The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-02-18
Providence Journal.]
An Unfavorable Sphere.

1t is one of the established axioms in the
history of mankind, that many great men are
lost without q proper sphere. In the lam
guage of the late Mr. Thomas Gray, many a
mute, inglorious Milton rests in the country
churchyard, his muteness probably resulting
from the trifiing disqualification of not know
ing how to read and write and many Crom-
wells htve been guiltless of their countrys
blood because the English people do net have
a revolution every generation. On one occa-
sion Napoleon amused an audience by specu-
lations on what would have been his career il
if he had remained in Corsica, and it is posi-
Bile that Mr.. Barnum has thought of what
would have been lost if he had been born in
the Feejee islands where cannibals are no Gu
riosity, and where even the tattooed Greek
nobleman would have attracted no more inter-
est than gentleman with particularly nobby
suit of clothes in this country. Sometimes
the environments of sphere are so complete
that they cannot be broken, as for instance
Feejee Barnum could never, in all probability,
transfer himself to this country except as a
compass the intellectual and moral faculties
requisite for managing a Great Moral Show
On the other hand. release is sometimes so
easy that an individual may become a compar-
atively great man by merely moving across
ward line, and more than one distinguished
Common Council man in municipal history
has rescued himself from obscurty by this en-
terprise. AL this Instructive apologize OF
course has reference to a particular case with
in the purview of the hebdomadal critic of the
newspaper, and is called forth bv the para
graph that the Hon. Eben F. Pillsbury, .f
Maine,is aboutto take up his residence in an
Mr. Piilsbury, II is needless to say, is a
striking example of great deprived Of
his greatness by the limitations Of his native
sphere. He has all, the qualifications that
raise a statesman to eminence IN New York
city, and he possesses the understanding of the
fundamental principles Of government, the
courage and defiance of popular clamor that
made the greatness Of the late Mr.. Tweed,
and would doubtless have raised him to the
same glorious eminence if he had happened to
have been born in Baxter street, instead of,
generically speaking, Skowhegan. Judging,
Also from the warlike spirit and military
strategy displayed in his editorials during the
late crisis in Maine, if he had been so fortu-
nate as to have been ma i've Mexican, he
might have conducted campaign of deStruc-
tive pIonunciamentns that would have made
him master of the Halls OF the Montezumas; or
again, still more suggestively, If his cuticle mad
been black insteadsof white, and he Haytian,
we might now be carrying on u diplomatic
correspondence with him, addressed to Don
Ebenezo l., Emperor. Unfortunately for him.
however, he was born in a country of slabs
and shingles, thrift and responsibility like
Maine. and although his genius could not be
entirely subdued, it was finally stifed and sat
upon to the crushing of his aspirations.to his
personal disesteem, and as is rumored, TO his
financial bankruptcy. He did his best to in
augurate revolution, to rouse the hardy Dem
ocratic yeomanry to leave their steers in the
manger and take tieldagainst thetyrannous Re-
publican oligarchy, but they failed to respond
except in verbal expressions, such as II yum, v
Indicative of wonder rather than enthusiasm.
In short, the ice refused 10 take fire, and Mr..
Pilsbury exhausted his store of wood in the
back yard, in attempting to kindle it. What
would have caused a revolution in more in
tlamable regions only resulted in an outbreak
of pulpit eloquence in Maine, and that chiefly
denanciatory rather tnan favorable. and Mr..
Pilsbury is obliged to confess that his power
fu! effort was failure. He takes a wise
course in seeking new sphere, and although
New York offers a tempting field for the ap-
plication OF his political principles, and there
young man in the West to his parent in the
mean men to office out here" which might
appeal strongly to his sense of fitness, we are
inclined to think that his most congenisl field
would be found in Mexico or Hayti, and that
however much the United States might mis-
him, its loss would not be without its compen-
sations in broader view.