®lie Cmfrr Torms 51.50 por Anunm, in Advance, S. T. SHUQERT and R. H. FORSTER, Editor.. Thnrsday Moraing, December 2, 1880. X A POLE< )N , S S()LI) 11, H. A Veteran ttf Hit' ltii|it>rial French Army or istHl. NINKTY-TUKEK YMA Its OLD. A SPECTATOR OK TIIE ERL'I'TION OP VEST VIUS IS TIIE I.A.ST CESTI'RY. From th" I'hilntlotplil* Tiiid*. For nmny years past the regular theatre-goers of this city have noticed in the orchestra an old man, with white hair and whiskers, who plays the violin. He has been connected with every theatre in the city, and his face is a familiar object to those who study the musicians as well as the music during the often tedious waits between the acts. The small gold ear rings he wears have often been re marked, and the manner in which lie handles his instrument shows that it is an old friend. For some time he has been a member of the Chestnut Street Theatre Orchestra, under the direction of Simon 11 ussier, where lie has made many friends, who have been astonish ed to hear from the quiet little old man occasional reminiscences of an unusually adventurous life. Yet some of his most intimate friends, who have only heard him conversing on the great musicians and singers he has heard and known, do not know that the humble musician is a veteran of the army of the great Napoleon and participated in the buttles under his i command when this century was young. The old gentleman is not i given to boasting and speaks modest- | ly of his experiences, but there are ' occasions when, surrounded by his family or a little circle of chosen friends, he fights the battles of the "grand army" over again and tells of deeds he has witnessed that are now matters of history. (>ne of these rare j occasions was on Friday last, when ! Pierre Solidore Molin,Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, the veteran soldier and musician, celebrated his ninety third birthday at his bumble resi dence, on .Julianna street, below Cal-j lowhiil. AN OLI) SOLDIKRS mUTHDAY. The day was spent in visiting and receiving the congratulations of his many relatives and friends, and in the afternoon, while seated around the! cheerful fireside, he was prevailed upon ' to give some reminiscences of such a | career as few living men have expe rienced. The room was characteristic of the man. On the walls hung pic tures of Napoleou and Washington ' aud a portrait of Cherubini, the com poser. On the little old-fashioned piano rested a huge pile of music and a picture of a veteran of Napoleon's < iuards, whose motto was : " The Old Ouard Dies, But Never Surrenders." Everything was scrupulously neat and dean and showed the care and atten tion of a tidy housewife. The old ; gentleman, who scarcely appeared to be more than sixty-five years old in- j stead of being within a few years of his centenary, was bright and cheerful and evidently in a good humor for ; talking, so that when a visitor sag- 1 gested that a brief sketch of his life 1 would be interesting he signified his i assent. Although a resident of this i country for sixty-two years, he still retains his native Piedmontese accent in a marked degree, and the fact that lie has lost all his teeth rendered it difficult at times to catch his meaning. He is in full possession of all his fac ulties and in perfect physical health, while his mind is remarkable for its keenness and accuracy. It scarcely required a moment for him to remem ber an occurrence of seventy or eighty years, ami in every case when refer ence was made to some particular date be was invariably correct. REMINISCENCES OF THE LAST CEN TURY. " I was born," said lie, in answer to a question, " on this day ninety-three years ago; that is, on November lb, 17X7. My birthplace was Nice, which now belongs to France, although when I first saw the light it was in Italy. They used to say,' Nice is the garden of Italy and Italy is the garden of Europe.' My father was a doctor, who attended the Marquis of Itocbam beau and accompanied him to America during the Revolutionary War. My grandfather was chamberlain to the Duke of .Savoy. I was educated in Naples first and then in Paris, ami was living in the former place when flie eruption of Mount Vesuvius took place in 179(5." " I)o you remember anything about the eruption ?" was asked. The old gentleman laughed heartily and shrugged his shoulders expressive ly as he said: " Why, I was only nine years old at the time, and it has been so long ago. But I remember that it looked like a big fire and everybody thought that they were going to he burned up. recollect that a few days afterwards I went with my parents to visit Torre del Greco, a town at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, which had been destroyed by the burning lava. Right in the town there was a nunnery and the volcano in its erup tion east out a huge rock which block ed up the door so that no one could go in or out. That is all that I can re- member about the eruption. There have been several since, hut 1 believe this was the worst. NAPOLEON'S CORi >NATION. "1 went to Paris about IXOO and studied vocal and instrumental music at the Conservatoire, where Cherubini was a director at that time. Yes, that is his portrait on the wall, and it is a very good likeness, too. He composed many operas about that time and they were very successful, as you know. I was taught in the French school of music, which is to first learn losing and then to plav every instrument. I can nlay everything except the horn, and I haveu't wind enough to perform on that. I was engaged at the Grand Opera House as repetiteur of the or chestra in 1804. I remember the first production of 'La Dame Blanche'at the Grand Opera House at that time. The composer himself (Boildicu) led the orchestra and 1 was repetiteur or assistant conductor there." "Do you remember who were the singers upon that occasion ?" "Oh, no, no. 1 cannot remember that. 1 only recollect that Boildicu conducted the orchestra aud that the opera was a great success. I was en gaged at the Grand < >pera House when Napoleou was crowned Emperor at the Church of Notre Dame in IXO4. Ah ! that was a grand sight. I shall never forget it. Soon after that 1 en tered the army." "llow came you to join the army? Were you conscripted?" was asked. "Oh, no," replied the old professor, with a laugh; "I volunteered. But let me show you this," and the old man took down from the wall a frame containing a paper bearing the dingy hue of age and written in French. It was a certificate similar to the hon orable discharge of an American sol dierand showed that Pierre Solidore Milou had entered the Second Regi ment of the French Infantry of the j line .lulv 4, 1X0(5. Then followed a full account of his various promotions,! from a private to a captain and pay master, together with the campaigns ! through which he had served and the battles in which he had been engaged. Above the paper in the frame was the faded red ribbon and cross of the Legion of Honor, aud on one side of! the certificate was a detailed account of the gallant service rendered by Sous-Lieutenant Milou in capturing a cannon from the Russians at Polotsk, for which he received the decoration. The certificate was signed by the Baron de Wimpfl'eii, colonel com manding the Second Regiment of the liue. THE FIRST CAMPAIGN. "Le Baron de Wimpffen," said the old Professor, "succeeded Colonel de Lavalatte as commander of the regi ment. The latter was an old soldier and was with Napoleon in Egypt. He received a wound in the leg at the hat- ! tie of Wagrani and died from the effects two days afterwards and the Baron took his place. My first duties upon joining the regiment were in the ' paymaster's department and eonse- 1 quently I did not see any fighting J until we entered Swedish Pomerania. Then came the campaign against the ; Prussians. Ah! I remember that well j and the passage of the Jena, in which ! I gave a pea.-ant forty gold pieces to pull me out of the water on the other side. Then came the Austrian earn-1 paign of 1809, during which you see; I was made sergeant major, having I successfully been appointed corporal, sergeant and Courier or paymaster's secretary." "Do you remember Napoleon's ap pearance?" asked a visitor. "Perfectly,"said theohl man,spring ing from his chair and his face light- j ing up with enthusiasm. "I saw him many times, and have been as near to him as lam now to you. I remember his stern, resolute face and the way he used to fold his arms and stand this way," and the veteran assumed the familiar attitude which is said by his torians to have been the "Little Cor poral's" favorite pose. "Yes, my friends, I have seen Na-' noleon, the great Napoleon, standing j before the camp fire with a piece of j black bread in one hand and a morsel of cheese in the other, eating it with all the relish of a common soldier. Ah! he was always one of us. He loved his soldiers and his men loved him," and the old man's voice trem bled as he spoke. "Then came Russia, the march to Moscow ami the retreat. Oh, that terrible, winter, with its snow and ice! I have read many histories and de scriptions of the cold and misery we experienced, and I have them in French, German and English. Not one of them can begin to describe the horrors of that cold. If a man were to live for a thousand years he would □ever forget it. This is what the cold did for me," and the veteran held up his hand, from which the ends of four fingers were missing. "Besides my fingers I lost nearly all my toes by the il read fill fspst." "When we entered Russia we had the grandest army Euro|>e had ever seen. Five hundred thousand men, all of them good soldiers. The Rus sians lied before us, hut we had nmny engagements with them. I was made a sous-lieutenant and received the decoration of the legion of Honor. There is what the colonel said of me; yon can read for yourself." "But tell us how you enptured the cannon that is mentioned here?" "Oh, it was nothing." replied the veteran, modestly: "it was at Pelotsk. The Russians were retreating and 1 encountered two of thein dragging oil'a cunnon. I charged them and they ran away, so I brought the cannon to the regiment. Marshal St. Cyr decorated mo with his own hand and promoted mo to u lieutcnantcy. Then we turned buck, and on the retreat 1 was cap tured. I was weak and suffering from my frost-bitten hands and feet, and twelve leagues from Wilna I was taken prisoner. Tliey brought me to Wilna, and I laid down hy the fountain ex pecting to die. A woman came up and said to send me to the hospital, hut it had been abandoned ; so tliey kept meat Wilna and then sent me to l'omboir, where 1 remained until the war was over; then they set me free. I returned to France, and arrived two days alter the battle of Waterloo. I hey put me on half pay and sent me to Ninnies, where I was made adju tant." A SOl.lilKit's VKNC.EA.NCJ-:. "Why did you leave the army?" asked a listener. "All! it is better to say nothing about that," was the reply, as u shad ow passed over his face. "I was on patrol one night when a man insulted me and slapped my face. I-drew my sword and ran him through and he died. I went to my commander and reported the occurrence. 'You must not stay in France,' said he; 'you must leave the country.' I had heard of America from my father, so I went to Marseilles and took passage on the hark Cleopatra, of Salem, Massachu setts. I arrived in Boston in I*l* and stayed there two or three days and then went to New York. First I became a traveling merchant. I got what you call a wheelbarrow and bought goods, which I sold to the small shops. While I was doing this I made the acquaintance of Major Noah and painted his portrait, and also a picture of Napoleon crossing the Alps. He was much pleased and introduced me to the father of General Met lellan, who interested himself for me to get scholars and teach tlieni | music. 1 had fortv-two scholars at one time." SIN"<;IX<; WITH HAHCIA. "1 sang also in concerts and after wards in opera. I had a tenor voice and when Garcia came to this country I sang with hint in 1822. I sang the Princr in Rossini's "Cinderella," audi Jlo'leriyu in "Otello," and in other operas. Afterwards 1 wished to trav el and see the country and I went as . tar north as Halifax. I visited Red Jacket and lived with the Indians for nearly a year. Then I traveled to. South America and visited every large city down almost as far as Terra del j Fuego. 1 taught music and played and thus supported myself and saw the country at the same time. I have done that ever since and have traveled all over North and South America. In New Orleans I had a tine orchestra and was married there. Then my wife died and I came North and have now been living in Philadelphia for twenty-three years. I have been at all the theatres and led the orchestra at the old (,'hestnut Street Theatre years ago. I was married a second time years ago and have four children, two hoys and two girls, all of whom are married except one." "ion have heard many famous singers in your time, Professor, who) do von consider the best ?" "To the musician there is no best, j Laeh one excels in some particular manner. Those who have risen from | the ranks have generally been superior to the others in some respects. Garcia played the bass viol in an orchestra in j Milan before he sang in opera. Ah, 1 could till a hook with reminiscences ; but it is getting late and 1 must go j to the theatre." - Jolm tiny ami tieneral {'as. In years gone hy there dwelt in Washington John Guy, a character in his way, in connection with whom Col. j Forney tells the following anecdote : I Guy kept the National Hotel in W nshington, and among the guests I was tieneral ('ass, then Senator from Michigan. Guy dressed like Cass, though not as portly, his face, includ ing the wart, was strangely similar. One day a Western friend of the House came in after a long ride,dusty i and tired, and walking up to the office, encountered Gen. Cass who was quiet ly standing there. Mistaking liiin for Guv, he slapped him on the shoulder nnd exclaimed," Well,old follow,here I nni! The last time I hiing up in your shanty, one of your clerks sent me to the fourth story, hut now I have got hold of you, I insist upon a lobby room." 1 lie tieneral, a most dignified |>er soniige, taken nback bv this startling salute, coolly replied : "You have com mitted a mistake, sir. lam not Mr. (iuy; I am Gen. Cam, of Michi gan," and angrily turned away. The western man was shocked at the un conscious outrage he committed; but before lie had recovered from his mor tification,tieneral Cass who had passed around the office,confronted him again when,n second time mistaking him for Guy, he faced him and said: "Here you are at last! I have just made a devil of a mistake; 1 met old t'nss, nnd took him for von, nnd I'm afraid the Miehigander has gone otT mad." What Gen. t 'ass would have said may well lie imagined, if the real (iuy hail not approached and rescued the inno cent offender from the twice assailed and twice angered statesman, A COQUETTE. Hlii* riinililcn through the irifinh>WN uhle, So richly gdiim***! wltli flew ; 11*t hull WIIN Blight Hf gohlcfi light, ||er I'jrn* were u/uru him*. Ami whyly, there, the farmer l l Hetrnyed hi* love und woe; She pMioii'fl hi in hy \\ ith hem I held high. Ami coldly mmwered, "No!" She wandered to the woodlrtnd lend, Ity wild flow'm all hegirt; She HO w here !•<•; uty In He depth, And rriiiliwl—the pretty tlirl ! And there tile mrnte toid hie hi?*, Th'' hope wim (tinned deod ; If lit though ahe ighn short leave, one of his comrades, picking up the packet, thrust it into the canvass forage hag slung at his side, Kzelot going on his way without having perceived the lit tle pleasantry. Arrived at Neuiily, where his pa rents live, his mother, emptying the forage hag, discovered the bundle, and thinking it was a packet of old news papers put it on a tabic in the kitchen. There it remained for four or five days, till a married sister, calling iu j and seeing the packet, was moved by unwonted curiosity. (ipetyng it she discovered documents representing the £28,000 the loss of which M. Pages had advertised throughout Europe. The European pa tiers arc not, how ever, read at Neuillv, where the Cour rier dc V Ai*ne doubtless hns it all its own way. The soldier aud his parents, not knowing what else to do, followed the provincial Frenchman's instinct and had recourse to the Mai re. That functionary,communicating with Paris speedily brought down M. Pages, w ho, gratefully paying the promised reward of £I,OOO, went off with his oddly-re covered treasure. It would be an in teresting supplement to the narrative if we could have a record of the feel ings of the soldier who thrust the packet upon Ezelot wheu lie heard the sequel to the little joke. OLD TIMBER. Probably the oldest timber in the world which hns been subjected to the use of man is that found in the nn cient temples of Egypt in connection with the stonework which is known to he at least four thousand years old. This, the oulv wood used in the con struction of the temple, is in the form of ties, holding the end of one stone to another at its upper surface. When two blocks were laid in place, AH ex cavation about an inch deep was made in each block, into which a tic shaped like an hour-glass was driven. It is therefore very difficult to force any stone from its position. The ties ap pear to have been of the tamarisk or sliittomwood, of which the ark va i constructed, a sacred tree in ancient I Hgypl and now very rarely found in the valley of the \Nilc. Dovetailed ties are juat as wound now aw on tie day of their insertion. Although fuel in extremely scarce in the country, these hits of wood are not large enough to make it an object with the A rah- to : heave off layer after layer to obtain them. Had they Iwen of bronze half i the old temple* would have been do : slroyed vear- ago, wo precious would they have been for various purpo*<-. | lIIK 101,0 ft LINK AT WKST I'OIM. (ieneral Sehotield, commanding tin Department of West l'oint, way- upoji | the subject of enforcing a*so-iation j between white and black cadet* : -"In i their zeal and sincere desire to carrv ! out the policy of the (ioveriiment tie | authorities of the Military Academv, have heretofore gone too far in en | forcing personal association* betw< < n ; white and Iduck cadet* without regat I to prejudice, esjtecially at the w< tuhle. In respect to quarters the in re reasonable rule had always been ob served of not requiring any cad-t j against his will to occupy tin* same sleeping apartment with another. 1 h same rule should have lieen adopted |in respect to the mess-table. The eol -1 ored cadets would thus have been , saved some part of the mortification j due to an ill-advised ulternpt to regu j late th-ir social standing by military , force. Whatever just cause of self- I reproach anv portion of the g—ible enjov ment eif all the- rights arid privilcge-s I ef citizenship. Hut the Military Academy cannot, without utterly destroying its useful iie-ss, be made a nursery for delicate* hot-house plant*. It- u-c is to devel op the fibre* of theise- of a more stureiv growth and re ject ail that elo not pos se.-. the requisite stamina. I nles- the African rae-e i- naturally superior to the Caucasian, and slavery a better school for race development than free dom, it cannot be hoped tliat many colored I toys will succeed where two thirds of all the white hoys now se lccU-d habitually fail. It i- presumed that the people e.f the United State* do not wish to lower their national institutions to the present level of the rceent slaves, but to elevate the freed men as rapidly a* possibly toward* the ever-rising standard of the great bodv of the people. Public duty required that thi* subject be treated without re serve- and a* an important question of puldic policy." A New System of Apprenticeship. The difficulty of getting thoroughly qualified machinists, and the practical failure of the edd *\>t"m of apprentice ship, have led a manufacturing firm in Sprinfield, Mass., to devise a new plan, involving both se-hool and shop work. For beginners under twenty years of age the term of apprenticeship i* fixed at six years. Jn this time it is believ ed that an apprentice will be able to acquire the theoretical and practical knowledge needed to make him a fir.-t --class journeyman. Those who arc over twenty years of age are allowed to fin ish their apprenticeship in five years, and those who have worked in li shop are advanced according to proficiency. 1 lie beginner is first put to drawing from sketches, then takes up projection and diagram, and advances regularly according to his ability. It is believed that in this way one year will qualify him as well to work from drawings us four or five years ordinarily. All ap plicants are taken from four to twelve weeks on trial, and if not satisfactory* are then dismissed. For the first year's labor five cents per hour is paid to those under eighteen, six cents to those who are eighteen, and seven cents to those who are twenty and upwards; for the next years the rate is ndvauced to six, eight, ten, eleven, and twelve cents. The firm also pay two cents per hour additional into a reserve fund, which is paid to those apprentices who finish their full term of service; for the six years this amounts to $4