National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1875-03-08
BILLINGS BULL.
Mysterious Disappearance and Reappearance.
rFrou the Nav York Tribune

Mysterious UlsappeaIhnoe anu hedpPeAEdnCe'
From the New York TrIbune.l
sauntered leisurely into town on Thursday,
with the air of a gentleman whose resources
place him beyond the reach of disturbing cares
and the manner of a man who is entirely un-
conscious of being looked for-the missing
witness, the Hon. VIM. s. King, member of
Congress from Minnesota, and late Postmaster
of the House of Representatives, Washington,
D. c. Dropped down quite incidentally from
Canada, where he has been engaged for q
month or two buying stock for his celebrated
stock farm in Minnesota. There have been
rumors concerning King. he has been for
several weeks in a very large and pervasive
way in the public mouth. Except that he was
in Canada buying stock and watching the
thermometer, he would have been also very
largely in the public eye. But he shrank from
it. 'shrank from the public gaze as few states
men ever did before him. He resisted the
earnest solicitations of deputy sergeant-at-
arms to appear before the Committee ofWays
and Means; and to the urgent invitation of
the Minnesota Legislature begging him to ap-
pear and explain, or do something, or resign,
he sent only his undying regrets, accompanied
by the philosophic remark that If they would
attend to their business he would take care of
bis, or words to that effect. It was the remark
of the Minnesota Legislature upon the receipt
of the letter-not embodied in resolution or
recorded in the journal of either House, but
communicated by the members to each other
in private conversations-tkat "Bill King is
cool cuss." The truth of the observation was
conceded yesterday by the general public,
when the adjournment of the Forty-third Con-
gress and the arrival ofthe Hon. VIM. s. King
were announced simultaneously.
It was a coincidence that, some fifteen or
twenty minutes before 1t began to appear to
the Committee of Ways and Means that Mr..
King might possibly have information some
where inside of him on the subject of Pacific
Mail disbursements, Mr.. King himself should
be startled by the intelligence that there was
q very uncommon bull for sale in the interior
of Canada. Mr.. King is very curious about
bulls. He owns several thousand dollars
worth of them on his farm in Minnesota. The
Way he started for this Canada bull might have
conveyed to the casual observer the rroneous
impression that he was getting away from the
committee. Not 50. He was going after the
bull. He said nothing about where he was
going, of course. Why should he! His whole
mind was on the bull. And so afterWard,
when the Committee Of Ways and Means
wanted him and sent men to look for him, he
was negotiating for the bull. He went care
fully round the animal several times, took up
each foot of him, and negotiated for him by
those easy and subtle approaches by which the
tin-peddler and the tavern-keeper come to-
gether on "horse swap" To the summons
of the deputy, who came upon him abruptly
in the barn-yard, he responded in the absent
minded way of "Boots" making love to the
eook-"coming, sir,"-and without thinking
more about it kept going round the bull. To
the Minnesota Legislature Assembly of i'm
patient statesmen, who can't wait for q fellow
TO buy bull or get out the truth of history
King turned with a hasty request that they
should 90 lowell, King is a good hearted
man and q generous man-being in Canada
with the Thermometer several hundred degrees
below zero, he hadn't it in his heart to ask
them to go to any place colder than that, and
so-he didn't.
But we have every reason 10 believe that, in
spite of all Interruptions by Legislatures,
committees and deputy sergeant-at-arms, he
calmly and undeviatingly pursued his negtia-
lions for the purchase of that bull until, his
work accomplished and his task complete, he
could lead the bull firmly and confidently
across the line, and, with one hand on his
heart and the other on the bull, say to the
American people, "MeRs eoTlSeiG recti." The
bull s'is mine. Three cheers for the flag"
He has not returned in time to answer the
summons of the committee, to be sure. That
was an accident. But being here in New York,
through which most of the members of the
committee will be likely TO pass on their way
to their respective homes, 1t will comparatively
easy for him to take them one by one, and
crafty the curiosity of each separately as to
what he did with what remained of the $685.
900 after the purchase the bull. And he
can tell them, too, all about the bull. After
that he can have photograph Of himself and
the bull as they appeared crossing the line In
serted in the Agricultural Reports, with an
essay by the Commissioner of Agriculture on
he ndao Nd Of KfOur
the Adjournment Of Congress, and the Pedi-
gree of the Bull