Part 20 (1/2)
”On faround Their silent tents are spread”
Colonel Wintersenerations of the public men of Kentucky His memory was a marvel to all who knew him He could repeat till the dawn, extracts from famous speeches he had heard from the lips of Clay, Grundy, Marshall, and Menifee More than once, I have heard hient S Prentiss delivered al Court-house, in defence of Wilkinson for killing three men at the Galt House
It is hardly necessary to say that the Colonel was the soul of generosity It was a part of his living faith that--
”Kind hearts are more than coronets”
That he was possessed in no stinted measure of wit and its kindred quality, humor, will appear fronatius Donnelly, ress from Minnesota, had written a book to prove that Lord Bacon was the veritable author of the plays usually accredited to Shakespeare Soon after the appearance of Donnelly's book, he met Colonel Winters, the Colonel re your book, Donnelly, and I don't believe a word of it”
”What?” inquired Donnelly, with great surprise
”Oh, that book of yours,” said the Colonel, ”in which you tried to prove that Shakespeare never wrote 'Hamlet' and 'Macbeth' and 'Lear'
and all those other plays”
”My dear sir,” replied Donnelly with great earnestness, ”I can prove beyond all peradventure that Shakespeare never wrote those plays”
”He did,” replied Wintersmith, ”he did write them, Donnelly, _I saw him write three or four of them, uiltless of anything that savored of humor as the monument recently erected to the memory of Hon John Sherman, ”impossible, Colonel, that you could have seen Shakespeare write those plays; they ritten three hundred years ago”
”Three hundred years, three hundred years,” slowly murmured the Colonel in pathetic tone, ”is it possible that is has been so long?
_Lord, how ti with a gravity that gave it at least the seo, his State was represented in part in the Upper House by a statesood fore measure, usually consisted of dull financial details, statistics, etc He becahtalleries His ”Mr President,” was usually the signal for a general clearing out of both Senate Chaalleries
”Upon one occasion,” said Colonel dick, ”I was seated in the last tier in the public gallery, when h about him solemnly addressed the Chair As was the wont, the visitors in the gallery as one man arose to make their exit With a revolver in each hand, I promptly planted myself in front of the door, and in no uncertain tone ordered the crowd to resume their seats, and remain quietly until the Senator from Kentucky had concluded his remarks They did so and no word of co suth as the shadoere lengthening and the crickets began to chirp, the speech ended and the Senator took his seat I promptly replaced my pistols and motioned the visitors to move out They did so on excellent ti out, he quietly reht, no fault to find, but _if it was to do over again, you ht shoot'”_
XV FORGOTTEN EVENTS OF THE LONG AGO
THE WRITER MEETS MISS GRAHAM, SISTER-IN-LAW OF MR GILES, A REPRESENTATIVE IN THE DAYS OF WAshi+NGTON--HIS MEETING WITH THE DAUGHTER OF THOMAS W GILMER, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY UNDER PRESIDENT TYLER--THE SECRETARY KILLED, AND THE PRESIDENT ENDANGERED BY AN EXPLOSION--SPECULATION AS TO POSSIBLE POLITICAL CHANGES HAD THE PRESIDENT BEEN KILLED
During ton I visited the ”Louise Home,” one of the splendid charities of the late W W Corcoran Two of the ladies I there met were Miss Grahaht each of the of life in the Hohtfully provided It was in very truth the welcome retreat to representatives of old Southern fa of elegant leisure, the years sped by, the chief pastiain the social triu in the shadows of the past, sadly reflecting, it race of a day that is dead Will never come back to me,”
these venerable ladies were in sad reality ”only waiting till the shadows had a little longer grown”
There was soinia days in the manner in which Miss Graha me earnestly in the face, she said, ”Mr Vice-President, you must have known my brother-in-law, Governor Giles”
”Do you inia?” I inquired
”Yes, yes,” she said, ”did you know him?”