The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-10-11
RANDOM SHOTS.

Gcnerhl Ii. V. bOynJOu. hlteT JWeuby-seVen
years OF faithful service to the Cincinnati
Commercial Gagette, has just severed his con-
nection with that paper. For more than
quarter OF century he has been one of the Row,
and for many years, as member and chairman
Of the committee of correspondents by success
i've biennial elections he has come to be re-
garded as the leading representative OF
the fourth estate here at the National Capital.
No one after this will doubt the precariousness
of the Washington correspondents tenure.
No newspaper man has ever doubted 1t. There
have been too many shakings up to permit
doubt on the subject Who will forget the
experience OF another correspondent, also
representing great Western newspaper, who,
sitting in his Office one night engaged on his
nights work, without suspicion of danger,
was interrupted by the entrance OF couple
Of strange young men.
"Mr. Blank, of the Windy City ConSm7"
inquired the leader OF the two strange young
men.
"Yes, SIR" was the reply; "what can l do
for yous"
ri am your successor was the response
"This gentleman" indicating the second
young man, 'is my assistant. We have come
to take charge"
They took charge 1t was the suddenest
shaking up ever known to the Row. Usually
there are premonitory symptoms OF the
earthquake. That time there were. The rea-
son, as / have heard, for the abruptness of
aging editor of the Consul that Mr.. Blank, If
given any warning or time for the change,
would suffer the Consul to be scooped out of
revenge
Another case is that Of q gentleman who,
after serving one OF the great New York dali
ies-one of the richest and most famous news
papers In the world-for nearly twenty OF the
best years of his life, was suddenly cut adrift
without even an attempt at pretext.
Yet another case in point, antedating both
the others, illustrates another phase OF the
uncertainty which surrounds the Washington
correspondent. A gentleman, now dead, rep
resented metropolitan paper and also pub
lished weekly here. He had for an assistant
bright newspaper man, now writing syndi-
| cate letters from New York. Going on a Eu-
ropean tour he left his assistant In charge. Re
turning he found .that the assistant was the
| correspondent, having secured the paper in
! the others absence. Prior to this time the
| assistant had written book and dedicated 1t
! to the correspondent as gentleman journal
| ist." Some time after the assistant had be-
come the correspondent he got out second
| edition Of his book-a story Of Wash
ington life-and in this he left out
the dedication. What may be thought
an instance of retributive justice marked
| the later years of the authors stay in
| this city. He had at the time three papers,
one of them in Southern city. He, too, had
! an assistant. BY some kind Of journalistic
machiavelsm the assistant got this paper away
| from the author-correspondent.
So frequent are the changes in the corps of
correspondents here that Newspaper Row can
well say with the brook in Tennyson's poem
Men may come and mon may go.
! But go on forever!
Ex-Speaker Reed denies rumor that he
has decided to retire from political life at the
| close of his present term. Verv well. But
| by that time politics may decide to retire
| from Mr.. Reed. ''Men often think they are
~. ..san Ia.
ting them"
Mrs. Frank Leslie has at last got married.
Thank heaven! We may now have a pause
in the infliction OF puffs aud pictures Of that
enterprising lady upon the newspaper read
ing public. Never was woman SO freely,
| widely, elaborately, or ingeniously advertised
| as this same Mrs. Frank Leslie. No paper
was SO high that she did not try to work It,,
and none so obscure that she disdained its
| aid. Her husband is q subject of the Queen
of England, though not an Englishman, as
was her former husband, Frank Leslie, born
Carter and christened Henry. The gentleman
who will hereafter be known to fame as Mrs.
Frank Leslie's husband is William c. Kings
bury Wilde, M. A, eldest son of the late Sir
William Wilde, M. d., of Dublin. Evidently Sir
William was only knight as his son doesn't
seem to have inherited his title. Perhaps
after all the person chiefly to be congratu-
L laLcu IL Inc TlulculOub INDIVIDUAL KNOWN ah
| the Marquis de Leuville. He tried to marry
her and failed. One of the best things
know in favor of Washington is the fact that
Mrs. Frank Leslie's attempt to lecture here
was a dismal failure.
Prince Albert Victor appears to be chiI
from the old block. Lydia Miller, gaiety
actress, whose stage name was Manten, who
recently committed suicide, had the prince fol
| ''friend.''
Picking up In an odd moment paper some
weeks old came across couple of President
Harrison's speeches up in Vermont Having
nothing to do read them. Here is one of thu
gems wherewith he regaled the Green Noun
tain folks "We may not choose what laws VI
will obey-ths choice is made for us. Whel
majority have, by lawful methods, placed
law upon the statute books, we may endeavo
| TO repeal it, we may challenge its wisdom, bu
while 1t is the law 1t challenges our obedi
ence." That may be sound Republican doc
trine nowadays, but it was not tenet of tha
party in the days when the Fugitive Slave Law
was in force. Then the "higher law' was ap
pealed to, and the law which majority hat
by lawful methods placed upon the statut
! book did not challenge the obedience of an
Republican. What is the status OF the ''highe
law" now?
Another gem was where President Harr
son, in alluding to the period just prior t.
| the civil war, said that ''the doughface wa
particularly conspicuous in those days.
After all were not the doughfaces those who