Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1883-08-05
lNGERSOLL'S HOME.
Ills Love Of Shakespeare-Ths Family Bible
--Fondness for PICTURES
His Children.

sWAsHTNGFOS, July N.-Colonel In
gersoll lives on q square in this city,
made famous in the last twenty odd
years. His home is a large brick with
heavy brown stone trimming, very deep
and broad, with generous halls and big
square rooms. Fronting the house Is the
beautiful Lafayette park, with its rare
foliage, and within stones throw Is
the White House. Three doors OF is the
old Stuart mansion, in which the as
sassin Payne came near putting an end
TO the life of William II. Steward on
that unhappy night Of the 18th of April
1866. On this same square few years
before, Daniel +. Sickles shot the de.
stroyer of his wife. The tree against
which Key fell in his dying agonies
was carried off piece by piece many
years ago by relic hunters, and rot even
a root remains. A wide gap between
the fine old trees is the only thing to
mark the place Of the noted tragedy.
The house of Colonel lngerSoll Is al
most new, and although not built for
him, seems to have been fashioned Tor
him. The main hall is very wide, the
floor is of marble, and arches lead TO
the stairway, the dining room, and the
parlors. Shakespeare is everywhere III
this house. He Is
The Acknowledged God.
and the only God wOrshiped. Rows OF
shelves are devoted to the matchleSs
poet, and pictures of him are every,
where. Not long ago distinguished
politician, who is also church member,
called upon the great orator, aud the
two walked together to the library. The
friend looking i'll an adjoining room,
saw upon the comfortable an immense
volume with gilt edges and heavy mo-
rocco binding.
SOho, colonel" said he, "yOu do keep
q Bible~
"Oh, yes, certainly; come and see
it,"
The two walked in the parlOr, and
Colonel IugersOll took up the great
book and showed the back. me IN,
scTiption was: "The Inspired Book"
On the sides in Old English gilt was the
legend, The Volume of the Brain
Turning tha leaves over the trienG per-
ceived thae the great book, so grandly
bound and occupied the place OF honor;
was Shakespeare, and in the middle OF
the book were, as in family Bibles,
blank pages for the family register.
Here were the dates of birth Of Colonel
H.: ersOll and his wife, the date OF their
marriage, and the date Of the bITth Of
their two children.
This, y" said Colonel lngerso!l, lis
The Family Bible,
and here i the prayer book" showing
bin beautiful bound copy OF Burns.
"Ilere is oil the religion want"
The walls of every room i'll Colonel
Irge rSOlrs house are covered with
pictures, Evidently he does not care
rap about artistic arrangement. / be
lieve they say that oil paintings. en-
cravings and photographs should be
hung separately. lngerSoll has out one
idea in buying pictures, namely: 10
please himself; and nothing seems too
poor or humble for conspicuous place.
II an photograph has an idea in 1t that
| touches him, all right; If a chrome TOOK
his fancy, very well; if an engraving
pleased him, Just the same; and If you
ever 90 in his house, gentle reader, you
will fad oil paintings, chrOmos, lltho-
graphs, engraviugs and what not all
mixed up together. But you will fluid
also the great intidel if he is one can
give adequate reasons for the presence
Of everything. If there is not room on
the walls for ali the pictures, and there
is not, then room il found on the floor,
and in this respect the home of Colonel
Inlersoll reminds me much of the late
Charles Summer.
Pictures Were Everywhere.
No place was too good for them, and
they ennOhled the humbleSt places. 1t
appears to me that all the reverence
there is within this man turns to
Shakespeare. Pilgrim never trOd the
fiowery path of Palestine with more
reverence than he pursues the devious
paths OF the great poet. No one knows
the secret Of the great unknown as well
| as he. In one of his unpublished letters
he paints this picture:
Shakespeare was an intellectual
ocean whose waves touch all the shores
OF thought-upOn which were all the
light and shadow and over which
brooded all the Gains and swept all the
storms and tempCsts of which the soul
is capable"
At another time he used the following
beautiful simile:
"Shakespeare harvested all the fields
of dramatic thought, and from his day
until now there have been but cleaners
ofsiraW and chaff."
Personally Colonel lngersOll Is the
most charming of men, and as a natur-
al consequence his life is blameless; for
one holding his peculiar views of life
and death could not dwell in peace in q
rel gious community if there was a
faint on his private life and walks. He
kC, Us away from the bar-reoms.
He Gives Literally
TO all good works, whether Catholic,
Methodist, Baptist, or what not; his
word is taken by everybody who ever
has dealings with him, and nobody
who ever Knew him would ever ask his
bond. His house is the ideal liberty
hall. He has no rules for himself or
his family. Every member Of his family
does exactly rs she pleases. He snever
without company. His family consists
of his wife, "a woman without super
stitiOn," two daughters, Eva, aged six
teen, and Maude, fifteen. He says his
children never did q wrong in their
llNee, anu lIlCN DCNSl hoo - SSSlSb 'AOiA
their parents. Colonel Ingers0ll has q
workshop in the second story of his resi-.
denCe, which is much ike other places
where men do their writing. | asked a
very intimate frierd of his what were
Colonel Ingersol's eccentricities. He
answered very quickly and very tersely
that Colonel Iugersoll has no eccentrici-
ties. He drives nobody from his work
shop, and says that he works better
when his family and visitors are about
him. The house is never without
company" usually three or four per;
sons, young or old, it matters not, and
sometimes dozen friends sit down to
The family board. Colonel lngersolIs
law office Is several times full. 1t is
full of books, full of clerks and full OF
clients. The golden. moutned American
is fifty years OF age.
ARHYME OF CANDIDATES.
i.