Literary Notes [pp. 471-472]

1872.] LITERARY NOTES. 471
features are, to represent on maps made on
a large scale-say eight inches to the mile the manceuvres of troops in either a real or
imaginary campaign. A war that is really
going on may be followed on the map, and
movements may be often well predicted by a
skilful officer; or a plan of campaign may be
worked out and stated, and then the game
consists in a fancy battle between the two
players. Leaden blocks, cut to scale, and
colored so as to represent the different ar mies, are used for the bodies of troops; and
certain rules are laid down as to the conduct
of the game, which cannot be specified here.
The game is played by two persons, a third,
who must be a man skilled in war, acting as
umpire; the players must implicitly obey the
umpire. It appears that the "game of war"
is already in extensive vogue both in Germany and in Austria; at Magdeburg there is
a large society of officers who meet, as in a
club, to play it; and the prince quotes the
very high authority of Field-Marshal von
Moltke, who thinks it a very important agent
in military education, and who was one of
the founders of the Magdeburg society. One
of its principal uses is instruction in siege
operations, which can be better represented
on the limited space of a map than a battle
in open field, extending over miles of ground.
A hint may perhaps be taken by our own
military officials with regard to the game,
which might profitably be introduced at
West Point.
The streets of New York are very
dirty. But can any man recollect the time
when complaints of our streets were not
current? At all seasons there is occasion
for fault-finding, but every year our public
avenues reach their maximum of uncleanliness in the spring months, after the melting
of the winter snows, and hence at this period
the public voice becomes eloquent in denunciation. But this eloquence is chronic in New
York. We have indulged in it as long as the
memory of man goeth, and are no nearer effecting a reform now than we were a quarter
of a century ago; and it may safely be predicted that, if we continue our present methods, we shall be no nearer th$ desideratum a
quarter of a century hence. The difficulty,
we fairly believe, arises almost wholly from
the prevailing contract system. According
to law, our streets are cleaned and paved by
contracts, which must be publicly advertised
and given to the lowest bidder. The lowest
bidder is almost invariably the man who
means to have the contract at any price, with
entire disregard of actual cost, because he
will find his profit either in indirect methods
or in entire neglect of performance. We
knew of an instance some years ago in which
a bid for the contract to supply the city with
stationery offered steel pens at one cent a
gross. Here was obviously an intended fraud,
but the law actually compelled connivance with
it, requiring the contract to go to the lowest
bidder, without reservation or qualification.
The way to have clean streets and well-paved
streets in New York is to place these duties
in the hands of a commission. Let a board
of five or three men be elected by a general
vote, who shall have supreme power, and be
directly and personally responsible for the
right performance of their tasks, and if better
things do not ensue we'll abandon prophecy
forever. There is no use of indulging in
rhetorical denunciation in this matter; no
use of whining and complaining and lament ing; if the public haven't the wit to see the
method by which reform is to be effected,
and the pluck to carry it out, its chronic
murmurs and discontents are entitled to no
measure of respect.
-Prof. Samuel Finley Breese Morse,
the inventor of the electric telegraph, died at
his residence in this city on the evening of
Tuesday, April 2d, after an illness of a few
days. In the first number of the last volume
of -the JOURNAL, published in June, 1871, we
gave a portrait and a biography of this emi nent inventor and artist, to which we have
only to add that, within a few days of the
appearance of our article, an extraordinary
and well-deserved honor was bestowed upon
the professor, by erecting in the Central Park
his statue, cast in bronze, and paid for by the
voluntary contributions of telegraph-operators
throughout the country. The occasion was
one of much public display, the statue being
unveiled in the presence of a great concourse
of spectators, and a suitable address made by
the venerable poet, William Cullen Bryant.
In the evening a reception was held at the
Academy of Music, attended by the most distinguished citizens, where one of the first instruments used on the original line between
New York and Washington was placed upon
the stage and connected with the wires, that
Prof. Morse might send, with his own hand,
a word of greeting to all the cities of the
United States and Canada. The declining
years of the great electrician, unlike those of
many who have benefited the world by their
inventions, were passed in the fulness of
peace, comfort, and happiness; and he has
departed from this life loaded with all the
honors that a grateful nation could bestow
upon him, and conscious that his name and
fame will ever stand high among the benefactors of mankind.
— Mr. Daly, at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, has followed his brilliantly successful
comedy, "Divorce," with a recent Paris sensation, entitled "Article 47." The plot of
the play turns upon a clause in the French
penal code, known as Article 47, which requires every discharged convict to take up his
residence in places designated by the police,
and makes it an offence to depart therefrom
without permission. The practical operation
of this law is to keep offenders perpetually
under the surveillance of the police; a meas
ure that, no doubt, has its advantages, but in
some cases falls with peculiar hardship upon
its victims. Men entangled in crime, accidentally rather than maliciously, find reform under such conditions almost impossible; they
are forced into permanent association with
other discharged convicts, and remain forever under the ban and eye of the law. In
"Article 47" we have the story of a young
man of good family, who, in an outburst of
passionate jealousy, discharges a pistol at the
woman to whom he is attached; he is tried
for,this offence, and condemned to five years
at the galleys. After this expiation of his
crime, he endeavors to evade the further operation of the law, to which we have referred,
by living, under an assumed name, in great
seclusion; but in this position he becomes
attached to a lady of youth, beauty, and rank;
circumstances permit him to marry her without revealing the great disgrace of his life;
but soon his former flame discovers his seclusion and felicity, and threatens him with exposure. The incidents that follow are effective, and become often of thrilling interest,
For strong situations the play is a good
one, but in characterization it is poor. Thereis inadequate motive for the conduct of the
heroine, and the other persons of the drama
have no consistency of character. One never
knows what to expect of any of them, and
isn't quite certain who is virtuous and who
villanously*inclined. It is put upon Mr.
Daly's little stage in a superb manner, and
generally the acting is good. Miss Clara
Morris exhibits, in the part of Mdlle. Cora,
dramatic genius of the highest order.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~,.
A new biography of Lord Byron has ap peared in London, written by the German
scholar, Professor Karl Elz, which is highly appreciative of Byron's genius, and defends his,
moral shortcomings. Professor Elze thinks that
English moral and religious bigotry has stood
in the way of an impartial estimate of Byron's
merits, and he supports the worn-out and refuted theory that the poet cannot be expected
to practise the morality demanded of other
men. "The poet," he says, "to whom Jove's
heaven ever stands open, discovers the incompatibility of the fetters and clogs of prosaic
common life with his divine aspirations."
This is a convenient theory, and, as the Pall
MaZl Gazette remarks, "it eases the task of
judging a character so complex as that of Lord
Byron; but we do not believe that the general
English estimate of his genius is, upon the
whole, an unjust one, nor do we acknowledge
that poets are absolved by their genius from
the common obligation to live honestly and decently."
"Good-bye, Sweetheart! " by Miss Rhoda
Broughton, which will be shortly completed in
the JoumsAL, has been published in book form,
appearing both in cheap style with paper covers, and in a neat 12mo volume, handsomely
bound in cloth, uniform with a library edition
of Miss Broughton's novels now publishing by -
Appleton & Co. If any of our readers have
neglected to read "Good-bye, Sweetheart I "
1872.]
LITERAB R Y XNOTES.
471