Madison County AlArchives News.....Items from The Huntsville Weekly Democrat November 22, 1882 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Kenneth Stacy klstacyfamily@aol.com January 10, 2007, 12:46 pm Microfilm At Huntsville Library November 22, 1882 PERSONAL MENTION Miss Susie Matthews has gone to New York. Gen. L. P. Walker went to Montgomery last week, and has returned. Hon. Luke Pryor is announced amongst the arrivals in Montgomery. Mr. J. A. Faust, formerly of Pulaski, Tenn., now of New York, was in our city several days ago, attracted, Mrs. Grundy says, by the fascinations of a fair daughter of Huntsville. Mr. S. S. Lanier, of Birmingham, was here last Sunday, Mrs. Grundy says, from an attraction similar to Mr. Faust’s. We don’t blame, but rather commend them. Mrs. Newton White and daughter, of Va., are visiting at Mayor White’s. Mr. Bolling Hubbard of Virginia, Mrs. Turner Clanton, of Livingston, Ala., and Miss Janie Humes of Va., are guests of Capt. Milton Humes. Miss Lucie Crowe, of Moulton, is a guest of Miss Katie Speake. Maj. The. Taylor, who has lived several years at Leadville, is enjoying the society of his family and friends here, and expects to spend the Winter here and at Memphis. Mr. F. O’Shaughnessy, a brother of Mr. O’Shaughnessy, of this city, has been a guest at the Huntsville Hotel for several days. Mr. Harry G. Coltart and wife, of Memphis, are in the McGee House. Mr. Willie Gordon got back from New York last Sunday. DIED: BASSETT.—In Huntsville, Ala., Nov. 20, 1882, of a pistol shot wound, Dr. Henry Willis Bassett, aged about 50 years. Dr. Bassett was born and reared in Huntsville, studied medicine with his father, the late Dr. John Y. Bassett, graduated at the Louisville, Ky., Medical College and, also, we believe, at a Medical College in Philadelphia, practiced some years in Mississippi, was a surgeon in the Confederate Army and badly wounded in the faithful discharge of his duty. After the war, he returned to Huntsville, married, and practiced his profession and was regarded as an intelligent and skilful physician and surgeon. He was a man of good intellect and warm affections, and devoted to family and friends. We deeply deplore his death and sympathize with his bereaved family. MARRIED: MILLER-LANDMAN.—At the residence of the bride’s father, Wm. H. Landman, Huntsville, Ala., Nov. 15, 1882, by Rev. W. F. Kone, Mr. J. KLEBER MILLER to Miss MINNIE F. LANDMAN, all of Huntsville. The bridegroom is one of the cleverest of our young men, and the bride bright and intelligent. May their life be as blissful as their honey-moon was joyous. CHAPMAN-SHEFFEY.—At the Presbyterian Church, Huntsville, Ala., Nov. 16, 1882, at 9 a.m., by Rev. Dr. Fred A. Ross, Mr. REUBEN CHAPMAN to Miss ROSALIE F. SHEFFEY, all of Huntsville. The bridegroom is esteemed as a worthy son of his father, the late Gov. Reuben Chapman, the bride as the accomplished daughter of the late Dr. L. B. Sheffey. After the marriage, an entertainment was given at the residence of Mrs. Sheffey, the bride’s mother, and at 12 m., the happy couple left on a bridal trip to New Orleans. May their married life be one of ineffable bliss! LOCAL ITEMS P. P. P. Please pay promptly your dues for subscription and advertising. Planters, who owe us, will please pay up when they sell their cotton. PRIVATE SCHOOL Mrs. J. W. Clay will instruct pupils in the English branches, French or Music, Vocal and Instrumental, Piano or Guitar, at her residence between Randolph Street and Maiden Lane. Pupils received at any time. Nov.1- tf. Receipts of cotton are heavy to-day. Sales, generally, at 9 @ 9 1/8. On Monday last, there was slight snow here, heavy frosts since. Judge Hammond tells us a snow fall on Monday that lay on the ground till Tuesday Morning. The lateness of a killing frost this year may add interest to the following dates: The first frost in 1870 occurred September 26th; the first frost in 1880 on October 18th; the first frost in 1881 on November 4th. The last frost in 1880 occurred April 11th; the last in 1881 occurred April 5th; the last in 1882 occurred April 17th. The first frost this Fall, occurred Nov. 14. “Esmeralda” was a success at the Opera House last night. Mr. James Gilbert, and his talented wife, Belle Gilbert, received special demonstrations of honor. Sol. Smith Russell, the distinguished Comedian, will appear at the Huntsville Opera House to-morrow night, Nov. 23, as “Tom Dullaway,” in the new American Comedy of “Edgewood Folks.” Sol. Smith Russel is the nephew of the famous comedian, Sol. Smith, who made Laughter hold both his sides in the Huntsville Theatre over 40 years ago, when we were a boy, and the nephew is not a whit inferior to the uncle. If you wish to laugh and grow fat, go, see, hear Sol Smith Russell. Admittance, $1.00. Gallery, 50 cents. Sol Smith Russell We are pleased to announce that on Thursday, Nov. 23, the famous comedian, Mr. Sol Smith Russell, will appear in this city. In the line of what may properly be classified as refined comedy Sol Smith Russell has no superior in this country. All those who have seen him know that his impersonations are somewhat marvelous. Long ago he won his way to a deservedly high place in the genuine admiration of the American public. A more remarkably many-sided man than Sol Smith Russell could hardly be imagined. He has more heads than a company of actors usually number. No other man can now be recalled who has in so complete development of the faculty of metamorphosis. Work of so true a thing and fine a quality as his does not pall; it grows with acquaintance, and Mr. Russell has the good fortune to be longed for. Many will be glad to learn of the coming of this truly great artist. U. S. Senator. ----------------- Next Tuesday is the day set by law for electing a U. S. Senator to succeed the Hon. John T. Morgan. He is a candidate for re-election, with, perhaps, one-third of the County Conventions of the State declaring for him. The newspapers tells us that opposition to him is developing at the State capital, and Ex Gov. Watts, Capt. Bragg and Hillary A. Herbert, of Montgomery, E. W. Pettus, of Dallas, L. P. Walker, of Madison, W. H. Forney, of Calhoun, and others, have, each, their special friends. At last accounts, Morgan seemed to be in the lead. Any one of them would, doubtless faithfully represent the public sentiment of their democratic constituency. Sad Tragedy --------------- On Monday last, Nov. 20, between 2 and 3 o’clock p.m., the citizens of Huntsville were shocked at the killing of Dr. Henry Willis Bassett, of this city, by Levi W. Esslinger, who shot him with a pistol, and Dr. Bassett lived only a few minutes thereafter. The controversy occurred about a medical bill due from Esslinger to Bassett. We have heard statement of witnesses to the sad affair, but believe that it is not proper for a public journal to give partial details or express any opinion, in any matter that is to be judicially investigated, especially where life or liberty is involved. We deplore the sad event, and feel deeply for all whose hearts are involved. The funeral services of Dr. Bassett took place at the Episcopal Church at 3 p.m., yesterday, and his remains were buried in our City Cemetery. U.S. NEWS The Postal Card ------------------- BILL NYE’S EXPERIENCE WITH IT AS POST-MASTER AT LARAMIE ------------------- From the Boomerang No one denies that the postal card is a great thing, and yet it makes most people mad to get one. This is because we naturally feel sensitive about having our correspondence open to the eye of the post-master and postal clerk. Yet they do not read them. Postal employees hate a postal card as cordially as any one else. If they were banished, and had nothing to read but a package of postal cards or a foreign book of statistics, they would read the statistics.—This wild hunger for postal cards on the part of the postmasters is all a myth. When the writer doesn’t care who sees his message, that knocks the curiosity out of those who handle these messages. A man who would read a postal card without being compelled to by some stringent statute, must be a little deranged.—When you receive one you say:--“Here is a message of so little importance that the write doesn’t care who saw it. I don’t care much for it myself.” Then you look it over and lay it away and forget it. Do you think that the postmaster is going to wear out his young life in devouring literature that the sender doesn’t fell proud of when he receives it? Nay, nay. During our official experience, we have been placed where we could have read postal cards time and again and no one but the All-Seeing Eye would have detected it; but we have controlled ourself and closed our eyes to the written messages refusing to take advantage of the confidence reposed in us by government and those who thus trusted us with their secrets. All over our great land every moment of the day or night these little cards are being silently scattered, breathing loving words inscribed with a hard lead pencil and shedding information upon sundered hearts, and they are as safe as though they had never been breathed. They are safer in most instances because they cannot be read by anybody in the whole world. This is why it irritates us to have some one open us a conversation by saying, “You remember what that man wrote me from Cheyenne on that postal card of the 25th and how he rounded me up for not sending him those goods?” Now we can’t keep all those things in our head. It requires too much of a strain to do it on the salary we receive. A man with a very large salary and a tenacious memory might keep run of the postal correspondence in a small office, but we cannot do it. We are not accustomed to it, and it rattles and excites us. Spencer ---------- THE ENGLISH PHILOSOPHER GIVES HIS IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA ---------- The English philosopher and thinker, Herbert Spencer, was tendered a complimentary dinner by over two hundred gentlemen at Delmonico’s tonight. Wm. Evarts presided.—Among the guests were Wm. H. Harlbert, Chas. A. Dane and Henry Ward Beecher. After giving thanks for the cordial reception, Spencer said: “It seems to me that in one respect, Americans have diverged too widely from savages. I do not mean to say they are in general unduly civilized throughout large parts of populations. Even in long settled regions there is no excess of virtues needed for the maintenance of social harmony, especially out in the West. Men’s dealings do not betray too much of the “sweetness and light” which we are told distinguish the cultured man from the barbarian. Nevertheless, there is a sense in which any assertion is true; you know primitive man lacks the power of appreciation; spurred by hunger, by danger, by revenge, he can exert himself energetically for a time, but his energy is spasmoitic; monotonous daily toil impossible to him. It is otherwise with the more developed man; the stern discipline of social life has gradually increased the craving for persistent industry, until, among you, and still more among us, work has become with many a passion. This contrast of nature has another aspect. The savage thinks only of present satisfaction and leaves future satisfaction uncared for; otherwise the American, eagerly pursuing future good almost ignores what good the passing day offers him, and when the future good is gained, he neglects that while striving for still remote good. What I have seen and heard, during my stay among you has forced on me the belief that the slow change from natural inertness to persistent activity, has reached an extreme from which there must begin a counter change—a reaction. Every where I have been struck with the number of faces which told in strong lines, of the burdens that had to be borne, I have been struck too, with the large proportion of gray-haired men, and inquiries have brought out the fact that with you the hair commonly begins to turn some ten years early than with us. Moreover, in every circle I have met men who had themselves suffered from nervous collapses, due to a stress of business, or named friends who either killed themselves by overwork or had been permanently incapacitated or had wasted long periods in endeavors to recovers health. I do but echo the opinion of all observing persons I have spoken to that immense injury is being done by the high pressure of life; the physique is being undermined. Senator Bayard of Delaware is of the opinion that the Republican party is now in the same position as the Whig party was in 1854 when it was wrecked, except that there is no great “moral question,” like slavery, to give a new party a boost. Mr. Bayard believes that the question of civil service reform is about as live a question as can be found, and that the party, successful at the next Presidential election, must comply with the popular demand for such reform. Mr. Bayard does not over-estimate the importance of civil service reform, but hand in hand with that must go revenue reform.—Montgomery Advertiser. The decision of the supreme court of the United States in the case of N. M. Curtis, who was fined $1,000 for collecting political assessment from government employees is an important step in civil service reform. The Springfield Republican says: “Now, when postmasters ask their clerks to ‘pay up,’ they lay themselves open to criminal prosecution. The coming session of congress ought to make it equally criminal for a congressmen, and congressional committees to do the same thing. Then the Republican canons should vote that the executive committee be discharged.” Twenty six years ago, when James Buchanan was elected President, Mrs. Egle, of Harrisburg, put a bottle of wine aside in her cellar and said it should not be opened until Pennsylvania had elected a Democratic Governor. Last Sunday, the bottle was opened and drunk with much enthusiasm. Near Luray, Virginia, recently, an eagle whose body was snow white and wings jet black was killed. From tip to tip of its wings, it measure six feet seven inches and weighed twenty pounds. University of Texas ----------------------- Galveston, Nov. 16—A News Austin special says: The university regents, at their meeting to-day, were all present, except Judge Crawford and Congressman- elect Jones, and selected professors as follows: English literature, Dr. Leslie Wagner, president of Betnel College, Kentucky; ancient languages, Dr. W. M. Humphreys, of Vanderbilt University; chemistry, Dr. J. W. Mallet, University of Virginia; law, first place, (corresponding to chancellor), Gov. O. M. Roberts graduate of University of Alabama, and LL. D., second place, Chief Justice R. S. Gould, of Texas. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/madison/newspapers/itemsfro1257gnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/ File size: 15.4 Kb