The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1877-04-14


illustrate this tendency Mr. James
Gordon Bennett, the champion American
poloist, gymnast, journalist, yachtist
and sensationalist, by common consent.
had made an asinine exhibition of HIM
self, by enacting the farce Of blood
less duel on the classic precincts of
Caroline county. Had he appreciated
the debt he alike owed to himself and
society, he would have hired some re-
spectacle assassin to have put a genuine
bullet through his respectable body and
charged his estate with the expense of
a irst-class Fifth Avenue funeral
That method of sudden disappearance
however would have been painful 1t
had the merit of being sensational, it is
true, But only passingly so. For the
pleasure of the performance, however
great to others, could not be shared by
himself. Too timid to risk the impene-
trable mysteries that overshadow the
fate of genuine suicidist, he draped
his person in a mantle of earthly mys-
terv by sudden exodus about the SOL
emn hour that church yards yawn and
FOLLY breathes forth contagion to this
American world of ours During the
nine-day period, society was agog with
the inquiry, repeated AID NAusEAM, as
to the whereabouts of the social self
resurrectionist. Paris, the refuge Of
fools, received him at last, and ended
suspense never experienced, had he
slain himself in earnest.
Another metropolitan genius, envied
in secret Benefits happy going out "
He, too, longed and fervently prayed
for the final repose of his soles on some
welcome foreign shore To him the
cup of worldly ambition had long since
overilown its brim. Politics delighted
him not, for he had drained that draught
to its corrupt dregs and had seen the
living, breathing form of Tweed, his
evil Tammanv genius. reckoning him
to his Nemesis The unhappy triher
found no pleasure in the Examinations of
the wit that once set the table in n
roar" Even an Irish parade, on St.
Patrick's day, in bottlc-green coat
amused him not, and the dazzle of the
stage, with its mimic mirth. but Knocked
his melancholy His sweet bells (beles)
tangled and ont Of tune, grated harshIv
on his sensitive ear. Oakev was not
o X. Quite the reverse He resolves
on flight, of course. 1t was both conf
cal and tragical. The former predomi-
nant. He wisely selects the very CEN
ter of the niverse-BostOn as a
starting point With superabundant
caution, he leaves his gum shoes on his
mat, and his post prandal tooth-pick
on well-thumbed volume of his favor
tie author Brocacio. indicating the pro-
liability of his speedy return. Like his
eminent political godfather, the once
virtuous but now much-persecuted
Tweed, he chuckled in his sleeve, as he
anticipated reading his own obituaries
from his secure transatlantic retreat.
But this JOY was destined not to be his
The gushing female, meath whose left
organ of hearing, in pendant beauty,
lay that historic wart, cherished the
eX-mayor in her suburban boudoir,
defiant of the press The ubiqui-
tous, the irrepressibe, the inevitable
reporter nosed the (late) lion to his Liv-
erpool lair, and dragged him into life
and recognition. Like Benefits duel,
what promised a tragedy ended farce,
and like the stage hero. who, having
died to slow music, in solemn strains of
melting melody, picks himself up and
walks off the stage with an ill-sup-
pressed grin, responsive to the lold
outlaws of the audience so late in tears
(tiers). May all such meet similar
fate