Glass Houses

The followiííg are extracta trom a new booK publishad in Boston called " BITS OF TALK OF HOME MATTERS." " It is becoming ft serious question what shall be done to secure fustidious people some show and shadow of privacy in their homes. ïhe silly and vulgar passiou of peo))le for knowing all about their neighbor's affairs, which is bad enough while it takes shapo iu ruerely idle gossip of moutli, is BOiuething terrible wheu it is exalted into a regular market supply trom all who wish to print what tho oouimunity will read. " That there are here nd there weak fooU who hke to sea their ñames anc most trivial movementa chronieled in newspapers cannot be de'iied. But they are few. And their silly pleasure is very Bmall in the aggregate coiupared with the annoyance and pain surí'orod by sitivo and refiiied poople trom these niercile8a invasions of their privacy. "Thinkofthe vulgarity ot the thing and its impudent ignoring of the most 8aerud rights of individuáis. But things hare come to such a pass already that to poinl out to the average American that it is vulgar, and also unwholesome, to devour with greedy delight all sorts of details abouthis neighbors seeius as hopeless and useless a task as to point out to the cnme-eater or the whisky drinker the bad effocts of fire and stryehnine upon inucous membranes. The diseased palate craves what has made it diseased - erave3 it moro and more and more. "The appetite for scandal has been so whetted that the demand is greater thtn the eupply. Food must be manufactured, if it oaunot be otherwise obtaiued. Peopledonotseem to bs a-ware that when once calumnies are inven ted, cireulated and enioyed coucerning any ono ual or l'amily, that it is as when the torch of the oommunist is giveu to the breeze - all who are objects of envy must suffer in turn, o long as the flainesrise unchecked. It will be long before the various soandals now revived and gloatei over in parlors by woineü, and at club suppers by men warmed by wine, will again sleep the sound eleep froni which they were aroused. Hcandals have had resurrection whicb haye been buried so far oul of reach that in another generation they would have entirely passed out of memory." A careloss barber, trimming Bheridan's ears7 jut liim to greafc pain and unoasiness. " Are you trimuiing my left ear now V" asked the wit. " Ño sir ; not till I'vo done the right." " Oh ! only I thought by what I i'elt that you weiv puasing through to the left ar without goiug round."