Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1858-06-01

Inere was peculiar species Of American
newspaper literature, much more current years
ago than now, which, in its Inception in the
Charcoal Sketches Of the late Jos c. Neal.
Of Philadelphia, was extremely amusing-I
moan the detailed pictures of the ''hard cases -
found by the city watchmen at night and taken
be ore the City Council IN the morning as Dog
berry says, 10 be examinationed ;" Take 4
single passage in the life Of % Peter Brush, the
victim of politics
Seated upon the curb, with his feet across
the gutter, he placed his elbow on n stepping
stone, and, like Juliet on the balcony, leaned
his head upon his hand-a hand that would
perhaps have been the better Of a covering
though none would have been rash enough to
volunteer to be glove upon it. He was in
diiapidated condition; out at elbows out at
knees, out OF pocket, out Of Office out of spirits,
ana out IN the street, an - out and outer in
every respect; and as OHtre a mortal as ever the
eye Of man did rest upon. For some time.
Mr.. Brush g reflections had been sieat. Fol-
lowing Hamlet's advice, he gave them an un.
Outstanding but no tongue" and he relieved
himself at intervals by splitting forlornly into
the kennel. At length, suffering his locked
hands to fall between his knees, and heaving a
deep sigh, he spoke:
" A long time ago, my ma used to put On her
specks and say, Peter, my son, put not your
trust in princes; and from that day to this
haven't done anything of the kind, because
mono on EN- ever wanted to borrow nothing of
me; and never see prince or n king-but one
or two, and they had been rota ted out of Office
to borry nothing Of them. Princes! pooh, Put
not your trust In politicianers-them's my sem
timents. You might just as we'll try to held an
eel by the tail don't care which side they re
on, tor I've tried both, and L know Put not
your trust IN pollticlaners, or you get hyst
- Ten years ago 1t came into my head that
Things weren't going Oh right; so L pretty
nearly gave myself up tee totally to the good
OF the republic, and left the shop to look out
for itself. L was brimful of patriotism, md so
uneasy in my mind for the saliyation of free
dom, l couldn't work. l tried to guess which
side was going to win, and I stuck TO il like
wax; sometimes L wss a-one side, sometimes
was s-tOther, and sometimes straddied till
the election was over, and came up jist in time
to JIne the hurrah. 1t was good 1 was after ::
and what good could l do if wasn't on the
lected side But, after all, it was never bit
OF use Whenever the battle was over, no mat
ter what side was sharing out the loaves and
the fishes, and stepped up, I'll be hanged if
they didn cram all they could into their own
m )uths, put their arms over some, and grab at
all the rest with their paws and say Go
away, white man, you ant capable Cana
bic. What's the reason ant capable I've
got as extensive throat as any of EN-, and
could swallow the lOaves and fishes without
choking, If each loaf was as big as a grind
stone and each fish rs big as sturgeon Give
Peter chance, and leave him alone for that.
Them another time when 1 called [ want
some spoils,' says l, "A small bucketful of
spolls Whichever side gets in, shares the
sPoils, don they 2 So they first grinned and
then they up and tells me that virtue like
mine was its own reward, and that spois might
spoil me. But it was spoils that spoilt me,
and no loaf and fish that starved me I'm
split because / couldn't get either. Put not
your trust in politicianers, / say it again
Both sides used me jist alike. Here I've been
serving my country, more or less, these ten
years, like Pstriot-gOing to town meetings,
hurraing my daylights out, and getting as
blue as blazes-blocking the windows. getting
licked fifty times, and having more black eyes
and bloody noses than you could shake stick
at, all for the common good, and for the purity
of our illegal rights and all for what? Why,
tor nix If any good has come of it, the coun-
try has put it into her own pocket. and swim
died me out Of my arnings. 1 cant get no
Office! Republics is ungrateful, 1t wasn't
Tc'roTa | was after. L scOrns the base insni-
yatiOn. L only wanted to be taken care of,
and have nothing TO do but take care of the
public, and I've only got half; nothing to do
Being took care of was the main thing Re-
publics is ungrateful. I'm blasted if they
amt. This is the way old sogers is served
Well, well; live and learn-live and learn
The worlds not what man takes il for before
he finds il ont. Wbiskers grows sooner than
what experience does. Genus and patriotism
an t got no chance-an't got nary look"