Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1889-07-19
BUTLER AT SEVENTY,
An Interesting Pen Picture of tho Grer
~ polItlclan in Ills Old Arc.


IEt Politician In Ills Old Age.
AT seventy years OF age Butler is q
stout, puffy person, whose uusymmetri-
crl figure, especially when he is stand
ing, strangely reminds you OF the late
Henry Ward Beecher's. Somehow his
way Of standing up is almost exactly
like Beecher's. His head is like BEN
jamin Fraukliu's, for whom he was
named, as Franklin's head looks In the
conventional portrait. 1t is large,
long and broad and bald from front to
back on top, while thick curtain of
gray hair falls all around it, mingling
at the sides with thin gray whiskers,
which do not appear in any picture Of
Butler that have ever seen. His face
looks elephantine. 1t is in tho wrinkles
and the puffed flesh around his eyes
for all the world like an elephants.
When he laughs this flesh closes in all
over both his eyes, and all his wrinkles
come together in q most extraordinary
fashion. He does not seem cross-eyed
until you look directly at him, but his
eyes are set obliquely in his head, al
though they are just the opposite angle
to u Chinaman's-higher ut the nose
than on the outer sides. He has
two plates of false teeth, and they do
not stick very well, so that when he
talks they are very apt to fall together
suddenly and cut every other word in
two. Moot of the time he is chewing u
bit OF white spruce gum which he car
ries in an old-fashioned jeweled snuff
box, when it is not in his mouth.
His face is one of the most mobile
and, under his direction, one of the
most interesting that ever saw. His
skin, wrinkled more from quantity than
from quality, is easily worked into the
most varying expressions, and he uses
it constantly. Now, he opens his great
eyelids wide apart, brings his head up
suddenly, putfs out his lips and, there
fore his thin little gray mustache which
plays so small a part amid the wrinkles,
and looks out at you from frowning,
beetling fortress. Again, he wrinkles
all his face into smile, makes his
eyes small, tucls in his lips, and looks
very mild and agreeable; or he takes
up book, holds it lovingly to his
breast; bends his eyes closely to it (he
wears no glasses or spectacles of any
lkind), and drinks it in.
But his laugh-a deep, dangerous
chuckle, followed by an internal con-
vulsion-is most startling Of all. Butler
is q great many men in one, and one Of
them is an actor. He would have
made great comedian. AS it is, he
finds his histrionic talent very useful
and exercises it all the time. Butler is
always the lawyer in his Office, however
social and companionable he is else
where. AT his desk he is always alert,
on guard, watchful of chances. He
looks much younger than he is for this
reason. But it is his vigorous think
ing, and his still more vigorous talking
which. makes him comparatively
young man. He has marvellous
memory. He can remember apparently
almost any thing which he has seen or
heard. or read, and is seldom at a loss
for date or name. His perceptions
are very quick and comprehensive, and
he has one of the quickest tongues, in
spite of the false teeth and the chew
ing gum, that ever heard-a rough
tongue, too. The half that he says
about his enemies for publication is
nothing to the half he says about them
privately. He likes to be called good
hater. He enjoys fight, and every
damaging fact and every eliminating
admission is rolled like his chewing
gum under his tongue. Washington
Cor. Philadelphia Record.