Western sentinel. [volume] (Winston [i.e. Winston-Salem], N.C.) 1856-1886, 1879-08-28
A SIalNVart God"

A tufted moth, with silky hair
deftly brushed, and symmetrical
legs neatly kept, is singeG, then
burned by propinquity.to the thing
he loves, which is an eager flame.
Roscoe Conkllng is that grent
moth. Conkling, the "StaIwart"
(great heavens, what q misnomer
for such Il creature y; ConklinR,
the champion of human rights !"
Conkling, the statesman - Conk-
ling, the worshipped bully of the
Stalwart horde; Conkling, the
Adonis, emerges from the atmos-
phere of Providence like a poor.
sneaking, whipped dog, bearing
upon his beetling brow the brand
which an angry husband alone can
put there.
CoIkling's gallantries, it seems,
have been coevai with his lite at
| Washington. His persistent at
tentions to Mrs. Sprague while at
tending to her business affairs
and the denouement at Providence,
present him to the world as a most
contemplate, lgnoble character.
To cover his own mishap, he lies
to the public by rushing eff dis
patch through the Associated
Press to the country, to the effect
that Sprague's difficulty was with
the German Lincke, exclusively,
and that be (Conkling) figured IN
the affair as u "friend OF the fam
ily.' The meanness OF this act is
inexpressible, but is characteristic
of the selfish man wha performed
it. 1t places Mr.. Conkliug in the
most despicable attitude.
A career like that Of Conkling
usually ends in bIoodshed. Mar
ried men WHO firt with all the
pretty women they come across
must calculate upon awakening
jealousy and estrangement Mt
home. Married men whose firta-
tions run into criminality and %
brazen abandonment to passion
must expect their caYcasses to be
pierced with bullets by the men
whom they Indirectly iniure. Conk-
ling's wife and daughter kept away
} from Washington to avoid the con-
sciousness of the Eear presence of
his manifold unfaithfulness. His
mfatu alton with Mrs. Sprague has
been the talk of " ashington for
some years. A superbIy beautiful
woman, she possesses that femi-
nine vanity which delights in the
adulation of handsome and distin-
guished men. Few women there
are who are impe,vious to the in
cense of perslstt ut devotion, espec-
ially if they are aot happily maj
ricd. They overlook the reflections
which the eager tongue of slander
may utter upcn the apparent situ-
alton. All their little encourage
noted down in the book of the
scandal mongers. The lady is in
peril. but she does not see it. The
man is in peril, but he does not
care. The moth hovers loviDgly ly
over the palpitating flame and
bathes his face il it. Woe be to
the man who troubles another's
Lest wLo leads the public mind
even to suspect it has been defled.
Roscoe Conkling may parade his
pure patriotism, which every body
knows is sham; he may inveigh
against those he is pleased to call
The "barbarians of the South be
may below about "human rights"
and 'justice," but he, himself,
stands before the world as a robber
of domestic happiness ; a sneaking
bird OF prey, who plays off his fine
! figure Il polished libertine and
he appears finally, fowl with
feathers bedla2gIed in the mire a
fugitive with pale, cowardly face,
stealing out of town, trembling
before the justifable rage of an
Indignant husband. Conk!ing is
cowardly brute cowardly in poll
tics; cowardly on the stump ; cow
ardly ou tho floor of the Senate,
Behold your god, Stalwarts, with
blaEched face, trembling lips, quiv-
ering legs, sneaking like a whipped
dog by night out of Providence,
with shotgun pointed at his
sleek carcass
/ NJ T,,l,E