The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1884-08-28
A Portrait Ut Chinese Gordon,

In person General Gordon is slight
and short. His appearance is more
suggestive of activity than statellnoss,
and nothing can be more unassuming
than his manner There is n beautiful
chld-Iikc simplicity about his smile,
which recalls, by 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 will that can be as of iron, and of
decision that shrinks not at heWing
Agag in pieces before the Lord, should
the necessity unfortunately arise. In
him sympathy as impulsive and rs
tender as that OF q woman is united
with the tierceness and daring of an
ancient Viking. The man is positively
unique in this combination of puritan
and crusader, humanitarian and sol
dior, revolutionist and man of order,
idoalist and man of affairs, that our
times have seen. The diversified influ-
encc flowing from this heterogeneous
conglomcration of antithetical qualities
act and react upon his mind with a
most bcwildering result. Never was
there any man so difficult to follow, or
so easy to understand. Gordon, :"
said one who knew him well, "was Gre
atod for the express purpose of con-
founding all newspaper editors. He
never says the same thing twice or
sticks to one opinion two hours togeth-
er Yet, by those who arc capable of
looking below the surface and clearing
away the apparent Inconsistencies,
there will be found clear silver thread
of consistent purpose running through
all his impulsive vagarcs of thought
and expression" 10 the creatures of
routine and humdrum General Gordon
is sheer lunatic. TO the official with
his red tape and straight lace he is q
bette nOirC. A man who is constantly
saying and doing the most paradoxical
things, whose mind is quicksilver, and
whose life is dominated by q curious
com bination of religious principles of
Cromwell and Thomas q Kompis, is in
deed an incomprehensible phenomenon
to the jewellers in the well-ordored
realm of commonplace. Those who
have no faiths, but only habits, are
naturally at loss to account for man
of admitted genius whose convictions
are the oldest tumble of enthusiasms
that can be imagined. A Governor
General of the Soudan, who interrupts
his administrative duties in order to try
to nurse starving little black baby
back into life; the patron saint of the
Anti-slavery Society, who legitimatizes
the slavc-trade by decree and resolves
upon appointing the king of the slave
traders as sovereign of Khartoum, is
not man to be described by any
formula; he must be classed by him
self. So men who have not 1.-THE of
his administrative genius, or his shrewd
political sagacity, shrug their shoulders
and say that Gordon is mad. And, of
course, if they themselves 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 eccentricity, of which many
strange stories are told, his impulsivo-
ness, his unreasoning generosity, do
not in the least impair the marvellous
influence which he seems to exert on
all with whom he comes in contact
From m a'Tic'e BY W. Z. stead, IN the
dUgUSt CcR'Hr8.