The Penn's Grove record., 1884-08-02
Portrait of Ch1nese Gordon.

In person General Gordon is slight
and short. His appearance IS more
suggestive of activity than stateliness,
and nothing can be more unassuming
than his manner. There is a beautiful
child-like simplicity about his smile,
which recalls, by a certain curious as
ISOLATION Of ideas, the impression pro-
duced by the first sight of Mr.. Carlyle.
But there is something about his lower
face suggestive of latent "hardness, -
of a will that can be as of iron, and of
a decision that shrinks not at hewing
Agag in pieces before the Lord, should
the necessity unfortunately arise. In
him a sympathy as impulsiye and as
tender as that of a woman is united
with the herceness and daring of an an
Gent Viking. The man is positively
unique in this combination Of puritan
and crusader, humanitarian and SOL
der, revOlutionlst and man of order,
idealist and man of affairs, that our
times have seen. The diversified in
fuences flowing from this heterOgen-
eous conglOmeratiOu of autlthetical
qualities act and react upon his mind
with a most b%ewlldering result. Never
was there any mar so difficult to follow
or so easy to understand. Gordon"
said one who knew him well, was
created for the express purpose of con-
founding all newspaper editors. lie
never says the same thing twice or
sticks to one opinion two hours tOgeth-
er. Yet, by those who are capable of
looking below the surface and clearing
away the apparent Inconsistencies there
will be found a clear silver thread Of
consistent purpose running through all
his impulsive vagarles Of thought and
expresslon.'' To the creatures Of rou-
tine and humdrum General Gordon is a
sheer ~lunatic. To the official with his
red tape and straight lace he is a bete
n0ire. A nan who is constantly saying
and doing the most paradoxicaI thing,
whose mind is quicksilver, and whose
life is dominated by a curious combina-
ton of the religious principles OF CrOm-
well and Thomas a Kempis, is indeed
an incOmprehensible phenomenon to
the jewellers III the well-oTdered realm
of commonplace. Those who have no
faiths, but only habits, are naturally at
a loss to account for a man of admitted
genius whose convictions are the oldest
tumble of enthusiasms that can be i'm
agined. A GoyeTnor-General of the
Soudan, who interrupts his administra-
tive duties in order to try to nurse a
starving little black baby back into life;
the patron saint of the Antislavery So
ciety, who legitimatizes the slave-trade
by a decree and resolves upon appoint.
ing the king of the sla~ye-traders as SOW
ereign of Khartoum, is not a man to be
described by any formula; he must be
classed 10y himself. So men who have
not a little OF his administrative genius,
or his shrewd political sagacity, shrug
their shoulders and say that Gordon IS
mad. And, of course, if they them
selves are the type Of true sanity, they
are right; but if so, then he Is one Of
those madmen whose madness is of the
nature of inspiration. GOrdon's eccen-
tricity, of which many strange stories
are told, his impulsiveness, his unrea-
soning generosity, do not III the least
impair the marvellous influence which
he seems to exert on all with whom he
comes III contact.