The Topeka state journal., 1900-08-20
MR.. GLEED ON INGALLS,.
Topeka Mans Estimate of the Fa-
NOUS Kansan.

Topeka Mans Estimate of the Fa-
nous Kansan.
The following is taken from an article
written by Charles s. Gleed in January,
1891:
There prevails a rank and vicious meth
cd of estimating public men. All good
or all bad is the usual verdict and one is
as apt to be wrong as the other. Given
a public mans party affiliations and his
employers, the people, at once range
themselves like opposing counsel, one side
exploiting all the good, the other all the
bad, and both sides forgetting that in
stead of being opposing counsel, they are
themselves the jurymen-
This criticism of public men is wholly
undiscriminating, wholly unfair and Who'll
ly unsatisfa ctory. 1t is illogical and hurt
full in a radical and all-prevaiiing way
1t trains the people to unfair thinking and
to loss of commence In their public
servants, and it trains the public servants
to a deep disrespect for their constituents
and to a feeling of absolutism from all
allegiance to them
To condemn and execute a public man
because he has faults implies that there
may be public men without faults There
are none. The true method is to keep a
debit and a credit column, and by a care
fui system of balances accord each man
his proper place OF course this is a dif-
ficult thing to do faultleSsly, but that it
can be far more nearly accomplished than
it usually is by the average man, no one
will deny
In writing of John. James ingalls,, I
spirit of which I have spoken. His faults
and his virtues are alike many and a gen
Grated in the brief and fragmentary para
graphs following. His virtues have won
hlr Wits 5 faults ha have hoge agera al
waited and fatigued, at times, even his
warmest supporters. Surely such man
ought not to be cast aside careleSSly. or,
on the other hand, accepted without some
protest. Let US see:
Mr.. Ingalls, was born in Middleton, Es-
Mass. December
is therefore IS years of age. His father
orable and of good ability: and his mother
as an exceptionally bright woman He
graduated from Williams college in 1855
tion in 1884. He was admitted to the bar
in 1857 and came to Kansas in 1858. After
the secretaryship of the state senate, he
was chosen a senator of the United States
whose sudden banishment from public life
by the York exposure was political
he has represented Kansas in the high Of
NIr. Ingalls, personal appearance is re-
markable. His height is over six feet, and
his weight perhaps 140 pounds. He is as
gracefully straight as a sunfower stalk,
and as conspicuous among men as a sun
flower ano1nng dandelions. He looks old,
youth applied hot and rebellious liquors
to his blood" His head is high behind
and deep from forehead to back, giving
chin Upward. Below his foreiock of wire
silver is a face dark and angular, Sug-
gest1ng Spanish blood, and his audacious
moustache and the impudent tuft on his
under lip do not belle the suggestion. His
eyes may be red, white and blue" like
his necktieS, for all anybody knows. They
are hidden behind the most brilliant eye
glasses that ever disconnected an interlo-
long-jointed fingers twine about his pen
the only result to be expected Is the ex-
traordinary beautiful manuscript which which
spare a single ounce of flesh, and his body
has the 1.-THE, firm looseness of a profes-
siona1 contortionist- Lean as he is, his
clothing always seems to fit perfectly and
is always graceful
THE SENATOR'S VOICE.
His voice is a polished ramrod of sound
without fur or feathers, traversing space
as swiftly as light without whir or
futter. as If shot by an explosive of incon-
no doubt about the explosive. THE plain
description of the southern outrages and
and manner caused the audience to shud-
der" wrote New York reporter who had
knew how. On this occasion the ramrod
voice hit Senator George and the reporter
goes on to describe the ''half-defiant, half
Startled glare which the stricken sena-
tor, with the ramrod through his SOUL
aimed at the author of his misery. 1t is
This vocal endowment that helps make Mr..
Ingalls, as competent a presiding officer as
any deliberate body in the world ever had
The voice is only part, but it is import
ant. Other factors are namable. His mind
works with the quickness, force and per-
with the loud report and fatal effect there
of.
He is like the rifle once exhibited to me
by an enthusiastic plainsman who eX-
planned: 1.-The trigger pulls itself at sight
of an Indian and by the time the trigger
is pulled the Indian is dead"
so to speak, is Characteristic of the man
in all respects When he was secretary
of the state senate Gas old-timerS tell me),
he was noted for being able to read at
sight any manuscript sent to the desk,
III was written for the purpose
Of conveying thought. He seems to have
a psychical insight as to the intent and
purpose of the worst penman-an insight
like that of the so-called mind-reader.
But all his quickness has an automatic
which should be distinguished
from the quicknesS of men who rise to
meet emergencies Mr. ingalls, meets
without rising to them, or
not at all. He works like the lock of a
money vault-when the rings and slots are
in proper conjunction, something drops
Just right Until that conjunction. is
reached nothing happens, except profan-
ity on the part of the manipulator-
HIS UNIQUE INDOLENCE.
This leads to the suggestion that Mr.. In
gals is in at least one sense, an indo- |
lent man. He does vast number of
things, but he does nothing that is not |
easy. He presides over the |
sleeps under senatorial speeches, and far /