Niles' Weekly Register. (Baltimore, Md.), Vol. 14, No. 15, Ed. 1 Saturday, August 6, 1836 Page: 3 of 16
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NILES’ REGISTER—AUG. 6, 1836—MISCELLANEOUS.
379
the matter of priority in the great invention alluded to
we believe it is pretty well ascertained that the first ex-
periment in this country which had any thing like the me-
rit of success, was by Fitch, on the Delaware river. The
periodicals of the time contain a sketch of the boat, and
an account of the experiment. Lieut. Slidell, however,
in his excellent work on Spain, found, in the archives of
Barcelona, authentic evidence that experiments in steam
navigation were successfully attempted in that harbor
several centuries since. To the indolent and voluptuous
Spaniard, therefore, and neither to learned and enlight-
ened England or France, are we indebted for the first
conceptions of this immortal invention. [NV. Y. Star.
Narrow escape. On Friday morning, at 2 o’clock,
a stage left Troy for Boston. When about a mile and a
half east of the former city, one of the passengers sit-
ting upon the box with the driver, discovered that the
stage was out of the road and on the top of an embank-
ment, several feet in height and of considerable width, de-
signed as a protection from an aby ss of over one hundred
feet which yawned below. After the passengers had left
the stage, and the driver had backed it a little farther,
the hind wheels ran off the bank, the king-bolt came out,
and the body of the coach was precipitated down the
bank and rocks about 120 or 130 feet, and literally dash-
ed to pieces on the dry rock by the side of the water.
The baggage was mostly lost, and the proprietors,
Messrs. Baker & Walker, have paid five hundred dollars
to the passengers as a remuneration. [NV. Y. Com.
Statement of the deposites and coinage of gold at the
mint of the United States, in the month June, 1836.
Balance remaining uncoined, May 31, 1836, $749,935
Deposites for coinage.
Bullion of the United States,; ..............49,570
Do. foreign,.....................513,240
United States coins for former standard, none,
Foreign coins, (sovereigns),............ 9,990
$1,822,735
Amount of gold coinage within the month of
June, (in half eagles),. ..................1,090,495
Balance remaining uncoined, June 30, 1836, $323,240
The coinage of silver for the quarter ending the 30th
of June, amounted to $1,235,000, of which $77 was in
small coins.
Honors to Mr. Madison. On Monday the 25th
ultimo, the citizens of Richmond, Va. paid the most
marked honor to the memory of the illustrious Madison.
The capitol bell was tolled every minute in the morning;
and a little after 10 o’clock, the procession of the volun-
teers, officers of the government, and citizens, was form-
ed in the Main street, opposite to the Union hotel, and
marched to the Capitol square, where a platform and
seats had been arranged in the eastern ravine, and the
numerous company of ladies and gentlemen sat enbosom-
ed in the shade of the trees.
The ceremony commenced with a very appropriate
prayer from bishop Moore-—then followed Mr. Macfar-
land, the orator of the day—and the proceedings were
closed by a brief but impressive prayer from the rev.
Mr. Taylor, of the Second Baptist church.
The “Richmond Enquirer" in speaking of the oration,
says, it was ‘ 'a beautiful picture of a great and good man;
presenting the character of Mr. Madison in new lights
and beauties.”
The lion. John Quincy Adams has been appointed by
the city authorities of Boston to deliver an eulogy on the
deceased.
The following anecdote is related of Mr. Madison in
the Washington Telegraph:
When the debates upon the adoption of the federal
constitution were occupying the attention of our patriot
fathers, and when wisdom, like a daily visitant, hovered,
over the hall where genius and virtue breathed fire into
the hearts of the sages who were there assembled, Mr.
Madison wished to speak, but was almost afraid from his
great physical debility to make the attempt. However,
he begged a gentleman who was sitting near him to pull
and gestures, impressed upon his mind at that early
period, easily recognizable to those who knew him in
after life, and were familiar with the peculiarities of the
Indian character. He was released at Fort Stanwix
(now Rome) in 1784. Speaking five different Indian
languages he was appointed interpreter and sub-agent
under Washington, and so continued for 30 years. He
thus turned his former misfortune toa profitable account,
and has left behind him not only a fortune, but an unble-
mished reputation, to be cherished by a numerous family
who deplore his loss.
“The GREEN CORN DANCE." From the St. Augustine
Herald of the 25th ult. This is now about the season
when the Seminoles celebrate their annual festival of the
“green corn dance" in honor of gathering the first fruits
of the harvest. This festival is the commencement of
their new year and its celebration is entirely adhered to.
Every individual in the nation is obliged to undergo the
ceremony of purification and must be present. As soon
as the corn is sufficiently ripe, the ceremony commences:
The “medicine man,” or priest of the town or tribe, ad-
ministers to all a decoction, which they term a "black
drink,” for three days successively, and all their fires
are extinguished. The ceremony of purification being
ended, new fire is produced by the medicine man, by
rubbing two sticks together, from which every one pro-
cures fire for the ensuing year. A season of feasting
and dancing follows: which is kept up for several days
and nights without intermission. An interesting descrip-
tion of the dance is given by the younger Bartram, in
his travels in Florida in 1775.
The ensuing corn dance will doubtless be one of the
greatest festivity and rejoicing—they will have a great
quantity of corn and beef, and flushed by their recent
success, will take occasion to make one of peculiar in-
terest to themselves.
We believe that there cannot be a better time to pro-
secute a campaign, and terminate the war, than the pre-
sent. They soon will concentrate themselves in the
neighborhood of their crops, and they may be found now
better than at any other time; probably as soon as this
dance is over they will scatter forth in small bands to
commit new excesses, and extend their ravages still further
within the remaining settlements of our unfortunate ter-
ritory.
Singular CASE. The Paris correspondent of the Al-
bany Advertiser writes—“In July next, a curious case
will be brought before the tribunal of first instance of
Paris. M. Naundorff, who has resided a long time in
Prussia, where he worked as a clock maker, has underta-
ken to invalidate the obituary act of Louis XVII, dated
8th June, 1795, and to prove himself to be Charles
Louis, the dauphin of France and son of Louis XVI
and Marie Antoinette. Inquiries have been making by
order of the French government to discover the family
and birth place of this supposed imposter in Prussia,
but until now they have led to no satisfactory result. It
has been ascertained that M. Naundorf had arrived in
Prussia in 1810; that he enjoyed, during two years, the
rights of citizenship in Spandau, and that he married in
Berlin in 1818, without being able to produce a certifi-
cate of his birth. The demise of the real dauphin, in
the prison of the Temple, is any thing but well estab-
lished, and the uncertainty prevailing with regard to M.
Naundorff’s origin, promises at any rate some very in-
teresting disclosures.”
First inventor OF STEAM boats In America. A
writer in the United States Gazette claims for Rumsey,
of Virginia, the honor of first propelling boats by steam
in this country. It was many years before Fulton, and
Rumsey was considered a wild enthusiast. With the
assistance, however, of a drunken blacksmith at Shep-
herdstown, he constructed a boat which went up the Po-
tomac against the current at the rate of half a mile the
hour. The legislature of Virginia granted him some
privileges, it is said, which his poverty prevented him
from embracing. He afterwards went to England, where
he was patronized, but died suddenly, leaving his family
in indigence, the usual melancholy fate of those who
have enriched the world with their genius. But as to
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Niles, Hezekiah, 1777-1839. Niles' Weekly Register. (Baltimore, Md.), Vol. 14, No. 15, Ed. 1 Saturday, August 6, 1836, periodical, August 6, 1836; Baltimore, Maryland. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1694177/m1/3/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .