San Andreas independent., 1858-02-27
Buncombe Elocutinn

IL may wen be considered debatable
pointwhether Demosthenes, entailed more
good than evil upon the generations who
have succeeded him, If those who as
pre- to the high honors which he attained
among the facile and elegant Democracy
OF Athens, would take the same trouble
and undergo the same severe preparatory
labors which led the fiery orator up the
rugged sleeps of fame, then, indeed
would his claim upon our gratitude be
well established But there are talking
ounces as well as writing ounces and if
for every Pope, among poets, thousand
"Grub's" arise to disgust the MUSES.
with their folly, SO, with the rise of every
Chatham, swells the harsh, discordant
braying of ten thousand eloqdent politi-
jack-asses, whose miserable diction but
serves, like the constant brawling of a
little brook, to betray lack of strength
and depth. In the main, modern speech
makers are tasteless, uneducated men, who
borrow their little stock of information
from the newspapers, and spread it out
secondhand, in such new trimmings as
French milliners invent to develop the
follies of fast women.
Of course, we speak of Legislative bod
les in this connection, as well as the hus-
tings and we do not exempt the present
one from any censure which the above
paragraph may contain. "Could we but
see ourselves as others see u.s., goodly
number of those who have so recently
been electrifying the gaping crowd on
the lobbies, would write themselves down,
in corner of their note books-"shal-
low, vain, empty, bubbling pots of non
sense" Of the multitude of speeches
delivered this winter, draped, as they
have been, in most instances, in the ago
ny of tortured emptiness, who will ever
read one after the morning papers which
reported them, have been laid aside for
the day? Who cares to remember that
Mr.. Windyguts, of Yuba, or Mr.. Bal
loon, of Placer, or Mr.. Skyhy, of Ell Do
rado, or Mr.. Chatterbox, of San Francis
co, each spoke for six hours, on the great
"Pop-gun Improvement" when it is |
well known that nothing was said on the
occasion that every body did not know be-
fore? Yet each of these speeches cost
the people the price of a comfortable
farm 81 500. Truly, the moral of the
Frog fable is fit subject for the study of
these great Legislators.
The real motive for so much expensive
talk, we believe, turks in the fact that it
is easier to talk than to work and many
very good meaning men, Of excellent
sense in other respects, who 90 to the
legislature without experience, instead of
earnestly applying themselves to become
acquainted with the wants of the people,
and the heads of business, give way to
Incidence, choose the "primrose path, "
which leads to ephemeral honor, and for
the solid things they promised, pay their
constituents in the uncurrent trash of
bombast.
"For thus, in bodies as in souls we find,
What lacks in blood or spirit sweled with
wind"
There is not sensible Board of Su-
pervisors in any county of this State, that
could not have transacted four times the
amount of business that our legislature
has got through with, in the same time.
And yet, this latter body has cost the
State, in the neighborhood of $4,000.
The twenty or thirty harangues on the
"Vigilance question have cost the peo-
pie SIS, ,000-an Investment, which every
sensible man knows, wont pay cent on
the 500. And this is not the exception
to the rule, but the rule itself. The same
school-boy fippancy and love of display
has characterized most of our legislatures
since the organization of the State gov
ernment. If we were to count the days
and hours wasted since so, in Legislative
bombast, and subtract them from the
length of each session, weshould foot up
million dollars worth of eloquence, at
first cost. Buff we should estimate them
at the value which their authors set upon
them, what nation is rich enough to buy
them? For our own part, we think the
potency of gas is on the decline, and for
all the ends of wise and provident states
mansip, we would not exchange one qui-
ct, energetic working member, for fifty
shallow-pated blow-hards. " Great is ST.
lencer'
soFATE CAPIrAL.-We hear that an attemnt
WILL In a few years, be made to locate the
capital OF California in StocLtor