Dashes of American Humor

my state of admiration over Titian's exquisite " Bacchus and Ariadne," and Garofalo's " Vision of St. Augustine," and ungloved one hand in order to bestow a gratuity upon a wretched old man, whose pale cheek and care-wrinkled brow told a tale of iron poverty, when we were accosted as above, and in a tone of voice' which immediately called up visions of New England, and announced the owner of the aforesaid voice, whoever he might be, as thoroughly and unequivocally American. We turned suddenly about, looked our interlocutor full in the countenance, when, much to our astonishment, who did we recognize but a glorious rustic, homespun friend from the hills of New Hamshire, whose acquaintance we had formed while " taking notes" through the Eastern States several years agone. We could scarcely put faith in the correctness of our vision, when the rough, honest representative of 'tother side of Old Ocean sought its identity. He was the very last man in the world we should have suspected of finding from the sound of the village church-bell?a tortoise n 't ' '' " " rasbly and deliberately leaving its all-protecting shell would not have surprised me more. " Why, Jonathan, what in the name of all that's agricultural are you doing on John Bull's side of the Atlantic," said wo, or rather roared we, for albeit " 'Tis vulgar (as Lord Chesterfield admonished) To let folks see as startled or astonished." If a grand jury of the superior court of good-breedi...