Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1885 — Rachel and Ristori. [ARTICLE]

Rachel and Ristori.

A Bost.w lady recently invited Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes to one of her .small receptions, and then half apologized to him, fearing he might think ihe invitation was inspired by a doubl .-motive. “Oh,” said he in his usual kindly manner, “use me just as yon please. If I can be of any* service to j-ou, 1 shall be very glad.” A writer in the Atlantic, speaking ■of the maliciousness of the mockingbird, states that if young birds are placed in cages where the parent birds ■can have access to them, they will feed their offspring regularly for two or three ■days, and then, as if in despair, will -poison them, giving them the berry of ■the black ash. A negro in Monroe County, Alabama, adopted a novel means of re--venge the other night. He had been forbidden by a colored woman to visit her daughter, and to avenge himself thought he would burn the old woman ra little. He loaded his gun with fat .meat, and slipped up to her house at 8 •o’clock in the evening and fired on her. The load took effect in the calf of her leg, tearing away all the flesh from it. A doctor, who ought to know, says -that the practice of the wholesale use of smelling salts, which came in with the universal fashion of carrying smelling bottles, is sure to have its influence on the olfactory nerves sooner or later, and render the victim unable to distinguish cologne from asafcetida. More than all that, it causes headaches, sore throats, and red noses. The last argument will have its weight. The smelling bottle must go. The Long Island Bailroad is testing the plan of having a special produce train, which is intended to take the farmer, with his team and its load, into New York, so that he will reach there •early in the morning and return again at night. This, if successful, will bring all parts of the island (a hundred miles long) into direct connection with the city, and must ultimately result in making a market garden of nearly the whole island. Gas is used in few bed-rooms in 'Europe, and in very few upper-class houses. It is being taken out of pretty nearly all the old houses in England and on the Continent. It is deemed unhealthy, consuming the fresh air of the rooms, besides being a very hot light, having the property of soiling the ceilings and dimming the paintings. Lamps and candles are taking the place of gas in all houses, except, possibly, in halls, kitchens, and like rooms. Speaker Carlisle is making a collection of the most curious communi•cations he receives, such, for instance,’ as a letter from a Minnesota man, who wanted an appropriation by . Congress to provide him with a good sleigh. He -told what kind of wood it was to be ,made of, how many bells it should have, and how thick the steel of the runners should be, and, in a postacriptum, intimated that the salvation ■of the country depended on the appropriation being made promptly. Mr. Wm. D. Howells is so fond of ■delineating women in his stories that his readers marvel where he makes his after hearing that he dislikes miscellaneous society, and seldom fre•quents it. His intimates explain this by asserting that his wife serves as the •original of his characters. He looks at her in different angles, and, with the -aid of his imagination, evolves divers .and diversified personages. So it seems that the wife of an author may really have her literary uses. The postoffice at Leek, N. Y., is a •curiosity since the recent fire there. The letter-boxes were destroyed, and tomato and peach cans are nailed to the wall and used instead. A novel plan has been adopted to designate the boxes. J. E. Button’s bears a large button; Mr. Cole’s has a piece of coal attached; Mr. Wood’s can is marked by a piece of wood, Mr. Cobb’s a piece of corn-cob, and Mr. Knott finds his mail in the can with a hemlock knot attached. The Cheyenne Live Stock Journal revives at considerable length an article recently published in the New York Sun, and criticises and refutes the assertions of Mr. Wilkeson, its author, who charged that the “Western man holds his Eastern brother in profound contempt. He does not like his waps, or speech, or clothes. He considers it to be legitimate to loot him. For Western men, who may deal squarely with each other never deal squarely with a ‘tenderfoot.’" He made many other equally untrue statements. A prize of ten guineas was offered by the Pall Mall Gazette for the list of the ten greatest living Englishmen, divided nto ten classes. Some 1,500 persons sent in their judgments. The greatest unanimity was found in the case of Mr.

Irving, who heads the poll with 1,337 votes; Lord Wolsely, as greatest General, came next, with 1,060; Mr. Sala, as journalist, Mr. Millais as painter each received between 800 and 900 votes. Mr. Buskin, as writer, received 568 votes. The voting on the others was more scattered. None of the rest received a majority of the votes recorded. Pbof. Simon Newcomb, in reviewing the performances of the “Georgia wonder girl, " Miss Lulu Hurst, in the current number of the Science, says her success aflords a striking example of the unreliability of human testimony respecting the phenomena of force and action. He points out that her manifestations were purely physical and the result of force being exerted under favorable conditions. Though ordinary observers were mystified, yet the character of the performances, according to Prof. Newcomb, was absurdly simple, and illustrates the credulity of believers in the movements of chairs, tables, and pianos without human agency. James Carlyle, brother of Thomas, has much of the latter’s nature. He is taciturn and unsociable, and expresses profound contempt for almost everybody and everything. To a visitor recently he said, speaking of a school inspection they had just made: “Ye make a terrible to-do about eddication noonday, but what was the case when I was young. The day at the schule when I was 9 years auld, my teacher was heatin’ me say my catachers, and I said ‘He believes’ instead o’ ‘He believeth.’ He knocked me doon and pu’d my legs and bangit me on the desks; and I ran oot an’ lay at the fit o’ a hedge among the dokens and nettles for three hale days.” Mahlon Holland, who abandoned his property near Bangor, Me., several years ago, and settled down in the Northwest as a trapper and hunter, died three years ago, and recently his relatives, who had been in charge of his farm, decided to bring his remains East for interment. Those who went after his remains found that Holland had been buried in a box made of old boards, and that he could not be taken eastward until he was put in a more substantial coffin. In making the transfer his missing will was found, giving Holland’s property to his relatives, as he had promised, and also a memorandum stating where he had buried $2,100 in gold near the lake. The papers had been buried with Holland bv mistake.

In one State at least, says the Chicago Tribune, there appears to be a growing determination that murderers shall not escape from justice upon the insanity dodge. Dr. Beach, who was hanged at Hollidaysburg, Pa., recently, for the murder of his wife, is a case in point. This man, who had a reputation for being eccentric, indulged his eccentricity to the extent of murdering his wife in a particularly brutal manner, and then coolly notifying her relatives of his crime. It was shown upon his trial that a former wife had separated from him because she believed him insane ; that her father, who is a physician, had treated him for insanity; and that the prisoner’s grandfather, two uncles, a cousin, and an aunt had all been insane. This was infinitely stronger testimony than .is usually introduced to establish insanity, and yet the jury disregarded the evidence as to his own unsoundness and the cumulative hereditary testimony and convicted him. A new trial was asked for and refused by the court. Then his counsel sought to obtain a commutation of sentence, and this, too, was denied. At last they besieged the Governor for a pardon, but he, also, turned a deaf ear, and the murderer was hanged. It was clear enough to all concerned that, while the man might have had some mental defects, he was perfectly well aware of what he was doing and of the responsibility he assumed. It is probable that this salutary lesson will not be lost upon other eccentric people in Pennsylvania who may be murderously inclined, and upon cunning lawyers who resort to the insanity dodge as an avenue of escape for their clients.

A correspondent of the Brooklyn Eagle writes as follows: “In 1856,while in Paris, at the Hotel du Louvre, I was at breakfast one morning with a friend from New York, and we were talking about the great performance of Kistori in ‘Medea,’ which we had enjoyed on the preceding night. At the same table were seated a party of ladies and gentlemen who were discussing the same subject in English as we were. One of the ladies said: ‘Rachel is a great artist, and is almost faultless, but Rachel is a machine; Ristori is a woman.’ The manner in which these few words were said was such as cannot be described. The face of the speaker lighted up with enthusiasm, and her clear and sonorous voice attracted the attention of every person in the room. I said to my friend: ‘That lady would make a fine actress herself.’ My friend replied: ‘Do you not know who she is?’ ‘No,’said I. ‘That lady,’ said he, ‘is Charlotte Cush-* man.’” The style in which napkins are folded is no criterion of a good board-ing-house.