The Portland daily press., 1872-12-04


feetionate, recognizing look: and we deplore
our neglect to seek him out and pour our free
sympathy into his craving, responsive breast,
after that sad scene was over The earnest
wisttul looks he then fixed upon us will never
be effaced till our dying day. y
he returned from that fatiguing tour in the
west, In which his faculties shone out in a
81, ssurPrnisng blaze OF eliminating splendor, to
i hnu MS poor wife in the last stages of her
iong decline; and with a devotion like that
Wnlcn ne ielt in the days OF their early,
youtniul love, before time and disease had
inPaireu her beauty, or domestic trials had
enaced tne Dioom of their first affection, he
was constantly at her bedside, with the fidel-
ity of ministering angel, passing anxious
days and sleep.ess nights, which. Under less
exigent circumstances, would have been due
to repose after his recent exhaustless labors.
The strain upon his physical endurance, and
the more tremendous strain upon his quick,
emotional susceptibilities, was too much for
him. The bow was not merely bent, but
brokeD.. The strength of Constitution
never weakened by any other excesses than
overwork, gave way; the chances of life
which belonged to him by hereditary longev-
ity (both his father and grandfather lived to
be upward of 80) were squandered; and the
vessel so rudely tossed in these recent tenn
pests was thrown upon the beach an utter
wreck. 1t is the saddesl ending of a vigor-
ously useful life that we have ever known
From the New York Sun.
MR.. DANA's ESTIMATE OF HIS OLD CHIEF.
The editorial chair was his throne, and his
greatest mistake was in ever descending from
1t to mingle in the strife tor Office. But he
was intensely ambitious, avaricious of the
applause of his fellow men, not content to
stand without a successful competitor in his
chosen profession, and therefore sought-how
yainlv W. knOW-tnr puhlic nOsitinnS which
if attained, would certainly have diminished
his happiness without increasing his fame.
Though ever thorough, and often very
bitter partisan, he maintained a sort of stur-
dy independence, which, through the col
umns OF his journal, was wont to break out
at unexpected moments and under circum-
stances very annoying to his party and dam
aging to himself. He never could pull true
and straight in the party traces, was too
original in his conceptions and too bold in
| his utterances for the common run of par
tisans, and therefore was unsuccessful as
leader, whether of an entire organ
ization or of an insurgent faction.
In his mental and moral characteristics Mr..
Greeley was puzzling compound of contra
rieties, which defes close analysis. With a
| heart attuned to the tenderest accents of hu-
manity, and ever bountiful in good offices
| and good gifts to the deserving and the un-
| deserving, in the heat of political and per-
sonal controversy he would curse like drab,
! and become as ferocious as baited bear.
! On these occasions his judgments, generally
| stern and pronounced in terms needlessly Sc
I we're, were ofttimes cruelty unjust. A keen
| observer of men, and capable of penetrating
| to the marrow of their characters with the
| point of his controversial pen, and of hitting
| off their peculiarities and tollies with the
felicitous dash of Hogarth or a Leech, he
was through life the dupe of seedy beggars
and slippery adventur.rs, who first robbed
him of his money, then betrayed his conf
dence, and perhaps wound up by lampooning
| his person and making tun of his credulity.
| 1t may be questioned whether such qualities
and such course raised up against him more
| malignant enemies than they drew around
| him attached friends. But it was the good
fortune of Horace Greeley to be leniently
judged and tenderly treated by all classes, not
excepting even those whom he has most
abused. Such was the general summing up
and final verdict in pretty nearly all the heat
ed contests in which Mr. Greeley was en-
, gagged; and upon an impartial view of the
whole case, the record does him honor.
THE TESTIMONY OF HIS OLD LAWYER AND
FORMER EDITORIAL ASSOCIATE.
From a recent speech by w. e. Robinson at Broskyn
Over thirty years ago, while in Yale col
lege, it wa. my good fortune to become ac-
quainted with Horace Greeley. 1t was be-
| fore the Tribune was started, and while he
was editing the Nev Yorker and Log Cabin.
Soon afteI the Tribune was established, be-
came its Washington correspondent and as
i sistant editor for more than ten years. After
\ ceasing to be his correspondent and assist
ant, was for nearly ten years his lawyer.
l saw much of him, and ought to know him
well. Some things can be said OF Horace
Greeley which no libeler ever dare ques-
ton. He is natural democratic re-
publican Of the best type. Burns was
not truer democrat nor was Jefferson a
purer Republican. venture to say that no
man could detect change in his counte-
nance whether duke asked him for infor-
nation or an outcast solicited aims. With
him, above all men ever knew, rank and
wealth are nothing. Manhood is the gold
aud the true nobility. He is the ablest writer
and chief journalist among the giant intel
lects of our day. His life is one of singular
purity and simplicity. He never forgets his
friends. His word once given, and you can
stake your life on its performance; and his
monogram written on his face and in his
heart by the Almighty, and inscribed by him
self on every step of his career from the dawr
of early childhood to the noon of honoret
manhood. is honesty. His charity is un
bounded. / can convey no idea of this trai
of his character. Hour after hour and daily,
have seen the destitute and heart-brOken o
both sexes, the unfortunate outcasts ant
. wanderers from all climes and all classes IN
wade the ever open door of his charity; and
never have / seen any one sent empty away
while he had shilling or could borrow one
l often looked on with amazement, knowing
his anNpathy to whiskey and tobacco, as
have seen some poor creature whom he had
known in earlier days staggering to his desk
, and asking for relief, which was not denied
t even under the certainty that it would be left
in the first bar-room. have seen his hat
full of protested notes ON which he had lent
money; and when, as his lawyer, have re-
| monstrated with him for taking such paper
, he usually replied that any one would lend
on good paper. 1t was those that could moi
borrow elsewhere, and on paper negotiable
nowhere, that complimented him with theil
business. He is a singular, pure and modes
, man. In thirty years of pretty intimate &C
, quaintance l never heard him use a worC
that would bring the slightest futter of Grim
son to the purest check that womanhood eve
unveiled to society. do not believe he evei
a told, or could be induced to listen to vulgal
story. And this almost superhuman purity
OF character is perhaps what has made hin
: such favorite among talented and refined
. women. For, although woman was tn,
| cause of our losing Eden, she brought witt
her more than man did of its purity; and it
loss would have been intoerable If Adar
1 had failed to bring her with him.
|