The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-03-18
ABOUT PEOPLE AND THINGS.

QUEEN VICTORIA has paid the bills for Prn-
cess Beatrice's wedding $25, 900, and will not ask
Parliament to give anything toward it.
THE Duke of Portland has an annual income
of 81 $50, 900 from London ground rents alone,
and the Duke of Bedford one of $3.50, 900 from
the same source.
LYDIA THOMPSON. despite her encroaching
years. will now be considered more fascinating
than ever. 1t has just come out that her late
husband, Alexander Henderson. left her EGO, 900
in his will, notwithstanding they had not lived
together for many years.
In a conversation between several New York
managers, lately, all agreed that stage-struck
girls were more plentiful this season than ever
before. Each of them had received numerous
offers from the daughters of wealthy parents
who were willing to pay from $40 to 500 a week
for the privilege of appearing behind the foot
lights.
"DEAR sir. he said. "rd like to ask
Unless the questions rude.
What mean those strange rs; , and mystic words
"Of course the question is not rude"
The other man replies,
They mean, you see. the business man
Who does not advertise"
Washington Critic.
PRINCE NAPOLEON figures in Cora PEARLS
relations with him is unblushlngly related. She
says that she received from him hundreds Of
thousands of francs, and magnificent mansion
in the Rue des Basins, costing nearly half a
million francs, but that after 1870 he able to
do but little for her.
''POoR CARLoTTA, the once beautiful Empress
Of Mexico. is reported as rearing theEclose Of
her tragic career, at the old castle Of Bouchot,
near Brussels Happily, the tragedy which
eighteen years ago blghted her life and dark
ened her reason, left her no remembrance Of the
horrors through which she had passed, and she
has dwelt since in an imaginary world of regal
magnifcence-an empress in bedlam.
IT is said that T. B. Aldrich's "Rivermouth
Romance is entirely true, and the incidents are
connected with former servant in Mr.. Aldrich's
own family. The venerable reprobate who was
sent to Jail for drunkenness, and who, after hav-
ing received from kind friends surfeir Of tracts
sent out the despairing cry, "For Gods sake
send me Pop Goes the Weasel, :" was committed
to Jail for being drunk at Portsmouth, few
weeks ago. after having ornearly twenty years
been quite exemplary in his conduct.
BISHOP SPALDINa, of Peoria, comes next to
Archbishop Ryan in point of eloquence, and has
most of the pulpit characteristics of the Phla-
delphia prelate. He Is a great society man, too,
resembling Mgr Capel in social abilities Many
wealthy converts TO tno CatnoIc Chufcn trace
their tirst leaning toward Catholicism to their
meeting with Bishop Spalding. He has happy
faculty of evangelizing while engaged in social
conversation; of combining points on Catholic
dogma with comments on the weather; of letting
the channel of political talk open into that of
ligion In such delicate and insensible way that
all the time he seems to avoid discussion Of
church matters.
DR. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES takes deep
interest in the movement to protect birds from
slaughter. III am myself" he says more than
tolerant of the somewhat intrusive intimacy Of
the English sparrow. No other birds outside Of
the barnyard let me come so near them-not
even the pigeons But still more am l indebted
to the gulis and ducks, who during large part
of the year, are daily visitors to the estuary Of
the Charles which look from my library
windows. l wish they could be protected by
law, and if law cannot or will not do it., that pub
lie opinion would come between them and their
murderers. Not less, certainly, do l feel the
shame of the wanton destruction Of our singing
birds to feed the demands of barbaric vanity, "
A CORRESPONDENT writes to the Star. of Wash
ington, that in North Carolina there is mount
ain formation very closely resembling the
Sphinx. 1t is called the "Pilot Knob" and is in
Surry county in the northwestern part of the
State, just east of the Blue Ridge; its position.
prone on the Piedmont plain, like gigantic lion;
its body at right angles to the precipitous ridge,
and with head reared aloft, as if in the act of
rising. The head is of solid rock, several hun
dred feet in height. The shoulders and breast
are finely pcoportioned, and at the distance Of a
few miles it looks like thing Of life and intelli
gence. 1t rises about fifteen hundred feet above
the plain. 1t is seen at the distance of fifty
miles; but as yet no railroad approaches it near
er than twenty miles.
1T is estimated by insurance companies that in
the United States last year dwelling houses were
burned at the rate of one every hour, with an
average loss of 81 1906. Barns and stables, fifty
per week. Country stores, three per day, with
loss of $40, 900 per week. Ten hotels burn
weekly, with a loss per year Of $4,000 000
Every other day a undergrad goes I'D in
smoke. each represe nting $40, 900. Forty four
cotton factories, the loss in each case being $28-
600; forty three wooden mills at $25. 900 each,
and forty two chemical works at $27, 900 each,
were destroyed by fire last year. Forty
boot and shoe factories were consumed, the loss
being SIT, 900 each. Theatres were Tapped up by
the flames at the rate of FIVE per month, average
loss $40, 900. Only about half as many court
houses were destroyed, the cost of each being
about 5000
Mr. LoNGFELLow's first salary as professor
at Bowdoin College was $500, and the corporation
at first declined to dignity the position with any
higher title than that of instructor When he
was called TO Harvard University, it was at a
salary of $1,000. He wrote his first poem at the
age of thirteen, and there was not much in it to
indicate precocity, or to afford promise Of the
future that was afterward realized. BRYANT it
will be remembered, wrote 'Thanatopsis" when
he was eighteen years old, and 1t is doubtful if
he ever excelled it in his later work Longfellow
had an extraordinary preparation for his duties
as professor, having passed three years in Eu-
rope before he took his place at Bowdoin, and
two more in the same travel before he assumed
his duties at Harvard. He was TWENTY-FIVE
years OF age when he accepted the first of these