John Van Zandt

- An esteeiiied cor respondent, who wriles us from Cincinnti:i, will we trust, pardon us Ébr mak ing public the followmg extract from his let. or. Il wil], we ars sure, bo rend vvitli jreat inte, est : "I ssw poor olJ Van Zandt u few days ago. He carne into own in his litlle wagon, and slopped at uy office door, and sent his son lo ask me :o come down to hinu as l.c was too feeble o get up sta ir I went iinmedintely Jown, nnd had a few moments conversalion wilh the honest and humane old man. He evidenlly has not long to live. Con sumptiun is doing her deadly work upon Kim, surely, though slowly. Perhaps, and probobly, before the mandate of the Supreme Court can be canied in'.o the ndgnient of the Circuit Court, the old man will have gone to another bar and nnother judgment, where the he'ping of ihe oulcast, and the succoringof the necdy will not be iinputed as crimes. Who therf, would not rather take the place of the convietcd than of hisjudge ! I asked the old man if, in the prospect of death, be regroited that he hadaided the fugitives as he had done? You should have seen how his eye lighted wilh the consciousness that he had done riglit, as he answered, 'No ! If I could be relieved at once from all the consequences of what 1 have done, I would not wish that one fugitive should be returned to bondage.' " A. S. Standerd. We had suppnsed tliat lelegraphing, as practised on the line from Philadelphia, was as near perfection as lhe science would admit. The wriling by telegrauh, as isgénerally known, is on a slip of paper. We saw, however, the opora'ors at ihis office tal:e oll' ïear 150 words on Tuesday niglit, of various messnges from Philadclpliia, bij the ear alune.' The instrument at tliis office was broken, and il was nccessary to remove and repair il but by slight 'lick' of the magnet every letter was disiinguished and every word correctly reported on TuesHny niglit and ve5terdav. By familiarity we have become so accustumed to the telegrnph, as to look on it as we do on many other ex. traordinary things, without wonder. The sending of mcssages, however, by sounds so similar nnd slight, is a new thing under the sun. We question whether the like lias ever been done before. - Fittsbnrg Paper. The Number of Slaveholdf.rs. - In Kentucky, where the number of slaveliclders is grealer in proportion than in the southern states, therc aro, according to the auditor's books, but 31 üüü slaveholders out of a populaiion of 275,000 whites over twenty-one years of agp. Theestimate is not to low, which reckons the whole number of slave owners at 250,000. The tolal white population of the south, over twenty-one yeirs of nge. must be kat least, 1 500,000 souls. Bu1, according to Mr. Calhoun, the 1 500,000 soutbern non-slaveholders are noneiiitiesthe ouly real persons are the 250,000 slaveholders. - National Era. Palrioiism of Mr. Chnj.-K gentleman of ibis city has receivod a letter iYom Mr. Clay, which concliules wilh llie fblIowing noble allusions to liis recent affliclion: - N. Y. E.rp. ' My life bas been full of c'onicslic afflictions, bui this last is one of theseverest among thein. I derive somo consolation from knowing that lic dieJ where he would have chosen, and whnre, if 1 must lose him, I should have prcfered, on the battle field' n the service of liisjountry . ' An exchange gravely rermrks that a washei-woman is like a frigaie, becuuse she drilles a good deal of water!