The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-07-30
NJ Il wy O II TX rs M $.
From Our OWn Correspondent.

OOfftopOfbdeHts
New YORK, July 80, 1869.
Those wretched mortals who imagine that
Count John one of the Most Notorious and
ldlOsyncratic BOhemiRns of GOthnm,
is dead, are miseraby mistaken. He is alive,
and, if not actually kicking, would like to be
executing that toe-and heel performance upon
the persons of various New York editors whom he
construes into having libelled him. All his spare
time-and his time is as spare as his person-is
now spent in visiting newspaper offices and re-
questing to see the back numbers on files Those
back numbers are supposed to contain libellous
paragraphs relating to himself Indeed, it is
dangerous to say anything about Count Jo-
hannes in print-dangerous, at least for those
puny-souled editors who live in terror of libel
suits. The Count has as keen a scent for libel as
a crow has for carrion; and where the libellous
paragraph is, there will Count Johannes be
found gathered together While so engaged in
contemplating these abusive columns, his ap-
pearance is striking, not to say awful and pro-
found. He wears yellow straw hat, bound
with a black tape border, a black bombazine-
looking coat and his norid and furrowed COM
pleXion is framed in with a wig, the positive de-
gree of which would be brown, the comparative
auburn, the superlative red. He enjoys his
reputation modestly. He is stared after in the
street, but passes on seeming not to mind it, He
might be mistaken for an undertaken who can't
get paid for his last funeral, a Methodist min
lister obliged to pack up and leave comfortable
quarters. He is never so happy as when talking
of his daughter, the energetic and volcanic
AvOnia, or when penning the peroraton to a
column-long letter to an evening paper Ru-
NOR says that he has on hand a work of un-
| paraleled interest, entitled "The Law of Libel:
| an Autobiography"
Theatrical Items.
OF
| engagement at Booths Theatre. Various stories
have gained credit in regard to the length of Mr..
JeffersCns engagement and the amonnt of re-
| muneraton he is to receive. Here is the truth
| of the matter, which guarantee to be correct.
| Mr.. Jeffersons engagement will be limited to
| six weeks, terminating on Saturday September
| II. He is to perform seven times each week.
| six evenings and at Saturday matinee. He is
| to receive half the nightly receipts and to be
| assured $500 every matinee. He is likewise to
| be the recipient of one benefit The nightly re-
| ceipts will average $1,000, so that during Mr.
Jefferson's six weeks engagement he will make
about S25, 600, exclusive of his benefit. Fifteen
| years ago he insignificant actor
| now, he can command these prices, not at
Booths Theatre alone, but wherever he goes in
| this country.
Miss Charlotte Thompson, who has been quite
|
made her temperance last night before an
audience whose size and good nature were sug-
| gestive of the audiences that greeted her first
appearance at Woods Museum nearly year
ago The programme was excessively long,
| the temperature excessively hot, but Miss
| Thompson was excessively Cthough, of course,
blondely) bewitching, so that the heat and the
hilarity did equal shares in promoting perspira-
ton.
An improvement is going to be introduced
into our ire-telegraph system, that of
An ''EIectro-NIagnetic Watch-CIocE,"
with one or more alarm-bells so arranged that
break in the continuity of any of the circuits
shall be indicated to the operator. By means of
this arrangement the alarm is sent out so
rapidly on each circuit that the whole number
of administrations will receive one blow on the
| gong within one and half seconds, although
the force of the battery is thrown on only ten
circuits at one time.
A good deal of kindly-meant but quite unne-
cessary sympathy has been bestowed upon the
Widow of the Late N. II. Willis.
That lady, far from being left in needy cir
cumstances is situated so comfortably in regard
to this worlds goods that she would prob'bly
decline the subscriptions which the late pur-
chaser of 'Idlewild" proposed should be raised
for her. "Idlewild," " it will be remembered, was
the property OF Mr.. Wills ana Tor many years
his place of residence. 1t has lately been sold,
however, and has passed into the hands of Mr..
Thomas George, a wealthy lawyer of Newburg,
and friend of the poet-editor. Mr.. George
proposes taking formal possession in next Octo-
| ber and will then rescue the estate from the ne
gect into which it has fallen. Nathaniel Parker
Willis was not, perhaps, rs prudent and saving
a man as he ought to have been; but the sensible
and accomplished woman who is his widow
knew how to compensate nobly for the improvi-
dence that was an integral part of his faster and
impetuous nature. Though 'Idlewild' is nc
longer her home, she is one of those few eXcep.
tions to the list of poets widows who are con.
, tented with competency, and have compe
: | tency to be contented with.
The Fireworks Explosion
in front of French's Hotel is educing the usua
editorial comments and spasms of public indig
nation What right, people ask, have a party
= Of wassailers to roam around endangering the
lives and limbs of sober and peaceable citizens
What right indeed But had not the question
: better have been asked little sooner?
ALI BABA.