156
PERSONAL AND GENERAL NOTES.
Miss Bella Burton of New Orleans is spending a short time with friends in McComb City.
Lieutenant Governor Knoblock spent yesterday in the city and returns to Lafourche in the morning.
Tracy Waller, eldest son of Consul General Waller, has been practicing law at New London, Ct. He will soon move to Arkansas.
Dr. Jones, the able superintendent of the state insane asylum at Jackson, La., was in town yesterday on business connected with that instiution.
Mr. Henry J. Carter, the popular deputy clerk of the United States circuit court, taking his annual vacation left the city yesterday for Grand Isle.
Mr. Andrew Jackson of Baton Rouge arrived yesterday with his lovely young daughters Misses Ella and Camille Jackson, and left in the evening for Pass Christian to spend a few days.
G. W. Dillingham, published, successor to G. W. Carleton & Co., has in press a novel entitled "At the Mercy of Tiberius," by Augusta J. Evan Wilson, of Mobile, Ala., author of "St. Elmo," "Infelice" and "Beulah."
It is said that Ex-Assitant Secretary Charles E. Coon, while in London recently, succeeded in placing a loan of $750,000 for a southern railway company and that before his return to this country he was offered a managing position in a London bank.
The following named persons were registered at Lurary Inn, Luray, Va., last week: N. Bowling, Miss A. L. Bowling, R. F. Sams, Atlanta, Ga.; J.B. Preston, Augusta, Ga.; H. Mosle, Galveston Tex.; R. S. McCulloch, Ls.; Ed. G. Carroll, New Orleans.
Judge F. P. Poche will leave in a few days for the Montgomery Whte Sulphur Springs accompanied by several members of his family. The Misses Poche expect to visit St. Louis in October and will be present at the time of the festivities in honor of the Veiled Prophet.
Mark Twain says that he cannot write in the cold months. Pointing from his billiard room one March day down to the summer-house in sight, he said to the writer: "There, when I can get in that with the leaves and birds about me I can write. In the winter I can do nothing that suits me.
Mrs. Mary Mapes Dodge, the brilliant and popular editor of St. Nicholas, was a young widow before she ever entertained the idea of writing for publicaiotn. The first contribution she ever sent to a magazine was promptly acceped, and there was an instant demand for her sketches.
The largest summer cottage in Satatoga is owned by Mrs. Daniel S. Lathrop of Alband. Mrs. Lathrop is a near relative of Senator Leland Standford of California, and is a very wealthy widow. Her Saratoga home is a magnificent house, Gothic in style and surrounded by handsome lawns.
Mr. Charles Kirsch, of the furniture house of B. J. Montgomery & Co., left last evening for the east and the west on his annual purchasing campaign. This firm is among the leading furniture dealers of the country and they are determined that our citizens shall not have an excuse to go from home to furnish their houses.
Last Sunday night's performance of the "Colleen Bawn" by the Knights of Labor surprised those who expected an indifferend representation. It turned out to be so good that there has been a general request for its repetition. With the Colleen at the St. Charles against next Sunday night there would be a crowded house, and "Handy Andy" can be given a chance later.
Gilbert and Sullivan are said on the authority of a London newspaper man, who is very close to the D'Oyly Carte management, to be preparing an opera on American subject with special reference to the Wild West craze, which Buffal Bill has made fashionable in England. Cowboys, scouts and good and bad Indians will figure in it extensibely, and it will be produced simultaneously in London and New York, probably at the Casino in the latter oity.
The example set by the University of Pennsylvania is establishing the Wharton School of Finance and Political Economy is beginning to be followed in the south. It is proposed to establish a chair of political economy and social science in Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va., with Ex-Congressman John Randolph Tucker as its occupant. Mr. Tucker was at the head of the law school in this institution when first elected to congress in 1874, and continued to be a member of the faculty throughout his twelve years of continuos service in congress.
157
TOPICS IN NEW YORK.
JACOB SHARP DISHEARTENED.
AFRAID THAT HE WILL DIE IN PRISON.
Completion of the Argument on the Motion for a New Trial of His Case- Henry George and Dr. McGlynn.
[Special Dispatch to the Baltimore Sun.]
NEW YORK, July 27. -Jacob Sharp spend a very restless and uncomforable night, and arose this morning very much disheartened. He is fast developing a morbid fear of dying in prison. To a personal friend he remarked this morning that he knew he was dying anyhow, and for the sake of his fmaily he hoped he might be permitted to die outside the walls of a jail. The arguments for and against Sharp's appeal for a new trial were closed late this afternnon, and Judge Potter took the papers, and promised to gibe a decision at as early a day as possible.
Henry George said this evening that the publicly announced determination of the Pope not to interfere with the Roman Catholic members of the Knights of Labor was a practical acknowlegement of the rightfulness of Dr. McGlynn's position. The Pope admitted that he was not justified in interfering with Roman Catholics becuase they were members of a secret labor society, and yet he denied to Dr. McGlynn liberty to excercise the right of free thought and free speech.
The annual report of the superintendent of the United States assay office in this city for the year ended June 30, 1887, was sent to Washington this afternoon. It shows a large increase in the deposits of gold for assay and refining: while there has been a falling off in the silver deposits, not withstanding the receipts of trade dollars. In round numbers the gold deposits will aggregate $53,000,000, as against $16,400,000 for the preceding year, while the silver deposits will only aggregate $5,000,000, including $3,250,000 in trade dollars, as against $5,300,000 the year before, when there was no influx on account of the trade dollar redemption. The amount of of billion now on hand in the vaults of the assay office is a fraciton less than $50,000,000 in gold and $3,750,000 in silver.
"Buffalo Bill" is to have rival in the WildWest show business in London. Lured by his brilliant social success over there. "Mexican Joe," otherwise Capn. Joe. Shelley, aslled on the National Line steamer Italy for Liverpool this morning with a good-sized party of Texas cowboys.
Mr. Henry S. Ives and his partners continue to adhere to their policy of silence regarding the Baltimore and Ohio negotiations. Their lawyers are apparently hard at work preparing the papers in the suit against Rober Garrett, and both Mr. Sullivan and ex-Gove. Roadly declare that nothing further will be published about the case until the formal complaint served.
A meeting of coal company preseidents has been called in this city for tomorrow afternoon to take action on coal prices for August. An advance in prices for all sized of coal will be ordered.
Ex-Postmaster- General Frank Hatton talked politics at the Fifth Avenue Hotel today with his characteristic postiveness. He thinks that Mr. Blaine can get the republican nomination for President, but he cannot be elected. It would be easier to elect Sherman than Blaine, but even the Ohio man has too many enemies to be a desirable candidate. Mr. Hatton would not say who he thought would make a strong candidate. He says the Robt T. Lincoln does not want the nominaiton.
The steamship Italy, of the National Line, was being loaded for sea and the men on Tuesday night were asked to work overtime. They demanded sixty cents per hour, were refused and left. The Italy sailed today two and and a-half hours late, and now the National Line agent say he will replace his 150 union men with non-union workers. He says all the companied have formed a combination to replace union me.
158
STARBEAMS.
Over an obscure door in New York is this sign: "Mending for bachelors."
What is a circus without the intelligent mule" Nothing but a vain, fleeting show.
Theodore Thomas has sued the National opera company. Does he expect to get blood out of a turnip?
In Cincinnati the thugs are brave enough to attack a blind man, rob him, and make off with the booty.
Several of the pure minded young men of Cincinnati were arrested and fined, last Sunday, for playing at baseball.
A dog fancier says it is poor policy to feed dogs meat in the hot days of summer. Bread and butter is a safer diet.
There is a brilliant galaxy of American talent in Europe. There is Blaine, Cameron, Pulitzer and Cody (Buffalo Bill).
The weather forecast of the old farmer is no longer of value. The modern man or woman goes to the signal service report.
Carry your umbrella. It is so American, you know, and also English. This summer they all do it. The sun makes it necessary.
George Francis Train thinks he is not in need of money. [?] has declined an offer of $10,000 from a bureau for thirty lectures on the "burning questions" of the day.
Men now who make wills should specify whether they prefer the plain, old-fashioned burial or the crematory process. The two ways are open in this country.
It is well to look at affairs in time. It has been observed that when Robinson Crusoe wanted his man Friday for a Saturday's job he always engaged him on the day previous.
The New Orleans [Picayune?] is confident that no one can realize how much money there is in the world until he reads the assets of insurance companies printed on the backs of their folders.
During the "dog days" muzzle your dog. Excessive heat, long continued, makes rabid madness. In the economy of nature there has been no niche found for the dog possessed with the rabies.
A woman in Ohio who had seperated from her husband and wished to take every precaution against any further complications, left his church and joined another, giving as her reason for so doing that she did not want to meet her husband in heaven.
Over seventy-five thousand copies of "She" have been sold in this country. In the same time these "She's" have been moving away. It is probable that not more than five thousand copies of "David Copperfield" have been sold. There is no accounting for taste.
There is an old man up in Maine, not the "man from Maine," who believes he is a second Noah. He is constructing a primitive ark. As it has been raining there steadily for more than a weel, he believes the ark will be needed and his washed-out neighbors are not cross to him.
The author of "She" is fervent enough in his professions for morality, but in his novel which he calls "Jess" he allows one of his characters to say "It is a melancholy fact that women rather like being sworn at than otherwise, provided, the swearer is the man they are attached to" This is not a "melancholy fact" nor a fact of any other sort. It is not a fact at all --the fact is the reverse of the statement. A woman does not banker after being cursed, and especially is it disagreeable to them to be sworn at by the "man they are attached to" Mr Hagard should see that his characters do not indulge in incorrect statements.
160
THE LION OF LONDON
London, July 10 - Special Correspondence have been received into London's fashionable Holy of Holiea. I have seen mysterious sights which thousands of Londonders fain would to see, but can not I have stood in the sacred precincts where H. R. H. the Princess of Wales, with her train of titled attendants, has been proud to stand. What was it? Some weird recess in a vast cathedral, where a mighty hero rests triumphant? Not at all. I have simply been in Buffalo Bill's private tent at the American Exposition.
I will proceed to reveal the secrets of this mystic habitation. The tent is in two parts- one a parlor and the other a bedroom. The wooden floor is covered with beautiful rugs woven by nature on the backs of her four footed creatures, and ruthlessly torn therefrom by the hunting of the Hon. Mr. Cody. The skins of a moster grizzly and a yellow streaked panther lie near the door, and glare at you fiercely, even yet, out of their glassy eyes. In the center of the room is a sort of taxidermical mosaic, to which a score of animals have contributed much more of themselves than they could conveniently spare, and on this rests a rack of repeating rifles, which are supposed to have done deadly execution in the Wild West. The chairs are of polished buffalo horns, upholstered in soft fur, and the tables and walls are covered with a profusion of curious relics, quite indescribable. Strings of Indian scalps, the glossy black hair mingling with the feathers and foxes' tails; Indian belts, beaded in gandy colors and fantastic designs; iron-pointed arrows, which cut through a horse or a man like a rifle bullet; the knife with which Buffalo Bill killed "Yellowhand;" great spreading antlers hung with specimens of cowboy wearing apparel; moccassins, papoose cases, etc.
In all this, perhaps, there is nothing very extraordinary; but this is not the extraordinary part of the tent. Let us pass bacfk into the sanctum sanctorum- the bedroom. Here the appearance is very different. Instead of shaggy skins we find
A BED COVERED WITH THE RICHEST LACE, and rude buckskin is supplanted by the most skillful work of a fashionable tailor. Hot and cold water. luxurious furniture, tine pictures - in fact, a first-class hotel could hardly offer more in the way of comfort and elegance than Buffalo Bill's sleeping apartment. The dressing-table the other morning was piled up with scented invitatious, stamped with armorial bearings, requesting the pleasure of Mr. Buffalo Bill's company at various receptions, dinners, balls, etc. The mantel-piece was decorated with photographs of the Queen, of the Prince and Princess of Wales, of Mrs. Brown Potter, of Miss Grae Hawthorne, of Miss Ellen Terry, ande of Henry Irving, etc. and all with "the kindest regards of these distinguished personages.
"Why," said the boy who was showing me about, "there is not a day that passes without our havin ladies and gentlemen of the nobility here. This morning, for instance I showed the Duchess of Teck and the Duchess of Connaught what you are seeing now, and if the Princess of Wales has been here once, she has been here at least a dozen times.
There is no doubt about it, Buffalo Bill is the great lion of the season. Mr. John Sartin, the affable Philadelphia artist, and the manager of the Art Department of the American Exhibition, said to me yesterday: "Without Buffalo Bill this whole enterprise would have been a dead failure. He draws the immense crowds, and after the show they flock into the picture galleries, and find often to their astonishment: that we have some fine paintings here. However, without the "Wild West's attraction, we should never have got our crowds at all."
A lady who was present at a reception given some time since by the Marchionces of Ely, told me that Mr. Cody stood in the center of the room, under the great chandelier, his long hair streaming down over his broad, stout shoulders, literally surrounded by
A CIRCLE OF TITLED ADMIRERS and at the supper table he sat at the right hand of the Princess of Wales. The fact is, he is a very handsome man, and has succeeded by houest enterprise in giving the Londoners an exhibition which certaintly has the unaccustomed charm of absolute novelty. Naturallym they are grateful, and for the moment he is their hero. Hardly less amusing than his extraordinary social success are the heated discussions as to his real merit. The following is a goode illustration of this: it happened at a recent ball in this city. Buffalo Bill was parading grandly through the rooms, with Mrs. John Bigelow on his arm who was evidently supremely happy at the sensation she was making. The Hon. james G. Blaine was there, too, and so was Minister Phelps, as well as a host of other distinguished Americans, but Buffalo Bill, was nevertheless, the center of attraction, and as he advanced slowly, he was kept bowing without intermission to the dozens of pretty faces which happened to be in his path - quite by accident, of course. He bows, by the way, with the grace and dignity of a king. It was during this grand ovation that I overheard the following conversation between a titled English lady and an independent American damsel.
"Isn't he a splendid man?" said the duchess, with enthusiasm.
"Hum," replied the other, "I don't see anything very splendid about him. he is only a cowboy anyway and no one would recognize him at home. I think you English are too ridiculous for anything."
"Nothing but a cowboy," responded the other indignantly; "do you know him?"
"No, I don't nor do I wish to either. It's bad enough to have to be in the same room with such a fellow."
"Well, now, I do like that You present to judge the Hon. Mr. Cody without having met him or spoken to him. Let me tell you then, from my own knowledge, that he is a
MOST REFINED AND CULTIVATED GENTLEMEN. Why do you suppose that English ladies would recieve him here as they do if he were anything else? Besides that, you know very well that he is one of your legislatures, wasn't he?"
"Yes, in some barbarous far Western State, where there are nothing but cut-throats and Indiana. No doubt he was, but I do not see how you can wish to invite to your houses a man who has spemt all his life in the elevating society of buffalo hunters, cow-boys, and squaws."
This last word was too much for the English duchess, and she went off with a sarcastic "Thank you for the insinuation against us."
To return now to the encampment. After my young guide had, with the utmost reverence, disclosed to me the marvellous secret of his mater's tent, he led me through the entrance over which a massive buffalo's head - a fitting emblem- seems to keep guard I wished to see Colonel Cody in person, but while waiting for his return, we strolled about through the crowds who regarded us a w.h. admirning eyes, as favored beings to whom some kind destiny had vouchsafed the mighty honor of treading the hallowed precints denied to them. That sounds like sarcasm. Perhaps it is to some extent; but the simple fact remains, account for it as you may and laugh at it if you will, that, form Kings and Queens down, and from pickpockets up, the population of this vast city has gone mad over Buffalo Bill, mad over the show in general, and the man in particular.
He must be one of those magic persons, for he seems to draw pretty nearly everything, whether it be the radiant beauty who holds London at her feet, or the monster buffalo roaming restlessly in his native prairie. The lasso holds the one, and a rare type of manly dignity the other. This boy who is showing me about illustrates what I mean. Sixteen years old, blue eyes and fair hair, a quiet serious manner perhaps a little timid, and, on a whole, what you would call a home boy, or a sunday-school boy- if he had been let alone he might have developed into a peaceful member of the salvation army. But Buffalo Bill, with his scalps and Indians, appeared to this youth and now he thinks and dreams only of bowie knives and revolvers.
"Yes," he said to me in such an earnest way that I could hardly keep from laughing, "I am going to be a cowboy."
"How will you do that?" I asked.
"Oh, I shall go with Mr. Cody to Paris, or wherever else he travels, and then he will take me back home with him."
"But what will your father and mother say to such an arrangement?"
"Well sir, I don't know about that." he replied doubtfully, "but anyhow I'm going. I don't think there is any life so fine as a cowboy's."
We walked along by the tents of his heroes, the long-haired, high-booted individuals who rejoice in such high-sounding names as Cherokee Bill, Broncho Charlie etc. We could see
NEBRASKA FRONTIERSMEN playing poker with Mexican vaqueros, at the same time performing unparalleled feats of target practice with the juice of the tabacco plant, and enlivening their conversation with euphonious profanity. We saw Indians of all shades and colors, from the ugly old squaw, waddling along in an immense red and white blanket, to the little 5-year-old Sioux, who skipped playfully about enveloped in nothing much except his skin.
"Don't you have trouble with these fellows?" I asked.
"Oh, not much. A couple of nights ago some of them ran off and got drunk and of course they made things lively for a while, but generally they are too lazy to make a disturbence. Then you see they are well fed and paid and are mostly contented with the life."
After finishing up the out-of-door attractions we looked in at the American Exhibition proper which, leaving out one picture gallery, that certainly does credit to our country, is a complete absurdity. Some uninteresting machinery, grand displays of canned tomatoes and pickles, pyramids of Dr. Sombody's sugar coasted pills, a counter where an energetic man wastes an immense amount of breath in trying to sell what he seems to consider a marvelous top piles of spades and pitchforks, patent egg-beaters etc, such is this much wanted American Exhibition. Without Buffalo Bill the enterprise must have been a dire and dismal failure.
On returning to the tent I found Colonel Cody and his black-haired daugher. He was dressed in a dark blue military jacket, which fitted him like a glove and showed off to perfection a splendid pair of shoulders. Under this he had a black silk shirt, beautifully embroidered in the rich Russian style, and at the waist a heavy cord in twisted massive gold, which made you reflect on the pecnniary advatnages of his position.
"What do you think, sir, of England?" I asked him.
"Well," said he earnestly, "after the magnificent welcome Londoners have given me, there is not much doubt as to my answer to that question. I think this
A LOVELY COUTNRY and a grand Nation. I have been surprised at the appearance of London. It's so clean, so orderly, and so substantial. I had expected to find much poverty and suffering, but I am very agreeably dissapointed."
"Perhaps you have you have not been loooking for it in the right place," I suggested.
"You're right there," said he smiling; "I have been at the other end of the social scale By the way. Here is a magnificent thing which the Prince of Wales gave me the other day. You see it is a large horse-shoe in solid gold set with diamonds and rubies, and here on the inside are the three royal feathers of his family."
"How are you impressed with the Prince of Wales?"
"He is a splendid man and immensely fond of Americans. Since his visit to our country he has taken the warmest interest in our doings and prospects."
"And the Princess?"
"Well, she is prettier than her daughters, and-"
Here my distinguished interlocutor was interrupted by a party of celebrities- bishops, statesmen, pretty women, etc.- who had come to pay their respectsm so I devoted myself to Miss Cody.
Miss Buffalo Bill is a young lady of 19 or thereabouts, inclined to be pretty, but rather conveying the impression that she revels in sucking oranges, chewing gum, etc. She had a little piece of black court blaster stuck artistically at the side of her nose, and seemed to be trying tremendously to make you think she had been accustomed to "this sort of thing" all he life.
"In about three weeks," said she "I shall take a run to the Continent. I may go down into Africa for a while, too (admiring her patent leather boots). I don't speak much French, you know. I tell folks that I can only parlezvous (giggling and playing with her diamonds), but I guess I can get on somehow. I think Europe is immense, don't you? and don't care how long pa stays here."
I withdrew, and on my way home pondered on the destinies of man.
CLEVELAND L. [MOFFETT?]