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ALICE CARY’S
SWEETEST POEM.
No apology is needed at this time for reproducing the following exquisite lines by the lamented Alice Cary—lines which, in the judgment of so competent a critic as Edgar A. Poe, deserve to rank among the very finest contributions to the poetic literature of this country:
Of all the beautiful pictures
That hang on Memory’s wall,
Is one of a dim old forest,
That seemeth best of all;
Not for it’s gnarled oaks olden,
Dark with the mistletoe;
Not for the violets golden
That sprinkle the vale below;
Not for the milk white lilies
That lean from the fragrant
hedge,
Coqueting all day with the
sunbeams,
And stealing their golden edge;
Not for the vines on the upland
Where the bright red berries
rest;
Nor the pinks, nor the pale, sweet cowslip,
It seemeth to me the best,
I once had a little brother
With eyes that were dark and
deep-
In the lap of the olden forest
He lieth in peace asleep;
Light as the down of the thistle,
Free as the winds that blow,
We roved there the beautiful
Summers,
The Summers of long ago;
But his feet on the hills grew
weary,
And one of the Autumn eves
I made for my little brother
A bed of the yellow leaves.
Sweetly his pale arms folded
My neck in a meek embrace,
As the light of immortal beauty
Silently covered his face;
And when the arrows of sunset
Lodged in the tree-tops bright;
He fell, in his saint-like beauty,
Asleep by the gates of light.
Therefore, of all the pictures
That hang on Memory’s wall,
The one of the dim old forest
Seemeth best of all.
AN IOWA HEROINE.
The Iowa State Register is responsible for the following romantic account of an Iowa heroine:
Not long since Adjutant General Baker received a letter of inquiry asking about a certain soldier in the Twenty-Fourth Iowa Infantry. The tone of the letter was so peculiar as to attract consider-able attention and create much comment in the office. In reply the General stated that the records of the regi-ment, were in his office, and the record of the soldier, whom, for the sake of con-venience we will call Smith, although that is far from the real name. A few days afterwards a gentleman from Northern Iowa appeared at the office, inquired for Gen. Baker, found that character, and was closeted with him long enough to divulge the following singular tale. When the war broke out, Miss Mary Smith, daughter of the Gen-eral’s visitor, was residing in Ohio, working for a farmer in the kitchen. Her father’s family had moved to Iowa the fall preceding the attack on Sumpter, leaving Mary behind to follow in the spring. Various causes conspired to delay her departure for her new Iowa home until Autumn; it was September before she landed in Muscatine, from which place she expected to travel by land to her father’s home. She was a large sized, hearty looking girl, eighteen years of age. Arriving at Muscatine some strange freak induced her to assume man’s apparel and enlist in the Twenty-Fourth Infantry, then in rendezvous at that city. She did this without exciting any suspicion, burned all her feminine garments and papers, neglected to inform her friends, either in Iowa or Ohio, of her arrival on Hawkeye soil, and became a soldier. Some comment was elicited by her beardless face and girlish appearance, but as she did her duty promptly and well and was particularly handy in cooking and taking care of the sick, the young warrior speedily became a general favorite alike with officers and men. She passed through all the battles in which the regi-ment was engaged without a scratch except a close call from a minnie ball at Sabine’s Cross Roads, which took the skin off of the back of her left hand; voted with the other members of the regiment for President in 1864, and was finally mustered out with her comrades at the close of the war. When she was dis-charged she procured female apparel—although in doing so she was obliged to make a confident of one of her own sex—and procured work in Illinois, not far from Rock Island. Six months elapsed before the tan of five sum-mers wore off, and when she had again become “white,” and had relearned the almost forgotten customs of woman-hood, she presented herself at her father’s house, where she was received with open arms. To all the questions which were asked by the various members of the family con-cerning her whereabouts for so many years, she refused to make any answer, only reply-ing that she had been honestly employed, and had never for-saken the right way. She had been economical in the army, and invested several hundred dollars in land in Northern Iowa , which rapidly appre-ciated in value, and to-day she is well enough off to be beyond the reach of want. With the remainder of her money she attended school. Last January a worthy man, who had been in the same regiment, but in a different company, made an offer of marriage. Like a true woman she was unwilling to bestow her hand when any part of her former life was unknown, and before accepting the offer she made to him a full revelation of her soldier days. At first he could not believe it, but when she proceeded to narrate events and incidents which could be known only to active participants in them, told of marches, camps, skirmishes, battles, and the thousand and one things which never appear in print, but which ever remain living pictures with “old soldiers,” he was obliged to accept the strange tale as true. The story, however did not lessen his regard for her, and about the first of February they were married. The lady’s father, who learned the tale of her life when she made it plain to her would be husband, was still incredulous, and only sat-isfied himself of its truth by a visit to the Adjutant General’s office and an inspection of the records. By comparing dates furnished him by his daughter with the original rolls there on file he became fully convinced that it was all true.
The Sioux City Journal says that the Mayor of that city has enjoined the treasurer of the county from receiving, in payment of city taxes, any and all warrants upon the city treasury which are signed by F. M. Ziebach, mayor, and Abe Marshall, city clerk; and that “this step has been rendered necessary owing to the discovery that many of the warrants issued under the last Democratic dynasty are fraudulent. As high as five warrants bearing the same number have been redeemed already, and there are a great many which are duplicates of each other issued for the same things, for the same amounts, to the same persons.”
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THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNORSHIP.
The Muscatine Journal of the 13th inst. says:
“The Burlington Hawk-Eyes suggests Thos. J. Saunders, of Davenport, for Lieutenant Governor. A good suggestion.”
The Burlington Hawk-Eye’s suggestion, as given in that journal on the 11th inst., is as follows:
"Lieut. Governor.—Among the names mentioned for this office is that of Hon. Thomas J. Saunders, of Scott county. He is a gentleman eminently fitted by education and experience for the position, having had considerable legislative experience, as Secretary of the Constitutional Convention of 1857, which framed the present Constitution, and subsequently was a member of the State Senate. He is familiar with the politics and needs of the State, is a cultivated gentleman, a fine writer, and has been a warm, active, and consistently a Republican from the organization of the party. He has also been connected more or less with the press of the State, for several years, and is now on the Davenport Gazette. His nomination would be a compliment to the “Press Gang” which would be appreciated; and we have the best reason for believing that the soldiers of the State, to so many of whom, during the late war, he distributed “greenbacks,” in his capacity of paymaster, would warmly support him, if nominated.”
This prompts the Gazette to say, in simple justice to that gentleman, that Col. Saunders, as we know, has had no sort of agency in this use of his name, and will not, we are sure, be a candidate by any action of his own. But, we may add without impropriety and without consent or knowledge of the person implicated, that if the Republicans of Iowa make Col. Saunders their candidate, the chair of the Lieutenant Governor will be filled by a gentleman of eminent personal worth, no less than an officer of real ability and solid attainments, and by a Republican who has ever been faithful and earnest in support of the principles so successfully vindicated in the establishment of National Freedom and the dethronement of Treason and Rebellion.—Dav. Gazette.
 Nothing perhaps showed the perfection of the arrangement of the Prussians for the siege of Paris better than the absolute famine of letters as well as of provisions which they brought about. The last mail left Paris on the afternoon of September 18th, and from that time till the armistice there was no intercourse whatever with the outer world, the pigeon post hardly being important enough to make an exception to the rule. Out of 200 pigeons carried to the provinces by balloons only 73 returned. Of these five brought nothing, three only the apocryphal dispatches of the enemy who had captured them, and ten merely the fact that the balloons had landed safely. So that only 55 conveyed even the meager dispatches which they could carry round one of their tail-feathers. It was kept a profound secret until after the armistice that there had been a return pigeon post arranged from Paris to the provinces. Just before the investment, the Prefect of the North had the foresight to send to Paris 900 pigeons, furnished by the pigeon-fanciers of Roubaix and Trucoing, which, when set at liberty in the Garden of Plants, returned in two or three hours of their old dovecots. This method proving so insufficient, the post-office authorities tried to send letters by messengers on foot, who would endeavor to elude the sentinels. From September 20th to October 30th there were dispatched 85 of these messengers, of whom only five reached their destination and only two brought anything back. Then they bethought themselves of the Seine, and of sending hermetically sealed balls, containing photographed dispatches. But the Prussians had laid nets down-stream to catch this new kind of game. Not one of the globes arrived. Then it was proposed to use old corks, fleets of which are always afloat on the river. But this came to nothing. After trying in vain to correspond through the air, over the water and under the water, and over the earth, some bold adventurers offered to try to carry the mail underground, by way of the Catacombs. But not one could find his way out, and one at least perished miserably in the attempt. Then the trial was made of drover’s dogs, accustomed to find their way in and out of town. But no dog ever appeared to tell the tale. Never before was there so prodigious a prison so perfectly guarded as was Paris during those months.
Washington, March 28.
The health of Mr. Wade, which was regarded with anxiety by his friends last night, was so far improved as to enable him to visit the President to day, with the other Commissioners, who were accompanied by Mr. Fred. Douglass, Gen. Sigel, and other gentlemen officially connected with the expedition. Mr. Wade’s complete and speedy recovery is regarded as certain, if he is permitted to remain quite for a day or two.
The President received the gentlemen very kindly, and the conference lasted nearly two hours. General matters relating to the island, its climate, healthfulness, the comfort of the Commissioners, their entertainment, &c, were referred to, and the President manifested much feeling when he was assured that the climate was regarded as healthful, and other advantages were enumerated. “I knew it was so,” he said, “I have been well informed upon the question, and I have long known that the climate of Santo Domingo was as you have described it.”
Mr. Wade and Dr. Howe did most of the talking on the part of the Commissioners, and both expressed the belief that Cabral is of the class of brigands which infest the Grecian and Turkish border.
The Dubuque Herald, the leading Democratic paper in Iowa, makes no secret of its delight in the bold revolutionary utterances of Frank Blair, for it publishes in full the speech he recently made in the Senate, wherein he derided the reconstruction acts, sneered at the “carpet-bag States,” and denounced the constitutional amendments as vile usurpations..
California has eight manufactories of Woolens—four of them started in the last two years. Oregon and Washington have eight more, but they are quite small. The California Blankets are the finest in the world. Their production will not be transferred to Great Britain without a struggle.
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PELL-MELL LEGISLATION.
If the House of Representatives wishes to simplify the tariff, both Republicans and Democrats should have a clearer conception of principles than was disclosed by the late pell-mell attack upon the revenue by both parties, when the duties on coal, salt, and tea and coffee were abolished. A few of the leading men upon each side, understand, of course, the principles upon which the modern theory of raising a public revenue rests. But it is intensely amusing to observe that the Democrat representatives, who are fond of calling their party a revenue tariff party, voted, with eight exceptions only, directly against the vital principle of a revenue tariff. That principle, we may remind our readers who wish to have free tea and coffee, is that revenue should be raised upon articles with the production of which we enter into no competition, because all the money so received goes directly to the treasury. But, in the other case, a duty laid upon productions with which we compete tends both to the exclusion of the foreign article and to the increased price of the domestic; so that while little money goes into the public treasury from the duty, a great deal goes out of private pockets to pay the increased price.
But the chief objection to such headlong legislation as that of which we speak is the destruction of confidence, and the consequent paralysis of industry. We have an enormous debt, upon which we must annually pay a corresponding interest. A great revenue is, therefore, indispensable, and a large part of it must be raised by a tariff upon imports. Now if Congress shows that it is guided by no intelligent principles, that it will have neither a protective nor a revenue tariff, but may to-day strike suddenly at one great vested interest, and to-morrow at another, not only will intelligent men of all parties be disgusted, but the utmost uncertainty and consequent panic will fall upon vast industries. The public credit will be wounded, and the national prosperity imperiled.
The action of the House will probably be corrected by the Senate. But it is evident that since Congress will have to deal with the most important revenue questions, it has done wisely in resolving to adjourn, to devote itself, let us hope, to the mastery of some of the elementary principles of political economy.—Harper’s Weekly.
The San Domingo Correspondence of the Tribune has been admirable. It is graphic and picturesque, and its account of President Baez deserves attention:
“The fact is, Senator Sumner spoke nothing but the truth when he called Baez ‘a political jockey.’ He jockeys his people, and he has done his best to jockey the Commissioners. He completes the thing by dressing as much like a jockey as any man can in the tropics. When he came aboard the Tennessee he reminded me at once of a horse-race. The Dominican flag was run up to the mast-head of this beautiful frigate, the officers grouped themselves on deck in full-dress uniform, with swallow-tail coats, epaulets, white trowsers and cocked hats; a salute was fired of twenty-one guns; and the man for whom all this parade was made, came on board in a brilliant jacket, light pantaloons, and a crimson velvet jockey cap trimmed elaborately with gold-lace, and looking, to tell the plain truth, like a shrewd and rather tricky ‘sport.’ He has no wife, but scores of children. He has no salary, but he lives in luxury while the soldiers starve. He has neither character nor courage, and he cannot quell a contemptible insurrection, though his nominal power is almost absolute. In a republic he rules like a royal despot. And yet, as I said before, he is popular, and practically there is no respectable opposition to his government.
He Couldn’t Tell A Lie.—Alf. Burnett, in one of his letters to “The People,” of Indianapolis, relates the following anecdote:
“By the by, a good story is told of Ben. Butler and his notorious honesty. A short time since, Ben Butler and Wendell Phillips had business with the President, and, arm-in-arm, proceeded to call upon him. The President was busy, and sent word that he would see them presently. Phillips and Butler strolled out into the conservatory, in the rear of the White House, thence into the garden. Butler and Philips were engaged in an animated conversation upon some topic. Butler became slightly excited.
“A large hatchet, belonging to the gardener, was beside a tree; Butler casually picked it up, and, while talking, he made several deep gashes with it into some of Gen. Grant’s favorite trees. Just at this juncture, the President appearing, Butler hastily secreted it under his coattails.
“After the compliments of the day, the President spied for the first time a mutilated tree, and, with tones of vehemence, inquired who had been cutting and gashing that tree? After a few moments’ pause, Butler stepped bravely up to the President, and took him by the hand, saying: ‘Mr. President, I cannot tell a lie; I cannot tell a lie; Wendell Phillips did it!’”
Berlin, March 22.—Count Von Bismarck has been elevated to the rank of Prince of the German Empire, and Gen. Count Von Moltke has been presented with the Grand Cross of the Order of the Iron Cross.
At the session of the German Parliament to-day, Heit Frankenburg, by virtue of seniority President of the Chamber of Deputies, on taking his seat, warmly greeted the South German members. A motion passed the House, congratulating the Emperor upon the occurrence of the 74th anniversary of his birth, to-morrow.
The Emperor delivered his speech yesterday, from the marble throne of Charlemagne, brought from Achen (Aix In Chapelle), especially for the purpose.
“Grammar class, stand up and recite, Joe, parse ‘girls.’” “Girls is a particular noun, of the lovely gender, lively person, double number, kissing mood, in the immediate tense, and in the expectation case to matrimony, according to general rule.”
Iowa Methodist State Convention.—It has been decided by the general Committee appointed for that purpose by the three Conferences of this State, to hold a Methodist State Convention. The committee met in Iowa City, March 21, 1871, which city they selected at the place, and Tuesday July 11, as the time for holding the Convention, which is to continue in session for three days.
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“BRICK” POMEROY
AND HIS
DEMOCRAT.
If “Brick” Pomeroy is a vile wretch, he is also a genius in some respects. He is about as crazy on the newspaper business as George Francis Train is on the candidacy for president. The Democrat has attracted some notice, and it gained considerable circulation during the war, on account of the rampant copperheadism, and the vile and scurrilous language that filled its columns. No theme is too sacred for Pomeroy’s vulgar tongue to attack with shameless ribaldry. In emergency, however, “Brick” is almost a match for P. T. Barnum. He has recently hit upon a new method of advertising his paper. He has learned that quite a large number of country newspapers make weekly visits to New York, Chicago or Milwaukee to get their “insides” fixed up, or to get their outer garments put on. Here is a grand chance, Brick thinks, to make those contemptible Republicans do a little puffing for the Democrat. So he makes arrangements with the proprietors of these newspaper hash-houses, to put in a flaming advertisement for his paper, and lo and behold ! in a few days, republican papers are advertising “Brick’s” Democrat, all over the country. Two or three such sheets were among our exchanges last week, containing eight full columns, setting forth in glowing language, the virtues (?) of that sheet
One editor flies into a rage about it, and gives “Brick” and the newspaper hash concern, in Chicago, a fearful “blowing up.” The hash don’t suit his sensitive stomach. Another editor very quietly digests his, and says nothing about it, probably because that machine in Chicago will grind out just such pabulum for its country customers, as it sees fit.
Better take your “hash” at home, gentlemen, if you don’t want the colic.—Vinton Eagle.
Just Such Neighbors.— A man stopping at a tavern for rest and refreshments began to talk about his journey.—He had come from a neighboring town; he was moving away, and glad enough to get away too. Such a set of neighbors as he had there—unkind, disobliging, cross, and contrary, it was enough to make any one want to leave the place, and he had started, and was to settle in another region, where he could find a different set of inhabitants.
‘Well,’ said the landlord, ‘you will find just such neighbors where you are going.’
The next night another man stopped at the inn. He, too, was on a journey—was moving. On inquiry, it was found that he came from the same place from which the former traveler had come.—He said he had been obliged to move from where he lived, and he did not mind leaving so much as he did leaving his neighbors; they were so kind, considerable, accommodating and generous, that he felt very sorrowful at the thought of leaving them and going among strangers, especially as he could not tell what kind of neighbors he would find.
‘Oh, well,’ said the landlord, ‘you will find just such neighbors where you are going.’
Is it not true that men generally find about such neighbors as they are looking for?
Wisconsin Iron Interests.—Four ranges of hills, each twenty miles long, running parallel to the Menominee river in this State, have been found to contain immense quantities of almost solid iron, and are estimated to contain ten times more of that metal than all the Lake Superior ranges combined. At this rate Wisconsin bids fair to be the great iron producing State of the Union.
It requires now more than a million tons of railway iron per annum to supply the wants of the United States, and the demand increases regularly every year, in consequences of the enormous development of our railway system, the rapid construction of new lines, and the wear and tear of old ones. Our consumption in 1869 was 938,586 tons, our production only 503,586. We increase our milling capacity as the means can be had, but Pennsylvania is almost the only state that enters heartily into this industry on a large scale, three-fourths of the rails produced in 1869 having been made in that State. Our capitalists and iron interests generally have endeavored to stimulate the production of rails in other states and with some success through far below what the occasion would warrant.—Racine Advocate.
The Chicago Tribune has constantly assumed that the consumers of Salt in this country are paying enormous prices therefore because of our high duty on imported Salt. “F” writes them that Salt has sold lower in Chicago in 1870 than it did under a low duty in 1860.—The Tribune responds as follows:
“The fact that Salt sold lower in Chicago in 1870 than it did in 1860 has no bearing on the question, so long as the fact remains that 50 per cent of the price of Salt in Chicago in 1870 was either the duty imposed by law or the bounty given to protect some one else.:
Now “the question” precisely is—Does the high duty of Salt enhance the cost of that article to consumers? If so, to what consumers ? and to what extent ? “F.” cites the fact that Salt has become cheaper in Chicago under Protection than it was under comparative Free Trade to prove that Protection has not enhanced the cost of Salt at Chicago. Is not that in point? Yet the Chicago Tribune says it “has no bearing on the question,” so long as a fact that isn’t a fact remains!—Is that response impelled by insanity or dishonesty?
The first railroad projected in Iowa, was the “Ram’s Horn” road, in 1845. It was to run from Dubuque to Keokuk, and was to touch all the towns within a distance of a hundred miles from the Mississippi. Its line was the crookedest one ever thought of. There was intense excitement over it, during the two years it was before the people, and at last the ways of its friends became as crooked as its route, and it collapsed, never more to be inflated with life.
Who says women have no mechanical genius? An Iowa woman has invented a “snore-consumer,” which muffles the noise and conveys it by a tube to the ear of the offender.
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