ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

ink is beneath it or not. If it is, the points are pressed into the surface of the other plates; if not, they are withdrawn aud prevented from cutting. The feeler and the bruins must, of course, all follow a spiral track. This is crude, and can be made applicable to the reproduction of certain kinds of designs only, but it is considered a long step in the direction of practical success.

Cheap Photography.-There is no art undergoing more rapid improvement just now than photography. An Antwerp photographer has lately discovered a means superseding the costly chemicals which hitherto have been indispensable. He uses a thick ink and obtains impressions very much in the same way as by ordinary lithography. A Frenchman has invented a photographic apparatus which can be carried in the pocket, and costs under £5. With this apparatus there is no necessity to submit the negatives to a chemical process immediately. It is enough that they shall be kept in the dark, and they need not be manipulated for a year. Photography by this apparatus is a most rapid process. Four minutes suffice to set up the instrument, three to get the picture, and four to take the instrument down. So that in less than a quarter of an hour a photograph of any object can be taken.

The Builder says it is intended to erect in Urbino a memorial worthy of Raffaelle, and to establish a museum of art in the house in which he

was born. The great point of attraction in this house is the fresco painted by Raffaelle's father. This house and the precious fresco are now for sale; and the Count Gherardi, president of the Academy, is anxious to secure them for the town. The sum demanded is 25,000 f., and a subscription has been opened to raise this amount.

Mr. Ruskin has founded a separate mastership for teaching drawing in connection with the Slade endowment of an Art Professorship at Oxford. Mr. Ruskin proposes to open elementary schools in the course of next month, in the University galleries, Oxford. Here, it appears, the author of "Modern Painters" will instruct his pupils in accordance with his latest views, and, as we presume, in some respects with reference to his “landscheme," or St. George's Fund.

With the second number of the Paris Autographe a supplement is given which contains, amongst the interesting historical documents of the day, an unpublished drawing by M. Gustave Courbet, drawn by him on coming out from a sitting of the Council of War at Versailles, and dedicated to Maître Léon Bigot.

A bust of Mr. Grote is to be placed in Poet'scorner, Westminster Abbey. The commission has been intrusted to Mr. Charles Bacon. The

model is finished, and has been pronounced by Mrs. Grote, Lady Eastlake, Professor Robertson, and other friends of the deceased, to be a perfect likeness.

The work of reconstructing the Vendome Column has been begun at Paris, under the supervision of M. Renard, the famous contractor.

VARIETIES.

The Revolt against Tammany Hall.-If there be any bone and muscle in the American Democ

[ocr errors]

racy after it has passed through the fiery ordeal of corruption in great cities, now is the time for it to show itself and prove its worth. In a place like New York, where the wealth of two worlds rolls in at full tide, where magnificent natural advantages have fixed a commerce which hardly any of the crimes or follies of the people can injure, men are for the most part too busy making money to trouble themselves about petty thefts and swindles. A New York merchant or Wall-street speculator does not, in ordinary cases, think it worth his while to waste time-which is money, in a very real sense, to him—to incur annoyance, or, perhaps, to expose himself to serious risk, in the difficult task of exposing a fraud on the city taxpayers. It would be about as idle as to expect a speculator on the Stock Exchange, during some time of crisis, to run after a pickpocket in the labyrinths of the city and to spend precious hours in the fruitless chase. A prosperous New-Yorker calculates that though fraudulent civic administration may plunder him in common with the rest of his fellow-citizens, the loss is distributed among so many who are all hastening to grow rich, that each one will feel it but slightly. On the other hand, an exhibition of public spirit may draw down on those who attempt to vindicate public justice and honor the vengeance of the scoundrels who are in possession of power. The Chiefs of the Tammany Ring who now govern New York have shown how unpleasant they can make the position of any man who dares to oppose their sovereign will. If a citizen shows public spirit, he is punished by being assessed at an extravagant rate; or if a spirited and able newspaper like the New York Times courageously exposes Corporation in a frivolous and vexatious suit. official malpractices, its property is attacked by the Again, the fact that the Tammany Ring, with its organized machinery for electoral frauds, and its command of vast sums of money, has been at the disposal of the Democratic party for political purposes, had induced hitherto even respectable Democrats to wink at its plunderings. For all these reasons, public spirit and readiness to make sacrifices for the general interest have been fatally wanting among the decent classes in New York; they have shrunk from encountering rowdyism at the polls, from insisting on the responsibility of the municipal officers to the taxpayers, from demanding a strict account of the expenditure of the pub. lic money. Naturally, rowdyism has had all its own way at election, and corruption has reigned supreme in the municipal administration. cannot be astonished that the Tammany Ring, thus left to work their will with the Government and taxation of the greatest city in the New World, have robbed and mulcted the citizens on a scale never paralleled anywhere, and almost surpassing belief.-Spectator.

We

General Washington's Private Accounts.— Some curious records of General Washington have come to light. The Treasury officials, in making arrangements for the better preservation of the valuable papers, have lately removed from a vault, in which they have lain for more than half a century, the accounts of General George Washington while he was commander-in-chief of the American army during the Revolutionary war. The accounts are stated to be in General Washington's own handwriting, are written in clear and

[ocr errors]

bold characters, and arranged with systematic accuracy. The title-page of the accounts bears the following inscription :-" Account of G. Washington with the United States, commencing June, 1775, and ending June, 1783." Entries are made of every item of his household expenses, and for all moneys used in transport of troops, and, in fact, every disbursement incidental to the Revolutionary war. These accounts show that Washington repeatedly declined to accept compensation offered to him while serving as commander-in-chief. His determination not to cover up or take advantage of the oversight of other Government officers is illustrated by the following entry and the marginal note in explanation of the same :- By cash, 133 16s. Note. This sum stands in my account as a credit to the public, but I can find no charge of it against me in any of the public offices where the mistake yes. Know it, but wish it could be ascertained, as I have no desire to injure or be injured." Washington also submitted a table giving the amount of money received at different times, with its nominal value and value by depreciation, from which it appears that in October, 1777, 1,000 dols. was worth 911 dols.; in January, 1778, 2,000 dols. was worth 1,370 dols. The market value of money continued to depreciate, so that in March, 1779, 2,000 dols. was quoted at 200 dols., and 500 dols. at 50 dols. The final note at the end of his statement is as follows:-" I received moneys on private account in 1777, and since which, except such sums that I had occasion now and then to apply to private uses, were all expended in the public service, and through hurry, I suppose, and the perplexity of business, for I know not how else to account for the deficiency, I have omitted to charge, while every debit against me is here credited. July 1, 1783."

California's New Poet.-The new California poet is an Oregonian, and his real name is C. Hiner Miller. His father, Hulins Miller, settled with his family-wife, four sons, and one daughter -near the town of Eugene City, in Lane county, Oregon, nearly twenty years ago, when the subject of this sketch was a boy. Hiner went to California probably in 1858, and spent a short time in the mines near Yreka, where it was reported that he got into a difficulty and shot at the Sheriff of Siskiyou county. On returning home he attended school in Eugene City till late in 1860, and was in the same class as the writer of this article. He then spent about a year in Eastern Oregon, and what is now Idaho, running a pony express and carrying letters and papers from the nearest postoffice, a distance of two or three hundred miles over the mountains, and through the Indian country, to the miners. Again he returned home, and after a short time during the early part of the war of the rebellion, he edited the Eugene City Review, a Democratic paper, and as the writer of this was editing the Republican paper there at the time, he has a distinct recollection of a fierce war of words. Soon after this he married Miss Minnie Myrtle, a young lady who had acquired a reputation as a writer of verses. He then went east of the Cascade Mountains with his young wife, and settled in the gold mining camp of "Canyon City," on John Day's River, in the new county of Grant, where he put out his shingle as an "attorney-at

law." He was soon afterward elected County Judge of Grant county by the Democrats, and remained there till the Spring of 1870, during which time he accumulated considerable money, and published in the local newspaper, from time to time, a part of the poems which he has collected and published in London. Last Spring he came back to his old home at Eugene City, separated from his wife, leaving her and two children provided for, and on June 6th, 1870, the day of our State election, he left the Willamette Valley for Europe, and was, I believe, the Paris correspondent of a leading New York paper during the Franco-German war. His last production before leaving the shores of the Pacific was a parting farewell to his wife, entitled "Myrr," and addressed to "M. M. M." (Minnie Myrtle Miller). It was published over his signature, on the 11th of June, a few days after his departure (he carrying away an advance proof-sheet), in the Oregon State Journal, which, although Republican, was the paper he selected as the medium of most of his publications, as his father, brothers, and nearly all of his warmest personal friends were of that school of politics. To this production his wife published a reply in verse soon after his departure, in which she criticised him in severe terms. One of his brothers, Dr. John D. Miller, left Oregon to serve in the Union Army in Virginia, and is now residing in Easton (Penn.). His brothers and parents are still residing near Eugene City, in the beautiful valley of the Willamette, and his only sister, Ella, died in that place a few months ago. It was reported that he became acquainted with Miss Myrtle by seeing her verses in print, and commenced corresponding with her before they had seen each other. Then he called at her home, on Coos Bay. The first time another gentleman, who was paying his addresses to Miss M., happened to be in the house, whereupon Hiner introduced himself by drawing a revolver and driving his rival from the room. They were then married and went to Eugene City. Perhaps there is some truth in this, because in her reply, Mrs. M. M. M. reproaches him for coldness and neglect, after having driven her lover from her presence and separated them forever. He is as impulsive and reckless as Byron, but is a true and noble friend. In his farewell he predicted that he would have "a name among the princely few," which may yet be verified.

Circassian Women.--The Circassian women, concerning whom we have read such marvels, in prose and verse, are declared by Mrs. Harvey to be not generally good-looking (though very great beauties are sometimes seen among them), and those of the Abasian province are decidedly plain. "The national dress," says the writer, "does not heighten their charms. They usually wear loose Turkish trousers, made of white cotton, and a peculiarly frightful upper garment of some dark cloth, made precisely like the coats worn by High Church clergymen-tight and strait, and buttoned from the throat to the feet. A striped shawl is sometimes twisted round them like an apron. blue gauze veil is thrown over the head, and their hair, which is generally long and thick, is worn in two heavy plaits that hang down behind. The beauties who obtain such great reputation in Constantinople and the West almost invariably come from Georgia and the valleys near El Berouz.

A

In

those districts the women have magnificent eyes and fair complexions."

It has an odd effect to find Mrs. Harvey lamenting that they had "arrived too late in the season to see the good-looking girls ;" and a still more odd effect when she explains this vexatious circumstance in the simple words, they have all been sold. Early in the year, the traders arrive from time to time, and Circassian parents do not object to dispose of their daughters for a consideration; they only do it with more candor and less cant than Belgravian parents. It is said that the "nooneyed" beauties themselves, far from making things unpleasant, are delighted to escape from the tedium of house-life, and to take their chance of being purchased by a rich pacha.

An Eminent American Naturalist.-America has lost one of her greatest naturalists. Dr. John Edwards Holbrook, one of the most eminent zoologists and comparative anatomists of the United States, has recently died at Wrentham, in Massachusetts. One who knew him intimately favors us with the following details:-Dr. Holbrook, born at Beaufort in South Carolina in 1795, educated in New England, and graduated at Brown University, in Rhode Island, subsequently studied in Philadelphia, Edinburgh, and London. In 1842 he published a large work on the reptiles of the United States, with costly plates (mostly at his own expense), which at that period were only rivalled by Audubon, in another department. In 1824 he was chosen Professor of Anatomy in the University of South Carolina, and in later years he was engaged upon a work on the Ichthyology of the United States, which promised to be one of the greatest scientific achievements of his country. But the recent war broke in upon his labors. His beautiful estate, near Charleston, where so many European savans have been hospitably entertained, was no longer a habitation for culture and the resort of science. Amid the ravages, however, of civil war, his library was spared; and if his oaks were cut down-those "live oaks" of great age and beauty, of which he was so proud and fondhis unpublished plates were saved, and will be valued by the coming student. Dr. Holbrook was extensively known upon this side of the water, and was a member of many foreign academies. In his own home the close companion of Agassiz, the friend of Peirce, of Treadwell, of Bancroft, his name will not be forgotten in London, where eminent names are always best remembered. The Spectator.

The German Weakness.-The Pall Mall's Bonn correspondent tells an admirable story of a German General who, on inspecting his troops not long ago, addressed them thus,-"Now, my children, we can once more get seriously to work. The pastime of war is at an end, and drill must go on regularly as heretofore." The great Hohenzollern drill-sergeant must have got his system well into the very heart of the people, before that speech could have been even imagined. It is too much the German weakness, evenly in purely intellectual departments of thought, to make a thorough and elaborate mastery of the preliminaries so much an end in itself, that when the moment for practical application comes, it almost seems to be unworthy of the preparation, to be an inadequate occasion for the display of the powers

gained. The prolegomena bring the book to shame; the drill is more scientific than the battle; the actual enemy is a disappointment after the theoretic enemy for whom preparation was made. The German finds School bigger and completer than Life, it teaches him so much more than he can ever make use of in life. This is his strength, but also his weakness. If he cannot use his elaborated methods, he is in danger of collapse.—Spectator.

THROUGH LIFE.

WE slight the gifts that every season bears,
And let them fall unheeded from our grasp,
In our great eagerness to reach and clasp
The promised treasure of the coming years;
Or else we mourn some great good passed away,
And, in the shadow of our grief shut in,
Refuse the lesser good we yet might win,
The offered peace and gladness of to-day.
So through the chambers of our life we pass,

And leave them one by one, and never stay,
Not knowing how much pleasantness there was
In each, until the closing of the door

Has sounded through the house, and died away, And in our hearts we sigh, "For evermore."

Some New Historical Documents.-In the Allgemeine Zeitung of March 19, G. M. Thomas gives an account of a collection of Italian MSS. presented lately to the Munich Library. They mostly illustrate the history of Europe during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries; but though almost all European kingdoms are represented, Venice and Rome have the largest share, and the collection was probably made in the former place. There are a number of the famous Reports of Venetian Ambassadors, made like the reports on the state of the country contributed by our foreign agents to the Bluebooks. One relates to the war of Cyprus with Sultan Selim, 1570; another to that with Sultan Soliman, 1537-9; another to the Hungarian war of 1661. Much light is thrown on the history of the Cardinals and of the Conclave during the period -the satire and epigram which have their native home in Rome not being wanting. A biography of Sixtus V., and memoirs about Clement XI. in 21 books, are specially noteworthy. The Papal and French intervention in Germany during the Thirty Years' War occupies much room; the plan of breaking up the Empire is distinctly visible on all sides. The anxiety of Rome to get the control of the new art of printing into its own hands, and the watch kept on the Sorbonne, are characteristic. The Bavarian archduke Maximilian is shown to have early manifested that desire to absorb the Palatinate which had such a disastrous effect on German history, and separated Bavaria from the national feeling of Germany for ages. The history of the Palatinate, as introductory to the Bohemian war, has a special bearing on the English history of the Stuart age. There is much on the Jesuits and the Inquisition, something against the Pope's infallibility and superiority to General Councils, and considerable reference to France in the times from Henri IV, to Louis XIV. and during the Seven Years' War with Frederic the Great. Lastly, there are MSS. of Sarpi, Campanella, and G. Capponi. The collector must have had a special taste for historical studies.

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »