—then he becomes _very_ indignant, and accordingly launches forth into
speech the second—with which the delinquents are afflicted, with
occasional brief interruptions from the poet, in proper person, until
the conclusion of the poem.
The _subject_ of the two orations we shall be permitted to sum up
compendiously in the one term “rigmarole.” But we do not mean to say
that our compendium is not an improvement, and a very considerable one,
upon the speeches themselves,—which, taken altogether, are the
queerest, and the most rhetorical, not to say the most miscellaneous
orations we ever remember to have listened to outside of an Arkansas
House of Delegates.
In saying this we mean what we say. We intend no joke. Were it possible,
we would quote the whole poem in support of our opinion. But as this is
_not_ possible, and moreover, as we presume Mr. Mathews has not been so
negligent as to omit securing his valuable property by a copyright, we
must be contented with a few extracts here and there at random, with a
few comments equally so. But we have already hinted that there were
really one or two words to be said of this effusion in the way of
commendation, and these one or two words might as well be said now as
hereafter.