The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1884-03-08
CHARCOAL SKETCHES.
COL. PATRICK HENRY WINSTON, JR

If Mr.. Winston isn't the brightest man
in North Carolina, who is +? He is meteoric.
Nor have the astronomers, political OK
other, yet been able to predict his appear
aneeS-They have, therefore, contented
themselves with Iabeli1g ihii..ffsa hi..ff.s nuisance"
and let him alone. He flashes up when
you least expect him and there is no
doubt about it, it is literally flashing. The
very men who have enjoyed his stories and
his wit, and laughed when he kept them
company, have, when he left them in the
darkness of their own dullness, solemnly
concluded that pat is crazy after all. !"
Our conservative society had and has
no place in it for such man. He ought
to have been born Frenchman, or he
ought to have money enough to keep trav-
cling, stopping at one place never longer
than a day. He is too nervous to endure
sameness, too bright to have such a vir-
tue as persistence in one direction. It
may be true, but it is not the whole truth,
nor is it justice to him to say that he is
erratic. There is a good deal Of monot-
ony in life, and it takes a man of much
steady purpose, or of considerable dull
ness, never to kick against the limits which
a lack Of money or lack of opportuni-
ties sets about the average pathway. Mr..
Winston sometimes kicks. The whole
game at times seems hardly worth play
ing to most of us, and every ambitious
man has moments when he feels like Civ
ing it up. 1t has occurred to me that
melancholy is at the bottom of most
changefulness and | wonder If the in
cessant wit of Mr. Winston has not q
background of sadness.
He is man Of remarkable powers. If
he had uniformly bright companionship
and nothing to worry him, he would make
a conversationalist such as only few
great Frenchmen have been. His repartee is
equal to any occasion, and his imagination
! as agile as his wit is quick. If he had
| been absorbed in any great subject, As
Wendell Phillips was, for instance, he
| would have become an orator OF extraor-
| dinary power. AS it is-we having no
| place for him-he is merely lawyer, poll
tician, story-teller. He is incapable of be
! ing idle, yet he never does much. Time
| and again he has given hint of what he
might do When last year, for instance,
he wrote long card, giving his reasons
| for withdrawing from the Democratic
party, he told more unpleasant truths in a
! forcible way about the Democratic party
! than any other man has ever told in North
| Carolina. If the defamation be left out
| of that address it is one of the strongest
political documents of recent years. But
here again he was merely kicking giving
| another evidence of his restless and tot
near purposely genius. He had many
| times before made quite as severe arraign
ments Of the Republican party.
The average man regards him as ter
ror or as joke. If he were to take th'
stump this year in the campaign he would
be both and, If the Republican bosses
have any particular use for brains or wit
they might nominate him for Governor
if he would allow them. But, if he wer'
nominated it would be characteristic o
him to refuse it, just to enjoy the dumb
founded expression that would come owe
the faces of the bosses to see man refus
such thing In this sense he is utterl,
unselfish.
Children are charmed with him, and b.
has pretty group of charming ones 0
his own. The softer side of his characte
is very tender He has an impulsive gen
erosity that would redeem worse faul
than making his friends the victims Of hi
humor Somehow or other everybody il
North Carolina has come to know him
and for man who has not accomplishes
more in his life he is as cordially loved b
large number, and as earnestly hated b
| perhaps quite as large number of pei
sons as if he had been public servant fo
fifty years.
He is about thirty five, and looks lik
Ben Butler