The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-08-17
Mr. Hoar and the Festive Goldfish.

A frolicsome, jolly old fellow is
the Hon. George Frisbie Hoar, United
States senator from Massachusetts.
Recently in a republican caucus he is re-
ported to have made some very unstates-
manlike and unwise remarks. to the effect
that he would sooner New England work
men should live on so cents day aud cod
fish than that the force bill should fail TO
become law. The language was reported
by the press, but Mr. Hoar maintained a
Quay-like silence, and the country accepted
the report as true. The report Of his utter
ances and the statement that he was a man
of wealth and no friend of the workingmen,
which appeared in the Pittsburg Post, seem
to have awakened him to a realization
of the outrageous nature of the as
sertion attributed to him, and he at once
wrote a letter to the editor of the
Post The letter is chiefly interesting for
two reasons. The first is, that it is very
different from anything that has come from
the Senate chamber recently, and the sec
ond is that it is brief autobiographical
sketch of the senator.
MY dear man." writes the senator to the
editor, in that easy, good-natured way that
is calculated to establish a firm belief
in the equality and fellowship of
man. "My dear man-Somebody has
sent me a copy of your paper con-
tanning an article of which you do me the
honor to make me the subject. Who could
have put such an extravagant yarn into the
head of SO amiable and good-natured fell
Iowa 1 never said the things which you
attribute to rue in any interview, or caucus,
| or anywhere else"
Mr.. Hoar here INDUCES in few personal
remarks, showing that he, like his father,
was poor, and that, like true MARTYR to
his country and his cause, he got poorer
and poorer during his public career. And
he adds pathetically: During all this time
have never been able to hire houso n
Washington. Ny wife aud l have expe-
rienced the varying fortunes of Washing
ton boarding houses, sometimes very COM
Portable and good deal of the time living
in fas ion TO which no PIttsburg mechanic,
earning 80 day, would subject his house
hold. Your 'terrapin' is all in my eye,
very little in my mouth"
But now listen to the glowing eulogy of
the Goldfish, judiciously seasoned with a
little New England puritanism. A truly
royal dish, a relish for the gods: 1.-The
chief carnal luxury of my life is in break
fasting every Sunday morning with an
orthodox friend, a lady who has a rare gift
for making fishballs and coffee. You I'M
fortunate and benighted Pennsylvnnians
can never know the exquisite flavor Of the
Goldfish, sailed, made into balls, and eaten
OF Sunday morning by a person whose
theology is sound, and who believes in all the
five points of Calvinism. am myself but
I'm unwor thy hereto; but l am of puritan
stock of the seventh generation, and there
is vouchsafed to me also some share of that
ecstasy and dim glimpse of that beatifc
vision. Be assured, my benighted Penn
sylvania friend, that in that hour whom
the week begins all the terrapin of
Philadelphia or Baltimore, and all the soft
shelled crabs of the Atlantic shore, might
pull at my trousers legs and thrust them
selves on my notice in vain"
A man who regards the Goldfish as such a
delicate morsel, a man poor, but honest aud
of Puritan stock, could certainly not have
meant to offer any indignity to the New
England workmen if he did say that be
would rather they should live on so cents a
day and Goldfish than see the force bill fail
to pass. Goldfish is only another word for
feast, according to the senator, and fea st
every day and 80 cents besides ought to sat-
isfy the most fastidious Mr.. Hoar's cod
fish story is bound TO make an impression
on all who read it, and the workingmen for
whose benefit it is told will not soon for
| get it.