Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume Three).djvu/380

 man full of the consciousness of power. He was of small stature, but he planted his feet upon the ground with demonstrative firmness. His face, framed with gray hair and a short stubby white beard, and marked with heavy eyebrows, usually wore a stern, and often even a surly expression. His voice had a rasping sound, and his speech, slow and peremptory, was constantly accompanied with a vigorous shake of the forefinger which meant laying down the law. I do not know to what religious denomination he belonged; but he made the impression as if no religion would be satisfactory to him that did not provide for a well-kept hell fire to roast sinners and heretics. Still he was said to be very kind and genial in his family and in his circle of intimate friends. But in politics he was inexorable. I doubt whether, as a leader, he was ever really popular with the Republican rank and file in Missouri. But certain it is that most of the members of his party, especially in the country districts, stood much in awe of him.

Mr. Drake, very naturally, wished to have at his side in the place of Mr. Henderson, a colleague sympathizing with him and likely to shape his conduct according to Senator Drake's wishes. He chose General Ben Loan of the western part of the State, a gentleman of excellent character and respectable, but not uncommon abilities. Senator Drake permitted it to go forth as a sort of decree of his that Mr. Loan should be elected to the Senate, and, although the proposition did not seem to meet with any hearty response in the State, he would have been so elected, had not another candidacy intervened. It happened in this wise: I was a member of a little club consisting of a few gentlemen of the same way of thinking in politics who dined together and then discussed current events once or twice a month. At one of those dinners, soon after the presidential election of 1868, the conversation turned upon the impending