hm 
were killed in a minute and a half, consider 
they have got a weapon before which no 
enemy can stand. Uninterested people, 
however, while acknowledging its great 
utility in the defence of a breach or in street 
fighting, doubt its fitness for the battle-field, 
a3 it would there have to compete with the 
field gun, which, while out of reach of the 
being content to work without talking, the 
rest of the world takes no notice of their 
proceedings until they appear, ready to do 
battle, armed with some now and deadly 
weapon, as was tbe case with the Needle 
Gun. The French, on the other baud, have 
talked so much, and boasted so loudly, of 
their formidable Mitrailleuse, mailing the 
mand of the Second Army Corps, and by 
his timely arrival and vigorous fighting at 
Sadowa, after his cousin, Prince Frederick 
Charles had been fighting all day, decided 
the fate of the Austrian army, and secured 
peace. He is now in command of the 
Northern Army of Prussia, and since our 
last issue has fought the army of one of the 
urajtfim (|l 
On ! love is left in by-Kone years, 
Yet. there has been no broken vow. 
" HV" met of yore: 'tia"vottnnd I” 
That sometimes meet each other now. 
A finite indifferent hr and she, 
Though once enshrined in lover’s “we.” 
THREE PRUSSIAN GENERALS, 
Second only to Bismarck, and perhaps 
of equal importance to Prussia, in its present 
emergency is 
Baron Von IUoltke, 
Chief of Staff of Ring William I. He is 
nearly seventy years of age; was horn in 
Mecklenburg Schwerin; his early life was 
spent in the Danish army; iq 1822 lie re¬ 
ceived a commission as second Lieutenant 
in the Prussian army ; in 1835 he went to 
Constantinople to instruct and organize the 
Turkish army, and won distinction in the 
campaign of the Sultan against the Vice¬ 
roy of Egypt. He returned to the Prussian 
army, advanced rapidly until he was made 
Chief of Staff in September, 1858. He re¬ 
organized the army, planned the successful 
campaign against Denmark, and added to 
his laurels in the field. In 1866, in the war 
between Prussia and Austria, the brilliancy 
of his powers as a commander and strate¬ 
gist became apparent, aud the results at 
Sadowa are largely credited to ids planning 
aud counsel. Ilis ability to use and make 
the most of the resources at bis command is 
wonderful. He is never at a loss; decides 
quickly, no matter what the situation; is 
Arm in insisting upon the execution of bis 
plans, and results have thus far shown that 
they are wisely made. 
In the present war with Napoleon III. 
he does not appear as an active character, 
so far as the campaign is developed, but it 
is well known that as Chief of Staff he di¬ 
rects, in conjunction with the King, the 
movements of the great divisions of the 
Prussian army. 
Prince Frederick Clinrle*, 
the nephew of King William I., a son of 
Priuce Charles, was born March 20,1828. 
lie was scarce ten years old when he en¬ 
tered the Prussian army. Military life and 
duties were, therefore, almost inbred in his 
nature. He became passionately fond of bis 
profession, and made rapid progress at the 
military school. He distinguished himself 
as an officer in the Schleswig-Holstein war, 
but won his highest honors Lu the war of 
1866 with Austria, when he had command 
of the First Division of the Prussian army. 
He marched his troops to the frontier im¬ 
mediately on assuming command, crossed it 
June 23, won the victories of Liebenau, 
Turnau, Podo), Munchengratz and Gitschin, 
and forced the Austrians into the interior of 
Bohemia. Hero they made a stand at Bis- 
tritz, and July 3d, 1866, he attacked them 
in a strong position, fought them without, 
result until reinforced by the Second Divi¬ 
sion, commanded by the Crown Prince, 
when the Austrian lines were broken, and 
the disastrous (to the Austrians) day of Sa¬ 
dowa became history. Prince Frederick 
Charles is regarded one of, if not the 
ablest of the Prussian generals. In the pres¬ 
ent war he commands the Army of the 
Rhine. His division of the army has not 
yet distinguished itself, although as we write 
(August 10th) a dispatch comes over the 
wires that he has divided the French forcea 
in the center, and achieved a victory, lie 
is not only a first-class and brilliant, cavalry 
officer, he is also a military author, and 
created a particular sensation several years 
ago by a pamphlet in which he advocated 
the greatest individual development of the 
Prussian soldier, criticising severely the 
former Prussian system as having a tendency 
to make the soldier a mere machine. Ilis 
comparisons of the French and Prussian 
armies, their style of fighting, &c., and his 
relentless criticisms, caused the Prussian 
government to suppress this pamphlet, but 
it was used in at once introducing many of 
the ideas, principles and improvements ad¬ 
vocated by him. 
Among all the royal princes he is the 
only one who has never been entangled in 
an illegitimate love affair with one or the 
other of the handsome ladies of the court, 
or opera singers, or ballet dancers, according 
to the fashion of the day among his equals. 
He is exceedingly popular with the entire 
army, of which he is now the second in 
command, and destined to become probably 
Prussia’s greatest general. 
The Crown Princo Frederick William 
is the only son of King William I., and 
heir to the Prussian throne. He was born 
in 1831. When seventeen years old he en¬ 
tered the University of Bonn. Concluding 
his University course, he began his military 
studies at Berlin as a private in the Prussian 
Guards. Alter a short term of service as 
private, he was given command of a com¬ 
pany and was rapidly promoted until he be¬ 
came General. In 1856 lie married Victoria, 
the Princess Royal of England. In the 
Schleswig-Holstein war he was Lieutenant- 
General and Commander of the Second 
Army Corps, and acquired in that campaign 
great popularity among the troops, sharing 
with them all the hardships of the campaign. 
In the war with Austria, 1866, he had com- 
That time. ’ti« now Iona, long ago— 
tin hopes. It* Joy« ull iMVBttd uway; 
On llto'Hcnlm U(|o three Imhblas glow. 
And pleuHure, youth, aud lovo are they. 
Hope puIntH them bright u* bright can be- 
Or did, when t/utt aud 1 were “ we.” 
1 piirndlaeil aome woodland cot; 
I hnilt great “ castles In the air 
And pleasure was. and grief was not. 
In cot or castlo thnu wert there; 
Yet It wu* not alone lor thee. 
For Fancy always whimpered “ we.” 
The distant isles of future years 
Oleum brightly through the golden haze 
Time's sea a reflex hen von appears, 
In which tho stars are happy days; 
At least ’twus always so with me 
When lovers, pirn and / wore " we.” 
My life was ull one web of gold, 
Whore thoughts of thee like gems were set 
But soon the light of lovo grow cold, 
And gems und gliding faded; yet 
Tho '* gill ” and " paste” seemed true to me, 
lint 'twus when pen und I were “ we.” 
Long, long ago, with lire-hope shone 
These faded fannies; now they seom 
Wild fragments of a gladness gone, 
The memory of a pleasant dream. 
And Wonder whispers, “ Can It be 
That ever pod aud I were ’ we ’ 1” 
[OasseU’a. 
fetorits far iUmtlrsts 
p % 
THE CUPOLA 
A TRUE STORY OF A HAUNTED HOUSE, 
BY A. E. HARR. 
Into nearly every life there has come 
some whisper or glimpse of the mysterious 
one beyond; and, although few are willing 
to acknowledge this, I am, nevertheless, 
quite sure that the personal experience of 
many will enable t hem to credit the events 
I am going to relate. They occurred early 
in the present century in a little seaport 
town on the coast of Cumberland. 
One morning on going into my office I 
found a gentleman waiting for me whose 
face, bronzed, almost black, by foreign suns, 
had still a kind of familiarity. He accosted 
me by my name in a cheery, pleasant, man¬ 
ner, and I recognised directly an old ac¬ 
quaintance, of whom 1 had heard nothing 
for twenty years, ancl about whom I had 
long ago ceased even to wonder. 
“ I have made a couple of lacs among 
those black heathens in Calcutta, Moses,” 
he said, “and so I thought l would come 
home and die among Christians. Now I 
have with me a wife and four little picca¬ 
ninnies, and I want you to help me to find a 
house to shelter them in.” 
1 was delighted to do so. The profit of 
such a transaction was of importance to me, 
and Colonel Ratcliff K was one of those 
merry, genial men who contrive to turn even 
business into pleasure. We spent several 
days investigating different properties offered 
for sale, but none quite suited him. He 
wanted to be near the sea, and either in the 
town or near enough to it t,o seenre at all 
times plenty of good society. At last lie 
came to me with a confidential look on his 
face: “ I have found the very place I want,” 
he said; “ it is just at the end of Duke 
street, not far from the Castle gardens; and 
only five minutes walk to tho piers.” 
“1 know the place. It is called ‘the 
Cupola;’ hut I would not advise you to rent 
it, much less to buy it.” 
“Why not?” 
I shrugged my shoulders and replied, care¬ 
lessly :—“ You will laugh, of course, but the 
place has an evil name. Something ails it. 
No one stops there.” 
“Then we can buy cheap, Moses. You 
don’t suppose that after living twenty years 
among those cruel, crafty tiger-cats in Cal¬ 
cutta, who are all Thugs at heart, I am 
afraid of a ghost. Pshaw ! I like the idea 
of having something to investigate. Let us 
see about it at once.” 
“ There will be a little difficulty in the 
way," 1 replied. “ The owner is a maiden 
lady who luw shut herself up for years with 
a female servant, and has lately refused to 
rent the house at all, or even allow any one 
to go through it.” 
“ Wo will try her, nevertheless. Will you 
go, or shall I V ” 
“ Go yourself, Colonel. She does not like 
me; I can do nothing at all with her.” 
Towards afternoon of the next day, Col. 
Ratcliefe succeeded in procuring an inter¬ 
view with the owner of the property he had 
taken a fancy for, and he came immediately 
j after it to tell me tho result. I noticed that 
! he was unusually dull, and that all his rat¬ 
tling sinall-talk had deserted him. i could 
I hardly help smiling at his worried, solemn 
look and 1 banteringly asked him “ if he had 
seen the ghost V ” 
“ Why no?” he answered; “but I have 
seen the woman that owns it.” 
“ Ha! What do you think of her ? ” 
“ She is awful. I hope I shall never see 
THE MITRAILLEUSE GUN, 
VINCENT BENEDETTI, 
To judge from the mystery that has been 
observed about this invention, one would 
suppose that the French possessed a monopo¬ 
ly in the Machine Gun, but this, in truth, is 
not the fact. They are not the 
only inventors, nor indeed the 
only possessors, of a weapon 
which is expected to destroy 
battalions with one whiff of shot, 
the original Machine Gun com¬ 
ing, wc believe, from America, 
and being known as the Gatling 
Battery Gun. Belgium also pos¬ 
sesses an instrument of this kind, 
known as the Moutigny Gun 
and, what is more to the pur- .-^|||||| 
pose, the Prussians have also 
one called the Kugelspritzeu. 
The principle of all these ||||l|||g|| 
guns is the same, and consists 
of a combination of barrels, ■li 
rather larger than 
M. BENKDKTTr, whose interview with the 
King of Prussia on Iho public promenade 
at Eins is likely tq become one of the dis¬ 
puted points of history, ia of 
Italian extraction, and was born 
in Corsica about 181.5. Having 
been educated for tho diplo¬ 
matic service, he began his ca¬ 
reer at Palermo, as consul, in 
1848, and subsequently became 
^ First Secretary to the Embassy 
1 at Constantinople. In May, 1859, 
lie was offered tbe appointment 
in place of Bourree, as Envoy 
Extraordinary aud Minister at 
Teheran, but declining to ac¬ 
cept that post, was named short¬ 
ly afterwards Director of Politi¬ 
cal Affairs to the Foreign Min- 
istor, and in such capacity acted 
i as secretary and editor of the 
Proctocols in the Congress of 
Paris in 1856. 
*' lc ^cognition by France 
of the new Kingdom of Italy in 
1861, M. Benedetti was appoint- 
cd Minister Plenipotentiary of 
v France at Turin, which post, 
■&■■■■ however, he resigned on the re- 
tlremcnt of M. Thouvenel from 
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 
He then (Nov. 27,1864) received 
his last and, as it has proved, 
his most important appoint¬ 
ment, namely, that of Ambassa¬ 
dor at Berlin. Considering the angry 
feeling which has so long subsisted be¬ 
tween the two countries, this appoint¬ 
ment must be considered a mark of the 
Emperor’s appreciation of M. Bcncdetti’s 
diplomatic talent, and although on the first 
announcement of the Hobcnzollern affair, 
great dissatisfaction was felt that tho French 
Ambassador had allowed himself to he de¬ 
ceived, and cries were raised for his recall, 
we have no reason to suppose that he has 
suffered in the Emperor’s good opinion. 
rifle, bound together and mount- 
cd on a carriage and trail like a 1 ‘-i cslll g 
field piece. The barrels are con- 
nected with a powerful breech 
action worked by a lever, and it 
is in this breech action that the L yOgVa 
details differ in the various guns. 
In one the gun is fed through a 
kind of funnel, whilst the gun- 
ner, turning a winch, pours out a 
continuous stream of bullets. In 
another tho gun is loaded by 
means of a moveable breech 
block, consisting of a steel plate 
perforated to correspond with the num¬ 
ber of barrels. This breech block, having 
been charged with cartridges, is dropped 
into the breech, screwed up, and then dis¬ 
charged by turning the winch handle, a 
second charged plate being ready as soon as 
the first is exhausted. Three men, it is said, 
would be sufficient to work this gun at tbe 
rate of ten discharges a minute, and the 
French, on the strength of a recent experi¬ 
ment at Satory, when five hundred horses 
BARON YON MOLTKR. 
believe two men are as likely to run away 
as half a dozen. However, the merits of 
the Mitrailleuse have yet to be tested in real 
warfare, and it may come out of tho ordeal 
triumphantly, or it may meet more than its 
match in the Kugclspritzen. It is curious 
how little has been heard of the latter 
weapon, and it is only from a word or two 
here and there that we know of its existence. 
The Prussians seem to have the knack of 
improving their armaments In real secrecy; 
9 
9 
