The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1876-03-18
THE HOUSE.
lis Party Leaders Randall, Cor, Bfai,
and Garfield.

| and Garfield.
A Washington correspondent writes
/ wonder if the men who are to-day
prominent will ever loom SO grandly
through the vista of history as those
who are gone? The cnchantment of dis
lance is strangely effective, but it is diff
cult to believe that we shall ever accord
to our political leaders of to-day the
honers we so willingly have given to
Webster, Clay, and Calhoun. Take the
gentlemen now conspicuous in the house,
Randall, Cox, Blaine, and Garfield.
Randall is willy, adroit, and sudden in
all his movements. His speeches are
| rarely calm statements: they are passion
ate harrangues, for his temperament is
by far too excitable to admit the cool
arguing of any topic that interests him.
His nasal tones ring through the cham
Der, his face grows white, his thin lips
compress themselves firmly after every
sentence, and those wonderfully lumin-
Gus eyes grow darker and darker while
they CLEAN with intensity of emotion
Don't you know it is from the blacklist
cloud that the most vivid lightning
leaps?
Cox, too, can never speak without in
tense excitement, but he manifcsts it in
a different way. His fine head is so
poised upon a slender neck that his
mods are almost as conclusive as those of
Olympian JOve. He cannot possibly
stand still, but rising with his own en-
thusiasm he backs up the ascending
aisles all the while he speaks, coming
suddenly down at intervals to inspect
documents, reaching the desired data at
a glance and then backing again. Mr..
Cox is never at loss for an expression
should the ordinary resources of Ian
guage fail he instantly coins some word
which astonishes with its fitness, while
his wide knowledge of both ancient and
modern literature, his practical expert
ence of travel, and his ability to seize
the absurd points in any opponents
statement render him a formidable an
tagonist. Very likely in a stand-up
fight he would be utterly foored, but he
hops round bigger adversary, goading
him with little stabs that bring blood
every time, till, worried out, he yields.
Blaine is the acknowledged champion
of the minority; and doesn't he magnify
his office? Let one of his rank and file
dare to think independently and the
wrath of their chieftain is quickly felt.
His speech on the financial question the
other day was received with the greatest
Difference. Frederick Fraley, of Phila-
delphia, president of the national board
of trade, declared that Mr.. Blaine had
presented the cream of the financial
situation unembarrassed by statistics"
But this eccular sentiment is so queer an
example of mixed metaphor that one is
tempted to wonder whether Mr.. Fraley's
ideas were not equally uncertain. Gun
embarrassed cream!' Think of it,
granger! Yet Mr.. Blaine will live in
history if no greater distinction should
come to him than that already his and
those heavy-lidded eyes have trick of
eyes that look keener. He is making
the most of every inch he gains, winning
his way where fighting would not be adj
visable, yet quite ready to try weapons
with any one.
Garfield Doesn't enjoy being in the
majority one bit, but I can't help ac-
knowledging how admirably he is trim
ming his sails to meet the heavy tenn
| pests he cannot avoid. He is a fine ora
tor, but he rarely succeeds in stirring
the hearts of the people so strongly that
they will care to rank him among the
great men of the century, and he never
will be rid of the incongruity in which
his various pursuits have clothed him.
Priest, soldier, and politician! An odd
combination.