the occupation of Rome by the Italians, involv-
ing the destruction of the temporal power of the
papacy.

see very well from our position. I have not been able to learn the number of this brave regiment, as the retreat of the enemy was in many places a flight. The the town and its immediate environs, but no sign was infantry, cavalry, and artillery rushed in a crowd into given that the enemy contemplated extricating himself from his desperate situation by capitulation. No other heavy battery. In twenty minutes the town was burncourse was left than to bombard the town with the ing in several places, which, with the numerous burning villages over the whole field, produced a terrible and sent Lieutenant-Colonel Von Bronsart, of the staff, impression. I accordingly ordered the firing to cease, with a flag of truce, to demand the capitulation of the army and the fortress."

All these events have followed as the result of the initial blunder of the French Emperor in the conduct of his campaign. After the defeat of M'Mahon at Weissenburg and Wörth, September 3 and 6, all that was necessary for the Germans, in order to reap the full results of these their first triumphs, was rapidity of movement and skillful strategy. Neither of these conditions has been wanting. King William was materially assisted by M'Mahon and Bazaine, neither of whom seems to have fully realized the hope- his command had devolved upon General WimpMarshal M'Mahon had been wounded, and lessness of his attempt to reopen communica- ffen. In reply to King William's demand, the tion with the other. The attempt of Bazaine to Emperor personally capitulated at 5.15 P.M. accomplish this led to the battle of Rezonville, His letter to the King opened with these words: which lasted nine hours, and after great loss on both sides resulted in Bazaine's retreat upon lay my sword at the feet of your Majesty." On "As I can not die at the head of my army, I Metz, where he was shut in and besieged by the the 2d of September the whole army was surrenPrussians. By the 24th of August the Crown dered. The next day King William assigned Prince, with the left wing of the German army, Wilhelmshöhe as the residence of the Emperor, had advanced beyond Chalons. King William's head-quarters had been transThe next day to which he was conveyed through Belgium. ferred to Bar-le-Duc, to reinforce the Crownnounced in Paris by a proclamation of the cabThe news of this defeat was immediately anPrince in his march on Paris. Toul and Phalsbourg still held out against the apparent on Saturday the 3d. On Sunday the The fortresses of inet ministers. A great popular commotion was Prussian forces in the west; so likewise did streets were thronged, the peaceful but excited Strasbourg on the Rhine, though the right side masses shouting for a republic. As the responsof the citadel and the arsenal had been destroyed. ibility of action in the Chamber of Deputies restM'Mahon's attempt to communicate with Ba-ed with the Left, a republic was proclaimed, zaine resulted in the crowning disaster of the campaign. He left Rheims on the 22d, and on the 29th turned up at Vaux, near the Belgian frontier, and on the right bank of the Meuse, with an army of 100,000 men. corps at the same time took up a position beDe Failly's tween Beaumont and Storre, on the left bank of that river. Both these armies were attacked the next day by the Prussians, the force marching on Paris having suddenly turned northward to baffle M'Mahon's efforts to join Bazaine. The result of this action, which took place near Sedan, was a defeat of the French, with a loss of 7000 prisoners, 20 guns, and 11 mitrailleuses. M'Mahon's head-quarters were at Sedan. September I brought with it two important battles-that of and the next rejoicing over the death of the emThis Paris-one moment cast down by defeat, St. Barbe, near Metz, and that of Sedan. the former Marshal Bazaine, after an action last- The immediate future we can not predict. Both In pire-is now besieged, like Metz and Strasbourg. ing all day and through the night, was defeated. Jules Favre and M. Thiers are occupied by misThe battle of Sedan began with the dawn of sions designed to secure a peace that would be September 1. Two Prussian corps were in po- honorable to France. Whether they will sucsition west of Sedan to cut off the possible re- ceed, and whether the siege of Paris will develop treat of the French to Mezieres. On all sides, into a bombardment of that city, are matters for indeed, were posted various corps of the Prus- future record. sian army. De Failly held the French right and M'Mahon the left. The battle began on the Prussian left, where the Bavarians were posted. At 8 A.M. a hot artillery action began at all points. King William, in a letter to his Queen, thus describes the subsequent events of the day: "The villages of Illy and Floing were taken, and the fiery circle drew gradually closer around Sedan. It was a grand sight from our position on a commanding height behind the great battery, when we looked to the front beyond St. Torey. The violent resistance of the enemy began to slacken by degrees, which we could see by the broken battalions that were hurriedly retreating from the woods and villages. The cavalry endeavored to attack several battalions of our Fifth Corps, and the latter behaved admirably. The cavalry galloped through the interval between the battalions, and then returned the same way. was repeated three times, so that the ground was covered with corpses and horses, all of which we could

This

and a new ministry announced, as follows: Leon Gambetta, Minister of the Interior; Jules Favre, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Ernest Picard, Minister of Finance; Jules Simon, Minister of Justice; General Trochu, Minister of War and Public Instruction; Isaac Cremieux, Minister of President of the Council; Pierre Dorian, Superintendent of Public Works; Joseph Magnin, Minister of Commerce; Martin Fourichon, Minister of Marine. This revolution in the government met the acclamations of the populace. It called Rochefort from his prison and Victor Hugo from his exile, both of whom were accorded splendid ovations by the Parisians.

by the United States, Italy, and Switzerland. The French republic was promptly recognized The Spanish minister at Paris, Señor Olozaga, also recognized the new government, but for this act was recalled to Madrid.

creed an election for a Constituent Assembly, to The French provisional government has debe held October 16.

Rome without resistance. The capital will now
On September 20 the Italian forces occupied
be transferred to that city.

powerful war ships ever launched, foundered off
The British iron-clad Captain, one of the most
Cape Finisterre, on the French coast, during a
sudden gale, on the night of September 6. She
had on board 500 men, all but eighteen of whom
are reported lost.

SOM

Editor's Drawer.

NOME months ago the Drawer had an amus- | the back of his coat had made two holes in the Senator's sofa. At last the irrepressible Major was referred to the Secretary of State, and promptly gained an interview with that gentleman. Entering the presence, his tall white hat leaning back at an angle of forty-five degrees, stroking his huge mustache, and relieving his forehead from perspiration by means of a huge red handkerchief bordered with blue, the Secretary addressed him: "Well, Major, I am told you were of great service to our good cause in California during the last political campaign." The Major, throwing himself back into that

ing account of the impertinent curiosity of a Connecticut man, who undertook to pump out of the gentleman seated in the seat next him in the New Haven cars who he was, where he was going, whom he was going to see, etc. The pumpee having a weed upon his hat, the pumper took him to be a widower (he wasn't a widower he was a doctor), and having four or five darters," thought he might work one off on the stranger. Another instance of the irrepressible Yankee comes from the same quarter. A peering New Englander overtook a gentleman who was traveling on horseback, notwithstand-graceful position peculiar to himself, and placing ing the disadvantage of having lost a leg. His curiosity was awakened, as he rode alongside of him, to know how he chanced to meet with such a misfortune.

"Been in the army, I guess ?"

both thumbs in the arm-holes of his vest, exclaimed: "Oh no, I guess not! it's the man around the corner, in the grocery!"

Mr. Fish, somewhat daunted by the attitude struck by the Major, and deeming the language

"Never was in the army in my life," was the rather unbecoming for a gentleman to make use reply.

"Fit a duel?"

"Never fought a duel, Sir."

of who was an applicant for a high Federal position, replied: "That being the case, Major, I will have a conference with the gentleman who

"Horse throwed you off, I guess, or some- occupies the grocery, and endeavor to reward thing of that sort ?"

66

No, Sir; nothing of the kind."

Jonathan tried various dodges, but all to no effect; and at last, almost out of patience with himself as well as with the gentleman, whose patience was very commendable, he determined on a direct inquiry as to the nature of the accident by which the gentleman had come to lose his leg. "I will tell you," replied the traveler, "on condition that you will promise not to ask me another question."

66

'Agreed!" exclaimed the eager listener. "Well, Sir," remarked the gentleman, "it was bit off!"

"Bit off!" cried Jonathan. "Wa'al, I declare; I should jest like to know what on airth bit it off!"

Jonathan was no more inquisitive, and no more taken aback, than the inquiring Englishman who had been betrayed into the presumption of asking a gentleman with whom he was traveling if he was a single man.

"No, I am not, Sir."

"Oh, I beg your pardon. A married man?" 66 'No, Sir, I am not." "Pray excuse me. ower."

I perceive you are a wid

"No, I am not a widower." The inquisitor was nonplussed. Not a single man, nor a married man, nor a widower.

"Pray, what may you be, if I may be so bold as to ask ?"

"It is none of your business; but if you are very anxious to know, I am a divorced man, Sir!"

MR. SECRETARY FISH, though one of the most refined and courteous of gentlemen, can scarcely be said to have a national reputation as a wag. Yet here is a trifle that shows what he might do if very hard pressed: A few months since Major Jack S, of California, was in Washington in quest of office. He had besieged Senator Cole to such an extent that the horn buttons on

him for his services. Good-morning, Sir."

On the ensuing morning the Major inserted his various shirts and things in his leathern bag, and left for California.

THE active competition for business between rival life-insurance companies, and the zealous efforts made to establish agencies in the remotest parts of the country, are fairly exemplified in the following correspondence:

"SAINT LOUIS, Mo., June 1, 1869. "To the nearest Justice of the Peace, Fort Buford, Dakotah Territory:

"DEAR SIR,-We take the liberty to send you a statement of the condition and working of the Mutual Life-Insurance Company of New York, feeling assured that, by reason of your official position, you can furnish reliable information which may be very useful to us in future, and we respectfully request information upon the following points, viz.:

1st. What is the population, business prospects, etc., of your place?

"2d. What insurance companies are doing business there, and by whom are they represented?

"3d. Please give us the names of two of your citizens whom you think would make reliable agents, and what, in your opinion, are the prospects for business, etc., in case we should wish to establish an agency in your place. "If you will furnish answers to the above questions, you will place us under many obligations. "Very respectfully,

and

"General Agents N. Y. Mutual Life-Ins. Co." To this very reasonable request the following detailed reply was given :

"Messrs. -and

"FORT BUFORD, D. T., August 28, 1869. General Agents Mutual LifeInsurance Company of New York, St. Louis, Mo.: "GENTS,-Your communication of June 1, inclosing Statement of Condition, Working, etc., of the Mutual Life-Insurance Company of New York, came to this of the Peace within six or eight hundred miles of Fort place only a few days since, and as there is no Justice Buford, presuming upon my own official dignity, I undertake to furnish the information you solicit. ficult one to answer, owing to the migratory habits of "Your first question, as to population, etc., is a difour people. If we could get together the seventeen tribes of Sioux, the Crows, Assiniboines, Gros-Venwould probably have five thousand lodges, or twenty tres, Rickarees, Unk-pa-pas, Santecs, and Mandans, we thousand people. A few days ago we had one hun

of the estimable Mark Tapley when he defines himself as a Verb-the only article of grammar he ever learned: "A Werb is a word as signifies to be, to do, or to suffer; and if there's a Werb alive, I'm it. For I'm always a bein', sometimes a doin', and continually a sufferin'. Mr. Tapley took this occasion of looking about him with a grin, and subsequently attacking the breakfast with an appetite not at all expressive of blighted hopes or insurmountable despondency.

dred and eighty lodges of Assiniboines, but to-day they are gone. To-day we have twenty Sioux, and to-morrow they will be gone. "Secondly-What insurance companies are doing business here, and by whom are they represented?' "There is at present but one company doing business here-the Union,' principal office at Washington, D. C.; U. S. Grant, President; Schuyler Colfax, VicePresident; and is very efficiently represented by Brigadier-General H. A. Morrow, U. S. A., assisted by a corps of subordinates and three hundred men with breech-loading guns and bayonets. Medical Examiner, Assistant-Surgeon James Kimball, U. S. A., assisted by Dr. H. N. Marcelis. "Thirdly-You wish the names of two of our citizens who would make reliable and efficient agents.' A STORY has just come from abroad of the "As the Unk-pa-pas and Te-tons are the principal late Count Montalembert, which is droll as an terror in this section, I give you the names of two of instance of the difficulty that Frenchmen have of their principal chiefs, viz.: Tich-tun-ka U-tun-ka (or Sitting Bull) and Wee-sap-pa (or Black Moose). They appreciating the humor of Englishmen or Amerare very efficient life-destroyers, and if you can enlist icans. The distinguished Frenchman, in comthem in the life-insurance business, you will have ac-pany with Thackeray, an eminent professor, and complished a great and good work, and will be justly entitled to the gratitude of all frontiersmen; for the a well-known literary peer, formed a party of lives of white men would then be comparatively safe, four, many years ago, to go to the Derby races It is less than a month since four white men were killed by road. On their return they passed a van-load and scalped within three miles of the fort, each being of drunken sailors with their trulls, upon which pierced by more than a dozen bullets. Montalembert observed, in his cynical way, "I suppose dese are vat you call your joli Jack tars?" "Not at all," replied Thackeray; "they are only Epsom salts." It was half an hour before the astute French savant was made to comprehend the scope of the observation.

"Very truly yours

W. H. CAREY,

"Ass't P. M. "P.S. Should you wish to correspond further on this subject, I must beg you to inclose twenty-five cents in each letter, to defray the expense of getting them from Fort Stephenson, one hundred and fifty miles distant, and the nearest post-office in running order. W. H. C. "P.S. 2d.-On the whole, I estimate that 'Sitting Bull' is the man for you."

THE reader of the morning journals, notably the Herald, can not fail to have been struck with the grief, in four lines, that may be read almost any day in the obituary column. It generally takes this form:

"Dearest Tommy, thou hast left us, And thy loss we deeply feel; Still there is a God above us, He can all our sorrows heal." This stanza appears to be kept in type, ready for all comers who would assuage their sorrow with a bit of poetry. In a volume before us, recently published abroad, a healthier mode of treatment is suggested, viz., to eat something; and, in proof of its good results, the author quotes the case of the hero of one of Captain Marryat's novels, a boy who has just lost father and mother, one by fire and one by water, at one and the same time, but who gluttonizes over an exceptionally good breakfast given him in a stranger's kitchen. "Grief had not taken away my appetite. I stopped occasionally to cry a little, wiped my eyes, and sat down again. It was more than two hours before I laid down my knife, and not until strong symptoms of suffocation played around the regions of my trachea did I cry out, 'Hold, enough.' One might have supposed the youthful crammer steeped in the practical philosophy of Canning's lines, arguing

that

"when the mind's opprest,
Confused, elated, warmed, distrest,
The body keeps an equal measure
In sympathy of pain or pleasure;
And whether moved with joy or sorrow,
From food alone relief can borrow.
Sorrow's indeed, beyond all question,
The best specific for digestion;
Which, when in moderate force it rages,
A chicken or a chop assuages.
But, to support some weightier grief,
Grant me, ye gods, a round of beef!"

SPEAKING of the tendency of the American citizen to whittle, a gentleman writes that at the General Assembly of the Old School Presbyterians, held at Albany, he observed Dr. Charles Hodge, the well-known theologian, sitting on the sofa of honor in rear of the platform, intent, during the greater part of a debate, in cutting the top of a stick into what appeared to be intended for a dog's head.

A story something of the same sort is told of a young man, who, being poor, found great difficulty in overcoming the objection of his inamorata's father to the match. One day he took his minister with him to testify to his character and urge his suit. While the minister did so the excited youth sat nervously whittling the top of his stick. The old gentleman watched him, and at last got up and said, “No, Sir; you sha'n't have my daughter. I have watched you whittling that stick, and if you had made a man's head of it, or a dog's head, or the likeness of any mortal thing, I'd have said, "Take the girl;' but a man that whittles a stick for fifteen minutes and makes nothing of it ain't worth a ten-cent cuss."

ANOTHER War story. When the Mississippi cavalry, retreating from Corinth, had joined Pemberton's army at Grenada, a lad came riding into camp one day, crying out to the soldiers that he had brought important news from headquarters.

"What is it?"

"A flag of truce from Grant."

"From Grant! What does he want?"

"Nothing much; only he says he wants to conduct the war on civilized principles; and as he intends to shell this here town, he requests that the women, and the children, and the Mississippi cavalry be carefully removed out of the way of danger."

A fair anecdote. But they fought well. It is related of one shoeless Southern regiment that the men clothed themselves almost entirely from Quite as good, though less poetical, is the case killed Yankees. In driving some Northern troops

out of the woods, one of the barefooted men took | mire the paternal style of the Judge, and his gencareful aim and fired. The moment he saw his man fall he cried, anxiously, "Them's my shoes!"

night, and that he would see him in the morning. | H. J. Lang, Esq., counsel for plaintiff, contendThe General passed a sleepless night, debating ed that the law requiring sales to be advertised with himself whether or not he should charge in the three most public places in the county had him a $500 fee. The amount involved was become obsolete from non-usage, and, even adlarge; so were his responsibilities. He thought mitting the law was in force, the objection would he had earned, yet feared to ask it. Morning not hold good, because the law always presumes came and found him still undecided. Donning that the officer has discharged his duty. In the his clothes he sallied forth, and, naturally enough, midst of the argument the Judge interposed, toward the levee, where the steamer was lying observing to plaintiff's counsel that he did not which was to take the cotton North. Before desire to hear further from him, and delivered reaching the levee, however, he was met by his the following decision: client, who said:

"Well, Mr. Geiger, that was a good day's work you did for me yesterday.'

"I endeavored to do my duty for you." Taking from his pocket a large roll of bills, and holding up one knee, the noble speculator in "long staple" counted off four $500 bills, and asked, "Is that enough?" still holding up the knee with his fingers on another.

The General looked on, quite speechless, but promptly recovered himself so far as to reply: "I guess you had better lay on another!"

It was laid on. The General inserted the xxv. hundred in his pocket, and kindly bid "by-by" to the other party.

DURING the last century there was a great predilection for all those toasts in which the same words or phrases were repeated several times. One of the most popular ran as follows: "Here's a health to you and yours, who have done such things for us and ours; and when we and ours have it in our powers to do for you and yours what you and yours have done for us and ours, then we and ours will do for you and yours what you and yours have done for us and ours." Another, of which there were a great many versions, some very complicated and confusing, was: "Here's a health to all those that I love;

Here's a health to all those that love me;

"Gentlemen, I must overrule the motion of defendant's counsel to dismiss the levy in this cause, because it is not, and can not possibly be known which are the three most public places in the county of Lincoln. Were this case before me in the county of Heard I should rule differently, because in that county there are three public places which are known as the most public. The first is the muster-ground, where they all go to muster once a month. The second is the clay-bank, where they all go to eat dirt once a week; and the third is the still-house, where they all go to licker every day. Mr. Clerk, enter the motion overruled, at defendant's costs.'

A CORRESPONDENT at Canton, New York, asks if the Drawer has ever thought it worth while to take a stroll into Père la Chaise, the beautiful necropolis of Paris. The "Advertisement" in the July number of the Drawer brings up a little incident which befell him there. Visiting that cemetery on last All-souls' Day, his attention, was arrested by the faint glimmering of a delicious little lamp, a glow-worm of bronze, keeping silent and sentimental vigil under a modest urn of black marble, bearing an inscription, which is translated thus:

HERE LIES FOURNIER (Pierre Victor),
Inventor of "Everlasting Lamps,"

Here's a health to all those that love those that I Which burn only one centime's worth of oil in an hour. love,

And to those that love them that love me."

Another, generally given by a guest as a kind

of thank-offering to the host, runs thus:

"Here's a health to me and mine, Not forgetting thee and thine; And when thee and thine

Come to see me and mine,

May me and mine make thee and thine
As welcome as thee and thine
Have ever made me and mine."

MANY testimonials of the eccentricities of the late Thomas W. Thomas, Judge of the Superior Courts of the Northern Circuit of Georgia, have appeared in the Drawer. I send you another, as an evidence of one of the many good characteristics of the Judge, and showing his dislike of the flummery of pleas designed for delay, and his uncompromising stand in having causes brought before him tried upon their merits.

HE WAS A GOOD FATHER, SON, AND HUSBAND.
HIS INCONSOLABLE WIDOW

Continues his business at No. 19 Rue aux Ours.
Goods sent to all parts of the city.
N.B.-Do not mistake the opposite shop for this, S.V.P.
R. I. P.

Meditating upon the neat stroke by which the
mournful Artemisia had mingled grief and ad-
vertising economy, our friend visited the Rue
aux Ours to give custom to the sorrow-stricken.
spouse. On entering the shop the little bell
tinkled and brought out from the hidden depths
behind a rubicund tradesman; but on intima-
ting a wish to do business with the inconsolable
widow, the defunct inventor, with a graceless
shrug, made answer: "Ah, pardon! that's me!
I am-yes, myself-Iam Pierre Victor, inventor.
The widow-pif-she's un symbole, un mythe!"

APROPOS to our friend Saxe's card-table anAn execution had been levied upon a tract of ecdote of Judge Turner, in a recent Number of land. Sale-day arrived, and the defendant, in the Drawer, is the following of Judge Mattocks, order to gain time, presented to the sheriff an which is vouched for as authentic. Mattocks, affidavit of illegality, alleging for cause that the like many of the judges in those early days, was sale had not been advertised in the three most extremely addicted to card-playing, and nearly public places in the county of Lincoln. The all his evenings, during term time, were, in comsheriff postponed the sale, and returned the pany with congenial spirits of the bar, devoted papers to the clerk of the court for trial. At to seven up." One morning in court, after a the next court the case was called. Judge whole night spent in this amusement, one of the Reese, attorney for defendant, moved to dismiss brethren of the bar, Mr. J-, having occasion the levy on the ground stated, citing the statute. to comment upon the unfortunate citation of an