The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-04-01
MIR. GLADSTONE.
His Appearance and Manner In Delivering
His Eulogy of John Bright.

His Appearance and Manner In Delivering
His EulOgy of John Bright.
smalley's Gable Special to New York Tribune
Amid the muff1ed cheers which swelled
through the House as Mr.. Smith ended, Mr..
Gladstone rose. He, too, was all in black;
his face was almost as white as the shirt
front which his low waistcoat left open, a
carelessly knotted, narrow, black necktie
struggling across the shirt. He leaned with
both hands on the box resting on the table
in front. A moment before Mr.. Smith spoke
Mr.. Gladstone had been talking and laugh
ing with the men about him, but this mood
had passed. and he had grown all at once
silent and stern. He began easily but in a
tone which deep feeling had subdued; his
voice was not strong. the lower notes were
-nusHy; the muscles of the throat not at all
moments entirely under his control. No emp
ty chamber could be so still as this thronged
house, listening for his first words.
The most careless spectator, If there were
one, could not but feel that he was looking
on at a great scene of historic grief. The
fell on rows of strong, sad faces which
friend and foe turned upon the great Lib
eral Leader. There he stood, greatest of
living orators, to pronounce the last eulOgy
lifelong friend, his comrade, his colleague;
the man who bore him, perhaps, a truer,
longer affection than any other. He spoke
in the very chamber which for almost fifty
years had echoed to Mr.. Bright's voice,
amid the thronging memories Of many con-
something that never came. 1t
was a noble eulogy. Complete it certainly
was not; it contained hardly a sentence
which fixed itself in the memory. Mr..
GladstOne's manner was almost more than
his words. He spoke throughout with a
grave dignity that was pathetic. There
was no stint in his praise no conscious
withholding of the homage that was his
friends due; yet it was less the friend than
the colleague and chief who spoke. The
passage about recent differences is suffi-
cient as far as words go, yet it was not
quite free. from a sense of effort; it was
more more the doing of duty than a sponta-
tences in which he dwelt on Mr.. BrIght's
| and Mr.. Cobden's renunciatiOn of popular
ity during the. Crimean war: II felt pro-
foundly, and have never ceased to feel
men who, having been nurtured through
e POPULAR sS approval and entRnsRiasm
could at moments notice consent to part
with the whole of that favor which they
had heretofore enjoyed, and which their
opponents might have dreamed was to
them as the very breath of their nOstrils. "
Finer still. perhaps, were the words In
which he described Mr.. Bright's el0quence
as the lOudest that sounded within these
walls during this generation. That gen.
erOus acknowledgment of his great rivals
supremacy touched the House profoundly.
So in lesser measure did the tribute to Mr..
| Bright's repugnance to Office; the tribute to
character deeper than eloqunce; deeper
than intellect; the tribute to his life's great
services as recorded in the progress of his
country and the prosperity and happiness
| of the people.
When Mr.. Gladstone sat down the mur.
muir of cheers was but faint. The House
seemed hardly to know whether to express
| what it felt or not.