Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1871-02-01

CRITICsS AND HARTE-TnK
UNwOMRNLY WOMEN AND
THEIR CONVENTION soUD.
DER AND HIS sALARY-GEN.
RRAL MENTION. ~ -.
San FRANc1sco, Jan. 81, 1871.
The more sensible supporters Of the
woman's suffrage movement must have
felt much easier OIL Friday night, when
the Convention of strong-minded wo-
men and weak-minded men adjourned
sine die. For three days the temper
ance atmosphere Of Dashaway Hall
was disturbed with such an outpouring
Of irrelevant twaddle, inapplicable ar
gument and purposeless obscenity that
those. who heard 1t knew not whether
to laugh or to be ashamed. Some OF
the resolutions would have put a Bella
Union audience to the blush, and for
ingenuity of double enteadre could not
easily have been surpassed. What
were the Immediate objects of the Con-
vention, or what 1t was expected to
accomplish Is not yet manifest, and
unless 1t was to act as q safety-valve
for pent-up shrews and enable them to
launch a general anathema at the mon
ster man, Its purpose must forever re-
main IN unfathomable mystery. 1t Is
we'll for "the cause" that San Fran-
cisco instead of Carson was selected
for the gathering, otherwise It Is Ger
tain that the proposed elimination Of
the word "male" from your State
Constitution would have stood no
chance of success.
/ @ Harte and tho Critics.
Mr.. Bret Harte has at length severed
his connection with the Ouorldnd
Monthly, his editorial duties having ter
minated with the February number.
In a week or two he will go East un-
der an engagement to write exclusively
for the Atlantic, on terms that arc said
to be four times as favorable rs he was
receiving here. 1t is not yet announced
| who will succeed him In the editorial
chair, though rumor mentions W. G.
Bartlett, of the Bulletin. The spasms
of Jealousy which have seized several
of the minor literary lights OH the an
normcement of this recognition of
Bret's genius Is showing itself In a
very decided manner. If his admirers
were to believe all the refractory arti-
cles that have been written about him
within the last few days, they would
have to credit themselves with q very
poor literary taste, for, according to
tho critics, his popularity Is based on
| such q shallow foundation Of merit
that it cannot be otherwise than ephem-
eral. It l. q pity that such obvious
Intellectual envy should be awakened
by the translation Of Mr.. Harte to q
higher literary sphere, but ofsucl Is the
| republic OF letters. Its members are
really short-sighted. They can reeog-
| nize talent when afar of, but let them
meet 1t every day, drink with 1t, smoke
with It, chat with 1t and dine with 1t,
and they wonder what the deuce there
Is In Harte that people should think so
much of his writings.
A Strange Story Of spIrituaiism.
Some strange stories have been In
circulation for the last few days rela-
tive to certain ghostly communications
said to have been made BY the spirit Of
the late DIR. Rowell. 1t is said that Mt
the time of the Doctors death a spirit
usl seancc was being held at the house
of n lady at Oakland, who claims to be
a medium, and that while she was
holding q conversation with some dis
embodiment, the raps announced that
a new conner was anxious to manifest
| itself. On askingi its name 1t gave that
| of Isaac Rowell, but as he was sup
posed to be alive and well, those pres
| emit nut 1t down as n spiritual joke.
Some one proposed that they should
telegraph over to San Francisco and
ascertain II the Doctor had really left
tho flesh. but on referring to the even
ing papers, and finding no mention of
his illness, they thought 1t would show
| foolish credulity to apply such n test,
| and so they contented themselves with
q long cross-examlnation of the intan-
gible presence, and then separated,
curious and doubling. Sure enough,
the morning journals of next day coll
tanned an account of the Doctors sud-
den death, which agreed in toto with
the self.communicated particulars of
the previous night. Among other
| strange facts, II Is also related that he
dictated a prescription last week for a
friend who had been O long time under
his treatment for n CHRONIC complaint,
and that the medicine restored the pa
tient to good health. Many other
statements equally Incredible are In
circulation, some of which are said to
be vouchcd for by his own family, but
of course it Is impossible to ascertain
In what proportion truth has been
mixed with falsehood In the r%ecountal.
The matter Is creating quite a sensa-
ton among spiritualists, who swallow
it NIL without salt"
It Is we'll known that DR.. Rowell
was a firm believer In S%piritualism,
and had been for many years. He
! commenced an investigation into the
so-cal!cd spiritual phenomena some
years ago, and having satisfied himself
that when Invested Of nine-tenths Of
It's trickery something inexplicable
still remained, he sought, by.a thor
ough scientific research, to discover by
what means that unaccountable one
tenth was produced. This lie was uIl-
able to find out, so, after experiment
Ing with electricity, animal magnetism
and the other little-understood natural
forces, he gradually accepted the
Sp~iritualistic theory, and from that
time until his death his convictions Of
the possibility Of communicating with
the dead became every week stronger,
and for the last eighteen months there
was not a firmer believer In Spiritual
Ism in the city. It was this belief that
caused him to insert the clause In his
will relative to the disposition Of his
body 1t will be remembered that he
directed that his skeleton should be