How many a young heart has, in these later days, been turned from soft guitar-tones of idleness, to the brave, rattling measures of drum-life!  It will do good, this war of ours; and many a brave fellow will, in after years, look back upon it as the school in which he first learned to be a thoroughly practical and sensible MAN.

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We are indebted to a gossiping and ever most welcome New Haven friend for the following anecdote of one of the men who, clothed in a little brief authority, ’go about ‘restin’ people:’ 

Our village we consider one of the most pleasant in the country; our boys full of life and activity, and our officers men of energy and perseverance, and men who understand their importance.  In proof of these assertions, I offer the following sketch of an occurrence a few years ago.

DICK BARNES was a blacksmith, and a man of considerable notoriety in those days, and from the peculiar prominence of his front upper teeth he had derived, from the boys of the village, the singular nick-name of ‘Tushy.’  For two or three successive years he had been elected constable, and the duties of this great public office appeared to demand that he should neglect his legitimate private business, so that it was said that the safest place for him to secrete himself—­the most unlikely place where he would be sought—­would be behind his own anvil.  Like many others ’clothed with a little brief authority’ he was not overmodest in showing his importance.

The boys were then, as they are now, fond of skating, and there was a large pond near the centre of the village on which they used to have fine times on moonlight evenings, and especially Sunday evenings, and, as a natural consequence, when large numbers of boys are engaged in sport, they were somewhat noisy.

One Sunday evening, when the ice was very smooth and the boys were enjoying themselves, BARNES made his appearance on the ice and ordered them off, in tones, and exclamations of authority.  The boys did not like this interference in their sports and couldn’t see the justice of his demand.  ‘That’s old Tushy,’ says one, and the cry of ‘Tushy,’ ‘Tushy,’ soon passed among the crowd of skaters, till BARNES began to think it personal, and was determined to catch one of them and make of him an example.  The ice was ‘glib,’ as they termed it, and as they all had skates except ‘Tushy,’ they were rather rude in their behavior towards him,—­a not very uncommon circumstance,—­and though they were careful to keep out of harm’s way, they kept near enough to him to annoy him.  Finding all efforts to catch one of them fruitless, with the advantage they had,—­for ’the wicked stand on slippery places,’—­he announced his determination to catch one of them anyhow, and started for the shore.

Boys are usually quicker in arriving at conclusions than older people, and one of them