The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1868-08-14
From the Weekly Review.l
The Coming JIan.

MIR. James Parton, writing in the a
tantic Monthly, prepounds a questio
relative to "the coming man." Will b
: drink winei asks Mr.. Parton, and the
having demonstrated to his entire sal
isfaction, that wine assists digestion
and does not assist digestion, keep
alive the cousumptive, and kills every
body who drinks it--Mr. Parton con
clad that "the coming man" will b
q teetotaller. The deduction is doubtles
as sound rs the logic; but, without de
string To d.scTss the liqr II point, W,
"isn venture TO propOun9 question rel
ative - -. r.'-:dg man"-which
briefly, Is, VII LES whether "the com
ing man" drinks wine or mott What
i'll other words, Is the coming man tC
us, that We should care a rap about
him He did not give as the glorie:
of Greece or Rome. He had nothing tc
do with Magma Charta. He did not
participate with Luther in the Reform.
alton. Shakespeare was able to get
along without him, in creating a splen-
did body Of everlasting literature. Bee
thoven could dispense with him, in do
ing with music what Shakespeare did
with poetry. He did not stand by
Washington at Valley Forge He did
not invent the locomotive engine, the
steamboat, the magnetic telegraph, or
the sowing machine. He did not pro
vide the system of cheap postage. He
did not lay the Atlantic cable. He was
not in DR.. Kane's company in the polar
seas. There is no especial reason to sup
pose that he presided over the last
Democratic Convention. In shert, "the
coming man" has done nothing what
ever for mankind that even the occult
Mr. James Parton can lay finger on;
and, therefore, we ask again, who cares
He may drink or may vegetate; it is all
one to us. He will find all the conve-
nicnces ready to his hand, whichever
may be his choice-and no thanks to
him, neither. The lands have been
pretty well cleared. The cities have
been built. The mines have been
worked. The newspaper has been in
vented. The champagne cocktaiP has
been invented. Charles Dickens has
written his novels. The Boulevards
and Broadway have been built. The
Pacific railroad will be complete. All
manner of costly and bloody expert
ments have been made, with a view to
determine upon rational form of polit-
ical organization. And by all this the
coming man" will beneit-that is, un-
less be turns out to be as foolish in his
time as most of his predecessors have
been in theirs (Which we have no doubt
will be the case, 50 far as the multitude
s concerned.) Little or nothing, at any
ate, will be left for him to do in the
way of material development. 1t is
to be hoped that he will
'uild bridge to heaven, but we are
lot sanguine enough to xpect it. One
hing we may be sure of. Whether he
thinks or not, it is certain that, as he
walks among our crumbling monu-
nents, he will dimly recall US as lot
# musty old tegies. Let us be even
With him i'll advance, and sensibly re-
ard him rs a contingent humbug.
here is no delusion more signal or
lore melancholy than confidence in
no regard of posterity. We have no
usiness to leave him burden of taxa
ion, but, aside from that, he is no more
0 us than Hecuba was to The Player
ing.