busing every thing pertaining to the North as 'Abolition.' They
wanted a grievance; they would have one, and so yelled 'Wolf! wolf!'
till the wolf came in roaring earnest. In like manner, the Democratic
dabblers in mischief are now yelling 'Radical,' abusing emancipation,
and doing all in their power to hoist themselves into notoriety. They
are determined to force separate parties into existence, and they will
end by accomplishing their purpose, by being in a losing reactionary
minority, which will bear the brand in later days of having been the
most unprincipled, narrow-minded, and desperately selfish faction which
this country has ever known.

Gentle reader, accept the following from a friend in the quaint spirit
in which it is written, and understand not by bad company aught that is
evil--for if we read the word of the enigma, the 'bad' among her
'friends of the future' is indeed goodness-that saving salt which is
often found among many who are too hastily banned as lost in the world.
So, we pray you, judge it kindly:

FRIENDS OF THE FUTURE.

'There is no real amusement except in bad company.'--_Italian Proverb_.

Reprehensible but real sentiment of your humble servant, O dearly
beloved reader! Your lips reprove me, but your heart forgives and
sympathizes! And that heart rebels with mine against that adverse Past
which has given to us so little of 'real amusement' from 'bad company,'
and demands, like mine, reparation from the Future for the sufferings we
have endured from unexceptionable and perfectly good company!

The representative men and women of that small and select bad company,
(who have made the desert of our lives to blossom with roses, violets,
strawberries and cream,) how distinctly they stand out on the horizon of
memory! I see them--I count them, as easily as those few stately pines
on yonder hill-top--one, two, three, four, five, six, _seven_. No more?
What! not a delightful eight? Who has translated the murmur of the
summer wind among the pines as 'No more?' '_No more?_' Alas! to-day they
give that answer to me, as I seek for one other in that bad and beloved
company! 'But he cometh'--_adveniat_--he cometh in the future. O eighth!
your morning will yet dawn.

Welcome, O Friend of the Future I whatever thy sex. Welcome! whether in
cashmere and graceful crinolineaments, or in gray-suit and
_grecio_!--only be 'more of the same sort.' Heaven is _not_ so cruel! to
give us five hundred dear twin-