Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1891-03-05
GEN. SHERMAN
A WRITER AND SPEAKER.

As WRITER AND SPEAKER.
Geu. Horace Porter. in Harper's Weekly
Gen. Sherman was many sided man.
He had run the entire gamut of human
experience. He had been merchant,
banker, lawyer. professor, street railroad
president, traveller, author, orator, and
soldier Wherever he was placed, his
own individuality was conspicuous and
pronounced. He never failed to be in
tensely entertaining. His methods were
always original, and even when unsuc
cessful they were interesting. He could
not have been commonplace if he had
tried
His writings were as graphic as Ca-
sar's Commentaries. There was in his
compositions an elegance of diction
seldom found except in the works of
professional authors. He has contribu-
ted some of the finest specimens of
rhetoric to be found in modern books.
In his description of the departure of
the troops from Atlanta, given in his
memoirs, his style rises to the sublime.
His letters are all models in their way.
Nothing could exceed in grace and
touching pathos the reply he wrote to
the officers of his old regiment upon the
death of his son:
THE child that bore my name, and
in whose future l reposed with more
confidence than in my own plans of
life, now floats mere corpse, seeking a
grave in distant land, with weeping
mother, brother, and sisters clustered
about him. But my poor Willy
was, or thought he was, Sergeant of
the Thirteenth. l have seen his
eye brighten and his heart beat as he
beheld the battalion under arms, and
asked me if they were not real soldiers.
Child as he was, he had the enthusiasm,
the pure love of truth, honor, and love
of country, which should animate all
soldiers. God only knows why he should
die so young"
As speaker the same qualities of
style may be observed in his more seri-
Gus efforts. For instance, his reference
to the flag in an address made at ban
quet to the veterans:
"The prayer that every soldier ought
to breathe is that yonder flag should
be above him in life, around him in
death. What is that flag? A bit of
bunting, bauble, toy. You can buy
it for few shillings in the nearest
store. But once raise it as your stand
ard, and millions will follow it and die
under it. Insult it, and whole nation
of patriots will rise up in its defense,
and you will find behind it all the power
that can be welded by the Republic"
After having listened to nearly all of
Gen. Sherman's speeches during the last
six years, have no hesitation in rank
ing him second to no one as an after
dinner speaker. While the prestige of
his illuStrous name intensified the inter-
est felt in what he said, yet l believe
that if he had appeared at any banquet
unheralded and unknown, and delivered
one of his characteristic addresses, it
would have been conceded that his
speech was the hit of the evening. He
has the art of beginning with some cpl
grammatic sentence or humorous allu-
sion to some current topic, spoken in a
way which at once secured the attention
of the audience He mingled wit and
pathos in happy blending which ap-
pealed to all minds and touched all
hearts. AS eloquence is only another
name for earnestness, his serious utter
ances had all the power of the finest Or
atory. He leaned forward, gesticulated
forcibly with his long right arm, looked
his hearers full in the eyes, and seemed
to be speaking into the particular ears
of each Individual before him. As a
talker he deserved to be ranked among
the great conversers of history, and, I'M
like many gifted conversationalists, he
possessed the rare faculty of being a
good listener. Even in the midst of one
of his most animated recitals, if some
one interrupted to add remark, he
would stop, look at him good naturedly,
and nod approval. His lips, too, would
often move in unison with the speakers,
as if marking time to the music of
his words.