Newspaper Page Text
92
LITERARY. I
WILLIA.tI W. MANN, Editor.
Xlte Southern Field and Fireside
IS PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY.
TEEMS—I2.OO a year, invariably in advance. All j
Postmasters are authorized agents. __ ,
SATURDAY AUGUST 13,1859^
NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
We do not send receipts by mail fcr subscriptions re
mitted. The receipt of The Southern Field and
Fireside, after the money is remitted, »i ev
donee to each subscriber that his money has been re
ceived and his name duly entered on the mail book.
TO CORRESPONDENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS.
Elsie Earnest— We hope that our fair friend will
send us her real name, or will assure us that we have it
in the note which accompanied the three articles from
her pen, with which we have been favored. Those ar
ticles have not yet been read; and will not lie, in the
doubt which remains whether the writer will comply
with the rules of our office.
We have received during the week the following con
tributions :
Fire on the Plains!—by J. M.T.
Thoughts on Death. —by J. G.
Rain —by J. M. T.
My Bonny Bay and I —by E. Y. Jr.
Thirty Lines, Home-spun —by C. 11. S.
To “Psucbe"—by T.
To W. N.—We thank him for his good opinion, and
kind wishes touching the Field and Fireside. but must
respectfully decline his proposition to permit the F. it t
to become the medium of a correspondence “mostly in
rhyme or poetical," to be conducted by him “with some
young lady of the South ; should there be found one that
would choose to spend her leisure time in that way.
We think that young gentlemen and young ladies had
better correspond with each other, privately* and by mail
And we assure our young friend that we would be very
happy to announce, by and by, Me result of his corres
(Kindcnce with the young lady he is in search of, by the
insertion of his name and hers in that brilliant list,
which on the first Saturday of every month, heads the
fifth column of our fifth page.
jyWc offer to-day's number of the Field and Fire
side as jiossessing unusual attractions. First, there is
‘ Master Mitten." which has already won, through our
columns, so high a place in public favor as will ensure
prompt sale for a large edition, when, after the work is
printed in the Field and Fireside , it shall appear in book
form. Secondly, we commence to-day the publication of
the prize norellette, “Aliene, or the Recovered Treasure,”
by Maud Moreton. This is the same graceful jn-n whose
debut in our first number, in the norellette entitled
“Grace Atherton," made so favorable an impression. We
are sure that this talented and promising writer will
in this, her second production for the press, confirm the
good impression already made, and pique still more
the curiosity already so prurient that would pierce the
incognito which it pleases the author yet to wear. After
“Aliene," wc offer to-day an interesting and remarkably
well told story in verse from the pen of Mrs. L. Virginia
French, another poem from Mrs. Keyes, written with
her characteristic smoothness and melody of versifica
tion. And, last but not least, the Sunday Afternoon's
Adventure of Boh Afarr, recounted on our third page,
will give the author of Muster Mitten a formidable rival
for public favor at least during ono week. Hundreds
and thousands in Georgia, who will lie able to identify
persons through the fictitious names which figure in the
story, will read with especial pleasure this exceedingly
well-told, veracious narrative.
FRANKLIN COLLEGE.
Commencement exercises took place at this in
stitution last week. They were opened by a ser
mon on the Sabbath, by President Church, in
the College Chapel.
On Monday, the Board of Trustees met, and
elected as members of their body, the Hon. A.
H. Stephens, and the Hon. Rout. Toomus. In
the afternoon, the Sophomore prize declamation
took place. On Tuesday morning followed the
Junior exhibition, at the close of which, Mr. Ste
phens delivered the prizes with an appropriate
address, to the successful competitors in the con
test of the day previous. The names of these
young gentlemen were Mr. K. G. Clarke, of At
lanta, Ga., recipient of the first medal, and Mr.
P. G. Thompson, of Macon county, Ala., recip
ient of the second. On Tuesday afternoon, Col.
A. A. Franklin Hill delivered the customary
Annual Address before the Alumni of the Insti
tution.
On Wednesday the usual exercises took place.
There were eleven addresses, or declaimed com
positions, from members of the graduating class;
and commencement exercises were closed by
an address before the Literary Societies of the
College, spoken by our talented young towns
man, Mr. Joseph B. Cummins. Os this address,
we cannot speak of our own knowledge, not
having been present at Athens upon this com
mencement occasion, but all reports concur in
representing it to be an admirably conceived and
ably written production, and to have been de
livered in a manner that would have riveted
attention to a much less worthy address. We
are glad to learn that, at the instance of the
societies, this address is already in the prin
ter’s hands for publication. We are confident it
will well repay perusal.
We must not omit to mention here the names
of the fifteen members of the graduating class,
and the subjects of the eleven addresses which
formed part of the Commencement exercises.
These were as follows:
G. A. Nunnally, (second honor) Monroe, Ga.;
Salutatory.
J. Q. Adams, (third honor) Washington, Ga.:
Reverence to Youth.
Johu Y. Wood, (Excused) Walker, Oo.; Death
of the Girondists.
John Gerdine, Athens; Heroes.
Joseph M. Roberts, Warrenton, Ga.: The Des
tiny of America is beyond the reach of Human
Investigation.
Wm. G. Hill, (Excused) Summerfield, Ala.;
Prometheus Bound.
E. C. Kennebrew, Bairdstown, Ga.: “A Little
Learning is a Dangerous Thing.”
T. Mosely, Sparta, Ga.; Every Mau a Paris.
G. A. Nunnally, Monroe. Ga.; Motives for
Marrying.
D. C. Ilodo, (third honor—Excused) Pickens
county, Ala.; Boccaeio.
M. P. Barrow, (third honor) Oglethorpe coun
ty ; The Italian War.
Lamar Cobb, Athens; African Slave Trade.
Ivy F. Thompson, (Excused) Van Wert, Ga.:
Cortez.
A. 0. Bacon, LaGrange. Ga.; “Et tu , Brute l”
John D. Pope, (first honor) Walker Co.: Va
ledictory to Trustees and Faculty.
We learn that the Board of Trustees have
TWR sotnrK&JUSt KX3BL.B JUS RXBJBBISK.
adjourned, to a future meeting, the election of a j
President, in lieu of Dr. Church, whose resigna
tion is, by its terms, to take effect at the close j
of the current collegiate year.
Franklin College is to become, bonu fide, a
University it seems. We copy the following j
notice upon this subject from the Athens Banner: j
‘■We have received reliable information in re
gard to the action of the Board of Trustees of *
Franklin College at their late meeting, to the
effect that they have, by a three-fourths vote, j
adopted the University plan. Under this new i
arrangement there will be four professors in the 1
College and three in the preparatory department,
in which last will be the Freshman and Sopho- j
more classes, while the whole will be under the *
superintendence of one President. The Gym
nasium will be introduced as one of the new
features of this educational system. Law and
Medical schools will be established with suitable
buildings and apparatus and capable teachers.
The proceedings of the Board will be submitted
in November to the Senates Academicus at
MiOedgeville, for ratification. But we learn that ;
they will carry their point by a sure majority.”
—
FROM OUR 1 ARIS CORRESPONDENT.
Paris, 24th July, 1859.
I think—l fear that I promised in my last
letter that this should treat, if not in a livelier
manner, at least of gayer themes than battles
and political gravities. If I made such pro
mise, I must break it. In thus falling below the
programme, I have, if that be excuse, late il
lustrious example. Ten days ago the Imperial
declaration that Italy should be free of Aus
trians from the Alps to the Adriatic remained
unqualified; mid now the Austrians are assured
possession not only of Venetia, but of that
important strip of Lombardy east of the Mincio
which contains Pescliiera and Mantua.
Day before yesterday, Napoleon took occa
sion of reply to the congratulatory addresses of
the Legislative Body and Council of State,
to explain and palliate so great a change
from the original programme of the Italian ex
pedition. Apart from the usual talk about
glory, and the usual fiattery to the arm}’, the
essence of his speech ou Tuesday at St. Cloud
may be given, briefly, thus: “Besides that the
enemy had some important advantages of posi
tion, which, to be sure, our courage would have
overcome, I could not have gone to the Adige
without going to the Rhine, and could not have
remained the armed champion of Italian nation
ality without accepting the leadership of, or
being myself overthrown, by the revolution. —
Therefore it was advisable to make peace, with
large concessions, at Villa Franca, rather than
run the risk of going further and faring worse."
His Majesty's discourse is commendably honest
as a confession. It throws very little new light
on the causes that lead to the peace, which were
already fully understood in that sense. But while
the very great mass of the French nation are
glad that the war, with its expense of money
and threatening future, is brought to a close,
and maliciously exult over the vexation of Prus
sia and England at the independent manner in
which the Emperor closed it, they by no means
renounce their favorite pleasure of criticism.
Indeed, the peace has brought anything
but content with it. The ‘ltalian question” is,
if possible more vexed and complicated than
ever; and that class of Frenchmen who still
busy themselves with politics, are busier with
it than ever. Some “fellows of the baser sort,”
who too boldly uttered their discontent, were ar
rested in the Faubourg St. Ant.itle last Thursday
evening; a reckless provincial editor, who closed
his lamentation over sacrificed Venice, with the
ejaculation: “Happy Manin, to have died so
soon!” was warned —the rest of the world took
warning. Their discontent is none the less that
it cannot relievo itself by free expression.
Italy, as your foreign files will show you, was
most painfully surprised by the bulletin from
Villa Franca. It is certain that if the French
troops could ho instantly withdrawn from the
peninsular, it would bo met by an armed pro
test. The provisional government and the
more intelligent classes of Tuscany are out
raged at the idea of having tiieir runaway Aus
trian Grand Duke reimposed upon them. They
have sent one of their best men on a mission to
Paris to protest against so lame and impotent a
conclusion openly encouraged and apparently
assured by the proclamations of the Emperor
and Prince Napoleon, and supported by their
ally Victor Emmanuel. They say with the Bo
lognese, we have ‘‘become soldiers,” as you ex
horted us, and we now demand to “become free
citizens” as you promised us. The Milanese,
who are more sympathetic with the Venetians
than with the Sardinians, can ill contain the vio
lence of their disappointment; signs of trouble
have already shown themselves there. The
feeling in Sardinia may be judged by the facts
attending the ministerial changes at Turin.—
Cavour, the true leader of the Italian national
movement, was more loudly cheered than the
Emperor and King. His resignation, while
necessary to his own self respect, after the Im
perial convention at Villa Franca, which was
in direct contradiction to his unchanged pro
gramme, has increased his popularity in all
Northern Italy. The attempt to form a
Cabinet by Senator Arese failed, because Arese
was known to be a friend and confidant of Na
poleon. The King was obliged to have recourse
to Ratazzi, an advanced liberal and an advocate
of Cavour's general policy. It is only an ad
vanced liberal Ministry that, by inspiring confi
dence, can control the menacing fermentation.—
■ Garibaldi has acted nobly, as was to have been
expected from the man. The news of peace on
such terms could have come to none more un
welcome than to that patriotic leader and his pat
riotic troops, in whose ranks were large numbers
of Venetian, Tuscan and Roman volunteers.—
On the arrival of the news, he, in a few sensible
words, exhorted them to observe the soldier’s
duty of discipline, and to renew their oath of
fidelity to Victor Emmanuel. There arc few in
stances in history of this union of the par
tizan bold to seeming rashness, and the pru
dent politician. Another notable address is
that of Massimo d'Azeglio, the Piedmontese
commissioner, to the people of Romagna, issued
at Bologna, where his arrival was greeted with
every demonstration of joy, on the 11th. Among
other passages is this: “Ido not come to anti
cipate the settlement of questions of policy and
sovereignty, which are to-day inopportune.—
I come to institute the practice in these provinces
of the wise advice, that cannot be too much nor
too often commended and repeated, of the Em
peror Napoleon, ‘Be soldiers to day that you
may be to-morrow —free citizens of a great
State.” And on the very morrow, report of the
“change in the programme,” having reached him,
Massimo d'Azeglio had nothing to do but to re
sign his commission, and go back to Turin, leav
ing the disappointed Bolognese to meditate on
the trust to lie put in Princes.
How the poor Venetians, who, mindful of his
dying wish as obedient to his orders in life, were
i hoping at last to grant sepulchre to their revered
Manin, in free Venetian soil—how they met the j
bitter disappointment of their hopes, is easy to ;
guess. Os course it cannot well give itself voice ■
under the reasstimed sovereignty of Austria.
Austria herself, having got out of the scrape in
better case than she could have hoped a fort
night ago, is perhaps better satisfied with the
peace than an)* other of the nations.
Francis Joseph, at least and the Viennese
journalists, discharge their accumulated bile on
Prussia, whom they seem to hate with a cordi
ality peculiar to family dissensions. Prussian
journalists are not slow to return the compli
ment, but with this disadvantages as compared
with their Austrian brethren, that their wrath is
divided between Austria and France. This
quarrel in the distracted bosom ol the great Ger
manic family, is very “nuts and gingerbread ’ to
Napoleon and the malicious French, who are
still more flattered by the vexation of the Eng
lish. The tone of the English journals, however,
for the past few days, has been so violently anti-
Gallicnn. that most of them have been stopped
at the post office. Had they been freely distrib
uted and translated here, we might have had
another manifestation of the French Colonels. —
Those officers of the army who have won glory
and advanced grades in the brief sixty days
campaign, ask for more; while those who have
had no chance for crosses, and richer epaulettes,
are more disappointed than the enctians them
selves at its sudden ending. A\ ith the army, a
war in any direction would be popular.
But if the English arc vexed, they have none
but themselves to blame. Four months ago the
matter was still in their hands—throwing their
weight frankly into the scale, they could have
forced Austria to such partial concessions as
would have prevented war. What most irritates
them, is the quiet disregard, nearly amounting to
contempt, in which their “dignity,” mediation,
diplomatizing, their very existence in the Euro
pean family of nations, have been ignored
by their natural ally. Austria, and their “occa
sional" Crimean ally. France, in deciding upon
peace. My concierge Martin, was informed of
! the armistice, and then of the peace, as soon as
| ray Lord John Russell, and was not a bit more
j surprised at the information. The very day
j when the population of Paris learned that the
armistice was arranged—and as soon as they ;
learned it, their almost universal and confident 1
conclusion was that peace must follow—that
very day Lord Cowley wrote to Lord John Rus
sell that there was no longer reason to doubt the
extension of the war. True. Lord Cowley wrote
in the morning of Thursday, and the extra Mon
iteur contradicting his dispatch was not publish
ed till after the closing of the evening English
mail. His Lordship’s mistake in April was as
complete as his mistake in July. Francis Joseph I
then took him as much by surprise as Napoleon
anil Francis Joseph now. For at the date when
the British Ambassador at Paris was writing to
Lord Malmesbury that the continuance of peace
was finally assured. Austria had rejected the
English propositions, and sent the fatal ultima
tum to Turin.
But English common sense is stronger than
English vanity ; her wounded pride, which is a
pleasing spectacle to the French, will heal, while
she will be fully able to care for her real dignity
in the future European Congress, where Napo
leon will not lie like to dispute her right to it.
Many still question whether a Euroi>ean Con
gress will meet. Ido not. For the settling of
the terms of the treaty of peace, there will be at
Zurich only a conference ot the plenipotentia
ries of the three belligerent powers. For the
settlement of the tangled Italian Question, a
question in which all Europe is interested, there
must be a Congress, composed of English, Prus
sian and Russian as well.
What that settlement will be —what the new
federal constitution —what the final constitution
of Tuscany and Modena and Parma—what is to
be decided on the mixed Austro-Italian condi
tions of Venetia—what garrisons, Austrian or
Italian-federal, shall hold the fortresses of the
famous quadlilateral qui vivra verra. Let the
best informed of "well informed correspondents, ’
the ablest of “able editors,” (no offence to the
honorable guild) concierge Martin, (who is ex
tremely bete) Lord John Russell,andyour boy Sam
bo, all write down their conjectural solutions of the
“situation,” then shake them all in a hat, and, isl
were obliged to pin my faith on any human proph
ecy of the event. I would draw and accept at
hazard Sambo’s, as readily as Lord John’s. The
man who knows more about the matter than any
other, evidently shows a sensible disposition to
wait. Louis Napoleon is exercising his special
faculty of keeping still and looking on. No ru
ler in Europe, since Cromwell, has so well un
understood the true wisdom of “waiting on
Providence.'’ His relinquishment of half his
programme and confession of the relinquishment
with regret, is to me a great mark of his wisdom.
This “allotment of their share to events,” watch
ing their current and taking advantage of turning
by their checked or faster flow, not striving al
ways to direct or restrain their course, is the
point wherein he shows himselt superior to his
headstrong uncle, who came to confound him
self with destiny, and so rushed to ruin.
To change the subject to what is, with the
million denizens of Paris, the true oppressing
“question,” or rather exclamation Os the day—
Mon Dieu! quelle chaleur ! You Georgians may
fancy that it is sending coal to Newcastle, to talk
to you of Parisian heart. Your national vanity
misleads you, let me gasp to you. Our Parisian
dog days this season will beat the correspond
ent Augustan period in their heat. If our ther
mometers do not get quite as high as yours, I
claim that it is less owing to a more temperate at
mosphere here,than to the universal fast American
way of rising over there. We are at 94 in the
shade, at any rate ; ice-water is scarce and dear,
grass cloth and linen jackets not in our habits ;
sherry cobblers and mint juleps unknown in this
pretended “capital of civilization.” Our nightly
recourse is to the Bois de Boulogne , and the
Champs Elysees, where, if we do not find the
fresh air we seek, we have the sympathetic con
solation of looking upon thousands of pedes
trian, equestrian, and vehicular fellow-sufferers
in the panting, fruitless search after happiness.
These two public promenades, especially a part
of the Champs Elysees, now turned into abeauti
tiful English garden, have been greatly embellish
ed within a six month. Your horticultural read
ers may be pleased to learn how—for the mate
rial and processes of the embellishment are
somewhat new, if not peculiar to the case.
It seems there lived for many years in an out
of the way corner of Belgium near the Holland
frontier, a wealthy amateur horticulturist, who
centered all his affections on his gardens, and
recently died at an advanced age, possessed of a
most extensive and flourishing collection of the
rarest trees and shrubs. His only heir, living in
the grand world at Brussels, had nothing more
at heart than to turn this remote estate into im
mediate cash. The city of Paris, which for the
past few years lias been making large appropria
tions for ornamental trees and shrubbery, as well
I as architectural decoration, was informed in time,
j and offered 20.000 francs for the lot, that could not
have been collected afresh, let alone the time re-
I qui red to bring it to its actual state of growth,
for ten fold that sum. The city undertook all
the expenses of deracination, (excuse the long
word —but some of those green trees had very
long roots,) and transport. The shrubs and
trees, witli large accompaniment of Belgian soil,
were taken up, embarked on the canal in boats
chartered for the purpose, and so, creeping round
the coast, and towed up the Seine, were not dis
turbed again till they were landed on the Quai
d' Orsay opposite. And to-day the Champs Ely
sees, the Empress’ Avenue, and the Bois de Bou
logne are enriched with deodora cedars from Hin
doostan, aracaurias from South America, magnif
icent rhododendra, rare magnolias and azelias
from the remote regions of the earth, and the
islands beyqpd the sea.
To wont the beautiful strangers to their new
home, they are treated as tenderly as young
balms. Some are swaddled up to their armpits
—I mean their branches —with soft moss and
sacking, which is watered daily to keep their
epidermis moist, and their blessed pores open .
while others are surrounded in whole or part by
circular tents of loose woven cloth to protect
them from the sun; evoporation from the abund
ant watering applied within the tent preserves
them in a constant humid atmosphere. As you
would first sec these tented trees in passing, you
are tempted to fancy them some sort of enchant
ed ship, liable with the first breeze to sail off
across the green sward, or start away on some
longer voyage, in search of their birth-places
beyond seas.
- -—— -——
CHESS.
The Chess Monthly for August contains some
notes on Chess Authors, a long analysis of the
King's Gambit accepted, eight games, with cap
ital comments by Mr. Morphy, some excellent
original problems, and a variety of chess news,
etc.
The N. Y. Saturday Press states that Mr.
Moruiiy has commenced his eontribu ions to the
Ledger; and that Mr. Morphy wisely saves him
self a great deal of unprofitable and useless
labor by declining all correspondence. His con
tributions will be chiefly limited to the publica
tion of those splendid masterpieces of chess art,
the series of games between Labon donnais and
| McDonnell. Their annotation, by a thoroughly
! competent pen and brain, has been longed tor
by every student of the game for the past score
of years. We shall now see Mr. Morphy under
a new character, that of the first chess critic of
the age.
The following article on vellum-printing,
finds appropriate place in a chess-column, from
the fact of the accidental connection of the first
essay at vellum-printing in this country, with
Allen's Life of the illustrious chess-player
Piiilidok. Professor Geo. Allen, whose Life
of Philidor has the honor of being the first
American book printed on vellum, has occupied for
many years past, the chair of Greek in the Uni
versity of Pennsylvania. His library of chess
works now equal the best collections of the old
world, and lie, himself, occupies the highest
place in the list of American chess-writers.—
His style has much of the quiet philosophy of
Southey, and does not lack that indescribable
grace which charms us in the works of De
Quincey.
Among those who witressed the occurrence
narrated below, were Mr. Horace Binney, Sr.,
Dr. La Roche, Mr. George W. Hunter, Mr. F.
H. Butler, Professor Coppee, Mr. John Pening
ton, Mr. Lorin Blodget, and Dr. Lajus.
Vellum-Printing in Philadelphia.— Our em
inent printers, Messrs. C. Sherman & Son, have
made an epoch in the history of typography by
executing, for the first time in America, the del
icate and difficult operation of printing on Vellum.
This material (the skin of a calf under six weeks
old) constantly employed for the first manu
scripts. before the invention of printing, was
still in request, for peculiar copies of printed
works, one hundred years later; and during the
last century it has been the pride of the great
modern artists—of Bodoni. especially, of Crape
let, and of Didot—to vindicate their equality
with the Alduses and the Estiennes by produc
ing specimens of vellum-printing to mate with
theirs. Our enterprising Philadelphia printers
were actuated, it seems, by a spirit of emulation
equally honorable. Having been made aware,
by the author of -4 Life of Philidor (now in
course of publication by Messrs. E. 11. Butler &
C 0..) that no book had ever as yet been printed
in America on Vellum, they promptly undertook
to achieve the adventure—whatever might be
its difficulty—by producing two Vellum copies
of the Biography in question, one for the author,
and one for themselves, neither of course being
intended for sale.
The process of printing on vellum—under any
circumstances, a delicate one—becomes pecu
liarly uncertain in its results in a country where
the material is not manufactured, and where the
printer has no predecessors to look to for in
struction. In England, for example—according
to their own great bibliographer, Dibdin—the
attempts even of a Bulmer were substantially
failures, and chiefly (says the same author) from
the difficulty of procuring a perfect material
from abroad—none being made at home. Our
American printers were more fortunate than
“the English Bedoni.” They were so happy as
to find a house here —that of Messrs. John Pen
nington & Son—which could be relied upon to
secure vellum of the best quality, if to be had
in Europe at all, through their Paris correspon
dents, Messrs. Hector Bossange & Son. M.
Bossane, senior, having frequently visited this
country, and being personally attached to the
senior Mr. Pennington, entered into the affair
with a truly American feeling, and would not
allow a single skin to be forwarded until it had
been carefully inspected and approved by an
experienced vellum-printer. With the warmest
good wishes for the success of the enterprise, he
sent almost minute directions for every part of
the process, as practised by the expert artists of
Paris.
Messrs. Sherman tc Son, having been thu&
provided with a material in which they could
have confidence, invited a few gentlemen of
known bibliographical tastes, to their pressroom
last Saturday morning, at eleven o’clock, to wit]
ness the printing of the first sheet of the two
vellum copies. In the presence of these wit
nesses, Mr. Cougar Sherman, resuming for a
moment, in green old age, the employment of
his youth, adjusted the snow-white sheet of vel
lum to its place—with a hand that had lost noth
ing of its ancient cunning, applied the well-cal
culated force through the bar, and then exhibit
ed a perfect and brilliant impression, that would
have done honor to Bedoni himself, amidst the
enthusiastic congratulations of his friends. The
moment was, indeed, an impressive one. From
more than one of the circle there fell the invol
untary exclamation, that the venerable Printer
by that act of a moment, had won for his name
a place in history: and all felt, that in no one
could such immortality be less fairly an object
of envy, than in one who had attained the height
of prosperity and consideration by honorable in
dustry and personal integrity.— Pennsylvania In
quirer.
FUN, FACT, AND PHILOSOPHY.
A Traveller says that if he were asked to
describe the first sensations of a camel-ride, he
would say: “Take a music-stool, and having
wound it up as high as it will go, put it in a cart
without springs, get on top, and next drive the
cart traversely across a ploughed field, and you
will then form some notion of the terror and un
certainty you would experience the first time
you mounted a camel.”
It appears, upon an examination, that the
average issue of copyrights for books for some
years past, so far as may be ascertained, has
been about three thousand per annum. New
York leads in the number of copyrights, and is
followed by Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.
“ Speaking of shaving,” said a pretty girl to
an obdurate old bachelor, “I should think that
a pair of handsome eyes would be the best mir
ror to shave by.”
“Yes, many a poor fellow has been shaved
by them,” he replied.
There are no less than 4,600 lodges of Free
Masons in the United States, nearly all of which
are said to be in an unusually flourishing condi
tion.
The following is a bit of sensible advice to
young men: Live temperate, go to church, at
tend to your affairs, love all the girls, marry one
of them, live like a man, and prepare to die a
Christian.
The first attempt to print on vellum in this
country, was successfully made at the establish
ment of Messrs. Sherman, of Philadelphia, on
Saturday last. Two copies of the life of Phili
dor are to be printed on vellum, and they pro
mise to be fully equal to the best vellum-print
ing done in Paris.
A fop, just returned from a continental tour,
was asked how he liked the ruins of Pompeii?
“Not very well,” was the reply “they are so
dreadfully out of repair.”
Increase of Novels. —ln 1820 there were
only twenty-six volumes on the shelves of the
British Museum, but there are now about 7,400,
and all these have been written since "Waverly”
was begun.
“This too shall Pass Away.”— Many of our
readers will probably remember the reply of the
philosopher to the monarch, who desired some
sentence, easily remembered, that would always
alleviate the weight of calamity, and check the
exultation of prosperity. “This too shall pass
away,” was the chosen motto.
Customer to restaurant man : “Boy!” Restau
rant man: “Don’t call me a boy, sir—l’m no
boy, sir.” Customer: “Then do as you’d be
done by, and don’t caltthis old mutton lamb any
more.”
The article on Pope in the new edition of the
Encyclopaedia Britannica is by De Quincy; the
article on Prescott by William Stirling, M. P.;
that on Poetry by Prof. Aytoun; and that on
the Quakers by William Howitt.
Only bachelors should belong to clubs. Her
cules gave up his club when he married Deja
neira, and all good husbands should follow his
example.
“Charlie, my dear,” said a loving mother to
her hopeful son, just budding into breeches
“Charlie, my dear, come here and get some
candy.” “I guess I won’t mind it now, mother,”
replied Charlie, “I've got some tobacco.”
The site of the house in which Dr. Johnson
lived and died, in Bolt court, Fleet street, has
been bought by the Stationers’ Company of
London.
• These are some members of a community, ”
said the sagacious and witty Thomas Bradbury,
•'that are like a crumb in the throat; if they go
the nglit way, they afford but little nourishment;
but if they happen to go the wrong way, they
give a great deal of trouble.”
“Oh, she was a jewel of a wife,” said Pat,
mourning over the loss of his better half; “she
always struck me with the soft end of the mop.”
The hot-houses of.the Czars in latitude sixty
north, contain the finest collections of tropical
plants in all Europe. Palm trees are nearly sixty
feet in height, and there are banks of splendid
orchards. The hot-houses are said to be about
a mile and a half in their length.— St. Petersbury.
Dr. Franklin observes: “Theeyes of others
are the eyes that min us. If all but myself
were blind, I should want neither fino houses
nor fine furniture.”
“When I was in Paris,” says Lord Sandwich,
"I had a dancing-master; the man was very
civil, and, on taking leave of him, I offered him
any service in London. ‘Then,’ said the man,,
bowing, ‘I should tako it as a particular favor if
you would never tell any one of whom you
learned to dance.’ ”
Among the recent contributions of blocks for
the Washington Monument is a block of white
marble, in which is inserted a curiously carved
head with this inscription beneath : “This head
was carved between two and three thousand
years ago, by the ancient Egyptians, for their
temple, erected in honor of Augustus, on the
banks of the Nile. Brought from there by J. F.
Lennan, and presented to the Washington Monu
ment, 1858.”
Worldly prosperity is a much greater drain
upon our energies than the most severe adversi
ty ; there is no spring, no elasticity ; it is like
walking through life on a Turkey carpet.
A Western orator having delivered himself of
the following: “The glorious American Eagle,
which stands with one foot on the Atlantic and
the other on the Pacific coast,” was unable to
proceed any further. A bystander exclaimed —
“ My friend, if you don’t relieve your eagle pret
ty soon, he will split open.”
Magyars js the name of a people who in the
9th century invaded and overrun Hungary, pre
viouolj settled by the Huns. The Magyars are
still the dominant race in Hungary.
An envious man repines as much at the man
ner in which his neighbors live as if he main
tained them.
An Irish paper, describing ft late duel, says
that one of the combatants was shot through the
“fleshy part of the thigh bone.”
Oregon has adopted a State seal The escut
cheon is supported by thirty-three stars and di
vided by an ordinary, with the inscription “The
Union.” In relief, mountains, an elk with
branching antlers, a wagon, the Pacific Ocean,
on which a British man-of-war is departing and
an American steamer arriving. The second
quartering with a sheaf, plough, and pickaxe.
Crest—the American eagle—Legend—the State
of Oregon.
There is nothing like a fixed steady aim,
with an honorable purpose. It dignifies your
nature, and ensures your success.
Taking a walk with a lady is now called a
balloon excursion.