The Montana post., 1869-03-05
THE CITY
From FTIday's Daily.

THE LECTURE.-There was a very
good attendance at the NJ E. Church last
evening, the occasion being the Lecture of
A. NJ. Voolfolk, on the Literary Defects of
the Present Age. 1t was assumed that in this
Immediate age there is a dearth of good fruits
In Poetry, Orstory and General Literature,
and upon this premise the Lecturer described
the various influences contributing to that
result The ambition of the day is for wealth,
and Talent catching the infection, fOrsakes
the fields of Literature for the counting room
and mandatory, while Genius IN the wild
excitement of materialism is overlooked or
hnds Its gifts begging on the market and too
often yields to dissipation and sinks to the
grave. We are living too fast, and the infu-
ences of the age are all against profound re-
search and the careful, long continued disci-
pline to prepare for it. But a reaction will
asSuredly follow and better day dawn short
ly on Literature. Such we believe the out
line of the argument We think the premise
wrong, and so thinking could not entirely en-
dOrse the argument. The flower gives most
perfume when it is crushed; the summer suns
are most genial when memory resurrects them
amid the winters storms; recollection clothes
all defects of the past in the drapery of per-
fection, all Its ills forgotten, its joys alone
remembered. We are prone 20 feed on Hope
and Retrospection, and imagine we are hun
Al hut PRESENT. NO CONempOfdrleS ever
accorded true Talent, Genius or Worth its
desserts That is left TO after Historians and
Blographers. We believe this age is full of
busy workers, whose song offerings on the al
TAR of the Muses. will be the anthems of coming
years; whose words will be axioms In the
mouths of statesmen, aud whose brilliant ora
tory Will be proudly pointed to by the index
of Fame. Every hour cannot be expected to
throw upon the surface such offer
lngs as the centuries have spaTsely scattered
over them, and 1T is years, oftimes genera
tions ere the people are educated to appre-
ciate the work that the master minds delye
from the mines of thought and contribute
10 the stores of the worlds knowledge.
Homer recited his 1liad and Odyssey for such
scant plttance as the organ grinder of to-
day receives; 1t was after he was dead that
seven cities claimed the honor of being his
birth place. Millions sold Paradise Lost for
eight pounds sterling and booksellers
sneer; Byron wss virtually banished- Eng
land ignored them living and worships them
dead. Washington was not half so near n
saint when he lived as he is now when his
ashes are mouldered. Lincoln's name is yet
associated with epithets, and his utterances
derided. On the page of the worlds history
his name Will be bright as Washingtons, and
his Gettysburg speech live immortal as a
maIchleSs gem of elOquence. We live among
the great and good, but the glamour of
mortality hides their virtues from our eyes un-
snce of opinion. The Lecturer treated his
subject skillfully, clothed his searching
thoughts In choice words, and in FREQUENT
tributes TO orators and Guards sublime, hung
upon their tOmbs rhetorical chaplets of
purity and beauty that alone was sufficient to
dissipate the fallacy of "the decline of Liter
ature." The Lecture throughout was listened
TO with the most profound attention, and
ELECTED favorable cornraents from an audience
intelligent and discriminating. Col. Wool
fOlk Is recognized as one IF the gifted
orators of the Territory, and his latest effort
has placed his star still higher in the zenith.
NEW HoTEL.-Messrs. Realle 4 Bells
reye have rented of Mr.. Alex. Kemp, the
house formerly known as the asYoung Ameri-
ca HOTEL on Main street. next door to
Taylor, Thompson & Co., and will immedi-
atelY proceed to put it in repair and outfit
Tor the the purpose of keeping first class
Hotel. Il will be opened 70 the public by
the LIST of April next. We are glad to see
them take hold OF an enterprise that promis-
- much sue cess, and we feel assured. \
knowing their business capacity, that their /
efforts TO keep good hotel viii be success /
full This house Is In a good location, and |
will, 70 doubt, be extensively pstroniEed.
SPIRITUAL.-Messrs.L Lehman & New
man, Of Boulder Block, put Us under many
obligations by the donation Of bottle Of /
their choicest nectar from old Kentucky.
Not being subject to temptation, we called
IN several gentlemen famous for their exten-
i've knowledge and fHe taste touching the
'rdent extract, and they all pronounced it
in fneness and delicacy of favor,
,ut all insisted it was no better than the re-
naiDder of the stock at Boulder Block. In
'shslf Of our friends, We return our thanks
q Mr.. Newman