The Washington critic., 1886-12-02
TOPICS OF THE DAY.

lights In "Bo3;'1and Of all the creations
of Dickens Major Poorc relishes most
the dreadful old man who stopped
David Copper6eld on his way to his
aunts house, when the poor little boy
tried to sell his jacket. Every one re.
members how the old man grinnod at
David, and can imogine his fierce
monotonous. whine, as he held the boy
by the hair: "Oh, my eyes and limbs,
what do you want2 Oh, my lungs
and liver, what do you wantr
Oh, goroo, goroop' Now. this
pleasant refrain much tckled Mr..
Poore, and he likes TO roll IL over with
his tongue as n sweet morsel. SO one
day, as ho was walking on State street,
he sees friend short distance In
front of him. Quietly stealing up
behind him, he drives his friends hat
down over his eyes, grabs him by
the throat with one hand and wreathes
the other In his hair, shouting in his
ear meanwhile: ooh, my heart on
fire; oh, my eyes and limbs; oh, my
lungs and liver; oh, goroo, goroo -
The astonished victim struggles,
breaks away and turns full upon Mr.
Poore. Lol 1t was not his friend,
but stranger who knew him not
oh, goroo, goroo
a"a
1t looks natural and reminds one of
old times, says Colonel Ayres in the
Kansas City Times, to see the rotuud
figure of Colonel Ward II. Lamon hab-
itating in and about Willard's after an
absence of several years from Wash
ington, where, under tho administra-
tion of President Lincoln, he filled the
Office of Marshal of the District of
Columbia. He came to the Capital
from the State of Illinois, and after
various vlclssltudes of health and for
tune, peregrinated westward some six
or eight years ago, locating at Denver,
Col. From 1861 to 1876, or there
abouts, Colonel Lamon was the central
figure at the National Capital. but like
many Of the noted men of
that Intervening era, he has
faded from public view. While
Colonel Lamon, as known to Wash
ington friends, was always stout, he has
of late materially increased In avoir-
dupois, and swelled foot encased in a
red sock and leviathan slipper indicates
that the gout or some other aristocratic
disease which attacks the extremities
has marked him for Its own. His
movements are therefore slow and de.
liberate, and his habits extremely quiet
and placid, and yet in his day and time,
according to tradition, he was veri-
table giant in strength and activity,
who could 'get away" with the best of
the array of bullies and fighters which
distinguished the days of early settle
ment in Illinois and other localities
then Of the "far West" 1t is also an
item of well authenticated history that
Abe Lincoln, tall, angular, and with
muscles like whip. cord, could wrestle
and fight with the best Of them, and
Lincoln and Lamon, while not exactly
travelling on their muscle, were hard
team to tackle.
~"x
And yet another chapter of great in.
terest, says the Philadelphia Times, is
added to the romance Of the death. bed
marriage, death and two funerals of the
late Senior de Potestad, the third sec.
retary of the Spanish Legation at
Washington. His widows child by
her first husband. Mr.. Bratton, who
never saw that child, has just fallen
heir through his father, who was an
Englishman and who is now known to
have died about four months ago. to a
title and fortune in England. Senior
de Potestad married the lady October 0
and died on the 10th of that month,
without knowing, as his wife also did
not then, that her first husband had
been dead three months. The fact as
to the death of her first husband, Mr..
Bratton. was not known to Nine. de
Potestad or any OF her friends until
quite recently, for she had never heard
from Mr.. Bratton from the time he de.
serted her in Galveston, Texas, before
their child was born, and did not
even know where he was. Because
Mr. de Potestad had married, in
disobedience to the laws of his coun.
try and church, q divorced woman,
there were no religious ceremonies
over his remains until nearly a month
after his death, when, instructions hav-
ing come from Europe, his body,
which had been in vault for three
weeks, was inferred in the C,ngres.
sional Cemetery. which, however, is
not Catholic burying ground, In the
presence of the most prominent mem
bers of the Diplomatic Corps. The
Rev. Father Chappelle OF st. Matthew's
Roman Catholic Church ofliciated.
Had the fact of the death of Miss
Wright's first husband been known be-
fore she married second time, Mr.. de
Potestad could have been united to
her by Catholic priest, and then
there would have been no difficulty
about his burial at the proper time
soon after his death and as to his
parents and friends in Spain
recognizing the lady he welded
as his lawful widow But now, 1t Is
said, so rigid are the views Of Spanish
Catholics on such questions, the fact of
his having been married by Protest.
ant clergyman, will in spite of her first
husband having died before that time
prevent the recognition Of the mar.
riage by his relatives. There was no
civil marriage. Meantime, however,
she uses his name, crest and coat-of.
arms, and whether or no she can he rer
ceived in Spain as the widow OF Senor
Don Luis de Potestad y Plnhelro, she
is to be recognized by law in England
as the mother of the heir to title and
fortune in the Bratton family.
~
How some of our public men dress
was noticed by reporter of the New
York Mail and Express on occasion OF
Mr.. Arthur's funeral, and here are
some of his pencilings: Secretary
Uhstanuta aant,o1 ,~nint ~ oh IL,