The Olivia Letters: Being Some History of Washington City for Forty Years as Told by the Letters of a Newspaper CorrespondentBriggs, Emily Edson
History
The Olivia Letters: Being Some History of Washington City for Forty Years as Told by the Letters of a Newspaper Correspondent
Briggs, Emily Edson
United States -- Politics and government -- 1865-1933; Washington (D.C.) -- History
Among the most remarkable of the new men is the one who is just
rising from his seat. When sitting he does not attract particular
attention; but when he attempts the perpendicular one mentally
asks: “When is he going to stop?” Hail! Cameron of the illustrious
family of that name--the successor of the festive and woman-loving
Carpenter, of Wisconsin. “Ye banks and braes of bonnie doon” is
written all over this grizzly Scotsman, who is composed entirely of
bone and muscle, and destitute of meat as Mother Hubbard’s cupboard.
What a superb specimen of the Highlander! If he could only be induced
to wear his Tartan, bring his bagpipe and show the Senate what is
meant by bringing together the two wings of the Cameron clan. Oh,
Carpenter! Carpenter! will the time ever come when Wisconsin will
weep tears of blood because she so bitterly scourged thee?
The man who occupies a seat this side of Cameron is Jones, of
Florida. Another red man, but not of the Saxon type of Conkling. The
clay from which he is made must have been formed of iron pyrites. A
smooth face, thickly strewn underneath with arteries and veins, in
which the scarlet fluid comes and goes at the slightest behest of
the passionate will. Tall and broad above the average of men, and,
so far as physical appearance is concerned, a fitting representative
of the lovely State of magnolia and orange groves, the Mecca of the
invalids, and the luscious retreat of the happy alligator.
And this is dainty, delicious Pinckney Whyte, of Maryland, whose
pedigree is as clean and well defined as Victoria of England, and
who, by the way, in some remote manner, claims kinship to him. How
good it must feel to have such blood in one’s veins, and yet Pinckney
has made no complaint to the Senate. If he has scrofula like old
George the Third, there is no visible sign of it, and the only
evidence of insanity he has shown was when he consented to come to
the American Senate. In violation of the maxim that precious things
are never done up in large parcels, he is fully up to the average
size, with a handsome face, and features as finely cut as those of
an exquisite cameo. What thin ears and slender fingers! It is true
he has not tried his strength in the senatorial race, and it is
not known whether he will succeed in writing his name high on the
scroll of fame, but he has a mission, a noble mission, in which he
must succeed, for his presence helps neutralize the effect of the
carpetbaggers; and even this small bit of the purest respectability,
like the yeast in dough, in time may come to leaven the whole lump.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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