The Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1863-1886, 1868-07-30

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mupicated to- q daily political wri
ter valuable political impression
And ] read thelSouth.. Bend Regis
lister for another reason, who'll,
peculiar to myself: Eighteen year
ago, at one o'clock Of q winte
moonlight morning, while the hcr
ses OF the stage coach In which
was blowing the thick mud OF In
diana were being changed at th,
tavern in South Bend, I walkes
the footway Of the principal stree
to shake off q great WEAKNESS.
saw q light tbrough.a window.
sign, The Register was legibIl
above it, and l saw through thi
window a man in his shirt sleeva
walking quickly about like on
that worked. l paused, and looIi
ed, and imagined about the maj
and his work and about the late.
ness Of the hour to which It was
protraeted; and l wondered If hi
was in debt and was struggling ID
get out, and il his wife was expect.
ing him and had lighted new can
die for bis coming, and If he was
very tired. A coming step inter.
rupted this idle dreaming. When
the walker reached my side ! Join.
ed him and as we went asked
him questions, and naturally they
were about the shirt sleeves
What sort of q man is hep He is
very good 10 the poor; he works
hard, be is very sociable with all
thepeople; he pays his debts; be is
safe adviser; he doesn't drink
whisky; folks depend on him; all
this part of Indiana believe in him.
From that day TO this / have new
er taken up tho South Bend Regis
ter without thinking ofthis eulogy
and envying the man who had
justly entitled himself to the dawn
of his manhood
x x 4 "My brothers
you think you know the secret Of
this uninterrupted favor Of a con.
stutuency to representative-this
continued regard of constituency
for citizen, Of this appreciation Of
statesman by statesmen. You
find them in his fidelity to princi.
ples-in his thorough attention to
business-in his talents for legis.
lation-in their constant and use.
ful devotion to the public good.
The Congressional Globe and the
traditional and written history OF
Congress fare full of evidences Of
these virtues, and of this fitness
for public trusts and this title to
honored confidence. But you
don't know the secret. l do. l
learned it by chance. got pos.
session of it by an unwilling. and
unwilling eavcsdropping in the
parlor CT another noble man, John
w. Forney. Eighteen years after
my midnight watching Of that print
er in his shirt sleeves, at his soli-
tary labor, hoard him in this city
utter thus, his philosophy of life:
4 consider that day wasted in which
| have not done some good to some
human being, or added somewhat
to somebody's happiness What
success could recede from that
mans PURSUIT. nay what success
would not pursue that man and
forcibly crown him with honors
and gratitude Schuyler Colfax,
editor of the South Bend Register,
Congressman from Indiana, and
for eleven years actor of philos.
optical life that Socrates might
have envied, you, you cannot es.
cape the love of your fellow.han.
We journalists and men of the
newspaper press do love you ,and
claim you as bone of our bons
and flesh of our flesh"
x x In July, 1868, the great
affliction of the life of Mr.. Colfax
occurred-his wife died.
Whilst he was q child, with his
widowed mother in New York, he
was taken on annual visits far up
the Hudson river, into the regions
of Saratoga. There he met anoth-
er child. a sweet little girl young
er than himself, and they played
together in the glorious summer.
time, amidst tho flowers, and under
the trees, and upon the green
hillsj BY the crystal springs and
murmuring brooks. Year after
year he came from the noisy city
TO this country paradise, and met
the sweet little girl with whom he
loved to play. But the annual
visits were too far apart for the
commuhitioh Of the thoughts Of
the children, and letter writing be-.
gan at eight years of age. Those
visits and those letters we're the
silken ties that bound two hearts
together. The tide OF emigration
that swept one of those hearts far
away into the wild woods of the
West severed not the tie that bound
it to the other. just before he had
established himself as village odi-
tor, Schuyler Colfax, at the age Of
twenty .one, had been married, and
had brought to his homo in the
person Of a beautiful and admired
woman, the little girl with whom
he had 80 lovingly played in the
glorious paradise of childhood.
What bright halcyon days were
those of the village editor in his
new homo, in the happy society OF
his wife, giving himself to the en-
ioyment Of society and the,duties Of
editorship. Mrs, Colfax became a
il I-o,od ok.;attoo xun