The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-12-14

like the Captain, speaks English, their mother hav-
ing been a Scotch woman. | ought to mention that
Morphy has also beaten and with great mortitca-
tion to his adversary, Frenchman by the name of
Erkel, who challenged him, backed by numerous
array of friends, with something of the air of
mockery with which Goliah defed David.
A WESTERN LrNGUIsr.-A correspondent of the
New York Tribune gives account OF young
man of Mount Vernon, Ill.,. named A. C.. johnson:
At the age of ten he took fancy for the study of
Latin. He soon found, and it was all he could find,
Andrews and Stoddard's very small Grammar,
which he borrowed, and kept long enough to mas
ter most of its brief lessons. He then had to return
this, and he resolved to have of his He
had 80 cents. He had found in the road at differ
ent times dime and halfdime, and a relative
had given him a Mexican bit; aneighbor, knowing
his ambition and his lack of means, showed him
side of old bacon, very rusty, and worm-eaten on
the edges, of which he made him present. A. c.
took it, trimmed, secured and summed it, and sold it
for 621 p cents This just enabled him to buy An
thon's Latin Lessons, and he was rich enough At
every leisure moment, by day or night he was
porng over his treasure, until he had almost COM
mitted the whole to memory. friend then al
lowed him the of Andrews Latin Reader; and,
after he had finished this, elder brother PRESENTED
him the Epit Sac. HIST and Firi Rome. After
this he had little difficulty in procuring and reading
Ceaser, Ovid, Cicero, Salust, Horace, and "Quidam
Tractatus Logic;e--LOndon, 1859"
In the mean time he had commenced the study
of Greek. His father owned Wesleys works, and
among them Greek Grammar. This was
4. IS starting point. and few boys will consider it
a pleasant one. But better luck awaited him. He
found and borrowed a much larger work by j.
Smith, 5. 7. D., print. Boston, 1909. Before he
had finished this he borrowed Valpey, and there
completed his knowledge of Greek grammar After
borrowing and reading AnthonS Jdcobs Reuder, he
happened to meet an opportunity to buy for a few
cents-learned works do not sell well in the West
a Greek Deectus, Greek Exercises, Grseca Minora
Greek Testament, Nenophon, Homer and LeXi-
Long before he had finished these he had un-
dertaken the Hebrew. His father owned Hebrew
Grammar by the Rev. Martin Ruter, which it was
no difficult task to commit to memory, and larger
work entitled fiison's Introduction. These en-
ployed him for nearly year, after which he bought
a Hebrew Bible, and was Gin all his glory"
Spanish came next. He found among hi
fathers old papers large bundle of Congressional
documents, containing the correspondence of the
Secretary of State with the Mexican and Spanish
Ministers The letters of the Ministers were in the
original Spanish, accompanied by a literal transa-
tiOn. A. G. studied these until he could read the
Spanish alone with ease, or else had the whole by
heart-he scarcely knew which. But he now had
the good fortune to borrow 4 Spanish Grammar,
and eagerly did he devourit. He then got a testa-
mcnt, which a soldier had pocSeted in Mexico; also
a prayer-bOol and Ortegas Poems, all of which he
read; but as he had no dictionary he had to note
down the words whose meaning he could not deci-
phcr until he should find them in a construction
that would throw light upon them.
Then came the French. For this A. G. had
pretty good beginning in Wanostrocht which he
studied and re-studed carefully. Then, without a
dictionary, he began to read Telcmaque, book
he had borrowed as usual. He noted the difficult
words as in the Spanish, till he could render lite
rally every sentence in the volume lie then bought
for flty-tive cents a French Testament, French
Arithmetic, "French Guide and Pcrrin'S Fables,
which he read with infinite gusto also Racine and
the Duif Errant.
lie had already turned his attention to the Ger
man. His only accessible textbooks were Jayne's
Nedizjnischer Kaiendor for reader, and Jayne's
Medical Almanac for dictionary. They contain
nearly 60 pages of matter not the most interesting,
but A. c. pondered over them day after day, week
after week, till he could translate literally every
sentence in the calendar. He then happened to find
a copy of Olendorf, which he Immediately borrow
ed. At last he succeeded in purchasing German
Bible, Dutch Reformed II ymn Book, &c, which he
read with the utmost satisfaction.
BY means like these he has become acquainted
with dozen languages-Latin, Greek, Hebrew,
Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese
Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Russian, besides storing
in a splendid memory of the choice gems from 500
volumes of miscellaneous reading. He is quiet re
tiring taciturn, solemn; but writes a great deal,
and many of his writings are humorous.
RUMons OF WAR IN IrALY.-The Nord of Brussels
contains the following paragraph relative to the ru-
mOrs of war which, 1t appears, have been current
in some parts of Italy within the last few davs:
We noticed, three days ago, on the authority of
our correspondence from Turin. the rumors of war
which are more or less rife in Piedmont. ii we NAV
credit first Paris correspondent the alarm has
pies in regard the Western Powers, the profound
discomfort prevailing in Lombardy, in consequence
of the issue of new paper money, and the abolition
of the immunity from military service of only sons
an immunity which they enioved even during the
wars of the first French empire-the Notifications
on the Pedmontese frontier and certain purchases
of arms and munitions of war recently made bv
Piedmont, certainly constitute a budget of news OF
an alarming character, and which may perhaps be
pregnant with grave complications for next spring
The Independence discreditS the rumors of war,
and thinks they are attributable to some expires
sOns used by King Victor Emmanuel at Il review,
and which being too largely interpreted by Italian
patriotism, have been understood as meaning that
the King expected to require the services of his
troops in the spring of 1859. The Independence
admits, however, that the course pursued bv Aus
tria in LOmbardy, and the disappointment of the
expectations raised by the Archduke Macmillan,
may eventually lead to very serious state of things
but it thinks the "moment not yet come"
THE SLAVE TRADr-In June last the Yacht
Wanderer, Capt. w. c. Corric, was detained in
New ork sometime on suspicion of being SLAYER.
The complaint was made by Mr.. :. s. Norton,
Surveyor OF Port Jefferson, and was caused by
ing the vessel undergoing repairs, unusually large
water tanks, foreign sailors, &c. Under the Cap
tain of ''The Yacht Wanderer" the following item
appears in the Charleston Ne,rs of the 9th
''Some ol the officers and crew Of this now ia
nous vessel have arrived at Charleston. She is
now oil our Southern coast, and may be expected
here in few days. She is reported to have been
left at Brunswick, Georgia, in charge of Capt W.
c. Corrie, who had obtained a clearance at that
port. She had previously landed further South
after dashing frolic on the broad Atlantic and
| doing, no doubt, some naughty things. She will
however, receive a cheerful and forgiving welcome
She had had a narrow escape before landing, from
gale"
| The following despatch was published yesterday
morning:
SAVANNAH, Dec. 1.-THE Republican of this
| morning learns, on good authority, that the Yacht
| Wanderer succeeded in evading the vigilance of the
cruisers and landed a cargo of slaves in the neigh
! borhood of st. Andrews Sound, near Brunswick
/ Georgia, and that part of her cargo was subse-
quently sent up Saltilarivcr on board of a steamer
CoMMoToN IN THE LoBBY.-It became known
around the House hall this morning that Mr.. Stead
man, House Printer, had written letter resignina
the position. This created intense excitement in
| the lobby. 1t seems that Mr.. Steadman sold hi.
contract in the course of the last session to Mr.
Cornelius Wendell for S34 900, which, it is said he
has been duly paid. He has demanded more, anC
| Wendell declining to meet his demand as made, h.
essays to take this method OF trying to depriv
Wendell of the work. We give the story as it i
L., - H.