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Show MARX TWAIN ON ST. PATRICK. PAT-RICK. The folio wine letter was read at tj dipper of the Knighta of St. Patrick. I iu Hartford, Conn., on Friday night: Hartford, March 1G. fiuUni .VeChuJ, Kt'j.: Dear Sn:: I am very sorry that I cannot be with tiie Knight o! St. Patrick Pat-rick to-morrow evening. In this Centennial Cen-tennial year we ouht all lo find a peculiar pleasure in doing honor lo tlie memory of a man iiose good name has endured through fourteen cetiluriM. We ought to liud pleasure in it for the reason that at this time we naturally have a fellow leeling for such a man. He wrought a great work in his day. He found Ireland a pro-pcrous republic, and lookinp about him lo see if he miyht find some useful thing to turn his hand to. He observed that the President ol" that republic was in the habitofsheltering his great oihcials from deserved punishment, pun-ishment, to he lifted up his stall and smote him, and he died. He found that the secretary of war had heen so unbecomingly economical as lo have laid up $12pi.M0 a year out of a salary of of SS.UOO, and he killed him. He found that every separate and distinct barrel of ealt beef that was intended tor the unconverted savage, and then kept tiiat hep f himself, him-self, so he killed him also. He found that the (secretary of the navy knew more alxAit handling suspicious claims than he did about handling a ship, and ho at once- m&du an end of him. Ho found that a very fuul private secretary had been engineered ihruiigh a sham trial, so he destroyed bin. He discovered that the congress which pretended lo prodigious virtue waj very anxious to investigate an ambassador who had dishonored the country aboard, but was equally anxious anxi-ous to prevent the appointment of any spotless man to a similar pcwl; that this congress had no Ciod but party, no system of morals but party policy; no vision but a bat's vision, and no reason of excuse for existing anyhow. Therefore ho massacred that congress to the last man. When ho had finished his great work he said, in his ligurntivo way. "Lo, 1 have destroyed all tho reptiles is Ireland." St. Patrick had no politics: his sympathies lay with tlie right that was politics enough. When ho came across a reptile lie forgot to inquiro-whetherhe inquiro-whetherhe was a democrat or a republican, re-publican, but simply exalted his Bt.ifl and "let him have it." Honored be his name I wish wi had him hero lotiim us up for tho Centennial. But that cannot be. His stall', which was the symbol of real, not sham, reform, re-form, ie idle. However, we still have with us tlie symbol of truth George Washington' little hatchet lor I know they've buried It. Yours truly, S, L Clemkxs. |
