The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1882-03-02
ALL DIED INSANE.
"Reminiscences or Three Melted Kan
sans.
Erouo thu a. Joaanh sIa-s16

1SOA-4A1AA8-cAcOS % L1EOD COl0O Aau-
sans.
From the st. Joseph Herald.
Within few years three men of fame
in Kansas have died insane. Marcus J.
PARROT, in Ohio, twice q delegate in
congress, aud Gen. James @. Blunt and
NJ. +. Conway. once member of con-
gress, in Washington. Blunt was born
in Maine and was q very successful COM
RandeF; money, success and army con-
tracts probably ruined him. He had
great skill in the field. was . man Of
dauntless courage everywhere. but was
of coarse fibre; strong animal, but
not strong enough even with his sineWs
of giant to Withstand the fierce temp
tRtiOns which the great cities throw
around men with fall purses. He
should have lived to strong old age.
Parrott and Conway, also free state
men, were born in South Carolina, and
were men Of fire and genius. Parrott
was of Quaker anti-slavery ancestry,
his father removing TO Ohio To escape
the influence of the Institution. MARK"
as he was called, was full of personal
and intellectual attractigns, a bright
flashing eye, keen wit, rare readiness
and grace as speaker-a born orator,
fascinating, delightful, as you saw the
moment that he stepped upon the plat
form-easily king in any audience
that he addressed, rough or cultivated.
He went to congress while very young,
and kept wanting to go to the senate or
house and joining new parties that
gave him nominations and votes, but
not enough. Twenty years OF
disappointment. How happy he
who has trade or q profession and
works at It'll How much happier the
Akaava -
idler. A man of dainty, fastidiOns tastes,
fond Of pleasures, born to luxury. vast
ing two fortunes, dying poor. In these
tActs and failnres there WAS cause enough
soE insanity. Strange that the harp Of q
thousand strings should keep In tune 80
long. He read Burke and Gibbon and
Buckle, and could roll out their sonor-
GUS periods; words. thoughts, wit were
his, but not sincerely, not earnestness,
and he had no industry. He should
have been Partisan.
Conway had the eloquence of an Irish
man and was far deeper man. His life
was one OF poverty, privation, suffering.
He had none of the arts or ways of the
politician; was the champion of ideas;
believed in principles with all his heart,
and would have thrown fortune
and fame aside to serve and wor-
ship his ideal. He was stu
dent, metaphysician, and by sill that
he excelled the common race by all these
he failed in the struggle OF life-a very
hard fight for an idealist, q man of poet
ic temperament and one who has no
bread for his wife and children-who
seems, indeed, incapable of eSrning his,
her or their daily bread. A sad life, q
character full of nobility, misunderstood,
not winning his way; reading, studying,
thinking, writing and speaking delight
fully when he should have been earning
those 30 very necessary dollars. And
disappointed also in not going again
and again to congress. Pegasus cannot
be harnessed he can only 60 crazy and
die. Alas, poor Conway! The men of
genius flocked to the territory where
the battle was fought and lived the trag-
edies that were allotted to them.