Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1865-05-16


craft and mercenary traffic in our misfor.
tunes quite AlienAted us all from her. She
has long task before her to restore the
era of good feeling. 1t will not be in this
generation, but it may be in the next, ac,
coraing as she herself acts toward u..
lThistory tseords more ludicrous farce
of the serio-comic sort than the attempted
escaPsde of JEFF. Davis, we cannot recall
it. People laughed yesterday at every
mention of his capture. JEFF in boots,
skirts and bonnet, was the picture before
everybOdy's mind. In few days Hsrper's
Weekly, and Frank Leslie's Illustrated pa
per, will be out with their caricatures, and
then the whole country will be in grin.
II old John Leech, of the London Punch,
were alive, he could set the world in a roar
with q deliueation of the scene. In a very
little while We shall see the shop windows
stocked with cheap cards presenting views
OF JEFF. as be awoke from slumber, next of
bis hasty toilet, next of his flight, next of
bis final stand at bay, and lastly of his
capture and march back again to camp.
We will see him with dress on that does
old sun-bonnet on that does not hide his
not reach below his boot tops, and with an
Whiskers. We shall also see the Amizo-
nisn female at bay. with a drawn bowie
knife in her hand, and We shall almost hear
the feminine tones in which the govern.
meut was reprOved for thus pursuing
poor innocent female, who only wanted to
be let alone. Barnum will no doubt secure
the frock and bonnet, and all New York
will gaze at it and laugh. Even the grave
historians who may write up this rebellion
will be compelled to give very lauEhable
picture of Jeff.'s. last grand strsgeticsl
hank movement. Indeed it is questionable
whether pUSterity will not forever picture
JEFF. as be appeared in the last scene, and
the little boys aud girls who get picture
books for their good conduct, will be
obliged to ask their parents whether JEFF.
was man. a woman, or a What IsIt2
ITO see and appreciate the really ridden.
lous point in the whole affair it ia mecca.
.sary to remember that JEFF Davis ia
: naturally and by cultivation as prim and
stiff as au old maid, and never sat down
or rose up in his life except as ifhe had a
painful ram rod inside the vertibral
column. To put on his wife's dress even
in her presence, and before the eyes of his
camp followers, must have been terribIv
Notifying indeed. To bid them all good.
bye. and strike out into the open country
towards the woods, the. hoopless skirts
Tapping about his boot tops and his old
sun bonnet tightly tied on his head, and
scant pattern of bonnet at that, mus,
have, as A Ward would say, "dug into his
feelings in rendin manner" But to he
halted in his flight, thus accoutred, and
actually brought to bay by our cavalry,
capped the climax of Jeff's modification
unless We except his return to
camp end to the presence of his followers
IN full costume. Why the higb.minded
and chtvalric, not to say christian, gentle.
msn-woman, did not use his bowie knife
on bis person add commit harri kari nm his
bowels then and there. is a matter of as
tonishment to all who have beliyed in the
existence of last ditch. If JEFF Davis
were allowed to live, which is not at all
iikeiy' it seems as if in the face Of laugh.
ing and snickeriDg world be would certain
~ cry out in the extremity of his NORTH.
cation that his punishment was greater
than he could bear.
But seriously speaking, it would seem
to be most appropriate that the rebellion
SO far as its nominal head was concerned,
should end up as a farce. 1t needed but
something of the kind to make its bumi,-
alton complete. ALI the pomp and preleu.
sion of its SOLEMN state while living e1-
ploded in ridicule at it's death. Extremes
met in its winding up. On the ono side
We have led tie mourpful tragedy of-Nr
LincolD's assassination, by which no. onIv
his name butthe cause whose MARTYR he
was, has been endeared beyond all Words
to the nation and the world, and on the
other We have had at one and the same
time the most ridiculous, contemplate and
farcical ending that it is possible to con-
ceive Of as the finale of rebellion that
needed but such scene to make i. 90
down to history as the embodiment of
everything, odious and imPracticable. The
miserable man who was its head from first
to last is now as be will continue to be. 4