CffiSQN PEACOCK EflitOL
VOLUME XX.—rNQ. 221
THE EVENING BULLETIN,
PUBLISHED EVHBY EVENING,
- (Sunday* excepted,)
AT THE NEW BUIXETIS BIJnDISG,
607 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.
BT tub ...
EVENING BULLETIN ASSOCIATION.
orBSQKPBACQCK. ERNEST O. WALLACE.
E. L. PETHERSTON. THOS. J. WILLIAMSON,
«CABPBBBOUDEB, Jr. PBANCIS WELLS.
- TJießoiißTifir le neryed to miMcribera In tne city at
18 cent* per week, payable to the camera, or $3 pet
rFrom Belgravia.]
TEN AND TWENTY.
A. Drawing-Boom Beverle.
■Can ten long years have passed away
Since wiffi Kate Fane. I used to play ..
Andspoil her doll and toys?- <
■fihe was an awful little tease,
Who tore her clothes and grazedher khees—’
And toyedto play with boys: -
'The merriest of rotoplng girls *
"Was Kate, with tangled jsjuuiy curls,
In those bright laughing days:
Her skirtwaa&ien bouffie—e’ea
■She never wore.a crinoliner
’Neath which peeped trousers, frilled, I
ween, .■
With droderie Anglaise,
"Whole mornings then we used to pass
In strolling through the nodding grass
Or coaching ’mongst the fern;
Whilst there, whenno one else was by,
I need to kiss her on the sly— -
And Kate was'neither coy nor shy,
Bat kissed me in return 1
The livelong dsy we played and walked,
Orin the orchard swung and .talked— ..
-.. thus our-liking strengthened
At last, one gloomy, tearful day,
My playfellow was sent away
To school, and there She had to stay
■Until her frocks were lengthened.
In Eton’s classic groves I strayed, .
’JTfI pick up'learning—Pm afraid
I “picked up’, more at cricket;
My boyish love was left to fate,. ,
'When pulling in the College Eight;
I quite forgot my little mate,
In dreams of double-wicket !
And nowl ehance to meet again, .
•Not saucy Kate, but fair .Miss Fane,
'The loveliest of belles;
Who rules the Reason—for I know, ’
At party, fete, or flower-show,
In opera-box or in the Row,
She gueens it o’er die swells.
• Ah! since that rosy laughing child
Would jump upomher pony wild,
And ronnd the paddock canter,
'Or madly with'black Rector race,
Or climbfor-neatsin Lyndith Chase—
•For,which she got in sad disgrace—
.::^,Otemporainutantuv!:
For Kate will never know me now,
Bfct with a studied, solemn bow, -
She’ll gaze with manner blank.
ISTot know me? How her eyes flash bright!
•She shakes me hand, and grasps it tight,
•And laughingly exclaims, “ I’m right—
"’Kb my old playmate Frank!”
J. ASHBY STERRT,
Tbe Arrest of Surratt—Extraordinary
(xudttec nf tke Eu-ilish AuthoriUes at
Malta.
The London Times haa the following from
'Staples, November 27:
The receipt of a letter at the American
Consulate, in this city, last evening, from
the United States authorities, in Malta,com
pels me to advert to a subject which may
create some uneasiness. -Surratt, one of the
conspirators against the late President Lin
coln, has beenfor ten months or more in the
service of the Pope in the regiment of Zou-'
aves, hut quitting it and; flying from Borne,
he arrived at Naples abont a fortnight since
wearing the uniform of the ZoUaves.
Ou Sunday, the 18tb, the American Con
sul received a telegram from his colleague
.in Borne to the effect that the soi-disant
'Walters was no other than Surratt, and or
dering his. immediate arrest. Immediate
application wets made to the police of Na
ples, and every possible facility afforded, but
it was found they, were too late, and that the
-criminal bad started the night before by the
Liverpool screw. Tripoli, for Malta and Alex
andria. The telegraph was then put in com
munication with Malta, and directions were
igiven to the Gonsul-General of ‘the United
Stateain thatisland to arrest Welters imme
diately on his arrival.
A* letter received at the American Con
sulate only last evening, states that the
Tripoli touched at Malta early on Monday
morning, the 19th; that the Consul imtne
- diately applied for powers to arrest Surratt;
that no answer was returned till just before
the hour of thedeparture of the Tripoli' for
Alexandria; and that the answer was in the
negative, on the ground of there being no
authority for doing,,-so. Telegrams have
therefore been, sent from the United .States
Ttepresentatives in Borne, Naples and Malta
to the Consol in Alexandra, arid as vessels
from. .Liverpool undergoa quarantine iin;
that city, it. is .fully expected' that Surratt
Twill be captured. -
On what gronhdsthe British authorities
in Malta declined to act is not known, and
: It would be premature, : therefore to express
: any optnlon on the subject, bat the mere
fact or their having declined has created the
-worst possible feelings in the minds’ of
..American agents. The Consol at Malta ex-
Sies the opinion that it was by “a mere
quibble” the head and front of the
- conspiracy was permitted to escape; and
here I have heard the refusal of the British
- authorities to act contrasted with the readi
ness which was shown in Amerioa to give
up Muller. : ■ . ,
ANNIVERSARY OF THB EMANCIPATION
TPsobbAMATioir.—The anniversary of the
• emahbipation- proclamation recurring Jan.
1, arrangements are being made in Norfolk
and Portsmouth, Ya., for a proper observ
ance ,pf the day. A meeting was recently
:held m Norfolk for this purpose at a colored
Baptist church. Theattenaance was large.
Mayor Ludlow was present, by request of
•of the committee. He expressed his views
on-the proposed celebration, and said he'
opnjd'not agree vrtth the meeting as to its
propriety or expediency, but ir they re
solved to observe the day by meetings and
a procession, he would see that they were
mot molested; he did not believe; m fact,
that there was any disposition on the part
of the citizens of Norfolk tohholest them as
long as they were orderly.< Other speeches
were made, and the necessary , arrange?
ments were made. The 'programme con
templates services in the charohes in the
morning and at night, and a procession
through the streets at night, v
The Cabinet meeting was attended by all
the members yesterday, Secretary Stanton
having returned from his trip North.
5 €l)fiiiug Hiilktm
“lame ducks.”
* * * “The other railing is a semi
circle twenty or thirty feet from the
central sne. This outer rail fences off
the ‘lame ducks’ and ‘dead beats’—men
who have once been famous at the rat
pit,’ but have since been ‘cleanedout.’
Being- unable to settle their ‘differ
ences,’ they are not allowed to come
inside. Solvency is the first essential
of the Gold Room. Nothing bogus is
allowed to interfere with the serious
business in hand. Nevertheless these
‘lame ducks’ and 'dead beats’ cannot
keep away from the place. Day -after
day they come and range themselves
along their iron grating and look over
at the ralrpit with the strangest expres
sion of intelligent vacancy and longing
despair that can be found this side of
purgatory. They seem to be a part of
the furniture of the room. While I was
there I did not see one of them move or
speak, and when- they winked it was
with much the same spirit that an owl
at mid-day lowers the film over his eyes
and hoists it again.”
“The ‘lndicator,’ which is the third
piece of furniture in the room (or the
fourth; if we count the ‘dead beats,’) is
apiece of .mechanism to show the
changes in the market. It is some
thing like an old fashioned New En
gland clock, seven or eight feet high,
with ah open space-at the top disclosing
three figures and a fraction, as 141 J, at
which the market stood when I entered.
The figures being movable, a slight ma
nipulation will manifest any change in
the market. Connected with the indi
cator is a plain desk, with a book on it,
in which are recorded all the movements
of the indicator, with the hour and min
ute at which each movement takes
place. The floor of the establishment is
rather a pavement, with circular steps or
terraces rising from the centre to the
circumference. ; -‘.Neat but not gaudy,’
is the general aspect of the premises. Of
course such. an institution could not
exist without a telegraph office. Accord
ingly we find one, communicating with
the Gold Boom by a row of windows,
through which despatchesarecoußtantly
passing.”
“Having given the external appear
ance of the <concern, we now come to
business. .-Three things seem to be in
note-books, and pen-,
oils. Wow-wow-wow-wow-wow, yah?
yah-yah-yah-yah, from twenty or thirty
throats, around the .pit, all at once, and
kept going from morning till night,from
Monday till Saturday; is what presents
itself to the ear of tne beholder. The
voices of the gentry aronnd : the circle
are for the; most part tenori, with now
and then & falsetto and a basso. I shall
not soon forget a‘ basso prof urido in the
ring, who drew his breath at regular
intervals, and . announced his desires
with a seriousness truly remarkable. He
was a thick-set man,-with a capacious
chest, shaggy, head,. keen eyes, and
rusty whiskers, which curved upward
from his inferior, maxillary bone In the
most determined manner. He cocked
his head on one side, thrust-his chin as
far as possible over tne railing,and made
himself heard every time. He put In
his B flat in regular cadences like the
trombone performer in a mill-pondof a
summer evening, drowning for the mo
ment all the fiddles In the frog commu
nity—or like the double-bass crashes in
the overture to Tannhauser, which, by
the way, might pass for “Gold Boom
Potpourri’ without the alteration of a
single note.”
■ BUSINESS. ■ -
“Among the faces constantly swing
ing around the circle there is a marked
.preponderance of Israelites. *■*.'* But
they do.not, by any means, monopolize
the business. There me young Yankees
here, apparently. not more than twenty
one years of age, with downy cheeks
and shrewd eyes, wow-wowing and yah
yahing with each otheraeross-the rail
ing and whisking their pencils with
phonographic velocity. You see no
smiles ih this ring. Many of the ope
rators are smoking,.but they -have no
time for conundrums. Commencing
betimes in the morning, they must buy
and sell gold enough before night to pay
for Chicago twice over. Putting the
purchases and sales .together, they will
notunfrequently amount to one hundred
millions of dollars. In a few cases only
is the gold actually delivered. Balances
THE NEW YORK GOLD BOOH. ■ ’
A LIVELY PICTUBE.
How tbe Operators Shout and Speculate,
• The editor of the Chicago Tribune,
Mr. Horace White, recently visited the
Gold Room in New York city, and has
written a description of it, which is the
best and most interesting that we have
seen. We copy thematoriai passages:
THE GOLD BOOM A CUBIOSITY 1 .
. “New York is the commercial focus
of the. continent, and. tie Gold Room is
the focus of Nhw-York. In a little court
yard surrounded : by four walls, and
closed in witha roof,.havinga circuitous
passage-way from Broad, street, may be
witnessed, at any hour of the day, and
six days in the week, a scene which has
not its likeness in' earth" or heaven.
Whether its parallel,can be found in hell
I will not undertake, to say. Perhaps it
can, but this much I consider certain,
that the New York Gold room is to-day
the greatest cariosity in the world.
“Imagine a rat-pit in fall blast, .with
twenty or thirty men ranged around the
rat tragedy, each with a canine under
his arm, all yelling and howling at
once, and yon have as good a compari
son as can be found in tne outside world,
of the aspect of the Gold Room, as it
strikes the beholder on his first entrance,
The furniture of the room is extremely
simple. _ It consists of two iron railings
and an ‘indicator.’ The first railing is
a circle, about four feet high and ten feet
in diameter, placed exactly in the centre
of the.room. In the interior, which
represents the space devoted to .rate
killing in similar establishments, is a
marble Cupid throwing up a jet of pur-
Croton.”
THE “INDICATOR.”
THE . SHOUTING.
PHILADELPHIA, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22,1866.—TR1PLE SHEET.
are settled with gold certificates. The
existing method of settling the business
of the day is by giving checks—each
•man drawing a -check for each purchase,
•dr receiving one for each sale. But they
are not satisfied with the slow coach
method of doing business. They must
• needs have a gold clearing-house! where,
the whole business of the room can be
thrown into a hopper, jujd-r the ‘differ
ence’ ground out atone torn of the
wheel. This project is now on foot; it
will, of course, facilitate business very
much. ■■'- t r: •
! “But what does it all amount to? I
had almost said that the Gold -Roomre
gulates all the prices in the United States.
It does not regulate; butit records them.
The Gold Room i->itself regulated by.the
outside world. Each movement of the
‘indicator’ is the resultant of all the
forces at work in America, Europe, Asia
and Australia, which can possibly aflect
the vaine of United States currency, and
United States bonds. It follows that
the operators in 1 the Gold Rohm should
be, at the same time, the best informed
and the most intelligent business men in
the country. They most not only have
the best and latest information, bat they
must be able to determine instantly
what is the effect of any given fact which
may come to their knowledge. They
must be able to resolve the most compli
cated problems in mental arithmetic
without a moment’s hesitation.”
SPECULATION.
“If the Secretary of the Treasury has
decided upon a certain measure of finan
cial policy, or the President upon a cer
tain measure of foreign policy; if there
is a short com crop, or a Fenian rebel
lion, or a trouble in Europe, or a heavy
immigration, or a great oil discovery, or
a change in the tariff, or anything else
which can. aflect the currency or the
public credit, they must be able to melt
down the mass and weigh the product
instantly. This is the work of omnis
cience, and of course no man can do it.
Nor. can the whole Gold Room "do it
accurately at all times. Now and then
the price will run up wildly upon a
given state of facts andrun down again
as rapidly when it is discovered that the
facts are not having the effect which
was generally .expected by the operators.
They are pretty cool and accurate in
their calculations, bnt the atmosphere
of the Gold Room almost inevitably
Eerverts a man’s judgment; and brings
im to grief in the long run. A
few days ago word came that President
Johnson had sent a despatch ef five
thonsand words by the Atlantic cable to
Paris. This was known in the Gold
Room before the despatch had got ont of
the Washington telegraph office—per
haps, before it" hadleft the'State Depart
ment. Great was the pow-wow in the
Gold Room. Gold rose from 140 i to 14S}.
A western -merchant, who happened
to be there, turned the matter over in
his mind and concluded that it did sot
make much difference what kind ef a
despatch Mr. Beward had sent .to
Europe. He reasoned that the people
were not well enough pleased with
Andrew Johnson to follow him into a
foreign war, even if that were the pur
port of the despatch. He called a
broker to his side and authorized him to
operate for a decline within three days,
and made four thonsand dollars by hav
ing at the moment a grain more of
cc-mmon sense, or a better acquaintance
with the temper of the American peo
than the average of the Gold Room,’’
CONFUSION.
“I remarked at the beginning that the
Gold Boom was a great cariosity, and
that it furnished a remarkable illustra
tion of the capabilities of the human
mind. The pioceedings of the Board of
Stock Brokers have been often described
as a bedlam in which all shout-at once,
and shout without ceasing, and yet
transact business in the most expeditious
and orderly manner. The Stock -Board
is provided with a moderator and two
reporters, thus having the semblance of
parliamentary law for its government.
The Gold Board has nothing of the kind.
It is a ceaseless jangle, a whirlpool of
voices, without order, without umpire,
referee or stakeholder. Yet as it spins
on, millionsupon millions are' bought
and sold, the prices of all goods, wares,
merchandise,. produce, bonds, stocks,
and property generally throughout ? the
country are marked up or down, obedi
ently to the inexorable ‘indicator’ in
the Gold Boom.
“How these men can understand each,
other, and avoid mistakes, is a mystery.
In any large telegraph office in the
country you will see twenty or thirty
•Morse instruments clicking together,
and perhaps a House printing machine,
adding its hop-skip-an’d-jump to- the
chorus. Each operator hears and under
stands his own instrument, even though
he be ten feet from it, ana he does not
hear any other. I have often paused to
admire the scene in a large telegraph
offiee, as a - wonderful example of the
of the humah’ear; but m
the Gold Bopm.one must not only dis
cern separate sounds in the miaat of
dense confusion, and record them ac
curately, but must have all his wits on
the stretch at once, and yet preserve a
perfect equilibrium of judgment.
“Now and then the noise flags, and
almost ceases. While I was r there, it
ceased for a moment entirely. The
smokers placidly puffed their blue
wreaths upward, ana the murmur of
the little fountain became audible. In
ten seconds Bedlam bad broken loose
again, wilder than ever. : ‘Market 1 ex-,
cited,’said my friend, to whose polite
ness I was indebted for an introduction
to the room: and almost immediately
the indicator rose from 141£ to 141$.
The idea that these twenty or thirty
men were ‘the market,’ and that when
they exchanged yells a trifle more voci
ferously than usual,’the market was ex
cited,’ struck me as so droll that I
laughed immoderately. It was never
theless,true. These men were the mar
ket, and the market was excited. 'Some
ppark of information had just come from
some quarter of the globe, which war
ranted the operators in believing that
United;States legal-tender notes -were
OTntYmouE ooijmsx:,
worth a fraction ; less , than "they 1 were
ten seconds* before. The Gold Room is
as sensitive to news as the ‘thermo
electric pile 1 " to heat.
CLASSES. OF ©PEKATOBSi
.1. two classes of.operators in
the Gold Room—commission men and
speculators. The former buy and sell for
others. With them it is ‘hekds I win.
tuns you lose.’ Their commission is a
certainty, and if they, can- resist the
temptation todoa little ontheir private
account they make money. s The specu
lators make none f Rich to-day, poor to--
morrow, is the rule with them. Those
who make money: , cannot- -.get away.
When a man makes a miilibfi in the
Gold Room, it is as if he had swallowed
a gallon of salt water at one draught to
quench his thirst., ■Me must have more:
tio he stays and loses if, Bf he loses
more than he has, and, cannot pay his
difference? he must take his place at the
outer railing. Even then he cannot drag
himself away from the place. The. evil
f haspossessiohof him.
It holds him last. ‘ Y onder’ said my com
panion,‘ls a young man whomigfrthav©
gone away with two millions of dollars.
He was worth it once. He is
now among the ‘dead-beats,’' as poor as
anyof them. They have all been rich
in their time.’ I looked over to the dead
beat apartment and saw a youth whose
cast of countenance might have inspired
Tennyson to write the Lotus Eaters.
Suchmild and melancholy eyes,such an
expretoion of fixed uncertainty and mo
tionless unrest it would be hard to find
save in tbe Gold Roomor at a faro-table.
Of the ‘dead-beats’ generally it might be
said:
** 'ln the aflernoos fch«7 came onto a-land*
In which it seemed always afternoon.
aU round the coast the languid air did swoon-/
Breathing like one that hath • weary dream. 1
“Applying to the Gold Room the rule
of averages, it stands to reason that no
body should make money in the long
run*: Buying and selling gold prodaces
no wealth.' The miner in California
brings gold into the world. He adds to
the stock of a useful commodity. Bat
the broker in the Gold Room adds no
thing to it. Out of nothing, nothing
comes.. But these men are not really
buying and selling gold. Gold is the
only stable thing going. It is in equili
bria, or to nearly thus, that its fluctua
tions take place only through, periods of
years. The men of the Gold Room
are really buying and selling the
United States currency. Is any
thing to he made, in the aggregate,
out of this? Certafnlynot. Paper mo
ney, as Hawthorne somewhere "says, is
but the ahadow,of a shade. They might
as well trade to many tons ol moonshine
—“seller three’’—as to stand there gam
bling in the paper promisea of the
government. I speak of the transactions
as a whole; of course somebody makes
and somebody loses in nearly every
transaction. Sometimes an operator will
have axon of extraordinary luck, which
induces him to believe that he knows it
all. "When he reaches this point he is
gone! The idea of one’s infallibility is
fatal in the Gold Room—or ont of. it, for
that matter.”
“To say that the Gold Boom is not
useful would be altogether wrong. It is
not only useful but necessary. I should
not wish any friend of mine to do much
business in it, but it must be recognized
as a necessity of the times. Its method
of doing business was never invented by
anybody. Men slid into it, just as men
slid into the practice of using gold and
silver for money. It has been found
that the work can be done more eco
nomically and expeditiously by the rat
pit .mode than any other. If it could be
done any faster, or any cheaper, by the
operators standing on their heads, they
would do so.
“If young America is to be found in
the Gold Boom, younger America is to
be found at .tne doorway. The Gold
Room and the open Stock Board are in
the same building. I noticed when I
entered from Broad street, that a num
ber of seedy individuals were buying
and selling shares' of Mariposa and
Northwestern on the sidewalk. As I
came but, a ragged boy,' about eight
years old, with a pencil and a scrap of
paper in his hand, plucked me by the
coat and exclaimed‘Mithter, how’th
Quickthilver ? This precocious op
erator thought 1 had come out of the
StoekJßoard. Surely, I thought, here is
the commercial focus of the continent.
Fatal Lamp Explosion.— ln Freeport,
Armstrong county, Fa., on the I4th inst,. a
lamp explosion occurred at the House of
Mr. Ephraim Hall, by whioh two yonng la
dies, daughters of Mr. Hall, were burned to
death, anahis wife so severely injured that
she is not expected to survive. The ladies
were seated by a table engaged in some
feminine occupation, when suddenly with
out a warning, the lamp exploded and its
burning contents scattered all over them.
The children’s clothing took fire immedi
ately, and notwithstanding the. mother’s
efforts to extinguish the flames, they were
bnmed 'in snch a terrible manner that death
> ensued. Mrs. Hall was also severely burned
in her endeavorsto save her daughters. She
is still living. Hr. Hall arrived home al
most immediately after the accident, bnt too
late tobeof service other than to hiß wife.
Tissue-Paper as a Substitute fob
Lint.— The surgeons of Vienna have , em
ployed, according to the Journal of the So
ciety of Ar&, witu nmch Buocess, the white
unsized paper known as papier Joseph for
dressing wounds. . It has .all the properties
of lint, and in towns it may be obtained in
large quantities at ' a very low price. In
every way it has all the advantages of lint;
it does not change in contact with water; it
is a bad conductor of heat, and preserves, in
consequence, the wounda from atmospherio
influence. From its absorbent nature, it
sneks hp the matter; maintains the wound
in a stated! dryness favorable for- healing,
and it may be used in certain circumstances
more advantageously even than lint.
Diamonb Transaction.— M. Kramer, a
Paris jeweler; recently sent a parcel of
dlamonds,of the value of £17,200, to Alexan
dria, by the Messageries Imperiales.The
box was stolen and' M, Kramer having .de
clared the value of the contents at £lO,OOO
only, the Hesßageries has been ordered to
pay that amount, so that the jeweler haslost
£7,200 by his misrepresentation.
USES OF THE GOLD BOOM.
'.FactsMid'Fancies.'
_ Profesaor Blot is coining to Philadelphia.
Punsters are warned that pretty much
®f®£stojng has; been done with bis , name
tnat it is susceptible of, and we hope to. re
ceive no communications on the subject If
there is anything new to say, we will say it
ourselves. \ ■■ ■ ■■■• •
: What color gives the best finish to a
tnre ? Dimcolor,; of course. '
The eagerness with .which Unde Sam is
stirring npthe iilimt whisker stills remind
one of the welPknown line? J : : i:J ‘
“Colombia Ewltb all tty feulta-. X love the still."
The Mexican Question—Mex. Max. Mix
_Th® display of diamonds at the fancy ball
grren by the banker Barron in Mexieo waa
prodigious.: i J Two ladies dreesedaa. 1 ‘ ‘Fire”
dtorayy blazed withjewels. They were put
on J» however,: by another lady who wore
“itfwhinonflß.ih the character of
“The hirst Water.”' . •
j Boston .Basf Bays that Surratt is to be
dramatized. This is true. He will be
broßglitoutby ‘a gun-boat add pat oo the
stsM by competent judges. It Is under
stood, however,' that be will only maWo ® n e
appearance in public;
The knittingmills at Cohoes wffi probably
all suspend, operations during the next few
weeks. It is estimated that about twenty*
five hundred persons will thus be thrown
out ef empioyinent. That is the worst ©f
the, ©e-hose business* Every additional
stocking they knit makes it more certain
that they will “put their foot into it”"
CampbeU- anfi Sherman appear to-have
gone to Mexico tb-see-what they went there
for.— Lou, Hem, *
John Smith, a second Quintus Curtins, a
citizen ofMemphia, desirous of ameliorat
ing the condition of the streets of his native
city, is reported to have plunged headlong
into the mnd, leaving only the soles of his
boots exposed j wiUi the touching inscription
in chalk, -Who will care for mother now.”
Miss-Olive Logan has published a story
called “John Morris’s Money.” People
must not contufio Ibis with John Morrissdv’s
money»'
The-next thing, to a ragamuffin has- been
discovered to be a flannel cake.
A Cincinnati clergyman is said to kave
preached twenty-seven barrels of sermons.
We thought they calculated everything by
hog’s-heads in Pufkopolia,
A Brownsville paper tells an amusing
story of a charge made by a cow upon the
fortifications of Matamoras. Seme wags of
Cortinaa’s command caught the cow, and,
drSasingherup ih a fentasti© manner in
raw hides, old tin plans and sheet iron,
started her offatthetopof her speed towards
the <aty.: Witfi a noise like thunder she
rushed madly to the very ditoh of the works,
when Satando’s brayee, thinking by the
the clatter that a brigade of eavalry were
charging the fort, fired a few shots, and de
serting their guns, fled ingloriously to the
town plain;: It was several hours before
they could be' led back to the fort. The
questien. arises—Can braves : running away
from a cow, be spoken of as retreating oow
wardsf-- - : -.----n--.--
A Troy collar mann&ctorer vras arrested
the other day because he exactly answered
the description of a notofions thief that the
police were looking after. The man’s choier
may be Imagined.
An American teacher in Europe says the
lump of butter an American girl puts on a
plate wonld make a ParMehne stare wildly.
The reason is obvious. An American girl
is well worth staring at, and it is not re-'
markable that a Parisienne should stare at
nary but-her.
Execution in Xortb Carolina.
Wilmington, Dec. 21,—Lewis and Au
gustus Williams, negroes, convicted some
time since for highway robbery, were exe
cuted to-day. White men would have been
hanged, according to the laws of this State,
for the same offence. The condemned were
escorted to the gallows by a company of
United States regulars. Both of them pro
tested their innocence to the last.
About two thousand persons witnessed
the execution, three-fourths of whom yfere
negroes, but no disturbance occurred. ~
It is the general impression that the Legis
lature of the State will enact something in
the shape of a stay law for the relief of the
people, but any measure looking to repudia
tion will be rejected by an overwhelming
majority.
Navigation of the Upper Mississippi,
—The St. Paul Pre&s gives some interesting
faots with regard to the navigation of the
Upper Mississippi. The fast season began
April 19, and closed November 23, lasting,
therefore, two hundred gnd twenty-six
days, about the average period. ' The season
is retarded by Lake Pepin, which does not
thsw out until a week or fortnight after the
river, Above and below,, is open -and free
from ice. Besides, the steamboat men gene
rally withdraw their boats before it is really
necessary. The number of steamboats en
gaged in the river trade, registered at St.
Paul and Duhnqne this season, eras sixty
three; number of arrivals at St. Paul, 1,051;
full tonnage, 10,921. Barges have come into
general use only m the last fewyears. Yet
there are now sixty-one barges and fiats
registered at St. Paul,'with a tonnage of
6.04 S tons. A large: number also are regis
tered at Galena, HI. ,
i Punishment bt Wholbsale.— The Cam
bridge whipping case may as well be forgot
ten. The children of Aurora, 111., enjoy the
advantages of at least one public bcuool.
The teachers of this school have established
a kind of “dead line,” parallel with the front
fence, over which the children are not
allowed to pass. The object of this rule is,
of course, to prevent intercourse with per
sons in the street. On a recent occasion, a
procession passed the school, and the little
people forgot the rule and passed the line.
The teachers were at the window and saw
the infringement of their authority., The
bell rang; the school assembled, the teachers
madea few preliminary arrangements, and
then proceeded to flog every boy and girl in
the school. - ■ ■ ; - -
“h. w.”
Beautiful Snow.— A ■ crusty and dis
gusted Southerner in Canada, writes the'
following ode to the snow and frost of that
country; “Oh! the frost, the freezing frost,
bitingour nose as we go; all sense of feeling
is utterly lost, and ourzestfor the beautiful
show. The Northern king a tribute has
wrung, in the shape of a pearly tear, which
a moment ago like a dew drop hung, from
the point : often 1 graced., with ■ a sneer. Oh!
the frost, the delectable frost, that finds us
wherever we_ go. wrapped in its fearsome
shroud like a ghost, And conveying to our
merldian blooa a thorough disgnstmr those
sentimental donkeys i who hypocritically
prate ofthe beautiful snow.” . • • • ■
Nashville Improvements.— The Nash
ville Banner is, informed by awell-known
builder of that, city, that more new houses
have been erected there this year than in
any previous year for half a century, and
that, from the number of contracts already
entered into, the number of houses ereoted
next year will be still greater.
IV L. EETHERSTON. Pribldifr.
THREE CEMS.
AMUSEMENTS.
Houdat- Week.—The - theatres presents
the finest hind of holiday bills, as wIU be
seen by the advertisements in another part
' of to-day’s paper.: At the Walnut tornight
I “Kaights of the Bound Table,” ‘'.General
' Grant at Cape May” and “The Merchant’S
Clerks” -will be given, with Mr. 3. S. Clarke
in each piec&On Christmas day, at a
matinee, Clarke appears in “The Naiad■
i Queen” and in the evening he will give- the:
•grandest kind of a Christman bilL At the
Chestnut Mr, and Mrs. Barney Willfcuns
begin an engagement on Christmas eve and
<»ntnrtw it* throiKhpnt, the. week. - At:the-
Arch Gaunt” will be played
Christmas eye, with Mrs; John Dfew as
K ?te Peyton. With: the cast—especially :
witkMTs* Drew in the main part—and witb.
. attention to detail which has been (riven '
the piece at the Arch, it cannot fek to be: a
great success. At tbe Ainericanthe no
veity for the week will be “Idttle -Bed
' SSP 11 ® Hdod;” 1 -At the. Academy of Musis'
The Arabian Nights Entertainments’*
At :Assembly BoiMihs
Signor Blitz exerts, every possible allure-’
bis extra holiday soirees.
boGi dally and nightly, attractive to-younje.
andol 4v4 National Hall the OldFblka
, present 1 their strongest attrantihng,
Tbo Bomanee of a m*
7 • • • - »w BemandaKfi^T
[Hresa the Wlnoc* (Mian ) Eepubltcan, Deo-S-J
’ 4 few days since a very, respectable lady-.
UTOig not a hundred miles from WinohaL
called upon one of our leading attorneys
and desired his services in . procuring w di
vorce from her husband, who had- left her
eight or ten years ago, and daring all that,
tong time she had heard nothing from hiny
The lady was ' taking the step with reluc
tance; bnt it was necessary to transfer soma
land. The case- of: desertion seemed- so*
strong that little difficulty was met in pro
curing the divorce, and the lady made the
transfer. On the eveninglof the same day
the attorney was in Miles’s barber shop
when the lady in question entered, accom
panied by a gentleman. She uttered an ex
clamation of surprise as she met the attor
ney, and taking a seat by his aide, said to
him, “Dp you know that gentleman who
came in with me?” “No.” replied the at
torney. “Well, it’s my husband. Became
Bp to-aay on the boat, and w© shall b©
ried again this evening.” The attorney
suggested the propriety of his being present
at the wedding, but while the lady was wil-
Bhonld. witness the'ceremonyy
yet thought that he had been a little too- in
strumental in. separating them; ‘Why the
husband was so silent during hitr long ab
sence we.know not. Let that remain amoner
the mysteries.- : ;
t'blTalry Bobbing a Negro Scboolhonse.
£&om the Missouri Messenger, i3th«J
We understand that on last Tuesdaynight
the “Chivalry” of Fnlton', Callaway county*
becoming enraged at the presence of a negro
school in their midst, resolved to rid them
selvee of its presence.
Accordingly a mob gathered, proceeded
to the school house, and literally gutted it?
destroying the benches, desk and stove,and
breaking ont the windows and doors.
. The same night the Governor’s proclama
tion, calling tor volunteers to repress rebel
mob violence in various parts of the State*
was received, and caused quite a change to
come over the spirit of their dreams, go,
early next morning; the most prominent;
and vindictive, rebels of the place, who.
otherwise would have j ustified the act of the
mob, circulated a subscription paper to
raisemoney to replace the articles destroyed.
The result was that the “Chivalry” were
so alarmed at the prospect of having Fede
ral soldiers quartered on them, that they
subscribed liberally, and before night mo
ney enough was raised to refurnish the
school room and repair it in a much better
manner than ever before. Hurrah for
Fletcher’s proclamation!
Tight Boots.— The Indianapolis Cfa
sette tells the.following rich story: A few"
evenings since a young gentleman of
this city who had been indulging in that
most expensive of all luxuries, a pair of
tight boots, called on a couple of young;
ladies. One of the boots ; pained him so
much that he was compelled, at anehrly
hour, to retire; the ladies, not wishing
him to go so soon, inquired why he was
in such a hurry. After hearing the
reason, one of the ladies told him to take
oft his boot, which was done, and he re*
mained an hour or two longer. When
it was time for him tb say good nighty
he arose and looked aronnd for his boot,
but was nowhere to be found. After
making a great search, it was discovered
that one of the young ladies in a playful
mood had inserted her foot into the boot,
and was unable to get it off. The other
lady volunteered to assist heri but her
efforts were equally unsuccessful, and
the upshot of the matter was that the
young man had to walk home a mile or
more with one boot.
A vert valuable pocket-knife was once
dropped into a twenty feet well; half full of
water. “How shall we get it out? Shall we
have to draw the water from the well?” Tha
writer proposed to nse a strong horse-shoe
magnet, near by, suspended by a cord. ' ‘Bnt
we can’t see where to lower the magnet so
as to tench the knife:” “Throw the aun’a
rays down on the bottom of the well by a
looking-glass,” was the second answer. It
was done, the knife rendered visible from
the top of the well, - the magnet came into
contact, and the knife brought up—all being
accomplished in a minute of time.
Microscopic Seaweeds,— The extensive
collection of microscopic seaweeds, techni
cally known as Diatomace«>, belonging to
the late Dr. Greville, baa been recently ac
quired' bv the Botanical Department of the
British Museum. They contain all the type- '
specimens so exquisitelyfigured by him in
the “Transactions of the Microscopical So
ciety,” and in other journals, as well as of
the more obscure speoies described and
figured by the late Professor Gregory. -
A Singular Case.— The Eastport (Maine)
Sentinel, sajre that a pedler recently driving '
through the town of Cooper, was stopped
by. a foot-pad who presented a pistol and
demanded.his-money.' The pedler had a ,
little girl riding with him at the time, who
seeing the state of affairs, crept hack on tha -
top of the cart'and dragged his overcoat up
within reach, from whioh he took his re
volver and disabled his man.
Cambridge University.— The present
number of residents in the University of
Cambridge (Eng.) is 2,039; of whom 1,228
are resident 1 in the aollesea and 813 in
lodgings, or these Trinity hsia 571, St.
Jrhn’a 322, Cainß 130, Corpus Chrlati, 123,
Cbrjet’a 119, and three coUegea have be
tween 90 ana 100; one has 74, six between sft
and 60, and two 34 and S 3 respectively; 61T
have been matriculated in thq present term*.