The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-01-02

could spring across the room in a mo-
mani from where he stood

could spring across the room in a mo-
ment from where he stood.
In manner, he is two men sometimes
grave, slow and thoughtful sometimes
fiery and vivacious; and the changes
are well-tfmed for he relates his feats
with French vivacity, but makes his
reflections in slow, thoughtful way
that is Scotch al over. 1t is just pos
sible that s'raoe" may have q hand in
his vivacious half 4; for he admits a
French progenitor, and "Lambert" is a
French name.
have not known him long enough to
draw his whole character but to what
is revealed in his recorded acts I can
add one trait: He is a man without
bile. I offer one example; after de-
scribing with great spirit how he saved
a respectable acquaintance, he told me
that the said individual had afterward
avoided him and then he stopped and
ner to his Scotch.
And-I hae-obsaived, sir, that the
mair part-of them / haze saved-shuns
me.
Straight 1 exploded with ire at their
baseness. But could not convey my
spleen into this heroic bosom void of
bile.
"No, SIR" said he, with the same
measured thoughtfulness, "I just
think-it is over great-a debt-to awe
to ony man and they feel it a burden. !"
Almost any other man finding, in a
certain base biped, vanity too strong for
gratitude, would have vented the dis
covery in tones either of wrath or of
piteous complaint but this man sound
ed like patient, inquiring philosopher;
certainly faint tinge of regtet pierced
through, but no more than became a
philosopher, gently disappointed in
mankind. To me who have seen so
much storming and blub' ering over
trif1es, this thoughtful, accomplishing
dignity was as pothetic as it was noble.
If the man seems egotistical, his dis
course being all about himself, you
must remember that I kept drawing
him out, and that the true balance of
the dialogue is not represented, since I
have suppressed the greater part of my
questions as not worth printing.
] ought also to tell y0u that this man
ner OF relating his exploits had no touch
of vanity, nor Boosting, nor self-gratula-
ton. 1t was thing both strange and
fine to see how he was carried away out
of the present into those glowing scenes,
relighted by the sun of memory. As
he related, the whole man quivered with
excitement. When he was telling me
how he Owed for the little boy, oppo-
site 't the dead house." took his hand,
and-under cover of sympathy, being a
prying scoundrel-I furtively felt his
pulse. It was beating about one hun
dred and ten to the minute his heart
wss once doing the deed, and his poor,
blind f. &c shofae with angelic goodness,
and cleaned with heroic fire.
JAMES WEAKNESS.
This hero and martyr has a foible, not
an uncommon one in Glasgow but still
a sad fault. He is too fond of whisky
much.
Bookmakers' morality will say !:
"Why reveal the inhrmitv of such a
man" I'll tell you; because in less
than 200 years the first stone of honesty
in biography will have to be laid : so,
not to waste the worlds time, lay it
now.
Since, in this best of all possible
worlds, much is done for moderately
good killers of man, you may be Curl
GUS to know what man has done for
this Incompatible saver of men.
He has earned the gold medal of the
Humane society twice, and the silver
about twelve times.
He has never received either.
He better deserves every order and
decoration the state or sovereign can
bestow, than does any gentleman or no.
bleman in the land, whose bosom is a
constellation. Yet not cross or a rib
bon has assembled from the vulgar lev
els, where they grow like buttercups, to
the breast of this immortal hero. And
why? He is but saver of men, not q
killer he is but a Christian hero and,
in the distribution of glory, the world,
including the preachers of the gospel,
is sank heather as ever in spite o
Christ, and a fool in spite of Voltaire.
The one public honor paid to him is
this ): A suspension bridge has never
been built over the Clyde where he
saved more than twenty lives that one
dark night; and over this bridge two
men pass gratis till they die-Bailey
Harvey and Hero Lambert. The rest of
mankind pay half-penny.
So much for his decorations. Then
for his pensions. He has but one; and
that is local, not imperial, though the
places the man adorns are the empire
and the world. The Barony parish,
Glasgow, allows him three and six
pence a week. But he was earning
twenty-five to thirty whe he fell blind.
So that his local allowance, for benefits
to mankind, does not compensate him
for his calamity, by fve-sixths; and his
heroic and philanthropic feasts are left
out of the arithmetic altogether.
1 propose then, to those who govern
this country, to depart from the stiff
rnrooodonfr IF couonaa opI foHn vyidor
and more enlightened views of hero
ism, beginning with James Lambert,
since they cannot begin better. They
have the example of France; she be-
slows civic honors on the heroes who
save, as well as on the heroes who kill.
propose to the Humane Society to
bestow their gold medal. Anything
less would be no compliment to this
great saver.
As for the English public that needs
no spur. When this narrative appears
in an influential journal, hundreds will
desire to improve James Lambert's con-
dition. The best way to do that would
be to secure him a fixed and large in
crease of income for the few years he
has to live. It is out of my way, but
in this one case would receive and ac-
knowledge donations with this object,
and SO, feel sure, would you, sir
But 1 also wish to procure him the
blessed boon of personal sympathy.
I will not encourage raid of staring
ounces, pragmatical charlatans, and
gaping quidnuncs, for that would do
him harm, not good. But I will give
his present address to any ladies and
gentlemen who may be willing and able
to go to him in the right spirit. Any
such superior soul who will visit him in
person nth gentle hand draw him
awhile Aom the things present, which he
cannot see, to the pAst, which he can
see, will mount high on what an old
author calls "the ladder of charity"
for this will be charity in a very re-
fined and gracious form it will be
charity plus brains. None will repent
such visit though his estate is hum
BILE, he is one Of natures gentlemen /;
fit company for an emperor ; and he is
sight better worth seeing than half the
public shows /; for he is a man without