The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-12-11
Thc ssEGIbows of the NHincio.' -
BY AUGUSTUS MAVERICK.

BY MAVERICK.
From PGckdrds Monthly.
In the Italian campaign of 1859 the news
papers of England, France, and the United
States were engaged in eager rivalry. The
struggle to obtain easy and exclusive" in
telligence of the events of the war continued
unabated until the end of the struggle. The
London Times selected it's best correspondent
for service in the Italian army; leading
French journals promptly recorded the sue
cesses of Napoleon, and glorifed the carnage
of Solferino and Magenta; the New York
newspapers had representatives on all the
fields of battle, and the foremost among
these was the late Henry J. Raymond, to
whom the Times and its readers were indebted
for the clearest and most complete of all the
contemporaneous narratives-not excepting
the brilliant run executed by Mr.. Raymond
when he supposed himself pursued by an
infuriated squadron of Austrian cuirassiers.
1t was in midsummer when the New York
Times became famous in consequence of this
same lively campaign. While the chief of
that journal followed in person the fortunes
of the war, his subordinates in the office of
the Times followed their own sweet will, and
it is but justice to the capable gentlemen who
then constituted the editorial corps to say
that the reputation of the paper was well sus-
tanned. In fact, the act of one of their num-
Der increased its popularity for at least one
day-for ON that day appeared the editorial
article known as ''The Elbows of the Mincio. "
That remarkable production convulsed the
town at breakfast time, became the topic of
street talk before noon, was read aloud by
the evening lamp, and then was filed away
| among the ephemera which are considered
| too good to be lost. i know of scrap-books
in which it is sacredly kept to-day-of men
| who bought old files of the Times to scissor
| out that one column-of diligent collectors
| who have made copy of it one of the ap-
pendices to their set of Disraelis ''Curiosi-
| ties"
The ''Elbows" consisted of phrases which,
| though disiointed were in every sense spirited;
! the space occupied was one column of the
| Times the title, '"Ihe Defensive Square of
| Austrian Italy" The first half was grave;
| the last half--well, Bacchus was responsible
for that The opening passages contrasted
strongly with those which followed, as the
easy flow of running spring contrasts with
the babbling torrent of the brook dashed into
| foam by countless pebbles-the pebbles in
| this case being corks, and the foam of that
| sort which some Anacreontlc tells us is
pheasant boating" In short, it was n break
| fast which, like Charles Lambs last piece of
| pie, did the business.
The polished writer and elegantly finished
| gentleman whose presence was always welcome
| at any festive boaro ana whose pen achieved
the original triumph of ''Ihe Elbows" over
all competitors, French, English, or Ameri-
can, had "breakfasted. The breakfast was
good one; viands there were of the best,
and the vinous compounds were beyond COM
pare. The company was select; the hours
fled; no one took note of time. Night fell,
and all the city went TO sleep-except the
newspaper men and the disreputable oharac-
ters. In the Times Office, on Raymond's desk,
lay the decorous part of the ''Elbows," and
towards midnight the article got itself finished
not so decorously. This is briefly the story
of its origin. rI
Opening with concise statement of the
self-imprisonment of the Austrians withiI
''their famous strategic square, the write
proceeds to show the strength OF the Quad
rilateral. There are in this part of the arti
Gle some clever touches, but the pause il
sudden, not to say painful. All that follows
the Introductory paragraphs was incoheren
drivel, of the most curiously complex cha