The Nevada journal., 1858-04-16

The following jeu d'esprit, relating to
an announced lecture in this place, we
find in the last Vide Vest As ''the
Judge" has left town, we presume our
selves safe from vengeance for a month
or more, in publishing it:
The Mountain Literati.-Be it known
10 you, o most knowing editor, that we
Nevadans have been enlightened the
present season, by series OF lectures
from sundry incipient orators, upon d.
vers and sundry subjects. The seventh |
and last of the second series was to have
baen delivered, agreeably to notice, on
last Friday evening, by no less person
than the Hon. -. The announce
ment of the subject, "Matrimony; its
JOYS and Sorrows" brought together
large assemblages throughout the town,
in every place except at the lecture
room; the married portion very dubious
as to the joys, and the single anxious as
to the sorrows of this domestic institu-
ton. At the appointed hour the lectur-
er, with his hair combed back and head
creased in the most approved literary
taste, did not mount the rostrum and
draw from the tail of his coat a formid
able roll of manuscript. The size of this
document excited a great diversity of
feeling among the audience-the unmar-
ried apprehending that if they awaited
its reading they would be too old for the
benefit of the institution, and the initia
ted, accustomed to long lectures, regard
ing it as a very small matter; while
third class, the friends of the lecturer,
well knew that he could not decipher
nine-tenths of it. and that the balance
would be very mild.
The lecturer, with a modest assurance
peculiar to himself, did not blow his nose
with peculiar energy upon large cot
ton handkerchief, and proceed as fol-
lows: He made no comments upon the
wise and beneficent distinction of sexes,
and the absolute necessity of some ami
cable arrangement for the perpetuity of
the species; nor did he speak of the in
genious mode of creating the first wom-
an, and regret that the rib of which she
was formed was so crooked. He drew
no invidious comparisons between the
olden days, when Jacob worked seven
years for his wife, and the present EN-.
ightened age, when a man works seven
days to get one, and the balance of his
life to get rid of her. He did not aston
ish his whole audience beyond express
sion by his eulogy upon the purity. virtue
and happiness of the married relation, or
comment maliciously upon those num-
berless little tokens of affection unknown
to celibacy; or, glancing at the satin
bonnets and fancy fxings before him,
while before his prophetic vision loomed
doctors bills, etc, in the dim perspec-
tive, did he speak of its economy. Nor
placing his finger Significantly upon a
longitudinal scratch to the right of hi,
nose, did he utter one word concerning
its felicity. With burst of the most
impassioned eloquence, he did not say
that the Mormons are an appreciative
people, or dropping his voice to dole
full cadence, suggest that there might be
too much of a good thing He did not
delight the married and disgust the sin.
gle portion of his audience, by assuring
them that, under our own enlightened
practice, two couples could be divorced
with less trouble than one could be mar
ried. He did not illustrate with a gor.
geously embellished certificate lately
exhibited in the District Court, the
matchmaking of heaven, or suggest
with diabolical leer, that they were
burnt in very different place. From
all the views expressed by the lecturer
in his lecture, which was not delivered
owing to the pressure of circumstances
for which he has our sympathy, we re-
gard the domestic institution as a stand
off. At some peculiarly brilliant pas
sage made in the essay, the most enthu
siastic applause was suppressed, and al
its conclusion, the audience did not pro-
nounce the lecture the cheapest of the
season, and the lecturer muggins. We
understand it is not the intention of the
lecturer to repeat his essay at Grass Val
ley. PETER.
Nevada, March 29th, 1858.
Exploration Of tie CoIOrado-The
War Department has received dispatch
es from Lieut.. Ives. in command of the