| Show forty years of american life the london athenaeum Athe nacum aas has a notice nodee of dr T L 2 nichols N now new book forty years of american life dr nichols W waa 18 a new hampshire man with secession proclivities who found now new york strange as it somewhat perilous to him and therefore went to europe he came to the conclusion that there were three courses to take go south risk mal martyrdom in the north or find refuge abroad the athenaeum says we I 1 recently eci antly spoke with a northern Nor thein exile holding views identical with I 1 those of dr nichols and asked him why lie was not figl ugh ting in the confederate ranks instead of eating a remarkable good dinner in the alie west end of london 1 I guess it must be because I 1 am a physical coward ja replied this enthusiastic partisan of the south if the war be unjust and needless tile the sin of it is not more attributable to those who advocate it than to those citizens north who fail to meet their government with constitutional opposition surely the patriot who runs horn his country at the period of her most need is not an ail exile whose lamentations over his atoru torn and bleeden bleeding native land wilett willi onse rouse commiseration mise mis ration cration in a land where moil men ale brave as well as free hole heie and there they contain a lively scrap of personal gossip I 1 a pleasant glimpse of rural stiral I 1 life in new eng england land foi doity ty years since pervaded by that transatlantic Ail antic quality which while it sc scarcely irce deserves to be stigmatized in as vulgarity gar ity or commended for humor is is sprightly enough to be entertaining antei tabling and rather too broad to be altogether p pleasant I 1 e amant but bat those these moie enlivening do not counteract the depressing pr pressing essin and narcotic influence of the dull straggling ill arran arranged P ed chapters cli apters in in which they are buried in one chapter lie he discourses of III manhattan Ilan hattan scoville the new york correspondent 0 01 the london herald ile he thus describes MANHATTAN he was born like barnum in the alic of wooden nut megs and steady habits babits the state of connecticut in his youth he entered the counting housa aliouse of a new adnew york firm of shipping C merchants and when scarcely of age 0 set up for himself in company with another equally enterprising youth in the same business I 1 never heard that they had any capital but their respective wits but these were enough to give them a good start in business and the film of manhattan co soon had ships sailing to india china and the realms of the of muscat f at munich lie ho made the acquaintance of lola li fontez who took a decided the enterprising ter young american whom in the s singular 1 mutations of her life she never forgot in consequence of some mismanagement in his absence or one of those commercial crisis to which america is subject the firm became banki bankrupt apt and manhattan was thrown upon tho world to make inake his fortune in other pur pursuits ile he embarked in politics helped to start a daily paper which 9 oon failed went to avchin washington ton be became came acquainted with john 0 calhoun the groat great south carolina states statesman maA was employed as his private secretary became his devoted disciple and rema remained iVed until his death after this event lie returned to now new york lie ile married a 1 relative of calhoun kalhoun Oal houn which appears to have given a permanence to his ic formation but this is a little in advance of my story returning to new york afta a considerable absence in 1852 and walking down broadway I 1 encountered 1 manhattan whom I 1 had last seen in the office of the secretary of state at washington Washing tou ile he greeted me cordially and invited me to call with him at a house in tb the lower dlower part of broadway in a first floor drawing room I 1 found a in monkey three dogs a a mocking bird a polish prince a an count a bundle of cigarettes a box of kigais a decanter of blandy and lola montez countess of lands feldt to whom manhattan 11 politely present presented ed me and who between the puffs of her ci gareta conversed with her visitors in three or four languages caresse caressed d her dogs Z scolded her ber monkey and was as lively sparkling and amiable and rattle headed beaded as she knew how to be she was fulfill fulfilling ingan an engagement 9 ga aam 0 gement ent at the broadway Bio adway theater NN where berc though but a novice as an ail actress and indifferent danseuse danse dans eusa she was brilliant entertaining ail and fascinating cina ting manhattan seemed to have charge 0 of her business affairs and lie he took pains to disabuse my mind or of any I 1 might have ac quieted respecting t the ladys charac ter assuring 0 me that though 0 liberal in in her sentiments and erratic in her manners alic was an ail admirable admira blo as well is as a charmi charming ncr personage age k 1 to return to manhattan 11 after settling down as amani amarii cd ed man mail lie he turned his attention to litera hu edited a of rough and ready rowdy kind of comic comie paper called tile the pic ahoi t for picayune the name of the smallest silver coin in new orleans when tired of this lie he commenced in one of the weeklies a s blics of sketches of old merchants of now new yolk this is always a popular kind of litera lill 0 and manhattan had bad peculiar facilities flora aiom a large acquaintance and a good memory these sketches have been published in a volume and appear to have leave had bad a good sale II 11 manhattan Man battan 11 letters on oil the war have been ve y curious lie ile is northern by birth and in feeling but southern in his principles and associations c friend and disciple of calhoun lie ho could not be other than a state rights man and secessionist ile he knows and cannot help despising tile the northern Nor thein politicians and Nor northern North thein cin military leaders but lie ho lives in new york in sight of fort lafayette hence his occasional unionism and extravagant trava gant reflection of the prevalent feel feeling i n around him st th there oc are indications g that lie he is prospering doubtless lie ho gets ets well paid paia for his letters mid and wl when ien ex exchange chango ia high 0 lie he knows enough to make the most of it ho he also holds a snug little office under tho the comman council of new yolk whose in members eMbers whatever they may think of secession havo little sympathy wito lincoln or the republican party |
