read, cursed and
destroyed, and all suspected as having the slightest voice or opinion in
the secret _memorial_, met a secret fate--death or prolonged
wretchedness.

Herr Beethoven, the poor author, alone escaped; being overlooked in the
hot pursuit of his production, and by the blunder of those having charge
of himself and hundreds of other state prisoners--guilty or _suspected_
opponents to the vaulting ambition and power of him that at last ended
his own eventful career as a helpless prisoner upon an ocean isle--was
liberated and lost no time in making his way beyond the reach of
monarchs, tyranny and bondage. Beethoven came to America and settled in
Philadelphia, where, in the humble capacity of an e-razer of beards and
pruner of human mops, he eked out a reasonable existence for the residue
of his earthly existence; few, perhaps, dreaming in their profoundest
philosophy, that the little, eccentric-attired, grotesque-looking
barber, who tweaked their plebeian noses and combed their caputs, once
rejoiced in grand heraldic escutcheons upon his carriage panels as a
veritable Count, and still later made the throne tremble beneath the
feet of a second Alexander!

But God is great, and the ways of our every-day life, full of change and
mystery.

The Bigger Fool, the Better Luck.

The American "Ole Bull," young Howard, one of the most scientific
crucifiers of the _violin_ we ever heard, gave us a call t'other day,
and not only discoursed heavenly music upon his instrument, but gave us
the "nub" of a few jokes worth dishing up in our peculiar style. Howard
spent last winter in a tour over the State of _Maine_ and Canada. During
this _cool_ excursion, he got way up among the _wood_-choppers and
_log_-men of the Aroostook and Penobscot country. These wood-chopping
and log-rolling gentry, according to all accounts, must be a jolly,
free-and-easy, hard-toiling and hardy race. The "folks" up about there
live in very primitive style; their camps and houses are very useful,
but not much addicted to the "ornamental." Howard had a very long,
tedious and perilous _tramp_, on foot, during a part of his
peregrinations, and coming at last upon the settlement of the log-men,
he laid up several days, to recuperate. In the largest log building of
the several in the neighborhood, Howard lodged; the weather was
intensely cold--house crowded, and wood and game plenty. After a hard
day's toil, in snow and water, these log-men fel