PHILADELPHIA, JUNE 10,1804.
HAVE YOU GOT YOUE PAPER 1
SOME of our subscribers may suppose that
this is a question in which we feel no
interest. They doubtless picture us sitting in
some cool, sequestered spot, reading, with
placid content, our last issue, and sublimely
regardless of their wrongs, while they, de
prived for days of their “ Daily Fare,” are
fast reaching the condition of our prisoners at
Richmond. How delusive the picture!
The poet Coleridge, in a celebrated poem,
describes the sufferings of an individual who
was detained from a festival he hoped to en
joy, by a certain ancient mariner. This gen
tleman detailed his grievances at very great
length, and of his heaver it is said:
‘‘ The wedd>ng guest lio beat his breast,
Yet ho cannot choose but hear.” ’
We have had not one ancient mariner
who might in time be appeased, but many
hard-hearted landsmen refusing to be com
forted. Instead, therefore, of enjoying the
beauties of the Fair, we, and all those con
nected with the paper, have been, like the
wedding guest, beating our breasts, and lis
tening to the well-founded complaints of our
patrons.
Let our readers, then, understand that we
have suffered with them, and that if they feel
half the delight in getting their papers which
we feel on learning that they have got them,
we shall be quite content.
JEFFERSON’S AUTOGRAPH
There is a great literary curiosity for sale
at the Fair, the photographic copy of an au
tograph MS. by Thomas Jefferson, which
shows the great power of compression pos
sessed by the writer, who, having perused a
quarto volume containing the Doctrines of
Epicurus, condensed the leading views of the
Greek Philosopher in a few minute lines on a
scrap of paper in a space of about three inches
square.
The Universe, and the great agencies to
which its materials are subjected, arc first re
ferred to, and the powers and attributes of the
heathen gods boldly denied. Then follows
the main points included in a system of Btliics
which, for so long a period, was maintained
wherever Grecian or Roman civilization ex
isted.
PHILADELPHIA - ITS PAST AND PRESENT.
We belong to the future, as the remains of
the works of the past do to us; and when we
perish, our history will be found lettered in
every part of the civilized world.
Our Daily IF 1 yy -el
SHAKSPEARE ON THE REBELLION.
TIIE POET FOR ALL TIME
It requires but little comment to point out to
the general reader how aptly the following
quotations, from the works of the World’s
Great Dramatist, fit the rebels and the rebel
lion of our day, and the war of the loyal
people to put them down. The passages ex
tracted are from but two of the plays, King
John and Richard 11., and are only such as
attracted our attention during a reperusal of
those plays for another purpose.
The first extract is that wherein the specious
traitor Bolingdroke, although in open revolt,
puts on the air of the injured party, as Jeff.
Davis does, and asks to be informed of what
offense he has committed. Thus:
Bolingbboke.—“ My gracious undo, let mo know my
fault;
On what condition stands it, and wherein?”
York.—“ Even in condition of tiie worst degreo
In gross rebellion and detested treason.”
Richard II —Act ll.—Scene 3.
Substituting Breckinridge for Boling
droke, in the next following passage, how
fitly the lines might have been spoken by the
Governor of Kentucky, when that double
traitor was traversing the State making his
plausible “neutrality” speeches:
“Tell Bolingbrokb
That every stride he makes upon my land
Is dangerous treason. lie is come to opo
The purple testament of bleeding war.”
Richard ll.—Act lll.—Scone 3.
And then after war had been made upon the
United States, and vast armies were set on
foot to destroy the Republic, and short-sighted
men still talked of compromise, how these
words should have been rung out by every
patriot voice in the land:
“ Shall wo, upon the footing of our land,
Send fair-play orders and make compromise,
Insinuation, parley and huso truce,
To arms invasive?”
Again, in the following quotation, one can
almost fancy he hears such a man as Ben.
Butler, or General Isaac I. Stevens, rebuk
ing his brother partisans who were still adher
ing to party when their whole energies should
have been given to their country. Listen :
“ / have had feelings of my cousin’s wrongs,
And labored all I could to do him right.
But in this kind to come in braving «rms,
To find out right with wrong,—it may not be;
And you that do abet him in this kind,
Cherish rebellion, and are rebels all.”
Richard II. —Act II —Scene 3.
In the next extract just substitute “loyal”
for “royal,” and observe how well the words
would have become the mouth of Parson
Brownlow, on his return to East Tcnnesee:
“Dear earth I do salute thoo with my hand
Though rebels wound thee with their horses’ hoofs.
* As a long-parted mother with her child
*******
So, weeping, smiling, groet I thee my earth
And do tlieo favor with my royal hands.”
Richard ll.—Act lll.—Scene 2.
King John, Act V.—Scene 2.
To all the remaining extracts we have pre
fixed heads sufiiciently expressive of their ap-
plication
grant's celerity of movement.
“Ere thou canst report I will be there.
The thunder of my cannon shall be heard.”
King John, Act I.—Scene 1,
BUTLER AND “ BALDY” SMITH ON JAMES RIVER.
“How much unlooked for is this expedition.”
Ibid—Act ll.—Sceno 1.
GRANT BEFORE RICHMOND,
“ Well, then, to work; our cannon shall bo bent
Against the brows of this resisting town.”—
Ibid—Act II. —Scene 1,
MERIT OF TIIE UNION SOLDIERS.
“ Tho peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swords
In such a just and charitable war.”
THE SINEWS OF WAR.
“llow shall we do for money for these wars?”
Rickard ll.—Act ll.—Sceno 3.
This last question is being nobly answered
by the cheerful alacrity of flic people in pay
ing their taxes, and in pouring out their
voluntary millions at the Great Fairs in aid of
the Sanitary Commission.
SEEING THE FAIR.
The Fair is really so vast that it requires a
succession of visits to gain more than a mere
general idea of it. In fact, even then, unless
one is of a very determined frame of mind, the
chances are against getting a very clear con
ception of it. At every step you meet some
acquaintance, and at half the tables you find
intimate friends, and by the time you have
embraced them, or shaken all their hands,
you find yourself entirely diverted from the
well devised plan you had arranged for see
ing it, and probably end the day in some de
partment short of hands, where you are con
verted into an active assistant. For ourselves,
being on committees, and having lots of agree
able friends, we have given the job up in des
pair. In order, however, to get some notion
of the Fair, that we may not utterly fail if
asked to describe it by some unhappy person
who could not see it, we have purchased a
lithograph of it, and read with great inter
est the graphic reports of its doings in our
paper. In this way we find that when it is
discussed before us, we are able to tako a
creditable part in the conversation and give
the idea that we have seen it. This, indeed, is
far from satisfying us, and we are looking
daily for the crowd to grow less, that we may
again attempt to examine it at our leisure ; but
now, however, it seems like waiting for a river
to run by—the stream of people is endless.
A great curiosity has been added to our
Fair in the persons of several Indians of both
sexes. They are under the care of a gentle
man whose familiarity with their custom ena
bles him to present to the public what is most
curious in their dances and songs.
Ibid—Act ll—Sccno 1,