The New York Herald Newspaper, December 28, 1874, Page 3

NEW LITERATURE. Emerson’s / nthology--Where He Culled His Lyric Flowers. ANCIENT AND MODERN ADVERTISING. Literary Pap for Young America. Parnassus, Edited by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Or tg 8vo. 534 pp. Boston: J. R. Osgood & Co., The poctic volume with the above unique title whicn the Philosopher of Concord, himself a poet of no mean skill, has given us, bears the impress of his own peculiar taste atid culture. The volume, he tells usin the preface, took its origin from the old habit of copying any poem or lines | that interested him into a blank book, “Tne | beliet that what charmed me probably might charm others suggested the printing of my en- larged collection.” Admittivg, with Mr. Emerson, the convenience and merits of the existing an- thologies, 11 must be conceded that the majority of them are too bulky and too crowded with com- Monplace poems to make them perennial | favorites wisn the lovers of the genuine | Poetic faculty. Mr. Emerson's ‘Parnassus’? 4s bimited to an anthology of English and American poets, and in bulk is only about half the size of Mr. Dana’s “Book of Household Poetry” or of the more recently publisheu “Library of Poetry and Song,” which passes under the name Of Mr, Bryant, aithough the selection was made by other hands, he contributing the pretace. While Mr. Emerson's voiume is compact with good things, it is inevitapie that many readers ‘will find some of their prime favorites in the poetic reaim excluded. Some writers who pass for much in the vast collections of Chalmers and Johnson and Anderson ure not here represented by so much asascrap. Mr. Emerson is a firm be- Never in the poets who were born, not made. He says “there are two classes of poets—the poets by education and practice: these we respect; | and the poets by nature: these we love.’ It is not surprising to find, in accord- | ance with this principle, that the largest piace ts given in Mr. Emerson’ “Parnassus” to Chaucer, Herbert. Herrick, Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Worasworth and Tennyson. There is noth- ing from those twin bards of the hothouse school, Swinburne and Kossetti, nor 1s there.a line trom Eagar A. Poe, thomas Buchanan Read or Bayard ‘Taylor. The selections trom Longiellow, with characteristic good sense, omit the hackneyed “Excelsior,” “Psalm of Lite’ and “Footsteps of | Angels,” while Mr. Emerson prints the whole of “The Birds of Killingworth,” which, indeed, con- tains poetry enough to set up half a dozen mod- | erp minstrels. Some readers will consider, doubt- Joes, that Mr. Emerson has given too much prom- Inence to the poets ot the Elizabethan age; yet the great revival of interest in that literature among 8)! scholars of late years completely justifies this prominence. With Mr. Emerson, as with ail dis- cerning writers, Shakespeare remains the supreme artist in poetry. There are some solecisms and unexpected “finds” in this anthology of favorite poems, Thus Mr. Emerson,-among bis rather redundant speci- meds of poems of the civil war, gives Stedman's “Jobn Brown of Ossawatomie,” Randall’s “My Maryiac,” Browneli’s “the Bay Fight” and “The Od Cave,” Mrs, Howe's “Battle Hymn” and two Or three of Loweli’s Yankee dialect poems. And ‘We ventare to say that no man born out of Massa- chusetts would print the aibum verses of such poets as John Quncy Adams and Daniel Webster | ip a volume bearing the tide of “Parnassas,”” | There are evidences of Mr. Emerson's fine dis- | ermuinating thought and felicity of expression strewn through the preface to bis book. Thu: “Poetry teaches the enormous force of a tew ‘words, an’, in proportion to the inspiration, | cheeks loquacity. It requires that splendor o! ex- | pression which carries with it the proof of great thoughts. The poets are they who see that spirit- wai i greater than any material force; that thoughts rale the world.” Of delightful oid George Herbert he says, “So much piety was Bever marricd to #0 mach wit.” Tennyson, says Mr. Emerson, “has tncomparabie felicity in all | Poetic forms, surpassing in melody also, ‘The | Variety Oi bid poenis disciosés the wealth and the | Beaith of his mind.” 4 HISTORY OF APVERTISING FROM THE EARLIEST Times. liustratea by Anecdotes, Curious Speci- mens and Biographical Notes. By Henry Samp- * 12mo, 616 pp. London: Chatto & Windus, ph This chowy and handsome book ts the first at- | tempt, outsice of the various histories of *the newspaper press, to give us the origin, the philoso. | phy and the curiosities of the advertising business, (As such the book flis a gap, which it is surprising to find bas remained so long unfilléd in this book. — moking age. Beginning alar of in tne realm of ancient Wistory, with the Greek criers and the Roman wall-painted advertisements, Mr. Sampson brings us down to the latest devices for catching | pubiic notice through the newspaper press of the | modern Babylon. His book is discursive and dis- connected, but so also is Lis subject, The curious exampies Of advertising in various ages and coun- tries, the oddities of expression and the photo- lithograph jac-simiies of ancient journals give a perpetually etisting interest fo the work. It 1s inaiflerentiy well written, and the reader must @opend more upon the curiosity and inherent in Yerest of the ‘subject than upou any telicity or Anish of style. Advertising, as a newspaper custom, is not Above 200 years Old; but as an art for giving pudlictty * Bales, public entertainmen's and business of varie us Kinds, advertising appears to have been well known for centuries before the Christian era, Street advertising, of which so much ts done by the walking dummies of nowadays, Was uoques- tionadly derived from tie Komans. With tue un- earthing of Herculaneum and Pompei, Which went under in the year 79 of the Ciiristian cra, came the Fevelation of walls covered with notices of dfer- ent kinds painted in black or red. T ara volaminous tesumony asto tue state of tety, the habitual wants and the standard o: puble taste of the Romans in that age, Advertisements of dramas and gludiators are common. Here is | one:— Aeditis, Familia, Gatiatoria, Pugnabit. Pompeis. Pr. K. Junias, Venatio et Vela, That ts:—""The troop of giadiators of the Aediie will figh! at Pompeli on the first kalend of June, and there Will be boar-paitiog or hunting, and an awn- dng 10 keep of the sun.” Many of these advertisements were found uader the porticos of the baths ar Pompel!. Houses were found With DOtices o1 premises (o et or sell painted on the doors, or Axed by placards to the houses. It was the practice to have on Roman houses a Piece of (he wall wiitened to receive inscriptions | Or notices, The Roman booksellers were accus | Tomed to placard the ities of Rew books or manu- script rolis they had for sale Upon their sbops. | | in the Middie Ages public criers were a well sed institution ou tho Continent, and in Frauce were formed into a corporation as early as the thirteenth century, They were regulated by @laborate ordinances, one of which required them to go about crying twice a day except in Lent, on | Sundays and Fridays and on the day on which any of the royal family happened to die. They wandered about the streets of Paria in troops, biowing horns and crying Wines, treating (be passengers vo a sample of the ure, This very agreeable mode of acver grown out of use in modern days, In Criers appear to have been in use as early as 1209, and constituted the chief organ vy whieh the Mediaval shopkeepers Gbtained puviieity in the absence of what we now have a# advertising mediums, Shopkeepers ip ali ages appear to b been disposed to do something to attract cus tomers, This Was sometimes ee. ted by glaring signs, and t) history of sign boards bas been amusingly told in a large volume pablianed a iew years since in Landon by Messrs, Larwood & Hot. | ten. The custom of tonting at shop doors is men- tioned im the earlier chronicles of Stowe aud | | Improved upon in Chatham street to this day. | servants, apprentices and black boys. NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, DECEMBER 28, Others. In @ medieval French mystery, entitied “Le Jus de St. Nicolas,” an innkeeper, standing On the threshold, roars out that in bis house good dinners are to be had, with warm bread and Warm herrings, and barrels full of Auxerre wine. Within is a good place to spend your money. Almost as soon as the art of printing was dis- covered it was applied to the purpose of multiply- ing advertisements by handbill. One of the ear- Nest productions of Caxton's press (about 1480) is the following broadside advertisement, of which two copies are still preserved in England :— If it please ony man spirituel or temporel to bye our pycs of two or thre commemoracio 's of Salisbur! use, emprynted after the form of this resent letre, whiche ben wel and truly correct, | jate hym come to Westmonester, into alimovestrve 4 the reed pole and he shal have them good and | chepe: Supplico stet cedula. The article here advertised was a collection of religious rules of the clergy in the diocese of Salis- | bury setting forth the church offices for ail the | variations in Easter. The shopkeepers of London | kept apprentices at their doors to attract the attention of the passersby with contin- | ually calling out, “What d’ye lack, master?” This | formula of centuries ago has peen scarcely No sooner were the weekly newsletters of the seventeenth century started than they began to be vehicles for advertisements. About 1652 tea ‘was advértised as “that excellent China drink,” then a novelty in England, and it was sold in the leat for irom £6 to £10 a single pound, Among the earliest advertisements were those of runaway Englana, says Mr. Sampson, swarmed with West India negro boys, Who were used as family pages. The first advertisement of a runaway negro found is dated August 11, 1659:— A negro boy, about nine years of age, in a gray Searge suit, his hair cut close to his head, was lost on Tuesday last, Auxust 9, at nignt, in st. Nicholas Jane, London, it any one can give notice of him to Mr. Tho. Barker, at the Sugar Loaf, in thavlane, they shall be well rewardea tor their pains. Black boys continued in fashion for more than a | | century after, and were often offered for sale by advertisement, precisely as slaves used tobe in the Southern States of America. Even as late as 1769 sales of human flesh went on in England, The Gazetteer, April 18, of that year, classes together, “for sale at the Bull and Gate, Holborn, a chestnut gelding, a trim whiskey and a well-made, good- tempered black boy;” while a Liverpool paper an- nounces as to be sold by auction, “at George Dun- | bar’s offices, on Thursday next, 21st inst., at one o’clock, @ black boy, about fourteen years old, ana @ large mountain tiger cat.” All this trafic, how- ever, in “Gou’s image carved in ebony” was stopped by Lord Manstield’s famous decision in the Sommersett case in 1772, which declared that the custom of more than aceftury could not in- troduce slavery in England, and that the moment aslave brought from abroad touched British soil he was free, The London Mercury, in 1681, has an advertise- ment of ‘a most ingenious monkey who can both write, read and speak as good sense as his mas- ter.” A highly accomplished master he musthave had. In 1692 the advertiser often spoke through the editor, of which method of advertusing the fol- owing are short sampte! Avery eminent brewer, and one I know to be @ Very honest gentleman, wants an apprentice. I can give an account of him, lwant anegro man that isa good house car- penter.and a good shoemaker. I want a@ prity boy to walt on a gentleman who | wi take care of him and put him out an appren- | lice. iknow of several curious women that would wait on ladies to pe housekeepers, non 1 want a good usher’s place in a grammar school, I want a young man that can write and read, | mow and.roll a garden, usea gun at adeer and understand country sports and to wait at table | and such like, lf any youug man that plays well on the viohn and wrles @ good hand desires a clerkship I can help him to £20 a year. . I want a complete young man, that will wear livery, to wait on a very valuable gentleman, but he must Know how to play on a violin or a flute. Ir 1 can meet with @ sober man, that has a counter tenor voice, I can help him toa place worth £30 the year, or more, What is the meaning of “a complete young man that will wear livery,” must be left to conjecture, Such Admirable Crichtons cannot be got nowa- days by any “valuable gentleman.” This editcrial method of advertising, through which the newspaper publisher became also the gencral agent of the public, did not continue long. Coming down to the times of Charles II., the witty and merry Monarch, we find His Majesty’s | dogs had a knack of being lost or stolen, as ap- , pears irom the /ollowing curious advertisement in the Mercurius, July, 1660:— We must call upon you again for a black dog, between a greyhound and a@ spaniard, no white about him, only @ streak on his Breast, and tail a littie bobbed. It is His Majesties own Dog, and doubtless was siolen, for the Dog was not born or bred in England, and would never forsake his master, Whosoever findes him may acquaint any at Whitehal, tor the dog was better known at Court, than those who stole him. Will they never leave robbing His Majesty? Must ne not keep a dog? This dog’s place (though better than some eamts) is the only place which nobody offers to eR. Mr. Sampson hints that the above literary pro- duction may have been written by Charles himself, though he gives no evidence in support of this con- jecture, The “Personals”? of modern newspaper adver- tising began to be used nearly two centuries ago. Witness the fo'lowing irom the Zattler, March 21, 1709, edited by Sir Richard Steele:— A gentleman who, the 20th inst., nfa the honor | to conduct a lady out ofa boat at Whitehall Stairs, desires to know When he may wait on her to dis- ciose a matter of concern, A letter directed to Mr. Samue! Reeves, to be left with Mr. May. at the | education. | ceased, Heat once begins to tear off the smal; Golden Head, the upper end of the new South | Humpton street, Covent Garden, ‘The joliowing also appeared in the rattler, ema- nating from the editorial sanctum, and suggestive of that humor which has been seldom surpassed | | in English periodical iiterature:— Any ladies who bave any particular stories of r acquaintance which they are wiliug pri- vately to nuke public, may send ’em by the penny post to Isaac Bickerstof, Esq., enclosed to Mr. Jobn Morphue, near Stationers’ Hal. * Isaac Piekerstaff was the weil Known pseudonym of Sir Richard Steele himself, Here is an adver- tisement of a foot race, inserted by an enterpris- ing young woman in the London Daily Courant in December, 17i2 This isto give notice that there is woman, born within thirty miles of ron jor woman that fas lived 4 vear within tue same dis- tan upon any good ground, as the parties con- cerned snail agree to. Worse remains behind ; for in the advertisements of ppeared the following challenge toa pub- lie pugilistic encounter between women :— CHALLEN( I, Eilzabeth Wilkinson, of Clerken- well, having had some words witn Hannah Hyfield, and, requiring satisfaction, do invite her to meet me upon the stage and box me tor three guineas, a London, wil | bis stock on hand of “pretty speeches,” young | or £100 a mile and @ half with any other | | that of sucrileg etch Woman holaing ball acrown in each hand, , aod the first woman that drops the money to lose | the battle. AnsWen.—I, Hannah Hyfleld, of Newgate Mar- ket, hearing of the resoluteness of Elizabeth Wil- kinson, will not fail, God willing. to give her more biows than words, desiring home blows and irom her no favour, She may expect a good thump- | ge We may congratulate ourselves that this species of feminine brotality, at least, would be impos- siple as a public exhibition at this day. Matri- monial advertisements were early and favorite methods of communicating or of obtaining private information by public means. Witness the follow- ing from the London Morning Post, January 21, 1776 -— A gentleman of honor and property, having in bis disposal at present a young lady of good family, With a fortune of £60,000 on her marriage with his approbation, would be very happy to treat with a man of fashion and family, who may think It worth his while to give the advertiser a gratuity of £5,000 on the day of marriage. Letters addressed to L. M., at Tour’s Co! House, Devereux court, near the Temple, mentioning real pbame and place of abode, will punctually be attended to, We have left ourselves no room for other ex- tracts from Mr. Sampson’s entertaining and gossips volame. But as the specimens of adver- ‘ising taken irom preceding centuries are the more interesting and instructive as pictures of ners, we the less regret that we cannot fol- jow our author through the labyrinth of adverus- ing curtesities which he borings forward to illua- trate the uineteenth century, Mis illustrations of modern advertising, botn in Engiand and tne United States, are interesting sud amusing. can only commend the curious reader to the book whieh would certwiniy repay an American houne tor reprinting. There is one notable omis- We) |\the suyject may have been introduced. sion in the work ; Mr. Sampson has made no at- tempt whatever to give o# the statistics of adver- Using oF to collect the comparative rates charged St different periods, the profits accumulated in | this branch of the newspaper busmess, &c. There 1s fully enough left for aeoter careful and expert Gleaner im the same wide and attractive feid. CHILDREN'S BOOKS. Already the announcements of holiday books are Upon us, and, as for Sunday senool literature, have We bot that always with we? It may seem invidi- ous to doubt whether the children of to-day are better of in the way Oamusement or edification than were those whe grew no longer than a score of years ago. Yet, while we acknowledge | the existence of novle exceptions, which, alas! as exceptions will, serve more conclusively to prove the rule, and with {uli knowledge of the viais of wrath which await the devoted head of any one who dares to break tn on the pwans of rejoicing over the biossoming and beautiful literatare with which the present youthful generation is supplied, we venture to come in with a humble but persistent inquiry into the kind of fruit which is to be the legitimate | outcome of ail this bud and bioom, Too large a Proportion of it by far appears to be of te forced growth and hothouse culture, which re- laxes, instead Of directing, the forces of w; nd character, and which misleads and vitia' the | imagination, preventing its iegitimate use in the elevation of daily Iie and duty tq their true and noble plane. We are in danger Of paying too dearly for a great deal of ‘Jearning made easy,” the precocious tropic#l luxuriance of in- teliectual growth and emotional awakening, which are the unavoidable outcome of much of the literature placed without examina- tion by parents im their children’s hands because the volume comes from the sheives of @ Sunday school or a city library, or bears upon its title page the imprint of a respectable puo- lisher, In the majority of cases it will work no Worse woe than enervation of thought, enfeebling of purpose, and the degeneration of healtnful feeling into puling sentimentality; but are not these enough ? We are not proposing or advising that the children should be restricted or sent back to tne books which sufficed their grandparents or even their elder brothers and sisters; though they might have worse mental pabulum than “Sandford and Merton,” “Evenings at Home,” “rhe Arabian Nights,” and the ever old, ever new, fairy tales of ail time, and still not suffer. But we doadvise pa- Tents to take more care than the majority of them | evidently now do to know what their children are | reading, and to exercise a wise authority in elimi- nating from it the sweetly sugared poison and the cloying confections which abound among it. SPIRITUALISM. AN EX-MEDIUM’S BEVELATIONS—MORE LIGHT ON WAYS THAT ARE DARK—‘‘PROFESSOR” SLADE’S VINDICATION. TO THE EpIToR OF THE HERALD:— In your issue of the 22a inst. I read that interest- ing and truthful article, “Mediums Exposed,” by “An Inquirer,” and I must say he bas accom. plished that which I have many times attempted, but could never prevail upon myself to gend it to you for publication, from the fact that I found my- self unable to produce a readable article or one | that could in my estimation withstand public criticism. Not that 1 had any doubts as to the truth, or that I dia not possess positive, undenia, ble proofs to substantiate my statements, but it may be attributed solely to the tault of a defective The article is very ably written, but it is desti- tute of many explanatory things, trifling, perhaps, in themselves, but really necessary, in my own opinion, to satisfy the public mind. As, for in- stance, of his séance with Foster, he says:—‘He then tore off trom long strips of paper small pieces, on hich we were to write our questions.” And again:—“If he can get at the question to see it he cap answer it; and if he fails in the first he invariably fails in the last.” That 1s perfectiy correct and true and easily understooc; but supposing, instead of asking questions, you ask him to give you for @ ‘‘test” the name of some friend or relative long since de- | pieces of paper from the long strips before him, at the same time requesting you to write the name | of the person with whom you wish to communt- | cate, together with a dozen or more other names which may be fictitious, on separate pieces and fold them so that it will be impossible for him to read them. Alter having written ajl the names you desire, and having folded them carefully and tightly and left them upon the table in a promis- cuous heap, the question arises, How does he, without mistake, select the right one, and that, | too, beiore he even attempts to distract your ate tention in order to give him an opportunity to quickly and adroitly open 1t? That part of the business is accomplished in sev- | eral very simple ways, one of which 1s thus:—Tbe paper, as has been stated, is first cut into strips of about filteen inches Jong and three to four inches — | and making notes of an, | maniestations seemed to require. in width, arranged and laid directly 1m front of the “medium,” who, aiter all 18 ready, commences to | tear off the small pieces and presents to you in @ careless, unconcerned mauner the one par- tuculat name on the first plece torn off, whici, Ol course, has buth ends and one side straight, as it has been cut, dnd one side or edge irregular where it has been torn. This keen, straight edge 1s plainly seen among the marry, often even betore he raises them irom tne table. A lively conversa- tion 18 kept up.all the while, but he is ever on the alert watching for an Opportunity to open and read the name; thatis uccompiushed with a litte imampulation in an instant, wheo he 1s ready with his ‘astonisaing revelation” or some com- munication from the “spirit world’? selected irom | Anotuer and perhaps vetter way have among his long strips ot paper, on0 OF two that are irom one-eighth to three-eighths of an inch narrower in Width, aud irom one vi these he tears off a piece, Which he passes over to you with the rewuest to write the name of the person with whom you desire to communicate, as before, and Immediately tears off a number irom the other | and wider strips for the other and accompanying umes. Aiter they are Joided and jaid upon the table the short one is easuy detected even with a slightly practised — eye. Buy for a medium to succeed and acquire | notoriety he requires cheek, tact and a very re- teutive memory, or there must be # continual conversation kept up, perhaps driting into other | channels, until the spirit 1s ready to “mantfest,” | Wien there comes something beautiful or start | ling, as the case may seem to require. There | are many objections to the vile practice, besides | have known people woo were suilering irom some siight @mMection consult me- diums who, by assuming jan entranced state, Would reveal to the trightened and astonislhed— Sully, perhups—tuat a cancer was then growing in her stomach, and advise her to, without delay, take some one of his silly decoctions, ior which an enormyus price would ‘be paid, because It was | prescrived by the spirit of old Dr. So and 80, who, betore he “passed away,’? was the most eminent cancer docior i tne worid. Perhaps it would ve weil to state here in proof that J um positive o; what] am saying; that (to use somewhat vulgar phrase) “1 have been there, and know how tt is mysell,” having been a “medium” for over twenty years; but allow me tosay, belore proceeding further, that 1 never yet accepted even one cent for any manifestations I Muay have given, nor have | ever appeared beiore is, he may | the general punlic, but only amoug my friends and acquaintances, as at an evening party, Riere Hen, with “Come, come, you are a medium you know, please favor us with some manuestations; wy | Iriends here have never seen anything of the | kind, and would be so delighted,” of course it would | be utteriy useless to refuse even if I told them it | was alla hombug. I practised it in this muaner only for my own amusement and of perhaps a Jew friends who were “in the ring” and maybe acted as coniederates. At length | acquired quite @ notoriety as a medium, and my spiritualistic friends have often persistently urged me to go into the business, but I never possessed the requi- site “cheek,” or rather heart, for | always cou- sidered it robbery of the most dastardly kind. Doubtiess there are few who have had better opportunities to imvestigate the truths of the matter than mysel/, for being one of the kind, and quite & prominent one at that, I had free access to all. Lbave visited neariy all the prominent me- diums for years past, have given and in return ree ceived many “tests,” bat never yet did I receive aught that I fancied for a moment came trom “beyond the grave,” or that I could not easily account for, ‘it takes a rogue to catch a rogue,’’ you know, Meatums are compelled to resort to many differ- en artifices to gain the end desired, so that if they ful! im one way to attain the information that they are expected to impart, other and similar re- sources are resorted to; bor are whey confined to a lew, lor they become adepts at juggiery of this sort, acquired srom iong and earnesi study and practice m their “off hours,” With regard to the slate manifestations, I con- | pedient to have sider them simply ridiculous. How apy one can be “galled” by itis more than | can understand. That, too, requires more than an exchange of slates to carry on the business successiully, lor if several persons are present, though that is not oiten allowed for jear of interfering with the “conditjons,” it woulda be impossible to make the exchange without being detected, The double siate vusioess, though exceedingly well performed, is too simple to deserve comment, but to do this marvellous trick the slate is taken from another table or sideboard conveniently near, and turned back to back by the medium who, with a piece of sponge or cloth, commences to obliterate some imaginary former communica- tion, turning it from to time and apparently ciean- ing both sides, but it is turned in such @ manner, 80 ee and adroitiy, and with a peculiar turn of the wrist, that the “sitter” really imagines that he sees both sides when only one side ts presented to view, for the other already contains the com- munication Which you are to receive. If you ask to be allowed to examine the slate you injure the “conditions,” the “magnetism,” it you toucn it; if you are still anxious, there is the resort to an ex- change, which cramps, fits, spasms and continual talking will accomplish belore you are aware of it, | There are mediums who are continually travelling, | | visiting the principal cities and towns, one of whom resorts toa very artful dodge—that of pro- curing files of ancient papers containing the record of deaths in the places they intend to visit, that may contain even a slight obituary notice. When tuey arrive in town, perfect strangers of course, they are well fortilied With truthiul “revelations,” There are are very, very many, and some re- markable methods devised and employed by these charlatans, but neither time nor space will permit of parration here. If “Inquirer? contemplates puns, to the public another chapter o1 statements should be very much pleased to meet with him and explain some things which defy detection, | and which he can impart to the public in an able and satisfactory manner. “ AN EX-MEDIUM, SLADE ‘OUT OF HIS OWN HOUSE.” To THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD:— Your correspondent, “An Inquirer,” asserts in your issue of Tuesday that “Slade can’t get mate- rializations out of his own house.” In justice tome ana to the public will you, in accordance with your well Known spirit of fairness, give place'to the iollowing statement from under the hand of Mr, F, A. Hermance, a gentleman prominently con- nected for many years with the New York and New Haven Railroad, and now residing in New Haven? The extract is taken from a late work en- titled “The Identity of Primitive Christianity and | Modern Spiritualism,” by Eugene Crowell, M. D., page 443, vol. 1. HENRY SLADE. Having witnessed the manifestation of spirits in form at Dr. Slade’s residence in New York, and although thoroughly convinced of their genuine- ness, yet to give my family and others where I reside the benefit of testing them, I, with’others, requested Dr. Slade to visit New Haven tn his capacity as @ medical practitioner. As Dr. Slade | | was to be my guest I thought it a favor- able opportunity to see if the materiatiza- tions of spirit forms could be effected in my own honse where no arrangement: for the use of wires, pasteboard, pictures, &c., could possibly be made without my knowledge. Not communicating my plans to any person, I purchased a piece of black cambric about three feet square, in the cen- tre of which Icutan aperture over a foot square, carefully keeping 1t from the view of any one until the evening of Dr. Slade’s visit to my house, The evening was mostly spent giving tests to skeptics, by spirits writing on a slate with a piece of pencil no larger than the head of a pin, the siate being beld in most instances by the skeptics while Dr. Slade’s hands were in plain sight on the top of the table, the writing giving the names of relatives and triends of those hold- ing the slate, though Jong siace aeceased. In many cases the slate was not held bv any one, but sim- ply laid over the small bit of pencil on the table, which all present could see was its position, as well a8 hear the mysterious writing being done, jor all was accomplished tn full light, suowing plainly the position of pr, Slade’s hands, feet and whole person at the time. So evident was it that Dr. Slade had nothing to do with producing the writing that not even a suspicion of uniairness on bis part Was once hinted at uy the intel. | ligent, thougn skeptical, persons then witnessing and investigating this wonderful phenomenon. Most of the evening having passed as above mei tioned I tuen brought out my black cambric, hoi ing it up belore me and looking through the aper- ture. 1 said, “Dr. Slade, how is this!” He re- pled, “Good; let us try it.” ‘ois remark har- monized with my convictions and previous expe- | rlence, regarding Dr. Siade’s willingness to allow the fullest vestigation of the conditions and sur- roundings under Wiico spirit iorms appeared througn his mediumship. We at once repaired to my parior witnout further notice or preparation. A cord was suspended to nails on eacn side o! the room, @bout the centre of which was fastened one endl of my cambric cloth, the other end falling at six inches below the upper end or the table, in tne/centre of the room, around which two or my Jamijy and one of Mr. Whiting’s, with Dr. Siade, were soon seated, all joining hands. The light was subdued to a degree, but objects were plainly Visibié in the room. We had not been seated more tian one minute before a ball of light appeared at the aperture, increasing to the size of a | human head, and out of that developed the well defined features of a bright, intelligent tace, which was clearly recognized by those present (except by Dr. Slade, who never saw the spirit in earth lie) to be Park Whiting, the son of Mr. E. Whiting, ot New Haven, whose Wile was one of the four per- sons Witnessing the coming of her spirit son, who left them about two years ago beloved by all who knew him. Another sitting was had the same evening, %t wuich were two others of my tamily and Mr. Whiting, with the same result as before, except thata spirit orm also appeared between tue cumbric cloth and the table. Strange to say, during these sittings the gaslight would be raised and lowered without visible hands, a8 the The séance closed by Dr. Slade being entrancea by is Ind‘an une, Owasso, who promised tnat the next even- lng the spirit would be able to present itself more plainly. The next evening this promise was more than fulfilled, as the same spirit appeared tweive times, At one time, as he appeared so lifelike to the vision of those who piainly saw him, his mother asked, as we saw his band resting on the cloth in the aperture, “Park, do you wish to shake hands with your mother?” He immeuiately theus: his arm through the opening witn an ex- pression of joy and delight in the direcuon of his Mother, and with @ great effort to speak, which he did not succeed in doing, his power became exhausted and he vanished irom our sight. The | Dersons Who wWitmessed this were Mr. and Mrs. Whiting—tatner and mother of Park Whiting—and two young lady acquaintances, Tnese manuesta- tions wer? given in my bouse all unexpected to Dr. Slade, tt being che first ume the grand test of matertalization has been given vith him outside nis own house. The house aud furniture were mine; the cord and cambric curtain purchased oy nie, and all the surroundings of such a character | that Dr. siade, aside from his wonuerful medium powers, could no more have produced or assisved in proaucing those manifestations without my knowing it than he could overturn my house by whistiing atit. Ihave made this statement be- cause 1 beheve that justice to Dr. Slade and the interest wuich every wumaa being has in having tie jacts of these phenomena iairly tested re- quire 1¢ at iy hands, F. A. HERMANCE, We unhesitatingly affirm the fact of the appear- ance of-the spirit of our som. Park Whiting, as stated by Mr. Mermance. EB. WAITING, Mrs. E, WHITING, | A ilvely time is expected at the meeting of the Hoboken Board of Education this evening. A reso- | lution is to be offered setting forth that inas- MUCd @s nine out or every ten of the parents who send their children to the schools have nettner the desire nor the opportunity to have them in- structed In the higher branches, it has become ex- taught only the elementary brancnes of spelling, reading, writing, grammar, history and geography, Ample provision 18 to be laborers, are compelled, at a grievous disadvan- tage, to study drawing, German, pliysical geog- rapuy and other subjects which wil never be of the sligntest use tv them, By Virtue of the same system a large supply of unnecessary books 18 m- troduced ior the soie and special benefit of book | agents and imterested parties Thus (he time of the poor imau’s chidren ts wasted, as well as a large portion of the moneys that are so much | needed to meet the heavy taxation imposed upon | the citizens. In Mobuken, as in New York, the Ger- man iraction o! the community is not content with having the German taugit to their own children, but Want to tirust it down the (hroats of pupus | to Whum it will never be an advantage, SERIOUS ACCIDENT IN A GYMNASIUM. {From the Newburyport Herala, Dec. 25.) Caleb Cushing, son of Hon. William Cushing (and a relative of the American Minister at Mad- rid), met with a feariul accident on Wednesday evening, He wasin the gymnasium of the Insti- tute of Technology, in Boston, exercising on a vaulting bar, at avout nine o’clock, and while swinging on the bar bis grasp loosened and he came to the door several feet beyond where th mattresses were placed to guard against ac dents, In tailing he dislocated the verteore the upper part of the backbone, near his neck, and below this he was paralyzed. He remained conscious and able to speak, but could neither feel nor move his limbs, He was taken to the Massachusetts General Hospital. On Thurscay the surgeons held & consultation, but in the even- ing he Was sinking, abd there was little hope of his surviving the injuries received, made for the formation oi spectal classes, in which til 1855, when the Metropolitan’ Board ot te study of the fancy scteuces may be pur: | we ol tablished. It ‘appears vhat in the | sued, The resolution is aimed at the | thirty. r of that monarch’s reign the olfac- evils of the existing system, whereby the | tory gonsipiltt of @ noble courtier were dis- children destined to become tradesmen, clerks or | eu} by the smeli of the Fieet, then London's | wi 1874.—-WITH SUPPLEMENT’, THE CHTY OF LONDON. How the Modern Babylon Is | : Governed. THE LORD MAYOR. Proposed Reform—The Metropoli- tan Board of Works. Lonpon, Dec. 12, 1874. By a stroke of “poetic justice,” which cannot fail to be agreeably edirying to the legislatures of otner European nations, the English Parliament in its next session wili be engaged in an endeavor to solve a perplexing probiem of home govern- ment. The Assembly, Which never experiences the slightest diMculty in imparting dictatorial in- struction to the foreigner as to the way he should Tule himself, and who is always ready to under- take the government of any remove territory—be itali India or only the Fijt Isiands—will be once more at its wit’s end to devise a government for the British metropolis. What!” the Germaa and the Frenchman will exclaim, “Is not the Lord Mayor the government of London?” Not a bit of of it, Every Englishman knows that there never ‘was such @ sham in the flesh as this self-same Lord Mayor, nor such a terrivorial imposition as “the city.” Of course they cannot delude any one who has lived in England; but both are make-believes which go a long way with the stranger. When the Lord Mayor entertains a king or an emperor the metropolis of Great Britain gets the credit of the hospitality, and “the city’—i.e., tne territory of His Lordship’s Jurisdiction, is credited abroad with being to Eng- land what Paris is to France. This is about the funniest thing imaginable to everybody who knows that the Lord Mayor no more represents the metropolis than his title represents a real lordship, and that while the extent of ‘the city’ is 723 acres, that of the rest of the metropolis is over 70,000, Think of all this immense acreage, thirty-five miles in circumference, being to the close of this year of grace 1874 without a munici- pality, while “the city” reveis in its Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Common Council; its liverymenand | ‘Nongshoremen innumerable; its eighty-three “companies ;” its legal staif of Recoraer, Com- mon Sergeant and Commissioner ; its lieutenancy, | each heutenant being arrayed in the gorgeous panoply of a military general, gave that his epau- | lets and his sword knot and the cordon his cocked | hat are of silver lace instead of gold; its tremen- dously warlike looking Marshal, its sword ana mace bearers, and last, but not least, its toast- master. A becoming regard to “the eter- nal fitness of things” ehould have prompted us to put the oficial we have named last not in that position, but in the very next to the Lord Mayor himself in the hierarchy of civic personages. And why? Simply because the Lord Mayor’s dinners are the very first o1 the civic institutions of London, and what would those dinners be without the flourishes imparted to His Loraship’s oratory by the official henchman Who stands behind the chair, and after a blare of trumpets makes proclamation for all the Chief Magistrate’s marvellous utterances by a shout of, | “My lords and gentiemen, change your glasses, and, pray, silence for the Right Honorable, the Lora Mayor!” Is it any wonder that even a king or an emperor should view with a reverence not far removed from awe @ host who rises ater such ® peroration thundered fortn for him by proxy and welcomes his guests in the name of all Lon- | don? For the last quarter of a century, at least, Myriads turn out each 9th of November for the | purpose of laughing at ‘the Lord Mayor's show.”’ Because of the ridicule inflicted on “the men in armor” and other features of this piece of tom- | foolery those knights, with their gas-tarred coats of mail and their wall-eyed steeds, have van- ished for “the show’? as well as the Lord Mayor himself, is @ tradition, and though both are anacironisms in the present day, such is the aflecuon of the Lon- doners for traditional institutions, howeyer ab- 8urd, that no Lord Mayor has felt himselt strong | enough to abolish the show, aud mo English gov- ernment has felt itself powerful enough to extin- guish the Lord Mayor and reform the London Corporation, and this in face of the fact that every other corporation in Englund was reformed just thirty-nine years ago. A sensible Lora Mayor, ‘Aiderman Allen, positively refused to exbipit him- seltin “the gold coach” on bis inauguration day, and made use of his own modern and very elegant State carriage mstead of that venerable gewgaw, Wich weigos about two tons and a half and is be- dizenea all over with gilding and with little gods | trict Board the last five or six years; but | 3 as First Commissioner of Works, was afraid to risk the throwing out o1 the bill by joing as far as the Commission of 1853 had advised. t will be seen that the machinery to be set in mo- tion by his bill was ingenious and elaburate, but the pring ol all his exsensive organization weat bat little beyond the ordinary sewerage system of the metropolis. The thin end of the wedge, whieh sooner or later must break up the entire imperium in imperio of the “city” system was, however, gos in by that portion of the bill which vests ip Metropolitan Board of Works the whole of the mnain sewers, including those within the jurisaic- Uon of the Lord Mayor, It wouid be difficult to overrate the importance of this advance towara consolidated municipait government. All she Worid knows that there is nothing dearer to the souls of the Englisi people than what is jond); styled by them “the parochia! system,” but while! Dickens has immortalized in satire by the irreve- rentappellation of “Bumbledom.” Dickens showed it up tremendously in his portraits of Mr. Bum the parish beagle, and Mrs. Corney, the parochh Matron. But Bumbledom survives aud flourishes, Dovwithstanding the popolarity of “Oliver Twist,’? 4nd Sir Benjamin Hall and the administracion of | Which he was a member were obliged to bow down and worship it when (raming the Metropolis Local Management bill, Toe parish 13 the unit of the systein which that bill made law; and of @ com- bipation of parochial units the great Board itself is constituted. At the time the measure was intto- duced there were twenty-three larger parishes in the metropolis, exclusive of those Within tue City, and a considerable number of smalier ones, The latter Were grouped and formed into fourteen parochial districts, each of which was invested With all the functions of @ tull-biown parish. Each Parish was endowed with the power of appointing irom the Bumper of its own vestry men—t. é, elected representatives of the parish—a Dis- of Works, and again each ves- try Was to send to the Metropolitan Hoard of Works a given number of represeutatives to take their seats as members of this latter Board. Six of the larger parishes were to be so repre- sented by two members for each, the remaiming seventeen by one each and the jourteen groups by one each. As the Metropolitan Board Was to nave the control of the main sewers in the city 1% was, Of course, impossible to leave the territory of the Lord Mayor unrepresented in the general con- clave. Accordingly three seats in it were appor- tioned to as Inauy members hominated by His Lordsbip and the Corporation, Such ts the consti- tution of the Metropolitan Board of Works. It ts not bad 80 far as it gocs, aud on the whole the Boara has well discharged tne duties intrusted to it. The main dramage and the Thames embank- ment are grand ana lasting achievements of its useful action, But there are two radical evils in the system which coudemn it beyond redemption, At best the whole contrivance 1s a& costly make- shiit. The powers of the Board are in no sense municipal. So narrow and specific were the functions conferred on it by tie act un- der which it was established that it has been able to do the principal work it has done only by aseries of amending and extending acts of Parliament. ‘thus, the main drainage across the Thames embankment had to ve constructed under special enactments, Again, there 18 a mutual antagonism between the Metropolitan Board ana the London Corporation. Except tor main drainage the Board is powerless to enter and do work im the city, Ii it be 1ound desirable to construct or widen @ street partly Within and partly without the city, aud that une of those bodi does not concur With the otner, the work cannot be done, and the sutferiug pudiic must look on while the Commmuissione:s of Sewers | Oppose the Metropolitan Board of Works, and the etropoiitan Board of Works retaliates on the Commissioners o1 Sewers, and their respective | engineers and lawyers and inspectors of nui- | sances are making rival plans and specitications | and reports and counter reports, ior which | the ratepayers are finding tue junas, | Then, while by acts passed subsequent- \ ly to 1865, the Metropolitan Board is supposed to have a jurisdiction over all struc- tures within the metropois, but exclusive of those in the city, 80 48 to see that proper precautions against fire and other acciaents and against en- croachments on thoroughiares are taken when stores and dwelling houses are being built or en- larged, ratiway, canal, gas and telegraph com- panies set it at defiance gy means of private acts of Parliament. Purely parochial work is done by the vestries and their district boards of works, but to the Metropolitan board alone is confided | the decision in respect to and the construction of all works of a metropolitan character. There is, however, @ strong and growing iveling thas the members of the Board should be chosen by the ratepayers direct and not by the vestries, who in too many instances are narrow-minded cliques, imbued with the most obdjectionabie spirit of Bumbledom. One of the most curious facts in connection with English habits and man- ners ig that, much as the citizens of London revere the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Com- mon Council, no city man of the very first class willever have anything to co with that distin- guished Corporation, ‘The civic chatr is never filled Dy ee or @ Baring, or a Goschen, The right honorable the Lord Mayor ts invariably a third or fourth class city man, while the Common Council is an assemblage of publicans and small cheesemongers and persons of that standing, As ! tor the vestrymen, sidesmen, church wardens and other parochial magnates, they are, as a rule, little tradesmen, who make’ terribly faulty use of | the letrer H, while some of them would not know either that letter or any other if it were pre- sented to them in the boldest type. It will be seen, therefore, that London stands sorely in need of good municipal government. But “who will bell the cat? Lord Elcho, a conservative mem- ber of Parliament, ts guing to attemptit. His plan we reserve jor another letter, but tor the present we may say that it is very deierential to “our time-honored institutions.” Antiquity makes even abuse sacred in England, and woe to the reformer who lays too heavy @ hand on “great and glorious traditions.” AT CASTLE GARDEN. HOW IT LOOKS AND WHAT IS DOING THERE— SOME ACCOUNT OF THE TIDE OF IMMIGRATION AND THE GAUSES OF ITS DECLINE. and goddesses in gaudy colors. It is nota little singular that such an innovation was attempted by a conservative Lord Mayor; but as a reward Jor his efforts to reform, he Was hooted and hissed by the radical mob ol the metropolis, In like manner the. Lord Mayor and Corporation them- Belves have been kept alive by their tra- ditions. Every effort to abolish or abridge their “ancient rights and privileges” has up to this time been ridiculously unsuccessiul; but the existing state of things has become so intol- | erable in consequeuce of the vast increase of the | metropolis that one more attempt is to be made | in the coming session to give London a munict- | pality worthy of ite great commercial and territo- rial importance, Meunwhile this metropolis has made some ex- traordinary and commendable etforts to overcome the difticuities of the situation, and a brief survey of its endeavors in this Way Inay not be uninter- esting to tne citizens of New York and other large and growing communities wituin tue United States. In the first piace, it is but the merest jus- tice to the corporation of the city tosay that when | the whole metropolis consisied of the community | Within its gates it was a municipality not unwor- thy of what was then the capital oi Kngland, and that down even to tne present time it has always administered its vast riches with a splendid liber- ality. That it has ciung to its “pride, pomp and circumstance” may well be pardoned in consid- eration of the good use it has made of them within its hmited area, It haseven to some extent en- larged the sphere of its usefuiness by bring. ing within the sway of its authority and benevolence districts lying beyonu those gatcs, | such as “Bishopgate Without” and “Iarringdon | Without; bul, us the metropolis extended north, souch, east and west, the necessity of other ar- rangements was forced on the Legislature, and, while bo other municipality than that of the city corporation has ever been formed, no fewer than ten boroughs—Westminster, Kensington, Unelsea, Maryleboue, Finsbury, Hackney, the Tower Ham- lets, Southwark, Lambeth and Greenwich, each revurning two members to Parliament—have been instituted within the metropolis, besides “ihe city” which returns four, But that is not nearly ail that has been done in the way of recognition that “the city” has ceasea to be the metropolis, Previousiy to 185, incredible as it may appear, London, outside “the city,” was administered by several hundred sets of ‘Trustees o1 Sewers, Ves- tries and other such bodies, constituted under as many acts of Paritament, It 1s an odd circum. stance that the idea of effecting metropolitan improvements in London by the machinery o: Commissioners of Sewerage dates as |° far bach as the reign of Edward 1, and was not even partially abandoned ouly sewer. He complained to the King, and His Majesty issued & Commission Of Sewers to the Nayor and Sheriffs of London, requiring them to “scour and clean the River Fleet.” In the nine- teenth year of the reign of Charles iI. an act tor the rebuilding of the city of London after the | Gre vested in the Corporation certain duties | ng to sewage, and empowered that body to Appoint persons under its seal to carry Out those duties ; and in the tenth and eleventh years of the reign of her present Majesty the powers of the Commissioners of Sewers to ve appointed by “the Mayor, Aldermen and Council assembled,” were considerably eniar Under this last statute the Corporation, through its Commissioners ot Sewers, maintains @ very important jurisdichion over all street works in the city, notwithstandmg the — creation of the Metropotitan Board of Works, whicn Js Vested with similar jurivdiction as regads all | the rest of the metropolia, Such jurisdictions are | conficting, and of course are bighly inconvenient how (uat the Lottering old gate at Temple Bar 1s the only mark or token of @ practical boundary between the West End and the city, and tuat at the other extremity of the Lord Mayor's kingdom tuere is NOt even ihe ghost oO; a line of demarca- tion betweeu district of the Metropo' Board of Works and of the metropolitan police, h stretches iar beyond and in @ still more The tact is, that great as was ut way wade oy the Me+ ent act, tor that is the jer which the Metropolitan * Was coustituted, the enactment It was founded on the rec- commissioners appointed easterly direc\ion, Board of was only ten ommendations 0: The glistening snow lies piled around the old circular edifice at the Battery known far anda wide as Castle Garden. Only the pathways lead- ing to the place are free, and @ genera! scene of desvlation meets the eye in the vicinity, relieved only here and there by the graceiul paintea kiosks, which attest the taste, if not the economy, of the old Tweed r¢gime. A HERALD reporter, | Upon visiting the spot yesterday, tound oniy de- tached groups of shivering tmmigrants in the vicinity, and about the doors of Castle Gardem itsell a few pclicemen, who guarded the entrances and gave, cheerfully enough, mforma- tion as to the different offices, called “bureaus,” to be found within the enclosure that erst rung with the divine, meio‘ic notes of Jenny wind, In the rotunda o1 the building carpenters were busily en- gaged in repairing the foors, and the steady beat- ing of their industrious hammers awoke echoes that drowned the hum of voices trom the little knot of immigrants gathered near the stoves. It is always a touching signt to see the IMMIGRANT MOTHERS, WITH LITTLE CHILDREN in their arms, in this cheerless place, gazing about them in a sort of bewilderment—strangers in @ strange land, with nothing te remind them of the homes or people they have left behind them, But there is a significance in the signs here and there in their native language, telling tuem that “gold and silver are changed here,” a sort oi warning upon the very threshold of their new life that they will be wise not to trust money changers or uides outside of those walls. In the labor ureaus attached to the establishment there are groups ranged bejore the examiner, submitting with patience to the catechism of the officials as to their occupation at home, ability to do this or that work, and there isa PATHOS IN THEIR EAGERNESS to be employeu that cannot Weil be overestimated, But the lack of bustle at Castie Garden at this moment isin strange contrast to the arriving and departing armies of immigrants in tormer times. The total of arrivals this vear wili not be over 140,000, and it 1s stated that of the German nationality more have probably gone back to “Faderland” than have come thither from those shores. The crops in Europe have deem avundant, and the times have been bad here; Germans who had made small savings in America could retarn to their own country very cheaply if they were out of work here and live very economically, whereas by remaining their little store would soon be exhausted. The grasshopper plague of | the West has driven thousands of this class back iJ to Europe, and we may have lost the bet their labor and thritt forever. In October last classification of immigrants arriving, a8 to the countries irom which they came, given by the Commissioners of Emigration, was as follows:— Nationalities. S74. Oct., 1874, 67 48 Nationatities, Oct, 1 Ttaly... a Hi BBSEEEEs he arrivals wet eae |eezezecee i Total... . sees Of the total as above the destination of the immigrants was, as nearly as possible to be ascer- tained, about as follows:— few, York. j fe Beiees ) ennaylvanin. OL Nebrasca Lunois....... ‘M7 Minnesota lp hrons 1,200 unio. 18 Connecticut ixconsin. ndidud Mamachiset oO Lowa and 200 each. oD New Jersey, St Missouri § Caiitornia 43 The statement. for ten years has already been published in the HERALD, and the full report of the Commissioners Will 0@ Teady @0ONt tue Ist oF but its framer, te la Loiding Oflive Wwe wr Benjamin Hall, wiry oF the day then January, 1875, and will be Stull os Valuable statis- uce.