The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1873-12-25
ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS.

The st. Louis Republicans Washington cor
respondent, A. H. Buel, formerly connected
with the Kansas City Times, sends his paper
the suhjoined picture of Alex. II. Stevens:
s.The face is immobile; the skin cings to it
like lifeless parchment the lips part but sell
dom. and then there is ghastllness in their
smile that almost chills your blood: the hands
are limp and bloodless, cold, wax-lke and al
most cammy IN your grasp. But cut OF this
physical decay, through the dark, quenchless
eyes, there shines the splendor of an intellect
that has survived all bodily infirmlty Debility
and paralysis have made of Mr.. Stephens body
simply an articulating skeleton. But despite
the feebleness of its tenement. the brain that
throhs and is busy beneath that silvery hair, is
all the brain of yore, when II was wont To stay
the tides of gathering revolution and make
states and peoples halt for second thought IN
the all-invelving madness of secession II any
body wants an argument tn prove the immor-
tally OF the soul. let him look az Ale xander III.
Stevens as he sits paid and motionless in his
seat ike ona who has died suddenly ii his
chair. and then let him call out the intellect
that teens within the apparition, IN conversa-
iion upon topics that command deep learning
and subtle thought. You viii say az ouce that
though the body may decay and die. the miad
:
that it cannot die.
Was there eva< a romance in politics Ike this
mans history Was there ever such bring
lug together of unassumable situations such I
grouping of incongruous experiences. such
medley of antago1lsric positions as bis career
affords Breassing the popular current a.
waTs: conservative when others were rash;
radical when others were conservative; stand
lug alone aud uttering the calm voice OF one
couuselliug peace ia the vortex OF the early
wars maddest surges; then preaching war so
long there was i man or ulusket lett. hen
the crashing arguments Of the cannon and the
bavonet-charu- had demonstrated through
bloody volumes and shot riddled pages of battle
logic that there must be peace: then when re-
construction came with ifs devogring herds OF
carpe.-bagg-rs compared 10 whom sherman
inc-ndiary bumEers were the noblest beneiac-
tors the south ever had, the old man fed 10 his
closet and io when he emerged his hair was
white. his body aecayed and il transplred that
while he had been diving be had wrough. bis
own monument and written his own elegy-
his history Of the war This was the close of
one epoch Of Mr. stephens life. Logically this
epoch was no: quite Completed. To hare been
complete there should have been few shoF-
rlsl q of earth. the bowed heads OF bis peeopIe
and some dalsi~s growing on little hlllocA to
typifv the sweet and eternal peace that had
come after the turmoil IF his life But unlike
other men, Mr. Stephens refused To die when
his time came and sn be had 10 begin anew
again Thus the edItorskip OF the Atlanta San
and this seat in the torty-third congress. And
this is The second epoch Of his lire The COL
league ot Tomhs and ianc~y and the Rhetts
uox si.s with the coffee aud chocolate-colored
pls sson from South Carolina and Florida. The
companion of Webster. Benton and Seward.
must now listen to the heching Of Butler and
contemplate the strut of Coukhng. Where he
once heard the accents of Stevens, be must
now have filtered into bis ears the dismal drIvel
Of n MAYNARD And so on. To conclude.
exhor. nv friends the rural roosters. tn cut
out the foregoing and paste it in their hats for
reference By andby they caH use II for ooli-
uary purposes.