The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-05-12
orr ANNUAL sCOLDING.


down with his bundle of pigrams to play at
reform. In his last speech he announced as
the fruit of his recent ponderings that among
the evils of the day we're newspapers, and ac-
counted for their number by the fact that
there are more men who can write than who
can think. This is smart, for MIR. Phillips
never says anything which is not smart. 1t is
SO much easier to talk than it is to think that
perhaps ii would be unfair to expect an ease
loving rhetorician to give himself the trouble
to think before he speaks. If MIR. Phillips
ever paws to his audiences the compliment of
preliminary thought of his oration, it is de-
voted not to what he is going tosay, but to how
he is going to ayit-which is as much easieras
it is easier to dress child than to rear one.
But he is not to blame if his audiences like
what he gives them. They are gently
startled, but never shocked, by the sheet-iron
thunder and rosin lightning of his eloquence,
and they 90 away charmed with their eve-
ning's entertainment, and thinking no more
about the marrow of the subject discussed
than Mr.. Phillips does. Then the news
papers report the best things he said, and
the public reads and smiles, and an audience
is ready for the next time. If the journals
ceased to notice him he would soon be left
as lonely as st. Simeon of the Pillar. And
yet he speaks i'll of the bridge that carries
him over-he insinuates that it is a pon8
GSSn0rum. We pardon and advertise him as
of old. He really does very little harm; he
gives his hearers good evenings amuse-
ment and better lesson in oratory than they
could ever get from that myth of recent in
vention, Delsarte.
There is no speaker before the public who
has SO comfortable sense of irresponsibility.
He cares no more for what he said yesterday
than THE Daily B20therskite He is man of
purity and integrity; he could not be fright
ened or bribed by any possible threats or
PROMISES but he cannot resist an epigram,
and he yields more readily than weaker men
to the temptation of a metaphor. He values
facts only in proportion to their picturesque
ness, and when they fail he makes better ones
for himself The Lincoln whose loss he yes
terday deplored, when living he in turn de-
nounced as slave-hound or pitied as an
imbecile, as suited the graceful balance of
his phrase. Some time ago, in abusing the
American mob, he contrasted it with Paris
held in the iron grasp of an invincible des-
potism. But afterwards, when the street
gamins had kicked the dynasty out of France,
he substituted the Duke of Wellington for
Napoleon and Birmingham for Paris, and the
speech was just as good as ever.
He appears in these later years to be pep
pering his entrees rather more than of old.
He is pretty good peace man and humani-
tartan in general way, but just now he
wants the New York mob to hang mil
lionaire or two, and General Grant to make a
crimson comment on the Ku-klux bill in the
South. His suggestions as to the proper way
to carry out this salutary law are, as might be
expected, very original and dramatic He
wishes the President to hang, not the obscure
scoundrels who have committed outrages,
but few wealthy and respectable citizens
who have not, arguing, very justly, that this
would make great sensation! DIR. Holmes
informs us of certain creatures who feed on
Stilton till they turn to cheese" Is it possi-
BILE that Mr.. Phillips has stood so long in
contemplation before the moral beauty of
General Buffers life and conversation that he
has been inspired with the rash ambition to
appropriate his style?
AN EVENT EXTRAORDINARY
From the NJ r. Sun.
Something is about to happen which never
happened before. That great and good man
Horace Greeley is to start for Texas. He
has lived great many years, and has been to
great many places-hither and thither, to
and fro, up and down-but he has never
before started for Texas. .o1
Undoubtedly there have been good reasons
for Mr.. Greeley's not going to Texas. For
merly the climate, however salubrious in
itself, would not have been healthful for him
Hewould have found it altogether too hot even
in the coldest weather. Anxious as he has
always been to increase horticultural produc
tions, there would have been something hang
ing on tree down there which would moi
have comported with his ideas of what ough
to be on trees.
The fact that Mr., Greeley can now go t.
Texas safely shows that he has not lived alto
gether in vain. The men who were at one
time ready to kill him because they feared
that he would do something to abolish slavery
welcome him with open arms now that he anC
his friends have succeeded in abolishine
slavery. This is a new illustration of the
Difference which mankind pay to success.
Mr.. Greeley goes to Texas to deliver the
annual address before the State Agriculture
Society. People who suppose that he ha
already told in his book all that he knows
about farming are mistaken. That book wa
made up of articles in the Tribune, and Me-
Greeley never tells all that he knows in any
thing which he writes for the Tribune. II
is one of the funniest men in conversation
in the world He has often been exhorted t.
put his Jokes into the Tribune, but he re
trains. He thinks one funny paper in NeV
York is enough, and he delights in reading
the San. He has gained seventeen pounds
and eight ounces in flesh since he becam
one of our constant readers
1t has been suggested that Mr.. Greeley vii
be nominated for President while in Texas
but any open demonstration of that kind noN
would be premature, and would increase tn,
hostility already existing between him anG
General Grant.
Another distinguished editor recently mad
trip down toward Texas as far as the blu
grass region, and bought a famoas colt
Whether MIR. Greeley has in contemplatio
to purchase any stock in Texas we are mo
informed We believe that State is not re
markable for any superiority in its horses
1t is said, however, to pr duee the creates