The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-02-07

In what is, perhaps. T. B. Macaulay's
greatest essay-or is it in the history?-he
SpeculateS how the Church OF England
might have made of Wesley an instrument
as potent FOR its advantage the Roman
catholic Church made of lSnauuS l1oyola
had the pOlity of the English establishment
been as wise as was the Catholic. Joanna
Southcote, at Rome, would have been an
other st. Theresa. In piety, in zeal, IN
devotion, in self-immolation. in enthusiasm,
Methodism is to Professionalism what the
society of Jesus was to Catholicism. Your
circuit rider was a pioneer. He was col
porteur shepherd, neighbor and fFlenu, DO
ing the work of God as il was given him
to know the will of God. His flock was
found in the cabin rather than in the man
sion, and usually it was the clapboard roof
through which his prayer assembled to
heaven.
1t was in this religious household, under
the eye of q conscientious father and at
the knee of a pious mother, that this boy
was taught that life was real and that
nothing was desirable or honorable that
was not acceptable to God. He went to
the neighbOrhOOd schools until he Suf
nclently advanced to enter college, and in
the eyes of Loriston Monroe Fairbanks
there was but one college in. the common
wealth. and that the Ohio Wesleyan Uni
Nersity, at Delaware, o., not far from
Union county. The boy entered that insti-
tuition an eager seeker after knowledge He
had learned the use of tools and did odd
jobs to help his father pay his way. He
lived frugally and studied industriously,
and was duly graduated from the classical
course.
Then he chose a profession. the law, and
to sustain himself while studying he was
reporter of the Associated Press at Cleve-
land, and subsequently at PittSburg. In
1872 he was admitted to the bar of the SUI
preme Court of Ohio Soon afterWard he
was married to Miss Cornelia Cole, daugh-
ter of Judge Cole, of Marysville, O., and
settled at Indianapolis, Ind, where he has
made his home ever since. He and his
wife were schoOlmates and she had been
the associate editor of the college paper,
of which he was editor. During all the
years OF their married life she has been his
friend well his wife and the mother of
his children.
When Fairbanks opened his office at the
Indiana capital he was as lean as a fence
rail and nearly as long. His health was
not robust and it was not very inviting
field il appeared to him; but he was res
olute The cardinal Virtues-industry frugal
ity, self-denial and self-reliance-were his,
and now he practced all of them. He had no
genius except the genius of ceaseless labor
and the taking of infinite pains. He was
not a Blaine or an Ingersoll to captivate
and to dazzle. His was not a brilliant in
telect TO depend on the inspiration of the
moment rather than previous study
But he a man of ability and fine mind
Every day he learned a little law and he
never forgot it, Years after that little piece
of iaw-and they were legion-waS at his in
Simultaneous command, whether he was in
his office preparing a brief, or in the court
room trying case. He began at the bot
tom a corporation lawyer, and got to the
top. He never was satisfied to know his
own side of a case. When he had mastered
his side, he set about study of his ad-
versarys side, and he never ceased ii till
he had mastered ii, too. AS a consequence
he was never caught mapping. and in a
few years he was in the rank of the leading
lawyers of Indiana and the middle West.
He was not so great a lawyer Ben Har-
rison-who was?-but he was a more sue
cessful lawyer than Ben Harrison.
During many years he was urged to en-
ter politics and stand for office. He resO-
lutely refused. He was a party man, how
ever, any son of such father must have
been, and gave of his means to support his
party'S cause, and whenever invited to do
so he went on the stump TO aid the election
of the Republican ticket. Thus he became
a valuable asset of that party in Indiana.
But he early determined that his family
should have a competency and his children
an education before he sought preferment.
When the great war between the States
was finished there was one colossal polit-
| ical figure in Indiana, Oliver p. Norton, the
| greatest of the war Governors" There
| were two younger men, both OF very great