The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1855-05-17
NEw YORK con REspoNDENcE.
MONDAY, NAV 4. 1855.

The Illinois arrived Yesterday from Aspin-
wall with the mails and $i,l15,ooe in gold
dust fsom San Francisco. Everything Is
gloomy in California-irade dull, markets
overcrowded, money tight, and business
men financially embarrassed. The mail
packet Golden Age, which runs between
Panama aud San Francisco, was wrecked
on her las, trip 10 the latter port, by running
on a shelving rock 2I6 miles above Panama.
The crew and gold dust were saved by the
John L. Stephens, which took them all back
10 Panama.
The anxiety with which the arrival of The
next steamer from Europe is looked for is
intense. 1t appears now certain tina, either
the next sieamer or The following one must
necessarily bring US news either of the cap
ture Of Sebasiopol, OF the defeat Of the allies.
Heavy bets among sporting men and others
are pending OH the result.
Premonitories Of Summer have made their
appearance in New York. The open.air Ice
Creameries are in full. operation, TO the man.
ifesl delight of the newsboys, Of whom a do
zen or so may now be seen surrounding a
stand near the Tribune Office, each with his
pennyworlh of sweetened refrigeration in
one hand, and a spoon in the other, feasting
like q young S~ardanapalus. There are big
strawberries, too, of hot.bed growth, in The
confectioners' windows, at five dollars a
dish. Summer cravais have succeeded the
moir antique and satin scars and lies in the
glass cases Of the furnishing stores and
light silks, bareges, and French muslins are
seen behind the plate glass fronts Of the dry
goods stores. The newspapers have com.
menced putting their accumulating rural ia
vors under the separate head of "Couniry
Board !" and the steamboa, companies are
out with their Summer programmes. Many
of our last youths, precocious in everything,
have already donned cream.colored felts and
white vests; and last Sunday, the green as
pee, Of the Elysian Fields, tempted quite a
large delegation from young Germany"
over to Hoboken. The first swallow has not
yet parted. with glossy wing, our dusty at.
mosphere, but is doubtless making a bee.
line hi,her from the interior Of Africa or
some other terra incognita. The temperature
is warm enough for June, and the genial
weather, as we'll as the advertisements Of
the " blood purifying" quack doctors, warns
Us to +" prepare for Summer"
Bsruum's approaching Baby Show Is 10
bad oder here among persons of retired
tastes. There is q certain low sphere within
which Barnum's operations succeeded well,
and ii is a sphere in which he is very much
at home. People who are merely swindled
out of twenty-five cents cannot afford TO lose
their temper about such an insignificant sam.
Many will lose even lwenty- five dollars,
provided their curiosity on ordinary matters
only is irined with. A man would be a
little ashamed 10 kick up a row about being
deceived as 10 the genuineness oil a black
man turning while, a woolly horse, or any
thing OF that kind. Barnum shonld there
fore have confined his swindling operations
10 playing upon the lower faculties of the
human mind, with which people will allow a
little trifing, ard laugh al their folly at being
taken in, and at the low cunning of the ras-
cal who "did" them, while they of course
hold him in contempt. Bat 1t is quite anolh-
er thing when you attempt to mislead the
higher intellectual faculties OF a people, their
highest class of tastes, or their moral or reli.
gious elements. The villian who does or at.
tempts to do any OF these things is held in
just contempt, and when there IL no stat.
ute or common law 10 punish him, he is
morally bnched. When Barnum endeavored
10 emerge from his low sphere into a higher
one, there 10 play his accustomed pranks, he
took the first step to bring down upon him.
self the contempt and enmi,yF of uprigh,
men. II was thought by many, before he
went into The Fire Aunihilator business, and
allowed to be claimed for that invention,
without contradiction by him qualities thai
i, did moi possess, thai he was a good:natured
rollicking, mischievous fellow, but by nc
means bad al heart; but the public a, length
saw that he would stick al no outrage Of
puoho nCutiuboui W pun uhouoJ vi III pockct
When the whole mercantile interests OIL
America, and men who devoted years 10 sci,
entifc pursuits, where bamboozled on a sub.
ject to which they justly attached so much
importance, every one who was blessed
with a moderate amount OF brains above
his eyes, Immediately. understood that the
tricks he bad before attributed, as much Il
a fun-loving propensity as 10 a disregard o
truthfulness, were nothing more or less thar
The genuine uncomfortable oulbursis o! self.f
w~ickedness. Barnum did not succeed with
the Fire Annihilalor. Afterward, a few o
bis imitalors aud others who lost money By
the fall Of Crystal Palace stock, got him cleo.
ted President of that Association ; but right
minded men had lost confidence in hun,
and he failed 10 thar, as he will ever fail il
everything that he undertakes requiring the
confidence and capital of men of integrity
Mrs. E. Cakes Smith has given him a smar
rap over the knuckies, on his Baby.Sbow