The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1891-06-05
GENERAL SHERMAN.
AS writer and Speaker He was Always
Intensely Interesting.

General Sherman was a many-sfded
man. He had run the entire gamut of
human experience. He had been mer-
chant. banker. lawyer. professor. street
railroad president, traveller. author
orator. and soldier. Wherever he
placed. his own individuality was co
spicuous and pronounced. He nev :
failed to be intensely entertaining. F ;
methods were always original. Al !
even when unsuccessful they were
teresting. He could not have been
commonplace if he had tried
His writings were as graphic as
Caesars Commentaries. There was in
his composition an elegance of diction
seldom found except in the works of
professional authors. He has con-
tributed some of the finest specimens
of rhetoric to be found in modern
books. In his description of the de-
parture of the troops from Atlanta,
given in his memoirs. his style rise to
the sublime.
His letters are all models in their
way. Nothing could exceed in grace
and toucafng pathos the reply he wrote
to the officers of his own regiment uys-
on the death of his son:
Tho child that bore nv name, and
in whose future l reposed with MOI ,
confidence than in my own plans I
life, now floats a mere corpse. seekin /,
u grave in distant land with weep
ing mother, brother. and sisters clus-
tered abont him. But my poor
Willy was. or thought he was, Ser
geant of the Thirteenth. I have seen
his eye brighten aud his heart beat as
he beheld the battalion under arms,
aud asked me If they were not real SOL
diers. Child ms he was, he had the
M htlSi iaS ha Inv #
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 Sc
rioas efforts. For instance. his refer
ence to the flag in an address made at
a banquet 10 the veterans:
.'The prayer that every soldier ought
to breathe is that yonder flag should
he above him in life. around him in
death. What is that fiagP A bit of
bunting. a bauble. a toy. You can buy
il for few shillings in the nearest
store. But once raise it as your stand
ard. and millions will follow it and Il
under it, aud whole nation of p
triots will rise up in its defence. ar
you will find behind it all the po &
that can be welded by the republic
After having listened to nearly all VI
General Sherman's speeches during tile
last six years. / have no hesitation in
ranking him second to no one as an
after-dinner speaker. While the pres
tige of his illustrious name intensified
the interest felt in what he said, vet
believe that if he had appeared at any
banquet unheralded and unknown, and
delivered one of his characteristic adj
dresses. it would have been conceded
that his speech was the hit of the even
ing. He had the art of beginning with
some epigrammatic sentence or hu-
nlorous allusiou 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 appealed to all minds
and touched all hearts. As eloquence
is only another name for earnestness.
his serious utteranees had all the pow
er of the finest oratory. He leaned
forward. gesIiculated forcibly with his
long right arm. locked his hearers full
in the eyes. and seemed to be speakin q
into the particular ears of each in
vidual before him. As talker he
served to be ranked among the gre
conYersers of history. and, unli
many gifted conyersationalists he d
sessed the rare faculty of being go
listener Even in the midst of one oi
his most animated recitals. if some one
interrupted him TO add a remark, he
would stop look at him good-naIured-
ly, and nod approval His lips. too.
would often move in unison with the
speakers. as if marking time" to the
music of his wurds.-Gen. Horace Port
IF,ssi.sa