The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1882-10-20
Our PHILADELPHIA LETTER.
OSCAR WILDE AND HIS BOOK on AMERICAN
LIFE-TwO DESCENDANTS OF ANCIENT
HK-MOUNTATNEERs- ADvAN-
TAGEs OF GROANING AND CRYING.

3 OSCAR WILDE AND HIS BOOK on AMERICAN
LTFE-TwO DEsCENDENTs OF ANCIENT
NAvEsINK-MOUNTAIN AINEERs- ADvAN-
TAGEs OF GROANING AND CRYING.
PHILADELPHIA, Oct 10. 1882.
DEAR McPIKE-By some unaeeountable
means, it has been left out of the published
/ biography of the Earl of Hopetown that he
! ate oysters, shells and all. I expect, howev-
er, not to get bit OF credit for being the
hrst to make this interesting fact known
Oscar Wilde, who has gathered some thir-
/ " five or forty thousand dollars by his sun
flower lectures since he has been among the
unesthereal Americans, will, after returning
I to England with his American IiIv write a
/ book on American life and manners. Ne
/ has seen more of our country, met a greater
number of the representatives of the people
and has been a closer student of our institu-
/ tons and affairs than Charles Dickens Os-
! car says he is entirely free from the preiu-
/ dice which distorted the great novelist He
/ is going to touch on all of Americas beau
/ ties, from the buffalo bull down to the horn
ed frog. 1t is somewhat exciting and inter
estiug to learn that Phiadelphia's greatest
and most energetic x-MayOr, Stokelv. is 60
/ ing TO cut quite figure in the apostles book
/ StokelY took the rag of the bush when he
held up his mauls before Oscar and said :
! do You see these hands? Before I became
/ Mayor of Philadelphia I worked so hard at
my shop making ice cream and candy that
my hands became all covered with corns
4 that you might have cut with knife. and
/ those hands, sir, have never had a pair Of
I gloves on them. And YOU talk about work |!
Why, it's good for you I've worked nearly
+ all my life and I weigh two hundred and
twenty pounds"
/ Oscar particularly enjoys the study of
I those favOTites of fortune who are stvIed
! ''self made" They are $50 rugged he
| says, $50 truly racy of the soil" 1t is much
/ TO be regretted that the man with the glove
| less cOrned hands did not inform Oscar that
/ he was a descendent of the Van Bunschotens
D W no irSf lat n /
} kick with the left foot, and who were gal
/ laDt bushwhackers and hunters of raccOOns
[ by moonlight But still more is il to be re-
/ gretted that Oscar did not come in contact
with our present "self made Mayor King
/ a descendent of the Van HiogenbottomS of
/ Wamplngs, race of SchOOimaSterS who first
discovered the marvellous sympathy between
/ the seat of honor and the seat of intellect
and the shortest way to get knOwled ge into
/ the head was to hammer It iLto the bottom
But then, when ] come to think Of il, per
! haps, it Is well that the apostle didn't run
/ against King, as Philadelphia Mayors might
have cut too much OF figure in his book.
! Americans always draw a long and salts
factory breath when a distinguished Euro
/ pean traveller announces, when leaving our
shores, that he does not intend to write q
/ book about them. They would have felt
/ more happy if the apostle had said he would
/ not write book
| ask pardon for having committed an er-
ror in stating that exMaYor Stokey was a
, ueSc6nOenJ OF tne V an BunScnOtenS. a
friend at my elbow informs me that he is Il
/ descendent of the Van Brummels of the
/ pleasant borders of the BrOuX. They were
1 big. fat men. wearing exceeding large trunk
/ breecheS, and were renowned for feats of the
/ trencher They were the first inventors Of
S7tppI1Cn or mush and milk. This accounts
for the 'ice cream and candy business. I
/ am sorry that Wilde don't know this. But
perhaps he reads the FREEMAN, and if 50 he
will learn this important fact before he
/ writes his book
j have been reading a dissertation on the
advantages of grOaning and crying, by q
French physician. He contends that grOan-
/ ing and crying are two grand operations by
/ which nature allays anguish. He says that
patients who give way to their natural feel
( ingS more speedily recover from accidents
and operations than those who suppose il
unworthy of a man to betray such symp-
/ toms of cowardice as either to grOan or to
/ cry, 1 mention this simply to let the read
/ erS of the FREEMAN who are at all unhappy
about anything, know that il they will go
into their rooms and comfort themselves
with loud boo-hOO, they will feel a hundred
! per cent. better afterwaTd This French
I physician tells of man who reduced his
( pulse from hundred ard thirty to sixty in
/ a few hours by giving full vent to his emo
| tiOns. Whatever is natural is nearly always
useful, and nothing is more natural than
J crying. / respectfully call the attention of
/ my esteemed medical friend, Dr. Lennon
/ to the advantages Of crying, and hope he
| will advise such remedy in his practice.
| G. n. S.