Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1910-02-16
new NEWS OF YESTERDAY
Ten Year Dream That Made In
gerSoII Famous.
BY <. J. EDWARDS.

by &c Dc EDWAHDSs
Any standard American encyclope-
dia or biographical dictionary will tell
you that Col. Bob" Ingersoll was one
of Americas most famous orators
Certain 1t is that in many respects In
gerson stands out as the greatest ora
tionally, this is so, and as a Shake
spearean orator, so called, 1t is gen.
orally conceded that none has eQualed
him.
AS everybody familiar with Inger-
soils career knows, he gained national
fame through his 'Plumed knight"
speech. The day before he delivered
1t he was unknown; the day after his
name was on the lips of the country.
But not until now has it been told how
Ingerson came to conceive his master
piece, how he built it 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 few minutes.
One Memorial day, two or three
years after he had begun the practice
of law in New York city, Col Ingersoll
stood on corner watching the vet
Grams Of the civil war as they marched
past the reviewing stand. There were
tears in his eyes as he looked upon
the old soldiers, and turning to me he
repeated the opening sentence of his
justly celebrated Memorial day ad-
dress, which you can see engraven In
bronze In the National cemetery at
Arlington: THE past rises before me
like dream" He saw, almost as Wv
idly as he had seen in the days of the
war itself, the soldiers on their march,
rallying to the attack. charging, fall
ing, dying for their country.
AS he walked away in my company
after the procession had passe.1
asked him if it were true that he
wrote his famous 'Plumed knight"
speech at about midnight one night, as
had been incidentally reported.
Selling my arm and moving slowly
through Madison square, Col. Ingersoll
said:
THAT story is partly correct. But
the real truth is that l was ten years
writing that speech. / had been
great admirer of James G. Blaine from
the time he was first a member of
congress. 1 thought he was typical
American and would make a great
president. l pictured to myself Blaine
In political action.
81 went to the Republican national
convention of 1876, at Cincinnati, In
the company of my brother. We
shared parlor and had two bedrooms
at the hotel. My brother knew that
had been asked to place Blaine in
nomination. He became very nervous
because l did not sit down and write
out my speech. He was continually
prodding me to do this, bat put him
of. But was really writing that
speech all the time, mentally. l COM
posed part of 1t on the railway train
on the way to Cincinnati All the ideas
respecting Blaine mentally gathered
and sifted, and decided upon the ex-
preston of my thought.
ION the evening of the day before
the nominating speeches were to be
made my brother said to me: Bob,
you have got to write that speech be-
fore you go to bed
"'All right said, I'll write it this
evening. So, little before midnight
took pen and ink and two or three
sheets Of paper and wrote out the
speech. 1 was simply copying what
was in my mind, what l had been
years writing. You know, that is the
way Webster prepared his famous re-
ply to Hayne. After 1 had done that
I went to bed and was soon sound
asleep. l simply did it to please my
brother, and that is the way what
they call the 'Plumed Knight speech
was put down on paper at midnight in
ten minutes"
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