TIT FOR TAT.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 16, 10 August 1888, Page 11

TIT FOR TAT.

Genebal George A. Shibidan, who has made a hit as a lecturer in defence of Christianity against the assaults of "The Modern) Pagan," is an effective, witty, and eloquent political speaker. On one occasioa he was sent by a committee to deliver an address In a small town in Indiana on. the banks of the Wabasb. Sheridan was rather surprised at the elaborate reception he met when he alighted from the train. A great procession, composed of the town military company, various civil societies, the Mayor, Aldermen, etc., took him in charge and conveyed him to the public square, where an audience of seven or eight thousand were waiting. Sheridan's bewilderment changed to feelings of another nature when the Mayor arose and addressed the assemblage saying : " Fellow-citizens : I introduce to you General George A. Sheridan, and he will speak. He is not the Sheridan we expected to hear. We looked for little Phil, the hero of Winchester. The committee has plajed a trick on ns. This Sheridan is said to be a good speaker, and we will try and forget our surprise and disappointment and listen to him." The Mayor sat down and Sheridan rose to reply. " Mr. Mayor," he said, in his rich but stentorian voice, " when I was informed that an appointment had been made for me to address the people of this city I accepted it with pleasure. I pictured to myself a teeming city, its buildings a triumph of architectural art, its streets busy bazaars thronged with well-dressed ladies and gentlemen. I saw in fancy its libraries, seats of learning, its galleries of sculpture and paintings. I thought of its many industries aDd its commercial greatness, and withal of the refined courtesy of its Mayor and representative citizens, and my thoughts were pleasurable ones. What, then, is my surprise and disappointment to find your city a collection of wooden shanties on the swampy bank of a dirty river ; your bazaars of trade to consist of a few drug stores selling quinine to year scrawny, leathern-cheeked citizens ; a few rum groggeries and two filthy country stores ; your industries a blacksmith's and an undertaker's shop ; your art galleries pictures cut from the last year's Police Gazette, and your Mayor and representative citizens quite fit to wallow in the mire of their surroundings. I will try to overcome my disappointment regarding your city and the disgust with the committee who sent me to speak to a population who seem happy and contented with their lot, and I will now proceed to addren you on politics."