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About Richards' weekly gazette. (Athens, Ga.) 1849-1850 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 9, 1850)
jpQBTr&Tr. For Richards’ Weekly Gazette. A VALENTINE. Maiden, with the soulful eyes, Clear a* are the skies above thee— Listen to a lover’s si£h.: Hear him say. “My life. 1 love thee!” Let those soft eves kindly shine On my humble Valentine ! Maiden with the locks of gold, Wreathed with many a radiant blossom, Floating bright in sunny fold Round thy white and swelling bosom— Oh! b. stow a smile benign, On my simple Valentine! Maidmi with the dimpling cheek, Where a thousand loves are straying, Hear thy lover fondly •peak— Listen kindly to his praying ! Let that burning glance divine. Rest upon his Valentine ! Maiden with the trusting heart, Glowing with each generous feeling, To my soul some warmth impart, While it 8 love ’tis thus revealing! Let me not in sadness pine ; Smile upon my Valentine ! Give, 1 pray thee, maiden sweet, One kind smile, my heart to lighten ! See me sueing at thy feet Grant my cheerless lot to brighten. All things else 1 would resign, Claiming thee, my Valentine ! Sparta. Feb., 1850. For Richards’ Weekly Gazette. MIDNIGHT. BY JACQUES JOTTRNOT. ’Tis midnight!—Many rest Softly on their downy beds— Rest, with Home and Friendship blest, Peace the pillow of their heads. ’Tis midnight!—Many weep, Watching by the couch of pain,— And many lonely vigils keep, And court repose in vain. ’Tis midnight!—Crime and Shame Lurk in many a loathsome don, And deeds almost without a name? Darken now the souls of men. ’Tis midnight!—God supreme Keeps us neuth bis radiant wing ; lie alone can man redeem. And good from evil bring. Charleston , Midnight , Jan. 23, ’SO. If Gas Y]3~J\ For Richards’ Weekly Gazette. EGERIA: Or, Voices from the Woods and Wayside. A SERIES OF LACONICS. i. Egeria. Egeria is the Muse of Coun sel. She is described as the mysterious nymph who met Numa Pompilius, and taught him how to govern. .She met him always in solitude, and Solitude is the nurse of Thought. She met him in the groves, which are places favorable to med- I ilation. She met him at twilight, when a i certain calm usually overspreads the soul —the passions being in repose —and when the mind consciously hovers, as it were, betwixt the two worlds of Time and Eter nity, in some degree partaking of both.— Egeria is a beautiful fancy of the old Tra dition. Thought and Study are beguiled to the solitude, where Wisdom puts on the aspect of Love, for the better persuasion of the pupil. Through such influences, we might naturally expect that Counsel should be at once grateful and easy of attainment. We should, each of us. seek for an Egeria --for Numa, though a prince, was thus honoied, only because of his attributes as a man! 11. Authority. The Cumcean Sybil, who came to Tullus Hostilius, bringing him books for sale—nine at first, and after wards reduced to three—was probably the same person with the Egeria of Numa Pom pilius. She assumed another character and a different deportment, when dealing with a different person. With the gentle and modest Numa, she was a friend and coun sellor; but the haughty pride of Tullus needed an authority, rather than an advi ser. To the one she spoke as a compan ion ; to the other, she brought a book of written laws. He is undoubtedly the wis est person who submits to and receives counsel, but the greater portion of man kind are not so easily taught. To counsel or advise with them, is really to provoke self-esteem to disputation. You must put on the aspect of an oracle: never, like Iris, permit your features to be unveiled— and, speaking only without suffering an answer, your authority shall pass without a question. 111. Apothegms. The apothegm is the most portable form of Truth. It is fortunate for the teacher that she is so ductile in her forms, in spile of the inflexibility of her essentials. It is thus that the proverb an swers where the sermon fails, as a well charged pistol will do more execution than a whole barrel of gunpowder idly expend ed in the air. IV. Morals. The moral of the steed is in the spur of his rider : of the slave, in the eye of his master; of the woman, in the sense of her weakness and dependence. V. Conservatism. With the weak and vul gar mind, Conservatism implies nothing more than to keep things as they are, no matter how wanting in propriety and sus ceptible of improvement—a condition agree able only to the timid and to those in pow er. But this sort of conservatism is, in fact, destructiveness, and has been probably the true but secret cause of the overthrow of societies and commonwealths. The true law of the race is progress and development. Whenever civilization pauses in the inarch of conquest, it is overthrown by the barba rian. The people that cease to advance, in the notion that their mission is ended, and the;r development complete, from that i moment begin to decline, and must go rapidly to decay. The conservatism which hopes to retard a legitimate progress, will inevitably be crushed in its march. All such efforts may be likened to that of the feeble old man who attempts to arrest the speed of the locomotive, by thrusting bis gold-headed crutch between its wheels.— True Conservatism is rather the bold spirit which leaps into the car of progress, and seizing upon the reins, directs its move ments with a firm hand, and an eye that sees the proper goal for which the race should aim. VI. Patriotism. He who labors for man kind, without a care for himself, has al ready begun his immortality. VII. Vanity and Self-Esteem. We are quite too apt to confound Vanity with Self-Es teem. The former is always a weakness, though sometimes an amiable one. The latter is frequently significant of strength, though its exhibition is quite too often at the expense of its neighbors Vanity may be likened, to the smooth-skinned and vel vet-footed mouse, nibbling about ever, in expectation of a crumb ; while Self-Esteem is too apt to take the likeness of the huge butcher's dog, who carries off your steaks, and growls at you as he goes. VIII. Secrets. It is said that he or she who admits the possession of a secret, hag al ready half revealed it. Certainly, it is ,a great deal gained towards the acquisition of a treasure, to know exactly where it lies. Curiosity needs a clue only to begin the search. The misfortune is, that the key which cannot open the lock, may yet suffice to spoil it. It is seldom, indeed, that a secret is stolen without impairing its integrity. IX. Marriage Secrets. The Romans desig nated false keys, along with drunkenness and adultery, as a sufficient cause of di vorce. This surely speaks for a lower degree of delicacy and virtue in the mar riage stale of Rome, in the days of Plu tarch, than anywhere exisls among the moderns, since the existence of the law implies the frequency of the offence. A secret of one of the parties in the marriage state, should, indeed, as a matter of mu lual policy, be among the most sacred of all kinds of secrets. This is essential to the confidence which every day requires that new secrets should be yielded to their mutual keeping. X. Censure. The vulgar mind fancies that judgment is implied chiefly in the capacity to censure; and yet there is no judgment so exquisite as that which knows properly how to approve. XL Motives of Censure. We as frequently censure through evil passions, through en vy, prejudice and presumption, as because of any undesert of the subject. Vanity is so constantly solicitous of self, that, even where its own claims are not interested, it indirectly seeks the aliment w hich it loves. 1 by showing how little is deserved by other-. XII. Criticism. Neither praise nor blame is the object of true criticism. Justly to dis criminate, firmly to establish, wisely to prescribe, and honestly to award —these are the true aims and duties of criticism. XIII. Wealth. Our possessions are wholly in our performances. He owns nothing to whom the world owes nothing. XIV. Acquisition. Our true acquisitions lie only in our charities. We gain only as we give. There is no beggar so destitute as he who can afford nothing to his neigh bor. XV. Position. When, in our government l phrase, we declare all men to be equal, no | thing more is meant than that all have an equal claim on the protection of govern ment —the great object for which govern ment is conceived at all. To do justice in society to all persons, is not to elevate our friends, Smith, Jones and Jenkins, to the throne of the Caesars, or to the Presidency of the States, but to check the Caesars and the Presidents from thrusting Smith, Jones and Jenkins from the security of the work bench. A proper justice among men re quires that we should properly individual ize their pretensions. The man who can work in marble better than any body else, must be made secure in the occupation in which he is so successful. It would be a great wrong to him, even if his own vani ty should have such cravings, to allow that he should leave his quarry for the fo rum—incurring the risk of transforming a good stone-cutter into a bad orator. Equal ly great were the wrong to the individual, as well as to society, if we were to suffer the man who wrought wonderfully with mallet and chisel, to write villainously with a goose-quill. The only correct idea of social liberty is, that each person should be suffered to occupy his proper place, ac cording to his natural capacities. XVI. Freedom, Slavery , Tyranny. He is a freeman, whose social condition is in no respect inferior to the claims of his moral and his intellect. He is no slave, no mat ter what his condition, when that condition continues to improve in intellectual and moral respects. He, alone, is the slave, who is denied the position which is essen tial to the cxejcise of his proper faculties, and the fit development of Ins natural pow ers. He cannot hut be a tyrant, whom so ciety has lifted into a condition superior to his capacities. XVII. Distinction. Our distinctions do not lie in the places which we occupy, but in the hiiioQQ© 3 ’wsssaw grace and dignity with which we fill them. It is to the few alone that place accords distinction. Position, in the world’s eye, ’ is a pillory, rather than a throne, to the thousands who scramble for its attain ments; and there is a native baseness in the ambition which seeks beyond its de sert, that never shows more conspicuously than when, no matter how, it temporarily Tains its object. The snake may reach ihe eminence as certainly as the eagle, but he reaches it by crawling, and he still re mains a snake. XVfll. Obligation. To feel oppressed by obli gation, is only to prove that we are inca pable of a proper sentiment of gratitude. To receive favors from the unworthy, is simply to admit that our selfishness is su perior to our pride. Most men remember obligations, but not often to be grateful for them. The proud are made sour by the remembrance, and the vain silent. XIX. Tact. Tact is one of the first of mental virtues, the absence of which is frequently fatal to the best of talents. Without de nying that it is a talent of itself, it will suffice if we admit that it supplies the place of many talents. It is chiefly dis coverable in society, by the facility with which it ascertains in which of your toes tjie gout has taken lodgment, and in the felicity with which it avoids trespassing upon the suffering member. We cannot withhold our affection from one who not only forbears our failings, but never suffers us to suppose that he suspects their exist ence. XX. Song. It is a bird-flight of the soul, when the heart declares itself in song. The affections that clothe themselves with wings, are passions that have been sub dued to virtues. XXL Benefaction. The highest glory of man j hood is when it stands in the attitude of a benefactor. It is in this attitude that it most resembles the Deity, in whose image, | we are told, that man was originally made, i It is in this attitude that it most strikingly ! exhibits its own sense of gratitude to God \ for His benefactions. XXII. Aims of Life. He is most secure of life who lives for his fellow. One lives through j all periods, who has in all periods lived for j his race. We must see humanity through ; our ambition always, if we would make j and perpetuate (hat life which consists in I undying reputation. XXIIF. Chance. There is, no doubt, such a thing as Chance, but I see no reason why Providence should not make use of it. For Richards’ Weekly Gazette. DREAM OF BARETTI. TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN. BV MISS MARY BATES. My lady, hear my dream. The swan’s down bed and brilliant curtains, with which your munificence presented me, produced the effect which 1 expected—this fine dream. Know then, lady, that as soon as 1 fell asleep. I seemed to be transported to that part of the Elysian Fields where the Gram marians dwell. In a dismal spot, upon seats of hard stone, were a circle of these Grammarians. In a plain, broken and ste rile, under the shadow of rugged rocks, which were covered by coldest snows— surrounded by trees, or rather trunks of trees, almost destitute of foliage, and scant ily bearing on their withered branches, fruits, within a hard rind, bitter and nn healthful —these Grammarians lived. Sec, my lady, how strange an abode, even in the fair and beautiful Elysian Fields, has fallen to these poor Grammarians. There, 1 found a Restaut, a Buffier, a Veneroni, a Buomnattei, a Nebrixa, a Ben Johnson, a Wallis, and others, with whose meagre j faces I was unacquainted. These Gram marians were deeply engaged in a lively dispute, and the question debated was, whether a person commencing the study of a language, should begin with the gram matical rules. Father Don Emanuel Alvarez, supported principally by Veneroni, vehemently ex claimed that it was absolutely necessary to commence the fabric with a good founda tion of rules, and that a learner should first understand tile signification of noun, verb, masculine, feminine, present, preterite, ge rund, supine, active, passive, dative, abla- ; tive, gender, number, impersonal, anoma lous, and other similar refinements. Don Alvarez numbered, one by one, all the ad vantages which would result to the learn- | er, who studied a language with the true grammatical method —vociferating that it would be an act of folly to venture into a labyrinth without a guiding string. The vehement Portuguese would not willingly ; have ended his speech, but by his violence his breath was spent and his strength ex hausted. Buonmatlie, (who, in subjects of this nature, would not yield to any self-impor tant man,) after allowing some of the sup porters of the opinion of Alvarez to ex- : haust their noisy arguments, abetted by his friend Restaut, arose from his seat of stone, and folding about him his morning gown, and adjusting his cap, he assumed a grave appearance. Then, in a clear and harmo nious voice, and in a graceful manner, thus addressed the Grammarians : “O, conscript fathers, althougti [ have myself scribbled in my day a grammar, which has rendered me somewhat illus trious in the world above, yet. if I speak with sincerity, O, learned and conscript la thers, I must express the opinion, that a foreigner who wished to learn our beauti ful and harmonious Tuscan or Florentine dialects, would fare illy indeed, were he to puzzle his brain and exhaust his strength on the study of that Grammar of mine.— In commencing the arduous and intricate j enterprise of acquiring a foreign language, j it is necessary, I think, for the pupil to se lect one of its plainest aulliors to read, and that he should receive from a competent master, explanations given in the clearest manner, and that lie should become famil iar with the most common words and ex pressions in the language. This should | lie do, ere adventuring on the vast sea of difficulty, and of grammatical minutiae; otherwise, his progress will be like that of the lame mule of Sir Floramont, which, by aid of whip and spurs, made a whole mue in three or four hours. And, most re spectable father Emanuel, what do you consider the proper foundation of a lan guage 1 The grammar? No, father!—| The words most used, the common ex- 1 pressions, are, in my opinion, the founda- \ tion of every language, and not the gram- | mar, whatever you may think, and what ever may have been taught in all parts of \ ’ the world by your venerable fraternity. A builder would not think of erecting an edi- | lice, without first providing the materials; ! and to attempt to learn a language without ! an acquaintance with the most ordinary words and most common forms o,f expres i sion, is the work not of a wise man, but of a fool. Yes, conscript fathers, when these necessary preliminaries are acquired, then let the grammar be studied. The grammar ought to serve as mortar to the builder;, then will the edifice rise with despatch and in beauty, and will remain firm and un- I shaken.” During this speech, Father Alvarez had | refreshed his lungs, and to the delight of j his defeated partizans and disciples, he | commenced a reply with a u No, Sir,” in so terrific a voice, that I was awakened by it, as by a summer clap of thunder, and I immediately wrote down the dream for your j iladyship. 7* if is i J i> is A Ji 7* [From Abbot’* “Hannibal.”] DESTRUCTION OF CARTHAGE. A TERRIBLE SCENE. Abbot in bis history of Hannibal, says j the Carthagenians did everything, in the I ; prosecution of this war with the Romans, J I the most desperate valor could, do ; but Sci- j pio’s cool, steady, and well calculated plans, I made irresistible progress, and hemmed ! them in at last, with narrow limits by ; steadily increasing pressure, from which i they found it impossible to break away. Scipio had erected a sort of mole or pier, upon the water near the city, on which he had erected many large and powerful en- I gines to assault the walls. One night a ; | large company of Carthagenians took their ! torches in their hands, not lighted, together with some sort of aparatus for striking fire, and partially by wading, and partially by j swimming, they- made their way through \ the water of the harbor towards the ma chines. When they were sufficiently near, they set their lights and torches on fire. The Homan soldiers who had been sta tioned to guard the machines, were seized with terror at seeing all these flashing fires burst suddenly over the waters, and fled in dismay. The Carthagenians set the aban doned engines on fire, and then throwing their own useless torches into the flames, they swam back in safety. But all this desperate bravery did very little good.— ! Scipio quickly repaired the engines and the siege went on as before. But we cannot describe, in detait, all the ! particulars of this protracted and terrible struggle. We must pass on to the closing scene, which, a# related by the historians of the day, is an almost incredible series of horrors. After an immense number lmd been killed in the assaults which had been made upon the city, besides the thousands, and thousands which had died of famine and of \ the exposure and hardships incident to such a siege, the army of Scipio succeed in break ing their way through the gates, and gain- j ing admission to the city. Some of the in habitants were now disposed to contend no j longer, but to cast themselves upon the mercy of the couqueror. Others, furious j in their despair, were determined to fight to the last, not willing to give up the pleasure of killing all they could find of their hated enemies, even to save their lives. They fought, therefore, from street tq street, re treating gradually as the Romans advanced, till they found refuge in the citadel. One band of Scipto’s soldiers mounted on the top of the houses, the roofs being flat, and fought their way there, while another col umn advanced ip the same manner in the street below. The more determined of the combatants, with Hasdrubal at their head, took posses sion of the citadel, which was in a quarter of the city situated upon an eminence and strongly fortified. Scipio advanced to the walls of this fortification, and set the part of the city on fire, which lay nearest to it, The fire burned six days, and opened a large area which afforded the Roman troops time to act—when the troops were brought up to the area, thus left vacant by fire, and the people within saxv their condition was hopeless, the desperate struggle within the walls was whether to perish in resistance, or surrender in despair. There was an im mense mass, not far from sixty thousand, I half women and children, who determined on going out to surrender themselves to Scipio mercy. Hasdrubal’s wife, leading her two children by her side earnestly beg ged her husband to allow her to go with them. But he refused. There was a body of deserters from the Roman camp in the citadel, who had no possible hope of esca ping destruction, except by desperate resis tance to the last,he committed his wife and children to their charge, and these deserters, seeking refuge in a great temple within the citadel, bore the frantic mother with them to share their fate. Hasdrubal’s determination, however, to resist the Romans to the last, soon gave way, and he determined to surrender. He is accused of a most atrocious treachery in attempting thus to save himself, after ex cluding his wife and children from all pos sibility of escaping destruction. But the confusion and din of such a scene, the sud denness and violence with which events succeeded each other, and the tumultuous and unconlrolable mental agitation to which they give rise, deprive a man who is called to act in it, of sense and reason, and exon erate him, almost as much as if he were in sane. At any rate, Hasdrubal, after shut ting up his wife and children with a furi ous gang of Desperadoes, who could not possibly surrender, gave himself up, per haps hoping that he might save them after all. The Carthagenian soldiers, following Hasdrubal’s example opened the gates of the citadel, and let the conquerors in. The deserters were now made absolutely des- j perate by their danger, and some of them more furious than the rest, preferring to die by their own hands, rather than give their hated enemies the pleasure of killing them, set the building in which they were shut up, on fire. The miserable inmates ran to and fro, half suffocated by the smoke, and scorched by the flames. Many of them reacheil the roof. Hasdrubal’s wife and children were among the number. She looked down from this elevation, the volume of smoke and flame rolling up around her, and saw her husband standing below the Roman Gen- j eral—perhaps looking in consternation for his wife and children amid the scene of horror. The sight of the husband and father in a position of safely, made the I wife and mother perfectly furious with re- j sentment and anger : “ Wretch !” she j screamed in a furious voice that raised it self above the universal din, “is it thus you seek to save your life while you sac rific ours. I cannotreach you in yourown person, but I kill you hereby in the persons of your children.” So saying she stabbed her affrighted sons with a dagger, and hurl ed them down, struggling: all the time with their insane mother’s phrenzy, in the near est opening from which the flames were ascending, and then leaped in after them herself, to share their awful doom. The Romans, when they had gained pos session of the city, took most effectual mea sures for its complete destruction. The in habitants were scattered in the surrounding country, and the whole territory was con verted into a Roman province. Some at tempts were made to rebuild the city, and j it was for a long time a place of some re sort, and men lingered mournfully there in I huts, that they r built among the ruins. It, however, was gradually forsaken,the stone crumbled and decayed, vegetation regained possession of the soil, and now there is nothing whatever to mark the spot where the city lay. [From Park man’s‘California and Oregon Trail.’] THE MISSOURIANS IN MEXICO “No men ever embarked upon a milita | ry expedition with a greater love for the | work before them than the Missourians; j but if discipline and sudordination be the | criterion of merit, these soldiers were worth j less indeed. Yet when their exploits have ! rung through all America, it would be ab surd to deny that they were excellent irreg j ular troops. Their victories were gained in the teeth of every established precedent of warfare; they were owing to a singu ; lar combination of military qualities in the ; men themselves. Without discipline or a | spirit of subordination, they knew how to keep their ranks, and act as one man. Don iphan’s regiment marched through New Mexico more like a band of Free Compan ions than like the paid soldiers of a mod ern government When General Taylor complimented Doniphan on his success at Sacramento and elsewhere, the colonel’s re ply very well illustrates the relations which j subsisted between the officers and men of his command. ‘I don’t know anything of the manoeuvres. The boys kept coming to ine to let them charge ; and when I saw a good opportunity, I told them they might go. They were off like a shot, and that's all I know about it.’ “The backwoods lawyer was better fit ted to conciliate the good-will than to com mand the obedience of his men. There were many serving under him, who, both from character and education, could better have held command than he. At the bat tle of Sacramento, his frontiersmen fought ! under every possible disadvantage. The Mexicans had chosen their own position : they were drawn up across the valley that’ led to their native city of Chihuahua; their j whole front was covered by intrenchments, and defended by batteries of heavy cannon; they outnumbered the invaders five to one. j An eagle flew over the Americans, and a deep murmur rose along their liues. The enemy’s balie-ties opened; long they re mained under fire, but when at length the word was given, they shouted and ran for ward. In one of the divisions, when mid way to the enemy, a drunken officer order ed a hall ; the exasperated men hesitated to obey. ‘Forward boys !’ .cried a private from the ranks; and the Americans, rush- j ing like tigers upon the enemy, bounded I over the breastwork. Four hundred Mex icans were slain upon the spot, and the rest fled, scattering over the plain like sheep. The standards, cannon, and baggage were taken, and among the rest a waggon laden with cords, which the Mexicans, in the fulness of their confidence, had made ready for tying the American prisoners.” 3s J 3 j'J-j* ] * 11S , RICHTER’S PERPETUAL MO TION. Some time since itwas announced in this paper that a wheel, involving the principle of perpetual power, had been invented by Mr. C. W. Richter, a citizen of our village. That announcement, with other notices by those who have examined the invention, has elicited the opinions of many persons, possessing, as the worhl goes, scientific at tainments of no ordinary character. It is but natural that such an invention should attract much attention ; but it is certainly unphilosophical and quite absurd for those who have never seen it, and consequently but imperfectly understand its modus oper ands to denounce the inventor as an im poster, and the wheel, stripped of all dis guises, a sheer deception. This novel invention presents a most ad mirable combination of mechanical princi ples, as well as great artistic skill. It con sists of a wheel six inches in diameter, to which eight arms and leaden weights are attached by coupling joints to eight other brass arms, whose fulcrum is the periphe ry of the wheel. The action of that all pervading principle, gravity, upon these j arms and weights constitutes the motive j power of the wheel. The falling of the ‘ brass arms inclines the wheel downwards, at the same time folds the brass weights at theopposite point within the circumference of the wheel, where they reman until the j vertical point is attained, when they are a gain extended, and again act as propellers of the wheel. After completing his model, it was found necessary to attach to it a regulator. This difficulty was a perplexing one to Mr. R. After nearly a year of constant study, du- j ring which several plans were tried with little success, the pendulum wasintroduced, This at once affords a regulator simjde and unique. That incredulous observers may be convinced that the power by which the j wheel is propelled originates in the wheel and not in the regulator, the former may be detached from the latter, when the speed of the wheel increases to such an extent that if allowed to make more than a very few evolutions it would attain such a velocity as to destroy itself. While detached in this manner, the pendulum of course stops. The power which the wheel possesses is very limited, and cannot be applied to ma- I chinery. Mr. R. has, however, a plan ina- j tured by which he expects to obtain a suf- | ficient degree of power to propel a clock, and it is his intention to construct a model on his improved plan during the present year. He has thought it advisable, in the meantime, to exhibit his present model in some of our Southern cities, and has just j closed his exhibitions here, preparatory to I commencing his tour. Mr. R. isa watch-maker, a native of Ger- j many, and in his jirofession he possesses j the most superior skill. He has been en gaged in the investigation of this subject for the last fifteen years : but for the last two years he has given it his exclusive at tention, thereby incurring the censure of nearly all his friends and the contemptuous sneers of the cold world generally. He re garded neither the one northe other,but with a perseverance and an energy of purpose which few possess, pursued his object. The achievment, though by it a straw may not be raised from its place, entitles the invent or to the highest consideration. It has ever been considered in direct opposition to the laws of philosophy; it lias been unsuccess fully experimented upon by thousands,and in the pursuit of it he has rendered himself penniless. In view of these circumstances it is due him that he be cordially received wherever he goes, and that by our nation he be honored as a benefactor. Not only is he entitled to universal esteem as a man of genius, but as a man of the striclest in tegrity and nicest honor. Asa people, we have been far from generous patrons of ge nius. Political demagogues and military murderers have received our brightest lau rels, while those who enriched the paths of science by theii contributions have gone down to their graves unhonored and unre quited.—Madison Visitor. Influence of Inventive Genius.—A Washington letter writer mentions, as an illustration of the influence which inventive genius exercises upon manufactures, that some gentleman in Boston, a short time since, employed an ingenious American ma chinist to devote some study to a mode of cleaning and separating into different qual ities the wool from the River of Plate.— The attempt was successful. The machine was produced. The wool was thrown in- : to it and thoroughly cleansed and divided into three kinds : good, belter and best,and is thus turned out assorted and cleansed and ready for maiket or manufacture. The wool costs six cents a pound, and the first sort procured from it is worth forty cents a pound. ;..1.-rniniin iknHuncuw fejT 1 We mount the ladder of fortune by several steps, but we require only one st£p to come down. fed"’ When is sugar like a pig’s eye T— ! When it’s in a hogshead. The Best \\ ives.— An exchange says : Daughters intelligent, Gentle anil dutiful, Make the best wives, And the beautiful. EDITOR’S DEPARTMENT, WM. 0. RICHARDS, Editor. D. H. JACQUES, Assistant Editor. CHARLESTON, S. C.: Saturday Morning Feb. 9, ISSO, HURRA FOR STEAM! This number of the Gazette is the first paper ever printed entirely by steam in South Carolina. To commemorate the event, a large extra edition will he worked off and distributed to the public, who have been invited to witness the process of steam-printing. Until the edition is ex hausted, copies can be had gratuitously,by application at the Office. This is also a Valentine Number, containing much origi nal matter pertaining to St. Valentine’s Day. A more excellent date for new sub scriptions cannot be desired than this Epoch of Steam! The Era of Steam. The steam-engine is rapidly effecting a revolution throughout the world. The beat of its iron piston, like “the beat of F.ngland's drum,” follows the sun in its daily course, and is never still! [f j[ ceases with the hush of midnight in one quarter of the globe, the echo of its stroke is taken up in another, and evermore its iron wheels go round, working everywhere the most wonderful changes, in every part ; of the vast structure of human society. The crowning triumph of the steam-en gine is its application to the printing press. Magnificent as may be its achievements in navigation, locomotion, and in all the mul tiplied forms of mechanism, it acquires a j still higher glory from its connection with the Art of Printing. The wildest imagin ings of the early prophets of the Age of | Steam, did not grasp its sublimest result. They did not conceive that in the dim fu ture, into which they looked so resolutely, there should be such a miracle of power as a steam printing-press—every stroke of whose machinery should prove a blow upon the gloomy walls of the castle of Ig norance, and which should never cease its j strokes until there was not left one stone ’ upon another of that daik and fearful fab ric ! They saw it not, but the vision has changed into a reality, and now, from va rious parts of the globe, comes the echo of the giant’s strokes, belaboring the century aged walls that Superstition has built up \ to keep knowledge out of the human mind. On Saturday, the 2d instant, the first j stroke of a steam printing press was heard in Charleston, and the Palmetto State took her place by the side of Georgia, in the crusade against Ignorance. Think you, dear reader, that we heard that stroke with ordinary emotion? Think you that it did not thrill upon our heart-strings, as we thought of the future, and especially as we saw, in fancy, the next number of our Journal stait into physical existence, the offspring of steam ! You gaze upon the sheet before you, perhaps, and look in vain for any peculiar traces of the power that printed it! You see r.o difference between the present and past numbers of the Gazette. The un thinking machine, vivified and poten tialized by steam, has exactly reduplicated the work of thinking man ! Is this not a triumph ! Is this not a miracle 1 We have marked the 2d of February, 1850, as a “ red letter day,” on our Calen dar. It is the beginning of anew intel lectual era for our city, and for the South. It is “the beginning of the end.” There is a coincidence, moreover, in the establish ment of the first steam printing press in South Carolina, worthy of record. It is the enterprise of Messrs. Walker & James, who were among the founders of the South Carolina Institute, whose recent Anniversary and Industrial Fair created so deep an interest throughout the South. ! These gentlemen have written their names, as with a pen of iron, upon the corner stone of the great monument, which South | Carolina will speedily build up in honor of Human Progress ! They are true to their creed—“ Labor omnia vincit.” They will be remembered when fifty steam printing presses shall have contributed to j iriadiate the South with the blessed light of knowledge! It is our intention, hereafter to publish a history in detail, of a number of the Gazette, beginning with its fiist scientific transformation from the natural cotton to the artificial paper, and so on through its typographical processes, until it is finally evolved from the giant embrace of the Steam Press, freighted with intellectual treasures and ready to be sent out on its mission of good, borne to the most diverse regions by r the same wonderful agency that assisted in its birth. We have only space now to offer sincere congratulations to our readers upon the occasion of sending them the first newspaper printed by steam in Charleston, and to expressthe hope that the multiplication of copies to supply the demand of the South will be commensu rate with our increased facilities for their utterance. Now for twenty thousand sub scribers, and no respite from toil until they are obtained!
