Arkansas true Democrat., 1862-04-24

thrown open, and exhibited one of the finest displays of gastronomic art ever seen ill this | oountry-a temple of liberty, a fort and . wal steamer, admirably moulded in candy, and a ton of turkeys, ducks, venison. pheasants patridges, etc., all exquisitely prepared. by Mailliard, oi New York, at a cost ofthousands of dollars.
 While the country Is shaken as by an earth. quake by the mightiest and most unnatural civil war recorded in history, and on the eve of bank ] ruptcy and ruin; while it is even now a question "a fearful one-whether we are to be hence forth the free people of free nation, or whether we are to become the subjects of anarchy a second Mexico-we say, that while these dire calamities are threatening our very life as Q na- :. ton, such an extravagant and foolish display is shocking. At any time, such mimicing and aping of European courts is disgusting in the kcapital of republic but at such a crisis as the present, such a wanton displayo of extra sagance and indifference on the part of the administra> ton is an outrage to the interest and feelings of the people. It is tempting kind providence to our destruction, What will be thought in Europe of such frvolity. l How forcibly and unpleasantly 1t calls to l mind the Adding of Nero at the burning of Romel That same night, while in Washington all was wanton and gay, the hunted unionist in our bloody border land stole in secret from his
 
 looked once more upon the ashes of what was once his happy home. That same night wound. ed volunteers died in the hospitals for want of care and comfort, and our noblest sons and brothers piued in the loathsome horrors of a southern prison, and sighed hopelessly for re- lease; while on our western frontier tue house. less mother casping her starving babe, and the prairie wolf raVenOusly devoured the loyal dead. And still with bands playing, and streamers flying, and the old ship of state tempest tossed, and drifting along the, very verge of an abyss, the " august wisdom of the capital" are merry with wine, jolly and indifferent, toasting and feasting, dancing and capering about the White House goose with deyil-maycare imbecility, as though life were intended for q past time civil war an agreeable tableau. Shade of Bel shazzar-ashes of Nineveh-golden calf of Aaron-come forth, ye wanted in Washing ton.
 From the Jeliersonian Democrat
 MRS. LINCOLN s BALI.
 The first ball ever given in the White House came of tonight, says the Tribune's correspon- dent of Thursday last. We have read of the crews of sinking ships, when all hope had fled, throwing off all restraint, human and divine, and mingling their revolting orgies and mad carousals with the averaging spirit of the tenn pest, which was hurrying them to swift and sure destruction. Are the incumbents of the high places of trust and power, mad or dement,, ed, that, in this dark hour of our history and our hopes, they desert their pests of duty to in augurate the reign of fashion, and worship at the shrine of folly? Or was this shameless funeral wake over the unburied remains of a de- funct union?
 "Most of the Senators and members of Con- gress and Generals of the army were therc," 4Lo E,.4 ' peoples trust, was 1t for-ths that you were sent to Congress or placed in command of our ar mics? Are we mourning an expenditure of two millions of dollars per day, and sacrificing hun dreds of lives, that you may congregate and riot at our expense.
 Again, says the reporter "Thc supper was set in the dining room, and is considered one of the finest displays of ga8tronomic art ever seenin this country. It was prepared by Mail Hard Of New York; and cost thousands of dol lars.' And this was while Secretary Chase was urgently inportuning Congress to adopt some measures to replenish an empty treasury.
 Again, says the faithful chroniclcr " The tables fairly bent underline expensive luxures heaped one upon another" Only one week before Mr. Wilson had stated, in his place in the Senate, that he had seen certificates from sick soldiers, that they had actually to go to the swill tubs to enable them to live iii the hospitals at Alexandria,
 Is the White House to be the scene of dis graceful frvolity, hlarity and guttony, while hundreds of sick and suffering soldiers, within plain sight of the dome of the Capitol, are left to suffer for the bare necessarie5 of life, mat tended and uncared for? There must be q moral. malaria in the atmosphere of Washing ton, which stupefies the intellect, and aims the perceptions, while 1t dries up or posons the fountain of human kindness in alwho enter its transforming circle. Slavery aHd treason still live and flourish there. Samson was shorn of his strength by a woman of the Philistines.- The White House may have its Delilah. Who can tell?
 THE WHITE HOUSE FESTIVITIES.
 From the Poxbury Journal
 We will not be guilty of such disrespect to- wards President Lincoln, as to suppose him re- sponsibe in any other way than a passive, if not virtually enforced, acquiesence in those mis- placed festivities at the White House. which have lately shocked the sensibties of the ha- ton. It was bad enough for Mrs. Lincoln to make an unostentatious parade of her gayety at fashionable watering places last summer. The nation has drawn no favorable augury from her intimacy with the family of James Gordon Ben nett, and the evident relish with which she has received the fusome ilattery of the infamous sheet which he edits. But these things were generally borne in silence. It was not until this crownng act of inauguratng in the climax of the nations agony, the recent scenes of rout and revelry at the White House, that the press has been compelled by it's sense of duty to speak out. This 1t IS now doing, and with no uncer- tain. tone. It comes from all quarters, and from journals representing every variety sen tIment.
 member of Congress from this State who has already. done his country signal service in exposing frauds for which this same social in. auence, surrounding the White House, is said to be largely responsible, is reported to have :" freed his mind" as follows.
 Two or three days since Mr. Lincoln sent word to MT. Dawes, through brother member, that he (Dawes) had done more to break down the administration than any other man in the country, by his speech exposing the corruptions of contractors and others. MT. Dawes sent back q message iii reply to the President. "Tell him" said MT. D., that nothing that 1 can do will break down his administration so rapidly as this dancing party given at the time when the nation is in the agonies of civil war. With equal proprety might Q man make merry with a corpse in the house."
 The concluding expression of Mr. Dawes, though startling, can hardly be called extrava gant. The last dollar was paid from the na- tional treasury, and the nation stood face to face with its hundreds of millions of debt unprovided for on the day of this unseemly festivity. Our