Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1872-01-27


sobbing out John has gone to ighta du-
ell Never shall forget the scene of ex-
preston of the old maf's face. He had n
terrible eye when aroused, and now it fla sh-
ed fire. He seemed to rise to the height of
two ordinary men, lie took q step back
ward and With his hand raised to the full
length of his long arm, and with bis fingers
quivering toward heaven, said witha voice
which went through me like an electric
shock: MY dear woman, il John is right,
in Gods name let him fight, by God 7 The
poor woman went back to her room to
weep. We followed into the breakfast
room, where he ate his toast and drank his
tea in silence, and then returned TO his
study 10 read. Whatever his feeling as q
father might be, they were not shown in
lns, countenance or appearance. i have
seen Forrest, Macready and Booth. but
they are tame TO the voice, gesture and eve
ofClay on that occasion. HH -.."
In the fall of 1913 Longworth of Cincin.
natl sent TO Mr.. Clay demijohn of native
wine. Mr.. Longworth had imported the
| grape seed from wine makers in italy, and
prided himself on having n splendid thing.
1t was five gallon demijohn, the stopper
was covered with wax, and stamped with
the letter H. There were six of us boys
in the family, averaging some sixteen or
seventeen years old. We used to study in
| the evening III our room, and would bor-
row the cellar key of Mrs. Clay and bring
pitcher of cider and hat full of apples
to help us along in our lessons. One night
it was proposed we should taste of the Gin
cinnati wine. We found a corkscrew, and
carried up n piteherful. 1t was capital,
| and before many days we found the demi-
john empty. We knew Clay was liable to
want it at any time, aud it must be filled.
| On the following night we took servant
who toted the big bottle on his head to a
store-room two or two and a-half miles
away, kept by a negro, where he had it
filled with VIII sky at fifteen cents gallon;
which, with quarter we gave the boy for
helping us along, cost us dollar. We had
hard work getting this demiohn back to
the house-it was not shaped right for easy
carrying-but at length it was safe in the
| cellar. We had previously made some wax
| about the color of that which was on the
stopper, and had carved letter az" out
OF q piece of bark. The bottle was duly
sealed, stamped and deposited in its proper
place. In 1874 the prospects were that Mr..
Clay might be President and he thought
so himself. lie gave grand dinner,
among his guests being John j. Crittenden
and Tom Corwin. Every one was in the
best of spirits, and after the ladies retired
the mcrrimentwas even higher than before.
We remained, never being excluded from
his arrat dinners. AS the party were about
rising, Clay said Gentlemen, have some
oil tue iinest wine in the world, and the first
native American ever manufactured and
there can be no more fitting opportunity
for testing its merits than the present
John, do you know whereabouts in the eel
lar that bottle of wine is, which was sent
Inc from Cincinnati p Yes, sir replied
the servant. DO you think, John, YOU can
bring that demjohn, under your arm, and
not shake it up?' Yes SIR well go.'
In few minutes John camc lack with
that big t!ve-galon demijohu under his
arm. Now, John, set it down and take
out the cork The cork came out pretty
easy-it had been out before. Now, John,
take tina. dem;john in under your arm
again, and tilt out little in ali the glasses,
John again took the demijohn under his
arm aid went around filing all the glasses.
while we looked on in wOcfu silence. Now
gentlemen continued Clay, we will drink
this standing, to the health of my friend
! Longworth of CINCINNATI lie raised the
glass to his lips, stopped and gave look
about the table. We six were lust going
out of the door in single file, just as fast
as our legs could carry us. We heard the
word Boys y in the lion-voice of Clay, but
| inc remainder OF the sentence was drowned
in the shouts of laughter from his guests.
| Formerly very large, well-known, and
somewhat noted billy goat roamed at large
in the streets of Washington, and the news
paper boys, boot blacks, and street imps
generally made common cause against him.
Clay never liked 10 see dumb animals
abused or worried. and on one occasion
while passing down the avenue large
crowd of these mischievous urchns were
at their usual sport Mr.. Clay with his
walking'stic drove them away, giving
them sound lec' IRE in the meanwhile.
AS tney scampered and scattered in every
direction, Billy seeing no one but Mr.. Clay
within reach, made a charge on him. Clay
dropped his cane and caught his goatship
by the horns. The goat would rear up,
being nearly ne high as the tall Kentuckian
himself, and the latter would pull him down
again. This sort of sport became tiresome,
and he could conceive of no way by which
he could free himseffrom the two-horned
dilemma so in his desperation he sang out
to the boys to know what TO do. One of
the smallest in the crowd shouted back /;
Let go and run you id fool = Clay al
ways maintained that though he signed the
treaty of peace at Ghent, yet that ragged
boy knew more than he did.
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