St. Landry Democrat

PERSONAL AND LITERARY.

-Alexander H. Stephens has completed his history of the United States. It is a complete history of this country down to the time of Senator Hill's death: Mrs. E. W. Guilford, widow of Nathan Guilford, who founded the common schools of Ohio, celebrated her eighty-first birthday anniversary in Cincinnati recently. About 200 Ohio pioneers were among the callers. -John Swinton, of the New York Sun, enjoys the distinction of being the first American author to contribute to the Russian literary press. He has an article on the "Philosophy of American Literature" in the last number of a St. Petersburg magazine with an unpronounceable name. The Washington Star says: "Mrs. Sara A. Spencer has returned to Washington with her two sons, from a tour of the Northern Lakes. They spent two days at Mentor with Mrs. Garfield and her family, whom they found in a cheerful, healthful, happy spirit, full of tender reminiscences of old days, but rich in memory and hope." The oldest printer in the country who is at present engaged in the active practice of his profession is probably "Grandpa" Prescott, in the composition room of the Corning (Ia.) Gazette, who, at the age of ninety years, and with sixty-three consecutive years at the "case" behind him, sticks type every working day in the year.-Indianapolis Journal. According to the London World, Victor Hugo is rapidly declining physically and mentally. His journey to Guernsey in company with the two ladies who have devoted their lives to him was undertaken for the sake of what is almost "native air" to him. There is now a constant struggle between the sight-seers who would push the old man to write anything, and the family circle which endeavors to restrain his lyric overflow. --The Rev. Dr. Henry J. Morgan, who for fifty-two years has been rector of St. James' Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, is, with the exception of the Rev. Dr. Shelton, of St. Paul's Church, Buffalo, the only clergyman of that church in this country who has had so long a continuous service in one parish. He succeeded Bishop White upon the election of the latter to the episcopate, and the church has had only the two rectors in eighty-two years.-N. Y. Independent.