The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-11-14
THURSDAY EvE'G, NOV. IA, 1872.
yuE MYTHICAL .BLooDY CHAsM."


of speech first came from the pen Oh
Mr.. Greeley, it contained just enough OF
sickly sentimentalty to create for 1t deci-
ded run in the market of catch.penny phra-
SEES, and it was not forty-eight hours old
before it was banded from lip to lip by
forty millions of people in this country and
nearly as many in Europe. No single
human phrase from any mortal pen ever
had such o Puck-like flight, from one END
of the earth to another, before. 1t was
caught up by not less than ten thousand
editorial ouills, and the ink expended over
this phrase would literally have flooded the
mythical chasm to overlooking, had Its
depth equalled that Of black Tartarus Itself.
Precisely where this bloody chasm
was situated-whether in "Old Virglnny"
or ''way down on the Swanee ryer"-
whether among the rough slashes of Han
over or the rougher pampas Of Tallahassee
no man, in his rational five senses. pre-
tended to say but that it existed some
where, and was very fearful thing to look
into. everybody, whetherin his five senses
J
or not. seemed to take for granted. 10
shake hands across this fabulous chasm
was apparently the height of Mr.. Greeley's
ambition. He saw, in the loving palms ex-
tended over it, q future for himself that ex-
ceeded anything ever told in Arabian tale'
and he c,inched his ten dgts with as much
delight, in anticipation of a good square
haud.shakng over it, as if the queen dla-
mond of the world had suddenly turned up
TO his astonished vision among the other
glittering pebbles in the runlets OF
Chappaqua. Nor was he more appa-
rently delighted with the prospect
of bridging over this extraordinary
cbasm with the organs of sectional pre-
hensiop, than was the most fiery of all the
secessionists who "struck hands" across 1t
in 1861. But the misfortune was that this
gbastlv chasm existed only in metaphor, or
in that figure of speech in which Mr.. Greeley
especially delights to confound resemblances
or make things look thousand times more
real than they really are, though distorted
beyond all comparison or possibility OF
resemblance in the figure.
The s. bloody chasm had originated in
his fertile brain, just as the mythical
"jaw-bone of an ass" leaped to the hano
of Samson on the bloody field of Lehl
The writer of that wonderful piece of dra
matism in Judges, giving the exploits OF thu
Bible Hercules, was not more fortunate II
his selection of a happy phrase than wa
the prolific editor of the New York 7ff
Juae. For, of all things to fill up will
those " slain, heaps upon heaps, a thousand
rnen.n "bloody chasm" was the mos
happy in conception as well as the mos
fclcitous in selection. Though mythca
in point of fact, like Samson's Jaw-bone
it had metaphorical significance that ex
ceeded all expressive phrase beyond 1t
And so with the 'Jap-benes Of asses;" tn
world has never seen any other weaponr
that has equalled these for effectiveness i
the destruction of the human race.
nine tenths of all the wars that have eve
given rise to 4" bloody chasms," the jaw
bones of asses" have been the incpient, a
well as the incisive weapons used.
And Samson said, ,, heap
upon heaps, wih the jan Of an as
have I slain thousand mem" an
he was not, by any manner
means, the first successful huma
slaughterer with this "unruly weapon.
The South welded it more effectively tina
any other instrumentality until the fir
ssbloody chasm" opened at Manassas, an
no lust criticism would withhold the use
the same effective weapon from the Mort
As Samson, who was the great Bible me
aphorist or punster, happily seized Il
most prolific weapon of slaughter in tt
"iaw of an ass" so Greeley was equal
happy. in metaphor, when he cast away Il
iawbone, as did Samson, and called u
place "Ramath-lehi," or" bloody chasm
Now, we don't propose to shake han
across Ramath-lehi, or any other plae
where the "jaw-bones of asses we
flung away by the followers of Mr.. Greel
in his new gospel of peace. Samson W
no such fool as to do it himself, nor do
read that the Phillstnes were. Tn
made no such bid for a sickly sentiments
ity., He went down among them after
iaw-bones were flung away. and they n
Their called him carpet-bagger, n
treated him otherwise uncivilly. He fell
love there and married, and if the WON
of Sorek had only treated him half as W
as the men did, the temple of Dagon mig
have stood to this day for all the injury Il
the strong man of Zorah " would e
have done to it. And thereby hangs ia
with very suggestive moral, for \
Greeley and his " Ramath-lehi" friends
profit by.
THE Chicago Times speaks our M