institution,--just where he could slip backward with great ease,
though it took some effort to go forward. Being somewhat infirm of
age, I took him gently by the hand and assisted him in, where I
thought he might, if he pleased, stand upon a square platform. The
General was very polite, bore strongly in his demeanor the marks of
time and honor; I could not suppress the capricious thought--that it
was time a sly corner in the patent office were provided for political
relics of a past age, and he safely stowed away in it. All things of a
by-gone age should have their place; notwithstanding, knowing that
Uncle Sam and him had tried to be intimate friends, and that he had
many warm and substantial voters in the far West, I felt to be less
than condescending would be bad political policy. He took a seat, and
began to get up his good-nature, as I inquired what earthly mission he
could be prosecuting on so dark and cold a night.

"'Well, now, friend Smooth,' he says: 'I like you, but the question
you put so honestly has a point which you cannot see, though I can
painfully feel. However, as I have no secrets, I don't mind telling
you: it must be private, nevertheless--I am sensitive not to have
these matters spread all over the Union. To-night, you see, a conclave
of political wranglers met below, in this house. Conscious that they
would have a large '_grin_' at me, discussing the means by which I
have always been the rejected of this great and growing people, I came
that my ears might lesson of fools. To this end, I mounted the
chimney, and was reconoitering down the black abyss, when my eye
turned and caught your light, like a star in tribulation, twinkling
from the window. Strange kind of a tribune for a senator, I admit, but
I heard many judgments, and from them may draw many more. One
reckoned I had stamped with the cold hand of death my political life;
always wanting to fight somebody--the English in particular! Another