to Mr. Wallack, who was sadly cut up, as indeed he might well be. He has passed through two trying seasons. In the first he lost a large sum; last season he paid off many of his engagements, and this season had a bright prospect of being rewarded for his immense exertions, and all his hopes are thus dashed to the ground at a blow; at least for the present.

The flames caught simultaneously the roof of the African Methodist Church, corner of Leonard and Church streets, and the beautiful French Church, corner of Church and Franklin streets. These were soon consumed. The fire then caught the Dutch Reformed Church in Franklin Street, and several houses in the vicinity; some disreputable houses, and some respectable dwellings; some schools, and missionary houses the strangest medley that ever was destroyed in one burning. The exertions of the firemen were tremendous, and after working four hours, they got the fire under, with the loss of 260,000 dollars.

It was an awful and distressing sight, and such an one as we hope never, never to see again. A theatre, three churches, and twelve private dwellings, were all on fire at one time.

Charles Kean, Vandenhoff, Wallack, Hamblin, Barry, Mitchell, Stephen Price, Seguin, and some hundred actors and actresses were there, all agitated and excited, except Mr. Price, who looked on calmly. From the windows of the different houses all sorts of things were thrown in the wildest confusion; bibles, play books, hymn books, theatrical music, prayer books, pulpit coverings, theatrical dresses, cups for drinking the sacramental wine, gilded goblets for the banquet in Macbeth, parsons' surplices, Richard the Third's robes, church benches, stage chairs, all sorts of things were strewed in one promiscuous heap in Leonard Street; fortunately no one was hurt that we heard of.

With regard to the origin of the fire there is now but one opinion. It was owing to the gross mismanagement of the Gas Company. They had fitted up the interior of the theatre and the pipes in connexion with the gas room so badly, that it is supposed a large quantity of gas escaped, and coming in contact with a little lamp left burning under the stage, on account of the total absence of daylight, speedily ignited and communicated with the inflammable materials all around it under the stage.

As some severe comments have been made on the recent correspondence that has taken place between Mr. Wallack, Mr. Simpson, and Mr. Mitchell, in relation to a benefit proposed to be given at the Park, to the actors and other persons attached to the National Theatre, we give the correspondence itself, with our opinion thereon:

Monday Evening, 10 o'clock.
SIR-The management of the Park Thea-

tre, feeling for the calamity that has overtaken the many persons attached to the National Theatre, by the unfortunate conflagration of that edifice, avails itself of the first moment to offer to them the use of the Theatre for a free benefit upon such night, after Tuesday, as you or they may prefer. The entire proceeds, without deduction, will be paid to such committee as the sufferers may appoint for distribution among them. An early reply is requested, that the night may be announced immediately. E. SIMPSON.

J. W. WALLACK, Esq.

Astor House, 11 o'clock, Monday night. SIR-I acknowledge the receipt of your letter of this evening. I have handed it to Mr. Mitchell, who will communicate with you, doubtless, when he has shewn it to those whom it concerns.

E. SIMPSON, Esq.

J. W. WALLACK.

Merely upon the face of this, looking at Mr. Wallack's reply to an offer of a benefit from the Park management, to be given to the "many persons attached to the National Theatre," whose next week's salary would be of immense importance to them, he was wrong. The coldness or want of feeling attributed to Simpson is not applicable to him as a crime; it is his manner; moreover, though he wrote the above letter, the sentiments and words are not his. He did not indite them, and he is in no way responsible for them, save that he acted as an amanuensis for Mr. Price, who framed that letter, and who gave directions at the lobby door of the Park theatre to the man that carried it to Mr. Wallack, during the time that Miss Poole was singing "Wapping Old Stairs."

For several years Mr. James Wallack acted at Mr. Price's theatre with credit and success to himself, and emolument to his employers. Years passed on, and Mr. Price grew rich and fat and saucy upon his successes.-The other gentleman, after delighting the public as an actor, after conducting the general stage management of one of the first theatres in the world, considered the time was come for an opening in New York on his own account, considered rightly that the New York public required a higher order of talent than Mr. Price thought proper to give them, and he

nobly and manfully entered the field to compete with Price and the Park theatre in a fair and honourable manner.-On the other hand, either on his passage, or soon after his arrival here, Mr. Price declared his present visit to America was to put down the National Theatre; this was told to its lessee. On Saturday evening last, Mr. Wallack met Price in the lobby of the Park Theatre, and frankly and generously put out his hand, exclaiming "Price, my dear fellow, how are you?" Mr. Price, in a characteristic way, drew back, exclaiming, "We are not upon shaking-hand terms, sir!"

ap

From all this, our own opinion is, that the parent sympathy of Mr. Price was the sympathy of insult, of which there is a great deal too much in the world; Mr. Price first insulted Mr. Wallack publicly in the Park, and then added injury to that insult by making an apparently generous offer which he knew Mr. Wallack could not and would not accept; and then he thrusts the correspondence upon the public with a view to injure Mr. Wallack in their estimation. This will benefit him in the end. He will be placed at the head of a splendid metropolitan theatre, and that, too, we trust, before the year is out, though we are sorry to see on the committee for raising a new theatre, the names of persons who, instead of being able to aid in building the theatre, want themselves a subscription of 20 dollars to pay their tailors' bills. Weekly Herald of New York.

QUITE A PRETTY PROPERTY,

CONCLUDED.

Chap. VI.-In which Henry consorts with brokers and dabbles in stocks.

"You can't avoid making your fortune, sir. The thing is impossible. The stock can't stop short of five hundred dollars a share. It has gone up to two hundred and fifty dollars, within a fortnight, from sixty dollarsand I know of operations that cannot fail to carry it up one or two hundred more within a week."

The speaker was one of the craft of brokers a member of the board, and, ex officio, a man of exceeding honesty and veracity. The scene was in Harry's office: the time was in that summer of wild and reckless speculation, which sowed the seeds for a magnificent harvest of ruin. Henry was dangling one leg listlessly over the arm of his rocking chair, and an aromatic cloud from the Virginia weed encircled his brow.

"No, my good fellow, I shall not touch the stock. I am minus a cool ten thousand for some well timbered and well watered land in Maine'-that had not a tree to an acre, nor a stream large enough to float a leaf. No more speculation for me, if you please."

"But, Mr. Singleton, here is an opportunity to retrieve your loss, and to add a ten thousand to your property in less than thirty days. It can't fail. There's no mistake about it."

There is nothing that takes the ear of a gambler like a project to redeem his losses. Harry hated cards, and detested gamblers; but, like all the world at the period in question, he looked upon traffic in the fancies as a fair business transaction.

"No, no, Mr. Hardeye; there is too much hazard-and too little profit. And yet it is mightily inconvenient for me to be cut off from the income of my ten thousand dollars. If I thought-but-what do you say the shares are worth?"

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Why they were sold yesterday as high as two hundred and fifty dollars; but I have got a lot of two hundred shares to sell for a gentleman who wants to raise the moneyand if you will take the lot, and say nothing about it, you shall have them for two hundred and forty dollars: there's two thousand dollars made without getting out of your chair.'

"Only forty-eight thousand dollars-that just sweeps all my present property, and a little more."

"O well, there would be no difficulty in arranging that. Pay seventy-five per cent. cash, and the rest on time. I can manage that for you. Mr. Singleton, there is not another man in the city that I would do this for-because I am sure that I could get two hundred and fifty for every share of themselling them in small lots. But I am anxious to close the transaction to-day."

Mr. Hardeye, this is a little too much to risk in one enterprize."

"If you are willing to work along for a twenty years filing writs, you can do it, you know. But, Mr. Singleton, no man ever made a fortune in the law; and there is an individual in the street, who has made within the last ten days one hundred thousand dollars, at the least calculation, in this same Canton stock. You can get through the whole of it in thirty days and come out with your property double. There is no doubt of it-I pledge you my honour."

Harry was not sufficiently acquainted with the character of the pledge to reflect about it. It is highly probable that he thought the honour of a broker as sufficient as that of any other man. The effect of percentages in stimulating human credulity, he had never duly estimated. Besides, Mr. Hardeye was so kind, and so gentlemanly, and so disinterested! He had always been in the habit of loaning to Harry such little sums as he might desire, and never charged more than one and a half per cent. a month-though every copper of the loans cost him, upon his veracity, two per cent. This Harry could not forget. He knew that Mr. Hardeye had a

high regard for him, and was only anxious to give him a chance to make his fortune. "Think a moment, Mr. Singleton. There is no chance of the stock's going down. You can buy-and if you only make ten thousand dollars on the lot, it will be a very good week's work, and cover your losses in Maine. If you find it shaking, and become alarmed, you can sell out; but I give you my honour there is not one chance in a thousand that this will be the case. You're a lucky fellow—a very lucky fellow. All you've got to do is to sit in your office and let me do your work, and in thirty days your property is doubled—that is, in all human probability." Harry faltered.

stocks."

"His money was in bank

"That is very fortunate, Mr. Singleton. Bank stocks are all above par, and I can realize for the whole of them in half an hour. I've no doubt that my friend would take them in exchange at the current rates—and run the risk of raising his money on them."

"Well, Mr. Hardeye, it does seem to be poor business-this filing writs at five dollars a piece, when there are such splendid chances of realizing a fortune in the turn of a die. I'll go in. I can't lose much, as you say, and if the tide turns, why then sell out every stiver of the stock, and let me pocket the first loss. I am determined to run no risk."

"I should not advise you to, Mr. Singleton. The best way is to keep your eyes about you, and go on prudently—but it is a very paltry prudence, Mr. Singleton, that prevents us from plucking at fortune, when it is within our grasp."

Harry felt as if he had multiplied all his dollars by two. "Twice forty thousand," thought he, "is eighty thousand; and on the interest of eighty thousand I can be married, and go to Europe. Living_is_very cheap at Florence and even in Paris we could cut a very decent figure. And all this is on the supposition that I get but six per cent."

"Were you ever at Florence, Mr. Hardeye."

"Why, do you want a lot there, Mr. Singleton It is, without exception, the most flourishing city in the whole west. Here's a map of it "_spreading a huge litho graph, squared and lotted, and covered with streets and wharves. Harry did not interrupt him.

"There it is, Mr. Singleton. Natural advantages, monstrous. It can't fail to command the commerce of all the lakes,-has a hundred thousand tons of shipping, and one thousand five hundred inhabitants on the tenth of last month-doubled by this time, no doubt."

Mr. Hardeye paused to take breath; then wiping his spectacles, and taking pencil and paper he resumed. "I'll wait a few minutes

for you to look over it at your leisure. the first place, it is to be the terminus of no less than four railroads, which, by means of their connexion with canals and navigable streams, command a communication of more than fifteen thousand miles-taking in all the extent of all the rivers. The trade of all this vast and fertile tract of country must centre at Florence then, by its immense shipping and magnificent harbour, it will monopolize the commerce of the lakes-command the St. Lawrence, and through that, in all human probability, the trade of the known world. There is no doubt about it. It will kill Buffalo dead, sir-in less than a twelvemonth, sir," said Mr. Hardeye, removing his spectacles, and giving them an emphatic rap on the table, which took out one of the glasses. "A slight accident-no sort of consequence -when I get upon Florence I am always carried away by my enthusiasm. It's perfectly miraculous, sir, fortunes that have been made in that city. You may set down the population at three thousand; from the immense tide of emigration that is pouring in like a flood, from all quarters, (these are the very words of my correspondent, sir,) the number of inhabitants will probably double every six weeks. The fecundity of the inhabitants is marvellous, sir-miraculous, I may say, without the fear of contradiction."

Harry was too much astonished to interfere. The Florence of Italy quite vanished -and the dream of Miss Million and a palace in the queen of cities, was lost in the contemplation of her sister of the new world.

"Real estate, Mr. Singleton, stands at an enormous advance. You cannot buy the water-lots, if you were to cover them with guineas. They are not to be had. The house-lots that were bought two years ago for one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre, are now selling at the same per foot-and it is expected that prices will keep pace with the population, and in less than two months there is no doubt under heaven that those lots will bring two dollars and fifty cents a foot, every inch of them.”

"Well, Mr. Hardeye, now that I'm in for it, suppose you put me down for a dozen lots in Florence say numbering from one hundred to one hundred and twelve."

"You have hit them precisely, Mr. Singleton-the best lots in the city-and you shall have them at the lowest going rates only fifty per cent advance on the prices of the last purchaser-one half to be paid in sixty days, and the other to remain on mortgage of one and two years."

"That's it, Mr. Hardeye, and by the time of the first payment, I shall be able to realize enough from the profits of my Canton to meet it."

ton, and have all you're now worth put snugly back into six per cents. before thirty days are over your head. I'll go and arrange the papers at once."

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Harry lit another cigar. He hummed an air. He became contemplative. Eighty thousand dollars at ten per cent will give me eight thousand per annum. Money is worth twelve or twenty now on the best security. But I'll be moderate, and content myself with ten. We can live on eight thousand, if we are prudent and moderate. And then our children all provided for in lots salted down at Florence. I'll propose at once-be married at once-and sail for the Continent forthwith."

Chap. VII. Quite an interview, and almost a scene. No one, who lived with his eyes about him in those famous years of inflation and infatu ation, the memorable 1835 and 1836, can fail to anticipate the early catastrophe that awaited the "quite pretty property" of our hero. On the income of his chateaux en Espagne, his stock in the Canton Co., and his lots at Florence, Harry Singleton set up an equipage, and drove his span of beautiful bays directly through the heart of Mrs. Million. shortly affianced to the daughter.

He was

Harry's case was that of a thousand others. In the space of some three months-for the work of ruin was rapid in those days-Harry found that he had been duped, swindled, and stripped. His prospective income had vanished.

The brokers had made ducks and drakes of his very "pretty property." His Canton scrip had shrivelled like the leaf of a sensitive plant; and his well-wooded and well-watered lots at Florence proved to be better watered than wooded, having been submerged since the days of the deluge.

Here was a pretty situation for a young man of pretty property! But he neither committed suicide nor went to Texas. The shock found him unprepared, but its very suddenness and severity armed him with the strength to bear it.

Mamma was, of course, moved by prudential considerations. The wedding-day had been fixed. Mrs. Million entertained doubts and scruples, and was afraid to commit the happiness of her daughter to a gentleman of such habits-of unsuccessful speculation!

I have not much faith in heroines, particularly in heroines of fashion. Harry had learned to entertain as little. His plans of future life were uncertain; but he soon determined to gather the wrecks of his fortunes, strike out into the West, and throw himself upon the talents and energies with which nature had endowed him, and which a pretty property had impaired, without destroying.

"Miss Million," said Harry as he commenced a somewhat disagreeable, but necessary, communication—

"And why Miss Million ?" replied the blushing and lovely girl, the tear starting to her eye as she spoke, and a smile answering the appeal from her lip, as if startled by its not ungentle rebuke.

"You know, Mary, by this time-or the world has been more considerate than usual

that I am no longer in the condition which once authorized me to address you, and which would have justified even greater prudence than yours in receiving my attentions.'

The coolness of her lover's manner, his quiet self-control and possession, subdued any rising agitation in his mistress, and without a pause, she took up the conversation. "The

world, Harry, has been as little considerate as usual. I have learned of your reverse of fortune, and, for your sake only, I regret it."

"You must be aware that it will occasion an entire change in my plan and prospects of life. You it will remove from the circle of which you are so brilliant an ornament, and condemn to seclusion, at least, if not to poverty."

"If I had ever talked to you, Harry, of jointure or settlement, or given you reason to suspect that it was your fortune, and not yourself that I accepted in marriage, the change in your position might have wrought a change in our relations."

"It was my duty, my dear girl, to tell you a disagreeable truth. It is my lot to begin the world again: it should certainly be your privilege, and I beg you to use it freely, to decide if you will be my companion on another voyage than that for which we started. A word-Mary-hear me out, and then reflect before you answer. When you first pledged yourself to me, ease and competence, at least, were before you, with a moderate enjoyment of the pleasures of society and city life. The prospect is all changed-nay, my dear girl, be silent yet a moment! In a few weeks I must be beyond the mountains, to seek, in a younger and more liberal soil, the fortune that I cannot hope to find in this. My profession-too much neglected; and my books-too little read; must be my only companions and support-till labour and saving frugality, shall have retrieved, in many years, the fortune that a few weeks have squandered.'

"I was to have been the partner of your affluence, Harry; and not my hand only, but my faith and my affection were yours. We have been both so long loitering in the sunshine of fashionable folly, that we have been almost dazzled by its glare. I am glad that you are roused to better things; and, as I would have shared your wealth, I will as willingly share your seclusion and your toil."

This was kind, frank, and generous. Harry felt it to be so. In my original memoranda for this finale, I find an infusion of heroics, with a quantum suf. of "pressing to