Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1891 — Wit of the Past and of the Preset. [ARTICLE]

Wit of the Past and of the Preset.

Among the multitudinous complaints of the present, nothing is more frequently heard than regret over the lack oi social brilliancy. The good things that have been said by wits, diners-out and bon vivants are periodically dragged to the front and mails to contrast with the vapid gayety and wearisome conventionality of the prew ant. The brilliant man or woman of former generations had an immense advantage in that their sayings were caught upon the diamond pen of some professional man of letters, reburnished •ml handed down to us in the form o; permanent literature. Now the best minds do not work for the apeaial benefit of my Lord or my Lady, or, indeed, for any private coterie. They seek a larger audience. No brighter scintillation ! ever flashed forth within the beat-furnished banquet hall of the East than mnj' be heard at many a pub- ■ o or semi-public gatherings to-day. But the exigences of to-day press upon one another. The chronicling of all die good things is left to the newspaper reporter, and however nimble his pen and and ambitious his brain, the result •gain is subject to the exigencies of the newspaper office, ot l o the press o# business upon the city ' 'or.— TVerwcript.

ivlmi. M. iiiiiiTH Howcott, of New Orleans, is the owner of over 80,000 aeres of selected timber lands In Louisiana and Mississippi. Gustav Freytag, the most distinguished of German novelists, lives in tho pretty town of Wiesbaden, where he occupies a handsome villa. Thomas Winans, the millionaire, who had lived luxuriously, said on his deathbed ho would give a million dollars to be able to oat a piece of bread and butter. Mrs. Augusta Evans-Wilson, the Southern novelist, is short and stout, with a good-natured, intelligent face, having an expression of happy contentment, It was twenty years ago this winter that Adelina Patti captured St. Petersburg and received from the Emperor’s own hand the decoration of tho Order of Merit. Stanley Palmer, a prisoner in the Now Castle (Del.) jail, has invented a toy puzzle for which he is said to have been offered SIO,OOO by New York speculators. It Is said that Gladstone Is so sensitive lo adverse criticisms that every newspaper, magazine, book, or other publication that comes to Hawardon Ibexamined by members of his family before It reaches him for fear that some unpleastcit opinions may upset bis equilibrium.