The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1878-02-02
4ersOnal Sketches.
Alexander H. Stephens.


A little to the left of the main aisle of
the House, and just between the first row
of desks and the clerk, is little, withered
up, nervous old man. Mounted upon a
complicated pedestal built of wheels, plat
forms, and q back, he bobs his head or
mods it in accord or discord with the gen
tleman speaking. Rarely is his voice
heard. Whoever passes stops to shake
hands with him and speak few words to
him. Not that they ali have anything
special to say, but the green members
think it looks well from the galleries to be
seen in conversation with the Hon. Alex
ander FL. Stephens, of Georgia. The old
man is pitifully thin. His face is livid
and cadaverous. His head is sunken be-
tween his shoulders His chest is de-
pressed, and his arms and lower limbs are
fearfully aud wonderfully thin. But weak
and emaciated as he looks, his muscles are
always in operation, and he jogs backward
and forward in his wheeled-chair or taps
the floor nervously with one foot continu-
ally. Generally he wears his soft, black
felt hat and his many infirmities seem to
excuse this apparent breach of Congress
sional etiquette, and in fact most every
thing he does is referred to the eccen-
tricities of man broken down in health
and rapidly-approaching dissolution. Yet
this man, weak as he looks, and worn as
he is, manifests u miraculous vitality.
He is seldom absent from his post, is
always on the alert, watchful, in contrast
with certain coxcombs in both branches
who deem it derogatory to their dignity to
pay any attention to the proceedings, and
who affect profound indifference to all
that goes on around them. Stephens, on
the contrary, listens as attentively to the
bill to pay John Smith, of Smithsyille,
S10.75, as to a measure regulating the cur
rency of the country. He appears to
think that he was sent to Congress to
know what is going on, even if he does
not participate, and it is painful to watch
the rapt attention the little, shriveled up
old man pays to the proceedings.
In conversation he is grave and severe.
He looks upon every question presented to
him as his natural enemy and prepares
nlmSeH Tor It's uem0llti0n.
Courteous to all men, he regards their
opinions as excrescences and he the sur
geon appointed of God to remove them.
The quickest way to break up his judg-
ment on n measure is to agree with him,
for his instinct is one of resistance and
resentment. He will not agree with any
body, nor will he allow any one to agree
with him, and whenever he finds that one
of his hobbies is popular he will discover
technicalities in the arguments supporting
his theory which show that those argu-
ments belong on diametrically opposite
side of the question. 1t is only when he
comes down to Ben Hill that he relaxes.
Talking of Hill is his only recreation.
Mounting Hill he goes off on a sort of
horse back ride, kicking the mud and dust
in all directions. Not that he doesn't
like him, or that he fails to appreciate
Hills ability, but Hill, as a prophet, he
looks upon with hilarious contempt
| cautiously repeated to him Hills state
ment that there would be no healing of
the breach between the president and Ros-
coe Conkling.
"Hump Hill says so does he? Well,
don't know whether there viii be or not,
but if Ben Hill says there won't am in
clined to think there viii be. Thirty days,
twenty days, yes ten days before the war
closed, he said the South was in more
prosperous condition, and better able to
carry on the war, than it had been since
it started. There's forecast for you
Why every one knew We were whipped
then. Gov. Brown of Georgia, and Hill
used to quarrel good deal, think Brown
summed him up very well. "Mr. Hill is
a right smart man, said he, "but he amt
got any judgement" Thus far this fight
reminds me OF two fellows down in Western
Georgia. One of them was known to be
utterly without nerve, while the other was
understood to be game. The game man
challenged the other, who accepted and
coolly went to work to make the prepara-
tions. His friends wondered at his COOL
ness, and when he went to the ground
he was more composed than ever. The
ground was marked out and the men
placed, when the game man demanded a
parley. Finally the affair was patched up,
and as they were all leaving the ground,
some one asked the challenged party how
he could be so cool under such trying
circumstances. "Hush, my dear fellow"
said he, don't say anything abcat ii" II
had the deadwood on him, all the while.
If he didn't gin in, would, and l reck-
on that's the way it is in this fight"