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Leader (1850-1860), 5th September 1857, Edition 2 of 2, Page 20, IN REMEMBRANCE OF THE LATE MR. DOUGLAS J...

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      Wild Adventure. * Virginia, Illustrated:...

      North American climate . Crayon and his cousins were not overwhelmed , bat the storm tried the nerves of the artist adventurer . Crossing log-bridges , fording torrents , and visiting springs—as the watering-places are termed •—were variations in the journey , surpassed in interest , however , bj a scene in a forest . Six men were met , advancing in Indian file . Their faces are nearly hidden by their slouched hats , long matty locks , and shaggy beards . Their hunting shirts and trousers were of mountain jeans , coloured with hickory bark ; some wore deer-leggings and carried packs , and every one was accoutred with a formidable knife , a long rifle , powder-horn , and bulletpouch . They approached « with that wicked stride peculiar to the mountaineers , ' and alarmed the wayfarers , who had not accustomed themselves to the characteristic of the Virginian byway . The men saluted the carriage company , and passed quietly on . Readers with patience and an eye for skipping may relish this volume of Virginian wanderings , which , properly sifted , would afford materials for an entertaining book one-fourth of its size .

      Recollections of Western Texas , Descriptive and Narrative , Including an Indian Campaign . 1852—1855 . By Two of the U . S . Mounted Rifles . ( Cash . )—The Two Mounted Rifles were young men who served four years against the frontier Indians in Texas . They are sons of an Irish gentleman and emigrated to America in 1850 , and were shortly enrolled among the Mounted Rifles , a frontier corps maintained by the United States Government to defend the civilized inhabitants against the Indian tribes of Old and New Mexico and Upper Texas , and consisting of one colonel , two majors , eight captains , forty lieutenants , and eight hundred men , whose pay is almost equal to that of a lieutenant in the'British army . They wear darkblue uniforms , with green cuffs and collars , blue shakos , with green bands and plumes , boots with heavy brass spurs and steel rowels , and buckskin gauntlets , and are armed with rifles , revolvers , horse-pistols , and bowie

      knives . This is the garrison uniform ; ' on scout' they have heavy woollen overshirts , red , black , or brown , slouched felt hats , and buckskin leggings ; they are mounted on large American horses , and form a powerful troop . They scour the borders from one block fortress to another , and their life abounds in excitement . After a brief but excellent account of Texas , the narrators describe the Indians on the frontier—the Comanchees , the Lipaus , the Apache , and the Toncahuas . They fight magnificently , and if captured on the field by the Texan rangers are invariably tied to trees and shot . They still preserve the custom of singing death songs at the place of execution . The jLipaus , when charged , wheel round their enemy in rings , discharging arrows and shots in exactly the manner described in the favourite Red Indian romances , The Wept of the Wishton-TFish and The White Stone Canoe *

      860 . The Leader. [Sto. 389, September 5...

      860 . THE LEADER . [ STo . 389 , September 5 , 1857 .

      Educational Books. We Have Three New Vol...

      EDUCATIONAL BOOKS . We have three new volumes of the beautiful Oxford Pocket Classics ( J . H . and J . Parker ) : —Xenophontis de Cyri Minoris Expeditione , Short Notes to the Odes , Epodes , Satires , Epistles , and Ars Poetica of Horace , and M . Tullii Ciceronis Tnsculanum Disputationum . These are model books , each one of which the student will prize as a gem . Several volumes of instruction in the French language have lately been published : A Safe aud Sure Method of Acquiring a Practical Knowledge of French , by C . Dagobert ( Shaw ) , who is well known among schoolmasters and teachers ; C . Delille ' s Easy French Poetry for Beginners ; or Short Selections in Verse on a Graduated Plan for the Memory , with English Notes ( Whittaker ) ; and a cheap fourth edition of Mr . J . Lotte ' s Elementary Speaking French Grammar ( Without Rules ) Exemplified on a New , Easy , and Certain Plan , for Speaking French fluently within Three Months ( Whittaker ) . JOEco Italiano is a Practical Guide to Italian Conversation with a Complete " Vocabulary , by Eugenio Camerini , of Turin ,

      ( Trubner ) . We may class together three little educational publications ( Shaw ) -. —Sine Qua Non , Which is Which ? This or That , for French students , by C . Dagobert ; The Right Word in the Right Place , a Companion to the Writing-Desk ; and Elocution Its Principles Reduced to Practice . The Classed Catalogue of the Educational Division of the South Kensington Museum ( Spottiswoode ) , is a volume of some seven or eight hundred pages , ' price sixpence . * The Rev . J . S . Boucher ' s Mensuration , Plane and Solid ( Longman and Co . ) , is strictly adapted for self-instruction as well as for the use of civil , military , and naval schools and colleges . We may add the names of two useful little books with special objects—How to Work with the Microscope ( Churchill ) , by Lionel S . Benle , F . R . S ., and A Handbook to the Waned Paper Process in Photography , by William Crookes ( Chapman , and Hall ) . Nor must we neglect to mention an excellent tract by Mr . J . Russell Hind , The Comet of 1556 : Popular Replies to Everyday Questions Referring to its Anticipated Reappearance ( J . W . Parker ) . It is the best popular publication on the subject .

      New Editions. Tub Fourth Edition Of Lord...

      NEW EDITIONS . Tub fourth edition of Lord Campbell ' s Lives of the Lord CJutncellon and Keepers of the Great Seal of England ( Murray ) has now readied its ninth volume , containing the biographies of Erskine and Eldon , two of the most interesting in the series . Mr . Bohn hns published in the Historical Library , volume the second of Jesse ' s Memoirs of the Court of England during the Reign of the Stuarts , with thirteen portraits engraved on steel . In the Classical Library we have The Geography of Strabo literally translated , with notesthe t six books

      , ura by 11 . U . Hamilton , the remainder by W . Falconer , M . A . There arc to bo three volumes , with an elaborate index . The Antiquarian Library contains A Polyglot of Foreign Proverbs , comprising French , Italian , German , Dutch , Spanish , Portuguese , and Danish , with English Translations and a General Index by Mr . Henry G . Bohn himself . It is a remarkable and valuable book , full of curious accounts of affinities between nations . Many of the proverbs arc quite now to the English reader . Mr . Walter K . Kelly appears to have ' laid the groundwork of the volume by selections from a great variety of sources . ' For the English translations , Mr . Bohn ib Mainly responsible /

      Moore's Irish Melodies , And Haydn's Sea...

      MOORE'S IRISH MELODIES , AND HAYDN'S SEASONS . " * Moore s Irish Melodies .-with Symphonies and Accompaniments by Sir John Stevenson , Mus . Doc ( Longman and CoO-This is " handsome and very acceptable volume , not glittering with decorations , yet the b ean ideal of a sift book . It contains nearly four hundred pages of musical composition ac companying the golden-worded melodies of Moore , beautifully printed on fine paper . Every one who possesses a pianoforte should possess Sir John Stevenson ' s edition , which is unique . Haydn ' s Oratorio , The Seasons , in Vocal Score , with a Separate Accom paniment for the Organ or Pianoforte . Arranged by Vincent Novello ( Novello . )—A neat , cheap , and popular edition , well printed and admirably arranged . *

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      In Remembrance Of The Late Mr. Douglas J...

      IN REMEMBRANCE OF THE LATE MR . DOUGLAS JERROLD . The following letter has been published in the daily papers : — " Sib , —The work we have carried on being now brought to a close , we beg leave through your columns , briefly to make its result known 1 o the public . , ' "We have first to observe that the committee whom we represent decided in the outset to state no case and to make no appeal or representation beyond the line which forms the heading of the present letter . They considered that in taking this course they had a due regard both to the independence of literature and to the personal character of their deceased friend ; and therefore they have never for a moment deviated from it , nor do they now depart from it .

      " They have considered their personal responsibility a sufficient refutation of any untrue and preposterous statements that have obtained circulation as to property asserted to have been left by Mr . Jerrold , and they now merely add that , unless thev had thoroughly known , and beyond all doubt assured themselves that their exertions were needed by the dearest objects of Mr . Jerrold ' s love , those exertions would never have been heard of . " The audited accounts show that the various performances , readings , and lectures have realized , after the payment of all expenses , a cleaT profit of 2000 £ This sum is to be expended in the purchase ( through trustees ) of a Government annuity for Mrs . Jerrold and her unmarried daughter , with remainder to the survivor .

      ^ We are happy to add , in conclusion , that , although we have been most generously assisted on many hands , and especially by members of the musical profession , we have never consciously accepted a sacrifice that could not be Afforded , and have furnished a good employment and just remuneration to > many deserving persons . " "We are , sir , your faithful servants , ' ¦ " CHARLES DICKENS , -Chairman . " ARTHUR SMITH , Honorary Secretary . "

      The Tonic Sol-Fa Association At The Crys...

      THE TONIC SOL-FA ASSOCIATION AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE . The Sydenham glass-house was the scene on Thursday of a musical performance of an unusual character , very interesting to professional musicians and even to the general public , who crowded in large numbers to hear it , and stamped it with enthusiastic approval . On such technical grounds we cannot do better than trust ourselves to the guidance of the experienced musical critic of the Times , who writes : — " No doubt most of our readers -who now and then give a thought to music have heard of the Tonic Sol-fa Association , ' although probably the majority of them have not the 3 east idea of what it means . The ' Tonic Sol-fa Association' professes to teach singing , or rather the elements of singing , on a novel plan , and by means of a notation much simpler than that in use among musicians . It rejects the staff , the notes , the signatures , the cleffs , and the ordinary divisions into bars , substituting in their place the initial letters of the monosyllables , doremi , fa & cemployed in the

      , , , , Italian system of solfegg io , together with certain marks to designate ' accidentals ' ( flats , sharps , or naturals ) , and others to represent the duration of notes and their rhythmical distribution into measures . The expedient is plain enough , and may be mastered with a very little trouble . But that it can only admit of the most limited application is self-evident ; and this the promoters indirectly confess when they declare that their system is not intended to supersede , but to lead the way to a readier acquisition of the established method . It is , perhaps , as well for Mr . Curwen—who if not the absolute inventor is the most active and zealous promulgator of the ' Tonic Sol-fa'doctrine—that he does not aim at upsetting the recoguized system of musical notation , which the experience of centuries has brought to a logical clearness and perfection that may almost be pronounced mathematical , and to abandon which would be to reduce the masterpieces of the musical art to a dead letter , or at least an unintelligible hieroglyph . Moreover , it may bo safely affirmed that the new

      method ( not so very new , by the way , since it is only another among many modifications ef the Arabic numerals , which Jean Jacques proposed in lieu of the existing musical notation ) can never be made available for anything beyond the most primitive form of vocal music . Its simplicity is its chief recommendation ; and regarded from tliia point of view—although any kind of interference , direct or indirect , with the established notation should alwaya bo jealously scanned—the ' Tonic Sol-fa ' system , as a means of easily imparting a certain amount of elemeutary instruction in schools , may not only be tolerated but even recommended . The precise signification of its title is derived from its most salient , and indeed ( its object taken into consideration ) moat useful peculiarity . As in the method of Rousseau , already alluded to , the notation indicates not the absolute pitch of sounds , but their relative position in the scale ( or koy ) to which they belong ; so that no matter in what tone it may be sung , a melody is always written in tlio same way .

      Not to enter further , however , into a dry discussion , we may state that the Tonic-Sol-fa' has been taught in a large number of schools , and is spreading all over the United Kingdom . Its influence in London and the vicinities may bo understood from the fact that , ye 3 terday , a performance was given at the Crystal Palace , the Handel Festival orchestra , by between two thousand and three thousand children , boys and girls , from various schools in which the system hns been taught . As most of the pieces executed were in three , and several in four parts , between two hundred and tliree hundred male adulta were engaged to fill up the harmonies . The effect was striking , in some degree recalling the meetings of the charity children nt St . Paul ' s Cathedral } but , with respect to the precision with which the indications of the conductor ' s Btick were obeyed , it was far more remarkable . Tlio enormous weig ht of trebles , boys and girls , made it appear to tho distant auditor almost as if the whole porfoimanco was in unison ; nnd only on approaching nearer to tho orchestra could the basa and intermediate partB bo distinctly heaid . " £ omG ' nirtv thousand persons were present at this performance .

      Ihe CttYsavn Palace , by the way , is to be opened during the next two months on Saturdays for One Shilling , in order that the directors may determine whether that tariff or Half-a-crown will way best . Wo hopo tho general publac will support the reform .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 5, 1857, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05091857/page/20/