Life — January 15, 1885 — page 4: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

6“ ORTH” says the Boston Budget, “is making his wraps in such a way that they give a slender ef- fect to the figure. This is good news. It is the general impression that Worth has a sweet little way of giving a rather larger effect to the figure than most pocket-books can stand. * . * JOPE LEO is afraid to sit alone at dinner because he is superstitious about XIII at table! ° . * HE most heart rending post-Christmas wail was that of the Fashion Item writer who remarked : “ There is nothing new in stockings this year.” . . . CONTEMPORARY asks “ What Is Zero ?” The answer is inevitable— “O, nothing.” « . . GENTLEMAN of an investigating turn of mind has written an essay upon what breaks the Irish heart. It seems singular that so important an article as the shila- lah is entirely omitted. . * . TT eider duck does not, Dr. Sundstrom, of Stockholm, has ascertained, take her young during the summer into the ocean, as is so generally supposed, but remains with them among the islands on the coast. This seems to confirm the statement that the shrinkage in incomes so prevalent in New York, is really general through- out the world and that the summer hotel business is as bad around Stockholm as along the Jersey coast. . . . EVENTEEN thousand packs of playing cards were burned in Ohio last week. Up to the hour of going to press no boy who stood on the burning deck has been reported. . . . OL. OLIVER PAYNE, son of Senator-Oilect Payne, of Ohio, is said to be ambitious for an important post under Mr. Cleveland’s Administration. It is, undoubtedly, a sort of kerosene lamp-post that Mr. Payne is after. * * . T HE 7/mes is, on most occasions, a most concise expo- nent of the English language, and for this reason we beg to ask its esteemed conductors why they speak of a man as a ‘dishonest Probate Judge?" Why could they not simply dub him a “ Re-Probate Judge,” thereby saving both time and type ? HAIL COLUMBIA! R. WHITTIER has lately declared in letters and inter- views published in the Boston Herald, the genial Dr. Holmes to be ‘“ Montaigne and Bacon under one hat,” and that Longfellow poetry “combines the qualities of Byron, Shelley and Goethe ;” and Dr. Holmes has said in his new life of Emerson that his Threnody is superior to Milton's Lycidas, and at least equal to Shelley's Adonais. Briefly, we are told that the Massachusetts men excel Bacon, Montaigne, Cowper, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Milton and Goethe. In short, see them, and go ‘em one better. May we not respectfully ask if that “Great Bird of our Coun- try" really does out-soar the eagles of France and Germany, and out-roar the British lion in the department of public literature ? POCKET BIOGRAPHIES. THOMAS DEWITT TALMAGE. Born in New Fersey in 1832. R. TALMAGE is the clown of the ecclesiastical arena, and wherever he is there is a circus, His delivery of a sermon resembles the antics of a monkey on a stick, and he seeks to attract a man with a soul to be saved by means akin to those used by the intelligent keeper of a Dime Museum. But before the awful presence of Dr. Talmage the great- est living curiosity of all and every Dime Museum, must pale its ineffectual fires and steal away silent and ashamed. HENRY JAMES. Born in New York in 1843. R, James is an international novelist of accidental Amer- ican birth. He wrote ‘“ The Europeans” from obser- vation, but he evolved “ The American " from his inner con- sciousness. He is the original of Mr. Hale's “ Man Without a Country.” It is wished that somebody would sharpen his “point of view "—and then stick it into him. MRS. VICTORIA MOROSINI-SCHELLING-HUVLSKAMP, Born in New York in 1864. RS. Victoria Morosini-Schelling-Huylskamp acted on the advertiser's advice and made a safety match, which she struck only on the box. With this she lighted the Hymenial altar. In regard to her complex name only one remark may be hazarded. Now that she has taken to singing, she is Mme. Huylskamp and it is the public which is Schelling—out its dollars to look at her. CHARLES A, DANA, Born in New Hampshire in 1819. R, DANA is the editor of the New York Sun, which, like the little bootblack, shines for all, although Mr. Dana is not always as careful as his youthful rival in the selec- tion of his blacking, or of the most appropriate place for its application. comicbooks.com