Morning journal (Columbus, Ohio), 1867-05-22

              . i . . - i Vi - . -U i . l .". J V j U'ilaiUi'. will I T 1 EE ;W0 1 & "X JDS J0H7R NXL.' ' " "" ' ' ' " ' ' . -, . . . . ' ' VOL. XXIX. COLUMBUS, OHIO: WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1867. NO. 271; TELEGRAPHIC. REPORTED FOR THE JOURNAL. FOREIGN NEWS. BY THE ATLANTIC CABXJE. Ens-land -The American Question. London, May 21 Eve. Earl Derby says, officially, that the Amerl-. can question can be amicably adjusted. The proposition, made some time since, to arbitrate the whole case, has been refused. Commercial Failure. Liverpool, May 21 Eve. F razier, Trenholm & Co., cotton merchants of this city, it is said, have suspended. ' Liabilities large. ,The Sultan to f o to the Exposition. Constantinople, May 21. The Sultan goes to the Paris Exposition early in July. Plot to Amassinate the Kin? of Prussia ana uount minium. Berlin, May 20. A horrible plot has been discovered in Hanover, having for its chief purposes the assassination of King 'William and Count Bismark. Several notables residing in this city are involved. Several arrests have been made, and it is thought the scheme has been -entirely frustrated. Southampton, May 21. The steamer America from New York has . arrived. Illness of the I'eaian Burke; London, May 21. It is reported that the Fenian, Burke, recently convicted, is lying so ill in his cell ' that his life is despaired of. WASHIN6T0NSPECIALS. The Surratt Trial Hon. John A. Bing- uum, New York, May 21. The World's special says : Surratt's trial will be postponed till the 3d Monday in June, when the government will be ready. Hon. John A. Bingham from Ohio, Judge Advocate, who prosecuted Payne and Atzerot on the military trial, has been invited to be one of the Prosecuting Attorneys in the trial of eurratt. NEW YOHK. The Booth Diary A Braggadocia De fense oi a lowarmy ueea. New York, May 21 The Booth diary Is published. It is simply a defense of his nctlon. He says nuder date of April 13, and 14: "Until to-day nothing was ever thought of sacrificing to our coun try's wrongs. For sir months we had work' ed to capture, but our cause being almost lost, something decisive and great must be done. But its failure was owing to others who did not strike for their country wltli a heart. I struck boldly, and not as the papers say. I walked with a firm step through a thousand of his friends, and was stopped, but pushed on. A Colonel was at his side. I shouted, 'Sic temper! before I fired. In jumping, I broke my leg. I passed all his pickets ; rode sixty miles that night with the boue of my leg tearing the flesh at every lump. I can never repent It, though we hated to kill. Our country, owed all her troubles to nlm, and God simply mane me tnc instrument of his nunlshment. The country is not (Arrll. 1865,) what it was.- This forced union Is net what I have loved. -1 enre not what becomes of me. I have no desire to outlive mv country. This night, before the deed, I 'wrote a long article, and left It for one of the editors of the National Intelligencer, in which I fully set forth our reasons for our proceeding. The New York Express Murder in Brooklyn Murderer Arrested. Erastus Brooks having purchused all the right, title and interest of 8. T. Clark in the New York Express, and the case at law of Clark vs. Jesse Brooks having been amicably settled, the Express will continue to be pub lished by Jesse Brooks as equal proprietor. Wm. Bishop Carr, a citizen of Brooklyn, was murdered last night by ex-l'ollcc Sergeant Skldmore, by shooting with an air- gun. The murderer was arrested. Skeleton keys were found on him, indicating an In tentlon to commit burglary, Personal Jeff. Davis Writ of Habeas Corpus Granted luiportaut Case Do cided Circular. Senator Stewart, of Nevada, and Justice Field, of the Supreme Court, sailed for Call rornla to-day. Jeff. Davis and family left for Montreal A writ of habeas corpus was granted In 1 the Prussian extradltloucaso of Phillip ncln r ch. A suit against the Mutual Benefit Life In . surance Co., New Jersey, to recover a policy of 110,000 with Interest for eight years, bos been decided for plaintiff. The company had refused payment, because their agent In the city received payment of premiums after the time thereror bad expired. A circular from the Comptroller of Cur rency establishes the fact that no unlawful conversion of registered bonds into coupons bonds has been mado by the authority of the department. Proceedings of Presbytorian General As svmoiy. Rochester, May 21 In the General Assembly of tho Prcsby terlaus to day, tho appeal of Silas Miller from the dcclslon-of-lke Illinois Synod elic ited much discussion. Morning Session mostly occupied In recording Irish delegates, Drs. Aral) and Denham, Dr. Ezra R. Adams of Philadelphia, and Dr. Henry M. Field, ofJNew York Evangelists, appointed dele' catcs to Scotch and Irish assemblies. ILLINOIS. Failure. Cbicaoo. May 21. Messrs. Hinder & Porter, commission merchants; have failed, caused by cotton operations and bad Souther debt. Liabilities .$170,000. J i t; MICHIGAN. Harder Fenian Nass meeting, Detroit, May 21. A murder was committed to-dav in the town of Columbus, St. Clair county. Two young men named Curley and McCall had a quarrel of long standing and culimated in the latter being shot through the head bv Cur ley. He was not arrested at last acconuts. I he Fenians have a mass meeting to-night. Speeches were made by Meehan and Colonel vvaisn. Indignation Meeting. Springfietd, May 21. An Indignation meeting has been called by prominent citizens to-morrow night to determine what action the people will take to suppress the unmerciful cruelty, wanton barbarity and other helneous crimes in the public schools. WASHINGTON. The Mississippi Injnnction Case. . - Washington, May 21. Gen. Grant has returned. There seems no doubt that the Justice who denied filing of me amenaca Din in tne Mississippi injunction case, did so on the ground that it had no revelancy to the original bill, and was not supported by proof that Gen. Ord intended to seize the property of the State ; and besides it was considered that if such course should be pursued by Gen. Ord, the remedy would be in application for injunction apart from considerations connected with the Reconstruction act. . . . TENNESSEE. ; Klilitia Ordered Oat. Times' Knoxvlllo special, says Captain Chamber's company, Scott county militia, have been ordcrded to Anderson county to remain there during court, in which several important suits of a political nature are to be tried. Other companies are soon to be mustered and ordered into active service. VIRGINIA. I General GrantThe Pennsylvania Cap italists. New York, May 21. Gen. Grant and and partv left Richmond yesterday, for Old Point. There was no tour over the battle-fields. The Pennsylvania capitalists express them selves highly pleased with their trip through Virginia, and it is believed that the visit will result in large investments being made in Virginia. MEXICO. Later from Mexico A Levy of 12,000,000 -Secretary Seward's Letter. New York, May 21. The Herald's Matamoras correspondence, of the 10th, says Juarez has levied frestnmot to tne amount or ss.uoww). immediately alter the receipt of becrctarv Seward's letter, he Issued orders In reference to the treatment of Maximilian, saying that his lite snouiu be spared. As It was feared that Escobedo would have the unfortunate prince assassinated, notwithstanding orders to tho contrary, that General was sent to command an expedition against Canales, who had rebelled in the north. Corona, considered tho ablest of tho Mexican Generals, was appointed to succeed him, and now com mands all the armies of the Republic. An imperial reconnoltcrlug party, includ ing one of Maximilian's Adjutants, had been captured and shot. MASSACHUSETTS. Contributions to the Cretans Arrosts. Boston, May 21. Tho cash contributions for the suffering Cretans amount to $18,500, besides large quantities of clothing. There is no dimiuution in the arrests for drunkenness since the cloying of the bars. MISSOURI. Protection to Travel on the Plains. St. Louis, May 21. Gen. Howard lias ordered two companies of cavalry to be stationed at Ulialk Bluffs, two at Monument, ana two at lilg Timber Station, on the Smokcy Hill route. Ho will also put a military guard' at each station on the route, from Lookout to Lake fetation, in elusive, which, with the additional men era ployed by the Union racillc Railroad and Express companies, it is believed, will give entire security to the mall and travel across the Plains by this route. ALABAMA. Senator Wilson at Huntsville Judge Kcllcy. New York, May 21. Senator Wilson mado the last address of his tour through tho South, at Huntsville, Ala., yesterday. Thcuce he rcturus to his home. Judge Kelly addressed an audience of some three thousand people, mostly colored, it AV lanta, ua., yesterday. CANADA. A Double IHurdcr. Port Colbukn, 0. W., May 20. On Saturday night, a man named Meuno urayblll, shot his brother-in-law, John Wal lace, through tho heart, and was shortly af terward shot himself, by his own brother, tamuol urayoiu. The parings of a bushel of Juicy apples are said to yield a quart of elder by the aid of a band-press. Tho honey that wastes Its sweetness on the air around an acre of back wheat In blossom, can be saved to the amount of fifteen pounds per day, according to the estimates ot a German Investigator. Rags can be saved to tho amount of $000,000,000, ns shown by the paper statistics of this year alone. How to Bonk a Turret. Get up at two o clock A. fil. The darker it is the better. Climb over yonr neighbor's fence, and bone the flrnt gobbler you can. i on had better bone two or three as yon are at It, a It saves trouble. You will find this plan very eco nomical. ' The Era akd its Course. A friencr.' for whom we entertain a most exalted respect, wishes to know how far the Era intends to go in its political travels. We reply, that we shall go 03 far as we please and no farther. lo be more explicit, however, we intend to keep up fully with the great march of human progress, advocating every doctrine which has for its purpose the elevation, enlightenment and development of the American people. We have no idea of being run over and crushed out of this mortal existence by the rapid advance movements oi others. Thirty million of freemen are moving, moving, moving, and if we of the South halt upon the great track of human progress, we shall simply be run over, destroyed and forgotten. Finally, we shall advance as far as is necessary to-day, and let to-morrow take care of itself. Atlanta New Era. The Parisian papers say that the Ambassador of Slam was present at the opening of the Exposition, and that at the approach of the Emperor and Empress, he threw himself on the gre-und and insisted that they should walk over his back. Since that was not correct, the whole imperial cortege came to a stand-still. They tried to make the Ambassador understand that his humility was unnecessary. All in vain ; he had to be lifted up by some ofllcers and sot on his feet. The Paris Charivari says that four Englishmen recently went into a cafe on one of the Boulevards and played the following curious game of chess. TLey drew chalk lines on a billiard table and divided it into 64 squares, and then took bottles of wiue to represent the chessmen champagne for kings, Burgundy for queens, Bourdeaux for rooks, and Argenteuil for pawns. The game began two against two. Whenever a piece was taken, the winners had. to empty the bottle. The result was simple. Since the pawns were sacrificed first, the sons of Albion were under the table before they had reached the finer wines. The following was among the resolutions adopted by the O. S. Presbyterian General Assembly, at Cincinnati: Resolved, That the large and increasing distributions of the publications of the Board among the freedmen, and also among many churches of tho South which have been impoverished by war, meets the cordial approval of the Assembly, and that our churches be urged to contribute the means of fully meeting the calls which are coming up with increasing earnestness for aid in the supply of our Southern brethren with a sound, evangelical literature. Rev. Mr. P., of Portsmouth N. H., was at family devotions, explaining i the nature of prayer. Ills little son four! years of age eagerly Inquired, "Can we ask God for anything we want V" "Certainly," was the answer. Chancing soon aftef to pass the child's slccplng-room the father saw him on his knees. Drawing near he vis Ukeu aback "ov hearing the vounjrster cluw Ms petition thus: "And please, God, make my mother Cry me some doughunts." The Hebrews of Mecklenburg have petition ed the German Parliament civil rights. It appears that Hebrews there are prohibited from owning real estate In the country, and can purchase ground In the city only after obtaining the permission or the (Government. They cannot acquire civil r'irhts, and when engaged in mercantile pursuits cannot carry on business without a permit. The Citizens' Union of Brunswick, in Ger many, has passed a resolution abolishing the practice of taking off the hat as a token or recognition. 1 he members beg tne public to "regard a touching of the hat, or a courteous movement of the hand as an expression of esteem." A man lately made application for iusu ranee on a building situated In a village where there was no Are engine. He was asked: "What are the facilities In vour village for extinguishing a fire?" "Well, it rains sometimes," he replied with great simplicity.A correspondent of the New York Eve ning Post suggests that, as Jen. Davis Is to be lu that city this week, would it not be proper to ask all persons disabled In the cause of the Union to keep out of his way, so as not to wound his reelings. An eminent spirit merchant in Dublin an nounces in an IrUh paper that he has still on hand a small quantity of the very whisky which was druuk by George IV., when that exemplary monarch was on a visit to the cap ltal of Ireland. An ingenious Individual at Lee, Mass., lately suggested as a means of painting one of the tall church spires there,"that the paint be mixed lu one of the tanks tnd the lire en glues bo got out to squirt It tip." Ox the 7th of May. Frederick McGlnnls was married to Ellen Barnes at Fortress Monroe. Frederick and Ellen were colored servants to Jefferson Davis, and remained faithful to him during all bis troubles. Gen. Moiioan, ot New York, has donated one thousand dollars to tho Congressional Republican comnmtec, which Is now send lug agents South to politically organize the freedmen, and to distribute speeches, etc. A Strasbuiui paper complains of the god less dealings of the Free Masons In that part of the country, who are distributing Protost- aut Bibles and Immoral romances among the good Catholics there. Dr. Ciiahn, In his address to his Sunday School children In New orkon Sunday last. felicitously remarked thattheouly May poles we have had this year have been umbrella sticks. The owner of a woolen mill In Austria recently committed suicide, because, at the recent marriage of his daughter, her veil was accidentally torn in two. An agricultural paper says clean fine sand sprinkled over seeds when sown In flower beds will cause them to vegetate more read liy. Tut Memphis (Tcnn.) Post, la a late No, reported 316 white and 1D34 colored voters then registered lo that city. , - For the Columbus Journal. MOESE MAESH BALL. I have a few words to say on a question that, according to the Round Table and certain other New York journals, has already tired out the public a question, indeed, they tell ns, with which the public has nothing to do and for which it cares nothing, forsooth. And yet these authorities have thought it necessary to give in their verdict on this question, nevertheless. Were if not for the apparent respectability and undoubted influence of these newspapers (one of them no less popular leader or follower than the New York Tribune,) I Bhould willingly say let it answer itself at its own good leisure, as it most certainly will, for Time is pretty sure to do justice to tho plagiarist as well as to the horse-thief or the murderer. But meanwhile the critical opinions of the Tribune, the Round Table, and other New York journals, which have hastily reviewed the pamphlet taken as my text, let Mrs. Elizabeth Akers Allen (who dislikes very much, I know, to have her name appear in so uncalled for a controversy as has made New Jersey "ring from side to side" lately) stand charged before that presumedly-careless public as an appropriator of and pretender to another's literary property. It seems to me hard that even Mr. Ball should be placed in such a position ; how much harder that the real and undoubted author should have to bear this fate ! The Round Table sneeringly refers to "her absurd claim," and talks as if she had been worrying the newspapers on the subject, as a few of her friends, well-meaning friends, may have done. Now, Mr. and Mrs. Allen are personal friends of mine, and I happen to know that she has never publicly made any effort to es tablish the fact of her authorship, except in the one letter addressed to Mr. William Cul-len Bryant, In 1865, published In the New York Evening Post at that time, afterwards copied into many other newspapers, and now embodied in this pamphlet. That letter she felt called upon to write because of little malicious personal hints thrown 6ut in society regarding her as a pretender to the author ship of the popular song. Her letter was written before Mr. Ball was ever heard of by her, and referred only to lady claimants, of whom there were nearly half a dozen. An utter stranger could hardly read that letter without an unhesitating belief; its tone is playful, it shows a carefulness of presuming on the public attention, and its close has a charming naivete, and perhaps a little gentle bright severity. It was no claim; it was merely an affirmation. Since then she has said not one single word. Kone of Iter friends ever for a moment doubted Iter ownership ; not one of then ever will. Her letter deserves to accompany the poem as an interesting comment on its history to Its sure Immortality. Now let me speak of this poem itself, which is held to afford an uninteresting topic to the world at large. I do not wish to overrate It ; I am conscious of its position. It belongs to minor poetry, so-called, which includes the great majority of precious house hold poems. Gray's Elegy is a minor poem ; Wolfe's Burial of Sir John Moore Is a minor poem j nearly all of Longfellow's and Teuny son's poems are minor poemd Tennvson. himself, is, according to the North American Review, a minor poet. This poem belongs to that class, but it is an Individual ; it has no like and no equal in its special sentiment and theme. You eaunot find in the English- lan guage a poem referring to a mother's love and the life-long yearning in a child's heart, in hours of sadness, loneliness and weariness, comparable with this one. That it will be read and repeated after every song yet writ ten and sung In America Is forgotten, I have no doubt. . It cannot wear out. It Is perfect of Its kind ; It flows from the heart a brook of genuine lyric feeling and It flows Into the heart; it is the heart's simple and genuine echo; its lines aro like the gcntlo rocking of the cradle that a mother's face looks over. This poem, If tho author, thoughtless of its good fortune, had but copyrighted it, would have returned an income such as few singlo poems have ever brought their authors. As It was, she probably received from a Philadelphia editor shall I say a ten-dollar check? Then the pilferers began j the music dealers trapped the sweet auouymous (nameless with that pseudonym of " Florence Percy,") and sold it by the hundred thousand. Tho newspapers tried to conceal it In those obscure corners where fixed or unfixed tallow candles make-believe star-light and aro sclu-tlllant. I refer you to your own "Poet's Corner " during tho year 1800, where I believe I first saw it. And how It has been read I How voices of men have melted Into low trebles and tender monotones over it. Tho authorship of such a poem has no Interest for tho public? It has I Who wrote it ? Mr. A. II. W. Ball, of New Jersey, says tho Round Table. Mr. A. II. W. Ball, as we learn from the pamphlet or from the newspapers, Is a gentleman of middle age, enjoys a competence, is respectable In every way, and was formerly (or Is now) a member of the New Jersey Legislature. Mr. Morse, his vindicator, Is a gentleman of Cherry Val- Root tit to Surer Mother : with a vindication of the rlatm of Alexander M. W. Ball to tht authnnhlp of this poem, By J. A. None, wua an mmxnirwry note from Luther R. Mann. Mew York: M. W. bods, publisher. ley, New York j Mr. Luther R. Marsh, who Introduces the pamphlet, is (we are forced to know, for we didn't inquire) an "eminent member of the New York bar." The New York Tribune, examining the claim set up lu the pamphlet of Mr. Morse, in which a version aptly called by Mr. Ball's Vindicator " an exquisite mosaic," (let the word remain what it is, confession !) is printed with the original, says: "Readers who have the curiosity to compare the two versions here set side by side will certainly find a singular harmony of sentiment and expression, and of the tliglU natural touches which indicate that they are all the production of the same mind. Other specimens of Mr. BaWs poetry (?) are also broughtforward, written at internals from 1852 to 1850, which afford striking evidence that they emanated from tlie same source as Vie song in question! Shame I This is either the most wretchedly incapable pretense of authority in America, or the rankest and most malicious act of critical dishonesty, falsehood, and injustice. Let us read tho Tribune's three-columned puffs after this, and know that they are, Instead of public critical guides, gigantic swindles on the reader's eyes literary advertisements.Mr. Ball's "poetry" (New York Tribune) Is simply and utterly beneath contempt. Not one of the selections printed as specimens could ever have gained admission even into the columns of the Tribune as a contribution. (I do not mean, you see, to praise Mr. Ball's "poetry" very highly !) And die only lines thai haw a poetic quality are a direct and wholesale appropriation from Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman's beautiful autumn-poem beginning, "I love to wander through the woodlanda hoary, Through the soft gloom of an autumnal day, While Summer gathers up her robes of glory, And like a dream of beauty glides away." Mr. Ball, hardly changing a word, prints this as the first stanza of one of the "specimens" given. Besides this plagiarized stanza (recognized at once by a Mend of Mrs. Whitman's in my presence) there is hardly a line of poetic suggestion, except the genuine song of Mrs. Allen's, in the book. From one direct and undoubted plagiarism, how many others might follow? From one learn all. True, he gives the words and the music and rhymes of Mrs. Whitman without the thought, without any thought; he has not swallowed Mrs. Allen's song and taken the life out of it he merely enfolds and tries to hide it under the threadbare garments of nine addi tional stanzas nnd calls it all his own 1 The beauty stands bewildered in rags and patchworkpicked from, as Pope has it, "the Lord knows where!" If it could be proved by rapping spiritual Vltnesses (this would be, I admit, conclu sive !) that Mr. Ball was author of this poem four years before it was written by Mrs. Allen, she at least would deserve the credit of authorship for relieving it safely and utterly ol those nine additional stanzas. There is a certain fable of a lion's skin somewhere; will Mr. Ball have us presume that he is a poet (however unwilling he Is, indeed, to leave his flue house and accept that martyrdom!) by wrapping himself in a poet's reputation? We unfortunately see, we are sorry to observe, a member (an ex-member ?) of tho New Jersey Legislature. And, as we presume the Legislature of New Jersey, Is like all Legislatures, an Honorable Body, we are willing to confess to the honorable body of Mr. Ball. . Per-sonally I have no feeling against this gentleman ; I only fear be has misled himself in the first place, and then allowed his friends to try to mislead the public. As a merabcrof the New Jersey Legislature ho has my sympathy I ouco traveled on tho Now Jersey Railroad ; as a man of middle life and family, he has my respect; as a gentleman of social posi tion and competence or wealth, I congratulate him ; as a lover of his mother, I admire him and feel for him as a man I know as well as ho what I would appropriate from the poem of my friend Mrs. Allen ; but as author of that poem Mr. Ball must confessor be elected, I fear, for another benevolent Institution (not tho Legislature) of New Jer- Our State is trying to provide a new one. ... And for Mr. Ball's friends, Messrs. Morse Marsh et at., (his friends come into pamphlet-form chiefly under Initials) let them stand back I This Is not a trial, unfortunately, In which such evidence as theirs is competent. Let us see. "It is a wise child that knows its own father;" who is to determine the paternity of poems? The Father of all, poets and men, must bo tho father of all poems. Who shall decide tho maternity, let me say, then, of poems ? What witness can come to any human bar and testify to the poet's conception and a poem's birth ? AVe know when children are born but who ever saw a poet give birth to a poem? Tho doctor makes no call. Putting on paper Is merely copylug the manuscript of God Is In the soul, and only the poet Is witness of his original. Only poets produco poems, and wo must accept their authorship as a matter of iltnplo faith. Mrs. Elizabeth Akers Allen Is the only approved poet who has ever been mentioned In connection with this song; alio has written other beautiful poems, and, as I have heard her say, has no more than personal honor to make her anxious about this one Her book, lately published by Tlcknor & Fields, of Boston, .shows that she Is not so J