Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 April 1878 — PERSONAL AND LITERARY. [ARTICLE]

PERSONAL AND LITERARY.

—Mr. Bancroft, the historian, is said to be a lover of hand-organ music, and it is related that to spare Mr*. Ban. croft’s nerves ho ha* the musicians escorted to the back gate, where they, grind while he digs in the garden. Last year there were published, in England, 3,049 new books and 2,046 new editions, and 481 American publications were imported. As usual, theology leads, witn 485 books brought out—fiction with 446, being second. —Senator Lamar sent this sentiment to Augusta, Ga., on St. Patrick’s Day:. “The typical Irishman: His home- the world. His friends—all the peoples. His faith—his own. No clime to him so cold as will not produce a shamrock; no soil so barren as will not produce a shillaleh. Foremost at a fight, a frolic or a funeral, his generous nature finds a blow for the bad, a smile (pr the glad, or a tear for the sad.” —Edison’s phonograph has been on exhibition among the scientists of Paris. When the instrument was placed on the table, and vociferated, “The Phonograph presents its compliments to the Academy of Sciences,’' there was a roar of laughter from the audience, which could with difficulty be persuaded that the sound did not proceed from some concealed ventriloquist. —Mrs. Chataway, the keeper of Shakespeare's house at Stratford-on-Avon, was not pleased with Gen. Grant. She says: “Generally people who come here seem to have some interest in the place. Gen. Grant walked about with his eyes fixed on the floor—what there was on the floor I don’t know. He didn’t look at anything at all, not at the pictures nor the relics, and he didn’t say a word till he was going out of the frontdoor; then he said, ‘Thank you.’ That was the only speech he made here. Mrs. Grant seemed to like it.”

—A new version of the cause of the death of Representative Leonard, of “Louisiana, appears in the New Orleans Times, which says that the Cuban lady with whom he fell in love did not fully reciprocate his attachment, and after reluctantly consenting to imarry him, finally, at the last moment, rejected his suit. The Times intimates that he did not die of yellow fever, but committed suicide. Others think that he was murdered. Judge Leonard was a great favorite among the ladies of Washington. —A Jacksonville (Fla.) letter to the Cincinnati Commercial says: “ Mr. William Astor generally spends about four months of the year in Florida sailing his yacht and amusing himself with the operation (by proxy) of the great Toco! & St. Augustine Railway, fourteen miles in length, all under one management; fare, four dollars the round trip! This road is Mr. Astor’s little joke on the luxury hunters of the North. If New Yorkers are willing to pay four dollars a quart for Florida strawberries in March, he regards it as only fair that they should pay 14 2-7 cents a mile for the privilege of making a-pilgrimage to the most ancient city of the United States by rail. The road was formerly operated with oxen, and the trip generally took from two days to two weeks, so that old-time Florida travelers will appreciate the introduction of steam on the road, even at the increased fare. Mr. Astor also dabbles a little in real estate in Jacksonville, and is at present buildihg a dock, and intends to erect a fine block of business houses on the street fronting the St. John’s.”