Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1898-07-31
A Great Figure In Military and
Political History.
Character Sketch of the Iron Chancellor by
John SWnton--Story of His Event.
full Life.


In the death of Bismarck the world
loses one of it's most commanding
figures. Among the names of the
European statesmen of the nineteenth
century whose achievements have il
Illustrated the history of their times,
there is not name more renowned
than that of Bismarck. He was the
strong man" of his generation. He
possessed the genius Of power. He it
was who laid the foundation and
crowned the edifice of the new Ger
man empire. He transformed the map
OF Europe. He .overthrew or humil-
lated the potentates who stood in his
way. He gained the chief object of
his desire, gained it through the ways
and by the. methods of a conqueror.
The purpose OF his life was to
unity the detached states of Ger
many, binding them together under
the authority of the imperial scepter,
surmounted by the imperial eagle and
defended by the sword, and whatever
means might be needed for the carry
ing out of this purpose were regarded
by him as justifable. His career was
a tempestuous one. Long ago he was
described as the imam Of blood and
iron" and it was through these agen-
cies that he won the triumph with
which his name is associated.
AS for the man Bismarck, he was of
massive frame, standing over feet in
height and weighing at che time ESQ
pounds. He was very sturdy until
overtaken by old age. In his early
manhood he was famous for feats Of
strength or daring and bore the nick
name of Hercules" When in the
prime of life he was possessed of vast
energy and fortitude, and up to the
time he was 20 years old his vigorous
constitution sustained him well. He
was, for years hard rider, a fierce
dueliSt, a wild hunter and beer
d Ter not to be beaten. There are
stories told about the way in
/hich he bore the trials of the Franco
German war, when, though not far
from his sixtieth year, he followed the
army in it's campaigns and guided the
policy of the government. He would
keep the saddle all day, break his
fast with a few links of sausage or a
dish of sauer-kraut and eep on the
noft side Of board in tent when
u Dettefo codcn was not within bach
"Are you here, Otto?" cried one of his
boyhood chums who met him after
the battle. Then quaff this foaming
stein of Munich's brew while l recall
our war-like song of Gottingen.''
Bismarck could not be called a
nervous man as we ordinarily use the
word, but rather man of nerve. Such
a word as intellectual or as philoso-
phical is not descriptive as applied to
him. In short, none of the words by
which we are apt to characterize dis
tinguished individuals was applicable
to him. He was a prodigy. He was
not to be classified; he was a distinct
i've personality; he did not belong to
a type. His mind was broad, his rea-
son was substantial, his will was in
domitable, his genius was practical.
his thought was solid He had i'm
agination, but only in the large sense
of the word-that kind of it which
moves around realism.
Bismarck'S head was sometimes spo-
ken of as colossal, but in truth the
measurement of his Uranium was very
little beyond the ordinary. There are
in Germany plenty Of heads bigger than
the head that belonged to him. The
brain contained in it, however, was Ger
tainly qualified by nature with those
powers that were made manifest in his
life.
When you look at any picture of Bis
marek you are apt to be repealed by the
very stern expression of his face. 1t is
exceedingly severe. He has the ap-
pearance of sullen or an acrimonious
man. His features, as you see them in
\the engraving are plain. his forehead is
NJ heavy cast, his mouth is large, his
use is not~uf classical mold, his eyes
sluggish, his cheeks are coarse
ine9 his hair and mustache are in
yent. Bismarck was the offspring
IA old, aristocratic and proud family,
THE physiognomy which he inherited
his ancestors was certainly not of
IKE kind-not Napoleonic.
Id be mistake to suppose
destitute of the more gen.
Of human nature Those
well have often spoken
lily in social life They
devotion to the wife of
bonship he was bereaved
- ago, and of his pride in his
lhfldreh, and of his enduring attach
Iment to his friends, and of his senti-
mental feeling for the old king whom he