Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1874-02-14
GADABOUT-S COLUMN.
Written for the Erenia9 S.Gr.l

Wrote down in history as gudgeons,
Before our city was begun,
Wen write these later chaps, whose bIudgeons
Meier got our tOwnsmen on the run.
For they would shave the Goddess Freedom
If they could climb up to her height,
And levy on Bill Tweed to lead 'em,
In Patriot literature and light,
And dwell in mud holes deep a. EdOm,
Yet think themselves refinement quite.
They knew no North no South, no nothing,
But twelve per cent. and hearts OF gals,
Yet sometimes hoped amidst their frothing,
The outer foe would storm the walls,
And hail the signs of their betrOthng,-
An auction flag ana three gilt balls.
Still do they with consistent spirit
To Congress go and lie a space,
And there eDtreat, like men of merit,
or Jews that seek the Wailing Place,
And beg the nation that 1t ferret,
At Its expense, their taxes case.
Grow, good green mold, DER such usurious
PuryeyoTs in the straits of men!
Forget, ye winds! their lives penurous.
And close the record, - my pen!
Lest some historian, quaint and curious,
should make the future blush again.
BOOK LIFE OF CHASE.
A controversy between the biographer of
Chief Justice Chase and his daughter, Mrs
Sprague, with various vo lunteers abetting one
side and the other, has grown out of the for
mer's monopoly of certain m aterials which the
Chief Justice put in his hands. Mr.. Wmtelaw
Reid, as II in the interest of large sale for
this book, recently attacked the biographer,
Mr.. r. b. Warden, with ferocity certainly not
10 the credit of his judicial character i pre-
sumo IT Is not Yet an offence against morals to
write the story OF great mans life, particu-
larry when the subject took especial pains to
convey his copious diaries and private letters to
the author, who performed much of the book on
Mr.. Chase's premises and in his presence.
There are three reasons why this biography
should be assaulted. Mr.. Warden Is not what
Is called society man, like Mrs. Sprague and
some others who seem to grudge the loss of that
control which they held to some extent over the
great man while living, and would continue
over his memory. Again, Mr.. Warden has no
general fame as an author, and properly there
ls some doubt of his skill to make such life
interesting; though why he should be magned
Is leIt In ny steTy, Tor he Is singuarly reCluSe,
silent and self-absOrbed gentleman. Finally.
the Chief Justice was three times married and
the two daughters who survive him had differ
emf mothers, and Il is limited that amongst these
Is some apprehension Of the liberty with which
NIT warden may speak of domestic things. The
following extract from the biography makes
allusiOn TO the matrimonial matter above:
. 1 nus we see how the almost tragic death OF
the first woman who became the wife of Salmon
Portland Chase affected that strong man. Yet
no God alone saw that completely; God alone
can see il fully, now.
The mOurner was to love again. The oh
ject of that second love was 20 prove fully
worthy OF 1t, and, when she, too, passed away
he was to mourn her far from lightly. But he
"
TO mourn the death OF a wel-belOyed wife.
True, there is but one first love, but one first
WIFE When the second marriage took place
there was perfectly angelic little child vet
llvlng-daughter of the first wife, whose name
she bore. The second mother OF this lovely.
emiBentiy spiritual child was perfectly devoted
to it-as dc voted as a second mother can be,
" When the second wife, in turn, departed.
she, too, left a daughter-nOt the little chlld
just mentOned-that had apparently illustrated
the lines OF Montgomery, which quote from
memory:
50 In some rude spot where vulgar herbage
If Glance a violet rear its purple head.
The careful gardiner moves it, ere it blows,
10 thrive ana flourish in nObler bed.
Such was thy tate, dear child thy opening
Prominence in early bloom was shown
For earth too good, perhaps, and loved to-
much,
Heav'n saw and early marked thee for it,
THAT daughter of the second marriage.
named either after the child 30 early taken, Cr
after the mother OF that child, Is now living
one Of the most beautiful, accomplished, ano
distinguished women OF her day. Perhaps, tn.
third wife was to her devoted as was the second
wife to the second daughter; but Of that have
Mrs. Hoyt, the sole survivor of the third
marriage. have never met since she was quite
child. She writes delightful letters and shs
ia, have no doubt, as accomplished and as
well endowed with genius as her reputation
indicates; but, for Ger ain reasons, do not feel
free as could wish to write OF either Mrs. Hoyt
This work has had singular history. That
history, however, II does not propose to tell in
full. Elsewhere, its author, though no longer
young, and, therefore, not concerned as young
men are about
"'The bubble reputation
may, with more or less minuteness, tell so much
OF that strange story as a due regard for certain
very sacred interests ma seem TO order"
JUDGE WARDEN.
Mr.. Warden is now so years OF age. When he
was 20 years old he was elected by MT. Chase's
help president judge of the 9th judicial circuit
OF Ohio, sitting at Cincinnati, and after a brief
professOrship in the Cincinnati law school, was
elected by the county of Cincinnati one of the
three judges Of the court OF common pleas. He
edited the Cincinnati daily Citizen nearly one
year, and during that time had a spat with
Mnrat Haistead, which appears TO have been
kept up. DE next took the Office of reporter of
the supreme court, which Edwin Nj. Stanton
once filled, and In December, 1854, attained the
high rank Of judge OF the supreme court.
MIR. Chase welcomed him into the republican
party in 1857, and he published law book in
1850, which the North American Review
pronounced the work of ga clear thinker, an
independent reasoner, and a vigorous writer"
December /, 1872, be agreed to write the life
OF the Chief Justice, who was well aware OF his
tendency to literature, and Mr.. Chase died with
the fuli faith and expectation that he would
Judge Warden was a native of Bardstown,
Kentucky, brother OF Wallace Warden, ESQ.,,
ard uncle OF Clifford Warden, one of the editors
of the Boston Pest. This book has been COM
posed in the room on 10th street where Abra-
ham Lincoln breathed his last; the author
having unaware taken chambers in that well.
known Peterson house.
THE COURT HOUSE TOWN.
l am back in the courthouse village;
The houses remain as before:
One or two old roofs my have persisted,
But the neighbors have b1ilded no more;
The river creeps under the drawbridge
The wharves are little more rotten
The streets are as grassy and sandy,
And the college more lone and forgotten.
1t Is sad that the faces are stranger
When the place so familiar appears
came with my heart eIpcctant,
IL Is only twenty years,
But the big boys stare at me queerly,
And the little boys fistter nv tailor,
While the old men look suspicious
From the constable down to the jailer.
Only the inn keeper greets me
Like the long expected one,
And n axes me believe q little
In Il e tale Of the prodigal son;
The fattet calf he aau0bfprS