strange customs, one of which was the military salute paid to young married people, on the evening, or rather night, of their marriage, provided the husband was a member of the "artillery company." Whenever it was ascertained that such a marriage had taken place, notice was given to a section of the company to meet at the armory with two musicians, and, with guns loaded and primed, from thence to proceed at midnight to the house of the happy couple so quietly (in slippers or stocking-feet, according to the weather) as to avoid any unusual sound, and then and there fire a volley loud enough to rouse a neighborhood; following the same with a drum-and-fife salute or serenade. If the husband happened to be a commissioned officer, he was honored with a salute from the muzzle of a brass field-piece. These latter explosions occasioned the loss of many panes of glass, which the happy and highly honored man was expected to replace. An uncle of mine received the salute from a brazen six-pounder, and had to pay the penalty. There were no impertinent police-officers or watchmen interfering in such matters then, as they do now.

Newport liked to encourage odd people in their whimwhams. For instance, there was a middle-aged gentleman who received particular attention from all whom he met on his way from above the brick market, now called City Hall, down Thames Street to Townsend's Coffee House at "Change" hours, twelve o'clock. He was genial and extremely polite; wore powder; and but for his exquisite neatness, contrasting with, and making painfully noticeable, the ordinary dress of others, he would have passed up and down street as a good-looking man, such as now usually crowd the street at mid-day. As soon as he came in sight, the naughty boys would shout, "Here comes bandbox!" He received the title of Beau.

There was an old bachelor of great wealth, who once ventured on a courting expedition in a pleasure boat having a flaunting pennon, known as one of the crack boats of the time, and he himself arrayed in a manner not befitting his age. The lady whose hand and heart he felt sure of obtaining, lived on the "Neck," in the neighborhood of Fort Adams, and was considered very attractive in town and country, whilst

the hopeful wooer was ungainly, commonplace, and nearly double the age of the fair one. Wealth constituted his sole passport to a woman's good graces, and even this had failed him in several previous attempts; but "love is blind," and hope encouraged him to try again. Our hero prepared himself for the adventure with care. He wore a costly beaver,- a great luxury in those days; buff-leather small clothes, satin vest, silk stockings, velvet shoes, and silver knee and shoe buckles. After landing at a convenient inlet, the hopeful "youth," in the company of a waggish friend, bent his steps to a lordly mansion, once the property of an English Tory. At his entrance, a low bow was met by a respectful courtesy. When both were seated, there was silence for a few moments, at last broken by the courtier, who asked the lady if she heard a sound like the tick of a watch, to which question she gave an affirmative nod. "Well," said he, wonderfully encouraged, "that is the tick from a splendid watch in my breeches pocket." Upon this announcement, the lady, convulsed with laughter, by signs dismissed the intruder from her door. He, poor man, never doubting

that his rich apparel, large fortune, and superb time-keeper (not then, as now, an every-day possession), would obtain for him the long-coveted prize, returned home, a wiser, if not a better,

man.

Another oddity lived on the Parade, and rendered himself conspicuous by the use of big words. Frequently he would gather an audience by his gesticulations and rodomontade. I happened once to be near his premises, when a humble woman was passing who had ignorantly excited his ire. He stopped her, and, stretching himself to his utmost height, said, "Rebecca S., Rebecca S., I wish you to know that I am a respecter of nuisances; and that transcendent punishment awaits you for suffering your ducks to lie, night after night, dormant in my beef-barrel, unless, without further surreption, you remove the bipeds." The plain English of the matter was simply this: This grandiloquent railer owned a strip of land contiguous to the dwelling of the ignorant trespasser, and had left in his gateless yard an old one-headed barrel lying on its bilge, which had formed a comforta

ble lodge for her two ducks; and for this offence, when no "fence" had been raised by the complainant, he berated her in these ridiculous and other incomprehensible words.

A CLERICAL ANECDOTE. There was a friend of mine, born and brought up in Newport, who entered the ministry from a pure love of the profession. He was serious, without voluble or volatile tendencies. His pleasant look showed

that he could be amused, but, like the Prince of Denmark, 66 was never known to smile." He eschewed merriment, to say the least. It was the fault of his time (sixty years since), that ministers felt obliged to wear a sober countenance, and to measure their words by a canonical gauge. When this gentleman obtained a settlement in Massachusetts, his mien impressed some persons with the idea that he belonged to the Methodists. He was never known to be guilty of a witticism but once. He had formed an intimate acquaintance with a clergyman in a town next to the one where he ministered, a man very tall and thin, with a chalky face, who wore round a wonderfully long neck a large white stuffed