Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1884-05-08

Central Pacific Nothing has yet been heard
from the Judiciary committee explaining
this change When bills of such Importance
come from committees, report is usually
made with them. This has not yet beer
done in this case, though it is expected that
the committee will in it's own time submit to
the senate reasons for the discrimination
made between the two roads It is doubtful
IL either the Union or Central Pacific can pay
the $55, 707, ,s46 and $4S, ,053 314 respective
| ly owed by them on April 80 to the govern
ment and due in 1895. The Edmunds bill
was designed, by spreading the debt over q
long term of years, to enable the roads to
settle their obligations. By leaving Union
Pacific out, that company is forced to the
necessity of providing for its debt.
Robert Buchanan, the poet, has furnished
some interesting recollections of Charles
Reade. He says the deceased novelist was
one of the gentlest, sincerest and most SYM
pathetic of men. With the intellectual
strength and bodily height of an Anak, he
possessed the animal spirits of Tom Thumb.
His manners had the statelineEs of the past
generation, and to women he had the grace
and gallantry of an old school literary knight.
Mr.. Buchanan emphasizes his lack of book
ishness, and his sligN regard for literary
people, which made him proof against itera-
ry afectation. His sympathy was for the
living world of men and ideas. He read but
few books, abhorred fine writing, and once
threw q q volume of Ouida across the room
before finishing the first chapter, on account
of its gushing about Ariadne. For the lit
erature of pure Imagination he cared little
or nothing, and he once wrote to Buchanan
that even Tennyson was only poetaster,
though this was momentary extravagance.
Poetry was to him fiction with the music of
words, though he confessed to valuing little
the verbal faculty or the verbal music. Let
ters to his intimate friends he signed with
his surname. One of his weaknesses was his
pursuit of the will o. the wisp of theatrical
fame He used to say he would rather earn
$500 by writing plays than e5, ,O0e by writ
ing novels, but he showed a mastery of style
even in his worst plays.
A daring theft, involving a serious archeso-
logical loss, is reported from Florence. For
the last four centuries a most valuable blshz
ops cope has bsen preserved in the treasury
Of the cathedral church of Pienza, an old
Tuscan town, lying about SO miles southeast
from Sienna, formerly of Importance, but
BOW much decayed. This cope had been
made for Pope Plus IL, better known as
Eneas Sylvius Piccolonini, one of the most
distinguished of the early humRnists, and
native of Pienza. It was masterpiece of
Italian embroidery and work in the early re-
Nuisance. The material was gold brecade,
covered with wonderful designs carried out in
nsedlework, representing saints and angels,
trees and birds, and arabesq ues, exhibiting
the sans style of composition which is to be
found in miniatures and fiue wood carvings
of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries The
whole was profusediy adorned with pearls
and precious stones, the value of which
alone was estimated at about 2, 900, 900 francs.
At his death the Pope bsqueathed this
precious vestment to the cathedral of his ma
tive town. One night last month the cope
was stolen from the treasury of Pienza; and
a few days ago it was discovered in the shop
of q dealer in antiquities in Florence, but
completely stripped of its pearls and precious
D Snes and some of its more valuable en-
broidery. No clue has been obtained to the
perpetrators of this piece of vandalism.