The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-02-19
INGALLS,, TIE BRILLIANT.

Charles S. Gleed of Topeka, Kansas,
has in the Kansas city Star a pen por-
trait and a character study of Senator
ingalls, that deserves 10 place its author
beside Henry W. Grady in the brilliancy
of its language and in the clean-cut way
in which the Kansan's picture stands out
cameO-like, from its splendid setting.
OF Mr. Ingalls,, Mr.. Gleed says
I His voice is n polished ramrod of
sound, without fur or feathers, travers-
ing space as swiftly as light, without
a whir or a flutter, as if shot by an eX
plosive of inconcei7able power. But all
his quickness has an automatic character
which should be distinguished from the
quickness of men who rise to meet emer
gencies Mr.. ingalls, meets emergencies
without rising to them, or not at all. He
works like the lock of money vault
when the rings and slots are in proper
conjunction, something drops just right
Until that conjunction is reached moth
ing happens, except profanity on the part
of the manipulation. He is an OratOrical
word-artist. He can be an animated
stilettO or an infuriated hedgehog; a
cOoing dove or an Holian harp. His
words whizz from his lips like hornets
disturbed, or flutter off like rose leaves
kissed loose by summer breezes. They
issue on cruelty bent, like the red ants
of darkest Africa, tOrturing where they
touch; or they come like drops of honey
filtered through lilies. Fertile. felicit-
Gus, facinOrOuS, he is altogether mephis-
tophelian. He goes about among his fell
lows as in dime museum looking at the
freaks and oddities, and pointing them
out with his bayonet like finger. His
face is his fortune, it may be, and yet he
goes back on it when he says it is the
only one in the United States to which a
carriacture does no injustice. His pres
ence of mind is the presence of regi-
ment of fsOldiers armed with mitrailleuse.
His compassion Is a cats, his tenacity a
bulldogs, and he has the good nature of
the billy goat, which knocks over the
boys for fun. Mr.. Ingalls, is almost ex-
clusively critic, and hence | say he is
an er-CNciO statesman. His Office and
his nature are divergent. He cares as
much about party platforms rs a cannibal
chief about the Nicene creed. In such
matters he is neither hampered by CON
science nor hindcrcd by conviction. In
gals may be a puzzle, but lie is not
fraud. A fraud is one who pretends to
be what he is not. Ingalls, only pretends
to be ingalls,. For instance. he is not a
churchman. In fact he is impiOus. lie
takes no stock in religious stock com
panies. He SCOTS, and talks agnosti
cism, and is prOfane, and in such ways
arrogates to himself a large badness.
When asked by u newspaper symposium
man if politician could be q good
Christian, his answer came quickly: "All
things are possible with God" When
his house burned he congratulated his
neighbOrs on saving the well. lie got ON
dangerous ground when he remarked of
prohibition in Kansas that it worked TO
a charm, because temperance people had
their prohibition and drinkers had their
whiskey. Mr.. Ingalls, personal appear
ance is remarkable. His height is over
six feet and his weight perhaps one hun
dred and forty pounds. He is as grace
fu " straight as sunflOwer stalk, and
is as conspicuous among men as n sun
flower among dandeiuns. His hair is
silvery, stiff, disheveled. He looks old,
yet is strong and lusty, having never in
youth applied hot and Tebellious liquors
to his blood" His head is high behind
and deep from forehead to back, giving
the impression of great length from the
chin upward and backward. Before his
foTelOck of wire-silver is face dark and
angular, suggesting Spanish blood, and
his audaciOus moustache and the impu-
dent tuft on his under lip do not belle
the suggestion. His eyes may be 'red,
white and blue" like his neck, for all
anybody knows. They are hidden be-
hind the most brilliant eyeglasses that
ever disconnected an interlOcutOr. His
hands are bony, and when his long joint
ed fingers twine about his pen the only
result to be expected is the extraordina-
rily beautiful manuscript which he al
ways turns out.