Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1873-12-11
Helena, Montana, Thursday, December II, 1873.


| A~An AAyeE 0nO horace Greeley.
There is an anecdote of the Chicago Con
vention and the part Tom Hyer played in il
that is worth crystalizing in print. The strug.
gle between.the Seward, the Bates, and the
! Lincoln factions, was intense and bitter. The
Chicago Democrat, Long John Wcntworth's
Paper, then bristling all over with fierce Sax.
on, was putting in its hardest hitting for the
rall-splltter OF the Sangamon, and, as mat.
ter OF course, no. salient point in the lines
OF his adversarles' was permitted to escape
assault. After Greeley, on behalf of Bates,
had made combination with the Lincoln
men, it was determined to attack the Seward
men in the front and flank--or to use an ex-
preston more in keeping with the tenor OF
this instruction, 1t was arranged to throw
sand in the eyes OF the referee, and before he
| could recover, to knock Seward out of time
by blow below the belt. So the morning
after the coalition was effected, }he Chi
cagO democrat came out with scOrchin Q
denunciation of the tactics of the Seward
people, and the main objective point of the
assault was Tom Hyers presence as Sew
ard delegate. The famous pugilist awoke to
find himself a famous politician. The trench
ant pen of Greeley had been busy all night
making him the cynosure of surrounding
eyes. He was paraded as the leader of the
Seward forces, the originator of the Seward
strategy, and the hitter of the Seward blows.
In short, this intellectual giant had made
political Titan of the physical Hercules, and
he had then, after investing him with all
manper of horrible attributes, made him the
representative of Sewardism. So, then, there
is no telling to what extent the presence of
that prize-fghter at that Convention operated
to mould the destinies of this nation, mas
much as his "heavy weight" which had al
ready broken the back of the Yankee Sulli-
van in the prize-ring, proved the last straw
that fractured the spinal column of Seward
as Presidential aspirant.
When Tom saw the papers that morning
he laughed heartily enough at what he, in his
"great big good-natured way thought a
good joke. But the intellects of the Seward
party saw in what Tom thought a good joke
the token of their disaster. But they deter
mined to have their fun out of it, anyhow.
So they took Tom over to the Briggs House,
after breakfast to introduce him to Mr.. Gree
ley. When the party reached the Briggs, Mr..
Greeley was very busy but as a " delegation
of Seward men" was announced, the phi
losopher, fondly imagining that they had
come to pitch up truce, or to make a bar
gain that would obviate contest and allay
bitterness, went out to meet them with his
guileless face one solid smile, and both hands
extended. A gentleman from Chenango
county, N Y, whs was one of the party and
who knew Mr.. Greeley very we'll, grasped
the proffered hand of the great agriculturist,
and forthwith dragged him into the centre of
the group with, "Mr. Hyer, let me introduce
you to Horace Greeley: Mr.. Greeley, Tom
Hyer." Before the astonished journalist
could even bow his acknowledgements, his
own puny hand was in the grasp of the paw
that had done service in conquering Norris
sey, and the prize-fghting Seward delegate
inquired with an asperity which he had been
carefully instructed to assume: ''Mr. Gree
ley, did you write that abusive article in the
Chicago Democrat, this morning? l have
been told that you did,"
"Ye-yes, no; well, yes, l suppose l
wrote one of them,' said Greeley, still taken
aback and confused. But suddenly recover
ing his wonted equanimity, the mild old
man blurted out: "Suppose did; what the
devil are you going to do about il? You are
all pack of id ruffians, and won't have
any communication with you. Get out of
my apartments instantly, or l will call the
po-"
Here the great editors shrill voice vas
drowned in roar of laughter as the nature
of the joke dawned on the bystanders, and
the Seward party, with Tom Hyer towering
up in their midst, broke for the bar-room to
brace up against the defeat that stared them
in the face.-St Louis Republican.