196

THE YOUTH’S CABINET.

 

EOPPOREAL TABLE DALE.

THE CENTURY QUESTION.

  
  

our readers to give |
us their views re-
specting the com-
mencement of the
nineteenth century, ©

the present century. A great |

many letters ‘were received, in answer to

| by his enemies.” Mary Frances, the

Lona time ago, we asked | - Ohio correspondent, thinks that the pic-

"ture in the primers may have been sug-

to tell us whether the year |

|

this question, in which different opinions ©

were given.
whom we very much esteem, has just —

told what we thought of the matter, and |

- expresses the wish that we would “de- |

fine our position,” as they say in Con-
gress. Certainly, Miss Mary.
firm conviction, that every minute of the
year 1800 belonged to the last century.

 

ABSALOM’S HAIR AGAIN.

We took occasion, not long ago, to
correct what we suppose to be a very
common notion respecting the mode in
which Absalom was caught in the
boughs of a tree. A little Ohio girl
sends us a quotation from Josephus, from
which it appears that that generally ac-
curate and reliable historian believed and
taught that Absalom was caught by his
hair. “He entangled his hair greatly,”
says he, “in the large boughs of a
knotty tree that spread a great way, and
there he hung, after a surprising man-
ner; and as for the beast, he went on
farther, and that swiftly, as if his master
had still been on his back; but, hanging
by the hair upon the boughs, was taken

One of oar. little friends | lusion to the Salic law of France.

you tell me what this law is, and all

: 9
written to remind us that we have never | about it ?

_ gested by this statement of Josephus.
| Perhaps so; but there is no proof in the
Bible that Absalom was caught by his
_ hair, for all that.

THE SALIC LAW.

Groree. Mr. Thinker, in the course
of my reading yesterday, I found an al-

Will

Turnxer. I can tell you what it is,
and how and when it was made; but it
would take a good while to “tell all

ee vabout it.”

G. It does not allow the crown to be
worn by females, I believe.

T. True; but the Salic law reaches
a great deal farther than this. The
Franks, previous to their conquests
in Gaul, (or France, as the country is

_now called) had a law by which prop-

erty could be held only by male heirs.
One clause in this code reads thus:
“The Salic lands shall never be the in-
heritance of a woman, but always of a
man.” Asa king among the Franks, in
the early period of French history, was
nothing more than a military chief, this
provision extended to the throne; and in
all the changes which have taken place
in France during a period of more than
twelve hundred years, this regulation has
been strictly observed. France, on ac-
count of this ancient law, has never been
governed by a queen during the whole
of this time.