Eureka weekly sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1887-1902, 1901-12-14

to FIVE hundred ana sixteen mllnon,
one hundred and sixty-nine thousand,
four hundred and seventy-one dollars
and ninety seven cents, showing an In
crease of two hundred and fifteen mil
lions. six hundred and twenty-five
thousand, one hundred and thirteen
dollars and eighty-six cents" And SO
on for two or three hours, giving col
umn after column Of figures without a
note or scrap of paper before him. No
body ever caught him tripping ON the
exact amount, and nobody ever heard
him leave of the odd cents. As no
body can dispute his figures and as the
most ingenious campaign orator or
most sensitive political opponent can
not construe addition and subtraction
into abuse, Cockrel's arithmetical ora
tory offends nobody and instructs
many. Vest is the best man in Mis-
souri, to send into strong Democratic
counties to arouse enthusiasm among
the faithful, but he makes Republicans
so mad that they nearly have the apo
plexy. Cockrell is the boss hand to
speak in Republican counties, where
his feats of arithmetical oratory
charm4au twho shear him and operate
as soothing sirup on the disgruntled.
Each strong In his own way, they sup
piement each other to an extraordinary
degree, and together, side by side, have
grown gray In the senate and held
their seats a long, long time.
Senator cockreii Directs Surgeon.
One day / went over to the senate
cloakroom and found Senator Cockrell
quietly lunching off big red apple.
asked him how many times he was
wounded during the civil war. That's
hard to tell" he replied, because no
one definition Of the word wound is uni
versally accepted. At Corinth my whis-
kers were cut of by bullet and my
throat grazed, but no blood was drawn.
Also a spent shell raked my thigh just
above the knee, and, while 1t did not
break the skin. u large black spot came
there and was very sore for time.
At Franklin / received two bullet
wounds In my right arm, and the small
bone of my left leg was broken by a
mimic ball. The first time lost any
blood was at Kenesaw Mountain. /
was holding a dispatch In both hands,
reading It, when a shell exploded near
me. A piece Of 1t hit me In both hands,
barking two or three fingers on the left
and knocking of two or three nails
and breaking the next to the little fin
ger on the right at the second joint
With that he held up his right hand
and showed ne the broken finger in
the shape OF crescent. when l went
to the field hospital 10 have my hands
dressed, asked Surgeon Dysart II the
broken finger would be stiff. He re-
piled that 1t undoubtedly would.
said, Doctor, II live through the war,
will have a great deal of writing to
do the rest OF my life, so want you
to set that finger Just In the shape 1t
would naturally be in when hold a
pen in my right hand He laughed
heartily and made fun of my PROPOSE
ton. but / persisted, and he set 1t In
the crescent shape you see 1t in. 1t
doesn't bother me In writing, but would
have been a nuisance II he had set 1t
straight" / couldn't help thinking
how different his career might have
been had DIR. Dysart set 1t straight, for
then he might not have written those
hundreds Of thousands of letters which
have done so much to prolong his ten
ure In the senate. A crescent shaped
finger is a good thing to have in the
| family-sometimes.
| cockreiTs Memory.
But his endless letter writing is not
| the only aid to his senatorial longevity.
| His marvellous memory for names and
faces has helped to keep him in his
| curule chair.
When he made his losing race for
| governor in 1874, being defeated by
only one-sixth Of one vote in the state
| convention-the closest shave on rec
ord-his present brilliant and eloquent
| colleague, George Graham Vest, was
one OF his competitors. and thereby
| hangs a tale.
| When the war closed. so the story
runs, Cockrell took home with him
the roster Of his brigade, with the post
office address of every man carefully
noted on that important and valuable
document. When In their stumping
tour they approached any particular
town, Cockrell would use that roster
to refresh his memory as to the names
of all his soldiers who had their habi-
tat there or thereabout. So when he
met them, though ten years had inter
vened. he would slap them familiarly
ON the back and address them cordially
as Bill or Joe or Tom, as the case might
be. never missing the mark. OF course
the men were delighted that the gener-
al remembered them and were vocifer-
Gus supporters of their old commander.
So there is method In memory as well