Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1909-11-05
The Ten-Year-L Long Dream That Made
Inqersoli Famous.

Any standard American encyclopedia
or biographical dictionary will tell you
that Colonel Bob" Ingersoll was one
Of Americas most famous orators.
Certain ii is that in many respects
lngersoll stand out as the greatest
orator America has yet produced.
E~motionally, this is SO. and as a
Shakespearean orator, SO called, 1t Is
generally conceded that none has
aqualled him. He, too, possessed the
-are gift of putting that elusive
hing into his periods hat make them
send thrills along ones backbone when
they are dead, as they did when their
creator delivered them with all the
power of his magnificent eloquence and
personality. Few. very few, OF the
worlds famous orations SO arouse the
blood when they are scanned OH the
printed page.
AS everybody familiar with Tnger-
OH career knows, he gained national
fame through his "Plumed Knight"
speech. The day before he delivered
It he was unknown; the day after his
name was On the lips of the country.
But not until now has 1t been told how
.ngersoll came to conceive his MASTER
piece. how he built ii up sentence by
sentence through a period of years, and
then, to please his brother, clinched his
hold on fame by writing it down in a
few minutes.
One Memorial day. two or three
years after he had begun the practice
Of aw in New York city, Colonel In
gersoll stood on a corner watching the
veterans of the civil war as they
marched past the reviewing stand
There were tears in his yes as he
cooked upon the old soldiers, and turn
ing to me he repeated the opening SEN
tence of his justly celebrated Memorial
lay address, which you can see en-
grave in bronz in the National ceme-
terry at Arlington: 1.-THE past rises be-
'ore me like a dream" He saw. almost
as wildly as he had seen in the days
IF the wal itself. the soldiers on their
march, rallying to the attack, charging.
Ealing, dying for their country.
AS he walked away in my company
after the procession had passed i ask
I'd him if it were true that he wrote his
famous 'Plumed Knight speech at
ybout midnight one night, as had been
incidentally reported.
Selling my arm and moving slowly
through Madison Square, Colonel In
gersoll said:
That story is partly correct. But
the real truth is that I was 10 years
writing that speech. / had been a
great adnlircr of James G.. Blaine from
the time he was first a member of
congress. i thought he was a typical
American and would make a great
president. / pictured to myself Blaine
in political action. He often fasci-
1ated me when / saw him sitting in
the chair of the speaker of the House
Of Representatives. Every now and
then a thought would come to me in
which / expressed to myself my ideas
and my ideal or Blaine.
Il went to the republican national
- - 49,
company of my brother. We shared a
parlor and had two bedrooms at the
hotel. My brother knew that / had
oeen asked to place Blaine in nomi-
nation. He became very nervous be-
cause | did not sit down and write out
my speech. He was continually prod
ding me to do this, but / put him off.
But / was really writing that speech
all the time, mentally. l composed
part of it on the railway train on the
way to Cincinnati. All the ideas that
mad come TO me from time to time re-
specting Blaine l mentally gathered
and sifted, and decided pom the ex-
preston OF my thought.
"On the evening of the day before
the nominating speeches were to be
made my brother said to me: Bob, you
nave got to write that speech before
you go TO bed
"'All right I said, I'll write it this
evening" So, a little before midnight ]
took my pen and ink and two or three
sheets of paper and wrote out the
speech. / was simply copying what
was in my mind, what I had been years
writing. You know, that Is the way
Webster prepared his famous reply to
Hayne. After / had done hat I went
to bed and was soon sound asleep. /
simply did il to please my brother, and
that is the way what they call the
Plumed Knight speech was put down
on paper at midnight In 10 minutes
copyright, 1909, by f. j. Edwards.)