The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-18

and fraught with no serious peril to our liber- |
ties But we are deeply concerned TO learn J
that the diplomatic corps at Washington
quarter their crests with kings. Have the
sinister brood of despots who roost with |
awful eye" upon the thrones of Europe sur
reptitiously sent their relations over here to
watch for symptoms of pip in our national
bird, so that they may step in at the Tgat
moment and wiring its invalid neckS This
ought to be looked into; and prudence sug-
gests that Congressional committee ought
TO investigate the heraldry of the plenipo-
tentiaries on whom the contrabands in kids
and the Biddies in imperial starch and royal
Marseilles bestow hbations of Burgundy and
Rheims at the board of our guileless aud un-
suspecting President
Although the orator dwels with much
fervor upon dinner tables and dresses, and
high society-the visible and tangible conse-
uuents of his hero's renown-he strays away
now and then into by-paths, historic, moral
istic, chronological, and other He talks
about Egypt, and Persia and Babylon, and
says that those elder States, eminent as they
were in obelisks, unapproachable as they
were in sphinxes and holy bulls, had no
General Grant, and hence the dust of them
has been winnowed from the earth and
''new divinity has been impregnated."
''There are numerous instances, hesays, ''of
the elevation Of men from places of obscurity
to thrones and empires. But they have been
the creatures of chances" and they have been
number of things and not been number OF
other things. All of which the speaker re-
cites with much confidence and many excla-
nation points, showing his mastery of his
tory and of the minor resources-of compost
ton. Of the colonels who went out to the
''war, no one returned who claimed to be his
TGrant's peer. He carved his way to fame
"a fame that is not of tavern song;" and the
speaker predicts for 1t q duration as eternal
as that of monumental brass or alabaster.
Greatness like that possessed by his hero,
and the renown and the achievement conse-
| quent thereon require some occult explana-
| ton. Fumbling about the abysses of his in
1! ner consciousness, the orator finds the key of
the mystery. 1t is Grants autonomy"
I which has done the business. No manual of
| terminology with which we are acquainted
casts light upon the meaning of this mysteri-
Gus polysyllable, and its obscurity impels us
into labrynths of conjecture. What is it
| An organ? An attribute? A new style of
hat A talisman? Grants autonomy, we
are told, is perfect, and that is why he won
the battle of Shiloh and got elected to the
Presidency. The man of genius. on the
other hand, has an imperfect "auto-
mony," and can never become truly
| great. He is machine with a
| screw loose, and he fails "when relative
homogeneity of powers succeed" Grant, he
thinks, is not man of genius, but is made of
| sterner stuff. He proceeds to iken him first
to woven fabric, then to fresco, and then
to mosaic to which similitudes is appended
the certifcation that he is ''dyed in the wool. y
| If he had commanded Wellingtons army in
the Peninsula, instead of lurking behind the
| lines of Torras Vedras, he would have stormed
Madrid If he had entered Moscow as Ma
| poleon did he would have wintered there
and had private theatricals in the Kremlin
| If he had led host to Egypt, he would
have snapped his fingers at the disaster oi
| Aboukir and rioted on Pharaohs flesh
pots. This is high praise, and when it il
bestowed by one general upon another il
is SO very high as to be not easily dis
tinguishable from satire. In truth, the
eulogy of General Roberts throughout is Of
much too robust and Incorporate character
ander of Macedon, it would. be preposteroui
adulation If its purpose were to bring its
subject into derision, such purpose could no
have been better subserved. The essay ex
hibits the peril which is apt to attend tn,
warrior when he takes up an unwonted wea
pom. 1t is possible that General Roberts
might make respectable figure at the head
of regiment or brigade; but his initial
escapade in literature is calculated to strik
more terror to the bosoms of his friends thai
his sword ever Gid to the bosoms of hi
foes. The soldier whom he SO indiscreetl
seeks to honor cannot feel obliged to hin
for his doubtless well-meant, but clumsy an.
blundering, panegyric; and the most cour
teous wish we can indulge towards the write
is that his little pamphlet may never reacl
the modest and worthy gentleman whom
daubs with such merciless and preposterou
adulation.