New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-01-29
Nesp!Vork Daily Gtibams
FROM HILIDELPHIA.

PHILADELPHIA, tuesday, Jan. q, I-pI.
There is a Merriam sensation to-day. 1t has
raiDed slightly and the is in the condition Of
the embalmed contemporaries Of Moses 10 the bull
rusbes when exposed to the air Of the nineteenth
century. II is melting. To see so much lovely
snow vested seems cruel. For what is Winter
without snow lady's hoop without dress to
cover it and swell into rsvishing circular gleres; a
militia general in plain working clothes marriage
without youth or beauty; New York par ~ without
Brown the Great; oil these may be compared to a
snOwless Winter. And Winter without ice, or
just enough to drown people in airholes with
that, too is an equal mistake. For what this side
of the Milky Way up alOft is 50 outrsgeousy
sublime as frozen lake or wide-bOsomed river
all its AueDcJ indurated into crystal punty-bear-
ing nultitudcs Of men and women, and horses and
dogs, and all manner Of creeping thiDCS-bearing
them like the miracle Of walking on the waters
This town of Philadelphia, for example is between
two rivers-the largest mile wide. Even the last
save where the ice-cutter splits and rants its way
is frozen over. Here cODgregate the skaters and
the men-seighers aud women. slelghers. 1t is a
sign that y0ar stomach is heavy when your soul ia
light in dreams and You dream that you fly swift
as u crow or cherub through the lambert ether;
but the bad digestion apart, it is sublime sen,a-
ton to feel Just like crow or cherub do
ing aerial duty Now the next best sublime
feeling to this is being poised, wide awake upon
pair Of hgh.mettled skates whose hgh-dtfches
bend like a tborough-breds neck aud seem alive
with the spirit of the scene You are in literary
mood; you write your name on the ice with these
skates. Large hand, il lie true, the AS being bigger
than the original applcpe, and the BIS bigger than
the young gentleman's mouth who bit it, But how
liege TO all the laws Of grace is each letter so writ
4 4
sum on the same mirror toned surface-mystic
threes and wOndrOus sevens. Thus, having tried
your foot in literature and arithmetic you strike
out All the sublmity of the ship, of the balloon,
Of the planet, is symbohzed in your action. You
are suspended in ether, the cold fairy web under
YOUR feet being of the earth's bubbles. Having
established Your impetus, and the wind being OF
headlODg, deyilmecare fury you suspend your
striking out right and left, and simply stand on
your skates. Then is your stock of subllmity put
beyond parallel i'll all the pOetrles Of human motion.
You fly 'twi1t the deeps without muscle moving.
You 90 like the wDgless gravitatOns Of the Infinite.
All the angels whom the ecclesiastical painters give
TO good girls and boys, to sweet virgins and nusty
menks, 10 bear them upward, seem carrying you
along. So they are; for YOU are obeying
the great law Of seeking health in generous
and noble recreation. You are monarch OF all
YOU survey, for you have left the city crowds, the
booths, the wagons and sledges, behind You
enter Oh frozen prairie. You rush past villages
and villas You have flown ten miles. Andalusa,
"the Bake House, are left behind; and being OPP
posite Burlington, you think You will stop and
dine Ii is only twenty miles, and that Is nothing
to good skater. Refreshed, you go back. This
time the wind is against you. But your energy
simply increases. You feel fighting lifes battle
in going against the trenchant blasts bat on you
glide. The sun goes down; the moon goes up.
By Heaven It's a glorious sight You feel the
l. x.tt.. NnIt
kanew wire all over. You are alone OH the wide,
vide cold, cold ice wrapped up in furs, and defy
ing the insolence of Zero. All that is wanting to
complete the Arctic picture is polar bear going TO
make lunch off your favorite leg, or walrus
climbing up perpendicular Ice mountain. by
the way, il seems that DR.. Kane, who is immense
on all subjects connected with the art OF freezing
to death under circumstances Of uumitgated hero
ISM does not state the true why that great
paddle flap, the walrus can climb perpendicular
slab Of polished ce-a sort of chevaux -de-frise-
no pun intended 1t seems that the inventor OF the
walfus provided his feet with an apparatus like
unto the piece of leather which boys having soaked
in water, attach 10 brickbat aud with string
attached 10 said leather, lift up said briokbat by
force Of such suction. Flies, and the gentleman
who walked head downward on the ceiling aud
broke his neck and died for a hving-fies and that
gentleman severally act and acted on the same
principle with the walrus.)
The Inauguration Ball Of the A. ademy here broke
up at no particular hour Great QUERY ABOUT lost
coats and hats to-day. There were between 1000
and 5000 persons present l never saw better
behaved crowd. Present were some New Workers.
Among them was DelmOnico the Neuichatel ques-
tion being settled), and for New Yorker not to
know DelmoncO argues hiuself unknown.
The il eNOrable mail cuts short my north polar
and terpsichorean discourse. w.HF