Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1892-12-30
PERSONAL AND LITERARY.

Edwin G. McCabe, who is engineer
ing the movement to make Oklahoma
negro state, was formerly state auditor
of Kansas, is almost a white man, and
is said to be quite intellectual There
are 20, 900 negroes now in Oklahoma, it
is stated, and 1000 are in the south
organized for the same destination.
"A portrait of Longfellow, on ex-
hibition at the national capital just
now, lacks the white beard SO familiar
to almost everyone who has ever seen
a picture of that poet, and chorus OF
protest and lamentation goes up from
beholders 1t was painted, the initiated
say, thirty years ago for Ticknor &
Curtis.
Miss Betsey Trumbull, who died re.
Gently at the almshouse in Skowhegan,
Me-, at the age of ninety-two, was sup
ported by the town from the day Of her
birth to the day of her death, for, al.
though able to do considerable work,
both indoors and out, she was OF feeble
intellect and unable to take care OF her
self Ninety-two years on poor farm
is the longest time on record.
Octave Thanet is known to her
friends as Miss Alice French. Her nom
de plume was the result OF chance.
Octave was the name of her roommate
at school, and had the advantage OF
being suited to either sex. The word
Thanet she saw written or printed on a
passing freight car. Miss French pre-
fers the Scotch to the French pronunci-
alton of the word. Miss French lives
in Davenport, Ia.
Mr. Gladstone recently sent his
bookseller an order for twenty volumes,
which included two books upon the his
tory of the Waldenses, two upon Irish
affairs, and one upon the mode OF set
Ting parishes in Scotland; lives of Are
tin and Lord Bacon, books on solar
physics, myths, religion, political econ
omy, and Elizabethan England; mar.
rative of the Russians on the Amur,
and a volume of Elton verse.
The Castroville Enterprise is owned
and edited by Louise E. Francis, and
although she is only twenty-five years
old, and began her work with little
money, she is making success. She
writes everything that goes into her
paper, Is her own book-keeper, advising
agent, and business manager, and once,
when her composing-room was disa-
bled, she set type, helped run the press,
and mailed the papers herself.
Col. Ingersoll gave these interesting
opinions about literature during a chat
with Kansas City reporter the other
day: "The greatest poem ever written
on this continent" said he, sis Whit,
mans poem on the death of Lincoln,
entitled When Lilacs Last in the Door
way Bloomed.' The greatest novel in
our language, and it may be the great
est in any language, is Dickens Tale OF
Two Cities Hawthorne was a great
writer, but his style is little monot-
onous. Edgar Fawcett is great poet;
his Magic Flower is as beautiful as
anything Tennyson has ever written.
Henry George is just finishing two
more books, one upon recent attitudes
of Herbert Spencer. Mr. Spencer and
Mr.. George, by the way. have in com.
mon sort of scientific curiosity and a
faculty of minute observation. Mr..
Spencer, who for years lived with a
family not far from London and usually
dined along with whatever guest hap
pened to be present, took a most en-
barrassing interest in his neighbor's
table manners, and asked many singu'
lar questions touching whatever struck
him as peculiar in the conduct Of his
fellow diners. Mr.. George Is nearly as
unconventional in his queries of stran.
gers or acquaintance