The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1858-04-10

Poll Book!
There was, once upon time, in the Prlma-
tive ages of St. Paul. a venerable and valua-
BILE citizen thereof known as Squire w AXE
FIELD. who obtained considerable notoriety
and fame as " Author of the Black-Hawk
war. and an unpublished novel of thrilling
interest,"" and whom JAMES GooDHUE' our
piousut pioneer editor Of that day, credited
besides with being also the inventor of the
"early pointed style" of architecture, as ex-
hibited in the steepness of his barn-roof; on
which structure he contended the Cedar
street Episcopal Church was only manifest
and palpable plagiarism In the course of
time the Squire emigrated from this place
into the territory of Kansas and bore with
him literary fame, predicated on the afore-
said literary labors, which with other good
qualities, nearly made him delegate to Con-
gress at the first or preliminary election in
that territory prior to the troubles which
the Kanzas-Nebraska act poured in upon
them, like the sudden opening of Pandora's
box of plaques. But little, however, did the
Squire anticipate that only three or four
years would elapse, when by much younger
man, the odor of his celebrity as an author
would be almost extlnguished, and the halo
around his fame dimmed-and that fame it.
self eclipsed, by one of the Mayors of st.
Paul, who should become most distinguished
in the literary annals of the Northwest, as the
Author of a POLL Book, and the "adapter Of
laws to suit the occasion %
But had he known an individual of the
size and pretensions of one JOHN B. BRIsBIN,
he might, through that intuitive present.
ment by which all great men recognize their
evil angels or the successors perhaps to their
kingdoms, have beheld In mental perspective,
the Wellington before whose overpowering
genius as literary man, his well-earned lau-
rels were to wither as if upon another Water
loo, inkless as yet though it might be with
the scratch of single pen
Long dormant in the cavernous recesses of
his potent brain, might have lain the author
ial excellencies of this formidable rival for
literary honors, but for the occurrence of two
or three Of those pregnant circumstances
which it is the philosophy of history to point
out as the moulds in which greatness is
shaped, as minced and parboiled dogs-meat
is formed into ''cold sausages" by the inter-
mediation of the circumvolvular intestines of
a certain quadruped of swinish antecedents
and hoggish peculiarities es-circumstances, in
deed, which are as the guano Of the intellect,
fructifying it into almost preternatural activ-
ity, and invigorating the brain to produce
intellectual cabbages and caulihowers and
beets and other vegetables, which aslonish
tie natives by their size, and confer joy upon
the nations by their excellence
One of these circumstances alluded to, to
which more or less remotely we owe the
brilliant scintillations of the new literary star
across the universe of letters, as the pro nd
Author of "PoLL Book, and the adapter
of laws to suh the OCCASION" was the election
of this same JOHN B. BRIsBIN to be Mayor of
st. Paul, by the almost unanimous vote of
her most intelligent citizens, and of few
of the others
Is it inquired, wherefore such an unusual
result, as his election without dissentent
voice being raised against the Transportation of
the event, we reply, that Mr.. BR1sBIN during
the previous winter of 1857 had been men,
ber of the Territorial Council from the city
of ST. Paul and while occupying the post
of President of that virtuous body, was en-
abled in the trying exigences of the Capitol
removal contest, mainly by his skill in
adapting" parliamentary law "to suit the oc-
cosion - in union with the disinterested ex-
ertions of bill-pocketing JOE RoLErrE, to
materially serve the city in killing off the
removal bill deader than defunct Indian
and as, throughout the Territory, some oblo-
guy rested upon his innocent head for the
not over-scrupulous exercise of his Presiden-
tial functions on that mOmentous occasion,
and as little wear and tear of conscience
was supposed to have been incurred, for he
didn't stop at trihes, the goodly citizens of
the namesake-city of the smartest Saint on
! the calender, concluded to let him walk over
the course for the Mayorality without oppo-
sition, both as salve to his wounded honor,
and in the way of defiance generally to both
those oppugnant Saints, ST. Pete and St. Bal
combe, and as fair notice to all the world that
when we would so unanimously sustain
Brisbin, they might reasonably con-
clude St. Paul was fully aroused and quite
erect AID unterrified
We shall not expatiate here in detail on
the peculiar manner in which Mr.. BR1sBIN
has SO satisfactorily discharged the important
duties of his high-horse position!
During the period Immediately subsequent
to his election, he sat an example of what
Mayor ought to be, in the scrupulous sobriety
of the man and in the untiring devotion of the
officer, which to properly appreciate, it was
more necessary to see than to be told of
And though during more than six months of
his term Of office, his absence prevented the
people from enjoying the full benefits of the
moral oil which he in person would doubtless
have contributed to the easy running of our
municipal machine we at any rate reaped
the high credit abroad, in the towns and
cities which he frequented, Of having just
such an honorable Mayor: and the folks
therein must have greatly wondered, where
we caught our municipal stock, and whether
St. Paul possessed more of such timber to
make her equally distinguished at home and
elsewhere Since his return to our corpo-
rate bosom this Spring, he, as "techmicaI
chief of the police department" has favored
us with a disquisition upon the science Of
prisoners escaping by the turnkey becoming