St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1859-03-03
For the 81. Charles City Int.
Letter from FLOYD.

MESSRS EDITORS II notice IN your
issue of the Intelligenccr of the 18th
ult., some structures on your place and
ours, from the pen of Jesse Clement,
Esq, editor of the Dubuque Times.
Jesse seems to be quite IL of humor,
and makes a great TRADE about burnt
off coat tails "praying women" and
cruel engines that arc "to run
through our neighbours pantry" &c.
| know Jesse was somewhat disap-
pointed, nevertheless he ought to con
slider forbearance a virtue, and
because our good Republicans here
did not see fit to subscribe for the
Times, and were not otherwise very
liberal in rendering the " needful" aid
he ought not to have dashed the whole
of us for their illiberality. Self as
Stunning and passionate editors sometimes,
and especially when itinerating for
the good, as they protest, of the public,
seem to think that every man they
meet, whether of the same political af-
finities or not, is bound by the rules
of justice and propricty to pay them
homage. This doctrine is stoutly de-
MED here, even by the Republicans
themselves ; hence they excuse them
selves and us for their and our seeming
Indifference. Being a rcmote people
with blightcd hopes, and dccayed
expectations" and keeping mostly
within DOORS" instead of asking us to
subscribe for the Times, Jesse ought
for our benefit, and to show his philan-
thropy, to have distributed a dozen or
two copies of his Times among US
gratuitously. But, alas No. will
lash you for your calamities and ridi-
cule you for your want of appreciation.
Now the only possible claim he could
have upon u would be the listening
to his sydney Smith" and the poem
of the Yankee in the West" And
without any p]rctcnsions to the phrase
every lterary,' some of our boys
think they could have rchearsed the
poem better. They who think his d.
grcssion to lecture those who remained
after some two or three left, having
seer the Elephant" in part, was
rather out Of place, especially for a
stranger. As regards tails | think
some things look better without than
with them, depending, however, con-
siderably on the Kind of tail. \ kite
for instance; soaring majestically aloft
with its gracefully waving tail, ma
king its curvilincar motion, i'll exact
accordance with the dives and dips,
asccnts and dcsccnts Of the body of
the kite, could not part with its tail
without dcforming, very essentially,
itself. But supposing this self-same
kite to have a tail sticking right
straight out like a cows on the run,
without motion, ~lcXibility or elegance,
in my opinion it might better be burnt
off," torn off, cut of. or any way to
get it off. Now Jessc's kite, which
was his sydney Smith" and his
"Pocm," had a tail, and that tail stuck
out like the cows, stiff, intlexiblc, in
elegant, and was no more nor less
than subscriptions for the Times, and a
little of the "neediul" to defray ex-
penscs. That kite, certainly, would
ibOh Dtlttl NItiloub any tah' piiS
and geese, too, arc lawless and he
should not, therefore, have cast IA slur
at us on account of that extraordinary
woman in prayer. Our n%eighbor, too,
Notwithstanding his political proclivi-
ties are the same as the editors, and,
though his breath might be peculiarly
"odorous," is an honest and upright
citizen ; and the willy editor might,
possibly, have mistaken his nn breath
for that of our friend for, as the old
adage has it,
1.-The fault is in the finder,
And the 9 odor" lies bchind her"
The mood of the man, too, probably
had something to do with the illusions
of his pen :; because it is said that
"As the fool thinks
So the bell links"
r,r- -, E,o