St. Paul daily globe., 1888-07-09
A FAITHFUL Pen PORTRAIT
Of the Sage Of Nininger and Author Of
the Cryptogram.
A HUNDRED YEARS HENCE
Will Witness the Endorsement Of the
Famous Cipher Everywhere by Lit
erary and Thinking Men.

Few men who do not know Ignatius
Donnelly would credit him with being a
literary genius at first sight. The author
of The Great Cryptogram, which is to
show to the people of two continents
that Bacon, and not Will Shakespeare,
wrote the plays usually ascribed to the
latter, is far from the literateur that the
books tell of in his everyday appear
ance. Mr.. DOnnelly's home is at Min
niger, a small station a few miles out
from st, Paul, and he is familiar fig
ure about the hotels of this city. He
rejoices in the title, conferred by some
daily newspaper, of ''the Sage of Min
lnger," and in a crowd of a hundred he
is one of the last that would be taken
for sage. Just now he is in England
looking after his new book. On two
or three occasions he has waXed
eloquent over his Baconian cipher,
to say nothing of score
of times he has poured out his sharp
utterances on politics, the railroad
problems and other questions of cur
rent interest. No man in this state, by
universal verdict, is so ready talker,
and few. If any men, carry more brains
under their hats.
Mr.. Donnelly is probably five feet
elght In height and is plump and round
ALL OUT OF PROPORTION.
His ruddy face is clean shaven as a
priests. He has no neck that one can
see, but his head seems placed squarely
on his trunk, with barely room for
turn down collar. His blue
eyes have a twinkle in them
that seem as if they could not
look sternly at anything, and yet when
he is warmed up in invective they flash
blue fire. The general cast of his face
is something like Ingersoll's, and his
oratOry is rated by some as high as that
of the great infidel. There is. in spite
of the fat cheeks and short neck, look
of refinement in his face that is woman
like. His hand is delicate as lady's,
and his dress is always scrupulously
neat. but plain.
1t is the remark of some newspaper
Jester that Mr.. Donnelly's hats wear out
from the inside, ''fOr, said the writer,
''the ideas that jump from his brain
keep up a constant assault that is more
wearing than the storms that beat on
the outside"
No man in the state can talk intelli-
gently and with all the acuteness of a
specialist on so many topics at such
short notice-bar political questions. for
in politics Mr.. Donnelly is counted as
vague and speculative as the story of
his own Atlantis.
He has been all things in politics
Republican, Democrat and laboring
man, until his best friends have wept
that he did not eschew politics and
shine as literary man alone. His
voice is pleasant and his utteranceS
rythmical as the
RUNNING OF A BROOK.
His wit is keen and ready. and woe to
the one who challenges him to repartee.
He shines above all others in after-din
ner speeches. Give him prOsy theme
and he will speak in poetry. Last win
ter he was talking on the question of
the rights and grievances of farmers of
this state at the hands of railroad corpO-
Tations, and this was one of his SEN
tences: ''But the golden chariot of
progress glides down the avenues of
time, laden with flowers and fruits and
laughing children: but its wheels are
red-red with the blood of millions; red
as the wheels of the Juggernaut."
He lives at Nininger in little cot
tage. with his wife and his books for
company, and he is devoted to both.
His sons are grown up and in profess
sional life-one in law, and one in medi-
cine. in st. Paul. No lover was ever
Mr. DOnnelIv to his wife. They come
together 10 the city and one might fancy
them bridal pair as they are seen to-
gether at the hotel parlors or dining
room.
Mr.. DOnnelly is firmly convinced that
he has the right of it in his discovery of
the cipher. and If he is not in a hurry
he will talk half an hour on the sub
ject. giving more information than
could be had from whole tones in the
libraries. He said one day as he stood
in the rOtunda of one of the hotels: 81
don't expect people will read and
BELIEVE AT ONCE.
That is not in the nature of things.
but that the book should be published
at all. that there should be so much in
terest in it, if it be only curiosity, shows
that the world is getting ready to be-
lieve that the poor, drunken. deer-steal-
ing VIII Shakespeare could not have
produced the best of the English litera-
ture. Fifty years ago no one would
have believed word of the 'Ba-
conian Cipher A hundred years
hence, when the shelves of the
booksellers have been cleared
of the present editions of Shakespeare.
if not everybody. at any rate the great
body of thinking men. will give credit
to my discovery. The tendency of the
professional men-not the literary men
of the day is in this direction. Fifty
years ago men were sure Shakespeare
wrote the plays, for they had never
thought otherwise; to-day they are
questioning: in fifty years to come they
will have decided that he did not. The
works are beingread more widely every
year and out of growing familiary come