Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1887 — WOMAN GOSSIP. [ARTICLE]

WOMAN GOSSIP.

George W. Childs of the Philadelphia Ledger is still suffering much from the effects of his fall upon the ice several weeks ago. William K. Vanderbilt will hereafter spend most of his time in Europe. His new private yacht, Alva, which cost $1,000,000, will soon be ready for use. Miss Frances Willard has published a book entitled “How to Win.” It may be as well to say that it has no reference to the great American game of draw poker. Sam Jones remarked the other day, as some of his Boston hearers were leaving the church before the close of the sermon: “Brethren, I think too much of cultured Boston to rebuke an audience, but down South the people don’t leave the house until the benediction is pronounced.”

Charles H. Reed, the attorney who defended Garfield’s assassin, may be seen every day sitting in one of the large arm-chairs and looking out of the corridor window of the Barrett House, in New York City. It is said he has been in constant trouble ever since his defense of Guiteau.

Senator Hearst’s objection to the marriage of his son with Mbs Calhoun, it is said, arises from no nonsensical pride of wealth, but from a feeling that “the discrepancy in age and experience between the parties makes the union undesirable”—in other words, the lady is too old for the young man.

The Regent of Bavaria is making his sons learn useful trades. Prince Rupert, who will probably be King some day, is apprenticed to a Munich wood-turner, and works daily at his bench. Prince Francis is learning to paint houses, and Prince Charles is an industrious market-gardener.

President Monroe, according to a recently-published letter of his grandson, was not overwhelmed with debt, finally dying in poverty, as generally believed. He says that his distinguished ancestor left large unincumbered real estate in Loudon County, Virginia, and personal property worth $40,000, which public records show.

Only fifty years ago, says Sir Spencer Wells, the average duration of human life in Great Britain was 30 years; to-day, according to statistics, it is 49 years. In this fifty years the population has increased by 8,000,000. At least 2,000,000 out of this 8,000,000 of increase may be put down as the fruit of improved sanitary and medical work, and of victory over preventable sickness.

The very latest ?s “jounce,” says a New York paper. Mash, masher, and mashed are not obsolete, but ancient, which is worse. To be up with the times you must consider the young man whose eyes have rested on you in fend approval, not, as heretofore, reduced to the formless state of the jellyfish, but shaken up, jolted, as when encountering some obstruction in the sweep of the smooth-going toboggan. “He’s jounced,” you say, as you observe the broken bones of the victim, and turn to fresh fields and candidates new. Great, indeed, is philology, and great is the young woman. Her capacities for enriching the English language are without bounds.

A rather comical adventure befell two very stylish young American married ladies recently on the boulevard in Paris. They set out to take a stroll and look at the shops, and while slowly making their way along the crowded thoroughfare they were struck by the amount of attention that they excited. People stopped and gazed at them, murmurs of approbation followed them, and altogether they felt themselves the success of the afternoon. Suddenly one of them chanced to look around and realized the situation. “Good gracious, Kitty!’ she gasped, “we are walking between two of the sandwich men of the Paris Casino—we are being taken for advertising women!” The sudden way in which my pretty young countrywomen disappeared down the nearest side street can better be imagined than described.

The grandfather of the Hon. Hannibal Hamlin had seventeen children. The eldest sons were named, respectively, Europa, Asia, Africa, and America; Asia died an infant and the

fifth son was named Asia. Then followed daughters and sons to the number of seventeen, by two wives, and a third wife was a widow with two children. Europa settled in New Hampshire, Asia in Massachusetts, America and Africa in Maine, as did Cyrus, Senator Hamlin’s father. This Cyrus had a twin brother, Hannibal. The former named a son Hannibal, the Senator, and the latter named a son Cyrus, the distinguished missionary and philanthropist, so many years in Turkey. Senator Hamlin’s father had seven children: Elijah, Cyrus, Eliza, Annie, Vesta, Hannibal, and Hannah. Hannibal is the only survivor of the family, but still in full vigor of mind and body at the age of nearly 78.

Every once in a while some disreputable tramp secures a sqare meal or free lodging and considerable notoriety by proclaiming himself the wreck of the once famous and well-remembered “Coal Oil Johnny.” This causes the Franklin Weicx, published at the county seat of Venango, which is the scene of Johnny Steele’s sudden acquisition of wealth, to make the folic wing statement: “The original and genuine Coal Oil Johnny (John W. Steele) has for many years resided with his wife and family at Kearney, Neb., where he is a respected, Molid, useful citizen. Mr. Steele married a daughter of the late Robert Moffit, of Sugarcreek Township. His career as Coal Oil Johnny was of short duration, merely a season’s escapade by an inexperienced country lad, under age, who suddenly came unto possession of more money than he could count or knew what to do with. He was not a great while in discovering his mistake, and took himself up like a man. We think he still resides in Kearney, but know that for some time he has been traveling in Kansas, of which State he has the agency for one of the largest grain elevator manufactories in the West.”

A Vienna paper relates the following two anecdotes of the artist Amerling. One day he met a girl of rare beauty, and boldly spoke to her. She turned away without answering, whereupon he remarked, “I am the painter Amerling, and would like to paint your portrait on account of your beauty. ” She gently declined the honor, whereupon he remarked, “I must paint you, even though I should have to marry you first. ” Four weeks later the beauty, whose mother was Spanish, was his wife, and four months later a divorce followed. “The saddest thing about her was,” he remarked, “that she did not take the slightest interest in my art work. I believe she has never looked at any of the pictures on my walls.” Amerling was not fond of teaching his art, but one day a lady appeared with a girl/ and asked if he would not instruct her. He said no, but added that if she wished to sit in a corner and watch him working, she might do so. For a number of days the lady came with the girl, and Amerling did not pay the slightest attention to them, till one day he discovered by chance that the elderly lady was the Princess Christine of Saxony, mother of King Charles Alberto.

A Bostonian, who has just returned from a flying trip to Portland, Oregon, relates how he left Chicago with the mercury at zero, and went on to find it < onst ntly sinking, until with two locomotives it was difficult to get up steam enough to drag the train; and with a roaring fire in the cars it was still necessary to keep muffled in furs to bo anything nearly comfortable. He says that in crossing snowy plains through Dakota, when everybody was bundled up to the eyes, a man accustomed to the country suddenly threw back his heavy ulster collar, exclaiming: “There, we’ve struck a Chinook wind. Now we are all right. I’m going out on the platform.” Those not accustomed to the idiosyncrasies of the American climate in that especial locality regarded the man as beside himself, but when the platform was visited by the more daring ones it was discovered that the temperature was that of a mild spring day. The snow everywhere was visibly melting with much rapidity, and the mysterious wind seemed to have blown in anew season. The name of this warm breeze is the same as that of a tribe of Indians of Pritish Columbia, who perhaps manufacture it, and it is said to be so warm that it deAroys three or four feet of snow in a single night. The gentleman who relates this thermic voyage closes by relating how, when he arrived in Portland, pansies were bloomiing in the garden beds, and mildness had possession of the land ; an ending which is especially effective in these frozen days.

Wrinkles. We have of late been given several new abont wrinkles, the acquisition of whicn knowledge, let us hope, has added no wrinkles to our smooth and placid countenance. We have been informed that Patti escapes wrinkles by washing her face in grease, because water makes those lines of care. One young lady was so impressed by the impressiveness of a writer who said one should always, when using a towel, rub with an upward motion, that her nose is in danger of being wrecked from a collision, caused by her chin plunging through her eyebrows. If such treatment does not make wrinkles, what will? Men have, as a general thing, more wrinkles than women, but it does not annoy them or cause any anxiety, for in them it does not mean being laid on the shelf. Wrinkles in a woman mean age, and agedness is a woman's great horror. She watches its encroachments with terror. She tries all preventives with religious promptitude. If we are to believe the wise Benjamin Franklin she might just as well let it all alone. He says: “In every animal that walks upright the deficiency of the fluid that fills the muscles appears first in the highest part. The face soonest grows wrinkled and lank. Therefore the age that show’s in the visage is not necessarily proof of mental or physical decrepitude.”' According to this she will have to either lie on her back the rest of her natural life, or go on all fours, to avoid wrinkles; either of which would be very disadvantageous to a general good time. There is such a craze nowadays for the antique. Crinkled, crackled things are so sought after, why are not wrinkled ones popular? Supposing such a state of fashion, w’hat a fine thing it would be for old women, with youth and placidity below par, age and wrinkles selling lively way above. What a change there would be in the general atmosphere!—the antiquated female being given a seat in the horse-car while the young but too blooming maiden stands; the jaunty policeman conducting her across the crowded street, very much after the fashion of a connoisseur handling a Satsuma jar! Such a revolution would add years of pleasure to many an honest woman’s life. She might then,without a tremor, acknowledge she was thirty, whereas now she dare not go over twenty-two.— Chicago Ledger.

Important to “Stage-struck” Girls. The apparent delights of an artistic career are all alluring to many an ambitious young woman. Undoubtedly there is nothing exactly so intoxicating as the enthusiastic plaudits showered upon a successful actress. But there is another side to the question. It has become quite the fashion for stagetreaders to give the public the benefit of their experience. These articles are unquestionably of intrinsic value. They will never discourege real genius, while they may save some sorrow to those of nonmeritorious ambition. We quote from Miss Cayvan, who writes thus in the Brooklyn Magazine. I can not do better, she says, speaking of stage requirements, than to revive a list sent to a young woman seeking advice by a clever far Western critic, which is the shortest and most complete lecture on the stage that could, perhaps, be found. One only might be added —this: the patience to read calmly in the papers everything and anything of a personal nature to yourself, which may be far from the bounds of exactness, and to know with infinite philosophy that these easily believed reports will be copied throughout the Union, and yet never to be betrayed into refutation. Our Westerner advises these equipments: A strong physique. An unimpaired digestion. A slender figure. A marked face. Strong features. A carrying voice. A lack of real feeling. An abundance of pretended feeling. Much magnetism. Great fascination of manner. Purity of speech. Elocution to a degree. A general knowledge of history. A good general education. A general knowledge of costuming. A practical knowledge of economy in dress. * An artistic knowledge of the effects of distance. Considerable business faculty. Unflagging industry. Undaunted ambition. Utter lac': of sensitiveness. A capacity for taking pains. An absolute and undisputed devotion to the theater. An unwedded life. An ability to distinguish criticism from abuse or fulsome gush. A readiness to profit thereby. Some genius of advertising, i A quickness at seizing opportunities. An adeptness at making yourself necessary. A well-defined specialty. A good memory. Good luck. Quick study. Talent. Eminent Opinions on Woman Suffrage. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Woman’s suffrage is undoubtedly coming, and 1 for one expect a great deal of good to result from it. Plato: In the administration of a state, neither a woman as a woman nor a man as a man has any special functions, but the gifts are equally diffused in both sexes. Abraham Lincoln: I go for all sharing the privileges of the government who assist in bearing its burdens, by no means excluding women. Chief Justice Chase: I think there will be no end to the good that will come by woman’s suffrage, on the elected, on elections, on government, and on woman nerself. Charles Sumner: In the progress of civilization, woman suffrage is sure to come. Clara Barton to the soldiers: When you were weak and I was strong, I toiled for you. Now you are strong and lam weak. Because of my work for you, I ask your aid. 1 ask the ballot for myself and my sex. As I stood by you, I pray you stand by me and mine. The Birthplace of Washington., There is scarce a sign now of the house In which Washington was born, on the lower Rappahannock, nor any more of the other houses where he passed his boyhood,

over against Fredericksburg, and in th* landscape which must have been known to our soldiers who fought at Chancellorsville. Both of these houses were of the old Virginia stamp—big, roomy piles of lumber, with long, slop ng. bent roof in the rear, and two huge chimneys slapped against the exterior walls at either end. It was at the home in Stafford County must have happened—if it ever happened —that episode of the cherry tree; and it was there, too, happened (after his father's death) that other better authenticated incident of the boy's subjugation of a youn ’ thoroughbred colt, which nobody could master, and yet this intrepid lad known as George Washington, and known for many athletic feats, even as a boy, did master the brute, and so enrage him by the mastership that the poor animal, in a frenzy of protesting plunges, died under the very seat of the boy master. This martyr to young Washington's iron resolve was a great pet of his mother's, under whose guidance the fatherless lad had now come; and there may have been a bone to pick between them regarding the colt; but never, then or thereafter, any real real breach in their mutual regard or love.

Notes for tile Ladies, Mrs. Mary Ashley Townsend will be the editor of the new bi-monthly, Art and Letters, to be soon published in New Orleans. Ella Wheeler Wilcox has been dubbed the “Queen of Rhythm”by Colonel Bob Ingersoll, and that settles the whole question. Mrs. Mary J. Foster, of Pittsfield, Me., has a horse which trots to the school house for his mistress, and waits at the door until she is ready. Mme. De Reute, better known as Mme. Ratazzi, is exiled from Paris to escape imprisonment for criminally libeling the family of the Marquis el Reute. Miss Lavra B. Marsh is a successful journalist of Durango, Col. Her efforts are not confined to her own paper, but she is making an enviable place among story writers. The newest “wrinkle” in society to-day is the writing of “Town” instead of “City 1 ’ or “New York” on the envelope of your letters. Its use shows you to be as thoroughly swell as one could desire.