Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-28
THE TOPICAL TAbKER.


Another ReminIsc ence-The Fall of the
London Times From Ifs High Estnte-A
Celestial Bit of Sarcasm.
UPON the matter of the late President Har-
rison's visits to this city recognized authority
in local history said yesterday:
Although but q boy in 1S40, have a vivid
| recollection of the Presidential campaign of
that year, and am therefore satisfied that Gen.
eral W. II. Harrison was not here at any time
/ during the canvass, as that would have been
| too great an event to be unknown to me or for
gotten. General Harrison was here in 1886.
and spoke from the steps of the Exchange
Hotel, on the corner of st. Clair and Penn
streets, the same site on which the Hotel An
President then, that was probably the time re-
ferred to by Mr.. Collingwood.
John Tyler, the candidate for Vice Presi-
dent. was here in lS40in attendance at the great
mass convention, which was held, i think. on
the anniversary of the battle of the Thames.
He spoke from the grand stand which was
erected on the commons In Allegheny, and
came near proving himself Burchard, though
that synonym was not then in use So dissatis.
fed were the Wings with his tariff sentiments
there expressed that IL he had been voted for
directly, enough votes would have been with
held from him to have given the State to his
opponent.
"General Harrison, on his journey to Wash
,ington, arrived in Pittsburg on the steamer
Ben Franklin, on Friday, January g. ls4l, and
departed on Monday, February l, on the Loyal
hanna for Brownsville. Shortly after his
death his body was brought from Washington
and arrived here by the Pennsylvania Canal,
and was taken in charge by the military and
conveyed to a steamer on the Monongahela
river"
ANOTHER gentleman who was boy of or
in lS4l remembers very distinctly seeing Pres
ident Harrisons coffin taken down to the Mo-
nongahela levee some time during lS4l. 1t is
his impression that the reinterment took place
not later than six months after his death.
But as yet none of the Pittsburgers have
talked to can fix the date of the transfer Of
President Harrison's body more precisely than
this.
1T is not altogether easy for an American to
understand how terrible blow the collapse of
the case against Parnell and his colleagues is
to the London Times. The extraordinary posi-
tion which the Times has held in England for
so many years. position of authority and in
huence, the like of which probably no other
paper in the world has commanded, was fairly
earned in the first place by the accuracy of its
statements, and then by conservative yet en-
lightened policy upon all the great questions of
the day. 1t had to large extent the confidence
of men of all parties until reactionary move
ment brought Salisbury and his allies the Lib
eral-Unionists into power.
Even in its campaign against Mr.. Parnell and
through him against Mr.. Gladstone there were
still great many of its readers who were
not in sympathy with its policy who retained
their confidence in the integrity and upright
or,f tee
confidence must surely depart The idea that
the Times could make the terrible charges
against men in public life upon the slender and
obviously unreliable evidence of such misera-
BILE scoundrel as Pigott and men of his stamp
would never have been credited by its readers
six months ago. Gradually the truth has been
brought to light, and one can readily imagine
what shrinkage in the Times circulation will
at once take place.
The Briton is pre-eminently fond of fair
play, and the rabidest Tory who has been re.
joicing in the Times as an organ of Tory prin-
ciples and policy cannot but be disguised and
mortified at the slough of perjury and infamy
in which Mr.. Walters and his lieutenants have
landed the Tory party. The Times staked its
prestige its reputation for uprightness, and all
it had upon desperate game, and it has lost
what it can never regain.
*x*
THE reception gwen by Corea's ambassa-
dors at Washington yesterday was not marked
by any of the disgraceful incidents which oc-
Cured two or three years ago at similar af-
fair at the Chinese legation. The Coreans
probably were advised not to give Washington
society anything to eat and drink for refresh
ments seem to have been notably absent rt
An officer Of the United States navy not long
ago told me q story about the orgie at the Chi
nese legation on the occasion above referred to-
one which may be worth relating here. While
the high-toned guests were pitching into the
refreshments as if they were at railway res
taurant with only ten minutes at their disposal,
fashionably dressed civilian-the head of q
Bureau in one of the Departments-familiarl
addressed one of the Chinese Secretaries of the
legation. saying: "say, you eat at home with
chopsticks, don't your"
"Yes," replied the Celestial. who spoke En-
glish very well land at home we feed the starry
ing beggars at the gatesr'