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Show Itarard Our Typical Uantleman. Don M. Dickinson. The typical American gentleman as drawn from life, is a familiar fitrure at your capital. He may come of a long and distinguished lineage, but he does not vaunt it. He Is a democrat in the broad sense; believes In his country and her future; is proud of her progress and feels a responsibility as a unit of the sovereign people, with a public duty to do as such. He is a man of wide learning ana imormation. ana nis rellective mind makes constant use of its treasures of knowledge, they are not permitted to mold or rust. A man of tho world and a student of mankind, his charity for the foibles and sins of humanity is broad and his judgments gentle. Never arrogant, censorious or intolerant in discussion, ho wins an opponent by respecting his opinions, while differing from him, and sends him away in a spirit of rellection rather than of controversy. To borrow bis own apothegm, he never "mistakes rudeness for courage nor violence for strength." He clothes his ideas iu garments of apt expression, felicitous, beautiful, and always Anglo-Saxon. Anglo-Saxon. There is nothing of the pedant about him. His diction is pure liko his heart, and is unmarred by profanity or or slang, lie is differential to all'wo-nien. all'wo-nien. An unconscious dignity freezes impertinence and closes the mouth of vulgarity, while his gentle manners and winning countenance give confidence to tho embarrassed and looseu the tongue of tho modest or the timid. He cares nothing for mere rank in his intercourse with manly men with true American manhood and you feel at once, as he grasps your hand and greets you, that with hhn ' The rank Is but the frulnea stamp, The man's the gold for a' taut"' To enter bis home, to partake of his hospitality iu the place where be lives, is a privilege and delight. At the head of his table his geuial grace, "the mind, the music breaking from his faco," warm and move the heart of every guest, who thus influenced, unconsciously unconscious-ly becomes not merely an observer and a listener but a contributor to the common com-mon enjoyment of all. This man, by healthful exercise, keeps his body sound as tho repository of his sound mind. His physique is athletic and vigorous. vig-orous. A scholar, a statesman, an American gentleman, this figure is not merely an ideal one, and I personify the typo with which my description must but poorly impress your minds when I name Thomas Y. Bayard. |