Back Log Studies

From tho excellent sketches of C. D. Warner, entitled " Back Log Studies," now being published iu Scrilincr's Mvnthly, we take tho following : THE -WIl-K's HKI.IKF IN nKR UUSBAND. Xotliing is moro beautiful thau tho belief of the fuithful wife that her husband has all the talen ts, and could, if ho would, bc distinguished in any walk of lifo ; and nothing will be moro beautiful - unloss this is a very dry time f or signa - than the huaband's bulief that liis Wae is capabl'; of taking charge of the affairs of tliis con fueed planet. There is no woman but thinks that her husband, the green-grocor, could write poetry if he liad given his mind to it, or else she thinks smull beer uf pootry in coinparison with an occupation or accoinplisiiment puroly vegetable. It is touchiug te see tho look of pride with whieh the wifo turns to her boaband from any more brilliunt persoual presenco or display of wit thun his, in the perfeot oonfldence that if the world kaew whttt she knows thero would booue more popular idol. How slie magnifica his small wit, and dotes upon the solf-satisfiod look in his face, as if it were a sign of wisdom. What a councilor that man would mako ! What a warrior ho wouid be ! There are a groat many corporalf) in their retirod homes who did more for the safety and succoss of uur armies in critical moraents, in tno late war, than any of the " higli-cook-a-lorum " conimandera. Mrs. Corporal does not envy tho reputation of General Sheridan. She knows very well who really won Fivo Forks, for she has heard the story a hundred times, and will hear it n hundred times more with apparently unabated interest. What a general her husband would have made ; and how his talking talent could shinein Congress ! THE OTHKIt SIDE. Herbert - Nonsonse! Thero is not a wifo in the world who has not taken the exact measurement oí herhusliand, woighed him and settled him in her own mind, and knows him as well as if she had ordered him after diisigns and specifications of her own. That knowledge, however, sho ordinarily koeps to hersolf, and she enters into a league with her h'isband, whi(;h lie was ncvor admitted to tho secret of, to imposo upon the world. In nine out of ten cases he inore than half believes that he is what his wifo tolla him lic is. At any rate sho manage3 him as easily as tho keeper does the elophant, with only a bamboo wand and a sharp sjjike in the end. Unusually sho flatters liiin, but she has the iueans of pricking olear through his hido on occasion. It is the gceat secret of her power to have him bhink that sho thoroughly believes in liim. FEOFLE OF THE CULTURED MAXXER. Tho ticcurato photograph of tbc "people of polish" will be roadily reeognizod in this capital picturo : Wro are baginning to havo is society people of tho cultured miiimer, as it is called, or polished bearing, in which tho polish is the most noticcablc thiDg about tho mau. Jiot the eourtlinfiS', tho easy simplicity of tho old school gentleman, iu j whose pnaeenoe tho milk-maid was as much at her 6M8 as the countess, but i omotbing far finer than this. These ore tho poople of uurufited domeanor, who nevor forget it for a moment, and never lot you forgotit. Their presente is a constant rebuko to society. They are never "jolly;" tbeir laugh is never anything moro than a well-bred smile ; thoy are never beti'ayed into any enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is asign of inoxperience, of ignorance, of want of culturo ; they nover loso theinselves in any cause ; they never hcartily praiso any man or woman, or book ; they are superior to all tides of feeling and all outburst of passion. They aro not even shocktid at vulgarity. They are simply indifferent. They are calm, visibly ealm, painfully calm ; and itisnot the eternal, majestic calmness of the Sphinx either, but a rigid, self-conscious represión. You would like to put a bent pin in their chair when they aro about to calmly sit down. A EOtting hen on hor nest is calm, but hopeful ; she has i'.iith that her cggs aro not china. These people appear to be setting on china oggs. Pertuot culture has rofíned all blood, warmth, flavor, out of them. We admire them without euvy. They are too buautiful in their manners to bo either prigs or snobs. Thoy are at once our modela and our dospair. They are roperly careful of thenisolves as models, 01 thoy know that if thoy should broak, society would becouio a scène of mero aumal confusión. TUE YOÜNG LADY VTUO "WEITES LETTERSHerbert is pretending to read Ilorbert ipencor's tract on tho philosophy of stylo, but he loses much time in looking at the young lady who is writing a letter, holding her portfolio in her lap - ono of her everlasting letters to ono of her fifty evorlasting friends. Sho is one of the fomale patriots who savo the Postofnoe Dcpartmont from being a disastrous loss to the Treasury. Horbert is thinking of the great radical diíference in the two sexes, which legislation will probably never chango ; that leads a woinau to always write letters on her lap and a man on a tablü - a distinction which is commendcd ;o tho anti-sufi'ragists. HOME SCENE DURIXO A SNOW STORM. Tho mistress, in a pretty líttlo brcak:ust cap, is moving about the room with a ï'eathor duster, whisking invisible dust 'rom the picture frames, and talking with ihe parson, who has just come iu and is thawing the snow from his boots on the iiearth. The parson says the thennometcr is fifteen degrees, and going down : that thero is a snow drift right acioss the main church entranco threo feet high, and that the house looks as if it had gome into winter quarters, religión and all. Thero were only ten persons at tho conference meeting last night, and sevon of those wero vromen ; he wondershowmany weather-proof Christians thore are in the parish, anyhow. The fire tendor is in tho adjoining iibrry, pretending to wTite ; but it is a poor day for ideas. He has written his wife's name about eleven hundred timos, and caiinot get any farthcr. Ho hears the mistress teil the parson that sho. believes he is trying to write a lecturo on tho "Cel tic Innuence in Literature." The parsrn says that it is a first-r.ito subject, if thero were any such inÜuence, and asks why he doesn't take a shovel and inuku a path to tho gate. Mandevill says that, by öeorge, ho himfielf would liko no better fuu, but it wouldn't look woll for a visitor to do it. The iiro tender, not to bo disturbed by this sort of chaif, keops on writing his wifo's name. Then the parson and the mistress fall to talkiug about the soup relief, and about old Mrs. (irumplos in Tig Alloy, who had a preseut of one of Stowe's Illustrated Si'll-Acting Bibles on Christmas, when sho hadn't coal enough in the house to heat hor gruel ; and about a taimly behiiid the chureb, a widow and six little childrcn and tliree dogs; and Lo diilnt bellere that any of thoin had known what it was to be warm in threo weeks, and as to food, the woiuan said, sho could hardly beg cold victualsenough to keep the dogs alive. The mistress slipped out intothe kitehon to fill a basket with provisiQns and send it bomewhere.