Indianapolis Journal, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 February 1885 — Page 4

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THE SUNDAY JOURNAL nr JNO. C. NEW ft SON. SUNDAY. FEBRUARY 1, 18*5. gr-rr—=— —-"■.•rr:'— l rv. t: —r. Telephone Calls. Dasiness Office -38 j Editorial R00m5.... 242 The Sunday Journal has the largest and best circulation of any Sunday paper in Indiana. Price three cents. IMMODERATE RECREATION. The little waif at Mugbv Junction who so • oiperiously insisted on being amused was a faithful exponent of average human nature, large and small. Her ingenuous and candid demand for entertainment * as but the expression of a need to which all proj>erly-balanced mankind must plead guilty—a need for occasional change, recreation and amusement — a need for relief afforded various overtasked portions of the mind or body by diversion granted to the other mental or physical powers. The kind and quality of recreation antidotal for different varieties of fatigue or exhaustion has already been wisely appointed by those qualified to prescribe. The minis--0 ter. the lawyer, the man of sedentary occupation of whatever kind and degree, must find his rest in physical activity, must stretch his legs over miles of country road, or indulge in other similar exercise to work off his mental exhaustion and raise the pulse of his physical being. While the man of muscular employment—the farmer, mechanic or the fighting editor, must court repose of body and stimulus to mental activity; “a brooko in a cozie nooke,” or, in brief, outdoor exercise for the indoor man, and vice versa. So far, so good; we are apt pupils in absorbing the truth that “all work aud no play makes Jack a dull boy,” hut obstinately obtuse are we in comprehension of the reversed maxim that all play snd no work makes Jack immensely duller. The crime of the times is immoderation in almost every line of recreation, lake the renowned Irish gentleman who, hearing of a stove that would save half the fuel, declared he would buy two and save it all, blundering man decides that if a little recreation is good, a good deal must be still better. Boat-rowing, club-swinging, and foot-ball kicking are pronounced necessary for the symmetrical development of the college student, and his inordinate indulgence therein returns him to his native heath with a muscle that scares all the small boys, an appetite that terrifies his mother, but with a mind whose expansion doesn’t alarm anybody. Roller skating becomes a popular recreation, and behold. the school, the fireside, and the church are shoved to the wall, while a nation of animated bureaus on casters clatter round in a bewildering ring. Progressive euchre takes the field with like result. Convention becomes an almost lost art, and society foregoes the profit and pleasure derived from an intelligent exchange of ideas, in indulging in nightly tests of skill at the euchre table, whose profits are an occasional favor in the shape of a plush dust-pan with a thermometer on it, or a suspicious-looking silver dagger, with no mission in the world whatever. Chess-playing, too, is a much abused form of recreation. Men of ability will hang over a chess-board, every spare moment, morn, noon and night, pondering deep schomes, and inventing moves for an enemy’s discomfiture, under the evident impression that they are greatly disciplining their minds, preparatory so some gigantic Napoleonic performance i which they might suddenly be called upon to take a haud in. These are hut few of the innumerable diversions whose moderate use is beneficial, whose immoderate use is dissipation, pure and simple. He who '‘puts an enemy in his mouth to steal away his brains” is not more truly an inebriate than he who intemperately Indulges any fondness for any recreation whatjver. An occasional game'of foot-ball, —an ocinasional game of euchre, an hour or two, here and there, on roller skates, —once in a while a good game of chess —these are good, diverting the mind, or relieving physical tension, as the fase may be; but inordinate devotion to any one of these amusements is wrong, and therefore hurtful. Immoderate recreation excludes better things; weakens the healthy action of other powers, and narrows the vast and noble scheme of existence down to the small platfonn of the afore-raentioued '‘Polly,” of Mugby Junction, whoso demands were all satisfied when she had had her dinner, a nap, and some one to amuse her. It is time to cry a halt when all the valuable and serious affairs of life must be butchered to make our holidays. “HIGH ART.” Labouchere, of the London Truth, a kind of journalistic Ben Butler, a scoffer at the sacred ness of roj r alty and “agin the government” on principle, is likewise a barbarian in Lis estimate of high art. Contemplating a Venus aud Adonis iD pigments at Burlington House, he is ingenuous enough to admit by inference that he knows nothing whatever concerning “depth” of treatment, “tone,” "realism,” or anything else that professionals pretend to see iu art on canvas. Turning away from its contemplation, he is honest enough and simple enough to say that he does not like it; that the legs of the Venus seem turned on a lathe, with a stove-pi}** for a j*attern. The pose of Adonis’s head didn’t meet his approval, looking, as he thought, as it it had been broken off at the neck, and set back at an improper angle. Then, with the bluntnosa of a vandal, he jumps upon one of Laud seer’s “creations,” the “DyiiTg Lion,” remarking that a live jackass is worth more than a dead lion; aud, further, that since a jive Bon can he had for £SO, he cannot underfund why one on canvas should sell for

more. Os course, this is in the nature of a capital crime. No man has a right to decry “art." If he doesn't understand art he must adm ; re it nevertheless. In fact, genteel ignorance of art may be considered an advantage rather than a misfortune, for, in that case one may readily assume an appreciation that is calculated to deceive even the artist himself. The usual way is to arm one’s self with the necessary technical terms (and, by the way, the art “critic” who does not employ “technique” in connection with a picture does not know his business), and with these terms at ready command, the rest is easy enough. Suppose you visit a studio or gallery with a connoisseur, and he calls your attention to the “patede foie gras” of a certain “creation,” what are you to do, or what, indeed, is the artist himself to do, if not prepared at once to reply: ' ‘And observe the sang froid and timbre of the perspective?” This at once places you on the high plane of high art appreciation, and you are admitted to the select fellowship of the cultured. It may be stated as a rule with few exceptions that “genre” pictures, (we recommend this term as moth-proof and fast colors): that is, pictures that you are quite certain are genre, indicated by the word “genre,” painted in ono corner. We say that genre pictures have a kind of nux vomica depth of tone that can not be mistaken for anything else. So far as the Journal is concerned, it would greatly prefer that critics would confine themselves to ordinary four-ply, ingrain English, which, as a regular thing, is good enough for anybody. But, if the worst comes to the worst, and the je ne sais quoi style of literature has to be trotted out, good and well; let it come. The day is gone when a singer must be gauged by an anemometer, or an actor by the way he hollers. We are quite aware that the tout a fait of the former and the mise en scene of the latter are points that must not be overlooked, nor can we hope to do justice to either in any language that can be understood. There is such a thing as overdoing it, w© will admit, but spme little material from the closing chapters of Webster’s dictionary can hardly be dispensed with, except to harm the reputation of the writer, and render the meaning altogether too apparent to the general reader. What the public want is a little something in the line of linguistic dado that will place a halo about a four-dollar “creation,” and invest it with that ineffable savoir faire peculiar to a genuine “old master.” Appreciation of art is one of the greatest accomplishments of modern times, and can be attained only by close attention to those technicalities that would undoubtedly drive an old master bald inside of six* weeks. THE BELLIGERENT DOCTORS. It is amazing how men of most excellent sense and judgment in other matters are thrown into a state of panic and seem to loose all their wits over the regular, periodic ware among the doctors. We can assure our estimable and amiable friends of the two councils, who now seem to be in such a high state of disturbance, that there is nothing dangerous about the big medicine men. Dr. John Chambers, a gentleman of abilitj r , culture and experience, told the exact truth when he said of these doctors’ quarrels: “They are very bittei’, but never give rise to bloodshed.” The wise and genial Doctor might have added, except, possibly, to the patients. When one solemn-looking physician turns upon another, and “icily” retorts that he wants “no professional association with him,” we are not to fly to pieces as though a dynamite bomb had exploded under the chair, but should calmly remember that these little exchanges are in the line of the “profession,” and are absolutely required for a proper and dignified maintenance of “the code.” Seriously, however, the dispute over the City Hospital matter is unworthy the attention given to it by the members of the Board of Aldermen and of the council, and the result will be, if the whole affair is not summarily squelched, to still further inflame the ahead}' dangerously enlarged heads of some of the parties to the conflict. The City Hospital is a public institution. It has no relation to the ]>ersoual or profe*ssional differences that may exist or develop between doctors, unless these differences affect the discipline and successful administration of the institution. There is no claim of this kind on any behalf; but the trouble from the facts that Doctors Jones and ~rown are not members of the consulting staff, and that the professors and students of Smith’s and Robinson’s med ical colleges are not .admitted to practice upon the bedeviled patients who are unfortunate enough to be in the wards. Now, we submit that this is not important enough to monopolize the attention of the officials of the city, neither is it important enough to interrupt the orderly and proper course of the hospital administration. The proposition to put the patients up at auction, and have then} bid off to the experimenters who may buy or sell a particular number of clinic tickets is at once novel and startling, and that it can be seriously entertained by a sensible man, much less by a physician, only shows what remarkable ideas are afloat in official minds of the legitimate functions and relations of the City Hospital. We have carefully refrained from talking with a physician of any kind about this affair, or allowing any one to talk with us—for the fear that, should we do so, reason might totter on its throne, and we be unable to take a calm, and, as it seems to us, a practical, sensible, business view of it. For ourselves we think the policy of allowing even the pay , patients to call on any doctor they please very questionable, if the superintendent is to be

THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1885.

held to any degree of medical responsibility whatever. If it is to be adopted, it should be very carefully guarded; at least, the Hne can well be drawn on “faith-cure cranks,” and possibly on some other kind of “specialists,” unless the hospital is to be turned into a variety show, where the spectacular medical melodrama is to hold the boards. The Journal is not alarmed by the troubles between the doctors, and again takes the liberty to say that the only and the proper thing to do is to be sure that a competent, fairminded, efficient, careful superintendent is chosen, and then to hold him responsible for the management and results, jiaying no attention to the quarrels between the different “schools” of medicine, or the warring factions of the same school. As Dr. Chambers well stated, no one school or no one college has a monopoly of brains, culture or experience, and what we have said is in advocacy of no person and no sect. Let the superintendent be who he may, he should be sustained in maintaining the prerogatives of his position, and it may be regarded as certain that he will have the same fight on his hands that now, trebly thundering, swells the gale. These awful cataclysms of temper are inseparable from the doctoring business. LAND AHEAD? The American mind has always accounted itself uncommonly acute in the solution of problems, yet it is occasionally obliged to prostrate itself before foreign intellects capable of reaching higher heights and deeper depths than it has ever accomplished. The safest and most proper method of castigating married women, for instance, is a theme with which the most colossal minds of the country have grappled without success. Year by year the unwarrantable prejudice of the ignorant against wife-whipping has extended until this most neoessarv factor iu the maintenance of domestic harmony has become a positive luxury within the reach of only the most plethoric purses. Every year, also, wives, knowing the legal restraints under which husbands labor, have become indescribably more rampant and unmanageable, more disobedient and independent. In this critical state of affairs, how gratefully falls upon the masculine ear the tidings that an English mind, ever fertile in expedients, has invented a method of reducing the expensiveness of wife-whipping, thus furthering the cause of fireside happiness and establishing every man on a sound basis as master in his own house. One William Bloom, a collier of Blackrod, was arrested for beating his wife. He bore his trial, and paid the fiue and costs with suoh equanimity that the bench was moved to investigate the secret of his philosophical demeanor. It was ascertained that a “Wife-beaters’ Club” had been organized among men who advocated this style of connubial correction, and when a member was fined, the club paid the money. The narrow-minded bench immediately sentenced Blooming Billy to blush unseen at hard labor in jail for one month. Notwithstanding this disastrous result, it must at once appear to every imaginative mind that this idea of co-operation among husbands is susceptible of being elaborated to successful and highly satisfactory endings. Many, many of the terrors of matrimony could be miitigated in this way. Seal-skin sacques, matineetickets, jewelry, basket-phaetons, and many other little trifles, which are demanded to preserve woman in a happy frame of mind, could, by club assessments, be made to fall lightly on the income of every member. Times are indeed looking up for brow-beaten man; and woman, terrible woman, may yet be brought, if not to entire content aud submission, at least to a condition of endurable placability. THE BACRED BALLET. The more the plan of Miss Agnes Booth in regard to establishing a sacred ballet is considered, the greater appear its possibilities. The scheme, or, it would perhaps be more proper to say, this “religious work,” has been outlined in the Journal, but so briefly that much was necessarily left to the imagination. Miss Booth, it seems, contemplates the organization of an army of sisters in the good work of saving souls, but they will not adopt the time-worn methods of exhortation and prayerful appeal to sinners. The young women will fight the devil, not exactly on his own ground—because they will not go into variety theaters and saloons—but with his m own weapons, namely, the ballet and the drama in a mild and, of course, a religious form. A regiment of girls in each city will he trained to dance in the highest style of art, not omitting the peculiar features which have proved so attractive to bald heads and other frequenters of the sinful and worldly theater. In short, these girls, who, it should not be necessary to say, must have been previously converted, will kick their pious way into the wicked hearts of abandoned men. This once accomplished, it is hoped and expected by the originator of the plan, that a subsequent portrayal of a holy drama, varied by sacred songs, will complete the conquest, and that the once depraved frequenters of low dives will become humble followers of that which is good—or at least better than that to which they have been accustomed. An orchestra composed of “scientific persons, girls who have devoted their lives to the Savior,” will be formed simultaneously with the organization of the corps de ballet. It will thus be seen that this “divine work,” as Miss Booth calls her undertaking, covers considerable ground, and jiossibly solves several vexed social problems. It provides, in the first place, a means by which our young women of pious proclivities and possessed of the missionary

zeal which so properly fires the heart of female church members, may find an outlet for their bubbling energies. Circumstances prevent most of them from going among Indians or cannibals; but if they can save souls without permanent absence from the parental hearth stone, who shall forbid? Many, if not all, of these young women have, perhaps, surreptitiously and in their godless days, learned how to dance. If this once worldly accomplishment can be used for evangelizing purposes, why not? At present, if they are strict observers of church rules their talent rusts, or, in other words, their heels lose their suppleness from inaction. The preacher aud the stiffened elderly deacons assure them that dancing is a disreputable and sinful form of amusement, unless, indeed, they choose to whirl through the giddy waltz in company with each other, and without the assistance of men. As no men figure in Miss Booth’s plan, the church dignitaries cannot raise the old objection.' If, then, the girls may dance, why may they not dance before the Lord, if by so doing they may convert hard hearts from which the words of the ministers have hopelessly rebounded? This opening for women is one which should receive due consideration from those in authority. Another thought, and probably the most important, is that men who have hitherto remained away from divine service with great regularity will be drawn to the sanctuary once the ballet feature is introduced. There is no doubt that such will be the result The minister who moans and laments over vacant pews needs go no further for a remedy than the one proposed. No matter how “tedious and tasteless the hour” to the listeners, while his sermon is in progress, interest will revive when the consecrated ballet comes in and dances to the sacred music of the scientifically religious orchestra. When this is supplemented by solos from the leading members of the devout choir, clothed in robes which will harmonize with the airy costumes of the dancers, then will the attractions of the church, as remodeled on the Salvation Army plan, be complete. The conundrum “Will the coming man go to church?” can have but one answer after the advent of the sacred ballet. MINOR MENTION. A New York special says: “One distraction suffered by S. S. Conant, missing editor of Harper’s Weekly, was the copyright question. As an employe of the Harpers he was bound to oppose the present movement for the international copyrighting of books; but he was, on the otherhand, a member of the Authors’ Club, an organization devoted quite influentially to the agitation of writers’ grievances through piratical publication. He was a popular man with his fellows, and yet it came to his ears that some of them regarded him as an emissary of the enemy. He felt this keenly, and it may have been the inciting cause of his disappearance while mentally unbalanced. The publishers regard the passage of an international copyright measure by the present Congress as now impossible. They have killed it, they think, through the help of Congressman Will English, of Indiana. He has put forward, as a substitute for the bill formulated by the Authors’ Club, one which would restrict the protection of foreign authorship to dramatists, leaving other writers just where they are. This cannot pass, either, but it has sufficed to damage the chances of the other. The publishers have had lobby advocates in Washington for a month.” The decision in the Bradlaugh case disqualifies any man who is a professed atheist from holding a seat iu Parliament. Professed atheists are not, as a rule, the mo?t admirable and useful members of society, but it may De doubted if a hypocritical assumption of religious beliefs tends to elevate either the person who thus adopts them or the community in which he moves. The honesty of future members of Parliament will depend on whether or not their political ambitions are stronger than their possibly heterodox theological convictions. As matters now are, it would probably not be safe to probe too deeply into the opinions held by certain of the present M. P.’s, who are not godly, however churchly they may be. So long as their outward professions are proper they need not apprehend any trouble —a disclosure would be a mere embarrassment, and nothing more. Clergymen’s wives appear to have some influence down in Long Island, if the preachers themselves do not. Since Mrs. Downs left her reverend husband and ran away with the deacon, there has beeh a regular epidemic of elopements in that locality. The latest case is that of a young business man who has hitherto been regarded as a model of deportment. He has left his new and attractive wife, and fled with a young woman also “highly respectable and well connected.” When overtaken in his flight he refused to be separated from the fascinating creature whom he “loved dearer than life,” but an argument advanced by an officer of the law led to a change of opinions, and he now finds himself a lone orphan as well as a virtual widower. Harrisburg statesmen are sagely discussing a matrimonal bill intended to put stronger barriers in the way of marriage between minors than now exist One Dutch member, who favored the measure because a young man had stolen his sixteen-year-old daughter from school twenty years ago, was honest enough to close his speech advocating the bill with this remark: “Ihafegoddis mooch to zay: dot hees chutchment vos better nor mine, as he hafe made a mighty fine hoosband.” This postscript, which was received with much applause, was considered the best argument offered in behalf of the opposition. Should Miss Agnes Booth’s salvation army sacred ballet and drama be successful, it may do away with the apparently growing necessity of the regular orthodox hh arches giving all sorts of cheap theatricals. When such schemes as Miss Booth's can be seriously suggested in the name of religion, and with all manner of outre “manifestations” on every hand, is it not high timo for that revival of common sense in religious matters, which the Journal advocated a week ago? Since Dr. Holmes has shown that Emerson was addicted to the pie habit, and himself indorses the philosopher s conduct as rather commendable than otherwise, a boom may be expected in the manufacture of that viacd.. If enterprising pastry-makers do not invent and

christen anew and toothsome pie the “Emerson" and another, say of mince, the “HolmesEmerson," they will show themselves to be at once ungrateful and uncultured. All the bachelors of the Pennsylvania Legislature voted to establish the whipping post for the benefit of wife beaters. The married members who voted against it hope that amazons will successfully set their caps for the rash and impetuous single gentlemen, who may then come to know how it :s themselves, and realize their folly. Numerous insanity cases are now reported in the wake of the powerful “religious waves” have been sweeping over parts of Pennsylvania and other States. It is too early yet for the reaping of the aftermath at Hartford City. BREAKFAST-TABLE CHAT. Miss Louisa Alcott is ill from overwork and entirely unable to finish her book, “Jo’s Boys and How They Turned Out.” E. G. Ross, formerly United States senator from Kansas, but now a citizen of New Mexico, is regarded as likely to become Governor of that Territory. A Portland, Conn., man, merciful to his beast, had three teeth extracted from the jaw of his pig which seemed to be suffering from toothache. No cocaine was administered. A girl who could spell Deuteronomy, And had studied domestic economy, Went to skate at the rink, And as quick as a wink She sat down to study astronomy. —Boston Sunday Courier. “Bill” Nyk invites the Prince of Wales's son, who has just come of age, to be his guest when he visits this country. “I tender you," he writes, “the freedom of my double-barrelled shotgun during the prairie chicken holocaust.. I know whore the angleworm grows rankest and the wild hen hatched her young.” In Philadelphia the other day Mr. Moody said a lady told him 6he wanted to be a Christian, but not to give up the theater. “Did you evor hear me speak against the theater?" inquired the evangelist. “No; but if I become a Christian can Igo to the theater?” said the penitent. “Yes," said Mr. Moody; “but you must give Christ the first place.” Norristown Herald: A genius has invented a cushion with a spiral spring, to be worn by skaters where it will do the most good. When a skater who wears one of these contrivances sits down unexpectedly and in italics, as it were, the spring throws him right onto his feet again, before he is fully aware that there has been an accident. The celebrated German writer, Emmy von Dincfclage, three years ago spent nearly a year in this country, and three months of that time at Chattanooga, where she made special studies of many episodes of the war and especially of the so-called “battle in the clouds,” which she has embodied iu a novel now in the printer’s hands in Dusseldorf, Germany. Oddly enough, Mr. W. D. Howells apparently re gards the word “purple” in the familiar phrase “purple and fine linen,” as an adjective qualifying “linen.” In the latest instalment of his cleverly written novel, “The Rise of Silas Lapham,"in the Century Magazine, he makes one of the characters, an educated gentleman, speak of “poople whose houses are rich, and whose linen is purple and fine." The Maison Doree, the well-known Paris restaurant, was the scone the other day of a very exciting arrest. A well-known Count, belonging to one of the best families in the gay capital, and very popular iu the American colony, was givon in charge by the proprietor for making it his practice to order a good dinner and then leave without paying. Only two years ago this nobleman was a shining member of the beau monde. Once in a while amateur artists venture upon verydelicate ground. A lady not far from New York who is clever with the brush, not long ago printed a tapestry of Tannhauser and Venus. “Well, my dear,” she said to a female friend, “how do you like it? Do You think i have got Venus Yenusy enough?” “Well, I don’t know what you think, of course,” was the reply, “but if she were any more Venusy”—with severity —“you couldn't show it.” Literary talent is kept fully abreast of roller skating progress at Brunswick, Ga., where one of the papers prints “rink personals" like these: “Miss Julia Futch glided around the hall like a 6unbeam playing upon the crests of the sparkling waves. Mrs. Mclver is quite at home on tho rollers, and skates as smoothly as the swau glides over the passive waters. Miss Mary Stacy flitted around the hall like a light - winged dove on somo heavenly mission," London Truth says it has positive information that the recent serious illness of tho German Emperor is due to imprudence in eating hot lobsters washed down with Rhine wine, occasioning indigestion, and heroic remedies producing weakness. Truth adds: “The Kaiser’s taste is coarse. His favorite dishes aro fish and soup, in which cider and pickled cucumbers also are hashed, veal flavored with cinnamon and cloves, and sponge cake steeped in pineapple rum." Thomas Crossky, a well-known architect of New. ark, N. J., recently returned from a visit to Europe. While passing through a street in London one day, with a tin box in his hand, he was stopped by a police man who desired to know if the box contained dynamite. Mr. Crossey told the officer that he might open the box and assure himself that it did not. The offer was declined and Mr. Crossey permitted to pass on, but not until he had declared ou his honor to the officer that there was no explosive in the box. The myth that a large sum of money had been offered by the government for 1,000,000 stamps is said to have arisen in the following way: An -advertisement appeared in London, England, asking charitable people to send t%ir stamps to a poor boy in Brighton, who wished to cover his walls with portraits of her Majesty. When they should be covered the lad’s education was to be paid for by a wealthy lunatic. Thousands of stamps were sent, aud then cleaned and sold. The police broke it up. George A. Sala lectured in Chicago on Friday night, and among other things told his hearers that on Sept. 3, 1870, in Paris, ho was arrested on the ungrounded charge of being a Prussian spy; he was liberated next day through the interference of Lord Lyons. At 12 o’clock he was given his liberty, and half an hour afterward the revolution of the 4th of September broke out. Had he occupied his cell as a Prussian spy when the mob attacked the prison, “no retired special correspondent would be here to address you," he concluded grimly. Queen Victoria, says an English paper, has come to the assistance of the singers. They have long complained of the English musical pitch, which is higher than that of any other nation, and is therefore higher than the pitch intended by foreign composers. Mr. Sims Reeves, Madame Christine Nilsson, Madame Patti, Mr. Santley, and many others have asked for a lower pitch. The Queen has ordered her private band to adopt the diapason normal, and to use it At all state balls and in all State concerts, and so has set a fashion which is certain to be largely followed. It remains now only for the opera-houses to adopt tho same pitch. In remembrances of George Eliot recently published, it is stated that at one time she was much interested in phrenology, and had a cast of her head taken. Hor head was a very large one, twenty-two] and one-quarter inches round. The temperament was nervous lymphatic, that is, active without endurance, and her working hours were never more than from 9 A. M. to IP. M. In her brain development the intellect greatly predominated. In the feelings the anima and moral regions were about equal. The social feelings were very active, particularly the adhesiveness. She was of a most affectionate disposition, always requiring someone to lean upon. She saw all sides intellectually. Stories concerning the new senator from New York are now in order in Washington, among them the old one of his foot-race with David Davis. The relative proportions of the two men had led to a bet of a box of champagne by Mr. Davis that he could beat Mr. Evarts in a hundred-yard race, provided the former were allowed to choose the groand and were given five yards the start. The trial came off on a moonlight

night, Mr. Davis choosing an alley not more than five feet wide. The contestants were placed, and the race began, but as Mr. Evarts gained on Mr. Davis, tha latter extended his elbows so that they touched the sides of the alley. Then he looked back and said: ‘There, Evarts! take your time, and don't overheat yourself! lam bound to beat you!” aud of course he did. ODDS AND ENDS. The other day that incorrigible bachelor, James H. Rice, Secretary of State, was conversing with Hon. John Graham, a Bloomington bachelor, and expressed surprise, not unmingled with regret, that the latter remained unmarried. For a moment Mr. Graham’s breath was quit* takon away. When it returned, boiling over with indignation, he broke out: “How dare yon talk to me about matrimony, you hoary-headed old century plaut? Why, you've already bloomed once!” * Anecdotes of Brjgnoli are now finding theif way into the newspapers. There is one that might be added to the collection, which heretofore has only had circulation in Indianapolis. When Brignoli appeared here some years sine# with Christine Nilsson, the great prima donna was somewhat indisposed. Brignoli, as is well known, never succeeded in learning English, and his blunders in that, to him, unconquerable tongue, were numerous and grotesque. He stepped before the footlights to apologize.for Miss Nilsson to the audience. “Ladies and ehentilmen,” said the great tenor, “I hope you will be easy wiz Mees Nilsson zis efening as she ees a leetle horse.” This was followed by a laugh on the part of the audience. In some embarrassment, not knowing what blunder he had made but fearing the worst, he corrected hi* statement by adding, “I mean Mees Nilsson she have a leetle colt.” The laughter that followed fairly shook the house. * # # “It's a dreadfully severe winter,” said the family grocer. “Fruit growers say the peach trees are all killed, and farmers say the winter wheat is frozen. The other night I forgot and left out a twenty-five pound sack of flour. Next morning I found it had been nipped.” * # # At tho post office corner the other day several old soldiers were discussing Gen. Grant’s article on Shiloh in the Century Magazine. “Gen. Grant denies that we were surprised,” said one. “Os course there was no surprise. We invited the rebels to come and take breakfast with us* and they came, that was all.” * £ if “I am collecting money for a statue,” said the red-nosed man. “Governor Gray, Auditor Secretary Myers, and Treasurer Cooper head my subscription list.” “I haven’t heard of the death of any great and good citizen of Indiana recently,” said the reporter. “Who is it for?” “John Frenzel.” “Oh, ah; yes, certainly. Put me down for & nickel.” “The good die young, While those whose hearts are dry as summer’s dust Burn on till 12 o’clock.” * “The quality of hogs,” said Gen. T. A. Morri* to the reporter, “has greatly improved in Indiana within the past twelve or fifteen years.” Tha general referred to tho four-footed breed: tha two-footed animals are about the same. “You hardly over see any of the long, razor-backed variety now. Nicholas father of the Nicholas McCarty of to-day, use{ to feed five or six thousand hogs every yeas along in the thirties on ground, a part of which is now covered by the Panhandle freight depot. It was always a great day in Indianapolis when Mr. McCarty started to drive his hogs East over the National road to market. Nearly every man and boy in town would turn out to assist in the drive. Those hogs could run like quarterhorses. Old Davy Williams was Mr. McCarty’s head man, and it is said that he would mount Davy on a fleet horse and start him off, as tha drive began, to make arrangements on thf road for a place for the liogs to be fed and to rest at night. Off Davy would go, and away would go the razor-backs, and like as not they would overtake the horsemau before he could make the proposed resting place. I remember a great commotion over among Mr. McCarty’s hogs one day. Three bears—a male and female and their cub —had come in from the woods, and were eating pork like Democrats at a barbecue. Os course, the town turned out, and there was a grand bear hunt. Two of the animals were killed, but the third in some way escaped.” # # The conversation had taken a literary turn. Within, the steam-heating apparatus made all warm and comfortable; without, the snow was falling in great white flakes, upon the cold and cheerless earth. “This day,” said Deputy United States Cierk Ed. McDevitt, “reminds mo of it. I never wrote but one poom in my life, and that was many, many years ago. I was a mere boy at tho time, and what becamo of the poem I never knew. From that day to this I have vainly sought to find it I never pick up a newspaper without looking for my long-lost poem. All in vain! and now 1 can remember but one line ol it— the first line. It begins—‘Oh, the snow, the beautiful ’ ” Fora moment there was a deathly stillness. Then tho listeners rose as one man, and Jell upon him and smote him full sore. Aud no one would wish to be as that young uian was. * # * “Some years ago,” said a Catholic priest to the reporter, “when Archbishop Ryan, of Philadelphia, was here (he then lived at St. Louis) ha told with great relish, a little story about himself. Bishop Duggan, of Chicago, had became deranged and had been taken to the hospital at St. Louis. The good bishop’s mania was exceedingly peculiar. He had a wonderful memory and astonished visitors at the hospital by long and exact quotations from religious writings, being able to give tho very number of the page from which he quoted. He believed himself to be the Pope, and at tin.es would wait at the window expecting tho Pope’s carriage to appear with the tiara and other appurtenances of the papal office. Sometimes be would talk so rationally that visitors would be impressed with the idea that he was sane, and rumors, on two or three occasious, went about that the bishop was unlawfully restrained. Bishop Ryan hearing one of these rumors wont to see Bishp Du ggan. For n time the imprisonod prelate talked quite rationally. Bishop Ryan was becoming impressed with the idea of his sauity. At last to test him, he asked “who brought you here?” “ ‘The devil brought me, tho devil himsolf/said Bishop Duggan with indignant emphasis. “ ‘Of course/ said Archbishop Rvan, with • twinkle, ‘as I had taken him there, in justice tt myself I had to pronounce him insane.'" # it Henry Labouchere, editor of the London Truth, says that Captain John McCafferty is the noted, longed for “No. 1," upon whose head the English government at one time set a great price. Mr. Labouchere says he knows this, having received the information on authority that is sufficient, but that he does not intend to give the name of his informant. The reporter who writes this knows Captain John McCafferty. and Mr. Labouchere’s disclosure is not altogether news. There are in this city alout* at least half a hundred Irishmen who knew* years ago what the English editor assumes to know now. Captain McCafferty is a Californian, and at one time was worth over a quarter of a million dollars, all of which he has expended iu the Irish cause. During the late presidential campaign he spoke in this city and at other points in the State, in favor of Blaiue and Logan. He is about forty-two years old, six feet high, with black hair and beard, an easy, pleasant address, and the conversation of a gentleman and man of education. The Matter With Finerty. Philadelphia Press, Congressman Finerty, of Chicago, is a dangerous man. He is so foil of dynamite patriotism that every time he utters a word his jaw crack* like the report of a howitzer.