Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1877 — PERSONAL AND LITERARY. [ARTICLE]

PERSONAL AND LITERARY.

• —Amid all the noise of Paris is heard our American Noyes. —Senator McDonald, of Indiana, began his working life as a saddler. —When President Hayes gets irritated beyond all endurance, he says “ I swan.”— Boston Globe. —M. Lasalle, the French baritone, has restored his voice to its wonted purity by drinking milk. —The book that has had the most extensive sale in this country is Mrs. Stowe’s “ Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” —The Rev. Russell Jennings, of Deep River, Conn., has within twelve years given away more than $200,000 for charitable purposes. —A correspondent of the Cincinnati Enquirer describes Lord John Russell as a “little heap of wrinkled humanity.” —Victor Hugo refused to receive a visit from Gen. Grant, because the latter affiliates with the Monarchists in Paris. —Bertha Von Hillern, the walkist, takes 223,200 steps in walking a hundred miles. She would make a good step-mother. —President Grant writes that he found the labor of accepting the hospitality of his English friends more arduous than the cares of State.

—lt would be the proper thing for Senator Jones to publish a pamphlet entitled “That Mine of Mine.”— Post, Worcester. —Dr. Holland is a tall man, with black hair and mustache, and dark complexion. There is a spring in his step, and he doesn’t look over forty years of age. —McCreery, the Kentucky Senator, although wealthy, is very economical, holding that every man in high office should set a wholesome example in this respect. —lt is estimated that Gen. O. E. Babcock, who was the Private Secretary of Gen. Grant, owns property in Washington worth half a million dollars.—N. Y. Post. —Sims Reeves attributes his long lease of voice to this sage counsel of his master: “We must keep the voice in the middle. This is the secret of really fine tone, of the faculty of singing cantabile passages with effect, and of making a coup on a high note when it is wanted. Nothing is more destructive than perpetual exercise of the upper register.” —Gale, the English pedestrian who has lately completed the task of walking 4,000 quarter-miles in 4,000 consecutive periods of ten minutes each, has obtained such complete mastery over his physical powers that he sleeps occasionally while walking. Medical evidence has been taken on this point, and the fact is beyond a doubt.