New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-06-15
SHRINKING FROM THE PUBLIC GAZE

| print of any interview, affidavit, certlhcate,
| letter or telegram touching the all-absorblng
| question whether ex-Speaker Sharpe did or did
not bamboozle and budOze that fresh and
| timid statesman, Mr.. Roscoe COnkllng, INTO
| being a candidate for reelection TO the seat
| which, fguratively speaking, he had angrlly
| torn up from behind him and flung at the
heads of his constituents. We seem TO miss
something. Has some attesting statesman
fallen i'll, or has some precious document
miscarriedf Heaven forbid that the great
debate should stop where it is, having
effected nothing beyond adding another to the
unsolved mysteries of history. No, no, it is OF
toe vast moment, the consequences of leaving
| il unsettled are too tremendous. 1t cannot be
TOO fully and extensively discussed IL there
is one thing that the reading public yearns for
more than another it is for information upon
this interesting theme. The American People
may we not indeed go further and say all
peoples-the whole civilized world-have been
interested spectators of Mr.. COnklings hercu-
lean efforts to shrink from the public gaze.
They have watched him with an intensity OF
interest that fairly bordered on agony from
the moment when, after careful preparations
for the event. he rose in the Senate, and with
| the impressive utllDcTdJlOu lUdJ IdOt'iAASo
all his utterances announced that he had
surrendered his commission as United States
Senator and was about to plunge into the Sc
clusion of private life The populace sympa-
thized with him warmly, and said :" lie has
abeen too long INDUCED to deny him now
L" Give him his way The Senate, weeping
cOnglomerate tear as large as ten-pin ball.
sang sadly
1--WE shall meet and We shall miss him.
There Will be one vacant chair -;
but buckling on Christian resignation which
even at this late day we remember only with
profound emotion, they added; "We would
not call him back"
But earnest as were the efforts of Mr.. Conk-
ling to disappear from public life and make
room for some one who would, as he modesty
mt il. more truly represent the wishes of his
constituents he not permitted. Men
who knew his strength of will, amounting in
some instances almost to obsunacy, said;
| Wild horses will never be able to bring this
imam again into public life. His Incompatible
" rhetoric, and the large. long lingering on the
| vowel sounds with which he has indcliby
impressed himself upon the memory of those
who had time to wait and hear him through,
| are forever lost" But to everybOdy's aston
ishment, he did not disappear. Indeed, he
scarcely ducked Even while men were la
menting the loss of him he rose, rs one drunken
might rise abruptly at wake, and said W hat
do We here Administer reStOratlves to me,
| " and prithee pass me yOndcr bottle" What
| happcned after, why need we say The story
| is too familiar. Having formally and finally
disappeared from public life with valedictoTy
| fit to be set in the Book of Martyrs" he re-
| aDpearcd fifteen minutes later az a candidate
| for reelection. Dragged into it, of course.
That shrinking mOdesty Of his would never
| have permitted him to be a candidate had he
| not been drlgooned into it by some political
monster who yelled under the guise OF friend
ship his hideous designs. Who did it9 Echo,
which is another name for The NeU- York
Herald, answers, and has been answering for
| some time, with the sweet mOnotony of the
electric bell: George II. Sharpe!' George
| II. Sharpe denies it, Of course. Having what
he fondly considers a political future before
him, he is unwilling to see it sacrificed by the
admission that at time when Mr. Conliling
desired to retire from public life, and the whole
American people were anxious beyond measure
/ to see his wish gratifed, he benz upon that
great statesman the full volume of his hellish
purpose and required him to remain in the
focus of the universal gaze which he SO much
sought to shun.
Shame clearly and obviously did it. Every
| body else was willing 10 crafty the great mans
| wish Sharpe brOwbeat him into being can
didate kept him distinctly and definitely in
! the public eye from which the modest states
man was doing his best to shrink. And even
this might have been forgiven if Sharpe had
| been wise enough to permit the great man to
enjoy the retirement which he with consider
! able unanimty had sought, and the public
| with still greater unanimity had granted him.
| But the great man having casually remarked
| IN an interview with a reporter-whch being
| taken down shorthand he had no reason to
| suppose would ever appear in print-that
Sharpe inveged him, the latter had the
temerity to deny it. That was several days
ago. Since then The Herald has taken adyan-
tage of the innocent and unsuspecting nature
| of the great man 10 draw him into interviews
upon the subject matter in which he has
seemed to be engaged in a controversy with
Mr.. Sharpe over the question; though it hardly
need be said that his main endeavOr is TO
shrink from the public gaze BY some MEANS
too The Herald gets hold of his private cor
respondcnce and kilograms bearing upon the
dispute, and gives him much annoyance by
printing them. Is it 50, then, that man even
of Mr. Conkling's great strength of character
and power of will cannot successfully seek
retirement Must he forever be drawn into
public Iotoriety again st his wish and his will 7
And must he always be exposed to the unllind
criticism of people who say they wag their
heads: "What a very fine bird our ostrich is
"With his head in the sand, how sngularly
"unmndful he is that his large spherical re-