The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-06-30
A MIXED FIGURE.

A MIXED FIGURE.
Some time ego We chanced to read few
lines taken from the Times of St Louis
which have caused us deal of uneasiness
The words quoted were these:
Grant is dead duck 3 Grant has made ~
ass Of himself. The people of this county,
by their vote yesterday, condemned the Pr;;s-
emit Administration and its course IN
lana, South Carolina and MimissiHg
For the sake Of the Office opSs te'o ~ " 2
like Tyler, Van Buren,, Pierce anu ~ aos'n'
We do not liks to hear ffeslaen' OF TINS
widespread country spoken OF IN sucn ols.
respectful terms; pat after . few minutes OF
| painful reverv 70 recovered from the shock.
Yet the paragraph has caused us much trou-
BILE in quite another way.
Rad it over again slowly. "Grant is a
Add duck" The meaning, SO far, is clear.
Tho broken broker is Salled "lame duck, !"
and TO be 'ae"dead duck is to be broken
beyond possibility Of 'recovery-a bird on
which Mr.. Butler would not waste spoonful
of ammunition. We can easily imagine the
picture - the webbed feet up, the '.lsck-
lustre " eyes half closed, the rumpled wings
extended and the neck outstretched. But
read the npxt sentence: "Grant has made an
ass of himself. Now, if We could forget the
/" duck for an instant We shoulds have no
trouble at all in painting the familiar quad.
ruped to our imagination. We can see in our
"minds' eye that patient and useful animal
nipping the sweet and fragrant thistle by the
roadside, or cooling his homely nostrils in
the brook. But the sentence makes Grant
transform himself into this living beast out
Of the dead duck, or else vice versa. We
want somebody to tell Us which way it is
which comes first in his opinion, or in the
opinion Of the writer of the quoted lines, or
as it would be construed by the political
scholar and rhetorician. Be pleased to note
that we do not believe the allegation at all,
nor think the use Of either figure strictly
necessary. That is not the point We have
the two figures, the duck and the ass,
confused somehow-blended together as it
were making what is known in rhetoric as
q mixed figure; in this instance very much
mixed. We were taught to test the propriety
Of figures Of speech by imagining them to be
expressed in painting or sculpture.
e We have applied this test to this compound
animal simile, and are sorry we did SO; be-
cause, ever since, our Imagination by day and
our dreams by night have been haunted by
quadrupedal and pathological phenomenon
Our fancy's labor has been incessant, day and
night, to reconcile the features, limbs and
organs Of the bird and beast SO as to preserve
unity and at the same time omit nothing
essential to either. The results have been
manifold combinations of bills and mouths,
hoofs and web feet, wings and forelegs. ears
and tufts, hair and feathers. Grant himself
South as we have toiled to combine this beast
fowl, this jack-bird or duck.ass. The labor
has become hopeless agony.
We are afraid of the results. Shall retire
tonight to dream of the phenomenon, the
double natured product Of the pen Of the
ready writer in the st. Louis Times. We shall
probably tonight in our dreams be pursued
by q monster with the head of an ass covered
with feathers, the webbed hinder feet of
gigantic duck, enormous hairy wings, and
tail bright with expanded plumage. galloping,
and flying after us through forests,
clouds and .swamps, until we find shelter in
some enormous nest among colt eggs as big
IS barrels Alittle friend, promising artist
If six summers, shows us on the wall with
charcoal how the two-fold animal must be
made, and his mother stops the cheerful sound
It her sewing machine to give some new solu-
ion Of this family difficulty.
But we are still unreconciled, still in doubt, |
till struggling with our besetting and unde-
ined monster. When Hercules tussled with |
he hydra he Knew just what he was doing.
md st. George tackled dragon that did |
lot change from bird to beast and from beast |
o bird every minute.
Can anybody solve our difficulties and en-
bile us in some way to expel from our tired
ancy this unwelcome apparition of duck hair |
nd jackass feathers ?
THE CITY FINANCES.
There was an extraordinary resolution
fsred in the Council yesterday by Mr..
'ilsbury, Administrator of Finance, the sub
lance Of which is that the city refuse here
fter to pay the interest on her bonds. In
Their words, the idea is to 60 on collecting