Character Analysis: Senator Lucius Lyon Invests In Sugarbeets

Chapter One
Senator Lucius Lyon Invests in Sugarbeets
United States Senator Lucius Lyon was in his country clothes…a black alpaca coat over a brilliant white shirt bearing a high collar that heightened the richness of the fringe of dark hair, the remnant of an abundance that once covered his scalp. His boots were made of fine black oiled leather designed for wear with equal comfort in Michigan's loamy farm fields or Washington, D.C. streets. He was thirty-nine years of age. Though pattern baldness added a decade to his appearance, he had lost none of the physical qualities that had made him a legendary land surveyor who had trekked the vast reaches of the Michigan Territory when it included, in addition to the state of Michigan, all of what

During moments of stress, however, the melodic lilt gave way to a sound similar to a rasp drawn across violin strings. In the year just past, since the death of their daughter, ten-year-old, Laura, who had succumbed quickly to a sudden fever, it was the rasp that made the music in their household.
Caroline narrowed her eyes and bent her head forward, rooting him to the spot with a hot glare. “He is a United States senator1, Giles, the first one this state ever had. He is the man who surveyed Michigan, made it what it is, and he was the one that fought to get us the statehood you thought was so all-fired important, and he is one of the biggest farmers in these parts, probably the whole state for all we know”. She paused to draw a breath. “Even if you can’t respect him for any of that, just remember you work for him.” She paused once again as if to carefully consider her next words, and then, raising her head and fixing him with an uncompromising stare, added, “Remember, too, you are no longer boys with leisure to squabble without ill