Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1873-12-20
A sCENEI IN TIE HOUSE.

The Washington correspondent of
the Brooklyn Argus writes:
Chief of them was Alexander Ii. Ste
phens. Gen. p. NJ. B. Young and Gei.
Waddell, of North Carolins, SUPPORTED
the brilliant, intense, magnificent tacti-
clan of other days to his feet. He took
their arms and dispensed with the sig
niticant crutches that had been stacked
in front of his desk. He stood right at
the beginning OF the middle aisle of the
House BY felicitously dramatic ace
dent or happy design, all the rest Of the
many ex-Contederates ranged in n semi
circle on either side of their former
Vice President. Then the modified
oath was taken by them with uplticd
hands, and assented to with an unani-
nous and quietly elegant bow. There
were many magnificent looking men in
the company doubt that any one oh.
served them the pale, suffering, distin-
guished little man in the middle was the
cynosure of all eyes He was dressed
in exquisite black, as if in mourning for
his country. In sitting, he had wore
his hat to protect him from the draught
In standing, he dispensed with 1t, and
disclosed an abnormaliy large head,
pierced with intensely black and deep
ewes and covered with short disorder
ed growth of iron-gray hair. When he
responded 10 his name the strong soul
in him was manifest, for his clear, sharp,
penetrating voice, the echo Of that soul,
was heard distinctly all over the house.
The ETHEREAL part OF the man isas strong
as ever. The physical is wreck. IL
was historical scene. lie who Tor nj
teen wears before the war had been the
leader par excellence of the House re-
turned TO subscribe to the oath admin
istered by speaker who was never
heard of when Stephens left Congress,
or three years thereafter In all tho
House were but two men who had been
his congressional contcmporaries-"Sun-
set" Cox, then of Ohio, and John Is.
Clarke. then and now of Missouri, who
had three months of notorieiy fifteen
years ago by flinging John Sherman
endorsement Of Hinton Rowan Helpers
"Impendng Crisis" at John Shrrmans
head. and thereby defeating him for
Speaker, though Henry Winter Davis
single vote elected William II. Pen
nington, a Jersey Republican, TO that
office. We could Stephens say he stood
dying the solitary survivor of many
great dead. Gone was Thad. Stevens,
the incarnation of hate gone was ).
II. Giddings, the Abolitionist, whom
Stephens himself loved; gone was tho
courtly Ex-Governor Briggs, Of New
York, and the mcouth Mike Walsh ;
gone was the fiery Keith, and gone tn"
fearful and wonderful John Covodc
gone the eloquent Lovejoy and the mel
low Mallory gone IIcrschell V. John
son gone Bocock, and fulee, and Ed
mondson, and Clngman, aud the i'm
petuous Brooks, and Potter, and Rector,
and Phelps, and Rollins, and Winter
Davis, and thousand, once statesmen
of either party, and there was the man
on whom twenty years ago Death had
apparently set his seal, survivor of them
all, and representative of the greatest
district of the Empire State ofthe South.
Background this contrast with the fear
full four years Of intersectional throat
cutting, and the dramatic facts Of the
occasion stand out, grim with graves
and lighted by intense cerebral fire.