USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > The Cincinnati miscellany, or, Antiquities of the West, and pioneer history and general and local statistics. Volume II > Part 12
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He would also inform persons residing at a distance, who may require the services of the Mad-Stone, that his residence is about 12 miles from Milford Depot, on the Richmond and Fredericksburg railroad, and about the same dis- tance from Port Royal, on the Rappahannock river, where a steamboat passes twice a week SAMUEL ANDERSON.
'Tommy, my son, what is longitude ?'
'A clothes line, daddy.'
'Prove it, my son.'
'Because it stretches from pole to pole.'
Value of a Lawyer's Opinion.
Cities, like men, have their peculiar charac- teristics. Industrious, maritime, wise or frivo- lous, they reveal by their physiognomy the na- ture of their inhabitants. Every thing that strikes your eye will be a revelation of the fates of the citizens, the history of each class of population will be found, so to speak, written in the streets.
One is especially struck with the truth of this remark, on visiting Rennes; on seeing its grand edifices and magisterial mein; its magnificent squares, with grass springing up between the paving stones ; promenades traversed at long in- tervals by thoughtful students.
It happened that a farmer named Bernard, having come to market at Rennes, took it into his head, when his business was accomplished and there were a few hours of leisure, that it would be a capital use of that spare time to con- sult a lawyer. He had often heard people speak of M. Portier de la Germandie, whose reputa- tion was so great that the people thought a suit already gained if he undertook it. Bernard ask- ed for his address, and went immediately to his office in St. George street.
The clients were numerous, and Bernard had to wait for a long time. At length his turn came and he was introduced. M. Portier de la Ger- mandie pointed him a chair, laid his spectacles upon his table, and asked what brought him there.
"Pon my word, Squire,' said the farmer, twirl- ing his hat round, 'I heard so much talk about you, that finding myself at leisure in Rennes, I thought I would take advantage of the circum- stance and come and get an opinion of you.'
'I thank you for your confidence, my friend,' said M: de la Germandie, 'but you, of course, have a law suit.'
.A law suit ! a law suit, indeed !! I hold them in utter abomination; and more than that Peter Bernard never had a dispute with any man liv- ing.'
'Then you wish to settle some estate, or di- vide the property among the family.'
'Beg pardon, Squire, my family and I never had any property to divide: we eat from the same dish, as the saying is.'
'It is about some contract for the purchase or sale of something.'
'Not at all ; I am not rich enough to purchase any thing, nor so poor as to sell what I have .'
'What, then, do you want of me?' asked the astonished lawyer :
'What do I want? Why, I told you at first, Squire, I came for an opinion for which I will pay of course, as I am in Rennes now at leisure, and it is necessary to profit by the circum- stance.'
M. de la Germandie took pen and paper, and asked the countryman his name.
'Peter Bernard,' answered he; happy indeed that he had succeeded in making himself un- derstood.
'Your age ?'
'Thirty years or thereabout.'
'Your profession ?'
"My profession? Oh, ah, yes-that is what I am. Oh, I am a farmer.'
The lawyer wrote two lines, folded up the pa- per and gave it to the client.
'Is it done already ?' said Bernard. 'Very well, that's right. There is no time to get rus-
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ty here, as they say. How much do you charge for this opinion, Squire ?'
'Three francs.'
Bernard paid without disputing, made a grand scrape with his foot; and went out delighted with having profited by the occasion.'
When he arrived at home, it was already fonr o'clock. The jaunt had fatigued him, and he went into the house for repose.
Meantime, his grass had been cut four days, and was completely dried, and one of his lads came to ask whether he should get it in at once.
"Not this evening,' said Mrs. Bernard, who had just joined her husband; 'it would be too bad to set the people to work at so late an hour when the hay can be got in to-morrow just as well.'
The lad urged that there might be a change of weather, that every thing was in order, and the people were doing nothing.
Mrs. Bernard said the wind seemed to be in the right quarter for fair weather, and they would not get the work done before dark that night.
Bernard listened gravely to these advocates without knowing how to decide between them, when he suddenly recollected the paper he had received from the lawyer.
'Stop a minute,' cried he, 'I have got an opin- ion. It is from a famous lawyer, and cost me three francs. This will settle the matter. Here, Therese, come tell us what it says; you can read all kinds of writing, even a lawyer's.
Mrs. Bernard took the paper, and with some little difficulty read these lines :-
·Never put off until to-morrow what you can do to-day.'
"That's it,' said Bernard, as if he had received sudden light upon the subject. ‘Make haste with the wagon, the girls and the boys, and let us get the hay in.'
His wife offered some more objections, but Bernard declared that he was not going to pay three francs for an opinion, and then not follow it; so he set the example, and led all hands to the field, and they did not return to the house until all the hay was in the barn.
The event seemed to prove the sagacity of Bernard's movements, for the weather changed in the night. A terrible storm came on, and the next morning the streams had overflowed their banks,and swept off every particle of new mown grass. The hay harvest of every other farmer in the neighborhood was utterly destroyed .-- Bernard alone saved his hay.
The first experiment gave him such confi- dence in the opinion of the lawyer, that ever af- ter he adopted it as a rule of conduct, and be- came-thanks to his order and diligence-one of the richest farmers in the country. He nev- or forgot the service which M. de la Germandie had rendered him, and he brought every year to that lawver, a pair of good fat chickens; and he was in the habit of saying to his neighbors, when they were talking of the lawyers, that next to the commands of God and the church, the most profitable thing to the world was 3 lawyer's OPINION.
New Mayor of New York.
The New Mirror gives the following republi- can anecdote of the new municipal first magis- trate.
"Mr. Havemayer was educated at Columbia College, where ho took his degree with great credit to himself. The day after his release from Alma Mater, he was standing with his fa- ther, on the steps of the sugar bakery, and the old gentleman took the opportunity to inquire into his choice of a profession, "I suppose, now you have finished your education," said he, "you will be a lawyer or a physician ?" "Nei- ther!" said the son. "And what then ?" ex- claimed the father, a little surprised at his son's decision .- 'In the first place, sir, I'll drive that cart !' was the firm reply, and when I have been through all the subordinate steps of your busi- ness, I'll share in the direction of it, with your leave ?" He "suited the action to the word," for calling to the man who was about leaving the door with a load, he jumped upon the cart. took the reins and commenced his apprenticeship .- He drove cart for a year, and rose gradually, through all the stations of his father's employ, till he finally became a partner, and an able one, in the business.
Science of Sounds.
The following hints will be of much utility to some of our readers,-and especially to those whose duty calls them to speak often in public.
"It is a curious fact in the history of sounds, that the loudest noises perish almost on the spot where they are produced, whereas musical tones will be heard at a great distance. Thus if we approach within a mile or two of a town or vil- lage in which a fair is held, we may hear very faintly the clamor of the multitude, but most distinctly the organs and other musical instru- ments which are played for their amusement. If a Cremona violin, Amati, be played by the side of a modern, the latter will sound much the louder of the two, but the sweet brilliant tone of the Amati will be heard at a distance the other cannot reach. Doctor Young, on the authority of Durham, states, that at Gibraltar the human voice was heard at the distance of ten miles. It is a well known fact, that the human voice is heard at a greater distance than that of any oth- er animal. Thus, when the cottager in the woods, or in an open plain, wishes to call her husband, who is working at a distance, she does not shout but pitches her voice to a musical key, which she knows from habit, and by that means reach- es his ear .- The loudest roar of the largest lion could not penetrate so far. "This property of music in the human voice," says the author, "is strikingly shown in the cathedral abroad .-- Here the mass is entirely performed in musical sounds, and becomes audible to every devotee, however placed in the remotest part of the church; whereas, if the same service had been read, the sounds would not have travelled be- yond the precincts of the choir." Those ora- tors who are heard in large 'assemblies most dis- tinctly, are those who, in modulating the voice, render it most musical. Loud speakers are sel- dom heard to advantage. Burke's voice is said to have been a sort of a lofty cry. which tended, as much as the formality of his discourses in the house of Commons, to send the members to their dinner. Chatham's lowest whisper was distinctly heard, "his middle tono was sweet, rich and beautifully varied;" says a writer de- scribing the orator, "when he raised his voice to its high pitch, the house was completely fill- ed with the volume of sounds; and the effect
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was awful, except when he wished to cheer and animate; and then he had a spirit-stirring note, which was perfectly irresistible. The terrible, however, was his peculiar power. Then the house sunk before him; still he was dignified, and wonderful as was his eloquence, it was at- tended with this important effect, that it possess- ed every one with a conviction that there was something in him finer even than his words; that the man was infinitely greater than the or- ator."
Fancy Drinks.
The following are ONLY a few of the fancy drinks manufactured at Concert Hall, Boston :-
Clay and Huysen, Polk afid Dallas, Race Horse, Ching Chung. Tog. Rappee, Tip and Ty, Fiscal Agent. I. O. U .. Tippena Pecco, Moral Suasion. Vox Populi, Ne Plus Ultra, Shambro. Pig and Whistle, Silver top, Poor Man's Punco. Split Ticket. Deacon, Exchange, Stone Wall, Virginia Fence, Floater. Shifter.
Who says that Boston, with all its boasted tem- perance, cant come the "fancy touches" in the spirituous way, over all other cities.
Irish Friars.
In Ireland a warming pan i's called a friar .-- Not many years ago, an unsophisticated girl took service in a hotel in the town of Poor thing -she had never heard of a warming pan in her life, though she regularly confessed to a friar once a year.
It so happened, on a cold and drizzly night, that a priest took lodgings in the inn. He had travelled far, and being weary, retired at an ear- ly hour Soon after, the mistress of the house called the servant girl.
'Betty, put the friar into No. 6.'
Up went Beity to the poor priest.
'Your reverence must go into No. 6, my mis- tress says.'
'How, what?' asked he, annoyed at being dis- turbed .
'Your reverence must go into No. 6.'
There was no help for it, and the priest arose donned a dressing gown and went into No. 6.
In about fifteen minutes the mistress called to Betty,
"Put the friar into No. 4.'
Betty said something about disturbing his rev- erence, which her mistress did not understand. So she told the girl, in a sharp voice to do al- ways as she was directed, and she would always do right. Up went Betty, and the unhappy priest, despite his angry protestations, was obli- ged to turn out of No. 6, and go into No. 4 .-- But a little time elapsed ere the girl was told to put the friar into No. 8, and the poor priest thinking that every body was mad in the house, and sturdily resolved to quit it on the next morn- ing, crept into the damp sheets of No. 8. But he was to eujoy no peace there. Betty was a- gain directed to put the friar into No. 3, and with tears in her eyes she obeyed. In about an hour, the landlady concluded to go to bed her- self, and the friar was ordered into her room .- Wondering what it all mean Betty. t roused up the priest and told him that he must go into No. 11. The monk crossed himself, counted his beads, and went into No. 11, It so happened that the husband of the landlady was troubled with the greeneyed monster. Going up to bed,
therefore, before his wife, his suspicions were confirmed by seeing between his own sheets, a man sound asleep. To rouse the sleeper and kick him into the street was the work of a mo. ment; nor was the mistake explained till the next day, when the priest informed the inn- keeper what outrages had been committed upon him, and he learned to his amazement, that he had been serving the whole night as a warming pan.
Hiram Powers.
Late letters from Hiram Powers to his friends in Cincinnati, afford us some interesting infor- mation of that distinguished artist's progress and prospects.
Since the exhibition of his GREEK CAPTIVE at Pall mall, which was attended by the whole world of fashion and influence in society, Mr. Powers has received three orders for duplicates of that statue. He has also an order for a du- plicate of tho Eve, the original being destined for this country, which it will no doubt reach by spring, in company with copies of the Greek Slave. Fisher boy, &c. These may be expected in Boston by June next. Lord Francis Egerton, the owner of the well known Stafford gallery of Sculpture and paintings, has trensmitted Mr. P. an order for a work from his chisel, giving the artist a carte blanche as to the subject.
The high eminence and distinguished success of Powers, reflect great credit on the judgment of his early friends, and the discriminating lib- erality of one of our citizens, who afforded him the means of establishing himself in Italy, where surrounded by all that is excellent in Art, an- cient or modern, his wonderful productions are creating an era in Sculpture.
Property Investments in Cincinnati:
Ås the central parts of our city fill up, its out- side is of necessity taken up for improvements; and garden, and even farming lots are becom- ing rapidly absorbed in the demands for build- ing purposes which are growing out of our con- stantly increasing population and business. On monday morning the owner of a ihree acre lot on Eighth street, near Mill creek who purchas- ed it in 1829, at $700 per acre, was offered, for- ty thousand dollars for the premises! After re- flecting an hour or two, he refused it.
On Friday last, a kitchen garden property of sixteen acres just across Mill creek, exchanged ownera, at the price of 22,000 dollars, one half cashı down-the residne one and two year pay- ments. The purchasers in this case have bought it as an investment, having heretofore never laid out money in property. I state this to in- dicate that these prices are not speculative val- ues. In connexion with these facts, it may be well to remark that Eighth et. is now paved, or
in process of paving from Main street west, more than two miles, and will require and maintain a communication to Delhi, Greene, and other townships which must constitute it shortly one of the main avenues of Cincinnati .
Wm. Penn and John Cleves Symmes.
These men were wonderfully alike in some things, while greatly dissimilar in others. The same intelligent views of dealing with their sav- age neighbors, actuated both . It is true that Symmes cannot compare with Penn in the en- larged benevolence which shut out the sale of rum to the aborigines, but it must be recollec- ted that Penn had been enlightened on that sub- ject before he left his native country, and that Symmes merely conformed to the almost uni- versal practice of the region and the age in which he lived. Both were men of comprehensive views, who looked to and lived for the future, conscious that they were laying foundations for commonwealths of greater consequence than the States they left. Wm. Penn when about taking possession of his new purchase, direc- ted this letter to his Indian neighbors. Its au. thenticity may be relied on.
ENGLAND, 2mo. 21st, 1682.
The Great God, who is in the power and wis- dom that made you and me, incline your hearts to righteousness, love and peace. This I send you to assure you of my love, and to desire you to love my friends: and when the Great God brings me among you, I intend to order all things in such manner, that we may all live in love and peace, one with another, which I hope the Great God will incline both you and me to do. I seek nothing but the honor of his name, and that we who are his workmanship, may do that which is well pleasing to him. The man which delivers this unto you, is my special friend, sober, wise and loving, and you may believe him. I have already taken care that none of my people wrong you ; by good laws I have pro. vided for that purpose ; nor will I ever allow any of my people to sell rumme to make your peo- ple drunk. If any thing should be out of order, expect when I come it shall be mended, and I will bring you some things of our country that are useful and pleasant to you.
So I rest in the love of our God that made us.
I am your loving friend,
WM. PENN.
I read this letter to the Indiane by an inter- preter, the 6th mo. 1682.
THO. HOLM.
After SYMMES had completed his contract with the United States for the Miami purchase he despatched the following letter, from Lime-
stone, now Maysville, Ky., to the Indians in possession of the territory.
" Brothers of the Wyandots and Shawanese! Hearken to your brother, who is coming to live at the Great Miami. He was on the Great Mi- ami last summer, while the Deer was yet red, and met with one of your camps ; he did no harm to any thing which you had in your camp; he held back his young men from hurting you or your horses, and would not let :hem take your skins or meat, though your brothers were very hungry . All this he did, because he was your brother, and would live in peace with the Red people. If the Red people will live in friend ship with him. and his young men who came from the great Salt ocean, to plant corn and built Cabins on the land between the Great and Little Miami, then the White and Red people shall all be brothers and live together, and we will buy your Furs and Skins, and sell you Blankets and Rifles, and Powder and Lead and Rum, and every thing that our Red Brothers niay want in hunting and in their towns.
Brothers! A treaty is holding at Muskingum Great men from the thirteen fires are there, to meet the Chiefs and head men of all the nations of the Red people. May the Great spirit direct all their councils for peace! But the great men and the wise men of the Red and White people cannot keep peace and friendship long, unless we, who are their sons and warriors, will also bury the hatchet and live in peace.s
Brothers! I send you a string of white beads, and write to you with my own hand, that you may believe what I say. I am your brother, and will be kind to you while you remain in peace. Farewell!
JNO. C. SYMMES.
January the 3d, 1789.
The Western Farmer and Gardener.
This is a periodical, devoted, as its title pur- ports to the cause of the cultivation of the soil, that grand and sole basis of worldly prosperity to the whole community. It is now in its fifth volume, struggling along through the precarious and inadequate support which almost every publication beyond a newspaper seems doomed to, in this banknote world of ours.
The Farmer & Gardener is however, a work of great merit, and of peculiar value, as a register of observations and facts communicated by ma · ny of its intelligent subscribers. It is embel. lished monthly with lithographs of our best fruits and fairest flowers, and at two dollars per annum, affords the cheapest vehicle of commu- nicating or obtaining much interesting matter of great interest to the Farmer and Horticulturist
The names of those who are engaged con-
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tributing original articles from time to time as may be seen by looking them over, are such as would confer credit upon any periodical of the kind, while they inspire confidence in the views they express, or facts they communicate.
The Jewish Pilgrim at Jerusalem.
Are these the ancient, holy hills, Where Angels walked of old ? Is this the land our story fills With glory yet not cold ? For I have passed through many a shrine, O'er many a land and sea, But still, Oh ! promised Palestine, My dreams have been of thee.
1 see th. y mountain cedars green, Thy vallies fresh and fail ; With summers bright as they have been When Israel's home was there : Tho' o'er thee sword and time have passed, And cross and crescent shone,
And heavily the chain hath pressed- Yet still thou art our own :
Thine are the wandering race that go Unblessed through every land,
Whose blood hath stained the polar snow, And quenched the desert sand! And thine the homeless hearts that turn From all Earth's shrines to thee, With their lone faith for ages bourne In sleepless memory .
For thrones are swept and nations gone Before the march of time. And where the ocean rolled alone Are forests in their prime ; Since Gentile plowshare marred the brow Of Zion's holy hill -- Where are the Roman eagles now ? Yet Judah wanders still.
And hath she wandered thus in vain A pilgrim of the past? No! long deferred her hope has been, Butit shall come at last ;
For in her wastes a voice I hear, As from some prophet's urn, It bids the nations build not there, For Jacob shall return.
Oh! lost and loved Jerusalem! Thy pilgrim may not stay To see the glad earth's harvest home In thy redeeming day ; And now resigned in faitlı and trust, I seek a nameless tomb;
At least beneath thy hallowed dust- Oh! give the wanderer room!
A Legend of Kentucky. NORTH BEND, July 12tli, 1845.
MR. CIST :
Your friend John Hindman is in er- ror, alleging that Tanner's Creek, Indiana, deri- ved its name from young Tanner being killed by the Indians on its waters. Tanner was not killed at all, although doubtless believed to be by the neighborhood, at the time Hindman left the Great Miami, which was soon after Tanner had been carried away by the savages. I knew the whole family well-the old man Tanner be- ing the first clergyman, I ever heard preach at North Bend, and for some time the only one.
Tanner the father, owned the land, where Pe- tersburg, Kentucky,is now built, and resided on it, being about three miles below the Miami, and opposite the creek which derived its name as the station also did, from 'l'anner who was the principal man settled there. Hogan, Tanner's son-in-law, who lived with him, and was a first- rate hunter, gave name to the creek just above Aurora.
In May, 1790 John Tanner, the youngest boy, and nine years of age, was out in the woods gathering walnuts, which had been lying over from the previous season among the leaves, when he was made prisoner by a party of Indi- ans, and carried to the Shawnese towns, in the first place, and afterwards taken away to the head waters of the Mississippi. Nothing was heard of him by his friends for 24 years, except that in 1791, the next year, a party of Indians, composed partly of the same individuals, prow- ling in the neighborhood, captured Edward Tan- ner, a brother of John, and nearly fifteen years old. After travelling two days journey in the wilderness. the boy appearing contented, and supposing that he would be discouraged from attempting to make his escape, at such a dis- tance from home, his captors relaxed their vi- gilance, and the boy watching his opportunity regained his liberty, being obliged in the hurry to leave his hat, which was of undyed wool, be- hind, and which the Indians carried to their home. They had told him on their way out, that they had carried a boy off from the same place the year before. John Tanner recognized the hat as soon as he saw it as his brother's.
Nothing was known of John, as already stated, for many years, although Edward attended the various treaties for successive years, and travel- ed to distant points, even west of the Mississip- pi. The Indians with whom John was domesti- cated, had been for years settled on the Upper Mississippi, and traded with the Hudson Bay Company, which of course baffled the search thus made. In 1798, the Tanner family left
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Kentucky for New Madrid, where old Tanner died, after marrying in the mean time a third wife.
In 1817, soon after the close of the war, Tan- ner, who by this time had married an Indian wife, and had six children by her, with a view of learning something about his relations, and ex pecting to receive a share of the family property came down the chain of lakes to Detroit, and there reported himself to Gov. Cass, as an Indi- an captive, taken from opposite the mouth of Big Miami, in Kentucky, in 1790. He gave the fam- ily name as Taylor, which was as near as he could recollect or probably articulate it. Cass gave notice of the fact through the medium of the press, adding that the individual would be present a: a treaty to be held with the Indians at St. Mary's, formerly Girty's town, and now the county seat of Mercer County, Ohio. The Tan- ner family had removed years since to New Madrid, and with the exception of Edward Tan- ner, was composed of the widow and children. born of the later marriages, since John's capture. But a nephew by marriage of the young men named Merritt, who lived where Rising Sun has since been built, having seen the notice, was firmly persuaded, that the individual, although improperly named, was his long lost and long sought uncle Tanner, and under that conviction went to the treaty ground, and found the case as he supposed it to be. The two started off for the Miami region together. Tanner, although in feeble health, having fever and ague at the time, was with difficulty persuaded to sleep in the cabins which they found on the route, pre- ferring to camp out, and to gratify him, one fine night, Merritt, having selected a suitable spot for repose, went to a neighboring house, got coals, and attempted to kindle a fire, which as the leaves and brush were wet, burned with diffi-
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