The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1875-02-06
ITEMS OF INTEREST.
PersenaI and I.iterary.

while engaged in literary effort In
London, joaquin Miller enters little into
society, though he writes: " My table Is
etrewn with cards Of invitation, like the
snow alter a Storm"
--Play-wrltcrs of noble blood have here
tofore been as rare As royal bookmakers
before the days of Victoria and Napoleon.
II has lately been reported, however, that
the King Of Bavaria has published a COM
edy, and now we hear that Prince George.
of Prussia, is at work upon drama, the
subject Of which is taken from the Old
Testament.
Edmund About writes to the Athe-
aGum: ''Jules Verne, who has just OBJ
tanned great success with drame de
Jeeyie geographique, Is the most instructive
of our novelists. Nobody commits sui
eide In his books nor pays addresses to
married women passion Is absent from
them, and crime Is unknown. But never
has the brain of an honest man found the
secret Of attracting readers by more novel
or more varied devices"
"A correspondent of the Chicago Inter-
Ocean writes thus of the widow of Presi.
dent: ION one of the COSY, shady streets
of Nashville, the Boston of the South, in
an old fashioned mansion OF red brick,
with wide, deep windows, and mammoth
pillared piazza jutting out like the bold
forehead of the famous man that once
lived there, Is the house OF Mrs. James
Knox Polk, widow of the tenth President
OF the United States-one OF the Mothers
of the Nation. A slender, graceful old
lady, with snow white neckerchief and
folds OF curls that lie pat on each side of
her brow. She is seventy-six years old,
but her figure Is ms straight. her step as
quick and her eyes AS bright as the eyes OF
girl active In every benevolent scheme,
generous TO an extreme, hospitabIe ac-
cording to the traditions of Kentucky
hospitality, and as courtly as queen"
Miss Braddon, the authoress, Is de-
scribed by a recent visitor at Brighton, as
a tall, rather angular woman, evidently
upon the shady side Of forty, with dark
hair, cut short, and streaked with gray,
with coarse lines about her mouth, and "A
deep furrow between her eyes. She
dresses t0lerably well. not deliberately. or
with blind obedience to the latest man
dates of fashion, but with evident indifier-
.encc TO cost, II, also, with sense Obtuse
TO the more subtle gradations of harmony
in color. She is a person whom one might
imagine TO be the principal Of girls
school, or the spinster aunt of a arge
family of obstreperous boys and naggng
girls, and thus account for the stern lines
of her face, winch seem not so much that
of a dominant or a conquered sorrow as of
depressed passion.
"A Mobile letter in the Inter Ocean says
of the author OF "St. Elmo: "She is
Mrs. Wilson now, and lives in beautiful
little chateau In the suburbs. Her hus-
band is banker of wealth and influence,
and she plain, unassuming lady, about
thirty-five years old, should think. From
her appearance one would not imagine she
had wrestled with Confucius. the Sanskrit
philosophers and the ancient Greeks. Im-
agine tall, slender lady, of dark complex
ion, black hair, and eyes of an indifferent
color, features plain but full Of animation
and intelligence, and manners that are at
once unobtrusive and attractive, and you
have this DE Stael of the South. She Is
seen but little In society, and seldom en-
tertains any but intimate friends; but the
poor know her we'll, and the hospitals and
institutions for the homeless and friend
less find in her local Florence Nightin-
gale.'