aunt of "the beautiful bride," in her sorrow and surprise that so great a sacrifice was permitted to one so much her senior, a widower with children, and who, by herself at least, was not regarded with the confidence and respect necessary to render the connection desirable or agreeable. Owing to a recent wound, received under circumstances which would alone have established a claim to grateful remembrance had not his subsequent extraordinary defection obliterated his name from the roll of his country's heroes, Arnold during the marriage ceremony was supported by a soldier, and when seated his disabled limb was propped upon a campstool. These wounds may perhaps have made him more interesting to the lovely but unfortunate bride. At all events, her except for his character for extravagance, was then regarded with a share of public favor, if not with any feeling of popular affection. He had rendered "some service to the state," and was distinguished for gallantry among the bravest of the land. It is as unjust as vain to urge, as some have done, in palliation of his stupendous crime, the fashionable and expensive propensities of his accomplished wife. That she was addicted to displays of wealth inconsistent with the spirit of her time and the condition of public affairs may not with propriety be questioned; but no external influence can move a truly great and honorable mind and heart from a fixed purpose of patriotic or social duty.

Mrs. Morris's recollections of the British army when in possession of Philadelphia were very fresh. The regiment of Highlanders, Colonel Hope, was exercised in front of her grandmother's residence, the band practising the music, spreading the books or sheets upon the steps ascending to the entrance of the house. On one occasion, on her way to school and passing this regiment drawn up in line, happening to wear a dress of Highland plaid, she attracted the notice of the soldiers; the word was spoken, and, child as she was, they cheered her as she moved timidly and quickly away. The tender chord of thoughts of

home had been struck.

Her anecdotes of the French princes-the duke of Orleans, afterward Louis Philippe, and his brothers, Montpensier and Beaujolais-were entertaining. Her recollection of Franklin, who was an honored guest in well-informed circles-of his manners, humor, and style of conversation-was undimmed. One conversation at the residence of her grandmother Willing she particularly remembered: its subject soon after became invested with peculiar interest. When Mr. Thomas Prior suggested to the illustrious philosopher the practicability at will of drawing lightning from the clouds, she beheld with almost reverential awe the man who believed himself possessed of what, to her young mind, seemed a miraculous power. Why Mr. Prior did not himself apply to his theory the test of experiment was a matter of

surprise to all. It was frequently discussed in the circles in which she moved. Whether his omission to do so was the result of a procrastinating habit, a deficiency in enterprise, or that he was anticipated by Franklin, is now unknown; but certain it is that Franklin, with characteristic promptitude and tact, acting on the suggestions of his friend, achieved the triumph, and to him the glory has been decreed.

Mrs. Morris was the last of the band of twelve who assumed the pecuniary responsibilities attending the services of the church and in all the measures preliminary to the organization of the parish of St. Luke in Germantown.

The Madisonian war, with its many disasters and final triumphs, was a well-remembered history. Her only son she encouraged in the acquisition of military tactics, and promptly consented to his enrollment in the Washington Grays, cheerfully prepared the necessary articles for the march and the camp, and buckled on his knapsack to join the encampment under General Cadwallader at Kennet Square and Camp Dupont, bidding him "Go, in God's name, and with her blessing.'" And when another company on the march passed her dwelling and halted, she amply supplied them with refreshment.

JOHN STODDART.

About the year 1816, Mr. John Stoddart of the city of Philadelphia was one of our most active business men, commanding unlimited credit and the confidence of the community. Whatever he touched, either in real estate or merchandise, made a "rise in the market," and he was for many years one of the solid men of the city. His residence was at the south-east corner of Seventh and Race streets, facing Franklin Square.

The house represented in those days a palatial residence. It was torn down a few years ago, and replaced with a more modern structure. His property accumulated and rapidly advanced in value, including some of the most valuable business sites in the city of Philadelphia. He extended his operations beyond the city-in the West and in this State. Owning some thousands of acres of land in the counties of Luzerne and Monroe, at the headwaters of the Lehigh, and depending upon the partial promise of the Lehigh Navigation Company to extend their canal to that point, he located and built the town of Stoddartsville, consisting of a large mill, a store-house, a hotel and many neat cottages, making it one of the most attractive villages this side of Wilkesbarre and upon the summit of the Pokono. A line of stages in those days, over a well-made pike from Easton to the latter town, after a most romantic drive would land you in the village, four

teen miles from the Susquehanna at Wilkesbarre, and an equal distance from White Haven, the present terminus of the canal. The village, deprived of the projected improvement, now cut off from all railroad communication, and having been subjected at various times to "fire in the mountains," is but a miniature of that which the founder contemplated at the beginning. Coal and iron are said to exist in this locality.

A few years later Mr. Stoddart, an active business-man, engaged in dry-goods, book publishing, and speculation, but somewhat reticent, without advice or consultation (too proud to ask for aid, too honest to defraud), made an assignment of all his property for the benefit of his creditors, amounting to the sum of $600,000 (in those days a larger sum than dollars now represent). One of his assignees, the late respected Thomas Fletcher, informed the writer that "all his liabilities were paid in full, and our expectation was that we could pay him back at least a fortune; in this we failed."

After Mr. Stoddart's assignment he moved to the house in North Seventh street, adjoining the Jewish synagogue, a property built prior to 1776, and the birthplace of his wife in Revolutionary times. The property still remains to her descendants. Subsequently he removed to the house at present occupied by the Women's Christian Association, in which he died, leaving an honored name to his descendants.

Mr. Stoddart's family consisted of thirteen children, of whom six sons preceded his death. Two sons, Curwen and Joseph, for forty years or more have conducted a large dry-goods business on North Second street. The second son, Isaac, was given at an early age the supervision of the Stoddartsville estate. He married Lydia Butler, daughter of Colonel Zebulon Butler of Wyoming fame. He built a substantial residence on the banks of the Lehigh in the county of Luzerne, now the residence of Mr. Lewis Stull, an extensive lumberman of that region.

CRAZY NORAH.

Many who read this will remember Crazy Norah, a tall woman with sharp, firm features, a clear black eye, and iron-gray hair, and whose quick step, together with her peculiar dress, gave her a masculine appearance. She was quiet and harmless, unless occasionally irritated by boys. She was rather fond of children, and would often take them by the hand, induce them to say the Lord's Prayer and the Catholic Creed, and then reward them with some trifle from the large bag she invariably carried, such as a button, a piece of colored china, old ribbon, or some similar thing of little or no value. Her history, like that of many de

mented people, was romantic. Her real name was Honora Power, and she was from Limerick, Ireland. Her father, a farmer, died when she was quite young, leaving her an orphan with an annuity of £50. At his death she went to reside with her sister, whose dissolute husband spent all the property of both Honora and her sister. She then came to America, and lived out as a servant at one time at a young ladies' boarding-school at Third and Walnut streets. About this time she, attending St. Mary's Church, became interested in Mr. Hogan's preaching and appearance. The terrible riot at St. Mary's in 1822, in which the pews and altar of the church were destroyed, and the excitements attending the troubles of the church during the Hogan controversies, upset her mind, and from being a smart, honest, and good servant she became a helpless object of charity. In a few years her excitement calmed down, and she endeavored to earn her own living. For a number of years she lodged at the Friends' Almshouse in Walnut street, where she was kindly treated. She was sane on many points and methodical in her ways. During the day she was continually on the tramp, and was as well known to the children in Frankford, Germantown, Roxborough, Haddington, or West Philadelphia as to the children in the old city proper. She had a pleasant word for every one she met. She was so well known that she was employed as a dun to collect difficult debts, in which employment she was indefatigable, and often successful; and always made her returns promptly and correctly, as she was shrewd and honest in all her business transactions. She thus supported herself almost to the day of her death, which occurred Feb. 15, 1865, when she was about sixty-seven years of age. It occurred at the Almshouse, where she had been about a year. She constantly attended St. John's Cathedral. Her quick, active step had become feeble, her bright eye had lost some of its fire, and her black hair had become quite silvered. Her costume usually consisted of a not very full nor long dress, compressed at the waist with a belt and buckle; over this was worn a camlet cloak fastened at the neck, mostly of plaid material. She wore a pair of high-top boots and a man's hat—in winter a rather broad-brimmed stove-pipe hat, and in summer a tall straw hat. Around her neck she wore a rosary and beads. Thomas MacKellar wrote a piece of poetry on her.

Maelzel's Automaton Trumpeter.-This wonderful piece of mechanism, invented in the early part of the present century by M. Maelzel, was exhibited in 1877 to a party of gentlemen at 926 Chestnut street by Mr. E. N. Scherr, Jr., who now has possession of it. The trumpeter has recently been uniformed as an English dragoon, and plays a number of military airs with the precision and effect of a human performer. It has been nearly fifty years since it was first brought to Philadelphia, and since then it has