Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1884-03-06
INTERESTING GOSSIP.

Extracts from a we shington Letter to
the Cleveland "Leader,,-Deaiin.
with Leading Men--Two Dark
Horses.
Congressman Dorsheimer rose the
other day in the House to make his
first great speech on the Chalmers
Manning contest. A physical giant,
with broad, round, beefy shoulders. a
great ball of head and full rosy
face, his voice came forth from a chest
that Goliath might have envied and
filled the fullest eXtremities of the
galleries. Below him the other mem
bers turned their little heads up to
look at the big one. Mr.. Dorshelmer's
head attracts notice every where. AS
round as a pumpkin, its top shines like
wet ivory in its badness, while the
skin of his cheeks is as rosy as those
of a milkmaid. AS Mr.. Dorsheimer
spoke he moved his great arms. as
thick as the thighs of other members.
and at one time he brought his big
beefy fist down upon his desk, max
ing the chamber ring with the
emphasis. He perspired greatly as
he went on, and wiped now and then
great-beads of sweat from his broad
forehead and his bald crown. making
the little hair island in the centure of
it look as though a wave had dashed
over it and left it dripping. He com
manded good attention, and a dozen
members left their seats and stood in
the aisles while he was speaking.
William Dorsheimer is one of New
York's leading lawyers. He has an
Office a few doors above Trinity
Church on Broadway, very near
those of Gen. Grant and Roscoe
Conkling. He is now 50 years old,
and the Presidential bee may vet
buzz under that solitary lock above
his big forehead in that ocean of
badness He has a good War re
cord, is a renegade republican, and
he believes in civil-servlce reform.
But / am afraid Mr.. Dorsheimer is
too much of a repu blican still to
ever become a great democratic can
didate.
KAsSON.
On the republican side of the
House see another disappointed
man, Congressman John A. Kasson,
of Iowa. Dull-eyed melancholy
hovers around him, and the report
that he is soon to retire from public
life is not surprising. In 1861, when
Kasson came to Washington to be
Lincolns First Assistant Postmaster
General, he had a right to hope that
he might some time be President, and
this hope may have kept up during his
long years of Congressional and
diplomatic service, but it must be
dead now. The preference of Keifer
over him as the Speaker of the last
Congress was bitter pill, and 1t was
one of the many private and public
ones he had taken. His private
troubles have been especially hard.
He separated from his wife many
years ago, and now goes about in
society a lone old bachelor of 81. A
few years ago while calling in St.
Louis, l am told, his friend invited
MIN to go home, and dine with MIN.
Mr.. Kasson consented to do so, when
the man continued: by the way,
there is to be marriage atour church
to night and we expect to attend, -
Kasson inquired the name of the
bride, and found that it was his wife
about to marry again. He conclud-
ed to remain in town
For all the stories they tell of Kas-
son, lac is still perhaps the leading
mind of the republican side of the
House. Finely educated, and cultured
by foreign travel, he has broad views,
and can express them in elegant Eng
fish. He is rather a Miss Nancy In
many of his ways, and in speaking
he affects the tone of an English dude
rather than that of blunt Iowa which
he represents His speeches abound
in classical allusion, and they are
delivered with courtly gesture.