Arkansas true Democrat., 1859-11-02
Who is Alhama?

Washington letter writers are gentlemen
 of acknowledged inventive faculties They
 can spin a yarn, with dates and figures,
 without the foundation of even possibility.
 They forge lie huge as a cannon ball and
 hurl it through the journals with all the
 force of expulsive novelty or, draw long
 article from the smallest occurrences, as skillful chemists are said to be able to draw
 an ounce of gold into a vine so small
 that 1t would encircle the globe. But in the way of gossip, as regards the conjectural, the hazy and mysterious, commend us to me letter writers from the French capital.
 mere IS always something dark, deep and
 half-hldden-something they could tell, if they would, at once romantic and alarming; melo-dramatic if not tragical. Under the head of Paris Gossip" in the Boston Post we ma the following, and think the reader Will ask with us, ''who is Alhama ?"
 "Alhama, Lord of the Earth is nl. or- Ing the poor Emperor to an unmerciful ex
 tent, by the publication of certain letters written by him during the pursuit of the war Tn Italy, guiding every action and every plan of battle as the army moved alonc
 have seen Alhama: he is not mad. as it would at first sight appear. He is man of immense talent, we'll known both in
 France and England amongst the engineers of both countries; and, although in the one he Is said to have Ca bee in his bonnet. and, in the other, Ca spider in his ceiling
 yet the eccentricity of all his proceedings consists in the form alone, and there it ends.
 He is we'll known in Liverpool, which he
 visited some yours ago in company with a
 Swedish commission of engineers, for the study of the construction of certain vessels upon novel plan of his invention, which are only just now being adopted. He then
 went to London, where he resided more than three years, as chief engineer of a foundry, on gigantic scale, for the sup
 ply of prepared iron used in the manufa;- ture of ships bolts, which, the French main tain, they alone know how to turn, arc which they have pretension of furnisll ing to the entire world. This enterpri! ,e
 being given up he returned to France, then visited Italy, and strolled about the passes of the Alps,-made the discovery of th e valuable gold mines now worked by tb @ joint capital of Turin and Paris banker, and enriching them beyond all precedent; pleaded against each of these men bot h in Paris and Turin, to compel the fulfill ment of their contract with him,-lo his
 cause in both courts, of course, not ing rich enough to fee the judges handsomely In either;-returned again to the Alps, dis
 gusted with mankind built himself pine
 log hut, wherein he had resided scarcely month when he discovered the only mine of Nickle silver which exists in Europe. This | time he eschewed both French and Turin
 ese, and came to England with the spec- 1 mems of his discoveries tied in cotton ] pocket handkerchief The first man to
 whom he presented them closed with the aalr 1t has been a fruitful source of wealth to many since that time; and the
 discover, ofmodest wishes and small presen-
 slons, returned then to the scientific studies
 which had formed both the delight and suc-
 cess of his yonth. No man in the universe
 is so well acquainted with artillery as 'sAE- l lrlma." lie Is the unavowed inventor of l almost every improvement which has taken 1 place Tn that branch of defence for the last. fifteen years, and he appeals in these letters,
 ROW circulating amongst the officers of the
 army, to the justice of military men to sc-
 knowledge that, wherever his advice was. i followed, success was the consequence, i whereas each time his orders were disobeved, as at Mauenta-which he calls defeat of ! the most disgraceful nature-risk and fail un were the result The Suisse FederaIe- the journal of Geneva, was put in posses sion of the copies of "Alhama's'' letters as 1 fast as they were written, and thus all denial
 of their truth is impossible. The Emperor
 knows we'll enough the real name and sta ton of the author, and is said to have long
 been possessed with superstitious fancy that this very man would be the ultimate cause of his ruin. It is curious circum- stance, and one borne out by facts, that
 "Alhama, " who resigned an important post III 1892, and has always been hostile to the Emperor, was half way on his road to Eien- ma, to offer his services to the Emperor of AuStrla, when ne was seized with remogse, and turne'i back ,s"wondvring he could have forgotten that, although Louis Napoen was leading France to destruction by his wicked ness and want of principle, yet the army consisted of his fellow-countrymen. brave comrades of his own, and whom he had led
 on to victory; and that 1t would be the
 height of cruelty to suffer this mighty host of brave men to fa II victimc fo tha i'm, self-sufficiency which had, even then, mark ked every order given by the projector of Strasburg and Boulogne''