The true citizen. (Waynesboro, Ga.) 1882-current, December 22, 1882, Image 3

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I Emerson’s Stories About Lowell and Carlyle. J- Tbe Jamestown. Emerson seemed to 1 e on the look out for whatever indicated genius and the best aspects of the inner life. In all this conversation his voice soltened and played w ith alingering charm over traits and iromise that make youth lovely. One felt the grace of his large, rich, amiable, childlike nature, utter ly free from dogmatism aud conceit. He carried this sympathy with youth to his grave. By some natural association he re ferred to his life in the Adirondacks, where in company with Lowell, Agassiz, Holmes and others, he had spent a portion of the summer a few years before. Each member of the party followed the bent of his own inclinations as to the use of his time while iu camp, and a good deal of ad mirable thinking, and some valuable contributions to science were a result of this withdrawal into the wilder ness. I suppose that it was because we had been speaking of the brave jmd resolute spirit of youth, that Em erson tole the following story about Lowell, which so happily illustrates it : “As several of us,” s-aid Emerson, were returning to camp towi r 1 tven- ing, after our various pursuits of the day, a crow ’s nest was discovered on an upper limb of a lofty pine, aud the question was immediately broached whether or not it could be reached and secured by the most expert climber. Lowell declared that the feat could be accomplished, and, on being rhal. lenged to attenq t it,immediately made the trial. He did some wonderful climbing, and showed a ventiresome ness that was actually alarming, but, with Ids most s renuous efforts, failed to reach the nest. Of course be was made the bu’t of some lively jokes, aud it was the conclusion'of the rest of the paity that the nest was entirely safe from the grasp of human hands. A tn 1 our amusement at his discomfiture was over, Lowell said : “Well, gentlemen, you’ve had your laugh, but perhaps a little too soon I shall get that nest.” Some derisive smiles followed, and the subject was dropped ; but the next morning, as we assembled for breakfast, there, in the middle of the table, stood the ver itable crow’s nest, whose lofty parch ^we had supposed was unassailable. It seems that Lowell had risen Nearly, while we were asleep, climbed the tree in the inspiration of his morn- | ing vigor, and secured the trophy.” JThose who are acquainted with the lharacter of our accomplished Miuis- to the Court of St. James will not fcder at this illustration of his pluck resolution. was easy for Mr. Emerson to ik of Carlyle, whose character and Snius he so well understood ; but it *was on the blunt and cynical features of the philosopher that he dwelt, as if he enjoyed their huge naturalness His own intimacy with Carlyle was but just touched upon, modestly and as if of little interest, but he fairly [ laughed aloud as he related some of the great Scotchman’s obstreperous [diosyncracies. He told me several Jtories of his brusqueness and ill man- Pners, some of which have since found 'their way into print; but the one which impressed me most was of a prominent railroad official and capi talist of Central New York, who had taken great pains to get an interview with him. He was full of enthusiasm for the Seer, whom he deeply and sincerely revered, aud, on being admitted to his presence, said to him, “Mr. Carlyle, I have come from a long distance, and am beyond expression happy to meet you. Your writings have been a great joy to me, aud I wish to tell you that I am under infinite obligations to >> you “I do not believe a werd of it,” growled the cynic. “I don’t believe that you care fer me or for what I’ve ritten.” aglne the effect of such a re- n,” said Emerson. "Thegeutle- seemed stunned, aud retreated as as lie could recover from his be er men t.” is doubtful whether his hero wor continued after such a cruel It is only fair to remark that Emerson did not apologize for rlyle’a bearishness, but it had its leal aspects, which amused him dlngly, and be told his dfcries harming naivete which made to me. The survivors of the crew of tbe United States ship of war Jamestown celebrated at Philadelphia the twen tieth anniversary of the Jamestown’s departure from Philadelphia for the China and Japan station. The United States sloop of war Jamestown left Philadelphia on Sun day,‘October 12th, 18G2, at two o’clock I*, m., for the China, Japan and Ea-t Inula stations, with a crew on boaro of 210, officers and men. On November 30th the Jamestown arrived at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, after a journey of for y-nlne days, the dis tance beiug 5100 miles from Phila delphia The Jamestown then visited Monte video, Uruguay ; then Cape Town, south coast of A'rna; then Anjier P lint, Straits of Sunda; Batavia, Island of Java ; Macao, China; Woo- «ung, China; Amoy, Ctdna; Yoko- h ma, Japan; Manillo, Island of Lu zon, and Yeddo, now called Tokio, Japan. At Cape Town some English men enlisted on hour! the Jamestown, to make up for some vacancies caused by desertion. The commander of the English forces at that place demanded cf Captain Price, of the. Jamestown, theii discharge, stating that if the order was not complied with the forts would open fire upon his vessel. Cap tain Price sent word back that the men were new under the protection of the United States, and if lire was opened upon him he would return it— which eugagetnent never took place. The most dangerous and critical condition the Jamestown was placed during the entire cruise was off Mon tevideo, Uruguay, on the night of De cember 24th, 18(12 at which time tbe ship was struck aback, nearly going down stern foremost, but fortunately, with the aid of some old and experienc ed sailors, the ship was righted and proceeded on her course, arriving at Montevideo the next day, on Christ mas morning. The stormiest voyage we had (luring the cruise was from Yokohama, Japan, to Amoy, China, which took twenty - six days, the usual time being sixteen days. At Amoy it was reported that the Confederate steamer Alabama was looking for the Jamestown in those waters. Oa one occasion at night, a steamer ca ue slowly iuto the harbor ; preparations were made by us for an engagement, and a boat was sent to learn who the stranger was, which proved to be an English mail steamer from Shanghai,China. At Yokohama, were we laid for fourteen months in all, in two different visits to that place, we relieved the U. S. ship Wyoming, which departed homeward bound. The Wyoming had, pri r to our arrival at Yokohama, just return ed from Simoneseki, Japan,where she had been in an engagement with rebel Japenese batteries erected at that place for the purpose of obstructing foreign commerce. The Wyoming’s engage ment lasted an hour and ten minutes, during which time she lost seven men killed and six wounded. Not long after this engagement the English, French and German fleet, together with the U. S. Steamer Tak- iang, the latter with seventeen men from the Jamestown (the latter could not go, being a sailing vessel), under the command of Lieutenant Pearson, left Yokohama fer the Straits of Si- moneeebi, and after a two days en gagement silenced their batteries and dealt them destruction on every hand, returning to Yokohama with seventy guns as trophies of the event. The Euglish fleet suffered the most, hav ing lost many killed and wounded. At Yokohama a regatta took place at which all the men-of-war had boats competing for the prizes, and no less than three of the Jamestown’s boats were successful in this respect. The Jamestown sailed from ’foko- bama for Yeddo, the capital of Japan, taking tbe American Minister, Gen. Robert E. Pruyd, who had official business to transact with the Tycoon of Japan. Fifty-eight of the orew of the Jamestown acted as his escort and guard of honor, aud were quar tered iu the heart of the eity for twenty-three days, the landing day of the escort being the twentieth an- versary of the landing of Commodore Perry. The Jamestown visited thirteen ports iu all during the cruise, and sailed about 50,030 miles ; number of days in port, 670; number of days at sea, 313 ; deaths in port and at sea, 12; four of whom died of smallpox (out of 30 cases) at Yokohama. The number of oourb martials dur- cruise was lZlLfttses, the of wirch were for the must trifling offeucea. Longest voyage from port to port was from Macao, China, to San Fran cisco, a distance of 7485 miles, which t 'ok 53 (’ays, 1 >sing on this vo\ age a man ovtroo irJ, the only one during the cru 89. Tire Jamestown arrived at San Francisco Cal , on Tuesday, Aug. 8th, 1SG5, at 11.45 a M., where she was left at the Mare Island Navy Yard, the crew returning home as passengers on the Pacific Mail Steam ship C dorado, which left San Frat> cisco on Sipt. 18 h. Ou Oct. 11th, the Ja uestowu crew airived at the Brook lyn Navy Yud, New York, where they were transferred on board the Receiving Ship \ ermont until a court of irquiry was held over some of their officers, for misconduct during the voyage. Oa Oct. 24.h, 18G5 the Jamestown crew were paid off and discharged from the U. S. Navy. The above is a synopsis of one of the most successful cruises ou record, fur- , nished us by Mr. James, of the Bryn Mawr Home News.—National Union, Philadelphia. Sound and Smell. Our Monkd Circulation. The advanced sheets of the annual reports of the Comptroller ot Currency and Director of the Min’s, do not fall iu inter, st below those of other De- pgriinental papers.ae they bear upon a s-u’ jeet in which every person is con cerned — the circulation of money. Since January 1st, 1870, there has beeu an increase of the com and currency in the coun'ry amounting, in round numbers, to $432,000,0110. As the vol ume of legal tench n has remained stationary, the increase is composed of national bank notes, $30 000,000 ; gold coin, $289,000,000 and sliver coin, $104,- 000,000. Of standard silver dollars coined up to November 1st, the total is $128 829,880, of which i 93,414 977 re mained iu the Treasury, though $65,- G20 450 of that amount was held to secure silver certificates which had been issued. The actual amount of silver dollars in circulation is a trifle less than $36,000,000. The present volume of the currency stands far higher, in proportion to population, than at any former period, but at no previous period has so large a porti)n of it been permitted to accu mulate in artificial and unwholesome hoards. For the last three years there has been a steady increase of idle cash in the Treasury. Such an immense accumulation of idle money as we now have on band is a monstrosity of ill-managed wealth. An evidence of the ability of the country to bear a reckless taxation, it is at the same time a proof of ils inability to use ^he proceeds wisely. The report of the Director of the Mint for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1882, shows a decrease in gold production and a greater amount of coinage than in any pre vious year. Tbe production of gold for the fiscal year is estimated Jat $81,500,000, and of silver, $44,700,000, a decline of $5,- 600.000 in gold and an increase of $2,000,000 in silver upon the estimated production for the previous year. The consumption ot the precious metals in the United States for use in the arts during the year is estimated at $12,000,- 000 of gold aud $7,000,000 of silver. The total volume of the circulating medium, greenbacks, banknotes, gold aad silver coin and bullion in exist ence on the 1st of October, 1882, was $1,482,343,237. The Yellowstone Park. The magnificent Yellows tone Park is in danger of beiug rapidly destroy ed and its natural beauties defaced by wautonuess and vandalism, unless the Government steps in to protect it. It is said that the first thing the Englishman does after registering at the Brevoort House is to start for the Yellowstone Park aud needlessly shoot down scores of its game—deers, buffaloes, bears, antelopes and moun tain sheep. Nor are the foreigners al ways the chief sinners in this respect. Many of the famous Yellowstone gey sera have already been ruined by people who amuse themselves by hurling immense tranks of picie trees into them, in order to see tke|water foroe them high in the air. In cases these logs have stuok i water apertures and have oompl stopped the spouting. In Wyo the people are taking steps to stop to such vandalism aud the wh sale slaughter of buffaloes and otli' ame by jflftgllah tourii Au able Scotchman, who is, of course, a metaphysician and various other kinds of a scientific person, has recently made a grand discovery. He has fouud that smelling and hearing are essentially the same acts. A loud sound, or rather a found of a certain degree of intensity, is heard by the ear, and is called a none. A sound of a certain degree of faintness is preceived not by the ear, but by the nose, and is called a smell. Noise and smell differ only in degree, and the senses which precelve them are in reality the (fame. Tlie r discovery at once justifies the popular phrase—“a loud smell”—and removes it from the category of slang to that of scientific nomenclature. Smells must, according to the new dis covery, differ iu loudness. The odor < f the violet is a soft, low perfume, but the smell of the onion is loud and strong. The loud smells are not pleasant to us, because they are so close to tbe point when a smell be comes a noise 1 hat they jar upon our noses. They seem to us to be discord ant. It is only the low and delicate perfume which pleases us and the reason undoubtedly is that it is so far removed from noise that we instinc tively recognize it as a scientifically pure smell. Au illus' ration of the difh ranee be tween smell and noise is afforded by the different states of matter. Car bonic acid gas aud soli 1 carbonic acid are precisely the same -ubstance, al though to the unscientific mind they appear totally unlike in every respect. We may imagine that smell is, so to speaK, a solid substance, and that it becomes noiso when it assumes the gaseous state. This would fully ex plain the discovery of the able Scotch man, aud would enable us to under stand how things so apparently differ ent as are smell end uoise can be real ly one and the same thing. It is quite possible that the Scotch man may, ou furthe r examination, discover that taste is identical with smell aud noise. Every person must have noticed that there is a subtle con nection between taste and smell. We often say of some ai tide of food that its flavor reminds us of this or that perfume. Persons who have never dreamed of tasting a rose petal will instinctively recognize what they call the flavor of the rose but what is really a reminiscence of its perfume iu the so-called rose confection of the apothe cary. Vanilla is a perfume, but it is also a fl iver. ~It will not do to say that the vauilla beau i3 a substance which will impart a peculiar flavor to icecream and that it also has a smell of Its own but that the two are entirely separate things. What we really taste in ice cream is the perfume of the vanilla, aud what we smell when brought In contact with vauilla perfume is the taste of the vauilla bean. Taste and smell are undeniably closely related— far more closely, indeed, in tbe opin ion of unscientific people, than are smell and noise. If smell is a sub stance in the solid state and noise the same substance in a gaseous state, may we not assume that taste is only %he liquid state of the same remark able substances ? There is little doubt that were we, in accordance with the Scottish practice, to clear out our in tellects with oat meal aud strengthen them with logic aud logarithms we would easily be able to perceive the substantial identity of taste and smell. The practical value gf the able Scotchman’s discovery may prove to be very great. Science has already succeeded in converting nearly every gas into a solid and nearly every solid into a liquid. We may, therefore, fairly hope that it will in time su 3oeed in converting taste, smell and hesrlng from one state into another at pleasure. Let us suppose, for example, that the music of “Lohengrin” oould be converted iuto the solid orsmellous state—fer new facts in soieuoe, require new words to express them. We could then enjoy Wagner’s music through the sense of smell, and could have it put up in small and dainty vials like those in whloh ladies carry smelling salts. Ur we might have the taBte of any favorite article of food converted in tbe noiseous state and so enjoy the pleasure of listening to veni son or partridge solos, or to an entire dinner arranged as an orchestral piece. We could be lulled to sleep by the sound of violets and oould celebrate Fourth of July with the roar of onions and asafoojlda. In fact, the uses which can be made of the able Scotch man’s discovery are so numerous that the imagluation would fall in the at tempt to describe them. At the same time, it might not al ways be desirable to convert smells* into noises aud noises in smells. We ’ can fancy the hideous and Jisoordaut uproar that would follow were the b me boiler’s smells t) be made audi ble to the ear, and the nausea which most of us would feel could we either smell or taste the opera bouffe melo dies of Offenbach. Acci lents would probably occur to scientific persons from the careless handling of smells, for no man can foresee what deafening and perhaps fatal consequences might follow the conversion of garlic into sound, but it would not be long before we should! leara by experiment what would and would not be safe. In one respect the able Scotchman reminds oue of that other eminently able scieutitic person, Sir Isaac New ton, who, as every one knows, made a large hole in his door for the passage of his large cat and a small one for the kitten. The weak point of this great engineering work was the fact that the small kitten could go through the large hole as well as the large cat, and heuce the small hole was superfluous. If our ears were made for the use of loud noises aud our noses for the use of small noises, would it not have been much better to have made the small uoises perceptible to the ear, aud thus done away with the supeifluous nose ? —Not. How Coal Came to be Used. About the beginning of the thirteenth century much objection was raised against its introduction into London, on the plea that its smoke was an in tolerable nuisance. This opposition was continued for neaaly two hundred years in some quarter.-, but was at latt obliged to give way before the growing sc^fcity of timber. Toward the be ginning of the fourteenth century many shallow collieries were opened out iu the neighborhood of Newcastle- ou-Tyne; but little is known about the progress of our subject during the course of the fifteenth century. Tb( r<* is enough to show, h iwever, that the demand for coal went on increasing. In a petition presented to the council by the company of brewers in 1578, w<i find that coloration offering to use" wood only in the neighborhood of Westminisier Palace, as they under stand tnat the queen flndeth “her- sealfc groatley grieved and annoyed with the taste and smoke of the cool^ es.” Another author, writing in 163a/ says that “within thiity years last tho nice dames of London would uot come into any house or room when sea-coals were burned ns r willingly eat of the meat that was either sod or roasted with sea coal fire.” Soon after the commencement of the seventeenth century the use of coal for domestic purposes, as well as washing, b ewing, dyeing, etc., ws general and complete. The mines were still shallow, and they wer^drained , by means of horizontal tunnOTi, called adits, water gates, etc. Already at tempts have been made to sink some of them under the water level and to raise the water by machinery. In tl year 1486-87 the monks of Finohdall Priory expended a sum of money at^ one of their collieries on the Wear “on the new ordinance of the pump’’ and on the purchase of horses to work it. Underground fires aud noxious gases began also to appear about this time. The miners’ tools consisted of a piok, a hammer, • wedge and a wooden shovel. The coal was raised to the surface in some cases by means of a windlass ; in others, as in the mines of the east of Scotland, it was oarried up-stairs on the backs of women,called coal-bearers. In the year 1615 the fleet of vessels, called the coal-fleet, which carried the produce of the north ern collieries—one-half to London,the remainder to other destinations — numbered 400 sails. Many foreign vessels also, especially Frenob, oarried away cargoes of coal to their respec tive countries. Twenty years later the • coal-fleet had inoreased to 600 or 70G> sail and was already regarded as "a great nursery of sea-men. ” Experimental; "I see that your son la out of the penitentiary,” said a man to an acquaintance. “Yes; we proved that lusauity was the oause of his killiug the fellow and they turned him out on probation.” "How’s that?” “They said that they’d let him stay out a day or two aud if he acted like a crazy man they’d let him stay out permanently. Well, he aoted like he was insane and I reckon he’ll stay out.” "How did he aot like he was insane?” "By killing another^ man.”