The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1919-09-06
CHAPTER XVIII.
on the Summit.

My mental assets would give me a
poor rating, l presume, In the COM
merce Of modern scholarship when /
went to Washington that autumn with
Senator and Mrs. Wright. Still it was
no smattering that I had, but rather a
few broad areas Of knowledge which
were firmly in my possession. My best
asset was not mental but spiritual, IL
may he allowed to sss 1t, in all mod
esty, for, therein claim no special adj
vantage, saving, possibly, an unusual
strength Of character in my aunt and
uncle. Those days the candles were
lighting the best trails Of knowledge
all over the land. Never has the gen.
eral spirit of this republic been 50
high and admirable as then and a little
later. 1t was to speak, presently, In
the immortal voices of Whittier, Emer-
son, Whitman, Greeley and Lincoln.
The dim glow Of the candles had en-
tered their souls and out of them came
q light that filed the land and was
seen of all men.
The railroads on which we Travelled
from Utica, the great cities through
which we passed, were a wonder and
an inspiration to me. / was awed by
the grandeur of Washington ITSELF.
took lodgings with the senator and his
wife.
"Now, Bart" said he,, when we had
arrived, "Tm going to turn you loose
here for little while before put nar'
ness on you. Go about for a week or
so and get the lay Of the land and the
feel of it. Mrs. Wright will be your
i9guidc until the general situation has
worked its way into your conscious
| ness"
1t seemed to me that there was not
| room enough In my consciousness for
the great public buildings and the pic.
lures and the statues and the vast ma.
chinery Of the government. Beauty
and magnitude have wonderful eff.
feet when they spring fresh upon the
vision Of youth out of the back coun.
try. I sang of the look of them in my
letters and soon began to think about
them and imperfectly to understand
them. They had their epic, lyric and
dramatic stages in my consciousness
| One afternoon we went to hear Sen
ator Wright speak. He was to an
swer Calhoun on a detail of the bank
ing laws. The floor and galleries were
filled. With what emotion l saw hin
rise and begin his argument as all ears
bent to hear him! He aimed not al
popular sentiments In highly finished
rhetoric, as did Webster, to be quoted
in the school books and repeated OF
every platform. But no words of mine
land have used many in the effor
t--are able to convey notion Of thu
lmasterful ease and charm of his man
ner on the floor of the senate or Of tn,
singular modesty, courtesy, aptness
and simplicity of his words as the,
fell from his lips. There were tn,
1 thunderous Webster, the grandeur O.
/ whose sentences no American hal
teQuHlcu, Tic dSilc-luiuuCu SIuyt WuOS'
voice was like silver clarion; the far
seeing, fiery Calhoun, Of "the swift
sword'-most formidable in debate
but I was soon to learn that neithe
| nor all of these men-gifted of HEAVIER
so highly--could cope with the suave
incisive, conversational sentences o
/ Wright, going straight to the heart O
the subject and laying 1t bare to hi
| hearers. That was what people wer
saying as we left the senate chamber
late In the evening; that, indeed, wa
what they were always saying afte
they had heard him answer an ad
versary.
/ (TO BE CONTJNUED.)
l