Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1889-11-13

a Dleoninr Chrysanthe

A Bleonimg Chrysanthemum.
Our postmaster general is u notable
iteak Of nature. No one will incline TO
rank him a. an ordinary man. He Is
"a emanation Of the ready made cloth
ine business, and the most remarkable
one that Il has produced. He evolved
from It into the wholesale dry goods and
motions business and from that ascended
into the national cabinet. But he Is
aleo religious teacher and the orator
and director Of the Bethany Sunday
school. All these are possible ana
homogeneous occupations, as this
example proves but not many have
successfully compassed them about.
And our postmaster general has not
done It without difficulty. There is a
marked idiosyncrasy Of the ready made
clothing business that has clung to him
through all the evolutions of his life (;
and It Is destinct inability In narration
10 observe the distinction between the
true aud the false. This is a failing
which It is not supposed that the re-
ligious teacher should show. The general
understanding is that the manager OF y
Sunday school should be worshiper
o. the truth more 80, at least than the
ready made clothing dealer Is supposed
to he.
This seems to be the impression OF
Senator Wade Hampton, who tells Mr..
Wanamaker that the story of Ananias
and Sapphira should be made familiar
to his Sunday school and intimates
quite clearly that 1t is one to which MIR.
Wanamaker himself has not given
proper attention.
The senator says that the postmaster
general told him few days ago that he
would not remove the postmaster at the
senator's home until his term had ex-
pired and that he would consult the
senator about his successor whereupon
the latter hied himself placidly to his
Mississippi shooting box, only to learn
As soon as he reached there that the
Columbia postmaster had been removed
and his successor appointed.
The senator suggests that the post
master general did lie to him, and that
this Is not well in a postmaster general
and Bethany's boss. But the opinion
of the senator may be rash. There may
have been circumstances beyond his
control which brought the postmaster
general and the Bethany teacher In po-
sition upon the same track going differ
ent ways in which case collision and
the collapse of one of the engines
ct least was inevitable. This collision
has been often observed to occur in Mr..
Wanamaker's Sunday school and mer-
camille career and II has been stand
ing wonder how the store advertise
ments and the Sabbath lectures were
able to come concurrently from the same
source. But the feat has been steadily
done, and has marked Mr.. Wanamakel
~ man of remarkable power, versatil.
ity and conscience.
And as Providence has smiled upor
him and elevated him to the PRESIDENT
cabinet, and invited the presidents wifi
TO his home and secured the coming ou
of his daughter under her distinguished
auspices; and has spread the wings o
the American eagle and the folds of the
American flag over the whole Wana
maker establishment, 1t must be con
ceded that the anointment is IA testimon,
to Its worth which the world is likely L
accept, Senator Wade Hampton and lik
grumblers to the contrary notwithstand
ing.
The recent occasion upon which thu
postmaster general and his chief as
sistant, Mr.. Clarkson, assisted at ,
Bethany meeting, whereat the post
master general delivered divers ad
dresses of great length and beauty, ha
: served to impress upon the public mint
more than ever the abounding talent
and virtues of Mr.. Wanamaker. Whel
we read how he had told his scholars O
the sins of Absalom and how he tore OF
the flowers of a chrysanthemum bush
with each statement:of a sin of Absalom
until only the bare stalk was left to rep
resent Absalom's naked worthlessness
we wondered and shuddered Clarkso
was there to hear what Wanamake
said. Wanamaker aud Clarkson wer
together in the council of Quay, am
they knew how they had come to b
postmaster generals, where they tel
fibs to senators and others and Gu
of Democratic postmasters' heads b
the hundred every day. Wanams
ker gathered the bag of none
and Clarkson helped Quay to put
. where 1t would do the most goot
and here they were, mourning togethe
In Bethany over Absalom's sins, and tn
hare stalk that was left of him after nj
the flowers of his sins were plucked. Blu
what revelation it was Of the Wana
maker mind The sins were the brigh
flowers, and the man with the sin
plucked from him was the barren stick
Wanamaker and Clarkson evidently d
not purpose being barren sticks, bu
hold on to the sinful flowers of thei
adornment.