The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1857-03-18


John G. Rives rs responsible for the follow
ing: He said that when Amos Kendall was
postmaster general, he took tour to the south
and west, partly on private business, and part
ly to get the film off Of his official optics, and
see how postal matters were conducted OF
course he did not make himself known on ev-
cry occasion, but he always looked on at every
turn in post-route, and sometimes he learned
something. At one place IN Mississippi he
stopped while travelling in the stage COACH at
a rather insignificant village, but where there
was a distributing Office of some importance.
No one knew that he was the postmaster gen
eral. The postmaster Of the place was away
from home as he had been for some months,
and the business Of oyerhauling, sorting and a
distributing Uncle Sans mails was in the hands
of a SUBJ in the shape of an old negro woman.
The post office was kept in a pretty good sized
room, and on one side of it there was hete--
rogenous mass that appeared something like a
huge pile of mail matter; and it looked, too,
somewhatlike small tea garden. There were
papers, letters large and small packages of
books, &c, sin huge confusion piled around
The old black woman very deliberately unlock
ed the bags and empted their contents out on
the floor. Amos looked on, and like Satan
marshaling his legions in Pandemonium, he
admired The darkey, after emptying the
contents of the bags in the pile commenced
putting back, and in every pouch replaced
miscellaneous assortment The postmaster
general had his eyes opened some and it oc-
Cured to him to ask 'Aunty' if she could read
oh, no! said she, but puts back Jest about
as much as master used TOP As the critic said
of Macready, when he asked the Danish cour-
tier to play on the pipe, and the courtier took
him at his word and played yankee doodle!
'Phancy Hamlick' feelings!' Fancy old Amos!
But his observations were not completed There
an enormous pile of mail matter that had
been accumuating for months under the postal
supervision of the sable sub 1t was after
'M Cs' had learned the art of franking, and
when their beloved constituents were in the
habit Of applying for seeds and other products
at the agricultural bureau of the patent office
The cucumber seeds of those days were not all
'basswood,' as Kendall can testify. The seeds
in the moist, warm climate of Mississippi had
germinated extensively, throughout this i'm
mense mass of mail matter::' cabbages, beets,
carrots, and caulihowers were there; potatoes
had sprouted; while cucumber, pumpkin and
squash vines, had extended out of the heap,
and run nearly across the room! 1t is supposed
that the warmth Of political documents, stimu-
lated by the fiery nature of southern politicians,
had added to, rather than substracted from,
the fertile nature of the postal compost!
~-~-~-~-~-~~(-~o~o->
correspondent of the Scientific American
writes: I have been informed by European
acquaintance that the maelstrom, the great
whirlpool on the coast of Norway, laid down in
all biographies, and of which we have heard
such wonderful stories, has no existence. He
told me that nautical and scientific commits
sion, composed of several gentlemen appointed
by the king Of Denmark were sent to approach
as near as possible to the edge of the whirlpool,
sail around it, measure its circumference, OBJ
serve its action, and make report. They went
out, and sailed all around and over where the
maelstrom was said to be, but could not find it;
the sea was as smooth where the Whirlpool
ought to be as any other part Of the German
ocean,
l have been instructed to believe that the
maelstrom was fixed fact in the ocean; that
its eddy was several miles in diameter, and that
ships, even huge whales, were sometimes drag
ged within its terrible liquid coils and buried
forever sin oceans awful depths"
Now, Messrs Editors, | write to you for in
formation on this point Is the maelstrom real
ly blotted out of existence by this Danish COM
mission, or can I still fondy cherish some ter-
rible thoughts of it's reality?
The editor in reply says: 1--WE have heard
something respecting theD Danish whirlpool COM
mission going out and finding the maelstrom
nowhere, but we have not seen their report, and
personally, we cannot give our CORES spondent
positive information whether the maelsrom is
choked up or not.
~4~~-~~~~>~--~0---7,~-0-~-~-
The Constantinople correspondent of the In
dependence Beige and La Presse, writing on
the 18th, state that singular scene took place
at the last mixed conference between the resi-
dent ministers and the commissioners, held for
the final settlement of the frman relative to the
divans oftheDanuban princpaities. The cor
respondent of the former journal writes: Sir
mission expressed himself warmly against the
manner in which he had been treated by the
English ambassador, who contrary to the Or
ders of his government, which directed that his
e1cel|ency should consult with him (sir H. Bull
wer) upon the terms of the irman, had kept
him in entire ignorance of the progress of the
discussion, while the other members of the dis
cusson had been kept au courant with the la
bors OF the conference by their respective re-
presentatves, and their opinion had often been
taken into consideration. Sir II. Buwer added
that he saw lamentable omissions in the frman,
and that he should have presented serious OBJ
jections at certain points, if lord Stratford de
Radcliffe had consulted him, as he ought to have
done. Lord Stratford, stung by sir H. Bull
wer's remarks, forgot himself, as usual and re-
torted in a tone not justified by the circum-
stance, and which provoked an alteration in.
the open sitting between these two personages,
which had better not be described, but which
had certainly nothing to do with the programme
of the conference. The English ambassador