The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1876-12-31
LAMAR, THE GREAT SOUTHERN STA TES-
--- ------ MIN.
A BEAUTIFUL PEN PICTURE.

| sAoAo "a WV pb'iSStpDtC IL De
barred FROM active impact upon the incho
ate forces by the trammelling memory o
has record. He is the inspiration of tn.
wisest counsel and the creature of the mos
unfortunate results. He measures mos
accurately of any man in his party the
limitations of party possibilities, presagei
with snrer instinct the results of mooteC
measures, and inspires by his moderation
the most invetrate of the blunderheads
but Instead of demanding subservience Of
obedience to his counsels, merely submits
! them in an advisory way and retires to med
| itate on the system Of Aristotle and the pre-
cession of the eqninoxes. In the hurry
burly of politics, with all the possibilities
| of an unreasonable shock to our system he
| looks forward to exclusion from the senate
of the United States to which he has been
elected, and talks with enthusiasm of re-
cunning his professors chair in the Missis
sippi university, whence he emerged to take
the place he now holds in the lower house
His personal tastes are of 30 simple q sort
that he hates Washington life and public
ways. He would settle down in the senate
with satisfaction. The hurry burly of the
| house; its noisy inattention it's purposeless
chickering's; its unframed eloquence Its
instructed energies its babel-like confus-
ION of tongues, are repulsive to him. In
his seat the mild eyed, melancholy eulogist
OF Sumner takes but passing interest in the
aimlees writhipgs of the headless party
AuOu5LcES OIL buc uOOT. ne never SPEAKS on
the current topics of debate, If a crisis
comes and the law seems buried under the
tumult of ignorance and demagoguery, he
rises determined, leonine in face, voice,
and figure, and brushing the verbs! rubbish
aside uncovers the truths 80 clearly, sim
ply, masterfully that opposition is awed and
the storm is claimed. His power is by no
means with his own party. When he joins
issue with his adversary there is rarely a
contest. This was notably shownin
HIS OVERTHROW OF BLAINE
last winter, an overthrow 80 complete and
stunning, that the victim retired speechless
and bruised,-yet such is the strength of
personal and party loyalty in the mass of
which Blaine was the head and front, that
the rumor of the defeat was choked almost
within the walls of the house. 1t is of record
in the proceedings, and in the proceedings
almost alone. To q majority Of the men
who see him, Lamar is a creature of repul-
Give austerity. His face and form 1 have
called leonine-as expressive way of pre-
senting fash of his pertraiture as know.
But the expression does him Injustice, while
truthfnlly reproducing the singular force of
mind, rs delineated IN face and form. He
has piercing dark eye-which to casual
glance SCENE 1nfeeling and absorbing. His
head is massive, beyond comparison. The
features large and regularly irregular-an
Indian aquilinity and contour, set out by
a name of great thickness aud medium |
length.
Theodore Tilton once immortalized the |
roseate shreds aad patches which cover
Roscoe Conkling's scented pate by likening |
1t to a torso "-Lamar's torso" is an |
abiding part of his personnel. But by |
pothesis of the mans character from the
outward show of face aud figure would be
as imperfect, to the reality, as the diagnosis
Of q sightless man. Though his eve is
piercing, it is not the penetrating glitter of
A To n Thnn n
pressed and firm, it is to lock the reserves
IF gentleness, humility, and rea! tende rness
,ather than maintain the frosty reserve of
lIsdainful self esteem, or IS generally
high-bred hauteur. Nine peopie
n ten who meet the man pass on pTonounc
u MIN reserved TO austerlty, because to
trsngers he is somewhat reticent, some.
Vhat irrespOnsive and shrinking. To init
mates, however, he is wholly the antipodes |
these outward signs and tokens. Gently
1odest, pensive, and sympathetic, he is the !
troDg rock of all who are in trouble or dis
ress. His experience in the professors
hair has given bin an insight into the
'ays of youth, and lets his big hear TT go out G
D boyhood without restraint or limit d
hildren flock to him wherever he goes. In {
he hotel he is the familiar and FREUD of all v
he odds aud ends of little folks deserted to t
be servants. l have seen children flock I
bout him in the reefs as he came to his d
lodest quarters on Thirteenth street, all '
tanning caress OF recognition. Yet 1 g
ave heard members say that this map, o
nom the children love, il cold, repellant,
'ihsh, devoid of the generous instinct OF P
'nviviality! p
Had he been born north of the line, he II
ould to-day be regarded as b
THE PEER OF WEBSTER, !,
10 equal of any of the leaders in state n
aft. AS it is he is merely phenomenon. O
70 unique expression of the prescribed sec, c;
On. What he says is regarded by certain W
IrtIzlaDs with suspicion and by others with e1
siike. He is too conservative for bis IL
'rtbeTn conPatTiots and too radical for fl
8 southern compeers. He was the first "
utherner to meet the expectation of the 80
pservative wing of Republicanism. He &C
resaw the future and outlined it in the tn
address on Sumner. ha
Lamar's home in Oxford, Miss W here he pr
7es in great serenity with his wife and two as
ildren-a boy and girl-the latter repro. is
cling the fathers intellectual aspirations, fe,
9 former more of the gay, thOughtless, tr,