Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1884-05-23

| Lands dedioates his book on Blaine to tho
young men of the country who are willing
to devote their best energies in advancing
the cause for which James A. Garfield
died, | should like tO know what cause
that was IL Garfield may be properly
said to have died in any particular cause
IL was in the struggle to make Robertson
collector of New York III defiance Of civil
service and good faith. Thorc was nothing
heroic in that cause nor attractive IN such
q career"
The toll for a one horse team on the
eleven miles of turnpike from Lancaster
to Mt. Joy is 30 cents and YOU have tho
fun of being stopped at five toll gates on
the way. Some places the turnpike is as
good as n country road should be and in
some places ii is not. The fare on the
railroad between the same points il ~
cents. II is a burning shame that this
rich and prosperous county should not
keep its highways in such condition ~ 60
render turnpikcs unnecessary. | think
Hensel had better offer prtzo medal for
the best way to raise the toll bar than for
acquaintance with the history and inter
ests OF Lancaster county. The less that
is known abroad about this embargo on
travel hero the moro Crcdttablc to us.
| Between Summy's tavern, ON the Mount
Joy turnpike and LandisvillC, on the left
hand side of the road is magnificent
elm, one side of which has been shame
fully hacked and Topped by the vaudals
who erect telegraph lines. They ought
to have been shot rather than have been
permitted to disfgurc the most ornamental
. figure in the landscape tor miles around.
The noble Louisiana balsam that stands in
front Of Col. Joel Lightner's on the Ian.
caster and Williamstown turnpike, es
capped such mutilation because its owner
was too plucky to permit it. The old
sycamore in front Of Minnichs store in
Landisylle has lost its magnificent pro
portions, bat its trunk still bears signs OF
its royalty. Wherever there is grand
old tree in the county the community
should protect and spare it.
, The most satisfactory experiment | have
, ever known Of the effect of education upon
the African negro was in the case Of the
ten boys brought from the wild desert
tribes Of that distant land to this country
in 1878 and subjected 70 the training OF
Lincoln university in Chester county, to
be educated here and fitted for teaching
and preaching the gospel in their native
land. Three have died one Or, +.
Deputie) returned last October and is
engaged in missionary work four more
will return next fall and one (Rey. J. A.
Savage is now labOriug among the freed
! men OF the South. As ! write | have
before me three photographs of one OF
these young mon-AIonzO Miller One
was taken in 1878, just after his arrival,
and the face is coarse, animal aud mex
pressive. The others, taken at periods OF
three and five years later, show such re-
msrkable development that one Of the
great editors Of the country to whom
submitted them once said " The growth
Of expression, the gradual humauiziug OF
the face is the most striking evidence OF
the influence Of education that | ever
saw.
If you get chance at an asparagus
t omelette for breakfast. don't miss t.
9 -
q Chas. II. Barr, the statiouer aud book
i seller, tells me that he sold over 500 copies
6 of the first volume of Blaines book in thi.
, city. II Is a work of Gl0 pages, good
b sized type, with some maps aud censu.
, tables aud a number of pages Of portraits,
! grouped medallion fashion, of men con
spicuOus 10 the twenty years of which the
author writes, from Lincoln 10 Garfield
e Like most books sold by subscription il
3 gains nothing from its typographical ap.
q pearance, aud 10 its mechanical construc
tiOn lacks the diguified appearance that
even tho exterior of q deliberate historical
D work should wear. The book has attained
an immense sale and secured great pccl
= mary profits for publishers, author and
3 agents, no doubt, mainly because Blaine
D wrote il. Nevertheless 1t is true, as an
3 astute and iair minded critic has wei
] said " There are chapters in the pOiitSea
i history Of that mOmentOus period whict
u might nave been, ono would say, treated
T by Mr.. Blaine in a manner to insure hi
u work a unique place, but he has not writ
l. ten them. On the contrary, as he ap
proaches the events with which he mus
3 be assumed to have intimate persona
D, knowledge, there is marked deteriora
u ton in his style and method a trace q
ID intentional reserve, and tendency to tn
perfunctory treatment of the political
Ie writing not for the Judgment ofthe futur
4 but for the cOnjectured public sent
% ment of those of his cOuntrymen VIII
)r have votes that may be desirable and ar
70 certainly formidable. No one can rea
l. the work and fail 10 feel that its authO
10 was sensible az every stage of its prOgres
10 that he was a candidate for president
~ This ia not the mind in which history is I
o. be written, and if Mr.. Blaine can ever b
), conceived of as a philosophical historic
,e he was certainly unfortunate in the tim
he selected for preparing and launchin
his literary venture. He avoids tho ego
ia tism Of Benton, and there Is no Just com
n plant that there is too much of Blaine i
It the book but in his treatment of tn
% issues and events 30 fresh in the popula
10 mind Mr.. Blaine is throughout tho polit
n clan, If not partisan, and no as seldom rise
st TO tho clear horizontal view Of the histC
's riau, as in his public lie he rarely rose
os the plane of craftsmanship.
3 -
It In striking contrast with the tone an
Is spirit OF Mr.. Blsne's work, is the calm
N dspassionate and judicial argument mad
< for Mr.. Buchanan by Christopher Stuar
" Patterson, of the Philadelphia bar, wh
% in brochure OF not as great length az on
y Of Blaine's chapters, has fairly stated th
h condition Of things at the outbreak of I'll
,r war and the cause, leading up to it.
le -
1T In Thomas Benton's alphabet " B.
TO stood for Benton,
Ii -"
y The literature of cremation is Iimite
OF because the practical agitation of th
TO mode Of dsposng Of tho human dead
TO very recent, But since there is to be
I'd clematory in Lancaster, and as many (
the leading citizens show resolute pu
a -