The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1870-06-03
A PEN PICTURE OF THE PRESIDENT
BY GRACE GREENWOOD.

| Though so quiet and undemonstrative,
President Grants manner is not cold.
Though somewhat set ami quite reti-
cent in expression, his face is neither
hard nor forbidding. Though his eyes,
| of grayish blue, certainly do not radi-
| ate geniality and good fellowship, have
| always seen in them a still and steady
endliness-impartial, almost indis-
eliminating, but singularly unforgetful-
His look into your eyes on first meet
ing is clear, direct, but not piercing. He
"makes no deep scrutiny" into your
character, but you feel that he reads you
well as far as he goes, and You may be
sure he will know you the next time.
His words are few, as he has OCCASION
ally remarked, and his address simplic-
ity itself. Some one once called it a
courageous simplicity. / don't think
the term suited to him; it implies too
much consciousness. Franklin's appear
ance at the Court of Versailles was
courageous simplicity. Jefferson's rid
ing on, horseback from the White House
to the Capitol was dramatic simplicity.
But Grant gives no thought 10 effect
makes no parade of not making q pa
rade. In walking he carries his head
that wonderfully compact, evenly mod
eled head-slightly forward !; and he has,
in public places, an absent yet acquies-
cent air, as of one being taken some
where rather than of going of his own
voiition-which is usually the case, as
he is the most obliging, Informal and
unmagisterial of chief magistrates. To
me there is something strange in the Or
binary passivity CT such a will as his.
He seems not only a modest but a diff
dent man. Great heroes before him
have been so: This diffidence may often
be taken for Indifference and insensibil-
ity. think have&seen the sure marks
of it i'll his intercourse with children,
for whom he really has the fondness
characteristic of Mr.. Lincoln. He has
no small talk for small interview rs, but
he is not above listening to them, and I
have noticed that they never account
him hard or cold. They have, perhaps,
the instinct to understand. and the grace
to interpret that riddle for statesmen,
reporters and fine ladies-the face of
President Grant.
A few evenings ago, little party of
US assembled to witness some private
theatricals, of the simplest and most
juvenile sort, at the house of one of the
Cabinet Ministers. The family at the
White House called, quite unexpectedly.
On being told what was on the tapis, the
President expressed desire to see the
II
object" Of course they did not, though
quaking in their buskins, but did their
best before their august audience, and
were rewarded by Presidential laughter
and applause. Watching our President
as he sat smiling kindly at that little
comedy, that bit of childish mimic life,
it seemed almost impossible to realize
that he was indeed the great Captain of
Captains, who, a few short years ago,
was the central figure in the mighty
drama of battle, whose stage was a con-
tinent, and whose audience was the
world. l think we ought to strive to
realize this more; it seems to me there
is too much petty cavil at this mans
non-observance of some of the small
conventionalities which we call "the ct
iquette of the position :" too many
newspaper platitudes that he enjoys his
cigar, that he loves horses (bless him for
that that he does not mako speeches
on ali trivial occasions (bless him for
that, too y; in short, he does not ''do
the department of his place according
to the aristocratie democratic theories
that he is not the President of, prece-
dent.
We had eyes and chose him.
Let US remember that God gives to
one soul genius to think and to aspire
TO another, to do and to be. There is
the inspired prophet-brain, which says,
81 see-I believes" and there is the i'm
perial, compulsive brain, which says 81
ami will" Who shall say which is
the greater? Each, by divine law an
cient as time, gravitates to its fit period
and place. Because the night of our
tribulation is past, do not let us cease TO
thank God for the strong hand that up
held and guided us through its heaviest
do RI oh oil LOT
with that hand if it takes not kindly to
Paris kids, or if the grip it learned upon
the sword-hilt sometimes makes slip
perry, self-seeking political fingers Jingle.