Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1882-05-03
Gath ON Billy Chandler.

Gath, the incompatible washing
ton correspondent" who gives dali!
his news and views through the col
umns of the Cincinnati Enquirer, in {
recent dish wherein he has served VI
the whole of President Arthur's cabin
ct, devotes the spicest two-thirds there
of to a detailed summing up of tn
disqualification of Hon. w. E. Chand
Ter, of New Hampshire, for the posi-
ton of Secretary of the Navy, to which
he has recently been appointed. There
is probably no man living to-day whc
has better and more complete resour
ces in himself, and facilities for asso
citation with the many peculiar people
who "know everything" for giving all
the information that is worth giving OF
Withholding that which in common de-
cency ought to be withheld, concerning
everything in America notable in pub
lie affairs, than is Gath, and certainly
no man in the correspondence line can
make that information more readable.
To commence at the beginning in
this case, New Hampshire, says Gath,
is well known as the birthplace of Web
ster, Cass, Zach Chandler, Chase, Dix,
John p. Hale, Levi Woodbury., John
Langdon, Fessenden, and many other
great men. 1t has not produced a
more why little politician than Will
liam f. Chandler, who is forty-seven
years old, and, with the exception Of
Mr.. Lincoln, the only young man in
the cabinet. He would occupy far
more consideration in the public mind
if he had not always been known as
"Bill" Chandler, and that nickname
would not have stuck to him but that
it seemed to fit him and his quick, iidg-
ity, snappish way of getting around
with the greatest activity on the small
est issue, losing his temper in little
moments, having no temper to respect
in great ones-being ubiquitous when
he might have been dignifed by stay
ing more at home, and rushing to the
front like little boy in the front Of a
procession, when he might have ridden
the elephant and had their applause
These remarks are not made in ill-tem-
per, for Mr.. Chandler had the philoso-
phy in recent years to stop good many
quarrels, and it is to this grain in good
sense and maganimity that he encoun-
tiers comparatively small opposition.
Senator Spencer, with whom he has
an interest in mine in Nevada, says
Chandler is worth about $250,000,
which i suppose to be the fulfllment of
twenty-seven industrious years at the
Bar. 1t would not be a considerable
sum of money in New York or any
large city, but it represents great deal
in New Hampshire, where poverty is
the normal condition of the people, and
man with homestead of $4,000 is
still considered rich. Considering. that
Mr.. Chandler derived but little from
his parents, began at the common
schools, and had to circle in the smaller
walks of politics, his fortune is a con-
siderable one, and no one has done
more to get it. Some men run away
from work, but he always complained
of the work as not being enough.
TO carry out my figure of the boy
before the procession, he always re-
minded me of one of the young supes
employed at n theater TO shake club
and cry clown with Cesar" mean
particularly, that one of the supes,
whose voice is the loudest, whose coun-
tenance is the most ferocious, and
whom we inwardly think must give
Caesars ears, if not his crown, the great
est annoyance. He was the reporter Of
the Supreme Court of New Hampshire
FOR seven years. The first ever known
of him at Washington was his appear
ance there in the role of the man who
kicked the penny piper, and he answered
the description Of "high-rickety Bar
low" who is said TO have done that
feat He had beaten John j. Hale and
his mother-in-law for the United States
Senate.
Hale was one of the big men of New
Hampshire, who had controlled things
there most absolut ely for two or three
senatorial terms, and it was supposed
by the rest of the country that New
Hampshire without Hale would hardly
count at all. Chandler, Rolling, Ord
way and q few others set up the State,
cooked the legislature, intoxicated the
lobby, hamstrung the press, stole all the
tar-barrels, made all the bonfres and
beat John p. Hale. In place Of him,
who was one of the lions Of the anti
slavery cause, they elected Aaron Cra-
gin, quiet member of the New Hamp-
shire Legislature, who served out his
term and then retired to the important
Office of commissioner to sell the build
ing lots at Hot Springs, Ark, while
Hale, the beaten man, went to Spain as
Minister. Mr.. Chandler married his