The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1860-02-16
Notable Characters.
SENATOR FITCH.

| 4NOb"OsC
! SENATOR FITCH.
Fitch is midle sized, graceful and well.
built man, apparently not over forty three
or forty-five, but with hair curiously marked
by age, being brown on the top of his head
and almsot white around the edges, as if
the sluggish pulse in his veins had not
strength to drive the coloring. matter anv
distance through the straight and horny
fibres. He has round full, rather high
forehead, not marked by any particular char
acter; eyebrows of a sudden arch, concealing
hazel gray eyes set in dangerous proximity :;
an irregular nose, with around, white button
on the end of it; thin, straight, and almost
colorless lips, such as the painters ofmythol-
ogy give to Envy; great breadth of face just
below the cheek bones, indicating large eau
ton; a pale and laborous complexion, shown
to disadvantage by the absence of any beard;
and neat, rather careful style of dressing
the carriage of the man being dignified,
and his back very erect as if to make up in
physical straightncss for the obliquity Of his
political action. He has coarse, heinpen
texture of voce-the ring of no metal in it,
not even brass; but he speaks with active
and deliberate monotony, and seems fond
every five minutes of Juggling in some We
teran piece oflaw Latin or State motto of the
E. Pluribus Unmm kind, which he gives
with JUNCTION. As to the matter of his har-
angue it is well enough arranged; all the
stereotype charges being produced in due
procession, and the whole not being very
much inferior to one of the articles written:by
! Constitution Browne in his more iudgmatical
dogmatical, pragmatical and argumentative
editorial agues The sting goading Fitch
to this explosion is undoubtedly the action
of Indiana in sending delegation instructed
for Douglas to Charleston.
GEN. JEFF. DAVIS
A very different kind of man is Gen. jeff.
Davis--as polished as Fitch is course: as
brilliant as Fitch is blood-thirsty; these
words being, of course, used in their politi-
cal sense. Davis is a nervously built man, of
middle height thin, quivering, full Of excite
able EN-, otions with forehead of immense
capacity and breadth; sparkling and very
deeply set gray eyes one of which has been
almost destroyed by the anguish of tic dol
oreaux; hooked nose, slender. with nostrils
almost transparent; mouth vigorously sin
ewed, and channeled at its sides, delicate,
thin lowerface, betraying the pangs ofphys-
icai ailment In every tracing; cheeks hollow
and wasted as if by dyspepsia, and no re-
sorces visible t. sustain the man at its pres
ent height of labor and power, except the un-
conquerable spirit of rule, and an intellect
which shines out in pervadng lustre through
out every lineament and gesture A rrema-
! turely wrinkeled mana chivalrous, high
nature, turned to bitterness by agonies of
the body and the disappointment of cherish
hnnn-. n,,1t, tnl
whose wit is a rapier; drawing blood wher.
ever it touches; whose fancies are never so
rich as when they place some more prosper
Gus rival in a ridiculous or humiliating po-
sition. A soldier of undoubted callantrv, a
scholar of high attainments, always frank
and kind to those beneath him-alwavs
| naughty and malicious to those who can pre-
sumo to be his peers-no wonder that jeff
erson Davis longs for disunion. as the only
means of giving him that ascendency which
his ambition hungers for and which. his could
then command; no wondgr that he should
most bitterly hate Douglas.
TooNBS.
| Fitche's speech is for the most part disco
| ted over the head of Senator Toombs-that
| is to say, apparently aimed at Toombs. bus
really intended to strike Douglas. Now Sen
ator Toombs is also very striking figure
atype-man in his own class; and whie the
hempen harangue goes on he may as well by
| sketched. Fancy, then tall swarthy,
burly, rather corpulent figure, crowned with
a shock of dark brown hair, iugged as a
/ haystack struck by neutrality-suspicious. a
drift Of seaweed flung up to be sundried on
sone rock by the last billow of tempest
The whole head is massive and lion-like; the
forehead broad and low, the eyes dark, large
and lustreless, except when excited by pas
sion the lower lids having nervous full
ness and baggness, (to coin word,) as if
| filled with unshed tears; the nose, not large,
but standing out IN bold relief the mouth
passionate, powerful and voluptuous; already
a development of what will be in old age
pelican sack of double chin; the complexion
sallow and changeable; the throat massive
and muscular; not a bad face to look at, and
avery suggestive one to study. .
The man has duration of life in his organ
ization, and will probably be a public charac-
ter of eminencc-having ripened but slow
ly-for the next twenty-five or thirty years.
Never having heard him speak, it can only be
inferred from his physique that his voice is
a deep rich doube-bass, of the rumbling,
roarirg, muttering kind and that his die
ton would naturally be sluggish, level, and
hoarse at first-men of this nature requiring
to lash themselves into excitement by the
sound of their own sentences, before the
scales of Solomon can be uplifted from the
deep and moody abysses Of passion, out Of
which their fall storm of rhetoric has to be
invoked.
FITZPATRICK.
Sitting next to Douglas on one Of the Dip
lomatic sofas is Senator Fitzpatrick, of Ala
bama-laughing with the Judge at some of
Fitch's points, and occasionally turning
round toward Breckenridge, who sits smoking
a cigar just within the entrance Of one of the
rooms. Fitzpatrick is a very tall and pow
erful looking man, not gracefully built, but
with an amability ofexpression which makes
up for any statuesque deficiency. He has
brown hair, high but not broad forehead,
blueish eyes, full of dignity ard kindness
a straight nose, rather inclined to droop; full
lower face; a small mouth, small ears, a
throat in which the apple is very prominent; !;
hale and fresh complexion, carrying its ros-
mess beyond the fiftieth Winter; soft, pa
tient and conservative air over the whole,
, and that traditional style OF black neck-tic,
| black satin vest. black bedy coat, black
trowsers, and broad-toed boots, such as
would appear to be the inevitable doom of
, all Southern and Western men who are not
in the habit Of paying frequent visits to New
York or Europe Gov. Fitzpatrick has re-