The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-04-08

| x
can not advance a single step without
being reminded of Mr.. Gladstone's most
famous and perhaps most popular recre-
alton. Just behind the door, on the day
l visited Hawarden Castle, stood an AK
not one of the costly and ornamental
gifts which from time to time the people
have pressed upon the acceptance of the
great statesman, but plain and exceed
ingly handy instrument, bearing evil
dence of being much used. 1t was not
there for show, or even from the feel
ing which prompts hunting men to dec
crate their walls with stays heads or
foxes brushes. Doubtless Mr. Glad
stone, entering after a hard half-day's
work, had dropped it there, as being the
nearest place at hand. Probably it had
been there since the Saturday preceding,
which was, for reasons at the time great
" agitating the country, the last oppor-
tunity he had of indulging in his favor
tie exercise. A great gale, memorable
in the annals of shipwreck, had swept
over the country. 1t had played sad
| havoc with trees everywhere, and some
of the lords of the ancient forest which
skirts Hawarden Park had fallen. The
next day, the Premier, going out, AK in
hand, had spent some hours in clearing
| the timber, and shortly after coming
back had found himself attacked with
serious cold. He had been confined to
his room for some days, and though now
convalescent, was still prisoner in his
library. The attack had been serious,
as one could see, looking upon the pale
face, and touching the still feverish
hand. But no doctor had been called
in. Everything is homely at Hawarden
| Castle-alwaYS of course excepting the
plaster battlements and turrets, with
which the present proprietors have had
no more to do than had Edward the
| First. 1t is an old-fashioned English
notion that wife or mother can nurse
man through cold, and Mrs. Gladstone,
who has had some experience in this de-
partment of woman's work, had assidu-
ously set herself to the task, and was
now rewarded by final triumph. Her
patient, she confded to the visitor, left
nothing to be desired in the way of pa
tience and docility when once avowedly
on the sick list. The difficulty was to
keep him off the sick list when in
health. He had no capacity for measur-
| ing the limit of his powers, which a long
series of great achievements had led him
to believe were invincible and mex
haustble.
This is an old story, which finds many
illus trations in the House of Commons.
One night last session Mr.. Parnell was
with something more than usual success
obstructing the passage of the Land Bill,
and the indignation of the majority of
the House had crystallized into deter
mination to sit, if necessary, all night.
Mr.. Gladstone was in his place on the
! Treasury Bench, in condition of eX-
| haustion that was evident to every one
but himself. 1t was close upon mid
night, and he had an hour earlier, famed
forth in a magnificent outburst of right
eous wrath, which played round the heads
of the obstructionists with the greater in
tenseness since it had been SO long re-
strained. Mr.. Jesse Ceilings, long
faithful ally of the Irish members in their
policy, now rose, and formally dissocia-
| ting himself from their tactics, con-
cluded, amid loud cheers, by declaring
that AL they wanted was that Mr.. Glad
stone should go home to bed, and let the
House settle down for the night, or till
whatever hour might be necessary in
order to dispose of the question imme-
diately before it." In Difference to this
unanimous and hearty desire, the Pre-
mier presently withdrew But that was
a concession he is not ordinarily inclined
to make to the frailty of the human
frame. He will sit for hours, frequently
far into the morning, when he might as
well, and even much better, be in bed.
But whether at home or abroad, at Ha-
warden or in the House of Commons, as
long as he can bear the weight of his
harness he will stand up and carry on the
work begun more than fifty years ago.
The woodlands craft is the only exer-
else, except walking, which Mr. Glad
stone INDUCES in. 1t is many years
since he was astride horse, and he never
much cared for the exercise. He very
rarely drives, and neither shoots, hunts
nor fishes. But he is a great hand with
the AK, establishing fresh claims upon
the tilial respect of Mr.. w. H. Glad
stone, himself no mean craftsman. In
the recess, weather permitting, and some
times whether or not, scarcely day
passes that he does not stroll out with
his seventy-three years on his head, and
his AK ON his shoulder, not returning
till, if his labor were paid at the current
wages, he would have earned his din
ner Failing opportunity for tree-felling
he takes turn for an hour or so on the
terrace in front of the house, where the
flower garden is, and whence may be
seen far-reaehing stretch of meadow
land bounded by trees. During the ses-
sion his hour for retiring to rest is usu-
ally contemporaneous with that of the
adjournment of the House of Commons.
It's oftener two than any other hour on
the dial that he gets to bed, with the con-
seriousness that he must be up betimes to
carry on the business of an empire on
which the sun never sets. At home, in
the piping days of the recess he does
not follow the wholesome habit of some
tired Legislators, who, being in country
quarters, have been known to 90 to bed
at ten O clock, by way of striking an av-
erage with the patriotic dissipation of the
session, He is rarely in bed before half
past eleven, and sometimes hears the
chimes at midnight before turning in.
But at whatever hour he retires to rest