Newspaper Page Text
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were crowded, for men of God preached
about Kossuth and uttered his name in
their prayers. llis deeds were rehearsed
around every fire side, and his speeches
crowded the columns of every morning
newspaper. A distant city was laid in
ashes, and a Western-lake shore strewn
with wrecks, and the news was flashed in
our eyes by the lightning, but we skip
ped the Telegraph column, and read what
Kossuth said. An astounding Revolu
tion burst out in France, and *hook the
old world to its centre, but we let
the earthquake march on over devoted
Europe, and we turned again to the
words of Kossuth. Even the trial of the
age, whose proceedings at any other time
would have thrown the nation into a
fierce excitement, as the scroll of prosti
tution was slowdy but mercilessly unroll
ed by the hand of justice, has scarcely
disturbed the shallow waters of fashiona
ble society. Brooke, the great actor, was
greeted with little enthusiasm, and old
play-goers scarcely knew he had made
his debut. The Swan of Erin sailed aw r ay
into calmer waters, and the Nightingale
of Sweden ceased to sing. The Countess
of Lansfeldt who braves everything, did
not venture an appearance while Kossuth
was here; and even the fire annihilator
refused to perform. In a w'ord, his prog
ress since he emerged from his Asiatic
prison, has been like the march of a vic
torious general. Every castle surrender
ed before it was summoned—every wall
ed town swung open its gates before he
appeared.”
PENMANSHIP.
**The following observations on this subject,
we find in the Yankee Blade, and we shall be
very much gratified if some of our correspond
ents w T ill take the hint. It is quite time for the
foolish notion that a man (or woman) of genius
generally writes illegibly, to be exploded. There
is no more truth in it than there would be in the
idea that they talk unintelligibly.
“The idea seems to prevail among
young writers for the press that a crab
bed hand is one of the sure indications of
genius ; consequently a large part of the
MSS. submitted to our inspection are il
legible to a degree that neither the gods
nor men ought to permit. It is true that
a man in earnest will hardly stop while
composing to bestow any grace upon his
hand-writing; but no degree of zeal or
fervour ought to excuse him from express
ing his thoughts in a plain, legible hand.
It is a hard task for the editor and com
positor to become familiar with the ab
breviations, clipping of final letters, and
other peculiarities of the best penmen
even ; and when these ordinary difficul
ties are increased by a confused jumbling
of letters together, as though blown into a
heap by some wrathful explosion,—by a
running style, so called, in which every
SOUTHERN LITERARY GAZETTE.
letter save the longer class is either an n
ora w, —and by the whizzing off of a long
word, after forming its first letters, with
a horizontal snake line and a final ram’s
horn, —when these and other idiosyncra
sies occur, who shall wonder if the editor
rise up and swear a trifle, just to keep
his indignation below the boiling point ?
The teachers of a running hand, that
mischievous invention of modern times,
have spoiled the legibility of writing
wherever their influence has extended. It
seems to be their mission to blend all the
smaller letters into an indistinguishable
mass of “ pot hooks and trammels.” Thus
in this style, if a word occurs looking as
much like the following example as it is
possible to make it with unequivocal
type —thus, ‘ counspomlunu,’ you are to
interpret it by aid of the context, and it
may mean ‘correspondence,’ or some
thing else, according to circumstances. If
the writer should be treating of French
politics, you may chance to meet a word
which looks like this, —‘Guunlm.’ Ran
sack the proper names you chance to re
member, and you will finally settle upon
‘ Girardin,’ as the most probable interpre
tation of the hieroglyphics.”
LOLA MONTES.
**The Editor of Harper's Magazine thus dis
courses in his “ Easy Chair,” concerning the re
ception of the Bavarian Countess in New-York,
and the tone of the public feeling towards her
in that city :
“ Poor Lola Montes, shadowed under
the folds of the Hungarian banner, has
hardly pointed the talk of an hour. We
can not learn that any triumphal arch
graced the entry of the Spanish Aspasia,
or that her coming is celebrated in any
more signal way, than by the uncorking
of a few extra bottles of Bavarian beer.
That many will see her if she dances,
there can hardly be a doubt; but that
many will boast the seeing her, is far
more doubtful. We can wink at occa
sional lewdness at home, but when Eu
rope sends us the queen of its lewdness
to worship, we forswear the issue, and
like Agamemnon at the sacrifice of Iphi
genia—hide our faces in our mantles.”
Mrs. Partington and Ghosts.— “Do
you believe in ghosts, Mrs. Partington ?”
was asked of the old lady, somewhat tim
idly.
“To be sure I do,” replied she, “much
as I believe that bright fulminary there
will rise in the yeast to-morrow morn
ing, if we live and nothing happens. Two
apprehensions have sartainly appeared in
our family. Why, I saw my dear Paul,
a fortnight before he died, with my own
es > j es f & s plain as I see you now, and
though it turned out afterwards to be a
rose-bush with a night-cap on it, I shall
always think, to the day of my desola-
tion, that it was a forerunner sent to me
’Tother one came in the night when w e
were asleep, and carried away three can
dles and a pint of spirits, that we kept in
the house for an embarkation. Believe
in ghosts, indeed! I guess I do, and he
must be a dreadful styptic as doesn’t.”
RANDOM READINGS.
—Congealed vapour is snow—but an
awful noise in the night is a sno-er.
—The man who is attentive to the la
dies is a beau—but when they don’t like
him he is a bo -er.
—Since Time, says Goethe, is not a
person we can overtake when he is past
let us honour him with mirth and cheer
fulness of heart while he is passing.
—When it was told to the Rev. Syd
ney Smith that it was intended to pave
St. Paul’s churchyard with blocks, his an
swer was, that he thought there would
be no difficulty in the matter, if the .Dean
and tlce Chapter would put their heads to
gether.
—“ I had rather not take a horn with
you,” said the loafer to the bull; but he
insisted upon treating him to two, and
the loafer got quite high.
—None have less praise than those
who hunt most after it.
—Query, whether a certain animal does
not have to paw some before he gets up
the gum tree ?
—ldleness is the burial of a living man.
—O. W. Holmes, in one of his poems,
says: “ And I never heard a hearty laugh
from out a villain’s throat.”
—“What kind of a key did Kossuth
use to escape from an Austrian prision?
A Tur ‘key. 11
—“ They pass best over the world,”
said Queen Elizabeth, “ who trip over it
quickly ; for it is but a bog —if w T e stop
we sink.”
—“This is a net gain,” as the spider
said when he caught the fly.
—How many fine hats serve as a cov
er for worthless heads, and how many
plaited shirt bosoms cover a hollow ca
vern where a heart should be lodged.
—Finn, the witty comedian, was carv
ing a goose at supper, when John Ever
ett called out to the carver at the other
end of the table, “ what sort of a fowl is
that brother ofyour’s, Finn V* “It is
most as great a goose,” responded the
wit, “as 1 Everett!”
—An honest old lady in the country,
when told of her husband’s death, ex
claimed, “ Well, I do declare, our trou
bles never come alone ! It ain't a week
since I lost my best hen, and now Mr.
Hopper has gone too, poor man!”
—Bustle is not industry, any inore
than impudence is courage.
[Jan. 10,