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220 THE COURANT; A SOUTHERN LITERARY JOURNAL

[Column 1]
The Courant.

COLUMBIA, S. C., THURSDAY, NOV. 10, 1859.

THE COURANT
Subscriptions for the Courant will be received at the Book-
store of Mr. P. B. GLASS, in this City, where single copies can
be obtained every week.

The office of the Courant has been removed to No. 144 Rich-
ardson Street, over Flanigan's Shoe-Store.

WM. W. WALKER, JR., & Co.

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The Change.
We have moved our editorial columns, for this issue, over to
the fourth page, in order to give room for the admirable essay
on "CICERO de Senectute." This noble production is not suffi-
cicently prized by those who should prize it most ; but we feel
sure that, after persuing the masterly sketch which we present
this week, no one will allow himself to remain unacquainted
with that singularly beautiful production. The essay is from
the pen of one of our best writers; his graceful and fluent
style can be scarcely fail to be recognized. There can be no doubt
that the essay is in every way highly appreciative not only of
CICERO's work, but of the beautiful subject itself.
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The Fair.

This is an important and interesting week unto all the citi-
zens of Columbia. The State Agricultural Fair commenced on
Tuesday, the 8th, and will continue until Friday next. The
agriculturists, the manufacturers, the mechanics of the State
are here to exhibit their skill—to win the triumphs awarded to
those who achieve the utmost in their respective departments.
The ladies, too, have gathered here in fine array, and nobly entered
the lists to win the prizes offered to them. Success, say
we, to this Fair, and to every other whose object it shall be to
exhibit the world the perfection, the skill and the industry
to which citizens of a limited yet gallant State have
attained.

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Palmetto Fire Engine Company Fair.

We invite the attention of our readers to the fact that the
Fair for the benefit of the Palmetto Fire Engine Company of
this city, is being held at the Athenæum Hall every evening this
week.

The organization of this Company—the purchase of a first
class engine, whose performances thus far have been most
creditable and satisfactory—have involved a heavy debt upon
the Company, which it has been resolved to remove by this
Fair. The "Palmettoes" have rendered signal service to the
city already—they deserve the hearty support of all our citi-
zens—and of all those who feel a deep and abiding interest in
the prosperity of Columbia. Like their gallant compeers "the
Independents," they have endeavoured to discharge the duties
assigned to them, and most ably have they acted whenever their
services were demanded. Their roll of members, headed by
Captain WILLIAM B. STANLEY, shews the material of which they
are composed ; and it is no small honour to state that the
Mayor of the City, Hon. ALLEN J. GREEN, was their Vice
President, until placed, by virtue of his office, at the head of
the City Government. Their actions speak far louder for them
than any praise we might bestow.

It is with feelings of gratification and pride we announce
that the "Independents," the old an always gallant Firemen,
whose services have been attested by our history for more than
twenty years—enter most heartily into this Fair for the benefit
of their ever-generous rivals, the "Palmettoes." The best and
the kindliest feelings exist, and we hope will ever exist between
the two organizations—both of which have the same object in
view—the safety and welfare of this beautiful City, to which
we all belong—and in which we expect to live—and in whose
cemetery we expect to be buried—when the cares, the strife,
the turmoil, the joys and sorrows of life are over.

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VISITORS to our City, this week, will do well to call at those
establishments whoses cards will be found in advertising
columns. They will be well received, and every accommoda-
tion offered that might be desired.

The advertistments of Captain STANLEY and of Messrs.
COOPER & GAITHER were received too late for insertion this
week—but will appear in our next issue. We must say in ad-
vance, however, that Captain STANLEY's Crockery Store is a
dangerous place to visit with ladies. So many beautiful and
attractive articles are there found, that lady visitors are sure
to purchase something before they leave.

At the jewellery store of Messrs. COOPER & GAITHER, an
exceedingly well-selected assortment of all articles in their line
will be found. The temptations presented are difficult to over-
come—especially when one has plenty of "funds."

Those desirous of seeing the perfection to which the photo-
graphic art in its various branches can be carried will do well to
call in at the Gallery of Messrs. WEARN & HIX. They will be
exceedingly gratified, we have no doubt, at the beautiful speci-
mens of fine art exhibited.

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FEW pity us for our misfortunes—thousands hate us for our
success.

[Column 2]
Dominique Rouquette.
Our readers are aware that a very considerable non-English
literature is growing up in this country. In our article on the
Abbé Rouquette's poems (see Courant of August last), we took
some pains to enumerate the French-Creole writers who are
making for themselves most desireable names, not only at home,
but in Europe. In our Franco-American literature, the names
of Oscar Dugué, the historian Gayarré, Mr. Chaudron, and
the poet-brothers Rouquette, have already a very considerable
fame. We have the pleasure to inform our readers that Loui-
siana Southern State—is making rapid advances in the right
direction of a pure and true literature.

It will be interesting to most of those who will see this paper,
to know who applauds our French-writing brethren of Loui-
siana. In speaking of the Abbé Rouquette, we had a splendid
list of illustrious French critics who praised him ; we now shall
lay before our readers translations of the letter of three well-
known French writers who have given their opinion of the
merits of the "Fleurs d`Amerique" by M. Dominique Rouquette:

"PARIS, April 20, 1859.

"Monsieurs, et cher Confrére: — I have received, with the great-
est pleasure, and read, with the eagerness of a lover of fine
poetry, your volume. You cannot imagine the interest which
is aroused by a poetical publication in French which comes to us
from the New World. It seems almost like taking posession,
by our beautiful language, of the land in which LaFayette and
the Marquis de Montcalm commenced the noblest of civiliza-
tions. But I prefer the tongue to the sword, for war, always
so attractive in the Past, is a most displeasing thought for the
Future.

"I thank you for having inserted my 'Ode to America' in
the first of your book. I am proud of my Preface, since, in
giving it such an honourable place, you shew that you under-
stand that my Ode is not a cold arrangement of rhymes and
hemistiches, but a cry from my heart. Ah ! were it not that I
dread the sea, I should have known America long ago ; but
this still ocean kills me; I have made twenty attempts, and I
am sure that the ocean is, for me, impassable.

"Believe me, dear sir and brother,

"Your affectionate MERY.
"51 Rue de Notre Dame de Lorette."
————
(M. Eugéne Guinot to M. Saliquy.)

"MY DEAR SALIQUY:—I thank you for the volume of Mr.
Rouquette which you have sent me ; and I pray you to thank
for me the author, who had the kindness to send me this pack-
age. I have read the book of Mr. Rouquette from one end to
the other, and rarely has a volume of verses so pleased me. It
is true and good poetry, which merits well the name ; sweet
and fresh flowers from America, opened under a beautiful sun,
rare and fragrant. It is plesant to see our dear French lan-
guage so well spoken, so well written and so successfully cul-
tivated in foreign countries ; at which you should rejoice with
me, you who possess such literary spirit and taste.
"Paris, 3 June, 1859. EUGENE GUINOT."

————
(Emile Deschamps to Dominique Rouquette.)

"VERSAILLES, 13 April, 1859.

"DEAR AND EXCELLENT POET:—How shall I thank you for
your charming and poetical souvenir? Or rather, how could
I help thanking you a thousand times, from the bottom of my
heart? Your 'Fleurs d` Amerique' have all the grace, all the
perfume, all the freshness, of their forest prototypes. If I
knew a sweeter or more glorious method of compliment, I
should employ it.

"How many things in this delicious collection should I ment-
ion! I shall not attempt it ; but I will say that the most ex-
quisite art of form here beautifies the solidity of foundation ;
that the style is always even with the thought and sentiment ;
and lastly, that the various rhythms are used by you with quite
as much power as the Alexandrine verses. You touch with one
hand Virgil, with the other, Horace.

"This morning, with Alex. Cosnard—a true poet, also—we
read your poetry aloud before three or four persons who are
sick with poetry, and all were charmed.

"M. de Grilleau, of New Orleans, is very proud of his coun-
trymen, the poets Adrien and Dominique Rouquette, and joins
his 'bravos' to mine. Thus, then, I salute the brother-poets,
bearers of the Lyre, across the ocean, and beg of them a long
remembrance
* * * * *

"Adieu, dear poet, without saying adieu! thanks, and bravo!"

"A vous de tout moi, EMILE DESCHAMPS."

Here are the splendid testimonials of European genius to
one of our Southern authors! No little village fame—no
wretched party-popularity. Success, then, to our Creole bard!

We add a line to express what we have often heard said be-
fore, by people who could not procure these New Orleans
issues, "Why do they not publish, so that all can get the
books?" We hopw to be able to chronicle this end as attained,
ere long.

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IN order to deserve a true friend, you must be a good one.

[Column 3]
Lola Montez.
What a series of vicissitudes has this strange being expe-
rienced! By turns engaged in politics, matrimony, travelling,
divorce, cow-hiding editors, lecturing, writing books, and at
last converted to Christianity and settling down into a quiet,
orderly human. As she has written enough—or, at least pub-
lished enough with her name to it as author—to justify the
mention of her as one of the world's writers, we chronicle facts
about her for the benefit of such of our readers as may have her
books. The New York correspondent of the Courier says:

"Many persons doubted that the Mrs. Heald who arrived
here last week was the veritable, genuine original Lola Montez.
But such was the fact, notwithstanding their doubts. Lola is
here, living quietly in Brooklyn, in a private family. She is
with persons who have been friends to her in all her ups and
downs. Lola's name was registed on a steamer's books as
Mrs. Heald, because she claims it as her lawful title. In all
buisness matters she has always signed her in a way.
Lieut. Heald, her husband, died some years ago, possessing
considerable property, and though Lola had left him, and re-
linquished all claims upon him and his estate, in his will he
left her an annuity of £500, or $2,500. Lola professes to have
experienced a change of heart, and her friends claim that she
has been for some time leading the life of a devoted and sin-
cere Christian. But there is no telling when shew will break
out in a new place."

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Who Did It?

We happened to be reading, the other day, "Sir Galahad,"
in the blue-and-gold edition of TENNYSON, when a strange word
struck us in the perusal, like some uncouth discord in music.
Where he is speaking of his vision of the Holy Grail, borne by
the angels, Sir Galahad says:

"Ah, blessed vision! blood of God!

My spirit beats her mortal bars

While down dark tides the glory glides,

And, star-like, mingles with the stars."

So reads MIXON's London edition of TENNYSON (1859). But
both editions of TICKNOR & Fields, one published in 1851, the
other in 1856, make it read

"And star-light mingles with the stars."

This comes very ear being nonsense; how did such a blunder
creep into the Boston edition? Awake, Frogpondia! such
things as this are disgraceful.

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The Quaker-Abolitionist Bard

JOHN G. WHITTIER has hammered out an immense deal of
rhymes, which his friends pronounce wonderfully fine, and
which people farther south call "nigger-minstrelsy." The ex-
tract below contains some truth, and several absurdities. How
can a man be the advocate of "spiritual freedom' when he is
always busy in abusing all who happen to think otherwise than
he, in his serene widom, does? As to his "Pegasus grinding
in the mill of unpopular reform," there is another blunder ;
WHITTIER'S rhymed lies about slavery are highly admired at
the North. How our man of the Transcript can reconcile his
conflicting statements, we cannot see: "WHITTIER," says he,
"is intensely sectional," is an "iconoclast ;" that is to say, he
goes about trying to stuff his Yankee notions down every man's
throat, or break up the prosperous condition of affairs ; yet,
withal, "he is the earnest and uncompositing advocate of
spiritual and personal freedom." (Sic !)

"The Boston Transcript says of Whittier: 'As compared with
his prose writing—literary, political and reformatory—his
poems have really occupied but a small share of his attention.
A large proportion of his lyrics were written for immediate
effect, and are local and temporary in their character. Wisely
or unwisely, he has made his Pegasus grind in the mill of un-
popular reform. He is an iconoclast, not an artist. His Qua-
ker training and his intense sectionalism have undoubtedly
retarded his literary success ; and his reputation as a poet must
always be subordinated to that of the earnest and uncompro-
mising advocate of spiritual and personal freedom. Of this
he is doubtless well aware. In some playful lines addressed
to his friend Fields, he thus alludes to the devotees of art :

'I could not reach you if I would,

Nor sit among your cloudy shapes;

And (spare the fable of the Grapes

And Fox) I would not if I could.' "

M. MARIETTE, in his travels in Egypt, has discovered the
tomb of a queen, princess, or some opulent person of the
olden time. Near the mummy of the departed was found a
multitude of objects and ornaments, very valuable as to mate-
rial, but still more so for their elegance, taste, and workman-
ship. This unexpected discovery was at once designated for
the future museum of Cairo; but, as some of the articles
required mending and cleaning, the viceroy requested M. MA-
RIETTE to get this work of restoration executed in Paris. He,
at the same time, permitted him to shew the said curiosities to
the amateurs of the French capital. It was in that way that
the Academy of Inscriptions had the advantage of seeing
spread out for its inspection an almost complete Egyptian toilet
of the time of Cleopatra, Semiramis, or some other celebrated
beauty. There were coronets, necklaces, ear-rings, bracelets,
pins and rings, all of which, for purity of design and form,
elegance of ornamentation, and delicacy of workmanship, surpass
all conception. One of the most remarkable articles was
a gold necklace, formed of bees with outspread wings, which
must have produced a most charming effect on the neck of a
pretty woman.