The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-04-18
Our Senators.
Hale and Frye as Sketched by the Pen OF
Mary Clemmer.

Maine, says Mary Clemmer in the Indepen-
dent, has no cause to be ashamed of her pres
ent Senators. She can afford to wait till they
have time to build up personal repute in the
Senate for honor, honesty and ability worthy
the successors of Fessenden and Hamlin. AS
they hold their heads together, chatting, they
look like men who have scarcely reached their
prime, although one is 80 and the other some
what past 40 years of age. Still ''the boy" lin
gers in the face and figure OF both men, as he
he is very likely to do in men the most vari-
ousy endowed and most finely organized
Hale has the more thoughtful face; Frye the
larger vitality. Eugene Hale is of medium
height, of aspect not robust, though in these
later days he has taken on the look of actual
health. He has the nervous-motive tempera-
ment, with olive skin, straight, black hair, a
beard tinged with gray, fnely-cut features,
dark. expressive eyes, and a certain patrician
look, which Is supposed to be not the natural
inheritance of boy born and bred on farm.
Lingering nasal tones in his vernacular still
attest to his origin; but his entire aspect and
bearing is that Of a polished gentleman. He
has an acute, subtle, prescient mind that in
stinctively forecasts the future. He is one of
the men who look on, and then work on to gain
a certain end This faculty is in itself large
guaranty of success. Thus far he has been un-
fortunate, so far as he has been overshadowed
Ge aSe o
tives when his brilliant colleague from Maine
was at the acme of his fame therein. Younger
in years and experience and less aggressive in
temperament, he assumed, in the sight of the
public, the movements of moon in Maine
politics. In the Senate he strikes into new
orbit, in which it is quite possible for him to be
the central figure. In fellowship with q COL
league so distinctively his peer that there is
little danger of collision, his ascendant path
opens full of pleasantness. In him, to the na-
tive shrewdness of the indigenous Yankee"
are added large, clear and fine perceptions, a
fneSse of intellect that can compass much, fine
cultivation and fluent speech. He has but to
go on, with honor, honesty, sincerity, that kind
ness OF manner which is not condescension,
but care to the lowliest of Gods children, to be
surer OF his future even than he has been Of
his past.
William Frye is the opposite of Eugene Hale
in temperament. He has the vital-nervo temper
ament, whose forces are alike acute and active.
Although years his senior, he has less dignity
of manner and more boyishness of aspect than
Mr.. Hale. His hair Chick on his head) is light
brown. His eyes are blue. He has the nose
OF fighter, whose pugnacity is modified some
what, however, by a slightly retreating chin.
He sports no beard, but wears an ample nous
tache. He is of medium height, and his open
collar and careless necktie carry out the impress
sion of boyishness first given by the face above
it. In a political campaign he is an electrical
force, through the vitality of his oratory which
is at once earnest, impressive, convincing and
all alive. Perhaps no one man did a greater in
dividual work for Garfield than did Frye in
his wonderful 'stump speaking in the last
campaign" He stands high as debater, if
only for the cause that he never speaks for the
sake of talking, but only because he really has
something to say. He is an earnest student of
history and of politics. and has but to ignore
the future leadership of any man, to be true to
his highest self and to his highest trust, to be
in his own right inyincible