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298
Sljc (Ssoaijiat.
For the Southern Literary Gazette.
THE ISLE OF HOPE.
A SKETCH ON THE SEA BOARD.
Reader, thou hast, perchance, gazed with
-delight on the mountain scenery of Georgia,
unrivalled in the picturesque and grand—but
didst thou ever visit the “Isle of Hope'?” —if
not, rest assured that there is yet in store for
thee a scene of exceeding beauty. I wonder
if our rover of the “Pen and Pencil,” in his
wanderings “All About,” has ever visited
this charming retreat! A sketch of its rare
loveliness would surely adorn his port-folio,
and add another to his gems of the pictu
resque.
The “ Isle of Hope” is situated near the
sea-coast, about eight miles from the ancient
“ City of Oglethorpe.” The ocean wave
mirrors its tasteful snow-white cottages, em
bosomed amid the mossy foliage of perennial
green —and laves their verdant lawns, which
slope to the water’s bank.
Sunny islands lie strewn, like emeralds,
upon its silvery vest. The soft summer air
is burdened with the perfume exhaled from
forest flowers, and the pure and invigorating
winds of ocean dispel every breath of pestif
erous malaria, that would enervate the vigor
of life, or pale the bloom on beauty’s cheek.
Beneath these soft skies, the orange groves
blossom, the myrtle and jessamine twine in
graceful wreaths, embowering haunts in
which nymphs and Muses might delight to
linger. Here, too, glittering constellations
circle, blending in harmonious concert, with
the eloquent, unwritten music of Nature, and
the soul.
Though it may not boast the bold sublim
ity -of Currahee, Toccoa, and Tallulah, those
stupendous granite piles, whose rugged brows
are bathed in the clouds of heaven, and the
leaping cataract which bounds in wild, fan
tastic play over towering precipices—vet the
mild and romantic features of loveliness
which linger around “Whitehall,” the “Her
mitage,” and “Point Taylor,” possess charms
not less congenial to the taste and feelings of
the poet, the painter, and the idealist. Crea
tions, fair and beautiful as ever beamed on
fancy’s vision in other climes, will here gild
their imaginary paradise. The pedant, the
misanthrope, the ultra fastidious, may quit
awhile their native land, to seek more re
fined enjoyment amid the classic sanes of
Persepolis, Palmyra, and Athens; visit every
consecrated haunt from Palestine to the Ti
ber; may linger, enthralled, over the chefs
d'oeuvreoi Grecian Art; the symmetrical love
liness of the Medicean Venus —the soft, vo
luptuous charms, and matchless dyes which
glow on the canvass of the immortal Apelles
—yet how powerless is the artificial pano
rama, to awaken the spirit-echoes of the
world-sated tourist, whose fondest associa
tions cling around the chaste and simple
beauties of his native land. The spell-like
influences which these awaken, become links
in the mystic chain of being which soothe
and harmonize the spirit-echoes, like the re
verberating strains of “ remembered music.”
They may sonnetize Italian sunsets, and
praise the cloudless blue of India’s skies, yet
feel that an azure as brilliant, o’er-canopies
their southern home—that its gorgeous sun
sets of purple and gold are as refulgent as
those which spread their liquid light over
that classic land ; and that here, too, the min
strelsy which “melts on the air,” is sweeter
far than the dulcet chimes of the Venitian
gondolier. Os the incredulous, the sordid
materialist, who would regard our en thusiasm
as the vagaries of a wild romance, I would
ask—“ Canst thou paint the twinkling blaze
of Orion ? or arrest the fleeting hues of sun
set clouds? Canst thou relume the paling
eye which once beamed kindly on thee, or
catch the lingering harmony of a seraph’s
OatnrstEAiE'tr B&ssm?s.
lyre ? Then mayst thou portray the inimi
table loveliness that fills earth, and air, and
heaven, beneath these sunny skies.
Point Taylor. E. G. N.
djome (fforrcspnniencr.
For the Southern Literary Gazette.
NEW-YORK LETTERS—NO. 38,
New York, Jan. *24, 1849.
My Dear Sir —Returning to old Manhat
tan, I find that Boston is not the only cold
place in the world. Here, as well as there,
the mercury has been unusually afflicted with
the dumps, all through the present month.—
To-day the sun wears a smiling face, but
gives a warmth insufficient to relieve the ex
ceeding chilliness of the atmosphere. The
sleighing, however, is all over in our streets
—not from the effects of a thaw, but dead
from old age —literally worn away by excess
of use. The carriage-ways are in a terrible
condition, most delightfully diversified by ju
venile mountains and miniature vallies, or, as
the geographies say, “ undulating and hilly.”
Many of the thoroughfares are really dan
gerous to navigate, and the city press was
never more eloquent than now —or with more
justice—in its never-ending abuse of the street
commissioners, and the corporation gene
rally.
Few events of interest have turned up du
ring my absence, so that, having nothing to
review, I may plunge at once into the happi
ness of the present moment. California,
since the late glowing intelligence reached us,
has become, more than ever, the all-absorb
ing topic. The “ Express” of yesterday says,
speaking of the growing epidemic :
“We have seen, in our day, manias, fevers,
and excitements of all sorts, but it can be
safely said, never were people so worked up,
so bewildered, so delirious, nay, driven so
stark staring mad, as they w T ere here and else
where yesterday, when they awoke from
their troubled slumbers, and golden dreams,
to read the gilded telegraphic despatches that
the newspapers had received from Washing
ton, chronicling the reception there of some
three weeks later intelligence from El Dora
do. The writer of this article having strug
gled as manfully as poor humanity would al
low, to avoid the contagion, determined to
watch the extraordinary and electric effect the
malady was having upon some of his less in
vulnerable fellow-citizens, and candor com
pels him to say, that the result of such ob
servations is by no means calculated to
strengthen the hypothesis that New York—
the great city of the Western hemisphere—is
long to retain its four hundred thousand in
habitants. The fact is, and it may as well
be told right out, without any circumlocu
tion, so that everybody may know the worst,
this last gold news has unsettled the minds
of even the most cautious and careful among
us. Nothing else is talked of, thought of, or
dreamed of. Gold is in everybody's mouth,
on everybody’s tongue, in everybody’s face.
Everything looks yellow. Walk -from the
Battery up to Grace Church, and one hears
nothing but, “ When are you off?” “ Lend a
hundred dollars,” “work passage,” “Jones
went off yesterday,” “ Smith starts to-night,”
“wife provided for,” “twenty pound lumps,”
“pick-axes,” “shovels,” “sifters,” “jack
knives,” “ Sacramento,” “ twenty carats fine,”
“got a letter from Jenkins yesterday—Jen
kins has dug up a couple of millions,” “the
real dust,” “Cape Horn too tedious,” “over
land,” or through that “monumental canal
just discovered, you know, at the Isthmus,*’
“Chihuahua,” “Santa Fe,” “Big Fork,”
“Feather River,” “Sutter’s Fort,” “brandy,”
“ whiskey,” “ seidlitz powders,” “ bovvie
knives,” “revolvers.” The daguerreotype
establishments are overrun with fathers, bro
thers, cousins—all getting likenesses to leave
to the families they are deserting. The
wharves are black with human beings, beg
ging to be carried off; and we are told, on
tolerably respectable authority, that even
some skippers have been obliged to haul off
into the stream, to avoid being sunk, run
down, capsized, thrown on their beam ends,
such is the indiscriminate, irrational irruption {
of gold-scraping humanity. Woman, in such ;
extraordinary emergencies, always cooler, !
and more common-sensical than man, in some
cases, has fallen a victim to the California
Cholera, and there are certain strange giv-
ings about some of the sex w T ho have been
exchanging the petticoat for the breeches, on
board ship. Laborers, mechanics, clerks, ar
tisans, are throwing away the trowel and the
broom, the jack-plane and the hammer, the
pen and the ledger, so exclusively and in
curably possessed have one and all become
of the one-idea of the day.”
The fine old salutations of “ How do you
do ?” and “ Good morning,” are just giving
place to “When are you off ?” “ Round the
Horn, or across the Isthmus 1 ” These or
similar greetings fall on my own ear daily ;
but you need not be under any alarm, for I
am armed so strong in scepticism, that I have
even refused the offer of a free passage, in
the best craft “out” ! Think of thejmmense
number of California widows which Gotham
will soon contain, and then contemplate the
jolly time those of us remaining at home will
have—El Dorado on both sides of the Con
tinent.
Last week, some two or three hundred can
didates were examined for admission to the
High School of the Free Academy. This is
anew Institution, lately established, to afford
to the children of the poor a higher educa
tion than can be obtained in the usual Public
Schools of the city. Pupils are not eligible
for admission, unless they have passed a cer
tain period in one or other of these Public
Schools : a very important requisition, since
it confines the advantages of the establish
ment to those for whom it is intended, rather
than suffer them, as otherwise would proba
bly be the case, to be monopolized by those
who are in no want of the charity. The
Free Academy is maintained at the cost of
the city; a large and superb edifice, for its
accommodation, has been erected in the up
per part of the town: a full board of compe
tent Professors and tutors has been elected,
so that not only a liberal, but a classical and
elegant education, is placed within the reach
of all. The value of this Institution, rightly
conducted, cannot be too highly estimated—
and the highest honor is reflected upon the
heads and hearts of our people, for the gene
rous readiness with which they unanimously
consented to bear the additional tax necessa
ry for its maintenance.
Speaking of Schools, we have here a soci
ety called “The Teachers’ Association,”
numbering, at this time, the principals of
twenty-four Ward Schools, eighteen Public,
six Corporate, and twenty-one Private. The
Association meets semi-monthly, for the con
sideration of themes and theories, bearing
upon the interests of Education. At the re
union in the City Hall, last Saturday eve
ning, among other matters, Mr. Scott read an
essay on English Grammar, and a discussion
sprung up touching the transfer of pupils
from one school to another.
In the theatrical world at present, the chief
attractions are at the “Broadway” and at
“ Astor Place.” At the former establishment,
the drama of Monte Christo, from Dumas’
wonderful tale of that name, has had what is
technically called an immense run, having
been produced night after night, during suc
cessive weeks. It is admirably done, with
scenic and stage effects far more rich and gor
geous than we are wont to see here. At the
Opera House, the Roberto Devereux has been
successfully produced, and is now nightly re
ceived by large and delighted audiences.—
Last week, a grand fancy ball came of! at
this place, but 1 shall spare you a catalogue
of the “assistants,” having, not long ago,
dragged you to a similar, but far more ele
gant and successful scene.
Mrs. Fanny Kemble Butler, it is said, is
about to treat the Bostonians to a series of
readings from Shakspeare, after which, a
like pleasure is to be offered to us Gotham
ites.
During my absence from the city, the im
provements in the old Costar mansion, in
Broadway, have been completed, and the
proprietors of the Chinese Museum have 1
opened there their world of curiosities, from
the Central Flowery Empire. By and bye
I will drop in, and have a Chinese talk with
you and your readers.
We have, within the past few days, lost
one of the oldest and most efficient of our ci
ty Journalists, in the death of Mr. David
Hale, senior editor of the “Journal of Com
merce.” This sad event occurred at Freder
icksburg, Va. f which place Mr. Hale had
reached in the progress of a Southern trip f or
the improvement of his health.
It has been recently discovered by Judg e
Edmonds, in reexamining the Revised Stat
utes of the State r that of the seven hundred
and forty-six vagrants now in custody 0n
Blackwell’s Island, all hut three are illegally
detained; in view whereof, the honorable
and conscientious Judge has not only ad vised
our worthy Mayor of his intention to com
mence the labor of liberation on Wednesday
(to-day,) but demands that the city make
suitable provision for the support and com
fort of the horde of rascals thus to be set
loose upon us! This is “punishment”
made easy, with a vengeance!
In the book way, we are soon to have some
portion of the Rev. Mr. Nobles’ Life and
Literary Remains of the Artist, Cole; and,
while in Boston, I learned that Mr. Dana's
Life of Allston would quickly be forthcoming.
Apropos of Boston again : a friend there
mentioned to me an amusing anecdote, which
had recently me-t his ears. A raw down
easter, glancing at the caption of a Demo
cratic paper, just established somewhere in
Massachusetts, and bearing the motto, “Be
just and fear not. —(Shakspeare,”) exclaimed,
“No, by thunder, nor any other darn Whig!”
In the Arts, our painters are all very busy
in preparations for the reopening of the Art
Union Gallery next month, and for the com
ing Exhibition of the National Academy of
Design. I have long purposed giving you
some account of this important Institution—
the Academy; and, if the incidents of the
coming week should not prove of peculiar in
terest, I shall devote the whole of my next
letter to the subject. FLIT.
®l)e Critic.
For the Southern Literary Gazette.
CLARK’S NEW GRAMMAR.*
This original production will, doubtless’
become an indispensable auxiliary to restore
the English language to its appropriate rank
in our systems of education. After a curso
ry perusal of its contents, we are tempted to
assert that it foretells the dawn of a brighter
age to our mother tongue. For the ten year3
past, compilation upon compilation issued
from the press in rapid succession, each va
rying only in nomenclature or arrangement
from its predecessor. On this account, the
plurality of modern educators have been
averse to bestow much attention upon their
native tongue. Therefore, it affords us no
little pleasure to notice this new and superior
treatise. Both pupil and teacher can fare
sumptuousl) upon its contents, however high
ly they may have prized the Manuals to
which they have been initiated, and by which
their expressions, both oral and written, have
been moulded. These they will admit to be
glaringly deficient and incorrect, should the
singular analyses before us come to their no
tice and relief. Mr. Clark, abandoning the
old plan of beginning with the alphabet,
which American pupils know, invites the
pupil to an examination of a sentence. His
first aim is to present to his mind the offices
of words, their relation to each other, and the
conceptions they embody. The diagrams
constitute not only a peculiar, but also a hap
py auxiliary to show the mutual dependence
* I lie Science of the English Language, a Practi
cal Grammar, in which Words, Phrases and Sen
tences, arc classified according to their offices and
their relation to each other. Illustrated by a com
plete system of Diagrams. By S. W. Clark, A. M.
New York : A. S. Barnes & Cos.