The Elko independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1869-1872, 1871-05-06
The Modern Demogorgon.
.. tFrom tbs wAshfngt3n Patriot

%. On the tAwny margin of the great LibyaI
Desert, where no shadow falls except the red
lurid, death-fraught haze of the simeon
where the fiery sun streams down its glowing,
incessant shower Of heat TO seeths the brain
where man and beast and bird bury them.
selves out of sight until the night fetehes in
It's simulacrum Of coofness To make breathing
less than burthen, and motion lighter than
an ache-there, a wonder Of the world during
all the wondrous ages, unscorched, unwink-
ing, equable, calm as q river-god in hrs reedy
cool grot, sits the mysterious statute Of the
SphynI, gazing with inscrutable eyes upon
the desert, outstariug all starers motioniess,
unfeehng. unconscious of fiery sun and blis.
tering dust and mad, scalding dancngs Of the
hest-frenzied sands. As SphynH in her
desert, so sits Benjamin +. Butler in Con-
gress and before the nation unscorched, un.
bienching, unNinking the inscrutabie mystery
OF shAmelessness, the incarnateideal Of naked
braZen effrontery, unblistered by the hot
% scorn of ten million tongues shouting indiy
pant robuke, lunshAken by the fierce siInooDs
OF inveetiye before which honest men would
wither and droop like tender flowers cnt
down, impervious 10 the hery prick OF mad.
dening consciousness,S and the unalterable
degraded sense Of universal spewiDg forth
What spectacle II isl ."..-.
We find but few parallels TO this paragon
OF unblushing mendacity in all the pages Of
tern him better were more largely in
formed about those sweAty, oiled, and per
fumed monsters Of the Greek and Roman
lower courts. who waited on the Rmperors,
catering 10 oil unptterable shameless vices and
siekening, hideoris depravIties, with smooth
countenanees and itching palm-those heroes
whom Martial and PGtroDius have celebrated,
and Juvepsl has scourged with his Indignant
lash. We might DO able TO discover examples
by which 10 rend him could we penetrate into
the frightfui mysteries Of .he Ottoman Porte,
and read the histories Of some Of those fat,
impassiye, Ecdden Pashas, who began life as
the boy favorites of Mahmoud OF his chief
officers. We might find instances metc to put
alongBide Of this III tho annals of the Couyt OF
Charles H., Of England, that filthy Court
whore the monTch himself set an example OF
depravity, where Rochester played the astrol.
oSer 70 get Court secrets, and Gramont got
rich by open use Of coggel dlee, pnd Sedley,
husband, father, noble, and wit, was
peited by the mob and egged by the fsh-
women for outraging decency on tho very
streets and ,befouhng the air with nlHldry to
mako hnkmen blush and the coarse pSpulace
hang their heads. '1 ,rssET
We might find parallels in the records OF
the Borgias. ard in the chronicles of tho eS.
eepttonably wicked Regent Of Orleans for
Buffers brazen front; and yet we honestly
believe instances can bo picked ont in his
-VhdNu Alahc ultu tVNtI hDONo iHBTi
all. Why, oven that great cowardly, belching
: buteheF, Commissioner Yeh, of Canton, after
hoihad decsspitatod his hundred thousand men
and stolen his twenty millions Of dollars, and
siangod md bullied, and lied and cheated,
when he was attacked and defeated, and
dragged by tho English snilors out Of his
hiding-ptnce, where he lay quiyering like a
great pudding thrust into q pot too small To
bold II, and was confronted with the people
whois he bad tortured and malignod, could
not retain his assurance, but ayerted his face
and stsmmered and tried to explain and eK-
tOpuatg, q But Butler who ever saw him
bfnshY~ Who over raw him stHmnof or soel;
TO draw even ,l,e slightest, veil Of decency and
decorum Jvo1 that inonstfouh front of brazen
iniquity? Behold him challenging his cur
like record ns general, coolly uncorking him.
self with the same instrument that bottled
him up; bohoh him jingling in public tho
o. Pinhdef1 he swspt mp in Southern homes
counting his spoons TO SEQ that no ono serves
him as no served others; cinking his doub-
looms and rattlnR his bonds in tho very fhce
OF the outraged and astonished vorldi Be-
hold him in Congress, baited, beaten, baillcd,
scorned, snubbed, scourged, spit upon, branded
with every fonl cpithct, and every foul cpl.
thet sticking TO him. even that which no
deems fouleSI or anyEfooll Boholdhifn sit.
ting there defiant ia his dishonored seat, old
bphynI come back sgain, aud proponnding to
nation oil aghast the inscrutnble, noustrous
riddle OF shamelesstiessl ~
For, When all Ia said, it ia q problem too
doep for us to solve. that this man, so utterly
wicked, 20 utterly base 40 utterly found out
In his haaeness and wlokodness. md 30 utterly
loethed for thcm OF all men--it is problem
wo can not solve, wo say, how ho Ia able tc
front Y oil no calmly. There is a certain
snblimlty in his audacity: there is an unique
quality In this characteristics Of his which
seems 70 aot him apart and mark him with n
certain sort of individuality, like that ab
sstraotion 80 sharply drawn by Hswthorno oI
no man who had committed the unpardon