  The C. L. S. C. class of 1886, which has been enrolled since the Assembly last August, numbers more than 8,000 members. The books are still kept open to record the names of all others that will unite with this particular class. The Trustees of the Chautauqua Assembly hold their annual meeting at the Gibson House, in Cincinnati, Ohio, the present month. The Rev. Victor Connell, a graduate of the Ohio Wesleyan University, is pastor at Chautauqua. The Trustees of Chautauqua have just erected an elegant parsonage, with many modern conveniences, for the pastor and his family. The Rev. A. H. Gillet, Messenger of the C. L. S. C., has been appointed Assistant Secretary of the Sunday-school Union of the M. E. Church. He is a thorough Sunday-school man, a fine speaker, and a good presiding officer at a Sunday-school assembly. Mr. Gillet will make his home in Cincinnati. The Chinese Minister’s wife does not like to be thought a person of tender years, and claims to be twenty-five. She is petite, weighing ninety-four pounds, and her feet are not unduly small. She dresses on the street as American ladies do, having lately been seen in a wine-colored brocaded velvet polonaise over plain velvet, with a hat whose brim droops over the brow, and on whose sides hang long drooping plumes. The Census Office has issued a special bulletin recently containing the statistics of illiteracy in the United States as returned at the tenth census. The number of persons ten years old and upward in the several States and Territories is 36,761,607. Of this number 4,923,451, or 13.4 per cent., are returned as unable to read, and 6,239,958, or 17 per cent., as unable to write. White persons in the United States ten years old and upward, 32,160,400; unable to write, 3,019,080, or 9.4 per cent. Colored persons of ten years old and upward, 4,601,207; unable to write, 3,220,878. Melville paid the following tribute to Capt. De Long in November, during the investigation of the Jeannette expedition, at Washington, D. C.: “Q.—Did you believe, when you went for the log books and records left by De Long, that the people of the first cutter were dead or alive? A.—I was morally certain that at that time they were all dead. Common sense and my own judgment taught me that. Before I started, both Ninderman and Noros told me it would be useless to look for the first cutter’s party before spring, as beyond a possibility of doubt they were long since all dead. At one of the reported difficulties between Mr. Collins and Capt. De Long I believe Mr. Danenhower was present. Mr. Collins was treated just as any other officer, and with the same cordiality. At one time Mr. Collins took a notion not to respond to the usual good morning salutations of the Captain. When the Captain entered the wash room mornings it was his custom to say, ‘Good morning, gentlemen,’ and we all responded with ‘Good morning, Captain.’ Mr. Collins, however, used to turn his back when he saw the Captain coming in, and look away or walk away without responding. Mr. Newcomb and Mr. Collins used to talk and walk together more than they did with any of the other officers, and were on more intimate terms with each other than with the others. No distinction whatever was made in the mess on account of their being civilian officers, but all were treated the same and upon an equal footing. I did not know that it would be deemed proper for me to pass judgment upon my commanding officer, but, to my mind, he was as good a man as could be assigned to any duty at any time or in any place. He always seemed equal to any emergency, and all that he did was done with his whole soul. Had I supposed that I would be permitted to speak of my commanding officer or his conduct, I should not have allowed five minutes to pass without bearing my testimony to his worth and unfaltering devotion to duty. But words of mine are of little value beside the monument which his record has erected to his heroism and unwavering fidelity to the service and to the well-being of those intrusted to his charge.” In compliance with numerous requests there will be a series of articles on civil law in the C. L. S. C. course of study for 1883-1884. “Heaven knows what would become of our sociality if we never visited people we speak ill of; we should live, like Egyptian hermits, in crowded solitude.”—George Eliot: Janet’s Repentance. An illustrated daily paper for children, to be printed on the grounds at Chautauqua, will be one of the features of the Assembly in 1883. This will be an improvement on that excellent little daily printed on the papyrograph in former years. The new paper will contain personals of little people and news from the Chautauqua world in which they live. A statue of John Brown is to be erected by the State of Kansas in Washington. Joseph Cook has returned to Boston, Mass., from his trip round the world. “He refused to hold a public debate with a noted free-thinker in Australia for the following tersely expressed reasons: ‘First.—Freethought, spiritualism and infidelity in general in America, England and India, and, as far as I know, in Australia, are notoriously connected with schemes for the propagation of immorality. Several of the prominent agitators in support of infidelity and free-thought have been sent to jail for distributing infamous publications through the mails. No decent man can consent to appear on the same platform with the representatives of enterprises that have a debasing effect on the public mind. Secondly.—I am not open to challenges of which the evident object is to advertise infidelity. Thirdly.—Not an unoccupied nor an unengaged hour is left open to me in Australia. Fourthly.—When infidels of any kind issue a It will be welcome news to the American people that the revenues of the postal department are estimated to exceed the expenditures for the coming year by over four million dollars. This is a new and forcible argument for cheaper postage. The President in his message recommends two cents for letter postage, and since it would be unwise in the government to make money out of the people through the postal service, let us all favor a reduction in rates of postage, and then thank President Garfield’s administration for making it possible by beginning in earnest the good work of overthrowing the Star Route conspirators. We regret that Governor St. John, of Kansas, was not re-elected at the recent election. He could, however, better afford to be defeated with his record on the temperance question, for that was the cause of it, than to be Governor with a doubtful record on this reform. The temperance people of these United States who are in sympathy with Governor St. John, are more in number than the whole population of Kansas, and the approbation of the temperance army is a rich reward in the face of a defeat at the hands of the rum-power. The Rev. Dr. Vincent preached two sermons on the first Sabbath in December before the faculty and students of Cornell University, at Ithaca, N. Y. The city press, in speaking of the sermons, ranks the Doctor among the first preachers of the country. “The Golden Floral” is a collection of beautiful poems, “Rock of Ages,” “Why should the Spirit of Mortal be Proud,” “He giveth his Beloved Sleep,” and several others, each in a separate volume elegantly illustrated. These poems are dear to thousands of worshippers, and they are made doubly attractive in their new binding. Each book has a different cover, with appropriate flowers, on a gold ground and is put up in a neat box or handsome envelope, price $1.75 each. Somebody sent Mrs. General James A. Beaver of Pennsylvania, a copy of The Chautauquan for November with the lecture by Bishop Simpson on “God’s Hand in History” marked, and wrote a note requesting her to read it, after her husband was defeated for Governor of Pennsylvania. She read it and was benefited. We are inclined to believe that the doctrine of that lecture would be helpful to the class of men who were elected governors at the late elections, providing they could be persuaded to adopt the Bishop’s theory. Success in political life is more dangerous to the individual than defeat. More of God’s hand, and less of man’s, in shaping the events of the history we are making, would be better for the State and nation. The New York Tribune says: “Thurlow Weed’s life almost spans the history of this country under its present Constitution. He was born before Washington died, and when Webster, Clay, and Calhoun were making their reputations he had edited several country newspapers and fought in the battles of his country. He was older than Seward, or Lincoln, or Greeley, and when Clay, Webster, and Calhoun were dead he had not entered upon the most important part of his career. He was alive when Napoleon’s star appeared in the darkness of the French Revolution, and was already a young man when the battle of Waterloo was fought. He lived and worked with three generations of public men. Most of the men who are now beginning to attract attention might have been his grandsons. Benjamin Franklin died seven years before Mr. Weed was born. The lives of these two journalists take the world back into the reign of Louis XIV, and beyond the birth of Frederick the Great. Another such would very nearly reach the time of Shakspere.” Longfellow’s study remains just as he left it. Not a book nor a piece of furniture has been moved. The gates to the grounds of his old home are always open to the visitor, but within the house the bereaved family are secure from intrusion, and their life goes on as it did before his death, save for the great void that never can be filled. The poet’s grave at Mount Auburn is only marked by the flower-wreaths daily placed upon it by loving hands. It is estimated that eleven hundred people lost their lives when the shower of ashes fell on the city of Pompeii. Two-fifths of the area covered by the ancient city have been explored, and the bones of four hundred and fifty victims have been exhumed. The skeletons of only three dogs have been found, and all the cats seem to have escaped. President Arthur, it seems, by his last message to Congress, has been giving special attention to the revenues of the government. He says there is a surplus accumulating by every tax, and gives his opinion that this is neither wise nor economical. The surplus in the treasury for the year ending June, 1882, was $145,000,000. This is a good point at which Congress may begin to reduce the taxes on some commodities. The Society of “American Artists” (it is a big name) has adopted a resolution urging Congress to remove all the duties on foreign works of art and admit them all, superior and inferior, free. This is not only unwise, but it is un-American. Suppose such wild and inconsiderate action should be taken by Congress, it would bring pictures and statues, made by cheap labor, from Europe by the ship load, and work injustice to American sculptors and painters. We need home protection for the artists quite as much as for any class of people among us. The Rev. Dr. J. H. Vincent writes as follows of “Webster—an Ode:” Dr. William Cleaver Wilkinson has long been an enthusiastic admirer of the Sage of Marshfield. He has written two or three elaborate essays upon Webster’s character, genius and work. This ode is a bold and brilliant attempt to celebrate the praise of the Massachusetts giant. Taking several salient incidents from Webster’s life, he follows a “challenge” and “counter-challenge,” with several short poems on the youth, education and legal ability of the great lawyer. The ninth poem is a charming pastoral, setting forth Webster as a farmer; the tenth celebrates the orations on Plymouth Rock and Bunker Hill. In the remaining poems the author exalts the statesman and the defender of the constitution; closing with a tribute to his stability, a plea to his state for a favorable verdict upon the fame of her faithful son, closing the fifteenth passage, which is a simple couplet, delicately attributing to this song a serviceable ministration in behalf of the fame of its subject. Forty quarto pages of the poem are followed by eighty-two pages of elaborate, instructive, and exceedingly valuable notes on the private morals, public virtue, genius, statesmanship, oratory, personal traits, and religious faith and character of Mr. Webster. There are passages of remarkable power in this noble poem. All admirers of its hero (and where are they not to be found), will delight in the reading. decorative line |
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