The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-02-19
THE MARCH MAGAZINES.



and I'll Show You Show !" by Prof. ]. d.
Bruins; ''Jim Lane,' biographical sketch;
1.-THE Coming Revolution in England" by
Arthur Pember; '"The Stranger of Nahant,p
tale; Dreams ''villainous Saltpetre," by
J. Franklin Fits Marble Faun-ing," tale,
by Annie L. Macgregor; 'The Vaudoux in
st. Domingo, by H. Hergrave; Concerning
Shelley" by Miss II. Pierson; To-Day a
poem, by Prof. Henry Hartshorne; Errors
Of the Press, by General James Grant Will
son; 1.-THE Forger's Bride tale, by Rose
Terry; Government and the Gold Premium"
by Hon. Amasa Walker; "Our Monthly Cos
sips" Literature of the Day"
From a very interesting biographical
sketch of "Jim Lane" by Jacob Stringfenow,
we make this extract ..H.
The late Senator Lane was the most finished
actor ever saw. He was sporadic French
man of the eighteenth century, strangely out
of time; Bristol roclzing-stone diamond
made in a laboratory. Looking at him in
this view, we feel the subdued and deep en- .
thusiam of the officer du roi who captured
solitary frog on one of the Sandwich Islands,
q sort of Selkirk, carried there, poor fellow!
in the spawn by sea waves; for we will add
on that drowned continent of name unknown
which we call Oceanica the esteemed family
of Batrachians is not aboriginal.
/ said he was an actor. Every one knows
the sequence of the two. Cruikshank knew
it when he filed French Row in Vanity Fair
with slim-legged ballet girls. Lanes faults
were Gallo; so were his virtues, of which he
had q share. AS Siddons always talked in
chest tones, and dragged one foot after her,
so Lane always trod imaginary boards. The
Romans did those things to perfection. When
the effect demanded poison or the falling on
a sword, it was done without fiinching.
In the eighteenth century, when everybody
in France went distracted over Greece and
Rome, and the women read nothing but Plu-
tarchs Lives" it became fashionable to
talk like Brutus and Coriolanus, weep like
Xerxes, and embrace like Damon and Pythias.
The judgment of Dumouriez was singularly
acute when he said of the Girondists, who
gave tone to the revolution, ''They are exiled
Romans. The republic, as they understood
it, is the romance of woman of mind. They
intoxicate themselves with fine words, while
the people will get drunk with blood"
Imagine worn cowskin coat surmounted
by fur cap, or an old hair trunk standing
upright upon two sticks, with a moulting
chicken-cock at roost upon it. Hair trunk
1oQsxtu:- =.
an exclamation point with every sentence)-
'that he is ignorant, and not fit for the
United States Senate Why, men of Kansas,
his mother was a Connecticut schoolmarm
and most devout Methodist, and from his
youth up he was most carefully educated for
the Christian ministry; but his modesty, his
insupera6Ie" Qong drawn out) 'smodesty, kept
him out of the pulpit! They say Jim Lane
as O libertine! Why, when he was twenty
one years old he had never smoked a cigar,
sworn an oath, or kissed girl! But he does
love the ladies'! He loves his angel mother"
Gin a sepulchral tone), ''and he loves his
angel sister He loves his darling wife; yes,
and he loves all the virtuous and loyal women
of the land!"
Let it not be supposed that his rough audi
ence laughed at this display of emotion. Did
Boston audience laugh at Choate's nonsense
when he told them how the dark-eyed Mexic
maids walled to the light guitar, ''Woe is me,
Albania for a thousand years?" Does the
gallery laugh at ''Hamlet's'' soliloquy? The
poorest devil that ever contemplated self
slaughter (and who has not p has rehearsed
its arguments to himself. We all have our
moments Of nervous exaltation, and feel that
our unspoken thoughts are our best. 1t was
this set of nerves which that cunning anato-
mist, Lane, knew how to play upon. He sent
shiver down the backs of his auditors like a
charge of electricity down hghtning-rod,
and raised the goose-hesh on their skins as
though a regiment were marching over their
collected graves.
''They say Jim Lane is profane." (The
biographical was his chosen style) "Greai
God! What! Jim Lane an irrehgious man!
Why, never swore in my life! Yes, though
Tin tragic bass), ''once! once! 1t was at the
head of my Indiana regiment in Mexico, al
the battle of Buena Vista. (He knew
better than this 81 looked to my front
and there were acres and acres of Mexicans'
(taking off his coat; 'to my rear, and there
their cavalry were drawn up, their richly ca
parisoned steeds and their murderous spears
glistening in the morning sun" Gerking of
his cravat); 'and to my right and left there
were more acres and acres of Mexicans.
CTragic bass again. ''Then, in the excite
ment of the moment, and forgetfuT (accen
on 0r-)-''and forgetful of my religious
boys" Ia shrill tenor, "'Charge on EN-, Goo
d-n 'em charge on EN- =" Tragic bass.
''The only time ever swore in my life"
To some this may appear simply vulgar
but not to those who have heard Macready
say, 'GThe handkerchief !" in such way tha
the sciatic nerve twitched sympatheticall,
and the hair seemed to stand up on the head
for there is no better test of an electrica
atmosphere than these electrical manifesto
tions Every sentence was a lighted trans
parency, uttered as if written in Roma
capitals.
While all the interior evidence justifes on
French hypothesis, l cannot learn that thi
extraordinary man had Gallo blood with
four generations, though collateral branc
of the Lanes emigrated to Indiana from th
Carolinas, where it is stylish to claim d.
scent from the Huguenots. 1t was a stron
stock, and effloresced in such men as Josep
Lane, of Oregon, Henry S. Lane, an
Amos Lane a LAWYER of distinction, membe