The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-18
MARS ON THE PLATFORM.
rrom the MY. World.

FROM he MY. World
1t is our duty to present to the attention of
the reader Major-General S. b. Roberts, and
to solicit for him ma general admiration as
an author and an. orator. OF his feats of
arms we know little, for there is less than
little worth knowing; of his vocal range and
volume we are left to surmise; of his literary
capacity, small green pamphlet, nine inches
one way by six the other, and containing
nineteen pages of plunging panegyric, which
to form Judgment. Its purpose is to set
forth the services and characteristics of
General Grant, and the title-page informs us
that it was delivered before the faculty and
students of Yale College in 1866, and that the
Legislature of Connecticut, jealous of the
academic monopoly of SO much eloquence,
by unanimous petition, backed up by the
tears of the speaker and by the prayers of the
chaplain and the clamsrous solicitation of the
local clergy, procured its repetition before
them during the year ensuing. Since then its
. melodious cadences have slept in silence
unless the author may now and then have
hummed or whistled them on dress-parade-
until the appearance of the pamphlet we have
referred to. The General was not content to
live merely in the transient memories of un-
dergraduates and the muddled "reminiscences
of rustic Legislators. He invokes q wide au-
dience. His ambition is not unreasonable,
and we will help him to its realization.
The bees, it is said, swarmed about the
mellifuous lips of Plato before he was
swaddled, and their hum and honey prefgured
the music and sweetness which in after time
should flow from the lips aforesaid. What
insects may have clustered about the infant
aperture OF the Major-General it is not easy
to conjecture. Perhaps they were blue
bottles They make good deal of noise of a
confused and incoherent character, and these
qualities exactly prefgure the qualities of the.
Generals eloquence. 1t is very resounding,
and very long, and very incomprehensible.
Like the idol-breakers of the Crusades, the
orator strews his way with broken images:
cracked figures of speech, mutilated tropes
and all the dssiecta naena5rG of a savage verbal
iconoclast. He is the centre of stupendous
system of meteoric adjectives, which decline
to swing in regular rhetorical orbits, but
fame in erratic parabolas and wide semi
circles, plunging into each other now and
then, and issuing in general conhagration.
We have employed o good many figures Of
speech in shadowing forth some of the char
aoteristics of the Generals style, but our ex-
cuse must be that ordinary language is not
adequate to the purpose.
The essay contemplates general survey of
! Grants career. from the lanyard of Galena to
the Executive Mansion The rapid transition
from one Office to the other kindles the mind
of the orator to pitch of volcanic fervor
e.
balls simple iife at Galena "who then spread
frugal dinner, laid by her willing and help
ing hands, was content to appear in matronly
oaliooes and dimities immaculate and fresh
from the laundry Now the vexation and
worry of her life are to find appropriate
poiat-lace from Brussels looms and satins
from Lyons mills to grace the table where
twenty courses are spread, etc. This is cal
Culated TO leave upon the mind of the unwary
= the impression that Mrs. Grant serves up
point-lace and Lyons to her guests in place Of
dinde aux truffes, supreme de volatile, and
cotelettes a La Maintenon. Are such the
prandial usages at the White House? If SO,
there are probably camel s-hair shawls for
dessert and brocade pepiums by way of
10rs d@uvres "Contrabands" 4" he continues,
sin pure white kids" Gan unconstitutional
a dexter covering, by the way, for which the
steward ought TO be impeached) 'sand Bid
dies in starch and Marseilles" tinsurrection-
airy and mucilagenous attire) ".attend, in the
stateliness Of royal livery. TO pour Burgundy
and to change courses for ambassadors and
plenipotentiaries whose arms are 'quartered
with kingly crests." 1t Is interesting to be
Informed by authority 80 unquestionable that
starch and Marseilles are the constituents OF
royal livery, and, though that panoply seems
Inappropriate to the investiture of a repub
Ijcan waiter, We suppose 1t must be all right