rtunate Philadelphian once said in a funeral eulogy over
a deceased legal friend--has not 'debated' in a club 'formed for
purposes of mutual _and_ literary improvement of the mind?' All who have
will read with pleasure the following letter from one who has most
certainly been there:--

DEAR CONTINENTAL:

I am a man that rides around over the 'kedn'try.' In the little
village where I am now tarrying, the school-house bell is
ringing to call together the members of that ancient institution
peculiar to villages, the debating society. A friend informs me
that the time-honored questions--Should capital punishment be
abolished?--Did Columbus deserve more praise than
Washington?--Is art more pleasing to the eye than nature?--have
each had their turn in their regular rotation, and that the
question for to-night is--as you might suppose--Has the Indian
suffered greater wrongs at the hands of the White man than the
Negro? As I have a distinct recollection of having thoroughly
investigated and zealously declaimed on each of the above topics
in days lang syne, I shall excuse myself from attendance this
evening, on the ground that I am already extensively informed on
the subject in hand, and my mind is fully made up. But I hereby
acknowledge my indebtedness to the good fellow who told me the
object of the ringing of the bell--for he has unconsciously
started up some of the most amusing recollections of my life.
Sitting here alone in my room, I have just taken a hearty laugh
over a circumstance that had well-nigh given me the slip. The
question was the same Negro-Indian-White-man affair. One of the
orators, having, a long time previously, seen a picture in an
old 'jography' of some Indians making a hubbub on board certain
vessels, and reading under it, _Destruction of Tea in Boston
Harbor_, brought up the circumstance, and insisting with great
earnestness that the white man had received burning wrongs at
the hands of the Indian, and that the latter had _no reason at
all to complain_, dwelt with great emphasis on the ruthless
destruction of the white man's tea in Boston Harbor by the
latter, in proof of his 'point.'

I remember also a debating society in the little village of
R----, which numbered some really very worthy and intelligent
members, but of course included some that were otherwise, amo