Year: 1866

have occurred at Lake Constance, in 1895.
Lake Constance. owing to its immense
depth, freezes over only at rare intervals OF
many years, and when it does, nobody IS
hardy enough to venture on the ice.
traveller, little acquainted with the country
$50 the ballad runs), was trottlng, on DrisK
horse, through one of the Swiss valleys
shimmering with sunlit snow, hoping TO
reach the lake and cross the ferry before
nightfall. BY some mischance, he lost his
way. After wandering among the sleeps,
he Suddenly descended into perfectly lev
ell plain, covered all over with snow, as II
it were sand. The ballad sets out the incl
dents with great simplicity and pictur-
esqueness of descriptiOn-the broadening
of the plain, its solitary smoOthness, the alb
sence of all sounds except the screaming
of wild geese and the tapping Of water
hens in the air high above the travellers
head, the slow descent of twilight, when, at
last, light glimmers in the distance, the
plain seems bounded by hills, and the rider,
at length, in the edge of a bitter winter
evening, is saluted by the barking of dogs,
and finds himself in a small village. He
calls to maiden standing at window to
tell him how far it is to the lake. "Ihe
lake is behind you, and If a rind of ice did
not cover it, l should say you were Just
from UOC DOaU.' TOu6 uClC ONCl yOnhVl
plain" "Oh Godr-raising her hands in
astonishmenU-'yOu have rode over the
lake! your horses hoofs raped at the
throat of the abyss and you are not food
for the brood of the hungry pikeW The
bewildered, Mortified traveller heard only
the first words; he shuddered; his hair
stood on end his limbs stiffened; his heart
stopped beating; terror found for him on
land the grave lie had just escaped in the
water.


The Republican party have performed
similar feat in Connecticut. A similar
shudder comes over their newspaper or
gans as they look back upon the extreme
thinness of the crust over which they have
passed.


From the Tribunel


"Our friends have had a narrow escape,
when there ought not to have been even
struggle"


[From the Timesl


"We have had lucky escape in Connec-
ticut, whose true-hearted Union men
could not afford Copperhead triumph"


from the Herald.l


"In the late Connecticut election the Re.
publicans have had narrow escape from a
disastrous defeat. They have been saved by
their candidate for Governor, one OF the
most meritorious Union volunteer soldiers,
and by the popular odium which still at
taches to the Democratic party from its reb-
el and Copperhead peace affiliations dur
ing the war"


The narrOwness of the escape, which is
here confessed, may well hush, as it does,
every note of eXultatiOn. 1t acts on the
Republican party as a premOnitiOn of its
speedy demise. The Republican Governor
of Connecticut was elected, last year, by a
majority of more than 1000; Gen. Hawlev
| is elected by a narrow margin of about 500,
although he had the advantage OF running
as a soldier against civilian, within year
after the close OF the most popular war ever
waged. IfGovernOr Buckingham had been
put into the field against Mr.. English, he
would have been beaten by majority half
as large as that by which he was elected last
year.


The canvass in Connecticut did not begin
to be brisk and energetic until within ten
days of the election. In those ten days, we
reduced the Republican majority of last
year ten thousand five hundred votes. An
other day, at the rate we were proceeding,
would have Cancelled the little remaining
margin of five hundred, and have given us
| five hundred Democratic majority. In the
rural towns, where the Republican strength
lies, and Republican papers circulate, we
made less impression, owing to the short
ness of the canvass. The garbled and ly-
ing account of President JohnsOn's con-
versation with the Republicans who visited
him in Hawley's interest," was spread through
the State, and few of the rural voters had
an opportunity to see the authentic con-
tradiction, and learn the Presidents true
wishes. If the canvass had been extended
sVNTn fisN,,
among the rural population, and our gain
had been proportionally as great as in the
towns, we should have carried the State By
ten thousand majority.


We do not affect to be satisfied with the
result; but we have much better reason for
satisfaction than the party which gained
the election. 1t demonstrates great de-
cline of their party strength. 1t proves
that, even in the short interval of a little
less than three weeks since the New Elamp-
shire election, powerful reactionary tide
has set in, which needs only time to ebb
from under the republican party and leave
it hopelessly stranded. The Democratic
party did so much in Connecticut in SO
short a time, and under such adverse cir
cumstances, only because a great reaction
is in progress in the public mind. This
election was held in New England; we ran
civilian against a soldier; we had our
trump card president Johnson's intimatiOn
OF his wishes) but little more than week
the United States Senate was emptied OF
its most eminent Republicans to speak in
the canvass; money was sent into the State
by outside friends of Hawley in protusion
and yet we cut down majority of eleven
thousand to something like five hundred
The Republicans may well ask themselves
how many such victories they can stand