Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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An Independent Family Journal---Devoted to Politics, Literature and General Intelligence. HOYT & CO., Proprietors. ANDERSON, Si C. THURSDAY, SEPETMBER 23, 1869. VOLUME 5.-NO. 13. f vlititu ami fjUws/ THE GREAT MINING CALAMITY. On Monday, the 6th of September, oc curred a most horrible catastrophe at Avondale, Pa. Over one hundred men were hurried into eternity by one of those disasters not unfrequent in mining coun? tries. The cause of the disaster must, to a certain extent, always remain a myste? ry. Not one aurvives to tell the story of suffering and death, and the origin of the catastrophe is mainly a matter of conjec? ture The newspapers are filled with lengthy account*, written from the scene of disaster, giving such information as will shed the most light upon this sad event, and relating the agonizing picture presented upon discovering the bodies of these unfortunate miners. We will give such as our limited space permits, and begin with the following concise narra? tive from the New York Tribune : The colliery in which this terrible ac? cident occurred ts entered by a perpen? dicular shaft, 327 feet deep, on the side of a mountain. From the bottom of it, 40 feet below tho surface of the valley, run two main galleries, sloping upward, one 800 and the other 12U0 feet long. Smaller passages and chambers, 59 in number, branch off from these. There is no access to the open air except by this single shaft, which had to serve all the purposes of a hoist-way for the work? men and the coal, and a channel for the ventilating current which in all mines must be constantly forced by machinery through the various galleries and drifts. The sides of the shafts were built up with wooden supports, and a wooden partition ran perpendicularly through its whole length, dividing it into two passa? ges, one lor the upward, the other for the downward current. Eight over its mouth stood a great wooden building, containing the machinery for hoisting und for breaking, sorting and cleaning the coal. To assist in creating a current of air a fire was always kept burning in a furnace at the foot of the shaft, and irotu this it is supposeJ the wood-work must have caught. On Monday morning two hundred men went down that shaft to resume work after a longstrike. The}' were followed, about 9 o'clock, by one of i the mule-tonders, with hay for his beasts. As he reached the bottom he was heard to cry "Fire !" but what he saw we never shall know, for in an instant a fierce col? umn of flame rushed up the shaft, caught the.breaker as if that had been a house of paper, and wrapped the whole struc? ture in sheets of tire. The mouth of the pit belched forth destruction. Hundreds of tons of coal in the shutes and bins were soon in a white glow, and dropped with the falling beams into the shaft. It was seven or eight hours before the on gines which were hurried to tho scene of disaster from all the neighboring towns succeeded in extinguishing the burning muss. Workmen hud flocked to the spot lrotn the entire mining region, for it was known that two hundred of their breth? ren were imprisoned among tho deadly vapors of that awful pit. The rubbish was cleared away from the mouth, and fifty experienced miners volunteered to attempt the descent. It was now about 6 in the evening. To lest tho purity of the air a dog and a lighted lamp weje first lowered into the shaft as far as they would go. At tho end of five minutes they were drawn up, the dog was alive, the lamp still burning. A miner named Charles Vartue then went down to recon? noitre, but about halt way from the bot? tom he found the shaft blocked with fall? en limbers. Two fresh volunteers were then lowered with hatchets. After 2U minutes they were drawn up again, faint and breathless, They had penetra? ted seventy or eighty yards into a gang? way, finding three dead mules, and com? ing at last to a closed door. They ham? mered at it and waited for an answering sound, but no answer ea*ue, and through the crevices poured clouds of sulphurous vapor?the latal "black damp." Several other parties, in the course of the even? ing and night, made attempts to penetrate into the gangways, but with little moro success. Few could remain more than five or six minutes, and when drawn up they were all speechless and exhausted. Several w?re brought back by their com? panions entirely insensible. Two brave fellows, Daniel Jones and Thomas Wil? liams, were brought back dead. There was no hope now that any of the miners remained alive, unless possibly they had succeeded in walling themselves in at some remote part of the mine so effectually as to prevout the entrance of the foul gasses from the shaft. It was only the shadow of a hope; still the work went on, while women sat wringing their hands and weeping for their husbands and children, and miners from distant regions came in hundreds to offer their assistance. By nine o'clock on Tuesday morning an en? gine and tan had been placed in position to force fresh air into the mine. All day long parties went down at intervals, but tho black damp drove them back, and the fa h did not seem to gain upon it. About four in the afternoon it wus discovered' that tho fire at the loot of the shaft, which was supposed to be entirely ex? tinguished, had been revived by tho fresh current, and communicated with a mass of coal lying near. Thus the workmen had been accelerating the generation of gas, and destroying what little vestige of hope might remain for their imprisoned comrades. A stream of water was with some difficulty brought to play upon the flames, and the greatet part of the night wus devoted to the suppression of the fire, the clouds ol gas that came up the shaft being meanwhile so awful that workmen at tbe mouth were removed in sensible. Between two and three o'clock on Wednesday morning two bodies were found, both fearfully disfigured and unre? cognizable. About 6:30 a party of four succeeded in penetrating some distance into one of the principal galleries, and came upon the bodies ot over sixty more where they had met their fate together. They had constructed two barriers of c?>rs and refuse coal, and stripped off their clothes to stop the crevices. One poor fellow, whose duty it seems to have been to close the last aperture after all had passed beN'ond it, had fallen dead on the outside, his work not }'et completed. Fathers and sons were found in euch oth? er's arms. Some lay with their hands clenched as if in agony, some with their faces buried in the ground, some in the attitude of prayer. While we write the labor of bringing out the bodies still goes on. The causes of this horrible affair seem plain enough. The shaft upon which the lives of these two hundred men depend? ed was a tinder-box, and a firo was made in the bottom of it! Not a stick of wood should be used in such places if iron can be substituted, as for most of the equipment of a mine it certainly can be. And that there was not a separate shaft for ventilation is simply monstrous. The miners are said to declare that not an? other day's work shall be done in any mine which has not a ventilating shaft. Doubtless they are in earntst, but we have no confidence that their resolution will be kept. The most reckless of men are always those whose occupations are most perilous. Miners we know are not ignorant of their danger. Mine-owners are not heartless. But both manifest a propetisity to run fearful risks, which seems to us entirely inexplicable. If men are the victims of such suicidal ten? dencies, it is the duty of the government to protect them against their own folly. A correspondent of the New York Times, writing at a later period, thus sketches an experience of the time em? ployed in rescuing the dead: The history of the catastropho, like that of a battle, will probably never be complete. The minute details in which lie the dramatic force of the event can never be fully gathered. One man could no more absoib the events momently oc enrring during those four intense days and nights at Avondalo Shaft, than could a single observer lake in the minutiae of a battle like the Wilderness. But as these incidents are culled from the mem? ories uf the actors in the great drama they are as worthy of record as though seen by the fresh individual. Everything in the work of rescuing the entombed was done, devised and su? pervised by committees of miners. On the last day of bringing up the dead, the person in charge ot the rope that was at? tached to the platform used for that pur? pose and lotting down the rescuers, be? came convinced of its insecurity, and a "committee" went to examine it. These men, after a minute inspection, pronoun? ced the rope perfectly reliable and even better than a new one. and would not have if changed. A little later another committee was called, and another in? spection boinf; made, arrived at the same conclusion, whereupon the person in charge, by merely shaking the rope vio lent ly, unloosened the ends where it was spliced, and despite the protest] it was removed and a new rope substituted. No men or set ot men wcie probablv ever before called upon to endure such extreme hardships in the midst of a thickly-peopled country, as were'the men engrtged about the mine. A field tele? graph office was established on a pile of boards, near tho crater, and there an op? erator sat, without adequate protection from the weather, for forty-eight hours, without a moment's relief. The miners, sheriff, coroner, jury and others, were engaged, night and day, during tho four du}*s, with short respites for some of them, and even the brutes were called upon by the magnitude of the disaster for extraordinary exertion, as the little bay horso was required to trot around the drum, coiling the rope that was hoisting the dead for thirty consecutive hou is. There were man}' weird night scenes, especially during Tuesday, and Wednes? day nights, when the great crowd did not diminish and there were no other means of illumination than a few lanterns. Tho imagination can scarcely conceive the solemn weirdness of the scene when ono of the dead was borne out of the tunnel upon the little plateau, and tho dim lan? tern light being thrown upon the face, the coroner's jury gathered around for the official viewing of the dead. Nor is it an experience of cvoty-day life for a man to spend a stormy night in a freight car piled high with coffins, with, a little way above him, on the mountain side, a minor's dwelling, where a woman wailed all night, long over the dead bodies of her husbt'.nd and two stalwart sons. I have spoken as I was bound to do of the sub lime courage and devotion displayed by the men who went down the shaft to re? move the dead, but there were others not called on for that hazardous service who were constant in their response to all de? mands, und wot kod willingly and unceas ingly in their several ways in tho service of humanity, who are entitled to scarcely less of public respect. The disaster has some little of recompense in tho grand spectacle it has afforded of man's human? ity for man. m ? Dickens Bays: "I have known vast quantities of nonsense talked about bad mon not looking you in the face. Don't trust that conventional idoa. Dishon? esty will stare honesty out of counten? ance any day in the week, if there is any? thing to be got by it." The Survivor's Association. At a meeting of the Survivor's Associa? tion, Charleston District, the following preamble and resolutions were adopted : Whereas, the events of the late war be? tween tho Confederate and United States of America are now fresh in the minds of its survivors, und many records do now exist which time and neglect will certain? ly destroy, it is highly desirable to have these records and these recollections put in such substantial form as to resist the ravages of time; and, whereas, we have no government which will collect and preserve the history of those transactions of which we are proud, it is, therefore, the duty of all South Carolinians to place the history of the late war in its true light before the *orld, in order that those who fought and died tor their country may have not only the reward of their distinguished patriotism, hut tho justice which their achievements deserve; and, whereas, the Survivors' Association of any single district may do much in col? lecting and preserving theso records, yet because of the intimate association exis? ting during the war between all tho troops of the State, tho work will become pro? portionally less onerous and much more effective if the survivors of the whole State were to unite in a common effort; therefore, be it Resolved, That tho Survivors' Associa tiou of Charleston District earnestly in vito the survivors of each district in the State, where associations of record do not now exist, to form district associa? tions, composed of the survivors of the Confederate army and navy, to collect and preserve the records of the late war. That the various distric t associations be invited to send five delegates to a con? vention to meet at our hall, in Charles? ton, Thursday, November 18, 1869, to form a State survivors' association, for the purpose set forth in tho next resolu? tion. That the primary object of the propos? ed State Survivor's Assocition is the pre? servation of all matters of history con? nected with the late war. That the proposed means of accom? plishing this object is the (Establishment of a State Bureau, under the control of the State Association, where, all original matter shall be regularly and convenient? ly tiled away for tho reference of such persons us tho Association may see fit. That the secondary object of the pro? posed Stato Association, the future de? velopment of which is left to the action of the State Association, is the prepara tion of a standard Southern history and smaller school histories, in which the part the Confederacy bore in the late war ma}* bo properly related to the world, and that tho rising generation may b>3 taught that their parents were not tho vile traitors that the common school histories now prepared by our enemies assert. Col. Edward McCrady, Jr., President; Col. C. Irvine Walter, Co!. B. H. Rut ledge. Major T. G. Barker, Col. J. M. Kinloch, Captain F. K. Hutjor, Captain James Armstrong, Jr.. Secretary, were appointed a committee to correspond on the suliject of these resolutions, to make all necessary arrangements far the assem? bling of tho convention, and to take such measures as 11103? may deem essential to the full accomplishment of tho intentions of the preamble and resolutions.?Char? leston News. A Threatening Epoch.?If Napoleon dies, any reader of history c&n see, that a great crisis of the world will come. No man, for the last twenty years, could com? pare with him as a statesman and a luler. Lord Palmerston never exhibited his sa gacity and political foresight, more forci? bly, than in his friendship for Napoleon. Working his way to imperial authority through dungeon holds, military failures, stinging scoffs and fiery persecutions, he nevertheless succeeded in planting himself* firmly on the throne of Charlemagne and the Great Emperor. And since his first occupancy of that dizzy place, the world has recognized the grasp and royal influ? ence of a master. He has made politics and diplomacy a game of chess. His hat ties have been victories, nis negotiations have been models of strategy, and his very books have challenged i:he criticism and awakened the admiration of scholars everywhere. The great Prussian diplo? mat could whip the Austrian* with his needle guns, but he could not defeat Na? poleon with his needle brain. He has been a match for the intellect, the glitter? ing armories and the traditional hate of the whole world. Who does not feel an interest in this man, and who does not shudder when ti? dings come of his dangerous sickness.? The French have no greatness in them? selves. They are scientific, effervescent, spasmodic and reckless. They have vol? canic fires under their political and social system everywhere. One single electric current will kindle the whole structure in? to a blaze. They respect and feel the ner? vous government of Napoleon, while for his weak Spanish wife, and her helpless son, they would manifest the greatest con? tempt. Only let the lion-hearted son of Hortense go under monumental marble, anl see how quickly France would shiver from end to end. And if France goes in? to anarchy again, the whole world will suffer from her throes.?Eastern (N. C.) Intelligencer. ? A gentleman asked a clergyman the uso of his pulpit for a young divine, a re? lation of his. "I really do not know," said thoclorgy man, 4,how to refuse you; but if the young man can preach better than I oan, my conyretjution would be dissatisfied with me afterwards; and if he should preach worse, I don't tbioi:.hefa fit to preaoh at all." The AtteniDt to Censure John Quincy Ad? ams by the Honse of Representatives. BY SENATOR WILSON, OF MASSACHUSETTS. On the 14th of January, 1842, Mr. Ad? ams having the floor for the presentation of petitions, suid, "I hold in my hand the petition of Benjamin Emerson and forty five other citizens of Haverhill, of Mas? sachusetts, praying Congress to adopt immediate measures for tho peaceful dis? solution of the union of these States." Hardly had these words fallen from his lips, when several slaveholdlng members, many of them known, and since proved to be disunionists, clamorously demanded leave to speak. Mr. Adams, however, still having the floor, moved a reference of the petition to a select committee of nine members, with instructions to report nn answer to the petitioners, showing the reason why their prayer could not bo granted. From all parts of the hall came vehement and passionate demands for the floor, which was given to Mr. Hopkins, of Virginia, who inquired of the Speaker if it would be in order to burn the petition in the presence of the House. Mr. Wise, of Virginia, inquired if it would be in order to present a reso? lution of censuro; and such a resolution was offered by Mr. Gilmer, of the same State. Mr. Adams expressed the hope that the petition would be received and debated, and that ho might have an op? portunity of defending his own action in tho premises. Oo tho adjournment of the House, notico was given that the members from the slave States would hold a meeting that evening for consul? tation. At the meeting it agreed, as Gil? mer was a Democrat, that Thomas F. Marshall, a Whig from Kentucky, a bril? liant speaker, of whose future career high expectations were entertained, should be selected as the leader in this work of cen? sure. While this conclave were making prep? aration tor the trial, a few members of the House, and othors. aosembled at the room of Mr. Giddings, in Mr. Adam's behalf.. Joshua Leavitt, of Massachu? setts, and Theodore Wild, among the ablest and most effective advocates of Emancipation, beiug present, were com? missioned to call on Mr. Adams and ten? der any assistance in the power of those there assembled to render. Tho venera? ble statesman expressed his most pro? found gratitude for this offer of friendly aid. All the assistance bo requested, however, was the examination of certain points in authorities, a list of which he gave them. This task was of course per? formed with alacrity, and Mr. Adams found his desk next morning covered with volumes ready for immediate use. After the reuding of the journal, on the 25th, Mr. Marshall submitted three reso? lutions us un amendment to those of Mr. Gilmer; in which it was set forth that the conduct of Mr. Adams might bo held to merit expulsion ; that the House deem? ed it an act of mercy and grace when it only inflicted upon him the severest (en? sure for what was so unworthy of his past relations to the Stute, und his pres? ent position; and that this they did for tho maintenance of their purity and dig? nity; and lor the rest, they turned him over to his own conscience and the indig? nation of all American citizens. Mar shall evidently entered upon his work with enthusiasm and zeal, heart and hope. Ho was an orator of rare gifts, though ambitious, egotistical and of unbalanced judgment. Like too many, however, thus generously endowed, the fulfillment did not answer his early promise. Ho became the victim of intemperate habits; und though through the persuasive influ? ence of the late Governor Briggs rf Mas? sachusetts, then a member of the House, he reformed for a few months, he soon relapsed and became an utter wreck. When he arose to speak on this occasion, the galleries were thronged art-1 the House filled with privileged persons. He spoke with so much eloquence and force, that Mr. Adams'enemies were very much elated, and his friends correspond? ingly depressed. When Mr. Marshall closed, the venera ble statesman arose and asked the Clerk to read the first paragraph of tho Decla? ration of Independence, which declares, when any form of government becomes destructive of its proper ends, it is tho right, or duty, of the people to alter or abolish it, and reorganize its powers in such forms us shall to them appear best qualified to secure their interest and hap? piness. He then proceeded to maintain that the people had a right to reform abuses and bring government back to the performance of duties for which it w<is instituted. He declared that they had a right to ask Congress to do what they re? garded its duty, and it belonged to Con? gress, if it could not grant the request, to give tho reasons why their prayer should not bo granted. Ho charged that the people wore oppressed b}' the denial of tho right to petition and the suppres? sion of the freedom of debate. He charged upon tho South tho purpose to deny the rights ot Habeas Corpus, and trial by jury, and also to force slavery upon the frco States. He emphatically declared that it the rights ot the people were to bo taken away by a coalition be? tween Southern slaveholders and the Northern Democracy, it was time for them to arise and re-assort them. Hav? ing asked for more time in which to pre? pare his defense, Mr. Horace Everett, of Vermont, moved a postponement of the subject tor two weeks, for that purpose, Mr. Wise then took the floor, and spoke at great length, and with much ac? rimony of feeling and language. He charged Mh Ad?rris with a purpose to conspire with British abolitionists to ie stroy the Union. He bitterly denounced him for saying that, in case of insurrec? tion, the President might, if necessary to restore peace, emancipate the slaves. Supporting Mr. Tyler against the great body of the Whigs, in and out of Con? gress, he called upon the Democratic par? ty to put down abolitionism, declaring if slavery wore abolished, the great demo? cratic principle of equality uinong men would be destroyed. Mr. Adams replied to the bitter and violent assault of Wise with terrible se? verity. Alluding to his connection as a second of Mr. Graves with the duel in which Mr. Cilley was killed, he said that Wise had come into that hall, a few years since, "with his hands dripping with hu? man gore, a blotch of human blood upon his face." Turning from Mr. Wise, he then addressed himself to the task of re? plying to Mr. Marshall, especially to the charge of high treason which he had pre j furred. He thanked God that the Con? stitution of the United States had defined treason, and that it was not left for the "puny mind" of the gonlleraan from Ken? tucky to define that crime. He said that, were he Marshall's father, he would "ad? vise him to return to Kentucky, and take his place in some law school, and com? mence the study of that profession he has disgraced." Nor was he contented in the simple defense. He proceeded to ar? raign the slaveholders, and, though not technically an abolitionist, he opened an aggressive warfare on the champions of slavery. The resolution of censure was opposed by Mr. Underwood, a Whig member from Kentucky, who emphatically con? demned all rules denominated " gag laws." Mr. Arnold, a Whig member from Tennessee, sustained Mr. Adams, and denounced the 21st Rule us a violation of the Constitution. Mr. Betts, of Vir? ginia, bravely came to the resene, sup? ported by Mr. Adams, and referred to the fact that, a few years before, Mr. Ilhett, of South Carolina, had drawn up resolu? tions for the dissolution of the Union, and had sought for an opportunity to present them. Mr. Gilrner offered to withdraw the resolution of censure, if Mr. Adams would withdraw the petition. He sternly refused, however, declaring he would not violate his sense of duly to obtain the j favor or forbearance of tho House. Mr. Murshall again addressed the House, and i called for the previous question. But Mr. Adams demanded the floor, obtained it, and proceeded in his defense. In his remarks, ho again took the aggressive, and assailed, with great force and effect, slavety and the slave power. Mr. San? ders, of North Carolina, called him to or? der ; but the Speaker decided that he was in order; and, though an appeal Was taken, the decision of the Chair was sus? tained. Tho next days Mr. Merriwether, of Georgia, remarking that ten or twelve days had already been taken up in the trial, wished to know how much more time Mr. Adam"* expected to occupy in the defense. He applied that he was not responsible for theWime occupied in this trial. Reminding the House that, in the celebrated trial of Warren Hastings, Mr. Burke occupied some months in a single speech, he expressed the opinion that he could "close in ninety days." On motion of Mr. Botts, the resolution of censure was laid on the lable by a majority of thirteen. Mr. Adams' friends were of course proud of the good and gallant tight their champion had made, and greatly elated at the signal victory which crowned it. On the other hand, his ene? mies, baffled, defeated and humiliated, felt that, for once at least, slavery had lost and freedom had won.?Leslie's lllus trated News. Alexander von Humboldt. Tuesday, 14th of September, 1869, was celebrated far and wide as tho centennial anniversary of the birth of Alexander von Huiuboldt, the girut author and traveler. Tho following sketch is taken from an address by Dr. Francis Lieber, delivered before the American Geographi cal and Statistical Seciety al the Hum boldt commemoration held in June, 1S59 : ''Humboldt received the living tradi? tions of the great circumnavigator, Cook, through Forster, Cook's compunion, and lived to gather facts for his Cosmos from the latest reports of the geological surveys of our Slates. He lived when Voltaire died, and must have grown up with many French ideas floating around him, for Humboldt was a nobleman whoso family lived within the atmosphere of the Berlin court; and he lived to witness the great revolutions in literature as well in Germany as in France and England. He lived when Rousseau died (the same year when Voltaire deceased), and must have remembered, from personal observation, that homage which even momtrehs paid, (at a distance, it is true) to tho Contrat Sociale, and ho outlived, by some weeks. De Tocquevillo. He lived through tho period of the American Revolution, was a contemporary of Washington and Adams, and a friond of Jefferson. Ho lived through the French Revolution and tho age of the classic orators of Britain. He lived through the Napoleonic oraand the rosuscitalion of Prussia and of all Ger? many. He studied under, Werner, with whom mineralogy begins, and knew Houy. Ho knew La Place, survived Ara-jo and Gauss, and worked with Enko. He lived with Kant, and knew S? boiling Hogel. He know Goothe and read Heine. He read. Gibbon's Decline as a work of a living author, and perused Niebuhr, and later still praised Prescott. He grew up in the Prussian monarchy according to the typo of Frederic tho Great, and with tho fresh reminiscences of tfceeeven yoars' war, and left it changed in artny, school government?in everything. He saw the beginning of the Institute of Fiance, and lived to be considered by its associates as one of its most brilliantornaments at its most brilliant period, fie lived through periods which distinctly mark the science' of chemistry, fiom Lavoisier to Rose and Liebig. Humboldt was seventeen )ears old when the great king, perhaps the most illustrious despot of history, died so tired by the genius of his own absolutism that we cannot forget the woids of the dying king: 'lam weary of ruling over 6laves;" and he lived through the whole period of growing popular sentiments arid habits, of constitutional demands and revolutionary, fearful conflicts. ?'What an amount of thirking, obser? ving, writing, travelling and discovering he has performed, from thai juvenile essay of his own textile fabrics of the ancients to the last line of his Cosmos, which re? minds us of Copernicus reading the last proof sheet on his death-bed, shortly be? fore his departure; or of Mozar*., who. in his darkened room, directed with dying looks the singing of a portion of that re? quiem which he hud in part composed, conscious that his ears would never hear its pealing sounds of resurrection. Let us, one and all, yodng atld old. symbolize by the name ot Humboldt the fact that, however untrue assuredly the saying is that genius is labor, it is true that the necessaiy co efficient of genius a nd of any talent is incessant diligence. We are ordained not only to eat the bread of our mouth in the sweat of our brow, but to earn in the same way tbe nourishing bread of the mind. This is no world of trifling; it is a world of work; and Hum? boldt, like the Greeks whose intellectual? ity he loved to honor?whose Socrates loved to say: Arduous are all noble things?was a hard working man?far harder working than most of those who arrogate the name to themselves. He ceased to work, and to work hard, only when he laid himself down on that couch from which ho rose no more. "1 visited Humboldt at Potsdam in the year 1844 when he had reached, therefore, the age of seventy-five; for you know that he was born in that remarkable year ol' 1769, in which Cuvier was born, and Wei' lingfon,and Chateuubrand,and Napoleon, just ten years after Schiller, just twenty after Goethe. Humboldt told me at that time he was engaged in a work which he intended to call Cosmos. Many of xny young friends have asked me, as their teacher, and, indeed many other friends have repeated the question ?Was he not tho greatest man of the' century? I do not believe it is fit for man to seat himself on the bench in the chancery of humanitj , and there to pro? nounce this one or that one tho greatest man. If all men were counted together, each one of whom has been culled in his turn the greatest of all, there would boa crowd of greatest men. Mortals ourselves, we should call no one the greatest. His? tory is abstemious even in attributing simple greatness. But if it is an attri? bute of greatness to impress an indeli? ble stamp on the collective mind of a race, and give a new impulse to its intel? lect; if greatness, in part, consists in de? vising that which is good, large and noble, and in perxeverii gly executing it by means which in the hands of others would have been insufficient, and against obsta? cles which would have been insurmoun? table to othors: it it is great tograit new branches on the trees ot science and cul? ture, leadinir the sap to form henceforth choicer fruit; if the darling solitude of lofty thought and loyal adhesion to its own royalty is a constituent of greatness; if lucid common sense?the health and rectitude of our intelligence which avoids, in all directions, tho Too Much?is a requisite of greatness; if hue and varied gilts, such as mark distinction when sing? ly granted, showered by Providence on one man?if this makes up or proves greatness, then indeed we may say. with? out presumption^ that one ot the great men has been our own. "That period has arrived to which Croesus alluded in the memorable excla? mation, Oh ! Solon, Solon, Solon ! And we are now allowed to say that Humboldt was one of the most gilted, most fortu? nate and mont favored mortals?favored oven with comeliness, with a brow so ex? quisitely chiseled, that irrespective ot its being the symbol of lofty thought, is pleasant to look upon in his busts as a mere beautiful thing; favored even in his name, so easily uttered by all the nations which were destined to pronounce it. ''When we pray not only for the kind? ly fruits of the earth, but also, as we ought to do, for tho kindly fruits of the mind, let us nlwaj'S gratefully remember that He who gives us all blessed things has given to our age and to all posterity such a man as Humboldt." Beautiful Allegory.?Tho old man was toiling through the burden and heat of the day, in cultivating his field with his own hand, and depositing the promis? ing seeds in the fruitful lap of yielding earth. Suddenly there stood before him, under tho Bhade of a huge linden tree, a vision. The old man was struck with amazement. '?I am Solomon," spoke the phantom in a friendly voice, "What are you doing here, old man ?" ?*It you are Solomon," replied tho ven? erable laborer, "how can you ask this; in my youth you sent me to the ant; I saw its occupation, and learned from that in ?ect to be industrious, and to gather.? What I then learned I have followed out to this hour." "You have only learned half your les? son," replied tho spirit. "Go again to the ant. and learn from that insect to rest in the winter of your life, and to enjoy what you have^gAtbered op."