The Blade Cuts as Keenly, and the Embellishments Beautify

Commenting on Colonel Ingersoll’s closing address to the Jury in the first Star Route trial, said: “The most characteristic feature of the trial was the marvelously powerful speech of Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll before the Jury and the Judge. People who knew this gifted gentleman only superficially, had supposed that he was merely superficial as a lawyer.

While acknowledging his remarkable ability as an orator, and his vast accomplishments as a speaker, they doubted the depth of his power. They heard him, and the doubt ceased. It can be said of Ingersoll, as was written of Castelar, that his eloquent utterances are as the finely-fashioned ornamental designs on a Damascus blade, – the blade cuts as keenly, and the embellishments beautify without retarding its power.