Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1865-12-01
Word.Painting-Phrn.e..Mal.inr-.


Popular words, favorite phrases, self
evident truths, down to wise saws and COM
mandments, are caught up in these blessed
United States by political orators and
and popular dfviffiess,E dffVi sE ID JpsaqX sqQ boQkmaksss
mucn too long after all novelty has COM
pletelS evapOfated.
" 1t was the great excellence of Daniel
Webster, that while his thoughts and
phrases were original, his borrowed aHu-
sions and his quotations lsy outside of an
over-travelled track in literature,
''Truth crushed to earth shall rise again, .
was spoiled by Deing over-quoted when
most of us were children. Same with that
other piece
''sail on, Union, strong and great"
Too much familiarity DESTROYS novelty.
and novelty gone, not much to excite our
admiration remains. Bryant, LongfeIlow,
Pope and Shakespeare are halt ruined by
platform orators.
Many years ago Mr. Calhoun, in the
United States Senate, drew one of the
subtitle distinctions between the Ethiop
and the Caucasian. Caucasian That
was enough Here was a novel word, or
rather an unemployed word summoned
into practical use. Popular, immensely
so, for it did service to writers, disputants,
and orators for many years.
Webster once spoke Of a sen of up
turned faces" After that, everything that
turned up was aup-turned." When two
or three were gathered together, there
every orator alluded to the human sea be-
fore him as a tremendous uprising of the
people in their majesty, etc, etc.
In 1874 the Democrats held a national
nominating convention at Baltimore.
Cass and Van Buren were the snly can
didates for President spoken of. A zeal
Gus friend of Mr.. Van Buren, advocated
the adoption of certain rule to keep
away outsiders. Polk was nominated.
The Wings styled him the Outsider. and
by this soHbri9Uet was he known until, at
this writing, outsider as opposed to an in
slider, is almost dictionary word
REPRESENTATIVES, MAN: ITS ORIGIN
On the l4th of September, 1859. David
c. BrodericlI, United States Senator. fen
in duel with Daniel Terry, In the
Weekly San Francisco Nslcs Mr.. Bro
deriek's paper, appeared an obituary, 18th
September, 1859. There occurred this
sentence;
"When tears in torrents stream down
mani y cheeks-when they course down
the faces of men who never saw. but onIv
knew the name OF Broderiek, the question
arises, why all this sorrOw2 The answer
is obvious: Mr.. BrOderick wns q repre-
sentative man, in the prime of life, and
was an exponent of the thoFghts, sympa-
thies and feelings of the people Of San
Francisco" &c, &C..
This probably was the origin Of this now
famous word. 1t was underseored in the
obituary. Since then everybody speaks Of
representative men and representative
things. One.o of the Boston Eteraf has
published a book entitled 81 Representative
Men," This is all very well. But do not
hard-used phrases, words, poems, proberbs,
became much the worse for wear?
The eognOseenti of Britain do not spoil
their good sayings by making mobiles of
them. Old Tom Carlyle could invent
half-a-dozen phrases and dozen while we
have been writing this liberal eritique-
N. y. Sunday Times.
The above article is very good reading
in its way, but slightly amixed." Classi-
cal scholars will be surprised to learn that
Daniel Webster-who, however, was God
like enough to be ranked among the
Greeks-spoke of "a sea of upturned
faces without ever having read the trae-
edy OfCstaline and admirers of Emerson.
who remember the delight with which
they welcomed Representative Men"
will scarcely be so stupid as to forget that
the death of Broderick occurred full ten
years after the publication Of tone Of ths
Boston literati." We do not, of course,
know the precise age of the writer of the
above article, but must surmise that he Is
of tender years, as he says the quotation
from Longfellows beautiful poem, "Build-
ing of tbs Ship
q Sail on, o Union, strong and great
was spoiled by being over-quoted when
most OF US were children