The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1856-06-18


on all sides.
Mead, of Virginia, a fine specimen of
the old school Old Dominion gentleman,
is sitting near the central aisle, in the
eastern division of seats, and some TWEEN
ty chairs from the Chairman. He is
large, handsome, dressed richly, and is
courtly ia style, and says that which he
has to say, well, but not with overwhel-
ming power. He too, is oppressed with
the devlish din around him, and there is
a paucity of bright sandy hair on his
round and placid head. Hon. McMul-
len, of Va, is a large man who speaks
hurriedly, and with a singular futter in
the large volume of sound which he emits,
and who does not often happen to hit
the nail on the. head in his remarks.
There is evidently a large amount of self
complacency buttoned away under his
spacious yellow vest.
Childs, of Connecticut, sitting in the
southwest part of the Hall, is a charm
ing old fellow. Good humor and good
will toward men have doubtless glisten-
ed in his broad face for more than three
score years and the wrinkle worn there
have been made by the flow of the milk
of human kindness. But whenever he
rises to speak, it seems to be a matter
of conjecture, whether some fulfilled,
largehearted, old style Methodist preach
err has not strayed down from Indianap-
oils, and got into the Contention in
stead of into the Conference. There is
a twang, very like that to which we are
accustomed from the Methodist pulpit,
in his utterances ; and on Tuesday he
produced quite a sensation in the Con-
vention, by calling on Delegates to "give
their experience" His voice is full,
and has a ponderous gurgle, and rolls
about the Hall with triumphant appro-
baton of itself and the sentiments it de-
livers, in every tone, and swells up like
the mellow blast of a keel botman's horn,
(of the kind Of which Gen. W. o. Butler
sung) amid the storm of plaudits sare to
come.
To the right of the Chairman, (near
the west central aisle) and well back
maybe seen that worldwide celebrity,
Soule. He would probably weigh one
hundred and eighty pounds, and is very
slightly round shouldered, but his limbs
are straight and handsome. His white
vest curvs comfortably outward, show
ing a moderate appreciation in the past
of good things to eat, and that good di-
gestion had waited on appetite. The
expression of his face is quite French,
but this in a Napoleonic sense. His low
err jaw is firm as iron, a F~renchman's
vague polite smile, fingers and plays on
his lip, and be has beaming eye, and a
forehead not huge at all, but rounded
out and scanned, and paled with thought
and the passion of many a wal within
the brain of which it is the index, and
wear and tear of many a rude shock,
amid the contentious of the world. AS
he turns his head, his eyes CLEANS with
a flash that might we'll excite a%pprehen-
sions in a foe. Therein shines the fire
of the fllibuster, of the man who shot the
French Minister at the court of Madrid,
and incurred the bitter personal ermity
of the French Emperor and Empress,
which Paris letter writer's say he still
enjoys. His once black and heavy hair,
now thin and slightly silvered, is brush
ed back straight and close to the scalp,
revealing completely the fine outlines of
his head. As yet he has not spoken a
word in Convention.
On the extreme right of the Speaker,
heal one of the pillars of the gallery,
Jno. Petit, of Indiana, (who was label
led for time and eternity by Col. Ben
tom looms up at frequent intervals, short
but thick, brief yet enormous-looking
like a giant squeezed doa0n in Gabriel
Rayel's magic man press. When he ris-
es, he presents a broad patch of bald
head, a queerly arranged, big fat face,
a vast belly, and legs like those of an ell
ephant. His voice seems to roll up
from some boundless and thunderous re-
gion, and reverbate solemnly above the
tumult like the booming of a monsterous
bull frog amid a concert of frogs of far
inferior wind privileges. Imagine a
bull frog played upon by a steam whis-
tie, and you have it. And that which
he says to the point, and potent too.
His thunder is not an empty sound, but
with veritable significance.
One of the most active men in the
Hall, is Richardson, of Illinois, a tall,
firmly built, coarse featured man, who
slightly, and with anxious, un-
ainchiDg gaze regards every movement
of the slightest Importance. He is the
right bower of Douglas, was tho champi-
of the Nebraska Bill in the House,
yet was reelected, and was the regular
Democratic candidate for Speaker of the
House last winter. There is evidently
a large amount of that excellent quality
which we call humanity in the man, and
he is working for Douglas with the most
devotion. But his face does not
shine with the interior inspiration of