Saturday Evening Mail, Volume 3, Number 44, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 3 May 1873 — Page 1

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Vol. 3.—-No. 44.

THE MAIL.

Office, 3 South 5th Street.

Ten Pages!

Town-Talk.

Sirica this record closed, last week, there has been an amazing quantity of town talk. There isn't a hydraulic press in any machine shop that could condense it, or even the gist of it, into the sixty columns of this issne of The Mail. Much of it has been wild and foolish talk some of it has been mean and wicked part of it has been sensible, timely and good. A great deal that T. T. has heard on the streets and in places of public resort was occasioned by a meeting of several citizens held last Saturday evening at Reese's carpenter shop. Unfortunately T. T. was not there, but ho has seen many gentlemen who wore present, nnd knows what was said and done. It was what politicians call a "ward convention," and it was a big ono, probably the most extensire gathering of the kind ever bold in Torre-IIaute. It is understood that the lessees of the shop, Messrs. Hunter and Kimball, have decided to build a largo addition to the establishment bofore the next city campaign. It happened that two candidates for tho Mayoralty resided in that ward. It happened that each of them had a host of friends. It happened that Smith had moro friends in the convention than Thomas. It happenod that somo of tho frlonds of Thomas very foolishly lost their temper and made many silly and spiteful remarks. And T. T. was sorry enough to hoar from a sensible Sixth street gentleman whom ho chanced to ineot at church, that Mr. Thomas behaved unbecomingly, denouncing tho convention as "packod," and as a "set up ".Job," simply becauso the friends of Smith outnumbered his adherents and somo of them had their ballots written. Now T. T. isn't a politician, nover was a candidato for office seldom attends conventions generally yotos for the boat men often "scratches" as briskly as hen with fifteen chickens. lUit if T. T. should ever dorldo to run tor any office, he would be happy to havo his friends rallied In force at tho nominating convention would expect thom to support the delegates favorablo to him, and would think them ratlior negligent if they .didn't have tho names of such delegates Molocted and written on ballots. The notion that there Is anything wrong In having such written lists duly prepared, In a notion that according to T. T's observations, uevor exists except In tho fancy of the defeated party. Ho who thinks the citizens attending a convention will voto In opposition to their principles or wlshos merely be. causo a written ballot is handed to them, must outertaln a very low estimate of his fellow citizens.

As everybody knows, Smith was defeated in tho city convention, Monday night, and Thomas was nominated. This result was attained by massing all tho strength of threo candidates against tho one who was almost strong enough to boat thom all combined. Smith came out of the contest, into which he entered roluctautly, entirely unscathed. The principal opposition to him sprang 1 from tho fact that he is a man of ideas and convictions and had expressed them Is a positive man, unaccustomed to the ways and habits of "trimmers."

T. T. hasn't th© honor of ranking among Major Smith's friends, but'he congratulates the Major on bis escape from that nomination. Had he been nominated he would have been elected. He can servo the public and advance his own best interests more effectually in editorial than In official llle.

Mayor Thomas has not received general commendation during bis official career. Tho talk of the town—which T. T. tries to echo with fidelity—has not often sounded his praise. But T. T. has never heard anj man express a •doubt or hint a suspicion of Aleck

Thomas' honesty and gray-haired citizens, of all parties, candidly admit that his administration has been a good one. He finds himself opposed by Judge Scott, tho regular Democratic nominee, and by Mr. White, another "Democrat, nominated by a convention of Worklngmen. What will be the Issue of this strangely "mixicd" contest, .T, T. will not attempt to guess. If

Mr. White embesaled the funds of his I lodgo In the fraternity of Odd Fellows, nml there seems no doubt that he did, the honest citizens who put him In I nomination will not feel bound to vote I for him. The man who has appropria•*l the orphans' fund cannot expect to h\e trusted with public Inufasu. So [R-SVO a chaige, proven against any nan, ought to keep bim In the shady [walks of private life. Honesty, in hese times, Is the prime requisite In a an did ale for office. Ill® strange that man with such an ugly blotch on his |*cord, should not JKSk to avoid pub.dty.

Husks and Nubbins.

XLII.

OUR DOUBLE LIFE.

Says one, writing of Horace Greeley: "Like many other men who find the business of actual life too engrossing to permit a continuance of their young love of the ideal, Mr. Greeley may have for tho most part ceased to write, but he never ceased to be a reader of poetry. In this bis taste was almost infallible."

The letter from Bob, in last week's Mail, suggested a train of thought which rrty mind has often dwelt on, viz: The two-sided-ness of our lives. Not Bob only, but all of us havo a double. We live two lives—one to the world and one to ourselves. The life tore live before the world might be called our machine life. It is the life ol action, taking hold of practical affairs, doing this and doing that, but always doing. Take the farmer for example. His life, as the world sees it, consists in plowing ana sowing, In reaping his grain in tho sultry heat of summer, in gathering corn and feeding stock, in working just as any other intelligent machine might work. But this is not all of the farmer's life. Heaven pity him if it was! There is another life behind this—a life of culture and enjoyment—of poetic warmth and color—the true and real life of the farmer. lxok, too, at him whom we may call the man of figures. Ills life-work consists in wielding that little instrument, —the pen. For years and years he does nothing from morning till evening but make figures. He charges so much to this man and credits so much to that, and then ho turns over to another page and goes through the same process, and to another day, and repeats the operation. And so, through a week and a month and a year. Now what a life this man would lead if there was nothing behind this everlasting figuring of debits and credits

Thore is nothing much more mechanical, tnkn it all in all, than the editing of a daily newspaper. It requires a constant strain and tension of the mind in the direction of the most prautioal affairs. Tho editor deals only with hard facts (except, Indeed, during a campaign, whon considerable latitude is allowed the imagination in the way of inventing whatever tho facts fall short of) and his business, if any, will mako a very Gradgrind of a poet himself. And yet men gifted with largo ideality and a genuine poetic faculty, havo taken upon themselves the management of daily newspapers. Tho explanation of the phenomenon must be that they lived two lives, one la the editorial room and the other as far from tho editorial room as Heaven Is from Hades. They had the power of rapid transmigration from one life to the other. Tho Ink was not dry on the last page of a partisan leader until they were Boaring away beyond tho clouds on their Idolized Pegasus, and quick as the Prince of Persia's enchanted horse could havo mado the journey, they wero back to the earth again In timo to append a paragraph based a on page of manifold fresh from the telegraph office. Even Greeley, the editor Incarnate, the man whose inmost soul seemed to go out In lovo to newspapers, whose one only aim and ambition was to be a great journalist and build up a mighty newspaper—even this man in his heart or hearts, held the poet's treasures and dreamed the poet's dreams. And so it happened that the readers of the Tribune, and the people with whom Mr. Greeley mingled day by day, did not comprehend his life In its fullness. There was beneath the rough exterior an inner holy place to which they cauld not penetrate—which waa sacred from profane loet.

This doubleness of our lives is necessary and well. It makes os satisfied with our condition. If our outward life seems hard we fly from it to the llfeof beauty within, and this, like the smiles of a lover's sweet-heart, puts new courage In our hearts and arms us anew to battle with the Ills of life.

What Is singular is that anyone should permit his Ideal life to die—nay, should even exert himself to crush it out. But there are many who do. Only a

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days ago the writer of this was conversing with a couple of young attorneys, former school-fellows of his, upon this very subject, and was deeply disappointed to find how mechanical and macMineical (tolerate the solecism tor the sense) they were becoming. The writer was insisting that a lawyer should climb out over his barricade of Latin terms and legal technicalities occasionally and dlv® into the limpid deeps of Jean Paul or soar among the ethereal impossibilities of Shelley. Otherwise he was likely to become a very fact-skeleton—an aggregation of articulated bones, covered by a dry skin of practicality—but lacking that roundness of contour and healthful bloom of color, which distinguish tho flesh-and-blood man from the »doc£or*s automaton. To this my companions otyeoted that such reading had a tendency to induce a dreamy and unprac­

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TERRE-HAUTE, SATURDAY EVENING, MAY 3, 1873

tical state of mind not favorable to the transaction of business. "I did not mean that it should be done In business hours." "No, of course not, but even outside of business hours the effect is not wholesome." I was surprised, almost angered, when one of them went so far as to say that any kind of reading, except that directly connected with the law, was a detriment rather than a benefit, and that he had determined to give up reading entirely for a while and devoto himself wholly to his profession and the practical affairs of life. Yet he Is a young man and only out of college a few years. If at so early an ago he excludes with such tyranny the elements of a broad and liboral culture, what a soulless machine for grinding out legal processes may we expect to find him a score of years from now! This man has set himself to crush to death the higher life within him. Unable to reconcile the Inner life with the outer, and convinced that one or the other of them must perish, he has deliberately ordered the crucifixion of the former. Unwitting tyrant! What would he say to Horace Greeley's reading poetry In the intervals of his busy life Or to the course of another gentleman, who sustained for years a responsible and laborious position on a daily newspaper and yet devoted a portion of his time to the study of an ancient language, on which he published a work?

So far from a moderate culture of our ideal and poetic nature interfering with our success in practical life, I believe it will be of positive benefit to It. It will add a depth, a many sided-ness and a self-containment to our character, which will make us not poorer machines, but infinitely better men.

A recent letter of "Jennie June" (Mrs. Croly) has this paragraph, and it is encouraging to see a woman of character nd influence touch upon the subject

More low bodices are worn this season than have ever been indulged in before by unmarried ladies in New York society. Time was when 'nice' girls would not wear a low-necked dress, and considered themselves dressed for a party in a cashmere cut high with lace ruffles at the neck and wrist. But this was when Irving Place and Union Squaro were considered tolerably fashionable localities. Now the elder girls—and there are many verging on thirty or thereabouts—have their evening dresses cut low, to the shoulder blades at the back, and to a mere point in front, with the apparently benevolent Intention of allowing the men who have not come up to the marrying figure the privilege of seeing whatever is to be teen, for now the'European styles' and 'French fashions' get the credit of all this, when in reality nothing could be further from European practice. French girls hardly appear in society at all until after they are married, though It Is doubtful If this seclusion is any more in the Interest of morality than the latitude allowed to American girls. Yet one would prefer to see the freedom still tempered as of old, with natural modesty and reserve."

THE eagerness of woman to know what is going on about her has led her into many troubles, and will, we presume, lead her into many more. The latest case that has come to our notice Is of a woman at Lawrence, Mass., who suddenly turned her head to look behind her, and neither she nor the doc. tors have been able since to turn It back. That is the way she Insists upon acting. We hear of Lot's wife, who was turned Into a pillar of salt because she could not resist looking behind her, and of Eurydlce, who could not refrain from looking back to see what Orpheus was about, and so lost her chance to get away from Hades. This curiosity is a dreadful thing. The case we have cited above is particularly palnAil. Fancy tho poor woman going round with a turned head Of course it is but natural that the head of the dear creature sbculd be metaphorically turned by the present of a new bonnet, but that It should be permanently turned through an Indulgence in curiosity is very sad Indeed* We hope it will prove a lesson to others.

SCRAPS OF NEWS.

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Arkansas propeses to pay its legislators by the job. The negro brogue is dying out amolBg Southern planters.

The Order of Patrons of Husbandry is spreading at the South. It takes four barrels of flour to coyer Pittsburg with circus posters.

The Chinese chew anise after meals to boost along their dlgestiveness. Sacramento has reached the street-oar-«toppage stage of the epizootic.

Vienna is building six new theatres to fmiiif visitors to the Exposition. Strawberry abort cake is now served in down-town restaurants in New York city.

The seating capacity of the theaters in Chicago is greater than that of the churches. M. ,y 4

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People and Things.

A sound Judge—A musical critic. It is said insane people give out a peculiar odor.

What a queer name for an office-hol-der that Louisiana marshal has—Deklyne.

The announcement that truth is stranger than fiction is said to depend chiefly upon who is talking.

Henry Ward Beecber thinks it of greater importance that a man act rightly than to believe rightly.

Beecher calls the current Sunday School literature "the swill of the house of God," and powerful thin swill some of it is.

Barnum's wild Indians are getting ready for the Ylenna trip. They haye almost succeeded in concealing their bregue.

This is the affecting epitaph on a deceased Long Island Captain's tombstone "He's done a-catchlng ood, and gone to meet his God."

A man at Owensboro, Kentucky, cherishes a dry boquet which Jenny Lind beld In her hand at a concert there twenty years ago.

A Pennsylvania Congressmen is credited with saying that he will pay his debts with back pay, thus placing It where it will do the most good.

The doctors have now come to the conclusion that chloroform killed Napoleon, and that If they had left him alone he would have lived on

Canby never smoked, but always carried an unlighted cigar between his lips, says an exchange. That's the way our Minister Tom Nelson used to do.

Rome, Georgia, has a judge who picks the banjo, flourishes the paint brush, sings Ethiopian ditties, balances the scales of justice, and makes Rome howl.

The habits of the people of Colorado are peculiar. A man out there had to postpone a private dance, because he hadn't time to lay in a stock of powder and ball.

The laziest man on record is J. B. Brown. Ho was postal clerk on a Wisconsin railroad, and was arrested for burning mail matter to save himself the trouble of distributing It.

Next to the boyish delight of surreptitiously sucking the mouth of a molasses jug, says a philosophic correspondent, is the pleasure of breaking an engagement with the dentist.

A Rhode Island convlvialist at an auction bought a lot of furniture and then asked the crowd to name "the poorest woman In town." The name was given and the goods were sent to her.

The richest newspaper publisher and proprietor in the Union is said to be J. Young Scammon, of the Chicago IckfrOcean. He Is supposed to be wolth 14,000,000 or £5,000,000 but he did not make any of It in journalism.

A lunatic has gone and poetized John Smith. We advise John to go for the poet numerously. It's bad enough to bear the name of Smith but to have that name rhymed with "pith" and myth" and "prlth" and "with," is a vile insult.

McKee Rankin, the well known actor, has taken the benefit of the bankrupt law In Chicago. His assets amount to $100, and bis liabilities to $12,000. A man who runs so deeply into debt on so small a capital has business talents, and is fit for higher things than play acting.

Two members of the Kansas legislature were rather nolaily drunk on a railroad train the other day, and when tho conductor remonstrated otio of them pompously ssked: "Do you not know, sir, that I am a member of the Legislature?" The conductor quietly replied, "You've got the symptoms."

An auctioneer thus relieves himself: "The presence of those who attend merely to see the fun Is endurable, but the lady who bids a certain article of cloth up to nlnecents a yard, and when It is knocked down to her decides to take one yard, be regards as a blot on tbe civilisation of the nineteenth century."

Those people who live to a healthy old age are those who take care of themselves. There is one on Main street who guards against tbe frequent sudden changes of weather, by wearing at tbe ssme time a linen duster and an overcoat. On a cool day he puts the overcoat over the duster, and when a sultry spell comes on he puts the duster ouUlde tbe overcoat.

Rev. Dr. Hall, of Trinity Church, New York, says that the revenues of many Episcopal Churches are appropriated thus: One-third for the minister, and two-thirds for tbe music. That theooet of the music In the Brooklyn churches would carry on their missions five times over. Rev. Dr. Patridge, rector of Christ Church, declares that the debt of the church might long ago haye been canceled with the money paid to ungodly singers.

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Feminitems.

5 t- it The lady teachers of Detroit are on a strike. «l"

Theodore liiton wears a low-nerked shirt, with his back hair down. Ihe Order of "Patrons of Husbandry" very naturally includes women.

Marion Dixon, once beautiful and a belle, is a habitual drunkard in Detroit. Tbe naughty Mansfield is coming home. Why didn't she start on the Atlantic?""' *7" r* j1"

A woman has been lecturiBg in &alem Massachusetts, on "the man, lady and land question."

A young lady recently sent off her lover with instructions not to return until he "meant business."

An old conductor says he is no judge of female beauty, but he can always tell when ladies are "passing fare."

Two foolish young girls took poison together In Janesvllle, Wis., but the family doctor came in time to save their lives.

A young lady travoling for a Chicago house visited Des Moines last week and sold goods to the merchants there at a lively rate.

A female lawyer in Wyoming territory argued a case wherein her husband was the defendant, and she carried it against him.

Nilsson (who will shortly appear in the opera of "Hushaby") refuses to sing in Berlin because her husband is a Frenchman.

At a concert recently, one of the lady singers found that her voice was thick she attempted to strain it, but could not sing any finer.

A Chicago servant girl recently took a dose of morphine to make her cheeks look pale. It was ono of the greatest successes on record.

A Boston girl who was married four years ago in a dress worth §5,000 may now be seen splitting her own kind­

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and doing her own washing. To harmonize discordant natures, and out of conflicting individuals to develop a happy home, is one of the greatest triumphs that woman can aohieve.

Mrs. Scott, of Omaha, respectfully solicits her three husbands, through a newspaper advertisement, to meet her at a certain hotel, there to settle their conflicting claims.

A colored woman of Bryan, in Northern Texas, gave birth to twins the other day, and one of the infants was white and tho other black. You can figure out tbe problem at your leisure.

Lucy" writes from Brooklyn to say that she don't object to a good looking gentleman gazing square in her face, but that it does make her awful mad when she looks back to see him staring back too.

A society has been formed in New York—not before it is wanted—called the Ladles'

Antl-ambltlous-to-figure-ln-

the-newspapers-with-no-useful-result-and-to-the-neglect-of-your-own-domes-

tic-duties Society. An Iowa woman brags that slie could have married two men a day for the past two years, if she had any use for such rubbish. As she has a rich coal mine and a backing cough, her statement has an air of reliability.

Boston young ladies put on a clean pair of stockings when they have their photographs taken but after figuring over tho question for several years, Prof. Agasslz says he does not know why they do so.

A lady called on a witty friend who was not at borne, and finding tbe piano dusty, wrote upon It "slattern." Tbe next day they met, and the lady said: "I called on you yesterday." "Yes, I saw your card on the piano."

At a church in Billerlca, Mass., on a recent Sonday morning, a young daughter of the pastor entered the pulpit and, stating that her father was too ill to officiate, proceeded to read a sermon appropriate to the day, much to the satisfaction of 11 her hearers.

Grace Greenwood in bcr lecture, "In Doors' which treats of tho woman question, says: "With the barriers to the Paradise of politics thrown down, and other conditions given—such as a million dollars and troops of political supporters whose devotion is not measured by scruples but by drams, I might myself some fine morning walk Into tbe Senate with, candid and a Kantas •lr »t HZ

The women are shopping now. Nothing but the top-knot of the average is visible above the towering counter, except when be goes up for another piece of goods, and It Is interesting to study the emotions that are to work within the wrinkles of the scalp. Ah! no one can really understand the mighty thoughts thst surge through their brain ss they are aaked if they "haven't got something a little lighter." Ws who have comfortable homes and kind parents, and bakers' bread, rarely think of this.

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Connubialities.

JUST MARRIED.

She stands looking on the sparkling tide Of the bright river, half In bashrul fear. Half bounding joy, to And horself a bride

Her blue eyes glistening with an ln&nt tear, Her lips apart, Her color raised, aud you may almost hear

Her beatiug heart.

Ho sits beside the river's bank, his eyes Upturned to her sweet face, with looks so tall Of admiratloa, as if earth supplies

To lilm no object half so benutiful One ringlet fair Has left its elsfer curls, and nestllug lies

In his dark hair.

It is the twillghtof a summer eve A crimson flush just tips the western trees, As though the lingering sunbeams sighed to leave

That levlng couple fair, sweetening the br66Z6 With honeyed words, 'Mid flowers and rippling streams, low humming bees.

And singing birds.

'Ours at home—the baby. The home circuit—Walking about with a baby in the night.

New reading of an old provorb—Man proposes, and woman seldom refuses. When a bill poster is In love he dividos his time between billing and cooing.

In China wives are considered legal tender for debts, and it is strange how forgiving somo creditors get.

Divorces are obtained In Maryland without publicity. They take their wives out fishing and lighten the boat.

A German friend whose wife takes in washing for their sustenance, claims that he earns his living by the sweat of his vrow.—[Danbury Nows.

In Turkey when a man goes to put on a clean shirt and finds a button ©ff he can give his wife ten blows with an ox-gad" and not incur arrest.

A man in Wyoming says he nover discovered what a splendid woman his cook was until his wife had been three nights locked up in a jury room.

The marriage llconsefee in Baltimore is lour dollars, and a Baltimore paper says it prevents many marriages. Few men want tp Incur that expense at tho start.

It is said that Bingham Young resigns some of his positions simply that he may pay more attention to his family. He wants to get acquainted with his children.

The Australians never sue for divorce. When a husband gets discouraged, he takes his wife to the brow of a clifftoview the gorgeous sunsat, and oyer she goes.

A Rochester woman, married to her second husband recently, said to him: "Oh, how happy poor Charles would be if he wore still allvo to see himself replaced by a man as agreeable as you are!"

Tho effect of nl#ly ftfdused religious emotion in a Minnesota convert to induce him to beat his wife almost to death, on the ground that she was his flesh and consequently ought tube mortified.

A Troy dentist became e'motionaly insane while repairing a front tooth lor a protty woman, and klssod her. She told her husband, and ho went around the next day and borrowod ?500 cf the dentist on long time.

A matrimonial engagement was affectod by Atlantic cable last week. The lady was in London and Romeo In New York. "Will you have me?" cost $4, gold, exclusive of address and "Yes,n cost $1. Cheap at half the prli

It is a well-known fact that heretofore "marrying out" has been sufficient ground for disownment among tbe Friends. At their last annual gathering, however, in Newport, Rhode Island, this provision of the discipline was a

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Brilliant fashionable weddings are of frequent occurrence. They have much sparkle about them but ara as unliko to tho true marriage, when the storms of if a is as is as an curdled milk to tho ripest strawberries and the sweetest crcam.

A woman in Chester interfered with her brother's courtship, and begged him to stay at home evenings. He, waited until tho evening when she expected her own lover, and compiled,' and she says tbat fraternal affection is heartless mockery. *"*,*

A couple of lovers of Selma, Delaware county, having fixed the time for their marriage, and no authorized minister or magistrate being at band to! perform tbe ceremony, a quasi minister volunteered, the twain wero married, andstsrted rejoicing on their wedding tonr. Next day the bridegroom recelved a dispatch from tbe officiating minister, informing biai that tbe marriage was void, tbat be (tbo minister) had rendered himself liablo to punishment, and entreating him to return. The bridegroom returned for an answer, "We are all right save yourself from tbe penitentisry If you can." On their return, a week or two thereafter, however, the pair were re-married to make assurance doubly sure but It is not stated whether they had the papers "dated back."

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