Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1858-07-14


Speech gets Tentilatiou--A Good Specimen Of
the Serere.-It seems that Lawrence NJ Keitt,
n. g. ftom s. c., has been making speech
lately at the laying Of some corner stone of a
monument to the memory of Mr.. Calhoun
Weshaye not seen the speech, save as it has
been more or less quoted fr6min the papers.
These quotations are singularly vapid and mon
strous-aItogether out of all character to come
from well disciplined school boy, much less
from member of Congress. Those who have
seen Mr.. Keitt will never be apt we suspect, to
expect any great production from him. Yet we
supposed that association and education tOgeth-
er, had ENABLED him when, he found it neces-
sary to speak, to say something unobnoxious to
the common rules of literary composition. The
New York, Tribune undertakes, in long article,
to ventate Mr.. KeItt's speech. We extract the
following therefrom, which may be styled ex-
coriating in its way:
Mr. Keitt's oratorical style is quite different
from that of the late Mr.. Calhoun. 1t is much
finer. 1t is in fact as fine as a fiddle. 1t is
kind of bad Irish style, costiVe in thought, but
not Mt all costive in expression. We cannot, in
reading the Grafton, say with Sir Hugh, ''PaueG
luerbd," but we can cOnscientiouSly say that the
words are very "goot worts," and that there
are plenty of them. In the article of adjective
Mr.. Keitt is especially opuleHt, while the late
DIR. Charming was deficient in the same. ALI
Mr.. Keitt's nouns are adjectively qualified, and
some of them are, like the American militia,
Every strongly Differed" Moreover, Mr.. Keitt
is as classical as a classical dictionary and he
Tugs in by the head and shoulders about two
thirds of the distinguished dead people mention
ed by Lempriere, including Niobe, Titus, The
Dying Gladiator, Phidias, Scraps, PhociOn, Ca
to- Tacitus, Cicero, Aspasia, and Kneas, to say
nothing of the Macedonian phalanx, the Prseto-
rian cohorts, the dust of the Campagna, the
Grecian rhetor (sio in orig,) the Roman legist,
the Ttans, the Styx, the Stagyrite, KtesiphOn,
! Socrates, Plato and the King of Terror, vulgar
| ly called Death. Here is fine specimen of Mr..
| ks classical illusions: "Ihe meretricious jew
| els of an ASpasia may never have studded his
chain of thought; but the chaste beauty of the
antique matron ever breathed its dignity over
every word which he spoke" Who the particu-
! lar old lady alluded to may be, we do not know,
| but we hope when she "hreatbes her dignity"
that the effort is not accompanied by pulmonic
! pain. Here is still another specimen of the
Keitt classical: "rhe obelisk and the pyramid,
| the hypogeum and the temple, Scared over with
letters of granite, spread their teachings to the
popular sense from the deserts of Nnbia to the
| deltas of the Nile" We call that good. Very
handsome it is of the obelisk and pyramid to
say nothing of the condescepsion of the hypo-
gcum, in spreading its teachings to the popular
| sense. "What is hypogeum?" our readers
may ask. We are not certain that we know
1t used to mean a cellar, and perhaps a wine
cellar. May be Mr.. r. had been once too often
! into "hypOgeum" when he made his speech.
We presume that they have "hypogeums" in
Charleston.
But Mr. Keitt does not allow his love of the
classics to setluce him into any painful severity
of STYLE He tells us that "once and once only
the Carolinian consented to clothe his thoughts
in the graceful drapery of words" This, our
readers will remember, was the weakness of
Paddy's parrot, which, although very tactiturn,
kept up devil of a thinking. Mr.. Keitt most
ample; we should like to know the precise day
upon which Mr.. Calhoun consented to open his
| mouth, as we should very much like to know
the precise day upon which Mr.. Keitt will shut
his Own forever 1t would certainly be as well
to keep still if ono can utter nothing better than
the following: Reaching through a skillful am
atony OF causes, series OF great results, and
with ken piercing as that of any inspired
seer; deserving in the distance the glass OF our
deStnies, he, too, for once presses into the
vice of his stern logic and his Doric thoughts,
those words, which, wrapped in the purple
hues of fancy, rise from the dead level OF
mind, like birds of flashing wings, 6un-ward
in their oar" Mr. John Neal once re-
marked of his own poetry, that it was either
very good or d. nonSenSe-he did not know
which. Mr.. KeItt's oratory is of the same du-
bious description. reminding us now of Demos
themes and anon of Stephen a. Branch. The
sentence above quoted is puzzle. tt seems
beautiful until you look at it closely, and then
comes your bother ton. Mr.. Calhoun reached
through an anatomy of causes, and graspcd a
series of great results. Then he deserted in the
distance the glass of our destinies, just as easy
as dry man, of morning, would descry in the
distance glass of grog. He then pressed the
words into the service of stern logic. These
words were wrapped in the purple hues of fan
cy. They forthwith rose from the dead level of
mind, like birds Of flashing wings. Having got
his birds "of flashing wing "sunward in their
soar" Mr.. Keitt cries out, '.There they stand
there they shall ever stand" Thus it will be
seen that Mr.. Keitts birds,-we may say his
flashing famingoes-soar and stand, roost and
rise, at the same moment These accomplish
| ments leave the learned pig nowhere, and quite
put out the pipes of the dogs of Montargis at
the theatres.
But this will do. We must not give our
readers too much Keitt at time, lest we cloy
them with his beauties. Moreover, this speech
will answer better for Winter reading than for
these dog-days. For if Mr.. Keitt have another
fault. it is that he spices hisscookery too high
ly. he uses too much eringo, ginger, pimento,
cayenne and Glove. You cannot read him
without taking off your coat. One copy of the