Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1883-12-11
MISCELLANEOUS.
Our Baltimore Letter.

Recently all the Christian world
did honor to the memory Of Martin
Luther, yet it was Martin Luther who
wrote in his young days,
. He who loves not wine women, and song.
Will he IL fool all his life long
And Oscar Wilde, the Poet of the
sensuous, the great but short-lived
long, lank, lean, lackadaisical lover
of American money, wrote these beau
tiful Iincs,-you will find them III his
volume of poems where they shine as
stars in Il sky of darkest hue:
'Thc silver trunrpets rang across the Dome
The people kuClt upon the ground with awe ::
And borne upon the ncclss of men saw,
Like some great God. the Holy Lord of Rome.
Pricst-like, he wore u robe more white thuu
foam.
And. lijng-lilic, Gwathcd himself in royal red.
Three crowns of gold rose high upOn his head :
In Splcndor and in liglILthc Pope passed home
Ny heart stole back across wide waftcs of years
To One who wandered by lonely sea,
And sought in vain for any place of rest:
Foxes have holes and every bird its nest,
]. only l, must wander wearily
And brnisc my feet, and drink wine salt with
tears
We find these curious contradic-
tions everywhere. The author of
Don Juan is also the author of
:. The Assyrian came down like wolf on the
fold"
The man who created Bill Sykes
also created little Nell. And he the
greatest of them all who wrote,
"There is aDiyinity that shapes our ends -
and,
"Thc quality of Mercy Is not straincd;v
who wrote for all men and all time,
yet sometimes descended to the SEN
suous and stirred the foul pool to its
lowest depths.
And Robbie Burns lowered between
the sublime flights of the souI-lifted
Poet aud the grovclings of the maud
lin man, but
g a mans u man for a of that"
AS for expecting that mans life
should at all correspond or reflect
either his sayings or his writings, that
is the vcricst nonsense. The smooth
tongucd william, the siIvcr-toned de-
ceiycr, the angel-faced devil, these
are time honorcd names for we'll
known characters in every day life.
Napoleon turns from his victorious
progress, checks his wild stecd and
dismounts to take the hand of n dying
soldier; with gracious micn he pushes
back to make way for the bcggar
woman, and lifting his chapeau says,
- Respect the burden" He poses as
a very Dcmi God. But behind the
curtain? The little Corporal now
shows a soul more little than his per
son, a scorEer Of all rules of dccency
and morality, petty tyrant, a man
without heart. Can these two be
the same: It is well not to examine
our heroes too closely.
The sermon season, the lecture sea-
son, has commenced again; the min
lister has returned from his wander
ings, where, as the busy bee, he is
supposed to have slipped honey from
every opening flower, and stored it
up for use this winter; and the lee
tuTer, in the seclusion of some wood
land retreat, has gone over the old
Guide Book and will treat us to a
vivid description of My Travels
Last Summer in Other Lands.'' The
Elecutionists and Yell-oh-cutionfsts,
their name is Legion, swarm over the
land and insist most vehemently that
- Curfcw shall not ring tonight
Mr.. Cough lectures on Temperance
here this week, and those who heard
him many years ago will find he has
not lost his wonderful power. Mr.
Talmage will draw crowded houses to
see him lecture next week, and his
acrobatic mouth will perform won
derful feats Of daring. Matthew Ar