pay a
visit of five or six weeks during the winter; but with the tender
feeling of the father he was willing to submit to the self-denial of
separation from his wife, that she might be with the darling of their
united hearts. In one of his letters he says, "You ask me, in your
last, how I am getting on, I must be honest and say, bad enough. If I
were not tied hand and foot I would cut loose from these cold regions
and lonely habitations, and fly away to my 'ain wifey, and my ain
bairns' in the sunny south." Again he says, when longing to see me,
"But I would not have you come too soon, as I know how changeable March
and April are here, and how delightful they must be in Louisiana." At
another time he says, "Kiss Louis, Lizzie and the babies for me, and
believe me that whatever claims business or other ties, may have one
me, my heart is ever with my dear ones."

In the winter of 1855 he was elected "President of the Bank of
Missouri." I find among my newspaper slips, an article relative to
that fact which I will copy: "We announced in our article of Friday
last that the name of Joseph Charless, Esq., would probably pass
through the Legislature, as the new President of the 'Bank of the State
of Missouri.' The Telegraph of this morning announces his election to
that important post.

"It is proper for us to say to our distant readers, who Mr.
Charless is, and we shall assume to speak of his capacity for the
important post confided to him, by the Legislative wisdom of the State.

"The Bank of Missouri is a State institution; were it otherwise
we question whether we would refer to the matter at all. It is also by
the wisdom of our fathers constituted (vide the Constitution) a
monopoly, a moneyed monopoly too, and therefore, wields great power,
and it is important to the people of this State to know in whose hands
this great moneyed power is to be vested for the next two years, by the
act of Legislature, if (perchance) the Bank is not turned into a
private corporation, by act of Assembly, with the concurrence of
private stockholders. We do not intend to tire our readers with a
'long yarn,' and therefore proceed to say, that, Mr. Charless has
lived, man and boy, in this State and in this city 45 years, being the
worthy son of a most respected sire, and is now about 50 years of age.
Mr. Charless is a gentleman of fair financial ability, and has managed
his own private affairs in the prosecution of a large business,