The National tribune., 1906-03-29

discreet youth and for the unfortunate
he abounds with charity, and the milk
of human kindness flows from his
heart like an unfailing fountain. But
for the 1eglectful, the arrogant, the
purse-proud, the immoral, the political
shyster. the religious renegade. and for
corporate riches the milk of human
kindness turns to gall, and the waters
of the fountain to acetic acid. In the
United States Senate there is no man
more gentle, more deferential to age,
more gracious to women, more tender
ly loving to little children, more gen
erously attuned TO the amenities of po-
lite society than this same Senator Till
man. On the other hand, he has no
elegance of manners, and he can be
the most brutal word butcher that ever
tackled the English language. His
wrath is a simeon of hot blasts that
wither and blight all the good opinions
that others have formed of him, and
make him so personally repugnart to
his confreres that they often Obstinate
ly espouse q bad cause with unneces
sary ardor because he assails 1t with
Incorporate zeal and passion.
In the days of his youth Senator
Tillman must have been handsome. lie
is erect as the typical Indian, with q
few of the features of the aborigine.
his dark skin, his once midnight black
HtSS VI iIdir, HIS u, pitlclIlS eyes.
his thin. sternly-set lips, high check
bones and his square jaws all telling at
glance why he has won out in the
battle of life. He is broad of shoulder,
and tall enough TO bear it off, but a
little slouching in gait. AS you look at
him from the right side he is a fine
nay, he is a handsome man when seen
at his best, but he has lost his left eye,
and this gives him sinister look that
is most Gisa greeable when he is pas
sionately aroused. He tells how he lost
the eye after this fashion in the Con-
gressionl Directory: Quit school in
1864 TO join the Confederate army, but
was stricken with a severe illness
which caused the loss of the left eye
and kept him an invalid for two years"
Senator Tillman was born in 1847.
hence he was only II years old when
he donned the gray uniform of dis
union. II can be said of Senator Till
man, however, that he does not -four
ish the stars and bars of the Lost Cause
in the Halls of Congress. He accepts
the situation, and declares it was a
Providence of God, though he intem-
perately denounces the ''nigger" at any
and all times, and believes that no good
can ever come out of the Sons of Ham
and goes out of his way 10 say so.
Senator Tillman Is q Democrat. He
was born a Democrat. and he will die
in the faith, yet the Democratic Party
has been "blim- blasted TO eternal per-
dition" by him on divers occasions for
its Grass stupidity and laundering
idiocy, and the walls of his wrath are
as often uncorked TO blister political
reformers.
Senator Tillman was educated in the
schools of his own County, but was not
in school after the age of II, yet few
men use better language or show more
q OF Il;
les of education and good books than
Senator Iillman. and in social and po-
litical economics he is thorough stu
dent. After the loss of his eye. Senator
Tillman worked on farm, and in 1890
he was elected Governor of South Car
olina as farmer, and reelected again
in 1892. 1t is told of him that he was
uncouth beyond believing when he en-
tered the Gubernatorial Mansion, and
that one of his first acts to show his
contempt for the "aristocracy" of the
State was TO have the beautiful grounds
around the State Capitol plowed up, all
the flowers and shrubbery removed and
the land planted in corn. Senator Till
man would not do that to-day. He has
broadened and widened immeasurabIy
in the years between then and now. 1t
Is yet in memory how he ripped and
ranted and ran amuck in the United
States Senate when he arrived" there
He is given to doing that same yet, on
sion, but the rough edges arc
rounding appraciably.
That Senator Tillman is a focman
worthy of the best steel is shown by
the ever-recurrent crossing of swords
with Senator Spooner, the great Con-
stitutional lawyer of the Senate, who
enjoys with great Zest the bouts with
Tillman, and never loses an opportuni-
ty to cut and thrust. The Little Giant
from Wisconsin uses his wit like a
rapier, while the big, burly giant from
South Carolina plugs away at him with
a broadsword, but the longer reoch OF
the smaller mans weapon Is often NOR /,
than a match for the heavy lunges Of
the bigger man, yet they often quit
only even" IN the war of Constitutional
technicaiities.
IIto the hands of this "wooi-hat'
Democrat of South Carolina the Ad-
ministration railroad-rate bill has been
flung, and he must nurse 1t to maturity.