Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1893-02-02
NOT EXACTLY NEWS.
A Few General Remarks and Familiar
Reflections.

! W d VII oil pltCC
swings his arms and sticks out his legs
and succeeds after wild efforts in not
/ falling, he always turns around and looks
with deeply scrutinizlng air at the place
on which be has slipped. He seems to
want to mark the place, lest perchance
he shall come that way again, or he
seems to want TO get at the hidden signi-
+, ficaDce of the thing, and to know why a
slippery place is slippery. He seems to
think it great palliatioh for his having
slipped. He may perhaps want TO turn
observation from his ridiculous self to
the cause Of his having been ridiculous.
Anyhow. he takes a deep interest in the
place. and if these are not the reasons,
what are?
Much discussion has arisen over the
fact that on the new one-cent stamp
Columbus is represented with cleanly
shaven face, while on the two-cent stamp
in picture depicting an event but a
day later, the great discoverer is repre-
sented with full beard Now there is no
use in worrying over little thing of that
sort. Columbus may have worn false
whiskers on that occasion, knowing by
the unerring instinct of genius that his
first landing in America would be a pic
turesqe moment, and desiring to figure
with as much dignity as possible in it.
Or he may have grown whisker, though
this may seem impossible to the youth
who has nursed sickly mustache for
year or more to little effect. Even now
there are hair producers advertised by
means of before and after taking pic
ures, which, if these pictures be true to
life, are of astounding efficiency. And
though history is silent on the subject,
we may suppose that there were like rem
edies for hairless men in the days of
Columbus, and of sufficiently greater
strength to produce whiskers over night.
Mr.. Blaine got the title "Plumed
knight" at Cincinnati, and it was given
him by the splendid Grafton of Colonel
Ingersoll. Here is the sentence i'll which
it occurred: This is grand year-a year
filed with the recollection of the Revolu
ton; filed with proud and tender memo
ries of the sacred past; filled with the
legends of liberty-a year in which the
sons of freedom will drink from the
fountain of enthusiasm; a year in which
the people call for a man who has pre-
served in Congress what our soldiers won
upon the field; year in which we call
for the man who has torn from the
throat of treason the tongue of slander;
a man that has snatched the mask of De-
mocracy from the hideous face of rebel
lion: man who, like an intellectual
athlete, stood in the arena of debate ,chal- !
lenged all comers. and who up to the
present moment is total stranger to
defeat. Like an armed warrior, like a
plumed knight, James G. Blaine march
ed down the halls of the American Con
gress and threw his shining lance full
and fair against the brazen forehead of
every VI OOulOlJ anu
ligner of its honor.
When he voluntarily produced the Null
hgan letters, and read them in the House
of Representatives, Mr.. Blaine said: Il
have defed the power of the House 10
compel me to produce these letters. |
speak with all respect to the House. |
know its powers, and trust l respect
them. But, sir, having vindicated my
right, standing bYit, ready to make any
sacrifice in defense OF it, yet | am not
afraid to show these letters. Thank God
Almighty, am not ashamed to show
them There they are. There is the very
original package. And, with some sense
of humiliation, with modification do
not attempt to conceal, with a sense of
outrage which l think any man in my
position would feel, invite the conf
dence of forty four millions of my cOun
trymen while read those letters from
this desk"