Charles L. Holstein. He next practised alone in Indianapolis. In 1887, he was induced to add his experi ence to a Chicago firm (Flower, Ramy and Holstein), but in 1890, after much success in the Lake City, domestic reasons impelled his return to Indianapolis, and he became a member of the firm of Holstein and Barrett, now Holstein and Hubbard. Mr. Holstein's oratorical accomplishments have caused him to be much in demand for the political and the address platform and at public banquets. His published addresses upon occasions when the memories of both Lincoln and Grant were in touch with popu lar gatherings are as delightful to read as they were to hear under influence of mag netic eyes, dulcet tones and graceful gesture. A sample of Mr. Holstein's rhetoric and of his remarkable use of apt imagery may now be appropriately submitted, because his nisi prius summings up and arguments were and are tinctured with similarity of style. The occasion is a Chicago banquet given by the celebrated Marquette club upon Grant's birthday, 1895. The Auditorium vast banqueting hall is crowded with din ner guests from many western cities. Mrs. General Grant and " Nellie " are there, and enthusiasm crowns all the hours. A toast is announced — "The Volunteer Soldier," and Holstein rises to respond to it. The eight hundred guests cease clash of knives and forks and the waiters become statues, and all bend to listen, for his fame as an orator is widely known. He commences with the sentence " 'AH mankind,' said Emer son, 'love a lover,' and it is equally true that all womankind as well as all mankind love a fighter." That is his text. Before juries or judges it has been his aim to begin with an epi grammatic text which is to become the neck lace thread upon which shall be strung all the beads of logic and oratory. He con tinues : " Dr. Johnson said to Boswell ' every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier. His profession has the
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dignity of danger. Military glory is not only the most dazzling, but it is the most endur ing.' In that Johnsonian light are we met to do honor to the memory of a great captain — 'fit to stand by Caesar and give direc tions.' Under him across a continent from the great seas to the great rivers, on moun tains, and on plains, the smoke of battles darkened the skies with pillars of clouds by day, and the camps of bivouacked armies lighted them with pillars of fire by night. The thunders of the heavens were silenced by the thunders of the guns. "The war is over. The scars on both sides are badges of soldierly honor. Arms are stacked and the ranks are broken. Their swords are beaten into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, and the love birds arc nesting in the mouths of the dumb cannons. "Let us have peace" was the last com mand of the great commander, whose birth we commemorate to-night. The blue and the gray are brothers. To-night, with thirty years between us and the dead echo of the last gun of the last battle, it would seem in vidious and ungracious to leave unsaid some words of appreciation of our friends the enemy — the gallant soldiers of the South. Grant left untaken and untouched the sword of Lee. We are bigots indeed if we do not honor Confederate soldiers, as such, for their courage. Mistaken in their belief, but be lieving in their mistake, honestly, devotedly, and bravely they fought a losing fight. Braver soldiers never faced a foe in battle. Honor paid to them for their valor is honor to the Union soldier. The valor of each proves the valor of both." Indiana is as proud to-day of her lawyerorator Holstein as ever were Maryland of her Winter Davis, the Bay State of her Choate, or New York of her Conkling. Is it not for the Junior Bar of the Union to see to it that the potency and grandeur of legal oratory shall not pale in the next generation?
