The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1868-11-06
THE Loss OF HOOKER.

George A. Townsend, whose military
campaigns well fit him for the task, pays,
in the Hartford. Post, this tribute to the
genius and character of General Joseph
Hooker, the hero of Lookout Mountain,
who has lately been retired from the
army:
A graver topic comea to me, and to
you also, in the loss of the name of Jo-
seph Hooker from the roll of the army.
Few can take his place in talent, and
who In beauty and fame? He was the
Henry Clay of soldiers-generous, in
stinctive, reliable, eiectricali He open
ed battle at the moment, on order.
When Mcclellan said, at Antietain,
General Hooker will advance on the
-.sir. rt O'Clock" they woke at head
quarters to hcet il:ss fiist DS7Iil.S.1 L.s,.q =
the morning, as if the secondhand of
his watch had been the fuse to fire it,
He was the promptest soldier known to
either army. Some were too proud,
others too irresolute, some Emphatic !;
he was cheerful, yet remorseless at
times, and as lover not of carnage,
but of fair battle, few ages afford his
match.
He was the handsomest man in vital
beauty ever saw. Decatur must have
hooked like him. His nostrils aud his
eye were not fire but light, never with
intense feeling, but shining like the
dawn. He was the perfection Of manly,
American beauty, as we conceive it,
when all our heterogeneous tribes shall
be welded into one patriotic homogeni.
ty with the English dew and the bronze
OF our autumn most manifest. His walk,
the turn of his knee, the straightness of
thigh and leg, the exquisiteness of his
foot what gentleman can forget? And
likewise his waist and chest, almost a
woman's! They grew into a pair of
shoulders that the epaulette never en-
HANGED. The carriage of his head should
have touched nun. Raphael would
have made him pose for St. Michael.
Hooker, at the end of the war, was a
revived and satisfied man, perceiving
himself that the good genius Of the coun-
try had ordered well.
In Cincinnati he met, in the prime OF
life and intelligence, one of the most
splendid ladies of tue country, the sister
OF Hon. William Groesbeck, Qately the
Presidents counseI lady whose pure
and elevated character had been strong
enough to decline matrimony in the
mere spring of life. He found her il
the midsummer of her days, fair as 6
girl, composed as wife, and the last O.
| A1S SOHAuOAtS was the highest IoSll0lO
NAL ever given to his person and hi
character.
Now the soldier began to feel wha
he had vaguely appreciated before
that of which Bonaparte died uncon
sciOus-the dignity and happiness o.
social, domestic life. He look com.
mand of the department of New York
his friends rejoiced at his good fortune
no such presence walked Broadway.
In the height of it all, the blow came
He was. parlyzed.
| His wife carried him to Europe, re-
duced as he was from Adonis to a Grip.
pie. In all soft lands he searched tol
health; the softest land was in heI
presence. She also became sick witt
care AND diligence. They returned to-
gether to New York not very long ago
and Hooker, seeing his Quartermaster
LeDuke, of Iowa, coming to see him
said:
''This is all there is of Joe Hooker I"
They wept together like women.
AT WATERFOWL, the other day the no.
BILE wife of the General died. He ha:
resigned his commission. Gods ways
are past finding out.
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