The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-06-24

Day With the Author "The Great Cyttam Country
GMmb&& at a Many Sided Some Interesting
Concerning HIS Life Work.

the sudden changes Of the Northern cli- [
mate occurred. and by Thursday the half |
frozen mud of the January thaw" had |
given way to soidly frozen ground and |
the bleak landscape had been transformed
to one charmingly picturesque under
deep covering Of snow. At Hastings there
was excellent sleighing, and the gamey
little poney secured at the livery stable
climbed the steep hill to the bluff over
looking the valley of the Mississippi as if
every nerve were tingling to strike level
stretch and break away northward in
the teeth of the much below zero wind.
The road winds along the bluff for three
miles. then a sharp turn from the main
highway to the right, past the appealing
desolation Of Nininger and ! was before
a large two-story frame house, with
HIGH wide windows. The house stands
in a grove of stately trees. brown and
naked then but which in summer must
be beautiful. A broad veranda cir
cles the house on three sides. and as I
stepped across this, Mr.. Donnelly opened
the door. his hand extended in greeting.
Tho first impression of Ignatius Donnelly,
as seen In the genial atmosphere of his
secluded home. is that of great g-heart-
| ed, sunny-tempered schoolboy, by some
| mysterious process nodded to mans estate
with all his honest righteousness I'M
you find that under this fascinating mask
| is a magnificent intellect. He was then
past go years old. He looks and moves
like man Of 45, and in everything he does
! there is the vitality and energy of a man
of half his years. His eyes are blue and
small, but have the merriest of lines and
wrinkles about them, and his face is of
such brightness and good feeling and in
nocence that one would never imagine the
! invectve Of which he is capable upon the
platform or the stump When denounc-
| ing monopolies and kindred things 1 have
| seen his face 80 changed that he looked
| a Nemesis, rather than THE Cherub,"
title by which he is sometimes known, as
we'll as THE Sage of Nininger." His man.
ner is that of an honest man through and
through. yet his political enemies charge
him with more foxiness and deviltry than
any public man in the Mississippi valley
| or out of 1t. .
| I do not propose. however, to 20 into
Mr.. Donnelly's political record further
than to say that few, If any, politicians
anywhere who managed to keep even their
heads above water were ever more bit
terly assailed than he. The attacks would
Years ago have crushed less strong, less
elastic spirit, so bitter have they been al
ways, 50 cruel often. Mr.. Donnelly has
not stood quietly under these things. He is
essentially a fighter, and he can carry on
half a dozen battles at one and the same
time. His quick wit, his cutting sarcasm
his ready pen. his powers of oratory and
argument have been, and are still, con-
stantly in play giving back as good, or
better. than received. I found that the
whole Northwest, from laborer to capital
list. is ranged in this Donnellian war. There
lis no middle ground, considering Ignatius
} Donnelly as a public man. He is either
lunprincipled and corrupt, false pre-