whisper is heard of it in a history of the great streets of the he may have lived like a hermit, his relics are not in the odor world! of sanctity."

THE TRICKS OF ADVERTISERS.-We know an old lady who has been so many times entrapped into reading an advertisement of quack medicines, ingeniously framed, like a piece of rare news, that she has given up reading newspapers out of pure vexation. We are not often caught by these traps of advertisers, but we put our foot into a hole the other day, that was so cunningly contrived that no fox could have suspected it; there is no safety any longer in reading a newspaper, and after reading the following, we almost determined to follow the determination of our old lady acquaintance, and give up the daily paper alto

THE STEYERMARKISCHE MINSTRELS.-These are a band of nineteen instrumentalists that made their appearance in New York during the last month, and by the novelty of their performances almost divided the town with the Italian singers, in Astor Place. They come from Germany, where almost all our principal musicians come from; they are an exceedingly good looking band of musicians, apparently educated gentlemen, who seem to be devoted to their art and play, rather for the love of art than the desire of gain; there is a very handsome youth, with a smooth, yet grave face, and a full dark eye, who seems to control all their movements, as by some magic influence. Those who have nogether. appreciation of really fine music, will be charmed and delighted by the marvelous precision of their movements, and the perfect harmony of all their actions. They have been playing at the Tabernacle, and have been most successful in drawing large and fashionable audiences.

LITERARY GOSSIP.-There is no literary gossip. The month of January is a dead month among the literati and the publishers. We understand that there is a poem in the press from an emisent author, called a "FABLE FOR CRITICS," which will make some noise among authors and authorlings when it appears, and when it does, we will certainly give our readers a taste of its quality. The Harpers have published two novels which have made some noise in England, the one" Jane Eyre," is evidently the work of a woman, for it is full of womanly / experience with which no man could be familiar; the other we understand, that they gave two hundred and fifty dollars for an advance copy; it is by that flashy, wordy, and sentimental proser, Warren, the author of "Ten Thousand a Year." The new novel is called "Now and Then," and will do now and then to beguile an hour with.

THE CHOLERA. The cholera happily is not a reality in New York now, but it has become a prominent topic of conversation and newspaper comment. Its presence is anticipated by many medical men, during the coming summer, for it has been making rapid strides toward the Western shores of Europe, and there is no reason to doubt its crossing the Atlantic as it did in 1832. The best way to avoid this terrible scourge, is by the strictest attention to cleanliness and regularity of habits; the treatment of the disease is better understood now than it was when it made its first terrible visit in our cities, but the means of preventing its appear ance are much better known than then, of arresting its ravages when it once shows itself. Clean streets and clean houses are the only sure means of preventing the cholera; for the first, we must look to the public authorities, but for the last, the head of every family is accountable. Apropos des bottes, speaking of houses and their heads, reminds us of those house-loving rascals, rats, and of a humourous bit of writing about them, for which we are indebted to somebody, but we know not his name, and cannot give him the credit to which he is entitled for his humour.

"Wheresoever man goes, the rat follows, or accompanies him. He enters upon your house as a tenant at will, (his own, not yours,) works out for himself a covered way in your walls, ascends by it from one story to another, and leaving you the larger appartments, takes possession of a space between the floor and the ceiling, as an entresol for himself. There he has parties, and his revels and his gallopades, (merry ones they are) when you would be asleep, if it were not for the spirit with which the youth and belles of Rat-land keep up the ball over your head. And you are more fortunate than most of your neighbours, if he does not prepare for himself a mausoleum behind your chimney-piece, or under your hearth-stone, retire into it when he is about to die, and very soon aford you full proof that though

SOMETHING TRULY REMARKABLE.-A young man in the upper part of Vermont, several years ago, was out on a gunning excursion, got lost in the woods, remained out all night and was found next day in an almost frozen state. He was taken with a long spell of pleureasy and totally lost his voice! In six months time, he began to recover his voice a little, could articu late a few words when he discovered that he was most singularly endowed with the power of ventriloquism; could throw his beasts and birds, with trivial effort, and yet could hardly speak yoice to almost any part of a house or room, imitate sounds, naturally! This singular phenomenon perhaps did not more astonish the medical faculty than the peculiar and most astonishlast month in Boston, of severe colds, coughs, influenza, sore ing cures perfected by Mrs. Tilley's Cough Syrup during the throat, hooping cough, &c.

During the past month there has been an immense deal of feasting in all our principal cities, in honour of our heroes who have returned with their brows crowned with victorious wreaths from Mexico, The festivals commenced in New Orleans, with

the glorious entry of Old Rough and Ready into that city; and since then New York, Washington, and Philadelphia, have feast ed and feted, and danced and harangued scores of gallant officers, While our own army is in possession of the capital of Mexico, it is not amiss to remember, that not many years since a small British force marched through the heart of our country, and took possession of Washington, and after setting fire to the Capitol, actually sat down to dinner in the President's House. The following account of the affair, is from a work recently published in London, by the Rev. G. R. Gleig. It is very well, now "I need and then, to look backward as well as forward. scarcely observe, that the consternation of the inhabitants (of Washington) was complete, and to them this was a night of terror. So confident had they been of the success of their troops, that few of them had dreamt of quitting their houses or abandoning the city; nor was it till the fugitives from the battle began to rush in, filling every place as they came with dismay, that the President himself thought of providing for his safety. That gentleman, as I was credibly informed, had gone forth in the morning with the army, and had continued among his troops till the British forces began to make their appearance. Whether this sight of his enemies cooled his courage or not I cannot say, but according to my informant, no sooner was the glittering of our arms discernible, than he began to discover that his presence was more wanted in the Senate than in the field; and having ridden through the ranks, and exhorted every man to do his duty, he hurried back to his own house, that he might prepare a feast for the entertainment of his officers, when they should return victorious. For the truth of these details I will not be answerable; but this much I know, that the feast was actually prepared, though, instead of being devoured by Ameri can officers, it went to satisfy the less delicate appetite of a party of English soldiers. When the detachment sent out to destroy Mr. Madison's house entered his dining-parlour, they found a dinner-table spread, and covers laid for forty guests. Several kinds of wine in handsome cut-glass decanters were cooling on the sideboard; plate-holders stood by the fire-place, filled with dishes and plates; knives, forks, and spoons were

These constituted, altogether, ten whole, and parts of seventeen other

cargoes.

arranged for immediate use; everything, in short, was ready | Beans; 13 bbls Oat Meal: 135 bbls Barley; 6 bbls Barley Meal; for the entertainment of a ceremonious party. Such were the 69b bls Beef and Pork; 184 packages clothing; 3 boxes Arrow arrangements in the dining-room, whilst in the kitchen were Root; 2 bbls Hops; 2 bbls Fish; 4 bbls Potatoes; 2 bbls Oats; 2 others answerable to them in every respect. Spits loaded with packages Cheese; 3 bbls Bacon; 1 Ham; 1 roll Leather; 1 bbi joints of various sorts turned before the fire; pots, saucepans, Vinegar. Also fifteen thousand dollars in money. and other culinary utensils stood upon the grate; and all the other requisites for an elegant and substantial repast were in the exact state which indicated that they had been lately and precipitately abandoned. The reader will easily believe that these preparations were beheld, by a party of hungry soldiers, with no indifferent eye. An elegant dinner, even though considerably over-dressed, was a luxury to which few of them, at least for some time back, had been accustomed; and which, after the dangers and fatigues of the day, appeared peculiarly inviting. They sat down to it, therefore, not indeed in the most orderly manner, but with countenances which would not have disgraced a party of aldermen at a civic feast; and having satisfied their appetites with fewer complaints than would have probably escaped their rival gourmands, and partaken pretty freely of the wines, they finished by setting fire to the house which had so liberally entertained them."

This account is not literally true, but it is correct in the main. Since then we have grown great, powerful, rich, and proud. If an enemy were to make the audacious attempt to set fire to the House of our President again, they would be pretty sure of being roasted in the flames. We have had a good many jokes about our army capturing the camp dinner which had just been cooked for the President of Mexico, but our old enemy, John Bull, did worse by us; he walked into the house of our Chief Magistrate, and having eaten the dinner which he found ready cooked, split up the mahogany tables for tooth picks, and then set fire to the house. We can hardly believe that a nation whose poor we are feeding gratuitously ever served us such a very shabby trick. But it is true, nevertheless.

Last year all Europe seemed to be on the point of starving; now all their merchants, banks, and a good many nobles were failing; the last news from over the water brought us accounts of everybody being down with the Influenza, or La Grippe, as it is called in France. So universally felt was this disease in England, that the theatres were closed on account of the performers being sick; law suits were suspended, schools and colleges were shut up, and there seemed at one time a prospect that the entire business of the nation would come to a stand still; the highest and the lowest persons in the kingdom were alike affected. We have happily escaped all disasters here, or at least we have had but one of any serious extent, besides the usual number of steamboat explosions and rail-road accidents; the flood of our caused great distress, by loss of life and property on their borwestern rivers, the Ohio, Mississippi, and their tributaries, has ders. We were witnesses of a melancholy scene which occurred in this city a few days since, growing out of these disastrous floods. Some three or four months since, a young Irish gentleman, the son of a physician residing near Dublin, came to this chanted with the beauty of the scenery and the fertility of the country to seek his fortune, and going West, he became so enhim. They had written to their son to meet them in New York, soil, that his glowing descriptions induced his parents to follow and on their arrival here in a Liverpool packet, the anxious to the office of a friend, where he expected to find his son; but. father leaped ashore, leaving his wife behind him, and hurried alas, forthe poor old man! he there learned the heart-breaking inIt is a fact worth chronicling, that two well known artists have telligence of the death of his son, who had perished but a few clubbed together to produce an American Opera; Mr. H. P. weeks before his arrival, by the great flood of the Ohio. The Grattan, the actor-author, is to produce the libretto, and Mr. unfortunate youth had taken refuge in a house, which being unGeorge Loder is to compose the music, Mr. Fry's Opera of Leo- dermined by the rising waters, fell and crushed seventeen human nora, it is said, will be produced shortly at the Astor Place beings among its ruins. We never before witnessed such heartOpera House. The advocates of protective duties should peti-touching grief as that exhibited by the fond father, on hearing of tion Congress to leavy a heavy duty on Italian performers, and the fate of his darling boy; in the expressive language of ScripItalian music, and perhaps it might lead to the production of ture, he lifted up his voice and wept. good native music. American birds are the finest songsters in the world; the Bobolink, Mocking Bird, and Oriole, are sweeters songsters than any Swedish Nightingale, and we see no reason why our prima donna should not warble their native wood notes as charmingly as any Italian Warblers. But we are too much at our ease in this blessed country to drive people to piping their voices for a living. No song no supper, is not the rule here; every man, woman, and child is sure of a supper, whether they sing or not; and truly it is a happy thing to know that we have not only enough for our own wants, but something to spare for those who are in need. We would sooner hide our charities under a bushel than make a boast of them, but the gifts of our people to the suffering poor of Europe, last year, are things to be proud of. Leaving out of view the immense sums expended for purely religious objects, to spread the Gospel among the distant Pagans, the contributions to sufferers by floods in France, to the starving Highlanders of Scotland, see what was sent from New York alone by one committee to the Central Relief Committee of the Society of Friends in Dublin for the benefit of the starving Irish.

4570 bbls Wheat Flour; 33,074 bbls, 243 half-bbls Indian Corn Meal; 2520 bbls, 7293 bags Indian Corn; 191 bbls Rye Flour; 57 bbls, 29 bags Rye; 78 bbls Bread; 411 bags 3 bbls Rice; 198 bbls Wheat; 8. bbls Buckwheat; 283 bbls Peas and

But his hardest task was yet to come; he had to return to his wife and break the sad news to her; but he could not do it. The old man carried the dread intelligence in his breast for two days, giving vent to his grief in secret, lest it should destroy the partner of his declining years, until her loss was made known to her in as merciful a manner as it could be done by some female friends whom she had found on her arrival here. There was mourning. As we write, there our eye happens to fall on an English paper which contains the Lord Chamberlain's order for the Court of Queen Victoria to go into mourning for the death of his Royal Highness the Elector of Hesse. What a heartless mockery of grief! what a disgusting insult to the genuine mourning of stricken hearts, is such an order as this! When people cannot mourn without being ordered to do it, they had better be merry. But this court mourning is of the gentlest and most moderate type conceivable; it amounts only to the wearing plain linen and white fringed gloves.

Here are the Lord Chamberlain's directions for this mockery of grief:

"The ladies to wear black silk, fringed or plain linen, white gloves, necklaces and ear-rings, black or white shoes, fans and tippets.

"The gentlemen to wear black, full trimmed, fringed or plain linen, black swords and buckles.

"The Court to change the mourning on Thursday, the 9th sorry to be doomrd to live until the Washington Monument is inst., viz.

built. Two things are especially worthy of admiration about the Monument; the perseverance of Mr. Pollard in making designs for the same which are never accepted, and the unbounded faith of the trustees in making appeals to the public, which are never responded to.

THE DOOM OF OUR WORLD.-The North British Review "And on Sunday, the 12th inst., the Court to go out of but we see in the heavens themselves some traces of destructive says, "What this change is to be we dare not even conjecture, mourning."

elements and some indications of their power. The fragments of broken planets-the descent of meteoric stones upon our globethe wheeling comets wielding their loose materials at the solar surface the volcanic eruptions in our own satelite-the appear ance of new stars, and the disappearance of others--are all foreshadows of that impending convulsion to which the system of the world is doomed. Thus placed on a planet which is to be In England the chloroform has entirely superceded the ether, burnt up, and under heavens which are to pass away; thus treadand we hear nothing now but chloroform, chloroform, chloro-ing, as it were, on the cemeteries, and dwelling on the mausoform. That rascal, Punch, who makes fun of everything, thus leums of former worlds, let us learn the lesson of humility and amuses himself with the new discovery in physic: wisdom, if we have not already been taught it in the school of revelation.

Webster for a gentleman of this city, for more than a year and has never been able to obtain a sitting from the great statesman. It is not generally known that Mr. John Milhau, an old and respectable resident of this city, is Eugene Sue's uncle, being the brother of the novelist's mother; Sue alse has another American tie, his mother's second husband was Dr. Niles of Baltimore, and his two half-sisters, the children of Dr. Niles, are said to be the originals of the sisters Rose and Blanche in the Wandering Jew. The two girls of the romance, however, have no marked characteristics, and we doubt whether he thought of any particular originals in sketching their characters.

We have heard actors tell of their terrible feelings when they made their first appearance before the foot-lights, but what must be the feelings of the soldier when he sees for the first time a row of hostile bayonets glittering in front of him, and hears the click of the flint which may send a bullet through his heart. A young volunteer in Mexico says in a letter giving an account of his first fight;

"At the National Bridge we had a skirmish with the enemy, the first fight I ever had the pleasure of being engaged in. My feelings at the first fire I am unable to describe. I did not feel inclined to run, yet was afraid to fire for fear I should kill somebody; but after two or three rounds it was all over, and I fired

away with the rest of them."

"Dread are the visions of nightmare one sees when suppers
oppress one,
Fearful the mouths that the painted clown makes, by night, in
the circus,

Blasting the rays of the moon that shine on the incautions sleeper,
Turned into stone was the wretch who gazed on the face of
Medusa,
Voiceless he roams who first is seen, when they meet by the
black wolf,

Dreadful his fate who shall speak at a midnight meeting of fairies.
But Crockest, nor moon, clown, wolf, nightmare, Medusa, nor fairy,
Could tear out of his head a man's eyes like Senator Benton
Think of the brave thus gonged by the faces of this famous
statesman,
Though he can make up horrible faces and save his own bacon.
Who vowed when he wed that again he would ne'er fight a duel,

THE ARCHITECTURAL ASPECTS OF NEW YORK.-New York

changes the fashion of its street façades so often, that old citizens after being absent a year or two, hardly recognize the place they were born in on their return. The fashion of houses is almost as changeable as that of hats. A few years since the whole city looked like a granite quary, those who could not afford to pull down their brick fronts and put up granite ones in their place, had them painted a pepper-and-salt complexion, to imitate the quincy stone, but now, nous avons changè tout cela, the whole city has been suddenly changed into the complexion of a cake of chocolate. The fashionable building material at present is the red sandstone How naively and naturally he writes, he was afraid to fire lest of Westchester, and all the brick fronts, and even granite pillars he should kill somebody! It appears to us that a soldier who is have been painted the colour of spanish brown. To this com troubled with such fears before firing would be very likely to be plexion we have come at last. What will fellow we know not, visited by a bitter regret afterwards. Old Rough and Ready is probably the yellow bricks of London and Paris. Many of the evidently one of those generous soldiers who are afraid of killing new buildings recently erected of the fashionable material are somebody. It was this feeling which led the brave but humane exceedingly beautiful, richly decorated with elaborate sculptures, old soldier to agree to the captulation of Montery; the features of and modelled after the finest palatial residences of Italy and Paris. his face prove him to be a stern but most humane man. Union Square and the cross streets of that neighbourhood, ars bust of Garbeille, the protraits of Brown, and a daguerreotype that among the finest specimens of modern domestic architecture to be he sat for in New Orleans, and which we recently had the plea- found either in Europe or America. Our merchants, brokers and sure of seeing, give us as correct an idea of his personal appear successful speculators, lodge themselves like dukes and princes, ance, as though we had met him face to face. There is no vio-and one of our city editers has set up his carriage and drives lence, no harshness, no cruelty, no revenge, no selfishness in his down Broadway with a liveried servant behind him. Forrest the noble countenance. He has a well balanced intellectual head, tragedian is building himself a superb chateau on the banks of and a most grave, thoughtful and benevelent countenance, equally the Hudson, and probably intends to found a family. The ele expressive of decision, firmness and kindness. The soubriquet bygance of our architecture is not confined solely to the private which he is universally called is very expresssve of his character, like the old Hickory of General Jackson. If general Taylor should be elected to the Presidency, it would be very remarkable that a man should be elevated to that high office who had never, himself, given a vote. But we must say no more about old Rough and Ready lest we grew political, for politics is a tabood subject in our magazine.

The

Since our last number one republic, that of Mexico, has been very nearly erased from the catalogue of nations, and another one has sprang into existence on the coast of Africa, a very odd place for a republic. The following are the emblems of the new nation to which one of these days we may be sending consuls and ambassadors.

dwellings of our squares and avenues. The 'stores and ware houses recently erected, show the same signs of improvement and give evidence of the growing taste for sumptuous building. A block of truly splendid stores has just been finished on the site formerly occupied by Contoit's Garden, and between Maiden Lane and Liberty street, on the opposite side of Broadway, a block of chocolate coloured stores have just been completed, and are occupied by large jobbing houses from Pearl street. Lower down the opposite side a noble' warehouse has been erected on the site formerly occupied by the fine old mansion of Robert Lennox. The ground where Grace church stood is still vacant, but we shall soon see a free stone building rising there for the accomImodation of the Chinese Museum-at least so report says. But

FLAG: Six red stripes with five white stripes, alternately dis-one of the greatest improvements to be made in the city is the played longitudinally. In the upper angle of the flag, next to the spear, a square blue ground covering in depth five stripes. In the centre of the blue, one white star.

SEAL: A dove on the wing with an open scroll in its claws. A view of the ocean with a ship under sail-the sun just emerg; ing from the waters. A palm tree, and at its base a plough and spade. Beneath the emblems the word "Republic of Liberia," and above the emblems the national motto "the love of liberty has brought us here.'

So that there is another “lone star" to be added by-and-by to our brilliant galaxy before we are done annexing all creation to our territory.

The following ponderous hexameters hit two birds with one stone; they hit off very happily Col. Benton's hard looks at General Kearney, and burlesque Professor Longfellow's Evangeline at the same time.

erection of a magnificent hotel, on the corner of Chatham and Frankfort streets, opposite Tammany Hall; a spot which is now covered with old ricketty wooden sheds, which are occupied by all sorts of cheap uterchandizers. There is talk too of enlarging the City Hall, by adding to it a wing on Broadway, and another front on Chamber street, to correspond with the present build ing. This is an improvement as much needed for the accommedation of the business of the courts, as it is desired for beautifying the city. The new fountain in the Park, is nearly com pleted but we are sorry to see an iron fence put around the huge white marble basin, for the hot, dusty and parched denizens of our streets, will not be able to lave their hands and faces in the cool Croton, as they were in the habit of doing in the old muddy reservoir of the grass bordered fountain last summər.

The main portion of the village is situated upon a per-vent their retreat. fect level, known as the "platform." The sea breeze on the afternoon of a July or an August day, fan-like cools the air, and the scene, looking across the arm of the sea called the Sound," towards Long Island, covered at times with hundreds of "coasters," their sails filled to the breeze, is joyful and exciting in the ex