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[From the N. O. Picayune,
Autumn Days.
A poet sings—the days have come,
The saddest of the year,
The melancholy days, when leaves
Are brown and woods are sere—
But ah, to me these Autumn days,
The sweatest dreams do bring,
And more I prize its russet leaf
Than brightest flowers of Spring.
I Know that young hearts throb with joy,
When May, with footsteps light,
Comes coyly o’er the clover field’s
Soft carpet, pink and white—
And that they hear within the rills,
Freed from the Frost-king's hold,
Whispers that tell of Summer’s reign—
Her stores of shining gold!
But never June, with roses crowned,
And wooing zephyrs near,
To fan away the fever heat
And dry each starting tear, •
Can bring to me the soothing strains
The wind-harp utters low,
When old October tunes his lyre
And bids his buglers blow.
They lift from off my heart the mold
That’s garnered ’neath its eaves,
And bare the little bulbs I’ve hid
Beneath the fallen leaves,
Where well I know each slender root
Will wake to life again,
When April, with her bounteous hand,
Pours out her tender rain.
And, like a miser, gloating o’er
His treasures, my soul cleaves
With all its wealth of love untold,
Unto its fallen leaves;
Unto its buried hopes, that lie
Awhile beneath the sod,
But, springing upward, jet will bask
In the bright smile of God!
And so I count these pale germs o’er,
Well knowing each will stand
As ferryage to the Heavenly Port—
The fair and Better Land;
That through Life’s hazy Autumn day3
Glimmers a mirage bright,
By Faith upheld, and never seen
In Spring’s too glarish light.
New Orleans, Oct, IS, 18t>8,
FEMALE CELEBRITIES,
THE PERSONNEL COMPOSING THE NEW YORK
SOROSIS.
A New York correspondent, in a recent
letter, thus refers to the famous Sorosis,
and the more prominent members com
posing it :
The meetings of the Sorosis are held
twice a month, at *2 o’clock, P. M., at
Fifth Avenue Delmonico’s.
ITS STVLE.
As one can see who watches them
pass in, the ladies are all well and fash
ionably dressed, and, as far as the Sorosis
is concerned, the ancient imputation does
not apply, which attributes to literary
women ink-bedabbled lingers and rum
pled hair. Neither is there to be seen
any strong minded oddity of costume.
ITS OBJECTS
arc understood to be the welfare of literary
and brain-working women all over the
world, and the cultivation of woman’s
mine and heart—perhaps the attainment
of certain of her “rights,” although poli
tics are tabooed.
MADAME OCTAVtA WALTON LE VERT.
One of the principal members is a well
served, middle-aged lady, who still retains
man y claims to beauty. She is remark
able for her elegant and insinuating man
ner, and is the authoress of the “Souve
nirs of Travel,” and other works. In
person, she is petite, plump, and black
eyeef a widow, and much attached to her
husband’s memory. At one period of
her hte, Mine. LeVerfc was the leader of
mobile society, and she is said to have
Jost much property by the war. She is
now at the South, attending to certain
estates there belonging to her, and So
!,MS ’ ur lhe time, feels that it loses her
society Besides her interest in Litera
te, this lady is enthusiastic on the subject
; Art > :il)d slie is accredited with having
1 * " a great devotee to the interests of
Al ’t and Artists.
MRS. JENNIE JUNE CROLY.
Irs. Oroly is a blue blonde, with a
dvi ; i"i blue light luiir,
1e 1 * ias darkened somewhat, of lute
complexion of the clearer
but . I , n fi S; u ' e > shc w rather small,
nil ?° od
> jnetty—a beauty, indeed, who has
Z L?n VeS ' S i ie is th mother of
is . u L- . 11 and^ en - . She dresses well, and
ambitious to shine.
SI,o' 10 ' S ) ice Prosident of the Sorosis.
StfXr «d much, and i.
i >'i Committee business. Her lms
a | X PCrateS Witi ‘ ller f “ »« things,
has t; 1 ! a PP® re “tly satisfied where 5,e
ionics often >Ut ’- ' Vlt l . ab 1 161, varied
tal ' ; > one 'ujuuctiou is ever fore
- n her tongue ; and with the ardor
Mies W- aud P° sitiveness , of Paul, she
, ‘ 1 a d in single blessedness : “Never
aan/ell-' h' 101 doD,t got
never iV b} -n U ° lnea I ns marry
ttarrv” 1 v* du; you must not
Jnucii . ? w ». tlJls wou](l not so
have ’ I U ‘adoring that so many married
that trouble ®« were it not
u °ly compounded the Sorosis. ;
In her prolific and whirling brain, the
tiubof multiform fruit, as the name sug
gests—mi Jk tree, bread, upas (ominous
constituent), and other kindred plants
must have had a significance and an aim.
-he is ‘independent,” and,perhaps, with
reason; for, with her pen, she has, for
some time, earned her pin and pocket
money. Just on the verge of the Hpe
turning point, she holds the attractive
ness of earlier youth.
madame demurest
is of medium build, a handsome, black
e3’ed woman, whose business talent is
immense. By virtue of the publication
oi a Magazine, she has been enrolled as a
member of the Club. She lias a Ims
band, who, it is said, adores her, and she
is an excellent wife and mother. She is
sagacious, clear-headed, and has an apti
tude for money-making. Asa worker,
W the hteiary ladies), she is fully en
titled to membership, even though her
woik has not been with the pen.
ALICE C’ARY.
Miss Cary is a tall and somewhat
por.ly middle-aged woman, with very
deep-set, or sunken, dark eyfcs. Her hair
is dark and threaded with silver. Those
who knew her as a girl, when she sipped
honey dew from the wild flowers of Col
lege Hill, near Cincinnati, and caught
poetic inspiration and knowledge from
that still glorious natural region, will re
member her well. Many years ago, she
published short poems in the Cincinnati
izmes; and, when her ambition grew, she
left for New York City, where she has
ever since almost uninterruptedly resided.
Some penetrating sorrow or disappoint
ment seems to have seized and maintained
Its hold upon her. She is silent, to a
fault, and indisposed to sociability. A
certain common sense, matter-of-fact air
is her principal characteristic; and she is
the last person whom a stranger would
imagine to be a sentimental Poetess. Os
late she has been very ill of hemorrhage
ot the lungs, and, in consequence, she felt
compelled to resign her position as Presi
dent of the Sorosis. The vacancy has not
been filled, and the general feeling is that
r anny Fern should he assigned to the
position.
fanny fern.
Fanny Fern, every one knows. It will
not do to describe her; for, if the descrip
tion were not to her liking, woe be unto
tne writer thereof. She owns to fifty,
and appears thirty. She declares openly
that she intends to “manage the machine”
. icrself- the machine being* Sorosis
MARY KYLE DALLAS.
Mrs. Mary Kylo Dallas, widow of the
Artist, Jacob Dallas, nephew of Hon.
George M. Dallas, is, perhaps, the young
est lady belonging to the Society. She
has the reputation of being the most in
dustrious among the female Authors of
the city. . In person, she is dignified, and
graceful in carriage, with an elegantly
moulded figure, a charming neck and bust
and a high, intellectual head. Her eyes
are gray, large, full, and lustrous. In
conversation, she is animated, entertain
ing, and vivacious. Her style of writing
is free and flowing, and her stories are
widely read and admired. She possesses
an unusual fund of humor. Latterly, she
had been engaged to write exclusively for
the Ledger ; though, within a week or so
past, the “Fireside Companion” has
posted her name all about the city as
contributing for that periodical. ‘This
was probably done with a view to creatine
a sensation. The late Mr. Joseph Kyle,
an Artist, of high character in his pro
fession, and the best cabinet Portrait
Painter in New Y r ork, was Mrs. Dallas’
father. Her late husband was one of
the most piolific and skillful ot Designers.
Indeed, the fertility of his pencil was
without limit Mary Kyle Dallas lias,
also, a large degree of ‘artistic genius’
and could, if she were so minded, make
herself distinguished in that way as in
Literature. Together with Mrs. Oroly,
aird Alice and Phoebe Cary, Mrs. Dallas
was an original signer of the proposition
for establishing the Sorosis.
MISS VIRGINIA VAUGHAN.
Miss \ iiginia A aughun recently joined
the Club. This lady is a daughter of Mr.
John C. Vaughan, formerly editor of the
Cincinnati Gazette , afterward of the Chi
cago Tribune, now of the Leavenworth
(Kansas) limes, ohe resembles her
fathcl. Her hair is rich and luxuriant,
hei head large and high. In figure, she
has a i otundity ot mould, inclining to the
\ oluptuous, her eye is dark, large, and
penetrating, and the expression of her
countenance betokens intellectual effort.
She is Book Reviewer of the New York
Weekly Leader. In height, she is aborc
the medium, and, in carriage, she is hold
and tree. In conversation, she is, per
haps, somewhat deliberate and slow of
maimer. Miss Vaughan, when quite a
young girl, as befalls nearly all youn„
women of spirit and genius), Ls fJS
... ks th | attractions and marvels of the
■ g<~ ..lie was, probably, fired thereto,
MSHIB ©F fflf
with added ardor, by the example of Mrs.
Anna Cora Mowatt, who was an occa
sional “guest of honor” at her father’s
house on Third Street, in Cincinnati,
when she flashed meteor-like over the
fashionable world, and attracted it to the
theatre, by the brightness and intensity
of hei acting. Miss A aughan, accord
ingly> look to the Dramatic profession,
and, after several month’s experience she
abandoned the stage, and addressed her
self to literary pursuits.
PHCEBE CARY.
Missel hoebe is a stout, dark brunette,
black-eyed, and independent in her man
ner. Whatever she may have been be
fore, or elsewhere, in the Club she says
little, and she does not seem to be so
cially inclined.
MRS. O’DOXOVAN ROSSA.
Mrs. Rossa is a young Irish beautv
wife of the Fenian, O’Donovan Rossa’
™ ho at present, the captive of the
English Government, under sentence of
imprisonment fgr life. The devoted
wile has come to this country for the
)urpose of obtaining means and influence
'0 procure her husband’s release, or, at
east, a mitigation of his sentence. She
writes and gives readings. One of the
atest occasions on which Gen. Halpine,
(Miles O’Reilly) appeared in public, was
at one of Mrs. Rossa’s readings. He did
lis best to aid her in her object, iu ac
cordance with the ever generous prompt
ings of his nature.
—
From the Nashville Home Monthly.
IGNORANCE OF THE SOUTHERN
PEOPLE.” N
There is nothing so surprising to in
telligent persons, and so discouraging to
Southern authors and publishers,as thefact
that a large majority of Southern people
patronize, by preference, the most worth
less periodicals of the North. Let us
say at. the outset,that there are a few men,
and women of the highest culture, who*
prefer Southern periodicals, and place
tnem in the hands of their children
Our censures do not apply to this small
class They are the salt of Southern so
ciety, and save it from dissolution. With
out the elevating influence of these select
few, Southern character would sink to a
low degradation. “ People will take such
magazines as they like,” is said in ex
planation of the course of our people.
That is true; but the surprising thin'*' is
that persons of any education, prefer an
inferior article, or that persons of any
spirit aie willing to sustain periodicals
which abuse, and villify them. Yet
such is the fact. Gen. Hill has been
gathering some statistics; lie finds that in
I Towns where Southern periodicals are
most taken, there are in circulation, five
Northern, to one Southern publication.
In other places, the proportion is five
hundred to one In uiost Southern towns,
the combined circulation of all the South
ern periodicals, is less than that of Go
deg's Ladies' Book , or the New York
Ltd get. besides, there is a large sale
of publications which we ip> not choose
to name here. Under these circumstances,
it becomes the duty of every educated
Christian man and woman to aid in sup
poi ting, and circulating good periodicals.
The liteiurv peiiodicals of the South arc
worthy of support. They are pure, ele
vated, -and instructive. The Southern
It Gut tW t of Baltimore, is equal to any in
the English language. Tim New Eclec-
tic, published in the same city, is the best
eclectic in America. Our readers can
judge how well The Home Monthly fill*
its place. Then, there are The Land
We Love, Scott’s Monthly, and The La
dies Tearl, all excellent. Among our
exchanges, we have several literary
weeklies of superior merit: The Mobile
Sundag limes , Ihe Literary Pastime
of Richmond, The Southern Home
Journal , and The Leader, both of Balti
more. For the children, there is Burke's
Weekly, a charming periodical. From
such a variety, every person of cultivated
mind, and good taste, can selecc some-
thing to please But we wished simply
to introduce the following article from
the St. Louis Christian Advocate , com
mending it to the thoughtful attention of
our readers; merely adding, in justice to
the city of Nashville, that the two month
lies published m this city arc largely
circulated through the post office:
“Time and again have the papers,
and people of the North sneered at what
they ailedged to be the ignorance of the
Southern people. For a long while we
had been disposed to deny the truth of
the allegation, or, admitting its truth, we
have been sorely at a loss to divine’the
reason, or understand satisfactorily the
cause of such ignorance, Os late, our
difficulties are beginning to be removed.
Admitting the truth of what has been
charged, we cannot account for that igno
rance, otherwise than by attributing it to
the fact, tout there has ever been in the
South such a bountiful supply of North
ern school teachers, and Northern papers.
Almost from time immemorial the South
has been a sort of Paradise for Northern
scnool teachers, and Yankee schoolmarms
while those Southern children who were
not educated at home, were usually sent
to institutions at the North. Very re
cently the editor of the Weekly Gazette,
published at Trenton, Tenn., visited
| Nashville, and, among other things, gives
a brief account of the number, and char
acter of papers sold in that city. After
|gi\ingan account of Lis visit to the
various news-stands, book-stores, etc., at
which he made dilligent inquiry, as to
the number and character of the periodi
cals sold, he says: “VVe find thatamong
the political publications of the South,
that the Banner of the South had a
sale of thirty-three, (this is Father Ryan’s
paper—the best poet of the South,) and
that no other political weekly, save
mme publications, had any sale at all.
VVe will place in contrast with this, the
Metropolitan Record , which lias a sale of
oi y-five; La Crosse Democrat, two hun-
Ged; Agricultural journals—Southern,
111 y, Northern, sixty; Literary—
• 01 ? f: rn ’ (>ne l lulJ dred and twenty-seven,
including De Dow, thirteen; New Eclec -
WG ' e j Land We Love, sixty-seven;
other Southern periodicals, all told, thirty
in leaggi egate, two hundred and twenty
one; Northern— Harper's Monthly, two
hundred and sixteen; A T em York Ledger,
hve hundred and twenty.five: Harper's
Weekly seventy-five; Putnam, forty
six; Atlantic Monthly, cighty-seven-
Ldeeltc Magazine, thirty-six. Fashion
journals—Southern, none; Northern
nine hundred and thirty-six; Foreign, ten!
e can excuse the ladies for their exten
ds sFfH° naffe of the Fashion Journals,
eniid t‘T enter l srlse llaa never been
equal to the getting „ p of a first-class
Magazine of that character.”
How could it be expected that people
cou and be intelligent when their principal
eadmg consisted of Harped Monthly,
tin. New lorb Ledger, etc., ? The thing
nffl T ls tllc T would read,
and study such periodicals as Bledsoe &
Browns Southern Eerie to, there would
nt°“ R h ? pc , ° f ,llolr l,ecomin g intelli
f,- ‘ u . the people ot the South are
ot a very forgiving, as well as forbearing
er iFtl 1 e * hapS tllere were no Publish
er., m the country that, during the war
sneered at, ridiculed, villified, misrepre
sented and abused the Southern people
more than did the Harpers. They heaped
upon them injury upon injury, and added
insult upon insult, and that, too, of the
grossest character, and now 4 every South
ern man or woman patronizing their pub
heat ions acts well the part of Brother
Jack, in Swift’s Tale of a Tub, saying:
Worthy sirs, do me the honor of another
good slay in the chops!” “Honest
friends, pray favor me with another hand
some kick!” “Noble sirs, do lend me
anot her thwack, over these poor shoulders
with that cane of yours.”
Go on, ladies and gentlemen of the
South, enrich the Harpers, the Bonners,
< T id genus omne, and then be sneered at,
aughed at, and ridiculed for your pains.
jo on, and read their namby-pamby
wishy-washy productions, and then be
taunted for your ignorance—for ignorant
you will be, if you read nothin Ad se
and when you are kicked, and culled
continue your patronage, and thus, ask
::or additional kicks; but be sure, all the
while, to continue your boast of chivalry.
CHARGE OF MURAT AT EYLAU,
BY J T. DEADLY.
.D bs Lylau, that Murat appears in
his most terrible aspect... This battle,
tought m mid-winter, in 1807, was the
most important and bloody one that had
then occured. France and Russia had
never before opposed such strength to
each other, and a complete victory on
either side would have settled the fate of
Lurope. Bonaparte remained in posses
sion of the field, and that was all: no
victory was ever so like a defeat.
Hie field of Lylau was covered with
snow, and the little ponds that lay scat
tered over it, were frozen sufficiently hard
to bear the Aitillery. Seventy-one thou
sand men on one side, and eighty-five
thousand on the other, arose from the
fiozen field, on which they had slept the
night of February, without tent, or cov
ering, to battle for a Continent. Auger
eau, ou the left, was utterly routed in the
morning. Advancing through a storm
so thick he could not see the enemy, the
Russian cannon mowed down his ranks
with their destructive fire, while the
Cossack Cavalry, which were ordered to
charge, caine, thundering on, almost hit
ting the French Infantry with their long
lances, before they were visible through
the storm.
Hemmed in and overthrown, the whole
Division, composed of i(j,000 men, with
the exception of 1,500, were captured or
slain. Just then, the snow-storm cleared
up, revealed to Napoleon the peril to which
be was brought, and lie immediately or
dered a grand charge by rhe Imperial
Guard, and the whole Cavalry. Nothiug
' Vas further from Bonaparte’s wishes, or
expectations, than tiie bringing of his
stawoftt ° i', he ? D £ a g ement at this early
resource left htin ’ ‘ here ° ther
s V staine d his high reputation on
h nd/fDL and ’ M himself,
the hundredth time, worthy of the sreat
confidence Nanolenn . 1 j
Noth in» ? 1 traced in him.
the battle-field at thL^mornem^^Bona 1 ?
fssriaasa;S
d.w„ his Cavalry to saVthem Sey
en l Squadrons, making, in all, 11 000
well-mounted men, began to moreover
the slope, with the Old Guard marchin.r
sternly behind. 8
onaparte, it is said, was more agitated
at this crisis, than when, a few moments
, e or b ” e was so near being captured bv
the Kussuias. But, as he saw those
be\enty Squadrons come down on a
plunging trot, pressing hard after the
white plume of Murat, that streamed
through the snow-storm, far in front, a
fciniJe passed over his countenance.
Ihe earth groaned, and trembled as
they passed, and the sabres, above the
dai-K, angry mass below, looked like the
toam of a sea-wave, as it crests on the
deep. Die rattling of their armor, and
the muffled thunder of their tread,
drowned all the roar of battle, as with
f arra )> ar, d swift, steady motion,
they bore down with terrible' front on
the foe.
The shock of that host was like a falling
mountain, and the front line of the Rus
sian Army went down like frost, before it.
llien commenced a protracted fight of
hand to hand, and sword to sword, as in
the Cavalry action at Eckmuhl. The
clashing of steel was like the ringing of
countless hammers; and horses and riders
were blended in wild confusion together.
Ihe Russian Reserve were ordered up
and on these, Murat fell with his fierce
horsemen, crushing and trampling them
down by thousands. But the obstinate
Russians disdained to fly, and rallied
again and again, so that it was no longer
Cavalry charging on Infantry, but Squad
rons of horse, galloping through broken
hosts that, gathering into knots, still dis
puted, with unparalleled bravery, the red
and rent field.
It was during this strange fight, that
Murat was seen to perform one of those
desperate deeds, for which he was so
renowned. Excited to the highest pitch
ot passion by the obstacles that opposed
him, he seemed endowed with ten-fold
Si length, and looked more like a super
human being treading down helpless
mortals, than an ordinary man. Amid
the roar of Artillery, and rattling of
musketry, and falling of sabre-strokes,
IlvC lightning about him, that lofty white
plume never once went down, while, ever
and anon, it was seen glaring through the
smoke of battle, the star of hope to Na
poleon, and showing that “his right arm”
was still uplifted, and striking for victory.
He raged like an unloosed lion amid
the foe; and his eyes, always terrible in
battle, burned with increased lustre,
while his clear and steady voice, heard
above the turmoil of strife, was worth
more than a thousand trumpets, to cheer
on his followers. At length, seeing a
knot of Russian soldiers that, for a long
time, kept up a devouring fire on his men,
he wheeled his horse, and drove in full
gallop upon their levelled muskets. A
few of his guards, who never allowed that
white plume to leave their sight, charged
after him.. Without waiting to conntJiis
foes, he seized his bridle in his teeth, and
with his pistol in one hand, and his drawn
sword in the other, burst in headlong fury
upon them, and scattered them as if a
hurricane had swept by.
Murat was a thunderbolt on that day,
and the deeds that were wrought by him
will furnish themes for the poet and the
painter.
Numerous Conversions. —A London
correspondent, evidently a churchman,
writes thus: “There are more secessions
to Rome. Two Curates of St. Mary’s
Church, Brown St., Soho, Messrs. Ford
and Mapleson, seceded very lately, and
to-day it is announced that the Rev.
Pourries Floyar, a Staffordshire clergy
man, has also gone over. The addendum ,
Mr. Floyer held no preferment, is very
significant. A living, though it be only
£2OO a year, is a wonderful ballast. In
these days it is no louger Archdeacons
and leaders of church parties who for
sake their communion ; but young inex
perienced Curates or unbeneficed clergy.
In the Soho case, one of the seceders had
only just been ordained Priest; the other
had not received a university education.
At Path, I am told, the headquarters of
the Simeonite party in the Church, the
Catholic clergy are making such numer
ous conversions, especially among the
upper classes, as to astonish themselves.
5