Los Angeles herald., 1891-10-18
THE LOS ANGELES MORNING. IS.

It was whenever they saw, to their sur
prise, that he was serious in this absurd
balderdash that the passengers began to
ask themselves and each other the
question whether he was crazy.
AYE, times are changed, greatly
changed since was in the senate"
said Dorsey in his philosophical reflec-
lions upon Washington city. "There
were great men in Washington, great
men IN public lite then; men OF great
minds capable OF evolving great thoughts,
men who could do a great thing and
never utter a word about it. men who
could remain silent about their own acts
while all the rest of the world were ex
cited about them; great big giants of
men who utterly despisedEthe multitude
of pgmies around them.
"Ah Conkling was great man. There
is no such man left. He was a man
with great mind, great heart, great
soul, as simple and plain as a child to-
ward the modest and humble. but
laughter than Lucifer toward the vain
and the proud. How he loved to snub
all kinds of presumption and snobberv
When Conkling first entered public life
the millionaires and aristocrats of New
York thought they could feed him with
occasional crumbs of recognition and that
he would be glad to come when they
called. But they were mistaken. From
his childhood he was a prince among
men, and he knew it, and he lived up
to his knowledge. The time came when
the Astors and the Vanderbilts, and the
Moneybags and the Bluebloods, would
have given the apple of their eye to
have had Roscoe Conkling grace their
society. But ne steadily refused to give
|
cards, personal calls aud personal salu-
tations on the street, were all despised
and ignored by that proud, plain,
princely man. When he married Hor-
alto Seymour's sister, the Seymour
family grumbled at the wedding. Conk-
ling was beneath them and the mar
riage was degenerating. Conkling heard
this and all the indignation of his proud
soul rose to arms. He never uttered
word of complaint or retaliation.
No man after that ever heard
him say a word, good, bad
or Indifferent about his wife or his
wife's family. Never again till the day
of his death did he claim her as his wife,
and the only correspondence he ever
held with her was to call or write occa-
sionally, inquiring, as was the hus-
bands duty, about the needs of the
household. He is great man who can
assert his dignity in that way.
But we have no such men left. When
Conkling rose in the senate everybody
wanted to hear him, because it was
known that whenever he spoke he bad
something to say. He was not in the
habit of talking just because he could
talk and the senate permitted him, as
many senators do now. 1t was not by
babbling like the men of the present
day, that Conkling's speeches came to
be so eagerly waited for 1t was
not by babbling in that fashion
that l made such mark in
the senate and commanded such
rapt and universal attention whenever
rose to speak. | think it is not too
much to'say that made as good an i'm
preston as any senator of my time.
That was due simply to force of charac-
tsf, to plain, solid, natural greatness.
.f"Then think of Grant, that silent.
great man, who knew how to keep his
own counsel and punish all who offeAd-
ed him without sullying his tongue to
utter word against them. was with
Grant good deal during the war and
afterwards when he was president, so
that [ know him very well. l remem-
Der once, on the field of battle, General
Grant had occasion to reprimand Gen
eral McClernand, of Illinois. The latter
resented the reprimand. Did Grant
handy words with him No, sir. Not a syl-
liable did he utter, and he apparently
paid no attention to what his subordin-
ate said.
Later in the day McClernand came to
apologize. He met Grant and began to
talk, but Grant did not hear word and
did not recognize the presence of the
apologist. That evening General Nc
Clernand received notice that his resig-
nation was required. He never re-
ceived a word of explanation from
Grant, but another officer was imme.
diately appointed to assume his COM
mand.
"Afterward when General Grant was
president, he was sitting in his Office
one day when Postmaster Jewel entered.
The president heard him through and
attended to the business for him, and
the postmaster-general was about to
leave, when Grant, without another
word, said: 'Mr. Jewel, would
like to have your resignation. 1t
would be convenient if you would write
it now to take effect at once.' Soon
after that Secretary Bristow called to
| transact some business of the treasury
| oAA0 ObO PIC6lOCub O6-
manded his resignation in exactly the
same way. Both knew Grant we'll
enough not to ask for any explanation.
tThese, these,' exclaimed the senator
with great enthusiasm, "these were the
kind of Grants and Dorseys and Conk-
lings you had in public life in those
days"
The foregoing is undoubtedly the
most reasonable as well as the most in
teresting specimen of all the senator's
bombast. In the writing it has prob
ably been made more coherent than it
came from the senator's mouth.
1t would be interesting to let the SEN
ator tell about his charities and the
pleasure he derived from distributing
his wealth among the poor and the
needy; about his hearts desire to touch
the chord of happiness in other hearts
and make even one fellow-creature feel
gladder; how this sentiment had led
him from time to time to write sweet
poetry and melting melodies, including
NY Sweetheart, The Suwanee River,
Ole Black Joe, and doubtless Aud Lang
Syne, Annie Rooney and many others
how it gladdened his heart to know that
these little compositions of his were
sung all over the world and increased