Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 January 1879 — PERSONAL AND LITERARY. [ARTICLE]

PERSONAL AND LITERARY.

—Caleb Cushing was Emerson’s tutor when tho latter was a Harvard student. —Bayard Taylor, liko Caleb Cushing, believed that ho had years of life befdto him. —Senator Ben Hill, of Geprgia, is said to have lost $190,000 in working Georgia plantations during tho last year. —Miss Hewins, the librarian of a large popular library in Hartford, Conn., says that many children of that City read too much. Ono boy has read 102 story books, and a girl 112 novels in six months. —The late Representative Hftrttidge, of Georgia, while delirious, a little timo before ho died, got out of bed and dressed himself completely, and, lying down with his arms folded across his breast, said: “Now I am ready to die.” —The ltev. H. H. Hayden, charged with the murder of Mary Stannard, and now in Jail at New Haven, Conn., has gained twenty pounds since he went to prison, and now weighs 185. He reads and studies a great deal, and his friends have furnisned him a plenty of good food, well cooked. —Jules Verne, the celebrated French novelist, is reported to have visited Spencer, Mass., a few days ago, registered at the Massasoit Hotel, and expressed himself desirous of witnessing the process of manufacturing boots by machinery. He said that he had recently come from Montreal and was traveling quietly through the country. His identity was at first questioned, but the signature on the hotel register was found to correspond with that of the novelist in his published works.

—Tho pleasing illusions of youth vanish so quickly that it is scarcely necessary to make an effort to destroy any of them. And yet' a cold-blooded pedant, to whom the prosiest fact is far more attractive than the most charming fancy, veiling his identity beneath the ill-tempered signature “X,” writes to the London Times to prove that Cinderella, dear, dirty Cinderella, never wore a glass slipper. Tho fairies, says he, gave her pantoujles de vair, a costly fur, not de verre, glass, and then he proceeds to protest against tho perpetuation of a vulgar error. And another surly fellow, worse than the lirst, Svrites to the Times with a snarl at “ X” for telling what everybody knew before. They will be proving next that there nover was any Cinderella at all. — N. Y. Evening Post. —The London correspondent of the N. Y. Tribune relates the following anthe late Bayard Taylor: "On the night of the Ist of May lie went to Marshal MacMahon’s official reception at the Elysee, in Paris. He found himself on arrival absolutely alone. The official arrangements were so meager that not so much as an usher was there to announce him. With Marshal MacMahon Ms. Taylor had no acquaintance. In such circumstances most men would have gone away, or have mingled quietly with the crowd. Mr. Taylor made his way to the Marshal, introduced himself by his name and title, paid his due compliment, and asked leave to present his wife and daughter. The Marshal, whatever his political sins, is quick to recognize manly frankness. He greeted Mr. Taylor cordially, carried off the party and presented them to the Duchess, who in turn received them with marked civility. ‘ 1 thought,’ said Mr. Taylor, in describing the incident to me, ‘ that I had no choice. It was known that I was in Paris, and had been asked to this ceremony. If I had gono‘ away without making my3elf known, my supposed absence would have been set down as a piece of rudeness or carelessness, and I was'determined that no such clvargo should be brought against a the American Ropub-