Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1875-02-10
WASHINGTON GOSSIP.
WAsHrNGToN Feb. !. 1875

WASHINGTON Feb. !, 1876.
DEAR COURIER NO such speech
has been heard on the floor of the Sem
ate in modern times as that delivered
the other day by Rosco Conkling. The
dispatches have already told your
readers how the galleries and floor
were crowded to sufTocstion during
the two days of Its delivery, with an
cnraptured audience. He has the
front OF Jovc; voice like the music OF
many waters the form of Adonis aud
tho perfection of action, language and
delivery which all make up the great
orator. have heard Beecher, Doug
lass, Lincoln, Nyc, Ingersoll, Dean,
Loyejoy, Simpson, and Cough, and all
of them rolled up and knocked togeth-
er couldn't have made such speech,
1t was the irresistible tornado of clo-
qucnce aud logic, and your little pig
mics like Thurman had about as much
power TO effectually assail him, as q
cats tail would in battering down
Gibraltcr. After he got through the
entire subject was exhausted aud there
was absolutely nothing left, of law,
fact or argument to be said.
1t is true that Senator Gordon, of
Georgia, who attempted to get in there
in 1864 at the head of his rebel divi-
sion, and failed, but who now occupies
scat on tho floor of the Senate by the
grace of Republican leniency and rebel
votes, essayed to answer him, but the
performance was as ludlcrous aud abb
surd as pyrotcchnic display of fire
crackers on the field of Waterloo after
the battle was over. 1t was the pep
pering of a pop gun, to the laundering
diapason OF the sixty-four FOUNDERS.
have heard old stagers here say that
Daniel Webster in his palmiest days.
and Henry Clay with his silvery
tongued oratory, were neither OF them
the equal of COnkling in force and
logic and not more than his peer in
eloquence. 1t he was not the most
faultlessly dressed man In America,
and the most perfect gentleman that
our politics has produced he would be
President one of these days. His
speech should be published in all Of
our papers. "There Is millions in it."
A weakened faced codger who seems
10 be prematurely old takes his daily
rations at table opposite me. Hc is
about five feet seven, has silver gray
hair parted in the middle, with hir-
suite appendage of decidedly foreign
air. He is moreover faultless in his
attire and withal has the appearance
of a we'll preserved but somewhat ut
tenuatcd dandy. His name is John
Charles Fremont, and when consider
that only eighteen years ago this sub
scriber was cavorting around and tear
ing his small clothes to make this anti
quated fop President of tho United
States, i feel like inviting some fellow
with q number ten pair Of brogans to
give me what the Frenchman calls
athe grand bounce" He has been
epigramatizcd as the Statesman who
never made speech the soldier who
never fought battle, and the million
aire without dollar. A woman sits
at his side with about double his aver
dupois. She has magnificent shock
of chestnut sorrel hair of her own pro-
duction, which crowns a masculine
and intellectual head. The most of
her conversation is carried on with the
man at her side in French, although
she takes her hash in several different
Languages. can readily enough COM
prehend the fact that this is the gray
horse in the team, but how any fellow
could have ever ran the risk and pains
and penalties of an elopement to be-
come her sole proprietor, surpasses
human credulity. Yet this is the he
roine of many romances. Jessie Ben
ton Fremont. l should think that
when the impetuous young Lieutenant
of Engineers stole her away from old
Bullion, down a long ladder and
through back yard full of bull dogs
and Thomas cats, that good looking
girls were not so plenty in Washing
She succeeds Beecher on Bonner's
livery stable Ledger and she is now
writing what she, as girl and woman,
recollects about American celebrities
with whom she has jostled. l have
read but one of the articles and that
was about John Randolph, of Roam
oke. The only information derived
from Its pernsal, not heretofore known
by the public are the important facts
Il true-that the eccentric Ni.sinisSs
dAxAdieA t,S~ <ssa aaAs AAeoe Woe0 Ou0
was TOO young to know any better
that he wore red flannel nndershirts,
and mixed honey with his nightly
libations of whisky.
The wayfaring man though fool,
need not be mistaken about the logic |
of the recent Senatorial elections. In
Missouri, b. Gratz Brown and Carl
Schurz helped to organize the Liberal
party which after all was only the left |
wing of tho Lost Cause. They sowed |
to the wind and have reaped the
As soon as their treach- !
cry broke the Republican party to |
pieces, the fellows wearing old grey |
and butternut clothes rushed in with |
he rebel yell, and elected Francis
Marion Cockerell Senator, in place of
he elegant and classic. but neverthe-
ees loyal Schurz in fact he was too |
oval for the party into whose nostrils |
he breRthed tho breath of life.
Cockerell's sole claim was the fact |
that he led his division most calamity |
IN trying to put the bonny blue flag in |
place of the stars and4tripes. That |
man who supposes that this juvenile |
rooster (see Webster's Dictionary for
definition of CockerelD of Warrens-
burg, Missouri, would ever have come |
% the United States Senate from Mis-
souri, If he hadn't been for four long |
years using super-human power to |
lestroy this same Senate and our Re- |
publican form OF government, must be
IN uninspired sort of an idiot.
There is method In all this mad
ness. The fellows who failed at |
Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Atlanta and
are now coming into |
power by the .fnesse of party legerde-
main and the ballot. Tho story OF |
Missouri has been repeated in all the |
other States carried by the aid of Lib
sral diversions. Fenton the sore-head-