Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-01-17
GLOOMY WITS.
Men Who Were Amusing 10 Others,
but Melancholy 90 Themselves.

] unhappy doctor, said bilious stranger
to celebrated physician. Can you
give me a cure for melancholy" Yes, .
was the reply; go and see the inimita-
bic clown, Gr1maldi" ALAS, doctor, y
was the rejoiner, Il am Grimaldi." Dc
you know that Joseph Jefferson suffers
unspeakably from dyspepsia, and that,
pleasant as he is ON the stage, he is
compelled to observe the utmost care of
his health? John BrOughman, wit
himself, and the cause of wit in others,
suffers terribly with the goat. The
grandfather of Joseph Jefferson, after
whom he was called, was very much af-
fiicted by rheumatism. And Rufus
Choate was doubtless in poor health
when he answered an enemy of Gen.
Harrison, who objected to the lat
ter because ne had been a
man-slayer: We'll, SIR, l prefer him
to duelist like Henry Clay He
died before his time, in his fifty-ninth
year, and seemed to anticipate his des-
tiny, as he turned to his books in his
great library, and said: These are the
friends that have so far saved me from
the fire of insanity and the ice of par
alysis. }" George w. Barton, of Phila-
delphia, ike Choate, in his sombre
moods, spared nobody. Yet how de-
hghtful he could be when he pleased!
A memorable passage none Of his great
speeches was spoken when he was in
high health. AS l recall the case,
only recollect that its main feature was
the death of a young woman with her
1 81 rlnb I, al 6
love lightly given and basely betrayed;
and when the orator repeated this mag
nlticent stanza from cantO ". of By
ron's Don Juan, it was photographed
in my memory like picture never to
be etfaced:
| She died, but not alone; she held within
| 4 second principle of life which might
| Have dawn'd a fair and sinleSs child OF sin;
But closed its little being without light.
| And went down to the grave unborn, wherein
| Blossom and bOugh lie witherd withOne blight;
| In vain the dews of heaven descend above
| The bleeding flower and blasted fruit of love.
Mr.. Lincoln, the most skillful story
teller of his time-and the quickest at
repartee, had his many hours of gloom.
Judge Douglas said to me in 1858,
when he heard that Lincoln was to be
his opponent for United States Senator
in Illinois, and long before the world
had heard much of the tall, quaint,
gaunt statesman, Il shall have my
hands full. He is the strong man of
his party-full of wit, facts, dates, and
the best stump-speaker, with his droll
ways and dry jokes, in the West. He
is as honest as he Is shrewd, and if /
beat him my victory Will be hardly
won" Everybody recalls that brilliant
mental duel. Douglas had never met
his match before. He had traversed
Illinois when it was almost a wilder
ness, twenty-one years previous 1880,
when he was Just twenty-five
years old, the legal age the
day before the election, and was
beaten by J. T. Stewart, the Wing
candidate, by only five votes in a poll
of $4,000. Never was such a contest
known in the North. While at Chica-
90, last September, l heard a gentle
man say that when Douglas came in
from that canvass he was the most for
lorn object he ever saw. His horse was
worn out, his clothes, his boots and his
hat. He had to use ropes for his bri-
die, and his saddle-bags looked a. if
was very light and agile, a sparkling
boy, vital, keen, impulsive, and conf
dent. They dubbed together and fitted
him out in a new suit and sent him on
his way rejoicing. In 1910 he travelled
seven months, and addressed two hun
dred and seven meetings III favor of
Martin Van Buren,, who carried the
State, though Harrison was elected
President. In lS43 he was elected to
Congress, and stayed in the House till
lS47, when he was chosen a Senator IN
Congress. and remained there without
a rival till he died. in 1861. His great
strugglewas with LincOlnin 1858, whom
he defeated after an unexanlpled cam
paign. But, as | said, Mr.. Lincoln had
his periods of depression. Many are
recalled by those who knew him better
than myself. His outburst of uncOn-
trollable emotion at the defeat of the
Union army in the Wilderness is often
spoken of. My God my Cod" he
exclaimed; twenty thOusandpOor souls
sent to their final account in one day.
I cannot bear it | cannot bear it :"
One evening l found him in such
mood He was CHASTITY pale, the dark
rings were round his governed eyes,
his hair was brushed back from his
temples, and he was reading Shakes
peare as l came in. Let me read you
this, from..Macbeth, he said. Il can
not read it ike Forrest" who was then
acting in Washington, but it comes
70 me tonight like a consultations"
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and Tomorrow,
treepson its petty pace from day to day,
70 the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
LIES but a walking shadow: poor player,
That struts and frcts his hour upon the stage,
And then Is heard no mOre II i a tale
by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
| Signifying nothing.
Thaddeus Stevens was another illus
tratiOn, not so much On account of i'll
health, as Of conscious physical disa-
bility; and doubtless many of his
severest things sprang from the latter
cause. He met certain politician of
easy virtue, who had betrayed him in
an important emergency, and transfix-
ing him with his eagle eye, he whis-
pered: You must be a bastard, for l
knew your father to be a gentleman
| and an honest man ~
| GlJlSICh, lAAt SiCdO A1ONth Sdl DAiAAd
lawyer, and a stern UniOnist, another
atrabilious person, was among Il set of
friends in Charleston, early in 1861,
when Secession politician broke into
the room, eKclaiming: GOOD news
Florida has gone out! What" said
Pettigrew, in affected amazement, has
that miserable abortion died? l am
glad of it." A Philadelphia gentleman
of standing, who was present at the
time, relates this story.
The bitter things of Theodore Ed
ward Hook were often the result of his
own irritability and i'll health, one of
which may be directly traced TO this
cause. Nobody ever doubted my
piety," was the remark to MIN of a
talkative Pharisee. Il suppose not"
was the retort, ''for nobody, who ever
heard you, would doubt your magpie-
ty." With this dazzling wit, his auda-
cious practical jokes, his astounding
improvisations, his faculty of punning,
and the facility with which he turned
out fafccs and vaudeEiiies, lac hecame
the welcome guest in every circle. APP
pointed to Office at a salary of $50, 900 a
wear. he was defaulter for 500, 600. but