John W. Guiteau, the brother, has also won the respect of the community. He is trying to make the public understand that only an idiot or mad man would be guilty of the crime which a brother has committed. He feels the disgrace so deep and burning that all facts connected with the assassin’s life should come to light. Unlike his sister, he has pity, but no affection, and if he can be made to believe his brother is responsible, he, like Mr. Scoville, under the same circumstances, will be among the first to approve the carrying out of the extreme penalty of the law.
Olivia.
[ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS.]
Captain De Long’s Departure—The Polaris and Her Commander.
Washington, January 7, 1882.
Since the cablegrams of James Gordon Bennett to the authorities at Washington, no further news has been received of the ill-fated survivors of the Jeannette, who are now supposed to be traversing the frozen waste of Northern Siberia in dog sledges to reach once more a welcome home. Sad as the fate of all those who have undertaken to penetrate the secrets which Nature keeps eternally locked in her Arctic jaws, the moment a new expedition for the same purpose is mentioned, the spirit of adventure stirs within the naval breast, and more officers and men are found to offer their services than would man a fleet.
When Commander De Long, of the Jeannette, drew the awful prize in the lottery of Arctic exploration, his ambition rose to fever heat. So much so that in a measure it dried away the tears of his almost heart-broken wife, who felt the fate of Lady Franklin wrapping her mind as a dead body swathed in a winding-sheet. Just before Commander De Long left the capital, husband and wife decided to go to the White House and receive the Executive prayers and blessings ere the doomed vessel should unfurl her sails. Arriving at the proper morning hour, they waited and waited until patience was gone, when a messenger returned bringing the sad intelligence that “The President could not be seen, but Mrs. Hayes would soon be at leisure.” Another period of precious time passed, when the rustling of silk was heard in a distant corridor, and at last a huge bouquet “hove” in sight, with a remarkably smiling lady behind it. Without giving Captain De Long an opportunity to get a word in edgewise, Mrs. Hayes seemed determined to let the visitors know that she had mastered the situation and knew all about it; but imagine the consternation of the brave naval commander to find that he had been mistaken for a charlatan who had invented what he believed to be a method of freezing out yellow fever on board of ships irrespective of the vessel’s latitude.
“Yes,” said Mrs. Hayes, her soul palpitating with devotion to her fifty million loving subjects, “if you have only succeeded in ridding the world of yellow fever.”