The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-03-04

ON Our O,on Ob,respondent.

Az snOee whose curiosity, or sense OF Tue
ridiculous or interest 10 human nature is suff-
cient to overcome their sense Of frosted toes
and purpling noses, IL has been intensely in-
seresting TO wach the heavy trains that have
ien the Jersey City depot lately. freightel with
passengers for Washington. pity these pas
sengers, not SO much for what they will endure
In going to Washington, as for the worse things
they will endure after they get there. Ohl
the mud and the marble OF which that
city of msgnif ,eut distances Is a compound
Perhaps, If l we're an Office seeker, or a
Fifth avenue belle or miscegenatrx. an in
vitation to the Inauguration ball might console
me for the miseries of which the capital has
always remained to me the exponent. We'll, to
return to the passengers. Bellies, beaux, brokers.
bankers. balls, bears. editors, reporters, CORES
pondents, purveyors, teachers of dancing,
modistes, and representatives from every de.
partment which figures in the conduct of city
life. have conspired together to Ill those cars.
Sardines are figure of speech, bat the rhetoric
would employ on this occasion disdaius the
use of such fguraive fish. None of the con.
ductors on these lines are very aged perhaps
but taking their memories for what they are
worth, they have assured me that nothing Ike
the prCseLt exodus was ever known in loco.
motive annals. / might almost say
that DO one Is In town. How
opera bogfe and Miss Kellogg are supported, l
leave to Grau aud Strakosch respectively to
explain. The fashionable world has been deci.
mated for q week past. Meanwhile nothing but
''CabiDe"is talked by the two or three corner
lcungers and deserted street-stroller5 that yet
remain in the city. The Eueaing POSI- has given
us anew Cabinet regularly every evening, and the
claims of the three Stewarts who have been men,
toned as likely 10 occupy Cabinet seat are
tirelessly canvassed. The reticence of General
Grant is his amusement, and the speculations of
some the newspapers prove that obituaries
OF all the fools have not yet been written.
The prurient-prude case. in which an attempt
is made to represent Charles Reade and Griffith
Gaunt" In naughty light. has been occupying
the Supreme Court Chamber for the last week.
without any definite conclusion having as yet
been reached. The most piquant portion of the
whole performanc was 10 watch the express
sions on the jurymen's faces while Mr.. Van
denhoff and Professor Frobisher were reading
the publication In question in court. Mr..
Sweetzer, the "malignant critic" who wounded
the novelist in his tenderest sensibilities and
increased the sale Of Jealousy" to several
thousands above what 1t would otherwise have
enjoyed, will have hard work to make fair
judges believe that Mr.. Reade is impure in the
same sense that Algern0n Charles Swinburne is.
There be editors Of your city who swear they
can p0unce upon sentences Of Mr.. Reade's novels
which are no less obectionabl than unmentiona
BILE passages In Petronius Arbiter, but if there
be any such sentences (Which doubt), l have
failed to zee them, and there Is not much written
by Mr.. Reade that have not read. In dealing
with the hot-blooded Caroline Ryder" he
handles language warmly, as the topic requires,
but he does nothing more. So, at least the
Judge appears to think. great deal OF ire
levant evidence was produced on the trial. such
as the status of Mrs. Henry Wood in the literary
world. By theby, what an interesting oppor-
tunity this would be for the discussion of the
standing of all our various grades of writers in
that same world, commencing with Mrs. Para
disc South worth and slOping off with DR.. Tyng'
Henry Ward Beecher and sylvanus Cobb!
TITS unblessed to be q witness against "a
Gotham thief, no matter how he may have
maltreated and mauled you. Better to obey the
Scriptural precept, and, If he has taken a way
your coat, let him have your cloak also. Yea,
even though he has stolen the silver from your
cupboard, call him back and offer him your
last roll of greenbacks (supposing you to have
had previous rolls), and then bid him 60 In
peace, but don't appear against him in witness
box. You may do SO with safety IN Philadel-
phia where something of the brotherly love
may pervade the bosoms of thieves, but you
can't do so here. You will most assuredly get
your jaw smashed or your head broken If you
attempt such thing. The New York thief
turns against his own flesh and blood If it at
tempt to ''peach" upsn him. II it feels tempted
to "blow,"I would ADVISE 1t MOTTO. That kind
of ''peachn Is a blossom, which, If it "blow" in
New York, is most untimely nipped.
The new fashion for gentlemen OF making
evening calls in tull dress Is being very gene
rally adopted by young men who pretend to
any figure at all In society. So that young
bachelors, who were au fdit in all the require
ments of the gay world once, but grew prema'
turely bidse and retired in disgust at thirty, are
liable to be put out OF eounteDance If they ven-
ture out of their retirement intent upon paying
a quiet evening visit. Your dearest female
friend, for whom you cherish the ''purest pla-
tonlsm at bottom, ,"will receive you with, at best
but disguised dismay, If you appear in anything
else than the swallo w-tailed coat and the regu'
lation vest. You may talk like an angel, whose
conversational brilliancy in the drawing room
however, 1 don't much believe in, but froch
coat will ruin you beyond redemption. Ths
Secretaries of Legation, who butterfly upper
tendon SO dazzlingly, were among the nrst tt
obey this last behest OF fashion, and all younl
New York is folio wing in the wake.
I When an actress thinks 1t necessary to fly u
y pen and paper to put herself right with thu
public, one of her best claims upon Its attention
a1 Qh