Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1876 — PERSONAL AND LITERARY. [ARTICLE]

PERSONAL AND LITERARY.

—Walt Whitman writes to a friend: “ I have not so far been deprived of any physical thing I need or wish whatever, ana I feel confident I shall not in the future.” —James Wylie, “the herd laddie,” has won the checker championship. After playing thirty-two of the 100 games of which the series was to consist, his antagonist, Barker, of Boston, resigned, having lost six games, the other twenty-six being drawn. —George Law, the “stone-mason” banker, of New York, has an income of $200,000 per year. He is the heaviest man in Fifth avenue, being six feet high and weighing full 300 pounds, and is the only private banker in his city who has kept in operation a quarter century without failure. Mrs. Willing, of Chicago, obtained an interview with the Emperor of Brazil, and took with her three companions. One of the latter, falling into a fit of loquacity, said she had always been anxious to meet the Emperor, because a relation of hers resided in his dominions. With his usual politeness, the Emperor inquired where this relation livea, and was told “in Valparaiso.” He then reminded her that Valparaiso was in Chili. The effect of this blunder was so terrible that the literary ladies were unable to recover their spirits, and they retreated hastily to repair damages. —Some personal reminiscences of Mr. Bloss, the well-known editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer , are furnished by that paper. At the time of the sad accident which resulted in his death, Mr. Bloss had been connected with the Enquirer twenty-four years. During the last few years of his service, he was a privileged character, and could write as little or as much editorial matter as he-chose. His uncompromising honesty and independence often placed him in a position of antagonism to the policy of the paper, and the responsible editors were frequently obliged to cross out what he had written after it had been put in lype. —The New York Graphic gives this explanation: “ Mr. William Henry Hurlbert, the new editor of the World, is the younger brother of Gen. Stephen Augustus Hurlbuf, who was quite distinguished in the Seminole war, was a BrigadierGeneral in the late Civil War, was Minister to the States of Colombia in 186b-’7B, and has since been a Republican member of Congress from Illinois. While he, as his father did before him, insisted upon the spelling of the name as HurlAul, William Henry’s finer instincts insisted upon the old English name, from which the family traces, of Hurlfori. Those who wish to address letters to the new editor are warned accordingly.”

—A list of A. T. Stewart’s employes who received SSOO and upward from Mr. Stewart’s estate is published in the New York Herald. There are 300 names on the record, and the amount paid out is nearly $250,000. “ The foreign employes,” says the Herald, “willhave their amounts sent out by the next steamer, and those at the various branch houses of the firm in England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Prussia ami Saxony will receive equal consideration, as Mr. Stewart intended. Every employe for the periods stated has now been recognized and rewarded; every legacy given by the will has been paid ana satisfied; the business progresses as was intended, and all moves in order. The women’s hotel, the Garden city water works and improvements, the completion of the Grahd Union hotel at Saratoga, the construction of the great carpet nulls at Ghrnham, the Memorial

church for the merchant’s tomb, with parsonage and school-houie, all progress silently, as it were, but, as we are assured, none the less surely; and one by one other measures and purposes will be developed, as time will show.” ,