The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-01-06

cenium boxes. Tnere are Two galleIles.
The house will seat about ], 500 persons, and
will contain about 1000. The lighting is
from above. The drop curtainis OF crimson
rep and silk, and parts in the center, so that
it's folds drop gracefully over each stage pic
ture. Tha miscellaneous decorations are OF
black and gold. There are six cosy boxes al
the back 81 the parquette. The opening ex-
ercises began with music, after which Miss
Fanny Morsnt came before the curtain and
spoke the first half Of An original address, In
verse written tor the occasion by DIR. Oliver
Wendell Holmes. At certain point the
curtain parted, disclosing the entire COM
psny ranged upon the stage, and Mr.. DAILY
came forward and bowed in acknowledge
ment of the vociferous call and the hearty
public plaudits. The other half of DIR.
Holmes address was then spoken with ex-
cellent spirit and discretion by Mr.. Frank
Hardenburgh. The assembled company re-
ceived emphatic recognition and welcome.
There were twenty-eight persons upon the
stage, conspicuous among whom may De
named Charles Fisher and William Davidge.
The play was Albery's Fortune" which
the critics damn with one accord.
A Washington letter to the Graphic, gives
a pen picture of Caleb Cushing: He is a
bachelor, with the blacklist eyes, the rud-
diest cheeks, and you can no more guess his
than you could that of a golden winter
apple He is a millionaire, so that it can not
reasonably be supposed that he wants any
more "stocks." In Indian language, it can
be said that he has "run the gauntlet" be
| tween a row of women, the length of which
describes the circumference of the whole
earth. He has kneeled on the yellow sands
| of the BosphOrous to the languishing henna-
stained Oriental; his beard has brushed the
frozen limit of Siberian fashion and beauty;
hand in hand with our sisters of the Rhine
he has trampled the musty sweets of the
vineyard; Paris and London have been ex-
hausted; Washington was asqueezed orange
long ago. Alas, when not engaged in inter.
national affairs. Mr.. Cushing is brooding be-
cause there are no more worlds to conquer.
SPIRITUAL VIsIoN.-Man has faculties by
which he perceives God, duty and immor.
tality. But these faculties must be exer-
| cised, or they lose their power. If one
should live in dark room, and cease to use
his eyes for long time, at last he would lose
the power of discriminating objects. To dis
tinguish objects by the sight is an art. To
the infant all things seem painted on the
retina, and the moon seems as near az his
mothers face. He learns TO distinguish sizes
aud distances by practice. If one eye was
not used at all, it might at least shrink up
and disappear, like the eyes of the sightless
fish in the solid darkness of the Mammoth
Cave. So, if man does nos use his spiritual
powers at all, he gradually loses the power
of distinguishing between matter and spirit.
time and eternity, nature and GOd.-James
Freeman Clarke.
| NECESSITY OF PRAYER.-We must have
both personal God without Us, the object
of awful veneration-s personal God within
us, the object of childish love. Awe and
love combined are perfect alteration, and in
that alteration the soul is satisfied, earth is
glorifed, heaven is in our hearts, and all our
human love raised into something more in
tense and pure when it breathes this awe of
the eternal. Prayer is the expression of this
adOring love, necessary to man as this adj
oring love is necessary: and till awe ceases
to exalt the soul, and love to be it's food, the
soul of man must pray. Men may call
prayer an absurdity, deny its work, Danish
it's influence but nature and God will be too
strong for them. These men will glide
into the absurdity they laughed at when
their heart is passionate with sorrow; and as
to banishing its inhuence-they must Danish
; veneration and love from the heart and then
tear away the heart itself, ere they can ban
ish prayer. Its force is here, within us,
here in the depth of our want.-Stopford
Brooke.
OLD LETTERs.-Never burn kindly written
, letters; it so pleasant to read them over
: when the ink is brown, the paper yellow
{ with age. and the hands that traced the
friendly words are folded over the hearts
that prompted them, under the green sod
Above all, never burn love letters. To read
. them in after years is like resurrection to
> ones youth. The elderly spinster finds in
the impassioned offer she foOlishly rejected
I twenty years ago, fountain of rejuvenes-
cence. CHANGING over it, she realizes that
: she was once belle and beauty, and be-
3 holds her former self in a mirror much more
D congenial to her taste than the one that con-
, fronts her in her dressing room. The
widow indeed" derives sweet and solemn
r consolation from the letters of the beloved
one who has journeyed before her to the far
off land from which there comes no message
and where she hopes, one day. to join him
No photographs can so wildly recall to the
memory of the mother the tenderness and
devotion of the children who have left at the
call of Heaven, the epistolary outpour
I ings of that love. The letter of true son OF
9 daughter to true mother is something bet
! ter than an image of the features; it is re
: fiex of the writer's soul. Keep all loving
. letters. Burn only the harsh ones, and in
burning them forgive and forget them.
PUTTING IN THE KNIFE.-For years past
e says the Washington City Star, it has beer
4 the custom in the different bureaus of The
4: Interior Department for the head of eacl
+, bureau on Christmas, to present to each EN-
a ploye either knife or gold pen or both
q these presents being purchased with money
from the Contingent Fund. Quite a sensa
ton was created among the quill drivers o
! the Patent Office this morning by the ap
! pearance of the following circular, signed NJ
q ID. Leggett, Commissioner of Patents, ON the
bulletin board: when L came to the
: Patent Office L found that it had long
! been a custom TO present at the close
! of each year gold pen and pocket knife
purchased with public funds, to each EN-
! ploye of this Office. l have searched in vain
for any legal authority to warrant the Com
: missioner in making such use of any por-
ton of the public funds entrusted TO his
care. / am fully aware that many in Office
are poorly paid for their services, and ]
should regard it as a great privilege to be
able to compensate them properly; but moi
one such person, presume, would desire