Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1880-05-05
NO. a.

| Ollftf oh0 eh'
Wandering Jew. Shakespeare sat OF
throne where he must have been ex
ceedingly uncomfortable, for Melpoment
reached out of cloud and perpetually
threw torrents" of flowers down upor
his head; Pygmalion amused himself
chiseling figures on the panels below
The chair; and the Psalmist crowned
him with laurel The poet meanwhile
| talked a lot of dreadful rubbish about
the fossil fauna late exhumed,
Or imprint Of the palm or fern upon
The enduring rock:
after which there was applause by the
bands, and Paganini played tune or
the fiddle. There was dramatic per-
formance, the tragedy of Maximiliar
in Mexico being represented by "Kear
Macready and the elder Booth, and
many celebrated actors from all ages
and all climes;" and consisted of 'Eu.
ropias Kings. an expression which
reduces to certainty the strong pre-
sumption created by the general drift
| of the poem that Downey is the kind
of man to pronounce European" with
the accent on the o.
Music was not neglected, for Han.
| de's Messiah" was sung by ten thou.
sand angels, and at the back of the con.
cert stage was waving translucent,
liquids shining veil of something OF
other, through which trenchant sera.
phims unrippling passed, careening
in the light, which was very distract
ing and improper. Elsewhere Downey
and Phantasmagoria saw sapient
trains, horrifc apparitions, assassins,
liberty trees, snakes, 'diamond-studded
canopies, liquid walls inlaid with sculp-
lures, seraphs, plates of polished dia-
mond, the belching of thund'rous bat
ties of the gods, spectral shades, An
anias and Sapphira, Evangeline, and
the murky reflex of conceptions grand.
There was, moreover, Great Stone
| Face, beaming benevolence, at the
sight of which all grew still. We do
not quite make out whether Downey
alludes to General Grant or the Car
diff Giant. But probably the most re-
markable of the curiosities exhibited
bv Phantasmagoria on this memorable
excursion was mechanical marvel de-
scribed by Downey in the following
| lines:
| massive chain hung from the loftiest point,
Suspended an immense chronomete--
Time keeper of eternity Twas called
| The Watch of Ages! On its dial plate.
| Tn oh nf ligbt nehanpaahia
| read the seconds, minutes hours, months,
years
| And centuries, which far adown the dim
And shadowy vista OF the past have rolled
The hollow spiral chain. link after link,
| Showed Rome Greece. Carthage and Assyra
| My utmost stretch OF vision Eden reached;
| What lay beyond cloudy veil obscured.
! It's mighty hands remarked the flight Of time;
| It's pendulum with ceaseless motion swung,
etc, etc. The capitals and italics are
Downey's. The idea of afiixing pend
ulum to watch is also his. When
finally DER all the scene mighty cur
tain fell. A curtain measureless in
breadth and height, trailing the shores
of immortality ahtwart the boundless
universe of space, Downey must have
felt that he had enjoyed a first-class
show and he parted from his COM
panion with many civil observations,
of which we can only cite the closing
words:
| Fhantasmagoria, farewell leave
Thee now to nurse thy offspring in the beams
| That never fade and warmth that never chlls
| Amen.
General Garfield has moved that the
Committee on Rules be instructed to
report whether Downey's verses ought
not to be expunged from The Record.
Really it seems to us that General
Garfield is meddling with the privi-
leges Of fellow member. What rea-
son can be given for striking out this
magnificent argument? Any member
of Congress has constitutional right
to address the House or the Senate in
verse if he please, prose and verse be-
ing entirely equal before the law. Or
is it to be stricken out because it has
been fraudulently Incorporated with
the proceedings, being an essay that
was never delivered and on a subject
not under discussion? That is de-
| feet which it shares with thousand
other arguments published at the
cost Of the Government and distribu-
ted free through the mails During
this session obout 400 pages of The
Record have been filed with fictitious
speeches, every one of which is fraud
upon the people. When the House
grants "leave to print" it authorizes a
member to falsify the official report ol
the debates, and to insert in The Rec.
ord any sort of irrelevant nonsense he
sees fit; and to express displeasure at
the use which the Wyoming gentle
man has made of the permission is
! simply ridiculous We dare say Dow
news argument on the Mural Decora-
ton bill is not bit more irrelevant or
silly or dishonest than scores of unde.
livered speeches that precede it in the
pages of our National False Intelli'
gencer; and we trust that he will be
given leave to print an epic poem every
week until Congress is shamed into
abolshing the scandulous abuse which
has Just been so conspicuously illus
trated.
THE VEsUvIUs RAILwAY.-Tour'
lists are now able to visit the crater o
Vesuvius without the labor of climb
ing, the railway being complete. The
depot is situated Mt a height of SO me-
ters, or 210 meters above the Observa
tory. A restaurant and cafe capable o.
accommodating 100 people is ATTACHED
to the depot The angle of inclination
of this railroad attans at various points
400, 500 and $50. There are two pas
senrer cars the Xesnyius and Etna