Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1856-04-08
!, MTELLTGENCER.
l3Is W00DlONsBI0GRAREIX.
We hayeselaoh been more gfadisd By the

l8I.AGKW00Dl 0NsBLOGRARkIY.,
We haye seldom been more gfaffisd BY the
perrsal Of any production than by reading an
afSci ia Biaclswcod for March 1850; called forth
by the recently published biogr phies of Greeley
andBenncH, written by tive worthless who have
about as much appreciation of the true subject
and objects of biography as their present sub
jscts have eitfiertCf dignity Of 'decency. The
WRITER in Blackwooli is somewhat on Ameri
cans, but he could hardly be otherwise, seeing,
as he st1pposes, that this trash is patronisedi
here After some very good remarks about the
general improperly Of for the living,
the writer says.
ain the department of contemporary hiogra-
phy. It must be confessed our energetic cousins
have hiflya got the start Of us. 1t seems in
fact 10 haye attained the rank of an institution
among the other beautiful machinery of their
political life. When Julien visits the proyin-
COS he heralds his coming by means Of set OF
fascinating portraits, which announce from eY-
ef.y print and music shop window that the great
Conductoris at hand. Somewhat similar, but
more intellectual and elaborate, is the proceed
ing of the American looming man." No as
piring Senator now thinks of trying for the Pres-
tleiey without securing in good time the seryl-
ceS-0f competent biographer to relate the he
roic story ufshis life, and max his transcendent
merits known to al whom it may concern
Even meditatiye Hawthorne turns his vision.
weavingpcn to suchscrvice, and considers it no
way unworthy of his genius to polish oil an cleo
pioneering biography of General Franklin Pierce
So deeply do politics mingle in the current of
American life; so sweet to the aspiring states
man are the uses of biography
But IL the lives of politicians be written for
the admiration of mankind and the good of the
State, should the lives of the mightier men who
make aud unmake presidents and governments,
be esteemed lcSs worthy of that honor? Assur-
edly not At it then, We diligent Yankee scribcs,
and hasten to convert into absolete absurdity
the oft.quoted line Of the dull old fellow who
sang siss.,..s.i.
Lett not henceforth be said, to the reproach OF
civilization that the world was ignorant during
their lives Of the birth and geneal0gy the school
boy adventures and manly freaks, the trials and
the trfnmphs Of such men as Horace Greedy and
JAS Gordon Bennett. Be careful to inform us yc
yeFacious scinder-gath ercrs-for postefity VIII
tSSSSkbordon the admission length, breadth,
and weight of these remarkable men,-thcir
complete chronological development $50 far as
the addition of abnormal bumps by hostile Shil-
lelahs canpermit accuracy -the kind OF clothes
they wear the kind ofpcns they write with,
whether QUILL iron or brass-the ink they use,
whether common blue black or sometimes black
ani-bIue, or perhaps cunning distillaton OF
dftch-wateF=thca attitude in which they sit when
discharging their thunder at the heads Of kings
and cabinets, or composing their delicate invec-
tives at one another sin short, let us have per-
feet daguerreotypes Of these supremacy interes-
ting and estimablc mon:
Behold! the thing is done, the good work has
actually been commenced. There, lying before
us in all the square+ngged ugliness OF New
York upgetting, are the first fruits of this new
field of geographic enterprise-the lives, in two
stout volumes Ofthe two t'noble kinsmen," the
A hnaa
The biOgraphsr, Mr.. Parton, gives the follow
ihgtisscription OF Greely's entrance into the
AS has been the case with many great men,
twas attended with some remarkable clrcum-
stances To these our biographcr does full JUS
tice His account Of tho interesting scene IS too
fine to be omitted =
'eThe mode of his entrance upon the stage of
the world was, to say the least of it, unusual
iFhe effort was almost too much for him, and, to
use the language of one who was present 'he
came into the world as black as a chimney
There was no sign of life. He uttered no cry;
made no motion; he did notsbreathe. But !he
little discolored stranger had articles to write,
and was not permitted to escape his destiny. In
this alarming crisis Of his existence, kind
hearted aunt came to hisrescue and by arts which
tokihd-hcar and experienced aunts arc well
known, but ofwhich the present chronicer re-
mains in Ignorance, the boy was brought to life.
He soon began to breathe; then he began to
hlush; and by the time he had attained the age
oftwenty minutes, layion his mothers arm
rcd and smiling infant" n
The writer is very severe on Bennett, but We
can only give an extract or two The following
remarks on the relationsof writer and reader are
unfortunately too often true:
A man whose conscience seems never to have
given him much trouble, and whose ambition has
been satisfied with the acquisition of wealth and
political power, may we'll feel easy under the
whips and scorns Of whole universe! This IS
assuredly, and, we rejoice to think so, not the
language and spirit of the majority of mankind
Thosc only despise the appreciation of their fell
lows who have shaken off the attributes of hui
nanity, and accept the reverse Of the proyerb,
that "a good name is rather to be chosen than
oreat riches" The ,impious allusion to the Al
mighty is worthy of a Couthon or a Marat+
The success Of such a journal as tho Neso
york. Herald is an undeniable blot on, the conf
munity on whose follics ndyices it battened into
pfispefity. The damning fact cannot be denied,
that it was not in spite but on account of their
scharacter that such Journals first attracted public
attention and secured hearing. While, there
fSte We diminish not q lot our adherence of the
men who reared these monuments Of their own
infamy, We arc hound to regard them as but the
concentrated type of the character that pervaded
their constituency. If the Nesc York Herald
yyaSunprincipled and obscene, tho readers of the
lNeao York Herald must have shared in these
0aafities It's conductor may have been q
scoundrel, but he certainly was no fool; he'fed
his readers with such food as suited their taste.
Ind their taste been purer, he was knowing
enough TO have provided cleaner fare: in grave
and Religions community he would probably
haye preached with unctious decorrlm. Already
[the faste of that community has improved (no
thanks, assalredly, tohim; the deluge of yitupcr-
ySti6n and indecehcy has subsidized, and the NeW
: IotL HerdId has followed the temper of the time.
ID 30 "a familiar journal at every court through
out theworld, and inallintelligcnt communities,"
but compared whit former self, itispositiyesy