St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-21
sADAY WITH BOB INGERsOLL :
Y J
eoo1se1e:es-s.&.&.g>e

alive. 1t will be Mr.. Bakers task to
write IngersolI,s- biography when the
colonel is dead and gone. A record of
the mans daily life is kept by his pri-
Vate secretary, as well as his impor-
tant utterances and writings upon no.
table subjects.
POSTERITY CARED FOR.
One of the curious features of this
compact is that when the end is near
ing Mr.. Baker is to be constantly on
hand to record the events up to the
crossing OF the dark river. The secre-
tary has particular instructions about
what he is to do upon the death of
the colonel, and in every possible way
arrangements have been made to make
his real life clear to posterity.
There is no egotism in this. Inger-
soil appreciates to the full the respon-
s1bll1ty of his life, and what he has
done towards causing thousands of
people to punctuate their religious:
faith with an Interrogation mark. 1t is
simply desire to perpetuate an hon.
est record of what he was at all times.
Mr.. Baker lifts many burdens from
the shoulders of the colonel in his
business affairs. The daily mail in
the law office is a stupendous affair.
and the number of cranks who call
is not small The mail is carefully
slfted before the colonel sees it, and
cranks are politely disposed of.
Scarcely = day goes by without
bringing to the surface some one who
desires to convert the colonel If the
caller is a gentleman or a lady, the
colonel is always ready to be seen.
and he listens politely He is a diff
cult man to argue with, though. and
his acquaintance with the Bible is so
minute that few people stand anv
chance with him.
TIME is VALUABLE.
Many clients call during the day,
OUTSIDE of court hours. The colonel
mas the faculty of extracting what
lney want to say in a very short
period. He has a horror of wasting
any time, and people who are inclined
10 tread upon this preserve run the
danger Of curt treatment
Frequently the colonePs bueinoes
calls him to cities all over the Union.
but he dislikes this class of work as
1t takes him away from his home
VINO has experienced its kindly hos
pitality, the gentle culture of its wo-
men folk, can easily appreciate the
colonel's disinclinatio to he anv-
where else.
1t is usually o'clock in the after
noon when the colonel sarts for home
me dinner hour is at 6. and the two
daughters are invariably attired in
white for this meal. Of Mrs. Brown
! 1t is said that she has only worn two
cclors all of her life-white in the
house and gray in the street.
FOND OF THE OPERA.
Two or three times in the week the
colonel and some of the family go TO
the theater During the opera season
they are regular attendants. both of
the girls being musicians of excep-
uonal ability. The colonel is a great
music lover, although he is no musi-
clan himself
Wnen spoken to once about his lack
OF musical ability, he said. terselv.
THAT is silly. Because you like cake.
! 1t is no reason why you should he n
cook
his ONE FAD.
If the evening is spent at homo
there is always music by the daugh-
ters' and visitors to be entertained.
| The coloners only fad is Shake
speare. 1t has been referred to lime
after time as his bible. He has a col
lection OF various editions of Shake
speare's works which rival any prt-
Vate one in the country. Hugo and
dickens are his faVorite novelists
Les MlSera bles" he regards as the
greatest novel ever written, and ga
Tale of Two Cities" is second in his
directions. Wagner is his fayorite COM
poser
lngersoll has been generally referred
TO as Scoffer. AS a thinker, he is TOO
serious to treat anything lightly, and
the frivolous handling of anything sa-
cred offends him deeply. No better ex-
ample of this trait in this most pc
cul1ar man can be given than a little
happening at banquet to which he
mad been invited. 1t was during the
discussion of the subject, "Is Marriage
a Failure?' and this was the main
subject to be talked about. Several
men made speeches in which they
treated the matter f1ippantly, and tried
to be witty at the expense of woman
kind.
1ngersoll listened with growing i'm
patience, and finally his turn to speak
came. He was terribly in earnest, and
what he said caused more than one
man to weep. He struck a tender
chord in many bosoms when he said:
The man who says that marriage is
a failure has never stood with his
hand locked in the loyal grasp of a
wife and mother at the side of a child's
grave"
Whatever his faults may be, Inger-
soil cannot be called a scoffer.
DAVID FERGUSON.