PEN PORTRAIT OP BISMARCK.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 69, 25 January 1879, Page 3

PEN PORTRAIT OP BISMARCK.

He is a powerful man. That is what strikes at once every one that sees him for the first time. Every part of his gigantic frame is well proportioned—tue large, round head, the massive neck, the broad shoulders, and the vigorous limbs. He is now more than Ki, and the burden lie has to hear has been unusually heavy; but though his step has become mow ami ponderous, he carries his head high—l >okmg even on those who are as tall as lii.nself—and his figure is still erect. ll.i--ing these hitter years he has suffered frequent ant severe bo lily pain, hut no ue

could look upon him as an old man or ;u one to be pitied. Oil the contrary, everybody who sees him fi-ols that Prince Bis mark is still in [losses,ion of immense physical power. Photography has made iiis features known to all. ii is a strange face, which would attra-t attention everywhere, even if we did not knowthat it belonged to a man whose doings have changed our modern world. It is a face never to be forgotten—by no means a handsome, but still less an ugly one It was remarkably bright, full of humor, of merry mischief even, in days long gone by. It has now become serious—almost solemn—with an expression of unflinching energy and daring. The bald round forehead—an object of admiration for the phrenologist—is of quite extraordinary dimensions; the large, prominent blue eyes, seem as if they could look into the sun without blinking, They are not quick—they wander slowly from one ob-ject-to another; but when they rest on a human countenance they becomo so intensely inquiring that many people, when thoy have to undergo this searching look, feel uneasy; and all, even Bismark's equals and superiors, are made aware,that they are in the presence of a man with whom it would bo wise to play fair, as he would probably discover the most subtle tricks. His thick, well-set eyebrows are singularly long and shaggy, and they add not a little to the stern, anil, at times, Somewhat fierce expression of his countenance. The nose is of ordinary sizenot as long, perhaps, as might be expected from the rest of the face ; the chin is largo and massive. Prince Bismark has Baid of himself, that ho was " the besthated niau in Europe." He has, iudeed, many furious enemies in many parts of the world ; in his own country, to begin with, among the Particularists, the Catholics, and Socialists; and again at Home, in Austria, and in Franco. Ho has not often been hoard to complain of this, still a bright intellect cannot possess the knowledge of such a fact without being saddened by it. Prince Bismark is by no means a lightheaded niuu. Sorrow and care have taken up their abode with him. They throw a shadow on his brow, ami make themselves hit in the sound of his voice, and in the frequent bitterness of his hesitating speech. He is no longer

| young; he fully realizes- the fact that the , best pari of his life is gone, that hit greatest battlas have been fought; ami | maybe in his inner heart there is the ; feeling, that while he has achieved imi.h for the greatneu of his country, he his done but little for his own happiness. Sometimes, when he is sitting among his personal and intimate friends—he has be>ides his family some ttve or six of these—free from all restraint, smoking his long pipe, patting the head of his huge dog, attending listlessly to a eoni g ling on around him . in tubes their passes ov r hiacold bee a something like a sofl transparent veil, behind which hi* hi ; features relax and take an nnlooke -; i ■ pi ssion of wist fulsadnesa, .v 'hII.O u Bis mark bad been knowi since the tbirtccojii century is a thoroughbred German. Though one ol tho most matter-of-fact men the world h.is ever known, he carries witlii his breast a hidden vein of deep feeling; and though that feeling is certainly not of the kind which gives birth to morbid sentimentality ; and it is difficult to believe that young Uismark ever addressed his complainings to the moon still it enables him to feel ■keenly all that a sensitive heart has to endure during the passage through life.—Blackwood's Magazine,