Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1878 — PERSONAL AND LITERARY. [ARTICLE]

PERSONAL AND LITERARY.

—During the month of June, 86,071 volumes were issued from the Boston Public Library, an increase of nearly 7,000 over the corresponding month last year. —Tappan, the Boston defaulter, is not poor, even after the assignment of his property. His father, who was a rich Boston merchant, left him SBO,OOO in trust. One of his horses is worth SI,OOO. —The death of Judge Shepley, of Maine, will seriously incbnvenienee many patent owners, for he had heard cases, in great numbers, relating to infringements of patents and involving large amounts of money, many of which he had had under advisement for months and even years. All these cases will have to be reargued before another Judge. —Celia Logan writes: “Lady Blessington with all her literary fame never wrote an original line. Entrance into the Count D’Orsay and Lady Blessington’s coterie was difficult to obtain—except you knew the magic key which would unlock them—which was to Write something of merit and humbly beg her ladyship to honor you by mothering it. If she did so, her patronage was secured, and any struggling young author was glad to ride into fame at so small a price.” —Rev. Samuel Hunt, a Congregational minister, vvho was for some time Private Secretary to Vice-President Wilson, died at his home in Boston a few days ago. He was graduated from Amherst College in 1832. He aided Mr. Wilson very essentially in writing the “ Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America,” and finished that work alter Mr. Wilson’s death. Later he devoted much time to preparing and arranging for publication Mr. Wilson’s letters, papers, etc.

—The •Princess Salm-Salm. whose death in England is announced, was known in theatrical circles in this country under the name of Agnes Le Clerq or Leclair. After marrying Prince Salm-Salm she accompanied him to Mexico, where he was Chief of Maximilian’s household. Later he went to Europe and was killed in the FrancoPrussian War, in which he served as a Prussian Major. About two vears ago she married a wealthy Englishman named Heneage, but the union was an unhappy one. L —George Eliot is now a trifle more than fifty-eight years old. She began her literary career young, and was editor of the Westminster Review when only twenty-three; but her first novel, “ Adam Bede,” was publisned when she was thirty-eight, so that her brilliant career as a novelist is included within a score of years. Her late poem, “ A College Breakfast Party,” published in MacMillan's for July, was written four years ago, and its publication does not appear to have created the faintest flutter of interest. —A correspondent of the Rochester Express writes: “ I met in Florida Jpjtm Tyler, Jr., son of President Tyler. He must be nearly sixty years of age, and resembles to an extraordinary degree his father Even in the extreme poverty of his late years he preserves a dignified carriage, a fondness for plush vests, .standing collars and white neckties. In his conversation, which is learned and at times highly enjoyable, he never allows you to forget two things, wit: That he is a Virginian and that his father was President of the United States.”