Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1859-04-02
Personal Appearance Of Celebrities at
Washington.

Personal Appearance Of Celebrities at
Washington.
A correspondent of the n. Y. Times
gives the following admirable sketches:
THE PRESIDENT.
His Eycellency, James Buchanan, is
an old gentleman Of some seventy years
of age, standing SIX feet one or two in
ches in his undarned bachelor stock
ings, of horid and rather hectic COM
plsxlon, and with hair white and glis-
tening as the glass tails of the glass
birds of Paradise made in Barnum's
Museum by an ingenious operator, and
sold for twenty-five cents apiece to gap
ing children. His anxiety about the
disputed line of Oregon has inclined
his head to the left at an angle Of the
forty-four forty or fight; and his left
eye seems detailed from general service,
and on permanent secret duty supervis-
ing the development in Cuba. He lur-
ches heavily to the left in walking, and
shippers gossip with ladies through the
left side of his not regular mouth. In
dress he is somewhat of the diplomatic
dandy; and the vast white linen ker-
chief worn round his neck is intended,
/ presume, as statesmanlike encour-
agement to the fax growers and linen
bleacherz in the mighty prairies Of the
West. His manners are extremely
courteous and sffable, more especially
to women, with whom he delights to
converse on the small scandals and bo-
hea gossip Of the capital. There is
something st:tely and mournful in his
isolation, for l believe he has not one
warm familiar friend, Except, perhaps,
the Pitts, Of Philadelphia, who are
more like humble retsiners,) on the sur
face of the footstool Even his neice
is addressed by him as ''iiiss Harriet"
and priding himself on conscientious
coldness, he gets along as best he can
without either sympathy or consolation.
Never has there been in the White
House more laborious occupant; he
reposes no confidence even in his cabi-
net officers, but insists on first reading
every paper which they put before him
for signature. He seldom leaves the
house for exercise and air, but spends
twelve or sixteen hours dav in dis
charging drudgeries of detail, which
might much better be left to the care
Of subordinates in the departments
Again and again, on every possible oc-
casion, he disavovs with contetnp, and
ridicule his supposed aspirations for a
second term Of Office. ''Two old men,"
he says, "Inyselt' and Lewis Cass, if we
live so long, will quit this city on the
9th of March, 1861, with much lighter
and less burdened hearts than we bore
with us on coming here" There is a
panied sincerity in the tone Of these
avowals-a bitterness as of thwarted
good intentions and misapprehended
motives, which / cannot find it in my
heart either to doubt or not sympathize
with. In spite Of all mental and bodi-
ly peculiarities, there is a grandeur of
desolation in this old mans life.
JEFF. DAVIS.
Senator Davis is by all odds the most
brilliant conversationist it has ever been
the writer's fortune to encounter. Thin,
wiry, sharp-visaged, self-possessed and
dyspeptic, with voice very gentle and
modnlated, and address very pliable
and courteous-this great captain of
the hre-eaters can spit fire with as much
case and quickness as Douglas shows
in splitting tobacco juice, and every ep-
igram from his thin lips is fatal to the
reputation of a lifetime. Never was
the rapier Of polished wit more dazzling
or more mortal in its exercise. Name
after name may be brought up IN dis
cussion, and every candidate for noto-
riety will staggcr back with a silver
Minnie bali lodged in some tender part
Of his intestines.
DOUGLAS.
Senator Douglas-all facts, habits
and appearances to the contrary not
withstanding-impressed me, on the
whole, as the most gigantic intellect,
next to Webster's, that your correspon-
dent has at any time been placed in
contact with. A general dwarfing pro-
cess takes place amongst ali surround
ing competitors, and the shadow of the
massive brow stretches far over every
scene in which the great Democratic
rebel uplifts his vigorous and shaggy
head.
SPEAKER ORR.
Speaker Orr has been lately with you
in New York, but some Of your coun-
try readers may not have seen that SOL
id chunk Of jollity, good humor and
good living, standing fourteen inches
higher than Douglas, Fallstaffian in
ceniguration, rubicund in feature, mer-
rily philosophical in the twinkle of his
black beaded eyes-a man to speak
we'll Of every one, and never to scold a
human except his cook, when q favor