The
sick man shook his head drearily, and put the implied compliment aside:
he was past such vanities then.
"You're wrong," he said. "It isn't Oregon, or Mexico, or Texas, but the
office-hunters that have brought me--where I am."
In that answer there was the simple solemnity, that attaches to the
lightest words of the dying. Sixty days later the speaker was "sleeping
down in Tennessee," never more to be vexed by the clamor of the
cormorants, or waked by the clients keeping watch at his door. Nor was
he a solitary victim. General Taylor did not live to see half his duty
done, and the atmosphere of the White House, in one month, proved fatal
to Harrison.
To a disinterested spectator--especially if he chance to be of indolent
temperament--there is something very irritating in the ceaseless crowd,
and hurry, and din. From early morning till long past midnight, you
might search in vain, through any one of the principal hotels, for a
quiet nook to write or read in, unless it were found in your own
chamber, where the appliances of comfort are more than limited. All
private sitting-rooms are instantly engaged at fabulous prices, and, in
the public parlors the feminine element reigns with no divided sway. It
is difficult to appreciate even newspaper "leader," with a prattle and
titter around, wherein mingle tunes, not _quite_ so low and sweet as the
voice of Cordelia.
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