USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > The Cincinnati miscellany, or, Antiquities of the West, and pioneer history and general and local statistics. Volume II > Part 21
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A walk through the streets will suffice to im- press on the public the importance, for building purposes, of this limestone. Our public buildings are all greatly indebted for their appearance to this article, which in some instances, as the Ca- thedral on Pluni street, and the new Cincinnati College, forms the entire front. .
There is a pleasant story on the subject, which I am assured is not less true than amusing. H. G. Phillips, Esq. of Dayton, and one of its influ- ential citizens, a few years since being about to build a fine dwelling for himself, visited Cincin- nati to procure the cut free stone, at that time exclusively used here. Having made his pur- chase at one of the yards here, he called on one of his neighbours who ran a canal boat from Dayton to Cincinnati. "I have a lot of cut free stone at Humble's yard, I want you to bring out on your next trip. You can find the place I suppose.' 'Very easily,' replied the Captain dryly, ' I took in last week a load of our limestone and shall take another to-morrow for Humble to dress. He tells me they are preparing to use Dayton marble in all the best houses they are now build- ing in Cincinnati. But it's all right, I get load- ing both ways by this means.'
Mary.
Inscribed in the Album of a young friend.
BY LEWIS J. CIST.
Mary !- it is a gentle name, And they alone should bear it Whose gentle thoughts and kindly deeds Proclaim them meet to wear it. Mary !- the first of whom we read Is in the Sacred Word:
The blessed Virgin, undefiled, The Mother of our Lord!
'Twas Mary to the Saviour knelt And washed his feet with tears, Sincere repentance then she felt, For sins of other years.
With pity touched the Saviour said, " Thy sins be all forgiven!"' And she who knelt a sinner, rose- Mary-a child of Heaven!
Martha, we learn, remained at home, " Troubled with many things," While Mary ran in haste to meet Her Lord, the King of kings! And He, who truly reads each heart, Jesus, of her did say:
" Mary hath chosen that good part Which shall not pass away!"
And when the Lord of Heaven became The lowly, crucified,
Three Marys stood around the cross, And wept when Jesus died.
"Twas Mary sought at early dawn The tomb from whence he brake, And her's the first recorded name The risen Saviour spake.
Then, Mary, let it be your aim To keep these still in view; And as you bear the gentle name, Possess their graces too! Be meek and lowly-pure in heart- Be every sin abliorred; Like Mary, " Choose the better part," And early seek the Lord!
Printing Ink Factories.
There are three manufactories of printing ink here, which of course not only supply the home market but provide for the wants of the " Art Typographic " throughout the west, as far as the article has yet been introduced. These are the establishments of Messrs. Henry & Co., J. A. James, and Stearns & Co. My further remarks
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apply to the last, which is the only one I have [ his load as advised, the traveller assisting him had the opportunity to examine.
Printing ink, as is generally known, is made of lampblack, or the soot which falls in the pro- cess of burning rosin or other bituminous sub- stances. This is done by condensing the smoke in buildings suitable to the purpose. The black is ground in oil by means of a steam engine.
With their present fixtures Stearns & Co. can manufacture 2000 lbs. per week, and have in fact made five hundred lbs. per day for weeks. The ink is excellent and can be sold as low as any ar- ticle of equal quality. This firm supplies the principal share consumed in the city offices, and sells also to the cities and towns in the interior of the State, and generally to the west and southwest, in which directions the market is constantly enlarging as the article gets into use.
Ink of every grade is made in this establish- ment from common news, up to the finest card ink, and at prices from 25 cts. to 100 per lb:
Sales are made nearly as fast as the article is prepared for the market, and the eastern ink, so long the sole dependence and supply in Cincin- nati, is to a great extent driven from this market.
The sales of Cincinnati made ink must reach an annual value of twenty thonsand dollars.
Messrs. Stearns & Co. descrve especial credit for their success in manufacturing an article which compares to advantage with any made in our Atlantic cities, after the successive fail- ures here of twelve or fifteen individuals in the same attempt, and in the face of the prejudice created by such failures, for its introduction into general use. The velocity card presses of L'Hom- medieu & Co. and E. Shepard, which require for their work the finest in the market, use Stearns & Co.'s exclusively.
A Fact and a Moral.
A Pennsylvania farmer, a dutchman, was over- taken in the neighborhood of Stoystown, by a traveller, who was directing his journey to the great west on horse. The farmer was on horse also, seated on a bag of grain, about half filled with wheat, which he was taking to mill. To balance this part of the load, a large stone occu- pied the opposite half of the bag. The following dialogue ensued :
Traveler .- I see you have got a big stone in your bag. What is that for ?
Farmer .- By shure do make de pag schteady.
T .- That stone dont steady the load. Throw it away and put half your grain on each side. Besides the sharp corners of the stone will wear your bag into holes.
Accordingly the farmer cxclaims, "Py ching I neffer dought apout dat," dismounted, arranged
for the purpose. 'The parties rode on a inile or two, when the traveler, tired of his slow progress, bid his neiglibor good bye, and trotted forwards. After hic had got out of sight, sudden misgivings scized tlic Pennsylvanian. "By ching it is all a tam Yenky drick. Effery potty in de Klades garries derc kricc so, ant dat feller hash somc getch in it." Thus soliloquising, he put back, re- stored the stone to its time honored place, and then pursued his journey to mill, cxulting that no Yankee should get any advantage of him, no how he could fix it.
This narrative, which is an absolute fact, is in full keeping with the ideas and characters of per- sons in other regions, who arc ready enough to suspect sinister motives wherc unsolicited kind- ness is bestowed.
Growth of New York.
We in the West who have seen villages of a few houses become large and flourishing cities in the lapse of forty years, and especially Cincin- nati springing in fifty-five ycars from a scttle- ment in which at that time a small garrison out- weighed, in numbers, the residue of the popula- tion residing in the place, are apt to suppose that there is no parallel to these things in the Atlantic section of the republic. Such cases are doubtless rarer there, but they exist where it is hardly to be suspected, in New York for example. Sam'l Breck, an old inhabitant of Philadelphia, gives his recollections of New York in 1787, in the following language (I copy from the "National Magazine," of July last) :
" In the month of June, 1787, on my return from a residence of a few years in France, I ar- rived in New York, and found it a neglected place, built chiefly of wood, and in a state of prostration and decay. A dozen vessels in port. Broadway from Trinity church, inclusive, down to the Battery, in ruins, owing to a fire that had occurred when the city was occupied by the ene- my during the latter end of the war. The ruined walls of the burned houses standing on both sides of the way, testifying to the poverty of the place, five years after the conflagration; for although the war had ceased during that period, and the enemy had departcd, no attempt had been made to rebuild them. In short, there was silence and inactivity everywhere; and the popu- lation was very little over twenty thousand."
The proportional increase of New York in 58 years is fully as remarkable as that of ours, if we cofine our compa rison to population merely. It is truc we have an increase of three ycars --- to 1848-to go upon, in order to render the com- parison equal in point of age.
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Street Lighting.
One of our recent city improvements is the in- troduction of gas pipes along the line of Fourth street, west, and the putting up lamp posts to afford light to the streets. It is greatly to be re- gretted, however, that the mass of foliage which the lower limbs of the shade trees presents by way of interference with the rays of light, being considerably below the range of the lamps, must diminish to a great extent the benefit of gas light to passengers on this street, and the same state of the case may be true of other streets. It will be well, therefore, for those who reside on Fourth street to give those shade trees a thorough trim- ining in the lower limbs, and let them not hesi- tate to do so under the general impression, that the spring is the proper or only season for that purpose. On the contrary, I have the authority of orchardists and others that the summer is the appropriate season for trimming, all wounds of the kind healing over more readily and perfectly now than in the spring. The late General Har- rison had his whole orchard trimmed over on one occasion, in the month of August, and to better advantage, as he expressly stated, than he ever had it done in spring.
Hobson's Choice.
This is a phrase derived from the practice of John Hobson, who kept a livery stable at Oxford, England, and whose invariable rule was to let out his horses to the students in their regular routine as they occupied the stalls. This gave rise to the proverb, " Hobson's choice-that one or none."
General Wayne named his camp at Cincinnati " Hobson's Choice," why, it is not easy to con- jecture. It was on the scite of the present Gas Works, reaching both above and below that spot.
I do not know a more appropriate use of the phrase, than in Beau Nash introducing Mrs. Hobson, a beautiful woman, into the Bath ball- rooms, as master of the ceremonies, in these terms: " I have often heard of ' Hobson's choice,' but never had the pleasure to view it beforc, and you will coincide with me it reflects credit on his taste."
A Dispute.
We were comfortably situated in the stage. The horses were under way, when a young man continued a conversation which it appeared that he had broken off' at the last stopping place.
"At any rate," said he, " I do not believe the story about Jonalı swallowing the whale."
"And what is there so strange in that, young man," said an elderly deacon on the opposite seat.
"Strange," said the youtlı, " it is absurd, as- tonishing, impossible."
" You speak very confidently, sir, wiser men than you have believed it, continued the deacon, "and indeed why should not that be true as well as any other part of the good book?"
" I never saw it in the good book !" exclaimed the other.
" Then I am sorry to say that you are very ig- norant of your Bible, young man, and it seems to me that a person who shows such a lack of re- ligious knowledge ought not to be so confident on such a subject," and the old deacon looked at another very sober gentleman who sat opposite to him, as if for his approval.
The other gentleman opened his mouth for the first time and said-
". I perfectly agree with the young man. I do not believe in that story either."
The deacon looked thunderstruck and he stam- mered out-" But, sir, I thought that you told me you were a member of a church."
" Yes, sir, I am, and I believe cvery thing that is contained in the Bible."
" I beg your pardon, sir, but-"
" And I beg your's sir, but the young man said he did not believe that Jonah swallowed the whale."
"Jonah swallowcd-whale swallowed," said the deacon, bewildered. "Did you not say, young man, that you did not believe the whale swallowed Jonah ?"
" Not at all, sir-I said I did not believe that Jonah swallowed the whale."
" Well, well," said the deacon, " that alters the case, and I'm sure that I did not know what you were talking about."
Here the old gentleman opposite took a pinch of snuff, and leisurely observed that such was generally the case with religious controversy: that one party was talking about one thing, and the other party of another. " Therefore," said he in conclusion, " I very seldom engage in religious discussions, and more especially do I avoid them when travelling in a stage coach."
The deacon looked at the gentleman, as if he intended to know him when he saw him again, and the young man went to sleep.
A Scene at Washington.
When Mr. McLane was Secretary of State, a new minister arrived from Lisbon, and a day was appointed for him to be presented to President Jackson. The hour was set, and the Secretary expected the minister to call at the State Depart- ment for him; but McLane's French is like that of the present translator to the Department, ra- ther difficult of comprehension, and the Portu- guese misunderstood him, and proceeded to the White House alonc. He rang the bell, and Jen- my O'Neal, Martin's predecessor, came to the door.
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" Je suis venu voir Monsieur le President," said the minister.
" What "the divil does that mane?" muttered Jemmy-" le says Prisident though, and I s'pose he wants to see the gineral."
" Oui, oui," said the Portuguese, bowing.
So Jemmy ushered him into the green room, where the General was smoking his corncob pipe with great composure. 'The minister made his bow to the President, and addressed him in
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French, of which the general did not understand | On the same day Fort Mackinaw, Detroit, Fort one word. St. Joseph's on Lake Michigan, Fort Niagara " What does the fellow say, Jemmy?" and Fort Pitt, then occupied by the English, " Divil a know I knows-1 reckon he's a fur- riner." were to be capturcd under the guise of friendship. The Ottowa king conducted the attack on De- " Try him in Irish, Jemmy," said Old Hickory. troit in person, and fixed upon the day appointed Jemmy gave him a touch of the genuine Mile- sian, but the minister only shrugged his shoul- ders with the usual " plait-il." for the general massacre as a council for peace within the garrison. In the evening previous, a squaw came to the Commandant with a pair of " Och!" said Jemmy, " he can't go the Irish, sir-he's French, by the hill o' Howth!" moccasins she had made for him, received her pay, and began to shed tears. After much im- " Then send for the French cook, and let him try if he can find out what the gentleman wants." portunity, it appeared that this officer having been kind to her and given her many moccasins The cook was hurried from the kitchen, sleeves rolled up, apron on, and carving-knife in hand. The minister, seeing this formidable apparition, and doubting that he was in the presence of the head of the nation, feared some treachery, and made for the door, before which Jemmy planted himself to keep him in. When the cook, by the General's order, asked him who he was and what he wanted, he gave a very subdued answer, to the astonishment of the cook, the President, and Jemmy, who now discovered for the first time the character of the stranger. to make, she wept to think that he and his fami- ly and people would be so soon among the dead. At the risk of her life she disclosed the plot. She said the Indians would appear in council, with their guns cut short and concealed beneath their blankets. When Pontiac should unwrap himself and drop his blanket on the floor, every one was to take his man, and in the struggle little doubt remained that the white man would fall. Colonel Campbell assured the squaw of safety, and proceeded to hold the talk as thoughi nothing was known. But while Pontiac was In this stage of the business McLane came in, and the minister was presented in form-but the matter could never be alluded to in Old Hick- ory's presence without throwing him into a pas- sion. speaking, the troops were under arms and con- cealed about the council room, which he did not fail to discover, and omitted to give the signal. The old Chief persisted in his assertion of friend- ship to the last; the warriors, although frustrated in a great enterprise at the moment of expected success, retained their composure, and many be- Picture of Detroit. gan to doubt the truth of the report of the Indian A correspondent of the Cleveland Herald writes as follows: girl. But the Commandant stripped off the blanket from some of the Indians, showing their short guns, upbraided them with treachery, and, what is most singular, suffered every one to de- part without harm.
Detroit of to day is a much greater city than the Detroit of my last visit, many years age .- And the Detroit of 1832, how different from the old French post of Fort Pontchartrain, sixty years before the peace of 1763, when the Gover- nor and Commandant made grants of land on condition that the holder should assist in raising a May Pole every year in front of the officers' quarters! But the Detroit of to-day has rem- nants of the French dominion. Respectable fa- milies trace their titles and their ancestors to the days of the May Pole, and either proud of their ancient custom, or contemning of the modern, still ride through the streets in a horse cart with- out tires, sitting in the bottom upon a buffalo robe.
From the erectiou of Fort Pontchartrain to this hour, this place has had its garrison. Three companies are now here belonging to the Fifth Regiment, quartered in barracks behind the town. It is the head quarters of Brevet Major- General Brooks, who is the Colonel of the Regi- ment, a daring officer of the last war, who re- sembles Lannes, one of Napoleon's heroes, in his form, character and countenance. About three miles below town, a permanent fortification is being built, at an expense of about $200,000.
When the British frightened General Hull to surrender the place on 'the 16th of August, 1812, one of his excuses was that the town lay between the fort and the British, and he could not fire upon them. A brave and true man would have burned the town and then drove the British into the river.
From my window I see the ground where Pontiac lay with his Indian forces in 1764, when he was in the execution of his favourite design of driving the English from the West. You recol- lect the romantic circumstance of that stratageni.
"Touch Not, Handle Not."
One of those meddling gentlemen, who, like Thomas of old, are never satisfied until they have put their finger on every thing they see, was not long since observed by a friend with his hand done up, to use an every day phrase, in some half a dozen handkerchiefs. He accosted him with the usual question-
" What ails your hand?"
"Why," said he, " t'other day I went into the mill to see 'em saw clapboards, and I saw a thing whirling around so swift, and it looked so smooth and slick, that I thought I'd just touch my finger to it and see how it felt, and don't you think it took the eend of it right off, and then they holler- ed out, ' You musn't touch that-it's the carcilar saw that saws all the clapboards.' But they spoke half a second too late-the eend of my finger was gone, and I never seed it since."
Latin-English.
Coleridge gives the following artful combina- tion of Latin so as to produce sensible English sounds, as one of the most witty productions of Dean Swift. It must be confessed that it is ex- quisite.
A LOVE SONG.
Mollis abuti, Moll is a beauty,
Has ana cuti,
Has an acute eye,
No lasso finis,
No lass so fine is,
Molli divinis, Molly divinc is,
O mi de armis tres, Oh, my dear mistress,
I mi na dis tres, I'm in a distress,
Can't you discover
Cantu disco ver Mias alo ver?
Me as a lover?
CINCINNATI MISCELLANY.
CINCINNATI, SEPTEMBER, 1845.
Cultivation of the Grape.
Pearces' Factory.
An article on this subject, for which many in- This is an establishment which has been gra- teresting facts were supplied by Mr. Schumann's dually growing into importance for years, whose operations have been the less noticed here, that
valuable manual on raising grapes, just publish- ed by Robinson & Jones, was inserted in the most of its manufacturing products go to the South.
" Advertiser" of the 20th ultimo. I have since been made acquainted with some facts on the productivenes and value of the grape as a crop, worthy of general notice.
The last years growth of Catawba was bought up for the wine manufacture, at three dollars per bushel; the wine being worth from $1 25 to $1 50 per gallon, and the prospect is that the crop will fetch this year at least as much.
As a bushel of Catawbas will make four gal- lons of wine, besides affording a residuum, from duct of $45,000 annually.
which vinegar can be made to profit, the per- manent value of the grape as an article of pur-
There is hardly any land in Hamilton County which will not produce more bushels of grapes than of Indian corn to the acre, while on favour- able scites" they will produce three bushels of grapes to one of corn. I say nothing of the dif- ference between raising a crop of which the prin- cipal labour is through with the first year, and in- creases in value every succeeding one, and a crop which requires the ground to be ploughed again and again every season, and every year in attend- ing it as much toil as during the previous one. Nor shall I contrast the labour necessary to take the corn from the stalk as a crop into market, with that of gathering the grape. Nor, if the proprietor manufactures it himself into wine, can it be necessary to refer to the great profit the process affords.
chase and sale, must be determined by the value large number finishing for the South, and design- of the wine. It is evident, plainly, that we are not cultivating sufficient now, and in the pre- sent gradual progress of the culture will, proba- bly for years, not raise enough of the article to surpass the demand for wine, and settle to such prices as to render grapes accessible for table uses at a reasonable price. I desire, therefore, to show that the cultivation of grapes is an object worthy of being embarked in on a large scale. ed to furnish cotton-yarn, at a single operation, from the raw material in the pod. This machine encloses in a frame less in size than a common breakfast-table, folded down, a Cotton Gin, Card- ing Roller, and Spinning shafts, running six par- rallel threads, which may be worked with such ease that one ordinary hand, in an day, performs the usual labour of ten, on the old fashioned sys- tem. These machines are distributed over the south and southwest, the proprietors keeping four members of their establishment at various points throughout the lower Mississippi valley, to see them started, and instruct the working part of that community in their use. They have already supplied that country, during the last fifteen years, with twenty-five hundred of these ma- chines, at $130 each, their value, when set up at their place of destination. The great peculiarity of this invention is, that, as it takes the cotton from the seed and puts it into yarn, without go- ing through the usual detached processes, which always impair the beauty and strength of the cotton fibre, it furnishes the planter with an ar- ticle altogether different from, and superior to, the cotton ginned and pressed into bales. I saw specimens of yarn made by this machine, and In any view of the subject that can be taken, no man who feels any interest in it can fail to be strongly impressed, by Mr. Schumann's treatise, with a conviction that our Ohio hill sides will be ton, in its filature; and the cloth, which was not eventually as extensively cultivated with the grape as the wine producing districts of France and Germany. cloth woven from the same kind of yarn. The yarn was of uncommon strength, and appeared, at a distance, rather to resemble woolen than cot- fine, being designed merely for plantation wear, was remarkable for its evenness and firmness, being of durability which no factory could im-
J. & H. Pearce occupy the principal part of the building. One department of their business is the manufacture of cotton yarn, carpet chain, batting, &c. Of these they manufacture, with the labour of twenty-two hands, an annual value of $20,000. Another branch carried on here is the making of cotton gins, spinning machines, corn mills and shellers, &c. They employ for this purpose eighteen hands, and turn out a pro-
I was shown here what may be termed, a Plantation Cotton-Spinning Machine, one of a
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part to its goods. It will readily be perceived of of sympathy, correspondence, or magnetismn, what consequence such a labour-saving imple- which runs through all nature. Some of these are remarkable enough, when we compare them with the kindred subjects of neurology and ani- mal magnetism. ment must be to the lower Mississippi valley, supplying them with yarn, at their own doors, of a quality better, and at an expense less than any they can get from a distance. This machine, I was pleased to learn, in its present character, is a Cincinnati invention, and the use of it rapidly spreading throughout the south and southwest. Nothing can surpass it in beauty of fabric and exactness of performance.
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