The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1885-05-06


less equal to any emergency. Such
was has native strength and readi-
ness at all points that in represen-
tative career of forty years III the
State and National Legislatures and
the incident contact with the great
men OF politics, he was never nom
plussed by his defects of education.
In public debate and conversation
he was remarkable fer tact, blunt
wit and effective eloquence besides
be had voice and manner of decla-
nation which insured the reception
of everything he uttered.
WHO oGLE WAS.
Alexander Ogle was q man six
feet two inches in height, finely pro-
poruoned, with great depth of chest.
He was man of courage and conf
dence, and at the age of forty-fye
was the acknowledged great man of
the world he lived in. He was a
very singularly odd man, not whit
made up or affected and without an
iota of pretence in him. He was as
honest as steel and as open as day
light. He was all alive; every mo-
ment had its purpose and every ac-
ton a determinate drift. He knew
everything, could do everything and
took the responsibility ofeverything.
He was the patriotic politician Of
Somerset county and for half a Gen.
tury did its thinking, managed its
business, projected its public roads
and every great improvement in the
policy of Its community.
General Ogle was Denocrat-a
Democrat in the best significance of
the term. / deem it pertinent to the
subject of this correspondence to give
few extracts from a fourth of July
Grafton delivered by the General,
which l copy fIom book entitled
''Perioscopes on Current Subjects,
EAtemporaneously Treated" by R.
William Elder, published in 1854.
The Grafton was delivered at Coffee
Spring a mile East of this town, in
1888. The meeting was made up of
the people of the town and of the
neighoorhood, mustered en- masse.
In the course of his remarks the
General said:
"My dear fellows, you don't un-
derstand it, but ii is clear as light
that the Lord reigneth and the dew
lis fool. | know it in threescore
wears and ten / never saw the right
eous forsaken nor his seed begging
bread. Stretch yourselves up in tbs
light; swell your breasts in the up
per air. If you go nosing about In
the dirt for living and dozlng In
the mud for enjoyment the shadow
of leaf will hide the whole heaven
from your sight. Pigs have no pros
poets. They grunt when they are
comfortable and squeal when they
are hurt, and they don't understand
the course of things. And if any
fine fellow here finds his bristles ris-
ing he knows who | mean by the
parable. L was among
those green hills my dear fellow ar
tizans, before the oldest of you were
born. and snipes and night owls, did
you ever detect ony humbug in me?
If you did, out with it I'm SO tired
of barking that would like to make
a bite. Try your teeth on this
rough old hide, ye whippeHnappers.
There's blood in me that would make
you drunk as blazes for the rest Of
your lives and give yea your first
peep of glory that ever opened upon
your benighted souls. Didn't l tell
your respectable daddies that they
were making fools of themselves in
the whiskey insurrection? When
Washington came to Bedford with
bis army the Allegheny Mountains
rocked under his footsteps, the di-
minutiye manikins that danced like
drunken monkeys around their pig
nut liberty-pole in the diamond
over there trembled in their shoes
until you could hear their toe-nails
Jingle. was Democrat, . Jefisr-
sonian Democrat, then, as am now,
but l wasn't demagogue, coward
or q broad-mouthed brawler against
my country its laws and its Cons6-
tuition. i
FIGHTING FOR IMPROVEMENTS.
"Your grandmammas can tell you