Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-01-16
WASHINGTON LETTER.
A Good Word for Ocliltrec- Genius
Equal to His Position.
A Visit 70 the Home OF DR.. Weems,
Author ofthe Little Hatchet.


Special Correspondence OF the Gazette.
Washington, January 12.-Therc is
no denying the fact that the conduct
and bearing Of the Hon. Tom OchiI-
tree since he has become fixed figure
on the floor OF the house, has wrought
a decided change In public opinion
as he is affected by 1t. Men begin to
say that he il intellect
ually many-sided. IL seems that
the genius which enables him
to win supreme influence and recogui-
ton in social life at the hands of
Grant, Arthur, Conkling and other
Republican leaders, may be directed
TO higher and worthier tasks. Some
thing more than naked cheek" was
required of Ochiltree when he found
his way, from u modest home on a
sand.bar on the gulf coast of Texas,
into the club rooms and exclusive re-
sorts of English and French noble
men. There was genius developed for
higher achievements than common
place people attempt, when Ochiltree
having been for u series of
years n FESTIVE cosmopolite,
declares himself "A Texan by
birth and Texan in all his nstincts
and purposes, and then, pOmulgatinga
flaming pronunci niento he dived
down fiom washington into the very
Corpus Christi and from among the
frightened masters of custom houses
there, at Brownsville and Laredo, In
vokes the sinows of war for desperate
campaign against the widest local
leader OF the Democracy. Tom tri-
umphed, "a quasi Republican IA sort of
free-thinker Or Bob IDgersoll in poll
tics. He confesses mo- god" on earth,
AZ Ingersoll finds none in heaven. And
II Is no wonder. Toms intimacy with
heroes and statesmen of his time and
generation divests them of that
grandeur and glamour through which,
in our modest eyes. they become IA
giants born of theswelling mists of the
Hart2 mountains. Tom sees all these
majestic people face to face. In fact,
IL was this constant conflict and fric-
ton of faces that hardened Toms i'm
perturbable glowing flintiness.
However Mr.. Ochiltree has amused
himself and mankind, and however he
has chosen To make broad Jest
of lifes solemnities and of its
emptiness and hollowness, he now
becomes seif-pois,d practical
and earnest law giver. He himself, In
his apartments and on the floor of the
house, IN far rs | have been able to OBJ
serve his conduct and catch his mod
est words, has surely done and said
nothing i'll der CATION of the good
taste and intelligence of his constitu.
ency. A large majority of his part-
san adherenis, whom he really repre-
SCENTS, are Mexicans and negroes. They
are blind, unthinking pnrtisans OF
Ochiltree. To the extent fhat he rep
resents them, he is nondescript In
politics. and has Tho perfect right 10
= ecIn,a i.iiliself an outsider"
ne sits, stands, lives and thinks
in partisan solicitude. God, in
shaping his unique face, in coloring
his hair, in making his square com
pact figure and then In the organiza-
ton of his strong intellectual faculties,
made him an '..outsider.n ! suppose
he Is patented and therefore condemn
ed by the Texas press but not always
justly.
Let US wait and see. He keeps his
mouth shut. He is content TO bide his
time. He discharges faithfully and
every duty imposed by
his position. He never forgets what
lie owes TO Texas and TO Texans, and
begin to believe that he mnnfests in
fini ely more Of true, vigorous, earnest
and capacity for tasks of
than was supposed possible
when he was netamorphosed by the
Galveston district and became law
yer instead of "a cosmopolitan trouba-
dour and court jester To sch in Il roar
The tables OF the,imperial household.
A SCENE Al DIR. WEEMS' TOMB.
Not many days ago 1 visited the old |
home of DR.. Weems, who wrote the |
,nly life Of Washington that was read
TO the people of the United States Till |
half of the nineteenth century had
apsed into oblivion. La very truth /
his Dr. Weems created the man we
know and revere as George Washing
ton. Wecnis was his neighbor, friend
md pastor. | was Impressed with the
character of the doctor when contein-
plating The low, fiat, broad, heavy
house In which he lived nearly half I
q century. Though. one hundred
and thirty years have elapsed since
The foundation stones of this stauncl
I'D wooden structure were laid, IL
tands firm and strong, defying the des-
,lations of time like that Immortal
ruthfulness which its owner ascribed
o George Washington. IL was in this
Did house, two miles from ,,unston,
he solid country seat Of old George
Mason, the prophet of his time, and IL
,reater man than George Washington
ii was in this old framed
the parsonage of
Id Pohick church, that tho
Iddling psrson and biographer Of
wrote, lived and died.
I was there that he dreamed and wrote
i the cherry tree and little Ratchet,
nd II was this tradition Of fable that
ave origin TO the whilom custom Of
God men VINO habituaIly sent small
to Tom Ochiltrec when
yer lac gave full vent TO bis vigorous
and startled the
apilal aud country by mar. I
elous exhibitions OF creative fancy.
'om will accompany me, next Sun
ay, TO the dwelling place Of DIR.
veems. and he and ! wild miDgle our .
ears at his grave. and the GAZETTE
hnII have A DhotOpraph of the old .