AN ORACLE
His intuitions were like a woman's -- often infallible. In many an instance they were as unerring as his judgment was sound, -- amounting almost to prophecy fulfilled. On that fatal morning in July when the assassin's bullet laid low the lamented Garfield, Mr. Ingersoll was one of the first at the stricken President's side. He said to me: "I know he will not live. I feel it. He may rally, and linger a few days, but he cannot recover." Despite all that human skill could do, all means that science could employ, or all that Christendom on its knees could implore, the end came.
It was this gift or endowment, added to his clear judgment and knowledge of human nature, that made him the seer and prophet he really was. This rare combination in him was recognized by many who sought his advice and counsel. Statesmen, politicians, men of affairs in public and private life resorted to him as to an oracle, and his "guesses," as he called them, frequently came true. He never claimed to have soothsaying or clairvoyant powers, -- for he was absolutely without a superstition -- but he was none the less one whose predictions were often justified by the events. |
