The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1858-10-13
HubbeiI ON Cab.

Horsos Habbell, OF Philadelphia, being 40
licited to send q contribution OF Eve dollarA
ID nd Of the Linonian Society Of Yale Col.
lege, in which institution he graduated, re-
/ plies hy sharp criticism on college cd uca-
ZION, from which we cut the following rara-
erAphs on Cab
Il ID true you only ask for contribution
to your society but that society il part Of
| q whole, aud one cannot be commented on
without adverting to the other. You ask for
| assistance for IA society or club instituted TO
train young men TO pfemAdisated or extern
poranrous speaking or discussion. Gentle
men, what madnoss has seized upon you p
DO you not know Tint Of allth besetting sins
of this shining nation, the most innate and
| original is this propensity for CAB; that by
| it we have wasted more time, spent more mo-
| ney, and paralyzed more decision than can
| be rightly estimated2 Instead Of being an
couraged it should be repressed. Do you
not know that, under the influence Of this
mania, tinkers, rowdies and snobs through
out the land are rushing 70 the bar, the pull
pit, the stage, and tho halls Of Legislation p
And that these windy soma Of lEolus, under
supposed inspiration, are bowling, like
midnight wolves, from one end Of the CONT
nent to the other, g Cidmor that dd telami''
1t is the fatal epidemic OF republics. What
distracted Greece2 Cab! What faotionixt
Romeo Cab! What anarchized France p.
Cab! What will dismember this Union p
CAB! This eternal propensity of Cabling,
upon all occasions and at all times, IL the
curse Of our country. Ask me to subscribe
to support the dead languages; to raise a
deaf and dumb institution; to build q Qua
ker meeting house; to erect some monument
al stone; in short to do anything that implies
| or promotes silence, and my purse strings
will in all probability be opened. But do not
ask me TO commit breach Of conscience.
am true disciple OF Pythagoras. believe
in silence; hold it as the true mother Of
| meditation and wisdom. have a great con-
tempt for the efficiency Of all orators from
Dan to Demosthenes. The perfection to
which eloquenoe was carried by the latter
justifes my assertion. In the majority Of
his glorious efforts he failed; and when at
length he succeeded, he brought upon his
countrynen the fatal effects Of Cheronaa.
can read his compositions with delight;
but it would have been wasting time to have
listened to them. Action is an oyermatch
| for Rhetoric Philip thwarted the measures
| Of Demosthenes. Clay withercd in the grasp
| OK jackson. But, independent OF oil this,
permit me to say you have begun wrong
You have erected building after tho true
American method; but Yale College 10 q
standing example that brick barracks are NOT
necessarily the manufactures Of learning
How much better would your money have
told in the shape Of books But that is not
your taste. We arc the true Phmnioians Of
modern times. Such people once existed
in remote antiquity. They engrossed the
commerce of theworld; their merchants were
princes; but they passed away without leav-
ing any intellectual remains to hallow their
memories. 1t was left for the olive eaters Of
Attica, and their disciples, to trace out those
abstract but eternal truths which, like fixed
stars, guide the human spirit in ito mysteri-
Gus pilgrimage! The fate Of the Ph9nicians
will probably be that of this transitory ma
ton!