Chicago Daily Tribune Newspaper, December 29, 1872, Page 6

6 TERMS OF THE TRIBUNE. TERMS OF EUBECRIFTION (PATABLE IX ADVAXCE). by To provest dolay and mistakes, be surs and give Post Offco addres in full, including State and Couaty. Remittances may be made either by draft, expross, Post Ofiice ordor, or tn registered lettors, at our risk. TERMS TO CITY SUBSCRIBERS, ofls, delirerod, Sunday excepted, % conts per woek. Deily, delisered, Sunday included, 50 conta hor wook. Address THR TRIBUNE COMPANY, Corner Madtson and Dearborn-sta., Chicago, Il TrusE Branch Office, No, 469 Wabash.ar., in the Bookstoro of Messrs, Cobb, Andre Co., whers edvortisements and subscriptions will be recelved, and Il have the same attention as {f loft st the Main BUSINESS NOTICES. SALT RHEUM CURED BY USING JUNIPER TAR Sy Manufactured by Ceswell, Harard & Co., Now FTORDYSPEPSIA, INDIGESTION, DEPRESSION of §airis and Gonersl Debility. the Forro Phosphorsted lixir of Calisasa Bark (Cufluiunuk and Iron), is te tonjo. Mado by Cassoll, &Co , Now York, s01d by Drusgis s ©. 0. COLLINS, BOYS' CLOTHING, 184 AND 185 CLARK-ST. Ghe Chitage Tiibune, Sundey Morning, December 29, 1872, FUFPRESSION OF THE NEW ORLEANS TIXES. e have reccived the first copy of the Times, of New Orlcuns, the enccessor of the New Or- l:ns Times recently suppreseed by Judge Durell. The facts regarding the suppreseion, as glated by the Times, make out = case of high- Zed tyranuy which it would be hard to find & lel for. It appears that one J. H. McKee had a clrim of some sort against Mr. C. A. Weed, the proprictor of the Times, for §1,500. No Gomand had besn made upon Weed for the zvney; but McKno went beforo the United States District Court, filed his cloim, instituted yroceedings in bankruptey sgainst Weed, and awore that the latter wes sbout to conceal his property end depert thoe jurisdiction of the Court. Upon this ex parte statement, Durcll or- &ered the scizarc of the Timcs, and the closing of the establishment. McKoe is a tool of the Kellogg-Durell faction in politics. Tho Times was not only free from all linbilities and encum- Lrances, but was doing a very large end lnera- tive busincss, employing over 100 persons, snd disbursing $4,000 per week in wages. The order of the Judge not only destroyed for the time be~ ing Mr. Weed's property, but locked ©p the sccrued wages of the printers and other employes, and threw them out of em- ployment. 1If this is & correct statement (and wo huvo seen no other), a more dastardly out- T3g0 W3 never committed by any judicial tyrant of the seventeenth ccatury. We do not believe, present appearancen to the-| contrary motwithstanding, that tho American people will {olcrate this transaction, or will al- low this Judge, who has exchanged the livery of the Southern’ Confederacy for the ermine of the Tnited States, to go unwhipped of justice. Judge Barnard, in his palmiest days, never at- tempted anything 8o monstrous, and if he, with Il his cunning, was not beyond tho reach of public indignation, his clumsy imitator at New Orlesns will surely bo bronght to the bar of & tribunal competent to deal with him. A portion of tho Administration press have aiready protested against the villainy, 2nd more of them will probably do so when they learn the facts. The regular bread-and-butter trigade either indorse everything the Durell docs, or stand in & Btate of hopeless imbecility waiting to see what Attorney General Williams il say, or what tho President will do, or what tho Delphic oracle or the Sibylline leaves will Lave to utter. * Wo trast that there is manhood enough left somewhero in the House of Repre- geatatives to move the impeachment of Durell immeéiately upon the reassembling of Congress. A BIG LAWSUIT. yesterday's TRIBUNE was printed the mate- paortion of the bill of the heirs of John Bost~ % for the recovery of the tracts of land cwn 28 the sonthwest I¢ of Section 14, Town- ) 83, and the west 3¢ of the southwest 1 Su:tion 8, in tlie same township. Theselands eve situatedintheimmediate vicinity of the South Parke, tho boulevard connccting the two parks including the northeast corner of the first named tract; the second tract ia situated just wost of tue North Purk. The land in both picces has ‘been laid off 1n blocks and lots. The south- viest 3{ of Section 14 is bounded at present by Fifty-nintn street on tho north, Woodlawn ave- nue on tho east, couth, and Cottage Grove avenuo on tho west. The west 1¢ of the southwest 3 of Section 8 is bounded by Wabash and Indiana avenues and Forty-third and Forty-sixth strests. The cighty acre tract is worth porhaps $100 per front foof, while the 160 ecre tract is worth nbout €3,500 per acre. The actual value of the land asit now stands will range frem 21,500,000 to $2,000,000, and is every day incressing in value. A portion of it hss been included, 83 wo hava said, in the grand boulevard connecting the two parks. Tho case derives its chief intorest to the public from the fact that it is tho firat real estate caso of any magnitude arising sinco the destruction of the ‘public records. Tlo history of this lend, as stated by the csm- plainants, is as follows: John Bostwick died in Chicago on tho 13th of September, 1855, at tho house of B. F. Downing. He w2s a ran of con- eiderablo wealth, and had reeided in Upper Alton, Madison County, Illinois, since 1834, He had, s long ago s 1535, built & large family Tesidence at that place, upon which and the grounds ho bad spared no oxpense. He bad established in his own house & sem- inary for tho education of Lis own children, maintaining a farce of teachers for that purpose, 2nd generously permitting his neighbors to ehare in the advantages. He was widely known be- canse of his hospitality and his enterprise. Ho dealt Iargely in lancs in various parts of the State, and in the spring of 1855 he visited Chi- cago. Hero hie made the acquaintance of Paal Cornell snd Benjamin F. Downing, who wero in the real estate business. When ho ceme to Chicago he was in robust health, and of power- fol frame ; but during thst summer he fell through the hatchway of o steamboat, (where or when is not stated), and thenco his health declined. Some time in August he went, or was taken, to the house of Downing to board. A message was sent to his wife, then st Upper Alton, and £ho reached Chicago with her father, on the 20th of August. Sho found him paralyzed, snd daily ho grew worse, and died on the 12th of Soptem- ‘ber following. Sho alleges that duriag this time he frequently endesvored to communicate infor- mation to hor about his business, making rofer- Sixty-third street on the | ence to papers, but was physically unable to do 80. Aftor his death, Downing proscnted a bill for the board and attendance on Bostwick, and for the board of Mrs. B.and her father, amount- ing to 875, upon which was a crodit, leaving & balance due him of £19.60. This bill Mr., Hig- ham, father of Mr. Bostwick, paid 16 Downing, Oct. 15, Whon Bostwick died, the body was teken by his wife snd her father to Upper Alton, and Higham roturned to Chicago to tako chargs of hiseffects. Paul Cornell had been interested in somo deal- ings with Bostwick, and furnished the coffin, and, when Higham returned to Chieago, Cornell pre- sented his bill. At this time it was known that Bostwick had purchased, and was in possession of, the 80 acres in Section 3, and had fenced snd improved the same ; but, owing to his illness, he had not paid certain bills for lumber, posts, grading, etc., amounting to $1,036, 2nd also $2,600 of the purchase monoy. It isalleged that - Cornell and Downing, suppressing the substantial facts of the ownership of this 80 acres, and ea- pecially the papers relating thoroto, represented the interest of Boetwick to be oflittle value, and s0ld it to Ralston B. Palmer for $5,000, paying out of the proceeds the bills for improve- ‘ments, Cornell's bills forlegal sorvices, Downing's commissions for making the sale, and Cornell's bill for the coffin, &c. Therest of the money and notes was $240, of which Cornell gave Higham £150. This wason the 15thof Octo- ber, 1855, and, from that dato until tho summer 01872, none of the plaintiffs had any informa- tion of the real interests of Bostwick in Chi- cago, nor had they any notice or knowledge of any of the proceedings in relalion thereto that have taken place since then, though during the whole time thoy have resided in the family mansion at Upper Alton, in this Stato. They now claim that tho real facts of the caso cre 23 follows: That on May 1, 1855, John Bostswick purchased the southwest { of Section 14 of Mark Skinner, forthesum of 216,000, or $100an acre; thetho paid $2,000 cash, giving bond and mortgage, pavablo in five years with interest included in the notes, that is to say, $1,000 a year for four years, and $15,000 in five years. That he had, on the 5th of June, 1835, purchased of David Hess tha 80 acres in Scction 3, for the sum of $24,000, to bo peid according to the termsof a writton contract then executed and delivered by Hess to Bost- wick. It is charged that $500 was paid in cash on signing tho contract, £nd s noto for 32,500, payable in four months, and bearing interest at 1 per cent a month, was also deliverod; the re- ‘maining$21,000 o be paid in instalments running through several years. That sid Bostwick took immedisto possession, foncing and improving the £aid 80 acres. They allege that Bostwick, between the 5th of June and the day of his death, in September, was offered $24,000 for one-haif of this 80 acres, and refused, insisting that it was then worth £50,000. ' They further allege that they have discovered that on the 17th of November, 1855, one month after the settloment with Higham, Downing, Cornell, Palmer, Lewis W. Stone, Denjamin F. Bmith, David Hess, and otkers, petitioned the ‘County Court for letters of administration on the estate of John Bostwick ; stating that Bost- wick, when living, was a resident of Cook Coun- ty; that ho hadloft proporty consisting of landa; that he was indebted to Downing for his bill for board; that Downing swore to tho truth of his petition; that letters of administra- tion were issued to him, Paul Cornell and Lowis 'W. Btone becoming his suretics. It is further recited that Downing filed an inventory of the real estate owned by Bostwick, including therein the 160 acres in Section 14, and the 80 acres in Bection 8. He also filed a statement that the 160 scres was subject to sn agreemont to sell one-half the same to Paul Cormell. They de- seribed thetitle of the S0 acres to be anagreement upon the part of Hess to sell the same to Bost- wick, provided he paid £500 cash, and paid $2,600 in four months; which €2,600 was not paid, Bostwick having died in tho interval. Downing filed his bill for board for £36.50; Paul Cornell t1 for $103.55, and S. 8. Greely for 340, which bills were allowed and ordered tobo paid. Nomen- tion is made of any monoy received from Palmer under tho alleged eale to him. In March, 1656, Downing, s sdministrator, petitioned tho Court, and obtained an order of sale of the real estato of Bostwick, to pay debts, alloging in said petition that Bostwick had recided in Cook County, “and causing it to appoar to tho Court that thero were minor heirs of seid deceased, whose pames wero unknown, having no legal guardiat residing in this State.” On the 223 of April, 1856, Downing, as administrator, sold the interest of Bostwick in the 160 sacres for §30, to Paul Cornell, and the 80 acres to Ralston B. Palmer, for §50. On the Tth of May, the report of czles was confirmed by the Court. Before the - sale, or the confirmation thereof, Down- ing had oxecated to Palmer and Cornell deeds for the property subsequently sold by Lim} ro- citing tho consideration to bo £50 in cach cese. Cornell at onco took posession of tha 160 neres and Palmer of the 80 acres. Tho plaintifs allego that all theso proceedings, eales, transfers, otc., aro void, becauso false and fraudulent in every zespect. What 2dds to the complication of this case is, that all tho original papers of tho County Court and oll the original records wero destroy- ed by the fire in October, 1571, and tho easo will bave to bo contested upon evidonco other than #ho original papera. Tho children of the deceas- ed Botwick were all minors at the time of their father's death, with the exception of ono married dsughtor. This is the caso as stated by Lie complninar Tho defendants, of course, Lave their answer to make. The property in question has changed hands many times since the decczse of Bost- wick, and tho abstracts of titlo have passed un- der tho roview of nearly all the lawyers of tho city. This fact, in the absence of the records, mokds o prima facie caso sgainst tho now claimants. THE BRITISE POST OFF-CE, Tho Post Oftico Bluo Book of England, racent- 1y issued, contains some very interesting state- ‘ments and statistics, and is a model of brovity and conciseness, being only a slim little book of 62 pages, which can bo read and digested with- out danger 1o the shakicst heads,—a merit which might be imitated with profit in our own Govern- mental publications. The Postmaster General, in hia littlo book, ssys that, during the year 1871, tho soparate transactions which his Dopartment effectod with the public, at home aud abroad, amounted to upwarda of 1,216,700,000 ; that is to say, an sverago of 33 missives pessod through tho Post Ofice to overy man, woman, and child, including bebies, in Grest Britain and Iroland. The detailed items aro s follows: Lotters, 915,000,000; postal caxds, 75,000 ; book packets, 103,000,000; newspapers, 99,000,000; money orders, 12,000, 000; telegrams, 12,700.000. In addition to this vory handscmo fetch and carry, tho Postmaster General, by the help of his 33,000 subordinates, issuéd 1,008,000 excise licenses, established lite insurances for 758 new clients, and took care in the Post Offico Bavings Bank of £85,000,000 of woney of 1,300,000 soparato depos- itors. Tho Missing Letter Department opens o curious chapter, snd shows that every year there is about the same number of abeent-minded peoplo who send letters with- out any eddress, make mistekes in tho addrosses, or violate such plain postal rules as make delivery impossible, During 1871, 15,000 letters wero mailed without any di- rections, some of them containing coins, and others bank notes and various kinds of treasure. There wero also the usual number of strange inclosures—live sill-worms, mico, lizards, and tortoises. Ono eccentric old gentleman wrote to the Departmont complaining of & Postmaster who had declined to carry s livo snake. The feelings of the naturalist were respectod, and as it was found that tho snake was & pet, tho ani- ‘mal was ordered delivered by o special . messon- ger. Inregard to punctuality and vigilance of delivery, the Postmaster General plumes him- self somewhat upon the following incident : Although tl:c non-dglivers of letters and other postsl ‘packets gives rise, 83 may be supposcd, to_many com- plaints, in some of which, a3 T have frankly admitted, the Department is found to be in fault, wo have occa= sionally tho pleasure of receiving testimony of a vers! different kind; as shown by the eubjoinad extract from a letter, last September, from an American gen- tleman : “ Having recently arrived in England, and noti Imowing the prosent whereabouts of o sister, Tad- dressed a lettor to ber late residence thus: *Upper Norwood, Or elsewhera." T rezcived = reply, n ordinary course of mefl, taying ithad been delivered to Lier on tho top of 3 stago~ coach in Wales, Iventure to saythat 10 other countrs can show the parallcl, or would take the troublo at any1 price. The most interesting features connected with tho working of tho Postal Telegraph during tha year is tho fact that it has popularized tho tele= graph, and that people now receive and sond messages on occasions which in former days would not have been deemed worthy of any such outlsy. The Parliamontary olections, agriculs tural shows; strikes, boat-races, military re= ~views, ete., also arc mado special features of telegraphing. The labor question is incident- ally touched upon, end on this question tha authority of a man at the head of such an army of workers should heve speciel weight. Ila Bays: ‘Where large numbers of persons are employed with. full work and fair supervision, tho admixture of thy scxes involves norisk, bat it is highly beneficial. It raises the tons of the male staffl by confining them during many hours of tho day to & decency of conver- sation and demeanor which is 2ot always to be found where men alono cre emplosed. Further, it is matter of experience that the male elerks are more willing to Belp the femalo clerks with their work thsn to help each other; £ud that, on many occasions, pressuro of ‘business is met and difficulty overcome through this willingneas and cordial co-operation, As & business insdtution, the British Post Office is royally remunerative. The gross Tove- om0 of the Post Office for 1971 amounted to £4,850,000, lesving a nob rovenuo of more than £1,230,000, or $6,250,000, & profit of 25 per cent, which would be considered satisfactory in most any branch of morcantilo business. HOMER VINDICATED. The researches of Dr. Henry Schliemann, the German savan?. in Asia Minor, already promisa to establish & reat historical fact exd, to confirm the truth of the grand Homeric poem. Travel- lors and archmologists for years have disputed over tho location of Troy, and of late years it has come to bo very generally accepted that Troy is a myth, cxisting only in tho imagination of the poot, and that the heroes of the Trojan war, who for ten years dofied the united arms of all Greece, were but pictures drawn by tho fancy of the wandering bard, as he travelled from city to city. There have been thoso, however, who bsve been unwilling to surrender to tho Trojan iconoclasts, and havo clung tenaciously to the heross and heroines who love, and plot, and fight in the Homor- ic page. If they have nct belioved that tho fair, frail Helen was 80 unkind to hor royal spouse, Menelaus, as to defond ber condunt with tho gay young Paris by laying down the duties of “Un mari sege"” after the Offenbachian ver- sion, etill they have been Iothto give up the story that the Spartan beauty eloped with Parig, snd henco Achilles wrath, to Greeco the direful spring Of woes unnumbered. TIE CHICAGO DAILY TRI him to the ancient city. Deneath the houses of clay and ‘stone, ho struck another sirata of rubbish, sand csme upon housea of unburnt brick, and implemonts and woapons of copper. Delow this stratum, he un- earthed huge blocks of stome. Working his way slovly through the rubbish, he camo upon s magnificent bas-ralief, ropresenting Apollo, with an inscription of tho timoe of the Roman Emperor, Antoninus Pius. Still desper, he {found a wall soven feet in thickness and ten in height, built of largo stones joined with clay, which ke thinks is either tho substructure of_ some Trojan temple or the wall of circamvalla- tion, which Homet says was thrown up by Nop- tune and Apollo. Continuing his rosearches, ho at last came upon a colossal structure of solid ‘masonry, forty feet in thickness and twenty fect in height, built upon the primitive rock, which the Doctor conjectures may have been one of the towers on the walls of Troy, and possibly that from which An- dromache saw the death of Hector. It is so dif- ferent in charactor and structure from anything in the ruins above if, thatthere can be nodoubt it belongs to the ago of tradition, Among theso ruins he found several live toads, whom theDoc~ tor believes to be contemporaries of Helen and Andromache, and whom he regarded with pro- found interest on that account. Doubtless, the good Doctor implored them to tell himsomething sbout that ten years’ siege, which they had wit~ nessed. How funny seems the hand-span of ‘man compared with these old venerable old croak-~ ers of mythology, Who hopped sbout in the gar- ens of Helen 3,000 years sgo! In the rubbish immediately above the ancient city, he found pottery of many varieties and great beauty, close- ly resembling the Etruscan terra-cottas, copper nails, lsmps, and wms, tho workmanship of which indicates a people of higher civilization than the races which succesaively built over tho -sito of Troy. An emblem resémbling tho cross, with the ends crotcheted at right angles with the limbs, was found upon nearly all the pot- tery, and also the sun, both of which are well- Imown emblems of the Aryan race. The ruins found in the various strata would seem to indi~ cato that the race following the ancient,Trojans was Aryan, in & high state of civilization. Then followed numerous other races, each being less and less civilized, and finally at the- surfece appesr clear traces of Greek occupation, The paper on “Troy,” in Chambers' Ency- clopedia, concludes thus: “Upon the whole, it docs not scom ab all likely that tho exact site of Troy ever will be ascertained, unless, porhaps, & systematic excavation of the plateau above Burnabashi, vigorously prosacated by some of the European Governments, should lead to the disentombment of some old stone witnesses, by which the men who held kingly ‘To Dr. Schlieman belongs the credit of having rescued from the realms of fiction not only Helen and Paris, but Achilles, tho great Thessa- | lina Ceptain; Agamemnon, commandor of tho Greeks; tho venerable Prinm; Heetor, tlw bold warrior; and Andromacho, the mournful maiden, who from Prinm's towor saw tho champion of llion go down before the wrathful Achilles. We can now believe with some da- greo of confidenco in that remarkable banding togethor of tho Argives, tho Neleids, the Berotians, and Thessalians, to revengo tho insult to the King of Sparta; the tedious ten yoars' eicgo; tho furious quarrel between. Achilles and Agamemnon, by which the Grecks wero driven back to the sea; tho reconciliation of the two chieftains ; the episodo of the wooden Lorse, which has pointed so many morals for sus- picions persons; and thé final victory, sacking, and destruction of the city, which form the staple of the Post Homerica; and tho Cyclic poems, from which Virgil in turn borrowed his hero ZEness, “Trojm qui primus sb oris.” Dr. Schliemann ‘*has invested the entire Homerio story with an air of probakility by tho discovery of the site of tho ancient city, in the plain betwoen tho Birois aod the Scamander, whero the tides of battlo raged so furiously year after year. Tho geographical clearness of the great bard has been verified. Dr. Schlie- mann first satisfied himaself that the platesu at tho bend of the Scamander near the village of Brunabashi, which has usually been accepted as the sight of tho Pergamus of Prism, could not be the locality, and thon turned his sttention to o platean, sevoral miles north of Drunabashi, which was admirably adapted for the sitc of a 1argo city. To mado his first excavations in 1870, and discovered somo rich remsins of architecture and pottery, which convinced him that he was on the right track. He at once mado elaborate preparations for excavating, and his labors during 1871 and 1872 have been crowned with re- markablo succees. His cuttings have revealed to him ruins of different ages in regular strats. Thoso of historic times he found sbout seven feot below tho surface. At the dapth of fitteen feet, hie found calcined ruins, showing that, for many years preceding the historic era, wooden houses wero used. At a depth of fourteen to twenty-four feot, ho came upon stone imple- ments and fragments of pottery, tho homses being made of small stones joined together with clay, showing that the inhabitants were Aryans. His later operations, conducted in June last, which form tho staplo of an cxcoedingly inter- esting lotter to the Now York Herald, breught Tule in this district at the time of Saul and Da- ¥id may yot epeak an intelligent word to the nineteenth century, as strange things, and no Jess hopeless, certainly have occurred.” The suggestion mede in tho Encyclopedia has been Zfollowed sooner than any one expected. The “ plateau above Burnabashi ” has been excavated "by the enterprise and from the private fortunes of one man, and the stome wit- messes aro alreedy telling their clo- ‘quent story to the men of the nineteenth century. Dr. Schliemann has de- voted much time and money in making these «excavations, and now appeals for help. He de- merves that help. Ho has discovered the great City of Troy just where Homer located it, and e has found the evidences that it wos destroyed by firo, as is statod in the Post Homeric pooms, in addlition to numerous archwological facts of tho hilghest importance. His industry and sldll should be rewarded by furnishing him liberal means 1o go on with bis work, MARRYING BY ADVERTISEMERT, It will probably bo admitted that matches are 10 kapger made in Heaven. It was a pretty con- ceit, and the proverb into which it passed gave it & more lasting character than it deserved. Civil contaacts in France, progcriptive laws in Germany, the evils of primogeniture in England, and mancsuvering mammas in Americs, should long since havo created a distrust of tho senti- mont, even among the most romantic persons. But, if thave isany lingering faith among newly- ‘botrothed;peaple, or couples who are still engaged in exploring the mysterious realms of la lune ~de micl, the continued prosperity of the Matri- ‘monial News, which is published in London as the organ of a Tegular matrimonial buroau, must putit to flight. The god Hymon has made room for the printer's devil, who now sorves in the capacity of love’s messenger for 850 roatrimonial candidates every week. The Mafrimonial News is mot & mew venture. It has been in existence s couple of years, and, ssit has mot yet been brought low with chargos of malpractice, libel, or black- mail,’and a8 it continues to present a full assort- mont of marringesble peoplo of both sexes, and of all ages and conditions, it ia only fair to as- sumo thaé it has filled a vacuum, and is doing its work well & Though the practice of obtaining husbands or wives by ndvertising is one which may shock those who have not been educated up, or down, to it, it hos some obvious advantages over the forms recognized more generally by society. To begin with, it is cheap. Tho most eclzborate sttractibns may be described for the sum of twonty-five cents, if they are properly condeased into forty words. All difficulties which may trouble the minds of the matrimonially-inclined are sclved in the columns of tho paper pro bono publico and without extra charge. Twelve stamps will securo & private letter, and s dollar snd & quarter & personal interviow. If marrisge rosults from this pocess, a moderate fee of $1.25 more is chargod. Tho total expense of securing & wife (or husband) by this process, then, may be in- cluded in the investment of three dollars ; or, if the applicant be particularly fastidions and de- sire to examine various candidates, the expense will be represented by a multiplo of that sum, according to tho extent of the investigation. Compared to the routina of fashionable court- ship, this is an exceedingly economical procoss of getting married. It dispenses with a pro- tracted term of expanses, including theatro and opers tickets, carrisge hire, extra gasbills for late hours, bou- quets, concilistory presents to relatives, and the thousand-and-one ante-rmptial offerings that are rigorously demanded by society. There i8 10 giving of the mitten in the new process, snd consequently never & desd loss of the in- vostment of a couple of years’ hard earnings only to see some other fellow carry off the prize. Yet there is the stimulant of competition, for an sttractive advertisement msy call forth s platoon of aumirers, whose specimens of chirography, grammatical constructions, ministure present~ ments in photography, and bunk sccounts are Guly spbidted for comparison. ; NH: SUNDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1872 Tho Malrimonial News is by no means the or- gan of the lower classos, if its advertisomonts a0 to be accepted for what thoy purport to be. A recent number shows that smong tho appli- cants for wives in this fashion are tvwo noble- men, two Colonels, & member of three learned societies, sovoral barristers, phyeicians, mission- erics, country squires, county magistratos, army and navy officers. Among the spplicants for husbands are two heiresses, entitled to large property when they come of age, & French lady of noble birth, and two English titled ladies, ono of whom has a jointure of £3,000 per annum. A large number of both sexes describe accom- plishments in education, good breeding, excol- lent family, and fortunes rangiag all the way from £50 to £350 per annum, and from £500 to £5,000 cash down. Yet the demands for money qualifi- cations are by no means €0 numerous ss might bave been expected. Out of about 200 applica- tions, not more than twenty made it a nocessary qualification. Naturally, s younger gon, who describes himself as “ aged 29, fair, 5 ft. 10 in., has entree to the best society, travelled a good deal, domestic, fond of country life, isa good shot, and rides well,” advertises thab ““he ro- quires & wifo of means.” So many male accom- plishments certainly deserve to be furnished with sufficient means to indulge the exquis- ite testes they entail. On tho other hand, & clergyman desires to form the scqueintance of “a young, pretty, wall- educated lady,” and adds that * moneg, though an advantage, is noban essential.” One lady even goesso faras to proclaim that * though poor, and not without faults, she ismnot to be bought with money.” It is positively astound- ing, howerer, to read of “an heiress of & noble family, aged 24 fair, very hendsome, with £720 ayear from large landed ostates, Wio is s splondid pianist and harpist, speals TFrench and Italisn, andrides and drives,” and yet adver- tises for o husband, even thongh she limits re- sponses to gentlemen of good birtl Tt is not impossible to conceive that both men and women, matrimonially inclined, who live in 80 large s cityss London, whero the circlo of individual associations is exceedinzly limited, should seek tho Malrimonial News, and find there a better chance for selection than at home. On thoscore of tasto, there does not seem to be as much real impropriety in falling in love with s photograph, and in marrying whero tho accessories are found to suit, as thero igin joining ayoung girl to s man blass from dissipation, simply 2s o matter of worldly con- venience. A happy married life 15 more likely to follow aftersformal interchango of well-attested possessions, such as is afforded by means of the Matrimonial News and its bureau, than in the heartless deceptions which aro practised by the Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Lammles of fashionable society. Why would not this means of communi- cation be of mutual advantage to the single la~ dies who proponderato in numbers in Massachu- setts, and the single men who cannot find mates in Noveds and Wyoming? Are there not young ladies and young gentlemen who, Laving chased the matrimonial butterfly in society for years, would gladly avoid themselves of such an oppor- tunity as the Mafrimonial News offers for getthng down in o matter-of-fact way without further embarrasements and disappointmenta ? A curious case, which is intended to combat Professor Tyndall's idea of testing tho officacy of prayer, is found in the story of a Dissenting exborter in England. This man had acquired considerable local fame, and he attracted the confidence of a lady who heard him. After his sormon, she Went tobim to relate an incident of personal experienco which, 23 she thought, might afford him 20 apt illustration for his exhortations. The preacher listened to her with peculiar interest and in great excitement; and, when she bad finiehed, he requested hor as a special favor not to repeat the circumstance until he should come around again. It was some timo after that the preacher visited the locality, and ho found the same Iady among his audience. As & con- clusion to his sermon on the value of prager, ho said that, a few years before, s lady living in an out-of-the-way place, in an old-fashioned house, and almost slone in the wing in which her bed-room was eitnated, discovered, upon retinug to her room at midnight, that a man was concealed under the bed. She was afraid to go out, lest the burglar should suspect that she was going to call for help, and 8o at- tack her. She took out hor Bible and read the perablo of tho Prodigal Son. Then sho knecled down at her bedside and prayed aloud. She prayed for thosa who had been expoeed to tomp- tation, for the outeasts, and the wrong-doors. She begged that she might be spered from peril Quring tho might. She nsked that mercy might be voucheafed to el who | repented. Having concluded her enrnest | and eloquent prayer, sho rotircd. The burglar | came from under the bed and said to her: “I | mesu you no Liarm, ma'am; I am going to loave | the house, and I thank you for your prayers.” Ho then went away, snd tho lady soon heard him jumping out of the window to tho 1awn beloyw. “The good woman of whom I havo told you,” added the eshorter, in o brokon voico, «is with us now, ond the simmer to! whom her simple womanly prayer was sheme, remorse, penitence, and & future of ro- | pentant expiation, is he who hero confesses him- * self to you and hisMaker.” The story isan af- focting one, snd no doubt truo. It searcelyserves | howorer, to meet with tho requirements of Pro- i fessor Tyndall's test, if, indeed, it is desirable | thst they should be met. The deep emotion with which tho exhorting proschor told thostory after | sovoral years had clapsed attests tho impression | which the lads’s prayer had mado upon Aim, but | 1ot necessarily that it had brought about any in- terfercnce on the part of Providence. To have proved this, it would have becn necessary to ut- | ter tho prayer in silence, that none but God might | have hoard it. In this caso, it msy boregarded as doubtfal whether the burglar would have come out from nnder the bed so meekly, abandoned his intention of robbing the houso, and turnod exhorter for the conversion of the rest of man- kind. But, if the incident cannot be sccopted | as a final test for the efficacy of prayer, it may | ot least serve as & model for the trentment of burglars in cages whero ladics find thomsclvos | nione. ea will probably svail themselvos of | six-shooters. T There is a statcment that Mr. James Parton declined sn offer from Mr. Edwin Forreet, mado shortly before the death of thelatter, of $5,000 if he would write the **Life of Forrest.” 1f this is true, Mr. Parton was more mico thon wise. If tho public properly understands the business of Mr, Parton, it is that of writing biographies. It is presumed that Mr. Parton writes his biogra- phies with the main purpose of making money. The sum of §5,000 i3 a tolerably neat sum of money for an aversgd biography, and Mr. Parton could havo dome worso, both in the selection of his subject and in the price which he would receive for the book, than by accepting Mr. Forrost's terms. Edwin Forrest was identified with tho American stage and with 5 new echool of acting in such manner as to jus- tify o biography st Mr. Parton's hands; and he hed money enough to pay for the posthumous sutistaction of having the work well dono. There is no doubt that Mr, Parton would have worked himself up to the proper degree of en- thusinsm before ho had collectod half his mate- rial, and we think that both the public and him- self have reason to rogret that Forrest's offor ‘Waa not accepted. THE GREAT CONVERSERS, BY FEOFESSOR WILLIAM MATHEWS, OF THE USI- VERSITY OF CHICAGO. Armong the books that remain to be written, one of the most intercsting and instructive is & volume upon the great conversers of all ages, portraying their styles and peculiaritios, and giving well-selected specimens, & kind of quint- essence, of their eayings. To cull out their wisest and wittiest, a5 well as their most elo- quent observations, the very apices rerum, from all the “Ana” and books of table-talle that bave been publisked from the days of Xeno- phon and his ¢ Memorabilia to those of Eck- ermann's “ Conversations with Goethe,” would be mno essy task; yob it would bo Inbor well spenf, - and we can bardly think of a book more piquant or charm- ing. The materials forit are exhaustless, and the difficalty would bo to grapple with such an ‘¢ ombarragament of riches;” to know, after openizg the floodgates of anecdote and reminis- cence, when to close them. One bocomes, by familiarity, more and more enamorod of euch s theme; and he is loth, just &8 ho has brzan to rrigate the arid wastes of modern social life with the sparkling watorsof s youngerage, to be silenced by some Palsemon of & publisher with his inexorable ** Claudile jam ritos, pueri ; sat prata biberunt.” Bofore speaking of some of the most famoua talkers of ancient and modern times,—which we Ppropose to do in a few articles,—we des‘ze to say a word upon & question which has been mooted by certain essayists, namely, whether authors or men of the world are the better conversers. William Hazlitt, who wasa keen observer, and mingled much in the saciety of literary men, declares that anthors and actors cre not fitted to shine in the social circle. An- thors, he thought, “ ought to be read, and mot heard ; ” and, s to actors, they, he thinks, who have intoxicated and maddened multitndes by their public display of talent, can rarcly be supposed to feel much stimulus in entertaining oneor two friends, or in being the life of a dinner psrty. She who perished over night by the dsggor or the bowl, as Casssandra or Cleopatrs, may be alloved to sip her tea in silence, and not to bo horaclt again tifl ehe revives in Asps- sin. Actors, again, utter cut-and-dry repartess which are put into their moaths, and must be a little embarrassed when their cue is taken from them. Rousseau, on the other hand, who wrote 80 laboriously, pronounces the conversation of suthors superior to their books; an opinion which, except in the case of a few, to whom the stimulus of society Was necessary to bring out their stores, the biographies of colobrated au- ' thors hardly confirm X-ony of the most cele- brated writers, who have filled their books with = originelity and eloquence that dofy oblivion, have been dumb before their follow-men. Not seldom it Lappons that gems of the purest ray serene emit s very dreamy lustre at tho dinner-table of patronizing big-wiggery, or in the salons of blue-stocking- 1sm. How often has it happoned that your man of genius, when invited to a packed assembly for the express purpose of being pumped, has proved as dry and wheezy a8 & well in August, giving out not even a drop of the anticipated living water! Many & fine spirit that cen pre- sent novel idess in kaleidoscopic variety upon paper, not only awing you by their profandity, but dazzling you by their tropical splen- dor, is notorious for his inability to put w0 ideas together by word of mouth,—failing even to find a door of utterance in that eternal refuge for the destitute of esmall talk, the weather! Golden ingots he has,—precious bars of thought,—which, in the privacy of home, he can burnish into splendor, or convert into the coin of the realm; but, like many a wealthy cap- italist, he cannot, on the spur of the moment produce the farthings current in the markot! place. Abundent reason is there why this should be 80. Those who expect an suthor that hws ex- hausted himself in his books to be equally bril- liant in company, forget that it is the very fact that ho has lavished his riches in his writings that must disqualify him from displaying them elsewhere. It is simply be- cause he has been roused to an intense pitch of excitement whilo engaged in tho task of composition that ho is proportionally nerveless and relaxod in his gocial hours. The electrical el cannot be always giving off shocks; tho bow that has long been strung loses its elas- ticity; the bird that soars to the stars must sometimes rest its wing on the earth. While other men in society abandon their whole souls to tho topics of the moment, and, concentrating thoir energies, appear keen and animated, the man of genius, who has stirred tho vast sos of* human hoarts by his writings, feels a languor and prostration arising from the secret toil of thought; and it is only when he hus recrnited his energios by rolaxa~ tion ond repose, and is once ‘more in his study, surrounded by those master- spirits with whom he has so c’ten held *celes~ tial colloguy sublime,” that his soul rekindles with entbusiasm, and pours itself on paperin thoughts that breathe, and words that burn. Itis said that neither Pope nor Dryden were brilliant in conversation; the one being too “saturnine and reserved,” and the other too much afraid of ths author of the * Essay on Man.” Neither Addison nor Cowper shoue in gociety, and the same is true of the celebrated French suthors, Descartes, La Fontaine, and Buffon. Addison, indced, could talk chermingly to ome or two friends, but he was shy and absent befors strangers. To use his own happy metaphor, he *could draw bills for a thousand pounds, though he had ! not guinen in his pocket.” Hume's writings wero o superior to his conversation, that Horaco Walpolo used to say that he understood nothing till Lo had written upon it. Goldsmith was o blundering converser, and showed hardly a spark of the genins that bluzes through his writings. Occasionally he blurted ont s good thing, 88 when he applied to Johnson & saying in ono of Cibber's plays,—Thero is no arguing with Johnson, for, when his pistol misses fire, ho knocks down his adversary with tho butt end of it;” but genorally ho *talked liko poor Toll,” snd when he made sn sccidental hit, soon noutralized its effccts by something ex- quusitoly foolish., Neither Corneille, the great French dramatist, nor Marmontel, tho novelist, wore masters of the intellectual foils. The oloquent Rousseau; whose writinga have be- witched thousands, confessed that when forced to open his mouth he infallibly talked non- scose: I hastily gabble over & number of words withont idess, happy only when they chanco to mésn nothing ; thus, endenvoring to conquor or hide my incapacity, I rarely fail to show it.” The witty Charles II., who was 80 | charmed with the humor of Hudibras that he j caused himself to be infroduced pri- vately to the author, found Butlor an intolerably dull companion. He was confident that B0 stupid & fellow never wrote the book. The Earl of Dorset, who sought an interview with the great satirist, was similarly dissppoint- ed. Taking three bottles of wine with him, he found the poet dull and heavy after the first had ‘been drained, somewhat sparkling after the sec- ond bottle, and, after the third, more stupid and muzzy than ever. *Your friend,” said the Earl, after he had left with his introducer, *is like a nine-pin ; little at both ends, and great in the middle.” Godwin, .ho author of The Political Justice, was as dull as Butler. According to Hazlitt, he had not aword to throwto a dog. His talk was as flat as 3 pancake. All his genius was hoarded for his books; he bad no ides of anything till he was wound up like a clock, noS to spea, but to vrrite, snd then he seemed like & person risen from sleep or from the dead. It would be an inexcusable omission in an ac- count of the great talkers to aay nothing of the ancients. In conversation, as in oratory, they ‘probably outshown the moderns ; the printing- pross has damaged the ** Mahagzany " eveamose then it has damaged tho hustings. Socrates, as we see him in the *Memorabilis,” barefoot, and plainly cled, inexorably logical, and the incarns- tion of common sense, must have been one of the most brilliant and instructive tallkers of ‘classic times. Chatting o the agora, tho gymnssis, the rhop of tle corsot-maker, in tho studio of the &:atuary and at the table, ho-must have been a kind of walk- ing encyclopmdis, & collego on legs; and the whole State must have felt tho influence of his philosophy in all the veins of its moral being. The fow sayings we have of Themistocles and Alcibiades are steeged in the very brino of con- ceit, and sparkle like salt in"fire.” MMost of the reported mots of Diogenes are 50 pungent and racy, that we regret that there was no Bozzy to give us more of them. The manwho coined the word “cosmopolite " must Leve been, in spite of his cynicism, a rare and catholic thinker. Cicero was amost brilliant talker, and must have been what Sydney Smith calls *‘a diner-out of the highest lustre.” Ho a3 a wit as well as an orator, and even deigned to pun when he could hit hard by doing so. He wes so famous for his bon-mots, that Cmsar employed s man like Baron Grimm to send him a collection of them from tithe to time, to any place where he might be encamped. Though but few of his jeste a0 proserved,—the Liber Jocularis, or collection of them by his freedman, Tiro, having been lost,— yet thoy aro of such a quality as to show that he hed a prompt s well 28 a razor-like wit, that could draw blood when he chose; and it iza wonder that 8-me of them did not cost him his ! head. A Roman lady having told him that esho was but 30 years old,—*“It must be | true,” replied Tally, * for £ have heard it these twenty years.” When Pompey, who had mar- ried Cear's daughter, aczed Cicero,—referring to Dolobella, who had joined Cmsars party,— “Whereis your gon-in-law?” Cicero retorted, “With your father-in-law.” Quintilian cele- ‘brates Cicero's urbanitas, by which tho ancients expressed that peculiar delicacy and eloguence of humor that smacks of the cultivation of a capital ; but the great orator sometimes stooped to cosrse facetiousness, as when. in allusion to the Oriental custom of borirg the ears of slaves; | bo replied to a man of Eastern and servile de- scent, who complained that he conld not hear him, * Yet you bave holes in your esrs.” Joo Miller is the great storehouse to which it is supposed that mostof the modern jeckdaws of wit go for their fine feathers. But in the | “Ana” of antiquity, s an English writer re- ‘marks, we shall find more than ona jeu desprit which now adorns the brazen front of the plagiary. What can be finer than Foote's | reply ta the English Lord who was boasting the grest age of the wiue wiich, in his par simony, he had caunsed to bo sefved in extremely small glasses—“It is very littla of its age?” Yet this identical witticisma, says Mr. Hannsy, is in Athenwus, where it is assigned to & woman whose jokes wero better than hel character. “Wit, like gold,” continues the same pleasant writer, “is circulated some- times with one head on it and sometimes aa- other, sccording to the potentates who rule its realm. Fow situations are more trying thaa to sit at dinner and hear o raconteur telling ° the capital thing said by Louis XIV.' to eo-and-so, ‘with a distinct recollection that the same thing was said by Augustas toa provincial. You can- not quote Macrobius without the icputation of pedantry, even if you wore capzbls of the cruelty ; and you grin pleasaat approbsion with the consciousness that you are & hypocrizo.” —_— Robert 8. Duncsnson, an artist wao had ot tained considerablo celebrity in this countrs, d10d on Saturdey week, in an ineane asylum, near Detroit. He was born in New York, but for over thirty years made Cincinnati his home. It edded s special featuroof interest to his paintings that Mr. Duncanson had negro blood in his veins, and his pictures were, therefore, Iooked mpon with more or less of curiosiiy, and this fact sometimes gained for them a eale which could not alwweys have been secured for them ty their real artistic merit, as bis work was very uneven. During the time that he resided in Cincinnati, Mr. Duncsnson frequently visited Europe, and painted in England, Scotland, and taly. InEngland he was received with specicl honors. During his lIest visit, Tennyson r>- coived him at his home, a8 a recogrition of one of his pictures, the “ Land of the Lotos Eaters,” which was suggested by ‘Tennyeon's poem. Through the influence of Miss Charlotte Cash- man, who has always been & devoted patron of art, he found & sale for many of his works in that country, some of which were purchased by the Dachess of Sutherland. One of his best paintings was “ Recollections of Italy.” He waa not & grest artist, but he had a peculiarly poetical temperament, which manifested itself in his work, especially in his pictures painted in Ttaly, snd his labor was alwnys conscientious: The Cincinnati Commercial says of him: * Ho was & man of & modext acd retiring disposition, and for sn srtist singularly freo trom the petty jealousies and biokerings which embitter and estrange the fraternity. The poetic warmth- of his art glowed in his remarkably soft, dark, hazel eye, and was reflected from & nature ad one sunny and amisble. He wis & gentleman whom every one who knew him respected, snd his loss will be sincerely rogretted by a wide cir- cle of personal friends and professional admirers in thig city.” IHis insenity was not of very re- cent devclopment, as long siuce hs became pos- sessed of the ides that in his peinting he wes nided by the spirit of Michael Angelo A man in Rutherfordton, N. C., recently lodged a complaint before the Mayor against his wifa for calliug him * Old Pewter Bittons.” Hehad surfered varions aseaults with broom- sticks, and irons, and other wespons with which woman avenges her wrongs, bod been scolded varioas times, and on sundry oscasions had beet driven out of the house, but of these he Lad pever made complamt. It was only when e was called “O0ld Yewter Buttons” that bLis manly spirit was sromsed, and he called iz the aid of the civil law, the administrs- | tion of which has been 50 impartial for many | yeass past in that favored State. The worthy | Magor flew to his relief, and fined the women o present fine, and made her give bonds to keep the peaco hereafter. Under what precise ststute pewter buttons becomo ligble in North Caroline Seare ignorant, but we Lave o fancy that the Mayor himself hias been celled “ Old Perter Buttons™ at home, snd knew how to sympathize ‘with the plaintifr. The Port Jervis (N.J.) Tii-Stcles Tnion &3 gloating, just now, over the discovery of & rest~ dent of that place who hes & portable heart, re=! volving sbdomen, and two sots of ribs. s | name fs Georgo Thomas. His father wasan Ethiopian, his mother Sparish, and ho was born | in Drazil. Whether George “homas receired this advantage in entrails, bones, and other things by this internatioual mixing up, we are not aware, but it evidently hed something to do with it, as George Thomas has a brother eix feef threo inches in height, who can contract himself to three feet, and a cousin who an throw his left hip over to his right side, and vicé rersa. The Grimm Brothers, in their escel- lent collection of folk-stories and legends, tell & tale very similar tothe nbove, but close it mlg the saving clause: Now open the window a0 let these yarns fly out.” The ZTri-Stals Tnion neglects this wise preca—tion of the Drotkers Grimm. YR A SN N = At 5 vecent art-sale in New York, soveral ¥ tures by Esstern artists were sold, which have been on exhibition in Chicago. Among them were the following, which brought tho prices sonexed: ‘‘Shepherds on the Roman Cam- pagna,” Gifford, $250 ; * Lake George, Cflsic‘mo’g §105; “Coming Shower” Do Iisas, £ “View on the Grand Canal,” Crauch, &30: #Cranes on the Prairie—omiag,” W. H. Ffflx“;» $130; *Cranes on the Prairie—Evening.” V- H. Besrd, $160; “On the Esopus,” Wikiax Hart, §115; * March of Silenus™ ‘t‘_v g Ej”d’ :%31 ':r?;f&"-??;“ Notch,” ' Kensett, S0 Y Dear at Home," Tait, $70 ; acd tho 1 Prayer,” Beughion, Agoraind = 4