The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-05-10
BOB TOOMBS OF GEORGIA.
[Atlanta correspondence New York Sun

| Atlanta correspondence New York Sun.
Sitting in tie Rotunda of the Kimball
House, the other day, idly watching the
men who loitered in and out, my attention
was directed to portly gentleman, rather
plainly dressed, who came in and seated
himself on one Of the settees with which the
place is provided. He had the appearance
of a well-tO-dO farmer, and seemed as if he
might one time have been popular justice
of the peace. His face was smooth and
ruddy, and his whole appearance was rather
jOcund. In fern he was inclined to the
ponderOsity of which DR.. johnson speaks,
and his massive head was almost lost in a
great shaggy crop of hair Settling him.
self comfortably, he tished a newspaper
from the depths of his coat pocket, and be-
gan to read.
Presently an acquaintance came along and
accosted him with How are you, General p"
and then another and another, until, in the
course of half ali hour, quite crowd had
gathered around him. He transferred his
newspaper to his pocket again, and then for
an hour he talked to those around him al
most without ceasing l said to myself
" This man is surely related to Bob Aston,
of the Atlanta Herald, for it is not possible
that Providence has endowed two families
with such a sublime gift of CAB" So l APP
preached gentleman upon the outskirts of
the crowd and said:
Kind sir, will you inf, rm me who that
old gentleman is %
The stranger glanced at me from head to
foot, as if taking my measure for a mint
julep, but he answered never word. With
smile at once suggestive of surprise and
sadness, he simply turned to mar on his
right, and, in a low, mortified tone, said:
"John, here's Teller that don't know Bob
TOombs."
Goodgoddlemityw says John.
And so this was TOOmbs the aforetime
leader of the United States Senate, and later
the front of the secession movement. l
could not for the life of me reconcile my i'm
preston of Robert Toombs with the gar
rulcus old man sitting there flingng his
pithy phrases into the pleased ears Of the
thOughtless men who clustered around him.
If he ever possessed the haughtiness with
which he has been credited it is gone. If
imperiOusness sat in state upon his brow, it
has vanished.
With all his apparent bodily vigor, l
thought l could detect certain unfailing
signs of feebleness; and looking at him a
little more closely, perhaps, than his little
audience, it seemed to me that he had grown
prematurcly old. With wonderful glibness
of tongue and vivacity of manner, there is,
nevertheless, certain indescribable air of
nervous WEAKNESS about his conversation
and his actions. If do not express myself
very clearly it IS because the impressions he
made upon me defy analysis.
At one time in our history no name was
more prominent in American politics than
that Of Robert Toombs. In the decade pre-
ceding the civil war he lowered pre-eminent
as the leader of the extreme Southern ele-
ment in the United States Congress. With
an intellect almost exceptionally brilliant,
and of great personOl popularity, he led the
Senate captive to his imperiOus will and
bis speeches in those days relieved the Con-
gressional Globe of a large portion of that
preternatural dizziness witch seems to brood
over publications of that class. These
speeches are unique in their way. Buried
as they are in the dust Of political libraries.
one cannot read them even now without
wishing that the career of the author had
been something different. Here and there
surrounded by antithesis, epigrammatic
sharpness, and queer specimens of phrase
building, one lights upon those marvellous
flights of eloquence, fiery, impassioned and
classical, for which Robert Toombs was
famous.
His queer metaphors and phrases and his
really brilliant otf-hand sayings are still
quoted around here, and there are some
people in the South who will go to their
graves labeled with some of Toomb's sar-
castle inspirations. That was pithy re-
mark of his when, standing in the door of
the Confederate Senate Chamber, with his
military cloak on his arm, he turned upon
the assembled wisdom and said:
''You may make Generals, but God Al
mighty makes patriots"
But the old days are no more. When
Georgia seeded from the Union. Tocmbs
resigned his seat in the United States Senate
and went into the Confederate army, where
he rose to the rank of Brigadier-General.
OF his record there little need be said be-
yond the fact that ne was untitled by train
ing, education and taste for the duties of
soldier.
At the close of that struggle he went to
Europe under the impression that price
was put upon his head. and to this day he
calls himself an outaw-a man without
For some time after his return
from Europe he applied himself assiduously
to his legal pratice and his farming inter
ests, so that now he has quite comfortable