The Savannah morning news., 1904-01-03

| would continue WIN me out Cnliu,
the image of such ballroom triumphs
| were not to remain with me, while the
| real Peg, the true Peg, the dear Peg
! of memory when alone would ever be
| the laughing, hooking, hectoring, teas
| ing Peg on her leathern throne at my
! desks end. 1t is the same with men;
! there come such words as play and
! work, and danger and safety; and the
! man you saw on the battTe-line, as
! stern and as brave as Caesar, is that
| boy by yonder camp fire who now
! laughs over some tale Of personal
| chicken pillage when he fled before
mad old dame armed of a pudding
stick.
| While Peg and I were on these long
! range terms. went more in hunt of
| the General for his company's sake
| and for conversation. / do not think
| the General stood aware of Pegs cold
pose towards me. for, as l have urged,
he was no one 10 see such things; be-
sides, Peg, who showed herself no bad
strategist, would be about me with the
friendliness of those days that were,
whenever the General sat by to make
third. Peg held the General in a
best esteem; and then, too, she would
be mindful how lately he was i'll and
save for her tending might have died,
and be the last to vex him with
thoughts of how two so near him and
feud among themselves.
While the General missed the reason
of my frequent visits, he no less rel
ished our talks; for a President, let
me inform you, is a mighty idle man,
for all your sycophant and toadies of
print would depict him as a galley
slave who breaks his heart against an
oar of duty. A President has little to
do beyond fret and fume while affairs
go crosswise to his wishes also, the
General would have him to be a most
tied and helpless creature. besides.
THE presidency" he would say,
when one goes to a last experiment,
is but another word for paralysis"
And is a President such a thing
without hands?" / would ask for it
was sure he thirsted to lecture.
THE office Is so much bigger than
the man. he would reply, that it con-
trolls him, as a mountain might bear
down the strongest were you to load
his back with one"
Now, had thought a President to
be of some consequence" / would re-
tort, in manner of vexing him. "At
least, l have known Presidents to think
So"
And so thought l." he would re-
spond, ten months ago and before in
auguration. Sir, President is but the
fly on the chariot wheel. Being vain,
the insect might flatter himself with a
theory that he is the reason of that
dust and motion he observes. But the
insects vanity would be none the less
IN error. l say to you, a presidency is
a thing of bolts and bars and locks
and letters. What may a President
do? He may say this man shall keep
office and that man shall not, and that
would be as important as If he said
this rat shall go overheard and that
rat stay to roam the ship. The YER
min fate of these, for black or white,
would neither affect a course nor pick
those ports at which the vessel
touched"
But President may veto a bill" I
would reply, "or make it a law with
his fist He may bring down a war"
And yet he is no free agent when he
does any of these" he would return
He Is pressed upon by one force or
another, or mayhap a dozen at once,
and must go with conditions like a
man in a landslide. AS l say, the of
flee is so much bigger than the man
that it transacts the man, and not the
man the office. 1t is as though one
were made president of the Potomac, or
of glacier. Could he take the one be-
yond its banks with a war or stay the
other in its progress with veto? He
might run up a flag, order a bugle
blown, fire gun; but the river or the
glacier would be the last impressed.
No, sir, were one made chief magis-
trate of that snowstorm which now
whitens the word outside, and set to
rule its flakes, he would be in as much
control as when given a White House
and told that he is President
Mayhap it will interest should I offer
report of one of our afternoons. 1t
might go as specimen of all, for each
was but a strolling here and there of
talk Our discourse would be hit or
miss, like a rag carpet, and would fall
foul of whatever caught the eye or
stubbed the toe of fancy at the mo-
ment.
On this day, and being weary with
the sight of Pegs empty chair, / went
down the hall to the Generals work.
room and found him with his nose in
"Tristram ShandY."
DO you like your author?" said I.
'Why, SIR" said the General. lay
ing aside the book, ''he is so grown up
to sedge of phrase and choked of word
weeds as to deny one either the sight
or the taste of the true stream of his
story"
''Walpole," 1 returned, said that
reading 'Tristram' was to laugh a mo-
ment and yawn an hour
"Then he had the better of me, since
have done nothing but yawn." After
pause: Peg gave me the book; it
me between its papers. And speaking
of Peg: Do you still send her the
roses? l know you do, for l met your
Jim on his way to her, buried in BIOS
SONS and looking for all the world like
the flower booth in a village fair"
Here the General lazily reached for his
pipe.
And why should she not have the
fiowers?" l demanded. warmly.
mo reason under the sky, sir" said
he, giving me that old glance out of
the falcon eyes of him-to anger me, 1
suppose-"none under the sky! Send
our pretty Peg the roof off the house
should she have a mind for it," Then,
when now his pipe was going: WAS it
not you to recommend a round, squat,
corpulent being named Curtis to be
marshal for Tennessee?"
81 said he was a good man."
zone might say as much of a pan of
dough. The creature is absolutely with
out motion; l tried him mentally and
physically, so to speak; the man is
stagnant."
None the less a good man." con-
tended. ITO do nothing is at least to
do no harm"
Now, that is as may be-" retorted
the General. II will have nothing to
do with your motionless folk. They
are always the worst folk of all. I
never have been in any crush of peril
or concern where action was not less
hazardous than inaction, and to do the
wrong thing far and away better than
to do nothing at all. Now, this fellow
Curtis of yours would not even talk.
He had no more conversation than "A
catfish -