Editorial paragraphs.
The delay in issuing this number of our Papers has been as annoying to us as it can possibly have been to any of our readers. For, while we do not publish a newspaper, or a magazine of current gossip, or one containing the latest fashion plates, yet we have been accustomed to issue regularly every month, except when on several occasions it seemed best to combine two numbers, and have felt no little annoyance at the delay which has been caused by various circumstances over which we have had no control, and which has necessitated the combining of three numbers under one cover. But as we give our readers their full quota of pages, and a number of great variety, deep interest, and decided historic value, we are sure they will not complain, and we promise them to endeavor to be more prompt in future.
Renewals are now in order, and promptness in renewing very much desired. Remember our terms are strictly cash in advance, and we will not send our January number to any one who has not paid his subscription, or at least notified us that he will do so very soon. The subscriptions of the larger number of our subscribers expire with this number, and we beg each one, without waiting for an agent to call or for us to send any further appeal, to sit right down and send us three dollars [$3] or authorize us to draw on him for that amount Better still, let each one endeavor to send us a new subscription along with his own. Please attend to this at once, lest you lay aside this appeal and forget all about it.
This number completes volume VIII., and we will be able to furnish the bound volumes so soon as we can have them bound. But we will be compelled to change our custom of exchanging new-bound volumes for old numbers, as we find that we cannot keep on hand a stock of bound volumes sufficient to meet this demand, and that we thus accumulate worn numbers which we find unsalable. But we will (as a matter of accommodation to our subscribers) receive old numbers, have them bound, and return them as soon as this can be done; charging them only for the cost of binding, and they paying postage and express both ways.
Our next volume (Vol. IX.), which begins with the January number, shall not, in interest or historic value, fall behind any of those which have gone before. Indeed we are proposing new features which will add to its interest and value, and which will be more fully announced in our January number. [574]
The reunion of the Richmond howitzers, that splendid corps of artillery, whose guns were heard on well nigh every field from Big Bethel to Appomattox, came off on the 13th of December, the anniversary of the battle of Fredericksburg, and was a really magnificent affair. The banquet, served in the best style of the St. Claire hotel, and presided over by Judge George L. Christian, was really superb, and was heartily enjoyed by all present. The speeches of W. J. Hardy, of New York, the orator of the evening, and Leigh Robinson, Esq., of Washington, O. G. Clay, Jr., Captain Henry Hudnall, [575] and Rev. Dr. J. B. Hawthorne of Richmond, who responded to the regular toasts, and of Rev. G. W. Dame, of Baltimore, and Carlton McCarthy, Esq., of Richmond, who responded to volunteer toasts, were all admirable, and were well worth preserving in permanent form. We expect to publish one or two of them in some future issue.
Our Executive Committee has been enlarged; there have been one or two changes in it, and it is now composed as follows: General J. A. Early, Lynchburg, President of the Society; Hon. R. M. T. Hunter, Essex county, Vice-President; Rev. J. William Jones, Secretary and Treasurer; General D. H. Maury, Chairman Executive Committee; Lieutenant-Colonel Archer Anderson, Major Robert Stiles, Richmond; Colonel R. E. Withers, Wytheville; Colonel William Preston Johnston, Lexington; Colonel Thomas H. Carter, King William county; Colonel George W. Munford; Colonel William H. Palmer, Colonel R. L. Maury, Captain A. M. Keiley, J. L. M. Curry, D. D., Moses D. Hoge, D. D., Rev. A. W. Weddell, Richmond; Colonel R. H. Dulaney, Loudon county; General Eppa Hunton, General Wm. H. Payne, Warrenton; General G. W. C. Lee, Lexington; Captain Theo. S. Garnett, Colonel Walter H. Taylor, Norfolk city; Major Charles S. Stringfellow, Petersburg. The constitution provides that members of the Executive Committee shall reside in Virginia, in order to have them convenient to the headquarters of the Society; but the vice-presidents of the several States, and, indeed, any individual members of the Society, would always be welcomed to the meetings of the Executive Committee, as well as to the general meetings of the Society. The committee will have a meeting early in January--due notice of time will be given — at which various matters of interest to the future plans and work of the Society will be discussed and acted upon.
Our printers have been among the most careful and accurate we have ever known, and we have been seldom called on to correct typographical errors, but the chirogrophy of our friend Judge John F. Lay is none too plain, and in his sketch of the Powhatan Troop, in our last number, our types changed the gallant and lamented Lieutenant John Wm. Maury into “Menoboy,” of whom the dashing troopers never heard.
