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About Southern literary gazette. (Athens, Ga.) 1848-1849 | View Entire Issue (May 13, 1848)
6 Rev. Professor Stevens. The New York Express , of a late date, thus no tices Dr. Stevens’ acceptance of the rectorship of St. Andrew’s Church. Rev. Dr. Stevens, of Georgia, (an active member of the late General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, held here,) has accepted the unan imous call of St. Andrew's Church, in Philadelphia, to become its pastor, and will enter upon his duties in August. He is one of the most able clergymen, of his connection, in the country. The departure of our friend will be deeply felt and regretted in this community, where his fitness for the responsible posts he now occupies is so well known, that all are ready to acknowledge the difficulty of supplying his place. That he resigns a field for use fulness and for honorable dist inction, none can doubt; and we are well aware that it must cost him no ordi nary emotion to bring to so unexpected a close his valuable and important labors and relations in the college and church at this place. We know, how over, that there are considerations higher by far than personal interest, and to such has Dr. Stevens yield ed in accepting the earnest and repeated call of the vestry of St. Andrew’s Church. He will leave in August for his new home, and will bear with him the best wishes of his friends for his happiness and usefulness in a field of duty conse crated by the faithful labors of the pious Bedell. Paper Manufactory. It is always a pleasant task to record the evidences of progress among our people, and as sucli we regard ‘the establishment of a Paper Mill in this immediate vicinity. Messrs. Chase & Linton, with praise worthy energy, have commenced this enterprise and bo hope, in the ensuing Fall, to print the Litera ry Gazette on paper manufactured at home. Suc cess to this, and every similar undertaking at the .South, say we. Daguerreotypes. Wo do but an act of justice to the gentlemen whose card appears in our paper, when we say that his pic tures are among the best specimens of photography we have ever seen. They “ come out,” to use a technical phrase, with great distinctness of outline, and with much delicacy of effect. It is oue of the features of the age that a man can bo daguerreotyped —reproduced instantaneously, as it were! Well do we recollect the first attempts at photography in this country, made by Professor Morse ; and until recently, we had a miniature of ourself taken with one of his first instruments —so fearfully dark and dim that we never suffered it to appear without relating its history. Rapid indeed have been the strides to excellence made by the pro fessors of this Art —for now a good daguerreotype is little, if any, inferior in delicacy to a line engraving, while in the mere likeness it is of course unequalled. Dr. Bushnell proposes to establish a permanent Gallery here for the practice of his art, and we hope ho may be successful. Our Present Number Is sent to friends and acquaintances in various sections of the country where we have been un able to have direct communication with them, and who we have felt assured would take an interest in the enterprise. If any one to whom this and the next number are sent does not wish to be considered as a subscriber we shall be glad to receive intimation of it by the return of the number, marked “Gazette,” Athens. We do not, of course, intend to oblige our friends to take our Journal, in any case, but we wish to afford them an opportunity of so doing—and the method of refusal is so simple that we freely adopt this plan of soliciting their aid. Fellows’ Wadsworth & Cos. We invite the attention of all who are engaged in tho sale of Watches, Jewelry and Rich Fancy Goods, to the advertisement of the above New York House. A personal acquaintance with the gentle men composing the firm, enables us to speak of them with pleasure, and to commend not only their cour tesy, but their taste and their vast facilities in every department of their business. Our Grateful Acknowledgments Are due and herein tendered to our brethren of the South, who have so cordially greeted our propo sals to establish this Journal ; and bespoke for us the warm and active sympathy of Southern people. We hope to merit the approbation they have so freely advanced. Without designing to make invidious distinctions we should yet do injustice to our own feelings if we did not, in this connection, assure our esteemed friends of the “ Republic” and of the “Sa vannah Georgian,” that their earnest encouragement and their good wishes have cheered our hearts and strengthened our hands for the task before us. Notioes of Louis Blanc’s Ten Years in Paris, and several other books, are unavoidably crowded from “ Our Book Table” this week. 3XiIJTii J 5 {& j'J ® K & * Our Sosstp Column. Welcome, dear reader, yea, thrice welcome art thou, this balmy morning in May, to a seat by our ‘ side, where it will be our delight, if thou art not cvn- j ical, to amuse thee with our careless gossip. Wt down then —there ! on that mossy knoll, which is hill in the shade of the old oak, and hear what thy garru lous friend has to say. Peradventure there may be something to make thee glad or merry, and if, on the ; other hand, it should make thee sad, still will it be | well; for sadness is the forerunner of wisdom. And now tell us, as t hou wouldst tell a bosom friend, what thinkest thou of the first number of the Southern Literary Gazette I Speak plainly, as if the Editor; ; thereof, were very deaf or away. ‘An excellent issue he fcas made’ eh I Well! thy judgement is indispu tably excellent—and we would endorse thy verdict, if it would not be set down to the score of vanity, and we are not quite old enough yet, to be allowed to lie vain as well as garrulous. How happy it would make j i us if we knew that this was the verdict of all those who have read our first number! We have not done all we wished to do however. Some very kind and cherished friends whose assistance we hoped for in getting it up, were not able to be present. This we deeply regretted; but as they will yet come, we shall not complain. We begun, too, in somewhat too much haste—as some of the materiel was delayed a week beyond our expectations, and it came barely “in season to enable us, with great diligence, to be punc tual to the appointed day, for our appearance. Is not our Journal beautifully printed, and are w t c not deep ly indebted therefor, td our friend Mr. W heler, whose taste controls that department I Ilis share in the credit belonging to our appearance, is certainly not small. Rut thou art actually dropping asleep in the midst of our prating. Well, well—we did not think so soon to weary thee. But sleep on while we look after some little matters that devolve on us. .... [After a brief interval the Editor resumes his gossip the gentle reader having finished his short nap.] . . . . Passing a few moments since into our office, and overlooking me MS. which our excel lent superintendent was putting into type, he re marked that a word had just suggested to him a conundrum, the merit of which he would allow us to estimate after we had discovered the answer: — “Why is a cunning man like a henpecked hus band!” With the aid of his MS. we were not long in replying: Beecause he is shrewd; and had not Mr. W been a bachelor, we should cer tainly have told him that be was shrewed himself! .... Dear reader, have you not laughed heartily i over the capital sketch by the lamented Hood, enti tled “Black, White and Brown;” and do you not think it an excellent hit at the pseudo philanthropy of those people who, in their pious horror of slavery, refuse to eat sugar or wear cotton goods! By the way,- the di lemma of the poor Yorkshireman with his mouth half full of the horrid ‘ black dose’ of Miss Morbid, reminds us of an incident in the table-life of the celebrated Ethan Allen. During bis capt ivity in England, which lasted nearly all the period of the R evolutionary War, he was dining on one occasion at the house of a no bleman. Among tho rarities on the table, were pickled olives; and Allen being invited to take one of them did so, and transferred it at once to his mouth. The taste of the morceau proving by no means agree able, he supposed, from the evident popularity of the viand, that he had unfortunately taken a spoiled one, and he thought to make it palatable by taking anoth er with it. He therefore put a second in his mouth, but that, too, was bitter. He tried a third, and by this time there was no “room to let” in his mouth. In this dilemma he turned to a lady on his right hand, and exclaiming,with his wonted profanity —“Madam, by your permission, I will put these cursed things down there;” he ejected the disagreeable trio from his mouth on to the floor at his feet ! Speaking of Et han Allen, as Ollapod was used to say, we are again reminded of a similar mishap that befel a worthy of the name of Billy Robertson, generally known in the vicinity of Waynesboro, in this State, as “Black Billy.” Dining one day at the table d’hote, and seated next to the hostess, he was helped to soup.— Calling for pepper, he took from the castors the cruet of cayenne, a plentiful supply of which fell on his al j most boiling pot age. He had no sooner imbibed a generous spoonful of the twice-heated fluid, than he discovered the imposibility of his swallowing it, and after rolling it about in his mouth with commendable diligence for some seconds, he finally received the un welcome deposit in his pocket handkerchief, and turning to the lady, exclaimed with great, gravity— I “ There Madam, any other darned fool than me, would have swallowed that stuff!” .... Louis Phillipe’s recent departure from his throne and from his country, probably affords the best instance, on record, of taking French leave ! .... In our next number we shall commence a regular department, under the head of “ Notices to Correspondents.”- | For the present week the few words we have to say may not be amiss in this column Wc have ; received, from our old and very welcome contribu j tor, M. E. L., the story of “Libussa’s Lamp,” and shall speedily present it to our readers To the proposition of E. M. we say most decidedly— No ! And now, dear reader, adieu until our next. <Dur 3300fc Static. The Life of the Chevalier Bayard, “ Ihe Good Knight, sans peur et sans reproche .” By W. Gil more Simms. One vol. 12mo. pp. 400. New \ork: Harper & Brothers. Mr. Simms has given ui a very pleasant volume in the Life of Bayard, and one for which we think the youth of our country should cordially thank him. — The history of the Chevalier was full of incident and adventure, and his character and career, beautifully illustrate the power of early virtuous training. Bay ard had a good mother, and this perhaps is the grand secret of his distinguished excellence, making him justly entitled to the description sans peur et sans reproche. We have read with deep interest, the chapters of this book, and commend it cordially to those who desire to receive both instruction and amusement from what they read. It is well suited for the family circle, and affords admirable lessons for the young. We have given in another place a chapter, from which the interest and merit of the work may be fitly estimated. The Harpers have is sued the work in a very neat and tasteful style. It is illustrated with fine wood cuts. The Boys’ Treasury of Sports, Pastimes and Recreations. With nearly 400 Engravings.— One vol. lfirno. 412 pp. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard. How vividly this book recalls to our mind the ‘ scenes of our childhood,’ by its delightful pictures of the in-door and out-door sports in which we were wont to participate. We have an English copy of the vol ume now, and it stirs the blood in our veins whenever we look over it. The American edition is very beau tiful, having all the illustrations of the original. It has been somewhere said, and we think not without justice, that “we have no boys in this country.”— Our youth pass at once from childhood to manhood, or, at least, to its appearance. They become men in manners, too early, and know nothing at all of the heathful, invigorating delights of the long season of English boyhood. For their sakes we would it were otherwise. And we commend to parents who wish to have their children grow up into well developed manhood, in its proper time, to protract and throw all possible charms around the season of early youth To this end let them select for their next holiday gilt to their boys, the handsome volume under notice. Chambers’ Miscellany of Useful and Enter taining Knowledge. Edited by Robert Cham bers. No. 1. 16‘mo. Boston: Gould, Kendall & Lincoln. This is a sac simile reprint of the Scottish edition, and the publishers will unquestionably do t he public a service by issuing the whole series in semi-monthly numbers, as they propose. When a copy of the work, as far as issued in Scotland, fell into our hands recently, we regarded it as a great acquisition to our library ; and we are sure every intelligent reader will avail himself of the opportunity now afforded him, of purchasing the whole senes, at 2d cents pervolume! Each volume contains several complete works—either perfect or abridged—and certainly either of them is well worth the price of the whole. A\ e hope the worthy publishers will sell tens of thousands of the work, and we are actuated in making this wish, by a consideration of the public good rather than theirs. Valentine Vox, or the Adventures of a Ven triloquist. By Henry Cockton. Philadelphia: Carey & Jlart. The publishers have supplied us with anew Edi tion of this very amusing volume. It is probably too familiar to our readers to require our saying more than this. It is a work combining much philosophi cal observation, with incidents of the most laughable description. A perusal of it could not fail to “ shake the cobwebs out of a man’s brain.” I he Conquest of California and New Mexico; By the forces of the United States, in she years IS Ki & ’47. By James M. Cutts. Anew Edition. Philadelphia : Carey & llart. j. iiis is the title ot a volume of nearly 300 pages, illustrat ed with engravings, plans of bat Me, The narrative is simple, and embraces outlines of the are # in ogiaphical ciiid historical fcuturßs of the country 5 in connection with the movements of the American Ar my, in the recent campaign. C.esar De Bello Galljco Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard. This is one of a series of classical volumes, edited by Drs. Schmilz &. Zuinpt. The original edition was issued in Edinburgh, and has obtained great pop ularity there, from the beauty of the text, closely imitated in the American copy—and the value of the annotations. We commend it to our classical readers. Dombey & Son. Complete in one vol., with illus trations. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard. Doubtless thousands of eager readers have devoured the concluding numbers of this admirable romance, and the suspense in which they have been kept for nearly a year, now ended-they will probably re-peruse it with increased interest and gratification. It is one ol the very best works that Dickens has ever written, and its popularity is attested by the fact that there aie five American editions, besides newspaper re prints. JEfie &rts ana Sciences. A New Telegraph. Mr. Bain, an English gentleman claims to have invented anew Magnetic Telegraph, which possesses in the opinion of competent judges, such decided ad vantages over Professor Morse’s instrument, as to leave no doubt that the latter will be completely superceded by it. The performances of Mr. Bain’s Telegraph are described as ‘surprising,’ and its chief superiority, to all other instruments, consists in its greater rapidity of operation. Other advantages are claimed for it, but shey are not yet described. It is already patented in England, and in extensive use there. The patent for the United States is al ready applied for, and a line will be established be tween New York and Boston, as soon as it is secured. We shall attempt very briefly to describe the differ ence between Bain’s and Morse’s Telegraph. Tho latter is probably familiar to many of our readers, who are aware that the operator, at one extremity of a line, has to write each letter in succession ; and for every word that he communicates he must make a certain unvarying combination of dots. Os course intelligence is transmitted only as fast as he can make these combinations. With Bain’s instrument, however, a different method is pursued, and a division of labor among ten, twenty or m me operators will diminish the time of communication in the exact ratio of the person# employed in writing. The writing is performed as usual by a combination of dots, but these are made bv a simple instrument upon strips of paper, and the whole message is thus written out by one or by a score, on one or twenty strips of paper. The perforated strips are then wound upon a me tallic cylinder, with a delicate style, so adjusted that its point can fall into the perforations and touch the cylinder. The rod and cylinder both being connec ted with the Battery, the electric circuit will flow through a circuit thus formed wherever the style touches the cylinder. When it passes over the un pierced portions of paper, no current flows, since the paper breaks the circuit. Now if, at the other end of the route, a similar cylinder is wound with blank paper, and a style, chemically prepared, so adjusted as to rest upon it ; whenever the circuit is formed on the first cylinder, the blank paper at the other end will receive a corresponding mark; and when the first style passes over the intact strip no mark will be produced. In this way the message to be transmit ted can be sent with astonishing rapidity—as fast, in deed, as the prepared strips can be rolled oft’ the cylinder. We may have failed to make this subject very clear to our readers, as it is difficult to explain scien tific processes in words. It will enable many of them, however, to estimate rightly the advantages claimed foi Mr. Bain’s Instrument. We must not omit to remark, in this connection, that Professor Morse, through his agent, Amos Ken dall, Esq., claims to have originated the system ot marking, adopted by Mr. Bain, and to have entered a caveat for it in 1847. At present the two inventors, therefore, are contending for the right of patent to this method ot marking, and of course for the honor of the discovery. We can only say “ Justitia fiat, codum ruit.” 2Tfje American s)rcss. John Donkey. Do not. suppose, dear reader, that there is any thing implied in the juxtaposition of the above names, for although John Donkey does honor to the American weekly L rcss, we are far from hinting that the press has anything in common wiih the common Donkey. We set out simply to say that John Donkey certain ly does bray charmingly—and we have laughed, many a time, a capital treble to his bass performances, that would not permit us to pursue the simple tenor of our usual sober way, but has frequently placed a bar to our serious efforts, and occasioned us to lose time in paying attention to his siugular crotchets. — Let us pause awhile, however, to say a word in be half of John Donkey that we hope to have occasion to repeat. He is decidedly the best of the American imitators of “Punch,” that King, or, as the Chartists would like us to write it perhaps, that President of Fun. There is always more or less sterling wit in Donkey's leaves, which are not cabbage leaves, dear reader, by any means ! and we would as soon miss our dinner as u> lose the sound of his melodious voice, or the sight of his waggish—face. May his y -ears he long! Neal’s Saturday Gazette. This is decidedly the best Family Newspaper pub lished in the country, and one which we can, and do, with sinere pleasure, commend to the public patron age. It attained a high position during the life-time of its late amiable Editor, Joseph C. Neal, Esq., and it has lost nothing of its excellence under the joint editorship of Mrs. Neal and Mr. Peterson. — Pure and select in every department, and, withal, presenting more original matter than any of its con temporaries, it is just the paper needed for th* family circle. It is a large and handsomely printed sheet, at only two dollars per annum.
