ment to them by invalids was attended with much labor and fatigue; so that our newly discovered domestic fountain possessed great advantages so long as faith in its virtues remained unshaken, and this was as long as those virtues possessed the magic of mystery. But some prying chemist-I will not suspect that he was a physician who was deprived by the waters of some of his patients-made an analysis of them, and detected a minute portion of ignoble iron. Many of its former votaries deserted it, but those whose faith was of iron and in iron continued their sunrise potations, and to derive the benefit which faith and early rising deserved. Query: Would patent panaceas stand the test of an exposure of their ingredients, which might disclose little else than an ordinary prescription? Even bread pills and aq: font: would lose their efficacy if not prepared according to R. sour Our diseases are now much more refined than formerly. Dyspepsia and neuralgia were stomach or pain in the head, or stitches elsewhere, which had not aspired to the refinement of Greek appellations. It is no doubt some comfort to be thus classically affected, as a lady who complained of the chronic seemed to think it genteel. Another lady remarked, that when she was a girl people had backbones and fits, but now they had spines and spasms. In the Flush times, which were not confined to Richmond, a similar Hygeian discovery to that just mentioned was made at Lynchburg. I have no illiberal feeling toward Yankees, nor toward any nation or section; but my truthful history does not permit me to deviate from facts, unless I do so under false impressions. I must therefore state, that in the very height of the Flush that dazzled and deceived the speculative town of Lynchburg, an adventurous Yankee purchased a piece of ground adjoining the town, which was soon to embrace and enrich it, as he guessed: but the limbs began to retract and lose their strength, the appetite failed, and the Yankee feared he would be left a poor outsider. However, he determined not to submit without an effort. He dug a well on the premises, and it yielded a strong mineral water, similar, as some thought, to one or another of the celebrated springs in the mountain region. Invalids resorted to it in the early mornings, for it was open at certain hours only, and they derived benefit. Its celebrity rapidly increased, and its visitors became numerous. Even the faculty recommended the use of the waters, especially to patients whose diseases were imaginary. It was suggested, perhaps by a friend of the fortunate owner, that a regular watering-place should be established for the benefit of invalids, and for the prosperity of the town. The proprietor agreed to accept for the property a good profit on his outlay; the bargain was closed and he went on his way rejoicing. After the lapse of some little time, the waters were thought to decline in strength, which was at first attributed to an excess of rain; but as they did not strengthen with drought, it was deemed best to have the well cleansed and examined. The process was commenced, and to the dismay of the owners, when they reached the bottom of the well, where truth should reside, they found bags of brimstone, rusty nails, &c.; the saline and other soluble ingredients had disappeared. The fair historian of Lynchburg has, I find, recordedthis affair in a much more graphic style. CHAPTER XVII. DISTINGUISHED VISITORS. “The Invisible Lady" visited Richmond before Tom Moore addressed her, under the name of Tom Little, about the year 1803. She had many admirers, and, coquette-like, made a kind response to all, but no other was so gallant and poetical as Little Moore, who was then as great a coquette as she— courting in sweet odes all the Caras and Coras, Neas and Noras he met with. His fanciful lines to the lady above mentioned, commencing "They try to persuade me, my dear little sprite, That dance upon rainbows or ride upon storms;" are no doubt familiar to all my readers. Caressing and caressed, Moore spent some days in Richmond, singing sweetly his own songs, and penning some sweet lines to eyes and lips and hair; among others, to a charming lady who I hope may read these, albeit thro' spectacles. The reign of the Invisible Lady, like that of other coquettes, was short and brilliant, and soon. forgotten; but the most remarkable part of her history was, that she relapsed into silence after passing her teens. About the same period, some other meteors appeared in our firmament, that bid fair afterwards. to become fixed stars, but did not. Jerome Bonaparte, with his Baltimore bride, a descendant of "Old Mortality," immortalized by Walter Scott, arrived in Richmond with his bride in Nov. 1804. He was accompanied by Col. Reubel, not "Gen. Reubel, that demon of Hell," of whom "the antiJacobin" sung, but one of the same family, and no demon, and he also found a beautiful bride in Baltimore-Miss Pascault, if I remember rightly. Je rome had sailed for France in a French frigate, but put back into the Chesapeake, ominous to his young bride, for, Napoleon-like, and, by his orders, he repudiated her (reluctantly it was said), and, in 1806 or '7, married a princess and became a king-pro tem. In March, 1856, at the point of death, as was supposed, he was attended in Paris by his Paterson son and grand-son. CHAPTER XVIII. PLACES OF AMUSEMENT. The very first dramatic performance in Richmond was, as I have heard, in a wooden house, large in that day, which stood in the rear of the old jail (Rose's Brig), and which, if I mistake not, was demolished only a few years ago; but let that pass, and we will take a look at the first regular theatre opened in the city, to reach which we must travel through an old and interesting record. If the reader finds it dull, he can skip over a few pages, but mayhap fare no better. If he reads it, he will be rewarded for his pains. The writer is indebted to a gentleman of literary taste and research for the use of an exceedingly rare little volume (in French), entitled, "Memoir |