The Red Cloud chief., 1879-09-11
ITEMS OF
Personal and Literary.

Andrew Johnson's granddaughter,
Miss Patterson, is reported TO be pre-
pairing to take the platform as a lee
turer.
Henry ID. Thoreau was an unsocial
person., apparently much fonder of his
woodland companions Of beast and bird
than of human beings. This reserve
did not. however, extend to children;
he loved them dearly. He was natural
and boylike with them, and they all
liked him and were always ready to 90
with "Henry'' OF berrying excursions
and walks in the woods.
One of the busiest men in Newport
is Mr.. George Bancroft, the well known
writer. He is an early riser, and his
pair of stenographers are obliged to be
at his cottage upon the cliffs Oon after
8 O'Clock every day. The eleventh vol
ume of his "History Of the United
States'' will be sent to the printers mex
winter, and this will take the great work
up to the year 1890.
The new comic opera by Gilbert
and Sullivan, which is To be brought out
in this country next fall, is described by
the London newspapers as a burlesque
of Italian opera, a great deal like opera
bouffe, and not much in the style of
"Pinafore." The introduction of six
burglars into q house, where they fall in
love with six maidens, constitutes the
second act, instead Of furnishing the en-
tire action of the piece, as at first pro-
posed. No name has yet been chosen.
Mr.. James Whistler, the artist, is
described by q writer in ScTibner as be-
ing exceedingly witty and original, and
also not unsatisfied with himself. "Do
you see that bit therep" he asked one
day of a visitor to his studio, indicating
with a caressing gesture a spot Of a can
vass he had just been painting. "That,
sir-that-by Jove, the man who could
do that could do any thing with a
humorous twinkle, half delighted with
himself, half amused at his conceit in
recognizing it.
Mr.. Joaquin Miller has returned to
New York after an absence of a few
months, during which time he has trav-
eled several thousands of miles in pay
ing flving visits to the Sierras, to his old
home in Oregon, TO Mexico and to Can
ada, where he has placed his daughter,
IA years of age, in a convent school.
The poet went away wearing long
brown hair and a full beard. He re-
turns in a smart gray business suit and
smarter mustache, and with his hair
cropped short.
a. When Payne, the author of "Home,
Sweet Home" returned to Boston after
a long absence in Europe, he called up
on a lady, an old schoolmate, who said
"Mr. Payne, don't you find Boston
much chsnged?" "Yes, madam" he
answered, "very much l receive many
invitations to attend church, and very
few to dinner" When the poor poet
went to assume his Office at Tunis, his
luggage was st once most pathetic and
amusing-he had several trunks filled
with books, and hardly any clothes.
"A very graceful act was performed
by the University of Oxford, says the
London Hornet, in comforting upon Ivan
Sergeitsch Turgueneff its honorary de-
gree of ID. c. l.. M. T~urguenef's rela.
tons with the powers that be in his own
country are scarcely friendly. He loves
and he has been instrumental in freeing
the Russian people. With their rulers,
on the contrary, he is in no favor; bu,
1t was not as a Russian that nj. Tur-
gueneff has been honored, but as a poet,
an artist, a profound student and paint.
er of human character.