The daily Alaskan., 1919-04-12
CHAPTER XVIII. |
On khe Summit.

ISW UTOdu dEcao OA hIo"ASNSS "AASA were firmly h my possession. My best asset was not mental but spiritual, If may be allowed to say lt, In all mod esty, for, therein I claim no special ad- 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 so high and admirable as then and little later. It 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 filled 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 1 an inspiration to me. was awed by the grandeur of Washington itself. I took lodgings with the senator and his wife.
 Now, Bart" said he, when we had arrived, "I'm going to turn you loose here for little while before put har- ness on you. Go about for a week or SO and get the lay of the land and the feel Of 1t. Mrs. Wright will be your guide until the general situation has worked It's way Into your conscious ness"
 It seemed to me that there was not room enough in my consciousness for the great public buildings and the pie | lures and the statues and the vast ma chinery of the government. Beauty and magnitude have a wonderful ef- feet when they spring fresh upon the vision of a youth out of the back cOun- try. l 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 detail of the bank ing laws. The floor and galleries were filled With what emotion l saw him r.se and begin his argument as all ears bent to hear hlml He aimed not at popular continents in highly finished rhetoric. IS did Webster, to be quoted ] in the school books and repeated on every platform. But no words of mine and have used many in the effort are able to convey a notion of the masterful ease and charm of his man. ner on the floor of the senate or of the ! singular modesty, courtesy, aptness and simplicity of his words as they fell from his lips. There were the ' thunderous Webster, the grandeur of ], " hose senteucei Do American has 1 euualed; the agile-minded Clay, whose voice was like a silver clarion the far seeing. fiery Calhoun, of ''the swift ! sword"-mOst formidable In debate- but I was soon to learn that neither nor all of these men-gifted of heaven so hIghly-could cope with the suave, lncisiye, conversational sentences of Wright. going straight to the heart of the subject and laying 1t bare to his hearers. That was what people were saving as We left the senate chamber, late in the evening; that, indeed, was what they were always saying after they had heard him answer an ad- 1 versary.
 He had a priceless and unusual tai. ent for avoiding schOol-reader English and the arts of Reclamation and for preparing a difficult subject to enter the average brain. The underlying se- cret Of his power was soon apparent 1 to me. He stood always for that great thing ln America which. since then' Whitman has called "the divine aggre- gate" and seeing clearly how every measure would be likely to affect its welfare. he followed the compass. II had led him to a height of power above all others and was to lead him unto the loneliest summit of accom- plishment in American history.
 Not much in my term of service there is important to this little task of mine. I did my work well, if may believe the senator, and grew familiar with the gentle and ungentle arts of the politician.
 One great fact grew In magnitude and sullen portent as the months passed: the gigantic slsVe-hOlding in- terests of the South viewed with grow ing alarm the spread Of abolition sen timent. Subtly, quietly and naturally they were feeling for the means to de- fend and increase their power. Straws were coming to the surface in that session which betrayed this deep un- dercurrent of purpose. We felt 1t and the senator WAS worried, knew, but held hls peace. He knew how"to keep his opinions until the hour had struck that summoned them to service. The