The Shasta courier., 1869-05-29
Victims Of Intemperance and Insanity.

4
Victims Of Intemperance and Insanity.
The telegraph announced, short time
ago, that while Andrew johnson, late Presi-
dent of the United States, was at Athens,
Alabama, on his way to Pulaski, where he
was to make a speech, he received intelli-
gence of the death of his son, Col. Robert
johnson.
Andrew johnson always exhibited the
tenderest affection for his son, on whom he
had bestowed an excellent education. He
was a young man of superior abilities and
remarkably pleasant manners. He had
been a member Of the Legislature Of Ten
nessee, and the upward path to usefulness
and distinction lay open and easy before
him. One only besettng sir forever blight
ed all his bright prospects-he had an un-
controllable thirst for strong drink. The
last we heard of him previous to the news
of his death, he was somewhere in an ine-
briate asylum.
The announcement of Robert Johnson's
decease carries us back to the White House
in the first days of Andrew Johnson's Ad-
ministration Robert was then one of his
private secretaries. COL VIM. A. Brow
ming was another. Browning was one of
the handsomest men in the world-tall,
muscular, finely formed, with an open,
pleasing countenance, and complexion as
clear and skin as fine as Ireland or Nam
tucket gives to the fairest of women. He
had graduated at Yale College, and was a
fine bellies lettres scholar and man OF many
accomplishments He had been with Mr..
johnson in Tennessee for many years, and
went with him to the White House. But
his stay was fshort duration. Hereceived
the appointment of Secretary Of Legation
to Mexico He never left the country,
however The same habit which has now
carried off young johnson did its fatal work
with him more speedily He was extreme
ly popular and the idol of women. Yet we
have seen him turn from the loveliest of
smiles, and from the gayest scenes of festivi-
ty, and quietly remark My heart is
broken-I have no wish to live"
Mr. Browning was married when quite
young to beautiful girl, who lived but
short time after her marriage. He never
seemed to recover, in a degree, from the
shock of her death. On the contrary, the
pain of the separation seemed constantly to
deepen and grow more poignant in his
heart. The last time we met him was in
Washington, only a short time before his
death. In the course of a brief converse
tion he said "I have just parted with the
most beautiful women in America, but my
heart is buried in my wife's grave, and |
want to die"
Soon afterwards he shut himself up in a
room and deliberately drank whisky until
it killed him.
At the beginning of the time of which
we speak, another inmate of the White
House was Preston King How jolly he
looked and felt-and how his hearty laugh
shook his great heavy sides King, though
mild-mannered man, and a lawyer BY
education, had been an athlete and fighter
in his young days, and was always bit of
dandy, weighing we would say, upwards
of an eighth of ton. He used to receive
at the White House, arrayed in white pants
and vest, and wearing something ike the
old fashioned pump shoes, highly polished
such as Prosper NJ. Wetmore used to
wear when he called on Secretary of State
Marcy
As we have said, Mr.. King felt very
Jolly now. He was the Presidents other
self, and had things his own wav He
considered that he had been snubbed and
badly treated by the Seward men, in the
election of Morgan to supersede him, when
he had served only one term in the Senate
but now he was greater than Seward, for
was he not almost as good as President,
while Seward was only Secretary of State
Alas that very elevation to power was
the cause of Mr.. Kings awful and untimely
death. His infuence-his ascendency-
at the White House was felt to be alto
gether too great by the jealous and envious
politicians with whose purposes it interfer-
ed. They cunningly contrived to Danish
him to honorable exile, by making him
Collector of the port of New York, an of
flee for which he had neither taste nor
adaptation. Its perplexing, complicated
and harassing duties and, we have always
thought, the discovery of the trick which
had been practiced upon him-preyed up
on his mind, until his reason tottered and
yielded. With the cunning of deter
mined mailman, he stole away from the
friendly keeper who undertook to watch
him, and having purchased large bag of
shot, he tied it securely to his neck, and
then took passage on a ferryboat and sprang
from its deck into the North River. Sew
eral months afterwards his body rose to the
surface and Aoated ashore, where it was
discovered and recognized; and it was
taken to his home at Ogdensburg and
buried.-Ne,o YORK Ledger.