The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-04-21
A PIoUANT PICTURE OF MATT

A PIQUANT PICTURE OF MATT
THE PRESIDENT OF THE sENATE-A MING
LING OF FOLLY, BLoCKHEADs AND BACON
HER METHODS.
''Gideon" writes to the Chicago Times:-
Carpenter still remains the most remarkable
assortment of contradictions in public life,
and will until the undertaken is called in.
Whether he dies like lOafer or gentleman
visitors OF the Senate 60 home with the
belief that Carpenter is dissolute genius,
with an uncombed disposition to rowdy-
ism. The other half carry away the
idea that he is an ingram nobleman;
a modern Sir Roger de Coverly; the ideal
of all that is enviable in senator. To-day
he was at his best. He was to seize the
Louisiana enigma, and wrench a manly
luton from its miserable twistings. His
carriage was Websterian; his attire as smart
as Roscoe Conkling's with none of the sug-
gestion of the private, salaried tailor so con-
spicuous in the clothes of the Utica Apollo.
Carpenter looks as nice as Sumner the day
he was buried, "said fellow OF hideous taste
in comparisons, behind me. To look at
Carpenter to day, was to gaze upon an au-
gust representative of great people; a
senator trimming with the earnest dignity
of a high station, and higher mis-
sion. Tomorrow, this same man will
SLOUGH defiantly around the chamber, with
tumbled hair aud shirt-front; a coat old and
misshapen enough for the back of Richard
ILL.,, and slovenly vest and breaches which
Goldsmith would have flouted in his seediest
days. The Carpenter eyes will glover; un-
der lip protrude, a la Nose; the walk will be
a swagger, and the whole bearing of the man
will suggest what the worldly call "Be-j jesus
STYLE" Ia the chair, Carpenter is the same
strange fusing Of the admirable and repre-
hensible, although he averages better pre-
siding officer than the Senate has had since
the days of Breckenridge. The choking off
of any objection to his ruling, with
A JOKE OR SHEER,
is one of the singularities of his administra-
ton. In the House, his retorts to members
would plump him into hot water the first
day. But if he was presiding over the
House. he would be too shrewd to commit
the blunder. Even in the Senate, when his
decisions are questioned, he is careful to
whom he talks back, and is as grave as a
supreme Judge when responding to Conkling,
Thurman, Schurz, or Edmunds, for all OF
whom he has a whimsical half-awe. But to
buckingham, or Morrill, of Vermont, he is as
abrupt as a school master to dull pupils By
the time they have pondered over the snub
and resolved it into its really rude pro-
portions, the debate is so far along into
a remonstrance. He never is actually un-
mannerly while in the chair. think be can
tell when his bad fits are coming on, asSwift
knew when he was to become insane. When
Carpenter scents the approach of one of his
Bowery spasms. he relinquishes the chair
temporarily to Anthony. and rolls OF to
corner seat. Few congressman can
claim the general popularity of this
bundle of incongruities. He is liked
in and out of the capitol. His stock of
what, for better name, is called personal
magnetism, wakes with years, and he has
the indescribable knack of turning a chance
acquaintance into a staunch friend with
20 words. Less Is heard of his bouts with
the bottle than formerly, and If the amative
light still burns, it is hidden under the
bushel of caution. To be sure, he has been
on the side of one decent measure this ses-
sion. and can only offer his course in the
Louisiana business as an offset for espousing
the salarygrab. ranking chouse, and infia-
ton. Yet "good fellows" are thinning out,
and Carpenters juicy heart, leaged as 1t is
with great talent, may keep him in the
Senate until he dies-perhaps with his
boots on.