Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-05-25
a 0 A 10 a PRESS,
And the Happy Response or a
Noted Editor.

Alphons0 Iaft, OF CINCINNATI, to HI
post as Minister to Austria,
grand dinner was given to hin
on the evening of the 22d
About sixty prominent persons werI
present. Various speeches wer'
made. MIR. Halstead, Of the Cincin
natl Commercial, responded to the
toast THE Press and a Republic" II
the following brilliant style of ad'
dress:
Mr.. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN
Speaking to the toast promptly, for
shall pass from it quickly, it is the
duty Of the press, under the republi.
can as well as other forms of govern.
ment, to make war upon privilege-to
see that a ruling class is not formed
in the State, to reduce the functions
of eficials-to eliminate from the
popular apprehension the illusions OF
political superstition.
In the course of my labors having
this general purpose, | have not always
had the pleasure of the appreciation Of
Judge Taft. Indeed, / have often
been surprised and concerned, to as
certain that numbers of my fellow
citizens who were proper people, did
not see the lights and shadows, the
bits of color and the prominent
personal points Of the landscape of
public life as they were apparent to
my eyes.
When, however, one at times finds
difficulty in agreeing with himself as
to the lines of duty, it seems fortu-
nate that in the larger views of affairs
we do not all use the same lenses,
while there is a variety in atmospheric
effects that promises to save the world
from monotony until the millennium.
But the Judge and l have had much
in common-to begin with, good d.
gestiou. | have known mutual admi-
ration societies to have no better
foundation. A stomach that has maj
esty in its ability Of assimilation is the
basis for reliable conservatism in pol
itics, and considerate liberality in re-
ligion.
We, too, have been reviled as old
men. | hope to be as young as he is
when l have employed as many years
in good works as he has, and if the
next twenty years fly as fast as those
that are gone, the time will o be
up. Tempus fugit. 1 comment the
observation to the gentlemen who are
sitting around me in the bloom o. their
youth. They ought to be happy if
they are accused only after the dinner
hour of their destiny, Of their we'll
spent years.
Judge Taft has overcome the disad-
vantages Of his birth place in New
England. 1t is a gift of grace to out
grow your provincialism. Nothing is
more tenacious than the clay of the
native pit. | Rave known men born in
the Carolinas and Virginia and Massa-
chusetts who did net wholly recover
from it in seventy years, though they
came to Ohio when little boys.
Charles Nordhof relates OF a visit to
Cape Cod that he was touched by the
pathetic inscription on a tombstone:
"He died a stranger in a strange land,
andyet found friends who administered
the consultations of religion in his last
hours" Further inspection disclosed
the record that he had been a resident
of the place for sixty-one years. The
interesting inquiry arose as to the time
required to get acquainted in that
neighborhood and become one of the
folks. Judge Taft, though a Yer
monter-and | need not pause to say
that Vermont is related to the noun
taineers-hss accomplished the feat in
this town in less than half a century.
He is no longer a Vermonter, but a
citizen of the United States-one of
the nation. Perhaps the mountain
air elevated his understanding-or
the spring water may have had the
quickening aud divine influence in it
80 that, as Mr.. Evarts said in telling
Of a temperance dinner, the water
flowed like champagne"
Two phrases of compliment, be-
slowed upon public men who were re-
mote from each other in occupation.
I character and geographically, by
friends who had only in common a
happy faculty of expression, linger in
my memory, and they come fresh and
clear to me to night because both are
applicable to our guest. Those phrases
are: He was a man Of absolute
probity," and He is incapable o
intrigue"
A national man in his sympathies
his enlightenment, his breadth of view
his experience and his reputation
Judge Taft is fitted to be a represent
alive of the nation.
In serious emergencies be has showI
serene courage in his life, profession
al and official, his informatiOD,has bee
thorough and his work clean cut /; an
in his hands the dignity and honor o
the American people will be safe.
He goes from the banks of one grea
duA OCoAbllul AANCI W dIUtueI lIDl
|, the continent that has, as the worl,
{. goes, the sunset tinge in the air, an,
E where the romance Of the red ma
covers the past like a mist from tn
Ohio, that runs to the Atlanti
through seas that we're sailed by th
canoes of the Caribs, to the Danub
I that flows into the waves that receiv
o the rivers Of Asia and are mystica
j with Oriental legend and history
from a city that has not yet celebrate
b its first centennial to one that ha
been stately for ages from the sever
utilities Of life that scuhles with ns
Q ture and has had little expression i
decorative architecture, to an impt
i rial capital in the midst Of fields {
IS battle that have determined the dest
MES Of the conquering and the var
quished races OF men, and where on
d finds, with the splendors OF this tim
IT some Of the picturesque inspired fro
r tho "a kbarla. l. -.