The Oxford intelligencer., 1860-06-27

friend, TO whom, apparently assuming his
, universal celebrity he is accustomed TO refer
as Horse Shoe Ned and very remark
able character that gentleman evidently is
For time we knew him onyly under this
/, name; but from an attentive and continued
study of the columns of the Nail, we at
length observed that, when the editor hap
pened to be in one of his grayer or more res
pectful moods, he occasionally dropped the
subject, and alluded to his friend as Mr.. Ed
ward Hanrick. We want to know more of
Mr.. Hanrick. We want the whole of his in
teresting history,
"Whereof by parcels we have something heard,
But not eonnectedly,n
in the Mail Not that we do not know a
good deal of him already. We seem to be
pretty well acquainted with his interior life,
his modes of thinking and philosophzing and
judging of men and things. Even the lin
eaments of his visible prescntment seem not
unfamiliar: and whenever we hear his name,
his eidolon or image rises up distinctly to our
minds eye.
In speaking thus of our impressions of
Horse Shoe Ned-we beg pardon-of Mr..
Hanrick-we are obliged to admit the possi-
bility that we may be in error. That is why
we ask for information. In order that our
respected cotcmporary of the Mail may judge
wherein we chiefly need correction, we will
set down our impressions just as they are.
Mr.. Edward IIanrick is what the world
succinctly terms, "a character" His modes
of viewing men and things are original and
his modes of expressing what he views are
more original still. Mr.. IIanrick is man
of travel, be has made II great many tracks
in his life, and has had his eyes open in the
meantime lie is perfectly familiar with the
roughs and smooths of the world-especialy
the roughs. Mr.. Hanrck is a man Of cxpe-
ricnce, he found out a thing or two for him
self long ago. and "whcn found" he made
note of it." We suppose that the most mar
vcllous narrative in the world would hardly
elicit from him an intcrjection of surprise, or
provoke from him any remark beyond the
observation that he had been "all along thar
Mr.. IIanrick knows men, is fally posted in
human nature and the worlds ways, crooked
or straight, especially the ways of that part
of the world which, to the other part, are
confcssedy past finding out. Mr.. Hanrick
knows horscs-fast ones particularly-and if
every gcntcman's steed in England were to
be turned into one enclosure he would prob
ably pick out every 2:l0 among them instan-
tancously, with nering certainty. Mr..
IIanrirk knows muscle-wc incline to think
that he can even handle his own fives-and
are quite confident that, in prize ring, his
Judgment would be final. Mr.. lianrick knows
and we add this in conclusion with some
hesitation and more rcgret-AIr. lIanrick,
we suspect, knows pasteboard; and if he is
not qualified by practice to bluff on hand
with "nary picter," or with only zone little
par" we reckon that he has seen others do
that thing more than "a time or two"
But Mr.. Uanrick, with his many accom-
plishmcnts and his usually infIllible judgment,
has, we apprchend, fallen into one grave cr-
ror. lie looks on squattcr sovereignty with
out abhomence, and risksall his political ven
lures on the little giant Of the North-west.-
In view of this, nothing but that tenderness
which is the offspring of a lifelong friend
ship, would have preserved him from forfeit
ing forever the good will of his fire-eating
admirer of the Mail Such, however, is the
indulgent forbearancc of that amiablc gentle .
man, that he not only tolcrates this one weak
ness but even permits Mr.. llanri ks objcc-
tionable heterodoxy to make its occasional
appearance in his columns. Thus during
the exciting times at Charleston (Mr. Han
rick being there of course) a telegraphic des-
patch from Horse Shoe Ned was received
at the Nail office, about once in fifteen min
utcs on an average, predicting confusion to
Yancey, and success to thc-strongest side.
Some of these dispatches were as clear as
Delphic oraclcs, and as full of information as
are usually letters from our own correspon-
dent" They were conceived something in
this wise:
Thursday, minutes past 1o.-I begin
to get the hang of it. was afraid one time.
Now, know my man will have it, if he gets
votes enough. Nobody knows it but me. |
shan't take it back.
IoRsE-SHoE NED
Or as thus:
FRIDAY, noon.-Yanccy wants to dissolve
the Union. Some of us agreed to lick him
and all his crowd. Think he heard of it,
for he looked black as thunder this morning.
Seen him coming, and stepped round the
corner. HoRsE-SHoE NED"
Now, in recalling these things, there has
suddenly come over us a singular suspicion.
We remember that the Senior of the Nail is
the biographer of Simon Suggs. We know
the fertility of his invention, and his mis-
chieveus propensity for running smooth-cut-
ting saws upon an unsuspecting public. We