Oshkosh Democrat (Newspaper) - February 28, 1851, Oshkosh, Wisconsin Song of the Railroad BY C T WOLFE Through the mould and through the clay Through the corn and through the hay By the margin ol the lake O'er the river through the brake O'er the and dreary moor On we hie with screech and Splashing I flashing i Over ridges Gullies By the bubbling rill And Highway a Hollow Like giants By the lonely hut and mansion By the ocean's wide expansion Where the factory smoke Where the foundry bellows Dash Slash Crash Flash with a And a bump And a Hiea the lo its destined O'er the and bog On we fly wilh ceaseless jog Every instant something new Every moment lost to view Now a a Now a crowd of gaping Now a a Now a a in a Church and steeple gaping Quick as thought are lost to Everything that eye can Turns hurly-burly Cach passenger is thumped and shaken As a physio la when taken By the foundry past the forge Through the plain and mountain gorge Where the cathedral rears its head Where repose the silent dead Monuments amid the grass Flit like spectres as you If to hail a inclined he's left behind Rumble tumble all the Thus we the hours away The Jeweler's Daughter BY LEIGH HUST Don Alphonso da a of some years of was the son of one of Castile more proud than of whom it was maliciously said that before they were made lords they didn't dine and after they were made lords they didn't sup He was however a very good kind of man not too poor to give his sons good educations and of his second son Alphonso the richest grandee might have been proud for a better or youth or one of greater good sense con- apart had never ventured his life in a which he had done half a dozen times He was moreover n pretty and it was even said that he not only composed the music for his serenades but that he wrote verses for them equal to those of Garcilaso So at least thought the young lady to whom they were sent and who used to devour them with her eyes till her very breath failed her and she could not speak for delight Poor loving Lucinda We call her poor though she was at that minute one of the richest as well as happiest maidens in Madrid and wo speak of her as a lady for such she was in breeding and manners and as such the very dees treated her as far as they though she was only the of a famous jeweller who had supplied half the great people with and lings Her father was dead her mother loo She was under the care of guardians but Alphonso clc Melos had loved her more than a year had loved her with a real love even though he wanted her money would in fact have thrown her money to the dogs rather than have ceased to love her j a treasure he had in the very fact of his passion Their marriage was to take place within the month and as the lady was so rich and the lover however noble otherwise was of the lowest or least privileged order of ty a class who had the misfortune of not being able to wear their hats in the king's presence unless his majesty ex- pressly desired the loftiest grandees who would have been but too happy to marry the lovely heiress had her father been anything but a merchant thought that the match was not only pardonable in the young gentleman but in a sort of a way noticeable and even in some ure to be smilingly winked at and en- nay perhaps envied ly as the future husband was generous and had a turn for making presents and for silting at the head of a festive table Suddenly therefore appeared some cf the finest emeralds and sapphires in the world upon the fingers of counts and marquises whose had hitherto been of ful and no little sensation was made on the gravest and most dignified of the old nobility by a certain grandee remarkable for his sense of the ties who had discovered serious reasons for thinking that the supposed jeweller's offspring was a natural daughter of u late prince of the blood Be this as it may Don pre- sented himself one morning as usual be- fore his mistress and after an interchange of transports such as may be imagined between two such lovers about to be forever informed her that only one thing more was now remaining to be done and course of OSHKOSH DEVOTED TO THE DISCUSSION OF EVERYTHING RELATING TO THE PUBLIC GOOD YOL II OSHKOSH WISCONSIN FRIDAY FEBRUARY 28 1851 NO 52 would be living in the same house And what is that 1 said Lucinda the tears rushing into her eyes for excess of happiness Only the said the lover affecting as much indifference as he could affect in anything when speaking with his eyes on hers But he could not speak it in quite the tone he wished The scarcely ejaculated his mistress turning pale Oh so you have fought and conquered in a dozen and you will not quit hie now that we can be so often together Be- Arid here ner breath began ready to fail her But Alphonso showed her or tried o show her how he must inevitably attend the Honor demanded it tom everything was expected of him his mistress herself who would otherwise despise him His mistress fainted away She fell a burden into his arms When she came to herself she wept entreated implored tried even with thetic to rally and be pleasant then again wept then argued and for the time in her We was a logician ing his hand and with a sudden force of conviction But hear then again then kissed him like a bride reposed on him like a wife did everything that was becoming and beau- and said everything but an angry word nay would have dared perhaps to pretend to say even that had she thought of it but she was not of an angry kind or of any kind but the loving and how was the thought to enter her head Entire love is a worship and connot be The heart of the lover openly and fondly sympathised with that of his poor mistress and it felt even more than it showed Not that Don feared lor consequences though fie had not been without pangs and thoughts of possibilities even in legard to hose for to say nothing of the danger of the sport in ordinary the chief reason of his being unpersuadable in the present instance was a report that the animals to be ered were of more than ordinary ferocity so that the who were expected to be foremost in the in general now felt themselves lo be particularly called on to make their appearance at the ard o an alternative too dreadful for the greatest to risk The final argument which he used with his mistress was the very excess ot that love and the very position in which it stood at that bridal moment to which he in vain appealed He showed how it had ever arid irremediably been the tom to estimate the love by the measure of his courage the more parent the risk for he to laugh at any real the greater the evidence of passion and the honor done lo the lady and so after many more words and teals the honor was to be done cordingly against her will and custom triumphed Custom That little as the people called it to the philosopher That great and ble as the philosopher justly it To show how secure he was and how securer still it would render him he made her promise to be there and she required very little asking for a thought catne into her head which made her pray with seciet and sudden earnestness to the Virgin and the same thought enabled her lo give him final looks not only of resigned but of a sort of ed for now that she saw that there was no remedy she would not make the worst of his resolve and so they parted How differently from when they and how dreadfully to be again brought too ether The day has arrived the great square has been duly set out the sand ta receive the blood is spread over it tne barricades and balconies the boxes are all right the king and his nobles are there Don Alphonso and his Lucinda arc there also he in his place in the square on back with his attendants behind him and the door out of which the bull is to come in front she wiil behold her before long though not in the box to which he has been raising bis eyes All the gentlemen who are to fight the bulls each in his turn and who like Alphonso are dressed in black with plumes of white feathers on their heads and scarfs of different colors round the have ridden round the lists a quarter of an hour ago to salute the ladies of their tance and all is still and waiting the whole scene is gorgeous with tapestries and gold and It is a theatre in which pomp and pleasure are sitting in a thousand human shapes to behold a cruel spectacle The trumpets sound crashes of other music succeed the door of the stable opens and the noble creature the bull makes his appearance standing still awhile and looking as it were with a confused com- before him Sometimes when the animal first cornea faith it rushes the horseman who has opened the door and who has rushed away from the mood in which it has shown itself But the bull this occasion was one that from the very perfection of his strength awaited provoking He soon has it Light agile footmen who are there on purpose vex him with and arrows garnished with paper set on fire He begins by pursuing them hither and thither they caping by all the arts of cloaks and hats thrown on the ground and deceiving ures of pasteboard Soon he is irritated he stoops his sullen head lo toss he raises it with his eyes on fire to kick and trample he bellows he rages he grows mad His breath gathers like a thick mist about him Ho gallops amidst eries of men and women ly around the square like a racer ing and followed by his tormentors he tears the horses with his horns he dis- them he tosses the howling dogs that are let loose on him he leaps and shivers in the air like a very stag or goat His huge body js nothing to him in the rage and might of his agony For Alphonso who had got in his way to shorten his ery knowing her surely to be there though he has never seen has ed the bull across the eyes with his sword and pierced him twice with the javelins furnished him by his attendants Half blinded by the blood and yet rushing at him it would seem with sure and final dim of his dreadful head the creature is just upon him when a blow from a negro who is helping one ot the pages turns him distractedly in that new direction and he down not the negro but the youthful and in ruth wholly ened and helpless page The page in falling looses his cap from which there flows a profusion of woman's hair and Alphonso knows it on the instant He leaps oft his horse and would have would have roared out with ror but something which seemed to wrench and twist round his Very being within him prevented it and in a sort of stifled and meek voice he could only bingly articulate the woid but in an instant he rose out of that self- pity into phrensy he hacked wildly at the bull which was now spinning as wildly round and though the rose crying out and the king bade the brute be dispatched which was done by thrust in the spine by those who knew the trick ah whv did they not do it be- foie the poor youth has fallen not fir from his Lucinda gored alike with self lo death though neither of them yet expiring As recovery was pronounced hopeless and the deaths of the lovers close at hand they were both carried into the nearest house and laid as the nature of the place required on the same bed And indeed as it turned out nothing could be more fitting Great and sorrowful was the throng in the room some of the greatest nobles were there and a sorrowing sage was breught from the king Had the loveis been princes their poor sible faces could not have been watched with greater pity arid respect At length they opened their one after the other to discover each other where they to weep from abundance of wretchedness and from difficulty of speaking They to make a movement each other but could not even raise an arm Lucinda tried to speak but could only sigh and attempt to smile Don Alphonso said at last half sobbing looking with his languid eyrs on her kind and patient does not re- proach me even now They both wept afresh at this but his mistress looked at him with such able love and making af the same lime some little ineffectual ments of her hand that the good old Duke de Linares said She wishes to put her arm around bum and he arm is over her Tenderly and with the softest caution were their arms put accordingly and then in spite of their anguish the good Duke said Marry them And the priest opened his book and as well as he could speak for sympathy or they seem to answer lo his words he married them and a few moments frem excess of mingled ony and joy with their arms on- one an- other and smiling as they shut their eyes spirits passed away and they died Capital Punishment in China A Chinese merchant accused and convicted of killing his wife was ced by deprivation of sleep The execution took place at Amoy in the month of June last The condemned was placed in prison under the surveillance of three guardians who relieved each other at every alternate hour and who ed him from taking sleep or day He lived thus for nineteen days without having slept for a single At the commencement of the eighth day his ferings were so cruel that he begged as a great favor that they would kill him REPORT OP THE Commissioners of the Public Works To Hia Excellency the Governor of the State oj SIR of the Board of Public Works for the Improvement of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivera have the honor to submit to you their Report In accordance with the recommendations embraced in our last report we advertised on the 4th day of March and received until the 13th day of May for the Improvement of Grand Chute and Cedar Rapids Proposals were received for the Improvement of both sides of the river at these two pointe At the Grand Chute Theodore Conkey proposed for tbe construction on that side of the river of Section No 1 Lock No 4 and the Dam for the aggregate sum of 25 and the right all he surplus water for hydraulic purposes This proposition if accepted would have fixed the location of the Improvement on the west side and waa submitted to the Governor for hie approval which he declined to give deeming the t amount of work proposed to be done by Mr Conkey of less value than the water power and the location was changed to the east side and the work allotted to Fitch F he being the lowest bidder for the aggregate sum of 64 The gate propositions on the west side of the river had Mr proposition would have been 61 and all the surplus water for hydraulic purposes exhibiting a difference of tlie sum of 03 which latter sum would have been the only real equivalent that the State would have received for ail the water power at the Grand Chute In addition to this the east side of the river affords better facilities for the tion of the Improvement and the line of canal being farther removed from and entirely above the river would be less subject to danger from floods Contracts were made with White Resly Arndt foi the Improvement on the west aide of the river at Cedar Rapids with a timber lock and spar dam for the aggregate sum of 90 A subsequent change from a timber to a composite lock will increase the cost about making tke aggregate 90 At the time propositions were re- for the construction of the at Ft Winnebago and a crane scow for the removal of snags and improvement of Wisconsin river which were allotted as lows Bridge No 1 across the Grand Lock to Reynolds for Bridge No 2 across Lift Lock to Nelson McNeal for Scow for Improvement of consin River to Nelson Neal for Making tbe aggregate amount put under contract at that lime 44 The work on the the Grand Chute and Cedar Rapids progressed with great rapidity until from the cy of funds it became necessary to notify the contractors that monthly estimates could not be paid to them with regularity circumstance of course has compelled the contractors to suspend their operations to a great extent In the present state of the fund this work cannot be resumed until ad- of land shall be placed at the disposal of the Board The contractors however have made their arrangements for materials to be delivered this Winter and next Spring so that the work wiil be in readiness to resume as soon as funds can be realized They having asked for an sion of time for the completion of their con- tracts the Board have thought proper to grant them until the 1st day of December 1851 instead of requiring them to complete their work on the 1st day of July as at first contemplated The work at Fort Winnebago has not progressed with the rapidity that was pated and as it was found that more time would be required for tbe Improvement of Fox River in consequence of the extremely low stage of than was at first ex- the time for the completion of these contracts was extended to the 1st of October The work waa not however completed by that time and the contractors were allowed to go on as there was no question but that the Canal and locks could be made ready for use by the of navigation iif the Spring And it was also considered that the longer period that the banks remained after construction before a pressure of water was thrown upon them would insure their permanency The Canal will be completed within a few days ready for acceptance If the or for the construction of the Locks should not display the proper energy in the of his work so as to remove alt doubts of its completion by proper time the Board have made such arrangements as will insure their done by the opening of navigation in the Spring Tbe draw bridges at Fort were located one upon each luck to save ex- pense iti construction and in order that the persons employed to tend the locks could also take charge of the bridges and save the necessity of employing additional men for that purpose As but little or nothing has been done cowards their construction further progress will be suspended upon them in consequence of the limited state of the as all the money be realized at ent will be required to complete previous and until the Dredge can reach Fort the temporary bridges erected across the canal by for I their own convenience will answer all poses 01 89 799 00 The Board from the examinations that they have made of the progress and the amount of work performed by the Steam Dredge in the improvement of the channel of the Fox River during tbe past season are well satisfied with the energy with which operations have been prosecuted For a detailed statement of its operations we would maku reference to the report of Mr Story acting Commissioner in charge which is hereunto appended marked A All necessary repairs to the Dredge should be made in February in order that it may be put in operation as soon as the ing of Spring will permit as it will probably require nearly alt of the next season to reach the Portage Canal channel that can be navigated by a small class of The dimensions of the channel usually made by the steam wherever it has operated are as follows Average width forty-five feet with a depth of water of four feet These and irt fact the whole of the Upper river could better be navigated by a small class of boats than any other ap the width of such boats would more readily admit of their pass ing each other in the narrow channel ant in addition their operations would be less in- to the banks than that of boats by side wheels There should be some regulation made with reference to this matter by or before the time that this portion of tbe stream comes to be used for the purposes of navigation It is believed that there will be nothing to prevent properly constructed boats from cending the river next season as far as the operations of the dredge boat have been ex- six miles of Fort gOi Some portion of the overhanging timber that interfered with the navigable channe of the Wisconsin was cut down and during last winter A crane scow for the removal of snags and to afford facilities for cutting and removal of such timber as may still interfere with the navigation was constructed last fall It would be advisable to send this scow down the Wisconsin with a proper compliment of men as early next season as the stage of water will permit for the purpose of still further improving the navigation of that stream When the objects for which this scow were designed are effected it will materially assist navigation and it is believed thai light draught steamboats will find no in making regular trips upon thi stream The contract for the improvement of Rapids is progressing towards com- The time for finishing this contract was extended by the Board from the first day of October 1850 to the first day of May 1851 and from its present condition it i fair to suppose the Work at that point will fce ready for use early next season The improvement at Rapid Croche would have been entirely completed last season had it not been for an unfortunate breach iu the dam Such arrangements have been made as will insure its repair in a days so that the work at this point will be fully ready for the purposes of navigation next spring At Des Peres the lock was opened for the passage of boats early last season It has been found necessary however in of a diminished depth of water in the bay and river below to sink the bottom of tbe lock and lower sill about two feet Preparations have been made for this tion and the work will be entirely completed and the lock prepared for use by the time navigation opens in the spring The dam will also be raised to its height as soon as navigation will require it The board authorized the chief engineer to employ some editable person to the boulders with navigation from the channel of the Fox river between Rapid and the head of Des Peres dam This work has been done under his tendence at a cost of For a more full and complete statement of the condition and progress of each portion of the work on the improvement we will refer to the report of the chief engineer and super- intendent which is annexed and marked which is adopted as a part of the report of the board Overtures were made to the by the some eastern capitalists for making the improvement at tbe Little Chute and the Grande tbe only portions of the work not under contract The under which they proposed to do the work were The privilege of using all the surplus water far hydraulic purposes and also the right of collecting tolls under the direction of the state authorities These conditions were deemed so by the board that they directed the work to be advertised Previous to the time fixed for receiving however Mr Joshua F Cox one of the leaders in the enterprise died and consequently the arrangement failed It fs regretted that this contract could not have been as it would have insured the tion of the ment at a much earlier period than can sibly be effected funds derivable from the sales of the lands appropriated for purpose The quantity of land advertised for sale since the last report has acres There has been sold during the same period by acres 1 by private entry by public sale Total acres The board with the register and treasurer and found that had received fnr fees on pre and entries the sum of 50 Warrants were to them for the sum of 354 60 Making the by them as applicable to their salary or each for the ending January 1st 1851 or at tbe of per year They also find that the BM re- for land sold the last with him on the 15th 1850 op the 1st January 1851 the sum of 70 Balance in of treasurer at last settlement 26 Total 96 thai he has paid out on warrants drawn on him 14 Leaving a balance in the ury of 83 The hoard fiul on examination that alt warrants drawn on the treasurer up to date been paid and included in the above settlement with the exception of rant No 224 in favor of Joel S fof twenty doling which has not yet been pre- sented The amount of liabilities at present ex- isting on contracts will be an- tabular statement to be 28 TABULAR STATEMENT Exhibiting elf work under amount of work doue and paid fur remaining to be paid OH completion of work S a- g-a mi 5 S a 3 o 1 9 Sgl irg S o o O ej o in to OOO t-l wi com fS s sag CO o 55 tsi Cno co w to o 01 co GO OO tO O CO o 00 Od W Ci O -J alsi CO oo -i 01 10 oo j 10 w 06 00 -J co c i to o co OO Ol tn to tn O -J tfi o ba 3 i e 3 H 2 s A O O O i It was anticipated at the time that the work at the Grand Chute and Cedar was put under that additional mounts of land would be obtained for the purpose of continuing the Improvement it waa with this view that trra placing of this work under contract received the tive sanction Unfortunately the additional selections of land have not been confirmed and the only resources at tire control of the Board been dependent upon of lands from the following amounts Odd numbered sections first selected 98 Deduct for cor- rections posed about 98 Even numbered sections confirmed 80 Deduct for cor- rections a- bout 240 00 80 Total Of which were sold m Of which were sold in 1850 44 90 78 04 Leaving unsold and which have been offered at public sale 74 OC this quantity not more than acres can be sold during the year as considerable portions of it nre waste ami marshy lands So that Unless Congree should confirm the grant of the se lections already made by the Governor and order surveys to be mode on tbe norih aider of the Fox river in the recent purchase so that selections can be from those lands for the purpose of making up all deficiencies but little can be beyond closing tip the contracts entered at the first lettings and keeping the Dredge boat at work on the upper Fox river ingr but a small sum applicable to the of the Improvement at Grand Chute and Cedar Rapids The following will show what can probably be relied upon as the buis of operations for the next six months Amount that is supposed will be realized from sales of lands to 1st July 00 Add batanfte in hands of urer Hat January 83 82 Liabilities to contractors on tion of Canal and Locks at Fort Winnebago 83 To finish repairs at Rapid Croche Dam and Lock Repairs of Dredge Boat 00 Running do do three months 00 Engineering contingencies 00 Amount 83 from tbe foregoing statement it will Been that no funds will be applicable to the continuation of the work at Grind Chute and Cedar Rapids sell
