The Durham recorder. [volume] (Durham, N.C.) 1879-19??, 1891-06-24
A BITTER TONGUE IN HIS
DAY.
The Poets Have Sung Of the
Sweets OF Rural Life---Free
from the Hurly-Burly of

sweets Oh hurat LiIe---F rec
from the Hurly-Burly of
Politics.
Ingalls, who was once SO great
and powerful is nothing now
but a speck on the map. Like
all of his kind, have been forced
to retire to a simple and inno-
cent existence good alike for
body and soul, enabling him to
hold solitary communion with
his Maker and to cast off the
pomps and yanities of the world.
There is in this country a strik-
ing example Of such self-abne-
cation.
1t is said that one of the most
interesting spectacles in the
vast West is that of Farmer In
gals driving into Kansas, seat
ed comfortably on a load of hay,
holding the lines over his four
mules with a practical hand.
while the flap brim of an old
felt hat half concealing his
bronzed countenance, gayly
striped suspenders crossed over
a hickory shirt and trousers
stuffed into his bootlegs, hetray
the horny handed son of toll.
It is said that Ingalls,, when
occasion requires, can WELD an
accomplished pen. During the
period Of his political retirement
he might fill his inkstand, trim
his goose quilts, and in the even
ing after he has fed the hogs
and locked all the stable doors,
he might accomplish much good
for his country by a series of
essays on agriculture.
tits not necessary for Mr.. In
gals to confine himself to the
dry details of planting potatoes,
ploughing corn and cutting
wheat. He might leave those
things for duller writers, and
talk of the rhythm and rhyme
of Kansas farming. Mr.. Ingalls,
might tell us how much pleas
anter tits to get out of bed al 4
O'Clock on a winter morning and
feed the cattle than it is to idle
ones time away in a Senate
chamber with a lot of men who
value above anything else their
ability to determine the precise
merit of the latest thing in mix
ed drinks. Mr.. Ingalls, might
tell the young men of Kansas
how much nobler it is to plough
corn all day under a sun that
sends the mercury up to 10 de-
grees than il is TO make or listen
to weary tariff speeches and
talk of the failure or success of
reciprocity.
Mr.. Ingalls, has a great OPP
portunity. Having been once a
politician and being now a far
mer, he will speak with the
voice of authority, and the SEN
fences of wisdom that fall from
his pen will be read not alone in
Kansas, as but far South as
North Carolina. He can COM
pare the pure joys of his new
life with the baser passions of
the old, and when he contrasts
the superior pleasure the build
ing of q rail fence affords to
working with a committee at
Washington, il can be said that
another factor has been added
to the better side of mans ex-
istence.
Mr.. Ingalls, had a bitter tongue
in his day, and he spared no
man, but, no doubt as he sits in
the shade of his porch, and con-
templates the wide sweep of the
Kansas prairie, all these things
are forgotten, and at night when
he reads the Bucolics and the
Georges of Virgil, which 50
beautifully describe the life that
he himself is leading ., 900 years
after the Roman poet, he must
be thankful in his soul that PEI.
fer beat him for the Senate. No
more does an obstinate South,
rushing headlong to its ruin,
like the tragedy carried to its
predestined,end in a ,reek play,
vex his soul. No more is il
necessary TO pitch together the
rags and tatters of the Bloody
Shirt and wave il to the breeze.
No more must he trouble him
self with tariffs and internal
revenues and the ways and
means of the Government.
Instead of such things he car
quietly ponder over the yield o.
wheat in the fifty-acre field
calculate how many Of the new
spring lambs will survive tn,
) coming winter, and consider
the latest methods of grating
apple trees. Busted with sucl
peaceful thoughts, the memory
, of his old, wicked, political day
r will pass away, when bedtim'
/ cnInnH. aud thus we hid pnni