The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1884-03-05
IN BLAINE'S STUDY
How the Man From Maine Does
His Literary Work.

ter. In Congress he acquired great
skill as an orator. and developed an
extraordinary ability for expressing
himself in the best possible manner
upon the very shortest notice. One
would think that his skill as a ready
IA ker on his feet would make bis
work easy in preparing his Look.
With q gOod secretary, n might
imagine that he could r. adilr dictate
eve-y one of the chapters of the book.
Mr.. Blaine says, however, that he
Is able to dictate to an advantage only
where the chapters il the book par
take of the narrative form. For any
thing beyond that he is obliged to
sit down and labor with his good
right hand. He says that he. does not
believe that any work of high literary
excellence eau be accumulated by
dictatiOn. He says that in writing
there are three sentinels standing
guard over the brain. The two eyes
and the hand are between the brain
and any crude form Of expression.
These restraints have q constant ten
dency to check faults and 10 polish
| meritnriOus sentences. When q
writer dictates there is no special
stimulus to high effort and there is
! no restraint.
Mr.. Blaine was asked how he &C.
counted for the fact that in his
speeches his English was always of
| such q high order. Under excite
ment, and speaking apparently with
! out restraint, his sentences are clear,
vigorous, and models for their clean
simplicity l. not speaking OF this
kind dictation? Whereis the restraint
AS to the choice If forms?
Mr.. Blaine said that there vas all
the difference in the world betwe N
speaking to an audience and dictat-
ing 10 u secretary. The audience was
III itself q restraint upon a speaker.
That mysterious something. known
as the magnetic influence, existing
always between a man who can move
an audience and these addressed is
the controlling influence which
shapes thoughts and forms sentences.
No man can produce a real impress
sion on an audience without estab-
fishing this magnetic sympathy. The
absence of this sympathy betrays the
dull speaker. A man who is 1ncapa-
bic If moving an audience could
probably dictate as we'll as he could
write. But. after all, it would be the
outpourlng of mere words.
Mi. Blai0e said he never hoped to
attain in his. writing to anything like
the ex cellence of style reached by
him in the intense excitement Of
public speaking. In his work upon
his hook ne does not average over
1909 words q day. He thinks this is
all auy man should try to do who
aims at excellence in purely literary
work. Some days he has gone much
above this, but ne is quite content ii
he can only maintain his average
OF all the debates In which Mr..
Blaine has taken y conspicuous part,
the one in which he takes the most
pride is the Geneva award debate. He
made an exhaustive study of all the
documents bearing upon the Case and
look. d w clearly all the law points
bearing upon the same. Nothing
shows more thoroughly the versatile
powers Of his mind than his ability to
master all the legal techn. g .lities of
this intricate case. Most of the law
yers in the Senate had given the
subject but casual attention. Mr.
Blaine had thoroughly equipped
himself for the very purpose of having
\ bout with the great Senate lawyers
He especially desired a bout with
Thurman, Edmunds, COnkIlng and
David Davis. BIT tue keen .witted
lawyers of the Senate soon saw that
Blaine was we'll armed, aud so they
assumed a position of lofty conremp',
not understanding to argue legal
points with q non-professional. Matt
Carpenter and Thurman, however,
were drawn into The debate. David
Davis, to avoid Blaine, fed to the
cloak rooms.
Matt Carpenter, a trained legal
athlete, was set up to administer a
lesson to Blaine, but. as Carpenter
afterward said, he had all he wanted
to hold his own: Carpenter said that
Blaine's impudence in assuming a
superior knowledge of the law in that
case was so overwhelming that he
could hardly meet him. Carpenter
did more, however, than any other
Senator could have Gone. He main.
tanned throughout the most thorough
good-nature and self-pOssessiOn. He
even laughed outright, with genuine
amusement. where almost any other
man would have boiled over with
indignation at BIaine's assumptions.
Blaine's great object in the debate,
however, was to draw out Conkling,
his ancient enemy. If he could have
succeeded in that he would have been
,urfuotiv aarisfied.
Conkling, all that day, sat at his
desk, app .rently eng lged in writing.
He rarely. if ever, lifted his head.
Some of the time when Blaine was
speaking he was not over two feet
away from Conkling Blaine's oratory |
v"lleved to the right and left Of the |
New York Senator without produce !
ing the slightest impression. Gen.
Garfield came In from the House
during the discussion ana took u seat
directly behind Conkljng. He no.
ticed that he was writing very steady.
wheeled his chair In such a posi-.
ton that he could overlook Conkling's
He was curious t. know If
was writing. He leaned
apparently to reach for a paper,
and in doing so took a good look al
Conkling's manuscript: He found
that be was not really writing a
word, and the neat pile Of manuscript
D led up on the desk was, t. use a
expression, mere property writ
ing. Yet Cnnkling kept up this fine
of acting all day. At II stage Of
the episode Thurman came ever and
tried to get Conkling to ''go for that
as he des 'gnated Blaine.
c, mixing dec ined, s'ying that he
could not on account OF his peculiar
1t really IS an absurdity that Conk-
ling ana Blaine have never spoken
.ince the days of their foolish, hot
headed quarrel when they were young
men in the house. The memory OF
I'll the f cling that existed at that
lime has long ago died ou'. These
1870 .-~~Snrk 1n Nh ~H1>~0 l