Part 21 (1/2)

XVI ROBERT G INGERSOLL

MR INGERSOLL'S ELOQUENCE WHILE A YOUNG MAN--HIS CANDIDACY FOR CONGRESS--HIS AGNOSTICISM A HINDRANCE TO HIS POLITICAL ADVANCEMENT --HIS ORATION AT THE FUNERAL OF HIS BROTHER

It was in April, 1859, that for the first tiersoll He came over from his home in Peoria to attend the Woodford Circuit Court He was then under thirty years of age, of splendid physique, nificance of the word, and one of the reeable of men He was almost boyish in appearance, and hardly known beyond the limits of the county in which he lived He had but recently moved to Peoria from the southern part of the State

To those who remember him it is hardly necessary to say that even at that early day he gave unifts His power over a jury onderful indeed; and woe betide the counsel of but onist in a closely contested case

The old Court-house at Meta, asince fallen froh estate In my boyhood, I have more than once heard Mr Lincoln at its bar, and later was a practitioner there ersoll was attendant upon its courts Rarely at any time or place have words been spoken ersoll in that now deserted Court-house, in the years long gone by

The first appearance of Mr Ingersoll in the political arena was in the Presidential struggle of 1860 In his later years he was a Republican, but in the contest just mentioned he was the earnest advocate of the election of Mr Douglas to the Presidency and was hiress in the Peoria District His coentleress I to a series of joint debates The challenge was accepted, and the debates which folloere a rare treat to the throngs who heard the at the outbreak of the Civil War, issues which were to find their final determination on the field of battle Possibly, with the exception of the historic debates two years earlier, between Lincoln and Douglas, the country has known no abler discussion of great questions It was then for the first tiersoll displayed the marvellous forensic powers that at a later day--and upon a different arena--gave him world-wide renown

It was at a period subsequent to that just nostic I recall no expression of his during the early years of our acquaintance that indicated a departure from the faith in which he had been reared That his extrely offensive at ti them, formed an insuperable barrier to his political advancement, cannot be doubted But for his unbelief, what political honors ht have awaited hi the questions then under discussion, the intensity of party feeling, and the enthusiasm that his marvellous eloquence never failed to arouse in the thousands who hung upon his words, it is probable that the ht have been attained

To those familiar with the political events of that day, it is known that the antagonism aroused by his assaults upon the citadel of the faith sacred to the many, compassed his defeat in his candidature in 1868 for the Governorshi+p of Illinois His explanation was, that his defeat was caused by a slight difference of opinion between hi question of total depravity

Some years later, the noly obnoxious to hi after the adjournment of the convention I inquired, ”Are you happy?”

To this he replied, that he was soot religion at a backwoods ca

Soon after his conversion, the preacher, taking hi friend, are you very happy?” ”Well, parson,” replied the only half-converted youth, ”I am not damn happy, just _happy,_ that's all”

His only brother was for ress froersoll was hiifts of his younger brother, the subject of this sketch The death of the forersoll a sorrohich remained with hiton in the suersoll for the last sad service to his brother, were men well known in public life, one of whom but two years later, while President of the United States, fell by the hand of an assassin

Fro the funeral of Clark Ingersoll, the following is taken: ”When Colonel Ingersoll ceased speaking the pall-bearers, Senator Allison, Senator David Davis, Senator Blaine, Senator Voorhees, Representatives Garfield of Ohio, Morrison, Boyd, and Stevenson of Illinois, bore the casket to the hearse and the lengthy _cortege_ proceeded to the Oak Hill Cemetery where the remains were interred”

The occasion was one that will not easily pass from my memory

There was no service whatever save the funeral oration which has found its way into all languages I stood by the side of Colonel Ingersoll near the casket during its delivery, and vividly recall his deep e tones in which the wondrous sentences were uttered It is probable that this oration has no counterpart in literature It seerief that could know no surcease, the agony of a parting that could know no morrow

In such an hour how cheerless and comfortless these words:

”Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two eternities We strive in vain to look beyond the heights We cry aloud, and the only answer is the echo of our wailing cry

”Every life, no matter if its every hour is rich with love, and every edy as sad and deep and dark as can be woven of the warp and woof of mystery and death”

And yet in those other words, ”But in the night of death, hope sees a star, and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing,” and, ”while on his forehead fell the golden dawning of a grander day,” there is a yearning for ”the touch of a vanished hand,” and a hope that no philosophy could dispel of a reunion sometime and soain ”the veiled shadow stole upon the scene,”

and the sublime mystery of life and death was revealed The awful question, ”If a reat agnostic _all was known_

XVII A CAMP-MEETING ORATOR

PETER CARTWRIGHT, METHODIST PREACHER--HIS FEARLESSNESS AND ENERGY-- HIS OLD-FAshi+ONED ORTHODOXY--HOW HE CONVERTED A PROFANE SWEARER --HIS ATTENDANCE AT A BALL--OLD-TIME CAMP-MEETINGS--CARTWRIGHT'S AVERSION TO OTHER SECTS--CONVERSION OF A DESPERADO INTO A PENITENT --CARTWRIGHT MR LINCOLN'S COMPEtitOR FOR REPRESENTATIVE--HIS SPEECH AT A DEMOCRATIC STATE CONVENTION