The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-09-29
er human being that is civilized enough tt

/ other human being that is civilized enough to
| wear o hat. ---...
A man in the plainest black, very broad
shouldered, strong built man, melted away in
the crowd of carriages of the line, and for
| the first time in my life.had seen president
| of my country. Dogs, horses, whiskv-bottles-
| all that picture was demolished. l even looked
| in vain for the cigar as he drove back by US,
after half an hour, for it was not. Yet after
ward noticed, not to enter into detail about
| trihes, that the cigar is the rule when driving
| The sandy beard is bit gray, hair thick and
| black, the face full and the very picture OF
| health and composure, ard the man may safe
| ~ count on quarter of a century or rest up
| on earth after his retirement.
| How we met, how l came to be so honored as
| to sit with the great captain and talk with him,
| under his roof of lands and scenes we were
| equally familiar with in Oregon, and all that,
| would be very interesting indeed. But here L
| shall draw the line. The mans cottage is his
castle, and it shall not he invaded All the
| pleasant little things that passed under the
| Presidents roof are sacred. But the satisfac.
| ton felt on finding this man one of the SIM
| plest and sincerest, the purest and the best
| of men l cheerfully share with you who have
pride and patriotism to glory in our country s
renown and the honor and the good name of
her great men.
Do not make mistake here. 1 have no ia.
vors to ask whatever. L opposed the election
of General Grant as President and shall oppose
him again, if there be occasion. because ours is
not military government Since we are
peaceful, pastoral country, caring nothing about
arms or armies. save III an emergency, DO
not believe in always having military man at
| our head, But 90 glory in my country, her
| great achievements and her great men, and
| this man now at the head is certainly one of
the very greatest that bave been given her.
| If any man should go through great park,
throwing stones and mud at the most beauti-
| full and the best pieces of marble and doing all
| in his power TO deface them and make them
| look vleln the eyes of all men, what would be
thought of him? And yet that man is very in
nocent compared to the writer who defames a
living man whom the country has set in high
place. Marbles can be replaced; but great men
come seldom upon earth. Besides that, they
are human and can suffer.
take, perhaps, a sort of savage, certainly a
perfect satisfaction in saying to the Old World,
and saying also to that under hemisphere, that
this man now at the head of our common state
seems to me, so far as L could see, to be one of
the most noble and perfect men in the world.
1t was my fortune during the past five years
to meet with, IN one way and another, about
| all the heads of the great powers of the Old
World, and am free to say that saw nothing
there more courtly and decorous, and at the
same time simple and manly, than the bearing
and behavior of the President of the United
States, who, i am informed, has still for the
first time to visit Grants race-track." Mine
| was not hurried visit at all, but extended ov-
er some time at Long Branch, and, if this
mans everyday life is any key to his charac-
ter, the country had ought to count itself very
proud, indeed of this figure for its great gal
lery. l am perfectly aware, however, that I
know nothing at all about the political life of
the great captain, and it is possible he is even
as great failure as an administrator as was
the Duke of Wellington. 1 can only say to my
people of the Great West, who have rot an OPP
porIunity to see the man as he is or his life and
surroundings, that they must journey far be.
fore they find SIMPLER a more gentle and re-
fined little household than that which our
President rules over in the cottage at Long
Branch. In his domestic administration he is
certainly a success, and kinder father is not
to be found. take the responsibility of pro
phesying that this will be the verdict of Time
upon his administration of the affairs of the
common state also. Gansay it who will
In conclusion, must say that some weeks of
idling about the Branch, where the President
was to be seen almost daily, some little inter-
course with him, some conversation on knotty
subjects, which it seems to me Congress only
succeeds in tying up tighter every time it
touches them, some close observation in that
gentle aud happy household, and all that, as
sures me that this man is not only very great
man, as the world has long since said, but also
very good man, indeed.-N. Y. INDEPENDENT