Columbia gazette. [volume] (Columbia, Tuolumne County, Calif.) 1852-1855, 1854-12-02
III { S C H j. l. a M Y.
For the Franklin County Herald.
AN ARKANSAS INVENTION,
Hon. the General +" sold a" tire Editor of
the Scientific american.
BY GUY 8. CUTOS.

About the commencement Of the pres
ent decade we had the honor of being
one of an illustrious trio who originally
controlled a Democratic newspaper,
named the " Arkamaw 1raveler,' pub
lished at the flourishing town of Cam
den, Ouachita Co., Ark. We number
ed among our exchanges the Scientific
american, valuable, then, as now
Among our patrons in Camden, was one
General Tom Woodward, a shrewd old
gent, full Of anecdotes, an inveterate
practical joker, good judge of "rye,"
and, to cap the climax Of his convivial
accomplishments, was great on the car
kansaw Traveller" "a celebrated dane
ing tune with a legend One sultry
day in the summer of 80, the General
walked into our printing Office, picked
up the Sci. Am. and commenced read
ing the Editors "Notice to Inventors"
in which he offered his services in the
obtaining Of patents for useful inven-
tons, &c. After reading it through,
the general requested pens and paper.
The stationery was placed before him,
and in few moments he had written
his letter, scaled and superscribed it to
Mum & Co., N. Y, and our devil was
dispatched to the post Office with it.
We smelt MICE" but said nothing
The next time the Sci. Am. came we
eagerly opened it, and there sure enough,
among the " notices to correspondents, !"
was the following:
CT. w., of Camden, Ark. Musical
inventions, if of real benefit, and not too
costly, generally prove lucrative to the
inventor. We cannot inform you as to
the practicab;lity of obtaining patent,
until you send us model, or an accu-
rate description of the instrument
This paragraph we read to the gen.
eral the next time we saw him for our
politeness in the matter, he permitted
us to read his description of the wonder
full instrument previous to its being dis
patched to the Sci. Am.; it was as fol-
lows:
"Dear Sir: By your request I will,
as briefly and clearly as I can, endeavor
to describe my new musical invention.
1t has very much the appearance, at
first sight, Of case for huge, double
action harp /; from six to eight inches
square at the smaller end, thence grad
ually expanding to four feet square one
side perforated with anger holes. The
inner compartments Of the instrument
are occupied by swine-from the four
weeks rooster, at the little end, rang
ing gradually up to the eight years old
male grunter-the tails of all protruding
through the before mentioned auger
holes. The performer stands upon the
outside of the instrument with a couple
of blacksmith's pincers in his hands; he
has thus full command of the machine,
and practical hand can run the chro-
matte scale in most brilliant manner.
Yea will at once perceive that my in
vention is a valuable one, combining
immense volume of tone with an almost
unlimited power of expression, and vast
composition the shrill soprano of the
infantile porker, down to the deep "ped-
lar base," as Mrs. Darlington expresses
it, of his more aged ancester-thus in
Guiding ever so many octaves. By
prolonging the pinch the tones can be
prolonged indefinitely, thus doing away
the .Eolean, Dolce Campana and other
attachments, including the Sherif's J