once. minister from Central America. At length the government will be compelled to take active and decisive steps against the Mormons. Official reports have been received in Washington of the burning, near Green River, by the Mormons, of three government trains, (seventy-five wagons:) also intelligence of the belligerent stand taken by these infatuated men; the proclamation of Brigham Young, placing Utah under martial law, and his threatening speeches, letters, etc., declaring it to be his intention to prevent the troops from entering his dominions. These violent measures admit of no palliation. The government must act energetically, and at Quick justice, when administered by due course of law, is seldom more strongly exemplified than in a late case at Chicago. William Young and John Powers shot William Crozier on board a canal boat, for the terrible crime of breaking a pane of glass. The murder was committed on Monday night. The same night both Young and Powers were arrested; on Tuesday they were lodged in jail; on Thursday they were indicted; on Friday they were arraigned, tried, and convicted; on Monday they were sentenced to solitary imprisonment for life; and on the same evening, just one week from the commission of the crime, they were lodged in the State Prison. If this course of rapid justice was oftener pursued, crime would be less abundant, particularly in the city of New York, where crime is terribly on the increase. Murder succeeds murder so rapidly, that even when the party is brought up for trial, we forget all about the crime with which he stands charged, we have so many to remember, and so tardy are the authorities in bringing to trial the rascals who commit the deeds. The month of November presented the most horrible calendar of crime in the annals of the city, most of the murders committed being of a cruel, fiendish, and bloodthirsty character. The news from Mexico is highly important. Congress has suspended the political guarantees of the new constitution, and invested President Comonfort with supreme authority. Serious difficulties have occurred between the Spaniards and Mexicans in Cuernavaca, and martial law has been proclaimed in that district in consequence. Adrices from Yucatan represent the whole population of the province as in arms. The accounts of the ravages of the Indians are fearful. The towns of Chiciaconot and Tekax were sacked under circumstances of peculiar atrocity, and the people of the Eastern district were flying from the savages in all directions. The citizens of Merida had addressed Governor Barreda on the subject of protection, when that official assured them that a war of extermination will be waged on the Indian race. He attributes their insolent war action to the unsettled state of the country produced by the revolutionists. . . . . The Great Republic, our largest and swiftest of clipper ships, seems to have had a narrow escape from foundering off Cape Horn, on the 3d of September, (the same date, it will be remembered, of the heavy gale in which the Central America was lost, though at so great a distance.) The Great Republic was on her way from the Chincha Islands to Callao, with guano, and when off the Horn was struck by a gale of such violence as to blow all her sails to atoms, carry away part of her spars, and finally a sea struck her on deck which broke away four of her beams, tore up her hatch-combings, and partially filled her with water. She reached the islands on the 7th, her crew having had no food for four days, and the ship almost in a sinking condition. Last month the Barnegat Light House, on the Jersey coast, fell with a loud crash in a severe storm. The sea had been for some years undermining it, His and in order to prevent danger, a temporary house had been put up, to which the keeper and his family had removed a day or two before. A new house is to be immediately constructed, as the light is one of the most important ones on the American coast. Judge Buchat, of Bridgehampton, Michigan, has been arrested and thrown into jail, charged with the brutal and inhuman murder of his little child of three years, by beating it and burning on a stove. The child had been reported burned to death by accident and buried, but was dug up to furnish proof of the crime. A serious and fatal collision took place in the Gulf of Mexico, on the 15th ult. At midnight, the Texas Steamship Opelousas, from Berwick Bay, for Galveston, came in contact with the Galveston, of the same line, and was so much injured that she sunk immediately. The captain and crew of the Opelousas were all saved, but twenty or twenty-five persons, went down with the vessel, among whom was General Hamilton, of South Carolina, a well-known and influential man. . . . . James G. Birney died in New Jersey, on the 24th of November. He was a native of Kentucky, born in the year 1793. He graduated at Nassau Hall, N. J., at the age of nineteen, and devoted himself to the study of law. On attaining his majority and coming into the possession of slaves, he nobly, and at great pecuniary sacrifice, set them all free. He afterward edited an antislavery paper with distinguished ability, and was the candidate of the Liberty party for President of the United States in 1844. name will fill a conspicuous place in the history of reform when that history shall be written. Funeral services in honor of Major General Worth were celebrated in this city on the 25th of November, on occasion of removing his body to the site of the monument about to be erected to his memory. There was an imposing display of military, and a funeral oration was delivered by the mayor.. ... Mr. Samuel C. Nowlan, a civil engineer, has executed a plan for bridging the East River between this city and Brooklyn. The semi-annual Report of the New York Bible Society, shows that the receipts of the past year have been $18,700, a diminution as compared with previous years. The society has, however, been able to meet all its engagements, and donate $1,000 to the American Bible Society.. The total number of persons at present in all the public institutions of NewYork, penal and charitable, under the charge of the ten governors, is about seven thousand, which is an increase of eleven hundred over the number in charge last year at this time. scrupulous politician has been found in Georgia. General John W. A. Sandford, of Baldwin County, lately elected to the state senate, refused to take his seat in that body, because he could not conscientiously swear that he did not obtain the office in any degree by "bribing, treating, etc." Bees for California, it may not be known to everybody, that there were no bees in California when first discovered by the Yankee family, and that several attempts made to carry them there at an early day were unsuccessful. Of late several persons have been more successful, and we suppose, have made the business of sending bees to the Golden State a gold-producing speculation. The steamer of Nov. 5 was engaged by J. S. Harbeson, of New Castle, Lawrence County, Penn., to take out sixty colonies of bees, destined for Sacramento and neighborhood. This is the largest shipment The Easton (Pa.) Argus mentions an incident of an old gentleman recently deceased in Lehigh County, who had been suspected of having considerable money in his house, although no one knew the amount ever sent out. .... A On examining the premises after his death, no less than eleven thousand dollars were found in parents have perished in the fearful mutiny." The Romanists, says an English periodical, specie, which he had doubtless been saving and especially in Ireland, are characteristically re concealing for many years... The navy de- calcitrant as regards contributing, on the ground partment at Washington has received advices that their co religionists did not receive fair from Captain Sands, commanding the United play in the distribution of our Patriotic Fund States steam-frigate Susquehanna," then at raised for the sufferers in the Crimean war. Spezzia, containing some items of interest. The Such charges, however, have been summarily steamer left Plymouth on the 30th of Septem- refuted; while the sympathies of the Romanists ber, and, on passing the Straits of Gibraltar, in the horrors of the mutiny have been considshaped her course along that portion of the crably deepened by accounts of the "martyrcoast of Barbary known as the Riff Coast," dom" of a Roman priest in India, who was bar for the purpose of showing her flag, as the in- barously slain at the altar with the crucifix habitants were, with good reason, suspected of in his hands. The Family of the last being piratically disposed. On nearing Cape King of the French, resident in England, had Aqua, a body of men, with horses and a few sustained a loss in the demise of the Duchess canoes, were observed on the bluffs above. The de Nemours. We also have to record the death ship was cleared for action, and Captain Sands of the Infanta Amalia, wife of Don Sebastian and landed and brought four Arabs on board, from sister of the Duchess of Tuscany. . . . The effect whom he endeavored to gain some information on the English money market of the news of the as to what these demonstrations meant. Cap- suspension of the banks in this country was tain Sands then made a drawing of the Ameri- very serious, but not so much so as was anticican flag, which he showed to the Arabs, telling pated. The leading English papers regarded the them that all attacks upon vessels carrying that course taken by the banks as the wisest course flag would be severely punished. The visitors that could have been adopted. Many failures were also shown the ship's batteries and en- had been announced in England and the princigines, and appeared to be deeply impressed with palities on the continent.. ... Still later acwhat they had seen and heard.. The most counts inform us that there was as great a panic important local election which has ever been in England as there was here; and that comheld in New York took place on the 1st of De-mercial houses went down in all directions becember, when Daniel F. Tiemann, Esq., was elect- fore the storm. The crisis culminated on the ed mayor, by a handsome majority over Fer- 12th, when the government suspended the Charnando Wood, Esq., the then incumbent of that ter Act of the Bank of England, and authorized office. an unlimited issue of notes. The effect of this movement was quickly felt at every point, the excitement ceased, and business affairs assumed somewhat of their usual quietude. Parliament was to assemble immediately. . . . . The Siamese embassy, consisting of four embassadors and a numerous retinue, had arrived in England, and been received with considerable ceremony and attention. Delhi, the stronghold of the insurgent Sepoys, in India, has been stormed and captured by the British troops. The receipt of this news caused great rejoicing in England, as it was believed that, Delhi having fallen, the insurgents would lose their confidence, and the rebellion be speedily crushed. The assault was attended with terrible carnage, the English having lost in killed and wounded upward of eleven hundred soldiers and sixty-one officers, which were one third of the whole assaulting force. It was, however, most successful. They succeeded in taking the King of Delhi, his two sons and chief wife, prisoners. The age of the king saved his life, but the sons were shot immediately after their capture. Lucknow had been relieved by the gallant Havelock just in the nick of time, as the besiegers were on the point of blowing up the garrison. But a later account states that it was again besieged by fifty thousand Sepoys, commanded by Nani Sahib. The massacre at Delhi was horrible. All the people found in the city were put to the sword. Among the Missionaries who have fallen victims to the mutiny in India are: The Rev. A. R. Hubbard, of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and the Rev. J. Mackay, of the Baptist Mission, at Delhi; the Rev. W. H. Haycock, and H. Cockey, of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, at Cawnpore; the Rev. J. Macallum, of the Additional Clergy Society, at Shahjehanpore; the Rev. Messrs. Freeman, Johnstone, Campbell, M'Mullen, and their families, of the American Presbyterian Mission, at Futteyghur; and the Rev. Mr. Hunter and family, of the Scottish Mission, at Sealcote. To this list may be added the Rev. Mr. Jennings, the English chaplain at Delhi, and his daughter, and Mrs. Thomson, and her two daughters, of the Baptist Mission, at Delhi. . . The Contributions to the Indian Relief Fund already exceed £131,000, and are still pouring in. Some of the most pleasing offers of aid, however, are not in money. In some instances, clergymen and others engage to receive orphans into their families on such terms as these: "a home and home's comforts for any child whose .... The Atlantic Cable, it is said, is certainly to be laid in June, 1858, and active arrangements have already been made for that purpose. Four hundred additional miles of cable have been ordered, and as it is expected that the three hundred and forty miles now submerged will be recovered, the company will probably have on hand about 3,000 miles, or 750 more than the length supposed necessary. This, it is believed, will be a sufficient allowance for the slacking in paying out from the strength of the current. The British government have signified their intention of again detaching two steam vessels to assist in the laying; and it is supposed beyond a doubt that our government will likewise again render the same service. The "Great Eastern," to be hereafter known as the "Leviathan," an attempt was made to launch in the month of November, which proved unsuccessful. The trial was to be repeated at an early day. . . . . The Patrie of Puris states that negotiations were going on between the French and English governments for an exchange of territory in India. Owing to the failing health of the King of Prussia, the Prince of Prussia had assumed the management of national affairs, but no changes would be made in the details of the government. An imposing ceremony took place lately at Sebastopol, the mortal remains of Lieutenant Colonels Fonfrede and Jolly Deshsyes having been exhumed and embarked on board the American vessel Susan Jane, to be brought to France for re-interment. All the Russian garrison was under arms, and paid due military honors. . . . A late number of the Paris Pays states that the government of the Celestial Empire had officially declared war against England on the 12th of September. AMONG the multitude of themerican generals who distinguished themselves in the Revolutionary war, no one is more widely known than Israel Putnam. Unlike many of his compeers, whose reputation is confined to the readers of history, his name and deeds are known to all. His fame is as universal as that of Washington. The delectable history of " Old Put and the Wolf," always a favorite selection in class-books, is the wonder and delight of school-boys, while his daring ride down the rocks at Horse Neck is the admiration of innumerable children of larger growth. In common with some hundred thousand or more of the latter, I remember witnessing, some years ago, a drama of "the times that tried men's souls," the strong VOL. XII.-8 The point of which was a representation of the general's break-neck feat. I sat through I know not how many acts, just to see an ordinary actor ride an ordinary horse down a declivity of pasteboard! play ran a fabulous number of nights, and, for anything that I know to the contrary, may be running still; if so, I wouldn't advise any one to see it. It is a bore. The life of a man like Putnam cannot be written at length in a paper like this. Narrated in detail, his adventures would fill volumes. Besides, the age in which he lived being one of the most memorable which the world has yet seen, his history is more or less a history of the age. The most that can be given here, is a running account of his life, with a glance at some of his most prominent achievements. Much must be overlooked, and much taken for granted. The reader is supposed to be familiar with the principal events of the Revolution; if he be not, it is his fault, not mine; all I can do is to suggest an instant amendment. It is well enough to know the history of Greece and Rome; but, as Americans, we ought to know something of our own country as well; the more the better. There have been several biographies of Putnam. The earliest was written in 1788, by Colonel Humphreys, one of his aids in the revolution; the latest in 1846, by William Cutter. It is from this last that I have derived the material, and in some instances the language of what follows: Israel Putnam was born in Salem, Massachusetts, on the 7th of January, 1718. His father was Captain Joseph Putnam. The original name of the family was Puttenham. They resided of old in Buckinghamshire, England. The first of the name who emigrated to New England was Mr. John Putnam; he came over with the venerable Endicott, and settled in Salem, or what was then Salem, (it is now in cluded in the limits of Danvers,) in 1634. Israel was his great grandson. Of Israel's early childhood but few memorials remain. He is said to have been a brave and fearless boy, generous and manly, and always good-natured. Like the sons of most farmers at that time, his education was limited; but what he lacked in learning he made up in judgment and good sense. One of the earliest anecdotes of his youth illustrates his daring in pursuit of what he had set his heart on, and his coolness in a moment of great peril. Wandering in the woods one day with some of his companions who were engaged in the boyish amusement of birds' nesting, the band discovered a fine nest lodged on the top branch of a very tall tree. The tree stood apart, and was difficult to climb. They could not reach the nest by a pole, or any other contrivance at their command. The only way to obtain the coveted prize was for some one to venture out after it on the frail branch. No one of the boys seeming inclined to risk it, Israel took off his jacket, rolled his pantaloons up to his knees, and began to climb. "There's nothing like trying," he said. He reached the top of the tree, and crept out on a limb which grew just under the branch containing the nest. It creaked and bent under him; still he went on. At last he stooped on one knee and reached out his hand to grasp the nest; his fingers touched it. "I have it," he shouted; but at that moment the limb broke short off, and he fell. His fall was broken by the lower branch of the tree, which caught in his pantaloons, and held him suspended with his head down. The boys were terribly frightened; but Israel was cool and collected. They suggested several means of rescuing him, none of which were practicable. At last, Israel singled out one of his playmates, who was a good marksman, and who, fortunately, had his rifle with him, and told him to fire at the limb, and so cut it off. The boy demurred, suggesting that the | bullet might happen to strike his head. "Never mind, Jim," said Israel; 66 you had better blow out my brains at once than see me die here by hanging. Shoot." "But you will fall.” "Shoot," said Israel again, and shoot the boy did. The bullet struck the limb, the splinters flew, and down dropped Israel, rather red in the face. The fall bruised him severely, but he got up and laughed it off. A few days afterward he went back to the tree alone, and succeeded in capturing the nest, this time without any accident. The anecdote is trivial, perhaps, but it shows the stuff of which the future hero was made. A few years later, Israel gave up going after the nests of birds, and turned his attention to finding a bird for his own nest; in short, he married. This was in 1739, his twenty-first year. The lady of his choice was a Miss Hannah Pope, a daughter of Mr. John Pope, of Salem. In the year following, the young couple removed to Pomfret, Connecticut. By and by there came a brood of young birds to Israel's nest, as many as ten in all; four sons and six daughters. A few years found him in the enjoyment of a comfortable and substantial home. His clearings were well fenced and cultivated; his pastures were handsomely stocked; his entire establishment, with one exception, was prosperous. The exception was his sheep, scores of which were sacrificed every year. His losses in that line became so great at last, that he felt he must either give up his flocks or kill their destroyer. As far as he and the neighbors could judge, the havoc was committed by one old she wolf and her whelps. They managed, in the course of the season, to kill off the whelps with their dogs, but the old wolf was too wary to allow herself to be caught. She had once been taken in a trap, but she escaped, leaving her toes behind her. Israel entered into a league with some of his neighbors, who agreed to watch and bunt, and never to abandon the pursuit until the wolf was destroyed. Two of them were to keep on her track until she was overtaken, or driven to her den. Commencing the pursuit in the opening of winter, after a light fall of snow, they were soon on a sure trail; they found the track of the toeless foot. They pursued her to the banks of the Connecticut River, where she doubled and turned back to Pomfret again. Early in the morning, the day after their return, they earthed her in a den, about three miles from Israel's house. There she was guarded until a large company of men and boys had assembled together, with dogs and guns, and straw and sulphur, and other warlike appurtenances, offensive and defensive. The dogs ventured in the den, but soon came back yelping and bloody. The band next tried the virtues of straw and sulphur. They smoked the cave and themselves, but the wolf refused to come forth. They tried the dogs again, but the dogs backed out. Israel proposed to his servant to take a torch and gun, and enter the cave and shoot her; as might have been expected, the servant declined. Finding no one willing to attempt the descent, he made up his mind to do it himself; his neighbors remonstrated with him, but in vain. Knowing that all wild animals have an instinctive dread of fire, he tore up a quantity of birch bark into strips, and throwing off his coat and waistcoat, lighted one of his extempore torches, and crawled into the cave on his hands and knees. The mouth of the cave was about two feet square. It had an oblique descent of fifteen feet, then it ran horizontally ten feet, and then ascended gradually about sixteen feet more. The sides of the passage through which he crawled were solid rock, as was also the top and bottom. It was in no place high enough for a man to raise himself upright. He was several times obliged to stop, and renew his birch torch, at the hazard each time of being left in utter darkness. He crept on all-fours to the top of the ascent, where he discovered the glaring eyes of the wolf, who was sitting in the extremity of the cavern. Startled at the sight of the flame, she growled and gnashed her teeth. He reconnoitered her position, formed his plan of attack, and giving a kick at the rope which was fastened to his leg, (I believe I forgot to mention the rope,) was dragged out feet first, and so violently, that his shirt was stripped over his head. His skin was terribly lacerated. He immediately loaded his gun, and lighting another handful of torches, descended a second time. As he approached the wolf, she howled and snapped her teeth, and rolling her terrible eyes, dropped her head between her paws. He took deliberate aim at her head, and fired as she was in the act of springing. Stunned with the shock, and suffocated with the smoke of the powder, he was again dragged out into the air. As soon as the smoke had cleared away, he went down the third time to secure and bring out his prize. She lay on the floor of the cave bathed in blood. He held the torch to her nose, and finding her insensible, he seized her by the ears, and was again dragged out, wolf and all. Then the old woods of Pomfret rang with shouts, great, manly shouts, whose echoes rolled away into the village, and lifted a load of fear from the hearts of the troubled women folk. Ere long they saw a band with torches winding down the road, escorting Israel to his home, wolf and all. The wolf was borne on a litter, on the shoulders of the larger boys, who claimed the honor, because they had kept awake so long. There was great merriment that night in Pomfret; tables were spread, and loaded down with good things, not forgetting new cider and old rum. If the bird that Israel had taken to his nest years before wept a little, it was with joy, not sorrow. story was noised all over the country, with many marvelous additions, the wolf being changed, at the option of the storyteller, into an indefinite number of wolves, or a bear with two cubs, or any convenient member of the animal kingdom. At length it got into the papers of that day and region, and finally into the journals of England and France, and Putnam was familiarly known as "the Old Wolf." The On the breaking out of the French war, in 1755, Putnam was appointed to a captaincy in the regiment of Connecticut |