The Topeka state journal., 1900-08-20

vestigation showed the wood to be so To-
Gated that it could not be got to the poor
short of SIS per cord. This may not have
happened but it does not carry internal
evidences of untruth.
When asked by a newspaper symposium
man If a politician could be a good Chris
tian, his answer came quickly: s-All things
are possible with God"
When his house burned he congra tulated
his neighbors on saving his we'll
be 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
nad thelr whlskey Inc real erect OF TINS
uons, but he could not resist
This mirthfulness of his makes him de-
cidedly companionable No good thing in
speech is ever lost on him and he knows
a good thing when he hears it. The gro
ious, all appeal to his love of variety. In
this he is Shakespearean-
HIS FREE+LAANCTNG
An ancient ruler once cut short his dogs
thing to talk about Mr.. ingalls, has much
of this rulers disposition. He does not ex-
utter disrespect for their foibles and their
inefficiencies. His respect is confined to
those of unusual intellectual power. He
seems to think It a crime to be a fool;
and yet, had he met fool / the forest,
with him. He has no patience with med1-
ocrity. He has no compassion on incapac-
ity. He was born a critic, and he has de-
His critical tendencies are not much amel-
iorated by ties Of friendship, party affilia-
tiOnS, are conditions of kinShip- His bene-
factors are not safe from his jibes and
filings.
He is the most democratic of all full
blooded aristicrats. He excuses himself
from the ordinary obligations to society
in general and to parties and factions IN
particular. He hates snobbery and prig
gishness, which may account Tor the fact
that people who are superhicially most
like him love his least.
He does not feel obligated to be more
useful than a Japanese juggler. nor more
o.cr1 ont 4i0r1a ar1fi
or Jesse James. He is irreligious and athe-
istic, yet among his companions $50 far as
side of his charming family circle) are
pastors of churches and exemplars of re-
ligiOn generally; and the Christian con-
fession of faith is nowhere better stated
than in some of his brilliant phrases
He announces that the Decalogue is not
given much place in politics yet, for his
part, the undoubted potency of some OF
his best speeches lies in his application of
the Decalogue to practical affairs.
He writes a grave maga2fne 11 II araGie lie say say
tics yet he is a scholar himself, a lover
of books, and owes most of his success
to his literary skill; and he has privately
admitted that his article was. groundless,
having been prodrA9d in an unfortunate
hurry for magazine purposes; He is
comes down over his rnoustache and his
moustache goes up under ms nose; as
forum gets no more mercy than Quilp
would show in digging out his wife's eyes
He is thrifty, but not purse proud. He
wants the advantages of money, but
breads it's advantages. He is rich, as
riches go in the west, and yet he passes
as a man who needs the price of his con-
tributions to the periodical literature of
the day
He is not burdened with friendships. He
prefers acquaintance to friends. He con-
siders life too short and his remunera ton
too small to warrant him in rewarding
many friends or placating many enemies
except, it may be, on rare occasions about
six years apart.
HIS POWER WITH WORDS.
He is an oratorica1 word artist. He can
be an animated stiletto or an infuriated
hedgehog; a cooling dove or an Aeolian
harp His words whiZZ from his lips like
hornets disturbed or hutter 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.
Mr. ingalls, and his irony ramble merri-
Nv. arm in arm, through the intellectual
Wildwood unrestrained by the moralistS
chart and unembarrassed by the logicians
compass.
stir up the animals
He does not fail in his mission. The ami
mails get stirred up, and any listener who
will apply his ear to the earth may hear
them roar, all the way from ex-presi-
dent to the man in California who wrote