Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-04-16
SATURDAY.. ....... MARCH Is, 1898
LEE AND HIS CRITIC.

So far as We have been able 10 ob-
serve-and our large exchange list at
fords US excellent opportunity for ac-
ouaintauce with the journalistic senti-
ment Of the couniry-that painfully pro-
per publication. the New York Evening
Post. is the only paper in the United
States that has been perturbed by the
honors heaped upon General FitzhUsh
Lee The Salvos of artillery, the shouts
OF the people, and the music of the bands
that greeted General Lee on his tiiCmpnal
Journey from Tampa 10 Washington, and
the magnificent reception OF him that
crowned the whole when ne reached his
journeys end. have shaken tine Posts
nerves terribly, and this shaking has
superlnduccd a deplorabe mental coudi-
ton in our cont anporary. that makes 1t
cry OUT in its agony that as a spectacle
70 gods and men Consul General Lee is
just now without rival.
But alack and alas. in this matter it is
the Post that is a spectacle-a sad spec
tacle-without rival to gods and men.
How have the mighty TALENT For a long
time the Post had been accorded the
proud distinction of being authority on
the authorship Of the Letters If Junius,
the authenticity Of Ossian, the mystery
OF Caspar Hauser. what Emerson
meant or thought he meant, &c. II had
been the acknowledged court circular OF
New YOrks intellectual four hundred Of
snslO-maniacal tendencies. Its capacity
Tor srasping and solving abstruse maIhe-
NAUTICAL problems was conceded 10 be un-
equalled. It was logical or nothing. In
its cold calm. lofty unimpres> iouable
stateliness it was the 1acle Of r chosen
few. Now think of such a papers being
brought 10 a mental conditie in which
il is receptive 10 every fairy story il is
possible for yellow joTnalisn-its erst-
while bette nOir-to concoct! Could there be
a sadder. al more heartrending spectacle
10 gods and men?
one result of this condition Of recep-
theness is that the Post INDUCES in
dissertation on Consul-General Lees Gin
discretion" and in 80 doing makes an
effort TO be merry. Well, in a way this
offort-this transformation of Larry
Godkin into Hilarious Godkin-is a sue
cess. The Posts old, cumbersome self as
eerts itself in a measure, and the per-
Torrance is very suggestive Of an cle-
plants essaying 10 90 the star part in a
ballet dance. But its old prociivity for
calculation does not assert itself Were
the Post in normal state of mind it
would intuitiyely figure out in its head
&. 10 l
years of straight talking 10 say one-half
the things he is alleged 10 have said in
less than d weeks time. Moreover, the
Posts logical instinct has gone the way
OF its mathematical instinct. There is
nothing in General Lees record as Con-
eul-GenersI that would warrant the de-
auction that he would have been guilty
Of the indiscretions that have been at
aributed 10 him.
No; the truth is, General Lees course
md utterances since his return TO this
country have been marked ny the same
discretion that characterized his career
in Habana. and the '1ndscreet remarks"
he has been credited with having made,
Ehen run down, have proved 70 be fabri-
GATORS of enthusiastic correspondents. No
mans self-poise has ever been put to
scyerer test than that 20 which General
Lees was subjected by the honors the
entire country has layished upon him.
Yet he has maintained his self-poisc as
unswerHingly as he upheld the honor ana
dignity Of the government az his post Of
duty and danger IN Cuba. And the fact
that he has done 20 renders these honors
bat the more deserved. and the Posts
structures upon him but the more con-
tomptible. IL there Is any indiscrct,on
in this matter II Is on the part OF the
lost In thinking that II can butt the rest
of the American press aud the whole
American people on The bridge-an in
discretion that viii cause It 10 be tram
pied under foot and spurned by all true
men