drew a dagger upon Maretzek, shook her fist at the orchestra, and anathematized the whole crowd in fine style, and in imitating the great prima donna, she (Mary Taylor,) took occasion to strike the leader of the orchestra over the head with a guitar, or as Mose would say, 'swashed him on the gourd,' and when she was encored, as she raised the instrument to give him another blow, he very adroitly hoisted an umbrella to protect himself. I never saw anything take so well-the whole house was convulsed for about five minutes. Hercules is there with his club and when he is introduced to Columbia, she observes to him that she has frequently heard of that remarkable exploit of his in sweeping out the Augean stables, and advises him to hire himself out by the day to our new Mayor to keep the streets clean. On one occasion the King of gods and men falls into a violent passion with Mercury, having reason, as he thought, to doubt that deity's word, and in a transport of rage calls upon Apollo to 'strike the Lyre.' "Burton has a piece of the same name, but altogether unlike in plot and incident. His is a veritable 'World's Fair,' crystal palace, curiosities, and people of all nations and tongues, including an agent of Barnum, who has gone out for the purpose of buying up the whole concern and bringing it to America on speculation." The writer draws a distinction, however, between the "pompier-sportsman" and the "Fancy Man" which latter individual he describes as a mystery indeed. "Les 'Fancy Firemen,' eux, n'ont même pas les spéculations du jeu pour moyens d'existence. Ils vivent, on ne sait comment, dorment on ne sait où, et pourtant ils vivent, et ils dorment. Lorsque la nuit descend sur la ville, les Fancy Men se mettent à l'œuvre, et les voilà qui circulent dans le Bowery, cherchant des aventures, inondant les Bar-rooms, insultant les femmes, se querellant, se battant, donnant de fausses alarmes d'incendie afin de déterminer ce qu'ils appellent, dans la langue du pays, un 'Muss,' c'est-à-dire un rassemblement tumulteux dont eux et leurs amis trouvent moyen de tirer parti." Our State Convention for reforming the Constitution of Virginia is still in session, and will continue to sit for many months, if we can form an opinion from the progress they have already made. Their debates are disseminated through the State in a Supplement Sheet of 24 closely printed Apropos of "Mose," we perceive, in a recent columns which appears, we believe, tri-weekly, number of the "Courrier des Etats Unis," a cu- These debates are subsequently to be published rious and somewhat elaborate inquiry into the in book form, and will make a series of volumes character of the "b'hoy" (we suppose we ought to which Hansard will be but an insignificant afto say the "g'harcon") presenting some very crit- fair. One arrangement only remains to be made ical and psychological views of this interesting with regard to the Debates. They are reported specimen of the race. Our readers, who are fa- with laudable accuracy by Mr. Bishop. The miliar with the French language and the Bowe- style in which they are printed is altogether unry, will enjoy the following description of the exceptionable. We are not aware that any obpersonnel of Mose. To translate it would spoil jection has been raised against them in either rethe fun we know it will occasion "Le physique du pompier-sportsman est particulier à lui seul, et nous lui trouvons, ma foi, une certaine poésie brutale qui a son cachet. Il est rarement beau, disons mieux, presque toujours il est littéralement laid; mais sa taille est bien prise, et son allure solidement légère. Il y a de la force et une sorte de grâce dans sa démarche. Sur sa tete, dont la chevelure lissée au savon se gonfle, audessus des oreilles, en boucles contournées (ce qui a donné par naissance, croyons-nous, au mot soap-lock qui lui est spect. But they want readers. Surely, so much En passant, we heard a good anecdote of the Convention the other day, which we commend to the notice of the Knickerbocker, as worthy a place in its monthly gossip. It seems that the little grandson of one of our city delegates, a bright child of six or eight years of age, started off in his best suit and with money in hand, to see Geu'l Tom Thumb, who was holding his battu, lorsque col il y a, laisse voir une encolure musculeuse, où le soliel et le whiskey ont tracé une empreinte rougissante. Une chemise en laine rouge, émaillée sur la poitrine de larges boutons blancs ou noirs; un pantalon serré à la ceinture par une courroie de cuir; des bottes levees at the African Church. The little fellow, aux fortes semelles, passées par-dessus le pantalon: telle est, en general, la tenure du pompier-sportsman; ajoutez à ce costume bizarre un complément historique et nécessaire: la chique, se dessinant en ronde-bosse sur sa joue enluininée." however, mistook the building, and seeing a crowd around the door of the Universalist Church, where the Convention holds its sessions, naturally enough supposed that the renowned dwarf, the wonderful curiosity he had come to see, was there exhibiting himself. Full of excitement and with a proud step our young hero advanced up the aisle, to the surprise of the members who observed him, until, reaching the seat of his his grandfather, he tapped the old gentleman on the shoulder, and said, with the utmost simplicity, "Grandpa, please tell me which is Tom Thumb?" A most embarrassing question, certainly! We were gratified to learn that a distinguished compliment was recently paid by Professor Longfellow to our townsman, W. J. Hubard, Esq., the Artist. We have long appreciated Mr. Hubard's genius, and delighted to visit his studio, and we are not surprised that his original style is beginning to acquire for him a wide reputation. Mr. Longfellow, having accidentally seen a series of pencil sketches by Hubard, expressed his unqualified admiration, accompanied with a desire to possess some line from so gifted a hand. This desire reached the ear of the artist, who at once sketched two exquisite illustrations of the poet's writings, which we will briefly describe. The subject of the first is the universally popular poem of "The Footsteps of Angels." The scene begins with "And like phantoms grim and tall, Shadows from the fitful firelight Dance upon the parlor wall." The free and broad play of light on the armour indicates that entire unreserve of power that arouses us with its boldness. We should like to see an edition of Mr. Longfellow's Poems with illustrations from the pencil of Hubard. We are satisfied that if worthily gotten up its appearance would mark a new triumph of American art. A new Sonnet from Tennyson is a public benefaction. Here is one just from the mint— O! were I loved as I desire to be, Or range of evil between death and birth, We suppose many of our readers will have seen before, the farewell sonnet of Tennyson, read at the recent Dinner to Macready, on the occasion of his retirement from the stage. As it is worth keeping, however, we republish it: Farewell, Macready, since to-night we part; Full-handed thunders often have confessed Go, take thy honors home: rank with the best, In the foreground, the dreamer of the vision Who made a nation purer through their art. sits and dreams "With a slow and noiseless footstep, Comes that messenger divine Takes the vacant chair beside me, Lays her gentle hand in mine." Thine is it, that our Drama did not die, Nor flicker down to brainless Pantomime, Dwells pleased, through twice a hundred years, on thee. It is difficult to give an idea of this sketch, the This Dinner was a notable affair. Bulwer conception and execution being extremely novel. presided and among the guests were Dickens, It exhibits a remarkable combination of linear Thackeray, Eastlake and others. From the and effective drawing, such as has never before come under our observation. speech of the Chairman, as reported in the London Times, we quote the following recognition of the obligations of the author to the actor. The second drawing is from "The Skeleton in Armor." The figure stands immediately in the foreground, and although but a small one, it "Gentlemen, there is one merit of our guest as an actor looms as you gaze upon it, until it becomes gi-fal. Many a great performer may attain to a high repu upon which, if I were silent, I should be indeed ungrategantic to the imagination. The eyes, from their tation if he restrains his talents to acting Shakspeare and bony sepulchre send forth a ghastly gleam, and the great writers of the past; but it is perfectly clear that as the iron-bound figure points, he may be sup- in so doing he does not advance one inch the literature of posed to say his time. It has been the merit of our guest to recognise the truth, that the actor has it in his power to assist in creating the writer. (Hear, hear.) He has identified himself with the living drama of his period, and by so doing he has half created it. (Cheers.) Who does not recollect the rough and manly vigor of Tell, the simple gran 1851.] We hope this circular deur of Virginius, or the exquisite sweetness and dignitying two thousand dollars. and pathos with which he invested the self-sacrifice of will meet with a ready response on the part of Ion (loud cheering)? and who does not feel that but for the former students of the University. We should him these great plays might never have obtained their hold upon the stage, or ranked among those masterpieces like to see this seat of learning adorned with the which this age will leave posterity? (Renewed cheers.) choicest works of art, and made an attractive And what charm and what grace, not their own, he has place to the visiter as well as an excellent school given to the lesser works of an inferior writer, it is not for for the inquirer after knowledge. me to say." (Loud and prolonged cheering.) Many of those who heard him were no doubt present at the memorable scene on Wednesday night, when that great vision which had been a delight and a lesson-very A very excellent daguerreotype likeness of Poe, taken just before his death, inay be seen at Pratt & Co's Gallery, 145 Main Street. It is a little remarkable that no accurate portrait of him was engraved for any edition of his works. That which appears in the recent collection, edited by Griswold, resembles him scarcely at all. It may not be out of the way to say here that Pratt has recently fitted up his Gallery in a very often, he dared say, a support and a comfort-to them, which had for many years improved and charmed them, and to which they had looked for an elevated relief from the labours of their lives, faded from their sight forever. (Cheers.) He would not stop to inquire whether their guest might or might not have looked forward, through sumptuous style, and added an immense window rather too long a period for them, to some remote and dis- furnishing a skylight of great power. Some of tant time when he might possibly bear some far-off like- his recent likenesses are admirable specimens of ness to a certain Spanish Archbishop whom Gil Blas once the art as it has been perfected of late years. A served. (Laughter.) Nor would he stop to inquire number of them have been sent to the World's whether it was a reasonable disposition in the audience Fair, and Pratt need not fear to submit them to of Wednesday to seize upon the wordsthe severe criticism of the visiters to this wonderful exhibition. And I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people; but he would venture to intimate to those whom he addressed how in his own mind he mainly connected that occasion with the present. When he looked round on the vast assemblage of Wednesday, and observed the huge pit hushed into stillness on the rising of the curtain, From Messrs. Danforth, Bald & Co. BankNote Engravers of New York, we have received some exquisite steel engravings, among which are vignette likenesses of Washington, Madison, John Adams, Jackson, Barou de Kalb, Wm. and when he saw the misty surging gallery, where men in Penn, John Eager Howard, Clay, Webster, their shirtsleeves were at first striking out their arms like Gen'l Scott, Gen'l Taylor, Mr. Fillmore and strong swimmers (laughter), become still water in a mo- others. The fidelity of such of these likenesses ment, and remain so through the play, it suggested to as represent characters of our day and of which The other engrahim something besides the trustworthiness of an English we can judge, is very perfect. crowd, and the delusion under which those persons laboured who disparaged and maligned such an assembly. vings are of various designs, chiefly agricultural It suggested to him that in meeting here to-night they un- and commercial, and all of them being intended dertook to represent something of the all-pervading feel- for the illustration of Bank Notes, are of small ing of that crowd through all its intermediate degrees, size, but they show with how much softness as from the full-dressed lady with sparkling diamonds in the well as spirit, engravings on steel are now exeproscenium box to the half-undressed gentleman (great laughter) who was biding his time for taking some re- cuted. Messrs. Danforth, Bald & Co. are at the top of the profession." freshment in the back row of the gallery." 66 Those who feel an interest in statistics will be A printed circular has just been issued by a few gentlemen of Richmond, alumni of the Uni- pleased to know the fact that the whole number versity of Virginia, addressed to all the former of Lawyers in the United States is twenty-one students of that institution, proposing the pur-thousand, nine hundred and seventy-nine. Mr. chase of a painting by them, to adorn the walls John Livingston of the New York Bar, has just of the new building which the authorities design published a Law Register containing the names to erect during the present year. The painting and post offices of this great army of lawyers— suggested is a copy of Raphael's celebrated work, "The School of Athens," which can be executed in Rome, it is thought, at a cost not exceed a work which for laborious compilation is unrivalled since Mrs. Cowden Clarke prepared her Complete Concordance to Shakspeare. Notices of New Works. - THE GIFT BOOK OF THE REPUBLIC, or the Gallery of Illustrious Americans. Containing the Portraits and Biographical Sketches of 24 of the most eminent Citizens of the American Republic since the Death of Washington. From Daguerreotypes by Brady: Engraved by D'Avignon: C. Edwards Lester, Editor. New York. M. B. Brady, F. D'Avignon, and C. Edwards Lester. 1850. Biographical sketches as they are ordinarily written, are the easiest efforts of authorship. A leaf cut from a biographical dictionary, a liberal use of extracts from speeches, writings, &c., and the book is completed. Thus we have many compilations of biography which consist only of brief sketches, stating the time and place of birth, parentage, age, works, death, &c., while the only portions worthy of perusal, are scraps whose value is diminished by their isolated position; or still worse their unnatural connections. Such books are very well to turn over in an idle hour, but worthless for reference to the efforts and accomplishments of mind. So we have a "National Gallery"—a work well got up and worthy of preservation-for the engravings; but as for the analysis of the characters of the men whose portraits are given, it is valueless. If the work we have placed at the head of this article were of such a character, we should not take the trouble to speak of it in extenso; but while it requires but slender intellectual resources to make, with short biographies and long extracts, a ponderous volume, it is a difficult task to analyse character, reduce a long and eventful career to rules and principles, and, delving through the outer crust of a man's actions, speeches and writings penetrate to his true life, and give him to us as he is, in fact and not in seeming. We want the foundation walls and not specimens of the superstructure. Lester's former productions. In his earlier works there is often great crudeness. Writing almost always from inpulse, he always carried his readers along with him, while at the same time he was very irregular and careless. If he was under the excitement of the moment, he was eloquent, if not he was emphatically the reverse. It would, however, show that weak ambition to be critical instead of just, so common now-a-days, were we to point out the faults of these works, since the style of the present one condemns these faults more strongly than we could. Alongside of expletives which surprise us, he packs into short sentences what could easily be diluted into pages. We think Mr. Lester himself, must be somewhat surprised at the inherent power of the Anglo Saxon tongue, and that until he disciplined his mind and style on this book, he was not aware to what an unlimited extent language could be compressed. To a certain degree all distinguished writers have undergone the same transformation. Impulsive, imaginative and florid in youth, they become cautious, thoughtful and rigid in style in maturer years. We hardly know an instance to the contrary except Burke, He became more imaginative and florid as he advanced in years. It is no objection to a young writer that he is too luxurious in the use of metaphors. It gives him scope and freedom. Redundances can be lopped off, but copiousness is never reached by art. Besides in the first flow of youthful feeling, thoughts as well as visions are born that never spring from the cool head of reason, and there are few writers, we think, who do not in ripened manhood vainly regret a power of expression, especially of the expression of feeling lost forever. We would therefore caution Mr. Lester against the too unreserved use of this severity of style. No one loves always to read Tacitus. Oftentimes the reader prefers Cicero. Virgil will please him, when Juvenal is tiresome, and Xenophon lead him pleasantly along when Thucydides taxes unduly his powers of comprehension. Of the biographies in this Gallery we will speak of but few. In sketching Gen. Taylor, Mr. Lester seemed to think that action spoke louder than words, and he therefore simply mentions the fields of his fame, knowing them to be not only histories in themselves, but the strongest characterization that could be furnished. Take the following beautiful paragraph from the life of Calhoun. In the "Gallery of Illustrious Americans," Mr. Lester has in the main done this. In those instances where he seems lest successful we suspect the fault was more in the subject than in him. We more than suspect that the outer political life of some of the men he portrayed, “As an orator his chief characteristics are clearness of changeful as it has been, is more uniform than the quick-analysis, simplicity, appropriateness and power of expres sands of character below, where the deeper he dives the more restless and confused the book. We think we can can detect this in more than one instance. Endeavoring to grasp something worth handling, and which he could pack into solid masses, and thus fling it forth with that delightful sensation which springs from the consciousness of strength tested on what is worth lifting, he found he was grasping unsubstantiality. It is in such dilemmas that he departs from that compact, terse and rigid style, so eminently characteristic of the work in question. He seems to value the necessity of effort, and after all is half ashamed of the one he has put forth. It might seem invidious to name these instances, and therefore we pass them by. It is one of the standing and well substantiated charges against fortune that she makes some men illustrious by trickery and falsehood, just as she frequently heaps gold on fools and ignoble men. sion, and a subdued and lofty earnestness. The completeness of his portrait renders it unnecessary to describe his personal appearance. In the tribune his erect, stern attitude, his iron countenance, compressed lip and flashing eye, have often filled his auditors with terror, and made his familiar friends almost dread to approach him. And yet he is the gentlest of husbands, the tenderest of fathers, the most humane and indulgent of masters. He is known to the world only as an orator and statesman, and those who are admitted familiarly to the scenes of his domestic life, forget his public achievements in the spotless purity of his private character, the warm charities of his home and the fascinating glow of his classic conversation. The honors of the Senate and the Cabinet have never weaned him from his early love of books and rural pursuits. At every secession of his public labors he has fled to his plantation home, to receive the tender greetings of his family and the most touching demonstrations of grateful love from the dependent beings who look to him for With these exceptions we feel that we cannot speak too highly of the style in which this work is written. Terse yet lively, compact yet clear and vigorous, it pre-support and protection. Letters were the passion of his sents a fine contrast to much that is written at the present day; for it is sadly true that literature has received as great an expansion as commerce and currency. This work presents also an equally striking contrast to Mr. youth, they have been the embellishment of his manhood, and they are the consolation of his age. "Three obstacles have lain between this great man and the Presidency. The first has been the earnest and un conquerable independence of his character, which has left him without a national party. The second has been the incorruptible integrity of his heart, which left him without intrigue or policy. The last has been an obstacle still more formidable in this disturbed and feverish age-the philosophical sublimity of his genius. He was not made to sway masses, but mind. He could not carry the hearts of the multitude by storm, but he electrified the souls of the few. In dragging to the dust the pillars of the Roman Republic, Cæsar heard the shout of the mob at his heels. Cato walked solitary through the Forum, and Brutus fell on his own sword. But the fame of Calhoun has interwoven itself with the history of the nation, and is therefore immortal." The article on Webster is composed of but a few lines, but in the volumes that have been written on him, who has given us such a characterization as the following: "His reply to Hayne was a triumph of genius; his recent speech on the Union was a triumph of patriotism and statesmanship. He is called the expounder of the Constitution; he will be known hereafter as its chief defender. He has been to it, during the second period of the Republic, what Washington was to its liberties in the first. Vast as are the powers he has displayed, even those who heard his reply to Hayne, in which he surpassed the models of antiquity, felt that there were hidden fountains of elemental fire yet unstirred. The majesty of his person. the unfathomed depths and varied intonations of his voice, his manner always just as excited as his soul, the Doric substantiality of his mind, and the unwasting resources of his learning and imagination, stamp him the Colossal intellect of America. His great soul has passed into the heroism of the nation, like the memories of the men of the Revolution. We recall his image when we think of the Mayflower, rocking in Massachusetts Bay; or speak of Warren, 'the first great martyr in our great cause.' We remember his early history when we look on the satcheled boy sturdily beating his own snow path to the district school house of New England. When we are told the Union is threatened and the Constitution is in danger, we involuntarily turn our eye toward their great defender. A day of trial has come on the nation, and we feel the steadying control of his gigantic arm. Above all do we think of him when we stand by the tomb of Washington; for, over his memory, such words have never been uttered as Webster has spoken. He has wrought himself so entirely into all that is holy and grand in national feeling and history, that he stirs in our minds the same emotions of veneration and sublimity, as do the Fathers of the Republic who have been long dead." There is a subdued enthusiasm in these lines which adds a charm to the stern and severe style the author has chosen. Henry Clay is summed up in eleven lines, and large type at that; and the reader shall judge what summing up it is. It is a cold act, we acknowledge, to treat a great man so curtly, and attempt to pack one whose life is almost the history of the nation, into so small a compass. Beforehand we should denounce the effort, and smile at the self-conceit that should presume so greatly on its own ability; but we must confess that the following paragraph strikes us as likely to prove satisfactory to the most devoted admirer of the great statesman of Kentucky. We use these plain safe words, leaving others such expletives as they choose to employ. "Nature formed him for an orator. Tall and erect in form, dignified and courteous in bearing, an expressive countenance, a piercing eye, a trumpet toned voice, deep flexible, clear, and of great compass, and a perfect master of every art of oratory, he is most remarkable for an absence of studied effort, or intended effect. With him oratory is never an end; his argument never pauses; his eloquence comes nearer to the Greek definition' earnest reasoning' than that of any modern orator. He has won in succession the titles of the Western Orator-The Great Commoner-The American Statesman-The Great Pacificator-and now, while discord is threatening the Union he seems to have been preserved by Providence to add to his long life of public services, the crowning glory of being the Savior of his Country." The Sketch of Fremont is well written, while that of Audubon seems to have been done entirely con amore. Listen to the final disposition of this strange and indefatigable man. "The Ornithologist is now reposing on a world-wide reputation, and few men are surer of a lasting fame. It is not in the keeping of history alone. From every deep grove, the Birds of America will sing his name. The wren will pipe it at our windows; the oriole carol it from the meadow grass; the turtle roll it through the secret forests; the many-voiced mocking bird pour it along the evening air; and the Bird of Washington, from his craggy home far up the Rocky Mountains, will scream it to the tempests and the stars." Such sentences as these are examples of pure strong Saxon. Every word tells like the blow of a hammer. Like Retzsch's etchings, they are composed of but few lines; yet every one is so expressive that we are satisfied. We have not time to speak of the articles on Cass, Wright, Fillmore, &c. We hope the volume to come will not be inferior to its predecessor; we cannot expect it to be superior. This work, if it meets with such encouragement as its proprietors have a right to expect from their countrymen, will probably be continued until a large number of men who have rendered service to the country in the various departments of life will be embraced. As a specimen of typography, there has been nothing equal to it produced in this country; nor has it scarcely been surpassed in Europe. So far as the portraits are concerned, they are executed in a style superior to anything of the kind that has ever been seen. This is unqualified praise, but it has been universally accorded both at home and abroad in the respectable journals of both coutinents. D'Avignon has succeed in engraving on stone, likenesses more truthful, lifelike and artistic than have ever been produced either on steel, or copper, or stone, and the great value of this national work will appear as time passes away. Already since the gallery began, three of the most illustrious men of this nation, and of the Gallery itself have died-Gen. Taylor, Calhoun, and Audubon the Ornithologist. Such portraits of these men have never been made before, and too high an estimate cannot, now that they are dead, be placed upon their likenesses. No more appropriate or beautiful memorial can be preserved of the progress of the nation in whatever is great and glorious than exists in this work. It is a just and glorious tribute to distinguished worth; and being executed in a style of magnificence seldom seen, we hope it will go into every library, university and school in this country. It should be borne in mind that we have spoken of this work not as a collection of elaborate biographies, but as outline sketches of character. They are not designed as paintings, but as etchings; and so they should be treated. No other plan would have answered in an illustrated work of this character. It is fortunate that D'Avignon found so good a writer, and it well the author had so excellent an artist. |