Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1873-08-08
n DULL sIy.I.vDLR.

OHueT tniS ntduluB the NEW
une comments upon the work of the new
Dickens medium of this place, as follows:
When the knave consider how eager the
majority are to be fooled, they must Won
der, like the British General amid the treas
ures of India, at their own forbeardnce.
What is the use of telling the truth at allr
is probably the question which rises to
their minds when they see how much more
marketable are their lies. man goes to
Mime sofa, calls himselfa lord, assumes
name not in the peeragc, says that his sis
ter wants a few thousand acres Of land to
found charitable institution, irid the
banks and railroads OF the State are at once
at his feet. If his inventions had been rea-
sonable no one would have believed him.
1t requires more ingenuity and sGuoir Jdire
to get credit for glass of gin than to get
loan of thousand dollars. This frantic
passion for being swindled is by no means
confined to Americans. An escaped con-
vict from Germany laid the whole diplo-
matte body in Washington under coutri-
button, including Baron Gerolt and Cheva-
| lier Hulsemann, simply by calling himself
Count hweinitz-Krain. Adjutant to the
Archduke Maximlian. He lived in great
gala for month or so, and his success
seemed 20 turn his own brain, for he is now
| in a mad-house. A Hungarian named EST
van, who lived in New York some time,
went back to Vienna and pilaged the He
| brew bankers of that city on the strength
of the preposterous claim that he was "Con-
sul-General of the United States in Hol-
land and Chief of Secret Service 10 the
Emperor of Mexico" They obeyed the
monastic formula of faith, and believed be-
cause ii was impossible.
But in literature the adventurers have
easier work than in finance. Let man, or
more especially a woman, claim TO have
written something which belongs to some
one else, and the very fact of the claim be-
ing false will be enough TO gain it credit
among half the people who read newspa-
pers. Mrs. Akers will never again take
any comfort out of her pretty lyric "Rock
me to Sleep" since gentleman in New
ark, who does not know the difference be-
tween the movements of anapests and dac
tyls, has brought affidavits to prove he
wrote it. Mr.. Carleton, who has written a
dozen farm ballads all of the same smell
and sound, is suddenly set down as an i'm
postor because woman in New York has
pc rsuaded two or three of her friends that
she is the author of them. The fact that
his are all from the same piece, and that
her watery trash contains not line resem-
bling the piece she stole, weighs nothing in
th minds Of the fly gobblers, who believe
because it is in the face of reason to believe.
But a still more nauseous swindle is pre-
ri I'm praii
, lie nds 10 be nothing less than the compile
, ton of Charles Dickenss wonderfully beau
tiful and tantalizing fragment, Edwin
Drood.'' 1t is hard TO judge, from The ar
{ clos which have appeared in several New
1 En-, land papers, whether this is a shame
less piece of advertising or a miraculous
: mantle station of pure idiotic credulity. The
= story is that young man, sin business
a in Bratteboro has been occupied for sever
al months past in writing, under "spiritu
!, al dictaton from Dickens himself, th
completion of The unfinished roma nee, anC
+ that lie has been Exclusively engaged" by
n the great novelist to furnish series of sto
@ ries to the public in the same manner. W,
L afe even given the name of the next pro
duction from ibis ghosllv works shop. whicl
10 and Adventures of Bockey Nickeheep'
il Not satisfied with giving this cheap ant
I. silly gossip TO lis readers, one paper print
iCur solid columns Of extracts from thi
= work, which are not up TO the average ex
n, Ierimens in fiction Of children of ten
These siokening Iollies are presented by
m respectable newspaper as bearing as clear
m ly the imprint of Dickens's style rs thoug
y, he had written them himself on EARTH"
this marvellous iiy-swalower had restricte
20 himself TO these generaliies lie would hav
been wiser. But he goes on to give hi
re- reason for thinking Dickens wrote th
puerile stuff. lst. The medium spell
a. traveller with Two rs. I'd. He says ''coals,
cv instead of "coal." Sd. He uses capits
.r- letters sometimes, .as for instance when
MT calls Mr.. Greweious an Angular Man.
These things profoundly impress this 81
a. gacious critic. He thinks Dickens mu
have written this stuff, because the "med
IT, Il NJ" could not. There are certainly fey
n, peo pie out of the hospitals who could.
The mediums have been swindled so o
,is ten that they will not be surprised to lear
they are cheated again. If this food of il
ra apt words has come through the regul
T mediunislic channels, it can only proce'
an fro m one of two ghosts, both more rece'
ta arrivals in the other world than Mr.. Die
ems The fact that IL halls from Brattleb
ar ro would naturally suggest as its auth
or Col. james Fisk, Jr., the tenant OF gra
,iu in that neighborhood. But 1t is too dr
and dismal 10 proceed even from the mo
our of that lively rascal. The only deceas
writer who ever reached such depth
pathos was the late Mr. Walworth, and \
ly- tn ink little will be risked by placing
yes name on the title-page.
e." A E,psr- r-CIAss FUNERAL IN VIENNA