Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of Preston B. Plumb, (a Senator from Kansas)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1892 Excerpt: ...of the patriot in dealing with questions that touched the structure of society and the welfare of the people. When I came to the Senate in 1887 Senator Plumb had long been one of its leading members. My acquaintance with him then began. In his marked courtesy and kindness to me, which he went out of his way to manifest, he impressed me with a sense of his amiable and sociable disposition and excited grateful regards, which I shall long cherish. Two instances, small in themselves, gave me an insight into his character. Once in debate he used words which grated very harshly upon me and I thought them unprovoked. Stirling the impulse to respond resentfully, I went, as soon as he took his seat, to his side and called his attention to them. With a beaming smile on his face hestretched outhis hand to me, and what he said instantly removed all unpleasantness, and his act and words were so frank and gracious that I felt strongly drawn to him. Again, I went one day to speak to him at his desk; papers and books vvci e piled up before him and he seemed absorbed in the maze of statistical facts and figures, but the book before him was not of the kind I expected to see. If you wish to read something lovely, he said, read this, and he handed me Arnold's Light of Asia, with a marked passage of exquisite beauty; and he added, as I expressed surprise at seeing him with such a book at such a time, such words as these, Oh, I am reading this to rest myself from these weary tasks. I know full well, from sources that I need not name, of acts of kindness done by Senator Plumb which could only come from a heart touched with the gentle charities of humanity. Underneath his strong and sometimes rough exterior there were recesses of tender thought and fe...