Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1883-04-19

Fourth of July Grafton, to recall any
thought therefrom. ait is very stupid
of me" you are apt to say, ''for it was
splendid effort; but cannot remember a
thing he said"
The truth is there are differences
among public speakers, and when an
orator gives himself so sedulOusly and
successfully to the curve of his gestures,
the expansion of his palms in persuasion,
the rhythmic periods, the diversified
peals OF voice such as his, one can have
no time or care for anything else.
Upon this most eventful recurrence of
the natal day, ever glorious. of our
national independence, what spirit so
deteriOrated, so abjectly bent toward the
nadir of all that we appreciate as coming
within the boundaries of the subimest
verities of our Western Hemisphere, but
must bid the advent hail of that most
epochal hour in the roll of centuries, the
lapse of Eons." How often have l
looked up at the majestic speaker, and
striven to seize and hold the nebulous
meaning of what he was so ear
nestly endeavoring to say. 1t was
the best part Of temperance occasion,
OF the coming to our city of a dis
tinguished Kossuth of one kind or an
other, of political assembly, of the lay
ing of the foundation-stone of public
building, to see the General rise, as he
always did, to make the address. A
committee would as soon have done
without the Stars and Stripes, without
the brass band, as without General Adolf
phus Macpherson Featherstonhaugh
81 think he looks best in black broad
cloth and with a white tie" was the re-
mark of the old people.
"YOu do? We,' the young ladies
would cry. "like him best in his regaIia
as Free Mason. Oh, but isn't he grand
then! What a pity it is not usual for a
Knight Templar to speak with his hat
On-the gorgeous feathers would go so
well with the Generals way of saying
thingsw
But he had this advantage over other
public men. 1t is but now and then that
they can make a speech, whereas [ never
saw the General that he did not have
on the robes and wig, so to speak, of an
advocate. 1t was great good luck if you
met him coming up the street when you
| had country cousin by your side, some
stranger from elsewhere. "Who is thatw
was always demanded of you on the first
sight Of your distinguished fellow-citizen
as he drew near, carefully dressed, as was
his wont, with kid gloves, well-blacked
boots, snowy linen, plentiful watch-chain
! across his white vest, his gold-headed cane
in his hand. Except that your compan-
ion was apt to be a little nervous under
the ordeal, it was the event of his stay in
town-the introduction and subsequent
! conversation; it gave one an idea of how
1t feels to be presented to an Emperor.
But it was not conversation, if the in
terview lasted not only five minutes-it
was that much of an grafton. Lounging
in the hall of hotel; coming upon him
in the thrOng Of store; listening to him
during the stay at table of 8 dinner
party, and when he stood in the parlOr
afterward, with his back to the fire,
whatever he said was that much of a dis
course. He laid down the law to patient,
physician, nurses, during his ten minutes
in sick chamber, and the meditation
of his thunder to the hour and the area
was as good as scrap of OratOriO. l
have come upon him when he was buy
ing paper Of newspOy of bitterly
cold morning on windy street corner;
have heard him directing his man to
| carry message; once l CHANGED on him
as he was arguing the proper pay for
cleaning the snow from his sidewalk with
a red-nOsed and ragged tramp; on an
other occasion [ passed by when he was
demonstrating at his back-gate in mid
summer with the driver of an odorif-
erous swill-wagon-the General was,
in every instance, delivering rounded
| periods, with suitable gesture, Ore-rotund
accents, and all that belongs to an ora
ton. His habitual language was as diff
| ferent from common talk as is classic
| Chinese from the Yernacular, as was the
Euphuistic jargOn of the days of the
Stuarts from the Anglo-SaxOn, as is the
delicacy of an esthetic Conversations from
the slang of the Bowery.
81 have read of the Man with the Iron
Mask" one Of the Generals friends said
to me one day; "but [ really know as
! little about him, although | have known
him all my life, as do about that mys-
terious state prisoner. He has so draped
| himself from head to foot in the vOlumi-
nous silk gown of an advocate. He eats in
it, is sick and well, sits still or goes
abroad, sleeps in it. 1t reminds me of
Thackeray's cruel picture of Louis lie
Grand, which was so folded that the
mere lifting of leaf from off this most
majestic monarch Europe ever knew re-
yealed, you remember, beneath flowing
wig and royal robes, the pitiful scarecroW
of an infirm grand-daddy, weazen and tot
tering. Strip the General of his manner
ism, and what is leftw
eve have all of US laughed, replied,
cat Hawthorne's story of the old witch
who made an efigy of a man out of a
pumpkin, few sticks and an old suit of
clothes stuffed with straw, breathed into
him the breath of life, and sent him forth
upon the tour of the world as million
aire, scientist, a successful lover. So of
! the General"
But I was silenced by a universal out
cry, which 1 stilled with uplifted hand
to add: you are right to object, but I
did not mean to say that Hawthorne's
! heartless, soulless manikin was a correct
representation of our excellent friend.
That he is merely a moving mannerism
! Is not the whole story. we aPa all aUread