Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1904-02-05
SILENT FAMOUS MEN
MISUNDERSTANDING BEENNoTED
.%s As MlsERs OF WORDS. 1 ~.

have been as sparing Of words az they
have been prodigal of deeds. ~
It Is doubtful If there ever: lived
more taciturns man than Wallenstein,
the famous commander of the Austrian
army during the thirty years war. It
IL said Of Wallenstein that he "lived in, j,
an atmosphere Of silence and never ut
tered a word that was not absolutely
necessary, nor would he permit others
to speak in his presence more than was
essential. One of his chamberlains was
hanged for waking Wallenstein with
needless noise. His servants were so
many mutes, not daring to open their
lips in his presence, and he was sur
rounded by patrols, and the approaches
to his house were barricaded by chains
TO- preserve him from the least disturb
ance. In comparison with Wallenstein,
1t has been recorded, Diogenes would
have been chatterbox and William
the Silent brawler.
But silence is characteristic of many
of the worlds most famous soldiers.
Napoleon boosted that in his dealings
with men he never wastedca word and
made monosyllables answer most pur-
poses But nothing escaped his eyes,
and he could compress more within q
sentence than most men could convey
In quarter OF an hour. a's+ss-.@s='.'',* y
The great Duke Of Marlborough when
receiving reports from his generals
would produce his watch and say, II
will give you a minute" And it was
likely to 90 hard with the officer who
did not observe the limitation. To his
staff the Duke of Wellington was al
ways more or less a sphinx. A nod or
a shake of the head was often the only
response they could get from him, and
when once he was asked what he con-
sidered the best equipment of a COM.
mander he answered, "A long head and
q silent tongue" =
Won M0ltke almost rivaled Wallen-
stein in taciturnity. He never opened
his mouth If gesture would suffice,
and when the news was brought to
him that the French had declared war
he simply said to the aid-de-camp, "Sec-
II
and turned round to sleep again. But
he had said all that was necessary, for
In the pigeonhole indicated were COM
plete plans for the campaign which
closed In brilliant victory. Won Moltke
used to say that one verb in the Ger
man language was worth all the 9TH
ers put together, and that was 'thun':
Ito do"
The worst thing his enemies could
say of President Grant was, He won't
talk because he has so much to- con-
ceal," and yet it was precisely in this
silence that Grants real strength lay.
His orders and dispatches were the
briefest ever penned, and when once
charming young lady playfully asked
him why he would not talk to her he
answered, my dear, don't you, know
that silence Is one of the greatest arts
Of conversation" {! =,
But it has been the same in all ages.
Charlemagne was a perfect miser of
words, holding, with Confucius, that
silence is friend that will never be-
tray" Hannibal was a man of mono
syllables," and Julius Caesar was nick
named by his soldiers ''The Oracle"
Even great statesmen and writers
who cannot suffer from any lack of
words have often been among the most
reserved Of men. OF Addison, John
son says, "Of his external manners
nothing is so often mentioned as that
timorous or sullen taciturnity which
his friends called modesty by too mild
name" According to Chesterfield,
he was 1.-THE most timorous and awk-
ward man ever saw" and even Ad-
Olson himself, speaking of his own
deficiency In conversation, used to say,
II can draw bills for q thousand
pounds, though 1 haven't a guinea in
my pocket" tTEr 'a
Dryden was unutterably dreary as
companion. my conversation is slow"
he once wrote, my humor saturnine
and reserved, and I am none of those
who endeavor to break jests in COM
pany and make repartees." And Shad-
well tells how he once dined with Dry
den, and from the beginning to the end
Of the meal the poet never opened
his lips except to eat" !,
Thomas Carlyle was "hoarder Of
the gold Of silence" and would BIT for
hours, putting away at his pipe, with
out nttering more than grunt or q
gruf monosyllable. Leigh Hunt, his
neighbor and intimate, once wrote to
4 friend: "Have just spent q pleasant
hour with Carlyle. When l went In he
growled, tHalloa; here again 81 and at
parting he snapped out Good dayr
and that 10 the sum Of the CONVERSE ion
he honored me with. But how elo-
quent his silence In! ] just sat and
hooked at him and came away strength
sned for fresh struggle" 81 5333 s 3sS
4 DGustsFanG KinG.
OF King George Nv. Thomas Cree
veg, who lived In the early part 0f the
nineteenth century, tells this story:
The king had appointed the bishop
az Winchester to administer to him the