Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-10-14
TALK.

1
t. Waring, fourishing manufacturer of
hats in the village of Yonkers, Westches-
ter county, N. Y. When Waring bought
the ground just beyond the village and
projected his castle, people wondered if
his money would hold out to finish it, and
if it did, whether there would be anything
like enough money to keep up the requi-
site style-or, contemplating both, whether
he could have the society that would give
the enjoyable tone to such majestic
place.
/ After curious interval Of half a life in
the magnificent suburban retreat, Mr..
Warnings finances became confused, Grey
stone became embarrassing and was pur-
chased by ex- Governor Tilden.
The cynic might be tempted to remark
that it passed from one failure to another,
if we regard Mr.. Tllden in the role of
sold out politician.
The philosopher observant of mystify-
ing incongruities would be somewhat
posed in trying to reconcile the propulsive
and intriguing ambition for political hon
ors as they are rated to-day in America,
with the enormous wealth of Tilden, and
more unaccountable yet, with his fastidious
excIusiveness of disposition.
In Peter Harvey's "reminiscences Of
Daniel Webster occurs the following dia-
logue between the statesman and a farmer
who once stopped his work to ferry him
across q broad stream that he might con-
tinue his shooting:
| "This is Daniel Webster, believer"
THAT is my name.'
! swell, now, am told that you can make
from three to five dollars day pleadin'
cases up to Boston"
eyes, I sometimes am SO fortunate"
"Wal, now, it seems to me, declare, if
1 could get &c much in the city pleadin'
law cases, would not be a wadin' over
these marshes this hot weather shootin'
little birds.''
Somebody is always shooting just such
little birds in some such unaccountable
way to the onIooksr. There is Tilden with
millions for all the world holds of travel,
art, books, enjoyment, and superb sur
sound1ngs, yet he is shooting little birds in
his political ventures to the bewilderment
of large sane majority which never could
understand the inflammation that would ex-
change the treasures and imperial belong
ings of the town house in Gramercy
Park, and the glories of Greystone views,
for the shifting, tawdry scenery of the
White House, with its rushing swarms
of humanity intrusively confident
of helping =: hand in the
temporary political lift, and mostly
clamorous for some Office in recognition of
it.
Who similarly favored by fortune would
invite and seek the Immense bore of po-
litical life with all It's undertow of hireling
service, and mercenary machinery moving
in obedience to the plotter's signal?
What are we to think of such perverse
instances of mistaken ambition anyway?
It's all a muddle, as Stephen Blackpool
says.
Only this week I saw man in the post
Office anxiously working for his own re-
election, to whom official salary is nothing,
whose patronage, never much, is hampered
by old l1gatures, and yet there he was
looking hot, uneasy and bothered talking
to job lot of fellows, handy to have about
at such times perhaps, but give me an
ounce of civet, good apothecsry.
This man is well off in possessions, but he
wanted change-pined for honors of the
political variety-and he is shooting little
birds in his small range, neither for pas
time nor for ought in sight but the name,
which is an enviable prefix.
Perhaps that is what the sage of Gram
ercy Park thinks, too, but in his case his
political ambition is about the most use
less that ever wasted human effort, and we
deem the birds he is shooting at smaller
than ever, in view of the grand generosity
of fortune to which he would superadd the
poor adjunct of a passing title.
If to his riches were conjoined title
which would survive political mutations,
and make Greystone known for ages as a
treasure house of art like the Borghese
palace In Rome, with its two thousand pic
lures in double series of twelve rooms,
vaulted and frescoed, then, indeed, were
the title worth having.
But Tilden's skull is thick on the side of
this artistic entail, and thin on the side of
presidential prestige. The cranial wall
presses close upon the brain in that one
soft spot, and limits his capacity for any
other aspirations.
Even now telephone and telegraph in
that Greystone library have given the Ohio
news with presaging fullness, and that soft
spot in the brain exults.
After all, tits the assimilation of bony
elements which settles the problem in the
thick and thin places in the skull. Such
predisposition is shown in the soft spot for
the queer advertising we've had here lately.
You see young and promising actress
Haunted to the four winds with the pertinac-
ity and ingenuity of the patent medicine
man, when of verify she doesn't need
half of it, and could draw goodly audiences
without it.
You we're presented with a famboyant
pamphlet as you made one of the hundred
thousand who saw the glowing canvas be-
longing to the DISTINGUISHED and art-loving
young enthusiast who refused SO many
thousands for it-and yet hung on to the
priceless thing for the benefit of the dear
mn hi lin r,h0 al