Wichita eagle., 1888-07-10
ingalls, Command Of Language.

The speaker was q general on the Union
side In the late war, a native Of New York
state and graduate Of Union college, He
emigrated to Kansas after his graduation
from college,
There was a little crowd Of US in Kansas
City just before the war" said be, from the
eastern states and graduates Of the eastern
colleges We formed a set by ourselves
Some Of US were lawyers, some bothering
about real estate and town lots, some practic-
ing medicine-en doing something actively;
al, believe, have since attained notoriety in
some way or other. Ingalls, was graduate
Of Williams college, He looked as he does
now-thin and spare He was eccentric in
ais dress, and always wore something strik-
ing he used to love to wear, remember, q
big red necktie. he was a shy, reserved fell
low, and had the reputation Of being very
cynical 1t was said that be Icy awake nights
polishing his bitter epigrams He wasn't
very popular, and as a lawyer, though he
was considered smart, he had only q fair
practica
81 think came to be as intimate with In
gals as any of the boys were, and l well re-
member his telling ne one night, as we sat in
my room smoking together. the manner in
which he was working to secure COM
mand Of language He said that it was
his practice for an hour or 20 each day
to open Webster's Dictionary at random and
run down a column or so of words carefully
studying the meaning Of each word and hunt
ing up in the lexicons its derivation and so
forth You know that in explaining the
ameaning Of a great many words the diction-
airy gives line or a oouplet from Pope or
Johnson ar frOr, M or Of fho
classic authors, and these quotations Ingalls,
would often commit to memory, especially If
they happened to appeal to his imagination.
Then. too, he would look up in Crabbes syn
onyms, the words which meant the same, or
nearly the same as the word he had in mind,
and be would study carefully the nice shades
of difference between them all He told me
that so far from finding this work tiresone
or disagreeable he took the greatest pleasure
in it, and that be knew it did him inesti-
mable benefit He considered this practice far
superior, for the purpose Of giving one COM
mand of his own language, to the old tradi-
tional one Of translatiDg the Greek and Ro-
man classics into English and Of then trans
lating them back again
Il met ingalls, years afterward, and he
told ME be was still keeping up the practice.
! suppose be is keeping it up now, and that's
where his facility OF EXPRESSION comes from
Aoope Mansions OF Santa Fe.
The adobe house, OF ''doby," as I. Is called,
Is familiar to ell western tourists, but it is
seen at its very best hera The wealthiess
people live in structures which from the out
side seem scarcely habitable, but within are
COY and, in many instances, luxurious
Judge Thornton, q wealthy mine owner, has
q dolby house near the plaza, OF public
square In the center Of the building Is q
square courtyard filed with magnificent
towers, with q fountain In the center. The
doors Of each apartment In the house open on
the wide veranda which runs around the
courtyard, and the effect Is very charming.
The walls Of the building are nearly three
feet in thickness, giving opportunity for deep,
cushioned window seats These thick walls
keep out sold in the winter and heat IN the
summer. and there are, therefore, but two
freplaces In the whole houss-for use in the
event Of extraordinary severe weather.
The decorations Of the dwelling are such q
ors finds In Atlanta's Peashtree street homes
beautiful pictures and seatuary. imported
carpets and rugs rare bric-a-brac and pot
teries-evsryth thing that money can buy. OF
course, all this msks the change from TIE
outside atmosphere Of squalor tie more
marked Judge Tho-ntons home Is but the
type Of hundreds Of others owned BY wealthy
Spaniards, IsHcans or Americans, who have
settled here because Of this Incompatible
cIilnate.-AIlanta Constitution