USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > The Cincinnati miscellany, or, Antiquities of the West, and pioneer history and general and local statistics, Volume I > Part 47
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during the crisis. We have undne bills to the amount of millions and millions flying about in Paris. I pray you mark this, sir. Seek out the holders of our paper, call it all in, and pay it off in gold. The money market will be so press- ed that even our name will be at a discount .- Work out this scheme, and watch the result .-- Every holder to a note of hand will be glad to al- low ten per cent. discount for gold. Call in all. Leave not a rag of paper in any house in Paris with name thereon as acceptors. Should it chance that even then you do not find bills en- ongh come in to absorb the gold, let my broth- er extend the operation, and discount equally the flying bills of the three Paris houses, marked in his memorandum book as A, B, C. Never mind whether the bills have two, four, or six months to run. I say pay offall. Ferret them out from every corner of Paris. Lock your paper in your
desk, and the ship will ride out the storm. How like you the plan, sir? Ha! The bills will be useless to Napoleon. Gold alone will meet his views, and he must get it through those houses who have been in the secret of his return. Mean- while, bid my brother to be foremost at the Tu- illeries levees, and profuse is his assurance of devotion to the emperor, with regret that he has no gold.'
Rothschild paused, as if to demand my ap- plause for his plan. I saw it all, the riddle was
was still Rothschild. He was the lion of the solved. Success was all but certain. Check to desert awakened 10 battle by the jungle tiger of the East, and rushing at once to the despe- rate conflict. Only, be it remembered, that li- ons of the desert seldom appear in flannel, even in the Zoological Gardens. Napoleon! and probably checkmate; for other blows are yet in reserve for him! Rothschild resumed, with the gravity of a veteran comman- ding in a battery with the bullets flying around kim,-
'Tell my brother, moreover, to operate on the French funds for a rise, the moment they recov- er from their first depression. Operate largely, and in the certainty that the Bourbon star will shine again, in less than four months, brighter, and more enduring from this dark cloud having passed away. Remind my brother, however, to operate against the emperor, only through third parties, and to beware; for Napoleon will owe us a grudge for present proceedings, though at first he will be too eager to court public opinion to dare to seek revenge on our house. And now, away with you, sir, on the wings of the wind; but, hold! what is the earliest hour at which the courier of the English embassy can be at the Foreign Office here ?'
'I should say, eight or nine.'
'Ha!' said Rothschild, then stop yet a moment. Thy coming is, indeed, a God-send!'
Seating himself, Rothschild hastily wrote and sealed a short note, addressed to Lord Castle- reagh.
Leave London by Westminster, and hand in this note as you pass Downing street (of course you know London,) to be delivered as carly as possible. Lord Castlereagh comes punctually to business at 9 o'clock, and will find it on his desk. It is right that I should briefly acquaint his lordship with the outbreak of Napoleon.'
"But.' remarked I (child as I was, compared with Rothschild,) 'would you not prefer my leaving it at his lordship's private residence; in which case he will get it at least two hours sooner ?'
'Content yourself, young man,' returned the chief, a grim smile; 'obey orders without rea- soning upon them. Ahem! he might not like to be disturbed so early. Besides, how do we know he is at home? There; I date my envel- ope, half past five A. M . Can man do more?
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And now away, sir. We shall soon meet again. | Return by Calais. The Boulognois might lay hold of you."
"But allow me to remark, one difficulty re- mains," observed I. "I have no passport."
"Oh, I can remedy that in a moment. The English government allow me to keep a few blanks for emergencies "
With Rothschild, to will and to do appeared to be the same thing. He filled me up a pass- port ready signed, describing me as one *espe- cial mission;" and we parted with a cordial squeeze of the hand. I can truly say, I neither ate nor drank in or near the British metropolis.
"How shall we drive, sir?" asked the post- boy, as we crossed Westminister Bridge.
"Drive," said I, "as if the devil were after us !"
Luck was on my side throughout this eventful chess game; for such I contend it was in the highest signification of the word. Life is chess on a grand scale, and chess is an emblem of life, with its hopes and its fears, its losses and its gains; only, in chess, if you lose one game through a false move, you can set up the pieces and play another. My chances of cheekmating the emperor now increased hourly. The ball was at my foot. It may be said, the greater share of the laurel-branch ought to be Roth- schild's. Never mind, I was not puffed up with pride. Could I have a more worthy partner than the mighty monarch of European finance. It was king against Kaisar, and mine own was at least the hand that moved the pieces.
Fate was constant throughout my journey. 1 reached Dover and Calais without an accident, and reeled into our Paris counting house, more dead than alive, soon after noon, on the 8th day of March. I need not say how delighted was our French Rothschild at the counsel I brought. All hands went immediately to work to carry out the scheme. As for me, I went to bed.
Rothschild's behavior was perfect. He made ine keep the ring I wore, and thus I gained my carbuncle. More valuable orders of merit have been given by monarchs for services of inferior value.
Tomuke my narrative complete, I must here trouble you with a chapter of dates.
Bonaparte had landed in France on March 1, and the news came to the Tuillerien, as I have said, by the Lyons telegraph, on the 5th. On the 6th, Louis le Desire, issued his first procla- mation, and ran away from Paris, hits loved ei- ty, on the 19th. March 12, the emperor enter- ed Lyons, left that city next day ; was at Fon- tainbleau on the 20th : and came into Paris on the same day at nine o'clock at night. Le petit Caporal had covered two hundred French leagues, partly hostile, in twenty days; not bad work, considering a part of the journey was performed on foot, that armies were to be con- quered and municipal authorities harangned. en route, in every town. On my part, (for as I am playing chess with the emperor, I may here contrast my doings with his,) I had left Paris on the mght of the 5th of March, and was back at iny post on the 8th. We were, morally speak- ing, 'assured of at least a elcar week, even should the troope sent to oppose the emperor, unite themselves to his cause. A good deal may be done in a weck !
The success of the house of Rothschild was complete; and Napoleon, a's far as our game went, was irrevocably checkmated. All our gold was paid away; barely a single twenty franc piece remained in our treasure vaults,-
We stond upon our bills and waited the evetit, :
On the 21st of March, the emperor had a grand levee at the palace of thel'uilleries. tu which our chief went, though with a treint- ling heart. Bonaparte looked at him from head to foot, with any thing but a pleasant ex- pression of countenance, and turned on his heel with. this one significant phrase, "I see there are two Napoleons in Europe."
The courtiers stared at each other, but could not read the riddle. Our Rothschild saw that his counter-plot was known, and appreciated, though not perhaps gratefully! During the hundred days' reign-that meteor flash of re- gained power-the emperor took no further no- tice of the matter, but subsequently alluded to it at St. Helena, in his conversations with Las Cases. He then laughed at the trick, and owned we had completety toiled him. A Na- poleon to confess himself beaten is twice van- quished:
And now, in the manner that emperors count over their spoils, let me briefly sum up the gains of the Rothschilds. The net is thrown into the waters, and drawn to land; let us tell over the fish taken.
Firstly, you will take notice that, in our ex- change of gold for paper-hailed at the same time like the changing of the new Jamps for old in the Arabian tale of Aladdin-in this ex- change, I say, we cleared a profit of ten per cent., making ten millions of francs nett of it- self. The emperor lost Waterloo-commerce was restored-oil was poured upon the waters- the Bourbons crept forth from their holes, like mice when the cat is out of sight. Gold became a dead weight-bills were in requisition for re- mittal to foreign countries-the bullion all came back to our vaults-and we favored our friends, by charging them only 5 to 8 per cent. premium for taking the cumbersome metal off their hands.
The Bourbons were not ungrateful. With an incomparable degree of adroitness, Roths- child made them see that we had been instru- mental in crippling the resources of the empe- ror! Thus goes the world. In return for our fidelity to the fleur de-lis, we were permitted to suck some ot its sweetest honey. And the records of French finance yet ring with our gains upon the Bourse, through our buyings and sellings of stocks upon this occasion.
On the morning I bore the news to England, Rothschild went down to the Stock Exchange of the British metropolis, at 9'clock. He was always a punctual man. At this very time, Schmidt was about to open his budget to his employers at Westminster. Acting through agents, Rothschild operated in the bonds to an enormous amount for an anticipated fall. flis brokers did all this while the great man was quietly reading the Times newspaper. I will not dwell upon the results in figures. The crop was enormous! At 10 A. M. the news came at the Stock Exchange from the govern- ment Home Office, and the thing wasblown .- It was the interest of Rothschild's brokers to keep the secret, and they did so. In the course of the same day, Lord Castlereagh forwarded to the illustrious Rothschild an autograph letter from the Prince Regent, thanking him for his personal attention, as well as for his disinterest. ed conduct, in placing his own private informa- tion at the service. of the government, before the arrival of their own courier! Now it is all over, I'look back with astonishment.
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STATUE OF CINCINNATUS.
MODELED BY NATHAN F. BAKER -- ROME, 1844.
Nathan F. Baker, one of our Cincinnati ar- tists, who has been for the last two years or more engaged at Rome and Florence in the pursuit of his att, has finished the model in plaster of a statuc of Cincinnatus, the illustrious Roman Dictator with whose name that of our city is in- separably connected. Mr. B. is a young artist in the double sense of age and practice, and if
an apology may be needed for that ambition which has prompted him in the second or third year of his pursuit of the Fine Arts to finish a statue, it may be offered in the beautiful speci- men of his capacity for such undertakings which is supplied by the bust of Egeria, to which I referred in my last. Mr. Baker was encouraged by some of the lovers of the Fine Arts in Cin-
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cinnati to undertake this enterprise, under their expectation that the city which bears the name of the subject, and is the birth place of the ar- tist, wonld subscribe the necessary amount to obtain the statue in marble of Cincinnatus as an appropriate embellishment of some of our public rooms, the uew College for example.
Almost every one can understand how imper- fectly an idea of a statue, large as life can be afforded by an engraving of the size and the material which heads this article. It will serve however to give some idea of its design and ef- fect. The following noto is from the pen of the artist himself, written before the completion of the model and describing the sketch he sent.
"The drawing which I send you is taken from the unfinished statue which I am now work- ing at. I have represented Cincinnatus in the attitude of a mediator, when he was called for the first time to act in a public capacity, and have endeavored to give the action of the speak- er when before the Roman citizens. I consid- er, however, that the statue will express equal- ly the first position as the last, although he was at that time acting more in the character of a warrior than the mild and stern judge between the parties who threatened to overthrow the ex- isting Republic. I have dressed him simply in the Roman toga, which was worn by all class- es of his time with but little distinction. The plough I have merely indicated in the sketch, and will take an excursion into the country to see the form of the common plough which has preserved the same shape with but little change to the present time ."
What the ability of Mr. Baker for such a per- formance is, may be inferred, even beyond the Egeria, by the following testimonics, which I have selected from a number of others, because the writers are of ourselves. A letter from a Cincinnatian abroad to his correspondent here, says, "Baker I see often ; he is a fine fellow, and has great talent." Another of our citizens writes as follows :
"By the way, Baker, a young Cincinnati ar- tist, in Rome, has moddled a Cincinnatus very highly spoken of by the artists there, and which will be, I doubt not, an excellent thing. He would like ro have a commission for it, and I think the city would do very well to give him one, or if the city will not, perhaps a private gen- tleman would. If you have an opportunity to say to any one of the lovers of the Fine Arts, that is the case do so, and say also it is very much praised by all who have seen it. I feet an interest in Baker's success, and now is the time to encourage his efforts."
The following is an extract from a letter re- ceived here by the last packet, written by an- other of our citizens traveling in Europe.
"I have conversed with Mr. Powers at Flor- ence, and with as many persons acquainted with Mr. Baker as I knew, and all concur in awar- ding him decided talent and capable of attain- ing great excellence in his art. The statue he has modeled pleases me much, and has been
generally admired. I feel my deficiency in the rules of art too much to pronounce a judgment upon it-I can only say I like it. Should our friends of the Queen City think proper to give him the order, I have full confidence in their getting a statue of the great Roman that will give satisfaction and reflect credit on our young citizen and countryman. If a subscription for that purpose be got up, you can put my name down for fifty dollars."
An effort will be made as I learn, by some of the admirers of the Fine Arts to bring this sub- ject before our community, and I trust a liber- al subscription will enable Cincinnati to possess a work which shall forever associate Roman, pa- triotism with American genius ..
A Panther Adventure.
It is much to be regretted that the great mass of personal adventures, with which the life of the pioneers in the west is known to have aboun- ded, has accompanied the actors in those scenes to the oblivion of the grave. And yet we could expect nothing else. The privations and suffer- ings of the wilderness, the dangers and escapes. in conflicts with savage beasts, and equally sav . age Indians were such every day occurrences, as to be considered hardly worth repeating, still- less recording, and many a spirit-stirring inci- dent and adventure is now forever lost.
Here and there however, may be found some rough pineknot survivor, who in the evening of life can look back to the scuffles with Indians, or conflicts with wild beasts with an interest of which he felt nothing at the time, the more so when he finds a stranger like myself, ready and desirous to take the narrative from his own lips.
Mr. E. E. Williams, to whom I refered in my last has furnished me with some interesting notes of pioneer adventures. He has been an old hunter, supplying not only his own family, but the settlements in which he lived -- Cincin- hati among the rest,-with venison and bear meat. He killed the last buffalo seen in Ken- tucky. At the age of 75 his bodily and men- tal powers are unimpaired. He owns a farm in the rear of Covington Ky., and last Friday a week, as his day's work, split over an hundred rails.
"Well," said this old veteran, after finishing his statistics of Indian warfare, and in reply to other questions, let mo tell you a story or two. of bears and panthers.
I was living on a branch of Bigbone, called Panther Run, from the circuinstance to this day. It was the year after I had been out with Gen. Wayne. I had left home for a deer hunt, with rifle, tomahawk, and butcher knife in my belt as customary, and scouring about the woods, I come to a thick piece of brush, in short, a per- fect thicket of hoop-poles. I discovered sono dreadful growling and scuffling was going on,
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by the sound appearantly within a hundred yards or so. I crept as cautiously and silently as possible through the thicket, and kept on un- til I found myself within perhaps twenty steps of two very large male panthers, who were ma- king a desperate fight, screaming, spitting and yelling like a couple of ram cats, only much louder, as you may guess. At last one of them scemed to have absolutely killed the other, for ho lay quite motionless. This was what I had been waiting for, and while the other was swinging back and forwards over him in tri- umph, I blazed away, but owing to that kind of motion, I shot him through the bulge of the ribs, a little too far back to kill him instantly .- They are a very hard animal to kill, any how. But he made one prodigious bound through the brush, and cleared himself out of my sight, the ground where we were being quite broken as well as sideling. I then walked up to the oth- er, mistrusting nothing, and was within a yard of him, when he made one spring to his feet and fastened on my left shoulder with his teeth and claws, where he inflicted several deep wounds. I was uncommonly active as well as stout in those days, and feared neither man nor mortal in a scuffle, but I had hard work to keep my feet under the weight of such a beast. Ihad my knife out in an instant, and put it into him as fast as possible for dear life. So we tusseled away, and the ground being sideling and steep at that, which increased my trouble to keep from falling; we gradually worked down hill till I was forced against a large log, and we both came to the ground, I inside and the panther outside of it, he still keeping hold, although evidently weakening under the repeated digs and rips he was getting. I kept on knifing away till I found his hold slackening, and he let go at last to my great rejoicing. I got to my feet, made for my rifle which I had dropped early in the scuffle, got it and ran home; I gathered the neighbors with their dogs, and on returning found the pan- thers not more than fifteen rods apart; the one I had knifed dying, and the one I had shot ma- king an effort to climb a tree to the height of 8 or 10 feet when he fell and was speedily des- patched. Next day 1 stripped them of their skins, which I sold to a saddler at Lexington for two dollars a piece. You may depend, I nev- er got into such a grip again with a panther.
Street Paving.
I observe that the pavement on Main street from Fifth to Seventh, is in process of macada- inization,-a great and obvious improvement, calculated to rid us of the holes and ruts which have so long disgraced that great thoroughfare. It will however prove matter of regret, I judge, that this improvement has been made on the ex .
isting bed of the street, whereas the whole pavement should have been taken up and the metal laid upon an even surface of earth if & permanent job is expected as the result. This procedure is the less excusable when the part of this block from Sixth to Seventh street was paved in the very manner to which I object .-- If the present improvement shall not be more thoroughly and carefully done, there may be danger that it will form an objection to the whole principle of macadamizing as applied to our streets.
Relics of the Past.
FORT WASHINGTON, March 26, 1792. SIR :
To the Corporal and eight which ac- companies the Convoy that leaves this post to- day, and the Sergeant and twelve, which return- ed with McCleland to Fort St. Clair, you will be pleased to add a subaltern, two non-commission- ed officers and ten privates-to form an escort for the protection of the brigade which accom- panies this letter, and those of McCleland and Tate, which are to be reloaded and return from your post with all possible despatch to Fort St. Clair; as this movement will be critical, the offi- cer must be extremely cautious, and to that end I must request you to give him necessary in. structions. When the convoy returns, you will direct the whole of the horses, and of the de- tacliment belonging to this garrison, to proceed to this post.
Mr. Elliott positively refuses to construct Mag- azines for the reception of the Army provisions, at our out posts, and as a contest would greatly injure the service, and might possibly ruin the depending campaign, I shall make the provision, with an immediate and pointed reference of the subject, to the president of the United States .- You will therefore lose not one moment, in con- structing stores, either within your fortress or immediately under its protection, for the recep- tion of eight hundred or one thousand barrels; and in the mean time you are by every means in the compass of your power, to keep from damn- age by weather, the flour and other provisions, which have been or may be deposited under your command ; keeping exact accounts and es- timates of every expense which may occur in this business. And to enable you to proceed rapidly, I shall send out a pair of oxen, and a mechanic or two very shortly .
With due consideration,
I have the honor to be, sir,
Your most obedient servant, J. WILKINSON .
JNO. ARMSTRONG,
Capt. Ist Reg't. U. S. Com't, Ft. Hamilton
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COMMUNICATIONS.
Citizens' Bank. No. 1.
MR. CIST :- The proprietors of this Bank beg leave through your columns to make known some of the leading features of its plan and op- erations.
The Bank is calculated to supply wants un- provided for in other monied institutions. For a small compensation, it is always ready to make such loans as are gratuitously obtained from neighbors. It is not proposed to supply facilities for the regular transaction of business, but to fur- nish money for a few days where it is wanted on the spur of the occasion, for some special pur- pose. Such loans give a man time to realize his resources, or make more permanent arrange- ments.
Take a few examples by way of illustration : A man expects money to meet a payment where his credit is at stake, but is disappointed. An un- expected but pressing demand comes upon him ; he is unprepared for it. A profitable specula- tion offers, or an article needed for immediate use in his business, may be had for cash much below its real value, but for the want of a little ready money he loses the bargain; or for want of present means, he may incur a serious loss in being forced to sell property at a ruinous sacri- fice, which might in a short time command a fair price.
CITIZENS' BANK, NO 2.
MR CIST .- The utility of this Bank is alrea- dy felt and appreciated by a large portion of our most respectable citizens.
It receives money on deposit, payable with interest on demand, and thereby attracts the scattered, hoarded, and unemployed capital of the city to its vault, whence, as from a reservoir, it is distributed among the active and industri- ons portion of the community.
Already the Bank numbers nearly three hun- dred depositors, and among them are many of our oldest and wealthiest citizens. Hundreds of our thrifty merchants, mechanics and manu- facturers resort to this Bank for temporary loans, rather than borrow from their neighbors. They esteem it a great convenience to be enabled, at a trifling expense, to obtain money at all times, for short periods, without being required to pay for it a moment longer than it is needed.
CITIZENS BANK, NO. 3.
MR. CIST :
As this Bank is always provided with the means of furnishing temporary loans at a moment's notice, it may be relied on as an un- failing resource in all emergencies.
A man having money to pay within a short poriod, or having claima falling duc against him
during his absence from the city, and wishing to guard against accidents, may make a condi- tional provision for the sum that may be wan- ted, which, if not needed costs him nothing ; thus giving him all the advantage of a reserve fund for contingencies, free of expense.
Persons of ample means and undoubted res- ponsibilitiy, may obtain money on their individ- ual obligations ; or a man may obtain a loan by adding a good name to his note, or by deposit- ing as collateral security any good noto or claim he may hold, or anything. in short, that will se- cure the payment of the debt. Borrowers will not be required to pay for money lo: ger than it is needed.
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