Another instance when the impulse of friendship mounted above the waves of angry contention was when, just after the election of President Lincoln in 1860, Mr. Stephens addressed the State Legislature in Milledgeville, counseling temperance and calmness and opposing national disruption. Mr. Toombs was an uncompromising secessionist, but at the close of this great speech he arose and said:

"Fellow Citizens: We have just listened to a speech from one of the brightest intellects and one of the purest patriots alive. I move that this meeting now adjourn with three cheers for Alexander H. Stephens."

On another occasion Mr. Toombs speaking of Mr. Stephens, declared that he had "more brain and soul with least flesh" of any man he ever knew.

But the last tribute which Mr. Toombs ever paid his beloved and cherished friend was when bowed with age and grief he bent mournfully and sadly like the shade of an old forest giant over the mortal ashes of the Great Commoner as he lay calmly and peacefully in the representative chamber at the old Capitol, free at last from aches and pains; and the trembling figure of the old man as he sobbed his simple eulogy in the plaintive accents of the dying swan, photographed itself upon the hearts of all who witnessed the indelible scene.

In the subdued hush of that tribute hour there was more than one heart whose involuntary response audibly echoed the note of bereavement which came from the speaker's desk; and there was more than one eye whose flood-gates were opened as it marked the weeping figure of the bended Mirabeau.

Two more lonesome years followed, and then two glorious Georgians met again!

Mr. Stephens felt for Mr. Toombs the same rapt and enthusiastic admiration which Mr. Toombs felt for him, and his eloquent estimate of the great Touchstone's genius has long been famous. Said he: "His was the greatest mind I ever came in contact with; and its operations, even in its errors, reminded me of some mighty waste of waters."

CHAPTER XIII.

R

Random Chats With General Toombs.

OBERT TOOMBS was almost if not quite as fascinating in ordinary conversation as in legislative

or forensic oratory; and some of the pungent aphorisms which he threw off apparently at random in the table-talk of social intercourse or in the light abandon of convivial fellowship in hotel corridors will be handed down from mouth to mouth long after many of his eloquent periods have been forgotten.

General Toombs was in the habit of speaking his mind freely on all occasions, whether sitting on the front veranda of his home in Washington or addressing an audience of hostile critics in Boston on the subject of African slavery; but there was something peculiarly attractive about his unpremeditated outbursts which made it impossible for him to appear in any public place without drawing about him an eager crowd of listeners. At such times he seemed to be unusually rich in epigrams, and to speak with an affluence of diction which challenged his best efforts in the crowded arena. He critised men and measures unsparingly, and scattered wit and wisdom like some oriental prince dispensing pearls. During the latter years of his life, when he ceased to be an active

factor in politics, he was encouraged to make even larger use of this conversational outlet for venting his views and opinions; but he never ceased to be captivating.

If asked to define diplomacy, General Toombs could probably have done so in categorical terms; but he had no further acquaintance with the word. Still the charm which he exercised in conversation was due to the brilliancy of mind with which this indifference to consequences was associated. Capacious intellects like heavy bodies often move slowly, but lightning itself limped in comparison with General Toombs's mental operations; nor did he need the stimulus of some great occasion to bring his intellectual batteries into vigorous action. Some of his offhand chats have been known to possess all the qualities of his senatorial orations. Besides, he was equally at home in almost every department of human thought; and he spoke upon any subject which might happen to come up with an opulence of knowledge which not only illuminated but fairly exhausted discussion.

The air of recklessness and the element of hyperbole which often characterized the conversation of General Toombs were calculated to create the impression that he was an exceedingly rash man; but this peculiarity of temperament was nevertheless linked with an abundance of latent caution which only needed responsibility to bring it into action. He was prudence personified in giving legal or business advice, and he was vigilance incarnate in safeguarding the interests of his clients, employing all the subtleties of law as well as all the arts of eloquence on behalf of those whom he represented.

But General Toombs will be remembered as the prince of talkers as long as his memory survives; and those

who have known him in all the different phases of his character will never be able to lose from the retina of vision the figure of an old gray-haired man with an unlit cigar in his mouth, seated in the hotel lobby and surrounded by the rapt multitude. This was the conversational Toombs.

One day, while standing in front of the Kimball House in Atlanta, General Toombs was asked by some one in the crowd what he thought of the North. Said he: “My opinion of the Yankees is apostolic, 'Alexander the Coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord reward him according to his works.''

Standing near by was an officer in the Federal army, who overheard the remark.

"But, general," said he, "you must admit that we whipped you, nevertheless."

"No, sir," replied General Toombs, "we just wore ourselves out whipping you."

General Toombs was present in the audience when Mr. Stephens delivered his famous speech before the Legislature in Milledgeville in 1860, strongly opposing secession and taking issue with General Toombs. However, at the close of the speech General Toombs, with characteristic mangnanimity, proposed three cheers for Mr. Stephens, whom he characterized as one of the purest patriots of Georgia.

Herschel V. Johnson, who had once been challenged by Mr. Stephens, but who was now his fast friend and warm ally in opposing secession, went up to General