The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-02-06
Especial Correspondence I

est Statesmen OF MOd6rn Times.
Especial Correspondence
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2.-Mr. Blaine out
lived nearly all the men who were prom
inent in public life when he first attract
ed national attention. That was just a
quarter of century ago. He was then
serving his third term in the house, had
already made many striking speeches,
had become very popular and was can
didate for the speakership, which he aft
erward reached. Mr.. Blaine at this time
was only 3s years old, and his must then
have been one of the most attractive fig
ures ever seen in our congress.
In an old newspaper the other day
came upon piquant description of Mr..
Blaine as a statesman in his young man.
hood, and as l read it I could not help
contrasting the Blaine Of % years ago
with the Blaine we have known in Wash
ington during the last two months-the
Blaine whose arterial system was clogged
by fatty degeneration till every organ, in
GLIDING the brain, was deprived of blood
nourishment, inducing sleep 20 hours
out of every "a and continuous uncon-
seriousness, except at rare intervals-the
Blaine whose closing career in public life
had been marked by failure of those
wondrous intellectual powers which for
aquarter Of a century had surprised and
delighted all holders-the Blaine whose
i'll nourished brain at times lost not
only its wonted brilliancy, but its CO.
herency the Blaine whose valuable life
was being gradually choked out Of him
by suffocation Of the circulatory sys-
TEN. It was of this Blaine, so long well
nigh matchless in the public arena, that
a Washington correspondent wrote %
years ago:
Mr.. Blaine is an indefatigable worker. an ac-
curate statistician. a logical reasoner and
fluent speaker. He possesses thorough knowl-
edge of parliamentary law. His tact in dis
charging the duties of presiding officer has
often been tested by his temporary occupancy;
of the speakers chair. Whether in the chair
or on the floor of the house he always main
tains his self possession. dignity and good hui
NOR. Mr.. Blaine is metallic; you cannot con-
ceive how a shot should pierce him, for there
seem no Joints to his harness. He is man
who knows what the weather was yesterday
morning in Dakota, what the emperor's policy
will be touching Mexico, on what day of the
week the 18th of December prox. will fall, who
is the chairman of the school committee in
Kennebunk, what is the best way of managing
the national debt, together with all the other
interests of today, which anybody else would
stagger under. How he does it nobody knows.
He is always in his seat. He must absorb de-
tails by assimilation at his finger ends. As
said, he is clear metal. His features are in a
mold, his attitudes are those of bronze figure,
his voice clinks, and, as you know, he hasideas
fixed as brass.
Mr.. Blaine survived, as have said,
nearly all the important men with whom
he measured swords in the arena of de-
bate during the first years Of his con-
gressional career. nIt is interesting to
glance over the list of leaders of that day
and see what havoc death has made among
them. twenty-five years ago, when
Blaine's sun was first seen shining clear,
and day by day higher in the armament
of fame, both branches of congress con-
tanned an unusually large number of
brilliant men.
One of the senators from New York
was the great Roscoe Conkling, whose
quarrel with Blaine in the house a few
years before changed the history Of
parties, drove one into retirement and
kept the other, possibly both, out of the
presidency. The other senator was E.
D. Morgan. In the house were Ferdi
nand Wood, G. Fl. Van Wyck, John
Ketcham and John Morrissey, who had
gambling establishment here in the
rooms now occupied by the Washington
newspaper men as clubhouse. Of
these only Ketcham remains in public
life. Nearly all the others are dead.
Among the representatives of Penn
sylvania were Simon Cameron, Samuel
j. Randall and William D. Kelley. All
are dead. Only one man of the Penn
sylvania delegation then in congress
sOld Charley" O'Neill-
Ohio had among her representatives
Ben Wade, John Sherman, Robert
Schenck, James A. Garfield. Only Sher-
man remains. Senators Anthony and
Sprague, from Rhode Island, are both
gone-one to his grave, the other into
retirement SO lonely that it makes of the
former dashing senator, millionaire and
husband of the most brilliant woman of
the day-Kate Chase-virtually a re-
cluse.
Willard Salisbury, then senator from
Delaware, has been succeeded by Eli, his
brother, and both have disappeared.
James A. Bayard, then the other sena-
tor, gave way to his son Thomas, and he,
after serving term as secretary of
state, has lived four years in retirement.
The elder Bayard is dead.
Illinois was then represented in Wash
ington by Lyman Trumbull, Richard
Yates, E. B. Washburn, John A. Logan,
Shelby M. Cullom, Green B. Raum and
Samuel S. Marshall. Trumbull, though
nearly 20 years Blaine's senior, still lives
and practices law and was few years
ago married. Yates is dead. So is
Washburn, who lived to help defeat
Blaine for the presidential nomination.
So is Logan, who also helped defeat
Blaine in 1880, who ran on the ticket
with him in 1884, and who would have
been elected instead of Harrison four
years ago had he lived. Marshall is
dead, and only Cullom and Raum are
still in official harness.