The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-01-11

a WASHISGTOS CORRESPONDENT, IN
writing of matters and things about the
National Capital, draws the following
pen portrait OF the father of the ''irre-
pressible" Blair family:
'oLD BLAIR"
Probably there is no more active po-
IiticaI worker behind the scenes in
Washington this winter than "Old
Blair" as the father of Frank and
Montgomery, the head and brains of
the Blair family, is called. The old
man may frequently be seen, even in
these cold January days, trudging il
or returning from the White House, as
the supposition always is when he is
seen in the streets. He looks old-it
would be strange IL he didn't, at up
wnrds of seyenty-but is far from being
feeble In body, or mind either. In fact,
L saw him skirting along the avenue
yesterday, slipping and sliding on the
icy paYements, but still making such
Roadway ms might have puzzled some
of his grandchildren to beat. He
wore that low-crowned oad-brimmed
hat without which his little
round head has not appeared in
public for many year-not the
same hat, but the same style, mean.
He was hugging very tightly light
cape over his shoulders, and seemed to
feel the effects of the keen frosty air
| that cut like Il razor against younger
chins than his, but he threw out those
short thin legs of his with a nimbleness
nothing less than remarkable in one so
advanced in life. He neither looks nor
acts older now than he did ten, fifteen,
some say twenty years ago. He began
to wither or shrivel up longer ago than
that, and the process has been going on
slowly and scarcely descernibly since.
Other men have grown gray, old and
decrepit. "Old, Blair" seems to be an
exception to the common course of ma
ture. He will simply "wither up
slowly, and pass away some day-dis-
| tant by many years yet, apparently
not because he will be dead, like other
/ people, but because he will be com
| pletely shriveled out of existence. A
| wonderful man is sold Blair
/ perhaps the most entertaining politi-
cal talker to be found in the
country at the present time. Not that
\ his principles are better than other
mems, or that he has a more pointed
way of putting them. But he can call
up u greater number of interesting and
important "reminiscences in the politi-
/ cal history of the country, anywhere
since the war of 1872, than any living
man. He has been for more than fifty
years n prompter behind the political
scenes, and knows more of what oc-
CURED during that time than any who
took active part on the stage. And to
hear him talk in company, You
wouldn't think him an old man until
he acknowledges the fact himself, by
/ speaking of the events of fifty years
ago AS occurring when he was Il young
man. His memory of such events is
wonderful, and his manner of relating
them is always exceedingly vivid and
interesting. He will work himself up
to the highest pitch of enthusiasm some
times in describing one of the old quar-
rels between Clay and Calhoun, and the
strong personal interest he took in the
Democratic side OF the controversy.
What an interesting book of reminis-
cences "Old Blair" could write. 1t
might not be strictly impartial in all it
said, still il would be invaluable even
IL written in partisan spirit. 1t could
be taken cam JrGHo sails, and still be
more interesting than any book on
American politics yet given to the
world. II would be II sort of Ameri-
cnniZed Pepy's Diary, from the days oil
| Monroe to those of Lincoln or John
son. 1t is strange we have had no such
book before thiS-nothing rs much like
il even as Wruchell's "Reminiscences.' -
| Benton's "Thirty Years" is "a dreaTy eX-
panse of egotism. And latterly Sam.
Cox published his "Eight Years in Con-
gress," for which he ought to have been
indicted for obtaining money and sub
scribers under false pretenseS. Instead
of eight years in Congress, it's only
eight years of Sam. Cox.