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EDITOR’S DEPARTMENT.
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\THENS, SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 1849. |
To our Subscribers.
This number closes the first volume of the South
ern Literary Gazette, and, on the next Saturday,
will be issued the first number of anew series—en
larged and otherwise improved—under the title of
Richards’ Weekly Gazette. At this point in our
career, as a literary journalist, it is proper that we
say certain things to those who have received the
Gazette for a year past. We shall endeavor to be
brief, and we shall certainly be candid.
Contrary to the expectations of, perhaps, a ma
jority of its subscribers, and we may add, with ex
cusable pride, contrary to the predictions of croak
ing friends and jealous foes, the Gazette has lived
and flourished, so that it will begin its second year
under brighter auspices, and with multiplied claims
upon the public favor. This, we conceive, is to
have accomplished much, for if it is “ le premier pas
quicoutc” then assuredly our first step has produ
ced tangible results, and is an augury of future suc
cess. We know, as well as any one, the difficulties
of our enterprize, and we are frank to eay that we
have “ counted the cost.” Our dependence for suc
cess is not upon Southern pride, or Southern liber
ality, for these have been appealed to a hundred
times in vain ; but it is upon our own indefatigable
exertions, our fixed and irrefragible purpose, to suc
ceed in the task we have begun. We shall thank
fully avail ourself of every manifestation of Southern
pride, and cheerfully acknowledge every exhibition
of Southern liberality in behalf of our efforts; but
observation and experience have taught us that
these agencies are utterly inefficient to accomplish
the design wc cherish. Let our friends, then, un
derstand that we depend upon ourself, while we ear
nestly invoke their cooperation, for the establish
ment of a permanent weekly Journal of Letters in
the South.
And no‘r7 let us offer to those subscribers, who
have proved themselves patrons, our grateful thanks |
for their support, and our solicitations for a con- i
tinuar.ee of it. Believe us, kind friends, when we i
sav that ire cannot spare your sympathy or your j
aid. If ire have failed, in aught, to come up to the j
standard of your wishes, judge us kindly, and hear j
yet with us, that we may have opportunity to “ re- :
deem the time.”
Os those subscribers who are yet in arrears, there J
are doubtless many who have not intentionally neg- 1
looted us, and who will at once relieve our solicitude ;
and their own consciences. To such ivc would glad
ly say, in the language of Sliakspeare,
‘'You owe me no subscription!”
To those who have intentionally withheld from us
the miserable pittance —to them individually—of
our subscription price, and who have no scruples of
conscience in so doing, we can only suggest the beau-;
tiful precept of the New Testament—that rule ap
propriately called “ Golden.” “Do unto others as
you would have others do unto you.”
We need, absolutely need, every dollar that is due
lo us, and whosoever fails to pay us, is not only un
just to himself and to us, but to the ivhole South,
*0 deeply concerned in theperpeluity of such an organ
of improvement as the Gazette aims to be. Be true
to yourselves, to us, and to the cause of Southern
Literature, oh ! ye delinquents, and send us, with
out delay, the amount of your indebtedness So
will you reap the reward of the just.
Kind friends, suffer one word more. Do not light
ly abandon the Gazette, just as it is beginning to
feel the breeze of popular favor swelling its sails,
and, under its freshening impulse, to move easily
and proudly on the sea of success. Do not, we pray
you, for light cause, “ give up the ship. ”
Editorial Correspondence.
Charleston, April 16, IS 19.
My dear - : My last let ter, bearing date on
fy two days earlier than this, was redolent of the
balmy breath of Spring—and told you of festive
■'•cones amid the fine old trees of Mount Pleasant.
£ince then, however, not only has “a change pa-s
----* and o cr the spirit of my dream,” but also over the
whole aspect of nature, and positively as I now
“rite, the caves of the house are dripping with melt
's snow—whilea cold north-westerly wind is sweep
,ng through the City, and wailing out its ominous
®TiaS IB p Ha 3IfiSIR A[R Y 8 ASS TITS.
intimations of blighted orchards, ruined crops, and
despoiled gardens.
Yesterday, snow fell for some hours, and every- j
thing assumed the guise of mid-winter. This is one
of the strangeet freaks of that usually staid person
age, “ the clerk of the weather,” I have ever seen
recorded —and “ the oldest inhabitant” told me this 1
morning, as he stepped into the sitting room of the
“ Pavilion” to warm his toes at the grate fire, that
there was nothing in his “memory” to equal it.
I
Wednesday, April is. ,
If I seem to have made an abrupt termination of!
i the foregoing paragraph, you will please imagine
that my fingers actually froze. Our city journals
are filled with lamentations, from the interior and
i from afar, about the devastations of Mr. John Frost.,
I who has recently appeared among us in a humor so
| stern and irate, as to admonish me not to speak of
him so familiarly as I used to do, when he was less
, eccentric than at present. I must really pack up
my trunk and be off to the country, to see for my
self the traces of his destructive footsteps. Before I
go, however, let me finish my glimpses of the City.
I did not fail to visit “Temperance 11 all” on
Monday night, to hear Dr. Robertson's lecture op
the “ Artesian Well.” I must confess, however,
that I was disappointed in the style of the lecturer.
It lacked perspicuity —that quality of all others
most important in popular scientific addresses.—
There was, evidently, an effort on the speaker's part
to be perspicuous, but whether from the comprehen
siveness of his subject and the perpetual discursive
ness which it prompted —or from some other cause—
he did not appear to me to invest his theme with its
natural interest. The whole address was devoted
to the preliminary geological data involved in the
theory of the Artesian Well. It was quite too brief
to admit of its becoming a bore.
j Not to mention the Charleston press would be un
pardonable, since it is quite an important part of the
| City. There are three daily papers, all of which
are published also tri-weekly and weekly for the
country. The Courier and Mercury are the oldest
and largest, and are both excellent commercial Jour
nals—well filled with intelligence from all parts of
the world. The Evening News is a sprightly and
growing paper, deservedly popular both in city and
country. These represent the commercial interest;
and besides them are The Southern Baptist, The
Southern Christian Advocate, a Methodist Journal,
and a paper devoted to the fellowship of Rome—the
name of which we do not remember —as the expo
nents of the religious interests of the City. The
Southern Quarterly Review and the Charleston
Medical Journal and Review, arc the only periodi
! cals with which lam acquainted. Both of these
deserve to be better supported than they are, and
will, I hope, flourish abundantly.
A great change has been brought about in Charles- ■
ton by the agency of Steam Navigation ; and I can !
excuse the pride with which her citizens regard their
various Atlantic steam-ships, as altogether reason
able. I have seen all the fine vessels now on the dif
ferent lines—the Northerner and Southerner on the
New York, the Columbus and the Osprey on the
Philadelphia, and the Isabel on the Havana routes.
The regularity aud uniform quickness of all these
packets (excepting only the Osprey, as yet almost
untried,) have won the confidence of the traveling
public.
You will recollect to have admired the fine steeple
of St. Michael’s, while sailing up the bay. Al
though unequalled in proportions, it will be sur
passed in height by that of St. Phillips, a neigh
boring Church. In addition to a fine chime of bells,
an ingenious musical clock is to be ci-ected in the
i belfry of St. Phillips’. It is the workmanship of
i Mr. Stein, a watch-maker of the city. The chimes
1 of St. Michael’s are among the pleasantest sounds of
| this city, especially in the calm Sabbath mornings.
In bidding adieu to the Palmetto city, I must not
forget to acknowledge, once more, the hospitality
and courtesy of its citizens, of which I have received
so many grateful tokens. At the risk of seeming
ungrateful to find fault at the very moment of part
ing, I will venture to hint to the South Carolina
Rail Road Company, that their Depot, (or station
house, as it should be called,) in Charleston, is not
among the architectural ornaments of the city ; and,
!i n behalf of travelers, who are accustomed to the
commodious and somewhat ornamental ‘‘station
houses” of New Ei gland, and who might be, not
! unreasonably, surprised at that of Charleston, I
would express the hope that the enterprxsmg Com
! pany will, ere long, erect one in a style correspon -,
; ing to the rank and character of its important Road
-1 Woodlands, April 19.
A dusty ride ‘upon the rail’ of seventy-two miles
: brought me to Midway Station, where, among the
„. ou p of expectant villagers, I recognised the hear-
I tv face of my esteemed friend, Mr. Simms, whose ,
■ guest I had promised to be for a brief turn y-four
I L., Woodlands,” already described m the C.a-
I ettc is the residence of Mr. Simms aud his excel
. * V t VIPr in law Mr. Roach. It is nearly two
miles fp.m the < Station,’ and the mansion stands.
amid fine old oaks, every one a study for a pamter I
I fihd my friends resting from a fierce combat, in
, which they have been engaged, With a very subtle
I and dangerous enemy, who threatened their dc
* struetioH. Not very remote from the dwelling, tho
woods are on fire, and during the past night, the
spread of tho conflagration was terrific, so that the
whole plantation force was compelled, in the graph
ic language of the combatants, to “fight fire.”
This is done by raking tho woods at such points as
i will cut off the fire from fences or exposed places,
| and by kindling opposing fires to arrest tho march
of the destroying element.
Between the frost, which haS cut off every plant
in the cotton fields and blighted the corn, and tho
fire, which now menaces the fences ami out-houses
of the plantation, the chances of a plentiful harvest
at Woodlands aro somewhat circumscribed, though
I trust that the result will bo less disastrous than
may be reasonably apprehended.
I find Mr. Simms breathing somewhat freeer, af
ter his recent arduous labors in putting the ‘Re
view’ once more upon its feet, and strengthening it
for its onward career. In his hands, if m any one’s,
the work must prosper. lie is almost the only pro
fessional author in the South, and his name carries
weight in the literary circles. His industry is un
paralleled, and no other man has achieved either
half so much or half so well, in the Southern field of
Letters. 1 shall bring you a copy of his new edition
of “ Atalantis,” which he lies re-written, and 1
think vastly improved, lie has anew work nearly
ready for the press.
lain glad to find him in excellent health and spir
its. The poet, Bryant, shared his hospitalities only
a few evenings ago.
To-morrow, I commence my journey homeward —
and, if the mail is not very prompt, 1 may be with
you as soon as this letter, for I shall not tarry long
by the way. I must he back in season to say the
last kind word to those of our patrons, with whom
we must part —few in number, wc hope, however —
upon the first of May. Till then, adieu !
Yours n-coming, B -
<Dur ©osstp Column.
This is the last time, dear readers, that wc shall
greet you in the guise under which we have grown
so familiar during a year past, and it may be, that
with some of you we shall hold pleasant converse no
more. The thought is a saddening one —for it is
ever a source of regret to sunder pleasant ties, and
forego wonted pleasures. To those of you who feel
constrained to dispense, henceforward, with our
cheerful “ gossip,” we would say, in parting, “May
every good attend you and, if a sense of what
you lose in bidding us adieu should compel you to
return to your oil haunts, we will give you a cor
; dial welcome. To those of you, who enter with us
upon another year, we offer our heartfelt thanks,
and our cai-nest assurance that wo shall spare no
pains and remit no exertion to deserve your con
tinued and increasing regard. .. . The follow
ing paragraph is from the ‘ Atlas :’ —“ Mr. Lanrnan,
formerly connected with the New York Express,
and more recently with the National Intelligencer,
a gentleman of fine talents and excmpkiry charac
ter, has been appointed by the Secretary of War
Librarian of the War Department.” —We congratu
late our fi*iend Lanman upon his good fortune in be
ing appointed to a post so congenial to bis taste as
that of Librarian—one which will afford him such
ample intellectual gratification. Mr. Lanman lias
met with no inconsiderable favor as an author, some
of his books having been re-published in England in
very elegant style. A volume, entitled “Legends
and Traditions of the American Indians,” is now- in
press in London. We wish him abundant success-.
.... After reading J. Bayard Taylor's Rhymes
of Travel the other day, and while their pleasant
music still haunted us, we happened, very accident
ally, to stumble upou the following —probably the
first recognition, “by one in power,” of
of the Printer Poet—in an old number of Willis’
| Now Mirror:
j “ Our thoughts ave entirely occupied this morning
j with two poets. It must be a pleasant book that
we take for company the first hour after w-aking,
and to-day, with his new volume of Poems open on
our dressing-table, we dressed and read Lowell. —
I Thence he went with us to a tete-a-tete breakfast,
j (for we chanced, else, to be breakfasting alone,) and
iwe w ere reading him with a cup of coffee in one
hand and his book in the other, whon the letters
! came in from the Post—and one letter was fro'm a
poet new-plumaged, of whom we had never heard,
i and who had probably never heard of himself, (as a
poet,) but still indubitably a poet—albeit “ an np
-1 prentice-boy in a printing-office” in a small village
in Pennsylvania. We read bis timid letter and two
sweet pieces of poetry enclosed within it,tmarked
the poetry “good” tor the Mirror, and then revert
ed to our breakfast and book. *
As to Bayard Taylor, we had a great deal to say
to him —sympathy, encouragement, promise of
watchfulness over his fame, etc., etc. But he will
need no special kindne.-s yet awhile. Love is plenty
for lxew-found poets. Many people love little chick
ens vvlio arc insensible to the merits of cocks and
hens, and we reserve our friendship till he is matur
ed and envied. (Meantime* if he waiits our opinion
that he is a poet,’and can be, with toil and study—
immortal—he has it. Ills poetry is already worthy j
of long pre'serving—apprent.ce-boy though he be.”)
The Mirror from which wo copy is dated Jan. 20,
.... \\ c ask the attention of the friends of edu
cation to the calls for National and FHate Common
School Conventions, which we publish in another
column. Ihe movement poems to us a very impor
tant one, and one that may ho made to result in in
calculable good to one country. It appeals to n*
sectional, party or denominational interests, but ti
the highest feelings of patriotism and philanthropy
We trust that Georgia, and the South generally,
will not be slow to respond to this appeal. Measures
should bo taken at once to call State Convention* <d
the friends of Common Schools. . . . > The
Kihnistc family have been giving.a stories of
Conceits at the Town Ilall, which were attended
by large and fashionable audiences. We have al
ready expressed- our surprise and admiration at she
singing and acting of Little Emma, who, though a
child of only eight years, exhibits a cultivation and
I address which would bo approved in an adult. She
is certainly a gifted child, and wins ail hearts by her
pretty accomplishments. The eldest sister, Lliza,
play’s skilfully on the haip, and dances with unu-ual
grace. Os the youngest of the trio, a child of only
three years, it is enough to say that she gives prom
ise of excellence not inferior to that of her sisters.
The father is tho instructor of these children, and
occasionally lends his aid in the comic department
to display the powers of his daughters. Our best
wishes attend the Kihniste family, go where they
may ; and wo cordially commend thorn to’our read
ers everywhere In immediate connection
with tho preceding notice, we beg leave to ask tbos<
young gentlemen , who made so much noise at one
or more of the Kilmiste entertainment*, if they are
really ignorant of the fact that they were guilty of
the veriest rowdyism up on tho occasions alluded to,
and that they not only annoyed the respectable I op
tion of the audience by their unmannerly conduct,
but conveyed to the minds of the i erformers an im
pression Very discreditable to the character of our
| population/? Had they been “blind minstrels,”
they would certainly have been warranted incoming
i to the conclusion that aprortion of the audience were
savages, from the barbarous yells which ever and
anon rent the air. it dot’3 seem passing strange to
us, that young gentlomon, by profession, should be
willing to prove themselves any thing but gentle
men, by their practice. Virbum sapienti ‘
(Due JSooU (Ea&lc.
The Child's First Book in Gec.grai-hv, designed
as an Introduction to R. M. Smith’s New Com
mon School Geography. Illustrated with eigh
teen Maps and upwards of one hundred beautiful
Engravings. Giigg, Elliott & Cos.
If Geography can be taught by pictures, then L
this little book the best juvenile text.book in Geog
raphy we have ever met with, for there is not a page
i of the book without either a map or an illustration.
The really important matter, however, is the de
i acriptive portion, which appears to us to be simple
j and sufficiently comprehensive to make it acceptably
1 as a first book.
—,——
1. History ok Queen Elizabeth. Rv Jacob Ab-
I bott.
2. History of Hannibal, the Cakth \oiman.—
By Jacob Abbott. Each otic- vul. Now York:
Harper & Brothers-.
Wo have more than once noticed Mr. Abbott's
Lives of Historic* for young people, in terms of uu
-1 qualified approbation. The two volumes named
above, ary the fourth aud fifth in oivler, and we
think (bom fully equal to the preceding volumes.—
1 The “History of Queen Elizabeth’’ is so attractive,
that we read it at one sitting, and wore much pleas
ed, not only with the style of the book, but with the
writer’s estimate of the character of England's
greatest Queen —who was, nevertheless, a woman ii t
whom shining qualities were greatly dimmed, if lxot
cntirely eclipsed, by glaring and almost unpardona
ble faults.
The History of Hannibal is invented by Mr. Ab
bott’s ready pen with an uncommon dcgi-co of inter
est, when it is considered that the subject lived in
,so remote au age of the world. Wo read the whole
book with sincere pleasure and thanks to the author
for his graphic account of exploits which seem tc
put to shamy the feats of modern heroes.
Special Notice.
We call the attention of our readers to the follow
ing provisions of the Law, concerning newspaper
and periodicals:
1. No person can stop a paper until all arrearage
are paid.
2. If notice of intention to discontinue is not giv
en upon receipt of the first number of a volume, or
year, the publisher will not be bound to regard it
To stop your paper, supposing that all arrearage,
are paid, you have only to return the first number,
in perfect order, to the publisher, or request your
postmaster to order it to be discontinued. If you are
inarrears, however, you must enclose, with the notice
to discontinue, the amount due for the past year,
viz : Three Dollars.
Four Dollars will be received from ax;y sub
scriber in payment for the first and second years of
the Gazette, provided it be sex:; ; ittrfn the mouth of
May, and post-paid.
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