Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-06-03
LxxXIII. lEEp. CLEAR HEAD LINZ.

r-~- = IT - ~ AK"
During an argument in the Supreme
Court in New York city son1e' years
ago. in a case in which i was Interested
as a spectator, 7 had the pleasurespf
listening to Elihu Root. now United
states senator, but at that time colinl
sci for a corporation! ~ , fF
Mr.. Root made but few gestures.
During one Of them, however, HE held
his hand aloft in such a way that The
palm was plainly visibieAto me. 1t was
q well-colored palm and. running
straight across 1t, like a. fiery red
streak, was a Head line, the peer 81
which 1 had never seen before, nor
have I seen one like 1t since. It was
deep and clear. and so straight that IL
looked for all the world as II itahad
been painted across With, tie aid ora
ruler. =
Had I not heard Mr.. Roots argument
or known who he was I should never.
theless have been able to tell from the
remarkable Head line that there was
the mar for a titanic debate. LiKe
sledge-hammer blows his crushing do
auctions followed fast from seemingly
i%rrefutable premises. fAnd, though
there was not a single figure of speech,
lOl a SOlltdTJ niCldPllOE DVi
ment of any kind in all his long speech,
1t seemed to me quite a foregone con
cluslon that the decision should be
awarded to him, although his oppoA
nent was a reasoner and speaker OF no
mean ability, either.
Who the opponent was or what the
outcome of the case, time, with its bur-
den of cares of my own, has erased
-. - DIT ~ xzlxnk ~ rhA
story is that 1t enables you to see, by
concrete instance, the meaning Of
deep, clear Head line.
It shows, first of all, great mental
power and e~auipoise, as manifested In
the case of Mr.. Root by the calm, ser
rene, almost cold blooded name In
which he met and dissected, like az
anatomist with a scalpel, the strongest
arguments put forth by his adversary,
Then. also, the deep, clear line shows
f1xity of purpose. This, too, was appaf-
ent in Mr.. Roots argument. Neverss4of
a single moment. did he lose sight 81
the one point at issue. No matter how
often or how far the objections raiFHd
by the opponent carried him afieldghe
would invariably veer back and make
everything bear upon the main point,
which he drove home again and agalr
with the persistency of a bulldog.
People with such a Head line are
likewise self-contained, dignifed, we'll
balanced and determined. And where,
pray, can all these qualities be found
in fuller measure than In Senator
Root?
With so massive a brain. one may
ask. how is it that Mr., Root was COM
tent to speak so long without using any
rhetorical embellishments? f~
For two reasons, Mr.. Inquirer. One
is that. as the speech was addressed
solely to a justice, learned in the lAtv,
and not to a jury. there was no need
for rhetorical fourisdes. But, mainly,
the reason was that with the Head
line running so straight across the
palm, metaphors do not present them
selves to the mind. Such a line indi-
Gates an almost utter lack Of imAgi-
nation; or, if there is any, 1t is so
swallowed up by the practical, unc0fi-
promisingly logical, mathematico-lesal,
dry-as-dust acumen that anything
J looking even remotely like poetry IL at
once dismissed as puerile m incoRser
quential.
Which. perhaps. goes to show that,
despite all its tremendous power. even
so immense a Head line, II perfectly
straight, is not the one that is alto
gether ideal.
A little slope toward the Mount OF
the Moon is what makes of such .
Head line the Demostheneses, the
Ciceros. the Patrick Henrys, the Daniel
Websters and the truly great philoso-
pliers. For philosophy is not all logic.
There must he intuition, oo-a sort Of
divine aflatus like that which inspires
the great poets.
And, indeed, there is more in com-
mon between philosophers and poets
than is commonly imagined. Which II
not. however, intended to be taken a.
an argument for the absurd claim 81
the Baconian authorship of the plays
Of the astonishing Shakespeare.