The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-07-09
MEN AND THINGS.

Savoyard, in Washington Post.
 It is a rather hard hearted man who is not sorry for John H. Mitchell in his public disgrace, and 1t is rather poor American who Is not glad that the law is stronger than a Senator. This man reached three-score and ten while his trial was in progress. and more than twenty years of his life were spent in the public service as Senator in Con gress He was never an influential Senator. He Is not above the average in ability. His success is due to fixed ness of purpose and ceaseless indus try He never bore leading part in an important debate unless 1t was in the Delaware contested election case, when his adversary was David Turpie. who visited upon him more forensic punishment than was absolutely neces- sary, which was a habit the scholastic old Hoosier had. The debate covered many sttings of the Senate. and 1t was interesting to study the speeches. Tur- pie was the profound lawyer. and ar gued principles; Mitchell was the ease" lawyer and argued precedents. In one respect, however, he was simply ad- mirable and reminded me of the cele- brated St. Louis baseball player of twenty years ago. Yankee Robinson. who, when running bases. always pro- tested, He never touched me-" how
  that he was "out" the length of a fence rail and upward. I doubt if Mitchell saw the humor or argument in the old Hoosier's fierce sarcasm: My dear sir, you cannot run a government on CO., nundrums.
 And for a paltry s2,000 this mans life is wrecked. his career as a statesman brought to a humiliating close. It Is a reminder of the rebuke Pecksniff ad- ministers Landlady Todgers about that eighteen shillings. touching which Dickens moralizes in this fine passage. "Eighteen shillings a week! Just, most just thy censure, upright Pecksnim Had 1t been for the sake of a ribbon, star, or garter; sleeves of lawn, great mans smile, a seat in Parliament. 3 tan on the shoulder from a courtly sword, a place. a party. or thriving lie. or eighteen thousand pounds, or even eighteen hundred-but to worship the golden calf for eighteen shillings a week."
 And had Mitchers $2.ooO been s2.000.- 900; had the graft been in speculations pn the sugar tariff. instead of a miser- abIe fee in department practice. possi- blv we would all be following in his victorious train and applauding instead bf sending the grand jury after him Had he secured for some remote vil- iage a public building not warranted by the public business of that commit nifty; had he got an appropriation for stream impossible of navigation: had he added a thousand conee- coolers tc pen sion roll-how we would have hailed him as patriot and as sage But he got caught practicing law before Bingel Hermann, and they even charge thai Binger practiced in his own court.
 Nearly fifty years ago leading Sen ntor in Congress, the first intellect. per haps. then in public life. who had serv' ed long and honorable in either branch of the national legislature, made the boast that he had never been ths means of taking s1 out of the Nationa Treasury for his State or citizen ol his State. The vaunt Is reminder ol Aristides, who wore a threadbare roD' because he haA saa other. but the Attn