked❜ntry; with its red-worsted wings a flappink in the hair,' as YELLOWPLUSH says, its firmament of bright paper-stars gleaming in the sun; its long flaunting tail moving gracefully with the mass above it, its tasselled end waving like the tail-fin of a fish, that gracefullest of moving things. Ah! those were the kites; and it was from such specimens of 'high art' that we derived our love of them, which to this day has never left us; as many SOME THOUGHTS ON KITES. 257 a lad can testify, who has been flying kites in our 'beat,' as we daily wend to and from the sanctum. We confidently ask our juvenile friends, did we ever see a kite, howsoever small or ignoble, lodged in a tree, or on a telegraph wire, or twisted round a telegraph-pole, or a chimney, without rendering immediate and 'valuable assistance?' Never! and if the dyspeptic Wall street broker, who called the attention of his sneering chum the other morning to 'Old KNICK.' descending a tree, a disabled kite in his hand, and a 'solution of continuity' in his trowserloons, will call up in our street, we will give him a little illustration of the 'luxury of doing good.' The bright, golden-haired boy who owned that kite, Mr. BROKER, knows how to be grateful; and if we should hereafter ever flourish in Wall-street, in your line, he would send us the best of shaving-'paper' to be had in 'the street;' and we can tell you too, Mr. POLITICIAN, that if in the progress of events, we should chance to be 'up' for some office in the gift of this our good old KNICKERBOCKER city, that lad would be 'good for' fifty votes. We can only say, that once in a municipal office, of the proper description, our best exertions shall not be wanting to 'put down' the telegraph-poles and wires. Electricity is a 'good institution,' no doubt, and enables us to enjoy our murders' in the morning papers to a greater extent than formerly; but telegraphs were never intended to interfere 258 SOME THOUGHTS ON KITES. 6 with the 'vested rights' of boys engaged in kite-flying: never! The destruction in this branch of business is greatly increasing. Look at the ragged skeletons, the almost fossil remains, that flap and writhe upon the wires and posts, where they have been gibbetted—lean, rent and beggared by the strumpet wind!' What 'underlies' all this evil? The telegraph system. Boys, 'To the poles! down with the poles!' should be the rallying cry. They are aristocratic: they are unconstitutional: they are worse than the WILMOT proviso!' Such and so many have been the wrecks of kites, 'sailing on the high seas of air,' that juvenile enterprise has been diverted to other channels; and a virulent eruption of whip-tops, 'groaning under the lash,' has broken out, and is spreading all over the metropolis; driving the aged from the walks, invading the delicate feet and ankles of our lovely female pedestrians, and playing the very deuce with the interior of their beautiful white under-dresses. NUMBER TWELVE. THE REFINEMENT OF IMPUDENCE: COMING-ON OF SPRING: WHAT IS GOING ON FUNERAL-TREES OF THE INDIANS. N olden times there was a distinct class of itinerants I in New-England, who were called 'cider-beggars, One of them, on a Sunday morning, called at a farm-house, and finding only the 'woman of the house' at home, was quite importunate in his demands for 'Old-Orchard.' He was firmly and perseveringly denied. As a last resort, he reminded the pious lady that she should remember the Scriptural injunction to entertain strangers, for thereby many had entertained angels unawares.' 'I will risk that,' said she 'for who ever heard of an angel going about Sunday morning begging for cider !' 'I advise you to go to work,' said an American in London to a beggar, who was pertinaciously beseeching him for a shilling: 'you are a hearty, hale fellow: I advise |