Wilmington journal., 1876-06-23
COMMUNICATED

DIR. r. D~Witt Talmagc.
There are few persons who do not |
form in their own minds an idea of the |
personal appearance of ANY man who |
stands prominently forward amongst !
his fellow men. We remember the
idea we had Of the great statesman
Henry Clay. How we thought he was
slender Light weight" figure, dress
ed in the top of the style. with well
fitting garments, smooth gloves, erect
figure, Roman nose and sparkling,
blue eyes, with bushy hair bristling up
all over his head. But when we saw
him, with his large SIX feet two inches
frame. sloping shoulders, fiaxen thin
hair, long arms, plain clothes, soft
bat, genial smile and wide mouth, we
could not realize that he was the man
of our youthful enthusiasm-the great
American orator. In fact, of all the
great men we ever saw, John c. Cal
houn, of South Carolina, is the only
one who ever came up to the full reali
zatiOn OF our im aginings.
great preacher and Doctor of Divinity
of New York. We had expected
grave, stern-looking, reserved, rather
repelling man. who looked down on
common morta1s from a stand-po
almost among the angels, and near
whom common humanity approached
with awe and with head bent down in
deep humility and reverence. We
are disappointed again, and SO
| after reading his remarks about his
late visit to Trinity College Com
mencement we feel a desire to intro
duce him to North Carolina as whole
thousands saw him and heard him at
Trinity-but those not there may like
to know how he looks.
DIR. Talnage is in height about five
feet ten inches, straight up to the nape
of his neck, where he SHOWS the bend
peculiar to the student and writer,
that slight droop forward which long
habit at the desk forms. He weighs
somewhere about one hundred and
thirty five pounds, his arms and legs
are long. His head is high, not very
wide and it is partly covered with
coarse sandy hair which he carefully
trains over the dome to cover certain
spots where there is an evident ten
dency to ''grow through" His nose
is long and slightly 'r'etrOatsse"
Standing in front of him and taking
view you are struck with the great
prominence which the bump Of com
parison has. 1t must be the predomi-
nent bump in his head. His eyebrows
are pale sandy and very bushy, his
eye is blue-gre and when he draws
down his eyebrows nearly hiding the
eye, as he frequently does in speak
ing, you can see the sparkle Of the eye,
the diamond glitter, but it appears so
deep that you could not reach it with
your finger if you were to thrust it
into the aperture. When in CONVEX
satiOn, his eyes come open and then
you see what large pupils he has and
you can almost feel their length. But
the speaking feature of his face is
his mouth. It is simply tremendous.
When lie lays it open a. he frequently
does, you look at it, or into it, in as
tonishment. It does not literally reach
from ear to ear but it might be classed
III that c.ass, if mouths are classed at
all. OF his voice no idea can be given
on paper. When he begins it will
strike you as being very harsh. grating
on the nerves; as he advances, warns
mp, or you, become more accustomed
to it, there Is a softening in the tone
and when he comes to the pathetic
parts of his discourse it softens down
and is sweeter and clearer. His man
ner cannot be described, but familiar
gesture of his seems to be with both
hands raised, elbows at right ang es
and hands pointing upward. He fin
ished his sermon at Trinity and backed
down from the desk with his hands in
this position and the word "JUDG-
NrENT'' trembling on his lips. Shortly
after, we overheard two farmers com
pairing notes on the sermon. One
asked, "What part did you like best %
The reply was, 81 liked the way be
ended, best-he seemed to want to say
more and yet he was donel" The ef-
feet of some passages of his sermon
was very great, his illustrations very
striking and the overrul1ng power of
comparison apparent through both SER
mon and lecture.
AS companion Dr. Talmage is very
pleasant and interesting He seemed
at Trinity like a school boy in vacation.
He was up with the sun and scamper-
ing over the hills and fields until
breakfast when he came in and after
hasty meal made rush for his pencil.
In fact that pencil seemed to be in
truding always After every conver-
satiOn, the pencil; after every walk,
meal and Interview, the pencil. No
doubt his notes on the North Carroll
mans are voluminous.
Good bye, Doctor. We like you for
whole-souled Northern man, who
came to look at us with an unpreiu-
diced eye, and we would like to see
thousands like you if there were any
| more.
The Supreme Court of the United
States has decided in the case of Thos.
A Osborn on1 otharu opoolloDto from,