FAMOUS LIVING
iRICANS
FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
FAMOUS LIVING
AMERICANS
WITH PORTRAITS
EDITED BY
MARY GRIFFIN WEBB
EDNA LENORE WEBB
PUBLISHED BY
CHARLES WEBB & COMPANY
GREENCASTLE, INDIANA
1915
A
COPYRIGHT 1914 BY
CHARLES WEBB
Published December, 1914
THE TORCH PRESS
CEDAR RAPIDS
IOWA
INTRODUCTION
IN the preparation of this work two purposes have been
kept in view :
First, to supply the general reader in compact form
the biographies of a considerable number of the most
prominent present-day Americans. This volume gives
the main facts about each character down to the present in
an appreciative and interpretive sketch such as seldom
appears during the life-time of an individual. Although
fragmentary material on most of our great leaders may
be secured from widely scattered publications, articles
having the particular aim and scope of these biographies
are rarely if ever found in current literature.1 The present
work meets a need of the reader by providing within a
single volume the life stories of forty-three representative
living Americans.
Because of its inspirational value, biography is gener
ally given an important place in education. Nevertheless,
while the illustrious characters of earlier days — largely
heroes of war — are held before us for emulation, all too
little attention is paid the men and women — almost ex
clusively heroes of peace — now making American his
tory. Must the achievements of our present-day leaders
be reserved wholly for posthumous eulogies ? Surely the
perspective of the future is not needed for a due appre
ciation of their contributions to the progress of mankind.
It is thought that a service will be rendered in making
accessible now the helpful record of the struggles and suc
cesses of eminent Americans belonging to our own time.
Second, to provide inspirational and authoritative
1 The article on Colonel George W. Goethals by Mr. Ray Stannard Baker in the
American Magazine, October, 1913, seemed so well suited to the purposes of this
volume, that it has been republished here, with the kind permission of Mr. Baker
and the Phillips Publishing Co.
vi INTRODUCTION
source material for use as the basis of papers and
speeches, and to give practical directions for the composi
tion and presentation of biographical and other addresses.
In addition to the subject-matter in the articles, further
material on particular phases of the lives of the characters
is cited in the bibliographies.
Especially practicable subjects for orations are fur
nished by this volume, since great personalities embody
concretely the principle or " theme " essential to the struc
ture of the oration. While, for instance, the necessity for
persistent effort, in the abstract, is relatively difficult to
use as a subject, the biography, say of Edison, gives in the
indefatigable industry of the famous electrician, a tangi
ble " theme. " It is confidently expected, moreover, that
the greater inspiration of the living, the keen interest
attaching to persons even now engaged in important un
dertakings, will stimulate to worthy efforts in oratorical
work.
The chapter entitled, Suggestions on the Preparation
and Delivery of Biographical Speeches, besides being of
value to those not in academic work, is particularly
adapted to the use of students in colleges and secondary
schools for Oral English exercises and oratorical contests.
The author, Professor Harry Bainbridge Gough, head of
the department of Public Speaking and Debate in De
Pauw University, is well qualified to give expert help on
the subject. His material is very much condensed, the
chapter being, as a result, a brief but comprehensive
manual on biographical orations. It is believed that the
article is a unique contribution to the literature of Public
Speaking.
THE EDITOKS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION v
SUGGESTIONS ON THE PREPARATION AND
DELIVERY OF BIOGRAPHICAL SPEECHES . 1
HAERY BAINBRIDGE GOUGH, A.M.
Professor of Public Speaking and Debate
DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana
CHARACTERS AND WRITERS
JANE ADDAMS 20
HERMAN O. MAKEY, A.B.
Principal of High School
Eaton, Indiana
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL .... 34
HILLARY ASBURY GOBIN, D.D., LL.D.
Vice-President of DePauw University
Greencastle, Indiana
MAUD BALLINGTON BOOTH 49
CHARLES BRANDON BOOTH
General Secretary of the Volunteer Prison League
New York City
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN .... 58
MAYNARD LEE DAGGY, Pn.B.
Author of The Principles of Public Speaking
Seattle, Washington
LUTHER BURBANK 68
ROBERT JOHN
President, The Luther Burbank Press
Santa Rosa, California
JOHN BURROUGHS 82
EDWARD BARRETT
State Geologist of Indiana
Indianapolis, Indiana
viii FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
ANDREW CARNEGIE 94
JAMES CASEY, C.E.
Chicago, Illinois
CHAMP CLARK 107
WALLACE D. BASSFORD
Mexico, Missouri
FRANCIS E. CLARK 121
CHARLES EUGENE UNDERWOOD, A.M., PH.D.
Professor of Old Testament Language and Literature
Butler College
Indianapolis, Indiana
RUSSELL H. CONWELL 132
Miss LAURA H. CARNELL, LiTT.D.
Dean of Temple University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
GEORGE DEWEY 146
Miss Lois ELEANOR KINNEY, A.B.
Teacher of English, Central High School
Birmingham, Alabama
THOMAS A. EDISON 163
GEORGE LAWRENCE SCHERGER, Pn.D.
Professor of History and Political Science
Armour Institute of Technology
Chicago, Illinois
CHARLES W. ELIOT 176
CHRISTOPHER B. COLEMAN, P.H.D.
Professor of History, Butler College
Indianapolis, Indiana
CARDINAL GIBBONS 187
JOSEPH LEONARD CARRICO, C.S.C., Pn.D.
Professor of English, University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana
GEORGE W. GOETHALS 201
RAY STANNARD BAKER, B.S.
Amherst, Massachusetts
TABLE OF CONTENTS ix
ANNA A. GORDON 225
MRS. LUELLA F. McWHlRTER
President of the Indiana Woman's Christian Tem
perance Union, 1896-1900
President of the Indiana Federation of Women's
Clubs, 1911-1913
Indianapolis, Indiana
JAMES J. HILL 234
ANDREW THOMAS WEAVER, A.M.
Departments of English and Public Speaking
Northwestern University
Evanston, Illinois
EMIL G. HIRSCH 246
JOSEPH LEISER, A.B.
Allentown, Pennsylvania
WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS 260
DEWITT CLINTON SPRAGUE, PH.D.
Departments of English and Psychology
Eastern Illinois State Normal School
Charleston, Illinois
HELEN KELLER 277
Miss EVELYN M. BUTLER, A.M.
English Department, Butler College
Indianapolis, Indiana
ROBERT M. LAFOLLETTE 237
MAYNARD LEE DAGGY, Pn.B.
Lecturer and Institute Instructor
Seattle, Washington
BEN B. LINDSEY 300
THOMAS LE GRAND HARRIS, Pn.D.
Professor of History, Baker University
Baldwin, Kansas
JOHN MITCHELL 313
FRANCIS CALVIN TILDEN, A.M.
Professor of Comparative Literature
DePauw University
Greencastle, Indiana
x FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
JOHN R. MOTT 327
WILLIAM WARREN SWEET, B.D., PH.D.
Professor of History, DePauw University
Greencastle, Indiana
JOHN B. MURPHY 336
WILLIAM AUGUSTUS EVANS, M.D., LL.D., D.P.H.
Professor of Sanitary Science
Northwestern University Medical School
Chicago, Illinois
ROBERT E. PEARY 354
MRS. MINNIE PREY KNOTTS
Librarian of the Nebraska State Historical Society
Lincoln, Nebraska
MRS. PERCY V. PENNYBACKER .... 375
MRS. GRACE JULIAN CLARKE, Pn.M.
Member of the Board of Directors
General Federation of Women's Clubs
Indianapolis, Indiana
JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY . . . . . 387^
Miss ANNA NICHOLAS
Editorial Staff, Indianapolis Star
Indianapolis, Indiana
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER 400
RICHARD GILBERT COLLIER
Cleveland, Ohio
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 416
THE HONORABLE JACKSON BOYD
Greencastle, Indiana
ELIHUROOT 429
ALBERT WILLIAM MACY, A.M.
Author of Curious Bits of History
Chicago, Illinois
ANNA HOWARD SHAW ...... 441 -
Miss LUCY E. ANTHONY
Moylan, Pennsylvania
WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT 451
THE HONORABLE LUTHER ALBERTUS BREWER, A.M.
President, The Torch Press
Cedar Eapids, Iowa
TABLE OF CONTENTS xi
OSCAE W. UNDERWOOD 463
THE HONORABLE NEYLE COLQUITT, B.L.
Savannah, Georgia
JOHN H. VINCENT 473
HENRY G. JACKSON, A.M., D.D.
River Forest, Illinois
JOHN WANAMAKER 487
Miss IDA ELIZABETH RILEY, A.M.
Greencastle, Indiana
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 499
ROBERT E. PARK, Pn.D.
Lecturer on Sociology, University of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
HENRY WATTERSON 512
LOGAN ESAREY, Pn.D.
Editor of the Indiana Magazine of History
Department of History, Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana
EDWARD DOUGLASS WHITE .... 525
WALTER CARLETON WOODWARD, A.M., PH.D.
Professor of History and Political Science
Earlham College
Richmond, Indiana
WOODROW WILSON 539
CECIL CLARE NORTH, PH.D.
Professor of Sociology, DePauw University
Greencastle, Indiana
LEONARD WOOD 555
EMERSON BECK KNIGHT
Indianapolis, Indiana
ORVILLE WRIGHT 571
SAMUEL RAYMOND DUNHAM, A.M., B.D.
Dayton, Ohio
ELLA FLAGG YOUNG 583
JOHN T. McMANis, Pn.D.
Professor of Education, Chicago Normal School
Chicago, Illinois
SUGGESTIONS ON
THE PREPARATION AND DELIVERY OF
BIOGRAPHICAL SPEECHES
BY HARRY BAINBRIDGE GOUGH
IT is believed that the following are some values attending
the preparation and delivery of the biographical speeches
herein planned:
First, a keener appreciation of some of the famous Ameri
cans of our own time.
Second, an increased power of initiative on the part of the
student. It would seem that the careful composition and pub
lic presentation of a message, caught
I. To Teachers up from the facts given in these
sketches yet made universal in its ap-
1. SOME VALUES plication, should call into play the
"creative resources. "
Third, some training in the careful analysis of data and in
the sifting out from the relatively insignificant the more im
portant: and what is of more worth still, some intelligent
training in seeking the causes back of facts or effects.
Fourth, some inspiration to the careful composition of Oral
English. Probably the student will use Oral English one hun
dred times, possibly a thousand times, more than "Written
English. ' ' While we have never emphasized unduly the latter,
"Spoken English " as such is receiving justly more and more
attention. Moreover, these biographical speeches in connec
tion with the contests planned, will afford the student an imme
diate and worthy purpose for his efforts at composition. The
great mass of what he writes is rarely, if ever, read out
side the classroom. Here is afforded an opportunity for him
to prepare for a very definite, practical, and apparent end, a
vital message, and to secure for it a respectful hearing.
Fifth, some training in the oral presentation of his mes
sage. Surely if some of our "very intellectual " or "un
usually bright," not to mention our " ordinary, " students are
2 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
before an audience stammering dolts or downright dunces, it
is not to the credit of our educational methods. And this sug
gestion is the more significant in the light of the fact that em
inent students of our people and government ascribe so much
power to public discussion and appeal. This volume is pub
lished in the firm conviction that the appreciation of the rela
tion of practical public speech to the well-being of the state
and nation, is growing rapidly.
To treat fairly of this subject within the limits of a single
chapter is manifestly impossible. For the speeches herein
planned should be orations in minia-
2. PAKTICULAE ture ; and of all types of literature, the
BISECTIONS HERE oration is most complex. The compos-
IMPOSSIBLE ition, not to mention the delivery, in
volves an art quite beyond communica
tion through the medium of the printed page. Skill in any art,
indeed, is vastly more than instruction and knowledge : it rep
resents usually long-continued practice under the direction of
one skilled in that art : it is attained through repeated revi
sions based on intelligent criticism. For illustration, it is
generally considered impossible, through the medium of a
book, adequately to instruct in the art of vocal or instrumental
music. Just so probably no satisfactory i ' text, ' ' however long
or learned, will ever be written on the preparation and deliv
ery of public appeals.
It is believed, however, that the following general sugges
tions will prove helpful. They are based upon some years of
experience in teaching the Composition and Delivery of Pub
lic Address.
Now it is assumed that the student will be made to feel free
to seek sympathetic and legitimate criticism from his teach
ers : and it is further assumed that he
3. SYMPATHETIC will not be satisfied with one writing of
CKITICISM his speech, nor even with two; but
NECESSAKY that he will pursue persistently the
suggestions made and that he will em
body in his final production his very best thought and skill.
Courtesy Cammack Stitdio, Greencastle, Ind.
SUGGESTIONS ON BIOGRAPHICAL SPEECHES 5
Similarly, it is assumed that his delivery of the message will
represent patient practice under competent criticism.
Lack of confidence on the part of the student prompts this
appeal to teachers. The beginner has heard much fun made
of ' ' fire-eating orators ' ' ; and he feels
4. LACK OF CONFI- that his productions, especially of the
DENCE AN OBSTACLE more formal kind, will be looked upon
patronizingly, if not scornfully. It
surely is not too much to hope that in his efforts toward the
careful composition and public presentation of a vital mes
sage, the student will receive the same generous consideration
accorded him in his other endeavors.
The form of Oral Discourse herein treated may be called
the Biographical Speech. To this class of appeals belong
various kinds of public discourse, not-
n. The Composition of ably commemorative speeches deliv-
the Biographical ered for the most part on anniversary
Speech occasions, as on Washington's Birth
day or on Decoration Day. These bio-
1. KIND graphical addresses, then, are typical
of a very large class of speeches gath
ering about the inspiration of mighty characters or of epochal
events.
From the first it must be borne in mind that composition,
for oral delivery is different from that intended for read
ing. "A speech is to be written as in
2. ORAL DISCOURSE the presence of an audience and for an
PECULIAR audience. " It is not prepared for pri
vate reading, but for public hearing.
To write something to be read by another at his pleasure again
and again, if he desires, is one thing : to compose a vital mes
sage to be acted upon after a mere collective hearing, is quite
another thing. Serious public speech aims, then, not at bemg
something merely, but at doing something. It must do some
thing with the hearer. It aims at some decision on his part ;
and so while addressed more immediately to the mind, it is
prepared and presented for the purpose of moving the will.
Let no one think, then, that the speeches herein considered are
6 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
for entertainment merely. So far from that, they are serious
and solid. Of course formal speech must entertain in the
sense of arousing, sustaining, and satisfying interest; but it
must do vastly more : it must appeal for action and yield ac
tion, although the action be no more than is involved in chang
ing a mental attitude.
These speeches, then, are to be prepared, not for private
reading, but for public hearing : they are to be carefully con
structed and written, not for the purpose of being something,
but for the purpose of actually doing something. All serious
speech-making must have as an object action on the part of the
hearer.
Three of the limitations attending the composition of formal
public address should be kept in mind :
First, while it must gather about facts, oral discourse must
contain more than facts. The sketches in this volume consist
largely of facts, and intentionally so :
3. LIMITATIONS but merely to recite them to any great
MAKING NECESSARY extent in public speech would deprive
THE THEME the speaker and audience of the larger
purposes and profits involved. These
mere details for the most part are remote and of little signifi
cance relatively to the hearer. The important business for the
speaker is to dig beneath and to peer behind these facts and to
discover their reason, their explanation. To be told that a man
achieved certain things through courage in time of great stress
is interesting: but far more important is it to be informed as
to the cause behind that courage. Putting the matter another
way, these facts concerning famous living Americans largely
pertain to the past. The speaker must give them a vital
meaning for the present and the future. The worth of these
biographical addresses under consideration must be meas
ured, indeed, by the interpretation of facts into thought and
action for the hearer. The speaker does not, then, ignore
facts ; but he states them briefly or else assumes that they are
known. His task is rather to show an eternal principle as a
dominating, guiding force and to make clear the obligation of
the hearer as to that principle.
SUGGESTIONS ON BIOGRAPHICAL SPEECHES 7
Second, the effective speech must gather about one truth,
one great, central thought. Formal address has no place for
"strings of glittering generalities." The spoken message
must be strictly a unity. Every illustration used or fact cited,
every sentence, indeed, must relate clearly to the one big idea
to be enforced. A single and immediate purpose on the part
of the speaker must be manifest throughout his message.
Psychic qualities peculiar to the audience impose this second
limitation.
Third, public speech must at the same time be simple in
thought: it "moves among common thoughts, motives, and
principles. ' ' 1 Speculative, or abstract, or involved ideas are
exceedingly difficult to treat through public speech. To ap
peal to the hearer's "tendency toward perfection" in duty
fulfilled, in virtue practiced, and in happiness attained, is the
object of the oration according to Professor Eobinson. These
ideas, he shows, are old and universal; but the primary aim of
public speech is not the impartation of new ideas : it is rather
the enforcement of ideas, often very old ones, with a view to
getting the hearer to act upon them.
These three limitations, then, demand: first, that some
means be found for interpreting the facts of a life into thought
and action for the hearer ; second, that there be set forth and
enforced throughout the production, one great unifying truth
or principle : and third, that this truth or principle be not ab
stract nor involved but vitally human through appeal to per
sonal duty, virtue, or happiness.
Now as a means of meeting the demand of these three lim
itations upon oral address, we employ what we call the
THEME. For illustration, a student
4. THE THEME desires to interpret the life of Brutus.
He does not recite facts about that
hero, but begins his address with a statement of his theme in
this thought: The first task of life is service: service is
through sacrifice. He attempts to show that this idea always
i Forensic Oratory, by William C. Eobinson, LL. D. (Little, Brown & Company,
Boston, 1893). In Chapter III especially, the author sets forth very clearly this
matter.
8 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
guided Brutus, even when he became a conspirator against
Caesar. Although the address may have denunciation as an
object, that is, when the aim is to hold before an audience a
character not for emulation, but for condemnation, the great
principle should be stated clearly and followed closely with a
view to enforcement as above suggested. In his address on
Aaron Burr, the Honorable Champ Clark almost immedi
ately sets forth his theme by stating that while Burr was the
most brilliant and fascinating of the Vice-Presidents except
Jefferson, "the one thing he [Burr] needed " was "moral
sense. " He points out at once that "for this fatal deficiency
nothing can compensate"-, and the entire address enforces
this universal idea,2 He has taken facts, explained them with
one thought, made that one idea the unifier of the entire
speech, shown that it is vital, and has so enforced it. True, it
is an old idea, generally assented to, but it deserves repeated
enforcement and personal application, probably, to many.
This commonly accepted but enforced idea, we call the
THEME.
Yet another illustration of the use of the theme in the bio
graphical address is found in the production by Mr. Flynn,
referred to later on, The Redemption of Jean Valjean. He
opens the way immediately for his translation of the facts
gathering about the story of Valjean, through the statement
of the commonly conceded truth, perhaps worthy the name
principle, "Men fall and rise again and the world may remem
ber them forever as her heroes. " He shows, too, the three
subjective processes in every genuine redemption.
The speech should begin with a statement of the theme, as
in the illustrations given above. But it is fair to state in this
connection that very many famous speeches do not immediate
ly set forth the theme. In some instances the principle to be
enforced is at first withheld because public speech ofttimes
involves a peculiar quality we may call "personal accommoda
tion " on the part of the speaker. He may, for illustration,
be utterly unacquainted with the audience and he finds that
2 Modern Eloquence, vol. vii, George L. Shuman & Company, Chicago, 1903.
SUGGESTIONS ON BIOGRAPHICAL SPEECHES 9
the formal statement of the principle he means to enforce can
be introduced best through an informal word of personal or of
local adaptation. Sometimes courtesy requires that the speak
er at the very beginning acknowledge an expression of greet
ing or of appreciation on the part of the presiding officer or
of the audience. Often, too, while the theme is not definitely
stated at the outset, it is implied quite clearly in a description,
narration, or perhaps an historical summary, or a weighty
quotation from some eminent authority.
But in connection with the addresses under consideration
it is apparent that no word of personal accommodation is
necessary. Usually, indeed, the very occasion is introduction
enough for the speaker: and usually the formal address has
no place for any reference whatever by the speaker to himself.
The implication is that by mutual agreement he has prepared
carefully a practical, vital message and the people have as
sembled to hear it and to act on it. Experience in teaching
Public Address dictates that it is best to begin with a state
ment of the truth or principle to be enforced.
Yet another reason for the Theme is found in the fact that
the speaker must immediately "get on common ground" with
the audience. If any are neutral or indifferent toward his
cause, their interest must be aroused: if they are opposed,
their attention must be won. The statement of a principle
commonly accepted, but perhaps needing a new application,
tends to arouse curiosity in the indifferent : in the opposed it
tends to allay prejudice and to bring them mentally at least
one step toward final accord with the appeal.
Because, then, the purpose of public appeal is to secure ac
tion and because of the severe limitations upon the subject-
matter and its treatment, the Theme is necessary.
One of the outstanding criticisms made concerning bio
graphical speeches is that they are not unities, but "a little
of this and a little of that. ' ' It would
5. THE OUTLINE seem well, then, to provide the begin
ner with some thoroughly tried gen
eral outline and to show the relation of the Theme to it. The
following Structure is therefore suggested:
10 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
I. Introduction.
1. Statement of the THEME.
2. Expansion of the truth or principle and illustration
of it in the character under consideration.
II. The Problem, i. e., The Difficulties.
A brief statement of the conditions, the discourage
ments with which the subject met, perhaps his lim
itations in endowments or opportunities. These
facts should be stated as briefly as possible.
III. Solution: How He Overcame These Difficulties.
1. The means he employed, briefly stated. It should be
shown that a single great cause — that suggested in
the Theme — accounts for the inspiration the sub
ject affords.
2. The results, briefly, of his efforts. The permanent
results of a life should be accounted for through the
Theme.
IV. Conclusion : Appeal.
1. The significance of the principle to the hearer.
2. The significance of the principle, illustrated by the
life of the subject, to the country at large.
3. The appeal for the personal embodiment by the
hearer of the principle or Theme illustrated in the
life of the subject.
This outline follows that suggested by the ancient and mod
ern writers on the subject. The words " Theme," " Prob
lem, " and "Solution" are not original. A very good treat
ment of the development of oratorical themes, in which prac
tically this same outline or structure is suggested, will be
found in Professor Maynard Lee Daggy's The Principles of
Public Speaking (Eow, Peterson & Company, Chicago, 1909).
The practical application and clearness of such an outline
are shown in the oration, The Redemption of Jean Valjean,
by Mr. Clarence E. Flynn, DePauw
6. USE OF OUTLINE University, 1911. In the latter part of
ILLUSTRATED the following short paragraph he gives
the theme:
"Men fall, and the world may remember them for a day as
SUGGESTIONS ON BIOGRAPHICAL SPEECHES 11
her sinners; men stand, and the world may remember them
for an age as her saints; men fall and rise again, and the
world may remember them forever as her heroes. A colossal
type of this heroism is outlined in the character of Jean Val
jean."
The Problem division of the oration treats of the various
influences contributing to the downfall of Valjean which we
need not consider here. Then the Solution division treats of
his " redemption " thus:
First, through the struggle for self-recovery : ". . . Mus
ing in the prison or toiling in the chain gang he saw himself a
martyr; but standing between wistful childhood and tranquil
age, both wronged by his hand, he sees himself a wretch. . . "
Second, through the struggle for self-mastery: lt . . . The
self within him is strong. But a persistent voice — the voice
of his awakened conscience — bids him lay down his freedom
and again receive the shackles of bondage, bids him surrender
his official title and reassume the old name of infamy and re
proach. . ."
Third, through the influence of suffering: ". . . His
life-long penance reaches its climax in the hour when the mem
ory of Cosette, estranged and gone, rises up to mock him as he
sits alone beside the broken shrine where she has been his
idol. . ."
Thus Mr. Flynn throughout his production enforces the
idea of heroism as shown in Valjean 's redemption — the uni
versal method of redemption. All the facts of his later life
are explained in the analysis of these processes.
If the productions be limited say to one
7. LENGTH thousand words, the length of the divisions in
dicated should approximate the following :
Introduction ..... 100 words
Problem ..... 300 words
Solution ..... 500 words
Conclusion ..... 100 words
In connection with the Style and Diction, the greatest dan
ger to public address is triteness, commonplaceness. Inas
much as the aim is to enforce an important but ofttimes old
12 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
thought, it is necessary that sane but forceful sentences should
be employed. Of course, in these formal speeches there is no
place for either "picturesque slang "
8. STYLE AND or coarseness. But the most apparent
DICTION and the most blameworthy weakness in
formal public address to-day is a kind
of vapid prating, mere twaddle, suggestive of absence of
downright hard thinking. Now it is assumed that the stu
dent will observe carefully the general rules usually given
in his English course concerning Clearness, Force, Dignity,
and so on. But because of the peculiarities of oral discourse,
it is recommended especially that the following rhetorical de
vices be much employed in these speeches: Antithesis often
enables the speaker to make perfectly plain through contrast
what otherwise probably would be obscure ; the Rhetorical
Question and Answer afford variety not merely to the style,
but to voice and action in the presentation ; Rhetorical Imag
ery is a great aid to Public Address ; e. g., for the use of Meta
phor Professor Clark ascribes the following reasons :
"First, to aid the memory; second, to aid the understand
ing; third, to impress the feelings; fourth, to excite surprise
or curiosity; fifth, to secure brevity and smoothness."3 The
writer does not know just now of another work more brief and
clear covering the whole matter of style than that referred to.
Part II of that text will be peculiarly significant to the stu
dent because written by a man at once a most effective speak
er, a successful teacher of the art of Composition for Oral De
livery, and a rhetorician of rare scholarship.
Because of the limitations of this article it is impossible to
mention in detail further qualities of style. It is assumed, as
has been suggested, that the student will bring to bear his best
skill looking especially toward Clearness, Force, Dignity, etc.,
as developed in his English Composition training. It is to be
emphasized, all the while, that the object of the public appeal
is to do, not merely to be something: that the object is to get
the hearer to act.
s A Practical Rhetoric, by J. Scott dark, New York (Henry Holt & Company,
1886).
SUGGESTIONS ON BIOGRAPHICAL SPEECHES 13
Thus we have suggested briefly :
Some of the Values attending the preparation and presen
tation of these Biographical Speeches.
Some of the Peculiarities of Oral Discourse.
The Three Chief Limitations upon it, necessitating the
Theme.
The Practical Use of the Theme.
The Use of the Outline.
Some of the more Helpful Qualities of Style.
Many incorrect notions about instruction in delivery obtain.
Teaching Public Speaking is not giving instruction in mimicry
— not with sincere folk; nor is it in-
ni. The Delivery struction in the ventriloquism em
ployed by the " Punch and Judy" per-
1. INCORRECT former in the side-show; nor is it
NOTIONS ABOUT prattle about saying things this way
THE DELIVERY or that, or ' ' splitting 'twixt the north
and northwest side" the manner of
"making" a gesture. Again, some oppose a careful study of
public discourse on the alleged ground that the study is unnec
essary. They urge that if one has something to say that is
worth saying, all he has to do is to rise to his feet before an au
dience and say it. Surely, then, those holding this view must
go a little further, if consistent, and urge that if one has some
thing to write worth the writing, all he has to do is to write it
— without any instruction whatever save that afforded by "in
nate common sense"; and that if someone has something to
paint worth the painting, all in the world he has to do is to
paint that something, without contact with a master ; and that
if somebody has a song worth the singing, he need only "ope
his mouth" and sing — to take instruction in singing would
be so silly withal! Now native ability, "sheer genius," oft-
times achieves relative success in an art ; but that fact is not
sufficient ground for cavalierly disdaining as unnecessary in
struction in Public Speaking. It is but fair to state that some
of the greatest figures of history, and many of the mighty
characters of our own times, by example and by testimony give
the unanswerable answer to such nonsense.
14 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
Now, let it be recalled again that the public address is to be
heard, rarely, if ever, read ; and that it is to accomplish some
thing in the hearer — to move his will. Just as in the com
munication of thought through writing, certain elements such
as Force and Unity should be observed, so in the presentation
of thought through oral address, certain perfectly reasonable
qualities or principles should be observed. And so far from
involving mimicry, or ventriloquism, or trifling distinctions,
intelligent instruction in delivery aims simply at clearness,
force, unity, and dignity in the presentation of the message :
aims at helping the student to get away from oddities and
habits tending to detract from the thought; and seeks to aid
him in giving the message the impress of his own personality.
Oral Discourse, it should be remembered, is always more
than mere thought : it is the communication of ideas plus the
speaker's impress — a life he imparts
2. OKAL DISCOURSE to it. The message intended for pri-
MOKE THAN vate reading comes for the most part
MERE THOUGHT cold, uninterpreted, without the throb
of personality. This personal im
press, this life given to it by the speaker, accounts largely for
the striking results of the oral appeal through all the years
in the great realms of politics, social reform, and religion.
Just as in the composition of public discourse the speaker
gives not merely facts but the significance of the facts, so in
the presentation of a great message he gives not merely
thought, but his reactions — the response from the very depths
of his being — fairly and sincerely accompanying the thought.
A great speech is necessarily more than mere thought. Men
who actually have studied Public Speech realize full well this
"spiritual content/' Here, then, if nowhere else, is found
abundant reason for training in actual delivery of public dis
course.
In connection with the delivery one thing may be stated with
certainty : that public speech is essentially away beyond pri
vate speech usually as to occasion, aim, and certain outstand
ing qualities. What might be said or done with propriety
in private speech might be ridiculous in public speech. In so
SUGGESTIONS ON BIOGRAPHICAL SPEECHES 15
far as they are alike, however, public speech is private speech
magnified many-fold. This enlargement is due to the fact that
primarily public speech employs so ex-
3. PUBLIC SPEECH tensively hint, suggestion. If in some
LIKE PRIVATE rather insignificant way the speaker is
SPEECH ENLARGED timid, he may seem to the audience
not sure of the truth, or possibly he
may seem deceitful. Again, if in manner he seems even a
little defiant, he may suggest bombast, egotism, possibly he
may give out the hint that he is * * bluffing. ' ' And so a repel
lent voice is likely to arouse opposition to the speaker and to
his cause: on the other hand, an attractive voice, a per
suasive one, tends toward a receptive and favorable attitude
on the part of the hearer. And so a "slouching" or a precise
enunciation, grotesque or graceful gestures, intense feeling or
colorless mumbling — every quality in serious public speaking
is thrown, as it were, before the audience as a hint or sugges
tion to be enlarged many-fold.
Now like every other art, Public Speaking is made up of
many seemingly unimportant details. It is thought best to
call attention to the most important of
4. MADE UP or these so-called "small matters" of
DETAILS which effective public speech is made.
The mastery (always, of course, the
relative mastery) of these "small matters" is the road to ef
fective speaking. Now there is no other way to effective
delivery known to the serious men who are teaching Public
Speaking in our universities and colleges to-day than this : to
direct the student in the development and most effective use
of his own powers in Voice, Word-making or Enunciation,
Physical Expression, and Intensity or Feeling. These are the
qualities in delivery.
It seems well, therefore, to treat briefly of each of these
fundamentals, these "small matters," upon which the presen
tation of the speech depends. No other
5. THE VOICE element in the delivery is more deserv
ing of the attention of the student than
the voice. The qualities of the voice are (a) Purity, (b)
Strength, and (c) Flexibility.
16 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
(a) The voice should be pure: e. g., free from rasping
"throatiness," nasal twangings, and whimpering. Obstruc
tions, or rather, impurities of voice of
(a) PURITY this sort are due largely to sheer habit.
We tend to lose our appreciation of
the things with which we are most familiarly associated : so,
many persons never listen to their own voices; and so they
never know their vocal defects. In order to correct these
faults, one must be made conscious of them. Intelligent crit
icism, then, becomes almost an absolute necessity ; and it must
be followed with patient practice.
(b) The voice should have strength. He who speaks must
be heard. If he is not heard, what is the use of his speaking?
In this connection it must be borne in
(b) STRENGTH mind that the voice of the speaker
must overcome the distracting hack
ing and coughing usually accompanying any coming together
of a large number of people. Even above the attentive audi
ence rises a subdued but almost ceaseless din more or less op
posing the voice of the speaker. But he simply must be heard.
To demand that the speaker be heard easily is not a whit more
than to demand clearness in the composition to be read. In
this connection it should be remembered that public discourse
must be "caught on the wing." No opportunity is afforded
the hearer mentally to go back over a part he did not hear dis
tinctly. He must "keep up" with the speaker all the while.
On the other hand, composition for private reading may be re
traced again and again with a view to understanding it.
(c) The third quality in the voice is flexibility, or perhaps
better, variety. Public speech, like every other art, should
have no place for monotony. The use
(c) FLEXIBILITY of one note over and over again, the
constant repetition of a series of notes,
"the pounding along humdrum fashion" through an address
— these "singsongs" are to the audience very conducive to
sleep. One of the best ways to secure variety is to shift the
voice between sentences; i. e., to change the pitch. A sentence
is a thought more or less complete. In writing we separate
SUGGESTIONS ON BIOGRAPHICAL SPEECHES 17
sentences, and even parts of sentences, with various marks re
ferred to as "punctuation." It is even more necessary in
public speaking to separate thoughts and modifications of
them with vocal ' i shifts. ' ' The greatest single aid to variety
is this change in pitch, between sentences especially. This
demand upon the speaker for flexibility or variety in voice is
in no sense finical, just as the demand for punctuation in writ
ten English is not finical.
Another very important element of public speech is enunci
ation, or vocal word-manufacture. Evidently we utter words by
"joining elementary sounds." Care-
6. WORD-MAKING less enunciation is to public speech
OK ENUNCIATION very much as misspelling is to writ
ten composition. To say, for illustra
tion, "The Gen'ral advise ' the Gover'men' t'yiel'," for "The
General advised the Government to yield," is to suggest
slovenliness of speech, and worse yet, dullness of mind. Think
what we may of it, enunciation bespeaks mental habit.
Now the points at which we have most difficulty in word-
manufacture are the following :
(1) Final -d and -t sounds, as "had," "abound," enlist
(2) Final -p and -b sounds, as in "develop," "absorb."
(3) Final -s and -z sounds, as in "friends," "abounds.
(4) Words of many syllables are likely to be slurred by the
speaker and correspondingly "blurred" in the mind of the
hearer. Lists of long words may be made and practiced to
great advantage.
For the habit of misspelling we prescribe, "Consult your
dictionary"; and for indistinct enunciation we prescribe
"Consult your dictionary and give to every sound in the word
distinct utterance. ' ' The seemingly trifling matter of precise
enunciation is worthy a place among our habits. It is an in
dex of mentality and even of character. To demand distinct
enunciation is no more than to demand correct spelling. The
arguments for either apply with equal force to the other.
The object of Physical Expression is the enforcement of
thought and accompanying feeling. Language alone is not
sufficient even for private conversation ; and so words are sup-
7 1
J ?
18 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
plemented with various forms of what might be called ' i modi
fied sign language. " But physical expression must be based
upon thought and feeling; and since
7. PHYSICAL everything the speaker does is en-
EXPRESSION larged, magnified as it were, before the
audience, this form of communication,
(a) OBJECT if bungling, is likely to attract atten
tion to itself, and so to hinder rather
than to help the message. The test of all physical expression
then becomes : First, does it strengthen the thought and the ac
companying reaction on the part of the speaker? And second,
does it in the slightest degree attract attention to itself 1 This
is but stating in another way that physical expression must be
based upon thought and thought-reaction, and is entirely sec
ondary to them.
But the phrase "Physical Expression " is very comprehen
sive and includes many different forms of hint, or suggestion.
For illustration, the normal position is
(b) POSITION ON usually about three feet from the front
PLATFORM of the platform. If too far forward,
the speaker suggests undue familiar
ity, lack of caution. On the other hand, if he stands more
than three or four feet back from the edge of the platform, he
will suggest timidity, lack of confidence in his own message,
possibly an effort to deceive.
The head should be up, the body
(c) POSTURE OR erect, the shoulders square and at
ATTITUDE right angles to the audience, the arms
and hands hanging at rest.
Arm gesture is made from the shoulder, not from the elbow
or wrist. The significance of the different positions of the
hands is so varied as to preclude even
(d) GESTURE a brief treatment here. The "language
of the hands" is most complex. In
telligent criticism is the only safe guide. In case of doubt as
to whether a gesture should be used, it is best to omit it, prob
ably.
The intensity of the delivery depends fundamentally upon
SUGGESTIONS ON BIOGRAPHICAL SPEECHES 19
the impression which the speaker compels the thought in the
message to make upon himself. Pub-
8. INTENSITY OR lie speakers have long realized that
" FEELING " impression depends largely upon the
vividness of the imagination of the
speaker, his keenness of insight. We say, and say very truly,
that if the speaker does not " think and see and hear and feel"
in connection with a mighty message, — if he is not somehow
stirred to his very depths, — he will not move his hearers to
action. Of all the criticisms uttered by Public Speaking in
structors, the most repeated probably are these: "You do
not appreciate the import of the thought " ; "You do not catch
the deeper spirit of the message"; "You do not do your com
position justice." Long -continued brooding over a speech is
the road to adequate impression. This process is absolutely
essential. The object of the orator is to convince of truth and
persuade hearers to act thereon: and if he has intense but
thoroughly controlled passion for his cause, he will in large
measure allay opposition. On the other hand, "the saying a
piece," the mechanical reciting of words and sentences, is not
worthy the serious student.
In the treatment of the Composition of Oral Discourse we
found that while public appeal is based upon facts, it is vastly
more than a statement of facts : that it must aim at the en
forcement upon the hearer of a vital principle. And to that
end some general directions, especially as to the THEME and
OUTLINE, were offered.
And now we have found that while the presentation of the
public appeal is based upon thought, it is always more than
the mere thought : that the oral message bears the reactions,
the peculiarly personal responses of the speaker to his
thought: and that suggestion plays an important part. And
so with a view to the adequate expression of the thought and
the accompanying "spiritual content," attention has been
called briefly to the four elements of delivery : VOICE, ENUN
CIATION or WORDMAKING, PHYSICAL EXPRESSION,
and INTENSITY or FEELING.
JANE ADDAMS
BY HERMAN 0. MAKEY
ONE day a little girl, not yet seven years of age, drove
with her father through the poor district of a small
city. Till then the city had always meant splendid
shops and luxurious houses and this was her first introduction
to real poverty.
' ' Father, ' ' she exclaimed, ' i why do people live in such hor
rid little houses so close together ?"
Her father explained as best he could to his daughter why
such a condition existed. But the explanation did not satisfy
her.
"When I get big," she replied, "I am going to live in a
great big house right among horrid little houses like these/'
This youthful promise Miss Addams has literally fulfilled ;
and Hull House, perhaps the best expression of the spirit of
"Chicago's foremost citizen, " has since 1889 been minister
ing to needs which even childhood's eyes can see.
To understand Miss Addams 's life one must know her
childhood and no record of her childhood is clear without an
insight into the relation of the motherless child to her father.
Mr. Addams had early begun life as a miller's apprentice.
Rising at three in the morning to begin work, he had taken
advantage of the dull morning hours to read through the entire
village library. With the same intense earnestness he had
worked his way through life. During the sixteen years follow
ing 1854 he was a member of the Illinois State Senate. In those
uneasy times there were few men whose position could abso
lutely be relied upon. But Lincoln, still an obscure member
of the legislature, writing concerning his stand on a measure
then before the Senate, expressed his assurance that Mr.
Addams "would vote according to his conscience. ' ' Upon
the death of Mr. Addams in 1881 the editor of a Chicago daily
wrote that he knew of but one man in the Illinois legislature
to whom in the now incomprehensible days of reconstruction
JANE ADDAMS 21
a bribe had never been offered — and that man was John H.
Addams.
With this father the young child was in most happy accord.
He was her ideal man and her pride in him was a source of
some of her most poignant childish suffering. Afflicted, as
she was, with a slight curvature of the spine, it was an un
bearable thought that visitors to their church should think
that the dignified Mr. Addams was the father of such an ugly,
gawky girl. On days when there were visitors at the church
she always managed to walk home with her uncle, sacrificing
the walk with her father — which was to her the chief event
of the week — to preserve his dignity. This oversensitive-
ness lasted until a day when she met him on a crowded street
and he lifted his hat to her. This voluntary public recogni
tion put an end to her morbid sensitiveness to her personal
appearance.
But John Addams was no stern father to be only respected
and feared. After a day in which Jane had committed the
sin of lying she would find sleep impossible until she had con
fessed her sin to her father. His only comment would be that
he was glad that she ' ' felt too bad to go to sleep afterwards. ' '
Comforted by the fact that she no longer bore her sin alone
and by her confidence in his parental understanding, she
would soon be asleep.
From her father she learned that honesty to self was more
important than an understanding of deep theological doctrine.
The admission that he was as unable as she to understand the
doctrine of foreordination served as balm to her childish un
rest at being unable to comprehend what her friends l ' under
stood perfectly. ' '
It is not to be imagined, however, that Miss Addams 's
childhood was in any way abnormal. If she were more
thoughtful and more concerned with her inner life than are
most children it was only because she saw in her father's
daily life greater depths than it is the usual lot of childhood
to see. The buzz and activity of her father's sawmill had for
her the same charm it has for other children. Her father's
flour mill furnished great empty bins filled with the smell of
22 FAMOUS LIVING AMEEICANS
flour and the enchantment of dusky light. The country about
the little village was filled with spots of beauty and charm for
her and her stepbrother. Summer after summer they ex
plored the surrounding neighborhood and found many spots
which called forth their childish but poetic fancies. Flowers
and trees and birds, evening sounds, and the splendor of the
rainbow roused in them the spirit of joy and reverence. Upon
an altar which they had erected they placed all the snakes
which they killed and sometimes brought a share of their
spoils of nuts or a favorite book as an offering to the God of
the Universe. To repeat the Lord's Prayer in English lacked
the decidedly religious flavor; so they learned it in Latin and
repeated it every night. Thus does natural childhood ever
long for some ceremonial to express its inherent religiousness.
In emulation of her father she attempted to read through
his library, beginning with Pope's Iliad. This proved unsat
isfactory and she compromised by reading a bulky History of
the World. About this time, perhaps, she began reading Plu
tarch's Lives (under the stimulus of the reward of five cents
for each "Life" which she could intelligently report to her
father), and Irving 's Life of Washington (at the rate of
twenty-five cents per volume). This introductory reading in
history developed into a real liking, so that while she was in
boarding school she spent one summer in reading Gibbon's
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, not only reading it
but successfully withstanding the bombardment of test ques
tions given by her skeptical schoolmates.
The year 1877 found Miss Addams at Eockford Seminary,
and' she was one of the first four young women to receive a de
gree upon its becoming Eockford College. Here she found
the spirit of earnestness which is characteristic of pioneer in
stitutions and into which she entered with eager intensity.
Illustrative of her effort to understand and appreciate the
opening world of human experience is the effort which she
and four other students made to understand DeQuincey's
Dreams. This was nothing less than an attempt to drug
themselves with opium. Not only did they fail to experience
any exhilaration from the numerous opium powders, but the
Copyright by Moffett Studio, Chicago
JANE ADDAMS 25
high excitement even prevented sleep. The only reward of
this heroic study was an emetic and a reprimand.
Even at that early date Miss Addams took for granted the
justice of the franchise for women, merely following, at first,
her father's conviction. That this belief has not grown less
strong is evidenced by her election in 1912 to the vice-pres
idency of the National Woman's Suffrage Association and
by the prominent part which she played in the first convention
of the Progressive Party in the same year. " Government,"
she holds, "is in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the
food we eat, the diseases that enter into our homes. It has
to do with the education of our children and the living condi
tions of our men and women. ' ' That women can successfully
deal with such subjects of government no one who is ac
quainted with the work of Miss Addams and her colleagues at
Hull House can deny.
When Kockf ord Seminary was allowed to compete in the in
tercollegiate oratorical contest of Illinois, she was elected to
represent her school. Her schoolmates looked upon her, as
she looked upon herself, as the champion of Woman's Cause.
When the contest was over she found that she ranked fifth
and, although she concurred with the judges in their decision,
it was no easy matter to meet her disappointed schoolmates
who had, perhaps, expected too much and could not readily
forgive this blow to the cause of woman. Doubtless any bit
terness at the decision has been wiped away by the after-
career of the winner of that contest — William Jennings
Bryan.
During the four years at Rockford, Miss Addams did not
escape many emotional appeals to join herself to the church.
She was one of the few girls in the school who were not
avowed Christians. With a strong sense of personal integ
rity she refused to yield to the pressure because she could
not subscribe to the dogmas of the church. Personal piety
she had, and a strong sense of the presence and power of a
living God. But it was not till several years afterward that
she became a member of the Presbyterian Church of her na
tive village of Cedarville, Illinois. It was not that she had
26 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
felt any emotional conversion, nor was it that she wished to
conform with the view^s of those about her. She simply took
the step as the outward expression of her inner religious sin
cerity. Her pastor was wise enough to recognize her real
Christian spirit and required no profession of belief in creed
or dogma. It was the longing for a visible fellowship with
the saints of the church and a devotion to the ideals of dem
ocracy, which seemed to her most perfectly exemplified in the
Christian Church, that had drawn her ; for her childhood faith
was little changed.
It was in resisting these appeals of those whom she knew
to be her true friends that she gained the poise which she has
found necessary to keep her later work from being diverted
into a merely secular or partisan movement. She learned to
select what was reasonable from the confusion of dogmas in
the world and to stand fast in the midst of all the attacks of
partisanship. She has been able to keep Hull House alike out
of the hands of capital and of labor and has made it stand for
raw humanity in whatever dress it may appear.
As the end of the four years ' course drew near, the ques
tion of the future loomed large. Miss Addams had picked
upon medicine as her profession and the poor as her especial
clientage. That she should choose the field of science was in
evitable in a day when Darwin 's Origin of Species was the
subject of so much bitter controversy. Trained from infancy
to look at matters of opinion from a detached point of view,
and unbound by the sense that she must defend any creed
with which evolution might seem to conflict, the prejudiced
arguments which she heard against evolution could not but
turn her toward it. Perhaps a touch of bravado was in her
acceptance of this theory, now a commonplace, but then a
thing anathema.
The next winter was spent in the Woman's Medical College
of Philadelphia. Early in the spring, however, the spinal
trouble which had threatened her from childhood put her in
the hospital. Four years in college and a year's strenuous
professional study had left her weary, and it was a relief,
after a few weeks, to turn from anatomy to Carlyle. Upon
JANE ADDAMS 27
her doctor's advice she left America for a two years' stay in
Europe.
There is a tendency today to frown upon the individual who
drifts. He who has no settled purpose is, in the opinion of
the times, wasting his life. But he who reads biography with
open mind will find that no inconsiderable number of the
earth's great have drifted into their own. They have, it is
true, been earnest and serious, but few things are more mis
leading than the notion that one's life endeavor is necessarily
best spent where first inclination may lead. It is, of course,
impossible to tell what Miss Addams might have done as a
physician to the poor ; but is it presumptuous to say that she
has done a far greater work than she could ever have hoped
to do professionally?
Be that as it may, her experience for the next six years led
her unconsciously, step by step, to the work for which she
seems to have been most peculiarly fitted. " There is a des
tiny which shapes our ends," and often it does not ask our
consent. One of her first experiences on her European trip
was a visit to East London Market on Saturday night. Ner
vous and morbid after her sickness, the impression of the
starving, poverty-ridden crowd bidding their scanty coins for
decaying vegetables and fruit was not to be eradicated. The
midnight hour, the shadows, the upturned hands, the animal
hunger of these human beings — all this came to her with the
force of a vision. In Italy, in Austria, wherever she went on
the continent, the memory of that hideous scene drew her to
the haunts of poverty. Knowing little of the efforts even
then being made to lighten the burden of the poor, she was
weighed down by the vision.
When yet a small child she had suffered from one of those
recurring dreams which sensitive children sometimes endure
in silence. It seemed that the whole future of the world de
pended upon her making a wagon wheel. Day after day she
would watch the village blacksmith, questioning him, and
learning how to make a wagon wheel. Something of this
same sense of responsibility and helplessness came to her as
she suffered over the poverty of the world. Books seemed
28 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
foolish bubbles, education a delusion. With so much to be
done, with throbbing life all about her being ground down to
the level of the brute, what could excuse her self-centered
life, how could one spend time on culture when life called?
But even yet she found no call to work.
Between trips to Europe she went, one summer, to visit in
a western state where she held mortgages on some farms.
It was after a long drought. The farmers were in a most des
perate condition. Their farms, their homes, and their fam
ilies bore every trace of extreme poverty. That human be
ings could live under such conditions was almost beyond be
lief. Yielding to the horror which this revelation inspired,
she withdrew her investments rather than receive interest
from men likely to be reduced to such conditions as these —
doubtless only adding to their wretchedness by her ill-timed
act.
Finally came a day in April, 1888, which was to be the turn
ing point in the aimless career which had now gone on for al
most six years. With the other members of her party, which
was then in Madrid, Spain, Miss Addams attended a bull
fight. As she looked upon the combat, all the splendor of the
imagined Eoman arena, all the historic glory of the medieval
tournament threw a glamour over the scene. It was not a bull
fight she was witnessing — it was a dramatic representation
of all the vanished splendor of historic combat. Meanwhile
five bulls and several horses were killed as she looked on with
out a tremor. The spectacle had inspired her friends with
only a sense of nausea, and they expressed no little displeas
ure at her insensibility.
A reaction came in the evening, and she was filled with self-
disgust as she realized that she had witnessed this revolting
scene without a qualm. It was quite clearly borne in upon
her that although she had pretended such a deep interest in
life she had really been drifting to the point where she could
look on suffering with esthetic pleasure. The hope that all
this period of preparation was leading to some real purpose
ful end suddenly cleared itself to her as mere pampering self
ishness. The moral revulsion following the fight compelled
JANE ADDAMS 29
her to action. Hopes for the future were well, but without
some definite purpose and effort to fulfil these hopes, they
were but an opiate to her conscience.
Just what turned her mind in the direction of settlement
work is difficult to say. Perhaps her childish thought of liv
ing in a big house among "horrid, little houses " had never
left her. Without a doubt the misery and suffering of the
poor, which she had been morbidly seeking for the past few
years, had impressed her with the real need of these people.
Be that as it may, she had for some time been revolving in
her mind the plan of a settlement house. In the present
crisis Miss Addams resolved to make her escape from the in
sensibility into which she was sinking, and with many misgiv
ings she broached the subject to her fellow-traveler and for
mer schoolmate, Miss Starr.
To her surprised delight Miss Starr entered heartily into
the plan and the scheme rapidly assumed tangibility. Miss
Starr continued her European journey and Miss Addams re
turned to London to visit Toynbee Hall and the People's Pal
ace that she might gather suggestions from these forerunners
in the settlement movement. January, 1889, found Miss Ad
dams and Miss Starr in Chicago looking for a site for their
experiment.
From this time on Miss Addams 's life is so closely bound
up with the progress of Hull House that it is almost impos
sible to separate her acts from those of the other residents of
Hull House. That her influence has been responsible for
many steps in which she has taken no active part is certain;
that she has been the prime mover in Hull House activity is
no less certain. But it must never be forgotten that there
were others — many others — who devoted their energies to
the success of this movement, and no one is more ready than
Miss Addams to give them due credit. If other names are
here omitted or neglected it is not because their part is for
gotten but because only a single thread is being followed
through the mazes of a life which touched untold others.
After a long search a house, built in 1856 by Mr. Hull, one
of the early settlers of Chicago, was rented. It had been used
30 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
as a home, the office of a factory, a second-hand furniture
store, and a home for the aged. In addition to this its attic
was supposed to be haunted. In spite of its varied career the
house was still in good condition and was soon repaired. Miss
Helen Culver, the owner of the house, gave, on the following
spring, a free leasehold of the entire building. The thirteen
buildings now under the management of Hull House stand on
property which is almost entirely the gift of this generous
woman.
"To provide a center for a higher civic and social life; to
institute and maintain educational and philanthropic enter
prises, and to investigate and improve the conditions in the
industrial districts of Chicago": This, says their charter, is
the object of Hull House. But it is more intensely human
than this cold statement indicates. It was also the intention
of Hull House to enter into the lives of the poor and the ig
norant and to keep alive that spark of humanity which all too
often becomes sodden under the ceaseless dropping of poverty.
Accordingly, Hull House was furnished as the residents
would have furnished their own homes in any other part of
the city. Perhaps a knowledge of the neighborhood of Hull
House will make evident the high audacity of this. On one
side was a colony of some ten thousand Italians ; to the south
were as many Germans, with Polish and Russian Jews occu
pying the side streets; further south was a vast Bohemian
colony; to the northwest were many Canadian French; and
to the north was an Irish colony. Thus Hull House was in
the midst of six nations. The conditions of the neighborhood
may be understood from a single incident. When, aroused by
the inactivity of the garbage inspector, Miss Addams as a last
resort entered a bid for the contract to remove the garbage
from her ward, her bid was thrown out on technicalities. The
incident resulted, however, in her appointment as garbage in
spector of the nineteenth ward. It was no light task for an
already busy woman, but with the help of fellow-residents re
sults began to appear. As a crowning achievement, a pave
ment was discovered eighteen inches underground in a nar
row street which no one remembered ever to have been paved.
JANE ADDAMS 31
That an American city would allow such an accumulation of
garbage on its streets is almost unbelievable. This and kin
dred activities reduced the death rate of the ward from third
to seventh among Chicago wards.
The whole attitude of Hull House is exemplified by Miss
Addams's reply to the manufacturers who offered to give Hull
House $50,000, enabling it to become "the largest institution
on the West Side/' if the residents would cease their agita
tion for sweat shop reform. It must have caused these manu
facturers no little embarrassment to hear her declaration that
she and her friends were not interested in exalting Hull House
but that they were interested in protecting their neighbors
from undesirable working conditions. It is this attitude
which has kept Hull House alive.
It is easy to record visible material results such as the
above, but almost impossible to make clear the larger, per
sonal, human results of the movement. To record the influ
ence of Hull House in sweat shop and labor legislation, re
pression of the sale of morphine and opium to minors, and
the amelioration of conditions in poor houses — this would
be an easy task, but would give no real insight into the work
of Miss Addams. To give her personal part as a member of
the Board of Education, as arbitrator in the Pullman Strike,
as member of the university extension staff of the University
of Chicago, as a member of the committee to investigate poor-
house conditions — to review these personal honors and ef
forts would tell little of her work save the esteem in which
she is held. To know her real work one must get an insight
into the changed environments, the uplifted lives and the re
directed careers of the thousands whom she has touched.
That old age finds itself not abandoned, that youth finds it
self appreciated, that the sorrowful find comfort, that the dis
couraged find inspiration, that the weak find strength, that the
sick find health, that the misunderstood find toleration, that
the immigrant finds his place in the new world — these are the
real achievements of Hull House. And all this is achieved
through the devotion, the sympathy, and the real love for
mankind that inspires Miss Addams and her co-workers.
32 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
Perhaps there could be found no better expression of the
attitude of Chicago toward Miss Addams than the banquet
held at the Hotel La Salle the latter part of February, 1913,
just before her departure for a four months ' vacation trip to
Egypt and Italy. Twelve hundred guests met at the call of
the Progressive Club of Chicago. From varied walks of life
came expressions of esteem. Bainbridge Colby, of New York,
but expressed what all felt as he summed up the career of this
woman whom Graham Taylor in an editorial in the Chicago
Daily News calls " Chicago's foremost citizen ":
"What an extraordinary mission of life is hers," he said,
' l and how wondrously her life has preached the sermon of the
deed ! Eef using to lull her conscience by a dreamer 's scheme,
unbeguiled by paper reforms, she set out early in life — and
I use her words — 'to make social intercourse express the
growing sense of the economic unity of society and to add the
social function to democracy/ Proceeding upon the sober
theory that the dependence of classes upon each other is re
ciprocal, she determined to deal directly with the simplest hu
man wants.
"Abounding in achievement as her life has been, I venture
the assertion that the year just closed is the richest and most
fruitful of her life thus far. This year she has sown broad
cast the seeds of ripened purpose, of experience and deep re
flection. She has scattered wide the accumulations of the
past. To a waiting and famished people, who hungered and
thirsted after righteousness, she has thrown the rich spoils
of her life. "
And then to the tune of "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean"
twelve hundred voices sang :
"Jane Addams sails over the ocean,
Jane Addams sails over the sea,
We're glad she's to have a vacation,
But bring back Jane Addams to me.
"We'll lend her to Greece and to Egypt,
Jerusalem, Athens, and Borne,
JANE ADDAMS 33
We'll lend her to Europe and Asia,
So long as we get her back home.
"The Peace Dove will perch on her shoulder,
All Europe will dwell in accord,
The Turks will go back to rug-making,
The Balkans will put up the sword. "
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Heroines of Modern Progress, pp. 280-307. (Sturgis and Walton.)
By Elmer C. Adams and Warren D. Foster.
Twenty Years at Hull House. (Macmillan.) By Jane Addams.
PERIODICALS
Autobiographical Notes. By Jane Addams. American Magazine
69:722-734; 70:84-93, 192-202, 338-348, 494-505, 638-646.
Chicago's Farewell to Jane Addams. Survey 29:741.
Hull House, Chicago : An Effort toward Social Democracy. By Jane
Addams. Forum 14:226-241.
Jane Addams (a poem). By William A. Bradley. American Maga
zine 70:562.
Jane Addams — Interpreter. By Graham Taylor. Review of Re
views 40 :688.
Jane Addams: the Lady of the Melting Pot. Current Literature
49:152-156.
Jane Addams 's Twenty Years of Industrial Democracy. By Graham
Taylor. Survey 25:405-409.
My Experiences as a Progressive Candidate. By Jane Addams. Mc-
Clure's 40:12-14.
Only Saint America Has Produced. Current Literature 40:377-379.
Routine and Ideals. By John Haynes Holmes. Survey 25:881-883.
Settlers in the City Wilderness. Atlantic Monthly 77 :118.
Social Settlement. By Annie L. Muzzey. Arena 16 :432.
Visit to Tolstoy. By Jane Addams. McClure's 36:295.
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL
BY HILLARY ASBUEY GOBIX
WHEN I was a small boy a fine old gentleman came to
my father's house one day to talk about a machine for
making brick. The old man was working hard on his
invention — a means of making brick by steam power rather
than by hand labor. In his talk he said: "I would rather
leave a useful invention to my fellowmen than to be President
of the United States. " The small boy listening in silence was
deeply impressed by this remark. He never heard the result
of the experiment with the brick machine but he never forgot
the old man's remark.
To appreciate the value of this saying we do not need to dis
parage the high character or vast importance of this great
office, but the comparison suggests the value to society of a
wonderful invention. The decisions of the President may not
be known or felt by vast multitudes of the people, while the
efforts of some ingenious and persistent thinker may result in
such an improvement in certain commodities or utilities as to
bless every home in the land.
Among the greatest inventions, if not the very greatest, in
point of service to all kinds of people, is the telephone. No
other invention came into practical service so speedily. No
other invention went so rapidly around the world and entered
at once into every scene of human activity. It speaks in all
languages and talks on all subjects. With equal facility it
transmits the classic speech of the learned and the awkward
dialect of the illiterate. By it we hear from afar the prattle
of the babe, the counsel of the aged, the wail of the sorrowing,
or the cheer of the victorious. It talks about money, danger,
success, failure, playful jest, and loving devotion. One mo
ment its voice is angry and insolent, in an instant it becomes
apologetic, respectful, and assuring. It alarms, commands,
relieves, and exults in breathless speed and forcefulness,
through incredible distances. Wonderful, wonderful tele
phone !
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL 37
But the most marvelous thing of all about this wonderful
achievement is that the chief inventor still lives to observe
and enjoy the success of his invention. Recalling the remark
of the old brickmaker, if it is such a joy to leave a useful in
vention to one's fellow men, how rare is the privilege of the
inventor, after the struggle of its introduction is over, to live
on to witness and assist in its improvement and world-wide
adoption.
This fortunate personage is Alexander Graham Bell. He
was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1847. He belonged to a
family of voice teachers. "His father, also his two brothers,
his uncle, and his grandfather, had taught the laws of speech
in the Universities of Edinburgh, Dublin, and London. For
three generations the Bells had been professors of the science
of talking/' 1 Alexander Graham Bell was elected professor
of vocal physiology in Boston University in 1873 in his twenty-
fifth year. He was commonly known as a professor of elocu
tion. At that time the studies in this subject were chiefly con
cerned with tones, pitch, modulation, and gesture. But Pro
fessor Bell closely investigated also the mechanism of the voice
and the philosophy of sound. An element of philanthropy en
tered largely into these early studies. It was discovered that
many mutes were dumb not because of deficiency in the vocal
apparatus but simply because they could not hear. In such
instances the professor of vocal physiology began to teach
these students to make articulate sounds. Progress toward
full and precise speech was slow and difficult. But by persist
ent effort great success was achieved. Doubtless he was stim
ulated in this work by the fact that his grandfather, Alexander
Bell, had invented a cure for stammering, and his father,
Alexander Melville Bell, had devised a sign language which
he called "visible speech." The work of Professor Bell in
this direction gave him great honor. He was for a time as
sociated with Dr. Monroe in his famous School of Oratory in
Boston. The writer of this sketch was present at an exhibi
tion given in this school when a "dumb" boy eighteen years
i History of the Telephone, by Herbert Casson. A. C. McClurg & Co., 1910,
p. 14.
38 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
old recited a poem of about twenty stanzas. The occasion was
of so much interest that several distinguished scholars and
philanthropists were present. Among them I remember A.
Bronson Alcott, Theodore Weld and Colonel T. W. Higginson.
A note was read from Kalph Waldo Emerson expressing his
regret that he could not enjoy an occasion which he felt sure
signified so much for the relief of a most deserving class of
persons. When Dr. Monroe gave an account of the boy's
training arid proficiency he held a sheet of paper before his
lips so that the boy could not see what he was saying. The
student could not hear a word but he was an expert in reading
' ' visible speech. ' ' Dr. Monroe stated that recently a bus-driv
er seeing this boy on the side walk and not knowing that he
was deaf and dumb called out to him for the direction to a
certain citizen's house. The boy chanced to be looking toward
the driver and reading his lips knew what he wanted and in
plain speech gave him the desired information. The teach
ing of mutes to speak is now an important department in ev
ery deaf and dumb institution.
One of the greatest rewards for original research is the
opening of doors to new and higher problems. While the pro
fessor of vocal physiology was seeking relief for the speech
less he was led to study how ordinary speech may become
more serviceable in all human affairs. Other experimenters
approached the telephone in the study of applied electricity.
Professor Bell came to the telephone in the study of the vocal
apparatus. The sound box in the voice suggested the possi
bility of a sound box similar to the voice which might emit
vibrations not upon the vacant air but upon a transmitter
which might convey articulate sounds in definite directions
and distances. Professor Bell was not without knowledge of
electrical phenomena. In former years he had been a close
student and experimenter with this mysterious force. But it
was his mastery of the science of the voice that gave him the
chief basis for his great invention. He once stated,2 "Had I
2 Thirtieth Anniversary of a Great Invention. By John Vaughn, Scribner 's
40:365.
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL 39
known more about electricity and less about sound, I should
never have invented the telephone. ' '
There have been many romances in education. Has there
ever been one equal to this — a teacher of public speaking not
satisfied with the superficial and conventional instruction and
seeking a scientific basis for his art discovers means whereby
the dumb may learn to talk and invents an instrument which
transmits the voice in all its characteristics of tone, modula
tion and emphasis, in any language, to hearers in endless
varieties of conditions, and, so far as theory goes, to incredi
ble distances ?
On account of the similarity in words the telephone has been
compared to the telescope (tele scopein, to see afar; tele phon-
ein, to sound afar). But there is a vast inequality in the
service of the two instruments. The telephone not only speaks
afar but by means of intra-phones it speaks to the next room
and the next desk. The mass of instruments in a single build
ing is amazing. ' ' No sooner is a new sky-scraper walled and
roofed than the telephones are in place. In a single one of
these monstrous buildings, the Hudson Terminal, there is a
cable that runs from basement to roof and ravels out to reach
three thousand desks. This mighty geyser of wires is more
than fifty tons in weight and would, if straightened out into a
single line, connect New York with Chicago." (History of
the Telephone, p. 135.) This mass of invisible wires connects
not only room with room and desk with desk, in this one tow
ering structure, but penetrates into nearly all rooms and all
desks in the nation. So the telephone is far more than both
the telescope and the microscope combined. Comparatively
few people have the need or the pleasure to use these great
adjuncts of sight, while many millions have frequent and
familiar use of the "speaking machine."
A more striking comparison exists between the telephone
and its elder brother, the telegraph. The analogies between
the invention, development, and success of these two great
utilities are numerous and impressive. But the contrast be
tween their present service and popularity is astounding.
40 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
6 1 Ten years ago there were sent by the telephone in the Unit
ed States forty-one times more messages than were sent by
telegraph, although the latter method of communication was
forty years older than the former."3 At the present time
such a comparison is impossible. Messages by telegraph can
be computed but not those by telephone. One might as well
try to count the words spoken in an hour by the entire human
race.
The greatness of the success of the invention cannot be
shown without some citations from statistics, although the fig
ures are so large as to be incomprehensible. The annual re
port of the Bell System for 1913 states the value of the plant
December 31, 1913, as $797,159,487, an increase since 1907 of
$294,171,587. The gross earnings for 1913 were $215,572,822
and the total expenses, $156,883,299.
Let no one imagine that this transition from the toil of a
modest and obscure teacher to the mastery of a colossal util
ity came with a sudden and easy ascension. The story of Pro
fessor Bell's discovery and development of the telephone con
tains the elements of romance — danger, courage, and persist
ency, terminating in exultant victory. Perhaps he never en
countered danger in the sense of bodily harm, but he did incur
the peril of missing the mark in his invention, and no small
risk of his being deprived of his proper meed of honor for its
success. Many students in electricity had devised instruments
for conveying sounds and musical notes by electric currents.
Some had even transmitted the voice in certain irregular and
incoherent forms. But Professor Bell persisted beyond all
these elementary stages and produced a mechanism for trans
mitting speech in a definite, practicable, and reliable manner.
His accuracy in the use of language gave him the sure "cinch"
on his patent. The chief sentence in his patent was : ' ' The
method of and apparatus for transmitting sounds telegraphi
cally, as herein described, by causing electric undulations, sim
ilar in form to the vibrations of the air accompanying the said
vocal or other sounds substantially as set forth." In subse-
3 Thirtieth Anniversary, Scribner's 40:371.
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL 41
quent years in the bitter contests in the courts this sentence
became the citadel of the defense of the Bell patent, and great
lawyers in the attacking force admitted that it could not be
broken down.
The early history of the telephone is marked by an obstinate
distrust by men in a situation to have become valuable promo
ters. Fortunately, their lack of faith and satirical comments,
while depriving them of a golden opportunity for a rare in
vestment, did not handicap the persistent inventor. His in
strument was dubiously admitted to the Centennial Exhibi
tion in 1876. It was regarded as a toy and not the germ of a
great utility. A few observers, among them Dom Pedro, Em
peror of Brazil, appreciated the instrument as interesting, but
no one could see its possibilities. No capitalist approached
the inventor with a proffer to finance its manufacture and in
troduction. Doubtless in subsequent years many men of means
have been wont to say: "I might have been a millionaire
many times over had I appreciated the Bell Telephone ! ' ' One
of the first friends and co-workers with Professor Bell was
Thomas A. Watson, who after a fine career as a telephone pro
moter became a great ship-builder in East Boston. In the
Scientific American Supplement for April 5, 1913, in an arti
cle by Mr. Watson entitled, ' ' Pioneers in Telephone Engineer
ing," he says: "At that time, 1877, there was a tremendous
need for cash. We had just been bitterly disappointed, we
four who composed the telephone business, Mr. Hubbard, Mr.
Sanders, Dr. Bell, and a boy by the name of Watson. We
had just received a terrible blow. The Western Union Tele
graph Company had refused our offer to sell all the Bell pat
ents for $100,000, and we were very much depressed over it.
Just about that time Dr. Bell needed money, more, I think than
he ever before needed money in his life. He wanted to get
married. The need for money was so great that some of the
ladies prominently connected with the original four, insisted
that telephones be made and sold by the thousands, and as
quickly as possible. This would have meant the flooding of
the country with very imperfect telephones and also would
42 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
have blocked the plan for leasing them that has resulted in the
present system of the unity and universality of the telephone
service. "
Another writer, speaking of the poverty of those early
years, says: " Month after month the little Bell Company
lived from hand to mouth. No salaries were paid in full. Of
ten for weeks they were not paid at all. In Watson's note
book there are such entries as, 'Lent Bell fifty cents, Lent
Hubbard twenty cents. ' More than once Hubbard would have
gone hungry had not Devonshire, the only clerk, shared with
him the contents of his dinner pail." (Casson, History of
the Telephone.)
In the beginning the telephone was financed by the same art
that produced it, the art of superior speaking. The first lec
tures of Mr. Bell were delivered without charge before the
Essex Institute in Salem, Massachusetts. The lectures were
received with much enthusiasm, and many engagements were
made for lectures and demonstrations in other cities. Henry
W. Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and other men of like
distinction, published an open letter inviting Bell to lecture in
Boston. The people came by hundreds and thousands to hear
and see. By his success in describing and illustrating the tel
ephone the professor of Vocal Physiology established sufficient
control over his invention so that in its world-wide growth and
extension it should forever bear his name.
While the machine is known by the name of the chief inven
tor, the variety of instruments and new improvements is prac
tically numberless. It would require more than a page of this
book to give the list of inventors, without specifying their par
ticular devices. The records of the United States patent office
show "that there have been issued in Class No. 179, Telephony,
to date (August, 1914) approximately sixty hundred and nine
ty-six (6,096) Patents." The intellectual energy displayed in
securing over six thousand patents in one field of invention is
amazing. We must not infer that this means so many in
ventors. Many of these patents belong to particular men, as
for example over six hundred on the switch-board belong to
Mr. Charles E. Scribner. On the other hand, thousands have
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL 43
studied and toiled to the brink of insanity on general systems
or minute parts for which they received neither patent nor
recognition. Sometimes a "trick" in the elusive " juice " has
been discovered by an obscure laborer whose mind was more
active than his hands. All this army of thinkers, experts, and
helpers, from such master minds as Edison, Blake, Carty,
Pupin, Berliner, Doolittle, Vail and Barton, to the humblest
operator, owe their chief incentive to Alexander Graham Bell.
The inventions in Telephony may be grouped into a few
great classes, The Case, The Transmitter, The Wiring, and
The Switchboard. The last is the greatest achievement of
all. "A telephone switchboard is a pyramid of inventions.
If it is full grown, it may have two million parts. It may be
lit with fifteen thousand tiny electric lamps and served with
as much wire as would reach from New York to Berlin. It
may cost as much as a thousand pianos or as much as three
square miles of farms in Indiana. The ten thousand wire hairs
of its head are not only numbered, but enswathed in silk, and
combed out in so marvelous a way that any one of them may
be linked in a flash to any other." The glory of the switch
board is its merging into the modern Telephone Exchange.
* ' This is the solar plexus of the telephone body. Bell himself
was perhaps the first to see the future of the Telephone Ex
change. In a letter written to some English capitalists in 1878
he said: 'It is possible to connect every man's house, office,
or factory with a Central Station, so as to give him direct com
munication with his neighbors. . . It is conceivable that
wires could be laid underground or suspended overhead, con
nected by branch wires with private dwellings and shops, and
uniting them with a main cable through a Central Office.' "
(Casson, History of the Telephone.)
Turning again from the technical to the practical, the tele
phone is a great means of popular education. Why not? It
was born in the private study of a teacher and has been studied
in the laboratories of men of science everywhere. As a means
of information in which one has a personal interest it far excels
the daily newspaper, and the paper itself is made a hundred
fold more valuable by its liberal use. Who can estimate what
44 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
distress would come to the world if some mysterious cataclysm
of nature should deprive us of the telephone! It would be
worse than the pall of darkness that came to ancient Egypt.
The telephone is a great agency for the promotion of higher
civilization in foreign lands. Its mysteries arouse no preju
dice but rather invite study. Its manifest convenience se
cures ready adoption. There is no region so remote or so
dark that it has not been penetrated by this great instrument
of enlightenment.
If it is a pleasure to see how rapidly this invention is re
ceived in all lands and adopted by all people, it is a greater
pleasure to note its increasing popularity in our own country,
the land of its birth. The ancients were wont to deify all the
powers of nature and ascribe certain jurisdictions to particu
lar gods and demigods. If we followed their example, our
supreme deity would be electricity, and his three giant sons
would be electric light, electric motor, and electric telephone.
We leave to other writers the pleasure of describing the vast
provinces of the light and the motor, also the extent to which
our countrymen have contributed to the improvement of these
two great utilities. Suffice it to say here, "The United States
leads the world in the use of the telephone by a wide margin.
There are in this country 64.7 per cent, of all the telephones,
and only 25.3 in all Europe. France has 230,700, Great Brit
ain nearly 649,000, Germany a little over 1,000,000, while the
United States has 7,500,000 ! ' ' (Bulletin New York Telephone
and Telegraph Co.) In 1911 a French publication gave sta
tistics of telephones in the seventeen chief cities of Europe.
Paris is credited with 74,400, Berlin 122,500, London 172,000.*
The same year New York City had 402,000. Chicago has more
telephones than France, and Boston more than Austria. What
the telephone will become in the future no one can predict.
Enthusiasts tell fairy tales of its possibilities. Two years ago
when an expert claimed that photographs could be transmitted
by telephone the hearers were ready to hiss him off the stage.
But in the Scientific American, December 21, 1912, p. 529, is
given a portrait of a beautiful lady transmitted by "tele-pho-
* L 'Illustration.
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL 45
tography" over a telephone line four hundred and fifty miles.
This showing verifies the claim made at the beginning of
this sketch that no other inventor has lived to witness the
amazing growth and popularity of the invention bearing his
name. It is not claimed that all of this achievement has come
by the work of one man. If such could be the case the inven
tion would be a small affair. A chief part of its glory is that
it has attracted more than ten thousand students, discoverers,
and designers to its improvement. The greatest scientists of
the age have pored over its problems. The promoters in
the line of investors, stockholders, engineers, and superin
tendents, may be numbered as many more thousands. The op
erators, mechanics, and laborers must be numbered by the
million.
It is not surprising that in an industry so vast, the legiti
macy of the inventor's claim should be questioned. Contest
ants have gathered like an invading army. "In all, the Bell
Company fought out thirteen law suits that were of national
interest, and five that were carried to the Supreme Court in
Washington. It fought out five hundred and eighty-seven
law suits of various natures and with the exception of two
trivial contract suits, it never lost a case." At first sight this
contest is an uncanny scene, but, while a dark cloud on the
American escutcheon, it is a bright halo over the brow of
Bell. The historian whom we have repeatedly quoted closes
his chapter on the litigation with these emphatic words : ' * But
in the actual making of the telephone there was no one with
Bell nor before him. He invented it first and alone. ' ' The
undesigned but beneficent result of all this controversy in the
courts and elsewhere has established for all time the fact that
justice has been done in giving the chief honor of the inven
tion of this wonderful instrument with all its collateral appli
ances to the student and teacher of public speaking, Alexander
Graham Bell.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Historic Inventions, p. 215. By R. S. Holland.
History of the Telephone. (McClurg.) By Herbert N. Casson.
46 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
PERIODICALS
Alexander Graham Bell. By E. E. Quimby. Nation 29 :279.
Alexander Graham Bell. By G. P. Serviss. Cosmopolitan 33 :42.
Race of Human Thoroughbreds, an Interview with Bell. By W. A.
Frost. World's Work 27 :176.
Scientific American 75 : Supplement.
Scientific American 102 :462.
Thirtieth Anniversary of a Great Invention. By John Vaughn. Scrib-
Courtesy of Pack Bros, New York
MAUD BALLINGTON BOOTH
BY CHARLES BRANDON BOOTH
THE great prison chapel at Sing Sing was packed to the
doors. Even in the aisles and windows gray garbed
men crowded, eager and expectant. The low hum of
whispered conversation held a suggestion of suppressed ex
citement. Suddenly a small door at the rear of the chapel
opened and all attention was riveted as a little woman, dressed
in a simple gray gown, stepped onto the rostrum. Her coming
was the signal for a burst of applause which, in the genuine
ness of its welcome, told eloquently the place which the "Little
Mother " holds in the hearts of those who live in the shadow of
the prison bars.
As she stood before the cheering audience, her face alight
with the joy of her mission, there could be no doubting the
unchanging faith which she holds in this work of bringing a
new realization of hope to so many tens of thousands of the
imprisoned, for Maud Ballington Booth has not only been the
bearer of good tidings within the walls, she has also carried
to the outside world the story of the redeemability of the pris
oner and shown that all men and women have a responsibility
with regard to this phase of our social problem.
It is no sentimental or impractical religion that this little
woman preaches to the thousands to whom she ministers ; nor
does she present any tangle of unproven theories to the public.
Her efforts are based upon the foundation of a faith in the
redeemability of every man through the Divine Power, pro
vided that he will at all times second that Power by a deter
mination to do what is right.
From a study of her life of almost constant travel, with its
round of great public and prison meetings, and detailed office
activity, we turn to view those years when she was preparing
for the undertaking of the mission which has proved her
crowning joy. In those early days of her life, spent in a quiet
corner of England, we find no suggestion of the responsibili-
50 FAMOUS LIVING AMEEICANS
ties of the years which were to come. Nestled in the heart of
Surrey, that garden land of the old country, the little village
of Limpsfield must have proven a veritable fairyland of beauty
to child minds and hearts. Here, a little way back from the
shaded main street, stood the parish church. Across the way
in the handsome old rectory Maud Elizabeth Charlesworth
was born on the thirteenth of September, 1867. Her father,
the Eeverend Samuel Charlesworth, was rector of the parish.
He possessed a wonderful personality which had won for him
the respect and love of all those numbered among his little
flock. It is a question whether to him or to her mother Mrs.
Booth owes the personal qualities which make her so magnetic
a public speaker.
Maud Elizabeth was the youngest of three children and the
two older sisters were her constant playmates and boon com
panions. The favorite sister Florence, who was nearer to her
because they were more of an age, shared with her many an
adventure. Living in a country village it was natural that
they should spend hours each day playing in the fields or roam
ing over the great commons. On the occasion of their numer
ous trips to the seaside both became expert swimmers and
were holders of the long distance swimming records at several
of the summer resorts they visited.
The eldest sister, Annie, was more advanced in her studies
and specialized in botany. As a result she did not share so
actively the adventures of the other children. Yet all of them
were lovers of the out-of-doors and it is certain that in these
years of child experience both Florence and Maud built up
constitutions which have since aided them to withstand the
stress of worry and taxing responsibility which have been
their portion.
With these memories of happiness there is also the
thought of the loss which came to the rector 's family while
they were still in Limpsfield. When Maud was fifteen years
of age, the mother, who had given to that home such a beauti
ful example of loving devotion, was taken from them. Her
last resting place was chosen in the little churchyard and is
marked by a moss-covered gravestone upon which can be read
MAUD BALLINGTON BOOTH 51
the words, "And they that be wise shall shine as the bright
ness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteous
ness as the stars forever and ever." Who shall say what in
fluence and inspiration for a life of devotion to the uplifting
of fallen and broken humanity flowed from the calm, conse
crated loving mother into the very soul of the youngest child,
so soon destined to take up her life work?
Not long after this the family moved to London. The
Reverend Charlesworth was made Vicar of the Limehouse
parish, and the two eldest daughters married clergymen.
Maud, left without their companionship, commenced to look
for a field of endeavor in which she might be of service. When
the opportunity was presented she was quick to grasp it and
at the early age of sixteen commenced her public speaking.
In France there was great need for reformative influence.
It was just at the time that in the great city of Paris "un
tamed revelry reaped a toll of shadow. ' ' To these impulsive
yet sympathetic people the girl of faith carried a message of
the higher ideals of life. Her knowledge of their own lan
guage, so thoroughly gained from the nurse of her baby days,
gave to her appeal an added touch of personal understanding,
and hundreds upon hundreds responded to her message.
From France she went to Switzerland, always working for
the uplifting of others. Just before her return to England
a call came to her from the great University at Upsala, Swed
en. Here she realized her greatest successes and led the
most inspiring and helpful of her services on the conti
nent. Winning the attention of the students she commanded
their respect and appreciation. It has been said that never
before or since in the history of the University was such a
powerful influence for good felt. Even to this day there are
in all parts of the world those who still speak of the Upsala
gatherings and look back to them as the turning point in a life
experience.
It would be impossible to recount the rapidily varying
events of the following years in so short a biography as this ;
to tell how she met Ballington Booth and of the courtship
which followed ; of the time of separation necessitated during
52 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
Mr. Booth's travels in Australia and finally of their wedding
before a vast audience of nearly six thousand people in the
great Congress Hall, London.
After an all too short wedding trip they returned to the
responsibilities of a great religious movement. Soon came
the call to America which resulted in their trip across the
Atlantic and the appointment to full charge of the Salvation
Army work in the United States.
For the first years their efforts in this country were marked
by hardships and at times fraught with dangers. As the
pioneers of a religious organization they received much abuse,
and were the target for scoffers' tongues and the skepticism
of the unbelieving. They were actually stoned upon the streets
and often were saved from rougher treatment only by inter
vention on the part of the police.
A few months after Mrs. Booth's arrival in America her
son was born and during a long and serious illness which
followed, she suffered from deprivations which almost result
ed in the loss of her life. During these weeks her husband,
with the burden of the work upon his shoulders and the cease
less concern regarding her health, was threatened with a nerv
ous breakdown, and for a time it seemed that the battle would
be too difficult and that they would have to give up and return
to England. But neither Mr. nor Mrs. Booth are to be num
bered among those who can complacently accept defeat, and
little by little they turned the tide of opposition. Before
many months had passed a small company of stanch friends
had rallied to their aid and with this encouragement, giving
them added incentive for their work, they started a campaign
which swept the movement forward to its zenith of success
during the the last years of their leadership.
When their son was five years of age a daughter came to
add to the happiness of the little family. She was named
Myrtle Theodora and her dedication was attended by hundreds
of friends of Mr. and Mrs. Booth. Feeling that the country
would be better for the children they decided to make their
home in the suburbs of New York.
Just at this time came another experience of trial, for on
MAUD BALLINGTON BOOTH 53
matters of principle and standards of Americanism Mr. and
Mrs. Booth disagreed with the headquarters office of the
Salvation Army in England. In the interchange of corre
spondence demands were made to which the American leaders
could not accede without grave injustice to their subordinates
and the endangering of the standing of the organization in
America. Eealizing at last that it was impossible to bring
about a mutual agreement they tendered their resignation and
in the year 1895 stepped out of the Salvation Army and re
tired to the seclusion of their home. In the meantime an in
terested American public had followed the story of the diffi
culty through the medium of the press and, although some of
the reports were badly garbled, enough of the truth was re
vealed to arouse a strong sentiment in favor of the stand
which Mr. and Mrs. Booth had taken. As a result they were
approached by friends who urged that they start a new re
ligious movement, thoroughly American in principle and en
tirely democratic in government. After much prayerful con
sideration they decided to yield to this new call of opportunity
and organized the Volunteers of America, later being elected
co-Presidents of the field council.
Some little time before Mrs. Booth had visited the great
state prison at San Quentin, California, and as she considered
the opening of the new work, the memory of this visit was
fresh in her mind.
" Never shall I forget, " she said, "the sea of upturned
faces, many of them so plainly bearing the marring imprint of
sorrow and sin — despair and misery — yet behind the scars
and shadows there was such an eager longing — such a hun
gry appeal for a sight of hope's bright star, that one could but
feel an intense inspiration while delivering the message. Nev
er before had I seen the stripes, never heard the clang behind
me of the iron gates, nor had I realized the hopelessness that
enshrouds the prisoner. . . I did not attempt to preach.
As far as possible in that brief hour I tried to carry them
away from prison. . . The response I read in their faces —
the grateful letters that reached me afterwards in the mail,
and the constant memory of that scene as I witnessed it,
54 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
deepened into a determination to make their cause mine when
the opportunity should offer. ' '
Clear and unmistakable the call had come to Mrs. Booth
to enter this field of endeavor and when the warden of Sing
Sing wrote urging her to visit the prison she determined to
take up the cause of the prisoner as her life work.
On May 24, 1896, the initial meeting was held at Sing Sing
and from the thousand or more men in her audience the first
members of the Volunteer Prison League were enrolled. So
much a part of her life is this work that we may well note, in
part, the concise account of the league given in Tighe Hop
kins 's splendid book entitled, Wards of the State :
"Let us seek to know what is the spirit of this crusade
which has stirred so profoundly and affected so powerfully
the whole under-world of America. 'From the very first,'
says Mrs. Booth, 'I realized that to make the work effectual
there must be the establishment of personal friendship, and
that it was only as we recognized and helped the individual,
that we could by degrees affect the whole population.' Her
idea was, to meet the prisoners on the level, to get to know
them man by man, to win their confidence, to put them grad
ually on their mettle, and then, in the end, to engage them to
stand up in prison with her badge upon their breasts. There
was to be no coddling, no going behind the prison rules. With
the definite promise of help on release, the men were to be
compelled to work out their own salvation.
"A beginning was made with the chapel services. Mrs.
Booth's talk caused a sudden stir in the hearts of her listeners.
She said she would correspond with those who had no friends
to write to them. Letters poured in upon her. * The many let
ters which reached me soon gave us an insight into the
thoughts and feelings of the men, and we were then able to be
come familiar with the names and histories of many of them. '
After the letters came interviews in the cells. As men began to
take the decisive step, it became evident that organization
would be needed to bind them together. The V. P. L., or
Volunteer Prison League, was formed ; and, to test him to the
uttermost, every man who joined it must show his button boldly
MAUD BALLINGTON BOOTH 55
in the prison. This button was a small white one with a blue
star in the middle and the motto of the league, 'Look Up and
Hope/ The prisoners banded in this league stood together
for right living and good discipline. Each man was given a
certificate of membership:
" ' This is to certify that is a member of the Volunteer
Prison League, he having faithfully promised, with God's
help, to conform to the following conditions of membership :
tt < ;pirst — To pray every morning and night.
" ' Second— To read the Day Book faithfully.
" ' Third — To refrain from the use of bad language.
" l Fourth — To be faithful in the observance of prison rules
and discipline, so as to become an example of good conduct.
11 l Fifth — To seek earnestly to cheer and encourage others in
well doing and right living, trying, where it is possible, to
make new members of the League. '
"This document hangs in the prison cell, and its owner dons
forthwith the badge of the V. P. L. He is now, of course, a
marked man. Officers and fellow-prisoners alike watch him
closely, and, as may be imagined, it is in this hour that his
trial begins. This, however, Mrs. Booth regards as of para
mount importance ; the man must go through the fire . . .
alone.
' i The thought that has made this league a strong foundation
for the work and that has proved the most rousing inspiration
to the men, is that the effort is not ours, but theirs. No phil
anthropist, preacher or teacher in the world can reform these
men ... it rests with the men themselves.
"The league obliges them to realize this very vividly; the
responsibility is rolled back upon their own shoulders; they
are made beholden to their own consciences. This would seem
to be the root of the matter ; this is that spirit we have been
seeking. The prisoner sets to work to rebuild his character;
and what that effort costs within the walls of prison may be
but faintly guessed. . ."
At first the skeptics scoffed and even friends did not hesi
tate to warn Mrs. Booth that her efforts would only result in
disappointments and heartbreak. As she went to the outside
world with the story of the prisoner there came to her the
56 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
realization of how hard and long the battle would be. Almost
single-handed she was championing the cause of those who
were considered by the world, in its ignorance and blindness,
as hopeless and worthless. The discouragements came, but
not in such a way as to hide the wonderful successes, and as
man after man proved himself worthy of the trust reposed in
him and put his shoulder to the wheel in the fight to make
easier the path of the discharged prisoner, Mrs. Booth's task
became less difficult. Slowly it dawned upon those who had
doubted that the men themselves were proving that Mrs.
Booth's arguments were upon a firm common sense basis.
Through the homes which the organization established hun
dreds of men were returning to fill positions of trust and con
fidence in the business world, assume the responsibilities of
home life, and faithfully fulfil their duty to loved ones. Ev
ery added day of experience only offered its quota of new
proof that the prisoner can be reformed, and skepticism
was changed to belief, and warnings to commendation. In the
meantime the men themselves had come to realize Mrs. Booth^s
interest in them and appreciate her devotion to their cause.
Some grateful and inspired "boy" had called her the "Little
Mother, " and by this name she is now known throughout the
prisons of the land.
Not long after the establishment of the prison work there
came from England the sad news of the death of Mrs. Booth's
father. In the last years of his life he had taken a particular
interest in his daughter's efforts for the prisoner and it was
a great grief to his youngest child that she had not been able
to visit him at the old home in England. In his will he left a
certain amount to each of his daughters and by this inherit
ance Mrs. Booth was made freer to carry on her work and
to devote her entire time and thought to it without taking any
compensation in return.
When the work was well established and she could find a
little spare time Mrs. Booth became interested in writing.
Her book entitled, After Prison, What? is considered one of
the best on this phase of our social life. She did not confine
her ability with the pen, however, to this line of work. Her
MAUD BALLINGTON BOOTH 57
fairy tales for children have brought her very close to the
hearts of thousands of little ones all over the country.
In a general review of her life we find one thing which stands
out above all other attributes which are hers. While she is
gifted as an orator, well known as one of the pioneers of the
best interests of the prisoner, and admired by many who have
known her only through the medium of her books, it must
still be acknowledged that her greatest power and attrac
tion lies in her unchanging faith. In all that she has spoken
or written we find it evidenced over and over again. No
man has fallen so low that she will not believe in the possi
bility of his redemption ; she has no plan for the best interests
of those for whom she is working but that she has confidence
in its ultimate success. Tirelessly, unceasingly she has bat
tled to bring the world to see as she has seen and as she is
confident the Divine Euler of the Universe sees — not the fail
ures, the wretchedness, the hopelessness, but the opportunities
for success, the chance of happiness and the renewing of con
secrated determination. To thousands she has brought this
clearer understanding as with unfailing consecration she has
pointed them onward and upward to the highest ideals of man
hood and womanhood. Through the shadow's of the prison
bars, the trials of temporary failures and the doubting of the
unbelieving, her faith has held firm and true, and she has seen
shining clear the star of hope with its promise of the best
which life may hold.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Wards of the State. By Tighe Hopkins.
BOOKS BY MAUD BALLINGTON BOOTH
After Prison, What ? ( Revell ) .
Lights of Childhood. (Putnam's Sons).
Little Mother Stories. (Volunteer Prison League, N. Y.).
Sleepy Time Stories. (Putnam's Sons).
The Curse of the Septic Soul Treatment, (Revell).
Twilight Fairy Tales. (Putnam's Sons).
Was It Murder, or the Relentless Current. (Putnam's Sons).
WILLIAM JENNINGS BEYAN
BY MAYNARD LEE DAGGY
SOME men are born great, some achieve greatness, while
others have greatness thrust upon them. " William Jen
nings Bryan was born great : he inherited a clean bill of
physical, mental and moral health; he began life with no
handicaps. He achieved greatness : the influence of environ
ment gave emphasis to those ideals out of which the individ
ual molds character and builds a career ; he builded a charac
ter and dedicated its powers to the needs of his age. He had
greatness thrust upon him : he entered public life during that
period which required the leadership of one possessing his
unique powers ; his age demanded his services and with loyal
devotion he met its demand.
William Jennings Bryan was born during the period when
the struggle between North and South made public questions
the one subject of daily conversation. March 19, 1860, was
his birthday. He was born in a section where the union of
Puritan and Cavalier gave a peculiar intensity to the ante
bellum and war-time debate. Salem, Illinois, was his birth
place.
His father was Silas Lillard Bryan, a man of sturdy an
cestry, strong convictions, and the fine public spirit which
blends patriotism with common sense. Mariah Elizabeth
Jennings, his mother, was a gentle woman who was devoted
to home and children, and at the same time was keenly alert
to a wider circle of interests. She possessed a personality in
which there was united womanly dignity with refinement of
mind and nobility of bearing. Thus the future statesman
passed the formative years of childhood under the influence
of parents who regarded the home as the nursery of char
acter.
The early life of Mr. Bryan has been duplicated in thou
sands of American communities. His boyhood days are de
void of the impossible traditions that surround the youthful
Copyright bi> Moffvlt studio, Chicayt
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN 61
years of many famous men. The hero worship, the wildly
extravagant play of the imagination, the fantastic pictures of
dramatic incident, that make the first American biographies
so delightfully inaccurate, have no place in the biography of
to-day. In this practical age truth and science are syn
onymous, and the writer must paint his hero as he is.
Mr. Bryan attended the public school, but during this time
exhibited no unusual precocity. Since his parents enjoyed
average prosperity, the children grew up under the stimu
lating and wholesome influence of three good meals a day, and
so knew nothing of poverty as a personal experience. From
the public school young Bryan went to Jacksonville, Illinois,
to enter Illinois College. Here he made an excellent record
and was graduated with highest honors in 1881. Two years
later he received his degree from the Chicago Union College
of Law. The following year his alma mater conferred upon
him the Master's degree.
In 1883 the traditional shingle was hung out in Jackson
ville. The next year occurred the marriage of the young at
torney to Mary Elizabeth Baird. She had been a student at
Jacksonville Academy and was a young woman of excep
tional mental power and of rare social graces. She proved
a worthy companion and helpmeet, sharing the obscurity of
these first years with the same womanly dignity with which
she has since shared the distinctions of fame.
Mr. Bryan waited for clients. But there seemed to be no
place for him among the hosts of old and established lawyers
and the young and ambitious attorneys. Perhaps it was the
old story of the prophet in his own country. However this
may be, in 1888 he followed the historic advice of Horace
Greeley and "went West" to Lincoln, Nebraska. Here he
won both friends and clients, and soon was recognized as a
man of unusual character, poise, and magnetic power. In
1890 he was nominated as the Democratic candidate for Con
gress, an honor conferred because the district was overwhelm
ingly Eepublican and good politics dictated the nomination of
a man strong enough to bring out the full party vote. To the
surprise of everyone with the possible exception of the young
62 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
candidate himself and the loyal wife, who was his most trusted
lieutenant, the "Boy Orator of the Platte" was elected. In
1893 he was reflected. These four years gave the opportunity
for effective service. As a result of his mastery of the new
political issues, his courageous battles against predatory in
terests, Mr. Bryan rose to prominence as the apostle of rad
ical democracy. In 1893 and again the following year his
party showed their confidence in him by making him their
nominee for United States senator. Later as editor of the
Omaha World-Herald he carried on the battle for progressive
principles with a vigor that aroused consternation in the ranks
of the reactionary enemy.
To those who had followed Mr. Bryan's career his nomina
tion to the presidency in 1896 caused no surprise. Indeed his
selection for this high honor might well be denominated
"logical." The bosses had endeavored to control the party
with a view to the continuation of sham battles over ancient
issues. Contrary to former customs the delegates refused
to be controlled. They demanded a progressive platform and
an aggressive candidate. The times called for a man of sin
cerity, and one whose youth would insure endurance. Mr.
Bryan had frequently been mentioned as an available candi
date for the presidency. His eloquent speech before the na
tional convention, having much of the dramatic force with
which Patrick Henry defied the Tory of revolutionary days,
won for him the nomination and raised him to the position of
a national leader whose credentials came straight from the
people over the protests of Wall Street buccaneers. Concern
ing the bitterness of the ensuing campaign little need be said.
The unthinking imagined the issue to be between "free sil
ver" and the gold standard: thoughtful men, looking beneath
the surface, recognized the fundamental differences rapidly
dividing the people into hostile camps. Under such condi
tions defeat was inevitable. After the smoke of the first
battle had cleared away, Mr. Bryan emerged as the undis
puted leader of progressive Democracy. The campaigns of
1900 and 1908 served to strengthen him in the affections of the
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN 63
people and confirmed their faith in the principles for which
he stood.
The sources of leadership vary as widely as the form and
spirit of governments. In a monarchy the authority of lead
ership is based upon the inherited prerogatives of birth and
wealth. In a democracy this authority is granted by the
people to those who have demonstrated their ability and who
are able to offer a working program which seems to assure
the realization of the public needs. It asks of its leader no
badge of birth or wealth ; it only asks for a guarantee of faith
in the people.
The people have thrust upon Mr. Bryan the duties and hon
ors of leadership. His creed, like that of all great men, is
simple. He believes in the people. He prefers to grapple
with and to set aright the mistakes of democracy rather than
to trust to the strong government of the few. He knows that
either democracy must be rejected as an impossible ideal or
the faults of democracy must be eliminated through experi
ence.
While Mr. Bryan is a man of exceptional intellectual powers
with a thorough understanding of the complex problems of
modern life, he is in no sense academic either in his point of
view or in his methods. He does not possess the scholarship
of a Disraeli, a Burke, or a Gladstone. Men, rather than
books, have been his teachers. Ideas rather than things have
given to his leadership something of the authority of "thus
saith the Lord." He respects tradition only as it conserves
the welfare and progress of mankind.
Instinctively the people recognize the safety of his leader
ship. He possesses a sort of divine recklessness which the
time-server cannot understand. The people, however, prefer
the courage of such a leadership to the more conservative
leadership which fears to enter the untrodden paths. They
know that Mr. Bryan sees clearly the problems which they
themselves see vaguely. They realize that while he may make
mistakes he will never lose sight of the supreme end of dem
ocracy: the perfection of the institutions that exist for the
prosperity and happiness of humanity.
64 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
In the analysis of Bryan, the leader, we may anticipate
Byran, the orator. The orator voices the inarticulate thought
of the people. Inspired with a passion for righteousness he
calls a nation to repentance. Thus the orator becomes the
living embodiment of a great truth — the Voice that seeks to
penetrate the wilderness of respectable wrong and intrenched
injustice. He who has something to say that ought to be said,
and who knows how to give this message with impelling
power, has perfected the finest of all the arts, the art of elo
quence.
Mr. Bryan has taken his place among the great orators.
He has studied this nation, its history and its problems, and
out of this study has grown his supreme theme — the future
greatness of the nation. In the accomplishment of his pur
pose he has been generously aided by nature. Of command
ing physique, with a face that frankly expresses every shade
of emotion, he looks the part of the orator. His carefully
trained voice can be heard with distinctness in the largest au
ditorium, and carries to the farthermost sections when he
speaks from chautauqua platforms.
His oratory has the essential sincerity of all effective
speech. In hearing him address an audience one realizes that
oratory is conversation raised to its highest power. He il
lustrates the definition of an orator given by George William
Curtis who described Wendell Phillips on the platform as "a
gentleman conversing. ' ' Mr. Bryan voices what he believes
to be true and clothes his thought in language that cannot be
misunderstood. His vocabulary, though of wide range, is
simple. He never uses a classical derivative when a homely
Saxon word will suffice. He finds his illustrations in the com
monplace experiences of life rather than in the exceptional
events of history. From the Bible, which in its essence all
men understand, he draws a wealth of illustration, quotation,
and incident. Like Mark Antony he speaks ' ' right on ' ' in the
straightforward prose of every day.
Measured by the extent of his influence upon the thought
and ideals of his time, Mr. Bryan's preeminence is undis
puted. As a political speaker he has raised stump speaking
WILLIAM JENNINGS BEYAN 65
to the dignity of deliberative oratory. Through the chau-
tauqua and the lyceum he has awakened sluggish citizenship,
and weakened the bonds of party slavery. He is more than
the spokesman of a party; he is an evangelist of national
righteousness.
Mr. Bryan is not only an orator, agitating the murky waters
of injustice, but a constructive statesman, translating theory
into accomplished fact. AlthouglTTong identified with the
minority party he has lived to see many of his most cher
ished principles enacted into law. During the four years in
Congress he was an advocate of tariff reform. The recent
law is largely the expression of the tariff policy which he has
upheld for more than twenty years. When the income tax
was forced upon Congress by the Farmers' Alliance wedge,
the Nebraska statesman was one of its sponsors and deliv
ered one of the strongest speeches made in Congress in its be
half. It, too, is an endorsement of his practical statesman
ship.
It is impossible to speak with certainty as to Mr. Bryan's
comparative place among those who have held the first posi
tion in the president's cabinet. In the short time that he has
been Secretary of State, he has made the larger interests of hu
manity paramount to the sordid claims of commerce and five
percent.
The character of every man, whatever his rank, has some
where its source of strength or weakness. The foundation of
the character of William Jennings Bryan is his faith in Chris
tianity. Religious by inheritance and training, these convic
tions have been fortified by contact with the world. An
active member of the church, and a sincere subscriber to its
creed, he expresses his religion very earnestly through his
everyday life. On numerous occasions Mr. Bryan has testi
fied that Christianity has been the source of whatever good
he has been able to accomplish.
Mr. Bryan declares that as a result of early religious influ
ence, he has always hated the vices of intemperance, gambling
and profanity. May not this explain his uncompromising at
titude toward certain present-day questions? He has been
66 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
the foe of intemperance in private life, and has recognized
the necessity of legislation designed to promote temperance.
His hatred of gambling has likewise had a potent influence in
shaping his economic doctrines. This hostility underlies his
opposition to the system of private monopoly, which closes
the door of equal opportunity and leaves the masses little
more than a gambler's chance in the struggle for prosperity.
His faith in the divine is reflected in his reverence for and his
belief in the sacredness of humanity. It is this faith which,
in the last analysis, furnishes the key to his social philosophy.
Out of the deep springs of character has issued the remark
able power that has placed Mr. Bryan among the great, and
given him an abiding place in the hearts of his countrymen.
William Jennings Bryan has given this generation a new
ideal of citizenshp. He has defined patriotism not in the
language of war but in the terms of peaceful service. He has
caught the new spirit of an awakened social conscience, and
has taught that to live for one's country is nobler than to die
for one's country. He has found the measure of national
greatness not in the evidences of material grandeur, but in the
sublime manifestations of spiritual worth. By the eloquence
of example he is calling men and women to lay aside the con
tentions of party strife that they may unite in a nobler army
as soldiers of the common good. As never before in the long
march from monad to man, from savagery to civilization, men
are revising their outworn creeds and doctrines ; as never be
fore they are learning that there is nothing so impractical as
wrong, nothing so practical as right. In another century
when the impartial decrees of truth are recorded, the histo
rian will speak in grateful praise of the service rendered his
country by the leader, the orator, the statesman, William Jen
nings Bryan.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PERIODICALS
Character Sketch. By W. A. White. McClure's 15:232.
English View of Mr. Bryan. By Sydney Brooks. North American
Review 198 :27.
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN 67
Explanation of Mr. Bryan. By Henry Jones Ford. World's Work
16 .10215.
Most useful Americans. Independent 74:960.
Mr. Bryan. Outook 89:57.
Mr. Bryan. By William Bayard Hale. World's Work 26:154.
Mr. Bryan 1896-1906. Nation 83:194.
Mr. Bryan — Earlier and Later. Review of Reviews 38 :1.
William Jennings Bryan: a Character Study. By Lyman Abbott.
Outlook 84:66.
LUTHER BUEBANK
BY EOBEET JOHN
ETHER BURBANK, "whose contributions to human
comfort are greater in value than all the gold taken from
the mines of California" — so says Dean Brink, of the
Kansas State Agricultural College — was born in the town of
Lancaster, Massachusetts, March 7, 1849. Although a "49er,"
his face was yet to be turned toward that land " where every
day is a suggestion of May, and winter never lingers."
Luther Burbank was born almost within the shadow of Bun
ker Hill, where stands our monument to American independ
ence, and seems to have been much influenced by this environ
ment, this spirt of independence. In all his work he has
shown a natural inclination toward unharnessed thought — a
turning away from the old paths of science and of dead things,
to delve into nature 's secrets as shown in living, growing na
ture. "He is a citizen of the Celestial City of Free Minds,"
someone has said.
His father was of English stock; his mother of Scotch an
cestry. From his father he inherited his love for books, for
investigation, and for untiring research. From his mother
came the friendly, kindly, generous nature — "his willing
heart of love" — and his love for the beauties of nature. It
was the fusing of these two natures, developed by his Cali
fornia environment — the glories of perpetual sunshine, and
the influences of energetic, generous, and optimistic people —
that has helped to give the world this unique genius, Luther
Burbank.
When only a toddling infant, so his sister says, Mr. Bur-
bank showed an intense love for plant life. In amusing him
flowers took the place of the baby rattle. He tenderly treas
ured them until the bloom had faded and the fragrance had
gone. He is said to have preferred plants to animals as pets
and had as a plaything what our New England mothers call
Cou.rtr.xu af (inl.rii-l Mind in. San Fi-nncixi'o
LUTHER HURBANK
LUTHER BUEBANK 71
the " lobster " cactus. And it is a coincidence that one of Mr.
Burbank 's greatest achievements has been the "making over"
of the spine-protected cactus, ridding it of its needle-like
thorns, compelling it to give mankind and animals food in
stead of poison, and making it earn for its growers fifteen
times what they formerly made out of alfalfa.
As the boy grew he showed more and more, a love for the
beautiful things in the world around him. His teachers say
he was an apt scholar. But even as a boy of twelve, nature 's
lessons were to him more interesting than any culled from
books. To this nature-teaching he added the information
of all the books within his command that would give any
additional nature-knowledge. The trend of his mind could
have been forecast from the fact that among his favorite
authors was Ralph Waldo Emerson. Even in his teens Mr.
Burbank showed those tendencies whose development in after
years led to the hundreds of plant, fruit, and flower inventions
— concerning most of which the world has never even heard.
After young Luther had finished common school he was sent
to the academy at Lancaster.
Nothing in Luther Burbank's nature stands out more
strongly than his singleness of purpose, his never-wavering
aim to make practical his ideal, and his wonderful capacity
for work — persistent, never-tiring work ! One of the editors
of Luther Burbank, His Methods and Discoveries and Their
Practical Application has said in reference to this :
"Some of us do one thing at a time and feel content if we
manage to do that one thing well: some of us count eight
hours a working day, and limit our labor to that. Luther
Burbank is in the habit of doing things by the thousand: his
work days average fourteen hours; and he has kept up this
steady pace throughout four decades.
"During these forty years he has made a hundred thousand
definite experiments in plant life, involving in all the plant
ing, observation, selection, pollenation, and propagation or
destruction of more than a billion individual plants. A hun
dred thousand experiments, so well done that the practical
72 FAMOUS LIVING AMEEICANS
successes wrought run well into the thousands — how vast it
seems to those of us who are content to do one thing at a
time!"1
Is not humanity, therefore, to be congratulated that Luther
Burbank, early in life, selected his work and turned a deaf
ear to the wishes of his people that he direct his talents to
mechanical invention! If he had developed into an Edison, a
Morse, a Howe, or a Marconi, the world would have been
robbed of the Burbank potato which has added more than
seventeen million dollars a year to the farm incomes of Amer
ica alone. It would have been robbed of Mr. Burbank 's dis
coveries in prunes, which have made the United States a three
hundred million pound exporter of prunes, instead of a fifty
million pound importer as before. It would have been robbed
of the thirty or forty Burbank creations that are adding mil
lions to the wealth of the nation; and it would have been
robbed of the hundreds of other equally important Burbank in
ventions that will be generally known as soon as Mr. Bur-
bank's books, now about completed, are given to the reading
public. And notwithstanding the fact that young Burbank
constructed a machine in the factory in which he had found
temporary employment that did the work of a half dozen men,
and because of which his delighted employers doubled his pay,
he was still true to his ideal — true to the call of nature to
come and cooperate in making new plants and improving old
ones.
So young Burbank left the whirl and grind of the factory
and went out into the green fields to begin the creation of his
wonders. His first creation, when he was but a young boy,
was the Burbank potato. Every man, woman and child in a
large part of the entire world has personally benefited by this
development. We quote from the first volume of Luther Bur-
bank, His Methods and Discoveries and Their Practical Appli
cation :
"Luther Burbank found a seed-ball on one of the plants of
i Luther Burbanlc, His Methods and Discoveries and Their Practical Applica
tion. Three volumes of this series have already been issued and the remaining
nine volumes will appear in rapid succession.
LUTHER BURBANK 73
his mother's potato patch. Who knows what little thing will
change a career? Or what accident will transform an ideal?
Or what triviality, out of the ordinary, will lead to the dis
covery of a new truth ? The potato seed-ball was a little thing,
almost an accident, a triviality; at least, so any practical
farmer would say. Away back in the history of the potato,
when it had to depend upon its seed for reproduction, every
healthy potato plant bore one or more seed-balls. But long-
continued cultivation has made unnecessary the bearing of
seeds for the preservation of its kind. The potato plant, now
so reliant on man for its propagation, has little use for the
seed upon which its ancestors had to depend for perpetuation.
Luther Burbank saw the seed-ball on his mother's potato
patch. If he did not realize its possibilities, at least he scent
ed an adventure. How the youthful experimenter lost his po
tato-ball, how he found it again, and then nearly spoiled the
outcome by not knowing how to plant the seed, and the prac
tical lessons in method which he learned even at this early
date in his career " are as interesting as a fairy tale.
To-day, when more pounds of potatoes are grown than of
any other food crop of the world, the increase made by the
help of the Burbank discovery in a single year's crop, and
gained without any corresponding increase in capital invest
ed or cost of production, amounts to an astounding number of
millions.
Another one of Mr. Burbank 's boyhood achievements was
to have roasting ears ready for the Fitchburg market two
weeks ahead of his neighbors. Let Mr. Burbank himself tell
how he accomplished this successful experiment, the forerun
ner of the thousands which were to follow :
"The whole secret of my plan was to germinate the corn
before planting it. Before my neighbors, or I, could begin
spring plowing, I obtained fresh stable manure which I mixed
with leaf -mould from the woods — about half and half. While
this mixture was moist and hot I placed the seed corn in it,
mixing the whole mass together lightly. Thus I allowed it to
stand until the seed had thrown out roots ranging from two to
six, or even eight inches in length, while the tops had grown
74 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
about one-half an inch. In the meantime, as soon as possible,
the land was prepared to receive this sprouted corn by making
drills about four feet apart. Along these drills this corn was
dropped liberally, no attention being paid as to whether it was
right side up or otherwise. I then covered it about one-half
inch in depth. It was nothing unusual to find the corn up and
growing the next morning. This method, alone, insured me a
crop at least a week in advance of all other planters who could
reach the Fitchburg market.
"But this was not all. As I said before, the kernels TOre
planted quite liberally along the drills. Some would show a
very strong growth and some a very weak growth. The weak
er ones were pulled out after a few days and the stronger
ones left at a distance of about twelve to eighteen inches
apart. Thus, by selecting the strong from the weak, and
giving the best fitted the best opportunity to grow, I gained
a total advance of nearly two weeks over my competitors. ' ' 2
It was in 1871 that Luther Burbank produced his new pota
to. In 1875 he started for California with a very lean purse,
a hand-bag full of his own potatoes, and a surplus stock of
vitality and endurance. Except in years he was not much
different from the Luther Burbank of to-day. His friend El-
bert Hubbard describes him thus : "A modest man, with face
of tan, blue eyes that would be weary and sad were it not for
the smiling mouth, whose corners do not turn down; a gentle
gentleman, low-voiced, quiet and kindly. On Broadway no
one would turn and look. His form is slender, and smart folks,
sudden and quick in conclusion, might glance at the slender
form and say the man is sickly. But the discerning behold
that he is the type that lives long, because he lives well. His
is the strength of the silken cord that bound the god Thor
when all the chains were broken. He is always at work, al
ways busy; always thinking, planning, doing; dissatisfied with
the past, facing the East with an eager hope. He is curious
as a child, sensitive as a girl in love, strong as a man, per
sistent as gravitation, and gifted like a god."
This was Luther Burbank 's equipment as he traveled up the
2 Luther Burbank, His Methods and Discoveries and Their Practical Application.
LUTHER BUEBANK 75
fertile but unimproved valley lying between two spurs of the
Coast Range Mountains in California before lie settled in
Santa Rosa. The country was new, the settlers few, and Mr.
Burbank had hard work in getting an occasional odd job.
The story is told of his spending the last of his money for a
shingling hatchet on the strength of a promised job that did
not materialize. His first steady employment was on a chick
en ranch. The work was not to his liking, and the pay very
small, but he was willing to do anything that would help him
to the realization of his ideal. Even then Mr. Burbank saw
the wonderful possibilities of this land of everlasting sun
shine. After suffering nearly all the hardships that can be
heaped on man without forcing him across the Great Divide,
he succeeded, by superhuman work and by saving every penny
earned, in securing a small plot of ground. Here he estab
lished the nursery which was to become famous throughout
the world — the Luther Burbank Experiment Farm of to-day,
and the present home of The Luther Burbank Society.
One of Mr. Burbank ys first achievements after he was set
tled on his own "little half -acre " was to fill an order for
twenty thousand plum trees to set out. It was a hurry-up
order. The customer was going to start a prune ranch and
did not want to wait two and a half years for the trees to
grow; so the order must be filled in nine months. Luther
Burbank filled the order; and to-day one of the finest prune
orchards in the world stands as a monument to this Burbank
achievement.
But Luther Burbank 's is not a commercial mind. No man
could put his hours, his enthusiasm, and his almost infinite
patience into any work which produced only money. His
passing years have not been spent in gathering wealth for
himself, but in opening up nature's vast store-houses for hu
manity. While he worked in his garden with hoe and spade
he worked with Darwin and other scientists in the quiet of the
living-room at the homestead : so that now his recorded work
at the close of a busy life of deep thought and never-tiring
investigation is a "rare combination," as an admirer has said,
"of the great truths observed by Darwin, Mendel, and De
76 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
Vries, told in story form by the greatest breeder of plants the
world has ever known, told not only with a view to plant ap
plication, but to human application as well."
Mr. Burbank's efforts have covered the working out of a
hundred thousand definite experiments resulting in complete
transformations in practically every sort of plant life : in tree
fruits, and in small fruits; in flowers, thousands of them; in
grains, vegetables, and in forage crops ; in grasses to grow on
our lawns, in shrubs to adorn them ; in shade trees to give us
cover from the sun ; in nuts and nut trees that produce valu
able lumber ; in wild mountain plants ; in field plants ; in desert
plants; and in plants which can yield us useful substances,
either by reason of their chemical content or their fiber in
manufacture.
He has given us the Spineless Cactus, and tells us how he
bred out the spines and made it produce a fruit which is used
for canning and is delicious when eaten raw. He has turned
a troublesome weed into the beautiful Shasta Daisy; has made
the blackberry white; created the scented calla; made the
Stoneless Plum ; speeded the growth of the walnut tree ; pro
duced winter rhubarb, and the Sugar Prune; taught us the
practical application of pollenation ; shown us his method of
grafting and budding — and all this without cost or price. He
tells the world how he has doubled the productiveness of the
cherry; how he has transformed the quince; about his forty
years' work in search of a perfect plum; about his plums and
prunes without stones and seeds ; and about the way he creat
ed the Plumcot — a cross which man said could never be made.
He has created the Thornless Blackberry; designed a straw
berry to bear the year round ; introduced a new food, the Sun-
berry, a product from the wild. He is even changing the poi
sonous barberry into an edible fruit. He has made a plant
that bears potatoes below and tomatoes above; turned green
chives pink; shown us how to get the most out of grains;
manufactured food for live stock; and told us how we can
reclaim the deserts with cactus. He tells us how the Burbank
and many other roses were produced; how he accomplished
the impossible with the amaryllis; how he changed the pop-
LUTHER BUBBANK 77
py's color; how he made the chrysanthemum-like daisy; how
he taught the gladiolus new habits; and how he made an ever
lasting flower. He tells us about the business side of nut grow
ing; the paper shelled walnut; growing the almond inside of
peaches ; making the chestnut bear in six months ; and a quick
way of growing trees for lumber. And all this is just a ' ' sus
picion " of the good that will come from the work Burbank
has done for humanity.
Yet, much as they mean, it is not the Burbank creations,
themselves, which mean most to the world. What the world
most needs to have is a definite working knowledge of the
methods used by Mr. Burbank to produce his new creations.
For by the broad-spread dissemination of these methods the
world will come to enjoy and profit by the creations of a
thousand new Burbanks, producing new fruits, flowers, vege
tables, grains, trees and forage crops, of which even Mr. Bur-
bank has never dreamed. And this broadcast dissemination
of his methods has been, in fact, Luther Burbank 's life-ideal.
To bring this about was the motive which actuated the organ
ization of The Luther Burbank Society.
The Carnegie Institution, at Washington, appropriated a
large sum of money for the promulgation of Mr. Burbank 's
discoveries. After several years of effort, however, this pro
ject was abandoned, because it was the purpose of the Carne
gie Institution to limit its activities to the production of
works on pure science. In order, therefore, that this message
of the world's foremost plant breeder might go forth to the
world with fitting sponsorship, The Luther Burbank Society
was formed. Chartered by the State of California, the so
ciety has no capital stock, no power to incur debts or earn
profits. Its sole purpose is to assist in the final preparation
of Mr. Burbank 's writings and to aid in the spread of his
teachings, so that the greatest number may profit to the great
est degree. The Luther Burbank Society numbers among its
members many of the foremost men and women of America.
Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst, Thomas A. Edison, W. C. Brown, John
D. Archbold, Frederick D. Underwood, these and many other
public-spirited citizens became identified with the movement
78 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
and contributed of their funds for its maintenance and spread.
The entire mass of Mr. Burbank 's records, together with
much that has been written by other workers in this field, has
been assimilated, classified, and rewritten. The Society has
gone to the great expense of perfecting a new process of color
photography for the purpose of demonstrating the exact meth
ods employed, so that one sees before him, as it were, the
actual plant in the hands of this wizard-like workman. More
than two hundred thousand dollars have been expended in the
distribution of several million bulletins, pamphlets and other
printed documents, in this and other countries, among those in
terested in plant breeding and in the improvement of agricul
ture and horticulture.
The United States government protects the man who makes
an invention: it protects the man who improves some other
man's inventions, and says that he is entitled to all the profits
that can be made out of the invention or the improvement.
The patent laws of all countries protect him to the exclusion
of all others. But the creator of new plants or the improver
of old ones gets no protection from any country. The secre
tary of The Luther Burbank Society has pointed out the fact
that if Mr. Burbank had devoted his inventive genius to the
perfection of new machinery (as his early days gave evidence
that he might), he could be worth millions from his legally
protected royalties. But having been guided only by his ideal,
without thought of profit or reward, and becoming an inventor
of new forms of plant life, he gets no permanent, material
benefit — is entitled, by law, to none.
The United States government, through William H. Seward,
bought Alaska for $7,200,000. Some people say that next to
the Louisiana Purchase, Seward 's purchase of Alaska stands
as the greatest land acquisition of the century. Alaska pro
duced in the year 1911, $19,000,000 in gold. Yet how insignif
icant is this $7,200,000 compared with Luther Burbank 's sale
for $175 of one small potato that the United States Depart
ment of Agriculture says is adding $17,500,000 a year to the
farm incomes of America. Other creations, through their
sale to nurserymen and seedsmen, have enabled him to enjoy
LUTHER BUEBANK 79
a comfortable living, but some of the most important of his
creations, more important from a money standpoint than the
Burbank potato, have brought, and will bring him, nothing.
The value of Mr. Burbank 's work to the youth of the world
is inestimable. No set of figures can give an adequate idea
of the worth to our youth of Mr. Burbank 's methods and dis
coveries and their practical application. During the past hun
dred years, and particularly the past two decades, we have
been devoting all our energy toward bringing conveniences
within the reach of all, toward making luxuries so cheap that
none could afford to refuse them. Meanwhile the actual ne
cessities of life, the things we eat, the things we wear, and all
those other things which depend upon the soil for their pro
duction, have grown dearer and dearer. It is this state of
things that gives our young people of to-day the biggest op
portunity that young people have ever had.
A hundred years ago it was the railroads which opened an
opportunity to the young Vanderbilts. Fifty years ago it
was steel — steel needed in other fast growing lines of indus
try — which opened an opportunity to the young Carnegies.
Forty years ago it was electricity which opened up its oppor
tunities to the young Edisons and Westinghouses. To-day ev
ery forty acre tract of land that will bear a crop is begging
our youth to come and take their opportunity. To the boy
who has a bent for the work it offers a thousand-fold more re
ward than has ever before been offered a genius. To the boy
who has merely intelligence and persistence it opens up the
way to escape from mediocrity. Mr. Burbank will live to see
the day when his practical manual of plant breeding will be in
the hands of every young gardener. It will bring him the sat
isfaction of knowing that a thousand young Burbanks are tak
ing up his work where he will leave off.
Luther Burbank stands absolutely unique among men in his
knowledge of nature and his manipulation and interpretation
of her forces. He is a philosopher, scientist, plant-breeder,
and horticulturist all in one. Guided by an adherence to sci
entific truth, he has aimed to give the widest possible service
to the world. A friend of Mr. Burbank says, "He is pre-
80 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
eminently an observer as well as a man of rare intuition and
wonderful memory. He not only notes those essentially ob
vious characteristics which the average man may see, and
assigns them unerringly to their proper place, but he looks
farther on and deeper into the subtler life of nature, and as
unerringly assorts and eliminates and assigns. He adds all
these manifestations of nature to the sum of all his experi
ences and from them all he draws for his material for his own
mental furnishing and equipment. ' '
Mr. Burbank is a member of the California Academy of
Sciences ; was elected the first honorary member of the Plant
and Animal Breeder's Association of the United States and
Canada ; and is a Fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science. The degree of Doctor of Science
has been conferred upon him by Tufts College. He is a lec
turer on scientific plant-evolution in Leland Stanford Uni
versity.
Dr. Hugo de Vries, of the University of Amsterdam, Hol
land, says that Mr. Burbank is the greatest breeder of plants
the world has ever known. The magnitude of his work excels
everything that has ever been done before. Dean Brink of
the Kansas State Agricultural College declares that he is en
titled to be counted not only one of the geniuses of our time,
but one of the benefactors of the race. Ex-Governor Pardee
of California says that Burbank, like Columbus, has shown us
the way to new continents, new forms of life, new sources of
wealth, and we, following in his footsteps, will profit by his
genius. March 6, Mr. Burbank 's birthday, has been set apart
by the State of California as Burbank Day.
To-day, at the age of sixty-five, Luther Burbank "has be
stowed upon the world a greater increment of values, in
things done and things inevitable, which are for the permanent
betterment of civilization, than any score of celebrities in this
decade or in any previous decade or century, and this will
clearly appear when the facts are submitted to ultimate an
alysis. . . Is it too much to say that among the great bene
factors of the race Luther Burbank will be unique in the splen-
LUTHEE BURBANK 81
dor of his monument — a monument that can never crumble
while sunshine, air, and soil carry on their chemistry !"
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Luther Burbank, His Methods and Discoveries and Their Practical
Application. (The Luther Burbank Press, Santa Rosa, Cal.)
Training of the Human Plant. (Century Co.) By Luther Burbank.
PERIODICALS
Burbank 's Recent Experiments. Scientific American 94:130.
Burbank 's Way with Flowers. By Henry Smith Williams. Good
Housekeeping 59:158.
Every Woman Her Own Burbank. By Henry Smith Williams. Good
Housekeeping 58:440.
Great Dutch Scientist on Burbank and His Work. Review of Re
views 32:369.
Luther Burbank and His Latest Triumph. Arena 33 :554.
Luther Burbank 's Ideas on Scientific Horticulture. By Hugo De
Vries. Century 73:674.
Luther Burbank 's Wonderful Work in Horticulture. By Charles T.
Woodbury. Scientific American 103 -.126.
Maker of New Fruits and Flowers. By Liberty H. Bailey. World's
Work 2 :1209.
Miracle Maker of Gardens. By Emma Burbank Beeson. Independ
ent 58:997.
Personal Impressions of Luther Burbank. By Hugo De Vries. In
dependent 60 :1134.
Recent Work of Luther Burbank. By Riley M. Fletcher Berry. Sci
entific American 98 :260.
Science Applied. Independent 61:767.
JOHN BURROUGHS
BY EDWAKD BAKKETT
THEEE is a difference between the naturalist and the
scientist. Or rather, there is a difference between the
naturalist and most scientists. A naturalist must needs
be a scientist, but not all scientists are naturalists.
Most naturalists eschew the laboratory and cling to the
field. Most scientists eschew the field and cling to the labo
ratory.
The naturalist studies nature in all its relations in its own
habitat — the woods, the field, the water, the air. The scien
tist removes nature from its own realm and studies it in the
laboratory under the microscope. The naturalist would study
the bird in all its relations to the things about it — its habits,
its food, its adaptability, its color, its migration, its song, its
instinct, its limitations, and delimitations. The scientist
would study the bird under the knife and microscope — its
cells and the nuclei of its protoplasm ; its classification in some
established fauna! system, with its unpronounceable scientific
nomenclature.
These are the two fields for thought that spread out before
John Burroughs, one of which he must choose in which to
glean, and he chose the field of the naturalist. He determined
to live a life — "Exempt from public haunt, to find tongues
in trees, books in running brooks, sermons in stones, and good
in everything. ' '
John Burroughs is a born naturalist. He communes with
nature, and to him she speaks a varied language. If close dis
crimination and fine interpretation are marks of a true nat
uralist and scientist, then John Burroughs is a true disciple of
nature, for he possesses these faculties, preeminently.
No student of nature has, by his work, more clearly set out,
and more clearly defined the limits of the two fields of endeavor
described above, than Mr. Burroughs. A study of his Summit
of the Years and his Ways of Nature lifts one out of the realm
of the purely technical up into the plane of the practical, the
real, the natural.
I, it 1'iuli -i ii'<t(,(l ,f- Turin-wood, \i')i' York
JOHN BURROUGHS 85
To Burroughs, "the call of the wild" does not mean that he
shall live in seclusion, and adopt the idiosyncrasies of the her
mit, but that to study nature intelligently he must go where
nature is; out in the open; out in God's golden sunlight; in
the deep, dark shade of the forest; out on the great, silent
prairie; up on the great, lordly mountains, or down in the
beautiful valleys between.
Burroughs has accomplished great things in his nature
study ; but if he had accomplished nothing more than the dif
ferentiation of the field of endeavor of the true naturalist
from the realm of the technical scientist, his work would stand
for ages. I look in vain through all his writings for a single
technical term ; but in, and through, and over all I find his de
scriptions and interpretations clothed in the plain, simple lan
guage of every day. He may have a vocabulary of thousands
of technical terms, for aught I know, but in the message he
brings to us, he studiously avoids using a single one of them.
The writer would not disparage the anchorage of the names
of orders, families, species and genera in fixed and changeless
foreign nomenclature. This must needs be. But he who can
interpret the life habits of plants and animals in terms so
plain and simple that a child can understand, is a benefactor
indeed to ninety-nine out of every hundred people.
But there is another phase of scientific inquiry that per
meates the work of Burroughs more deeply than it does the
work of most naturalists and scientists. In all his delinea
tions, in all of his deductions, throughout all of his messages to
the world there breathes a pure spirit of Christianity, and the
recognition of a merciful, purposeful, and All-Wise Creator.
Too often the smattering technologist permits the deductions
of the chemical laboratory and the microscope to lead him into
agnosticism, and atheism; but not so with John Burroughs;
with Tennyson he thinks :
"Yet I doubt not through the Ages
One increasing purpose runs
And the thoughts of men are widened
With the process of the suns. ' '
Speaking of this world and his relations to it, Burroughs
86 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
says : ' 'It has been my point of outlook into the Universe. . .
I have tilled its soil, gathered its harvests, waited upon its
seasons, and always have I reaped what I have sown. While
I. delved I did not lose sight of the sky overhead ; while I gath
ered its bread and meat for my body, I did not neglect to gath
er its bread and meat for my soul. ' '
In Roxbury, Delaware County, New York, in a house that
stood near the old ancestral home, John Burroughs was born
April 3, 1837.
His earlier years were spent in various pursuits — farming,
teaching and fruit raising. About twenty years of his life
were spent in the service of the government as a clerk in the
treasury department and as a national bank examiner, but
during these twenty years each day some of his waking hours
were spent in nature study, and in laying up a great store of
intellectual capital that in later years blossomed into the fruit
age and harvest of descriptions and delineations that have
made him the real nature student of the age.
Of the several occupations mentioned above, farming was
the most congenial to him, because it put him nearest nature.
"The thing which a man's nature calls him to do — what else
so well worth doing " asks this writer. One's first impres
sion after glancing about his well-built cabin, with the neces
sities of body and soul close at hand, is a vicarious satisfac
tion that here at least is one who knew what he wanted to do
and has done it.
Clara Barrus has well said, "The readers of Mr. Burroughs
crave the personal relation to him. They feel a sense of deep
gratitude to one who has shown them how divine is the soil
under foot — veritable star-dust from the gardens of the Eter
nal. He has made us to feel as one with the whole cosmos, not
only with birds and trees, and rocks and flowers, but also
with the elemental forces, powers which are friendly or un
friendly according as we put ourselves in right or wrong rela
tions with them. He has shown us the Divine in the common
and near at hand; that Heaven lies about us here in this
world; that the glorious and the miraculous are not to be
sought afar off, but are here and now; and that love of the
JOHN BURROUGHS 87
earth-mother is in the truest sense love of the Divine. One
who speaks thus of the things of such import to every human
soul is bound to win responses ; he deals with things that come
home to us all; we want to know him."
Continuing, the same writer says, "We are coming more
and more to like the savor of the wild and the unconventional ;
perhaps it is just this savor or suggestion of free fields and
woods both in his life and in his books that causes so many
persons to seek out John Burroughs in his retreat among the
trees and rocks on the hills that skirt the western bank of the
Hudson. To Mr. Burroughs, more perhaps than to any other
living American, might be applied these words in Genesis:
4 See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the
Lord hath blessed ' — so redolent of the soil and of the hardi
ness and plenitude of rural things is the influence that em
anates from him. His works are as the raiment of the man,
and to them adheres something as racy and wholesome as is
yielded by the fertile soil. ' '
Mr. Burroughs 's residence since 1874 has been at Riverby,
West Park, Ulster County, New York. Here he combines
farming, or rather horticulture, with his achievements as a
literary naturalist. However, most of his observations, his
thinking and writing are done at his cabin home farther up on
the slope of the mountains, which home he has designated as
"Slabsides."
Of his life here, his most noted biographer says, "Business
life, he had long known, could never be congenial to him. Lit
erary pursuits alone were insufficient ; the long line of yeoman
ancestry back of him cried out for recognition ; he felt the need
of closer contact with the soil ; of having land to till and culti
vate; this need, an ancestral one, was as imperative as his
need of literary expression, an individual one."
To him it seems that the town is better than the city, the im
proved farm better than the town, and the primitive forest
better than the improved farm. Intense love of home and
home scenes are characteristic of Mr. Burroughs. In his auto
biographical sketches he evinces these characteristics:
"When I think of the storied lands across the Atlantic — Eng-
88 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
land, France, Germany, Italy — so rich in historical associa
tion, steeped in legend and poetry, the very look of the fields
redolent of the past — and then turn to nay own native hills,
how poor and barren they seem ! — not one touch anywhere of
that which makes the charm of the old world — no architec
ture, no great names ; in fact, no past. They look naked and
prosy, yet how I love them and cling to them ! They are writ
ten over with the lives of the first settlers that cleared the
fields and built the stone walls — simple, commonplace lives,
worthy and interesting, but without the appeal of heroism or
adventure.
"Oh, the old farm days! how the fragrance of them still
lingers in my heart ! the spring with its sugar-making and the
general awakening about the farm, the returning birds, and
the full, lucid trout-stream ; the summer with its wild berries,
its haying, its cool, fragrant woods ; the fall with its nuts, its
game, its apple-gathering, its holidays; the winter with its
school, its sport on ice and snow, its apple bins in the cellar,
its long nights by the fireside, its voice of fox-hounds on the
mountains, its sound of flails in the barn — how much I still
dream about these things. "
Probably sixty years of the seventy-seven that John Bur
roughs has lived have been spent in the study of birds and
flowers ; and this study, too, out in the open, the natural en
vironment of birds and flowers. The result of this study and
observation is his nature books, so fraught with delightful
originalities.
His own life has been so free of unnatural restraint that he
cannot brook restraint toward any of God's creatures. He
says: "The songs of caged birds are always disappointing
because such birds have nothing but their musical qualities to
recommend them. We have separated them from that which
gives quality and meaning to their songs. I have never yet
seen a caged bird that I wanted — at least, not on account of
its song — or a wild flower that I wished to transfer to my
garden. The caged skylark will sing its song sitting on a bit
of turf in the bottom of the cage ; but you want to stop your
ears, it is so harsh and sibilant and penetrating. But up and
JOHN BURROUGHS 89
against the morning sky, and above the wide expanse of fields,
what delight we have in it. It is not the concord of sweet
sounds, it is the soaring spirit of gladness and ecstasy rain
ing down upon us from Heaven's gates. "
To properly hear and appreciate bird songs, one must hear
with "that inward ear that gives beauty and meaning to the
note. Bird songs are a part of nature that lies about us en
tirely occupied with her own affairs, and quite regardless of
our presence. Hence it is with them as it is with so many
other things in nature — they are what we make them; the
ear that hears them must be half creative. ' '
What heart so unresponsive as not to appreciate his inim
itable description of the bluebird? "And yonder bluebird
with the earth tinge on his breast and the sky tinge on his
back — did he come down out of Heaven on that bright March
morning when he told us softly and plaintively that, 'If we
pleased, spring had come'? Indeed, there is nothing in the
return of the birds more curious and suggestive than in the
first appearance or rumors of appearance of this little blue
coat. The bird at first seems a mere wandering voice in the
air; one hears the call or carol on some bright March morning
but is uncertain of its source or direction ; it falls like a drop of
rain when no cloud is visible ; one looks and listens but to no
purpose. The weather changes, perhaps a cold snap with snow
comes on, and it may be a week before I hear the note again,
and this time, or the next perchance, see the bird sitting on a
stake or a fence, lifting his wing as he calls cheerily to his
mate. Its notes come now daily more frequently. The birds
multiply and flitting from point to pofnt call and warble more
confidently and gleefully. . . But as the season advances,
they drift more and more into the background. Schemes of
conquest which they had at first seemed bent upon are aban
doned, and they settle down very quietly in their old quarters
in remote stumpy fields. "
At the age of more than three score years and ten, we find
John Burroughs writing in his Summit of the Years :
"There is no other joy in life like mental and bodily activ
ity, like keeping up a live interest in the world of thought and
90 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
things. Old age is practically held at bay so long as one can
keep the currents of his life moving. The vital currents,
like mountain streams, tend to rejuvenate themselves as they
flow. . . Nature is always young, and there is no greater
felicity than to share in her youth. I still find each day too
short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want
to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want
to see."
Someone has said that poets are born, not made. We have
already said that Mr. Burroughs is a born naturalist. Poetry
is worth while only as it expresses a universal principle ; that
is, the theme possesses an element that strikes a universal
chord ; something that threads its way through human activity
and human life and connects it with the universal. That the
realm of nature possesses this primal and universal element
cannot be contradicted. Bird hues run the entire scale through
prismatic and secondary ; bird songs ring the entire gamut of
note and tone. Every naturalist possesses in high degree, or
should possess, the poetic instinct. That the poetry of Mr.
Burroughs touches a universal chord in the human breast is
exemplified in two of his best-known poems, the first of which,
entitled The Return, is given below :
THE KETUKN
He sought the old scenes with eager feet -
The scenes he had known as a boy ;
' i Oh, for a draught of those fountains sweet,
And a taste of that vanquished joy ! "
He roamed the fields, he wooed the streams,
His school-boy paths essayed to trace ;
The orchard ways recalled his dreams,
The hills were like his mother 's face.
Oh, sad, sad hills ! Oh, cold, cold hearth !
In sorrow he learned this truth -
One may return to the place of his birth,
He cannot go back to his youth.
His other poem, Waiting, perhaps best known, is here given :
JOHN BURROUGHS 91
WAITING
Serene, I fold my hands and wait,
Nor care for wind, nor tide, nor sea;
I rave no more 'gainst time or fate,
For lo ! my own shall come to me.
I stay my haste, I make delays,
For what avails this eager pace ?
I stand amid th' eternal ways,
And what is mine shall know my face.
Asleep, awake, by night or day,
The friends I seek are seeking me ;
No wind can drive my bark astray,
Nor change the tide of destiny.
What matter if I stand alone !
I wait with joy the coming years ;
My heart shall reap where it hath sown,
And garner up its fruit of tears.
The waters know their own and draw
The brook that springs in yonder heights ;
So flows the good with equal law
Unto the soul of pure delights.
The stars come nightly to the sky ;
The tidal wave comes to the sea;
Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high,
Can keep my own away from me.
[Republished by courtesy of John Burroughs.]
The bulk of all that Burroughs has written is contained in
about sixteen volumes, almost entirely prose. In his early
writing he evinced a tendency toward the philosophic and psy
chologic, a field that had already been occupied by such a mas
ter as Emerson, and of whom Burroughs would be a disciple.
In addition to his Nature study work, his thinking and writ
ing were along the lines of literary criticism and philosophical
and religious discussion.
Wake Robin appeared in 1871, followed by Squirrels and
Other Fur Bearers, and Winter Sunshine in 1875 ; Birds and
92 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
Poets, 1877; Locusts and Wild Honey, 1879; Signs and Sea
sons, 1886 ; followed by Indoor Studies, 1889.
Riverby appeared in 1894, and Light of Day in 1900. In
1905, Ways of Nature was added, and in 1908 came Leaf and
Tendril.
Burroughs has always held that Nature is the same wher
ever you find her, and in the volumes Far and Near, 1904, and
Fresh Fields, 1884, he proves this statement.
He early evinced an intense fondness for Walt Whitman.
His first volume, Whitman, 1896, and the later counterpart,
Whitman — A Study, are an analysis and defense of his life
long friend.
In Pepacton, he expresses his filial love for his childhood
scenes and parental memories.
The climax of his work to date is The Summit of Tears,
written with as much freshness and vigor and originality as
the works of his younger years. It contains touches of the
philosophy of life, vivid descriptions of nature in tree and
animal life, and an effort to draw the line clearly between the
animal and the human mind.
John Burroughs has found himself. An unplowed field lay
stretched out before him and he possessed himself of it. It
had not been occupied by White, or Thoreau, or Audubon, or
Isaac Brown. They had furrowed the edges and made in
cursions into it but they had not fully possessed it. He at
tuned his ear, his eye, his feelings, his sympathies and senti
ments to the sweet harmonies he found therein, to bird, and
bee, and blossom.
Viewed from every angle, he is fitted to observe, to inter
pret, and to reveal to his fellow beings the meaning of the life
about him; gentle, serene, sympathetic; yet of temper to re
buke imposition and incongruity ; clean in thought and habit,
never passion's slave to sound what stop she pleases. Hence
"he sees divine things under-foot as well as over-head. "
"His writing has the fertility of a well-cultivated, pastoral
region, the limpidness of a mountain brook, the music of our
unstudied songsters, the elusive charm of the blue beyond the
summer clouds ; it has at times the ruggedness of a shelving
rock, combined with the grace of its nodding columbines/'
JOHN BURROUGHS 93
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Our Friend John Burroughs. By Clara Barrus.
PERIODICALS
Boyhood Days with John Burroughs. Craftsman 22 :240.
Day with John Burroughs at Rj^-by and Slabsides. Craftsman
8 :564.
In the Circuit of the Summer Hills. Century 86 :878.
In West Park-on-the-Hudson. By F. W. Halsey, American Authors
29.
Slabsides and Its Owner. Critic 47 :101.
What Life Means to Me. Cosmopolitan 40 :654.
ANDREW CARNEGIE
BY JAMES CASEY
ANDREW CARNEGIE isjgie of the most typical, and, let
it be added, one of thg^Bbst impressive representatives
of what will hereafter assuredly be known as a great and
strenuous age. We do not intend to present him here as a
perfect man; for if he were perfect he would not be typical
either of the species to which he belongs or of the times. No
man or age is perfect. Man must be weighed by the standards
of the eternally human, and, in a particular sense, by the
special standards of his time. If Mr. Carnegie be weighed by
either of these standards — or by them conjointly, as is the
better and juster way — he will certainly not be found want
ing.
Mr. Carnegie with all his defects — and no man has more
frankly admitted his deficiencies — is emphatically a great
man. The world is agreed in so proclaiming him. He is a
self-made man. Behind his successes lie character, judgment,
resolution, and persistency. A paar lad, a new arrival in a
strange land, he never allowed himself to become discouraged.
He had confidence in himself. To begin with, he had a sound
body and a sound mind. This young Carnegie knew, and that
was enough for him. With time, all else would come.
Andrew Carnegie started out in life with a definite purpose ;
he steadfastly pursued that purpose, and, so far, he has ac
complished it in ample and full measure. We say "so far"
advisedly, for as the old Greek philosopher was careful to re
mind his followers: "No man can be called happy until he
has fulfilled his days." So no man, in the fuller sense, can be
said to have accomplished his mission — and Mr. Carnegie
believes he has one — until he has passed away, and in passing
away left behind him a completed and well-rounded career —
a career commenced in purpose, pursued with unfaltering per
sistency, and perfected so far as human endeavor can be per
fected in any direction.
Cop>/ri(/ltt 1 1/ rnderu-fiml •!• Underwood, \< /'• York
ANDREW CARNEGIE
ANDREW CAENEGIE 97
Andrew Carnegie was born November 25, 1837, in Dunferm-
line, Scotland, the elder son of William and Margaret Carne
gie. His father was a master weaver, a man of sturdy char
acter, a speaker and writer on behalf of those political reforms
which were being agitated in those early days. Young "An-
die" acquired thus, at the feet of his father, the democratic
principles which have influenced his entire life. He was equal
ly blessed in his mother, a thrifty woman of much common
sense, sparing of words, but sound of counsel. It may here
be added that, by the time the future Iron King became pos
sessed of great wealth, his father was dead, but his mother
was his constant companion, accompanying him in all his holi
days, both at home and abroad.
In 1848 the Carnegies came to the United States and set
tled in Allegheny City, opposite Pittsburgh. At the age of
twelve "Andie" entered a cotton factory as a bobbin boy, at
a dollar and twenty cents a week. His progress was steady.
He spent his evenings in study and otherwise improved him
self.
At fourteen the lad became a telegraph boy. The clicking
over the wires interested the quick-witted youngster, who
somehow seemed to feel that he now stood in the midst of the
busy world. Mr. J. D. Reed, in his History of the Telegraph,
referring to this period of Andrew Carnegie's life, says, "I
liked the boy 's looks, and it was very easy to see that though
he was little he was full of spirit. He had not been with me
a month when he began to ask whether I would teach him to
telegraph. " As boy and man Andrew Carnegie was never
backward. According to circumstances he asked and received,
listened and gave, with equal facility. In other words, he
was an out-and-out man of affairs at every stage of the bus
iness game.
Young Carnegie attracted the attention of Thomas A. Scott,
superintendent of the Pittsburgh division of the Pennsylvania
railroad, who offered him a situation as an operator. Thus
commenced a friendship that was to develop to the material
benefit of both parties.
One day Mr. Scott called the young operator aside and sug-
98 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
gested that he could acquire ten shares in the Adams' Express
Company for $600, and that if he could raise $500, he (Mr.
Scott) would advance the remaining $100. Andrew Carnegie
consulted his parents.
"It must be done/' decided his resolute mother, "we must
mortgage the house."
The thing was settled. Andrew Carnegie owned his first
shares. What was of more importance, he had learned his
first lesson in finance, which he was later to turn to such ad
vantage.
One of Mr. Carnegie's noblest traits is gratitude. He never
forgets a service. "One good turn deserves another" is an
aphorism he has ever believed in and lived up to. This he
was soon to show. In the course of a railway trip he chanced
to meet Thomas T. "Woodruff, who showed him the model of a
sleeping-car. Recognizing the value of the invention the
young man introduced the inventor to Mr. Scott. The out
come was the organization of the Woodruff Sleeping-Car Co.
Mr. Carnegie, greatly daring, decided to take up as many
shares as he thought he could handle, borrowing the money
from a local bank and signing his first note for that purpose.
He was not afraid. He was not made that way. He knew
his men, he knew what he was getting, and he knew himself ;
in all three, particularly in himself, he had ample confidence.
Other investments followed, and Mr. Carnegie was fairly
launched upon his golden career. Meanwhile, however, he
prudently continued to associate himself with his proven
friends, men of experience and worth.
In 1860 Andrew Carnegie persuaded President Scott and
Superintendent Woodruff to join him in acquiring the Storey
Farm, on Oil Creek, Pa., where petroleum had been located.
The purchase price was $40,000. The enterprise developed
until the company's shares aggregated $5,000,000 value, and
$1,000,000 cash dividends were declared in a single year. All
this time, the young man's interest in railroad work remained
unabated. Here we have a good instance of another of Mr.
Carnegie's chief characteristics, constancy of purpose. Reach-
ANDREW CARNEGIE 99
ing out to new and larger things, he continued to hold on to
the old.
On the outbreak of the Civil War, Colonel Scott was ap
pointed Assistant Secretary of War and invited young Car
negie to Washington. The outcome was that Carnegie was
put in control of the military railroad and government tele
graphs. He had just entered his twenty-fourth year.
Those were stirring times, such as rouse vigorous men.
Andrew Carnegie was preeminently a man of this type. He
saw the opportunities before him ; he foresaw what was surely
coming as soon as peace once more prevailed ; namely, a great
outburst of industrial activity in every direction.
To a man of Mr. Carnegie's deep perceptions and large out
look, already possessed of experience in railroading matters,
it was evident that there was an immense and immediate
future before the iron business, more particularly along the
line of manufacturing. As quick in action as in perception,
he at once set to work to organize — and no greater organizer
ever lived in the business world — the Keystone Bridge Co.
Such was his indomitable pluck, industry, and sweep of out
look that, within a comparatively short space of time, he con
trolled seven great plants, all operating within five miles of
Pittsburgh: the Homestead, the Edgar Thomson, and the
Duquesne steel works and furnaces, the Lucy furnaces, the
Keystone Bridge Works, the Upper Union Boiling Mills, and
the Lower Union Boiling Mills.
Pittsburgh! Yes, Pittsburgh, the city in which the "wee
laddie " first settled when he arrived in this country, is the
same city in which he served his apprenticeship, made his vast
fortune, and ended by munificently endowing. Andrew Car
negie never was a "rolling stone " — he did not accumulate
"moss," but he acquired wealth beyond the dream of avarice.
Nobly he earned it, and right nobly has he spent it in the
cause of mankind, to serve which has ever been, from youth to
venerable age, the highest ambition of his life.
Mr. Carnegie never missed an opportunity. He seized it in
flight and made the most of it before others well realized its
100 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
presence. A visit to England in 1868 was an epoch in his life.
What is known as the Bessemer Process of steel production
was then agitating the business world. Mr. Carnegie, recog
nizing that steel was rapidly supplanting iron in the old coun
try, promptly returned to the United States, and introduced
the new methods into his mills. He thereby entirely revolu
tionized the iron industry in the western hemisphere, and se
cured for a time what was practically a monopoly.
Vast as were his commitments, the big manufacturer con
tinued to expand. Alarmed interests threatened to combine
against what they were pleased to call his " encroachments " :
they would isolate him. Little did they know the man with
whom they had to deal. So far from being intimidated, Car
negie 's fighting blood was stirred. If the mine-owners would
not sell him iron ore and coal at the right prices he would buy
and work iron and coal fields of his own : and, further, if the
railroads discriminated against him, he would build and oper
ate railroads of his own. He did not threaten in vain. He
followed up his words with immediate action.
In 1889 Mr. Carnegie invited Henry Clay Frick, who at that
time dominated the coke-making industry, to join forces with
him. Mr. Frick consented. The outcome was that the Car
negie concern soon owned and controlled mines producing
6,000,000 tons of ore annually ; 40,000 acres of coal land, and
12,000 coke ovens ; steamship lines for transporting ore to
Lake Erie ports ; docks for handling ore and coal, and a rail
road from Lake Erie to Pittsburgh; 70,000 acres of natural
gas territory, with 200 miles of pipe line ; nineteen blast furn
aces and five steel mills, producing and finishing 3,250,000
tons of steel annually. The pay roll of the year exceeded
$18,000,000. In 1890 was formed the Carnegie Co., with a
paid-up capital of $160,000,000. The parent company in
cluded over twenty subsidiary companies.
To trace the growth of the Carnegie Co., and to follow
it up to its present development into the United States Steel
Corporation, would fill a big volume. Suffice it here to state
that according to Poor's Manual of Industries, 1913, the re
turns for the United States Steel Corporation, December 31,
ANDREW CARNEGIE 101
1912, make the following showing: "Total capitalization,
$1,512,305,073, consisting of $869,175,142 stocks (common and
preferred) and $643,129,931 bonds; number of employes,
221,025 ; pay-roll, $189,351,602 ; net earnings for year, or prof
its, $108,174,673. "
Andrew Carnegie 's dominant position in the steel and iron
industry, his comprehensive grasp of the situation, and his
masterful character made successful competition almost im
possible in the trade. He must be bought out and retired.
The more powerful competitors induced J. Pierpont Morgan
to approach the great ironmaster. Mr. Carnegie named his
price. The master of money considered the terms excessive
and retired; the master of the iron situation smiled grimly
and waited. The men met again. Mr. Morgan had recon
sidered the matter; but so had Mr. Carnegie. The latter
raised his price. The big banker had met his match, and he
knewr it: he ended by accepting everything.
Mr. Carnegie received for his interest $250,000,000 of bonds
on the Trust's properties (capitalized at $1,100,000,000), bear
ing interest at the rate of five per cent per annum. These
terms were better than cash, for the security was ample, and
he was in position to see that it remained so.
In an address delivered at Pittsburgh, he gave his reasons
for retiring from business in the following words: "An op
portunity to retire from business came to me unsought, which
I considered it my duty to accept. My resolve was made in
youth to retire before old age. From what I have seen around
me, I cannot doubt the wisdom of this course, although the
change is great, even serious, and seldom brings happiness.
But this is because so many, having abundance to retire upon,
have so little to retire to. I have always felt that old age
should be spent, not as the Scotch say, in 'makin' mickle mair',
but in making good use of what has been acquired, and I hope
my friends at Pittsburgh will approve of my action in retir
ing while still in full health and vigor, and I can reasonably
expect many years of usefulness in fields which have other
than personal aims."
As a big manufacturer, Carnegie believed in concentration
102 FAMOUS LIVING AMEEICANS
and in being surrounded by enthusiastic and competent men.
He says : * i Concentration is my motto — first honesty, then
industry, then concentration." Again, referring to his own
methods, he makes them clear in the following words: "I
do not think that any one man can make a success of a busi
ness nowadays. I am sure I never could have done so without
partners, of whom I had thirty-two — the brightest and clev
erest young fellows in the world. All are equal to each other,
as the members of the Cabinet are equal. The chief must
only be first among equals. I know that every one of my
partners would have smiled at the idea of my being his su
perior, although the principal stockholder. The way they
differed from me, and beat me many a time, was delightful to
behold."
In his book, The Empire of Business, he calls the industrial
world a partnership of three equals, Capital, Business Ability,
and Labor ; which he likens to a three-legged stool. He con
cludes that capital, business ability and labor must be united ;
and that he who seeks to sow seeds of disunion among them
is the enemy of all three.
Mr. Carnegie's retirement from business was final. Hav
ing possessed himself of wealth, he became the prophet of
wealth; not in the sense of further acquisition but the dis
posal of it — the " dross," as he calls it rather comtemptuous-
iy.
Despite his rugged and somewhat aggressive bearing, An
drew Carnegie has a tender heart. Impulsive by nature and
sometimes in speech, he never acts impulsively. Indeed, he is
much of a thinker and philosopher. If he occasionally ex
plodes, it is because he feels that he has a gospel to preach,
real things to do, and he wants results. He is a man with a
reserved soul and passionate convictions. Hence his occa
sional outbursts.
From youth up he has been, in the deep recesses of his
heart, a dreamer of dreams and a builder of "castles in the
air." To bring these airy creations to earth, and root them
there somehow, has been his steadfast purpose throughout
his long and eventful life. In 1895 he bought Skibo Castle
ANDREW CARNEGIE 103
at the extreme north end of Scotland, and since then has lived
there with his family — his wife, Louise ( Whitfield) Carnegie,
whom he married in 1887; and his daughter, an only child,
who is her father's constant companion. Back in his native
land, once more treading the free heather, Andrew Carnegie
has matured, and is now further maturing his plans.
As is usually the case with truly noble characters, Mr. Car
negie's vision has enlarged, and many of his views have cor
respondingly mellowed, as he has advanced in years. What
the final outcome, the completed whole, will be, none know;
but those who have studied the man's career can form a
shrewd opinion. Mr. Carnegie will, indeed he has already
said as much, follow his original purpose — build upon foun
dations already set and guarded. He will leave nothing to
accident. In his Gospel of Wealth he says most clearly :
"Men may die without incurring the pity of their fellows,
still sharers in great enterprises from which their capital can
not be or has not been withdrawn, and which is left at death
chiefly for public uses ; yet the day is not far distant when the
man who dies leaving behind him available wealth which was
free to him to administer during life, will pass away * unwept,
unhonored, and unsung/ no matter to what use he leaves the
dross that he cannot take away with him. Of such as these
the public verdict will be : 'The man who dies thus rich dies
disgraced.' "
If Andrew Carnegie is not to "die disgraced," to use his
own words, and he assuredly has no such intention, it is man
ifest that he will leave behind him little or no "available
wealth." All will be hypothecated, left in charge of trustees,
appointed by himself during lifetime, to administer. Thus
the spirit of the great benefactor will rule beyond the grave,
and bless countless generations. It is an immense scheme,
and worthy of the man ; for, though his past and present gifts
are many and generous, it is doubtful whether they have out
run his income, which upon his retirement from business was
estimated at about $15,000,000 a year.
The total amount of the great ironmaster's gifts up to the
present has been computed at over $180,000,000. Among his
104 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
endowments are: Carnegie Institution, Washington, D. C.,
$22,000,000; Carnegie Institution, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
$10,000,000; Scotch universities, $10,000,000; Carnegie Dun-
fermline Trust, Scotland, $2,500,000; College Professors' Pen
sion Fund in United States, Canada and Newfoundland, $15,-
000,000; Peace Temple at the Hague, $1,750,000; Pan-Ameri
can Union (buildings and funds), $850,000; for benefit of Em
ployes of Carnegie Steel Co., $5,000,000; Allied Engineers'
Society, $1,500,000. In addition he has given over $5,000,000
to endow libraries, etc., etc. The list is too long to exhaust;
of libraries alone there are some two thousand.
It is safe to say that behind all of Mr. Carnegie 's gifts there
is a definite purpose. In his libraries he invites the thought
ful, more particularly the young, to "read, learn, and in
wardly digest" the best that has been written; though wheth
er the average frequenter of public libraries does that has
been cynically questioned. In his endowments of college pro
fessors, an insufficiently paid calling, he releases many a great
and generous soul from financial bondage — thus setting it
free to pursue the higher course, the pioneering work that
leads onward and upward ; the goal of which no man knows,
but which is assuredly there and well worth striving for. His
endowments of the Carnegie Institution and of the Scotch
universities belong to the same order. His gifts to Dunferm-
line, where he was born ; to Pittsburgh, where he grew up to
great things; to the Allied Engineers' Societies, intimately
associated with the industry in which he made his fortune —
these are gifts personal, and of the heart. About his "Hero
Fund" opinions differ. Some hold that the true reward of
heroism is ' ' the iron cross, not the golden guerdon. ' ' Be that
as it may, all admit the motive — idealism.
Andrew Carnegie is, and has always been, a good deal of an
idealist, though he would doubtless hotly deny the statement,
as he has already denied that he is a philanthropist. Well,
anyhow, he is a " guid laddie. ' ' To that we know he will agree,
for "our Andie" - and he is ours and the world's — is very
human. He does not believe that any man should hide his
light under a bushel. And he is right. If there were no bea-
ANDREW CARNEGIE 105
cons in the world, how drab and drear this world of ours
would be.
Mr. Carnegie is a veteran in the cause of peace ; and he re
gards the subject in all its phases — industrial, social, and in
ternational. No man has realized more fully than he that
humanity is fundamentally a unity; that all classes, as well as
nations and races, are indissolubly bound together, for ill or
for good. His sympathies are in this sense universal. With
another eminent American he can truly say: "The world is
my country, and to do good is my religion. "
Addressing the Annual Meeting of the Peace Society in the
Guildhall, London, May 10, 1910, he proclaimed his faith and
his hopes in the future in the following words: "If all civil
ized people now regard these former atrocities of war as dis
graceful to humanity, how soon must their successors regard
the root of these barbarities, war itself, as unworthy of civil
ized men, and discard them as intolerable? We are marching
fast to that day, the reign of law under which civilized peo
ples are bound to live — nations being only aggregates of in
dividuals, why should they be permitted to wage war against
other nations, when, if we were all classed as one nation, they
would be denied this right of war, and would have to subject
themselves to the reign of law?"
Without claims to any special personal magnetism or brilli
ancy, Mr. Carnegie is one of those rare men who have achieved
all they set out to accomplish. His successes in carrying
through his ideals and in popularizing them, as well as in his
business enterprises, he owes mainly to the fact that he has
always been intensely practical. He saw very clearly all that
was within his horizon — an extensive one, truly — but he nev
er sought to fathom what was beyond.
He has traveled much, seen much, reflected much ; and has
made many acquaintances, both at home and abroad. He has
counseled with statesmen, and has been consulted by mon-
archs. Among his friends may be mentioned the late Mr.
Gladstone, whom he regarded as his political leader and loved
as a man; John Morley, the distinguished and philosophic
106 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
statesman ; James Bryce, the eminent writer, and jurist ; and
others of like distinction and character.
Andrew Carnegie, his works and what he represents, are
known to-day throughout the world. No man has been more
talked and written about. The newspapers and the periodical
press are full of him and his doings. The real man can be
best studied, however, by the perusal of his own books and
speeches. He is the author of: An American Four-in-hand
in Britain, 1883; Round the World, 1884; Triumphant Democ
racy, 1886 ; The Gospel of Wealth, 1901 ; The Empire of Bus
iness, 1902; Life of James Watt, 1905; Problems of To-day,
1908.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Andrew Carnegie, the Man and his Works. By Barnard Alderson.
Famous Givers and Their Gifts, Carnegie and His Libraries. By
(Mrs.) Sarah K. Bolton.
How They Succeeded, Life Stories of Famous Men. By Orison Sweet
Marden.
Little Journeys to Homes of Great Men. By Elbert Hubbard.
PERIODICALS
ATnpnV.RTi Millionaire. Bookman 25 :577.
Estimate. Independent 62:848.
How Carnegie Climbed Up. Current Literature 41 :392.
Owners of America. Cosmopolitan 45 :3.
Turning-point of Mr. Carnegie's Career. Century 76:333.
CHAMP CLARK
BY WALLACE D. BASSFORD
ON the seventh day of March, 1850, Webster — < ' Daniel
the Godlike ' ' — rose in his place in the Senate and de
livered a great oration, destined to live in history, in
literature, and on the tongues of men. That surpassing effort
has always been and ever will he known as "the seventh of
March speech. " On that same eventful day was born down in
the hill-country in Kentucky a blue-eyed, flaxen-haired man
child destined to play a great part in the history of his country
and to hold an abiding place in the hearts of his countrymen,
loved by millions, trusted by his most active opponents, re
spected even by his enemies. This child was named James
Beauchamp Clark, for his grandfather, Judge James Beau-
champ. One of the first marked evidences of the fine decision
and vigor of his character occurred when he was but a youth,
when, with the remark that "one's name is his personal prop
erty, and he has as much right to change it as he has to have
his hair cut," he sliced off the first part, leaving it plain
Champ Clark.
As full of character and human interest as an egg is of
meat, it is unfortunate that no modern Boswell has lingered
lovingly at Clark's heels, with pencil and note-book ready to
jot down each mot, each characteristic utterance or anecdote
that might give future generations a true insight into this
big man's real character.
The parent stock from England, transplanted in turn from
Virginia to Kentucky, found there a fertile field for its perfect
development. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that there
is no spot in the western hemisphere of like population that
has produced as many public men of equal eminence and at
tainments as the section of which Lexington, Kentucky, is the
center. The mention of a few names will call to mind many
others of equal or approaching calibre. This region produced
Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis — the rival presidents
108 FAMOUS LIVING AMEEICANS
of our Civil War period — Henry Clay, Brutus J. Clay, and
Cassius M. Clay, Old Dick Johnson, Ben Hardin, Tom Mar
shall, Prentice, the Breckinridges, the Blairs, the Prestons,
Morgan the raider, George Vest, William J. Stone, Joe Black
burn, Oscar Underwood, and Champ Clark. No more remark
able instance of this prolific output of men of genius for pub
lic affairs could ever be found than now exists in the National
House of Eepresentatives, where the Speaker, the Majority
Leader, Mr. Underwood, and the Minority Leader, Mr. Mann,
all trace their families to the same county in Kentucky ! At
one time the grandfathers of Mr. Clark and Mr. Underwood
were law partners, which partnership was followed by one be
tween Judge Beauchamp and Mr. Mann's uncle, Judge Jones.
And these three men have not risen by accident to their high
places in the councils of the nation. Nowhere does a man
more certainly gravitate to the place which of right belongs
to him than in the House. In that close daily association each
man soon becomes known for what he is, and the niche into
which he falls is the one in which he fits. In the last twenty
years there has been in the Capitol no triumvirate of leaders
equal in capacity to that of Clark, Underwood, and Mann.
The climate and the limestone soil of great fertility and
productive power were well suited to the further development
of a strong and self-reliant race. The blood was mainly Eng
lish, with an intermixture of Scotch and Scotch-Irish. Young
Clark grew up in an environment and under circumstances
well calculated to develop all the qualities of mind and
strength of body which he inherited from a long line of right-
living ancestors. When he was a youth, farm work brought
part of the money necessary for his sustenance in college;
and breaking hemp, cradling wheat, and cultivating corn with
a double-shovel plow from daylight until dark made a phys
ical giant of him who could stand up under it. That was be
fore the day of self-binders and riding plows. Each farmer
kept his flock of sheep, for wool and meat; the wool was*
scoured and carded by the women folks, spun during the long
winter evenings by the light of the open fire, and woven into
homespun or linsey-woolsey on the old hand loom, which also
Copyright l>u Edmonton, Washington
CHAMP CLARK 111
made the rag carpets, the linen sheets and the bedspreads.
The farmer of that day sent his wheat and corn to the near
by water mill for grinding ; he likewise grew his tobacco and
practically all that went on his table, itself covered with a
cloth the product of his own hemp patch. His need for
money was mainly for the purchase of pepper, salt, needles,
buttons, and for the payment of taxes. Most farmers made
the family shoes. In the sections outside the growing cities,
the purchase of a chicken, a ham, a dozen eggs or a quart of
milk, was unknown. Even whiskey, uncolored from a charred
barrel, was home-made and placed before the guest without
thought of evil. It was the simple life, a life of the greatest
measure of independence.
Clark's father, Dr. John Hampton Clark, who was born
where Atlantic City now stands, had been compelled to forego
the benefits of a schooling by reason of his father's business
failure and had had to work to support his widowed mother.
After leaving home he had worked as a carriage maker, and
tradition says he was a good one. Though denied schooling
he could not be deprived of an education. He got it from
everything he touched; he read omnivorously and formed
vigorous opinions. He picked up dentistry, and rode about
the country with one end of his saddle bags filled with the in
struments of his profession, while the other contained a
Bible, Macaulay's Essays and copies of the speeches of
Douglas and Breckinridge. He delighted in disputation
and could easily hold his own. Many political opponents
have learned to their sorrow that the son inherited this char
acteristic in Scriptural measure. Champ Clark's mother died
when he was but a small child. While the father was riding
the surrounding counties, young Clark and his little sister
were cared for in the neighborhood around Lawrenceburg,
where they were born. In the winter they went to the old
field schools, where the boy soon outstripped all of his fel
lows. Ambition found him early. I once heard him say that
at fifteen he would gladly have walked to West Point for the
privilege of taking the entrance examination there. He added
that he believed almost any of his classmates could have
112 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
passed the examination — surely a testimonial to the efficiency
of the schools of that day and kind.
When the boy was about twelve, his father secured a place
for him on the farm of John Call. John, on account of trouble
with his eyes, could not read, but he took a great interest in
politics, and agreed to subscribe for Prentice's daily paper,
the old Louisville Journal (now the famous Courier-Journal,
edited by Colonel Henry Watterson), provided young Clark
would read it to him.
While Clark was working for Call, Morgan and his men
came through that region and Call put the boy on the back of
a magnificent chestnut mare and told him to take the horses
to the woods, for Morgan had a fine eye for a good saddler.
He had just started when the vanguard of that daring body
of cavalry burst into view at a turn in the road, the evening
sun shining on their equipment. The boy paused. At that
moment seven home-guards dashed out of the village and
charged the whole of Morgan's cavalry! It was all over in
a moment. But the incident of the charge fired the fighting
blood of the boy and he stole away the next day to enlist in a
company being raised in the county. He stood on his tiptoes
and swelled out his chest, but they would not take him. Later
he tried to get into a regiment that came through the region
where he lived, but he was still too young.
But he was growing and learning, reading newspapers,
novels, histories, slipping away to attend political meetings
and to hear the country lawyers in the Circuit Court room at
the county seat. He saw his father occasionally, and one day
he admiringly read aloud to his father a copy of Patrick
Henry's speech before the Virginia House of Burgesses. One
line that struck the boy's poetic fancy ran: "The race is not
always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. ' ' His father
said: "That is from the Bible; if you want to learn the use
of terse English, why don't you get it at first hand?" From
that day young Clark buried his nose in the Bible, learning
Job and St. Paul by heart. He lingered long over the splen
did rhapsody beginning: "Though I speak with the tongues
CHAMP CLARK 113
of men and of angels and have not charity, I am as sound
ing brass or a tinkling cymbal. ' '
Before he was fifteen Clark was teaching a country school
in order to get funds for college, and at sixteen had in his
school grown men who had been in both armies and had come
home with a desire to learn the three R's. Birch, stout birch,
well-wielded birch, was the prime requisite there. One youth
was separated (to use the polite term devised by the Civil
Service Commission) from the school for indulging in the
playful diversion of throwing a handful of Enfield rifle cart
ridges into the stove that heated the one room of the school-
house. In six weeks Clark had whipped that school from
ninety down to two, for every time a student got a trouncing
for his misdeeds he would promptly quit school. But peace
reigned — of the sort that reigned in Warsaw on a celebrated
occasion.
But such experiences served a double purpose — they de
veloped stern traits of self-reliance and made the pot boil dur
ing the years at Kentucky University, which he entered at the
age of seventeen. Teaching school, working as a hired hand
on a farm, clerking in a country store and parting his hair in
the middle to attract trade, he managed to make buckle and
tongue meet. He spent three years in Kentucky University
and was about to be graduated with honor when an unfor
tunate circumstance occurred. Young Clark became engaged
in a college fight. The president of the faculty was absent.
The remainder of the faculty took action and, by a majority
of one vote, expelled Clark. He packed up his few belongings
and left. A day or two later the president returned, prompt
ly rescinded the faculty's action and urged Clark's return.
But he was gone and gone to stay ; he refused to come back.
From Lexington, the seat of the University, he walked
home, a distance of sixty miles, carrying on his back all his
earthly possessions, including a dozen volumes which he had
bought with the last money he had. He still treasures these
old friends of the days of his greatest poverty.
That fall found him at Bethany, West Virginia, attending
114 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
the school founded by Alexander Campbell, the founder of the
church variously known as the Disciples, the Church of Christ,
and the Campbellites. There he took the junior and senior
courses in one year and on the senior year's work made the re
markable average grade of ninety-nine and eight-ninths.
When it is known that Clark arrived at Bethany with one
hundred and fifty dollars in his pocket, and that on that sum
he managed to eke out an existence through the entire year, I
believe few will dispute the statement that this high-water
mark in scholarship constitutes one of the greatest single
achievements of an individual within our times. Two of his
classmates there related to me how Clark would begin study at
daylight or earlier and work steadily until midnight. To save
time for his studies he absented himself from chapel until
ordered to attend, whereupon he appeared with shaved head.
This disturbed the services to such an extent that he was ex
cused thereafter and he went back victoriously to his garret
and his crust and his desperate battle to secure an education.
But to him it was, withal, a cheerful battle. He learned to do
logarithms and figure eclipses and became proficient in the
languages. He sang Greek songs while cooking his cornbeef
and cabbage, wearing a gunny sack in lieu of an apron, and
wrote odes in imitation of Horace.
The remarkable scholarship shown by Clark at Bethany
secured for him at the age of twenty- three the presidency of
Marshall College, the State Normal School at Huntington,
West Virginia. For many years after that he held the
record as the youngest college president in the country, if
not in the world. In making application for the presi
dency of Marshall College, Clark wrote this description of
himself: "I am twenty-two years old, a Kentuckian by birth,
a Democrat in politics, a Campbellite in religion, unmarried,
a master mason, six feet two in height and weigh 170 pounds. ' '
He now weighs 235, but all the changes of forty years that
have passed have not altered his habit of direct, forceful, un-
evasive statement. After having fought his way up in pol
itics from the lowly position of city attorney in a small town
CHAMP CLAEK 115
to the second office in the greatest government in the world,
he is still as frank as a schoolboy.
Clark spent one year at Marshall College, a year of profit
to him, for it gave him the money for a course in the Cincin
nati Law School; it was also a year of great benefit to the
college, for Clark possessed unusual talent for instruction,
was full of human sympathy and labored day and night with
the students, many of whom were older than he. From this
work he proceeded to Cincinnati where he finished the law
course and went thence to Wichita, Kansas, hung out his sign
and awaited the first client — a vain wait of eleven weeks.
The grasshoppers had invaded the State the previous year,
eaten up all the crops, and left a great depression in their
wake : times were bitterly hard. To get enough money to get
out of the State, Clark went out in the fields and worked as a
hired hand cutting corn. From Kansas he went to Missouri,
stopped at Louisiana, an old and historic town on the Missis
sippi, and formed a law partnership with David A. Ball.
He was still a youth when he landed in the town of Louis
iana, past which, up and down the long river, Mark Twain
had but recently been casting the lead on the big side-wheel
floating palaces that bore the commerce of the Great Valley.
William Merritt Chase was going to school in the next county,
dreaming even then of artistic conquests to come. John B.
Henderson, who lived in the town of Louisiana, had just been
driven from his place in the United States Senate because he
had voted with Lyman Trumbull and Edmund G. Ross to save
Andrew Johnson from conviction at the bar of the Senate.
James 0. Broadhead and Col. D. Pat Dyer, since world-fa
mous, were members of the Pike County bar, and the song of
" Joe Bowers, who had a brother Ike," was a popular ballad.
Clark 's first Sunday saw him at the little church where
worshiped the followers of the great Alexander Campbell.
There he put in his letter from the Christian Church at Cincin
nati and was received into full fellowship. Within a few days
a steamboat trip was arranged by the young men of the town ;
the old steamer War Eagle, towing the barge Mamie, brass
116 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
band, lemonade stand and all, steamed slowly up the broad
river, while the full June moon rose over the picturesque
bluffs of Pike county, Illinois. The music, the perfect night,
the pretty girls, the odor of a thousand roses, the enthusiasm
of youth — all else was forgot, and the young churchman
danced all the way up the river to the turning-around point,
and then danced all the way back to the landing at Louisiana,
at two o 'clock in the morning.
The next Sunday he took his way to church, all unconscious
of the gathering storm. Before the service began the young
Kentuckian was called before the bar of the Church and ex
pelled from its membership for dancing in violation of the
laws of the church. Clark, crestfallen but not discouraged,
walked out and cooled his brow in the shade of the long rows
of maples on Georgia street. He looked at the cobblestones
and thought of De Quincey's "Oxford street, thou stony
hearted stepmother, that drinkest the tears of the children,
and hearest the cries of the fatherless. " It was depressing,
discouraging. But soon his brain cleared ; he walked resolute
ly back to the church and took a seat on the last bench in the
rear, observed by none. There he sat and heard a sermon on
backsliding that seemed to be directed at him alone.
In the Christian Church it is the unfailing custom, at the
close of the service, to offer an invitation to all repentant sin
ners to come forward and take a place on the front seat while
the congregation sings a hymn. It is a goodly custom. When
the usual invitation was given, up rose a tall, blonde, and
blue-eyed young man with a square jaw — the young Ken
tucky lawyer who, according to The Riverside Press, had
"settled in our midst. " He stalked straight to that front
bench and sat resolutely down, the only repentant sinner to
make the good confession. The pastor was nonplussed; the
presiding elder gasped. The book containing the rules of the
church was hastily consulted ; there was only one thing to do,
a repentant sinner could not be turned away, so Clark went
back into the fold and there abideth to this day.
The practice of law in the town was very slim picking.
Clark saw an opportunity to become principal of the high
CHAMP CLAKK 117
school and seized it. Shortly thereafter he bought the most
important county newspaper of that day, and conducted it
for eleven months, selling it to a friend, but placing this
friend under contract to run only a strictly Democratic paper !
About this time Mr. Clark was married to Miss Genevieve
Bennett, of Callaway county, a stately young woman of fine
mind and attainments. She was graduated from Missouri
University at the early age of eighteen. Of their children,
little Champ and Ann Hamilton died early. Bennett and
Genevieve have just reached manhood and womanhood.
During these first few years in Pike county, Mr. Clark was
elected City Attorney, appointed Deputy Prosecuting Attor
ney for the county, then elected Prosecuting Attorney and
Presidential Elector. He was chosen vice-president of the
Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress which met in Den
ver, and was elected to the Missouri legislature, serving in
1889-90. There he showed himself to be a " progressive " be
fore that word came into use in a political sense. He was
the author of the Australian ballot law of Missouri and also
of the anti-trust statute of that State, which has proved to
be the most effective law of the kind on any statute book in
America. Under its provisions the Harvester Trust has very
recently been expelled from Missouri. In 1892 he was elected
to Congress to represent the Ninth Missouri district, which
seat he still holds. He was permanent chairman of the Demo
cratic National Convention at St. Louis in 1904 and chairman
of the committee which notified Judge Parker of his nomina
tion to the presidency. In December, 1908, he was chosen
his party's leader in the House of Representatives without a
dissenting voice. In 1909 this was repeated. Following this
came the long and bitter struggle against Cannonism in the
House, which Clark led in masterful fashion. The result is
known to everyone. His leadership brought about the great
victory of 1910, which gave the Democrats a large majority in
the House and elected Clark to the Speakership by the unan
imous vote of his party. He secured in the party councils a
state of peace which the Democracy had not known for many
years. He was the Great Pacificator of his party. No one
118 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
envied him the place he had won ; no one sought to take power
from him, for he pushed it away with his own hand. He
thought the attributes which had so long gone with the Speak-
ership were too great for any one man, even though that man
be himself. Those powers which he had snatched from the
hand of Cannon he returned to the people and their repre
sentatives. In his view such concentration of power in the
Speaker of the House as had been built up under Eepublican
rule was both unsafe and undemocratic.
In his address on taking the chair Speaker Clark said: "No
man is fit to be a law-giver for a great people who yields to
the demands and solicitations of the few having access to his
ear, but is forgetful of the vast multitude who may never hear
his voice or look into his face. ' '
In that speech Clark repeated all the promises made in
order to win the last election, and specifically promised their
fulfilment through legislation in the ensuing session. How
unique in politics!
The campaign for the presidential nomination of 1912 came
on while Clark was occupying the Speakership. His own
State had, in a convention called for another purpose, passed
a resolution endorsing the candidacy of Governor Folk, of
Missouri, for the presidency. So long as that condition ex
isted Clark would not enter the lists, but the people of Mis
souri wanted Clark, and grew so restive under the existing
situation that the matter finally came to a head when the
State Committee met and called a State Convention to settle
the question as to who was really Missouri's choice. Clark
carried 111 of the 114 counties in the State, thus securing
nearly all of the delegates in the State Convention. This was
on February 20th and the National Convention was but four
months away. It was a late start, funds for campaigning
were very scarce and Clark would not leave his post of duty
at Washington to tour the country in the interest of his can
didacy. In half the States he made no contest. Neverthe
less, he entered the Baltimore Convention far in the lead of
the nearest competitor and very soon secured a clear major
ity of votes over all his opponents, which should have entitled
CHAMP CLARK 119
him to the nomination. But in 1844, when Martin Van Buren
was a candidate for the presidency, some of the party leaders
put through a rule that required that the candidate receive
two-thirds of the votes of the Convention ; this was done solely
to prevent Van Buren 's nomination, because he was opposed to
the annexation of Texas. It served; he was defeated. That
rule has since been the rule of Democratic Conventions, but
had remained a dead letter for seventy-eight years until it was
invoked at Baltimore in 1912 to defeat Mr. Clark. For many
years it had been the custom, when a candidate reached a ma
jority vote, to withdraw the other candidates and give him the
nomination. In this case when Mr. Clark had reached the ma
jority William J. Bryan arose and charged an alliance between
the Clark candidacy and the " reactionaries. " There was no
foundation for the charge, as Mr. Bryan admitted in a signed
statement made a few months later, but it struck Clark down.
In that statement Mr. Bryan said :
"If my language at Baltimore created any impression that
I was charging Mr. Clark with being in sympathy with any
reactionary forces I am glad of the opportunity to correct any
such misrepresentation of my words or action. "
Mr. Clark maintained his majority on nine ballots, and led
the convention on twenty-nine ballots, but after the Bryan
speech his strength gradually waned and Mr. Wilson received
the nomination. If Mr. Bryan saw any unfitness in Mr.
Clark, it was of short life, for within a few hours he tendered
Mr. Clark, through Senator Stone, the vice-presidential nom
ination, which was refused.
The Speaker nevertheless entered the campaign and made
a vigorous fight for the election of Mr. Wilson. When the
newly elected president called the Sixty-third Congress in ex
traordinary session in the spring of 1913, Mr. Clark was
again the unanimous choice of his party for the Speakership.
In March, 1914, he led the spectacular fight against the repeal
of the law which gave to American coastwise vessels the free
use of the Panama canal.
In all his long career Mr. Clark has stood four-square to all
the winds that blew, and it is safe to say that when the day
120 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
comes for him finally to quit public life, he will carry with him
unimpaired that splendid mental integrity which has won him
the confidence of all good men, regardless of party affiliations.
To-day, in 1914, that time seems far in the future. The sup
port of the common people, whom he has so faithfully served,
and which enabled him to sweep all before him in the presi
dential primaries of 1912, is growing rather than diminishing.
The years of unremitting toil rest lightly on his broad shoul
ders and he is strong, vigorous and in perfect health — "his
eye is not dimmed nor his natural strength abated. ' '
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Biographical Congressional Directory.
Champ Clark. By John Hubert Greusel. Los Angeles.
Champ Clark. (Neale Pub. Co.) By W. L. Webb.
Five Famous Missourians. By Hollister and Norman. Kansas City.
Thirty Years in the Press Gallery. (C. T. Richardson.) By 0. C.
Stealey.
PERIODICALS
Champ Clark. North American Review 195 :721.
Champ Clark, of Pike County. By Frank P. Stockbridge. World's
Work 24:72.
Men We are Watching. Independent 64:802.
One of the Democratic Candidates. Independent 72 :1336.
Speaker Champ Clark. By Colonel John Temple Graves. Inde
pendent 71:959.
Views of Champ Clark. By John A. Lathrop. Outlook 101 :65.
FEANCIS E. CLARK
BY CHAKLES EUGENE UNDERWOOD
FATHER ENDEAVOR CLARK all Christendom knows
and loves as the founder of the Young People's Soci
ety of Christian Endeavor. The orphan boy, Francis
Edward Symmes, assumed the surname of his uncle and fos
ter father, Rev. E. W. Clark. "Father Endeavor" consti
tutes an honorary degree conferred upon him by the young
people who for more than a quarter of a century have ac
cepted his fatherly counsel, and followed his spiritual leader
ship.
The future founder of the Young People 's Society of Chris
tian Endeavor was born at Aylmer, Province of Quebec, on
September 12, 1851. His parents had migrated thither from
New England. Orphaned at eight years of age, Francis en
tered the home of his uncle, Rev. E. W. Clark. His New Eng
land inheritance, the inspiration of Christian associations, the
atmosphere of a Christian home, and the influence and encour
agement of his uncle, all conspired to make him a Christian
minister. He prepared for his chosen career at Dartmouth
college and Andover seminary.
Upon graduation Dr. Clark entered upon a modest mission
pastorate in the Williston Congregational church at Portland,
Maine. By earnest, capable effort he built the mission church
into a strong, self-supporting, aggressive organization. In 1883
he removed to Boston, where he served the Phillips Congrega
tional church for four years. Closing his pastorate at this
church in 1887 he became actively engaged in directing the
Young People's Societies of Christian Endeavor. Henceforth
the biography of the man is merged in the history of the move
ment.
In the Williston church at Portland, Maine, on February 2,
1881, he organized the first Society of Christian Endeavor.
He had found his young people interesting and inter
ested, but with no clear lines of Christian work to awaken
122 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
their enthusiastic support of the church, and enlist their
hearty service. After twenty-five years he wrote of his ex
perience, as follows : x
"Its founder was one of the youngest and humblest pastors
in the state of Maine, and its charter members were average
boys and girls such as can be found in any New England
church. The pastor was feeling about, in his youth and inex
perience, for some way of training these boys and girls in
Christian service, if haply he might find it. He tried many ex
periments, ran up many blind alleys, knocked at many closed
doors ; made many experiments along literary, musical and de
bating society lines; did not despise the seductive ice cream
festival or the succulent oyster as a means of interesting the
youth in things religious ; but at last made the discovery that
nothing but religion really appealed to the religious nature of
young people ; that a prayer meeting could be made more in
teresting than a debating society, and that what young men
and women really desired, though they did not always know
it themselves, was to do something for the church rather than
have the church do something for them.
"As soon as he discovered for himself this old truth, which
doubtless every wise man had discovered before him, he set to
work on new lines, made the prayer meeting, and not the pink
tea, the central feature of the Society, and service, not enter
tainment its watchword. ' '
As Dr. Clark intimates, he discovered not a new truth, but
an old one, which he applied to the practical problem of young
people 's service. At the time he organized the new society he
did not dream of the great growth before the Christian En
deavor movement. He had grappled with the problem in his
own congregation and found a solution. Others having the
same problem gladly welcomed the efficient Society of Chris
tian Endeavor into their church life. In a certain sense Dr.
Clark interpreted the religious life of his own age, rather than
turned its current into new channels. He saw this clearly, for
he writes:
"The desire for a larger and more fruitful work among
young people was felt everywhere. Pastors and people were
thinking and talking and praying about this perennial sub
ject — 'How shall we attract and hold our young people ?'
i A Quarter Century of Christian Endeavor. Outlook 82 : 80-86.
FRANCIS E. CLARK 125
The subject was in solution, as it were, the world over ; and the
experiment at Williston church, of Feb. 2, 1881, simply gave it
shape. ' '
If "the subject were in solution the world over," tremen
dous transitional forces should be discovered preparing for
the movement. A search uncovers many factors. The educa
tional world had begun its evolution from supreme emphasis
on the subject matter in education to greater emphasis on the
unfolding life of the child. It was destined soon to consider
the boy not a man in embryo, but a living being with his own
laws of development. For future manhood he should be
trained, not by manhood's lore alone, but by encouragement of
the fullest expression of his normal boyhood life. In that ex
pression he should develop physical, mental, and spiritual
powers that would bring him normally to maturity. New edu
cational ideals stirred the church, and awakened it to the con
viction that it had neglected the stimulation of children's
normal religious growth into church activities. Through evan
gelism it had sought the conquest of the unchurched adult,
while it had neglected the riper field of Christian education.
True the church had for decades felt its way toward educa
tional methods. The religious world had conducted success
fully the Sunday School movement, which even in its imma
turity was a powerful educative force. As the Christian world
realized the great need for educational work within the
church, an abundant literature crystallized the sentiment for
more efficient service to youth and by youth. Thoughtful men
read this literature, clarified their own views, and set in mo
tion the forces that wrought tremendous changes. Dr. Clark
refers appreciatingly to one literary production which influ
enced him profoundly in those initial years of the Christian
Endeavor movement :
"The most fruitful book of recent times relating to Chris
tian nurture is doubtless Bushnell's great little volume with
that title. It turned the thought of the modern Christian
world to this subject, and compelled the church to acknowledge
that there must be growth within as well as conquest from
without if she was to hold her rightful possessions as well as
to extend her boundaries.
126 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
i ' The writer acknowledges with profound gratitude his debt
to this book, which he read with eager interest, and whose
great thought of winning and holding the youth for the church
he sought to embody in the first Society of Christian En
deavor. ' '
One may perhaps say that the age produced the Society
of Christian Endeavor, but is it not true that Francis
Edward Clark made to the movement a unique individ
ual contribution? Is it not true that the world's lead
ers always merely interpret their times and help other men to
achieve great things? They do not fight the world's battles,
nor solve the world's problems alone. Napoleon had his Mar
shal Ney, his Old Guard, his corps of efficient officers, his regi
ments of trained, enthusiastic soldiers. Behind him he had the
vivacity of the French people, stirred to new ambitions
through the new liberty ushered in by the terrible French
Eevolution. Napoleon became the embodiment of conquering
instinct, the interpreter of the glory of combat. Washington
was the interpreter of a new freedom, the herald of the mod
ern republic; the inheritor of centuries of colonial develop
ment toward freedom and self-government, yet the command
ing figure of the American Eevolution and of the early days
of republican experiment. Edison interprets the electrical
age, and Burbank the age of agricultural advancement. Thus
Francis E. Clark, though he modestly credits his forerunners
and contemporaries and the great currents of thought within
and without the church, with the creation of the Society of
Christian Endeavor, interpreted more perfectly than any other
man or men the young people's movement, and stands forth
the commanding figure at the head of this tremendous force.
He is "Father Endeavor Clark." He is the genius, the per
sonification, of Christian Endeavor.
Old and young united in the promotion of the movement
which Dr. Clark had organized, because all believed in its fun
damental principles. The closing year of the first quarter
century of Christian Endeavor found 67,000 local societies,
fostered in 100 denominations, entrenched in 50 nations and
important colonies, and worshiping in 80 languages. Many
FRANCIS E. CLARK 127
detached societies were formed in schools, colleges, on battle
ships, in army regiments, and even in prisons. Eighty thou
sand societies now enroll 4,000,000 members. This marvelous
growth to interdenominational and international proportions
marks Christian Endeavor a movement in harmony with the
best religious convictions of the age, and its founder a prophet
of present day religion.
Dr. Clark presents the foundation principles of the move
ment as follows : 2
" First — Deep religious devotion. There is no such com
pelling and attractive power as this. 'For Christ and the
church' has always been the motto of the society.
"Second — Service for all and all for service. 'No impres
sion without expression,' the latest word of the psychologist,
relating to adolescent youth, has been practically wrought out
in Christian Endeavor methods.
' ' Third — Fellowship with Fidelity. ' Brotherhood with all,
loyalty to one's own;' these are the watchwords which are
heard in Christian Endeavor circles all over the world, and
which incarnated in deed have given the society its power."
In furtherance of the first aim the Christian Endeavorer
pledged himself to pray and read the Bible every day. These
practices developed young people of sterling character de
voted to the highest ideals. Through them came the devo
tional spirit which swept the entire church into a reverent
study of the Scriptures. The religious world was ripe for this
development. It had passed through a period of doctrinal con
troversy and crystallization before the rise of the Christian
Endeavor. Now within the church correct doctrine became
less the goal, and more the means of reaching that goal —
life, warm, abounding life, with its intellectual achievements
and its emotional experiences. The message of the old He
brew prophets was a message of life, the same warm, abound
ing life ; and that message brought the soul, in its reach to the
higher self, into contemplation of God and communion with
Him. So in the awakening of the last quarter of the nine
teenth century the church sought closer communion with God.
By its devotional ideals and practices the Christian Endeavor
2 A Quarter Century of Christian Endeavor. Outlook 82: 80-86.
128 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
movement restored the conception of the fatherhood of God,
and gave expression to the longing of the whole church after
Him.
This enthusiastic religious devotion struck its roots into the
soil of a new intellectual life. The world thrilled with the
achievements of modern science, and rejoiced in unparalleled
material prosperity. Old foundations crumbled, and apparent
ly impregnable superstructures of intellectual convictions tot
tered. The first results were disastrous. Crass materialism
gained the ascendency. Intellectual subserviency threatened
to plunge the world into intellectual barbarism. Realities be
came identified with coal and wood, and iron and steel, and
cotton and wool, and food and drink. The intellect grew vig
orous on the earth level, but its wings were clipped. The very
exigencies of science, however, sent the intellect circling the
heavens in search of the unknown. Psychology entered the
field with demonstrations of the existence of realms beyond
the material. Philosophy followed its lead, and with Bergson
and Eucken developed a conception of knowledge reaching into
the consideration of the infinite. Sociology inquired into the
origin, development and fundamental principles of modern
society, and stimulated kindliness in human relationships.
Pedagogy, with its emphasis upon child development, discov
ered that moral fibre was essential to character, and that only
religion creates moral fibre.
The spiritual awakening within the church kept pace with
this spiritualization of civilization, each movement supple
menting and influencing the other. Nay, rather they consti
tute one great, unified, forward movement of the race. With
this more comprehensive view of the movements of the time,
one becomes aware, without argument, of the harmony of
Christian Endeavor with church and world development. That
harmony again marks the prophetic character of the move
ment.
Service is the second watchword of Christian Endeavor.
By its devotional culture the movement gave to the church
young people a profound impression, a boundless enthusiasm
for larger achievement. From other sources — the Sunday
FRANCIS E. CLARK 129
School, the public worship, the mid-week service — the young
people deepened that impression. At once they sought the
expression of their ideals in practical service.
The Christian Endeavor prayer meeting gave opportunity
for expressing and deepening the devotional spirit until it
sought new outlet in larger service. It has strengthened the
hands of student volunteers; it has contributed money to the
support of missions ; it has invested its own tremendous influ
ence and enthusiasm in the mission field ; it has organized its
societies in every mission land. Bolenge, in the heart of Af
rica, claims the world's largest Christian Endeavor Society.
Christian Endeavor has grappled with the problem of mis
sions in the home land, and sought especially to solve those
presented by the religious conditions in our large cities.
Christian Endeavor has quickened the civic conscience. It
has trained young men and women into higher ideals of busi
ness, society, and government. Local unions have conducted
successful campaigns for social and municipal betterment.
Everywhere the ideals of social service find ready intellectual
and practical response in Endeavor circles.
Internationally the Society moves forward in a program for
world peace. Despite many lapses into barbarism the na
tions have permitted the seed sowing and will in time reap the
harvest of international justice and world federation.
Throughout its history it has stood uncompromisingly for
temperance. At the International Christian Endeavor con
vention, held at Los Angeles in 1913, the great multitude of
young people enthusiastically launched the campaign for a
saloonless American nation by 1920. The motto, "Service
for all and all for service, " has ever inspired the Endeavor
hosts.
This devotional awakening and this unselfish service accom
panied fellowship and fidelity. Intense loyalty to the local
church, and to the denomination, characterizes the movement.
Yet no narrow sectarianism shackles it. With the vision of
the prophet it sees the fatherhood of God issue in the brother
hood of man. With representation in one hundred denomina
tions it carries its cooperative work across denominational
130 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
lines. Its fellowship grows stronger with its growth among
the nations. Wherever its influence reaches it purifies the at
mosphere until all who feel its near approach breathe the
spirit of fellowship. Dr. Clark relates an incident typical in
its illustration of this influence for Christian fellowship and
universal brotherhood :
"The late Joseph Parker voiced this idea in his own pic
turesque way at the World's Christian Endeavor convention
in London in 1900. On the same platform in the Alexandra
palace were the Bishop of London, Hugh Price Hughes, Dr.
Greenough representing the Baptists, and Dr. Munroe Gibson
the Presbyterians ; while Dr. Floyd Tompkins, Dr. Maltbie D.
Babcock, and other well known Americans added distinction
to the platform.
"Each speaker was supposed to represent his own denom
ination, and Dr. Parker was naturally expected to speak for
Congregationalism.
"It was a frightfully hot day; the sun beat down with re
lentless force upon the great glass roof. Dr. Parker perspired
at every pore, and the water seemed to drip from every in
dividual hair of his shaggy locks. In his thunderous tones
he remarked after a few preliminary words, 'Mr. Chairman,
I wouldn't be wet through for any ism in the world, but I will
sweat anywhere for the cause of fellowship and brotherhood
as represented in this splendid assembly.'
In this three-fold statement of religious principles — "Deep
religious devotion," "Service for all and all for service,"
"Fellowship with fidelity" — is sounded the keynote of pres
ent day religion.
Francis E. Clark was the founder of Christian Endeavor,
and throughout its entire history he has directed its fortunes.
He was president of the United Society of Christian En
deavor; he has kept pace with the successive enlargement
of the work, and is now president of the World's Christian
Endeavor Union. Five times he has circled the globe in
its interests, and Christian people of all states and lands listen
eagerly to his message. Dr. Clark is a prolific writer. In
addition to his work as editor of the Christian Endeavor
World he has written books of travel, of devotion and of prac
tical Endeavor methods.
FEANCIS E. CLAEK 131
Whatever the future may reveal for the organization, Chris
tian Endeavor must in its impress on the world's religious
life stand as the permanent expansion of the life and ideals
of one man — Francis Edward Clark. The fruitage of his
life one sees in the Society. We seem as we read that record
of achievement to lose all sense of individuality in the consid
eration of a great movement. Yet Francis E. Clark has a
striking personality. He has prodigious energy, and a kindly,
unselfish, earnest way of seeking the good of others. He has
the vision of the prophet, and the organizing ability of the
statesman. Added to these he retains the enthusiasm of
youth. Such qualities insure success in any great unselfish
labor of love.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Hastings Dictionary of Religion and Ethics.
Training the Church of the Future. By Francis E. Clark.
World Wide Endeavor. By Francis E. Clark.
PERIODICALS
Christian Endeavor Society in Mission Lands. By Francis E. Clark.
Missionary Review 32 :840.
How Goes the Battle? Missionary Review 33 :832.
Many-sided Missionary. Independent 61 :981.
Quarter Century of Christian Endeavor. By Francis E. Clark. Out
look 82 :80.
Society of Christian Endeavor. Century 82 :852.
EUSSELL H. CONWELL
BY LAURA H. CAENELL
I WILL lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh
my help." Ever the mountain streams pour fertility
over the broad-stretching valleys; ever the hill people
come down to people the plain. The best parts of our own
great plains were peopled from the hills of New England
in the middle of the last century and still to-day we go back
to these hills for rest and fresh inspiration.
In the year 1843, in the same month that gave this country
a Washington and a Lincoln, a child was born among the hill
tops of western Massachusetts. The soil could barely support
the little family to which it came, yet it gave rich gifts to the
baby : the splendid physique of the mountain born, a voice as
clear as the mountain brooks and as far reaching as the jecho
that springs from the circling hills that surrounded the home
of his childhood. A Puritan ancestry with a more cavalierly
strain from a paternal ancestor gave the faculty to dream
dreams and see visions.
In the village of the birth-place of this child was a Meth
odist church, the only church of the village. The time of
which I write was long before all the great preachers were
corralled in the big cities, and while splendid brave men still
drove over the hills on long circuits carrying the very best
they had to give to the humblest hamlets. To this little ham
let of South Worthington came one of these preachers, mak
ing it for a time his home. He lived on the very next farm
to our child of promise. This preacher seems to have had in
his head, or more likely in his heart, the germ thought of our
modern institutional church although he lived and died with
out ever having heard of such a thing. He knew the boy on
the next farm. Most of the boy's other neighbors were not
quite so sure he was a child of promise, or rather the things
they predicted for his future were not always complimentary.
He was continually doing something to surprise them out of
( '(. iirti-Nii /•'. (i iitikii nut, Philadelphia
EUSSELL H. CONWELL 135
their ordinary calm serenity. His father's pew bore for
half a century the marks of his restless activity during an
overlong sermon. These artistic efforts were rewarded, it
is true, with a spanking, but this did not destroy the morn
ing's achievement.
The formal education of this child began at three years of
age when he was sent trudging by the side of his older brother
a mile away across the narrow valley to a little schoolhouse
perched on an opposite hill. But his real education began
when the wise Methodist preacher, who understood boy na
ture and its need of right outlets for expression, gathered in
his kitchen by the great open fire, this boy, his own boy, after
wards a learned professor in two of our greatest colleges, and
several other boys of the village, for a class in oratory. The
village church seems to have been the social center where the
results of the fireside class were tried out on public audiences.
We hear of this boy of the hills speaking a piece in the village
church as early as seven years of age.
About this time spiritualism was sweeping over New Eng
land, even reaching into these hill towns where it still lingers
in the more isolated districts. The whole community in which
he lived was deeply affected by it, and we hear of the child
being used as a medium while still very young. The impres
sions made upon an imaginative child at the most receptive
period could never be obliterated. While extreme reaction
necessarily follows any such over-stimulation, there were seed
thoughts planted that all the after experiences of a varied
life could not obliterate. The spirit world, for which this life
is only a preparation and from which we are separated only
for so short a period of time, was so real a thing to him that
from earliest youth he felt the vital importance of an educa
tion as a preparation for big living here and as a preparation
for better living in the great spirit world to which we are so
soon going. So even back in these early days we see the boy
the true father of the man. We find very early the embryo
orator and the embryo teacher.
As soon as the boy could hold the reins over the back of the
staid old farm horses of his father, he was sent to the larger
136 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
village of Huntington nine miles away to carry down the
products of the hills or to bring back merchandise for his
father's store, for in connection with their farm the father
also was the village storekeeper. The road from South
Worthington to Huntington winds down the mountain by the
side of a brook which makes its descent over sharp declivities,
around huge boulders, through quiet pools where even now
the deer come down to drink, and ever under overarching
trees, until the brook meets the river half way down, and the
road continues along the banks of the beautiful shallow West-
field until it flows through the town of Huntington. On one
of these early journeys in the solitude of the woods, the boy
was rehearsing an oration. The old horse was jogging along
half asleep. He was used to these rehearsals but suddenly he
heard "Woe unto thee, Chorazin!" He did not know before
he was a Chorazin, but he had been called all sorts of things ;
so an extra name or two did not matter. He did know what
whoa meant; and his sudden stop brought true woe for the
youthful orator, who went headlong over the dashboard, land
ing on a sharp stone. The mark of this oration he still
carries. Now the youthful orator, who had a theatrical bee
humming in his head, had to go home, have his head sewed
up, and, what was far worse, own up in the village store what
had happened. Village stores are good places for curing
oversensitive nerves. This experience put an end to his the
atrical ambitions and taught him a lesson in effective speech.
The boy had learned to play a violin, or, as it was better
known in his community, a fiddle. He loved to sing, and when
the first melodeons were sold in these hills, his parents, at
considerable sacrifice to themselves, bought one. He learned
to play. He could not foresee what this gift was going to
mean to him again and again in later years.
The boy felt that he must go to college, as he had decided
to be a lawyer ; so from the village school he went some miles
away to Wilbraham Academy, a well-known academy of the
Methodist church. He could wrork his way through, partly
by fiddling for village dances, partly by teaching music, and
partly by even humbler services. At Wilbraham his interest
EUSSELL H. CONWELL 137
in public speech was further strengthened, as the Academy
made much of oratory. Even to the present time it excels in
strong debating societies. From Wilbraham he and his only
brother went to Yale, two mountain boys in mountain garb
with no money in their pockets. Keenly sensitive to their
lack of material things, the two boys settled down to earn
their living and get their college education. By giving les
sons on the organ, he earned part of the expenses, while as
sistance rendered to one of the cooks of the hotel secured the
rest.
Those were interesting days at Yale. The young man's
autograph album is the witness. Every signer declared his
political or religious platform, and abolitionist, pro-slavery,
anti-slavery, free-thinker, or atheist written after the name
announced his creed. There was plenty of opportunity for
oratory now. John Brown was hanged. This young man's
home had been a station on the "Underground Railway" and
John Brown had been his father's friend and had often been
a guest in their home. Fort Sumter was fired upon — more
occasion for oratory. The call for volunteers came. All
through the long summer the boy, for he was still a boy in
years, gathered around him the young men of the surround
ing farms, drilling them into a company. When they offered
their services the young captain was under the age set for
officers; so a special petition was sent to the governor that
this company should go out from the hills under Captain Con-
well, aged twenty. This petition was granted, and our boy
captain went forth to learn what lessons war has to give.
The college boy had been reading the philosophy and sci
ence of the middle nineteenth century. Of course, he thought
he did not believe in anything, as that was the fashion of col
lege boys just at that time, when the wonderful discoveries of
science of those years had not yet brought order out of the
chaos which they had at first created. In the company of the
young captain was a drummer boy who did believe that his
Bible showed God's dealings with men and who read it faith
fully even though his young captain, whom he adored, teased
him for doing so. One night there was an attack on the camp
138 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
and the beloved captain's sword had been left in the tent.
At the cost of his own life the boy went back to get the sword ;
and the young captain was made to realize that the boy had
something from the Book that all his philosophy could not
give. From this night he dates his conversion and the birth
of the future preacher.
During all the many months in camp and in the long jour
ney with Sherman to Atlanta, the young captain did not lose
sight of the time when the war would be ended and he should
go back once more to the ways of peace. By the camp fire he
read law. In his knapsack could generally be found a volume
in small print of some one of the great poets of the day.
Many of the long quotations of the great poets that roll from
his lips today were learned in sight of opposing armies.
Just before going to the army the neighboring town of
Westfield had invited the young man, who had made quite a
name for himself as an orator in his own community, to give
a lecture. This was the day of great lecturers, and it was one
of the boy's ambitions to be a lecturer like Wendell Phillips
or Henry Ward Beecher. When the town of Westfield heard
this first lecture of one of the boys from their own hills, they
little realized that this boy to whom they were giving his first
chance to make good, was to become the greatest lecturer of
his age and one who would lecture to more audiences than any
other man of his century.
At the close of the war the young man soon did what a
young man should. He married. Soon he became a news
paper reporter. Later he graduated from the Albany Law
School, and, as it was the fashion for New Englanders to go
west, he went to Minneapolis, opened his law office there,
founding its first newspaper and its Young Men's Christian
Association. Here we see his first effort to make it possible
for young men to get some assistance toward an education, an
idea that could not see its full fruition for many years. Later
he was sent to Germany as an emigration agent for Minne
sota. Again, a year or two later, he made a tour of the
world. These years abroad, with his keenly alert mind, filled
his brain with images and scenes that were to be given back
EUSSELL H. CONWELL 139
in later and busier years to vast audiences "to point a moral
or adorn a tale." His journeys abroad were made self-sup
porting by the articles sent home to the Boston Traveller and
the New York Tribune.
After these journeys he opened a law office in Somerville,
Massachusetts, and later in Boston. His lecture work, which
had never been entirely laid aside, was now taken up more ex
tensively. One of these earliest lectures was entitled Les
sons of Travel. About this time the lecture Acres of Dia
monds that has been given five thousand times to greater
numbers of people than any other single lecture that has ever
been placed before the public was evolved. While traveling
in the Orient he heard many of the wonderful tales of the East,
but the tales of the East always have a moral. Two of these
tales gave him the themes for his two greatest lectures, Acres
of Diamonds, and The Silver Crown. After fifty years Acres
of Diamonds is still given on Doctor Conwell 's lecture tours
four times out of five.
While Dr. Conwell was conducting a successful law business
in Boston and was lecturing up and down the country, he or
ganized a young men's Bible class in Tremont Temple and
made many speeches for the temperance cause. In connec
tion with his Bible class he organized a Young Men's Con
gress modeled on the lines of the United States Congress,
where all the leading questions of the day were debated.
About this time he also began to write books: Why and
How the Chinese Emigrate, The Lives of our Presidents, The
Life of James G. Elaine, The Life of Bayard Taylor, a friend
and fellow traveler, and a number of others. It was in con
nection with the Young Men's Congress that Dr. Conwell per
suaded Mr. Longfellow to write one of the sweetest of his
elegiac poems, the one to Bayard Taylor.
"Dead he lay among his books;
The peace of God was in his looks."
At the great mass meeting held in Tremont Temple by the
Young Men's Congress and presided over by Dr. Conwell,
Oliver Wendell Holmes read this poem.
140 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
In all the interests and activities of these years it was nat
ural that the man with the gift of the golden tongue should
be attracted to the possibilities of the political life, and we
hear of him about this time being offered the nomination to
the senatorship from his native State. He had stumped his
State for General Butler and knew that every honor in the
gift of his country might be his for the seeking.
Victor Hugo, in his autobiography, has said he ever felt two
natures struggling within him. So with Dr. Conwell, he felt
strongly the call to the political life and all that it might hope
to bring, but ever in the background was the persisting idea
that he must give this all up to take up another life that could
promise but little in the way of earthly reward. In battle-
famed Lexington a little Baptist church stood closed and pas-
torless. So our lawyer, orator, and politician decided to
preach to these people on Sundays, crowding in a theological
course at Newton Theological Seminary between times. In a
year the old church had disappeared, a new one had taken its
place, and the audience of a dozen people had given place to
one that crowded the new building to its doors ; and now the
real life work of our mountain boy is about to begin. Forty
years have gone by since he first cried out by the fireside in
the New England hills. He has been very busy and has ac
complished many things, but like Kipling's Ship That Found
Herself, it has been an initial voyage trying out all the parts
that are now ready to work together as a perfect whole.
A man in Massachusetts wrote to a man in Philadelphia
that they had a very remarkable preacher in a small, even
though famous, village ; that their preacher earned his living
practicing law. The man down in Philadelphia was a deacon
of a young church that had just placed the roof on a fine new
building. It was not finished inside, neither was it paid for.
Now the man in Philadelphia thought the young lawyer who
had helped to pull down an old church with his own hands
and had helped to build the new one while he lectured, studied
theology and practiced law between times, was just the kind of
a man they needed in Philadelphia. He was a close-mouthed,
stubborn old deacon, a very successful man himself, so he
EUSSELL H. CONWELL 141
said nothing to anyone. He put on his hat, slipped up to Bos
ton, went out to Lexington and heard the young man preach.
After the young man was through, the stranger took him off
into a corner and told him he was needed in Philadelphia. Be
fore the deacon got through with him, the young man made
up his mind that perhaps he was needed in Philadelphia.
Now to pick up a wife and three children, leave all one's
friends and a good living at forty, to begin all over again in
a conservative old city like Philadelphia, this meant more than
he could possibly realize. Fortunately, his only knowledge
of Philadelphia had been gained in war times when he had
been kindly ministered unto when he had been brought to
Philadelphia sick and wounded. Li Hung Chang calls Phila
delphia the City of a Million Smiles. It is, but it smiles
rather shyly upon strangers who come to it unknown, and
looks rather askance at anything that startles it out of its
usual routine. The preacher who had come to one of its up
town, unfinished Baptist churches was destined to startle it
many times.
After his first sermon, the deacons saw that they would
have to hurry up the finishing of the upper room. It was
hardly finished before they were just as badly off. The city
at that time had not grown nervous about its exits from pub
lic buildings, so the ushers filled the seats, let the people stand
around the walls, fill the aisles, and stand on the stairways
half way down. The stream of oratory poured forth, but this
alone would not have been sufficient. Young men and women
were identifying themselves permanently with the church.
They must be given something to do. Young men's associa
tions, young women's associations, a Young Men's Congress
were formed. The church building hummed with activity
every day of the week.
But as the young people worked they found their limita
tions. Missions were formed. The young people were sent
out to take charge of them. There were religious services
within the church which they must lead, but they felt they
needed to know how to do it better. All turned to the leader
for direction and for help. They might have to wait a long
142 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
time for their turn, but each one was met with as much sym
pathy and interest after a long day of seeing all sorts and
conditions of men with all sorts and conditions of need as if
he had been the only one seen that day. He makes this one
of the fundamental principles of successful living: doing the
thing in hand as if it were the most important thing in life.
One of the first to come for advice as to how to fit himself
better for the part he was taking in this great work that was
so rapidly developing, was a young man, the oldest son of a
minister's widow, who was helping to support her and her
three younger children. He felt the need of more education.
Ultimately he desired to follow in his father's footsteps and
be a minister. He told his pastor there were other young
men in the church who felt the same way. There were no
schools of any kind in Philadelphia at that time where young
men or women could get any courses of study outside of the
regular school hours except a very few disorderly night
schools where only the most elementary instruction was given.
The busy preacher, who was also still lecturing to help raise
funds for the rapidly developing work, offered to meet the
young men for one class on Saturday evenings. This first
class was a class in oratory. The night this first group met
in December, 1884, in the tiny study of their pastor, no one
dreamed, unless it was the pastor himself, who often saw
visions long before they were revealed to others, that that
night a great university was being founded. The foundation
course was oratory.
This first class has nobly repaid its first teacher by the
splendid work nearly every member of it has since done in the
world. Very soon both teacher and scholars realized that in
order to be successful orators these young people needed more
than instruction in oratory, and so to make them better ora
tors classes were formed in English, in literature, in history,
with volunteer teachers at first. As the demand for more and
more classes increased, paid teachers had to be secured. At
first the classes were free, but soon to help defray the ex
penses and to eliminate the unstable element that is ever
ready to try any new experiment a small fee was charged.
EUSSELL H. CONWELL 143
A house next door to the church had been purchased to re
lieve the congestion, but already the realization was forcing
itself upon the church that they must build a larger building.
All the energies of the church were brought together to
start the work of securing funds to buy a new site. A large
lot was bought on North Broad Street, and the Baptist Tem
ple was begun. As this was planned to be the largest church
in America, even the Quaker City was startled out of its com
placency and predicted complete failure for the enterprise.
In the midst of this strenuous period of temple building the
educational classes had so increased in number that the
founder, realizing the tremendous need of this work in Phila
delphia, decided to apply to the state for a non-sectarian
charter, that the entire city regardless of religious affiliations
might enjoy the benefits of the new college that had sprung
up in their midst. In 1888 Temple College was chartered as
a non-sectarian college for working people; but the work it
was doing soon became so well known that day classes were
demanded and the day departments were opened. Shortly
after the new Temple was opened the old church at Marvine
and Berks Street was sold and Temple College moved into
rented quarters.
There was a lot to the south of the Temple for sale, but as
the church was still staggering under the load of its great
building enterprises, and the young College had not enough
funds of its own, Dr. Conwell himself bought the lot, holding
it for a year or two until the College was able to erect its first
building. With its occupancy of its own buildings, its career
as an entirely independent organization began. The demand
for more and more courses was constantly made upon it. The
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Teachers ' College
with its many vocational courses, the Theological School, the
Law School, the Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, and Phar
macy took concrete shape. Buildings have been added and
in the year 1907, the courts changed the name from Temple
College to Temple University. Between three and four thou
sand students register annually and still the demands upon it
144 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
increase faster than it is possible to raise the money to meet
the ever-varying demands.
In the vision that came to the lawyer when he decided he
must lay down everything and listen to the insistent voice
within him that had been struggling to be heard, there were
three distinct obligations laid upon him : to preach the gospel,
to give instruction to him who could not otherwise procure it
for himself, and to heal the sick. He did not need to seek
these obligations ; each in its turn presented itself before him
in such manner that it was inevitable that he, being the man
ner of man he was, should take it up.
Soon after the Temple was finished and while the Univer
sity was still erecting its first building, a small hospital in the
northern part of the city had been compelled to close its doors
for lack of funds. An appeal was made to Dr. Conwell, who
called together a number of friends whose interest might be
secured. They decided to reopen the little hospital with one
ward and one nurse in a private house. The hospital was
christened the Samaritan. Today it occupies half of a city
square, with a training school of sixty nurses and a hundred
and fifty beds, besides a large dispensary, an active social
service department, and all the other activities that charac
terize the best of modern hospitals. The Garretson Hospital,
a smaller hospital in the center of great industrial plants, is
also a part of the University work. The Samaritan Hospital
as now constituted is also a part of the University, being
under the same government. Dr. Conwell is the pastor of
the Baptist Temple and president of the board of trustees of
Temple University and its hospitals, but the latter are en
tirely independent of the church, having a board of trustees
of their own selected from the alumni and friends of the Uni
versity. For some years now both the University and its hos
pitals have been receiving State aid, which has materially re
lieved the strain upon Dr. Conwell.
Through all these exacting years President Conwell has
continued lecturing, averaging three or four lectures a week.
These lecture tours have taken him all over the United States
and brought him in contact with all the great men of his age.
RUSSELL H. CONWELL 145
But wherever he goes, whomever he meets, his first thought
has been, ' ' Can I get any idea that will further the great work
in Philadelphia f " Much of the proceeds of his lectures has
been given to the education of young people who could not
have obtained it without this help.
For a few weeks each year he goes back to the hills whence
he came to get fresh inspiration for his work. Many years
after he left it as a young man seeking his fortune he bought
back his old home and there seeks rest and fresh strength.
In view of the porches of the old home looms up the rocky
precipice on which stood the tree that held the eagle's nest
and which he tried to scale as a boy ; and every time he goes
up from the city to his home in the hills he passes the spot
where he delivered his first very effective oration. Still, at
heart he is above all other things the orator. From a sense
of duty, of obligation to his fellow men, and because the spirit
of the Lord compels him, he is preacher, founder of hospitals
and a university.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Life of Russell H. Conwell. By Albert H. Smith.
Man and His Work. By Agnes R. Burr.
Temple and Templars. By Robert J. Burdette.
PERIODICAL
How to Make a Church Pay. By R. H. ConweU. Independent 54 :730.
GEORGE DEWEY
BY Lois ELEANOR KINNEY
IN the latter half of the sixteenth century the French Hu
guenot family, Douai, came to Kent, England, seeking for
religious freedom. The same motive later sent the founder
of the American Dewey family to Dorchester, Massachusetts,
where he settled in 1634. This is the first that we hear of the
family of our famous American admiral.
George Dewey was born in the little town of Montpelier,
Vermont, December 26, 1837, the youngest of three brothers.
His boyhood days were spent in this beautiful New England
town among the Green Mountains, where his father, Dr. Julius
Yemans Dewey, had settled after finishing his medical course
at the University of Vermont. The death of his mother, when
he was five years of age, made his father's influence of the
greatest importance and of it he says, "To my father's influ
ence in my early training I owe, primarily, all that I have ac
complished in the world. 9 '
His early life was that of the boys in a small American
town, which Dewey considers "is about as healthy a life as a
growing boy can lead." A life of Hannibal early stirred his
love for soldiers and forts and in the winter he built snow
fortresses and entrenchments and proudly led forth his sol
diers to snowball battles. At the age of fourteen he was sent
to the Military Academy at Norwich, Vermont. There the
boys lived in dormitories, and had regular military drill.
While at this Academy he, with four others, was brought into
the Windsor County Court at Woodstock, Vermont, for break
ing up a religious meeting by singing negro melodies outside
the window of the room where the meeting was held. There
were no gymnasiums in those days where a boy could work off
his surplus energy, and continual study in a solemn manner
had awakened the spirit of mischief. After this somewhat
serious outbreak Dr. Dewey took his son from Norwich and
later in the year 1854 sent him to the Naval Academy at An-
Copyright by Clinedinst,
GEORGE DEWEY
GEORGE DEWEY 149
napolis. At that time appointments were due to political influ
ence rather than to competitive entrance examinations. An
other boy was first given the appointment but, when he decided
not to take it, it was given to Dewey. Dr. Dewey accom
panied his son to Annapolis and before starting for home said
to him: "George, I've done all I can for you. The rest you
must do for yourself." This advice Admiral Dewey says he
has always tried to keep in mind.
The four years' course was stiff, and of the sixty who en
tered in '54 only fifteen remained to graduate in '58. In his
autobiography he tells of his difficulty with history and geog
raphy which was counterbalanced, however, by his excel
lence in mathematics and his facility in learning French and
Spanish. When he was graduated he was fifth among the
fifteen. At Annapolis there was then no system of athletics
except the regular military drill, and the gymnastic equipment
was poor. There was little or no relaxation from discipline,
so outbreaks occurred which could not occur to-day. Every
midshipman had his nickname and Dewey 's was "Shang,"
though its origin he has forgotten. As was the habit of
acting midshipmen Dewey chewed tobacco but, when he found
that British and other foreign officers did not do it, he "be
came convinced that it was a filthy, vulgar habit in which no
officer or gentleman should indulge, and consequently gave up
all use of tobacco."
After graduation from the Naval Academy a two years' ex
perience in practical cruising was necessary before the com
missions were given. Dewey and three of his classmates were
assigned to the steam-frigate W abash which was the flagship
of the Mediterranean Squadron. The Wabash left Hampton
Roads July 22, 1858, and arrived at Gibraltar August 15.
About fourteen months were spent cruising from port to port,
at the most important of which they had glimpses of life ashore
and became familiar with the exchange of official calls between
nations. In October the Wabash was in the Bosphorus where
ships from every navy had gathered for the celebration of
Mohammed's birthday. His first acquaintance with the Orient
was, therefore, a memorably beautiful one. From the Bos-
150 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
phorus they sailed to Beirut, Syria, and later visited Jeru
salem and Alexandria. If he had had trouble learning ge
ography while in school, he was now getting a thorough knowl
edge at least of Mediterranean ports. The Wabask was in
Italian harbors when the war between Austria and Italy and
France was in progress and Dewey speaks especially of the
friendliness between the officers and crews of the English and
American vessels both of which were watching the war as
neutrals. The Wabash returned to the Brooklyn Navy Yard
December 16, 1859.
His next cruise was one to Caribbean and Gulf ports, his
first experience in tropic waters. On his return to the Naval
Academy in January, 1861, he took his final examination,
which brought him through the grades of passed midshipman
and master to that of lieutenant. In this examination he was
third in his class. As he had been the thirty-third at the end
of his first year at Annapolis it is quite evident that he had
been following his father's advice and was doing "the rest"
quite well.
Lieutenant Dewey 's first war experience was in the Civil
War. The navy was then at the beginning of the change which
was to revolutionize navy building: the wooden frigate was
giving way to the ironclad. The navy department of the gov
ernment was being reorganized. Gideon Welles, Secretary of
the Navy, and his assistant secretary, Gustavus Fox, found
that there was no retiring law for officers of the navy and con
sequently many of them were not fit for active service, yet
there was no way of supplanting them with younger, more able
men. In December, 1861, a law was passed retiring all officers
at the age of sixty-two, or after forty-five years of service.
Dewey was first assigned to duty on the side-wheeler Missis
sippi, a steam-frigate which was to blockade the Gulf. This
proved to be monotonous work until Farragut was given com
mand with the order to take New Orleans. By this time the
lieutenant had risen to the rank next to that of captain and had
become the executive officer of the Mississippi, though very
young for a position of such importance. The preparations for
GEORGE DEWEY 151
the coming attack on New Orleans kept the men busy from
early morning to late evening and Dewey tells how the captain
of the ship put a stop to the swearing which became rife when
some especially hard task was to be done. ' ' One day the cap
tain appeared on deck from his cabin, where he had been over
hearing the flow of sailor language. He looked as if he had
borne about all he could bear. He told me to have the crew
lay aft. I ordered them aft ; then he said, ' Hereafter, any offi
cer caught swearing will be put under suspension, and any
man caught swearing will be put in double irons. ' Having
delivered this ultimatum he returned to his cabin. There was
an end of swearing on the Mississippi from that minute. ' '
To get to New Orleans the heterogeneous fleet which Far-
ragut had gotten together had to pass Fort St. Philip and
Fort Jackson above which was an obstruction of chain-booms
and anchored hulks across the river. The chains of the ob
struction were finally broken and about midnight of the 23rd
of April the order was given for the fleet to move up the river.
The Mississippi was second in the first division and Captain
Smith gave Dewey the post of handling the ship, which was a
big responsibility for a man of twenty-four. The Confederate
ram Manassas caused the greatest excitement to the Missis
sippi during the passing of the forts. Its first attempt to ram
the Mississippi was almost successful. Dewey, however, had
seen it in time to partly turn his ship and the Manassas was
able to strike only a glancing blow. This tore a piece of
timber about seven feet long, four feet broad and four inches
deep from the side of the Mississippi but due to the solid con
struction of the vessel it was practically undamaged. Later in
the night Dewey had a chance to run down the Manassas but
her captain ran her ashore. It was then easy to turn the guns
of the Mississippi on the ram, wreck her, and send a boat to
set her on fire. The Mississippi then proceeded up the river
to join the fleet which had anchored about fifteen miles below
New Orleans. The next morning the fleet was off for New
Orleans, meeting only the slight opposition of the two bat
teries Chalmette and McGehee. The taking of New Orleans
152 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
was the biggest event of the war up to that time. The Mis
sissippi was stationed off that city for nearly a year after
wards as the guardship.
Early in the spring of 1863 plans were made for the taking
of Vicksburg and on March 14th the fleet started up the river.
There was a sharp bend in the river commanded by Confed
erate guns. The night was dark, misty, and soon smoke-
laden. Of the ships which preceded the Mississippi only that
of Farragut got past the Port Hudson forts, while the others
were forced to submit to a heavy fire. Each of the boats
had an experienced river pilot and when the pilot guiding the
Mississippi thought she was clear of the shoal point he ordered
full speed ahead. The ship was not past the point, so ran
aground and was unable to get clear. The enemy's guns were
turned full upon her, and finally one of the " hot-shots" (red-
hot round shot with wads of wet hay or hemp between the shot
and the powder to keep the powder from igniting) started a
fire in a storeroom filled with inflammable material. There
was no time to lose, the ship had to be abandoned. The whole
crew was sent off, the wounded first and the gunners last.
Captain Smith and Dewey were the last to leave the Missis
sippi after setting fire to her and cutting her outboard delivery
pipes. In his report Captain Smith highly commended Dewey.
He wrote, "I should be neglecting a most important duty
should I omit to mention the coolness of my executive officer,
Mr. George Dewey, and the steady, fearless, and gallant man
ner in which the officers and men of the Mississippi defended
her, and the orderly and quiet manner in which she was aban
doned." It should be noted that Dewey had trained this
efficient crew during the monotony of guarding New Orleans.
Dewey 's next duty was that of prize commissioner at New
Orleans. This was determining the ownership of cargo cap
tured on the blockade and, if he found it was legitimate prize,
selling it for the government.
The following summer Dewey became the executive officer
on the sloop Monongahela, stationed below Port Hudson. It
was on this ship that he had the closest call of his life. The
Monongahela was steaming up the river when a field battery
GEORGE DEWEY 153
hidden behind a levee began firing. One of the shells exploded
at the ship 's side, mortally wounding the captain of the ship
and slightly injuring Farragut's chief of staff who was on
board. It seemed marvelous that Dewey, who was standing
near these two, was not struck by some of the flying pieces. A
Jarge naval force was not necessary on the river after the
taking of Vicksburg, and Dewey was transferred to the Brook
lyn which was to report to Rear- Admiral Dahlgren at Charles
ton, South Carolina. From Charleston the Brooklyn was sent
to the New York Navy Yard to be overhauled and Dewey had
his first holiday since the beginning of the war. This he spent
at his home in Vermont.
On his return to service he was made executive officer of a
third-rate wooden, side-wheel steamer, the Agawam, on which
he remained until November, 1864. His next assignment made
him executive officer of the Colorado, one of the big steam
frigates which was in both attacks made on Fort Fisher. The
training of the Colorado's crew was a hard task for there were
some ruffians in it who were insubordinate. The first time
Dewey called for all hands some of the men remained below
because they thought it was too cold to get up. The executive
officer went among their hammocks and, whenever he found
one occupied, turned the occupant out. The next time he
called for all hands, every man appeared for they had learned
that the new executive officer had to be obeyed.
After the victory at Fort Fisher, Commodore Thatcher, who
had been in command of the Colorado, was promoted to rear-
admiral of the Gulf Squadron and wished Dewey to go as his
chief of staff. Again Dewey 's youth was against him, so
he was finally made executive officer of the Kearsarge, which
post he filled for nearly a year. He then became executive of
the Canandaigua. When the executive officer of the Colorado
was detached, Dewey was given the place by Rear-Admiral
Goldsborough, commander of the European Squadron, who
said to him, "Now is your chance! Take the Colorado and
make a man-of-war of her." Altogether, from 1862 to 1867,
George Dewey had been the executive officer of nine ships.
After the war was over the European Squadron was re-estab-
154 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
lished and for two years he cruised in European waters where
the squadron was regarded with more interest and respect
than before the war.
In September, 1867, he was detached and put in charge of
the fourth class of midshipmen at the Naval Academy. A
month later he was married to Susan Boardman Goodwin,
daughter of ex-Governor Goodwin, of New Hampshire. Here
they stayed for three years. There was much gaiety and
many social functions for there were several other young of
ficers and their brides at Annapolis.
Dewey received his first regular command on leaving the
Naval Academy, that of the Narragansett, a third class sloop.
Three months later he was transferred to the Supply which
was to take supplies for the relief of the French who had suf
fered in the siege of Paris. When he reached Havre he found
the wharves piled high with supplies, so he was instructed by
the relief committee to take his cargo to London for sale. On
his return, he spent a few months at the Boston Navy Yard,
then went to the Newport torpedo station where, on December
23, 1872, his son, George Goodwin Dewey, was born. Five
days later, occurred the death of Mrs. Dewey.
In the spring Dewey was again put in command of the Nar-
ragansett, which he joined at Panama Bay and on which he
spent the next two years, surveying Lower California and the
coast of Mexico as far as Cape Corrientes. While in the Gulf
of California there came word of the Vlrgmius affair which
seemed about to precipitate war between the United States
and Spain. He tells that he found the officers sitting about de
spondent, and, on asking the reason, was told that it was be
cause there was to be a war in which they would have no part.
His answer was, ' ' On the contrary, we shall be very much in
it. If war with Spain is declared, the Narragansett will take
Manila."
Always interested in the Philippine Islands, Dewey had read
about them and had seen their situation as a logical point of
attack; but it was not until twenty-five years later that he had
the privilege of taking this city. In the spring of 1875 he re-
GEORGE DEWEY 155
ceived orders detacking him from the Narragansett and re
turned to his home country.
After serving as lighthouse inspector for two years, he was
made secretary of the lighthouse board in April, 1878, with
his residence in Washington. Horseback riding was his fa
vorite form of exercise and he mentions the pleasant after
noon rides he had with the historian and former Secretary of
the Navy, Mr. Bancroft.
In October, 1882, Dewey left in command of the Juniata for
the station in China, going by way of the Mediterranean. Ill
ness overtook him, however, and he was compelled to leave the
ship at Malta and go to the British Naval Hospital. The next
two years he spent traveling from one place to another in
search of health, finding it at last in Santa Barbara, Cali
fornia. Here he received his promotion from commander to
captain, a rank which he held for twelve years. As captain of
the Pensacola, he sailed again in European waters and
visited European ports studying other navies. On his return
to the United States Captain Dewey was made chief of the
bureau of equipment and watched eagerly the building of the
new navy. Modest was the beginning of this navy, only a
small squadron of unarmored cruisers being put out at first.
In October, 1895, he was given the important position of
president of the board of inspection and survey. This board
inspected all the new battleships then being built — the Texas,
the Maine, the Iowa, the Indiana, and the Massachusetts —
and also several torpedo boats. Promotion from captain to
commodore was received May 23, 1896. This rank entitled
him to the command of a squadron as soon as there was a va
cancy. In the summer and fall of 1897 the question of a suc
cessor to Acting Rear-Admiral McNair, in command of the
Asiatic Squadron, arose. Commodore Dewey received orders
on October twenty-first, 1897, which detached him from duty
as president of the board of inspectors on the thirtieth of No
vember and directed him to sail on the seventh of December
for Japan. On January 3, 1898, Commodore Dewey took over
the command of the Asiatic Squadron and hoisted his pennant
on the Olympia.
156 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
Up to this time there had been only a few rumors that there
might be trouble in the Philippines, and little attention had
been given to these by the government. The new commander
of the Asiatic Squadron was sensitive to the situation in the
East. One of his first acts was to renew the custom, which
had come to be disregarded, that each new commander of the
Asiatic Squadron should ask for an audience with the Em
peror of Japan. The audience was granted and pleasant re
lations between the court and officials of Japan and the Asiatic
Squadron of the United States were established.
Then came the news of the Maine disaster on February 15th.
There was still hope that war with Spain could be averted, but
the European, South Atlantic and Asiatic Squadrons received
orders to assemble at expedient points. As the rumors of
trouble in the Philippines increased in number, Commodore
Dewey began making such preparation as was necessary be
fore war should be declared. Ammunition and coal were
cabled for and two vessels, which could be used as supply
ships, were bought from China. A base of supplies was estab
lished at one of the Chinese ports, China then being the only
nearby country which would be unable to keep a strict neu
trality.
The McCulloch, a revenue cutter, and the Baltimore, bring
ing a supply of ammunition, were added to the squadron about
the middle of April. All of the ships of the squadron were
painted war color and cleared for action, though war had not
as yet been declared. On the 24th and 25th of April the squad
ron left the harbor at Hong Kong and proceeded to Mirs Bay.
At noon of the 25th word came from Secretary Long that war
had been declared and the Asiatic Squadron was ordered to
commence operations against the Spanish fleet. Two days
later, April 27, the squadron started for Manila Bay, six hun
dred miles away.
Word had been received that the entrance to the bay had
been mined but Commodore Dewey reasoned that if the mines
were contact or electrical mines they would soon become in
effective in the tropical waters. Also the depth of the water
made the planting of mines, except by an expert, most difficult.
GEORGE DEWEY 157
Fearlessly, but not rashly, Dewey, on his flagship Olympia,
led the squadron to Manila Bay. They were to enter it during
the night, running past the batteries at the entrance under
cover of darkness. The batteries which might have done con
siderable damage to the squadron failed to open fire and it
slipped into the bay untouched. At 5 :05 three of the Manila
batteries opened fire but their shots passed over Dewey 's
ships. Daylight showed the Spanish fleet formed in front of
Cavite at the southern end of Manila Bay. The Olympia led
the way toward the Spanish vessels, which began firing hastily
and without taking accurate aim. Commodore Dewey had
considered the situation carefully and had decided that the
most telling work could be done by waiting until his squadron
was close enough to the Spanish ships to get them in effective
range, and then to fire on them as rapidly as possible with all
the guns. That this was a successful method was proved by
the results. About eight o'clock the outcome seemed certain
and the crews of our squadron, who had had only a cup of
coffee about four A. M., were given their breakfast while the
commanding officers reported on board the flagship. Up to
that time their reports showed that not a single life had been
lost nor any ship seriously damaged, though many shells
had been fired at them by the Spanish. The entry on the
night of May 1st in Commodore Dewey's diary reads thus:
' t Beached Manila at daylight. Immediately engaged the Span
ish ships and batteries at Cavite. Destroyed eight of the
former, including Reina Cristina and Castella. Anchored at
noon off Manila. ' '
The Spanish Squadron had been destroyed and the Ameri
can Squadron was in control of Manila Bay and could take the
city at any time.
The President gave Dewey the rank of acting rear-admiral,
the same rank that had been conferred on Captain Sampson
of the North Atlantic Squadron.
After the battle there was no chance for idleness. It was
necessary to establish and enforce a blockade. In connection
with the enforcement of the blockade came up the affair with
Vice-Admiral von Diedrichs. There was a misunderstanding
158 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
between von Diedrichs and Dewey as to the meaning of the
blockade and the duties of neutrals coming into a blockaded
harbor. Von Diedrichs failed at first to realize that his ves
sels had been allowed entrance into the bay only as a matter
of international courtesy and that they must satisfy block
ading vessels of their identity. With infinite care and tact
Rear-Admiral Dewey was able to settle the affair quietly and
without calling on the President in regard to the matter.
The taking of Manila was delayed until August 12 when the
ships were in readiness and the troops, which had arrived dur
ing the summer, under the command of General Merritt, were
prepared for a land attack. Negotiations had been going on
for some time between Dewey and the Spanish general, Jau-
denes, with M. Andre, the Belgian consul at Manila, as inter
mediary. It had been agreed that the American troops were
to rush into Fort San Antonio, that the flagship Olympia
should approach the city flying the signal "D. W. H. B." for
" Surrender, " and that on a certain place on the southwest
bastion of the city wall the white flag should be displayed by
the Spanish. There was to be no firing except at the first rush
of the American troops unless they were fired upon, which
they were not. The Spanish general saved his honor by a
formal show of resistance.
All was not easy even after the taking of Manila, for in the
rest of the Philippine Islands American authority had to be
established. The Philippine Commission, consisting of Jacob
Schurman, Charles Denby, Dean Worcester, General Otis, and
Admiral Dewey, was appointed on January 12, to develop a
system of civil administration in the islands. Admiral
Dewey 's faithfulness to duty was shown by the fact that he re
mained at Manila as long as he felt his services were needed
— a year after the victory of May first — without once going
to Hong Kong for the benefit of the change of climate, a priv
ilege he had granted to all of his officers. During this time his
health had been impaired and a leisurely cruise home by the
way of the Mediterranean seemed most likely to restore it.
In September, 1899, Admiral Dewey sailed from Gibraltar for
GEOEGE DEWEY 159
New York where he was greeted by vast crowds desirous of
paying homage to the hero of Manila.
Commodore Dewey, a man scarcely known to the general
public in April, 1898, returned home a little over a year later
to find the name of Admiral Dewey on the lips of all. One of
the honors conferred by the government was the creation of a
special rank to which he was appointed by the President. He
was made an admiral of the navy who should not be placed
on the retired list except by his own application ; this office to
cease to exist when it should be vacated by death or otherwise.
John Barrett, special war correspondent with Admiral Dewey
at Manila, says that if he were asked what had been the effect
on the admiral of his great victory and succeeding fame, he
would say that in the realization of the deep, all-prevalent
love of the American people for him, he has become gentler in
spirit.
Since the war Admiral Dewey has been actively engaged in
the work of the navy. For some years he has been President
of the General Board, which prepares war plans, recommends
the types of armaments of ships for the annual building pro
gram, and acts as a clearing-house for all questions of naval
policy.
After his return from the East, Admiral Dewey married
Mrs. Mildred Hazen, who had been a friend during the years
of his residence in Washington.
Interested from his boyhood in army and navy affairs, we
can trace his natural development into a distinguished ad
miral. Many things seem to have gone directly towards mak
ing him the illustrious hero of Manila, among which are his
early knowledge of the Spanish language and his study of the
situation in the East, especially in the Philippine Islands. His
training in the Civil War under such men as Captain Melanc-
thon Smith and Admiral Farragut taught him calm prepara
tion before war and quick, decisive action in battle. Inval
uable are the plans and advice which a man of such experience
can give and the people of the United States should consider
themselves most fortunate in having Admiral Dewey as Pres
ident of their General Naval Board.
160 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Autobiography of George Dewey. By George Dewey. 1913.
Dewey and Other Great Naval Commanders. By William Adams.
Four American Naval Heroes: Jones, Perry, Farragut, Dewey. By
Mabel S. Beebe.
Hero of Manila: Dewey on the Mississippi and the Pacific. By R.
Johnson.
Life and Achievements of Admiral Dewey. By Murat Halstead.
Life and Heroic Deeds of Admiral Dewey. By Young, Lewis, and
Northrop.
Life of George Dewey and the Dewey Family. By Adelbert Dewey.
War in the Philippines and Life and Glorious Deeds of Admiral
Dewey. By Joseph Stickney.
PERIODICALS
Admiral of the Navy. Review of Reviews 48 :627.
As a National Hero. By W. T. Sampson. Century 36 :927.
Character Sketch. By W. Churchill. Review of Reviews 1 :676.
War with Spain. By H. T. Peck. Bookman 22 :587.
THOMAS A. EDISON
BY GEOKGE LAWRENCE SCHERGER
THOMAS A. EDISON is undoubtedly the most cele
brated and useful American of our day. He is consid
ered by all to be the greatest inventor of this, if not of
any, age. He has made the entire human race his debtor. His
inventions have revolutionized our life and civilization so that
the world would seem a very dull place for us if we had to get
along without them. So much like a wizard does he seem to
us that his most startling invention does not surprise us. Noth
ing seems impossible to him. He is the incarnation of the
American genius for inventiveness and for this reason the
American people are proud of him as being a typical Ameri
can.
Americans are also proud of Edison because he is a self-
made man. He was born a poor boy and he rose by his own
efforts through hard work. Although he seems to us one of
the greatest geniuses who ever lived, he himself defines genius
as two per cent, inspiration and ninety-eight per cent, perspira
tion. Although comparatively old today, he is still one of the
hardest working men in the world. His mind is continually
seething with problems. He is a dynamic force of the highest
voltage. His perseverance is boundless. He spent ten years
working on his storage battery, making fifty thousand exper
iments before he was satisfied with it. He worked at the mov
ing picture machine for thirty-four years.
Thomas A. Edison was born in the little town of Milan,
Ohio, February 11, 1847. His father had emigrated to this
place from Canada in 1838, having been practically compelled
to leave that country because he had taken an active part in
the rebellion against the British Government. Here he mar
ried a school teacher named Nancy Elliot, with whom he had
been acquainted in Canada. It seemed at that time that Milan
had a great future, but these hopes came to naught. A new
railway line was constructed near by but did not pass through
164 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
Milan. The Edison family therefore moved to Port Huron,
Michigan, when Thomas was about seven years of age. The
young lad did not enjoy an opportunity of acquiring an educa
tion, although he is very lavish in his praises of his mother
and of her influence. He says : "I was always a careless boy,
and with a mother of different mental caliber I should have
probably turned out badly. But her firmness, her sweetness,
her goodness, were potent powers to keep me in the right path.
I remember I used never to be able to get along at school. I
don't know what it was, but I was always at the foot of the
class. I used to feel that the teachers never sympathized with
me and that my father thought that I was stupid, and at last
I almost decided that I must really be a dunce. My mother
was always kind, always sympathetic, and she never misunder
stood or misjudged me. My mother was the making of me.
She was so true, so sure of me ; and I felt that I had some one
to live for, some one I must not disappoint. The memory of
her will always be a blessing to me." With the exception of
about three months at the Port Huron Public school, young
Edison received all his instruction from his mother.
While living at Port Huron, the boy's father built an ob
servatory on his house, making a small charge to strangers
who desired to look through the telescope. Young Al, as Mr.
Edison was called when a boy, loved to sweep the horizon with
his father's telescope. This was his first acquaintance with a
scientific instrument. At the age of nine he had read a num
ber of scientific works, as well as Hume's History of England
and Gibbon's Rome.
At the early age of twelve, Edison, in order to obtain pocket
money to experiment in chemistry and physics, became a train
newsboy on the Detroit and Port Huron branch of the Grand
Trunk Railway. While occupying this position he continued
his experimenting on the train and also bought a small hand
press and became the editor, printer and publisher of a little
newspaper which he called The Weekly Herald, and the sub
scription price of which was eight cents per month. He was
only about fourteen at the time this paper appeared. It con
sisted of a single sheet printed on both sides. The regular
THOMAS A. EDISON 165
subscription circulation, when the paper enjoyed its greatest
fame, was five hundred copies, from which he made a clear
profit of about forty-five dollars a month. Two announce
ments of his paper are of especial interest. One of them says,
" We expect to enlarge our paper in a few weeks. " Another,
"In a few weeks each subscriber will have his name printed
on his paper. "
The Weekly Herald had begun to attract considerable atten
tion, being even mentioned in the London Times, and Edison
might have continued this work and eventually have become
a famous editor had it not been for an accident. One day
while he was engaged in making an experiment the train gave
a heavy lurch upsetting a bottle of phosphorus. The woodwork
of the car took fire. Just as Edison was trying to put it out, the
conductor, who was a quick-tempered Scotchman, came in and
when he saw what had happened he pitched young Edison out
of the car onto the platform, throwing his apparatus and
printing press after him. The train then proceeded, while the
young editor and future inventor was left behind. He had to
continue his experiments and the publication of his paper in a
workshop in his father 's home.
While a newsboy on the railroad Edison had become inter
ested in electricity, probably from visiting telegraph offices.
He experimented with telegraph lines which had been strung
up between houses, supporting the wire on trees. He learned
how to send and take messages. But one day a stray cow
wandering through the orchard pulled down his short poles
and wires. Soon after he obtained a position where he was
able to practice telegraphy as an operator. This he owed to
the kindness of a station agent whose son he had saved from
being killed by a train. Although he obtained several posi
tions as an operator he lost them because of his dislike for
routine work and his love of reading and experimenting.
Mr. Edison worked in a number of different cities, includ
ing Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Memphis, and Boston, as a tele
graph operator. While in Indianapolis he had invented an
automatic telegraph repeater. In Boston he patented a vote
recorder which was greatly praised, but which was not put to
166 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
any practical use. Soon after this he went to New York, ar
riving in that city without enough money to buy a breakfast.
He applied for a job as a telegraph operator. While waiting
for work he one day paid a visit to the office of a company
which managed indicators, or tickers, distributed among sev
eral hundred brokerage offices. On that particular morning the
machinery had broken down and there was much excitement
because no one was able to locate the trouble. Every moment
was precious because gold was dear. Mr. Edison was stand
ing by during the commotion and remarked that he thought he
could put things right if permitted to do so. He was told to
go ahead, whereupon he removed a loose contact spring which
had fallen between the wheels and immediately the instrument
did its work. As a result Mr. Edison was made manager of
the service at a salary of three hundred dollars a month. He
almost fainted from joy when he received the appointment.
Dissatisfied with the working of the old instrument he set to
work to improve it. Thus came about the invention of Edi
son 's Universal Stock Indicator for which he was paid the
sum of forty thousand dollars. At first he scarcely knew what
to do with so much money, but finally decided to open up a
factory in Newark, New Jersey, where he employed a number
of assistants and soon made many surprising inventions.
Among these was the Duplex telegraph which he sold to the
Western Union Telegraph Company, who also made a contract
with him by wrhich they obtained an option on all his future
improvements along telegraphic lines.
By means of the Duplex telegraph it was possible to send
two messages in opposite directions over the same wire at the
same time, without causing any confusion. This great inven
tion, which doubled the capacity of a single wire, was followed
by that of the Quadruplex telegraph, invented in 1874, which
made possible the transmission of two messages each way at
the same time, according to the principle of working over the
line with two currents so differing from each other in strength
or nature that each of these currents affects only the par
ticular instrument adapted to respond to it. In order to
operate this invention, two sending and two receiving oper-
THOMAS A. EDISON 167
ators are required at each end of the wire. This device
was worth millions of dollars to the Western Union, be
cause it made a mile of wire do the work of four miles.
Eventually the same idea was developed into Sextuplex trans
mission.
Not less brilliant was the invention of the automatic tele
graph, which required the preparation of the message in ad
vance, accomplished by the use of perforated paper tape with
Morse telegraph characters, the tapes being subsequently run
through a transmitter. This invention became possible only
after the discovery of a solution which would give a chemically
prepared paper, upon which the characters could be recorded
at a great speed. Mr. Edison wrorked hard to perfect this
paper and after six weeks of incessant labor, during which he
ate at his desk and slept in his chair, he was finally able, after
having made two thousand experiments, to produce a solution
which would enable him to record over two thousand words a
minute on a wire two hundred and fifty miles long. Event
ually he was able to obtain a speed of thirty-one hundred
words a minute.
It was while at Newark that he also invented the harmonic
multiplex telegraph, a system of employing tuning forks act
uated by electro-magnets so that each reed serves as a key to
send messages over the line, the tuning fork at the other end
vibrating at the same frequency and thus selecting as much
of the current as belongs to it. As many as sixteen messages
may be sent at one time by means of this harmonic multiplex
system.
The autographic tejegraph, also an Edison invention, writes
at the other end of the line the same message which is sent off
by means of a pencil writing on specially prepared paper.
It was not only in telegraphy that Mr. Edison made such
revolutionary inventions, but also in the perfection of the
telephone. Many scientists were becoming interested in try
ing to solve the problem of how to employ electricity as a
means of transmitting speech for great distances. The most
famous of these inventors was Alexander Graham Bell, of
Salem, Massachusetts. Strange to say, at almost exactly the
168 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
same time that Bell applied for a patent for his invention,
Elisha Gray, of Chicago, Illinois, had made the same inven
tion, covering practically the same ground, and also applied
for a patent. There was no other way to determine to whom
the patent should be awarded except according to the hour of
the day the applications were filed. The decision was made
in favor of Bell, who obtained the patent and organized a com
pany called The Bell Telephone Company. Bell's telephone,
however, was practical only for short lines and could not be
used commercially on lines extending over several miles. Mr.
Edison, however, realized the wonderful possibilities of the
telephone and set to work to perfect it by inventing the carbon
telephone transmitter. Bell was very anxious to make use of
this but could not do so without infringing upon Edison's
patent. Edison, on the other hand, could make little or no
use of his transmitter without infringing upon Bell's inven
tion. After considerable strife between the two rival inter
ests a compromise was arranged by which Edison turned over
his transmitter in exchange for certain benefits he received
from Bell. Edison's transmitter did away with the noise and
buzzing of Bell's telephone by means of the simple device of
using the lamp black button. By applying the induction coil
to the transmission of speech, Mr. Edison made the telephone
the useful instrument which it is now universally considered
to be. Mr. Edison has done much other work along the line
of perfecting various systems for the transmission of speech,
such as the water telephone, the condenser telephone, the mer
cury telephone, the musical transmitter, the megaphone and
the aerophone.
From this time on Mr. Edison came to be called the "Wizard
of Menlo Park" and became famous the world over. The
most fantastic ideas regarding the man were now accepted.
Some even thought that he would overthrow all the established
laws of nature and would revolutionize our scientific ideas,
upsetting all nature. Though world-famous, Mr. Edison was
still a young man, being only thirty years of age when he per
fected the telephone.
Another field of experimentation in which Mr. Edison now
THOMAS A. EDISON 169
became interested was that relating to the electric light. It
was in the year 1878, as Mr. Edison himself tells us, that he
saw in the laboratory of Professor Barker, at Philadelphia,
the first arc lamp and soon after another plant which was be
ing taken around the country with a circus and which consisted
of ten or fifteen lamps burning together in a series. Mr. Edi
son at once realized that the light was too bright and needed
to be subdivided. He desired to obtain small lights which
could be distributed among people's houses like gas lights,
and in order to carry out this scheme organized the Edison
Electric Light Company. The next step was to make each
light independent of every other. This could not be done by
having them burn in a series, hence they must burn in a multi
ple arc. Soon there dawned in his mind the idea of the incan
descent lamp as opposed to the arc light.
To make the new incandescent lamp a success, it was neces
sary for Mr. Edison to find a filament. He spent thirteen
months of unwearied experimentation with different metals,
trying first carbon points and then platinum wire. Any one
but Mr. Edison would have given up in despair, but he per
severed until at last success crowned his efforts. While plati
num wire gave a good light when electricity was passed
through it, the wire would melt when the current became too
strong. It was therefore necessary to find some substance
which would become luminous without melting when charged
with electricity. Some of the greatest scientists of England
had investigated this subject and come to the conclusion that
the subdivision of electric light was a problem that could not be
solved. After experimenting with various metals Mr. Edison
came to the conclusion that metals would not do. One day,
when seated in his laboratory, he accidently took up a little
bit of lamp black mixed with tar, which was being used for
another purpose in his laboratory. He rolled this until he
obtained a thin thread, resembling a piece of wire. Suddenly
he began to wonder whether this thread, being carbon, of
course, might not have the strength to withstand the electric
current. He began at once to experiment and rolled out fine
threads preparatory to placing them in the lamps. With the
170 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
assistance of Mr. Charles Bachelor, he put the thread in a bulb,
exhausted the air and turned on the current. The result was
satisfactory in so far as obtaining a good light was concerned
but the carbon was not strong enough.
Mr. Edison, however, realized that he was on the right track
so far as the carbon filament was concerned, but he must make
his filament from some other substance. He next took a spool
of cotton thread and tried to carbonize the thread, but it broke
again and again. He was not disheartened, however, but kept
up the battle for two days and two nights. On the night of
the third day, after beginning the experiment with carbonized
cotton, Mr. Edison and Mr. Bachelor placed the filament in
the lamp, exhausted the air and turned on the current. In a
moment they realized that their efforts had at last been
crowned with complete success, for a beautiful, soft light could
now be seen. The cotton thread lasted for about forty hours.
They next tried to find some sort of material which wTould give
a light that would last much longer, and so they began car
bonizing almost every material they could lay their hands on,
such as straw, paper, and cardboard. The best results were
obtained with bamboo, which Mr. Edison had obtained by tear
ing to pieces a bamboo fan. He now sent men to all parts of
the world to find the best sort of bamboo, spending fully a
hundred thousand dollars in the search. Some of his helpers
went to the Malay peninsula ; others to Mexico, Ceylon, India.
Almost six thousand different kinds of fibrous plants were
tried, the most satisfactory growing in the valley of the Ama
zon. Having at last solved the difficulty of obtaining the right
sort of filament, Mr. Edison took out a patent for his electric
light in January, 1880. He tested out his lights by stringing
up a number of them along a wire suspended from the trees
in Menlo Park, and invited his friends to come and see the new
system of lighting. Among the visitors were the New York
Board of Alderman, who went to Menlo Park on a special
train and were delighted with the new invention.
Mr. Edison next turned his mind to the task of establishing
a central station in New York City from which the electric
light could be obtained, and then organized the New York-Edi-
THOMAS A. EDISON 171
son Illuminating Company. In order to be able to fix the
charges for the use of the electric light he invented the Edison
electric meter. The first office building in which the incan
descent lamp was used was that of the New York Herald. A
plant was also installed on the sailing vessel Jeanette, which
made a trip in search of the North Pole and was lost in the
Arctic regions. The first church to use the electric light was
the City Temple, London. Soon the industry of furnishing
electric light assumed enormous proportions and twenty years
after its invention the electric lighting plants in the United
States alone were worth $750,000,000. It is doubtful if any
other invention has brought about such a revolution in civiliza
tion.
It is also probable that Mr. Edison has done more to provide
simple and wholesome amusement for the entire human race
than any man who ever lived. This he was able to do par
ticularly by inventing the phonograph and the moving picture
machine. His earlier experiments with automatic telegraphs
had familiarized him with the use of strips having dashes and
dots impressed on them and moving rapidly beneath a stylus.
Mr. Edison noticed that this stylus in vibrating produced a
slight sound. This suggested the talking machine, based upon
the idea of recording the undulations so that when a stylus
retraces them a diaphragm may be set in motion, reproducing
the original sound. Eventually he made a cylinder upon which
the sound waves could be impressed in a spiral line. The
phonograph proved to be rather a simple instrument, consist
ing of two parts ; the phonograph and the record. The phono
graph itself was patented February 19, 1878. Mr. Edison
made the following prophecy concerning his invention : ' ' The
phonograph will undoubtedly be largely devoted to music —
either vocal or instrumental — and may possibly take the place
of the teacher. It will sing the child to sleep, tell us what
o'clock it is, summon us to dinner, and warn the lover when
it is time to vacate the front porch. As a family record it
will be precious, for it will preserve the sayings of those dear
to us, and even receive the last messages of the dying. It
will enable the children to have dolls that really speak, laugh,
172 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
cry and sing, and imitation dogs that bark, cats that meow,
lions that roar, and roosters that crow. It will preserve the
voices of our great men, and enable future generations to lis
ten to speeches by a Lincoln or a Gladstone. Lastly, the pho
nograph will perfect the telephone and revolutionize present
systems of telegraphy."
Mr. Edison himself formed a collection of "voices of the
great ' ' which included records of the voices of Gladstone, Bis-
rnarck, Tennyson, Beecher, Browning, and others. The Pho
nograph will certainly always be considered one of the most
wonderful inventions of our age.
Even more wonderful was the invention of the kinetograph
and the kinetoscope, or moving picture machine. Mr. Edison
had never given any attention to photography before he be
came interested in the plan of taking pictures of moving ob
jects. He now thoroughly studied the subject of photography
in all its bearings, and by the perfection of its processes was
finally able to invent a mechanism which can take a series of
photographs as rapidly as forty -nine to the second, so that
every movement is at once registered upon a long strip of
gelatinous film.
The kinetoscope displays the film taken by the kinetograph,
bringing the series of photographs so rapidly before the eye
that everything moves about as in real life. The speed of the
machine may be increased or retarded. The most wonderful
results are obtained in this way. Even the growth of a plant
or the unfolding of a flower can be shown from hour to hour
of its development.
The kinetophone combines the principles of the kinetograph
and the phonograph, giving thus not only the movements but
also the sounds. This machine will enable a man in his own
home to see and hear a production of grand opera as produced
on a distant stage, witnessing all the movements of the singers
in addition to hearing the sound of their voices. This inven
tion is not yet as perfect as desirable, but there are no funda
mental difficulties to hinder its perfection.
Mr. Edison was one of the first men in modern times to dis-
THOMAS A. EDISON 173
cover the possibilities of cement in construction work and he
established the celebrated Edison Portland Cement Works,
bringing the manufacture of cement, in all the processes of
crushing, drying, mixing, roasting, and grinding, to the high
est perfection by inventing machinery of the most wonderful
nature. So great is the faith of Mr. Edison in the value of
cement construction that he has likewise taken up the plan of
constructing cement houses, made in molds. These molds,
made of cast iron with smooth interior surfaces, are taken to
the place where the house is to be erected, locked together, and
placed upon the solid concrete cellar floor. The cement is
poured into the forms, the pouring of the entire house being
completed in about six hours. The molds then remain in
position for six days while the cement hardens. After that the
molds are taken away and the entire house may be seen
cast in one piece. No plaster is used, but the walls may be
papered or tinted as desired. Only the windows, woodwork,
and fixtures need to be put in and the house is ready for oc
cupancy. The molds may be used again and again. Mr. Edi
son believes that eventually it will be possible to put up such a
model cement house at a cost of twelve hundred dollars. What
a boon to the working man the world over !
Another one of Mr. Edison 's inventions which has realized
great possibilities is the Edison storage battery. This is now
perfected and is used very extensively for automobiles, com
mercial trucks, motor boats, train lighting, and in many other
ways. While many people still charge their own batteries, it
seems likely that this work will soon be done largely by central
power stations.
When we consider the vast number of Mr. Edison's inven
tions it seems almost impossible that a single man could have
done all this within the brief space of a lifetime, and yet Mr.
Edison, though he has been flattered and lionized as few peo
ple have, has remained modest and unassuming. This is il
lustrated by an incident in connection with his application for
membership in the Engineer's Club of Philadelphia. In filling
out the application blank and stating the particulars as to his
174 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
qualification for membership he wrote: "I have designed a
concentrating plant and a machine shop, etc." How many
further details would be required to fill out the "etc.!"
Several years ago Mr. Edison moved his laboratory from
Menlo Park to Orange, New Jersey, thereby robbing Menlo
Park of its great attraction to the world. The laboratory at
Orange consists of a group of buildings surrounded by green
lawns and shady trees. It has a large library, a most won
derful equipment, and a staff of hundreds of men to each of
whom a particular line of work is assigned. Mr. Edison has a
wonderful knowledge of human nature and has always shown
great skill in selecting his associates. Like their chief, they
are men who become so absorbed in their work that they are
glad to give up food and sleep in order to carry on an inter
esting experiment. He is especially fond of workmen who
know how to keep silent and who do not care for gossip.
Mr. Edison himself often becomes absorbed in his work to
such an extent that he neglects his meals and goes without
sleep, sometimes for several nights in succession. But, as he
says, "If I spend sixty hours at an invention there must natur
ally be a loss of physical force, but I regain this by afterwards
taking a slumber which may last from eighteen to twenty-four
hours. In this way tired nature reasserts herself and both of
us are satisfied." He cares little for money and though he
has made a fortune from his inventions he never counts the
cost when he is at work on a new one. He is very careless of
his dress and does not care what he wears. He has strong
opinions on the subject of diet and takes only the simplest
food, and that in small quantities. He is always in a good
humor ; and enjoys a good joke as much as any one. One great
secret of his tireless activity is the fact that he never worries.
"Don't worry," he has said, "but work hard, and you can
look forward to a reasonably lengthy existence."
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
American Inventors. 2 parts. (F. A. Owens.)
Boy's Life of Edison. (Harper Bros.) By W. H. Meadowcroft.
THOMAS A. EDISON 175
Edison: His Life and Inventions. (Harper Bros.) By F. L. Dyer
and T. C. Martin.
Story of Edison. (Educational Publishing Co.) By H. M. L. Camp
bell.
Stories of Great Inventors. (Educational Publishing Co.) By H. B.
Macomber.
Thomas Alva Edison. (Whittaker & Co.) By E. C. Kenyon.
Wonder Workers. (Little, Brown & Co.) By M. H. Wade.
PERIODICALS
Edison and his Early Work. By A. ChurchilL Scientific American
Supplement 59 :24451.
Edison's Early Inventive Genius. World's Work 10:6441.
Edison's Inventions. By F. L. Dyer and T. C. Martin. Scientific
American Supplement 67 :210, 230.
Edison on Invention and Inventors. By W. P. Warren. Century
82:415.
Edison's Dream of New Music. By A. L. Benson. Cosmopolitan
54:797.
Impressions of American Inventors. Scientific American 100 :171.
Most Useful Americans. Independent 74 :166.
New View of Edison. American Magazine 67 :101.
To-day and Tomorrow. Independent 77 :24.
With Edison in His Laboratory. By G. E. Walsh. Independent
75 :557.
CHARLES W. ELIOT
BY CHRISTOPHER B. COLEMAN
NOTHING stirs us more than a great achievement. In
the exploits of others we feel our own possibilities re
vealed. The American people prides itself upon being
a people of great achievements. On every hand we see great
things brought to pass. We have converted the wilderness
into fertile farms; we have spanned broad rivers and girded
a continent with railroads ; we have dug canals to extend our
great water courses and have at length united for commerce
the two greatest oceans of the world; we have built gigantic
factories, and erected cities which stagger the imagination.
The population of our metropolis alone surpasses the total
population of the thirteen colonies when they declared them
selves an independent nation.
Other achievements less spectacular and picturesque than
these have been equally necessary to our material and intel
lectual growth. Not the least important among them has
been the development of our great American universities.
Our attention may well be challenged, therefore, by the fore
most figure in this development, the greatest educational lead
er of his generation, Charles W. Eliot.
Mr. Eliot was chosen president of Harvard College in 1869.
Not widely known at that time, he yet came to his position
thoroughly prepared and admirably fitted for its tasks. Born
at Boston on March 20, 1834, he was but thirty-five years of
age when he came to the presidency of the oldest college in
the United States. He had been fitted for college at the Bos
ton Latin School, and had graduated at Harvard in 1853. He
was tutor in mathematics in Harvard and, for the next five
years, a graduate student of chemistry with Professor Josiah
P. Cooke. Then for five years he was assistant professor of
mathematics and chemistry in the Lawrence Scientific School,
the scientific department of Harvard. He spent two years in
the study of chemistry and of educational methods in Europe,
Copyright bti I'liflrnnniti it- I' mlt-ru-mul . \i>ir
CHARLES W. ELIOT 179
and returned, splendidly equipped for his work, to be pro
fessor of chemistry in the Massachusetts Institute of Tech
nology. While still holding this position he spent a year in
France (1867-1868), thus increasing his European experience.
Among the products of his career as a teacher of chemistry
were two text-books which he wrote in connection with Pro
fessor Storer, a Manual of Qualitative Chemical Analysis, and
a Manual of Inorganic Chemistry. Though his life work was
not to be chemistry yet his prolonged preparation and his
thorough work in this subject were not wasted. A profound
and thorough discipline in any one field is a better equipment
for work, even in another field, than a smattering knowledge
of many things and a miscellaneous collection of interesting
information. In Professor Eliot's later administrative work
the thoroughness and the scientific methods with which he had
worked in chemistry were most effective, even though he dealt
with educational instead of with chemical problems. It was
to his advantage, however, that he combined with this special
ized training a remarkable command of nearly all the subjects
of the college curriculum, and an extensive experience both in
Europe and in America.
President Eliot was at the head of Harvard University for
exactly forty years. His administration will always remain
notable in the annals of the university not only for its length,
but also for its many wonderful achievements. At its begin
ning Harvard had been outstripped in many respects by Yale,
her closest rival. At its close Harvard stood unquestionably
at the head of all American institutions of learning. Her fac
ulty, her endowment and material equipment, her student at
tendance, and her influence increased by leaps and bounds.
Credit for her remarkable growth must be given not only to
the man who presided over her destinies, but also to the men
of note associated with him. Many of these are known the
country over: James Russell Lowell, Henry Wadsworth Long
fellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William James, Charles Eliot
Norton, Charles Francis Adams, and others of as high repute.
Many, also, are the distinguished men whose diplomas bear
President Eliot's signature. Probably no other American
180 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
university president has seen so many of his graduates win
fame in the work of the world. When, in 1909, he resigned
the office which he had so long and creditably filled, not only
his own university, but the daily press, the magazines, and the
whole educational world united to do him honor.
Almost all departments of Harvard experienced revolution
ary progress in Dr. Eliot's administration. Perhaps the
greatest change which he personally introduced, and the
change for which he is best known, was the introduction in the
undergraduate department of the "elective system." Forty
years ago practically all college work was definitely pre
scribed. This work was nearly the same for all students. No
matter what a boy's talents and tastes might be, no matter
what career he planned to enter, he must be content with the
same college course taken by everyone else. This course in
variably consisted almost entirely of Latin, Greek, mathemat
ics, logic, philosophy, theology, a little modern language, and
natural and political science. Two comparatively recent de
velopments have for some time been making this prescribed
course more and more inadequate. In the first place new
fields of study have been opened, and new departments have
been added to the college curriculum, such as sociology, peda
gogy, journalism, business problems and organization, the
domestic sciences, and agriculture. In the second place the
student body, once a small group of men, most of whom en
tered college to prepare for the professions of the ministry,
medicine, law, and teaching, have become larger and more
representative, expecting, for the most part, to go into busi
ness and other than professional careers. President Eliot
was the first to adjust the college course to meet these new
conditions. By the establishment of the "elective system"
a large range of choice was offered to each student in the
selection of his course. There were, at first, some abuses
in the choice of subjects. Some students determined their
course by their personal likes and dislikes among the fac
ulty, others specialized too early, while still others sought
always the easiest classes. These defects, however, have been
largely corrected by grouping the various courses and limit-
CHARLES W. ELIOT 181
ing the student's choice to the election of certain groups of
subjects, each group being so balanced as to involve general
culture and mental discipline as well as specialization.
For some years the "elective system " formed the chief sub
ject of discussion in college circles. Gradually, however, other
colleges followed the lead of Harvard, and this system is now
permanently established in nearly all institutions. It has
even been extended to high schools, 'where, in spite of many
abuses and much unintelligent application, it is being per
manently accepted. Thus students are no longer burdened
with studies which have no bearing on their future work ; they
are no longer put through a uniform process without regard
to their individual needs, but the training of each is being
measurably adapted to his capabilities and to his probable
career. Education, in short, is no longer regarded as some
thing invariable, to be imposed on the student from without,
but is looked upon as a process of development from within
and of preparation for future work.
The Law School, as well as the College of Liberal Arts,
underwent radical transformation under President Eliot's
administration. Here the so-called "case system " was devel
oped. The old method of instruction in law consisted in
teaching a great mass of principles and decisions, as though
the law were something fixed by a superior power and the stu
dent's task were merely one of memory. The new system as
signs to the student certain typical cases to investigate just
as the lawyers and the judges investigated them in the first
instance. He is thus made to reason cases out, to decide
them, and to justify his decision. In this manner he gradual
ly introduces himself to the general principles of the law; he
masters, not some text-book which someone has written about
the law, but the law itself. The "case system" is, in the high
est sense of the word, inductive. The extent to which it has
been adopted elsewhere, as well as the fame and the large at
tendance of the Harvard Law School itself, shows the success
whch has attended its development under the direction of
President Eliot.
The theological department has also undergone a notable
182 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
change. It was formerly, as was, indeed, the rule throughout
the country, a part of the machinery of one denomination
alone. The Harvard Theological Seminary prepared min
isters for the Unitarian Church. By the close of President
Eliot's administration the way had been prepared for the
change by which the seminary became a graduate school for
the study of religion and of church work in general. All
denominational ties have been severed and the way is now
open for the training of ministers on as broad and scientific a
basis as prevails in law, medicine, or teaching.
In the graduate school of Harvard equally significant
changes took place. President Eliot early conceived the idea
of a great university where formerly there had only been a
college. Such a university involved higher ideals of scholar
ship, it involved the development of new departments and of
more advanced work in all departments ; it involved gathering
into the faculty a large number of highly-trained men who,
personally engaged in research work, could initiate their stu
dents into the spirit and the methods of creative scholarship.
All these plans President Eliot worked out, and under his
guidance Harvard became the most important center of schol
arship in the United States.
The Medical School, Lawrence Scientific School, Radcliff
College for women, all shared in the general advance of the
university of which they were a part. Thus in forty years
there developed the greatest institution of learning which this
country had yet seen. President Eliot made Harvard the first
great American university.
But it is of the quality of the highest leadership that it
should be open to suggestions from others, and that it should
inspire followers. No one has been readier than President
Eliot to adopt the results of successful experiments made else
where and to give recognition to all hopeful movements. And
no one has had greater influence than he in shaping the policy
of other institutions than his own. So the Harvard of Pres
ident Eliot was not a single isolated achievement, but rather
the first of many great American universities. Several of
these universities have in some departments and in various
CHARLES W. ELIOT 183
features of their work outstripped their former leader. Thus
the modern university has taken an honored place in the
march of American progress. At the eastern portals of our
country, across the Charles Eiver from Boston, stands Har
vard, and on the heights above the Hudson in New York
stands Columbia. On our western coast on the hillsides over
looking San Francisco Bay lies the beautiful campus of the
University of California. In most of the great cities within
our borders, and in many a picturesque setting in smaller
towns great resources in money and massive buildings have
been set aside for universities in the interest of modern schol
arship. In many, if not in all our commonwealths, it is to
these universities that men look for leadership, it is in their
students that much of the hope of the future centers. Only
when we realize how far-reaching in all of them has been the
influence of Harvard's great president, can we appreciate our
indebtedness to his clear insight, his courage, his enegry, and
his moral grandeur.
President Eliot 's distinction as an educator has found rec
ognition in all parts of the educational world. He has served
as president of our largest educational organization, the Na
tional Education Association. In this office, as elsewhere, he
was insistent upon the importance of our whole school sys
tem. His famous address, M ore Money for our Public Schools,
since published in book form, showed conclusively that we, as
a nation, have not realized the significance of expenditures
upon education.
Moreover, President Eliot's position and character have
given him an influence reaching far beyond the educational
circles to which he belongs. Especially since he has laid aside
the responsibilities of his official position and become presi
dent emeritus, has he been able to exert this influence in many
good works. Perhaps his greatest contributions have been
to the cause of peace; not the peace of stagnation and mere
conservatism, but the peace of progress without friction, of
harmonious cooperation in the work of the world. In our
.jarring industrial life with its strikes and its bitterness, he
has raised his voice for better mutual understanding, for fair
184 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
treatment on both sides, for law and order. He has stood for
the preservation of our national resources and has been the
honorary president of the National Conservation Association.
He has been active in the cause of international peace. A
few years ago he made a trip around the world which cul
minated in a message of peace from the American people to
Japan and in bringing home to us assurances of peace from
the Japanese.
No one could more fittingly bear such a message. He bears
in his appearance and in his whole personality the stamp of a
man of absolute sincerity, the mark of one who is always at
peace with himself and with the world. Simple in his tastes,
free from false pretense, serene in his religious convictions,
lofty in his ideals, he is the embodiment of the themes upon
which he has written and spoken, The Happy Life, and The
Durable Satisfactions of Life. He and others like him are
greater than the great works which they have wrought, they
are themselves our nation's greatest achievements.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PERIODICALS
Charles William Eliot, President of Harvard University. By George
P. Morris. Review of Reviews 25 :289.
Eliot and the American University. By David Starr Jordan. Sci
ence, n. s. 29 :145.
Great Minds of America. North American Review 186 :320.
Harvard. By Edward Everett Hale. Outlook 91 :453.
Personality of President Eliot. By Mark Sullivan. Outlook 77 :825.
President Charles William Eliot, Our Foremost Citizen. World's
Work 8 :5016.
President Eliot. Outlook 90:567.
President Eliot at Seventy. Nation 78 :225.
Copyright by Bachrach. Baltimore
JAMES GIBBONS
BY JOSEPH LEONARD CARKICO
JAMES GIBBONS, Cardinal Archbishop of Baltimore, oc
cupies a unique position in American life. No other
churchman of this country is or has been so well known
and so generally esteemed by all classes. It is quite as true
that no other private citizen has exercised more or better influ
ence on the development of our national life and spirit. For
a full half century he has been a leader in thought and action,
enjoying an unsought popularity that has widened through
out the States and far beyond. And to-day at the age of
eighty he commands with youthful energy the accumulated
forces of his long life. His name is of course a household
word in all the Catholic homes of the land, and few indeed
are the non-Catholics who are not familiar with it.
The story of his life is as simple and straightforward as
the great prelate himself. Anyone who seeks in it the sensa
tional will be disappointed. It would not be easy, however,
to find a career that will show to better advantage the signifi
cance of personal character in human affairs and the infal
lible effect of consistent endeavor in the cause of human wel
fare.
James Gibbons was born in Baltimore, July 23, 1834, the
son of Thomas and Bridget Gibbons, Irish immigrants who
had like so many others come to seek their fortunes in the
land of opportunity. Little, doubtless, did even the proud
parents dream that their child was to become the pride of
Baltimore, the foremost citizen of Maryland, and cardinal
primate of their church in the United States. Owing to fail
ure of his health, Thomas Gibbons in 1837 returned with his
family to Ireland, where they were to live permanently. But
after his death some ten years later the energetic Mrs. Gib
bons came back to this country with her six children, and set
tled in New Orleans. James had attended for several years
a good private school in Ireland by which he had profited
188 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
to the utmost, but now there was no prospect of further op
portunity at formal schooling. Upon arriving in New Or
leans he found employment in a grocery store, where he
worked for the next two years in support of the family. A
successful business career seemed to be the foredestined fu
ture of the young clerk, but a mission at his parish church
fixed his determination upon the priesthood. It was natur
ally a painful sacrifice for the widowed mother to give him
up, but her vivid Irish faith prompted cheerful resignation to
the will of Providence.
At the age of twenty-one young Gibbons left New Orleans
for Baltimore to prepare himself for his chosen work of the
ministry. After a tedious trip of sixteen days by boat, rail
and stagecoach he entered St. Charles' College, Ellicott City,
near Baltimore. Here he spent two years in collegiate study,
and then went to St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore for the
sacred studies preparatory to ordination. His course at both
places seems to have been markedly substantial rather than
brilliant. He was fond of athletics, especially of football,
which he indulged as intensely as he studied. His fine quali
ties of character made him a social favorite at college and
in the seminary. There was abundant promise of a credita
ble career, but no one — he himself least of all — seems to
have anticipated the distinction that he has actually achieved.
He was ordained priest on June 30th of the eventful 1861.
During the years of the war he was occupied in parish duty
in Baltimore, work which he executed with his characteristic
zeal and success. The city of Baltimore was fearfully divided
in the great conflict. Strongly with the South in sympathy
and quite as strongly with the Union on principle, Father
Gibbons took no active part with either side, in order that he
might be able to render the service of his ministry to both
sides.
His physical strength has always been much greater than
his slight appearance would suggest, but it was not equal to
the rigorous demands of his zeal in the first years of his
ministry. So severely was his health overtaxed that it was
thought at one time that he could live but a few months at
JAMES GIBBONS 189
most. Though he has never fully recovered from that over
strain of his early years, he has by careful discipline of him
self been able to outlive most of the robust men of his genera
tion.
Shortly after the war the young priest became secretary to
Archbishop Martin John Spalding of Baltimore, in which
position he received valuable training in episcopal adminis
tration. In 1868 he was at the unanimous suggestion of the
Catholic bishops of the United States appointed Vicar Apos
tolic of North Carolina. The prospect in this new field of
labor was far from inviting. Three priests and some eight
hundred souls well scattered over the large state constituted
his charge. But it would have required a much more difficult
mission than this to discourage the apostolic spirit of James
Gibbons. Having been consecrated bishop, he went to his
post of duty with the will that always triumphs. Old Arch
bishop Spalding dismissed his beloved disciple and secretary
in his Spartan manner: "I have educated you, raised you
to the age of manhood, I have given you a ring, and now go
root for yourself or die. ' ' Frail as he appeared, the young
bishop did not die, and "root" was a mild enough term for
his alternative.
A sentence of the Rev. Dr. John Talbot Smith sketches the
character of the Vicar 's labors in North Carolina and later in
Virginia: "He traveled through these states as priest and
bishop, carrying his own gripsack, progressing in any fashion
that the law allowed, living among the people, accepting hos
pitality from pagan, Protestant, infidel, and Catholic, preach
ing wherever he might, in hall, church of any creed, schools,
shanties and private dwellings, with as little money as an
apostle, without the health or ruggedness of constitution so
necessary to a missionary, learning the thoughts of the com
mon people, getting close to their hearts, and securing all
that lore which makes him to-day the truest representative
of the American people." Eight years of this pioneer labor
formed the strenuous novitiate of the future Cardinal.
He was summoned to Rome in 1870 to take part among the
bishops of the world in the great Council of the Vatican. On
190 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
account of his youth he considered it his duty to listen and
learn rather than to express his opinions on the subjects of
deliberation. In the vote on the definition of the papal in
fallibility his ballot was cast in the affirmative. In 1872 he
was made Bishop of Richmond, Virginia, and four years
later Coadjutor to Archibishop Bayley of Baltimore, with the
right of succession. Before he had time to enter upon the
duties of his new office the death of Archbishop Bayley made
him Archbishop of Baltimore and first prelate of the Catholic
church in America. He had been well matured for this high
position in the severe school of experience, and it was with joy
and pride that the people of Baltimore welcomed him back
to his native city.
The first notable work of the new archbishop was the or
ganization and guidance of the Third Plenary Council of Bal
timore, held in 1886, over which he presided by papal appoint
ment as apostolic delegate. The chief work of the council
was to regulate in detail the discipline of the church in this
country, and the complete success of the undertaking was due
in great measure to the constructive ability and efficient lead
ership of the presiding prelate.
It was at the silver jubilee of his priesthood, June 30, 1886,
that the crowning dignity came to the worthy archbishop
when he was made a prince of the universal church. Pope
Leo XIII had observed long and carefully the work of the
humble Gibbons, and he thought it now time to reward his
merit and enlarge his opportunity by raising him to the Col
lege of Cardinals. The whole country was loud in praise of
this appointment and in felicitation of the honored prelate.
When the archbishop heard the first rumor of promotion he
expressed what has ever been his characteristic sentiment
regarding the successive dignities that have been heaped upon
him: "Should the report be verified, may God give me, as
He gave to His servant David, an humble heart, that I may
bear the honor with becoming modesty and a profound sense
of my own unworthiness."
The degree to which the Cardinal has advanced in the es
teem of his countrymen was well evidenced by the great civic
JAMES GIBBONS 191
celebration held in his honor on the occasion of his golden
jubilee as priest and silver jubilee as cardinal in June, 1911.
Most of those who had part in arranging the event were non-
Catholics, headed by Governor Crothers of Maryland, Mayor
Preston of Baltimore, and Bishop Murray of the Episcopal
diocese of Maryland. President Taft, Vice-President Sher
man, Chief Justice White of the Supreme Court, ex-President
Eoosevelt, Speaker Clark, ex-Speaker Cannon, Ambassador
Bryce of Great Britain, the senators and representatives of
Maryland with many other prominent members from both
houses of Congress left their duties and went to Baltimore to
pay tribute by their presence and their words to the great
churchman who as private citizen has done so much public
service. The big Fifth Regiment Armory where the address
es were delivered could accommodate only twenty thousand
of the Cardinal's friends and admirers. A few sentences from
the speeches of the day will show better than anything else
the regard which the Cardinal enjoys in the public mind. Gov
ernor Crothers, who presided over the meeting, said in con
clusion of the opening speech :
' ' We salute you, Cardinal Gibbons, as a torch-bearer in our
midst of religion, justice and patriotism. We acknowledge
and celebrate before the country and the world your lofty de
votion to religious faith and purposes, your unfailing and
ceaseless activities in behalf of this State and Union and of
all their spiritual and material interests, your encouragement
and help in all good aspirations, your wise and beneficent
counsels in times of difficulty and doubt, your elevating influ
ence upon all the movements and concerns of this your native
land."
"What we are especially delighted to see confirmed in him,"
said President Taft, "is the entire consistency which he has
demonstrated between earnest and single-minded patriotism
on the one hand and sincere devotion to his Church on the
other."
"The Cardinal," declared Mr. Roosevelt, "throughout his
life has devoted himself to the service of the American peo
ple. . . I am honored — we are all honored — that the op-
192 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
portunity has come to-day to pay a tribute to what is high
est and best in American citizenship, Cardinal Gibbons."
Vice-President Sherman, Senator Root, Speaker Clark, ex-
Speaker Cannon, Ambassador Bryce, and Mayor Preston,
each spoke in terms of praise that would seem extravagant to
one not acquainted with the merits of the subject. In the
course of his brief response the Cardinal with that modest sin
cerity which has graced all his words and works, voiced the
sentiment which had made possible that unique demonstration
in his honor :
"One merit only can I truly claim regarding my civic life,
and that is an ardent love for my native country and her po
litical institutions. Ever since I entered the sacred ministry
my aim has been to make those over whom I exerted any in
fluence not only more upright Christians, but also more loyal
citizens ; for the most faithful Christian makes the best citizen.
"I consider the Republic of the United States one of the
most precious heirlooms bestowed upon mankind down the
ages, and that it is the duty and should be the delight of every
citizen to strengthen and perpetuate our government by the
observance of its laws and by the integrity of his private
life."
Since the jubilee, the Cardinal has added three more years
to his half century of service, and is to-day at the age of
eighty as active as ever in the work of his ministry and in
every cause that deserves promotion.
The work of this eminent divine consists in a long course
of deeds well done rather than in the few striking perform
ances that usually constitute the title to fame. He has won
his way not by bold and brilliant strokes, but by consistent
and masterly fulfilment of the various duties that have de
volved upon him. The ordinary functions of ecclesiastical
office have necessarily engaged most of his attention ; nor has
he ever considered that the dignity or duties of his high posi
tion exempt him from the humblest functions of the priestly
ministry. Scrupulous attention to all the details of his pas
toral care has made his diocese and archdiocese models of dis
cipline and efficiency. And the most genuine tribute to his
JAMES GIBBONS 193
value as a man and as a leader is the fact that he is most
revered and best beloved by the members of his own house
hold, by the priests and people of his immediate jurisdiction.
His national — and even international — distinction, howev
er, has been achieved more perhaps by what he has done in ad
dition to his official work. In other countries, especially in
Europe, he is popularly and admiringly known as * ' the Amer
ican Cardinal," and it is frequently observed both here and
abroad that he has done more than all others to make Ameri
ca known and understood by the world. The address deliv
ered in Rome at his installation as pastor of his titular church,
Santa Maria in Trastevere, shortly after his elevation to the
cardinalate was, under the circumstances, of tremendous sig
nificance. It is worth while to quote the two paragraphs of
the famous address which elicited world-wide comment and
the proud approval of all Americans:
"For myself, as a citizen of the United States, and without
closing my eyes to our shortcomings as a nation, I say, with a
deep sense of pride and gratitude, that I belong to a country
where the civil government holds over us the aegis of its pro
tection, without interfering with us in the legitimate exercise
of our sublime mission as ministers of the Gospel of Christ.
Our country has liberty without license, and authority with
out despotism. She rears no wall to exclude the stranger
from among us. She has no frowning fortifications to repel
the invader, for she is at peace with all the world. She rests
secure in the consciousness of her strength and her good will
towards all. Her harbors are open to welcome the honest
immigrant who comes to advance his temporal interests and
to find a peaceful home.
"But while we are acknowledged to have a free govern
ment, perhaps we do not receive the credit that belongs to us
for having, also, a strong government. Yes, our nation is
strong, and her strength lies, under the overruling guidance
of Providence, in the majesty and supremacy of the law, in
the loyalty of her citizens, and in the affection of her people
for her free institutions. There are, indeed, grave social
problems now employing the earnest attention of the citizens
194 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
of the United States, but I have no doubt that, with God's
blessing, these will be settled by the calm judgment and sound
sense of the American people, without violence or revolution,
or any injury to individual right. "
These sentences sound rather commonplace to us and they
were the merest matter of fact to the speaker, for he had
always entertained and had often expressed the same senti
ments before, but they were sensationally new to Eome and
to all Europe. Educated only in the philosophy of monarchy,
the European mind regarded the American polity as a wild
experiment that must sooner or later result in failure. Sep
aration of Church and State was thought to be an impossible
condition for both institutions. And here was a man, at once
a cardinal and a plain American, proclaiming in the very heart
of Christendom and in the face of royalty the greatness of the
Western Eepublic and defending for that nation the relation
between Church and State that obtained there. They knew
enough concerning the character of the witness to understand
that his testimony was worthy of consideration. Thus Car
dinal Gibbons may be said to have offered, however uninten
tional it may have been, to the centuried wisdom of the old-
world peoples the first effective suggestion that they might
learn something from the practical philosophy of young
America. Often since then has the Cardinal had occasion to
publish to foreign peoples the merit of our institutions, with
the result that he is regarded abroad as one of the best repre
sentatives of the principles, life and spirit of the American
nation.
It was also on this first trip to Eome after his elevation to
the cardinalate that Cardinal Gibbons endeared himself to the
great army of workingmen as "the champion of labor " in
preventing the condemnation by the Church of the Knights
of Labor. In the years following the Civil War the conflict
between capital and labor speedily developed to an acute stage.
The workingmen were compelled by conditions to organize
themselves in a struggle for the protection of their rights
against the power and greed of monopolistic industry. Most
important among the numerous associations that were formed
JAMES GIBBONS 195
was that known as the Knights of Labor, which in 1886 num
bered five hundred thousand members. The head of the asso
ciation, Terrence V. Powderly, known as the ' l general master
workman, ' ' several others of the prominent officers and the ma
jority of the members were Catholics. The organization had
been condemned in Canada by ecclesiastical authority as an
tagonistic to religion and the common good, and the condemna
tion had been confirmed by Borne. The same sentence was im
minent in regard to the United States. The archbishops of the
country assembled in council had, after thorough investigation
of the case, failed to pronounce against the Knights. When the
cause was carried to Rome, Cardinal Gibbons prepared and
presented a masterly memorial in behalf of the Knights, show
ing that the character and methods of the organization as it
existed and operated in this country did not fall under the
Church's principles and rules governing the condemnation of
secret societies. The cardinal supported his formal plea in the
Roman Curia with such convincing argument that his defense
not only prevented the condemnation of the Knights in the
United States, but also led to the removal of the ban in Canada.
This success was a notable triumph for the reason that official
Rome — and all Europe, for that matter — was of the opinion
that the organization of workingmen was revolutionary and
dangerous. Not a few Americans thought they saw in this
new movement the speedy dissolution of the Republic. Car
dinal Gibbons, however, promptly recognized it as a necessary
development from new conditions, and resolved to deal with
it as such. It is hard to say how serious might have been the
consequences that were saved by his energetic defense of the
laborers. A policy of repression would doubtless have driven
great numbers of the American workingmen into the camp of
Socialism which was then recruiting the malcontents of the
land under its red flag. It should be noted too that Pope Leo
XIII, who always esteemed his American cardinal for his
sound liberalism, probably derived from the latter 's exposi
tion of the labor problem some suggestions for his own treat
ment of the subject in the famous encyclical on "The Condi-
196 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
tion of Labor, ' ' which is still popular with all persons deeply
interested in this great social question of our day.
Of his many achievements the cardinal himself is proudest
perhaps of his part in the papal conclave which elected the
present Pope in 1903. His is the honor of having been the
first American to share in the selection of a Eoman pontiff.
The humble Patriarch of Venice was very averse to assum
ing the responsibilities of the office, and it was primarily by
the effort of the American cardinal that he was at length in
duced to consent to his election.
It is altogether impossible, of course, to estimate the effect
of the cardinal's teaching on many subjects of vital concern
to the public, but the attention that has been accorded him
throughout the nation and for so long a time, together with
the fact that his credit has grown steadily with his years, is
proof that his influence is intensive as well as extensive. For
very many the word of Cardinal Gibbons is decisive, his sanc
tion or condemnation sufficient direction for conduct. It is
given to few to enjoy so much and such thorough confidence
in the minds of the people. Several of the presidents of the
United States have cherished his friendship and sought his
counsel in great matters of national policy. The officials of
his city and state have repeatedly and profusely declared the
value of his precept and example to the common weal.
The cardinal has constantly employed his great strength
against the evils that threaten our national life, particularly
divorce, Socialism, race-suicide, and corruption in politics.
Always a lover of peace, he was the first prominent American
to make an appeal for the establishment of an international
tribunal for the settlement of disputes among the nations.
The cause of temperance has received his strong support.
He strenuously and successfully opposed the attempted in
troduction of foreign nationalism into the Catholic Church
in this country. He has always insisted upon the absolute
necessity of religious education for the welfare of the indi
vidual, the home, and the state.
He has rendered another important service in that he has
done more than any other single person to dissipate religious
JAMES GIBBONS 197
prejudice in this country. Mr. Allen S. Will in his Life of
Cardinal Gibbons observes truly that "He has not only made
Catholics tolerant of Protestants, and vice versa, but he has
made the different Protestant denominations more tolerant of
each other." While this broad-spirited divine has never
compromised one jot or tittle of his Catholic doctrine in the
slightest way to any purpose whatever, he has not believed
that it is either wise or just to vituperate those who differ
from him in religious belief. During his missions in North
Carolina and Virginia he preached regularly to more non-
Catholics than Catholics, many of whom had been educated in
mistrust of the Mother Church and her ministers, but of those
who had once heard him there was none to find fault with the
attitude and spirit of Bishop Gibbons. It was ever the in
stinct of his nature to grant to others the sincerity of convic
tion that he claimed for himself. Among the vast number of
his personal friends are men and women of every denomina
tion and of no denomination. And the fact is that the car-
dinaPs genuine tolerance in all things that admit of tolerance
has made more converts to his religion than many religious
sects number adherents.
In the midst of his manifold activities the cardinal has
found time to write four notable books, The Faith of Our
Fathers, Our Christian Heritage, The Ambassador of Christ,
and a volume entitled Sermons and Discourses. The first of
these, produced while he was Bishop of Eichmond, would
alone have been sufficient to immortalize the name of its au
thor. It is a popular exposition and defense of the Catholic
doctrine, and is the masterpiece of its kind in English. A
million copies have been sold, and the demand for it is as great
to-day as when it was first published. It has been translated
into twelve languages. Written for non-Catholics who wish
to know the truth concerning the Catholic Church, it has
probably made more converts than it contains words. The
clearness, logic, and charity of the book, and its perfect adap
tation in matter and manner to those for whom it was written
are the chief sources of its appeal.
It does not seem that the extraordinary success of Cardinal
198 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
Gibbons is to be attributed to any particular talent, as can
be done in the cases of most men of note. It is due rather to
that rare combination of faculties and qualities which make
up the complete man and the ideal leader. Without attempt
ing even to mention all of these, I should say that the first
in the case of the Cardinal is the entire disinterestedness that
has so obviously characterized all his motives and conduct.
The service of God and of his fellowmen, individually and
collectively, has been his one ambition, to which his mind,
and heart, and hand have been unswervingly devoted.
Sure of his ideals from the beginning, he has labored long
and intensely at their realization. His earnestness may be
called his secret of success. Bishop Foley of Detroit who was
a comrade of the young Gibbons at the seminary says in rec
ollection of his friend as, a football player, " Whatever he did
was done with all his might, and that is the philosophy of his
story."
His intense zeal has been uniformly directed to the best-ad
vantage by a very exceptional judgment. The Cardinal is
not infrequently referred to as "the man who has never made
a mistake/' He is more human than that, but he has cer
tainly made a most remarkable record for doing the right
thing at the right time. It is not for lack of opportunity that
he has blundered so sparingly ; and sure it is that few men of
such prominence have suffered so little criticism.
With his instinctive judgment fully matured by much ex
perience is united a peculiar tact in dealing with men of every
character. A keen knowledge of human nature in all its de-
viousness has served him well in the achievement of his great
purposes. A wonderful facility in winning at once the con
fidence of everyone he meets has made for him a nation of
friends. He is gifted, too, with such a phenomenal memory
for persons that he remembers practically all the acquaint
ances he has made. It is said that after his four years in
North Carolina he knew at sight and by name every Catholic
in the state. An incredible number of the inhabitants of Bal
timore are very proud of their personal acquaintance with
their eminent fellow-citizen. And if the cardinal in the course
JAMES GIBBONS 199
of his long career has made any enemies, neither he nor they
have advertised the fact to the world. He has worked his
way to position and prominence without a vestige of partisan
ship.
Everyone who meets His Eminence finds his open nature,
gentle grace, genuine dignity, elegant simplicity of manner,
and his transparent goodness irresistibly fascinating. He
adapts himself with perfect ease to everyone he meets. At
home with the highest of the world, he can umpire a baseball
game among schoolboys, feeling and making them feel that he
is merely one of them. The newspaper reporters are very
fond of him because of the invariable readiness and courtesy
with which he receives their professional importunities. He
always speaks for them when he can, and they in turn are
scrupulous in their care not to misrepresent him. The Car
dinal is a practical friend of the press because he regards it
as a great power for good; and the papers and periodicals
covet his words because of the weight and popularity of his
utterances.
Lastly, it is to be observed that Cardinal Gibbons with all
his princely qualities is preeminently and by nature a man of
the common people. Born and reared in the ranks he has
ever been at one with the multitude, and most of all with the
lowly. Knowing their vices as well as their virtues, he has of
ten professed his persevering faith in the ultimate judgment
and good will of the American public; and his confidence has
been sufficiently justified in the enthusiastic approval which so
many have given to the Cardinal's principles and practice,
and the loyalty with which they have for so long a time fol
lowed his lead. He has ever been sanely progressive and
actively in sympathy with all the good aspirations of his time
and people.
Thus is the position of this great American divine simply
the reward of accumulated merit. He has forged to the front
as churchman and citizen by the sheer force of his personal
character. Scarcely to be credited with genius of any kind,
unless his great goodness may be called genius, he has
achieved a distinction that genius may envy. His is the rec-
200 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
ord of splendid talent constantly employed to the best effect
in the accomplishment of the noblest ends. It may be freely
said of him that all his rank, and power, and influence have
been for good — for the betterment of his f ellowmen, for the
honor of his country, and the exaltation of his Church. In
so far as human eyes can see, he has in all respects lived well
before God and men. That the Lord may spare him to us for
still another score of years in the service of Church and State
is the prayer of every American who understands the value
to the world of a truly great man. May we have many more
men of the character and influence of Cardinal Gibbons !
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Life of Cardinal Gibbons. ( Jno. Murphy Co.) New York, 1911. By
Allen S. Will.
Passing Events in the Life of Cardinal Gibbons. Martinsburg, W.
Va., 1890. By Rev. J. T. Reily.
Red Book. (Kohn and Pollock.) Baltimore, 1911.
PERIODICALS
American Cardinal. By M. F. Egan. Century 73 :800.
Cardinal Gibbons. Outlook 98:324-5.
Cardinal Gibbons and American Institutions. By I. T. Heckcr. Cath.
World 45 :330.
Cardinal Gibbons Forty Years Ago. By D. A. Willey. Putnam's
4 :614.
Cardinal Gibbons' Jubilee. By E. A. Pace. Cath. World 94:1.
Cardinal Gibbons on American Democracy. By C. O'Laughlin. Out
look 99:569.
Characteristics of Cardinal Gibbons. By A. S. Will. Cath. World
94:48.
His Eminence, Cardinal Gibbons. By C. Johnston. Harper's Week
ly 50:304.
His Eminence, Cardinal Gibbons. By L. Johnston. Cath. World
94:87.
GEORGE W. GOETHALS
BY BAY STANNAKD BAKEB *
IT was not until Goethals, a state-minded man, was sent to
Panama that the enterprise assumed the true measure of
success. Goethals was not selected because he had at that
time won any wide personal reputation, for he was almost un
known to the country. He was appointed as the ablest repre
sentative of a new point of view toward the work. Roosevelt
had decided, at last, to go the full length, to take all the re
sponsibility of building the canal as a public enterprise in its
broadest sense. Taft, then Secretary of War, and General
Mackenzie, chief of the corps of engineers, recommended
Goethals as the one man, among fifteen or twenty in the
army who might have been chosen, as best equipped to do the
work. And Goethals went.
Now, Goethals had made no better record as an engineer in
the army than a score of other men — it was sound rather
than brilliant — but in talking with many men who have long
known him it was significant that in every case I heard first
of his loyalty to his work, his sturdy trustworthiness, his
clear-headedness, his determination of character.
" Whatever I gave him to do," said Gen. John M. Wilson,
once his superior in the corps of engineers, "I relieved my
mind of it. I knew it would be done right. ' '
An infallible test of the true leader is that his supreme in
terest shall not be in things, but in men. In whatever task
he engages, no matter how humdrum, it will be found that he
is forever seeing the human implications, forever translating
his activities into terms of human welfare.
In the first talk I had with Colonel Goethals he said to me :
"My chief interest at Panama is not in engineering, but in
the men. The canal will build itself if we can handle the
men. ' '
Two simple but highly important changes were made after
i From the American Magazine. Copyright by the Phillips Publishing Co.
202 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
Goethals went to Panama. In the first place Eoosevelt made
Goethals the autocrat of the Isthmus. A leader educated by
the Nation, paid by the Nation, without hope of preferment
save through the service of the Nation, was placed in charge.
He could be trusted, and if he did not do well he could be im
mediately recalled and another trained man was ready to take
Ms place. It is, indeed, Goethals 's firm belief that the only
way to do public work satisfactorily is to place full power in
the hands of one man. He does not believe in commissions ;
for if there is no man in the commission strong enough to
dominate it, then it is dominated by the doubters ; and where
there is doubt, nothing can be done. And if there is a strong
man, then why the commission?
Eoosevelt also insisted that every man on the commission
should live on the Canal Zone — in short, be on the job. Of
the first Panama Commission only one man lived on the
Isthmus permanently; of the second commission, only two
men. But every man of the present commission lives where,
every day of the year, he can hear the sound of the drills or
the squealing of the donkey engines. As for Goethals him
self, his office and his home are almost on the brink of the hill
above Culebra Cut, the heart and center of the great work.
From his office window one can look down into the bottom of
the cut where the steam shovels are rooting, day and night,
into the red slides from Cucurache Hill.
While the working force was not demoralized when Goe
thals went to Panama — for Stevens had done much in lick
ing it into form — it can be said with truth that it had never
been soundly moralized.
There had been so many changes of engineers and commis
sioners, such backing and filling as to policies, that no strong
guiding purpose can be said to have existed and the workers
were in a constant state of unrest. The rank and file, how
ever, were strongly attached to Stevens, yielding that loyalty
to a strong man which they had not yet been inspired to give
to the idea.
Though brusque and even rough in many of his methods of
dealing with labor, Stevens had that magnetism of personal-
Copyright by Clinedinst, Washington, D. C.
GEORGE W. GOETHALS
GEORGE W. GOETHALS 205
ity, coupled with driving energy, which have been character
istic of many great railroad builders. The men at Panama
were instinctively opposed to the new plan of control by army
officers. Government work had a bad name.
This spirit of hostility was shown at a meeting at Corozal
soon after Goethals arrived. Goethals was present, but
Stevens was not. Every reference to Stevens was greeted
with prolonged cheering. When the toastmaster introduced
Goethals it was with an ironical speech conveying the general
sentiment of hostility toward army control. It was intimated
that now the work would have to be carried on with due cere
mony and that when an officer appeared everyone would have
to stop and salute.
Goethals talks best when he is angry. He made the direct,
hard-hitting speech of the man of action; " words like blows,"
as one listener described it. He said that he wanted no salut
ing on the zone, that no man would be judged by the salutes
he gave but by the work he did, and he wanted it understood
that he was there, not for ceremony, but to dig the canal.
Goethals was as good as his word. Shoulder straps and
brass buttons among officers employed in canal work have
been notable for their absence at Panama. Goethals himself
has not once worn his uniform. But it is a wonderful thing
down there today to see the men salute the Colonel as he
passes. It is no military salute, however, but the engineer
waving his hand from the cab of his engine, the steam-shovel
man (both hands on his levers) nodding his head, and the
Colonel making an equally friendly response.
Goethals 's first appearance was thus auspicious, but it was
only the beginning of the battle.
"Wait until the Colonel tackles the labor unions !" said the
prophets of the hotel verandas.
The American workmen at Panama, who fill all of the high-
skilled positions, were of a fine type, and most of them were
strongly organized in unions. Stevens had accepted the pri
vate enterprise view of the labor problem and dealt with the
unions as he would with a hostile state — by truce and treaty.
206 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
He signed contracts with the men, just as a railroad company
might have done.
Soon after Goethals 's arrival disturbances which had been
brewing for some time among the engineers, conductors, and
steam-shovel men came to a head. They wanted more pay,
and they wanted Goethals to sign agreements with them as
Stevens had done. They had brought to bear the tremendous
influence of their unions and brotherhoods in the States, so
that Eoosevelt had sent Taft to Panama to see if the difficul
ties could not be adjusted. A substantial increase in wages
was granted; but Goethals, reversing Stevens 's policy, re
fused to enter into signed agreements with the unions.
Some of the men struck and Goethals promptly filled their
places, and when the old workmen wished to come back they
had to begin at the bottom of the ladder. Other appeals and
complaints went up to Eoosevelt, and the unions in the States
worked vigorously through their representatives in Congress.
The pressure was great, but Goethals remained firm. His
position was the result of no hasty decision, nor of prejudice,
but grew out of a settled point of view, not only toward this
particular work, but toward life.
The canal is not a private enterprise, based on profit, he
argued, but a government enterprise based on service. We
are not here to fight one another, but to fight the jungle and
the Culebra slides and the Chagres Eiver. No one is making
any profit out of it; there are no spoils. We are all working
here together for a common cause and we are all alike wage-
workers. Men's pay should not be settled on a basis of con
flict, upon their ability through organization to injure the
work, but upon the basis of service, or their ability to push
the work. It is as unjust for a labor union to force more
than its share of wages as against the unorganized men, as it
is for a contractor to snatch undue profits. Having no se
crets here, and every record wide open, we can and must settle
wages not as a matter of conflict and truce but upon the basis
of what each workman earns.
This was his logic : his fundamental point of view : and he
stood upon it like a rock.
GEORGE W. GOETHALS 207
' l Come to my office any time you like, ' ' he said to the work
men, "and we'll talk things over; but we will sign no agree
ments. ' '
In this position, after much pressure, Roosevelt upheld him.
It was inevitable that sooner or later these conflicting ideas
should come to a final clash. An engineer named Lough
while intoxicated ran over his signals, collided with a train,
and killed the conductor. He was tried and sentenced to a
year in the penitentiary. His union, backed generally by all
organized labor on the Isthmus, met and resolved to demand
his release. Goethals being then on the ocean returning to
Panama, they delayed striking until he arrived. A commit
tee called and delivered its ultimatum. Unless Lough was re
leased they would all resign that evening and tie up the en
tire canal — as they could easily do. Goethals heard them
through quietly, said very little, shook hands with them when
they departed. About eight o 'clock that evening the commit
tee began to worry, and finally, calling Goethals on the tele
phone, asked what he was going to do about it.
"Why," he said, "I thought you had all resigned. "
"You don't want the work tied up, do you?" they asked.
"I shall not be tying it up ; you'll be tying it up. You for
get that this is not a private enterprise ; it is a government
job."
' l Well, what are you going to do I "
"Any man not at work to-morrow morning will be per
manently dismissed. I have nothing further to say."
The next morning only one man failed to appear — and
there has been no labor disturbance of any consequence on
the Isthmus since.
If Goethals had stopped there, however, he might still have
failed. The refusal to recognize the union is a well-estab
lished method of private enterprise — not to do justice to the
men, but to keep down wages. But the new point of view, be
ing nothing superficial with Goethals, led him to still broader
policies. It is evident that if you are not to treat with the
men on the old basis of conflict you must accept unreservedly
the new basis of cooperation. In a true public work men
208 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
must be dealt with not as mere tools of industry but as citi
zens and co-workers in a common undertaking. Therefore
justice, not force, in dealing with them, is essential.
Goethals announced that he would be at his office at Culebra
every Sunday morning at seven o'clock, and that anyone on
the Isthmus, white or black, who thought he had been unjustly
used, might come and see him personally. They came, and
have been coming ever since. One Sunday morning while I
was on the Isthmus I counted thirty-eight men and women
waiting in the Colonel's office, and from seven o'clock in the
morning until one in the afternoon he was patiently sifting
out the personal problems and difficulties involved in that
great task.
Many people said at first that such a procedure, so different
from that usually pursued on great works, would speedily
ruin the discipline of the force, that underlings would con
stantly be seeking to appeal from the orders of their su
periors. But it has not worked that way. Instead of destroy
ing discipline it has infinitely sharpened it by founding it
soundly upon the general sense of reason and justice. It has
spurred every foreman, every superintendent, to redouble his
efforts to cooperate with his men rather than to drive them.
It has given Goethals himself an extraordinary, almost an un
canny, knowledge of every detail of the work. Is there a
weak spot or a weak man anywhere? The Colonel is one of
the first to know of it. No man down there is personally ac
quainted with as many men as he.
They have a song on the Isthmus with this chorus :
See Colonel Goethals, tell Colonel Goethals,
It's the only right and proper thing to do.
Just write a letter, or, even better,
Arrange a little Sunday interview.
Every man down there feels that the Colonel is behind him,
and that if anything goes wrong, he has only to "tell the
Colonel."
Discharged employees, women with domestic problems, con
valescents complaining of treatment in the hospitals, families
GEORGE W. GOETHALS 209
dissatisfied with the government houses, committees of work
ing men, eager inventors with devices for revolutionizing
some process of construction, homesick boys desiring to be
sent home — all these come to "tell the Colonel. " It is not
an easy task for a leader ; but it pays, for it touches the heart
of the matter, which is justice between man and man.
After I had heard some of these cases I understood better
the easy, democratic way in which the Colonel met so many
of the men when out on the work :
"Mr. Smith, how's the boy getting along ?" "Any more
trouble with the house? " "Mr. Burke, what do you hear
from home?"
No one, however, presumes upon this sympathy, this readi
ness to do justice ; or if they do presume once it never hap
pens again. For true justice, while it is kind, is never weak.
Behind these Sunday morning hearings looms always the
stern purpose : the canal is to be dug !
A man came into the office one Sunday morning, complain
ing that he had been unfairly discharged. The Colonel keeps
a complete record of every employee of the canal. After re
ferring to this record he turned to the workman before him.
"See here, Mr. Smith, this is your history, and it is not a
good one. You have not been faithful to your job. You have
been constantly in trouble. We can't dig the canal with men
like you. You can see that yourself. You come asking for
justice and I'm going to give it to you. I am going to con
firm your discharge and send you home."
Everything must be done to build up a spirit of common en
thusiasm. Many men, for example, who came to see Goe-
thals, especially the more ignorant workmen, complained of
abusive language on the part of foremen brought up in the
old school of private enterprise. One day Goethals issued
this order:
PKOFANE LANGUAGE
Culebra, C. Z., August 4, 1911.
CIRCULAR No. 400 :
The use of profane or abusive language by fore-
210 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
men or others in authority, when addressing sub
ordinates, will not be tolerated.
GEORGE W. GOETHALS,
Chairman and Chief Engineer.
Another corollary of the new point of view was Goethals's
attitude toward every form of privilege, even the little incon
sequential privileges. For example, certain officials had se
cured the privilege of using a fine quality of bread, especially
made for the sick in the hospitals, instead of the bread sup
plied from the commission bakeries. Others had been using
the convalescent sanitarium at Taboga Island as a sort of
vacation boarding place, paying the low rates charged to in-
valids. Some officials had carriages while others had none.
All such discriminations Goethals has swept away; no one
has any right in public work to enjoy advantages that all can
not have on equal terms.
It is a curious thing, the impression one gets on the canal of
tense activity, almost of strained activity. The rush and urge
of the work strikes every visitor. A writer in the English
Pall Mall Magazine says that " every man who comes to
the Canal Zone is tuned beyond any concert pitch, " and he
fears the ' ' strings will break. ' ' I happened to arrive in Pan
ama during the annual fiesta of the pleasure-loving native
Panamanians. For three or four afternoons all the stores in
the native towns were closed and the people gave themselves
wholly to play : but though the air was full of confetti and the
sounds of music, the work of the great canal roared steadily
onward. I watched the workmen on the new Panama depot
— they scarcely turned their heads to see the show in the
streets! And while many other nations represented at Pan
ama provided floats for the parade, the United States, more
concerned in the affairs of the country than any of them,
had none. This was felt by the diplomatically minded to be a
mistake, and perhaps it was ; but Uncle Sam was so busy dig
ging, he simply forgot !
Now if the incentives to energy and enthusiasm which char
acterize a private enterprise are here lacking, why all this
GEOEGE W. GOETHALS 211
fierce, absorbing activity? Why complete the canal a year
early? Why, if there is no profit in it for anybody and the
Government is paying the bills, should there be such a strug
gle to save money? Why this effort to turn eight or ten
million dollars of the estimated appropriations back into the
treasury?
When I first went to Panama I could not understand the
marvelous spirit of struggle so evident on every hand. But
after I had tramped on foot over much of the great work,
after I had sat for hours in Culebra Cut watching the indom
itable assault upon the sliding red hills, after I had talked
with many of the men, both those in high positions and those
in low positions, I began to understand it. The whole force,
as the English writer suggests, has been keyed up to concert
pitch. Not with the old incentives of private enterprise, but
with a spirit quite new and wonderful. A jungle to be pen
etrated, a mountain range to be cut through, gigantic locks to
be built — how these things have taken hold of the imagina
tion of the men at Panama !
It is in his work of arousing, directing, and intensifying this
"irresistible and irrepressible spirit ,of enthusiasm " that
Goethals has shown transcendent qualities of leadership. It
is the greatest thing that has been done at Panama. And its
doing has been no accident: it has been the result of the sound
thinking, stern purpose, and democratic ideals of the leader.
In June (1912) in an address to the graduating class at West
Point, Colonel Goethals expressed his fundamental philosophy
in the clearest terms ; and I venture to say that there cannot
be found anywhere a higher or finer expression of the task
of the twentieth century leader. In this address he said :
"To successfully accomplish any task, it is necessary not
only that you should give it the best that is in you, but that
you should obtain for it the best there is in those who are
under your guidance. To do this you must have confidence
in the undertaking and confidence in your ability to accom
plish it, in order to inspire the same feeling in them. You
must have not only accurate knowledge of their capabilities,
but a just appreciation and a full recognition of their needs
212 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
and rights as fellow men. In other words, be considerate, just
and fair with them in all dealings, treating them as fellow
members of the great Brotherhood of Humanity. A discon
tented force is seldom loyal, and if its discontent is based upon
a sense of unjust treatment, it is never efficient. Faith in the
ability of a leader is of slight service unless it be united with
faith in his justice. When these two are combined, then and
then only, is developed that irresistible and irrepressible spirit
of enthusiasm, that personal interest and pride in the task,
which inspires every member of the force, be it military or
civil, to give when need arises the last ounce of his strength
and the last drop of his blood to the winning of a victory in
the honor of which he will share. ' '
This ideal of " irresistible and irrepressible enthusiasm "
has actually been realized at Panama. I don't know of any
word that will so adequately describe it as patriotism — a
new sort of patriotism, a greater sort — for here men are not
fighting one another but are firmly knit together for the com
mon struggle against nature. I found everywhere that men
were intensely proud of the length of their service on the
canal, proud of the government medals which each man re
ceives after a certain tenure of service, and eager to remain
until the work is finished. I've wondered if this spirit both
of the leadership and of the followers does not foreshadow
the nature of the warfare of the future !
How has he done it ? When Goethals first went to Panama
the work was organized on what may be called the horizontal
system — that is, the canal was considered as a whole, and
one commissioner had charge of all the lock work, another of
the excavation, and so on; but after a short trial of this
method Goethals reorganized the entire work on what may be
called a perpendicular basis. He divided the canal into three
divisions — Atlantic, Central, and Pacific — and placed each
of them under a superintendent. Two of these superintend
ents, Colonels Sibert and Gaillard, were army engineers and
members of the Canal Commission, and the third, Mr. Wil
liamson, was a civil engineer.
Rivalry was instantly awakened between these divisions.
GEORGE W. GOETHALS 213
' ' They are putting in concrete at Gatun at so many yards a
day, ' ' he would tell the foreman, say at Pedro Miguel. ' i You
aren 't going to let Gatun beat you, are you ? ' '
A fierce rivalry grew up over amounts of excavation done,
cement used, iron work put in, and the results were published
from week to week in the Canal Record. The struggle has
come to infect all classes of workmen. A story is told (and
they swear it is true!) of a man on the Atlantic division em
ployed at the upper end of a huge drainage pipe used to carry
water out of the hydraulic fill at Gatun dam. It was a long
tunnel with a curve in the middle, and this man's job con
sisted in keeping the entrance free from obstruction. One
day he inconsiderately fell into the pipe and was caught up
and swept through with the torrent. They picked him up for
dead, but presently, opening his eyes, he said, "They couldn't
do that on the Pacific division ! ' '
Similarly Goethals stirred rivalry among the steam-shovel
men as to which crew could dig the most dirt day by day and
week by week, and this contest, the results of which also ap
pear regularly in the Record, is one of the real interests
upon the zone. The steam-shovel scores are as eagerly
scanned as the baseball records ! Here, for example, is part
of a monthly steam-shovel record as it appears in the Canal
Record.
"The high record for the month was made by shovel No.
208, working 25 days in the Culebra district, which excavated
54,866 cubic yards of rock and earth. The second best record
for the month was made by shovel No. 207, working 25 days in
the Culebra district, which excavated 54,356 cubic yards of
rock.
"Shovel No. 260, working in the Culebra district, made a
high record for one day by excavating 3,040 cubic yards of
earth on July 26th."
Having thus established records in many lines — excavat
ing, cement-work and so on — Goethals and his aids encour
aged the workmen to beat them.
"I hear No. 300 took out 14,000 cubic yards last week,"
Goethals tells a shovel man; "you ought to beat that!"
214 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
"Colonel, we're going to do it!"
"Good! there's a hundred thousand yards right here to
take out. Go to it. ' '
One of the great things that Goethals has done is to develop
a complete and minute system of cost keeping. In this way
he is able to compare the aggregate work of the three great
divisions and he can judge the efficiency of foremen and even,
in some cases, of individual men and crews. And he works
all the men constantly against the cost records, of which there
is complete publicity.
And now, in a wonderful way,Goethals is working the force
against nature herself. The rainy season is coming on and
the water is filling Gatun Lake, creeping into the cut and
slowly filling the locks.
"Mr. Cowles, the water is coming in. Are you going to
have that dam done?"
"We've got to, Colonel."
"When are you due for this cement work, Mr. Walker?"
"April 15th."
"You must surely get it then. The rainy season is coming
on."
Within a space of less than half a mile in and near Culebra
Cut an army of over eight thousand men were engaged while
I was there. And every night as much soil slid into the cut
as they could carry off by day. But nowhere was there a sign
of discouragement — only a grim joy of the fight. I walked
through the cut one morning with Colonel Goethals after
there had been an unusually extensive slide. The foreman
had been on the job since midnight.
"Well, how is everything this morning, Mr. Hagen?"
asked the Colonel.
1 ' Fine, Colonel, fine. It buried that steam shovel over there
and tipped over two batteries of drills and covered all the
tracks through the cut but one, but everything's fine. We're
diggin'."
The Colonel has an infectious spirit of confidence. He
never loses faith or courage. One of the foremen said to me,
"I never yet saw the Colonel discouraged. I believe if Gold
GEORGE W. GOETHALS 215
Hill should fall in some morning, he 'd say, ' Well, it might be
worse, 9 and light another cigarette. ' '
In the last analysis, indeed, the same high qualities of man
hood exhibited in Pickett's charge at Gettysburg are all ex
emplified in the attacks upon Gold Hill at Panama. No sooner
are these soldiers of the new dispensation beaten back than
they re-form, advance their batteries of drills, move forward
with their giant steam shovels, deploy their regiments of
workmen and storm the works ! Men are just as truly giving
up their lives on the steep soft slopes of Cucurache slide as
were they who gave them up at Gettysburg !
It seems to me I have never seen anything finer than this
spirit at Panama. After years of hearing of the shame of
corrupt politics and of the inhumanity of industry in Amer
ica, it is refreshing, indeed, to find here not only an exempli
fication of the ancient fiber of the race but a realization of its
newest ideals.
When I began making inquiries about Colonel Goethals 's
personal history, for it seemed highly important that we
should know something of the origin and training of the new
leadership, I found almost no available material beyond the
colorless facts of his military record. He has never courted
publicity, he never makes a speech if he can help it, he has
none of that political instinct which so readily coins pictur
esque personal facts into popular interest. He has always
been a worker, not a talker; and it is by his work that he
wishes to be judged. But through somewhat extended in
quiries not only at Panama, but at Washington, West Point,
and in New York City, I have been able to gather some inter
esting and significant facts showing from what sources and by
what training Colonel Goethals has risen.
Colonel Goethals is fifty-five years old. He was born in
Schermerhorn Street near the old Talmage Church in the
heart of the city of Brooklyn, New York. His father and
mother were both Hollanders. His grandfather, who was a
physician, came to America early in the last century, but later
returned to Holland and died there. I found that Lewis S.
Burchard, a classmate of Colonel Goethals at the College of
216 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
the City of New York, had discovered (unknown to Colonel
Goethals) some interesting facts regarding the antecedents
of the family. The name is ancient and honorable. An old
French roster of the Crusaders in Mr. Burchard's possession
mentions seven different noblemen, statesmen and scholars of
the Goethals name who distinguished themselves in the early
history of Flanders. One, Gerrem Goethals, known as the
Lord of Mude, was a leader in the First Crusade. Another,
Henri Goethals, was surnamed "the dignified doctor, " and
was one of the "great geniuses of the thirteenth century," a
pupil of Albertus Magnus and a fellow student of St. Thomas
Aquinas. The family has been a prominent one in Holland
ever since, noted alike for soldiers and scholars. Colonel
Goethals has 'many relatives in Amsterdam and in Belgium,
both French and Dutch speaking, though he has never seen
them. Such significance as one chooses may be drawn from
the device on the Goethals arms: "In als goet" (In all good).
While it is interesting, and important, to know these facts
relative to the blood of the family, it is certain that no boy or
no man ever placed less dependence upon them than Colonel
Goethals, if indeed he ever thought of them.
He began work as an errand boy in a broker's office at
eleven years of age. At fourteen he was a cashier and book
keeper for a man named Prentice who kept a market in the
old part of New York at the corner of Bleecker and Thompson
streets. Here young Goethals, beginning at a wage of five
dollars a week, worked after school on week days and all day
long on Saturdays. His pay gradually increased until he
went to West Point, when he was earning fifteen dollars a
week. At an age when most boys are playing baseball, young
Goethals was not only taking his full allowance of schooling,
but earning his own living. It was a hard experience, but it
brought him close in touch with the real and deep things of
life, and it gave him an understanding of the point of view of
the under man, the worker, that has served him well in his
duties at Panama.
At fourteen he entered the College of the City of New York,
then, as now, a remarkable institution. Its president at that
GEORGE W. GOETHALS 217
time was Gen. Alexander S. Webb, a noted soldier, whose
brigade had received the frontal attack of Pickett's charge at
Gettysburg and who had been awarded the Congressional
Medal of Honor. He was a sturdy gentleman of the old
school who used to say to his pupils: "A man can do any
thing so long as he doesn't lie." Founded by the City of
New York as "The Free Academy," it was the original aim
to make the school a sort of civil West Point. Mental dis
cipline was sought in the sciences and the modern languages
as well as in the classics. West Point text books such as
Bartlett's Mechanics, and Acoustics and Optics were used-
tough books, too — and West Point teachers came frequently
to lecture.
At this time, as Mr. Burchard describes him, he was tall
and straight, a modest boy with the "milk and blood" com
plexion of the low countries, yellow hair and blue eyes, a
typical young Hollander. Though not widely known among
other students, for the necessity of bread-winning consumed
every vacant hour, his name appears here as a member of
Clionia, a local literary society, and of Delta Upsilon, an t i an
ti-secret ' ' fraternity.
Goethals's early ambition was to be a doctor. His grand
father had been a doctor and it had been traditional for some
one, or more, Goethals of each generation to enter that pro
fession. Accordingly he matriculated at Columbia College
with the idea of taking the medical course, but his health, un
dermined by years of excessive work, began to fail. He grew
thin and stooping, and he began to be fearful that he could
not stand the strain of taking a severe course in medicine
and at the same time earning his way. It then occurred to
him, perhaps the result of the West Point influence at City
College, to go into the navy or army. His first choice was
the navy, but having no influential friends, there seemed no
way for him to get an appointment. Finally he wrote a let
ter to General Grant, then president; but though he waited
a long time he received no reply.
He was not, however, the sort of boy to be easily discour
aged. He next applied to "Sunset" Cox, at that time the
218 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
great political leader in New York state. Cox had been dis
appointed with several of the boys he had sent to West Point
and he was anxious to appoint a cadet who would 1 1 really go
through. " So he gave the boy a chance, and on April 21,
1876, at the age of eighteen, Goethals entered the military
academy.
It is to be observed here that Goethals 's whole education
was obtained in public schools and colleges, and schools of a
severe type where sound mental discipline was made the cen
tral purpose. Two things Goethals says he got at West
Point: sound physique, for the training there soon restored
him physically, and intellectual discipline.
Since I have seen something of the fine work being done by
army engineers at Panama, done without fuss or feathers,
and without the incentive of private profit, I have wondered
what there was in the training at West Point to cultivate this
type of man. So I visited West Point, and Colonel Fiebeger,
the chief of the engineering department, outlined some of the
vital points of the education there given. Discipline is the
central motive of the training, discipline for the service of the
nation. The course is rigidly prescribed and no man's work
can be postponed or shirked : it must be done day by day. If
a man can't keep up he is dropped. This tends to induce
sound habits of work. No distinctions are drawn between
boys on account of family or political connections, or be
tween rich and poor. Merit is made the sole test. Training
in accepting responsibility is constant and insistent, and at
the point where responsibility counts most in the command
of other men. Strict truth-telling is a vital part of the tradi
tion at West Point. In military service a false report can
not be tolerated : a liar is not only no gentleman but he can
not be a good soldier. If the training at West Point is in
some respects narrow, it is thorough.
There are three principal honors within the reach of the
cadet at West Point. The first relates to his scholarship, his
ability as a student, the second to his qualification as a leader
and officer, and the third expresses the regard in which he is
GEORGE W. GOETHALS 219
held by his fellow students. Many men excel in one of these
directions, but few in all of them, as Goethals did.
As to scholarship, Goethals stood number two in a class of
fifty-four men. Men highest in rank are chosen for the corps
of engineers; of Goethals 's class only two were so chosen,
and he was one of them.
He was not only strong in scholarship but he was so highly
regarded by the tactical department that he was chosen in
his last year as one of the four captains of the cadet corps.
The first of these two honors may come to a man by dint of
hard work, the second is the result of the deliberate judgment
of his superiors, but the third is based solely upon the re
spect, affection, and confidence of his fellow students. And
no man in his class stood as high with his fellows as Goethals.
A classmate told me that one of the things that chiefly dis
tinguished Goethals at West Point was his loyalty to his class ;
he wanted to attain success for himself, but he also wanted
the whole class to make an unexampled record. He was of
ten found coaching or tutoring the less able men to bring them
up to the standard. It was no accident that won for Goethals
the highest honor within the gift of his fellow students —
election, prior to graduation, as president of his class. It is
thus noteworthy that before he left West Point he had already
displayed those high qualities of character, as distinguished
from intellectual brilliancy, which mark the true leader. He
was soundly respected by the men who knew him best.
After further training in the army engineering school at
Willet's Point, Goethals began the long quiet service of the
army engineer in time of peace. He says that he got his real
start while serving under Colonel Merrill at Cincinnati.
"The most unfortunate thing about you," Colonel Merrill
told him when he reported, "is that you are a lieutenant of
engineers. If you can subordinate that fact you may suc
ceed."
"I'm here to learn," said Goethals.
So Merrill started him at the bottom as a rodman, under
trained civil engineers, and he worked his way up to be fore
man.
220 FAMOUS LIVING AMEEICANS
When the Spanish War broke out, Goethals thought his
great opportunity had come, and he was ready for it; but
unfortunately he was chosen as chief engineeer of the First
Army Corps and was sent to Porto Rico — where nothing
happened.
While this was a great disappointment to him he returned
to his former work with unabated energy.
All the time, however, he was gaining practical experience
which was to fit him for the great task at Panama. In his
various assignments he dug canals, built locks, constructed
fortifications and bridges, handled men, did everything, in
fact, that he was afterward called upon to do on a much larg
er scale at Panama. His most important works were the
construction of dams, canals, and locks at Mussel Shoals in
the Tennessee River, and the extensive fortification and har
bor work at Newport, Rhode Island. In 1903 he was called
to Washington as a member of the general staff, one of the
first engineer officers to be so appointed. Here he did what
he had been doing all his life, inspired the strong and able
men with whom he came in contact with a sense of confidence
in him and confidence in his sound judgment, loyalty, ability.
When it came to the point of choosing a man to send to
Panama, "we all thought first of Goethals," General Mac
kenzie told me. For six years now he has been supreme at
Panama, and to him more than any other man is due the
success of the greatest engineering enterprise in history.
Some other personal facts should also be known: Colonel
Goethals was married in 1884 at New Bedford, Massachusetts,
to Miss Rodman, a daughter of an old and prominent family
of Quaker merchants. His older son was graduated recently
from West Point near the head of his class and is a lieuten
ant of the engineers, serving under his father at Panama.
His second son, now a student at Harvard, will be a doctor.
Colonel Goethals 's success has been due to a few broad,
solid, simple principles upon which he has founded his life.
At the basis lies the quality of loyalty. "There is no suc
cess/' he said to the students at West Point, "without this
quality. The man who is disloyal to his profession, to his
GEORGE W. GOETHALS 221
superior, or to Ms country, is disloyal to himself and to all
that is best in him."
He believes profoundly in action, in taking responsibility.
"The world today, " he says, "is above all else a practical
world and it demands results. What it is looking for is men
who can and will do things. It is recorded of Lord Kitchener
that, when during the South African Campaign a subordinate
officer reported to him a failure to obey orders and gave rea
sons therefor, he said to him: 'Your reasons for not doing
it are the best I ever heard, now go and do it ! ' That is what
the world demands to-day."
Above all, in his relationships with his fellow men, he has
the true spirit of democracy. He believes in men and he be
lieves in the Nation. He believes, as he says, in being "con
siderate, just and fair" with his associates, "treating them
as fellow members of the great Brotherhood of Humanity."
And finally he believes that the incentive to achievement
should be the sense of duty to one's self and one's country,
not the hope of reward either in profit or in fame. His is
almost the stern view of the old Stoics.
"We are inclined," he says, "to expect praise or reward
for doing nothing more than our duty, when as a matter of
fact we are entitled to neither, since we have done only what
is required of us."
Such a man is not easily stirred from his purpose, nor de
ceived by popular commendation, nor shaken by popular dis
approval.
"The plaudits of our fellows," he says, "may be flattering
to our vanity, but they are not lasting; by the next turn of
the wheel they may be changed into abuse and condemna
tion."
Such, in short, is the man chosen for this great new task
of national leadership. We may be proud in America of our
broad acres and rich mines and wonderful forests and busy
factories, but we are truly rich only as we can produce such
men as Colonel Goethals, and give them the environment fav
orable to the exercise of their largest powers.
222 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Americans in Panama. (Statler Publishing Co.) By W. R. Scott.
Panama : the Canal, the Country, and the People. (Macmillan.) By
Albert Edwards.
Panama Gateway. (Scribner.) By J. B. Bishop.
Zone Policeman. (Century.) By H. A. Francke.
PERIODICALS
Boss of the Job. By Albert Edwards. Outlook 98 :390.
Builder of the Canal. By Farnham Bishop. World's Work 24:389.
Glory of Panama. By Ray Stannard Baker. American Magazine
76 :33.
Panama Canal. By George Washington Goethals. National Geo
graphic Magazine 22 :148.
Copyright 1914 by Moffett Studio, Chicago
ANNA A. GORDON
BY LUELLA F. McWHIRTEB
WE, of the present generation, are witnessing an era of
temperance sentiment such as the world has never
known. To those who have not studied the matter
historically, the temperance reforms in Europe and in the
Orient, entire States in America voting "dry," a prohibi
tion army and navy, and the slogan * * On to Washington, ' ' all
seem little less than miraculous. But the movement is not a
fungus growth. It has its roots deep down in the hearts of a
loyal people who will not be silenced until they accomplish
their end. The seeds were largely sown by a quiet, unassum
ing woman, to whom, more than to any individual now living,
is due this change in public sentiment the world over. For
many years as general secretary of the World 's Loyal Tem
perance Legion, Anna Adams Gordon planted total abstinence
ideals in the hearts of thousands of children, and taught them
that l ' every man 's weal should be each man 's care. ' ' To-day,
in accord with the songs she wrote for them, they are lifting
their voices in a mighty demand for the protection of home
and state.
Miss Gordon is the logical head of the great organization
whose forces she is now directing. As the secretary and in
timate friend of Frances E. Willard, counsellor and vice-
president to her successor, Lillian M. N. Stevens, she has been
familiar with the work of the Woman's Christian Temper
ance Union almost from the beginning. To-day the national
organization numbers three hundred thousand women united
in a society unparalleled in its effective machinery, its devo
tion and self-sacrifice. Its capable, modest leader is Anna
A. Gordon, the embodiment of its highest ideals.
Anna Adams Gordon was born July 21, 1853, in Boston,
Mass. She is the daughter of James M. and Mary Clarkson
Gordon. The father was Scotch and the mother English.
Both were Christians and ardent abolitionists. There were
226 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
several children, one of whom, the late Mrs. Alice Gordon
Gulick, founded a college for girls in Madrid, Spain, where
she with her husband and family held a position of large influ
ence for thirty years.
In the Gordon home God was reverenced and attention was
given to the individual development of each child. Daily at
family prayers the Scriptures were read, and there were al
ways music and the singing of hymns. Frances Willard has
told us that at no place did she ever hear such beautiful voices
in song in one family. The father was prominent for many
years in the councils of the Congregational church, serving
in different capacities. For a quarter of a century he was
treasurer of the board of commissioners of Foreign Missions.
The atmosphere of that home was conducive to the develop
ment of the true, the beautiful, and the good in the lives of
those who shared its beneficent influence.
Anna was a happy, bonnie little girl, with sunny brown hair,
and large, beautiful, appealing eyes. She could sing almost
as sweetly as the birds she loved, and by the time she was
ten years old, she played the hymns that were sung at family
prayers. She dearly loved flowers, pets, and smiling, win
some babies and was blessed with a tender, sympathetic spirit.
She was three years old when her father and mother moved
from Boston to Auburndale, a beautiful suburb. A glimpse
of the child's first day in the new home shows Miss Gordon's
essentially esthetic temperament. "She had been missed by
members of the household, and a search was made, resulting
in the discovery of the child leaning over an old cane-seated
chair, which had blossomed into a miniature bed of violets
under her magic touch; the child's eyes had been quick to spy
the blossoms, her small hands scarcely less quick to transfer
them to the old cane seat, dropping them one by one into the
perforated surface. ' ' l
Miss Gordon attended the Boston high school and later
Lasall Seminary and Mt. Holyoke College. She spent a
year with her sister in Madrid, and upon her return contin
ued her musical studies until she met Frances E. Willard at
i Union Signal, April 30, 1914, p. 6.
ANNA A. GORDON 227
one of the Moody revival meetings in Boston, in 1877. Of
this meeting Miss Willard once wrote :
"On my going to conduct the women 's meetings for Mr.
Moody, there was no one to play the organ ; an earnest appeal
was made and after a painful pause and waiting, a slight
figure in black with a music roll in her hand came shyly
along the aisle, and Anna Gordon gently whispered, 'As no
one volunteers, I will do the best I can.' That very day she
had taken her first lesson on the organ, meaning to become
mistress of that instrument, but something greater had come
into her life a fortnight earlier. Her brother Arthur, eight
een years of age, and nearer to her by years and tempera
ment than any of the others (a devoted Christian boy who
stood in the first rank at the high school, and was preparing
for Amherst College with the expectation of becoming a min
ister), had suddenly died. This was Anna's first sorrow,
and broke up the deep springs of her sweet nature. She had
been a Christian and church member since she was twelve
years old, but a deeper current Godward now flowed through
her soul. This was her first visit to Boston after her brother
had gone, and she had just attended Mr. Moody 's noon meet
ing, in which the text had been, l Whatsoever He saith unto
you do it/ and had promised in her inmost heart, she would
try to do helpful things as the opportunity offered; and be
hold, the very first ' opportunity' wras to come forward before
twelve or fifteen hundred waiting women, and ' start the tune. '
When I knew these things, I said in my heart, ' This is a rare
young spirit.'
"I wish I could picture her as she looked then in her sweet
youth, with eyes that were the mirror of an absolute truth
fulness, no less than the utmost kindness and good will, with
soft, fair hair over a forehead that my mother used to say
was 'one of the most urbane and symmetrical she ever saw,'
with a pretty complexion and a smile full of humor and good
will. She was hardly of medium height, and of slight figure,
with a remarkably alert bearing, and quick gliding step. She
had that noiseless way of getting about, and doing things with-
228 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
out one's knowing that she did them, which I have not found
to be a common characteristic."
For three months Miss Willard led those great meetings
for women, and at her request Miss Gordon played the organ
at every meeting. They became friends, and soon Miss Wil
lard gave her correspondence to her care. Concerning this,
Miss Willard said:
"In the prompt and accurate execution of commissions,
tactful meeting of people, skilful style in correspondence, I
have not known her equal. As soon as the meetings were
over, she had a lecture trip ready for me, extending all through
New England. I remember she brought her plan to me in a
little book ruled in red and black ink, showing the town, the
hostess, the place of meeting, the time and place of trains, in
deed every item that one need wish, so that I used playfully
to say, if I should only pin Anna's directions on my back, I
could go the country over in the capacity of an express pack
age."
At the close of the Moody meetings, the friendship of Miss
Willard and Miss Gordon had become so great that Miss Gor
don went to Best Cottage to live with Miss Willard and to
become her private secretary.
When Miss Willard 's work as president of the National
Woman's Christian Temperance Union became heavy and ab
sorbing, it was Miss Gordon who superintended and arranged
all of her engagements. She shielded her from all petty an
noyances and detail work. In the formative period of the
organization, together they visited every town of over ten
thousand population in the United States, holding one or
more meetings in the interest of the Woman's Christian Tem
perance Union.
After Miss Willard organized the World's Woman's Chris
tian Temperance Union, uniting the temperance women of
many nations in a peaceful warfare "For God, Home and
Humanity," the new international relations increased the al
ready heavy demands upon those in leadership. It was Miss
Gordon who accompanied Miss Willard on all her travels in
the United States, in Canada, and in Europe. At one time
ANNA A. GORDON 229
they spent a year in England, much of which time they were
guests of Lady Henry Somerset, who later became president
of the World's W. C. T. U.
For twenty-one years Miss Gordon stood by Miss Willard
in the temperance work. They were the closest of friends.
Concerning that friendship, Mrs. Katherine Lente Stevenson
has said:
"She was a part of Miss Willard 's very self, as few daugh
ters are parts of their mothers. Her love for the great leader
seemed a composite of all loves.
"More truly than any other love I have ever known, was
it absolutely free from the faintest shadow of personal jeal
ousy. Other friends came in to that many sided life (of Miss
Gordon), her interests were world wide, and many great na
tures were attracted to her winsome personality, but this early
love (for Miss Willard) never wavered, never knew doubt or
the shadow of turning, never put the thought of self before the
interests of her friend. 'I hope it will not seem irreverent/
said Miss Gordon to me, 'but I took it as my motto long ago,
' ' I love them that love her, ' ' and no one can love her too well
to please me. ' Is it any wonder that so great a nature should
have found close kinship with the greatest woman of the
century . . .?
"What Anna Gordon was to Frances Willard, eternity alone
can show. She touched her life, not alone through the chan
nel of its deep affections, but through the manifold, broad
channels of her work for humanity. Not one of the great
leader's plans and purposes were ever withheld from her
friend, and while her fertile brain originated the seed thought,
to Anna Gordon was given the privilege of preparing the soil
in which that thought might come to its perfect maturity.
Frances Willard was the genius, but Anna Gordon made the
environment in which that genius came to its fullest develop
ment. Her capacity for detail has always been marvelous,
and through all the years she was Miss Willard 's constant
companion, whether in traveling, or at Rest Cottage, Evans-
ton, Illinois, at home or abroad, it was upon her that the detail
work devolved. She planned the trips; she cared for the
230 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
finances; she sheltered and protected from petty cares; and
she made it possible for that mighty intellect to give itself
without reserve, without restraint or hindrance, to the work
to which she was called. An 'Organized Providence ' she cer
tainly was, and a necessary complement to Miss Willard 's in
most nature and life.
"The ' divinity that shapes our ends' ordained for Miss
Gordon a mission that an angel might well envy, and so long
as the name of Frances E. Willard lives in the minds of men
and women and upon the pages of history ... so long
will the name of Anna Gordon be linked with hers ; and as a
new Damon and Pythias, or better still, a new David and
Jonathan, they will take their place among the immortal few
who have proven that earthly friendship may be a flower of
heaven's own planting, and that the greatest privilege which
can come to a mortal life is that of loving faithful ministry."
When Mrs. Lillian M. N. Stevens succeeded Miss Willard
as president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union,
Miss Gordon became vice-president at large. Valiantly, and
with profound efficiency, she stood by Lillian M. N. Stevens.
With an unfaltering, unwavering fidelity she met the duties of
close counsellor and coadjutor. Her fidelity and her loyalty
to Mrs. Stevens during their years of close companionship
was abounding in the spirit of love that "vaunteth not it
self." Upon the death of Lillian M. N. Stevens, April 19,
1914, Miss Gordon became the president of the National
Woman's Christian Temperance Union.
Miss Gordon has been so closely allied with the work in this
country and as honorary secretary of the World's Woman's
Christian Temperance Union since its organization, that she
is probably more familiar with the plan and purposes of the
temperance leaders of the world to-day than any other per
son. While she has varied talents, and has given unreserved
ly of her ability to the work of philanthropy as expressed in
the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, her life has had a
fullness and richness enjoyed by few.
Her outlook is so broad that from her early years she real
ized, as few of the world's great characters have done, the
ANNA A. GORDON 231
part played by children in shaping human destiny, the value
of the deeper currents of child life as part of the mighty tide
which shall usher in the triumph of righteousness. With such
a conception, early in her career she enlisted the children's in
terest in temperance work. The boys and girls of many coun
tries have been united by her under the banner of the Loyal
Temperance Legion, the children's branch of the Woman's
Christian Temperance Union.
Miss Gordon has written much of the literature of the Loyal
Temperance Legion — programs for meetings, recitations,
stories, and especially, a great number of songs. She is the
author of the Temperance Songster and several books of
Marching Songs. Her temperance songs for children have
been translated into several languages. Wherever there is
work for temperance among children, not only in L. T. L. 's
but in separate organizations and in Sunday schools as well,
Miss Gordon's Marching Songs are used, edition after edition
being demanded, until the sales now number a million copies.
Miss Gordon is not only the children's temperance song
writer of the world, but for many years she has been the ed
itor of The Young Crusader, a temperance paper for children
that has had a wide circulation in English-speaking countries.
Anna Adams Gordon not only has united the children of
many countries in the Loyal Temperance Legion under the
banner "Tremble, King Alcohol, We Shall Grow Up," but she
has also organized The Young Campaigners for Prohibition in
this country.
In Maine when the battle waged fiercest for the retention
of the Prohibition Amendment, Miss Gordon, then in Port
land, issued a call to the boys and girls of Maine to become
Young Campaigners for Prohibition. In all history a call to
the children to help in such campaigns had never been made.
It was estimated that within six weeks thirty thousand boys
and girls, representing the various walks of life, responded to
that call and became Young Campaigners for Prohibition.
Miss Gordon not only organized these young recruits, but gave
them their rally cries and their songs. In nearly every town
in Maine the influence of the children's parades, their banners
232 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
and their songs were a balance of power against the organ
ized liquor forces of the whole country, notwithstanding the
money they poured into Maine in order to defeat "The Pro
hibitory Amendment. ' '
In all state campaigns for prohibition, since the Maine vic
tory, the Young Campaigners for Prohibition have had an im
portant part.
Miss Gordon's heart responds so tenderly and sympathet
ically to child life, that by her songs, her writings, and her
personality, she is known and loved by children around the
world. July 21st, the birthday of Anna Adams Gordon, is
celebrated by thousands of children.
Somehow the poetic temperament, the artistic instinct, and
overwhelming love for children, have conspired to keep Miss
Gordon young. At a great children's meeting held recently
in Philadelphia, a stranger remarked, after watching Miss
Gordon 's marvelous management of the meeting, ' l How girl
ish she looks !" Her slight figure, erect carriage and graceful
bearing, with her winsome personality give her a distinctly
youthful appearance. She is distinctively feminine.
Besides her stories and songs for children, her musical com
positions, and many articles and pamphlets on various phases
of W. C. T. U. work, she is the author of The Life of Frances
E. Willard, What Frances E. Willard Said, and The White
Ribbon Hymnal.
Had Miss Gordon devoted herself to literature, art, or music
exclusively, she would have stood out preeminently among
the great of her generation.
While retaining much of the conservatism of her New Eng
land training, Miss Gordon blends with that conservatism to
day the wider outlook of humanity, demanding World Wide
Prohibition of the Liquor Traffic, the Enfranchisement of
Women, and Peace among Nations.
Miss Gordon has a poise and reserve most unusual. Her
manners and generous sympathies make others feel at ease in
her presence, and give to each the feeling that Miss Gordon's
interest is particularly personal. There is an indefinable
charm of personality that is as rare as is the soul of the
ANNA A. GORDON 233
woman. Concerning herself she is non-communicative, ac
customed as she is to ministering, and not to be ministered
unto. She accepts the admiration and the devotion of friends
with sweet humility and utter lack of self -consciousness.
Miss Gordon has ever kept the love of the child so close to
her heart that she has seemed to hear its cry for a better op
portunity to live and to love. The response of her poetic na
ture has given us the children's songs set to music, the stories
and word pictures that lift all to a higher level and arouse a
longing to help others to see God in everything. In her love
of child life and love of art and love of music she has sought
to make richer the harmonies of every life.
Miss Gordon has been identified with the interests of the
organization of which she is now the head almost from its in
ception. She has spent much time abroad in the interests of
children and of the World's Woman's Christian Temperance
Union, having crossed the Atlantic twenty-four times. In our
own country her name is known and loved in every section of
the land. She has accomplished more than any woman of her
generation in her work for children.
She has served and conserved the interests of the Woman's
Christian Temperance Union with a love and loyalty which
have few parallels. Love and loyalty are the outstanding
characteristics of the many-sided life of this remarkable
woman.
As general secretary of the World's Loyal Temperance Le
gion, her definite relation to and interest in the children of
nearly forty nations have given her an opportunity for a
knowledge of child life and endeavor unprecedented by any
other living person.
With perhaps the most varied experience in philanthropic
work of any American woman, with rare optimism, executive
ability and wise diplomacy, Anna Adams Gordon leads the
Temperance Women of this country.
JAMES J. HILL
BY ANDKEW THOMAS WEAVEK
ONE of the strangest fallacies to which the human mind
persistently clings is that there can be nothing unusual
or worthy of admiration in one 's immediate surround
ings. The extraordinary, the wonderful, the great seem to
exist in other ages and to have a peculiar faculty of inhabit
ing places and climes far from the particular locality in which
we live. Great men may have lived in the centuries gone,
dauntless warriors may have won memorable victories, fear
less discoverers may have lifted the curtain on new conti
nents, wonderful writers may have produced a classic litera
ture ; all this may have been accomplished in other lands and
in other centuries, but to-day we have no Alexander the Great,
we have no Columbus, we have no Shakespeare, and we live
in a world of ordinary mortals while genius has returned to
the gods.
In the study of the lives of great men we often realize the
truth of the saying, that to be great is to be misunderstood.
Barely indeed has a nation or a people yielded the proper
tribute of recognition to the men whose names the age and
generation have handed on as their richest legacy to all eter
nity. To the appreciation of true values, perspective is in
dispensable. Distance not only lends enchantment, but indeed
it would almost seem that distance alone can give true com
prehension of the worth of men and institutions. It is with
a profound conviction that all the great men are not dead;
that there are now living, men whose names are being re
corded on the imperishable scroll of fame, that we here at
tempt to set down a story of the life and achievements of a
man who has made his mark in the history of this nation, a
man who has indeed made the desert to blossom with roses,
and has caused a thousand spears of wheat to grow where
none had flourished before. To be great may be to be mis
understood, but to be great is not necessarily to be dead.
Copyright by Bachrach, Baltimore
(s
JAMES J. HILL 237
There is no surer way of bringing reproach upon ourselves
and opening our judgment to the ridicule of coming genera
tions than through failing to perceive the existence among
us of one of the world 's truly great men.
In the history of mankind there has been perceptible
always a definite and steady movement toward better things.
Sometimes the march has gone on slowly and painfully as
man has climbed the rough and rugged path of progress.
Again it has been a triumphal advance, under a smiling sun,
with every circumstance propitiously assisting the pilgrim of
the years.
As humanity, in the consciousness of unsatisfactory con
ditions, in the realization of its imperfect social and economic
arrangements has pushed forth towards the higher and more
equitable conditions, two great forces have always been oper
ative. Many times wre are prone to exaggerate the motive
power of lust for material gain in the movement of the race
out of old conditions into the larger field of the new. Along
with this undoubtedly powerful motive of material gain has
ever gone the inspiring power of an ideal. We underesti
mate the devotion of men to their dreams; we fail to realize
what a tremendously important factor in the life of nations
has been their devotion to the things which cannot be reduced
to money; the things without any suggestion of pecuniary
value ; those indefinable, ineffable, yet all-moving, omnipotent
forces in human life, which for want of better terms we call
ideals, visions, dreams.
Think back over history and measure if you can the force
of that ideal which called the Trojan prince out from the lux
ury of the great Phoenician city, led him to sacrifice every
personal consideration, and to trust his weary barks once
more to the ragings of an unkind sea as he turned their prows
northward to a strange land that he might there build up a
new nation, and there work out a new destiny for his home
less race, the dream of whose future was the dearest treasure
of his heart. Consider, if you will, the religious heroism of
the martyrs of all ages who have met dungeon, fire, and sword,
and have clung to their visions, though stripped of every ma-
238 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
terial possession. Think of the dream that beckoned Wash
ington and his Revolutionary patriots on through the dark
ness of Valley Forge to the dawn of the day when their ideal
was triumphant! When all is said and done, the material
benefits for which the heroes of '76 fought, furnished but a
small part of the sustaining force which carried them through
seven long years of struggle and bloodshed. Indeed, it would
be impossible to overestimate the part which ideals have
played in every great movement the world has known.
W"e live in a practical age; in an hour when above the
clash and din of a confusingly complex civilization is heard
the cry of efficiency. A man's first duty is to be efficient, and
our one measure of efficiency seems to be in how much money
he can accumulate. We have come to look upon the idealist
as a man who has little place in our modern life. We culti
vate our ideals in our spare moments, and we are becoming
more and more convinced that the twenty-four hour day is
too short for many ideals.
This view is the result of a surface understanding of the
situation. The only man who is thoroughly practical is the
idealist; the one man who really accomplishes things is the
man who cherishes ideals, the man who dreams dreams and
sees visions and then steps out with dauntless faith in what
he has seen and uses the efficiency of this age in making his
dreams come true. The man whose life story is to be the
subject of this sketch is one who, in the abundance of his
success and in the solid accomplishments he has wrought out
in the battle of real affairs, has proved beyond the shadow of
a doubt the practical value of an ideal.
Over three-quarters of a century ago, in the little town of
Guelph in southeastern Canada, a boy was born. He came
from the sturdy stock of the Scotch-Irish, who had hewed
their fortunes out of a wilderness and had made their homes
where but a few years before the Indian had roamed in soli
tary loneliness. This boy went out into the world before he
was eighteen years of age, equipped only with an Academy
education, without money, without friends, and without influ
ence. Starting from his home in Ontario he made his way
JAMES J. HILL 239
laboriously to the city of St. Paul, Minnesota, in July, 1856.
Here he obtained employment in the office of a River Steam
ship Company, working hard all day and spending the nights
in study of the economic necessities of his adopted city and
of the transportation problems of the Mississippi valley.
He was now in the service of a Railway Company as station
agent. In 1873 the St. Paul and Pacific Railway Company
went into the hands of a receiver. This young man, who in
seventeen years of hard work had had time to dream dreams
now saw before him the first great opportunity of his life.
Enlisting the assistance of three associates he took over what
were believed to be the worthless properties of the bankrupt
railroad encumbered by the enormous debt of over $33,000,000.
For the first time James J. Hill had control of a railroad.
Six years later, the road still in feeble condition described
as "two streaks of rust reaching out into a desert " was ex
tended to the Red River and connected with the government
line from Winnipeg, and the first opening of the great wheat
country of the Northwest was made. True, the great Rail
road King had but a feeble empire. No one believed in the
country, no one believed in the railroad, and few there were
who had any confidence in the man who was directing affairs.
Those two streaks of rust, however, carried the thrill of life
into the Red River Valley, and where barren sands had
stretched as far as the eye could reach, great fields of grain
waved in the sunlight. Soon the road was able to pay divi
dends, surplus was collected, and despite the most violent
criticism on all hands, the line was extended to Helena, Mon
tana, in 1883.
Ten years later Mr. Hill proposed the extension of the road
from Montana to Puget Sound. Between what was then the
terminal of the road and the proposed new terminal on the
Pacific were the Rocky Mountains, the most insuperable bar
riers which nature ever placed in the way of railroad con
struction. But worse than mountain grades, bad as they
were, was the fact that the great panic of 1893 was sweeping
over the country. The proposal for the extension of the road
in the face of these difficulties first awakened ridicule, then
240 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
active resistance, and finally the bitterest of opposition. The
New York financiers held a meeting to voice a protest in con
demnation of "wildcat" railroading. Mr. Hill rose serenely
in their meeting and said, "I have a property in the North
west which New York bankers cannot prevent me from devel
oping. My Board of Directors is the only body that can do
that, and they can do it only until the next election."
Upon his return to St. Paul he found that his board of di
rectors had blocked his plan and had passed a resolution deny
ing the proposed construction of the new line. Mr. Hill called
a meeting of the directors and when they were in the council
room, he locked the door, put the key in his pocket and said,
"Now gentlemen, we will stay here until you reverse your
action." The budget was passed, the construction work went
forward until finally the shrill whistle of a Great Northern
locomotive broke out over the placid blue waters of Puget
Sound, and the first transcontinental railroad, built without
the aid of a cent of government money or a foot of govern
ment land, was finished.
Shortly after this the Northern Pacific Railroad was added
to the system as the result of a tremendous financial battle
with Harriman. In the course of the struggle common stock
in the Northern Pacific Railway rose from 25 cents to $1,000
a share. The next step was the purchase of the Burlington
system. The boy who had gone out from Guelph, Ontario
fifty-five years before almost penniless paid $200,000,000 in
cash for this railway system. For nearly half a century, in
times of prosperity and in times of financial stringency, Mr.
Hill's corporations have never passed a dividend.
In the mind of James J. Hill we have a magnificent illustra
tion of what the poet has called a noble discontent. The
heights which he has reached to-day are but the stepping
stones to bigger things for the morrow. Not only has he
dominated the overland transportation of the great North
west, but he has also secured a firm grip on the traffic systems
of lake and ocean. The products of the great wheat fields
poured into the mammoth milling industry of the Twin Cities
are shipped out on his giant steamships to Chicago, Detroit,
JAMES J. HILL 241
and Buffalo. Yes, even the teeming millions of the Orient
receive their bread from the holds of the mightiest levia
thans that have yet carried the American flag over the Pacific.
It were as impossible as unnecessary to attempt an enumer
ation of the incalculable and immeasurable activities of this
man's life. For five decades the people of the Northwest
have recognized in him the master spirit of their industry.
To him have been yielded the rich rewards which the world
always has for the man who contributes to its well-being. It
is not our idea of gratitude to bear the laurels of our esteem
to the graves of those who have bravely wrrought. Post
humous gratitude is the tribute of an unworthy beneficiary.
We should bear to these men the grateful appreciation of a
nation and a people conscious of the service that has been
rendered to us.
As we look into the book of his experience we are stricken
with wonder at his humble beginnings and at his matchless
achievements. We see the fifteen year old boy a hewer of
wood as was the great Lincoln. We see him working all
through the day; then reading and studying late into the
night. We see him as he sets out toward the West, the call
of the unknown in his heart, before his eyes the vision of a
transformed continent. We see him past the close of his al
lotted threescore years and ten, upon his head the snows of
the deepening winter, within his grasp the sceptre of an
empire carved out of a desert, and with profoundest rever
ence we seek to know the secret of his extraordinary life.
True it is indeed that genius is the boundless capacity for
hard work. Thomas A. Edison, the greatest wizard in the
long history of invention, has defined for us the genius that
succeeds, in his epigram, "Genius is five per cent, inspiration
and ninety-five per cent, perspiration/' How apt we are to
explain failure and success in terms of blind chance and for
tune. How ready we are to excuse ourselves, our lack of in
dustry, our apostacy to the ideals we have never served, by
claiming the immunity of those whose careers have been
wrecked by the ruthless hand of fate. How willing we are to
ascribe wonderful accomplishment, heroic achievement, and
242 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
all the panoply of triumph to the same blind goddess. It is
not an uncommon thing for us not only to fail in rendering
praise and honor where they are due, but there are always
with us carping and captious critics who can glibly explain
away the merit of a battle won through years of bitter sacri
fice, magnificent endeavor, and unceasing toil. We should
not look down upon a man who is successful; we should not
suspect him of injustice because he has forged ahead of his
fellows ; we should not criticize a man because he is rich.
What are some of the factors which have made this man
so successful? What are the mental habits and characteris
tics which are worthy of emulation? First of all he had nat
ural ability. He was given the legacy of a sound body and a
sound mind, but in these things we do not feel him to have
been superior to many others. To have these things, alas, is
not to be successful. Thousands with his natural endowments
have failed, many without them have graven their names deep
in the marble of the ages. To his natural ability was added
an overmastering ambition. As a boy he read and re-read
the life story of Napoleon and he deliberately sought to pat
tern his life after that of the great conqueror. The trench
ant, virile prose of Thomas Carlyle painted many a pic
ture on the canvas of his fancy. The lode star of his fortune
was raised in the West as he read Irving 's Astoria, and with
the supreme confidence of a strong man who has caught a
vision, who has seen in the cramped present the latent possi
bilities of an expanded future, he moved out to the realization
of the unseen. In such a man we are not surprised to find
other characteristics of the conqueror — quickness of deci
sion, an impatience with unnecessary delay, an understanding
of men, all these have contributed to his triumph. When
asked for the key to his success he says, "Whatever I have
accomplished has been due to taking advantage of opportuni
ties, and I have not been watching the clock. The simple
truth is that any man who attends to work will succeed any
where/' He grasps the details of the present, he puts his
feet squarely on the firm ground of an accomplished fact and
JAMES J. HILL 243
then looks out into the future. One of his employees once
remarked, "He expects everything to be done yesterday. "
Like the old Koman he serves his country because he is wise
enough to recognize the mother of us all. This man sees in
the soil the possibilities of a regenerate nation and the influ
ence which he has wielded in the development of the greatest
agricultural region in the world cannot be overstated. At an
age when most men have laid down the active duties of life,
he is busily at work in the study of the great problems which
confront a growing American population who are losing the
virility which comes from a hand to hand struggle with the,
soil; a generation who are deserting the farm and fleeing
blindly to the supposed advantage of our great urban centers.
He says, "Men without land are a mob, and land without men
is a wilderness." Eecently this seer of the truth gave voice
to the following warning : "With something of that prophetic
insight which seems to remain to men even in the lowest estate,
the people of our huddled population centers have applied the
most bitterly ironic expressions they could coin to those thor
oughfares where are congregated all the garish and offensive
symbols of the idleness, ostentation, decadent mentality, and
moral corruption that eat forever at the vitals of this cen
tury's civilization. Not there, never there, but among cool
woodlands, by still waters, through fields burdened with
bounty, which nature yields unceasingly to those who have
come under the pleasant rule of her laws and learned the les
sons that she has put for ages before unwilling minds — up to
the gate of the farmstead where alone man can ever find the
full message that this life holds for him, thither runs the
great white way."
When the famous Northern Securities case was before the
Supreme Court of the United States and dissolution of his
corporation was imminent, Mr. Hill expressed a profound
truth when he said, "I have made my mark on the surface of
the earth and they cannot wipe it out with a court decision. ' '
In the early part of the nineteenth century some of the fore
most statesmen of their time stood on the floor of the United
States Congress and delivered vigorous philippics against
244 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
the expenditure of governmental energy and money in the
development of what they thought was an arid and unprofit
able expanse of territory in the Pacific Northwest. Even as
they were speaking there were two dauntless souls who had
gone forth into the wilderness; with prophetic eye had seen
its possibilities, and were fighting their way through the ter
rible blizzards, through the mountain passes, and across the
weary plains back to civilization, to lay before the govern
ment of the United States their dream of what the country
might become. To-day the dream is a reality, a reality in
beauty, wealth, and importance, beyond anything they could
have dreamed. The mountain torrents of the Rockies no
longer tumble down their shaggy sides to pour their wasted
strength into the peaceful sea. Other visionaries have come,
the rivers have pulsed their life-giving waters through a
million arteries netting the dusty plains until the harvest has
yielded bread to the hungry millions of a nation. Land that
was once valueless is now almost beyond price. Through the
heart of this mighty empire of the Northwest wind ten thous
and miles of steel, those conductors which first carried the
electric spark of life to the great wheat growing region of
the North American continent.
The man who built those railways brought to the city of
St. Paul the first fuel coal which turned the wheels of her
great milling industries. He brought the first carload of
wheat to the mills. He shipped the first barrel of flour out
of the Northwest, and he has been a central figure in every
great enterprise wrought out among his chosen people. He
stands to-day as the man with the largest transportation in
terests in the world.
From the millions of acres of waving grain, from the whirl
ing wheels of those great industries which have been made
possible through his service, from the hungry nations of a
changing Orient, to whom he has carried American food, from
the hearts of a nation, who in honoring him honor themselves,
there rises the mystic symphony of a world's tribute to the
man who fearlessly believed in a dream, who followed through
years of sternest battle the vision he had seen, upon whose
JAMES J. HILL 245
brow rests the jewelled crown of conquest and achievement -
James Jerome Hill, Prophet and Empire Builder.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PERIODICALS
Character Sketch. By C. S. Gleed. Cosmopolitan 33:169.
Great Railway Builder. By John Foster Carr. Outlook 87 :390.
James J. Hill, a Builder of the Northwest. By Mary H. Severance.
Review of Reviews 21 :669.
Man who Has Kept Faith. By C. M. Keys. World's Work 13:8442.
Masters of American Capital. By John Moody and George K. Turn
er. McClwe's 36:123.
Stories from the Northwest. By Albert R. Ledoux. Outlook 87 :879
EMIL G. HIRSCH
BY JOSEPH LEISEB
ACCORDING to Carlyle, a man's sincerity is the test of
his greatness. His great men were those who believed
in their mission as a God-appointed task, which they
were elected to fulfill, with fire and sword if need be, but ever
and anon with a faith that suffers martyrdom, and knows no
peace of mind until the consecrated duty is accomplished.
Those heroic personalities whose lives have chaptered his
tory and whose deeds mark the epochs of humanity were dom
inated by a sacred devotion to their mission in life. However
great or little the part they played, its value to humanity was
measured by the sincerity wherewith the thing was done.
Great men believe in their appointment for the duty they have
nominated themselves to achieve. Their faith in themselves
inspires them to do and dare and to translate that inspiration
to others. This is true of all great leaders and it is true of
Emil Gustav Hirsch.
Rabbi Hirsch believes in his interpretation of Judaism as
the solution of the perplexing problems that beset the modern
world, and this belief is fortified with a profound scholarship.
This conviction has gained strength and reenforcement from
the years of patient study and practical application in all the
varied activities assigned to a great personality.
With a gift of speech that is in itself genius, Dr. Hirsch has
taught these truths : that man does not live by bread alone ;
that society is composed of human beings mutually interde
pendent ; that the strong by reason of their strength must pro
tect the weak ; that righteousness exalts a nation ; and that the
Jew is chosen in the providential plan of the universe to teach
the law of righteousness and justice to all humanity, since from
Zion came the word of God and the Jew was espoused of old
to proclaim it. The Jew is, by reason of his Jewish parent
age, endowed with the inalienable duty of teaching mankind
the law of man's social obligation to his fellowmen. Through
Copyright 1904 by J. C. Strauss, St. Louis
EMIL G. HIESCH 249
every sermon of Dr. Hirsch there echoes the proclamation that
the Jew has been elected by God to inculcate love, mercy, and
justice throughout the world and to illustrate it in his own
life, that others may be thereby ennobled.
The destiny that accrues to the Jew by reason of his his
torical position among the children of men is the key whereby
to read the simple annals of the life of Emil G. Hirsch. His
career is singularly free from spectacular or romantic ele
ments. It has been a studious life, more the conventional life
of a scholar, fond of the cloistered quiet of libraries, than the
active life of a propagandist. While not averse to the fray,
his fondest satisfaction is the assurance that he has weaponed
his allies with motives, ideals, and purposes.
In this age when all intellectual concepts, no matter how
abstract or intangible, are personified under the guise of a
movement, with its battalion of officers and committees, meet
ings and conferences, Dr. Hirsch has preferred to study these
meetings from printed official reports rather than to be one of
the attendants. When the exigency of the case has demanded
his presence, however, his leadership has been instantly felt
and his recognized ability has told in the effectiveness of the
conference. When it was rumored that he was to speak, the
hall would be crowded : for he is a keen debater, quick at re
tort, cutting in rebuttal, and always master of the subject
under discussion.
This disposition to seek the solitude of the study rather than
the open arena accounts for his absence in all those manifold
activities to which Chicago, more than any other city of our
country, is so fully alive. Dr. Hirsch 's name may be listed
among the officers as honorary president, but he has never
gone forth to attend to the detailed work of the movement at
hand. It was due to his influence that the Jewish Manual
Training School of Chicago was founded, although the actual
working out of this educational regime was the life work of
the late Dr. Gabriel Bamberger. He was among the first to
advocate the federation of Jewish charities and to systematize
the work on a business basis, with recognition of the psycho
logical and economic causes that were operative in the circum-
250 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
stances of each applicant. He headed the Civic Federation,
the Chicago Public Library, and was a member of the State
Board of Charities.
No man has ever taught more eloquently or emphatically
than he that results are correlated to thoughts and that the
thinker who first divines an idea is entitled to greater, or at
least as great credit, as the man who actually translates it into
action. Often in his sermons he has told his congregation
that the engineers who conceived the idea of the St. Gothard
Tunnel and not the European bankers who purchased the
stocks, are the greater servants of humanity. In an age sur
rendered wholly to business, where results are symbols of
profit, he punctured the arrogance of business by the pointed
lance of this truth, that the thinker precedes the doer. Chi
cago needed the corrective of this truth, for business was
growing haughty and was vaunting its prowess. Dr. Hirsch
pleaded for the scholar, the thinker — pleaded eloquently for
the humble teacher or scientist toiling upward in the night that
from his investigations business might profit. In this align
ment with the thinker instead of the doer, with the scholar in
contrast to the active man, Dr. Hirsch has been consistently in
keeping with the function of his life's work. No man occupy
ing the pulpit of an American Jewish congregation ever en
tered upon his task with more qualifications or better equip
ment. He has a mind that is keen, receptive, eager, and alert.
His memory is the faithful warden of his intellect, unerring
and retentive to a wonderful degree.
No explanation of the career of Emil G. Hirsch can be writ
ten, however, without referring to the career of his father,
Samuel Hirsch, and to the influence he exerted on the thinking
and theories of his son. Dr. Samuel Hirsch was a Jewish
philosopher and rabbi, living in the Duchy of Luxemburg. As
a young man he prepared himself for the profession of book
seller, or librarian, a vocation that required a vast scholar
ship. Samuel Hirsch obtained his Ph. D. degree at a time
when most Jewish youths were kept out of university circles
by prejudices within their own Jewish communities as well as
by prejudices without. Then he became a rabbi in Luxem-
EMIL G. HIESCH 251
burg, where his son, Emil Gustav, was born, May 22, 1852, and
there he began a series of philosophic studies that resulted in
the publication of three great books in which the thesis that
man is the greatest manifestation of deity may be broadly
accepted as the underlying thought of all.
Emil inherited much from his father, and upon no theme
does he speak with more reverence than upon that of his fath
er. Daily associated with a very learned and penetrating
thinker, he absorbed the rudiments of a college education be
fore he reached his tenth year. In that home three languages
were in daily use — French, German, and English. His moth
er spoke English fluently, having lived for a time in England
previous to her marriage. In 1866 his father was called to the
ministry of Congregation Keneseth Israel in Philadelphia, and
the family came to this country. Emil continued his educa
tion at the Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia.
Upon his graduation from the University of Pennsylvania
in 1872, he went to Germany and studied at the University of
Berlin, 1872-1876, and at Leipzig ; receiving the degree of Ph. D.
at the latter. Philosophy and theology were his specialties.
Then he attended the Jewish theological seminary in Berlin,
where he came into intimate contact with some of the most
eminent Jewish scholars of their generation, foremost among
them being Leopold Zunz and Abraham Geiger, to whom the
reform movement in Judaism owes its philosophic and his
torical basis.
His high esteem of the profession of rabbi was an inheri
tance from his father. Dr. Samuel Hirsch exalted the profes
sion of rabbi high above that of any other vocation, and his
illustrious son has enthroned it on the same lofty pinnacle.
He who would aspire to the rabbinate must be inspired, first,
with the zeal to know what Israel is dedicated to proclaim to
the families of men; and second, with the moral courage to
announce it. The teacher of Israel is by the very terms of his
contract a scholar and an enthusiast, an idealist, burning with
prophetic zeal to speak forth without fear. To equip a novi
tiate for the function and office of rabbi, scholarship is the
unalterable prerequisite. The teacher of Israel must possess
252 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
intimate knowledge of Israel's career, in all its ramifications.
To this standard Dr. Hirsch has set himself during his long
studious life.
He has ever been conscious of his long intellectual ancestry,
of his spiritual affiliation with a company of saints and schol
ars, men who eked out a niggardly existence in the contracted
quarters of noisome Ghettoes in the Middle Ages. He feels
himself allied to the great rabbis living to-day in the squalid
chambers of little Eussian towns, meditating on the law day
and night, rabbis whose sole treasure is the wealth of their
wisdom. He is brother to the sages and teachers in Italy,
France, Germany, and England. With these he feels himself
one. These men would rather suffer martyrdom than sub
mit to the clamor of the world ; like the homesick captives be
side the streams of Bablylon, they would rather cut the
tongues out of their mouths than to belie their faith.
It may safely be stated that there are few books written in
Hebrew which he has not read either in part or in toto. Only
those familiar with the century-long intellectual activity of the
Jewrs have any adequate conception of what a gigantic task
this is. It covers the enormous realm of the Bible, the sea of
the Talmud, the midrashim, the commentaries of the Middle
Ages, the poets and philosophers of the Spanish era, the trans
lations from Arabic philosophers, the codifications of the law
by Maimonides and by Joseph Quaro. It includes the Cabala
and mystic writers of Italy and Saf ed ; the prayers, responses,
petitions, and pityuim of the Middle Ages, not to mention the
revival of neo-Hebraism under the Zionistic movement in
Russia to-day.
The contact of the Jews with mankind has been unique and
it has made them cosmopolitan, flexible, adaptable. He who
would interpret Israel must know the various influences that
have moulded the Jew — he must know not only his own ver
nacular and the dialects of Hebrew ; he must also read Greek
and Latin.
But Dr. Hirsch knows not only the message of men who
speak to us from the past, but the message of men who are
EMIL G. HIESCH 253
alive to-day as well. He speaks all the modern languages of
Europe.
His vast scholarship has stood him in good stead. He has
not only taught men much; he has led them away from the
pitfalls that lurk behind half-truths and superficialities. He
has the courage to say "no" when the multitude says "yes."
He can point out the blind alleys where others see but the
primrose path.
Two incidents illustrate this. One was during the first con
ference of liberal religions, held in the Old Sinai Temple,
Chicago. Liberal clergymen of unorthodox faiths had gath
ered in his Temple. The common denominator of all religions
was emphasized. A new era was imminent, it seemed, because
the radical element among the Jews was joining with other
unfettered denominations into a common brotherhood. The
age-long seclusion of the Jews was apparently ended and the
Jew was about to clasp the hand of his fellows under new
auspices. This, at least, was the impression the speakers at
tempted to create. They meant well, but they did not inter
pret Israel aright, and it required a man of Dr. Hirsch 's cour
age and learning to set them right.
"Not in spite of, but because we are Jews, do we enter into
this conference," he thundered with all the force and elo
quence at his command. "The Jewish aspiration is to fra-
ternalize all the children of men. In the most sacred hour of
our synagog we pray for the advent of that day when all hu
manity shall be united by a common bond of brotherhood. Be
fore Christianity was born our sages said the righteous of all
nations will inherit eternal bliss. Not away from Judaism,
but back to Judaism is our ambition — to acquaint all man
kind with the passion of Israel for the eventual salvation of all
earth-born creatures.
"Abolishing the superfluous ceremonies did not alter the
divinely imposed purpose of the Jew towards humanity. His
spiritual charge is as vital to-day as of old. His is a historical
mission, imposed by birth, and this purpose can not be les
sened or abated by joining forces with other peoples. On the
254 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
Jew still rests the obligation of carrying the ark of truth and
righteousness into the camps of all peoples. "
Another incident which reveals the man's courage and
breadth of mind referred to women adopting the profession of
rabbi. It was at the time when women were beginning to en
ter the professions. Law, medicine, architecture, engineer
ing — professions that had formerly been the prerogative of
men — were opening to women. Why not a woman rabbi, too f
Caroline Bartlett Crane and Anna Howard Shaw — to mention
only the most eminent women preachers — were adorning the
Christian pulpit. Why not a woman in the Jewish pulpit?
Jewish women favored it. Women's clubs and literary soci
eties were advocating such a step.
" There is no objection to a woman occupying the Jewish
pulpit, ' ' said Dr. Hirsch, * l but if a woman adopts the career
of rabbi, she must also adopt the obligations of men in scholar
ship and earnestness. Maudlin emotionalism, faithful imita
tion of clericalism will not be accepted as a substitute for
sound scholarship and a thorough familiarity with the litera
ture and philosophy of the Jews."
His position with reference to women in the pulpit is char
acteristic of his entire attitude towards the pulpit. To him
religion is not an unnatural function, superimposed and taken
on and discarded as whim dictates. Religion is a natural
function. It is the expression of man's relation to his fellows.
It interprets his place in the world and outlines his path of
duty. It fortifies him with a purpose and gives him the ele
ments whereby to dedicate himself to a noble life. It dignifies
life and allies him with the noble band whose service is the bet
terment of humanity.
Having this thoroughly manly and Jewish view of religion,
he never countenances emotionalism or hysteria in the pulpit.
The religious way, he teaches, is the natural way. A house of
worship does not require low, mournful voices, or sepulchral
tones. "David sang and danced before the Lord." In God's
house men can laugh and speak as they do in their stores or
homes. In the house of assembly they dedicate themselves
EMIL G. HIESCH 255
anew to their daily tasks. The entire world is to become holy,
is his message.
Dr. Hirsch expounds Judaism, not as a bundle of laws, but
as an attitude towards life, a way of living a clean, simple,
useful life of service and mutual helpfulness. The Jew, being
obligated by his Jewish birth to fulfill his duty of social service
of love, justice, and righteousness to all his fellows, could not
shirk that duty without backsliding. His ceremonialism is the
medium through which he expresses his spiritual truths, in ful
filling which he is to achieve his reward on this earth.
That Judaism did not come to its completion with the birth
of Jesus and the rise of Christianity is one of the points Dr.
Hirsch ever impresses on his non-Jewish hearers. Again and
again in the columns of the Reform Advocate he has exposed
the conceit of prelate and priest in Catholic, Protestant, and
even liberal religions, and has showed that Judaism has not
suffered an arrested development since the advent of Jesus,
but is constantly evolving into higher and more spiritual
states.
Dr. Hirsch also has positive views on Jesus. Jesus is ac
cepted as the ripest flower of his generation. In him culmi
nated the revolt against ceremonialism and priestly arrogance
and political oppression and monopoly. Dr. Hirsch reveres
the courage, the eloquence, the martyrdom of Jesus, ranks
him among the prophets of Israel, dowered with the inspira
tion of an Isaiah, and the moral earnestness of an Amos : fear
less as Elijah and heroic as Nathan. In him flowed the genius
of the Jew, who, amid the thunder of Sinai, proclaimed the
"thou shalts" and the "thou shalt nots" to humanity. Jesus
summarized the spiritual and ethical laws of the Judaism of
his day, and restated in a popular form the truths that every
rabbi knew. The Lord's Prayer is a Jewish collect, a string
of pearls gathered from the jewelled casket of Israel's pray
ers and aspirations.
The courage of the man Jesus, the Galilean carpenter,
whose burning zeal fired him with the courage to cleanse the
temple of the money changers, appeals to the innate manliness
256 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
of Dr. Hirsch. Jesus heard the voice of God as did Moses
and Abraham before him; as did Samuel and the prophets; as
have the sages and teachers of Israel in ages past and in our
own time. His divinity was the divinity of all lovers of their
fellowmen. "When you were sick, I visited you; when you
were hungry, I fed you ; when you were naked, I clothed you ;
and as you have done it unto the least of these, my brethren,
so have you done it unto me," is the simple truth of Judaism
that Jesus as a Jew fulfilled in his own life.
Dr. Hirsch was never among those who would restore Jesus
to the synagog — Jesus never left the synagog. Paul more
than any other theologian divested Jesus of his humanity and
apotheosized him into an abstraction. Paul, the tent-maker,
was a reactionary. His conception of a vicarious atonement
is Semiticism. The sacrifices of the temple so wonderfully
explained by Eobertson Smith, survived in Paul. By graft
ing neo-Platonism upon Semiticism, he created a theology.
Jesus is truer than Paul to the spirit of the synagog.
Two movements within Judaism of the present age have pro
foundly affected it. One of these movements is Zionism; the
other, the institutionalizing of the synagog. No one imme
diately involved in Jewish affairs can avoid participating in
them as opponent or supporter. Dr. Hirsch was early drawn
into the controversy that raged about him.
Zionism is of European importation. Coming into prom
inence under the organizing genius of Dr. Theodore Hertzl
it sought so to organize the scattered remnant of Israel that
the ancient patrimony of Israel — Palestine — should again
be restored, and the Jewish people established in a land of
their own. The restoration of Palestine is an ancient dream,
but at no time has the appeal been received with greater
prospects of realization than in the present era. Some of the
most illustrious names in Europe are enlisted in the cause —
conferences and conventions have been held annually and far-
reaching measures have been introduced.
Influential and stirring as the Zionistic movement has been
— the only movement within Judaism that has been so active
— its intent no less than its philosophy is totally at variance
EMIL G. HIESCH 257
with the historical outlook of the Jew. The purpose of Zion
ism is to concentrate Israel on a given territory — the object
of historical or reform Judaism is to spread the Jewish con
cept of man and God over the entire world. As an exponent
of the spiritual message of Israel — with emphasis on the eth
ical instead of the ceremonial — the position of Dr. Hirsch
can be foretold. He has not been insensible to the urgency
of the movement in Europe in view of the galling events in
Eussia and Eoumania, to mention only the most brutal. But
as a solution of the Jewish question — if there is any — Zion
ism is a survival of that nationalism with which all Europe
has, of late, been obsessed. He has, therefore, opposed it con
sistently, but with sympathy — giving welcome to its advo
cates and leaders, supporting morally and financially such un
dertakings as the establishment of trade schools in Palestine.
Dr. Hirsch has opposed all tendencies toward Jewish na
tionality. "The Messiah was born on the day the Temple
fell" is a mysticism of the Talmud which reflects a wonderful
thought and explains the contention of the reform movement.
Israel is to go forth and teach all mankind its truths. The
ultimate hope is that from the rising to the setting sun, from
the north to the south, every place and land will become as
sacred as Jerusalem and that the word of God will be spoken
everywhere. "All my people shall be holy," saith the Lord.
Another tendency of the present era which is engaging the
attention of Jews is that to institutionalize the synagog. At
first Dr. Hirsch opposed the introduction of institutional fea
tures but later he came to see that in large centers of popula
tion, institutions unfettered by commercialism must be cre
ated to counteract the debasing influences of amusement re
sorts whose sole purpose is to prosper the owners. When the
new Sinai Temple was built the need of a social center was
recognized so clearly that a separate building was constructed
for institutional work. Sinai Center aims to afford the peo
ple of the community a means of ennobling and enriching
their lives.
"Eaise up many disciples," is the admonition of an ancient
Jewish teacher. When the University of Chicago was found-
258 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
ed, in 1892, Dr. Hirsch joined the Semitic department and still
holds a professorship there. For three years he taught classes
regularly. One of the purposes of the department was to
prepare .Jewish students for the rabbinate. Three students
entered the university for this purpose and graduated, but
none of them is now actively engaged in the Jewish min
istry. In the strict interpretation of the word, Dr. Hirsch has
not raised up disciples. He did not want his students to imi
tate him in thinking, much less in mannerism. He served his
students best by making them independent of him. " Think
out your own world concept," he said. " Differ with me if
you must, but do not follow me. ' '
In a larger sense, however, Dr. Hirsch has raised up legions
of disciples in his own faith and among those whose fellow
ship is historically separate from the synagog. He has been
the spokesman of Judaism to the Jews and has been the glo
rious representative to the non-Jews. No man in this country
has ever expounded Judaism to Christians more eloquently
or more learnedly. He has been concerned not only for the
Jews but also for the destiny and mission of America as a
democracy, the haven of refuge for the oppressed of earth.
If to-day the Jew is appraised at a higher value than ever be
fore, it is due to the eloquence of Emil G. Hirsch. His pulpit
has not been Sinai Temple, Chicago, alone, but every city in
America, and England, Germany, and France.
He has been officially connected with three pulpits in his
long and busy career: the first, Baltimore; the second, Louis
ville ; and the last, Sinai Temple, Chicago. He entered Sinai
a young man and has served his people as a teacher for over
thirty years. No man in the city of Chicago has been
more influential in molding the ethical, sociological and re
ligious conceptions of the citizens of the Middle West than he.
No man is more venerated for his learning and purity of
character. His name has been on the tongues of thousands
but never with a word of reproach. A reverential son, he is
a devoted father, a loyal, sympathetic friend to those who
merit his friendship, ever quick to hear the cry of distress and
to plead for the widow and orphan.
EMIL G. HIESCH 259
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Jewish Encyclopedia.
Reform Advocate.
Who's Who in America.
WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS
BY DE WITT CLINTON SPKAGUE
FROM my earliest remembrance, from the time before
I could read, when I made up stories to match the
pictures in the first book I ever looked at, 'one con
tinuous purpose' of literature has run through my life. Now
in my seventy-third year a proof of the things I have last
written is as wondrously precious as that which I printed
from the types put together with my childish hands, when I
could have been only about seven, in an essay on Human Life.
The theme is one which in manifold phases has engaged me
since, and I suppose will flatter my notice to the end." The
statement here recorded from Mr. Howells 's own confession
is significant as showing the subject-matter of almost exclu
sive interest to William Dean Howells, poet, essayist, critic,
dramatist, novelist, and lover of mankind. The constancy of
devotion to the craft of literature to be found in the para
graph quoted is the secret of the distinction of style for which
Mr. Howells is justly admired, for style is the man, and long
literary service is necessary to give such veteran character to
the man-of -letters that his language can express with inevi
table word, phrase, and sentence whatever message Divine
inspiration or his own self-experience may give him to de
liver. In the words, stories to match the pictures, there
is indication of the attitude of Mr. Howells toward life on the
one hand and toward literature on the other — the story is
written after the picture has been looked at. Mr. Howells's
literary creed and active performance have been to conform
his truth to the outer reality, and not to deform the picture
of reality to match a questionable truth.
In 1865, Mr. Howells, a young man of twenty-seven, was
wondering what turn his enterprise must take to support his
family. For the past four years he had been living in Italy,
as United States consul at Venice. His term of office was
nearing its close, and, although he had faithfully spent the
Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, New York
WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS 263
leisure of the position in the service of literature and had
written much poetry and some prose sketches, but five of
the poems had been accepted and only newspapers had ac
cepted his letters describing Italian life. In view of the un
certainty of employment after his return to America, it was
essential that he should have the confidence in his own liter
ary power which only acceptance by a periodical of high
standing, and encouragement from a master of the craft could
impart. Hitherto the youthful writer had hoped to write
poetry which would bring him fame and fortune. To be
sure, he had achieved some renown as a writer of a few
poems, a biography of Lincoln, and newspaper sketches, but
to no such degree or amount as his heart desired. It was not
strange, then, that an enthusiastic letter of acceptance from
James Russell Lowell, editor of the North American Review,
should nerve his heart to re-enter the conflict against an inert
public, and not let it rest until it gave him recognition. The
article accepted by Mr. Lowell was Recent Italian Comedy,
which revealed to Lowell the solid critical power, the charm
of manner, and the promise of a greater future for this be
ginner in a literary career. In the statement, already quoted
from, entitled The Turning-point of My Life, Mr. Howells
suggests the two related questions: Was this the real turn
ing-point of his life ? Was the choice of a continued literary
career made for him?
In answering these questions, we must briefly review Mr.
Howells 's life from its beginning to this twenty-seventh year.
He was born in a family of unusual character and essential
culture, at Martin's Ferry, Ohio, on March 1, 1837. Three
years later his father, a newspaper editor, removed to the
southwestern part of the state, to Hamilton. As the family
lived here for nine years, the earliest coherent memories of
the boy were of this place. He has written an account of
these glorious years in the most intimate confession of boy
hood ever written, A Boy's Town.
The library at his home was probably the best in the town,
and very early William became accustomed to hear poetry
read aloud and to love to read for himself. His earliest
264 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
recollected reading was from about the age of ten, when a
book of Grecian and Roman mythology, Goldsmith's Histories
of Greece and Rome, Cervantes' Don Quixote, Poe's Tales,
and Irving 's Conquest of Granada were his first books. Hear
ing his father read Scott's Lady of the Lake, Howells wrote a
Roman tragedy in the easy measure of that poem. Before he
knew anything of English grammar, he began to study Span
ish in order that he might write the life of Cervantes. Wil
liam's father had bought a Spanish grammar from a returned
volunteer of the Mexican War; from this book, after long
years of study, the boy learned the Spanish language and Eng
lish grammar, too. He tried to imitate Poe in a story called
The Devil in the Smoke-Pipes. Scott, Campbell, and Gold
smith furnished him models for poetic imitation. Mr. Howells
says of this imitative spirit of his boyhood, "I have never
greatly loved an author without wishing to write like him. It
was a long time before I found it best to be as like myself as I
could, even when I did not think so well of myself as of some
others."
Mr. Howells had little schooling; the printing-office of his
father was his school from a very early time. Taking into
account the literary knowledge of the father, and his excel
lent ideas as to the educational duties of parents, this fact
was fortunate for the training of the future editor and literary
artist. No habit of idleness was allowed to undermine the
strength of the boy's character, and his own active mind in
cessantly gave him employment in reading, in studying lan
guage, and in his literary attempts.
When William was twelve years old his father bought the
Dayton Transcript, and removed his family to Dayton. Here
Shakespeare was brought to the boy 's notice by a company of
players such as struggled along in those days. He saw Ham
let, Macbeth, and Richard III many times over, for the com
pany was liberal with passes to the Transcript office. The
paper failed after two or three years, and the family went to
live in a log-cabin in the woods on the Little Miami River,
where a prosperous uncle had bought a mill. During the year
spent here William read Longfellow's Spanish Student and
WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS 265
Scott's Poems, and wrote a diary and some poetry now en
tirely forgotten.
The next sojourn of the young literary aspirant was in Col
umbus, where his father found work as reporter of legislative
proceedings for the Ohio State Journal. William was em
ployed as a compositor. He was fourteen years old and be
gan to cherish a definite literary ambition. One of his poems,
written at this time, on Spring, was the first piece he ever had
printed. Soon after he began to read Pope, and a long period
of imitation of that poet, who aimed above all things else to be
correct in his use of language, set in. Of this imitation he
writes, "I learned to choose between words after a study of
'their fitness. . . I could not imitate Pope without imitating
his methods, and his method was to the last degree intelli
gent. ' '• We must not assume that the young poet was living
in a world of fancy to the neglect of the real world of work
and play and difficulty. He writes of this period, "I was
very fond of my work, and proud of my swiftness and skill in
it. Once the foreman offered me a holiday, but I would not
take it. What went on in the office interested me as much as
the quarrels of the Augustan age of English letters and I
made much more record of it in the crude and shapeless diary
which I kept. ' '
The few years following his first Columbus employment
Howells spent in Ashtabula County, where his father edited
the Ashtabula Sentinel, which was removed from Ashtabula
village to Jefferson after six months. William became a sub
editor. Byron, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Ossian, Shakespeare,
Holmes, De Quincey, Thackeray, Ik Marvel, Dickens, Words
worth, Lowell's Lectures on Poetry, Chaucer, Macaulay, Poe's
Criticisms, Hazlitt, Leigh Hunt, Lamb, Four English Quar
terlies, books of fiction, drama, and history in Spanish, Cur
tis 's works on Oriental travel, Longfellow's Hiawatha, and
Kavanaugh, Tennyson — all became known to him, besides
much Spanish drama and German poetry, especially Heine's,
and all influenced him. In a little space under the stairs in
the low, rambling house where the family lived, he wrote, im
itating Pope, or Ossian, or Longfellow, or Tennyson. He be-
266 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
gan to print a serial story without determining how it was to
end. It commenced in imitation of Ik Marvel, continued after
the manner of Dickens, and ended in some way which Howells
does not record. He undertook the study of French, German,
Latin, and Greek, and continued reading Spanish. Of this
time he writes, "My day began about seven o'clock, in the
printing-office, where it took me till noon to do my task of so
many thousand ems, say four or five. In the afternoon I went
back and distributed my case for the next day. At two or
three o 'clock I was free, and then I went home and began my
studies ; or tried to write something ; or read a book. We had
supper at six and after that I rejoiced in literature, till I went
to bed at ten or eleven. I cannot think of any time when I did
not go gladly to my books or manuscripts, when it was not a
noble joy as well as a high privilege."
While he was living in Jefferson, Howells determined to
leave printing and study law with the nephew of a United
States senator, Benjamin Wade, famous in his day, who lived
in the village. William soon found that he had no energy left
for literature after a day's reading of Blackstone. He tried
law for a month, and then gave it up, returning to literature
and the work of the printing-office. Howells 's character and
acquired mental habits being such as have been indicated, it
seems that there was no choice, but a certain straight path of
literary endeavor which he must follow if he would live.
When William was nineteen his father got a legislative
clerkship at Columbus. The son agreed to furnish a daily
letter telling of legislative occurrences for the Cincinnati
Gazette. The young man used the State Library freely. At
the end of this legislative session the Cincinnati Gazette of
fered him the position of city editor. He was to have charge
of local reporting and he went to the city to fit himself for the
work by actual reporter's experience. He tried this one
night and, satisfied he would not be suited to the work, turned
his back on a thousand dollars a year. He returned home and
continued to read Heine, who now became his master and
teacher of a style which he followed for several years in verse.
In the fall of 1859 he accepted the position of news editor
WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS 267
of the Ohio State Journal, reorganized under a new Repub
lican management. Howells's work included writing literary
notices and book reviews, to which he gave chief attention.
He entered the society of the capital and appreciated the hap
py, free, and cordial atmosphere with all the zest of a well-
occupied, enthusiastic young man of twenty-two. George El
iot, Hawthorne, and Goethe were the new friends of the inner
world of literature whom he came to know in the two years
spent at this post. He sent some poems to the Atlantic Month
ly and Lowell accepted six of them. Two books in which
Howells had part were published in 1860 ; the first was Poems
of Two Friends, by Howells and John J. Piatt ; the other was
The Lives and Speeches of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal
Hamlin, to which Mr. Howells contributed the biography of
Lincoln.
With the money obtained from the biography of Lincoln
Mr. Howells made a trip down the St. Lawrence to Quebec,
and thence by rail to Boston. There he met Lowell, Holmes,
Thoreau, Emerson, and Hawthorne. He asked James T.
Fields for a position on the staff of the Atlantic Monthly, but
learned that all positions were filled. From Boston he went
to New York and came in contact with Walt Whitman and
Edmund Clarence Stedman. Less as a reward for his services
in the Republican campaign of 1860 than because Mr. Nicolay
and Mr. Hay, Lincoln's private secretaries, were interested in
him, Mr. Howells was appointed consul at Venice.
"During the four years of my life in Venice the literary
purpose was with me at all times and in all places," writes
Mr. Howells, ". . . the literary defeats [in poetry] threw
me upon prose; for some sort of literary thing ... I
must do if I lived ; and I began to write those studies of Ven
etian life which afterwards became a book." He had studied
Italian from a grammar taken with him on his voyage to Ven
ice. Dante became known to him, but modern Italian litera
ture — the comedies of Goldoni, the novels and poems of Man-
zoni and D 'Azeglio — had greater interest for Mr. Howells.
Recent Italian Comedy, and, later, Modern Italian Poets were
the literary fruits of this reading and study.
268 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
These four years abroad determined the domestic happiness
of Mr. Howells. On December 29, 1862, he was married to
Miss Elinor G. Mead, of Brattleboro, Vermont. The wed
ding took place in Paris.
Recurring to the questions: — Was Lowell's acceptance of
Recent Italian Comedy, in 1865, the turning-point in Howells 's
life? Was the choice of a literary career made for him? We
can plainly see the answers. Lowell's recognition marks one
of that poet's claims to the foremost place he then held in
American letters. Had not Mr. Lowell done so, some one
else, more tardily, perhaps, possibly less fortunately for the
author, but as surely as real genius is appreciated in America,
would have accorded him the recognition he deserved. Mr.
Howells had been making the choice of his life-work by his
constant association with the great masters of the world's lit
erature, by his painstaking care to learn to write, by his
friendships already formed with living men eminent in Amer
ican literary centers, and by being well-prepared. A literary
habit was his, and law, newspaper work, or anything else
could not break this habit, for by his twenty-seventh year the
habit had become hardened into character, and Mr. Howells
was a literary man or nothing.
Returning to America, for a year Mr. Howells wrote for the
New York Times until he was asked to contribute solely to
The Nation. In 1866, Mr. Fields, editor of the Atlantic
Monthly, asked Mr. Howells to become assistant editor. Mr.
Howells accepted the position at fifty dollars a week, and so,
within two years of the time of his discouragement at Venice,
he was in an assured position with the most august and schol
arly periodical in America. In 1872, on the retirement of Mr.
Fields, he became editor of the magazine and remained in^
charge until 1881, when he resigned to give himself up to
general literary work.
Since leaving the Atlantic Monthly, Mr. Howells 's editorial
work has been limited. He conducted the department in
Harper's Magazine called "The Editor's Study," from 1886
to 1890. In 1900, for a short time, he was editor of the Cosmo-
WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS 269
politan Magazine. From 1900 to the present he has written
"The Editor's Easy Chair," of Harper's Magazine.
The manner in which Mr. Howells became a writer of fiction
is significant of his literary theory and method. In 1872, he
framed in the story of the wedding- journey of a newly-married
pair the notes and observations of his trip down the St. Law
rence in 1860. He had no high opinion of the fictive element,
but was agreeably astonished to learn from a friend, to whom
he had submitted the story for judgment as to which portions
were real and which were fiction, that some of the incidents of
Howells 's own invention seemed real to the reader. He has
continued to write after this fashion, recording the realities
of human life, as they revealed their truth to him, in such man
ner as to transfer the impression of their reality to the reader.
For ten years Mr. Howells wrote stories and novels of per
fect art, which delighted all who read them, especially the cul
tured and academic public such as in all its impossible
social helplessness Mr. Howells good-naturedly satirized in
the steel glass of his realistic method, which so reflected to
the flattered self-complacency of "polite society" its own gen
teel image that in the brightness it missed the criticism.
Accordingly, in 1883, when Mr. Howells began a deeper,
more serious delineation of human life in A Modern Instance,
and continued it in A Woman's Reason, The Rise of Silas
Lapham, The Minister's Charge, Annie Kilburn, and A Haz
ard of New Fortunes, the helpless, "exclusive" reviewers and
criticasters deplored the passing of the "gracious charm" of
his earlier A Chance Acquaintance, A Foregone Conclusion,
The Lady of the Aroostook, A Fearful Responsibility. It is
true they gathered consolation from the fact that he enter
tained them with a series of light farces and one novel of man
ners, Indian Summer. The chief difficulty for these readers
seems to be that they resented the turning of attention to un
cultured types of people and to vulgar sections of social life
by this master of a culture easily recognized as superior to
their own. They had deceived themselves into the belief that
they themselves were the only fit subjects for the art of Mr.
270 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
Howells, whom they regarded as an acclimated Bostonian in
terested in nothing outside their own narrow circle and with
sympathy no wider and imaginative insight no keener than
their own.
Consequently, when this broad-hearted, clear-seeing Ameri
can portrayed in his novels such of his countrymen as worked
with their hands and rendered possible the cultua of the
elegant social epicureans, the latter lamented Mr. Howells 's
departure from his earlier high artistic standards. Since the
publication of A Hazard of New Fortunes, in 1890, Mr. How
ells has shown that this expression of a changed interest in
human life was due to the influence of the great Russian writer
Tolstoy. " Tolstoy awakens in his readers the will to be a
man ; not spectacularly, but simply, really. He leads you back
to the only true ideal, away from that false standard of the
gentleman, to the Man who sought not to be distinguished
from other men, but identified with them, to that Pres
ence in which the finest gentleman shows his alloy of vanity,
and the greatest genius shrinks to the measure of his miser
able egotism. . . From his supreme art I have learned
forever to place art below humanity. " Mr. Howells came to
know Tolstoy, not earlier than 1887 — " after I had turned the
corner of my fiftieth year" — and this corresponds exactly
to the period in which he widened his outlook to see the whole
social range of New York City, to which he gave expression in
the most representative single American novel, A Hazard of
New Fortunes.
Mr. Howells states his literary belief most forcefully in the
directions given to young writers: "Look to nature and to
actuality for your model — not to any book, or man, or num
ber of men. Be true to yourself. Write of that of which you
know the most, and follow faithfully the changes in your feel
ing. Put yourself down before common realities, before com
mon hopes, common men, till their pathos and mystery and
significance flood you like a sea, and, when the life that is all
about you is so rich with drama and poetry and the vista of
human thought and passion, so infinite that you are in despair
of ever expressing a thousandth part of what you feel, then all
WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS 271
idea of discipleship will be at an end. Your whole aim will be
to be true to yourself and your infinite teacher, nature, and
you will no longer strive to delineate beauty, but truth, and,
at last, truth will be beauty. ' '
Some critics of differing aesthetic creeds have urged that
Mr. Howells is not and can not be consistent with the theory
stated above. They claim that to follow his belief he must be
a mere camera and show in his novels, as a camera does on its
film, a mere physical impression of the appearance of reality ;
this, they charge, Mr. Howells does not do. Of course he does
not; he is an artist. The difference between the realism of
Mr. Howells and the romanticism of some other writers is not,
as most critics seem to think, a difference between the pseudo-
objectivity of realism and the subjectivity, or artistic personal
ity, in romanticism, but a difference between the kind of sub
jectivity Mr. Howells consciously expresses and the kind of
subjectivity the romanticist thinks himself to express. For
the realist is subjective; otherwise he would be no artist; he
aims and succeeds in giving a true rendering of things as they
are — to his eyes ; omniscience could do no more ; his subjec
tivity is nearest the real object, and therefore the fusion of
himself and his work gives the illusion of reality and the il
lusion is the requisite of art. The romanticist, aiming at the
illusion first of all, has his subjectivity, or self-emphasis,
placed on the means of the deception so that he constructs
artificially and falsely, and often gains no illusion whatever
— for the reader. De Vigny's Cinq-Mars is a pertinent ex
ample of the latter, and any novel of Mr. Howells is an ex
cellent instance of the former. Mr. Howells never offers the
solution of the problem in his fiction ; he allows the convincing
illusion of reality to state the problem so clearly that the
reader is enabled to make his own solution if he has con
science or mind enough to do so. Perhaps the last demand ex
plains the difficulty certain critics have experienced in accept
ing the greater William Dean Howells.
After all, the comment of no academic critic, favorable or
the reverse, is half so valuable in the case of a writer, as the
testimony of his fellow-craftsmen. Mark Twain wrote of
272 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
Mr. Howells 's work in superlative terms: "for sustained ex
hibition of certain great qualities — clearness, compression,
verbal exactness, and unforced and seemingly unconscious
felicity of phrasing, he is without his peer in the English-
writing world. His pictures are not mere stiff, hard, accurate
photographs; but photographs with feeling in them. His is
a humor which flows softly all around and about and over and
through the mesh of the page, pervasive, refreshing, health-
giving, and makes no more show and no more noise than does
the circulation of the blood."
Mr. Garland, in the most nearly adequate appreciation of
Mr. Howells 's greatest novel, A Hazard of New Fortunes,
states, "Howells is greatest when most humble, perceiving
and recording realities. . . He is self-confident . . .
bows only to truth. Genuine love for reality must be the con
dition of mind on which the law of realism is founded. . .
Mr. Howells stood for this amid assaults which would have
driven another from the field. ' '
Mr. Winston Churchill made the most comprehensive and
concisely spoken speech of congratulation at the dinner given
in honor of Mr. Howells's seventy-fifth birthday on March 2,
1912, in New York City. He said, "Analyzing with some def-
initeness what Mr. Howells has meant to me, I find that he
stands for honest workmanship — how the thing is done ; — a
consistent philosophy — a viewpoint of life ; — and for the
purity of the language. He has kept himself and his work
clear of the commercialism and materialism which have swept
over the country."
Mr. Howells has written many valuable records of travel in
America and abroad, in addition to the earlier Italian sketches,
but those of greatest fascination for the lover of the real Mr.
Howells in life as well as in literature must be those of the
country of his boyish air-castles — Spain. The great writer
has now reached the venerable age of seventy-seven but he is
still the young Howells. Witness his own testimony at the be
ginning of Familiar Spanish Travels, "As the train took its
lime and ours in mounting the uplands toward Granada on the
soft, but not too soft evening of November 6, 1911, the air that
WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS 273
came to me through the open window breathed as if from an
autumnal night of the middle eighteen-fifties in a little village
of northeastern Ohio. I was now going to see, for the first
time, the city where so great a part of my life was then passed,
and in this magical air the two epochs were blent in reciprocal
association. The question of my present identity was a thing
indifferent and apart ; it did not matter who or where or when
I was. Youth and age were at one with each other : the boy
abiding in the old man, and the old man pensively willing to
dwell for the enchanted moment in any vantage of the past
which would give him shelter. In that dignified and deliber
ate Spanish train I was a man of seventy-four crossing the
last barrier of hills that helped keep Granada from her con
querors, and at the same time I was a boy of seventeen in the
little room under the stairs in a house now practically re
moter than the Alhambra, finding my unguided way through
some Spanish story of the vanished kingdom of the Moors."
Although in his youth Mr. Howells never went to a univer
sity, in his maturity the great universities came to him. Ox
ford, Harvard, Yale, and Columbia honored themselves in
honoring him with the highest degrees in their gift. Through
countless difficulties and discouragements Mr. Howells has
gained and held the proud place of Dean of American Letters
and a place in the hearts of the young American readers of
all ages, which is more valued by him than the pride of his dis
tinguished position. He, of the whole group of notable men-
of-letters in American annals, is the most completely rep
resentative of all that is best and deepest in American life.
Some of these American characteristics for which he stands
are: honest workmanship, continental breadth opposed to
provincialism, insularity, or old-world worship ; in his highest
efforts art is always placed below humanity; always he suc
ceeds in seeing the situation sanely, with the large, charitable
American sense of humor. One of our sanest of American
critics has stated that more and more is the quality of crafts
manship held in esteem, since, after all, the message any
writer has to deliver is the gift of God and the writer's con
tribution is the manner in which he delivers the message. The
274 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
great picture of humanity in A Hazard of New Fortunes, the
greatest American novel, shows us a message which is God-
given, and critics should hesitate in their criticism of Mr.
Howells for delivering it; they should rather give him the
highest praise for the clear and flawless art of its presenta
tion which is due to the lifelong industry and the resulting
constant readiness for the exercise of the writer's craft, to
the character of the man and literary artist, William Dean
Howells.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
American Authors and their Homes, pp. 99-110. (Pott). By F. W.
Halsey.
Essays on Modern Novelists, pp. 56-81. (Macmillan). By Wm. L.
Phelps.
Famous Authors, pp. 11-25. (Page). By E. F. Harkins.
PERIODICALS
America's Foremost Living Man of Letters. Current Literature
52 :461.
Career and Achievements of Howells. Independent 72 :533.
Howells: An Appreciation. By Mark Twain. Harper's 113:221.
Literary and Social Recollections of Howells. By L. R. McCabe.
Lippincott 40 :547.
Literary Recollections of Howells. By Henry James. North Amer
ican Review 195:558.
Literary Recollections of Howells. By F. B. Sanborn. North Amer
ican Review 195 :562.
Tribute to William Dean Howells on His Seventy-fifth Birthday.
Harper's Weekly 56 :27, March 9, 1912.
Turning Point of My Life, By William Dean Howells. Harper's
Bazaar 44:165.
HELEN KELLER
BY EVELYN M. BUTLER
IN the summer of 1894, at Chautauqua, New York, one day
the writer noticed on the dock a group of people just ar
rived by boat. In the party was a young girl, walking arm
in arm with a distinguished looking gentleman. She was lean
ing forward with her face turned slightly toward him. Her
whole appearance, face and attitude, was alive with attention
and she was saying distinctly some such words as, "Is it then
possible that . . ."
This young girl, distinguished from those around her at
first glance only by a very special alertness, as if she were
thrilled with interest, was Helen Keller at the age of fourteen.
Seven years before this time she had been not only blind but
deaf and dumb, giving expression to daily outbursts of rebel
lious passion that left her exhausted and sobbing. Now a
young woman, easily mistaken for sixteen instead of fourteen
years of age, she walked the crowded dock with assurance,
self-possession, and charm. Though still deaf and blind, she
could speak ; her hand passed through the arm of her escort
rested on his fingers so lightly that she could follow every
movement without impeding them as he communicated with
her by means of the single-hand manual alphabet.
Helen Adams Keller was born June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia,
Alabama. Her father, Arthur H. Keller, was the editor of a
paper. As a young man he had served in the Confederate army
and had risen to the rank of captain. He was a man strongly
attached to his family, of true Southern hospitality, a famous
teller of anecdotes ; his garden and his trees were sources of
constant delight to him. The mother of Helen Keller was his
second wife and much younger than he. Through her Edward
Everett Hale was distantly related to the family, and he was
one of the many eminent men who were cordial, inspiring
friends of Helen Keller.
The Keller home in Alabama was named Ivy Green for the
278 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
beautiful English ivy which covered the house, the trees, and
the fences. Climbing roses hung in long festoons from the
porch, and in the lovely garden grew lilies and roses, jessa
mine and trailing clematis.
The baby Helen was a strong, assertive child, quick, imita
tive, and precocious in learning to speak. When nineteen
months old, in February, 1882, she was taken most seriously
ill with acute congestion of the stomach and brain. When the
fever left her and parents and physicians were rejoicing in
the hope of her recovery, it was discovered that the terrible
illness had blotted out the memory of her past and had left her
totally deaf and blind.
Pitiful beyond words is the thought of the little child in her
world of silence and darkness, trying to make known her
wants. Her parents were of course overwhelmed with sor
row and anxiety. Every day brought new outbursts of pas
sionate rebellion from the little girl, struggling against the
terrible bonds of silence and darkness. By the time she was
six years of age, it was evident that something must be done,
no matter how vain results seemed. Dr. Chisholm, of Balti
more, had been successful in some apparently hopeless cases
of blindness, and to him Mr. Keller took his little daughter.
The interest and kindness of everyone to her during this
trip are typical of the eagerness with which all who have been
associated with her, then and later, have striven to bring to
her something of happiness. Parents, relatives, and friends,
chance acquaintances, and the conductor, all contributed to
make the journey a joyful one. But alas ! Dr. Chisholm could
give no hope — the little girl was totally, hopelessly blind.
From Baltimore Mr. Keller took his daughter to Washington
to consult with Dr. Alexander Graham Bell. The great elec
trician held her on his knee, amused her and understood her
signs readily, but none of his inventions could bring to her
light or sound. On his advice, however, Mr. Anagnos, director
of the Perkins Institution in Boston, was asked to recommend
a teacher, the result of this request being the arrival in March,
1887, at Tuscumbia, of Miss Anne Sullivan.
So important a factor in the development of Helen Keller
HELEN KELLER 279
has her teacher been that the two have shared almost equally
the public's interest. Miss Sullivan is a Massachusetts
woman, and was twenty-three when she took charge of little
seven-year-old Helen Keller. Almost blind as a child, she had
entered the Perkins Institution when fourteen. Here she par
tially regained her sight and was graduated in 1886. Her
preparation for the special teaching of Helen Keller was made
between August, 1886, and February, 1887. Miss Sullivan
owes much to Dr. Howe, the teacher of Laura Bridgman and
the pioneer in teaching the deaf-blind, but her individual
achievement is that she discovered how to teach spoken lan
guage to the deaf -blind. A woman of strong mentality and
splendid character, she was indeed happily chosen to release
from captivity the mind and soul of Helen Keller.
It would take long to trace the steps in the education of this
little deaf and blind girl who is to-day a broad-minded, tal
ented and charming woman. It is evident that from the first
Miss Sullivan tenderly loved her pupil, that she understood
how to teach the petted, rebellious child obedience and self-
control. She lived with her, played, worked, slept with her.
From the wonderful moment when Helen learned that every
thing has a name that could be spelled into her hand, Miss Sul
livan pursued the plan of spelling into her hand all day long
everything they did, until the hand language was absorbed by
her as spoken language is by an ordinary child.
As soon as communication was possible with the outer
world through manual or hand language, Helen's intellectual
improvement was marvellously rapid. Her eagerness and de
light in learning were evidently great factors in her acquire
ment of information and a vocabulary. After three months'
work, she knew about three hundred words and a great many
of the current idioms. At th>t time her teacher declared:
"It is a rare privilege to watch the birth, growth, and first
feeble struggles of a living mind ; this privilege is mine ; and,
moreover, it is given me to rouse and guide this bright intel
ligence." Constantly Miss Sullivan roused and guided, never
driving or nagging. It was soon evident that her unusual
power of description was not lost upon her pupil, whose im-
280 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
agination grew constantly stronger and more vivid. Notice
Helen's description of a snowy landscape: "The trees stood
motionless and white like figures in a marble frieze. There
was no odour of pine needles. The rays of the sun fell upon
the trees so that the twigs sparkled like diamonds and dropped
in showers when we touched them." From language, the
study passed to literature, and spread to botany and zoology,
all taught in the most fascinating, informal way in the open
air.
In 1890 Helen Keller was told of a deaf and blind girl in
Norway who had been taught to speak. Immediately she re
solved that she, too, would learn. She took eleven lessons of
Miss Fuller, principal of the Horace Mann school. The method
of teaching her was to allow her to feel the position of the
tongue and lips of some one speaking. At her first lesson she
learned six elements of speech. In the story of her life she
says, ' 1 1 shall never forget the surprise and delight I felt when
I uttered my first connected sentence, 'It is warm.' . . No
deaf child can forget the thrill of surprise, the joy of discov
ery which came over him when he uttered his first word. ' ' She
was at first very difficult to understand, but she practiced pas
sionately night and day and was constantly drilled by Miss
Sullivan. One advantage that Helen had over other children
was that her attention could be absolutely centered on the task
in hand — there was possible no distraction of sight or sound.
The autumn after she had learned to speak, Helen Keller,
now a good-sized girl of twelve years, walked among the fall
ing leaves with her teacher, who described to her the gorgeous
colors of the foliage and told her of Jack Frost and his magic
touch. It seems that three years before, a friend whom she
visited for two or three days had read to Helen by the deaf
and dumb symbols a story called The Frost Fairies. It was
meaningless to her then, for that was before she understood
the significance of frost or colors. The incident was not
known by either her parents or her teacher — and on her re
turn home Miss Sullivan commenced reading to her Little
Lord Fauntleroy, which so absorbed her that she forgot en
tirely The Frost Fairies. Now after the descriptions of the
HELEN KELLER 281
autumn leaves and the frost, she sat down and wrote a beau
tiful, imaginative little story, which Miss Sullivan delightedly
named for her The Frost King. Teacher and parents mar
velled at the descriptive power of the young girl, and the story
was sent to Mr. Anagnos, at the Perkins Institution. He, too,
was delighted and published the story in one of the Institu
tion reports. It was then discovered that The Frost King
was unmistakably similar in idea and expression to a story
called The Frost Fairies. After very careful investigation,
Miss Sullivan discovered when and where The Frost Fairies
had probably been read to her pupil, and gave her theory of
its having lain subconsciously in the mind of the child until a
realization of autumn and frost really came to her, when the
words and images of the story, heard but not understood,
came back to her mind unrecognized as anything but her own
thought. This explanation is now universally accepted, but
at the time Helen Keller and Miss Sullivan were made to suf
fer keenly under the suspicious questioning of those who be
lieved they had intentionally deceived the officers of the Insti
tution. They were brought before a court of investigation of
the teachers and officers and questioned and cross-questioned
separately. The verdict was divided, half believing and half
rejecting the story. In the account of her life Helen says:
"As I lay in my bed that night I wept as I hope few children
have wept. I felt so cold, I imagined I should die before
morning, and the thought comforted me. ' ' The incident was
a very unhappy and unfortunate one for both pupil and teach
er, and it was long before they recovered from constant dread
lest Helen's writings should prove to contain unwarranted
imitations.
It was at about this period in Helen Keller's life that her
parents and teacher felt the time had come when the develop
ment of her character demanded definite teaching regarding
God. Bishop Brooks was asked to come to the Alabama home
and reveal to the little girl who sat in darkness, the glory and
the power of her Creator. Very carefully he talked to her
through her teacher of the world's beauty, of light and color
and fragrance, of the mountains, the sky, and the sea. When
282 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
he came to his message and told her that the maker of this
beautiful world we call God, her face lighted up with intel
ligence and joy, as she quickly spelled with her fingers, "I
have known him all the time but I never knew his name. ' '
In the next few years, Helen Keller undertook the study of
foreign languages and history, and in 1896 entered the Cam
bridge School for Young Ladies, to prepare for entrance to
Radcliffe College. In the preliminary examinations which
followed in the summer of 1897, she passed in everything, re
ceiving " honors " in German and English. Miss Keller was
in a separate room from other students taking the examina
tion, as she wished to use her typewriter. The principal of
the Cambridge School read by means of the manual alphabet
all the questions to her. Before taking the final examinations
for Radcliff e, Helen Keller intended spending another year at
the Cambridge School, but the principal, fearing for her a
breakdown in health, would not allow her to take the full
amount of work ; consequently it was arranged for her_ to
study at home under a tutor. In June, 1899, she passed her
final examinations. The questions had been copied for her in
braille, that is, the raised, printed letters ; no one acquainted
with her was allowed in the room. The difficulties of the ex
amination were very great, as of course there was no one to
read to her what she had written. In addition, the system of
raised characters used was one with which she was not at all
familiar. There are two methods of raised writing, one the
American braille, the other the English. All her previous
school work had been done by the English braille, and only
two days before the examination she discovered that her ques
tions were to be in the American braille. She at once at
tempted to familiarize herself with that system, but found it
confusing, especially in mathematics. Charitable as always
in her judgments, Miss Keller says: "The administrative
board at Radcliffe did not realize how difficult they were mak
ing my examinations, nor did they understand the peculiar
difficulties I had to surmount. But if they unintentionally
placed obstacles in my way, I have the consolation of knowing
that I overcame them all. ' '
HELEN KELLER 283
Her college days were happy ones, though evidently full of
difficulties and discouragements. Her constant comment on
college life is the lack of time and the multiplicity of tasks -
its great disadvantage in her opinion is lack of opportunity
for reflection. There is much truth in her remark, * ' One goes
to college to learn, it seems, not to think. " She seems to have
looked back frequently with longing to her days of 1 1 solitude,
books and imagination/' Another comment she makes on
college methods is concerning the "laborious explanations "
that deadened so much of the instruction in literature, ' ' the in
terminable comments and the bewildering criticisms ' ' ; and it
is with the greatest enthusiasm she speaks of one instructor
who brought the literature itself to his class, allowing students
to enjoy its power and beauty without needless interpretation
or exposition.
More wonderful than the intellectual attainment of Helen
Keller is the beauty of her mind and spirit. Imprisoned in
darkness and silence, how marvellous that she stretches out
eager hands to help the world ; that she ever is busy planning
for the betterment of the world's condition; that she is inter
ested not only in The Training of a Blind Child or The Educa
tion of the Deaf, but equally so in The Workers' Right, The
Modern Woman, socialism, suffrage, religion and politics;
that out of the silent dark she chants with sweet optimism :
"0 Dark! thou blessed, quiet Dark!
To the lone exile who must dwell with thee
Thou art benign and friendly ! ' '
Again and again one realizes in reading her thoughts how far
more unfortunate than herself she considers those who are in
tellectually and spiritually blind.
In two gifts, Helen Keller has been exceptionally rich —
books and friends. Of the former she says, "Literature is
my Utopia. Here I am not disfranchised. No barrier of the
senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourse of my
book friends. " From her own story of her life we find that
as a young college woman, she loved especially Greek and
284 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
Latin poetry and Shakespeare's plays. Her comments show
her appreciation and perception. Of Virgil and Homer she
says that the gods and men in the .^Eneid move like graceful
figures on an Elizabethan mask, but in the Iliad they leap and
sing. * i Virgil is serene and lovely like a marble Apollo in the
moonlight; Homer is a beautiful, animated youth in the full
sunlight with the wind in his hair. ' ' 1 1 Great poetry, ' ' she de
clares, " needs no other interpreter than a responsive heart.
Would that the hosts of those who make the great works of
the poets odious by their analysis, impositions and laborious
comments, might learn this simple truth. " Among French
writers her favorites when she was in college were Moliere
and Eacine, and of the German, Goethe and Schiller. She
says, "My spirit reverently follows them into regions where
Beauty and Truth and Goodness are one."
Did any girl ever have such a list of distinguished acquaint
ances and friends ! Among them have been Bishop Brooks,
Henry Drummond, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Whittier, Edward
Everett Hale, Joe Jefferson, Mary Mapes Dodge, Kate Doug
las Wiggin, Dr. Alexander Bell, Lawrence Hutton, W. D.
Howells, Mark Twain, Richard Watson Gilder, Edmund C.
Stedman, Charles Dudley Warner, and John Burroughs. Her
dearest and truest friend, however, must ever be the woman
who came to her on what she calls "the most important day in
all my life ' ' — Anne Mansfield Sullivan, who has been much
more than teacher. All that love and sympathy, tact and
tireless effort could effect, Miss Sullivan accomplished. Miss
Sullivan is now Mrs. Macy, having married the man who com
piled and edited the life and letters of Helen Keller with re
ports and letters of her teacher. Helen Keller has given ex
pression to many heart-felt appreciations of her lifelong
friend and guide. Among other things she says, l ' My teacher
is so near to me that I scarcely think of myself apart from
her. How much of my delight in all beautiful things is innate
and how much due to her, I can never tell. I feel that her be
ing is inseparable from my own and that the footsteps of my
life are in hers. All the best of me belongs to her — there is
HELEN KELLEE 285
not a talent, or an aspiration, or a joy in me that has not been
awakened by her loving touch. ' '
Helen Keller's present home is in Wrentham, Massachu
setts. Since her graduation from college she has steadily
progressed along the lines of intellectuality, of broad knowl
edge, and of generous sympathy. She has written much ; most
important, perhaps, of her publications is The Story of My
Life with her letters from 1887-1901. This book she had ded
icated to Alexander Graham Bell, "who has taught the deaf
to speak and enabled the listening ear to hear speech from the
Atlantic to the Eockies. ' ' Others of her books are Optimism,
The World I Live In, and Out of the Dark. In poetry she has
done some good work, The Song of the Stone Wall and A
Chant of Darkness probably being best known.
Alertness to the sense of touch gives to Helen Keller's face
an expression of bright, concentrated listening. Every change
of atmosphere, every vibration, every movement about her is
full of significance to her. She describes most vividly scenes
of which she can have no conception except through this one
sense and through her imagination. Wonderful are her ac
counts of a storm, the fury of the wind, the creaking and
straining of rafters, and the rattling of branches against the
windows; or of a hunt, with bridles ringing, whips cracking,
and harks and whoops and wild halloos. She loves "to touch
the mighty sea and feel its roar." In speaking of her enjoy
ment of statuary she says, "I sometimes wonder if the hand
is not more sensitive to the beauties of sculpture than the eye.
I should think the wonderful rhythmical flow of lines and
curves could be more subtly felt than seen. Be this as it may,
I know that I can feel the heart-throbs of the ancient Greeks
in their marble gods and goddesses."
No one after seeing the face of Helen Keller can feel that
life to her is not full of engrossing interest and many joys.
She has a decided sense of humor which adds to her constant
ly bright and changing expression. Tall, strongly built and
vivacious, a good talker — and a marvellous "listener" — she
inspires in those who meet her not pity so much as high re-
286 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
spect for her character and learning, admiration for her pa
tience, her charity, her broad and sympathetic interests, and
wonder for her unswerving ambition, faith, and achievement.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Story of My Life. (Doubleday.) By Helen Adams Keller.
World I Live In. ( Century. ) By Helen Adams Keller.
PERIODICALS
Helen Keller as a Writer. Century 77 :154.
Helen Keller's Life. By Edward Everett Hale. Outlook 86 :378.
How to Be Blind. By Helen Adams Keller. Outlook 82 :982.
Spectator. Outlook 103:820.
Story of My Life. By Helen Adams Keller. Ladies' Home Journal
19:284.
EGBERT M. LAFOLLETTE
BY MAYNABD LEE DAGGY
R)BEET M. LAFOLLETTE began his political career in
1880. At this time — a year after his graduation from
the University of Wisconsin — he made the announce
ment that he would seek the nomination for district attorney
of Dane County, Wisconsin. This action, quite characteristic
of the young man's elemental honesty and straightforward
ness, was an unconscious foreshadowing of the political meth
ods that were destined to mark a long career. Although only
twenty-five, the age when most men are circumspectly apolo
getic, young LaFollette presumed to seek public office without
first asking the consent of the local political boss. This de
fiance of the sacred prerogatives of the boss incurred the
active opposition of the machine. But the candidate appealed
to the sturdy folk of this his native county. After a campaign
during which the machine and the boss were ignored, the
young non-conformist was elected by a comfortable majority.
His administration of the office was distinguished by its im
partial enforcement of the law against all violators, high and
low, rich and poor, influential and obscure. Two years later
he was reflected, leading the ticket by two thousand votes.
In these four years of official service, Mr. LaFollette was
subjected to the severest discipline. With an eye single to the
discharge of duty, he went about the routine of his daily task,
neither fearing the power of the machine nor seeking its fa
vor. The early days on the farm had tested the moral fiber
of the boy, for they were days of struggle against poverty;
the years in the University had strengthened this moral fiber
of the growing youth, who had caught an occasional glimpse
of the great world beyond the campus. Now, the mental
and moral habits of boyhood and youth were put to a
practical trial and they more than stood the test. In order
that every case which he was called upon to prosecute might
be brought to a final conclusion in accordance with the pro-
288 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
visions of the law, he spared neither time nor energy to dis
cover all the facts and to present all the evidence. In this
work were manifested the essential qualities of intellect that
have placed Mr. LaFollette among the foremost American
statesmen. Concerning the influence of this four years' ex
perience as prosecuting attorney, Mr. LaFollette offers this
testimony: "I put my whole force into my work as district
attorney and thought of nothing else. It was a keen joy to
prepare the cases and present them in perfect order before the
court. When it became known that a crime had been com
mitted, I tried always to be first on the ground myself, inter
view all the witnesses and see all the surroundings in person.
It is facts that settle cases ; the law is always the same. And
this rule applies to things of larger importance than criminal
cases. Facts count high everywhere. Whether the matter in
hand is railroad legislation or the tariff, it is always a question
of digging out the facts upon which to base your case. In na
other one thing does a public man more surely indicate his
quality than in his ability to master actual conditions and set
them forth with clearness. Neither laws, nor opinions, nor
even constitutions, will finally convince people : it is only the
concrete facts of concrete cases. " 1
The spectacle of a district attorney defying the leaders
whose decrees had heretofore been superior to statutes, and
enforcing the law in an entirely impartial manner attracted
wide attention and occasioned no little comment throughout
Wisconsin. Largely as a result of the enviable record made
during his term as district attorney, Mr. LaFollette, at the
solicitation of friends, became in 1884 a candidate for the Re
publican congressional nomination. Again his ambitions were
opposed by the regular party organization, which put forth
every effort to defeat him. But again he ignored the bosses
and made his appeal to the people. After a bitter contest he
was nominated. In the campaign that followed, the " organ
ization " renewed its opposition, but where it had previously
fought in the open it now resorted to secret methods. In
i A Personal Narrative of Political Experience, by Kobert M. LaFollette, pp.
41-42.
Copyright by Harris & Ewing
EGBERT M. LAFOLLETTE 291
spite of this LaFollette and his friends, including many for
mer university students, made a valiant fight, and in Novem
ber he was elected by a small majority.
The six years spent by Mr. LaFollette as a member of Con
gress — from 1885 to 1891 — were years of preparation for
the greater career to which Providence has since called him.
Previous to the time spent in Washington he had not fully
understood the real sources of political corruption. As pros
ecuting attorney he had enforced the law against the law
breaker, but he had not seen the forces of organized greed
that lurked behind the violator of law. In the early years
of public life LaFollette was like most of the statesmen of the
period following the close of the Civil War in his attitude
toward the problems of the day. Few of them had discovered
the real source of corruption; few had recognized the funda
mental economic character of political and social problems.
Abraham Lincoln, foreseeing the danger of vast combinations
of wealth, admonished his countrymen to beware of the threat
ening menace of monopoly. Wendell Phillips, prophetic
knight of the nineteenth century, warned his countrymen
against the despotism of the corporate slave-driver who had
grasped the reins of power when the chattel slave-driver was
driven from the throne. During the time he was a member of
Congress, LaFollette experienced a great awakening and be
gan to see what Lincoln and Phillips had seen. He now un
derstood that the violation of law, as well as other forms of
political corruption which he had always considered as caused
merely by political conditions, were frequently the effects
of class legislation cunningly designed to control the operation
of economic laws. He found the halls of Congress besieged
by the hired representatives of Privilege, who sought oppor
tunities for the few at the expense of the many. He saw the
patrimony of the people bartered away in return for generous
contributions to campaign funds. He found that here was
the center of an "invisible government" which was gradually
destroying the representative form of government guaranteed
by the constitution.
LaFollette refused to acknowledge the authority of this
292 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
4 * in visible government " ; he even defied its decrees when it
spoke through the party leaders or issued its orders through
the party caucus. He insisted on debating forbidden issues
and asked embarrassing questions whenever the bosses sought
to thwart the will of the people or endeavored to rush through
legislation of doubtful character. His independence, his un
willingness to follow the party when such blind allegiance
meant the betrayal of principle, aroused the hostility of those
whose orders he refused to obey. The organized opposition
did everything in their power to drive him from public life.
The election of 1890 was a hotly contested one. Although
Mr. LaFollette was renominated and again led his ticket, the
enemy was too strong for him and he was defeated.2
Often what seems to be defeat is only victory in disguise.
The retirement of Mr. LaFollette from Congress opened to
him new opportunities for service. Now he was ready to be
gin the real battle for representative government. The "Des
tiny that shapes our ends" and nullifies the petty plans of
man with the purposes of Infinite Truth had decreed that the
struggle for representative government should be fought out
in a single state before it should be made the supreme issue
in national politics. When Mr. LaFollette returned to private
life as a lawyer in the city of Madison, he was able to see the
problems of the state from an entirely new angle. He found
that the "invisible government" had its high-priests in state
as well as in national politics. The preliminary skirmish
against the state political machine revealed the railroads and
other corporations as the controlling influence in Wisconsin.
The story of the Wisconsin battle is a familiar one. Year
after year, campaign after campaign, LaFollette led and di
rected the fight, speaking at county fairs, old settlers ' meet
ings, and wherever and whenever he could find an audience.
In caucus after caucus the people went down to defeat only to
take up the fight with renewed vigor. In several state con
ventions, even in spite of the fact that a majority of the dele-
2 While it is true that local conditions in 1890 were against all of the Repub
lican candidates in Wisconsin, it is a well known fact that the efforts of the ma
chine leaders were centered upon the defeat of Mr. LaFollette.
ROBERT M. LAFOLLETTE 293
gates had been pledged to the new cause, the machine was able
to win a purchased victory. Finally, however, the old line
leaders were vanquished. LaFollette was made the candidate
for governor, elected by an unprecedented majority, and on
January 7, 1901, took the oath of office.
Space forbids a detailed account of the fight for reform
waged by LaFollette and his supporters. American political
history records no finer exhibition of inspiring moral courage
combined with practical achievement. Traitors within the
camp as well as enemies from without conspired against the
administration. Wisconsin became a national battleground.
Every forward step was taken only after a long siege main
tained in the face of organized, nation-wide opposition. The
press from coast to coast denounced LaFollette as a danger
ous demagogue ; wealth and influence sought to embarrass him
in every possible way and even the power of Federal patron
age was used to divide the reform forces and to solidify the
opposition. Through it all LaFollette remained the calm,
confident leader, sure of the final triumph of his cause. "No
compromise " was the keynote of his administration of the
Wisconsin government. Every platform pledge was written
into the organic law of the state.
This era records the enactment of constructive legislation
which established representative government in Wisconsin.
Vitalizing this body of legislation was an intelligent public
conscience which had been awakened during the long period of
agitation. During this era railroad rates were regulated so
that discriminations and rebates were prohibited; an efficient
railway commission was organized, and the services of all pub
lic utilities were greatly improved. Reforms in taxation were
inaugurated, and corporations, that under the old order had
shifted their just burdens upon the people, were now com
pelled to pay seventy per cent of the entire taxes of the state.
An inheritance tax was established and a state income tax
adopted, both of which have proved thoroughly practicable.
To safeguard these reforms and to insure their permanency
the direct primary was adopted. Secret lobbying was pro
hibited and provision made that all arguments either in favor
294 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
of or against any proposed bill, should become a matter of
public record.
Progressive legislation, designed to protect the producers
of wealth, was a noteworthy achievement of this administra
tion. "Wisconsin now easily leads the states of the Union
in its body of labor legislation. Child labor has been reduced
and the children kept in the schools. Excessive hours for
women workers have been abolished. The doctrine of com
parative negligence has been adopted for railways, and the
long hours of trainmen have been done away with. The most
carefully drawn of all workmen's compensation laws has been
adopted . . . and finally our new Industrial Commission,
modeled after the Railroad Commission, has been placed in
charge of all the labor laws, with full power to enforce the
laws and protect the life, health, safety and welfare of em
ployees. " 8
The wide-spread interest in these reforms and the intensity
of the struggle which preceded their adoption, gave LaFol-
lette a reputation that was even more than national. The pro
gressive element in the Republican party throughout the coun
try came to regard him as a national leader. Fortunately,
the long years of struggle in Wisconsin had produced an in
telligent and an alert citizenship and had developed leaders
whose honesty and efficiency made them worthy of public con
fidence. The people of Wisconsin felt that their leader was
peculiarly fitted for service in the field of national politics and
in 1905 they elected him to represent them in the senate of the
United States. His entrance into the senate was hailed with
enthusiastic approval by citizens of all parties in every sec
tion of the country.
A new epoch began in the United States senate with the en
trance of LaFollette. ' l Senatorial courtesy ' ? and ' l senatorial
tradition " which had long controlled the deliberations of this
body had furnished many a timid statesman with an excuse
for repudiating the principles he had loudly proclaimed upon
the stump. There had been occasional revolts, but little actual
reform had taken place. LaFollette was not unaccustomed
s A Personal Narrative of Political Experience, pp. 309-310.
EGBERT M. LAFOLLETTE 295
to the subtleties by which insurgents are usually brought into
line with things as they are. The leaders of the senate were
not in harmony with the radical sentiments of the people.
These leaders regarded the new senator as a disturber of sen
atorial tradition who must be speedily and effectually silenced.
Every effort was made to negative his influence. He was
given appointments on committees where he was afforded
little opportunity to exercise the expert knowledge gained
through years of study and practical experience. He was
made to understand that no consideration would be given to
any measures he might introduce if they contained ideas that
might interfere with the party program or threaten party dis
cipline.
During the debate on the regulation of interstate commerce,
an incident occurred which illustrates the attitude of the lead
ers of the senate and reveals the uncompromising courage of
this tribune of the people. The incident is thus described by
Senator LaFollette : "I had not been speaking more than ten
minutes before I found myself without any Republican col
leagues to listen to me, aside from the presiding officer and
the Senator from New Jersey, Mr. Kean, who seemed to have
been left on guard. I understood perfectly well that I was
being rebuked. It was not altogether because I was a new
man in the Senate, but I had no sympathy, no fellowship, no
welcome from the Republican members of the Senate when I
entered. I knew that I was familiar with my subject. I had
studied it for several years. In Wisconsin it had been the one
subject, above all others, which had been discussed, investi
gated, and legislated upon. I knew that things had been done
there in a fundamental way, and that I had been a part of tfee
doing, and I felt that my experience should be p| some value
to the country. So I could not help saying :
" 'Mr. President, I pause in my remarks to say this. I
cannot be wholly indifferent to the fact that Senators by their
absence at this time indicate their want of interest in what I
may have to say upon this subject. The public is interested.
Unless this important subject is rightly settled, seats now tern-
296 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
porarily vacant may be permanently vacated by those who
have the right to occupy them at this time ! '
Time has vindicated Senator LaFollette. Within less than
a decade he has reached a position of recognized leadership
and commanding influence. Most of the senators who sought
to rebuke and discipline him have been retired from public
life and many of his opponents in other fields of national pol
itics have been hurled from the seats of the mighty. Every
legislative advance, either in the regulation of railroad rates
or in the revision of the tariff, has been a practical recogni
tion of the political ideals of Senator LaFollette. The growth
of the progressive movement within the Republican party is
the concrete result of the Wisconsin idea transferred to the
arena of national politics. Whatever part this movement may
play in the future drama of American politics it will be com
pelled to reckon with the leadership of Robert M. LaFollette.
That Senator LaFollette was the " logical' ' candidate of the
Republican party for president in 1912 is quite generally ad
mitted by impartial students of contemporary politics. Also
that he was the first choice of the rank and file of the party is
undoubtedly true. The circumstances leading to his defeat
in the convention are not a matter for discussion in this place.
However, it is only fair to say that he was generally regarded
at the close of the campaign of 1912 as stronger than ever in
the confidence of the people who believe that he will continue
for many years as a leader in the cause of democracy and rep
resentative government.
Modern civilization is complex, its problems are intricate.
The conditions of present-day life reveal the utter uselessness
of the old method of political diplomacy with its policy of
evasion and compromise. The new statesmanship is con
cerned with the establishment of economic and social condi
tions congenial to the development of better and happier
living.
The subject of this sketch typifies the essential honesty of
this new school of statesmanship. Honesty has always been
* A Personal Narrative of Political Experience, pp. 411-412.
EGBERT M. LAFOLLETTE 297
the keynote of his private life and his public career. The
political life of this twentieth century statesman has been one
of rare consistency. He has offered a new interpretation of
the old maxim, "Honesty is the best policy,'' in its applica
tion to the vital problems of modern life. He rejects the pol
icy that would secure temporary results through makeshift
methods; he prefers to work out completely the problems of
legislation without resorting to compromise. "In legisla
tion," he says, "No bread is often better than half a loaf. I
believe it is usually better to be beaten and come right back
at the next session and make a fight for a thorough-going law
than to have written on the books a weak and indefinite
statute. ' '
Senator LaFollette has had a notable career as an orator.
He became interested in public speaking during his college
days when he successfully represented the University of Wis
consin in the Northern Oratorical League. While a student
in the university he was an active member of the debating so
ciety which, to this day, is famous for the research work
which it demands of its members who are training for debate.
His experience as a student in debating and public speaking
furnished the foundation principles that in later years were
so effective in the work of platform agitation and education.
To-day he ranks with the masters of American eloquence. He
has risen to this position solely by virtue of intellectual force
and through unremitting labor. He has been favored by no
genius other than the capacity for hard work. His attain
ments disprove the theory that a large physique is necessary
for oratorical success. In stature he is below the average but
is vigorous and athletic. He is always logical in thought and
he always clothes the thought in words chosen with such nice
precision that their meaning cannot be misunderstood. In his
oratory there is the warmth of imagination and the depth of
sympathetic insight which suggest the classic eloquence of
James Otis. There is the enthusiasm, the reflection of truth
through personality that marked the dramatic rhapsodies of
Patrick Henry. Under the influence of his eloquence thous
ands of Americans have been mentally quickened, their moral
298 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
natures have been aroused, and they have gone forth like the
patriots who listened to Otis and Henry, to do and to die for
their country's good.
Mr. LaFollette is a man of great personal charm. His
warmest friends are those who have known him in the close
intimacy of private life. He is thoroughly democratic in
spirit and in manner. He is a brilliant conversationalist, a
gracious and genial host, a good neighbor, and a devoted
friend. In every relation of private life he is generous and
kind without the slightest trace of condescension. Of intense
convictions, strongly assertive when occasion demands, and
firm and positive when he has reached a decision, he is yet as
fair to his enemies as he is faithful to his friends. When not
engaged in official duties, he lives quietly on his farm near
Madison with his family. During all the years of his political
career, Mrs. LaFollette, who is a university graduate and a
woman of wide interests, has been her husband's " wisest and
best counsellor. "
Mr. LaFollette confidently faces the future. Believing with
Wendell Phillips that no question is ever settled until it is
settled right, this uncompromising advocate of the people's
cause will continue to inspire his countrymen. To those who
seek the opportunity for service, Robert M. LaFollette offers
this hopeful and inspiring message: " There never was a
higher call to greater service than in this protracted fight for
social justice. I believe with increasing depth of conviction,
that we will, in our day, meet our responsibility with fearless
ness and faith ; that we will reclaim and preserve for our chil
dren, not only the form but the spirit of our free institutions.
And in our children must we rest our hope for the ultimate
democracy."
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PERIODICALS
Autobiography. American 72:660-674; 73:3-15, 143-156, 306-317,
442-455, 591-603, 701-713; 74:72-83, 180-190, 369-379.
Governor LaFollette and What He Stands For. By Amos P. Wild
er. Outlook 70 :631.
ROBERT M. LAFOLLETTE 299
LaFollette, Pioneer Progressive. By William. Bayard Hale. World's
Work 22:14591.
Personal Sketch of Governor LaFollette. By Earle H. Eaton. Har
per's Weekly 48:2025.
Rise of Robert LaFollette, the Governor of Wisconsin. By John
H. Finley. Harper's Weekly 46:1508.
Senator LaFollette and His Policies. Outlook 100 :57.
BEN B. LINDSEY
BY THOMAS LE GRAND HARRIS
SOCIAL progress at first was like the motion of a glacier
- too slow to be perceived at all except by observation
and comparison after long intervals of time. The move
ment is now much more rapid and is due to causes wholly
different. One of the most potent of these is the genius of
really great men whose efforts are directed toward making
the world better. He who makes two blades of grass grow
where only one grew before is a benefactor to mankind. Like
wise he who solves a difficult social problem has made a gen
uine contribution to the progress and happiness of his fel
lows. Among the Americans of this class is Judge Benjamin
Barr Lindsey, born in Tennessee in 1869. His father was a
Confederate army officer who served on the staff of General
Chalmers in aid of the Lost Cause. The family fortune hav
ing been lost in the war, the Lindseys came North where the
father, who had been bred a Southern gentleman, died from
overwork in a few years. The widow was left to face the
world with four little children and very scanty means.
The subject of this sketch, being the eldest, had many of the
trials and experiences which naturally come to a fatherless
lad under such circumstances. At the age of twelve he be
came a messenger boy and also managed a newspaper route.
He attended night school and made the most of such advan
tages as were within his reach. In due time he won his way
to a bachelor's degree in a Western state university, after
which he prepared for the profession of law and was duly
admitted to the bar in 1894. His profession naturally leads
the way to political life. Being a man with a normal amount
of honorable ambition, he soon made a beginning in politics.
He hoped to become district attorney but was unsuccessful.
As matters turned out it was probably very fortunate for him
and for the hundreds of boys who have been influenced by him
that he did not realize his ambition in this instance. He was,
Copyright bij Moffett Studio, Chicago
BEN B. LINDSEY 303
however, soon afterward appointed to fill out an unexpired
term as county judge in Denver and began his work on the
bench merely as an obscure young lawyer who had received a
promotion and who was wholly unknown to fame. This was
on January 8, 1901.
At this period of his career he had in his thoughts neither
plans nor theories for any work of an unusual character but
only the idea of doing his whole official duty with whatever
energy and ability he possessed. Here cases in great variety
came before his court, and the regular daily round of busi
ness was transacted just as it had been done for many years
previously. Many children were brought before this court
on charges of theft, burglary, and other crimes. They were
tried in precisely the same manner and under the same pro
cedure as were grown-up men and women, and if found guilty
they were promptly sentenced to serve terms in the State In
dustrial School at Golden. This was part of the regular sys
tem provided for by law. A boy might be brought into the
district court or the justice court as well as into the county
court over which the new judge presided. The result was the
same in the event his guilt was established.
One evening, when the shadows were lengthening and the
county court was grinding out its usual daily grist of cases
with increased speed so as to dispose of the business on its
regular calendar for that day, a case of petty larceny was
called. The ' l thief " was only an Italian boy of tender years
who had violated the majesty of the law and offended the dig
nity of the State of Colorado. His offense was that of pick
ing up coal along the railroad tracks in order to have a little
fire at home. A policeman and witnesses soon made a clear
case against the urchin. His guilt was evident and the youth
ful judge pronounced the sentence which the law prescribed
for such an offense and hastily called the next case, for every
body was anxious to get through with the day's work and go
home. Just at that moment, however, a prolonged shriek
rent the air of the court room and attracted the attention of
everyone. It was the shrill, agonized cry of a forlorn, un-
304 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
couth woman whose appearance was not unlike that of a cave
dweller of long past ages.
Such happenings are not unknown in public courts of jus
tice. But the dignity of the court had been violated and the
bailiff, whose duty it was to see that order was kept, made a
move to eject the disturber from the court room, when the
judge stopped the machinery of the law and, calling the poor
woman to his side, talked with her and the boy together. He
suspended the sentence and later visited them in their humble
home. With the help of the mother and the cooperation of
the boy himself the youth was saved from the operation of
what had been previously the inexorable penalty of violated
criminal law. In this way a boy, not really bad but who, in a
moment of temptation, had appropriated something of trifling
value, was saved from the beginnings of a criminal career.
To-day he is a respected and useful member of society.
Not long afterward a burglary case was set for trial in this
young judge's court. When the time came he looked around
for the criminals. Three frightened boys, not one of whom
was more than sixteen, were brought before him. Upon in
quiry it turned out that the burglary had been committed in
a pigeon loft, the owner being a peevish old man who claimed
that the boys had long annoyed him and now had robbed him
of some of his choice birds. The boys said that pigeons of a
choice variety belonging to them had " taken up" with those
of the old man and that they were only trying to get them
back again. But this was burglary and under the criminal
law boys guilty of this crime must be sent to the reformatory.
Something in the appearance of the old man and the circum
stances of the case reminded the judge of his own youthful
days. He asked more questions of the old man to learn the
exact location of his pigeon loft. The judge was not mis
taken. He recalled that when a boy he was a member of a
"gang." Boys instinctively associate themselves in gangs to
do mischief. His own gang had planned and successfully ex
ecuted a "burglary" of this same old man's pigeon loft. The
judge whose duty it was now to sentence these boys to prison
had once helped to plan just such a burglary himself when a
BEN B. LINDSEY 305
boy, but his " nerve " had failed him at the last moment and
he had not actually entered the barn with the boys who helped
themselves to the old man's pigeons on that occasion.
It seemed unfair that normal, healthy-minded boys should
be sent to prison for an offense like that — something which
might have happened to the judge himself in the days of his
youth.
A hasty examination of the statutes seemed to make it un
necessary to deal with these cases in the usual way. A school
law enacted only two years or so before that time provided
that such youths might be treated as juvenile disorderly of
fenders and not as burglars or thieves. The judge took the
boys to his private room and talked with them in a friendly
and familiar way, showing them how weak and unmanly it
was to take property that belonged to others even though it
were only pigeons. He assured them, further, that he had no
sympathy with any boy who would tell on the other fellow but
asked them to have the whole gang come in and report to him
at once. They were promised a square deal. The whole gang
came in without delay. Each told his own story and was al
lowed to go upon probation, with the understanding that he
report regularly. The plan worked admirably and each boy
became a friend of the judge.
The special interest of the judge was thoroughly aroused
and he thought he saw an opportunity to effect a much needed
change in the whole system of dealing with youthful offenders
in Denver. It did not seem human or just to treat mere boys
who, in a moment of temptation, had committed some slight
offense against the law, as if they were in a class with hard
ened criminals. To "try" boys for "crimes" committed and
often to find them guilty and send them to the State Industrial
School was absurd and almost criminal in itself. Such a sys
tem seemed to place a greater value upon a trifling amount of
property stolen by a youth than it did upon the men and
women of the future. It seemed necessary to aid the delin
quent youth in developing character and overcoming any
tendency toward criminal development rather than to inflict
a merely vindictive punishment which, in the great majority
306 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
of cases, only hardens the offender and confirms him in evil
ways. The judge began to ask himself if it were not high
time that the future of the youth should be given more con
sideration than the value of the property he might be guilty
of stealing or the importance of the misdemeanor he might be
guilty of committing. There was but one answer to this ques
tion. The reform of the wrong-doer was certainly the para
mount object to be attained in such cases.
The district attorney was approached and asked that all
children's cases be sent to Judge Lindsey's court and that in
future they be accused as juvenile disorderly person^ under
the school law rather than as violators of the criminal code.
This request was readily and cheerfully granted, for the other
judges did not care to be troubled with this class of cases at
all, if their accommodating colleague would try them in his
court.
The interest of Judge Lindsey was now stimulated by facts
brought to his attention through a study of the methods of
dealing with juvenile offenders. He visited the State Re
formatory at Golden in order to get information at first hand.
There he saw boys in their teens treated like hardened crim
inals. The ball and chain were not infrequently used as a
means of reform. The worst of these evils he tried to have
corrected even in the reformatory. But other things which
he afterward saw in his own city brought the matter more
closely home to him. A visit to the jails maintained by the
city and the county revealed conditions which were of the very
worst. Filth, dirt, and vermin were plentiful. The walls
were dilapidated and the plastering had peeled off in great
patches. The sanitary conditions were bad and the odors re
pulsive. But what was worse than all of this was the fact
that no effort was made to keep youthful offenders separated
from old and hardened criminals. Boys guilty of their first
offense were here herded with men who had grown gray in
lives of crime. Boys were instructed in the ways and means
of the professional criminal and their minds were being con
stantly filled with everything that could be told them which
was vile and degrading. The jails were only schools of in-
BEN B. LINDSEY 307
struction in crime, and the teaching was done by masters of
the art they taught.
The judge learned, upon further investigation, that for sev
eral years before he came into office more than four hundred
boys had been sent to jail in each year for periods varying
from a few hours to a month or more. This meant that every
youth who developed a tendency toward crime was promptly
sent by the state to a place where he could get further instruc
tion in criminal arts.
Further investigation seemed to show that conditions in
Denver were not exceptional, but only representative of what
they were in other parts of the country. He learned that in
some other cities in this country as many as one fourth of all
the arrests made were of boys less than twenty, and that
seventy -five per cent, of the crimes committed in the entire
country are the offenses of persons under twenty-three years
of age. Their records show that they were imprisoned as
children and, in the absence of reformatory influences of any
kind, rapidly developed into accomplished criminals. To Judge
Lindsey it seemed that the whole juvenile procedure was
wrong, that the methods of treating bad boys did not prevent
crime but only fostered it, that the businesslike methods of
the state in dealing out so-called justice to youthful offenders
only tended to make greater criminals of them. His theory,
easily deduced from the foregoing facts, is that the youthful
offender should not be subjected to the degrading influences
of prisons and vindictive punishments by the state but that it,
like a good parent, should try to develop the better side of the
boy's nature and strengthen his character so that he may be
able always to resist temptations and to become a good cit
izen.
These were the ideas upon which Judge Lindsey 's court
was based. They might prove to be wholly sentimental but
he proposed to work them out in actual practice, believing that
the welfare of the youth was always of the first and greatest
consideration and that the reform of the wrong-doer means
much more for him and for society than any vindictive pun
ishment that might be inflicted with a view to correcting his
308 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
evil habits. But how was this to be done? The answer was
a very simple one, to the judge's mind. He would depart
from the routine businesslike methods of the old system and
try to find out in each individual case what would be required
to meet the needs of the offender and set the reformatory in
fluences to work. This could not be done by any set rule. It
would require a rare combination of qualities in him who at
tempted it. Tact, sympathy with youth, gentleness, sagacity
and a deep insight into human nature, especially as it appears
in boys, all of these would be required.
Certain things appeared to be self-evident to Judge Lind-
sey after only a brief experience. One was that most boys
who make a bad beginning do so because of evil influences,
chief among which are heredity and unfavorable environ
ment, not because they are of natural born criminal types.
Another fact was that boys associate in "gangs" just as men
do in organizations. Still another is that all boys hate the
one who will "tell" on the other fellow. There is no forgive
ness for him by the remainder of the "gang," if he has
"told" upon them or any of their members. Every human
being has some good in him. Underneath the evil nature and
the disposition of the bad boy to lie, or to steal, or to break
the law in any other way, there is the latent possibility for
good if it can only be reached and developed. It was also
noticed that when a boy was brought into court he was either
in a sullen and defiant mood, or was frightened and terror-
stricken.
Keeping these ideas well in mind Judge Lindsey began his
new way of treating juvenile delinquents. He does not sit
upon the bench in dignified and judicial fashion when a boy's
case comes up for consideration. He will come down to a level
with the boy in this as well as in all other matters. He will
sit down by the side of him if necessary on a camp chair, and
use the familiar slang of the street urchin in an effort to
reach the boy and have him tell the truth about his own case.
The terror-stricken boy is made to feel that the judge is not
there primarily to inflict punishment and that he will get a
square deal and have a chance to overcome his weaknesses
BEN B. LINDSEY 309
and mistakes if he will only tell the whole truth about him
self. He is not asked or encouraged to tell what any other
boy has done. He may be asked later to get the other boy
himself to tell. He is then made to see how unmanly and
weak it is to do the wrong things to which he has confessed
and is put upon probation, reporting regularly until such
time as it is felt that he can overcome evil with good. The
sullen and defiant boy is encouraged to tell the whole truth
about himself and is given to understand that this must be
done before his case can have consideration. Judge Lindsey
seems to knowT instinctively when a boy is lying to him and he
has wonderful power to convince such a boy of this fact. In
an effort to get a boy's confidence, Judge Lindsey will invite
him into his own private room, or will take him home to din
ner, or do whatever seems best in order to get the truth in re
gard to that boy's case. On one occasion after going over all
the evidence with a defiant boy and making out a clear enough
case, the boy still persisted that he had told the truth. The
judge promptly instructed the officer to take the boy to jail,
since the first thing to be done in every boy's case before it is
adjusted is to get the truth. On the way to jail the boy re
lented and upon his return promptly confessed that he had
lied, and that he was now ready to tell the truth about him
self. On another occasion a boy's collar was loosened to ob
serve his Adam's apple with the remark that its movements
would reveal a lie. It is a cardinal principle with Judge Lind
sey in his dealing with a bad boy never to allow him to
get away with a lie on his soul. This is the first step in deal
ing with any bad boy's case, and is more than half the battle.
If the boy is a member of a "gang," and he generally is, he
is then induced to have the others come in and each one tell
his own story only. The judge does not seek to break up the
gang as the older reformers would first think of doing, but he
tries to cultivate a sentiment among the members while they
are on probation that it is unmanly to lie, or to steal, or to
commit offenses against the law. He thus turns the gang
spirit to good account. The boys are made to feel that they
must grow strong enough to meet successfully any tempta-
310 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
tions to break the law again or to do an unmanly act of any
kind.
The judge recognizes the fact that boys love to be com
mended for whatever progress they have made or whatever
good they have done. His court of probation is therefore
made, so far as it may serve a good purpose, a court of ap
probation. While looking into this matter the judge will move
about among the boys calling each one by his street name and
looking into his school or other report and if any progress has
been made he will praise the boy and encourage him, pointing
out to him examples of other boys who have grown strong
and manly in right doing. Each boy's confidence is gained
and he very early becomes the judge's friend and feels that
since he is getting a square deal he must do the things that
are expected of him. No record is made against any boy to
come up against him in after life.
After fair and repeated trials, if a boy makes no progress,
he is given to understand that he must make use of the next
most helpful thing in order to overcome his delinquency and
that is to go to the Eeformatory at Golden, not as a punish
ment, but as an aid to help him in becoming stronger. This
idea is impressed upon him very strongly. The judge will
sometimes take such a boy home with him in the evening and
after dinner they will go over the whole matter together with
the result that the boy is fully convinced. Every such boy is
put wholly upon his own honor. His commitment papers are
then made out and given to him, together with money for his
expenses, and he is directed to go alone to Golden and report
to the superintendent of the reformatory, who is not informed
in advance of his coming. As an evidence of the success of
this plan it may be said that of more than three hundred boys
so committed from the Denver juvenile court, only five have
betrayed their trust and failed to report as directed.
Although Judge Lindsey is often referred to as the orig
inator of the whole juvenile court system in this country he
modestly disclaims any such honor. This much, however, is
certain, that in 1898 there was not such a court anywhere in
the world. At that time there were, in the two states of New
BEN B. LINDSEY 311
York and Massachusetts, statutes which, made possible the
trial of youthful offenders apart from adults. In 1899 Colo
rado and Illinois enacted laws which enabled courts to deal in
a special way with delinquent children. It was these laws
which made possible a beginning, and it was not until the
juvenile court idea had been fully developed and its success
assured that the Colorado legislature passed an act giving it
a legal basis and providing that every county in the state
might have such a court. Judge Lindsey was the author of
this act.
Learning from experience what legislation was most needed
to aid and strengthen the first act he afterwards asked for
and obtained the passage of a Contributory Delinquency Law
which provides for a maximum penalty of a heavy fine or even
a year's imprisonment for contributing to the delinquency of
any child, whether the offender be the parent or not. The in
tent of the law as first framed and passed was to enable the
court to reach parents who keep their children away from
school to work. It was later amended and changed so as to
cover all cases of persons instructing children in crime or al
lowing boys to go into saloons or other immoral places. It
also applies to the employees of railway companies who per
mit boys to steal rides or to carry off coal or other articles of
small value from the yards. This was the first law of its kind
ever passed.
Judge Lindsey has always stood for good government and
has been active in the fights of the last decade against the
corrupt politicians and the " Interests " in his own city and
state. His private life has always been above reproach. The
esteem in which he is held by all good citizens has been amply
demonstrated by the results of the last two elections in which
he was a candidate for juvenile judge. In 1908 when the pol
iticians refused to place his name upon any regular ticket he
made an independent campaign with the aid of his friends,
and was elected by 14,272 votes over his nearest competitor.
Four years later he was elected on a Citizens' ticket by
41,478 votes as against 16,249 for his nearest opponent on a
regular party ticket.
312 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
It may safely be said that that life is most worth while
which contributes something of real value to human progress.
It is certain that Judge Lindsey has done this and that his
name will have a place among the real reformers of the pres
ent generation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PERIODICALS
Beast and Jungle. Everybody's 21:433-52, 579-598, 770-784; 22:41-
53, 231-244, 391-401, 528-540, 632-644.
Children's Court in American Life. Review of Reviews 33:305.
Children's Judge. Outlook 88 :476.
Denver's Rejuvenation. Review of Reviews 46:365.
Enemy of Corruption. Outlook 93 :238.
Judge Lindsey and his work. World Today 10 :368.
Just Judge. By L. Steffens. McClure's 27:563-582; 28:74-88, 162-
176.
Kid Judge of Denver. Outlook 80 :497.
Mickey and the Judge. Outlook 93 :565.
JOHN MITCHELL
BY FRANCIS CALVIN TILDEN
IN the fall of 1902, in the midst of the great anthracite coal
strike, one of the historic labor struggles of modern times,
Lincoln Steffens wrote in McCktre's Magazine as follows
of a, then, little known labor leader :
"When labor knew only its emotions, when the working
men only felt that something — they knew not what — was
wrong, the expression of that feeling carried the natural re-
w^ard of leadership. Eloquence, in competition with elo
quence, aroused passions that begot violence. The orators
could not control the forces they set in motion. . . Thus it
came about that the laboring men turned from the orators to
men who talked little and worked hard; to men who com
manded them and knew how to compromise with their em
ployers. " *
Of these new labor leaders, working through man's intel
ligence rather than through his passions, John Mitchell, at
that time president of the United Mine Workers of America,
was most typical. He remains today not only one of the most
skillful and trusted of labor leaders, but one of the foremost
of a new type of men, a type as yet little recognized and less
understood. This is the type of man who, in the midst of
present-day ideas of what constitutes success, of what brings
pleasure, of what is worth striving for, deliberately gives up
personal ambition and a sure road to private wealth and
power for the doubtful leadership of a body of men who un
derstand neither themselves nor him. With ability which, if
used for personal ends, could scarcely have failed to bring
those things for which most men struggle, he chose to use this
unusual ability for the many rather than for himself alone.
It seemed better to him that many thousand might eat more
and better bread each day than that he should have for him-
iMcClure's 19:355 ff.
314 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
self ease and luxury and the praise of society given to those
who succeed in the things that society understands.
It would be wrong to suppose, however, that John Mitchell
chose deliberately between these two methods of procedure;
that after due deliberation he decided to give up the egoistic
for the altruistic. Altruism was so much a part of his nature
that it developed with his growth, without struggle and with
out thought. He gave up nothing, because it appears that it
never occurred to him that there was anything to do, for him
at least, that was other than he was doing. Andrew Carnegie,
beginning as John Mitchell did, in poverty and ignorance,
made himself one of the foremost men of his time in the
finance of the world. Behind him lies, as the result of his
lifework, a better system of refining steel, innumerable li
braries — his gifts and bearing his name — a hundred mil
lionaires and more — his one-time lieutenants — and personal
wealth so great as to tax his gigantic intellect to find means
for its expenditure. In addition to this he has worldwide
fame as a man who has succeeded in the game of life. John
Mitchell, in a life as yet much shorter, leaves behind him not
a better system of refining steel, not a hundred millionaires,
not innumerable libraries with his name in stone over the
doors, but better living conditions for four hundred thousand
miners — more wages, fewer hours of labor, less dangerous
mine conditions, far-reaching laws for greater safety, a bet
ter understanding between capital and labor. For himself
he has, as reward, a modest salary and more battles to fight
for the men he leads, almost in spite of themselves. Both
Andrew Carnegie and John Mitchell were and are necessary
to the world. The one built up and made possible the won
derful financial system of today, the great aggregates of cap
ital which the other is now attempting to direct toward the
bettering of all mankind. Each man is necessary, but each
represents a different philosophy and a different theory of
economics. Consciously or unconsciously, Andrew Carnegie
stands for that old theory, first put forward by Adam Smith,
that social progress, the advance of the masses of the people,
is most rapid when each individual of the mass is struggling
Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune
JOHN MITCHELL 317
as strenuously as possible and as selfishly as possible for his
own personal advancement. Consciously or unconsciously
again, John Mitchell represents that newer theory of man and
economics, developed first, possibly, by Thomas Carlyle, that
social progress is most rapid, the sum total of human happi
ness greatest, when altruism and not selfishness prevails,
when each seeks to help others and not himself alone.
John Mitchell, this new man of the new time, is a self-made
man. Self-made men are common in America. Generally
speaking, we mean by the term self-made that the man to
whom the term applies has, without the aid of inherited wealth
or a college education, secured for himself a place in the so
ciety of the time. Andrew Carnegie, Charles M. Schwab, and
John Wanamaker were self-made men. They began as poor
boys, without advanced education and, by the aid of energy,
ability, and intelligence, have placed themselves at the head of
various business enterprises of this country. In the larger
sense John Mitchell was, like these men, self-made. The dif
ference lay wholly in the finished product.
John Mitchell was born at Braidwood, Illinois, on the 4th of
February, 1870. Braidwood was a mining town stretching its
full and ugly length upon a low, flat, marshy prairie. In the
winter it caught the full sweep of far-driven storms and was
half buried in snow. In spring it was surrounded by endless
miles of marsh and mud. In summer it lay between inter
mingled fields of corn and slough-grass. The town was no
more monotonous than the life of the child, John Mitchell, to
the age of twelve years. When he was three years old his
mother died. Soon after, his father married again. The
stepmother was a good woman but had what seemed to many
unusually severe ideas of conduct and discipline. At six years
of age the boy saw his father brought home dead from the
mines, killed there in one of the ever-recurring accidents.
This father had been the boy's ideal. A soldier in the Civil
War, and consequently an ardent American citizen, ever in
terested in all that affected the country's political or social
action, he left his social rectitude as a heritage to his son. In
after years the memory of that father, known so little in those
318 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
early years, was to hold him to certain definite theories of con
duct. Other men in the ranks of labor might forget that the
laborer was a citizen, but not John Mitchell. For him there
could be no successful labor struggle that did not also result
in advantage to society, to all citizens of his country.
Between the ages of six and ten years the boy attended the
common schools of Braidwood. Shortly before he was ten
his stepmother married again. The stepfather was from
the first opposed to the boy, found fault with his going to
school, found fault with him about the house. As a result
John Mitchell left this, his only semblance of a home, when he
was ten years old, and secured a job with a farmer of the
neighborhood. He was to carry water to the men and do
small chores. In return he was to receive a dollar a month,
his board and room. The next year he was doing almost a
man's work on the farm, and was receiving ten dollars a
month.
At twelve years of age, at the suggestion of his stepfather,
he returned home and began work in the mines, securing a
place as breaker boy. Living with his stepparents was not
satisfactory, however, and late in the year he ran away from
home, going by slow stages to the mines in Colorado. Here
he nearly starved. The mining conditions were bad, worse
even than in Illinois. The miners lived in the midst of con
tinuous hardship and privation; but Mitchell found, or
thought he found, them to be unusual men. Gradually there
was forced upon him the belief that the hardship these men
and their families suffered was not inevitable. It began to
appear to him that the conditions of their lives were unneces
sarily severe, and, boy though he was, he began to plan
schemes of general help for miners and their families.
From the very first the Union Labor movement seemed to
him to hold the promise of the things that he believed ought
to be. He became not only a member of the union, but a most
careful student of labor problems, proposed reforms, and
general economic conditions. From the very first he realized
that the labor problem was an economic problem. The solu
tion of the labor problem he felt depended as much or more
JOHN MITCHELL 319
upon the changing of economic conditions as upon the direct
struggle with employers for higher wages. These earlier
ideas of the situation broadened and deepened with his in
creasing years.
At twenty, Mitchell was back in Illinois, at work in the
mines at Spring Valley. Here the Labor Union was begin
ning to be a force, and the interest begun in the West devel
oped into a controlling motive in his life. He was made a
Master Workman in the Knights of Labor. Already, how
ever, the miners felt the need of a special organization to care
for their special problems. The United Mine Workers had
hardly been placed in working condition before we find Mitch
ell as secretary-treasurer of a sub-district of the organization.
Constant study and earnest work in behalf of the miners was
recognized by them by official advancement, until in Septem
ber, 1898, he was made acting president of the organization,
and the next year was made president, which office he held till
1908.
Those who are active students of contemporary history
will recall that the years 1900 to 1903 were years of tremen
dous import in the mining affairs of this country. In the
great anthracite districts of the mining world, lying in the
midst of our greatest manufacturing district and our densest
population, the forces of capital and labor, as represented by
mine owners and miners, were locked in what appeared to
each side as a death struggle. With perfect honesty each
side in the struggle believed that defeat meant total destruc
tion. The mine owners believed that defeat meant the sur
render of the control of their business. The miners believed
that defeat meant a return to conditions bordering upon, if
not actually similar to, slavery. Because of these somewhat
exaggerated beliefs the struggle was most bitter. Gradually
the public passed from the position of spectators to one of
active and radical partisans. All forms of radical schemes
for stopping the struggle were suggested. These ranged
from a proposition to send United States troops into the coal
fields to compel the miners to return to work, on the one hand,
320 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
to an equally radical proposition to seize the mines in the
name of the United States and begin the mining of coal by
the country at large without reference to property rights.
In this struggle, so significant and tremendous, a few men
soon became prominent. On the one side were the presidents
of the mining corporations. These men, adherents of the
old order of things, felt that not only their own welfare but the
welfare of the country and all invested funds depended upon
defeating labor in its demands upon the anthracite coal com
panies. They felt, or pretended to feel, that there could be
no community of interest between the men and the owners of
the mines. They insisted that the owners had the right to
determine the conditions under which the men should work,
and refused to consider any change through which the men
themselves might have a voice in things that affected their
own welfare.
On the other side a single figure emerged with a new theory
of the relations of capital and labor. This new figure was
John Mitchell. His theory was the theory of the necessity of
peace. While the mine owners on the one hand and many la
bor leaders on the other were declaring that the struggle be
tween labor and capital was a struggle never to be ended ex
cept by the complete conquest of the one by the other, Mitchell
was declaring that a proper understanding of the relations of
labor and capital would make plain that there should be no
struggle at all. While, as president of the United Mine
Workers, he directed the fight the miners were making against
the mine owners, he nevertheless insisted that the struggle
was wrong. It came about because neither side saw clearly
the exact relationship. In his book, published after the fight
was over, he says, in the preface :
" There is no necessary hostility between labor and capital.
Neither can do without the other; each has evolved from the
other. Capital is labor saved and materialized ; the power to
labor is, in itself, a form of capital. There is not even a
necessary, fundamental antagonism between the laborer and
the capitalist. Both are men with the virtues and vices of
JOHN MITCHELL 321
men, and each wishes, at times, more than his fair share.
Yet, broadly considered, the interest of one is the interest of
the other. "
It was the attempt to make both parties see this, the at
tempt to make both sides realize that this great principle of
mutual interest must after all triumph if even minor differ
ences were to be compromised, that formed the center of the
Mitchell leadership in those troublous times. He felt that as
a labor leader he must make the men realize that they were
men, men of honor, ready to carry out a fair contract to the
utmost. He felt also that it was necessary for the capitalist
to realize that labor was a commodity, that in dealing with a
labor union the capitalist was simply buying labor wholesale
instead of retail, and that buying labor in this way had all the
advantages of wholesale dealing. It was the realization of
his larger knowledge of the situation that gave him the power
of self-control which he showed in the historic meeting with
the mine owners in the conference called by President Roose
velt, in October, 1902. A reporter who was present declares
that of all the men who came at the call of the president, John
Mitchell was the only one who kept his head. He as well as
the miners ' organization was bitterly attacked. Mitchell
replied with calm and effective argument. He believed that
there was little to fight about if both sides could only under
stand. There were things to compromise, but in the interest
of mutual advancement, not in the interest of party triumph
for either side.
It will be remembered that the strike terminated in arbitra
tion through which the miners were granted almost all they
had asked. It would naturally be supposed that the leader of
such a vast and successful labor movement would have found
extraordinary honor in the eyes of the laboring masses. Such
was not the case. Though the miners continued for a num
ber of years to keep Mitchell in the office of president of the
United Mine Workers there was a growing feeling of dis
trust. This was due, without doubt, to the feeling that Mitch
ell was too conservative for a leader of labor. Before the
anthracite strike was settled Mitchell had been compelled to
322 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
take a position that was considered ill-advised by many min
ers and labor men. He had refused to allow the miners in the
soft coal field to violate their contract with the soft coal mine
owners, and strike in sympathy with the anthracite miners.
Mitchell insisted that a contract was sacred and to break the
contract in force was to make it impossible to secure other
contracts. He insisted that the end of organized labor was to
secure the confidence of capital, and, to secure this, all con
tracts made in good faith must be adhered to. This position
was the natural result of his theory that there was no cause
for antagonism between labor and capital; that the mutual
recognition of the necessity of peace was the ultimate end to
be sought.
This view was not and is not held by many labor leaders.
One has only to glance at the statements of Tom Mann, one
of the great English labor leaders to note this. Mann de
clares that, " every provision for peace between the two par
ties is a perpetual wrong to labor. " Another labor leader
says: "We do not recognize the capitalist's right to live any
more than we recognize the right of the typhoid bacilli to
thrive at the expense of the patient, the patient being able
merely to keep alive."
As the result of movements of which the above quotations
are illustrative, John Mitchell has found his work in the last
few years not so much a matter of directing battles against
employers as an attempt to form and direct the thought of
the public and the laborers upon questions of labor economics.
In addition to his book on Organized Labor he has contrib
uted to magazines a number of articles having to do with labor
conditions and labor laws the world over. Believed of the
presidency of the United Mine Workers of America in 1908,
he has remained vice president of the American Federation
of Labor. Time and again in the conventions of this organ
ization he has stood firmly against the attempts to capture
the organization for socialists or for more radical labor or
ganizations. He still believes that the principle of the labor
union is right. He still insists that all the laboring man
needs or should desire is the right of collective bargaining.
JOHN MITCHELL 323
He believes that labor can secure its own advancement only
by recognizing the rights of capital and by compelling cap
ital to recognize both the rights and the honesty of the labor
union.
Through all these years John Mitchell has compelled men
to recognize his own integrity. He has never stooped to de
ceit for his own or others' ends. Loving mankind, and es
pecially laboring men, as few have ever loved, he has at the
same time been able to preserve his intelligence alive side by
side with his love. He has never allowed his love or his
sympathy or his righteous indignation to blind him. He sees
clearly not only the present but as far as any man can into
the future. So highly are these qualities of intelligence and
sincerity prized by thinking people that it is an open secret
that had he permitted, John Mitchell might have had the
nomination for the Vice Presidency of the United States on
the Democratic ticket in 1908. He has to an extraordinary
degree the power of seeing facts as facts, uncolored by bias,
sympathy, or partisanship. Even more he has had the power
to see not only his own side but the enemy's side of all dis
putes. It is this keenness of intellectual vision, this saneness
of judgment and breadth of view, this recognition of fact and
the necessity of being controlled by fact that have given John
Mitchell the place he holds in the world of labor. Though
sometimes dissatisfied with him because of what seems to
many his over-conservatism, the majority of his followers, in
their saner moments, have recognized him as their greatest
leader. On the other hand, capital has been willing to treat
with him because of his absolute honesty and his realization
of fact and its place in all disputes. John Mitchell remains
to-day the logical labor leader of the new regime.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOK
Organized Labor. By John Mitchell.
PERIODICALS
Dictation by the Unions. Independent, 54 :2228.
Labor Leaders of To-day. By L. Steffens. McClure's 19:355.
324 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
The Leader and the Man. By E. C. Morris. Independent 54 :2073.
The Man the Miners Trust. By W. E. Weyl. Outlook 82:657.
The Man Who Kept his Head. Current Literature 52 :401.
Sketch of John Mitchell. Outlook 71 :353.
JOHN R. MOTT
JOHN B. MOTT
BY WILLIAM WARREN SWEET
THE scene is the main floor of the great gymnasium of
the University of Pennsylvania on a certain winter's
night some years ago. Gathered in that great room are
perhaps two thousand men, students of the University. On
the platform is seated the Provost, and by his side a tall, well-
built, smooth-faced, square-jawed man who glances quietly
over that assembled multitude; and immediately one is im
pressed with the fact that he is in the presence of a master of
men, one who can deal with and control difficult situations.
And this impression grows when this man gets up to speak.
There is no attempted oratory, no flowers of speech, hardly a
gesture, and yet for over an hour those young men sit in abso
lute quietness, every eye directed toward the speaker's face,
every mind intent upon the straightforward words that fall
from his lips. And what is he talking about! Surely it must
be something of unusual interest to young men to draw so
many of them away from their books on a winter's night ! As
one listens he soon finds that this is a religious leader, and that
he is talking on a religious subject. For five nights in succes
sion that same square- jawed, square-headed, keen-eyed man
addresses increasing numbers of students, in that same room,
and if he should come back again to that same University he
would get the same close attention, and be greeted with even
larger crowds of students. Such is the power of the subject of
this sketch.
A little more than a month after the surrender of Lee at Ap-
pomattox there was born in the little town of Livingston
Manor, New York, to a young couple by the name of Mott, a
son, whom they called John. What a combination of names !
Livingstone, the hero of modern missions; John, called the
Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, and John, the disciple ! It
is fitting that these names be connected with this man Mott,
for they all describe him. Has he not followed up the work
328 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
of Livingstone in Africa? And is he not also a worthy co-
laborer with John the Baptist in preparing the way for
Christian conquests, and with John the disciple ?
Upon his graduation from Cornell University in 1888, he
immediately became secretary of the student department of
the Young Men's Christian Association. His connection with
student life has remained vital and important ever since. In
the same year he also became chairman of the Executive Com
mittee of the Student Volunteer Movement, and it is in con
nection with this organization that John R. Mott has done his
greatest work and has achieved his well deserved fame. In
the year 1895 Mr. Mott became general secretary of the
World's Student Christian Federation; three years later he
was made secretary of the Foreign Department of the Inter
national Committee of the Young Men's Christian Associa
tion ; and in 1901 he became associate general secretary of the
International Committee. As we read of these positions they
mean little to us, but the work that he has done, and still doesr
the influence he has wielded, and still wields, mean much to
all who are interested in the progress of this old world.
During the years 1895 to 1897 Mr. Mott toured the world in
the interest of the Student Christian movement, and again in
1901 he made special tours to all parts of Europe, South Af
rica, South America, and Australia on a similar mission. The
word "International" describes Mr. Mott; for he belongs
to the world, and he is undoubtedly the best known figure in
intellectual and Christian circles in the whole world. John
Wesley once said "The world is my parish," and that state
ment is also true of Mr. Mott.
What has Mr. Mott done for the world that makes him an in
ternational figure? First of all he has created a permanent
force for the Christianization of the world in organizing the
Student Volunteer Movement. This is an organization in the
colleges and universities, made up of young men and women
who have pledged themselves to enter the foreign mission
field and who are training themselves for that purpose. As a
result of this work five thousand, eight hundred and eighty-
two of the brightest and best trained young men and women
JOHN E. MOTT 329
that our universities and colleges turn out have been sent to
the non-Christian lands, and there has thus been created an
ever increasing army of occupation, which will eventually
bring about the evangelization of the world. The movement
spread to Great Britain, and over eighteen hundred Volun
teers from that country also have sailed for the field. Some
one has characterized the foreign missionary work of former
years as guerilla warfare: "A denomination in Europe or
America sent out a few individuals to snatch souls as ' brands
from the burning.' They went to a pagan country, preached
in the streets or in bazaars, organized little Zions among the
heathen masses, and counted it a joy if they won a score of
converts in a lifetime. " 1 But in recent years all this has been
changed, and the change has come about very largely through
the movement organized and perfected by the genius of John
R. Mott. "To-day he is the field marshal of belligerent Chris
tendom, and nearly every section of the Christian Church ac
cepts his leadership."
Another example of Mr. Mott's foresight and organizing
genius is "The World's Student Christian Federation," an
organization that has reached around the world and has
branches in nearly every institution of higher learning in the
world. The constitution states the purpose of this organiza
tion in the following words :
"1. To unite students' Christian movements or organiza
tions throughout the world, and promote mutual relations
among them.
"2. To collect information regarding the religious condi
tion of the students of all lands.
"3. To promote the following lines of activity:
" (a) To lead students to accept the Christian faith
in God — Father, Son and Holy Spirit, ac
cording to the Scriptures, and to live as
true disciples of Jesus Christ.
" (b) To deepen the spiritual life of students and
to promote earnest study of the Scriptures
among them.
i Outlook, 99:751.
330 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
" (c) To influence students to devote themselves to
the extension of the Kingdom of God in
their own nation and throughout the world.
This organization numbers one hundred and fifty-six thous
and members, among whom are Chinese, Hindus, Japanese,
Russians, and South Africans. What tremendous influence
will go out from these organizations in the years to come !
Many of these students will occupy positions of influence in
business and government as well as in the Church, but what
ever they may be doing they will be known and recognized as
Christians. What better plan could be devised to speed the
Christianization of the world than to capture the student body
of the universities of the world, and send them out to do the
rest?
Another international organization which owes its recent de
velopment largely to Mr. Mott's leadership is the Foreign De
partment of the International Young Men's Christian Asso
ciation, of which Mr. Mott is general secretary. In Asia alone
there are over three hundred Associations, and these are be
ginning to exert an influence that is bound to bring about vast
changes in the centers where they are planted. A few years
ago Mr. Mott was in a hurry to raise a million dollars for some
new buildings in the Far East, and Mr. Taft, who was then
president, threw open the White House for a conference. A
number of influential and wealthy men from all over the coun
try met Mr. Mott, and the desired amount was promptly raised
and later doubled.
He not only has the confidence of leading Americans, but he
also enjoys the confidence of foreign governments and leading
men of every race and clime. After the Boxer Rebellion of a
few years ago, it was decided that the Chinese government
should pay the United States an indemnity of several millions
of dollars. Part of this indemnity was, however, remitted by
the United States government, and to show its appreciation of
this act the Chinese government set apart the amount for the
purpose of educating Chinese students in American universi
ties. Accordingly several hundreds of Chinese students were
sent to America so that at present there are over one thous-
JOHN E. MOTT 331
and here. Besides the Chinese Bureau which has its head
quarters at Washington, Dr. Mott also has taken much of the
oversight of these students at the request of the Chinese gov
ernment.
Mr. Mott believes that the inevitable result of Christianiz
ing the world will be the unifying of the churches. On this
point hear what he himself has to say: "Just as war fuses
together a great and complex nation, even its different and
conflicting political parties, so a true and vivid conception of
the vastness and difficulty of the undertaking of world con
quest for Christ will serve to draw his followers together. It
is well that we recall that Christ has commanded us to give
all men now living an adequate opportunity to know Him. He
has called us to Christianize the races and nations in every de
partment of their life. He has summoned us to the recon
struction of the non-Christian world. It is His wish that the
impact of the so-called Christian nations upon the non-Chris
tian world be Christianized. ' ' Under his leadership the work
of coordinating the operations of the churches has gone for
ward with leaps and bounds.
Within recent years Mr. Mott has won extraordinary dis
tinction as the presiding officer in a number of great conven
tions. Every four years the Student Volunteer Movement
holds a convention at which representatives from practically
all the colleges and universities in the United States and Can
ada meet together for counsel and inspiration. In 1906 there
was a great gathering of this sort at Nashville, Tennessee, and
four years later another such convention met at Rochester,
New York. At these conventions nearly four thousand dele
gates represented seven hundred and thirty-five universities
and colleges. Again in January, 1914, the greatest of all the
gatherings of this movement met at Kansas City, Missouri.
Over five thousand students were in attendance, and messages
were read from England, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, Japan,
China, and South America. From China came a cablegram
signed by C. T. Wang, former vice-president of the Chinese
Senate, saying, "China choosing her destiny; why not make it
Christ ?" Turkey's message read, "Stricken Turkey realizes
332 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
greatest needs are moral. Undreamt-of possibilities challenge
Christian workers to reveal uplifting power of Christ. ' ' From
Kiev, Russia, came this appeal: "Pray for tragic Russia."
The volunteers of India cabled, ' ' India with thousands of col
lege students, at this juncture needs your help."
In June, 1910, there was staged in Edinburgh, the gray old
capital of Scotland, the most remarkable and significant gath
ering from the standpoint of missions that ever came together.
"Thirteen hundred men from the ends of the earth" came to
gether there to plan and organize a campaign of world-wide
scope for the Christianization of every nation. ' ' They were not
ordinary men — every member of the assemblage had some
achievement to his credit. Together they could have drawn
a map of the world from first hand knowledge, and they repre
sented almost every shade of doctrine and Church government
known to man. There were cabinet ministers and peers of the
realm, Korean dignitaries, Hindu pundits with princely titles,
Anglican archbishops and bishops, ex-governors of the British
over-sea dominions, Japanese whose names are inseparable
from the recent glory of Nippon, Chinese scholars, Australian
officials, Americans of international renown, and representa
tives not only from each European nation, but from lands and
islands of which the ordinary mortal has scarcely heard. On
the left of the platform sat the archbishop of Canterbury ; on
the right stood Lord Balfour of Burleigh, as the Herald of
King George ; in the center, presiding with calm and dignified
impartiality over the notable gathering, was a young Ameri
can layman, accorded the honor by unanimous acclamation,
the most conspicuous figure in the hall — John R. Mott. ' ' 2
It is a difficult thing to follow John R. Mott as he goes about
the world on his great mission. In the autumn of 1912, Mr.
Mott, as Chairman of the Continuation Committee appointed
by the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference, went on a
tour in the Far East, spending seven weeks in the Indian Em
pire, six weeks in China, five days in Korea, and three weeks
in Japan. To show the plan which he follows on such journeys
I give a brief account of his stay in India. Sectional confer-
2 Outlook, 99 : 749.
JOHN E. MOTT 333
ences were held in six Indian cities, besides in Rangoon, Bur
ma, and Colombo in Ceylon. In each center great meetings
were also held for students, the daylight hours, as a rule, be
ing devoted to the meetings of the conferences, and the even
ings to the student meetings. In Madras, for instance, five
such meetings were conducted, and each night the hall where
the meetings were held, which seated over two thousand, was
filled to its capacity, while many were unable to enter. At
these meetings in Madras over three hundred students signed
cards expressing a desire to know more about the claims of
Christ. These inquirers are to be placed in Bible classes, and
the work followed up. In the conferences from fifty to sev
enty delegates, including Indians and foreigners, and repre
senting all the denominations, met together and discussed
frankly the problems of their work, including such topics as
cooperation, the Indian Church and India leadership, Chris
tian education and literature. We are told that one of the
most notable consequences of these meetings was the closer
fellowship among the Christian leaders of all denominations.
About a year ago the newspapers informed us that Presi
dent-elect Woodrow Wilson was trying to persuade this great
Christian statesman, John E. Mott, to be the next United
States Minister to China. The people of the United States
applauded the choice. In a few days, however, the papers re
ported that "Mott refuses the Chinese ambassadorship. " We
do not, of course, know the thoughts that went through the
mind of Mr. Mott when this great and responsible post was
offered him, but we can imagine that he said to himself, "Al
ready I have been given the post of ambassador of the Great
King of Kings to the non-Christian peoples of the world, and
I must be true to that mission. " John E. Mott could not
accept the post of Minister to China, for that would require
him to give up a far larger and more important post.
In 1911, Princeton University conferred the degree of Doc
tor of Laws upon Mr. Mott, following the example set by the
University of Edinburgh the year previous. In conferring
the degree the president of Princeton said: "John E. Mott,
honored by academic and religious bodies for his services in
334 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
planning and extending the active Christian work of univer
sity students, deviser of national and international agencies
for this work, particularly the World 's Student Christian Fed
eration; presiding leader in the World's Missionary Confer
ence in Edinburgh in 1910 ; a traveler over four continents in
search of room for work ; a man of buoyant energy, deep con
secration, astonishing success ; a new crusader bent on the
Christian conquest of the world. ' ' These words describe the
work and the man.
Moreover, Mr. Mott has found time in the very midst of his
traveling and continuous speaking to write books. Strategic
Points in the World's Conquest was the first to be published,
appearing in 1897. In 1900, The Evangelization of the World
in this Generation came from the press ; and what an influence
that little book has had on Christian workers throughout the
world ! The very title has become the watch-word of the mil
itant forces of Christianity. The Pastor and Modern Mis
sions, a series of lectures delivered at Ohio Wesleyan Univer
sity, Yale Divinity School, McCormick Theological Seminary,
and Princeton Theological Seminary, was published in 1904.
The book contains a mine of information and inspiration. Be
sides these books he has published numerous magazine articles
and brochures. All of his publications are surcharged with
the same deep earnestness, and are filled with the same
straightforward, lucid, close-knit presentation of facts which
characterize his spoken utterances.
In the year 1915 Dr. Mott will have reached the half century
mark and there will remain for him in all human probability,
only a comparatively few years of active service, for his stren
uous life must soon begin to tell upon even his vigorous and
athletic body. What will those years contain? No one can
tell. But of this we can be sure, they will be spent in the high
est and best kind of service for his Master and for mankind.
JOHN R. MOTT 335
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PERIODICALS
College Boys in Convention. Western Christian Advocate 80:2.
John R. Mott. By Leslie G. Shannon. American 76:29.
John R. Mott. By Joseph H. Odell. Outlook 99 :749.
John R. Mott in the Far East. Missionary Review of the World
36 :364.
Mott and Eddy among the Students of China. Missionary Review
of the World 36 :525.
Work of Mott. Literary Digest 47 :110.
JOHN B. MUEPHY
BY WILLIAM AUGUSTUS EVANS
A S the ultimate end or life products of men are the results
A% of many associated influences and energies, it is essen
tial in making a calculation of the importance of the
various elements therein that we consider the heredity, the
early environment, the necessity or choice of occupations and
the energy expended in their attainment.
The subject of this sketch was a descendant of sturdy im
migrants, who implanted themselves in the forest of Wiscon
sin, four miles west of Appleton, and endeavored to build a
home and secure for their children the advantages which a
new country offered to every line of human effort. In order
to accomplish this it was necessary for these transplanted
people to exercise a courage, an industry, a frugality, and in
tegrity of purpose, that good results might obtain. They soon
recognized that the essentials to success in overcoming what
would to us to-day seem to be insurmountable obstacles to the
establishment of a home in the wilderness were continued
labor, determination of purpose, husbandry of their small re
sources, and a confidence in the realization of future success,
which never admitted of question.
It was the conviction of this young couple in their pioneer
home that indolence, and its companion, intemperance, were
the most common barriers to the progress of the human race
and the most frequent causes of failure, so that "work and
total abstinence " were dominant elements in their lives. They
were insatiable readers and kept in close and intelligent touch
with the progress of the times. These home influences could
not fail to leave their impress on the character and intellects
of their offspring.
As the children attained a school age, the evening work at
home was as accurate in its discipline and as exacting in its
requirements as was their work at school. Inspiration and
zest were added as the teacher of their country school usually
Courtesy Matzene, Chicago
JOHN B. MUEPHY 339
lived with the family. The teachers were students in the Law
rence University at Appleton, Wis., four miles distant, and
were working their way through college by teaching five days
— returning to the university on Saturdays for recitation.
The parents realized the value of education and often made use
of this expression: "Education, my children, is not for the
purpose of making an easier living, but for the purpose of
making labor more effectual and productive. If you are edu
cated there are no man's achievements which you cannot equal
or excel, if you but have industry and integrity, and are tem
perate. ' '
When one considers the type of courage and work which
was necessary to make a success of life for these immigrants,
we might well say that all coveted attainments in modern life
should easily be realized, but as his mother so frequently said,
"They do not come by wishing but by working. "
Passing from the country school and the home to the city
school gave to the youth a new horizon, broad and inspiring.
How frequently he refers to the great influence teachers ex
ercise in shaping the destiny of their pupils ! In the Appleton
Grammar School, he came under the personal supervision of
Prof. E. H. Schmidt, who emigrated from Germany at the age
of 17, having had but a meager grammar school education,
and entered the Wisconsin State University at Madison, grad
uating with honors from the classic course at the age of 22.
This man possessed an overpowering personality. He was
totally indifferent to form and heedless of conventionalities.
He was a lover of truth, a lover of science, an exemplar of
democracy in education. An indefatigable worker, there was
no day or night too long for him to labor with his pupils ; he
was no respecter of hours for labor: "Purposes and purposes
attained " was his maxim.
The establishment of the Friday evening debating or liter
ary society was a field in which his great influence was exerted.
He attended the meetings regularly, he encouraged thorough
investigation of the themes under discussion, he fostered re
search and guided the student in the best and most forceful
means of presenting his subject to his audience. The disci-
340 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
pline of this Friday evening debate Dr. Murphy has frequent
ly said exerted greater influence over his subsequent life than
any other element in his early education.
The association with Professor Schmidt lasted for six years ;
his students all respected and revered him. Then passing
from the high school and its post-graduate work, again the in
dividuality of his teacher was felt. Prof. Walter S. Haines,
the professor of chemistry in Rush Medical College, was his
ideal medical teacher. He had the faculty of imparting knowl
edge in such a way that it was easily assimilated and perman
ently appropriated. He was precise as to detail, simple yet
forceful in his demonstrations and exacting of the student in
return, yet with a charming and attractive personality. One
could not fail to be receptive, as the presentation was irresist
ible.
Another of his teachers, almost diametrically opposite in his
personality, was the later Prof. James Adams Allen. The
keynote of his teaching was, " What is really the matter? What
is back of the name? What is the real deviation from the
physiologic condition which is called disease? In other words,
what is the internal disease that produces the external pre
sentations called symptoms?"
The impression was left in every surgical student who sat
within the hearing of Prof. Moses Gunn that he had an exact
anatomic knowledge, that he knew the clinical course of sur
gical diseases and that prompt treatment was an absolute es
sential that best results might obtain. To use this able teach
er 's expression: "If you are to be a success in surgery, you
must be a minute gun. ' '
Dr. Murphy was next favored in a scientific way by his per
sonal and professional close relationship with the late Chris
tian Fenger, whom he considers the master American surgical
mind of his time. Dr. Fenger 's early training had been of the
most profound scientific type. His life was dominated by his
love of science ; the application of it to the individual in a prac
tical way was merely an incident ; an opportunity for demon
strating its scientific value and truth. In his zeal he would
forget his home, his family, and even his anesthetized patient
JOHN B. MURPHY 341
to pursue an idea or plan to its fruition. He was a teacher, a
friend, and an inspiration to all true students. His influence
for good was overpowering and he exercised a greater force in
the production of the present high standard of surgery and
medicine in the middle west than any other man.
In his early medical practice, Dr. Murphy fortunately be
came associated with a man of sterling worth, Dr. Edward W.
Lee, a graduate of the Medical Department of Dublin Uni
versity, a student, an active practitioner, possessed of the
keenest sense of obligation to his patients' welfare, of a pro
found respect of the rights of others, with a type of integrity
which no price could divert, even in thought. He had a most
wTholesome appreciation of the advantages which his adopted
country afforded and was unfaltering in the fulfillment of his
obligations to its laws and customs. He used on many occa
sions the expression, "I would be a base ingrate if I were dis
loyal to any of the exactions of the Nation or State which
afforded me such opportunities through its Constitution and
Government. ' ' Individuality and integrity were the ideals of
his existence. He never "worked." The continued and con
scientious performance of his duties was an act of love, not
labor. He was affectionate, generous, strong, and upright.
The fifteen years' close professional association with this man
was an enviable opportunity.
Passing from the local to the world educational influence,
three master teachers are constantly referred to by Dr. Mur
phy : Professor Bilroth of the Vienna Medical School, who in
a few words and with a few strokes of crayon could express
the cellular pathology of the disease under consideration in
such a way that one appreciated from his lecture and the
demonstration on the blackboard the microscopic changes in
the tissue. He had the faculty of teaching surgery in its
highest sense.
In Berlin he attended the lectures of Professor Schroeder
in the Frauen Klinik. He was a most forceful teacher, exact
operator, inspiring lecturer and inquisitive investigator of the
causes of disease in the individual. One could not leave his
operating room without feeling that he was a part and parcel
342 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
of the proceedings of the day and that the knowledge dis
pensed therein was now his knowledge and available for prac
tical purposes.
In pathology he was a pupil of Professor Arnold of Heidel
berg, who was capable of vivifying his cadavers, electrifying
his pathologic tissues and illuminating his microscopic slides.
The work of all of these teachers was carried on at a time
when medicine was in the embryologic stage of its scientific
evolution, when, in other words, its foundation as a science
was being laid. Its impetus was irresistible and the indi
vidual but a factor.
Those who have lived during the last fifty years have par
ticipated in the most rapid advances that society has ever
made. The rapid revolution has been universal. No field
of human endeavor has failed to feel its impulse. But in
in none has the change been greater nor the results more far-
reaching than in medicine.
This sketch has to do with the life of one of the men who
have been forceful contributors to the changes that have been
wrought in medicine and, through change in medical custom,
in society at large. It is the story, so old in America, of a
country boy, the son of immigrant parents, growing out of
poverty and attaining great power by reason of great service.
In 1879 medicine was a mystery science. The practitioners
of medicine knew people well, they understood human nature,
they knew disease as the patient described it, rather than as
it was. They had a broad stock of general information. To
their patients they were guides, counsellors, and friends in all
the emergencies of life. In their service there was much of
watchful waiting and but little of active interference. In the
helpful, beautiful service they rendered they were nurses as
much as physicians.
In 1879 Virchow was in his prime. He was teaching that it
was important to know disease as disease rather than as the
symptoms expressed it. He was being listened to but it can
scarcely be claimed that he was influencing the practice of
medicine as it revealed itself in the daily work of the ordinary
doctor. The patient was not getting the benefit. What Vir-
JOHN B. MUEPHY 343
chow was teaching could not be said in 1879 to be for the
people. The people were receiving services based upon the
theorizing of the past which in turn had come out of the mys
ticism of a still earlier period.
In 1879 Koch laid the foundation for bacteriology by per
fecting the methods of growing bacteria in the laboratory. It
was in 1883 that Lister applied the truths of bacteriology to
the everyday work of the surgeon. It was then that the sci
ences of bacteriology and pathology started on the road to
ward democracy. Within a few years they were being made
use of in the everyday work of the everyday surgeon.
John Benjamin Murphy began the study of medicine in
1876, graduated in 1879, finished his hospital service in 1880
and, in that year, began the private practice of surgery. He
was taking up his life work in this period in which the founda
tion of modern medical science was being laid. He began his
service just as the results of the preparatory work were be
ginning to flow into the daily life of the community.
There are those who hold that Dr. Murphy's chief work has
been as a research student, a discoverer and applier of new
methods. There are others who hold that his great service
has been as one who carried the revelations of science into the
lives of the people.
There have been hospitals for a thousand years more or
less. Until 1880, however, the hospital developed along its
medical side alone. The surgical wards were regarded as a
menace. From them pus infections were constantly overflow
ing into the medical wards. A surgical ward was looked on
much as a contagious disease ward is now regarded. What to
do with infected wards was a great question — and all wards
were infected.
At that time surgery had but a limited field. Broken limbs
were set, dislocated joints were reduced, maimed members
were amputated, arteries were tied up — if they were outside
of the body cavities. Generally speaking, surgery essayed
to relieve certain conditions in the legs, arms, neck, and even
in the trunk, provided it was not necessary to enter any body
cavity to do so.
344 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
If the operative procedure required opening the abdominal
cavity or the chest cavity or much work within the cranial cav
ity, the surgeon very wisely left it undone. The hazards were
too great to commend such procedures to men of good judg
ment. The man who contracted appendicitis must die unless
nature was able to wall off the pus sac and thus save him.
When the pus cavities were walled off the man was saved by
nature, not by the attending surgeon. If there was an in
testinal stricture or strangulation or perforation the person
affected had to accept his outlook in a fatalistic spirit. How
ever much he pleaded with his surgeon for help his plea was
unheeded. The surgeon dared not open up the abdominal
cavity and subject it to infection.
In heart and lung diseases the possibility of interference
was even less. A pleura full of fluid might be drained or
opened but not unless such conditions had arisen as made the
operation one potentially on the outside of the chest cavity
rather than within it. It is true that operations were done on
the structures within the skull but they were not done except
where some perforating wound or some infection had made
the operation one of necessity rather than of choice. And
probably this expression — "operations were of necessity " —
describes the situation as well as it could be done in pages of
type.
When Virchow had laid down the laws of disease as such,
the solid basis of fact ; and Koch had developed bacteriology ;
when Lister had developed Koch's science and from it a sci
ence of antisepsis and asepsis and then had popularized it —
the time had come to launch a new era of surgery.
Theoretically, it was now safe to go into the body cavities.
It was no longer good judgment to limit surgery to the arms,
legs and neck. But men were timid. Some dared but many
halted. They said asepsis might not work practically. The
theory might be wrong. Daring was required. The daring
required came naturally from America. The combination of
daring, courage, common sense, and judgment was such as the
American life of opportunity would develop in choice spirits.
It was at this point that the surgeons of America began to be
JOHN B. MUEPHY 345
recognized as the leading spirits in the surgery of the world.
Of the little band who carried this banner, none other was
so frequent and so original a contributor as Murphy, the
country boy from Wisconsin, who had had to fight his way
upward.
That the abdomen could be explored provided only it was
found clean and kept clean was the first truth discovered by
these men. But in the abdomen are to be found many differ
ent structures. It was determined early that some of these
could be operated on with reasonable safety. Others tradi
tion held to be less amenable to handling. One by one these
were studied and their surgery established. In this experi
mentation, trial, and demonstration, no man has done all the
work. Every man has made use of the ideas of his co-workers
in determining the natural next step. And yet in these ad
ventures of discovery, leadership is accorded to Murphy, by
his fellow workers.
An indirect effect of these improvements has been of great
value to society. It was not feasible to go into the abdominal
cavity until asepsis could be guaranteed. The operating room,
of course, must be aseptic. Every process carried on therein
must be controlled and kept constantly on a basis of asepsis.
It followed naturally that the ward would be cleaned up. The
result is that the surgical ward is now the cleanest ward in
any hospital.
The cleaner hospitals and the better general reputations
which they now enjoy has greatly increased the use of the
hospital and this in turn has multiplied their number. The
hospital drains out of the home most of those who, through ill
ness, interfere seriously with the daily routine of the home.
Having become cleaner the hospital is not in competition with
the home.
Undertaking to perfect methods so that surgical relief could
be found for maladies of the organs within the body cavities,
an unexpected result has followed. The cleaner methods re
sulted in clean operating rooms ; clean operating rooms were
followed by clean surgical wards ; clean surgical wards have
influenced the medical wards ; and the general reputation of
346 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
hospitals has improved. In consequence there has come about
a far-reaching effect.
Forty years ago cities with less than fifty thousand inhab
itants were without hospitals. As surgery has never devel
oped apart from hospitals all such communities were without
the service of resident surgeons. When there was need for
surgical service the patient was carried a long distance to the
surgeon or else the surgeon assembled an operative equip
ment, called together his assistants, and traveled to the pa
tient. For either of these methods time was required. In
consequence, emergency surgery generally went unattended to
or operation was done when the patient was in extremis. The
methods of that day could not mean any sort of good results
in suppurative appendicitis, gunshot wounds of the abdomen,
strangulated hernia and a score of other conditions which
these illustrations serve to bring to mind.
At the present time even communities of five thousand in
habitants have their hospitals and resident surgeons. Rarely
now do patients go to the city for emergency operations. The
people are discovering that for such operations the local sur
geon in a position to operate quickly is more successful than
the surgeon who comes out from the city and who therefore is
some hours longer in rendering his service.
In order that this epoch-marking change should have been
possible several things were necessary. One of these was op
portunity for the training of surgeons. It was necessary to
supplement the work of undergraduate colleges by the develop
ment of great surgical clinics, to which practitioners of med
icine might go and perfect themselves in surgical technique.
There are no state-supported clinics for post-graduate in
struction in this country but for twenty years the Murphy
clinic has had a daily attendance of a hundred or more. These
men have come from all parts of the country. They have
come without formality, remained as long as they cared to,
and, having seen at close range the methods employed, they
have gone back home and made use of them in their local hos
pitals.
Material for the maintenance of such a clinic is not enough.
JOHN B. MURPHY 347
Well-equipped laboratories and libraries and assistants to
make use of them are not enough. The surgeon must have
diagnostic ability and technical skill, but, in order that the
men in attendance may carry back home what was shown in
the clinic, he must also have teaching ability. No one can
teach unless he has personality.
For teaching ability there must also be thorough informa
tion on his subject. This must include a knowledge of what
has been written and judgment as to the values of the con
tributions of others. It also embraces knowledge of the field
operated on and the meaning of pictures there portrayed.
For want of a better term we say the surgeon to have teach
ing ability must have ' ' surgical sense. ' ' By surgical sense is
meant knowledge of the field in question, judgment in inter
preting conditions, common sense, and a capacity for sensing,
for wisely guessing, that which is beyond demonstration or
proof.
The teaching surgeon must analyze accurately, must be log
ical as well as forceful, must be positive, dogmatic and asser
tive. He must have the capacity of coordinating his muscles,
of judging situations and, simultaneously, of telling the stu
dent of what is being done in a way that will react in the mind
of that student. The great teaching surgeon of this day is
John B. Murphy.
Through the influence of the surgical clinics of which the one
at Mercy Hospital has been a leader, the small towns and cities
have their hospitals in which the work is done by resident sur
geons. In lieu of the few of former days there are now thou
sands of hospitals and tens of thousands of surgeons. In
consequence no longer are sufferers with emergency condi
tions dragged long distances on trains. The entire machinery
of surgery has changed. The surgical customs of the people
have changed. The result is due to the building by Murphy
and the men of his group on the foundation laid by Koch and
Lister and men of their groups.
The medicine of the future will concern itself principally
with human efficiency. Physicians will be efficiency engineers.
Service will continue to be rendered in curing developed dis-
348 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
orders. However, many diseases now prevalent will be rare
or will have disappeared entirely. The curative side of medi
cine will grow but it will develop in a collective way, and pre
ventive medicine will be less wasteful of time and service than
curative medicine is and has been.
The great use of the vastly improved service by physi
cians in the future will be in increasing the efficiency of the
human machine. The men of the next generation who find
themselves incapacitated to some degree by some physical dis
ability, so far from being content to work at low efficiency,
will demand that their medical servitors remedy the disability.
Much of this work will be surgical. Surgery of that type is
known as surgery of election. For it, sickness is not the im
pelling cause. Death does not stare the patient in the face.
The operations are undergone because the parties are dissat
isfied with their inefficiency. Knowing the possibilities by
reason of the state of the art, they elect to undergo the opera
tions required.
The most recent surgical proposal made by Dr. Murphy is a
group of methods for the restoration of the function of joints
and the replacement of diseased and lost bones. In the olden
days, John, crippled or lame, ambled through life as best he
could. He was as efficient as a crippled man could be but
still his efficiency was the efficiency of a crippled man. "Is
John a capable man?" the neighbor was asked. "Oh, yes, as
cripples go," he replied. John understood, but what could
he do? He went to the surgeon for relief from his stiff hip
or to have a new piece of bone put in to straighten his spine,
but the surgeon declined to undertake the work. Why? The
first essential — certain asepsis — could not be guaranteed.
The years to come will witness a procession of people seek
ing the operating room as a means of increasing efficiency.
The stiff-limbed, the lame, and the hunchback are the forerun
ners of this procession. This group of operative procedures,
in that they pioneer the field wherein the surgery of the fu
ture is to be chiefly developed, earn for the man who has de
veloped them the right to the regard of his fellows.
There are those who say that operations on bones and joints
JOHN B. MURPHY 349
will never come within reach of surgeons generally. They
say that the operations are technically difficult, that they re
quire a degree of asepsis not attainable in country hospitals,
and that the after treatment is too complicated and too pro
longed to make it possible for the general run of surgeons to
enter this field. In this the objectors lose sight of the trend
of the times. The characteristic contribution of Dr. Murphy
to surgery has been a simplicity of method that brings opera
tive procedure within the range of the country surgeon's
technical skill. As a result, the surgeon in the smaller com
munity is growing more skilful and the standards of asepsis
of the small town hospitals are becoming higher year by year.
The massage and manipulation required in the after care will
be given by men trained for it as the demand for their service
grows.
The first campaign conducted by Dr. Murphy was for early
operation in appendicitis. To operate in appendicitis could
not even be proposed until the preliminary work in pathology
and bacteriology had been done. It could not be advised un
til the development of asepsis had made operations on the
abdominal organs possible. After this stage had been reached
Dr. Murphy saw that the key to the appendicitis situation was
early operation. He threw his dominating personality into a
campaign of education addressed to the profession and to the
laity as well. As the result of that campaign the people are
well informed. As to the significance of the symptoms of ap
pendicitis, the physicians are accustomed to early diagnosis,
and early operation is the rule.
While he contributed to our knowledge of the pathology of
appendicitis and improved the technique of operation on the
appendix, his great service lay in changing the popular cus
tom. Twenty-five years ago the man with an intestinal per
foration was in a hopeless situation. The operation used to
require from one to four hours for its performance. The tech
nical skill required for such an operation was beyond any ex
cept the best trained surgeons. As such operations are those
of emergency it followed that a large portion of those having
wounds of the intestines, strangulations with gangrene, in-
350 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
testinal and gall bladder perforations, could not get the op
portunity for life held out by operative procedure. To meet
this situation Dr. Murphy devised an anatomical button which
was so simple and so easy to use, that at once the custom of
immediate operation on proper cases by the surgeon at hand
was established. If there is one outstanding quality of the
Murphy procedures it is on simplifying procedures so that
they become available for a larger number of people through
the service of local surgeons. This principle is easier under
stood in the case of the button than in any other of his con
tributions.
In the Surgery of the Lungs, Experimental and Clinical? he
recounted his experience with a method which he had devised
for the treatment of tuberculosis. There are two underlying
principles of the method. The lung has difficulty in healing a
tubercular cavity because it cannot drain readily. By com
pressing the lung by means of nitrogen gas introduced into
the pleural cavity all abscesses are emptied and the abscess
cavities are obliterated by adhesions found between the col
lapsed walls.
The second principle is that an organ at rest is in the best
possible condition for repair. The point in this connection
which must not be missed is that the operation suggested by
Murphy is so simple as scarcely to be considered a surgical
procedure. In fact it is the attending physicians and tuber
culosis specialists who are now giving to the consumptives
the advantage offered by this operation.
Partaking of the same qualities are two other procedures.
The one is that, where the peritoneum is to absorb a good deal
of exuded material, the area of preference for its absorption
is within the pelvis. With this is the recommendation that in
the after care of such cases the patients be kept propped up
in bed. The other is that, when much absorption is taking
place, the kidneys be stimulated to work at full capacity by the
continuous introduction into the bowel of a saline solution. To
make this possible Murphy devised a method having all the
i Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 31.
JOHN B. MURPHY 351
characteristics of all his recommendations in other lines —
simplicity.
No man has rendered direct surgical service to more people
than has Dr. Murphy. In this service he has displayed com
mon sense, mechanical genius, good judgment, knowledge of
his science, technical skill, surgical sense, executive ability,
courage, and daring. Because of these qualities he has been
for forty years one of America's busiest surgeons. The esteem
of his fellow men could well be rested on the basis of this ser
vice.
In making up an estimate of Dr. Murphy, however, much
more must be put to his credit. He has had a unique part in
changing the surgery of forty years ago into the surgery of to
day, in the development .of new surgical fields, in the broad
ening of the influence of the hospital, in the multiplication of
surgeons in small communities, and in the promotion of hu
man efficiency through surgery. Largely through his influ
ence surgery has been made available for all those who have
needed it. He has made it democratic. He has visioned the
future and, having seen, has led both his profession and the
people into the new ways. He has weighed conditions with
careful judgment and, having determined the natural next
step, he has had the courage required to make the advance.
John Benjamin Murphy was born in Appleton, Wis., Dec.
21, 1857, the son of Michael and Ann (Grimes) Murphy. He
studied in the public schools of Appleton, graduating from the
high school. As a youth John B. Murphy worked on his
father's farm. Much of his tireless energy, endurance, and
physical strength can be attributed to the outdoor work of
that period of his life.
He began the study of medicine under Dr. John B. Reilly
of Appleton, as preceptor. Graduating with the degree of
M. D. from Rush Medical College in 1879, he entered at once
on his service as interne at Cook County Hospital and re
ceived his certificate from the Hospital in 1880.
In the same year Dr. Murphy began the practice of medi
cine and surgery associated with Dr. Edward W. Lee, one of
the attending surgeons at Cook County Hospital. From Sep-
352 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
tember, 1882, to April, 1884, he stuudied surgery in European
hospitals. He married Miss Jeannette C. Plamondon in 1885.
Mrs. Murphy has always taken the keenest interest in all of
his scientific work and has been a great stimulus, as well as
factor, in his undertakings.
His first teaching position was instructor in surgery in Rush
Medical College in 1884. He next filled the position of pro
fessor of surgery in the College of Physicians and Surgeons
in 1892. For two sessions he was professor of surgery and
co-head of the department in Rush Medical College. For the
last fourteen years, with the exception of the three years
(1905-1908) at Rush, he has been head of the department of
surgery at Northwestern University Medical School. For
more than thirty years he has been attending and consulting
surgeon at Alexian Brothers' Hospital, and is now consulting
surgeon for that hospital, as well as for St. Joseph's Hospital,
Columbus Hospital, and the Hospital for Crippled Children.
He is now attending surgeon and chief of staff at Mercy Hos
pital.
In 1902, the University of Notre Dame gave him the Laetare
medal. In 1905, the University of Illinois gave him the de
gree of LL.D. ; in 1908, the University of Sheffield, Eng., the
degree of D. Sc. The Degree of A. M. was conferred on him
by St. Ignatius College. He is a life member of the Deutsche
Gesellschaft fur Chirurgie, an honorary member of the So-
ciete Chirurgical de Paris, an honorary fellow of the Royal
College of Surgeons of England, and a charter member of the
American College of Surgeons. He has been president of the
American Association of Railway Surgeons, the Chicago Med
ical Society, the American Medical Association, and the Clini
cal Congress of Surgeons of North America.
PARTIAL LIST OF THE WRITINGS OF DR. J. B. MURPHY
i
Cholecysto-Intestinal, Gastro-Intestinal, Entero-Intestinal Anasto
mosis and Approximation without Suture, Med. Record, 1892, xlii.
Ileus, the Journal A. M. A., 1896, xxvi.
Surgery of Arteries and Veins Injured in Continuity, Comptes-Ren-
dus du Congres International de Medecine, August, 1897.
JOHN B. MUEPHY 353
Surgery of the Lungs, The Journal A. M. A., July 23 and 30 and
August 6 and 13, 1898.
Two Thousand Operations for Appendicitis; With Deductions from
Personal Experience, Am. Jour. Med. Sc., August, 1904.
Ankylosis; Arthroplasty, Clinical and Experimental, The Journal A.
M. A., May 20 and 27, and June 3, 1905.
Perityphlitis (appendicitis), Early Operation on; read in 1889; pub
lished Feb. 26, 1890.
Neurological Surgery, Surg., Gynec. and Obst., April, 1907.
Proctoclysis in the Treatment of Peritonitis (the Murphy Drip), The
Journal A. M. A., April 17, 1909.
Removal of an Embolus from the Common Iliac Artery, with Reestab-
lishment of Circulation to the Femoral, The Journal A. M. A., May
22, 1909.
Organized Medicine; Its Influence and Its Obligations, The Journal
A. M. A., June, 1911.
General Surgery, Volume II, of the Practical Medicine Series, pub
lished by the Year Book Publishing Co., Chicago, 1911.
The Surgical Clinics of John B. Murphy, M. D., published bi-month
ly by W. B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Doctor's Who's Who, p. 170. (Saalfield.) By Charles Wells Moulton.
International Clinics, 12th Series, ii, p. 247. (Lippincott.) By Guy
C. Hinsdale.
PERIODICAL
Advance of Surgery. By I. F. Marcosson. Munsey's 48:738.
EGBERT E. PEAEY
BY MINNIE PKEY KNOTTS
FEOM the frozen north, on a September day in 1909, came
tidings which brought joy and satisfaction to the hearts
of the American people. The wireless station at Indian
Harbor flashed through the crisp Labrador air this message,
4 'Stars and Stripes nailed to the North Pole."
Myths both curious and absurd, speculations savoring of
the truth, and hopes held for centuries by nearly all civilized
nations had given place to realization. The American flag
floated over the coveted goal. An American had placed it
there. Eobert E. Peary says: "I have always been proud
that I was born an American, but never so proud as when on
that biting, sunlit Arctic day I saw the Stars and Stripes wav
ing at the apex of the earth, and told myself that an American
had set 'Old Glory ' there. As I watched it fluttering in the
crisp air of the Pole, I thought of the twenty-three years of
my own life which had been spent in laboring toward that goal,
and realized that at last I had made good; that I could now
lay at the feet of my country a trophy which the greatest
nations of the world had been struggling to attain for nearly
four hundred years."
The price of victory is hardship and pain. This American
had paid it in twenty-three years of struggle with cold and
hunger, the blinding snow and light of the Arctic region, brute
hard labor, and the awful uncertainty of the great, white,
treacherous ice.
On the sixth of May, 1856, a son, Eobert Edwin, was born
to Charles N. and Mary (Wiley) Peary at Cresson, Pennsyl
vania. His ancestors were an old family of Maine lumbermen
of French and Anglo-Saxon blood. One writer has said of
him: "This ancestry explains the man, for he is a compound
of fiery French imagination and icy Anglo-Saxon firmness. The
former quality enabled him to see the vision of the unknown
Copyright Harris & Ewing, Washington, D. C.
^^A
.
' ^K'
EGBERT E. PEAEY 357
northern point of the earth ; the latter quality enabled him to
reach it."
When Robert was only three years old his father died and
his mother returned to Portland, Maine. Here he spent his
youth. With woods and fields near at hand he became an
explorer of the hills and forest. He was a steady shot and
swam and rowed the "wild waters of Casco Bay." He was a
natural boy, not precocious or unusual except that he was
singularly thorough and persevering in what he attempted.
The saying that every great man had a great mother is al
most proverbial and was true in Peary's case. Mary Wiley
Peary was a wonderful mother. She went to college with her
son and was his chum and most intimate, confidential friend.
Perhaps it was this association which developed the unfailing
consideration for others, the gentleness, and the patience
which Peary's co-workers often mention as his chief charac
teristics. His helpers all agree in the sentiment expressed
by one of them who said: "In all the years I have worked
for Commander Peary I have never heard him speak an im
patient word to any living thing. ' '
He graduated at the age of twenty-one from Bowdoin Col
lege, ranking second in a class of fifty-one. After graduation
he became a land surveyor and in 1879 was given a position
in Washington on the Coast and Geodetic Survey. After two
years of service he began energetic preparation for a competi
tive examination soon to be given by the navy department
for the admission of civil engineers. Forty men took this
examination but only four passed, and Robert E. Peary was
the youngest of the four. He was appointed a member of the
navy department with the rank of lieutenant.
During his first year's service he was asked to report on
plans for a pier at Key West, Florida, which the contractors
said could not be built at the estimated cost. He reported
that it could be built for twenty-five thousand dollars less than
the estimate and was instructed to build it. Though failure
had been predicted he finished the work at a saving of thirty-
thousand dollars below the first estimate.
He was then sent to Nicaragua as sub-chief of the Inter-
358 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
Oceanic Canal Survey. Here he acquired experience in deal
ing with half -civilized men and in taking care of himself in
hostile environments, both of which were invaluable later on.
One evening, in 1885, while visiting an old book store in
Washington he found a paper on the Inland Ice of Greenland.
He was intensely interested and read all he could on the sub
ject. He was impressed by the conflicting experiences of the
various explorers and felt that he must see for himself what
the truth was of this mysterious place.
In 1886 he obtained a short leave of absence from the navy
and went to Greenland. It was during this cruise Peary says,
"I caught the Arctic fever, from which I have never recov
ered. ' ' Although his stay in Greenland was brief he succeed
ed in penetrating the real interior plateau farther than any
white man had gone before. His report of the cruise attracted
the attention of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences,
and this organization paid a part of the expenses of a second
trip in 1891-92.
In 1888 Eobert E. Peary married Josephine Diebitsch of
Washington, D. C., a woman wonderfully well adapted for the
wife of an explorer. On his second voyage to Greenland, in
1891, Mrs. Peary accompanied him. Mr. Peary says : ' i Pos
sessed of health, youth, energy and enthusiastic interest in
the work, she saw no reason why she could not endure condi
tions and environment similar to those in which Danish wives
in Greenland pass years of their lives. I concurred in this
opinion, and believed that in many ways her presence and
assistance would contribute to the valuable results of the ex
pedition, as they were invaluable to me in the preparation.
Events proved the entire correctness of this belief. " Peary
remained in Northern Greenland thirteen months during which
time he made a twelve-hundred-mile sledge trip across the
great ice cap, discovered Independence Bay, attained 81° 37'
North latitude, and determined the insularity of Greenland.
In 1893, Peary went north again and remained twenty-five
months. Mrs. Peary accompanied him on this trip also, and
during their sojourn in Greenland their eldest child was born,
Marie Ahnighito, the famous "snow baby," the most north-
EGBERT E. PEARY 359
erly born of all white children. During this expedition he took
a second twelve-hundred-mile sledge journey, made a thor
ough study of the Whale Sound natives, made a detailed sur
vey of that region, and discovered the famous Cape-York
meteorites, two of which he brought home with him.
The persistent question of money has been a serious hand
icap to Peary's work. He furnished most of it himself until
the necessary amounts were beyond the savings of a naval
officer's pay. The department could grant him leave of ab
sence but not ships nor tons of food and other equipment.
Most of the work of raising funds has been done by the ex
plorer himself. When he still lacked a few thousand for the
expedition of 1893 he took the lecture platform and delivered
one hundred and sixty-eight lectures in ninety-six days, mak
ing about $13,000. The arctic region has not been his only
field of hard work.
In 1896-97 Peary made another voyage to Greenland and
brought back the greatest of the Cape-York meteorites, which
was named Ahnighito. This meteorite weighs ninety tons and
the transfer from its frozen bed to the hold of his ship, the
Hope, was a piece of great engineering labor. The great mass
now rests in the Museum of Natural History in New York
City.
Peary's next Northern expedition embraced the four years
from 1898 to 1902. This journey was made chiefly for the
attainment of the North Pole. It was the first expedition of
the Peary Arctic Club, whose president, Morris K. Jessup,
and others contributed a large amount of the necessary funds.
Through the persistent effort of friends the Navy Department
granted Peary a five years' leave of absence to carry out his
plans. It was on this expedition that in January, 1899, both of
Peary's feet were frozen and the amputation of seven toes
was necessary.
In 1900 he discovered the northernmost land in the world
and named it for the president of the Peary Arctic Club, Cape
Morris K. Jessup. In 1901 he started for the Pole but was
compelled to turn back on account of the poor condition of his
men and dogs. In 1902 he started again, reaching 84° and
360 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
17'. But the worst ice he had ever encountered, together with
heavy fogs and storms, prevented his reaching the goal on this
trip. When he was compelled to turn back, three hundred
and forty-three miles from the Pole, he wrote in his journal:
"The game is off. My dream of sixteen years is ended. I
have made the best fight I knew. I believe it has been a good
one. But I cannot accomplish the impossible. ' '
In 1902 Peary came home but the game was not off. As he
himself once said, "The true explorer does his work not for
any hope of reward or honor, but because the thing he has set
himself to do is a part of his being.79
For the expedition of 1905 contributions from many persons
made it possible to have a boat built which would be better
adapted to his needs than any he had used before. It was
named the Roosevelt and was driven to Cape Sheridan 82° and
30' North latitude, farther than any vessel had ever gone.
From this point they pushed northward. More eager than
ever to reach the goal, Peary wrote :
"At night I can hardly sleep waiting for the dogs to get
rested sufficiently to start again. Then I think what will be
the effect, if some insuperable obstacle, open water, absolutely
impossible ice, or an enormous fall of snow knocks me out
now? Will it break my heart or will it simply numb me
into insensibility ?"
A season of unusually violent winds broke the ice, separat
ing Peary from his supporting parties with so small an
amount of supplies that when almost within the reach of suc
cess it was necessary to retreat because of the peril of starv
ation. "After a heart-breaking fight with the ice, the open
water and storms, " he was obliged to turn back from 87° and
6' North because his food supply would carry him no farther.
Then on their return came the "big lead" (a lane of open
water) , half a mile wide when they first saw it. Delayed for
days and compelled to eat their dogs, it was with joy they at
last found a coating of young ice extending across the lead —
now two miles wide — which might bear them on snow shoes.
If not now, never. They made the start, the ice undulated
under their feet but the other side was gained. Turning they
EGBERT E. PEAEY 361
saw a narrow, dark line of water dividing the frail ice they
had just crossed. Peary had reached 87° and 6', the "far
thest North " of any one at that time. But he says, ' ' The mere
writing of a name a little higher up has never had any attrac
tion for me. I could not be content without the full and final
accomplishment of the work."
Preparations for an eighth and final expedition were merely
a matter of finance. He had the ship, the men, the knowledge,
and the experience — but Morris K. Jessup was dead. But
Mrs. Jessup had not forgotten her husband 's interest and
sent a munificent check. Another friend of the cause gave
ten thousand dollars and promised more should it be needed.
At last an amount was secured which, economically and wisely
spent, purchased the necessary supplies and equipment.
Peary was extremely fortunate in the personnel of this last
and successful expedition, for in choosing the men he had the
members of the previous expeditions to draw from. First,
and most valuable of all, was Eobert A. Bartlett, master of
the Roosevelt. Matthew A. Henson, Peary's negro assistant,
had been with him, in one capacity or another, since the trip
to Nicaragua in 1887. He had accompanied Peary on all of
his northern expeditions, except the first, in 1886, and almost
without exception on each of the "farthest" sledge trips.
Eoss G. Marvin, of Cornell University, who had accompanied
Peary before, went with him again as secretary and assistant.
George A. Wardwell, the chief engineer, and Percy, the stew
ard, had both accompanied Peary before. Dr. J. W. Goodsell,
of New Kensington, Pennsylvania, was made surgeon, while
Mr. Donald B. MacMillan, of Worcester Academy, and Mr.
George Borup were added as members of the last expedition.
To Captain Bartlett, Peary left the selection of his officers
and men, with the single exception of the chief engineer.
On the afternoon of July 6, 1908, from the pier at the
foot of East Twenty-fourth Street, New York, the Roosevelt
steamed North again on the last expedition. Cheers from
the multitude who had gathered to see her off and the whistles
of the boats, the power-houses, and the factories, made the
air resound with an expression of good wishes. Just before
362 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
reaching the Stepping Stone Light, Mr. and Mrs. Peary, and
members and guests of the Peary Arctic Club transferred to
a tug and returned to New York. Mr. and Mrs. Peary re
joined the ship at Oyster Bay. They were accompanied on
board by President and Mrs. Eoosevelt. The president in
spected every part of the ship and shook hands with all aboard.
As he was going over the rail Peary said to him, "Mr. Pres
ident, I shall put into this effort everything there is in me —
physical, mental, and moral."
The president replied : "I believe in you, Peary, and I be
lieve in your success — if it is within the possibility of man."
At Sidney, Cape Breton, the ship filled with coal. Outside
the harbor Mrs. Peary, the children and two or three friends
were transferred to a tug.
On the west coast of Northern Greenland, midway between
Kane Basin and Melville Bay, is a little oasis amid a wilder
ness of ice and snow. Here with animal and vegetable life
in plenty a little tribe of Eskimos make their home. It is
about two thousand miles from New York City, as the bird
flies, and about six hundred miles north of the Arctic circle,
or half way between that line and the Pole.
Here the Roosevelt picked up the little dwellers of the frigid
zone who were to help in the struggle farther north. These
people were Peary's friends. For eighteen years he had
known them and was regarded by them as friend and bene
factor. He had earned their gratitude by furnishing them
supplies when starvation stared them in the face. He had
left implements for hunting and utensils for work which made
them better able to protect themselves against the rigors of
the North.
Nearly three weeks were spent in the Cape York-Etah re
gion in selecting Eskimos to accompany the expedition, and
in purchasing dogs, furs, and other items of equipment. The
" buying " was really bartering. Peary had lumber, knives,
cooking utensils, matches, etc., which the Eskimos needed, and
the Eskimos had dogs and supplies which Peary needed.
The members of the ship 's party included at starting a total
of twenty-two men. When Peary steamed out of Etah there
EGBERT E. PEARY 363
were on board twenty-two Eskimo men, seventeen women, ten
children, two hundred and forty-six dogs, and forty-odd wal
rus. Two of the ship's party had been left in charge of a
relief station. After struggle with the ice and violent winds
in which the ship received some injury, the Roosevelt was
forced into shallow water close to the delta point of the
Sheridan River and near the place Peary had chosen for win
ter quarters on his previous trip. At once the transportation
of supplies westward to Cape Columbia was begun. This
work, alternated with hunting, occupied the time until No
vember.
The winter months were occupied on board ship by making
the equipment, clothing, harness, sledges, etc. During the
moonlight period in each month, some time was spent hunt
ing, taking observations, and carrying supplies to Cape Co
lumbia.
On the last day of February, Bartlett got away from Cape
Columbia due north over the frozen sea with his pioneer
division.
On March first the remainder of the party followed the
pioneer trail, with Peary leaving an hour later. The party
now consisted of seven members of the expedition, seventeen
Eskimos, one hundred and thirty-three dogs and nineteen
sledges.
It was the plan to have Captain Bartlett 's division pioneer
the road and keep one day ahead of the main party. This
division comprised Bartlett and three Eskimos with one
sledge and team of dogs and carried their own gear and five
days' supplies for the division.
The second division, Borup's, included himself and three
Eskimos, four sledges and dog teams. He was to accompany
Bartlett for three marches and cache his loads and one sledge
where he left Bartlett on the line of march. Then he was to
hurry back to Cape Columbia in one march with light sledges,
reload and overtake the main party.
Without the system of relay parties it would be a physical
impossibility for any man to reach the North Pole and return
to tell the story : first, because a single division either large or
364 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
small could not possibly drag all the way to the Pole and back
(nine hundred miles) the necessary amount of food and liquid
fuel for men and dogs.
Second, divisions must succeed each other in the hard work
of trail-breaking for the first two-thirds of the distance in
order to save the strength of the main party for its final dash.
Third, when the supplies of one sledge after another have
been consumed, the drivers of these sledges and the dogs are
superfluous mouths to be fed from the scant supply being
dragged northward.
Fourth, each division being a unit it can be withdrawn with
out affecting the main party ; and
Fifth, at the very end, when the supporting parties have
performed their important part of trail-breaking and carrying
supplies, the main party, for the final dash, must be small and
well selected, as a small party can travel much faster than a
large one.
One of the important features of this plan is that the suc
cession of returning parties keep the trail open for a rapid
return of the main party.
The second day out the first real obstacle was met. When
three-quarters of the march was made a dark, ominous cloud
was observed on the northern horizon. This always means
open water. Soon a lead appeared. There was nothing to
do but camp. The necessary igloos were constructed and all
went to rest. Very early the next morning the grinding of the
ice indicated that the lead was crushing together and the party
got away.
On the fourth day out Peary met an Eskimo with a note
from Captain Bartlett saying that the captain was in camp
about a mile farther on, held by open water. Pushing on,
Peary soon reached the Bartlett camp and saw the unwelcome
sight — a great, white expanse of ice cut by a river of inky
black water, throwing off dense clouds of vapor. They were
now forty-five miles north of Cape Columbia. One, two, three,
four, five days they waited and still this river "Styx" spread
before them.
The temperature had risen as high as minus 5°. Peary
EGBERT E. PEAEY 365
paced back and forth, deploring the luck which prevented their
progress when everything else was favorable. The lead con
tinued to widen.
The Eskimos began to get nervous. Two of the older men
came to Peary and complained of being sick. But he knew
it was only an excuse and told them to go back to land as
quickly as possible. On the tenth day the young (freshly
frozen) ice began to appear on the lead, and on the eleventh
they got away again. Sometimes the movement of the tide
caused the ice to "rafter." The grinding, groaning, and
creaking, as the pieces of ice crunched together often kept up
all night — not a soothing lullaby.
Beyond the big lead one supporting party, under Dr. Good-
sell, returned to land. They were accompanied by MacMillan
who must turn back on account of a frosted heel.
Late that same afternoon there were rumblings and loud
reports among the floes. Soon an active lead cut the path
of the explorers. They followed it until they came to a place
where there were many pieces of floating ice some fifty or
one hundred feet across. They got the dogs and sledges from
one piece to another, using the ice much as a pontoon bridge.
As Borup was getting his team across, the dogs slipped and
went into the water. Leaping forward, this young athlete
stopped the sledge from following the dogs, and catching hold
of the traces that fastened them to the sledge, he pulled them
bodily out of the water. A man less quick and less muscular
than Borup might have lost the whole team as well as the
sledge laden with five hundred pounds of supplies, which, far
out in that icy wilderness, were worth more than their weight
in diamonds.
Five marches farther on, the second supporting party re
turned, under the leadership of Borup who had also frosted a
heel. Captain Bartlett went to the front again with Henson's
division. While the pioneer party marched, the main party
slept, and vice versa.
After three more marches, Marvin, with the third support
ing party, turned back, March twenty-sixth. After bidding
366 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
him good-bye, Peary's last words were, "Be careful of the
leads, my boy. ' '
On March 29th, the main party overtook Bartlett 's camp
close beside a wide lead. In order not to disturb Bartlett,
the main party camped a hundred yards distant, made their
igloos as quickly as possible, ate their supper and turned in.
All the next day they waited beside the open lead. On the
second morning the temperature had gone down to minus 30°,
with a bitter northwest wind. The lead was closed. They
rushed across the ice and all day the whole party travelled
together.
The next march was to be Bartlett 's last before turning
back, and he did his best. The wind blew strongly from the
north, full in their faces, but they struggled against it with a
degree of happiness, for it was closing the leads behind, which
would make it easier for Bartlett on the back trail.
Peary and Bartlett walked together the last few miles.
Bartlett was very sober and anxious to go farther. But the
plan had been agreed upon and there were not sufficient sup
plies to increase the main party. The next morning Bartlett
walked five or six miles north to make sure of reaching the
88th parallel. On his return he took an observation, getting
87° and 46' and 49", which showed that the continued north
wind had drifted the ice south, thus robbing them of a few
hard-earned miles.
Even with his five-mile march Bartlett had missed the 88th
parallel by a short distance. Though Peary would have been
glad to take Bartlett on with him it was impossible. It was
necessary for a supporting party to return from this point.
So April first Bartlett started south over the back trail.
Peary together with his negro assistant, Matt Henson, and
four Eskimos were left one hundred and thirty-three nautical
miles from the Pole. They had five sledges and forty splendid
dogs and sufficient supplies for the calculated time. All were
in good condition and ready for the final lap of the journey.
Peary selected Henson for his fellow traveler to the Pole
itself because he had always accompanied the explorer to his
"farthest North. " In addition, Henson, with years of Arctic
EGBERT E. PEARY 367
experience, was almost as skilful as an Eskimo with dogs
and sledges.
The two divisions now left pushed forward. Even the
Eskimos were eager and interested. The weather was favor
able, and on April fourth they travelled ten hours and twenty-
five miles were covered.
The bitter wind burned their faces so they cracked. The
Eskimos complained of their noses, which Peary had never
heard them do before. At the camp, on April fifth, the party
took more sleep than for several days. But before midnight
of the fifth they started on the fifth march, which Peary had
calculated in advance would bring them to the goal.
This last march ended at ten o'clock on the forenoon of
April sixth. They went into camp and Peary made an ob
servation which indicated their position as 89° and 57'. They
were at the end of their long journey, yet, with the Pole act
ually in sight, Peary was too weary with the accumulated wear
iness of all those days and nights of forced marches to take the
last few steps. As soon as the igloos were completed, dinner
was eaten, the dogs double rationed, and Peary turned in.
Weary though he was, he awoke a few hours later. The first
thing he did on awaking was to write in his diary,
"The Pole at last. The prize of three centuries. My dream
and goal for twenty years. Mine at last ! I cannot bring my
self to realize it. It seems all so simple and commonplace. ' '
Then a light sledge was made ready, carrying only the in
struments for an observation, a tin of pemmican and one or
two skins. The party travelled an estimated distance of ten
miles and secured a series of observations indicating that
their position was beyond the Pole. During the last few hours
they had passed from the eastern to the western hemisphere
across the summit of the world. To reach camp they must go
north again for a few miles and then south, though all the
time travelling in the same direction.
There were some ceremonies connected with the arrival at
their difficult destination. Five flags were planted at the top
of the world. The first one was a silk American flag given by
Mrs. Peary fifteen years before and worn by Peary wrapped
368 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
about his body on every one of his successive expeditions
North. He had always left a fragment of it at his "farthest
North " points.
The others were the colors of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fra
ternity, of which he was a member while at Bowdoin College ;
the "World's Ensign of Liberty and Peace "; the Navy
League flag ; and the Bed Cross flag.
After these flags had been planted, Peary told Henson to
time the Eskimos for three rousing cheers, which they gave
with a will, and Peary shook hands with each member of the
party. Then, in a space between the ice blocks of a pressure
ridge, Peary placed a glass bottle containing a strip of his
flag and some records.
After thirty hours at the Pole, busy with marching, counter
marching, making observations and records, they found them
selves too restless to sleep, and at four o'clock on the after
noon of April seventh they turned their backs upon the camp
at the North Pole. Often, in Arctic work, the return journey
is more serious than the advance. The vital thing is to keep
and use the outward trail. Tired as they were, they must
reach land before the next full moon with its "spring" tides
which would rift the ice with open leads.
Before starting South, Peary had a brief talk with his com
panions. The home journey was to be "big travel," "small
sleep," and hustle every minute. They were going to try to
cover two of the outward marches each day, with a halt and
luncheon in the igloos of the old camp. If they could keep the
trail they could do it; they need waste no time building igloos.
Straining every nerve, they pushed southward. Eighteen-
hour marches, and hunting for the main trail in some places
where the ice had faulted, were trying experiences, but Peary
says he felt that they "were coming down the North Pole hill
in great shape."
After being detained again near the Big Lead for a few
hours they at last reached land. Peary thought his Eskimos
had gone crazy. They yelled and called and danced until they
fell in utter exhaustion. As one of them sank down on his
sledge, he said,
EGBERT E. PEARY 369
"The Devil is asleep or having trouble with his wife or we
should never have come back so easily."
At six o'clock on the morning of April twenty-third they
reached the old igloos at Cape Columbia, They had made six
teen marches in covering the four hundred and thirteen miles
from the Pole to Cape Columbia.
After two days at Cape Columbia and two forced marches
of forty-five miles each they reached the Roosevelt. They
were met by Captain Bartlett, who asked,
"Have you heard about poor Marvin?"
To the response of "No" the captain told them that Marvin
had been drowned at the Big Lead while scouting ahead of his
party and the Eskimos had returned without him. Peary says
the news staggered him and killed the joy he felt at the sight
of the ship and her captain.
Nature had kindly favored the journey homeward by good
weather. The one disheartening feature was the one fatality
of the expedition. Had it not been for the thought of the com
panion lying at the bottom of the dark, ice-covered Polar Sea,
the satisfaction would have been complete.
After spending some time in tidal observations and erecting
monuments in memory of Marvin and the discovery of the
North Pole, on the eighteenth of July the Roosevelt left her
winter quarters and started South. On August twenty-sixth
they left the last of their faithful Eskimos at Cape York and
the Roosevelt pointed her sharp, black nose toward home.
As for the faithful Eskimos, Peary left them with ample
supplies of dark, rich walrus meat and blubber for their win
ter, with coffee, sugar, biscuits, guns, rifles, ammunition,
knives, hatchets, traps, und for the splendid four who stood
beside him at the Pole a boat and tent each, to requite them
for their energy and the hardship and toil they underwent to
help their friend to the North Pole.
On September fifth the ship arrived at Indian Harbor on the
Labrador Coast. The first dispatch that went over the wires
was to Mrs. Peary.
On September twenty-first, as the Roosevelt neared the
little town of Sidney, a white yacht approached her. It was
370 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
carrying Mrs. Peary and the children to meet the hero. Far
ther down the bay they met a flotilla of boats, gay with bunt
ing and resounding with music. As they neared the city, the
water front was alive with people cheering the Roosevelt as
she came back, flying at her mast-head, beside the Stars and
Stripes and the Ensign of their Canadian hosts, a flag which
had never before entered any port in history, the North Pole
flag.
What has the world gained by the discovery of the Poles I
It marks the completion of man's conquest of the surface of
the earth. The splendid series of ventures and voyages began
with the first pushing out of the Phoenician navigators into
the fearful terrors of the great Atlantic and the crossing of
the equator where the sun's furnace heat was supposed to
scorch men black. It has ended with the attainment of the
North and South Poles.
Ended are the many strange conceptions of the shape and
character of the world. The earth has been girdled from
East to West and spanned from North to South. Through the
quest of the Poles has come valuable scientific knowledge re
garding the globe on which we live. Meteorology, geology,
zoology and ethnology have all received benefit, and both mag
netic and tidal phenomena are better understood.
The name of Robert Edwin Peary will forever stand among
the most eminent discoverers. He gave twenty-three of the
best years of his life to his work. He planned with the utmost
care and thoroughness; every detail and contingency were
anticipated and met. By painstaking care, unusual thorough
ness, good judgment, and indomitable will he reached his goal.
He has received many marks of recognition for his discov
eries. One, and perhaps the one he values most, was bestowed
by his native land : a formal act of Congress tendering thanks
for his Arctic explorations resulting in reaching the North
Pole. Congress has also shown the honor of bestowing upon
him the rank of Rear Admiral, with the retired pay of that
grade.
The President of the French Republic bestowed upon him
the Legion of Honor, with the rank of Grand Officer.
EGBERT E. PEARY 371
Among other recognitions, he has received special medals
from the most important geographical societies of this coun
try, including the Peary Arctic Club, and from the national
and imperial geographic societies of England, Germany, Italy,
Austria, Hungary, Belgium, Scotland, and Holland.
He has received the honorary degree of doctor of laws from
Bowdoin College and the Edinburgh University, and honorary
membership in many scholastic and commercial societies.
Mrs. Morris K. Jessup presented to the American Museum
of Natural History a bust of Rear Admiral Peary, which oc
cupies a niche in Memorial Hall.
Discovery has not been the only field of labor of Robert
E. Peary. His specialty in his earlier profession was ship
canals and dry docks. He has to his credit the invention
of the first practicable high lift lock gate for ship canals.
Some engineers have credited Peary and Menocal with the
conception and suggestion of the Panama Canal. These men
were sent by the Navy Department to resurvey the Nicara-
guan route. In their report, for the first time in a public
print, is described and illustrated the type of canal now com
pleted at Panama.
Although he has accomplished what would be a credit to
any man's life work, Peary has not resigned his place in the
world's work. He is now actively interested in the subject of
Antarctic explorations by this country, and the broad phases
of aeronautics. He believes the conquest of a new world -
the atmosphere — which since the creation till now has re
mained sacred to the winds, the birds, and the lightning, is a
great and wonderful thing.
He says it has a special interest for him "because almost
simultaneously with my good fortune in closing a four-hun
dred-year book of history, 'The Conquest of the Pole,' the
Wright brothers opened the pages of this new book, 'The Con
quest of the Air, ' the future chapters of which no one can be
gin to imagine."
Peary has been made an honorary member of the Aero Club
of America. This club, with others, have felt the need of an
aeronautical map of the world to be adopted internationally by
372 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
all nations and used as a foundation from which to develop
national and local maps. The making of such a map has been
under consideration by the Aero Club of America for some
time and the club has recently appointed a committee, with
Peary as chairman, to develop plans for its accomplishment.
Always interested in and urging big things, an optimist re
garding the future of the country and scientific development,
time alone can disclose what additional achievements may yet
be credited to Robert Edwin Peary.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
North Pole. (Frederick A. Stokes.) By Robert E. Peary.
Northward Over the Great Ice. (Frederick A. Stokes.) By Robert
E. Peary.
PERIODICALS
A Name for History: Peary. American Museum Journal 12:128.
Conquest of the Poles. By Robert E. Peary. The Mentor 1 No. 27 :1.
Discovery of the North Pole. By Robert E. Peary. Hampton's
Magazine 24-25.
European Tributes to Peary. National Geographic Magazine 21 :536.
Peary : the Man and His Work. By Elsa Barker. Hampton's Maga
zine, 23 :814b-814e.
Robert E. Peary and His Campaign for the Pole. By Sturges B.
Rand. McClure's IS -Ml.
To Make a Standard Aeronautical Map of the World and an Efficient
Aeronautical Map of the U. S. By Henry Woodhouse. Flying
3:169.
Copyright 1914 by Moffftt Studio, Chicago
MRS. PERCY V. PENNYBACKER
BY GRACE JULIAN CLARKE
WHEN the history of the modern woman movement
comes to be written, a considerable portion of the
work will be occupied with an account of the woman's
club; for this has undoubtedly been the school where women
have received a training absolutely essential to the intelli
gent performance of certain duties and responsibilities that
are gradually being placed upon them — a stepping-stone, as
it were, to a position of greater dignity and significance in the
world's affairs. The object of the first clubs was self -im
provement, not at all an unworthy motive when one considers
the sex's previous environment and opportunities. The clubs
of an earlier day served a great end. Women found that they
could talk, and not simply gossip together. They talked and
wrote papers. After years of consideration of such topics as
"The Women of Ancient Greece and Rome," "Germanic
Criminal Jurisprudence in the Middle Ages," etc., they began
rather cautiously to take up modern themes, and to-day we
find club programs delightfully suggestive of the life we are
now living. Through club activities women also learned how
to conduct public meetings, and how to differ from one another
without giving or taking offense.
After awhile, the attention of the club women, long fixed on
purely literary and cultural themes, was attracted to their
own immediate surroundings, and they were frequently
amazed and appalled at what they saw. It was, perhaps, the
child that first drew the eyes of club women away from those
more remote interests. Contemplating, in the light of their
new knowledge, the needs of their own children, they were
naturally led to consider the situation of "the other woman's"
offspring. They began to demand the establishment of kin
dergartens, they looked into sanitary conditions of school-
houses, the pay of teachers, and so on. Presently these club
women were inspired to form parent-teacher associations,
376 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
which have gone on multiplying until they are now an im
portant adjunct of our public school system. Through the
influence of clubs libraries were multiplied; library commis
sions were established in many states; juvenile courts were
instituted, with women probation officers; city art commis
sions were formed; pure milk stations and rest-rooms were
opened ; women were enlisted in the anti-tuberculosis and anti-
child labor crusades ; and factory conditions were studied.
But they did not altogether abandon their literary pursuits.
They were still devoted to Shakespeare and Browning, but
these subjects had to divide the time with civics, the needs of
working women, etc. Jane Addams, in her address on Wo
men's Clubs and Public Policies, has shown how really essen
tial it was that the club women should go on that "gigan
tic quest for culture, ' ' because only thus could they have been
prepared intelligently to handle the practical problems that
were inevitably to present themselves a little later.
As with the individual club, so it was with the General Fed
eration of Women's Clubs. The law of evolution was never
more beautifully illustrated than in the gradual development
of this great national body. Beginning in 1889 with a hand
ful of literary clubs, banded together for mutual helpfulness,
the Federation has steadily grown until it now numbers in its
membership more than a million women whose purposes are
as inclusive as the interests of human society. Josiah Strong
declares, "Except in the United States Congress I know of
no body of men or women representing so much of intellect
and heart, so much of culture and influence, and so many of
the highest hopes and noblest possibilities of the American
people, as the General Federation of Women's Clubs." To
be the successful head of an organization so potential, with
flourishing branches in every state in the Union and tendrils
reaching into almost every community, presupposes qualities
of head and heart possessed only by the exceptional woman.
And such a woman is Anna J. H. Pennybacker.
The career of Mrs. Pennybacker demonstrates that she has
reached her present proud position because she has had a
purpose in life. She has believed with Robert Louis Steven-
MRS. PERCY V. PENNYBACKER 377
son that we are "put here to do what service we can, for
honor and not for hire," and she has bent herself to the task.
Existence to her has not been a business to be transacted in an
indifferent manner, but it has meant a great opportunity as
well as a serious responsibility. Her first appearance at a
Biennial Convention of the General Federation of Women's
Clubs marked an epoch both for the organization and in her
own life. This was in Los Angeles in 1902. As president of
the Texas Federation the report she gave there of what the
club women of her state had accomplished, her remarkable
knowledge of parliamentary procedure, and an indescrib
able something characterized by Thomas Hardy as "that
strange, suasive pull of personality" — all these combined
to fix her in the consciousness of the delegates, more than one
of whom then prophesied that she was destined to become
president of the national body.
Born in Petersburg, Virginia, in 1861, of parents who were
also natives of the Old Dominion, Anna J. H. Pennybacker 's
antecedents are all Southern. The first sentence from her
lips reveals this fact, and there is something peculiarly fas
cinating to a Northerner in listening to the English language
spoken by an educated native of the South. Her father, the
Rev. John B. Hardwicke, like most ministers of the gospel of
an earlier day, was prone to change his domicile frequently,
and so we find the family, after leaving Virginia in 1864, re
siding successively in North Carolina, West Virginia, Kansas,
and finally Texas. Mrs. Hardwicke was a woman of ability,
possessing unusual charm of manner. She lived to rejoice
in the distinction that came to her daughter, passing away
in 1913. There is ample evidence that both Dr. Hardwicke,
who died many years earlier, and his wife were persons of
exceptional force of character.
It was the Kansas sojourn that probably determined the
bent of our subject's career. Graduating at the Leavenworth
Classical High School in 1878, when she was barely seventeen,
she had already selected teaching as her vocation. This was
chiefly due to the influence of the principal of the school, to
whom Mrs. Pennybacker has more than once acknowledged
378 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
her indebtedness for having revealed to her what it meant to
be a genuine teacher, the dignity that should pertain to the
profession, the consecration and deep seriousness demanded
therein.
Eemoving with her family to Texas in the following au
tumn, she spent a year under private tutors, and then took
the competitive examinations for a scholarship in the Sam
Houston Normal School, which had just opened at Huntsville.
She not only gained the scholarship, but received the remark
able average of 100 per cent. This was because in this in
stance, as always, she put her whole heart into the task be
fore her, paying no attention to anything else until this was
out of the way. It is said that the news of this achievement
preceded her to Huntsville, so that her arrival was looked
forward to with keen interest. We are told also that her ap
pearance created universal surprise, for "they had expected
at least to see a dignified school-marm, whereas she, a slip of
a girl of eighteen years and very small for her age, seemed a
mere child. However, she lived up to the reputation she found
awaiting her at the school, for she more than held her own,
and when graduation day came she was one of two honor
students. ' ' *
"A miracle of faithfulness" she has been called, and also
"the story-book lady," both designations being truthful and
apt, for her every achievement has followed conscientious
and painstaking effort ; and so the story of her life reads like
a page from a good old-fashioned fairy tale where virtue is
always appropriately rewarded.
One friendship formed at the Sam Houston Normal School
was destined to have an important bearing on her subsequent
life and to result in the greatest happiness that can come to a
woman — happy wifehood and motherhood. It was there
that she met Percy V. Pennybacker, a fellow student, and
their engagement tinged with rose-color the next two years
for both of them, years spent by her in teaching, first in Texas
and then in Missouri, and by him in foreign study and travel.
Eeturning to this country, Mr. Pennybacker became superin-
i Peter Molyneaux in Texas Club Woman for June, 1914.
MES. PERCY V. PENNYBACKEE 379
tendent of schools in Tyler, Texas, Miss Hardwicke soon f ol-
lowing to accept the principal ship of the high school there.
In Tyler were passed nine of the happiest and busiest years
of her life, for in a few weeks after her arrival she became
Mrs. Pennybacker; there her first child was born; there she
wrote her History of Texas] and there she entered upon club
work, a field in which she was to play so prominent and use
ful a part.
Women 's clubs had existed in the United States for more
than twenty years, but they were comparatively few in num
ber and gave no promise of the power they were to wield dur
ing the next quarter-century. With fine vision, the young
wife and teacher, with the encouragement of her husband,
organized the first club in Tyler and one of the first in the
state of Texas. This was in 1886, and four years later a city
federation composed of seven clubs was formed, which has
been the means of great educational, civic, and social helpful
ness.
During these busy years, however, Mrs. Pennybacker found
time to write her History of Texas, which is so graphically
written as to challenge the attention and fire the enthusiasm
of old as well as young, and which has been adopted as a text
book in the Texas public schools. It seems that a country
school teacher, a guest in the Pennybacker home, having been
much impressed by his hostess* manner of presenting the
subject in the class-room, and realizing also the need of an
adequate school history, first suggested the idea to her. He
was warmly seconded by Professor Pennybacker, who was
ever on the alert to encourage his wife's efforts, and so, after
careful thought and considerable research, she undertook the
task. It is pleasant to be assured that the spirit of intense
patriotism manifest in the young people of Texas is attribut
ed largely to the Pennybacker History, and also that the book
has produced royalties that have placed the author and her
little family in easy circumstances. No wonder the men, wo
men and children of Tyler put on their best attire, culled out
a holiday, and strewed flowers in her way, when Mrs. Penny-
backer went back there in April, 1914, after an absence of
380 FAMOUS LIVING AMEEICANS
twenty years, to address the convention of the Third District
of the Texas Federation of Clubs ! Her reception was a sig
nificant tribute to the effect of her life in their midst, and
proves that, after all, the good men do is not forgotten.
Mrs. Pennybacker's school teaching came to an end in 1894,
when the family removed to Palestine, Texas, Professor Pen-
nybacker having accepted the superintendency of schools
there. She now gave more time to club work, the growing
importance of which she clearly recognized. This was edu
cational too, just as truly as was the profession of teaching,
although its full scope was not yet comprehended. The death
of her husband in 1899 withdrew her from outside interests
for a time, but she soon realized the selfishness of giving her
self up to grief. Three growing children looked to her for
guidance, and through her determination to be to them both
father and mother has come not only a sweet solace but an
important part of her own education. A friend, after re
ferring to the singularly fortunate circumstances of Mrs. Pen-
nybacker's domestic life, says:
"Her husband — himself one of the great pioneer educa
tional forces of the state — saw to it that she had the needed
encouragement in keeping true to the onward course of her
own development during the consuming years of her early
married life, when her children and her home-making were her
first care and threatened to swamp all outside interests. ' '
The fact that she had been accustomed to a genuine compan
ionship with her husband in all the affairs of life, while it
added a certain pang to the separation, yet must have armed
her with a strength and sense of power that rendered her
double duties less difficult than would otherwise have been the
case. The following year, in order to give her children better
educational advantages and also to look after her business in
terests, she moved to Austin, where the family has since re
sided, her home being a center of intellectual and social life
distinguished by generous hospitality, elegance, and simplicity.
Elected to the presidency of the Texas Federation of Clubs
in 1901, her incumbency was a period of unprecedented ac
tivity and splendid accomplishment. An endowed scholarship
MRS. PERCY V. PENNYBACKER 381
of three thousand dollars in the State University, by means of
which ambitious young women may equip themselves for
teaching or other work, the erection of a beautiful and com
modious Woman's Building at the University, the passage of
a poll-tax measure greatly increasing the educational fund —
these are some of the things which are attributed to the Texas
club women under her leadership. Her fame as the author
of the Pennybacker History had by this time made her name
a household word throughout the state, so that as she went
on her official rounds visiting clubs she was everywhere greet
ed by grateful admirers. In 1904, at the St. Louis Biennial,
she first became officially connected with the General Feder
ation, being elected treasurer. Two years later, at St. Paul,
she asked to be relieved, but was persuaded to accept the au-
ditorship, her practical business sense being considered of
inestimable value to the organization. In 1908 began a pe
riod of ill health, during which she went abroad with her
children for two years. Her first public appearance after her
return to this country was at the Council of the General Fed
eration in Memphis in April, 1911, where she spoke on the
subject of the proposed endowment for the Federation, which
had been decided upon at the Cincinnati Biennial the year
before.
The selection of Mrs. Pennyacker to take the lead in secur
ing this fund of one hundred thousand dollars was a natural
one, in view of her achievements in Texas. As an officer for
four years in close touch with the finances of the General Fed
eration, she well knew the great need of increased revenues
in order to carry on the growing activities of the several de
partments of work. Her speech at Memphis marked a mile
stone in the history of the General Federation. From that
time on the endowment appeared no idle dream, but an as
sured fact. To those who had never heard Mrs. Pennybacker
the speech was especially electrical, for she has the gift of
oratory to a remarkable degree, with an imagination and
fervor that reach the heart and move to action. Slight of
stature, but with great dignity of bearing, she has a voice of
singular melody and persuasiveness. The endowment would
382 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
not seem to be a subject calculated to enkindle eloquence, but
as the speaker proceeded there were tears in the eyes of near
ly all who listened. They saw little children in mills and fac
tories, for whom life was poisoned at its spring; they saw
young girls hounded to destruction by the White Slave octo
pus ; they saw homes ruined by intemperance and want due to
ignorance and unjust social conditions; they were also im
pressed anew with the noble efforts of club women all over
the country to remedy these evils, and with the fact that much
more might be accomplished if they but had the money need
ed to push the work. It is impossible to tell just how it was,
but somehow as she spoke they felt that the women of the
General Federation were a "chosen people" to whom the call
had come to render a more valuable service than they had ever
before performed, and that the only way to do this was to pro
cure the endowment. No wonder it was the universal ver
dict that if Mrs. Pennybacker could visit every state the
amount would soon be secured: no wonder that when she
made her appeal in Texas, the entire quota of that state's ap
portionment, two thousand dollars, was raised in twenty min
utes!
But this little embodiment of zeal and determination could
not go in person to every part of our country. So she care
fully planned a nation-wide campaign, naming an assistant in
each stale, and a considerable amount was in hand when, at
the San Francisco Biennial of 1912, the prophecy made at
Los Angeles ten years before was fulfilled and this favorite
daughter of Texas was elected president of the General Fed
eration. Her life since that time has been a constant round
of travel, letter-writing, and speech-making. She has jour
neyed more than thirty thousand miles and spoken in thirty-
seven states (in some of them several times), besides address
ing many men's organizations of various kinds.
One result of Mrs. Pennybacker 's visits to so many clubs
and federations has been the unprecedented growth of the
national organization, more than twice as many clubs having
been admitted during the past two years as in any previous
biennial period. Another tribute to her gifts of leadership
MRS. PERCY V. PENNYBACKER 383
was shown in the spirit of the Chicago Biennial Convention
of 1914, a certain feeling of confidence that prevailed, and an
assurance of absolutely fair play. This was particularly
manifest in the treatment of the Equal Suffrage Resolution.
Two years before it was held that such a resolution was not
germane to the business of the Federation — this out of def
erence to the conservative element which was supposed to be
particularly strong in the Southern states. Mrs. Pennybacker
comes from the South, and many of her warmest friends and
most ardent supporters were bitterly opposed to the resolu
tion. Knowing this, she yet gave her word early in the pro
ceedings that no resolution coming in an orderly way before
the house would be suppressed, and suffrage was overwhelm
ingly endorsed. Her gifts as a presiding officer are most un
usual. Ever on the alert, tactful and courteous, she diffuses
an atmosphere of ease, freedom and confidence, at the same
time maintaining perfect order, while a certain tender rela
tionship is established between her and every individual dele
gate. There is nothing short of genius in this.
One secret of her power is the habit formed early in life and
strengthened by association with her husband of ever doing
the duty nearest without fretting about results. She thus
wastes neither time nor energy, and each day is a unit of ac
complishment. Add to this the fact that she has indomitable
will, great patience and perseverance, and an abiding assur
ance that the thing she is doing is tremendously worth while,
and her character and career stand revealed.
The completion of the endowment of one hundred thousand
dollars at the Chicago Biennial, which was the most dramatic
scene of the entire convention, and in which Mrs. Pennybacker
played so telling a part, marks the entrance on an era of in
creased activity in all departments of the General Federation.
This means more traveling art exhibits, more instruction in
Home Economics, fresh activity in civic improvement, civil
service reform and conservation, better industrial and social
conditions, more widespread and intelligent interest in public
health. In a word, it means education.
As president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs,
384 FAMOUS LIVING AMEEICANS
Mrs. Pennybacker, whose life-work has been teaching, is at
the head of one of the most far-reaching educational enter
prises in the world to-day. It is an enterprise of steadily
growing power, too, for women are enrolling in clubs in great
er numbers year by year. In their organized capacity they
have been aptly styled "an army whose presence is in itself
a guarantee of a happy future for the land in which we dwell. ' '
As general-in-chief of this vast army of peace Anna J. H. Pen
nybacker has shown herself fully equal to the situation, with
a keen and comprehensive grasp of the ends in view, a firm
confidence in the character and integrity of the hosts behind
her, and an unshakable faith in the ultimate success of the
campaign in which they are engaged.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
History of the General Federation of Women's Clubs. By Mary I.
Wood, pp. 161, 186, 216, 218, 223, 288, 290.
PERIODICALS
Leaders of Women. By Rose Young. Good Housekeeping Magazine
57 :634.
Letters to Club Women. By Anna J. H. Pennybacker. General Fed
eration Magazine 1913, 1914.
Miracle of Faithfulness. By Peter Molyneaux. Texas Club Woman
July, 1914.
Mrs. Percy V. Pennybacker — a Tribute. By Bride Neill Taylor.
General Federation Magazine June, 1914.
Tribute to Mrs. Pennybacker (poem). By Pearl Randall Wasson.
General Federation Magazine December, 1913.
What the Woman's Club Has Done. By Mary I. Wood. Ladies'
Home Journal 31:26.
Copyright "by Mecca Studio, Indianapolis
JAMES WHITCOMB EILEY
BY ANNA NICHOLAS
HE was a discerning man who declared that a poet is
born, not made. James Whitcomb Riley is a distin
guished illustration of the truth of the saying, for he
is emphatically not a poet of the schools, though many of his
productions are of classic beauty and perfection.
James Whitcomb Riley was born to sing. Where he was
born, literally, and when, have an interest beyond that of mere
statistics, because environment and conditions often explain
the drift of a writer's mind.
Biographical dictionaries have fixed 1853 as the date of his
birth, but people who have known him long dispute in idle mo
ments the correctness of the date, some insisting that he
opened his eyes on the world three or four years earlier. As
it is, because of the poet's whim not to satisfy curiosity on this
point — he lightly turning the subject when it is mentioned —
1853 will probably stand in the books. Nor is the uncertainty
important, for what are a few years more or less "When the
heart beats young "f And Mr. Eiley 's heart is young and
will be so always. Unkind time has interfered with his phys
ical activity in recent days, but the alert mind, wise with its
accumulations of life's experiences, is ready to forget its
knowledge and to be one with the children; to believe, with
them, in the pixy people; he is ready to put himself in the
place of the youngsters who listened, wide-eyed, to Orphant
Annie, who admired Noey Bixler, who delighted in Our Hired
Man, and Uncle Sidney who told fairy tales and believed them.
He has within him the deathless spirit of the child — greatest
gift of the gods. What he once wrote of another can be truly
said of him :
1 ' Turn any chapters that we will,
Eead any page, in sooth,
We find his glad heart owning still
The freshness of his youth."
388 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
The place of the poet's birth was Greenfield, Indiana — a
thriving little city now, but back in the mid-century it must
have been a typical country village. The little flaxen haired,
barefooted youngster, absorbed with the sports of childhood,
did not give much promise then of his later career, but back to
that life the inspiration of many of his poems can be traced.
Did he have Greenfield in mind when he wrote of Griggsby's
Station, "Back where we used to be so happy and so pore"?
Did he mean Greenfield when he wrote, "The little town of
Tailholtis good enough fer me"?
It was there that he knew the delights "along the banks of
Deer Creek"; there that he went "up and down the Brandy-
wine"; from there that he went Out to Old Aunt Mary's.
Again and again his childhood is recalled :
"When life was like a story holding neither sob nor sigh
In the olden, golden glory of the days gone by. ' '
The simple life of the little town, prosaic as it may have
seemed to others, was rich in its poetic suggestions to him, as
time proved, but how did he come by his genius ! Who knows ?
Perhaps his mother was a dreamer of dreams. His portrait
of her, in the story of the Old Home Folks, hints as much :
1 ' The boy prone on the floor above a book
Of pictures, with a rapt, ecstatic look —
Even as the mother's, by the selfsame spell
Is lifted, with a light ineffable —
As though her senses caught no mortal cry
But heard, instead, some poem going by."
Or it may be that his stern lawyer-father, of whom the chil
dren of the family stood rather in awe, had a vein of sentiment
and an emotional life back of his practical, sedate outward
seeming that descended to and found expression in his son.
The higher gifts to man come by ways that are mysterious
and dim to mortal sense. It is enough to say that his heritage
on both sides of his family is good. He comes of sound
American stock.
Mr. Eiley spent his boyhood and young manhood in Green-
JAMES WHITCOMB EILEY 389
field, f ollowing the pursuits common to the youth of the town,
finding companionship in his two brothers and two sisters —
only one of whom, a sister, beside himself now survives of the
family — and among the boys who appear in the verse of his
later years ; attending school and indulging in the pranks and
practices known to all village youngsters.
This freckle-faced, fair-haired lad was by no means a model
pupil in school, but was what a modern teacher would class
as a " problem. " Yet, even then, his peculiar character
istics were manifesting themselves. He was shy, sensitive,
self-conscious, lacking certain qualities that people call "prac
tical," as skill in mathematics and an adaptability to routine;
and possessing some traits that people did not understand
and shook their heads over — a disposition to dream and idle
the days away and an unconquerable distaste for the fixed
school "system" of his day. His taste was for variety, for
dipping into books here and there, for reading more interest
ing literature than text-books, for wandering at will
"Where over the meadow, in sunshine and shadow,
The meadow larks trill and the bumble bees drone."
Echoes come down from that by-gone time which indicate
that he was something of a trial to his teachers, who did not
comprehend that this child mind that would not be interested
in the lesson of the text-book was feeling its way to more im
portant things and storing up a folk lore and absorbing na
ture 's secrets that were afterward transmuted into song and
story by the alembic of his fancy.
For all of his boy companions he must have been a lonely
little fellow, certainly one who took few into his confidence.
His mother was sympathetic and comprehending, but she died
while he was yet a child and no one ever took her place. To
that mother he has paid many a tender tribute in his verse.
Of her he says :
"0 rarely soft the touches of her hands,
As drowsy zephyrs in enchanted lands."
But this boy of many gifts, stumbling his way as best he
390 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
could along the road to manhood, and finding it sometimes a
difficult and bewildering path, found in one teacher an appre
ciative friend. Mr. Lee O. Harris, a teacher for many years,
was of a type none too common in the educational field at any
time. He was a man of fine quality, with a love for literature
and a poetic ability of his own that no doubt made him the
quicker to discover signs of intellectual promise in others.
At all events, he was discerning enough to see that young
Eiley could not be pressed into the same mold into which his
companions fitted, and was wise enough to allow him much
latitude in his school pursuits. He proved to be " guide,
philosopher and friend " to the lad and in later years a valued
companion. Eiley no doubt gained much inspiration from
him.
But after all it matters comparatively little to impressible,
intelligent youth what schools teach if home influences are of
an intellectual sort. Mr. Eiley was reared in a reading fam
ily ; his father had good books about and his son James Whit-
comb read them.
Another educational influence was the village newspaper
office, whose fascinations were early discovered and about
which he loved to linger. A country newspaper is an excellent
school and it was perhaps in the dingy office that his first lit
erary ambition was born.
Though he developed a writing and rhyming knack early,
he was, after all, slow in "finding himself." Perhaps he did
not even dream of writing rhymes as a serious and remunera
tive occupation — a life work. He was expected to settle
down like other young men to a regular calling, but the rou
tine of office or shop was not for him and he made various
ventures in other directions — a trip with a company of stroll
ing players, another with a traveling doctor for whom he
painted signs and advertisements, and a tour as a sign painter
with a partner or two being the chief undertakings.
One reason for these wanderings was the verdict of the fam
ily doctor that he ought to be out of doors a good deal because
of his poor health. He had tried reading law with his father,
but the undertaking soon came to an end. He had a distinct
JAMES WHITCOMB EILEY 391
talent for painting or drawing and thought of being a portrait
painter, his experiments in that line being on the back of wall
paper, which he bought for the purpose. Then he descended
in the artistic scale and learned ornamental sign painting
from an old German.
These travels which were in the company of young men like
himself, of good habits and good family, continued for several
years. They widened his acquaintance with all sorts and con
ditions of men, and his insight into character and his quick
eye for originality in others must have caused to be etched
upon his memory many of the portraits afterwards presented
to the public and to fame. It was perhaps on those journeys
that he met that native son of whom he says :
' ' He 's stove up some with the rheumatiz,
An' they haint no shine on them shoes o' his,
And his hair haint cut — but his eyeteeth is :
Old John Henry."
Some time on his travels he met Jap Miller. Of Jap he
writes :
"He'll talk you down on tariff; er he'll talk you down on tax,
And prove the pore man pays 'em all — and them's about
the facs! —
Religion, law, er politics, prize fightin' er baseball —
Jes tech Jap up a little and he'll post you 'bout 'em all."
Somewhere along, too, he came to know the rural philoso
phers personified in "Benjamin F. Johnson of Boone," be
hind whose name Mr. Riley stood when The Old Swimmin'
Hole and 'Leven More Poems were first given to the public —
a kindly soul whom he salutes thus :
"Lo! Steadfast and serene,
In patient pause between
The seen and the unseen,
What gentle zephyrs fan
Your silken silver hair, —
And what diviner air
Breathes round you like a prayer,
Old Man!"
392 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
In the course of his ramblings over Indiana his propensity
to write asserted itself and he found his way to country news
paper offices. With at least two of these, one an Anderson
and the other a Kokomo paper, he established more than
casual relations, forming lasting friendships with the editors
and contributing many of his earliest productions to their col
umns. In them he first tried his poetical wings.
It was when he began to contribute to the Indianapolis
Journal, however, that his literary career really began. The
Journal, an old well-established paper, had always given more
or less attention to matters not strictly of a news character
and was especially hospitable to writers of the state. On its
staff at that time were several men who were keenly appre
ciative of literary merit and quick to discern originality.
Mr. Riley's offerings, some of them in dialect, received
hearty welcome and began to appear with great frequency.
They soon aroused much interest and led to inquiries from the
Journal's readers concerning the new writer. These patrons
were largely of a class ready to appreciate literary talent,
while the weekly Journal, made up from the daily edition, cir
culated widely in the country districts of the state and gave
the people there their first acquaintance with a poet whom
they could understand and who seemed to speak for them.
Meanwhile, Mr. Eiley himself was a frequent visitor to the
Journal office, coming over from his home in Greenfield and
before many months taking up his residence in Indianapolis,
which city has since been his permanent home and with which
he is closely identified. He made the Journal office his head
quarters, and from that time, in the middle seventies, until
1904 when the Journal was sold and was merged with The
Star, a desk there was assigned to his use and there he wrote
perhaps the greater number of his poems.
But he was not a methodical " regular " worker. He was
never one of the authors of whom it is related that they pro
duce a certain number of words each day and accomplish the
task at fixed hours. He wrote when the spirit moved him,
when the inspiration came. He fell into the ways of the
morning newspaper and formed a habit of dropping into its
JAMES WHITCOMB EILEY 393
editorial rooms at midnight and later, sometimes finding the
late hours a favorable time for writing. Once he came after
twelve o 'clock with a bit of manuscript in his hand.
' ' I want this printed in the morning, ' ' he said.
"But Riley," said the editor in charge, running his eye over
the lines, "the poem's all right and we'll use it, but it's too late
to get it in in the morning. We '11 use it next day. ' '
"It can't be too late. You've got more news to set and you
can set this. I had gone to bed and this thing got into my head
and I had to get up and write it or I couldn't have slept. I
want to see it in type. ' '
"But the editorial page where such things go is already
made up," objected the editor.
"I don't care where it goes. Put it on the market page or
among the advertisements. ' '
The editor did as he was asked. The poem was The Song of
the Bullet. What inspired the lines in that time of peace he
does not himself know. It might have been accounted for
had it been produced at the time of the writing of this sketch,
when all America stands aghast at the sudden transformation
of Europe into a battlefield. The poem expresses in a won
derful way, both by its thought and form, the swift speeding
of the murderous missile :
' ' It whizzed and whistled along the blurred
And red-blent ranks ; and it nicked the star
Of an epaulet, as it snarled the word —
War!
" On it sped — and the lifted wrist
Of the ensign-bearer stung, and straight
Dropped at his side as the word was hissed —
Hate !
"On went the missile — smoothed the blue
Of a jaunty cap and the curls thereof,
Cooing, soft as a dove might do —
Love!
* ' Sang on ! — sang on ! — sang hate — sang war —
Sang love, in sooth, till it needs must cease,
Hushed in the heart it was questing for, —
Peace!"
394 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
When Mr. Riley began to write for the Journal his produc
tions were of a more ambitious sort than the light jingles he
had been accustomed to turn out for the country papers or for
recitation from the tail of the advertising wagon as it stopped
in the little towns and the gay young firm of sign painters
sang or played flute or fiddle (or otherwise made merry in
order to draw a crowd. He once said that he was really
obliged to write things to recite ; what he found in print was
not natural or human enough. Some of the poems now best
known were written in these early days of his Indianapolis
life. Besides his frequent poems in the Journal, he contrib
uted to the weekly Mirror, published in Indianapolis, his Fly
ing Islands of the Night appearing there — a rather weird
composition, but wonderfully imaginative and original. Its
merit and peculiar quality have perhaps never been generally
appreciated. At the same time he bombarded Eastern mag
azines with his offerings, but for a long time to no effect. His
work being out of the ordinary and the dialect verses, at least,
unconventional, the editors, after the manner of their kind,
regarded the contributions with distrust and promptly re
jected them. His first recognition came from the Century
Magazine, whose associate editor, Eobert Underwood John
son, himself a native Indianian, doubtless recognized the ac
curacy of the speech and the character drawing of Riley 's
metrical folk lore. After that the pages of the Century were
always open to him.
Mr. Riley made many contributions to the Journal before
he mustered courage to ask for remuneration or before it oc
curred to the editor that he was entitled to it by reason of the
merit of his offerings. Finally illumination came to the ed
itorial mind and to-day there exists a list of poems for which
a lump sum was paid to the author. The list includes some of
his most familiar and now famous verses, but what was paid
for them is the author's own secret, for no memorandum is
made on the list and the ledger recording it has long since
vanished.
Then it was proposed that Mr. Riley join the Journal ed
itorial staff at a fixed salary, which he did. His duties were
JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY 395
not well defined, but it was then that he wrote the Benjamin
F. Johnson series, The Old Swimmin' Hole and 'Leven More
Poems, one appearing each week in company with a letter pur
porting to be written by Johnson, an illiterate but intelligent
old farmer with a strong vein of sentiment. This feature of
the paper attracted much attention and the identity of the au
thor quickly became known. This series was afterwards pub
lished in a dainty booklet form and copies of the first edition
of this first Riley book are now much prized. He has been
heard to say that the sight of none of the later editions of his
books, including his "complete works, " ever gave him the
thrill of pleasure that this supplied.
Meanwhile Mr. Riley 's personal acquaintance extended rap
idly among appreciative people. There is always a group of
clever men about a newspaper and Indianapolis newspaper
circles at that time included several of more than common
ability. It was soon found that Mr. Riley had more talents
than that of writing verse — that he was witty, full of a dry
humor and possessed of an inimitable gift for story telling or
reciting — in short, that he was a delightfully entertaining
companion. It thus came about that he was made welcome in
various circles. One of these was what might be called an in
formal club made up of a group of men who fell into the habit
of dropping in, usually in the forenoons, to the private office
of John C. New, then owner and publisher of the Journal,
where they held confab on all topics under the sun, humorous
or serious, as the mood took them. It was rather a notable
group. Mr. New, a keen-witted, clear-headed, widely-read
man, was at that time prominent in public life and afterwards
held several high government offices, including that of treas
urer of the United States. Among other members was the
Rev. Myron W. Reed, a Presbyterian pastor of the city, a
brilliant and gifted man, afterwards of national reputation;
William Pinckney Fishback, one of the leading lawyers of the
state and noted for his intellectual ability and caustic wit;
Elijah W. Halford, editor of the Journal and afterwards
President Harrison's private secretary. General Harrison
himself, afterward President, occasionally joined the circle.
396 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
These casual meetings were usually punctuated with, hilar
ious laughter that caused passersby to look in with wonder.
One of the means of entertainment was the writing of rhymes.
Some one — tradition has it Mr. Eiley himself — arranged a
reel with a roll of paper on which attendants at the "club"
jotted down verses from time to time, as the spirit moved
them, and these were read at the meetings — poetry by the
yard — to the accompaniment of great applause.
Mr. Eiley 's first venture on the platform was a three
months' experimental tour through Indiana under the direc
tion of George C. Hitt, a member of the Journal's publishing
staff and now a prominent business man of Indianapolis. Mr.
Hitt's faith in the future of the poet helped to give the lat
ter 's confidence in himself a needed stimulus, for he was dis
posed to be doubtful of his own powers. The tour established
the fact that as an interpreter of the common heart, not only
as writer but as speaker, he was a genius. From that time his
fame grew and he was in demand outside of his state, delight
ing his audiences and establishing a reputation as poet and
character delineator that speedily became nation-wide. His
few ventures into prose show that he might have excelled in
fiction or essay writing, but he found such work irksome and
soon abandoned it.
His recognition in the Eastern states came more slowly than
elsewhere, but when finally given it was generous and enthusi
astic. He became a great favorite in Boston and always drew
large audiences from the most exclusive intellectual circles.
His first appearance in New York City was at an authors'
reading given for some special cause. Many distinguished
writers, including William Dean Howells, Thomas Bailey Aid-
rich, and Eichard Watson Gilder were on the program. An
authors ' reading is usually a dull affair, writers seldom being
good speakers, and the great audience grew restless and
weary. Riley was last on the program, he was unknown and
people were indifferent and impatient to be gone. But he
proved to be the star of the occasion. Quickly it was seen
that here was something new and original, that here was an
JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY 397
artist. Wave upon wave of applause followed his recitation
of a dialect poem — a character sketch in verse — and late as
it was encores were demanded. Newspapers next morning
gave him much praise and his fame was firmly established in
the literary and artistic world.
He continued to appear in platform work for ten years or
more, part of the time in company with "Bill" Nye, but chief
ly alone. He was very successful, always drawing big houses,
but the life was distasteful to him. He disliked to travel, and
as soon as his finances permitted he withdrew from the plat
form and for the past ten years or more has appeared only on
special occasions, usually in Indianapolis.
In outward incident his life has been uneventful. He made
one trip abroad — a short visit to England years ago — and
has seldom left Indianapolis save for brief journeys since his
professional tours ended. He never married, but a pleasant
home in the household of the widow of a Civil War veteran,
a lady of much culture and refinement, and a host of friends
of all ages and conditions keep him from loneliness.
His life to the onlooker seems an ideal one for a literary
man, with full honors and recognition bestowed upon him
while yet living, respected and loved by the people among
whom he lives, adored by children, his writings cherished by
people everywhere, he goes his way serenely, with a hopeful
outlook on this life and the next.
For what Mr. Eiley has spoken in his writings is an expres
sion of his real self. The humor, the optimism, the tender
sentiment, the sympathetic appreciation of all human experi
ences, the wise and kindly philosophy, the faith in eternal
goodness, that characterize his printed utterances are signifi
cant of the man as he is best known. High-minded, sweet-
souled, with an insight into the hearts of his fellow men that
has enabled him to meet them in all their moods, he has gone
his way through life bringing smiles and cheer and comfort
to a multitude whom he has never known, as well as to those
of his immediate circle, because he has spoken from his heart
398 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
to theirs. He gives his own philosophy when he says in
homely language :
"It haint no use to grumble and complain —
It's jest as cheap and easy to rejoice :
When God sorts out the weather and sends rain,
W'y rain's my choice. "
And he speaks with sincerity when he writes :
"No depth of agony but feels
Some fragment of abiding trust —
Whatever death unlocks or seals,
The mute Beyond is just."
It is a religious soul that speaks in the farewell to a friend
who has passed to the "Onward Trail that leads beyond our
earthly hail":
' ' So, never parting word nor cry :
We feel, with him, that by and by
Our onward trails will meet, and then
Merge and be ever one again."
This is not the place for an estimate of Mr. Biley's verse,
but whatever verdict the future may place on it, it will re
main true that he spoke for the inarticulate and put into words
their hopes and dreams, their aspirations, their longings and
their beliefs — that he is the poet of the people.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PERIODICALS
American Poets of To-Day. By F. M. Hopkins. Current Literature
24:208.
Estimate of James Whitcomb Eiley. By J. Mac Arthur. Harper's
Weekly 48 :1099.
James Whitcomb Riley's Complete Works. Bookman 38 (1913) : 163.
James Whitcomb Riley. By Hamlin Garland. McClure's 2:219.
James Whitcomb Riley. By Henry Van Dyke. Book News 25 :429.
James Whitcomb Riley. By Joe M. Chappie. National Magazine
9:322.
JAMES WHITCOMB KILEY 399
James Whitcomb Riley. By John Clark Ridpath. Book News 10 :278.
James Whitcomb Riley (The New Poetry). By William Dean How-
ells. North American Review 168 :588.
Mr. Riley as a Public Reader. By George C. Hitt. Book News 25 :439.
Poetry of James Whitcomb Riley. By Maurice Thompson. Critic
33:460.
Riley the Humorist. By Hewitt Hanson Howland. Book News 25 :436.
The Boy Who Was Born in Our Town. By Samuel Duff McCoy.
World's Work 25:565.
JOHN D. EOCKEFELLEE
BY ElCHAKD GILBERT COLLIER
JOHN DAVISON EOCKEFELLEE is the paramount
enigma of the world's notables. His has been a sort of
lone-wolf existence. Aloofness has been second nature
with him. He has shunned publicity, never friendly, with an
insistent hostility. His public utterances, few and guarded,
have failed to imprint upon the American mind any satisfying
conception of his personality, ambitions, or sentiments. His
friendships have savored more of close business relationships
than warm personal regard. Few men have enjoyed intimate
association with him and they have kept their impressions to
themselves. And to-day no man at all approaching him in
position and importance in contemporary affairs is so little
understood, so little appreciated.
This is one of the inevitable penalties of his stupendous
wealth. For considerably more than a quarter of a century
Eockefeller and the Eockefeller fortune have been under sus
picion. Both have been assailed with relentless vigor. This
feeling found emphatic expression a few years ago in the more
or less general protest against tainted money. So, figura
tively speaking, every man's hand has been raised against
him. Extremely sensitive, Mr. Eockefeller knew and felt all
this keenly and, knowing, his natural reserve was, perhaps,
tinged with resentment, certainly with a considerable degree
of timidity, and he became more and more a recluse.
Only within the last half dozen years has this barrier been
broken down. To-day more than ever before the human side
of Mr. Eockefeller is being displayed where formerly only his
insatiate thirst for wealth was apparent. While it was once
well-nigh impossible to obtain a likeness of him, he now faces
the camera smilingly and without hesitation. Now and then
he welcomes an interviewer. Occasionally he has appeared
unannounced at local gatherings of men of affairs.
The life story of John D. Eockefeller strikingly emphasizes
Copyright by Edmonston, Washington
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER 403
the wisdom of seizing opportunity with both hands the mo
ment it appears and holding fast with a bulldog grip. Born
in Richford, Tioga county, New York, July 8, 1839, the life
which opened before him bore nothing of promise above that
of his playmates. His parents were in quite moderate cir
cumstances. In several generations his ancestry had evinced
no marked tendency toward fortune-building, and whatever of
royal blood flowed in his veins was, for the time being, for
gotten. His father, William Avery Rockefeller, was a country
trader who displayed an exceptionally keen ability in his
trafficking. His mother, Eliza Davison Rockefeller, was a
woman of devout piety and a strict disciplinarian. From the
one he inherited his remarkable business acumen; from the
other, his unfaltering allegiance to the church.
His youth appears to have been uneventful up to his six
teenth year. His parents had removed to Strongsville, a little
hamlet a few miles south of Cleveland, Ohio, when young
Rockefeller was eleven years of age. There he resumed his
intermittent schooling, most of his instruction having been at
the hands of his mother, and continued his educational en
deavors at Parma, a neighboring village to which they later
removed, until he had almost completed the then limited high
school course. Abandoning this he went to Cleveland and en
tered a commercial college but attended it only a few months.
Just why he suddenly felt it imperative to obtain employ
ment at this early age does not appear. In his Random
Reminiscences he does not explain. At all events he left
the college and tramped about the city for days seeking a
place to work and at last found employment with Hewitt &
Tuttle, produce commission merchants. This was on Septem
ber 26, 1855, and Mr. Rockefeller has made the date an insti
tution in his life, celebrating it annually. Strange as it may
seem in the light of his later career, young Rockefeller ac
cepted this place without any agreement or even discussion
relative to remuneration. For the first three months he was
paid a lump sum of $50. The next year he drew $25 a month.
The next year the bookkeeper, who had been getting $2,000 a
404 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
year, resigned, and John D. Rockefeller succeeded him at a
salary of $500.
At the end of the third year he asked $800 and was offered
$700. He had saved nearly $800 and, his employer still being
inclined to quibble over the amount, he forthwith resigned and
accepted the offer of a young Englishman, M. B. Clark, to
enter partnership with him in a general commission business.
To do this it became necessary for him to borrow $1,000. He
obtained the money from his father at ten per cent, interest.
Shortly afterward he had established a bank credit and was
borrowing considerable sums. In his memoirs Mr. Rocke
feller naively declares that he was always a great borrower.
It is significant that in the first year the sales of this youthful
partnership exceeded half a million dollars.
For nearly ten years this business prospered. Meantime
Mr. Rockefeller, with James and Richard Clark ancl Samuel
Andrews, had organized an oil refining company. In the
troublous period of 1865 this partnership was dissolved and
Mr. Rockefeller bought the plant and good will of the firm
when, by agreement, it was auctioned off in private with the
four erstwhile partners as the only bidders. Subsequently
Andrews joined him in the venture. Two years later this
business was merged with the firms of William Rockefeller &
Co., Rockefeller & Co., S. V. Harkness and H. M. Flagler
under the firm name of Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler, Oil
Refiners.
Meantime many oil refineries had been built. At the outset
profits had been large and the natural result was a rush for
investment in the business. Soon there was an overproduc
tion of refined oil, prices tumbled and scores of concerns faced
financial ruin. It was upon Mr. Rockefeller's initiative that
the company began buying in the most desirable of these em
barrassed refineries and planning an extension of the market
abroad.
The Standard Oil Company proper was organized in 1870,
with a capital of $1,000,000. In 1872 the capital was increased
to $2,500,000 and in 1874 was again increased to $3,500,000.
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER 405
Vigorously prosecuting the Rockefeller ideas of increasing
facilities and extending trade lines, the company established
refineries from time to time at various points, principally at
Baltimore, Philadelphia, Bayonne, and Brooklyn. Pipe lines
were built more economically to transport the crude oil from
the fields to these cities. Then came the tank car and the
tank steamer for delivering the refined product. The Stand
ard set the pace in every development.
Mr. Rockefeller, in his reminiscences, gives much credit for
the upbuilding of this giant corporation to his several asso
ciates of those days. On the other hand these men without
exception have many times declared that the guiding genius
of the development was Mr. Rockefeller. Unquestionably,
these associates were largely responsible for the working out
of the policies and details of trade extension both at home and
abroad, but there is little doubt that it was the Rockefeller in
itiative that made possible the early successes of the consol
idation movement.
Something of this remarkable ability was hinted at by Mr.
Rockefeller in the story of his rapid-fire borrowing on one of
the occasions when the Standard absorbed some important
competing properties. At noon a message was received stat
ing that the proposed deal was possible if the necessary funds
were immediately available. In order to accomplish it Mr.
Rockefeller was compelled to borrow something like half a
million dollars in cash and get away on a train at three o'clock
that afternoon. His ride from bank to bank in Cleveland was
on the Paul Revere order. He stopped at each just long
enough to ask the president or cashier to get together in cash
all the funds he possibly could lay hands upon by the time he
returned. He made the train and the deal was consummated.
The history of the Standard Oil Company is too well known
to require extensive review. Suffice it to say that with a cap
italization of $100,000,000 it has been paying regularly for
many years dividends aggregating seldom less than 40 per
cent, of this amount. Prior to the recent court order of dis
solution its stock, which had a par value of $100 a share,
brought something in excess of $1,400 a share when it sold at
406 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
all. Its products reached the uttermost parts of the earth and
in the process of oil refining no by-product was lost. Prob
ably no other concern in the country surpassed it in the extent
and excellence of its organization and the completeness of its
scientific operation. With its various allied interests it was
one of the most extensive and financially powerful industrial
concerns in the world.
Mr. Rockefeller retired from active direction of the Stand
ard Oil Company in 1894 at the age of 55 years. Since then
he has given only casual attention to the affairs of this com
pany and to his other large and varied interests, trusting their
management almost wholly to his former tried and loyal asso
ciates. In more recent years, his son, John D. Rockefeller,
Jr., has more and more assumed a general supervision of the
Rockefeller interests. Much of the real estate in New York,
Cleveland, and other cities has been transferred outright to
the son. Mr. Rockefeller, Sr., has never been a great traveler.
His unique prominence probably precluded this even had his
inclination been in that direction. He has not been the liberal
patron of the arts that some of his millionaire associates be
came, though in both his homes at Forest Hill, Cleveland,
and Pocantico Hills, Tarrytown, are some rare and extremely
valuable bric-a-brac, tapestries, statuary, and paintings. His
one displayed passion has been for landscape gardening and
road-building, the mastering and intensifying of natural
beauty. The arrangement of the roadways at each of his
estates was outlined by him. Miles and miles of beautifully
built, winding, interlacing roads traverse the grounds. The
shrubbery effects are artistic and beautiful, the tree groupings
magnificent. Both houses have splendid outlooks, the one
over Lake Erie, the other over the Hudson River. His chief
exercise and amusement is golf and he has become a really
efficient wielder of the clubs.
At one time Mr. Rockefeller promised to become one of the
dominating influences in the iron trade. Among his many in
vestments were several in the rich Mesaba range of the Lake
Superior ore district. When the panic of 1893 came along
most of these ore mining companies found themselves in pre-
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER 407
carious financial conditions. Among them were the Rockefel
ler investments. To protect himself he was forced to acquire
control of these other interests. This in itself was an easy
task as the stock was tossed at him in bundles. Raising the
ready money to buy it all was another matter, but his borrow
ing ability again stood him in good stead. At panic prices he
secured control of thousands of acres of ore lands which to
day are worth untold millions of dollars. With characteristic
enterprise he immediately began building vessels with which
to transport this ore to market, and when these properties,
known as the Lake Superior Consolidated Mines Company,
were finally disposed of to the United States Steel Corpora
tion in 1900, the fleet comprised fifty-six vessels, the largest
and of most improved types in the lake ore trade. By this
transfer Mr. Rockefeller obtained his extensive steel holdings.
The real extent of the Rockefeller fortune is a much mooted
question. Probably Mr. Rockefeller himself has no very def
inite idea of the money value of his myriad holdings. He is
generally accepted as the country's richest individual, and
doubtless this is true. A popular estimate of his income is a
dollar a second. In his many benefactions he is remarkably
unobtrusive, a rather odd trait in a man of preponderous
wealth. Recently it was estimated that within the last quar
ter century he had given away something more than $150,000,-
000. To but one of his many philanthropies has he given his
name, the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, of New
York. Eventually, however, the Rockefeller Foundation will
perpetuate his name and administer the further philanthropies
of his estate. To the General Education Board of this body,
whose primary task is the endowing of colleges and univer
sities in the United States, he has donated an aggregate of
$53,000,000. The general plan followed in these endowments
is to subscribe a definite sum to an institution on the condition
that it raise certain specified supplemental amounts.
Approximately $5,000,000 has been donated to the Rocke
feller Institute, which has accomplished noteworthy results in
combating cerebro-spinal meningitis, the hookworm, and other
deadly diseases. Other notable gifts were $22,000,000 to the
408 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
University of Chicago; to Rush Medical College $6,000,000;
to various churches and missions a total approximating
$10,000,000; to Barnard College $1,375,000; to the Southern
Education Fund $1,125,000; to Union Theological Seminary
$1,100,000; to Harvard University, Yale University and the
Baptist Educational Society, $1,000,000 each ; to various, ju
venile reformatories approximately $1,000,000; and for land
for park purposes to the city of Cleveland, $1,000,000. Scores
of other gifts ranging from $25,000 to $750,000 might be cited.
Of his private philanthropies the world knows nothing.
More to his manifestly increasing interest in the welfare of
humanity than to any other one thing is due the growing
change of opinion concerning Mr. Rockefeller in the public
mind these later years. Few who have come into personal
contact with him since he has in a measure thrown off his cloak
of reserve have failed to surrender to the charm of his modest,
unassuming personality. For the Rockefeller presence radi
ates anything but the atmosphere of repellent rapacity that
has been popularly painted. The Rockefeller of to-day is a
gracious, kindly, humorous individual with a keen interest in
human affairs and a gift of expression which enables him to
hit the bulPs-eye of observation nine times out of ten. To a
marked degree he retains the capacity of winning good opinion
which in the early days of his youthful business venture
brought him scores of patrons unsolicited save by one in
formal, friendly call in a hurried trip of inspection through
Indiana and Ohio.
Men who were closely associated with him in a business way
some thirty-five or forty years ago will tell you that in those
days he was thrift personified. He had a disconcerting habit
of appearing unexpectedly at one 's elbow or desk and picking
out the little errors of bookkeeping which annoy the customer
or the little extravagances of habit which permit a bit of
wrapping twine to go to waste upon the floor. And both were
especially repugnant to him.
To-day, while he trims you neatly on the golf links — not
that you permit him to do it because he is Mr. Rockefeller and
you are his favored guest for the afternoon, for he is really
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER 409
clever at his favorite exercise — you will notice, if you are at
all observing, that this same element of painstaking care fea
tures his every movement at play. Incidentally he probably
will give you some very good advice, cryptically, but with a
whimsical humor running through it all.
During his summer vacations at Forest Hill, Cleveland, one
of his special delights is taking long automobile rides through
the country. Usually he invites an old friend or two to ac
company him. He covers hundreds of miles a season in this
manner and greatly enjoys traveling incognito, as it enables
him to get nearer to the thought of the people. He will stop
at a farm house, engage the farmer and his wife in a discussion
of farm life and conditions, crops and livestock, trees and
flowers, partake of their hospitality seldom farther than a
cool, sweet glass of milk, and departing leave them wide-eyed
with the knowledge that they have entertained the modern
Croesus unawares.
Several of his boyhood schoolmates still live in Strongsville
and he never fails to visit them. On the day, several years
ago, that the federal circuit court was reviewing the case in
which the Standard Oil Company was fined $29,000,000, and
was expected to hand down its decision that afternoon, Mr.
Rockefeller spent the day with William Humiston, a lank,
grizzled farmer cousin whose farm lies a few miles southeast
of Cleveland. He talked of nothing but farming and garden
ing and early day conditions during the visit. Lunch was in
vitingly spread by the Humiston daughters under the trees in
the farmhouse yard and Mr. Rockefeller ate sparingly, drank
copiously of spring water after the meal, and lectured Cousin
William seriously upon the evils of overeating. For Cousin
William had a true farmer's appetite.
Occasionally he gives an informal house-party at Forest Hill
and invites fellowmembers of his church and acquaintances of
years' standing. Sometimes he joins in the festivities of a
lawn picnic given by some one of these and seems thoroughly
to enjoy it. On a few rare occasions he has attended meet
ings of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce and met the busi
ness men of the city. Always he studiously avoids business
410 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
topics. His Forest Hill grounds are always open to visiting
organizations or distinguished visitors, but he never shows
himself during these inspection trips.
The Rockefeller tendency toward friendliness with the
world these later years is no more a pose than his philanthro
pies are a salve to public opinion. He is by nature frank and
friendly, a courteous, kindly gentleman. There is no hint of
arrogance in his make-up. Popular opinion of the man has
been created by what has been written about him, and almost
without exception this has been markedly unfriendly. He has
been pictured as cold, grasping, avaricious and unrelentingly
predatory. No man who has ever spent an afternoon with
him will agree with this estimate.
His philanthropies, culminating in the Rockefeller Founda
tion, are the final perfect development of a boyhood inclina
tion. Soon after he began attending the old Baptist Mission
Sunday School in Cleveland at the age of sixteen he displayed
this instinct for systematic giving, though necessarily in a lim
ited way. Earning at that time only fifty or sixty cents a day,
he set apart a specified amount regularly for charities. Like
wise the tendency to lead was manifest. About that time, or
possibly a year later, it developed that the church was in finan
cial difficulties. One of the deacons held a $2,000 mortgage
upon the building and threatened to foreclose it after repeated
promises from the congregation had failed to materialize sub
stantially. Rockefeller, boy as he was, slipped to the front
door after the service at which the minister had explained the
situation, and solicited financial pledges from each member of
the congregation as they passed out. Eventually he succeeded
in securing pledges to cover the entire amount, and, more to
the point, he collected the money. ' ' That was a proud day, ' '
he says in his memoirs, "when the debt was extinguished. "
Kind Deacon Sked, one Sunday morning nearly sixty years
ago, welcomed a new member to his class in this Baptist Mis
sion Sunday School. The newcomer was a slim slip of a boy,
bright faced and clear eyed, with a skin fair as a girPs and a
shy diffidence of manner which betokened a newness to city
ways. Under the influence of the deacon's benevolent smile
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER 411
and cheery greeting the boy quickly forgot the timidity which
had been strong within him, shook hands with the youths to
whom the deacon introduced him, and speedily proved that
he had studied his lesson thoroughly. And in all the succeed
ing years he maintained his early record for complete mastery
of the day's text.
That was his first association with what eventually became
the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church. Deacon Sked's reputa
tion as a teacher still lives in Cleveland though the pious old
man has been laid to rest these many years. He imbued
young Rockefeller with much of his spirit. The boy's interest
grew ; he attended regularly ; not many years later he was su
perintendent ; and he is still a member. During his stay at
Forest Hill he attends the Sunday school regularly. Fre
quently at the close of the services he has something to say,
particularly to the boys. In them he sees the citizenship, the
men of affairs of the years to come, and in them he seeks to
instil some of the lessons his wide experience has taught him.
On one of these occasions, unconsciously illustrating the
boyhood inclination toward giving, he drew from his pocket
a badly worn little account book which had once been resplen
dent in a red leather cover. Holding it reverently he said :
"It is particularly gratifying to me, after my absence, to
notice the signs of prosperity in this school. This Sunday
school has been of help to me, more than any other force in my
Christian life. When you come to the church or the Sunday
school, and associate with it as a member, you must put some
thing into it. When a business man associates himself with
other business men for, say, the production of the bricks in
these walls, or the glass in these windows, he contributes a
sum of money to the partnership and its purposes. In pro
portion to what he puts in he receives a return on his invest
ment. The more he puts in, the more he gets back in divi
dends. It is not necessary that you contribute money to a
church or Sunday school ; you may not have it ; but everybody
must contribute something, be it money or what it may. Put
something in; and, according as you put something in, the
creater will be your dividends in salvation.
412 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
"This little document is my first account book; I call it
Ledger A. You could not get this book from me for all the
ledgers in the world and all the money they represent. It al
most brings tears to my eyes whenever I turn the pages of
this little book ; and as I look through it I feel a sense of grat
itude I can't express. In it, back in 1855, when I began the
struggle of life for myself, I set down all I earned and all I
paid out. I see by it that the first three months I received
only fifty dollars. Beginning January 1, New Year's day,
1856, 1 note that I received twenty-five dollars a month for my
work. And this, according to Ledger A, is what I did with
my money. From November, 1855, to April, 1856, I boarded
myself, and the little items are recorded here. In that time I
paid, I find, a trifle over nine dollars for clothing. My clothes
were not of the most fashionable cut; I bought them of a
ready-made clothier. But they were such as I could afford,
and it was a great deal better than buying clothing I couldn't
pay for. I note but one piece of extravagance — a pair of fur
gloves for two dollars and a half. I ought to have bought
mittens. During four months, in which I earned one hundred
dollars, and out of which I lived and saved some money, I also
gave over five and one-half dollars to Christian work. Here are
the items, starting from November 25, 1855, when I gave ten
cents to foreign missions. Then came these items: To Mr.
Downie, one of our young ministers, ten cents. Pew rent —
we called them 'slips' — one dollar. December 16, 1855, Sun
day school, five cents. For a present for Mr. Farrar, the Sun
day school superintendent, twenty-five cents. Five Points
Mission, New York, twelve cents. For a little religious paper
called the Macedonian, ten cents. Present for teacher Sked,
twenty-five cents. I now turn to January, 1856. On the 13th
of that month I find I had something left over for good work.
I find these items : Missionary work, six cents ; church poor,
ten cents — all on one Sunday. February 3rd I gave ten cents
to the church poor; and also to foreign missions ten cents.
Going to March 2nd, I gave ten cents to the church poor ; the
next day, pew rent, one dollar ; March 16th, foreign missions,
ten cents ; March 21st, one dollar to Y. M. C. A. And all this
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER 413
time, mind you, I was not only paying my living expenses,
clothes and food and all, but saving money/'
Probably no clearer insight could be given to the Rocke
feller character and thought than is offered by his expressions
in his talks to the little people of his Sunday school. They
are intensely illuminating. They reflect with unerring ac
curacy the animating impulses of his life. Thrift, industry,
perseverance, self confidence, kindliness and charity ; they are
all there, portrayed with an earnest sincerity that puts skep
ticism to flight.
"It will not be long," he said to the boys one Sunday, "un
til you will be discarding your books and going to follow some
life occupation. For your work you will receive a certain
amount of money. In that connection what a fine thing it
would be if all employers and those employed were just ; the
employer giving the employee his due and the employee work
ing honestly always in his employer's interest. Now when
you have earned that money what will you do with it! Take
my advice and pay your mother a part of it for your board.
Use your best judgment about the rest, but always remember
you cannot accumulate money if you squander it. You must
be saving ; you must practice self-denial. There is not a busi
ness man in the city who can succeed without self-denial at
times. Do what you can for the church, for charity. As long
as there is a world money will be needed for charitable pur
poses. The responsibility does not fall upon a few, myself or
anyone else in particular. It is a common duty which falls
upon us alike according to our means. God expects us to do
our duty in that direction. ' '
Mr. Rockefeller's home life has been ideally beautiful. It
has been his supreme recompense in all these years of harass
ment and censure. In one of his Sunday morning talks to the
congregation of the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church several
years ago he turned and looked into the placid face of his wife,
seated near at hand. "People tell me I have done much in
my life," he said, and paused while his mind traveled swiftly
down the bygone years. ' * I know I have worked hard, but the
best thing I ever accomplished and the thing that has given
414 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
me the greatest happiness was to win Cettie Spelman. I have
had but one sweetheart and I am thankful to say that I still
have her." Mr. Rockef eller 's devotion to his invalid wife,
who was his schoolmate and boyhood sweetheart, has ever
been constant and unswerving. She has always come first in
his every consideration.
He married Laura Celestia Spelman in 1864, just at the time
when he was beginning to plunge in oil. Harvey A. Spelman,
her father, was at that time prominent in Cleveland and well-
to-do. He contributed somewhat at that time to his son-in-
law's financial necessities. To this union were born four chil
dren, Elizabeth, 1866; Alta, 1871; Edith, 1872; and John D.,
Jr., 1874. All have married and Mr. Eockef eller now has nine
or ten grandchildren.
His predominant characteristics are those he has most
strongly emphasized in his talks to the youth of his Sunday
school. Thrift and unceasing industry, coupled with a bull
dog tenacity of purpose, made it possible for him in the favor
able early days to get control of the oil business. Unflagging
vigilance and activity have permitted him to retain it. An ex
ceptional capacity for organization and a rare ability to read
men aright enabled him to surround himself with a brilliant
corps of lieutenants who have carried out the interminable de
tail work with clock-like precision and have made the Standard
a success beyond even the most fantastic Rockefeller dreams.
In his philanthropies the innate modesty of the man would
seem absolutely to preclude the thought that he has any but
the most laudable and sincere motives. Gradually a pro
nounced change is becoming noticeable in the popular opinion
of him. A few years ago one of his friends remarked to him,
half in earnest, half jokingly: "Why, John, they will be
building monuments to you when you have been dead twenty
years, ' ' Mr. Rockefeller smiled, but it was the wan smile of a
man with a sorely wounded heart.
Yet stranger things have happened.
JOHN D. KOCKEFELLER 415
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Random Reminiscences of Men and Events. (Doubleday, Page &
Co.) By John D. Rockefeller.
PERIODICALS
Intimate View of Rockefeller. By H. M. Briggs. American 71 :101.
John D. Rockefeller. By Ida M. TarbelL McClure's 25:227-249,
386-398.
John D. Rockefeller : a study of character, motive and duty. By W.
G. Joerns. Arena 34:155.
Masters of Capital in America. By John Moody and George K.
Turner. McClure's 36:564.
Mr. Rockefeller and Mob Opinion. World's Work 12:7928.
Some Random Reminiscences of Men and Events. By John D. Rock
efeller. World's Work 16:10755-68; 17:10878-94; 10992-11004,
11001-11010, 11218-28, 11341-55, 11470-8.
Some Impressions of John D. Rockefeller. By F. N. Doubleday.
World's Work 16:10703.
THEODORE EOOSEVELT
BY JACKSON BOYD
THEODORE ROOSEVELT is the most distinguished
man of action in the United States to -day. Probably no
man in public life anywhere understands better than he
the political and economic conditions that now confront the
American people. No other man is so in touch with the ele
ments of progress, or can better sense the danger of reaction
in its many insidious forms. While he is not a philosopher,
his appreciation of the situation of world politics shows true
insight. He of all men is no theorist. He of all men is no re
former. He is a progressive, a man who believes in the evolu
tion of our institutions ; and, as a statesman, he has the fore
sight to anticipate and the ability to assist in realizing their
destiny — the ultimate democracy of the human race. If the
United States were compelled to find a statesman to represent
it in any world movement, to guard its interests in the struggle
for supremacy among nations, to see that all reactionary
measures were avoided, to help in the forward movement of
humanity in social justice, to secure equal opportunity, as far
as is possible among men, there is no man in the United States
to-day so well fitted for this great undertaking as Theodore
Roosevelt.
In politics, Theodore Roosevelt is an eclectic. He is more
of a nationalist than Hamilton, but unlike Hamilton, a nation
alist for democracy, not aristocracy. He is more of a demo
crat than Jefferson, but unlike Jefferson he would anchor the
nation with a strong central government so that it might not
go to pieces in its very attempt at freedom. He with Lincoln
proclaims the freedom of all men, but not stopping there, he
stands for equal rights for men and women, the highest call of
the world-wide humanitarian movement of to-day. In his
fearless advocacy of right and justice above the law when
there is a conflict, he stands with Jefferson, Jackson, and Lin
coln. Yet Theodore Roosevelt is not a radical. He is a con-
Copyright by Moffett Studio, Chicago
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 419
servative in the truest sense of that word, demanding law and
order that is compatible with reason and progress, making our
nation an evolving organism, not a stationary machine which
neither learns from its mistakes, nor profits from its successes.
As a conservative, he is the embodiment of the spirit of our in
stitutions, interpreting them through the light of social prog
ress.
As a practical politician Theodore Roosevelt is no recluse
attempting to apply cobweb speculations or academic theories
to practical life ; but a shrewd man of affairs seeking to con
trol men by the knowledge he has acquired in coming in con
tact with them. Hence of all the men in public life through
out the world there is none more successful than Theodore
Roosevelt, none whom the future has a brighter promise for,
none whom our nation can more safely engage in the solution
of its problems of statesmanship in the years to come.
Where we find a man so eminent in achievement, so en
dowed in qualification, it is well to search his biography to
find, if possible, the causes that make him what he is in so far
as it is possible to ascertain such facts in the lives of men.
Little more than half a century ago (October 27, 1858), in
the city of New York, Theodore Roosevelt was born of Dutch
parentage. He was carefully reared, but suffered the loss of
his father before he reached maturity. As a child, he was
weakly, and for that reason was not educated in the public
schools. From his infancy he was handicapped with a defect
of eyesight, and had to forego many of the sports of childhood.
But at an early age, seeing the absolute necessity of a sound
physique in order to have a healthful mind, he became active
in athletics and has kept up this interest throughout his life.
In acquiring habits he seemed to have known by instinct what
would hamper him and what would help him in acquiring that
mental and physical development necessary to carry out his
ambition in life.
After completing his preparatory education in private
schools and with tutors, Mr. Roosevelt went to Harvard Uni
versity, and later was graduated from that institution. Nat
urally one would think that a man of his extraordinary ability
420 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
would distinguish himself in college, but such was not the
case. He is not a product of our educational system, and, no
doubt, he was more or less a misfit in Harvard University, for
he did not and could not enter into its life to any vital extent.
Probably its greatest advantage to him was his acquaintance
with its students, and the opportunity it gave him of studying
life.
Mr. Roosevelt, unlike most ambitious men, did not, after
quitting college, take up any of the learned professions. He
leisurely set about his life work in a way peculiar to himself.
Something like an instinct in the lives of young men of ability
pushes them out and takes them abroad in the world. We
have all read of the delightful wanderings of Benjamin Frank
lin; have wondered why it was that Lincoln left his native
state, thinking that some experience in his boyhood instinc
tively had told him that he was not suited to the environment
in which he lived. It was some such longing as this, rather
than an adventurous spirit, that led Theodore Roosevelt to
take up life on our western plains as a cowboy. His years of
* * roughing it ' ' developed his physique, making him one of the
hardiest men of his generation.
After several years in the West he went back to New York
City and at the early age of twenty-four was nominated for
the General Assembly. Mr. Roosevelt was in a district where
a young man of high and noble ideas was just the man through
whom one political machine could defeat another. Generally
such novices are used only as a forlorn hope. At this time
Mr. Roosevelt was in a position similar to that of Mr. Lincoln
when he was running for the nomination for the presidency.
It was then that the notorious politician, Norman R. Judd, un
invited, became Mr. Lincoln's political manager; and as Lin
coln dropped Judd conveniently so Roosevelt gently dismissed
his manager. The lesson Mr. Roosevelt learned in this cam
paign was a key to his subsequent political success.
As his career began, so it continued — always opposed by
the most corrupt politicians; yet in the end defeating them.
His rise was not meteoric, but like that of the stars in the
night. He sometimes met with failure and ate the bread of
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 421
politicians — disappointment. From 1889 to 1895 he was a
member of the United States Civil Service Commission ; from
1895 to 1897 president of the New York Board of Police Com
missioners ; in 1897 he was appointed Assistant Secretary of
the Navy — all of which positions he filled with great efficiency.
While in the Navy Department he secured from Congress a
large appropriation for target practice which made the navy
ready for effective service during the Spanish- American War.
Thus Theodore Roosevelt, more than any other man, contrib
uted to the success of this war ; and no man profited more by
it ; for at its close he was chosen by the republicans as the one
man who could be elected governor of New York. At the be
ginning of the war he resigned his position as Assistant Secre
tary of the Navy and organized the First Volunteer Cavalry,
known as the Rough Riders. Realizing his own ignorance of
military tactics, Mr. Roosevelt wisely insisted that Leonard
Wood be the colonel of the regiment, while he took the position
of lieutenant-colonel; but as in politics so in war, Roosevelt
rapidly learned the game. He fought the battles of Las
Guasimas, June 24, 1898, and San Juan Hill, July 1, and on
July 8, Wood having been promoted to brigadier-general, he
was appointed colonel.
Of all war literature none is more interesting than Mr.
Roosevelt's account of his actual fighting in the field. As a
soldier he "made good" in the sense that politicians use that
term. He was the most advertised man in the United States.
He came back from the Spanish-American War much as Napo
leon returned from Egypt; and from that day to this he has
occupied more space in the papers than any other man in the
United States.
In the fall of 1898 he was elected governor of New York, op
posed by the politicians, but favored by the people. As gov
ernor he was singularly successful and showed the masterly
political tact that crowned him with success in after years.
At the National Convention of the Republican Party in
1900, Mr. Roosevelt was one of its most conspicuous figures,
and not a few men of his party advocated his nomination for
the presidency. But it was said that he was untried, too
422 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
young. These are the arguments that politicians use to de
feat efficient men. Not only that, but this was the occasion to
bury Mr. Eoosevelt so that he would not bother them in the
future. A nice grave was prepared for him in the vice-presi
dency and he was prevailed upon to accept it.
On March 4, 1901, he was inaugurated Vice-president ; and
on September 14, 1901, through the assassination of President
McKinley, he became president. It was at this time that Mr.
Eoosevelt displayed his true greatness in that he once more
went to school, and, instead of outlining some foolhardy pol
icy, took up the policies of Mr. McKinley and made them his
own, thus endearing himself not only to the people of the
United States but to the very politicians themselves.
In 1904 Mr. Eoosevelt was elected President of the United
States by an extraordinary majority. Then began his career
as a constructive statesman. Not a virtue did he possess that
did not show itself ; and he is even now, while yet alive, cred
ited with being one of the greatest presidents our country has
ever had.
Mr. Eoosevelt *s administration accomplished many note
worthy things. In regard to labor there is to his credit the
Employers ' Liability Act, the Safety Appliance Act, regula
tion of railroad employees' hours of labor, the establishment
of the Department of Commerce and Labor, the settlement of
the coal strike in 1902. Commerce is indebted to him for the
Hepburn-Dolliver Eailroad Act, the National Irrigation Act,
the acquisition of the Canal Zone, the assurance of the ulti
mate completion of the canal, and the keeping of the door
of China open to American commerce. Scientific advance
ment is recognized in the enactment of the Pure Food and
Drugs Act, Federal meat inspection, extension of the forest
reserve, the inauguration of the movement for the conserva
tion of natural resources, and the inauguration of the move
ment for the improvement of the conditions of country life.
Good government owes to him the development of civil self-
government in our insular possessions, the settlement of the
Alaska Boundary Dispute, the reorganization of the consular
service, the government's victory in the Northern Securities
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 423
Decision, the conviction of post-office grafters and public-land
thieves, the direct investigation and prosecutions of the Sugar
Trust customs fraud, the prosecution of suits against the
Standard Oil and Tobacco Companies and other corporations
for the violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, the reduc
tion of the interest-bearing debt of the United States by more
than $90,000,000. One of Mr. Roosevelt 's conspicuous
achievements is what he did towards making our nation a
world-power. During his administration our navy doubled
in tonnage and greatly increased its efficiency through system
atic organization.
But in spite of Mr. Roosevelt's reputation as a man of war
the world has no greater advocate of peace, as is evidenced by
the second Cuban intervention, resulting in Cuba's being re
stored to the Cubans ; by his bringing about the settlement of
the Russo-Japanese War by the Treaty of Portsmouth; by
avoiding during his administration the pitfalls created by the
stress on the Pacific Coast due to the Japanese embroilment,
and his negotiation of twenty-four treaties of general arbitra
tion.
But what has made Mr. Roosevelt most hated by the poli
ticians and most loved by the people was his determined op
position to corrupt politics. First, corporations were forbid
den to contribute to political campaign funds ; and second, he
opposed the spoils system and advocated Civil Service Re
form. Some of the policies that Mr. Roosevelt stood for but
failed to realize are : reform of the banking and currency sys
tem, inheritance tax, income tax, passage of a new Employers'
Liability Act to meet the objections raised by the Supreme
Court of the United States ; postal savings-banks, parcels post,
revision of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, legislation to remedy
the evils of corporations, the Child Labor Act and many other
progressive measures now taken up by his opponents.
When Mr. Roosevelt's four years as chief magistrate were
over, he stepped down, and took a well-earned vacation in the
most sensational hunting expedition recorded in all history -
a trip through the interior of Africa. Instead of conquering
the human race as did Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon, men
424 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
to whom he is likened by his enemies, this man satisfied the
element of adventure in his nature by hunting " big game" for
scientific purposes. This exhibition of his fondness for manly
sport and adventure has endeared him to thousands of Amer
icans who care little for his literary and political pursuits.
When Mr. Eoosevelt came back to the United States, he
found that many of the measures which he had stood for had
been discarded in his absence by the new leaders of the Repub
lican Party, the ' l Standpatters. ' '
At the same time there had arisen a group of republicans
who were known as the ' ' Insurgents. ' ' These men believed in
progressive principles and were the forerunners of the Pro
gressive Party. The doctrine of insurgency extended through
out the United States, but it needed some man to crystallize
it into definite form. Although, in 1904, he had declared his
intention never again to run for the office, Mr. Roosevelt at
last felt it his duty to become a candidate for the presidency
and so announced himself in February, 1912.
During the selection of delegates to the National Convention
it was seen that the National Committee was determined to
nominate Mr. Taft. More than a majority of the duly accred
ited delegates went to the Chicago Convention instructed for
Mr. Roosevelt but the National Committee which was to pass
upon all contested delegates threw out enough Roosevelt dele
gates to nominate Taft. Everything was done that could be
done to get the National Committee to be fair; but it was
determined to nominate Mr. Taft, no matter how, or what the
result. It was not thought that there was sufficient virtue in
American politics to resent this political outrage ; but old poli
ticians as the National Committeemen were, they did not know
the heart of the American people. Heretofore, in all parties,
regardless of unfairness, when the wrong was once accom
plished, it was deemed good politics to acquiesce, to support
the party, and to vote the straight ticket. But a new day had
dawned, the day of good citizenship and of the application of
common honesty to politics.
Many compromises were offered the Insurgents, but none
that would not leave the wrong unrighted. The one thing the
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 425
Standpatters could not understand was that Mr. Roosevelt
was not fighting for office, but for principle. As a result the
National Committee of the Republican Party was solely to
blame for the disruption that followed. Had the Committee
been reorganized on progressive principles, the wrong would
have been righted within the party and a new party would
not have been organized.
The thing that has made Mr. Roosevelt most famous and
that in all probability will be considered his greatest achieve
ment, was his unalterable resolution at the Chicago Conven
tion not to surrender principle for policy, not to compromise
integrity for office, not to let partisanship stand above citizen
ship. Following the Republican National Convention, Mr.
Roosevelt and his colleagues organized the Progressive Party
and when the people of the United States had an opportunity
to express themselves at the fall election, they vindicated this
action by making the Progressive Party second in the nation.
In this brief biography of Theodore Roosevelt a thorough
analysis of his character is impossible ; but to let pass the op
portunity of mentioning his greatest qualities would be an un
pardonable omission. His physical bravery appeals to all men
— friend and enemy alike. He faced without flinching the
bullet of the cowardly assassin and the charge of the wounded
lion. His intellectual honesty in meeting the great problems
of the age in fearless discussion, in refuting hoary fallacies
that brought denunciation from reactionaries in high places is
worthy the highest appreciation. Yet these qualities are
small in comparison with his moral courage. He is the un
compromising champion of the i l square deal. ' ' Great in phys
ical bravery, admirable in intellectual honesty, sublime in
moral courage, Theodore Roosevelt is the typical American
and our greatest living statesman !
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Campaign Book Progressive Party, 1912.
History of the Presidency. (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) By Edward
Stemwood.
42« FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
Memories of the White House. (Little, Brown & Co.) By Col. W.
H. Crook.
Our Presidents, How We Make Them. (Harper's.) By A. K. McClure.
Theodore Roosevelt, the Boy and the Man. By J. Morgan.
Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen. By Jacob Riis.
Theodore Roosevelt. By F. E. Leupp.
PERIODICALS
Epoch of Roosevelt. Review of Reviews 39 :339.
High Lights of President Roosevelt's Two Administrations. Century
77:954.
Jackson and Roosevelt — a Parallel. North American Review 184 :742.
Personal Characteristics. McClure's 24:7.
Review of Roosevelt's Administration. Outlook 91 :298.
Theodore Roosevelt's Autobiography. Outlook 103:393-408, 660-675,
917-941; 104: 148-172, 461-478, 660-681, 934-961.
Copyright by Moffett Studio, Chicago
ELIHU ROOT
ELIHU BOOT
BY ALBERT WILLIAM MACY
A a rule those lives are most inspiring in which success has
been won in spite of the handicap of poverty. An ex
ception must be made in the case of Elihu Root, how
ever. He has never, even in childhood, felt the sting of pov
erty; yet his life is interesting in the extreme, and full of
inspiration for the student. He has never been driven by
necessity, and his path is one of his own choosing ; but his life
has always been, and is to-day, an unceasing round of hard
work. Endowed with great intellectual powers, he was never
content, even as a boy in school, to drift with the tide, but
chose rather to seek out difficulties and conquer them. This
characteristic has remained with him through life, and a finer
example can hardly be found of eminent success won by per
sistent effort.
Elihu Boot was born in the village of Clinton, Oneida
county, New York, February 15, 1845. His father was Oren
Boot, for many years a professor in Hamilton College, located
at Clinton. His mother was a daughter of Major H. G. But-
trick. The house in which Elihu was born stood upon the
college campus, and belonged to his maternal grandfather,
Major Butt rick.
When Elihu was very young his father removed with his
family to Seneca Falls, New York, where he became the prin
cipal of an academy. He remained there but a few years,
however, and in 1850, when Elihu was five years old, he re
turned with his family to Clinton, to take the chair of math
ematics and astronomy in Hamilton College.
Professor Root was not only a good mathematical scholar,
but a lover of nature as well; a combination rather unusual.
In the rear of his home was a ravine, not extensive, but rough
and irregular, and altogether a romantic spot. He added to
the grounds, and constructed a sort of wild garden, which be
came quite a noted feature in the community. After his death
430 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
one of his fellow professors wrote of him: "We shall think
of Professor Boot as a hero who wreathed the sword of se
vere science with the myrtle of natural history. He was not
the less a mathematician because he loved to be where he
could hear the pulse of nature throb. ' '
Thus Elihu Boot's childhood was spent in a delightful,
scholarly atmosphere. He inherited strong intellectual tend
encies, and everything contributed to strengthen them.
At fifteen he entered Hamilton College as a freshman, and
graduated four years later, with the class of 1864. His col
lege career was uneventful. It was simply a case of hard
work from start to finish. College pranks did not appeal to
him as they do to most boys ; and anyway he was too busy.
At one time during his junior year there was some trouble
with the faculty, and the majority of his classmates rebelled
against the college authorities. He may have sympathized
with them to some extent, but as his father was a member of
the faculty he felt in duty bound to remain loyal to the au
thorities. Besides, he did not feel that he had any time to
spare. While those in rebellion were suspended for some
weeks, and thus lost considerable valuable time, Boot kept on
with his studies. He won first prize in mathematics and was
valedictorian of his class.
College curriculums in those days were not as broad and as
comprehensive as they are now, and Mr. Boot's work in col
lege was confined principally to the classics and mathematics.
Nevertheless, these afforded him an excellent basis for ac
quiring an education that was to be of the highest service to
him in after years. Moreover, his college training was a
very potent factor in forming his character and in shaping his
course in life ; and this, after all, is the highest and most im
portant function of a college or university. Elihu Boot's
career in college is worthy of the study of any young man or
woman who wishes to get the best out of his or her college life
and experience.
College boys may always be depended upon to provide ap
propriate (or inappropriate) nicknames for professors and
students who have any marked peculiarities, and the Boots
ELIHU BOOT 431
did not escape. In this instance the real name itself afforded
too good an opportunity to be passed by. The professor was
always known among the boys as "Cube Root," and Elihu as
"Square Boot."
It was the professor's earnest desire that his son should
follow in the paternal footsteps, and become a teacher. At
first it seemed as if the wish were to be gratified ; for immedi
ately upon graduation Elihu secured the position of principal
of the academy at Rome, New York. The administrative du
ties of this position were not very arduous, and much of his
time was devoted to teaching mathematics and the classics.
His work as a teacher was distinguished by the same earnest
ness and thoroughness which had characterized his career in
college, and as a result the pupils made good advancement
under his direction. He could not have been a hard master,
however, for it is recorded that he was very popular with the
students.
After teaching one year he abandoned the teaching pro
fession, to his father's great disappointment, and never after
ward returned to it. For a long time he had had it in mind
to enter upon the study of law, and to make the legal profes
sion his vocation. This cannot be wondered at, for to a mind
like his, earnest and thorough-going by both nature and train
ing, the legal profession has strong and peculiar attractions.
While he enjoyed teaching he felt that the law would afford
him a far wider field of usefulness.
While making preparations to enter upon a law course in
New York City, his father, wishing to be helpful, offered to
supply him with letters of introduction to a number of people
of influence living in the metropolis. "No," the son answered,
"I am starting out to do this thing myself. I am going to
make my own friends without any family pull. I want to find
out whether I am a man or a mouse. ' ' If the father had any
feeling of resentment at being rebuffed for his well-meant
kindness, it must have been dispelled by admiration for his
son 's grit and determination.
Thus Elihu Root entered upon the study of law at the age
of twenty-one in the University Law School of the City of
432 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
New York. He went at it hammer and tongs, bringing to bear
the same earnestness of purpose and the same intense applica
tion that had characterized his career in Hamilton College.
At the end of the first year most of his fellow law students
went to the bar for their examinations, as they were entitled
to do. Mr. Boot, although as well prepared as any of them,
and, doubtless, much better than most, decided to complete
the full course before taking the examination. This was in
accord with his ruling doctrine of thorough preparation in
everything he undertook. He remained another year devot
ing himself especially to the underlying principles of law, thus
laying a solid foundation for his future success. He gradu
ated in law in 1867, and was at once admitted to the bar.
It is proverbial that young lawyers, unless they possess
some special advantages, have to go through a period of semi-
starvation, or something nearly akin to it, before they can suc
ceed in establishing themselves on a paying or even a living
basis. Elihu Boot, however, escaped this distressing experi
ence. He succeeded from the start, and his rise in the profes
sion was really phenomenal. At twenty-five, only three years
after his graduation from law school, he had established a
good practice in New York City. By the time he was thirty
he had secured a large corporation business, and was looked
upon as a leader at the New York bar. This success was due
to sheer ability and hard work, for nearly all the cases he
handled were local in character, and not such as would bring
him fame, or even a great degree of notoriety.
For a good many years Mr. Boot pursued the course of a
plodding, hard-working lawyer. It was not until 1883 that he
attained anything like prominence in public life. In that year
President Arthur appointed him United States District Attor
ney for the Southern District of New York. This office he
held for two years, and it is unnecessary to state that he made
a vigorous prosecutor. He gave his whole attention to the
business in hand, and it is safe to say that the Empire State
has had few, if any, more capable officials in her service.
On the expiration of his term as District Attorney, Mr. Boot
returned to regular practice, and for the next fourteen years
ELIHU BOOT 433
devoted himself to it with his customary diligence. Many
large corporations engaged his services, and his counsel and
advice were sought concerning many important cases.
In 1899, at the close of the Spanish-American War, Presi
dent McKinley invited Elihu Root to become Secretary of
War. The War Department was badly in need of some one
who could take hold with a vigorous hand, clean out a lot of
incompetents, institute some radical reforms, and place the
department on a new basis, with efficiency as the ruling idea.
Many people were surprised that a civilian should be ap
pointed to the war portfolio. "Why," they said; "he is a
mere theorist ; he never smelled gunpowder in his life ! ' '
But McKinley had acted neither hastily nor blindly. He
was satisfied that he had found the right man, and it was not
long until people generally acknowledged the wisdom of his
choice. The new Secretary plunged at once into the work of
the department, giving it his whole attention. He encoun
tered much opposition, especially from military men, many of
whom would rather see him fail than have their pet theories
overthrown. Affairs within the department were in great dis
order, and there was bitter rivalry between some of the bureau
chiefs. By strict discipline, and by the application of civil
service rules, he soon brought order out of chaos. He pre
pared a plan for the reorganization of the army and submit
ted it to Congress. It met with violent opposition, and was
defeated. At the next session of Congress Mr. Eoot brought
it forward again, and this time it was adopted. On being
complimented for his perseverance, he said, "I took the army
for my client, that's all,"
A great deal remained to be done in the way of settling up
affairs after the Spanish-American War. As a result of the
war a new element had been introduced into American pol
itics, that of territorial expansion; and as a feature of this
question there was in the Philippines an insurrection of no
mean proportions that must be suppressed. In conjunction
with General Leonard Wood Secretary Root made the ar
rangements for the transfer of Cuba back to the Cubans.
Under his direction, also, an army of seventy thousand men
434 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
was placed in the Philippines, and the rebellion was put down
after hard campaigning and considerable loss of life.
Mr. Boot's greatest achievement in connection with the
Philippines, however, was providing a form of government
for the islands. When it became necessary to promulgate a
plan of government, he was ready. His famous "Instruc
tions ' ' to the Philippine Commission, says one writer, in real
ity comprised a constitution, a judicial code, and a system of
law and statutes. So perfect were they that Congress adopted
them in their entirety. What the ultimate outcome of the
4 1 expansion " policy may be no one knows; but certain it is
that our unexpected and quite unpremeditated possession of
the Philippines has proved a blessing to those far-off islands.
That the Philippine question, puzzling and troublesome though
it is, has been handled so successfully thus far, is in very large
measure due to the wisdom and foresight of Secretary Root.
In 1903 Mr. Root was a member of the joint commission to
settle the dispute between Canada and the United States con
cerning the boundary between Canada and Alaska. This
question had been pending for some time, and in 1898 a joint
high commission to adjust various questions at issue between
the United States and Canada had been disrupted by disagree
ment over this very question of the Alaskan boundary. This
new commission, made up of eminent American and British
jurists, met in London, and rendered a decision in favor of the
United States. In the negotiations Mr. Root was an earnest
advocate of the claims of the United States, and it is hardly
too much to say that it was chiefly due to him that a decision
favorable to this country was secured.
In August, 1903, Mr. Root resigned his position as Secretary
of War, the resignation to take effect January 1, 1904. On
the last-named date he retired once more from public life, and
resumed his private practice. He was allowed to continue it,
however, only a little more than a year. On the death of John
Hay, Secretary of State, President Roosevelt sent for Root
and informed him that he had been selected as Hay's succes
sor. It is said that during the interview not a word was said
by either concerning politics or money matters. No condi-
ELIHU BOOT 435
tions were imposed or required. Boot accepted the place,
though it was at a great financial sacrifice. The cabinet posi
tion paid a salary of eight thousand dollars a year, while at
his law practice he was earning many times that amount.
It is as Secretary of State that Mr. Boot it best known to
the general public. While as District Attorney, as a member
of the Alaskan Boundary Tribunal, and as Secretary of War
he had rendered excellent service, as Secretary of State he
found a much larger field for the exercise of his abilities as a
constructive statesman. WThile the Department was in excel
lent shape when he took charge, many very important ques
tions came up for solution during his incumbency of the office.
One of the most perplexing questions that every administra
tion has to deal with is that of the consular service. For many
years the service had been used as a sort of hospital for
broken-down politicians. A movement for reform had been
started some ten or twelve years before, and while it had made
some progress, a great deal yet remained to be done before
the consular service could be placed on a footing of efficiency.
Secretary Boot gave the movement a new impetus by drawing
up and enforcing strict executive regulations governing ap
pointments and promotions. A strong effort was made to
break up the practice of appointing to the service job-seekers
who claimed rewards for political work, ex-congressmen
whose main desire was to keep in touch with the government
pay-roll, and other patriots whose chief qualification was per
sistency in seeking office. As far as possible, appointments
were made from the ranks of younger men who had prepared
themselves by study and investigation to be efficient public
servants abroad. There was a distinct improvement all along
the line in the consular service, and respect for the United
States among other countries rose correspondingly. Not only
so, but the United States began to get some real service from
its consular representatives abroad.
During his three and a half years as Secretary of State, Mr.
Boot negotiated on behalf of the United States seventy-five
treaties with foreign governments. This is the highest record
of achievement of any incumbent of the office. Perhaps the
436 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
most important of these were the twenty-four arbitration
treaties, with as many foreign governments, which provide
that when differences arise between any two of the contracting
states, they shall be referred to the Hague Tribunal for arbi
tration.
Very memorable in the annals of the State Department was
a visit made by Secretary Eoot to Central and South Ameri
can countries in the summer of 1906. There was a definite
and very important object in this trip, and he went as the per
sonal representative of President Roosevelt. For many years
there had been a growing apprehension among the Pan-Ameri
can countries that some day the United States would enter
upon an era of expansion, and that when this day came it
would be an evil one for them. The recent occurrences in
Cuba and in the Philippines had greatly increased this appre
hension, and there was a growing danger of serious inter
ference with our political and commercial relations with those
countries. It was to correct this misapprehension, and to set
the Pan-American Republics right in their attitude toward the
United States, that Mr. Root made the journey. It was un
like any other mission that had ever been undertaken. In
many ways it was a more important mission than has been
undertaken by any American citizen, before or since. As may
readily be imagined, it would be no easy matter to eradicate
the deep-rooted prejudices of half a century.
Mr. Root adopted a policy that was in perfect accord with
his nature and with his past life: that of telling the South
American people the exact truth in plain words. He did this
in his first speech, before the Third Conference of South Amer
ican Republics, at Rio Janeiro, July 31, 1906. The clearness
of his statements, and the earnestness with which he made
them, convinced his auditors of his sincerity and won their
hearts. After that it was a sort of triumphal progress. He
met the rulers of Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Peru in their
own capitals. Everywhere he disclaimed any purpose on the
part of the United States to encroach on their domains. Our
desire, he told them, is to extend and cultivate amicable polit
ical and trade relations with all Pan-American countries. His
ELIHU BOOT 437
policy of truth-telling won the day, and from that time till the
present our relations with those countries, both political and
commercial, have been increasingly satisfactory.
Scarcely more than a month after Mr. Boot left the State
Department, in 1908, he was elected United States Senator
from New York, being the unanimous choice of the represent
atives of his party in the General Assembly of the state. As
a United States Senator, of course, he is not so much of a
national figure as he was as a member of the President 's cab
inet. Nevertheless, he occupies a high rank as a member of
"the greatest deliberative body on earth. " In the judgment
of many, he is the greatest intellectual force in the Senate to
day. Although at present his party is in the minority, he is
held in the highest esteem by his political opponents, and his
counsel and advice are sought on all important national ques
tions.
In this recital of Elihu Boot's life and services many im
portant things have been touched but lightly, and some have
not even been mentioned. Enough has been said, however, to
give emphasis to Mr. Boot's dominant characteristics: his in-
lectual superiority, his capacity for hard work, his honesty, and
his purity of character. A few words touching his person
ality in some other respects may be added.
Mr. Boot is always cool and collected, and never loses con
trol of himself. Some think him cold-hearted, but that is a
mistake. He often performs a kindly service in his own simple
way. He is cautious by nature, and never acts until sure of
his ground ; but when he has made up his mind and sets out to
do a thing, he does it speedily and correctly. He is not only
a hard worker himself, but he is also a great stimulus to others.
He has high ideals — ideals of a type which through hard
work can be realized, not those of the impractical visionary.
Many honors have been showered upon Elihu Boot. The
degree of Doctor of Laws has been conferred upon him by
various institutions, as follows: Hamilton College, 1894; Yale
University, 1900 ; Columbia University, 1904 ; New York Uni
versity, 1904; Williams College, 1905; Princeton University,
1906 ; and Harvard University, 1907. In 1913 Oxford Univer-
438 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
sity (England) conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of
Civil Law. The greatest honor of all, however, came to him
in December, 1913, when he was awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize for 1912, in recognition of his service in behalf of peace
and arbitration.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PERIODICALS
Root and South America. Review of Reviews 34 :583.
Root and the State Department. World's Work 11 :6835.
Root as Secretary of State. Putnam's Magazine 6 :471.
Senator Root and the Peace Prize. Outlook 105 :829.
Training of Elihu Root. Independent 59 :241.
World's Statesman. Review of Reviews 39 :42.
Courtesy Aime Dupont, N. T.
ANNA HOWARD SHAW
BY LUCY E. ANTHONY
ATOUNG girl fainted while giving her first recitation at
school — fainted from stage fright. When she recov
ered, her teacher wanted her to go home, but Anna How
ard Shaw insisted on going back to complete her recitation,
saying that if she failed to finish it then she would never again
be able to recite anything. This child developed a genius for
public speaking and oratory, and an infinite capacity for work,
which, coupled with her native longing for liberty, and a sense
of justice inherited from her great-grandmother, Nicolas
Stott, united in making of her a worker, speaker, and orator
of recognized ability in the various reforms to which she has
given her life.
Anna Howard Shaw was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne, Eng
land, February 14, 1847. When she was very young her fam
ily emigrated to the United States, making the journey in a
sailing vessel. When a week out at sea the ship was wrecked
and towed back to Queenstown port where it remained many
days for repairs. During this time she visited Spike Island,
where there was a great prison and where she saw prisoners
forced to dip water from the sea on one side of the island,
carry it across and empty it into the ocean on the other side.
Long afterwards when she became interested in prisoners, this
example came back to her as her first conscious lesson of the
inefficiency of the government in dealing with its criminals, and
the useless waste of the energy and strength of human beings.
After reaching this country she attended public school at
Lawrence, Massachusetts, until she was twelve years old, when
the family moved to Michigan, making the journey mostly by
wagon. At first they lived in a little log house which the
father and brothers had built before the arrival of the others,
chopping down the great primeval pines, oaks, and bird's-eye
maples for space for the hut. Miss Shaw remembers the de
spair which overcame her mother when she reached this place,
442 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
as her imagination had failed to picture anything so lonesome,
so primitive, and so isolated from everything which meant ed
ucation and civilization. She seemed stunned and sat by the
side of the cabin with her face in her hands and did not move
for hours. The children were afraid and awed and Miss Shaw
says that something of life which she never regained went out
of their mother from that time. When the night began to
come on, the howling of the wolves and other wild animals
aroused her to the sense of danger to her children. Then the
mother spirit asserted itself and deadened the bitterness and
loneliness and despair which had for the time overcome the
woman. It was this experience which gave Miss Shaw her
keen appreciation of what pioneer women suffer and enabled
her later to express in her lectures such sympathy with their
hardships and privations.
In this primitive life the little girl grew up in freedom,
working out of doors, fishing, gathering wild fruits, loving
trees and animals, and with such recreations and games as
came through the initiative of herself and little brother. En
counters with wild animals and Indians gave courage and op
portunity for testing the mettle of the children. Meantime a
longing for knowledge was asserting itself. Some old copies
of the New York Independent, with which the mother, trying
to make the home neat and cosy, had papered the walls of
their log cabin, fed this longing. There were political speeches
in those papers, great thundering orations such as were made
in those troubled days before the War, and full of history.
It was a wasteful manner of learning history, perhaps, but it
gave a grip on the knowledge which she has never lost. By
the time Anna was fifteen years old there were sufficient people
in the community to demand a school, and she passed an ex
amination which permitted her to become the teacher, at a sal
ary of two dollars a week and "board round. " As this was
the first school in the township, there was no appropriation
for even this small salary until it was voted to take it from the
dog tax ; so the salary was not paid until after the dog tax was
collected.
Her gift for public speaking and her spirit of freedom be-
ANNA HOWARD SHAW 443
gan to show themselves very soon and her eloquence and na
tive ability attracted the attention of the presiding elder of the
district conference of the Methodist Church of which she be
came, upon her conversion, a member. The elder startled and
frightened her one day by telling her that he wanted her to
preach the conference sermon in his district. She told him
she never had preached and never could. He was ambitious
for her and wished her to get started in this field as yet almost
untried by women. She prayed over it all night long and in
the morning answered that she would do it, and that is how in
1873 Anna Howard Shaw decided to work and study to become
a minister. She felt timid after having promised to preach
and did not tell any one until two or three days before the
time, and then she told her sister, who was shocked and dis
tressed and begged her not to do it, as she felt that she was
disgracing herself.
All of the members of her family disapproved of her course
and begged her to change her mind and not dishonor them.
It was a dreadful feeling to have to do what she believed to be
right, while all of her family were against her, and it made the
ordeal a very hard one. When she did preach, she remembers,
she trembled so that the oil shook in the lamps on the desk.
The presiding elder continued to push her forward because he
wished to have the credit of ordaining the first woman preach
er in the Methodist Church, and finally the time came when
she must preach in her home town. This was the hardest
place of all, because before her conversion she had been a ring
leader among the young people in all sorts of frolic and mis
chief, and they could not believe that she was in earnest. No
member of her family attended church on the day that she
preached in her home town. After she had preached in each
of the thirty-two districts over which the elder presided she
applied for a preacher 's license. Every minister of the thirty-
two present voted that she should have a license to preach,
and this was renewed every year for eight years.
She then attended a Methodist College, where, being a li
censed preacher, she had free tuition. Before she entered, the
president engaged her in a long conversation and at its close
444 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
handed her a paper passing her for the whole college course
in American history, having gleaned from his conversation
with her that she knew all that a written examination would
call for. Her reading and study of the New York Indepen
dent had been the chief source of her knowledge.
In 1875 she entered the theological department of Boston
University, and was the only woman in a class of forty-two
young men. Although at the end of the college course she
passed an excellent examination, she was refused ordination
by the New England Methodist Episcopal Conference on ac
count of her sex. She appealed to the General Conference of
the same Church, which was then in session at Cincinnati, and
the action of the lower Conference in refusing to ordain her
was sustained. Later she appealed to the New York Confer
ence of the Methodist Protestant Church and was the first
woman ordained in that denomination. After her application
was sent in to this Conference she was summoned for an inter
view. After she had been questioned she was asked to retire.
She waited in the hall for awhile, thinking it would take them
about ten minutes — but they argued her case for two whole
days. She was recalled and questioned as to what she believed
Paul meant when he said, " Wives, obey your husbands. " She
said that if he did mean what he said that it did not apply to
her because she had no husband to obey. They parried by say
ing that she might have. She replied that they were right and
that consequently if they believed what Paul said the only
thing they could do was to ordain her ; because she might have
a husband who would command her to preach, and she could
not obey him unless they ordained her.
She held pastorates in Hingham, Dennis and East Dennis,
Massachusetts. She was the first ordained woman to preach
in Denmark, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Hungary, Italy, and
Norway. It is a most remarkable fact that, while in Norway
women had full parliamentary franchise, they could not be or
dained as ministers nor speak in the pulpits of the State
Church; but as a result of the agitation on account of Miss
Shaw's preaching there, the question was taken up by the gov-
ANNA HOWARD SHAW 445
eminent, which has since granted them the right to occupy the
pulpits of the State Church.
In 1901 the degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon
her by the Kansas City University, a college of the same de
nomination as the church conference which ordained her.
Her family continued for many years to feel that she dis
graced them, but when she was chosen to preach the sermon
on Woman's Day at the time of the meeting of the great In
ternational Council of Women at the World's Fair, Chicago, in
1893, her father was present and no parent was ever more
proud than was Thomas Shaw of "my little Anna."
Miss Shaw supplemented her theological degree by one in
medicine at the Boston University, and some of her friends
feel that she should have taken a degree in one more profes
sion, that of law. All of her remarkable powers of argument,
logic, and oratory would have found expression in this profes
sion where all of her abilities might have concentrated.
While practicing her professions as minister and doctor of
medicine she became convinced there was little opportunity
for women to attain their noblest state until they had financial
and political freedom. Considering these the most important
reforms, she resigned her pastorate, gave up the practice of
medicine, and from that moment she has worked and lectured
and given her life to these reforms. This decision may have
been in part the result of an inheritance from her great-grand
mother, Nicolas Stott, who was a Unitarian and would not will
ingly pay tithes to the Church of England but sat on the steps
of her home each year while the tax collector sold some article
of household furniture with which to pay this unjust demand.
Miss Shaw's highest ambition for the women of the United
States, and of the world, has been that they might be free to
express themselves by the only means through which citizens
in a representative republic may express themselves ; that is,
through the ballot.
In 1892 she was elected vice-president of the National Amer
ican Woman Suffrage Association, and in 1904 became the
president, which office she now holds. She is chairman of the
446 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
Committee on Suffrage and Eights of Citizenship in the Inter
national Council of Women, the largest and most important
organization of women in the world.
From her first meeting with Miss Susan B. Anthony, she
was one of her closest and most trusted friends. They trav
eled in many campaigns together, Miss Shaw always taking
upon herself the hardest part of the work and shielding Miss
Anthony in every possible manner. Miss Shaw said of her at
a gathering: "I believe that if the principles which she ad
vocates, the ideals for which she stands were embodied in all
womanhood we would have a motherhood diviner than any
this world has ever known, a motherhood such as God had in
his thought when he created woman to be the mother of the
race." As Miss Anthony grew less able to stand the fatigue
of a long speech she would often abruptly call on Miss Shaw
to finish it for her. The unity of thought between them made
this easily possible.
All during her life Miss Shaw had had a craving for a home
of her own. As a young teacher she had taught and "boarded
round "; when she was older she became an itinerant preacher
and " boarded round"; when she became a public lecturer on
Temperance, Woman Suffrage, and kindred reforms, she lec
tured and "boarded round." After much saving and econ
omy, however, it became her good fortune to have a home of
her own and she is very grateful and happy. While her work
takes her away much of the time, the thought of having a rest
ful home to return to makes her work less fatiguing.
She loves trees and has a pine grove of nearly two hundred
trees, most of which she planted herself. When returning
from abroad the greatest treasure she brings from the old
country will be some pines, daisies, or ivy, and on the voyage
no steward or porter is allowed to carry this precious package
for her. Returning from her trip to Hungary in 1913 she
brought eighteen young cedar trees from the Hy Tatra moun
tains and they are now flourishing in the grove which she calls
her Forest of Arden.
Young people are very fond of her and know no greater
pleasure than listening to her stories of her experiences while
ANNA HOWARD SHAW 447
living in the new West, while preaching on Cape Cod, or of her
travels. One occasion in particular comes to the mind of the
writer of this sketch. Miss Shaw was in the drawing room of
The Deanery at Bryn Mawr College with the great open fire as
the only light, and grouped about the room in such an artistic
picture as can be made only by young free spirits, the students
who were invited to spend the evening in this informal man
ner, listened with sympathetic laughter and tears to her stories
of infinite variety.
One summer at Chautauqua there was a young man who was
particularly fond of making people feel uncomfortable. One
day after he had centered the attention of every one on her he
said, "Miss Shaw, we have been discussing the reason why
some women wear their hair short, and as I knew so sensible
a woman as yourself would not do it without a very good rea
son, I want to ask you why you wear your hair short. " Miss
Shaw told him that his question greatly embarrassed her, that
it was one over which she was very sensitive, but that as he
had asked her she would tell him: "It is a birth mark — I
was born with short hair." Needless to say, the tables were
so turned on the young man that he was the butt of his own
joke for many a day.
Few of her speeches are recorded because she always speaks
without notes and few reporters or stenographers can go at
her pace — for while she speaks most distinctly she speaks
very rapidly.
She has lived to see political equality achieved in a sufficient
number of states to make the question of such importance that
political parties in those states vie with each other in the
passage of good laws for the home and in the interests of
women and children.
Had Miss Shaw chosen to use for personal gain her wonder
ful gifts she might have achieved great financial independence
and even wealth for herself, but she has given her service and
used her talents for the uplift of women and of humanity. She
seems to have found the secret of keeping interest and vitality
of life in the abandonment of her whole being to the accom
plishment of a great and unselfish purpose.
448 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
History of Woman Suffrage. Volume IV. By Ida Husted Harper.
Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony. Volumes II and III. By Ida
Husted Harper.
PERIODICALS
Dr. Shaw 's Revolt. Literary Digest 48 :50.
If I Were President. By Anna Howard Shaw. McC all's Magazine
July, 1912.
President and the Suffragists. Literary Digest 47 :1209.
Story of a Pioneer. A serial beginning in the Metropolitan, October,
1914.
Why I Went into Suffrage Work. Anna Howard Shaw. Harper's
Bazar 46 :440.
Copyright by Moffett Studio, Chicago
WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT
BY LUTHER ALBEETUS BKEWER
IN times when reforms are vigorously agitated and insist
ently demanded, feverish dreams are apt to assume the
lineaments of true ideals. How fortunate, therefore, is
the nation, in that in days of stress and storm it has in its
public life a man who has a settled reputation as one of the
greatest constitutional lawyers, a man widely conversant with
its territory, its varied populations, and its domestic and in
ternational situations. When economic conditions are un
settled and the people restless, statesmanship does not always
readjust itself to the changing situation. Too often it lags in
the rear, giving opportunity to the wilderness prophets to air
their vagaries and to suggest experiments, all to the bewilder
ment of the public mind.
The nation even now is bearing tribute to William Howard
Taft that at a time when ideals were in eclipse and action was
demanded he valiantly exalted the ideals of statesmanship and
of conservative progress and made his administration a reign
of law. The basis of statesmanship is the interpretation of
law in the light of the country's growth and the people's as
pirations. President Taft so administered the affairs of his
office as to inspire confidence in the legality of all his acts.
He is not a politician in any interpretation of the term. On
this all are agreed. History will confirm the statement here
made, that no occupant of the presidential chair has a clearer
claim to the title statesman than has he.
With the pseudo-reformer, who is but the wolf in sheep's
clothing, seeking personal aggrandizement, Mr. Taft has no
patience. His distinction between the statesman and the rad
ical reformer, as expressed in an address at Baltimore in
March, 1914, will long remain in the memory of thoughtful
people :
' 'I am far from saying that a statesman may not strongly
sympathize with the general purpose of the enthusiasts, may
452 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
not clearly see the real abuse and wrong and evil which these
leaders of the crusades are picturing to the people, and may
not take part in the initiation and carrying on of that move
ment; but generally it will be found that the statesman mod
erates his expressions, sees the practical difficulties and does
not imitate the fury of the eloquence of those with whose work
he sympathizes. "
Here Mr. Taft stands forth, not as a reactionary, but as a
safe and sane progressive. In this he is in accord with the
mass of his fellow countrymen.
And from even a cursory glance at the history of his fore
bears, we should expect to find in Mr. Taft these qualities of
statesmanship, of reverence for law, of conservative progress
in all things that pertain to the welfare of our nation and its
people. His ancestry through both parents goes back to the
little colony of people who settled in Massachusetts in the
early part of the seventeenth century. He was born at Cin
cinnati, Ohio, September 15, 1857, his father being Alphonso
Taft, an able lawyer and a distinguished public servant.
After preparing for college in the high school of his home
city he entered the class of 1878 at Yale, graduating second in
a class of one hundred and twenty-one. Though fitted by his
muscular equipment for athletic sports, he eschewed these and
devoted himself to acquiring scholastic honors.
After his graduation he began the study of law in his
father's office, at the same time doing court reporting for his
brother's paper, his salary being six dollars a week. He did
his work so well that another publisher employed him for the
same duties at twenty-five dollars a week. He combined the
work of reading and reporting that he might get both the the
ory and the practice of the law. He was graduated from the
Cincinnati Law School in 1880, dividing first honors with an
other, and was admitted to the bar the same year. Almost
immediately he was made assistant prosecuting attorney of
Hamilton County. In 1881 he was appointed internal revenue
collector for the first Ohio district. Although the salary of
this office was $4,500 a year, he resigned at the end of ten
months that he might give his entire time to the practice of
WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT 453
the law. Here he showed early in his public career his inde
pendence and his determination to pursue unflinchingly the
course he had mapped out for his life. The salary of the col
lector's office was much greater than any sum he could pos
sibly earn at his profession at that time, and the work far
easier, but he did not propose to permit money to interfere
with the legitimate work of his profession. This is an inci
dent in his life that may well be an example to ambitious
American youth.
Earnestly as he seemed to wish it, Mr. Taft could not keep
out of public life for any length of time. He had proven his
worth in small things, therefore the call to greater. In 1885
he became assistant county solicitor, and in 1887 Governor
Foraker appointed him judge of the Superior Court. This
appointment was a tribute to the worth of the young official,
for the governor was the head of a hostile faction of his party.
Mr. Taft was later elected to the same position.
Here he began his judicial career, a career that had always
been his ambition. But already the fame of the young jurist
had gone abroad, and after serving two years of the five for
which he was elected, President Harrison persuaded him to
become solicitor general of the United States. He was then
only thirty-three years old, and doubtless congratulated him
self that he had given up that revenue collectorship. The
office of solicitor general is an important one always, but it
seems to have had under Mr. Taft an unusual number of big
things demanding attention. Two of the cases conducted by
him as solicitor general involved questions of vital impor
tance to the entire country — the seal fisheries dispute with
Great Britain, and the legality of the McKinley tariff law.
In both cases the victory was won by Mr. Taft. His wide
learning, his tremendous power of close application and study
of details, his ability to state propositions clearly and to argue
convincingly, attracted the attention of the entire country.
His firm resolve to " stick to his profession" and to avoid be
ing lured away by side issues proved worth while.
After three years of service as solicitor general, during
which he proved himself worthy of confidence and deserving
454 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
of greater honors, President McKinley returned him to his
native state as judge of the Sixth Federal Circuit, comprising
the states of Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee. It
was an important appointment and at once made Mr. Taft
known to all the people of the country.
It takes big men to grasp and to handle successfully big
questions — men of large vision, of independent character, of
strong determination to do the right though criticism and un
popularity follow. Barely have so many important affairs
been placed in one man's hands for solution as have come to
Mr. Taft. All his life he seems to have been making history.
All his life he seems to have been placed in positions where he
was compelled to decide questions of great moment. The
United States judicial office was no exception. Here he was
confronted with grave problems, the solution of which meant
praise or blame according to the tenor of the decision. With
rare courage and fairness he grappled every problem and in
terpreted the law according to his conscience.
At least three precedent-making cases came before him as
federal judge. His decisions in these have established stand
ards for our courts. The one granting an injunction against
interference on the part of representatives or employees, with
the reasonable and equal interchange of traffic between inter
state carriers was the first to define thus the relations be
tween railroads and their employees. It was at the time un
popular with the labor unions, as was also his decision pun
ishing the chief ringleader in a boycott of a railroad, then in
the hands of a receiver, who had definitely disobeyed the or
ders of a court. Judge Taft served notice upon all concerned
that the business of that particular road must not be inter
fered with, and that the army would be called upon, if neces
sary, to keep the trains running.
As soon as the turmoil following this stern decree subsided
Judge Taft showed his fairness by asking the receiver to take
back all the strikers as rapidly as places could be found for
them. No clearer or broader statements as to the rights of
labor have ever been made than those given in these decisions.
WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT 455
Attorneys for labor unions have since quoted them in con
ducting cases for their clients.
A third important case to be tried before Judge Taft was
one brought by the government to dissolve a cast-iron pipe
monopoly. Efforts to define more clearly the Sherman anti
trust law had been made frequently but without effective re
sults. The decision was against the pipe company, and thus
for the first time was the Sherman law made a vital force.
The case was taken to the Supreme Court of the United
States and confirmed by that body. The unusual honor was
given Judge Taft of having his opinion quoted in full by the
highest court in our land.
A position on the federal district bench is usually a step
ping-stone to membership in the Supreme Court. It was well
understood that this was a place coveted by Mr. Taft, and
there is no question as to the appointment having been made
had not other avenues for his abilities presented themselves.
With characteristic devotion to duty he put aside his worthy
ambition for a place on the bench of our highest court and ac
cepted the other responsibilities, all of which he discharged
with fidelity and rare tact.
Our war with Spain, which ended in 1898, resulted in the
acquisition by the United States of the Philippine Islands.
These islands literally were forced upon us. We did not want
them. President McKinley and William Howard Taft shared
the feeling of many leading Americans that we ought not to
retain them. Certainly, we should not permit them to be ex
ploited for American benefit. But by force of circumstances
seemingly beyond our control they were ours. Grave respon
sibilities had come to us suddenly, and civilization and hu
manity demanded that we meet these responsibilities in an en
lightened spirit. The dream of the Filipino had long been
for independence, and with the realization of this dream Taft
sympathized. He saw clearly, however, that a people who for
centuries had been under the yoke were not ready for sudden
liberty and self-government. They must first be taught self-
restraint, and reverence for orderly procedure. With broad
456 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
and enlightened vision he saw early the possibility of lifting a
feeble, ignorant people into the light of liberty. Looking into
the future, he became reconciled to present American domina
tion.
When, therefore, President McKinley urged him to go to
the Philippines as head of the civil commission charged with
the grave and important duty of establishing order and stabil
ity in the island, Mr. Taft laid aside his ambition for higher
judicial honors and cheerfully accepted the " white man's bur
den. " He came to realize the benevolence of the work he
might be able to accomplish for the ' ' little brown brothers ' ' in
the far-away possessions.
It was a hard task he had undertaken, but he set about its
performance with characteristic energy. He found a people
sullen and antagonistic, many of them in open rebellion. The
few Spaniards doing business in the islands were suspicious
and disposed to be in opposition to American orderly govern
ment.
On arriving at the islands Mr. Taft promptly said to the
Filipinos that he had not come to give them present, nor any
definite promise of future, independence. His mission would
be to help them to learn self-government. He wanted to work
with them, not against them. He invited their cooperation in
all his efforts to lead them to ultimate freedom. It took some
time to convince the radicals of his sincere desire to help
them, but he finally won their full confidence. He did this by
living with them, eating and drinking with them, standing all
the time for their interests despite the opposition of almost
all of his own countrymen there whom he would not permit to
exploit the resources of the islands for their own benefit. He
steadfastly held that the Philippines were for the Filipinos.
He helped the natives to build schools and to own their own
homes. He gave them as he could appointments in the civil
service, and established minor courts all over the islands with
natives as judges. He gave the islanders a practical demon
stration of honesty and good faith.
It is difficult for one to comprehend the tremendous achieve
ment of Mr. Taft in the Philippines. Probably no other man
WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT 457
in America was so well-fitted by nature and by training for
the great work he was called upon to perform in the far
Pacific.
While in the Philippines, he was thrice offered a place on
the Supreme Bench of the United States. Each offer was de
clined because he felt he was needed by his Filipino brother.
Affairs in the islands having assumed a fairly stable condi
tion, Mr. Taft felt free to accept the place of Secretary of
War. As the Philippines were under the jurisdiction of this
department of the government he saw opportunities as secre
tary to direct their affairs to a large extent.
Fated as he seems to have been all his life to have great and
important questions come to him for solution, this office proved
no exception to the rule. His years of incumbency of the
office were years filled with big things. His first great task
was to build the Isthmian canal. Before we could send our
men down there to do the practical work of excavating and
superintendence, the sanitary conditions of the Isthmus must
be changed. He called to his aid a group of experts and
clothed them with autocratic powers. The canal zone soon
was as safe a place of residence as many portions of the
United States. As in the Philippines, there were hostile
peoples along the proposed route of the canal and these had
to be pacified. He made several trips to the district and was
able to convince the people of Panama that our intentions
were all of a friendly nature. Much of the credit for the suc
cessful completion of this great water highway is due to Mr.
Taft, who in its building displayed executive ability of high
order.
While Secretary of War he was called upon to go to Cuba
to rehabilitate the government there and to start it off on a
sound footing. After freeing this island by war we allowed
the Cubans to form their own government. In less than three
years personal rivalries and bad management got things into
such shape that civil war was imminent. As protector and
patron, the United States was compelled to intervene. Some
one had to be sent there to show the Cubans how to govern
themselves. Naturally the choice fell upon Mr. Taft whose
458 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
ability along this line had been proven so abundantly in the
Philippines. In September, 1906, he arrived in Havana, and
using the same candid methods in Cuba that he employed with
such beneficial effects in the Philippines, he soon established
order in the island. A provisional government was appointed,
an American "army of pacification " was sent there to pre
serve order, Cubans with American "advisers" were placed
in the cabinet, and officers and citizens alike were instructed
in the fundamental principles of self-government. The Amer
ican protectorate was withdrawn early in 1909, and Cuba now
seems to be enjoying a stable government. While Secretary
of War Mr. Taft made a trip around the world. In accord
ance with his promise to the Filipinos, he returned to the
islands to be present at the opening of their first national as
sembly. He spoke to them once more face to face, reminding
them to beware of agitators who were clamoring for full free
dom before they had learned the rudiments of self-control.
In Japan he reminded the people that "war between Japan
and the United States would be a crime against modern civ
ilization. ' '
While in no sense a candidate, declaring that his ambition
was not political, Mr. Taft was nominated by the Eepublicans,
on June 18, 1908, as their candidate for President. He was
easily elected in November. Soon after his inauguration he
convened Congress, in obedience to the party's platform as
he understood it, for the enactment of a new tariff law. The
result was the Payne-Aldrich tariff, which he signed. He did
not approve of some of its provisions but in a speech defend
ing it as a whole made the unfortunate statement that the new
act was "the best tariff bill that the Republican Party has ever
passed, and therefore the best tariff bill that has been passed
at all." Immediately the storm broke, Democrats and In
surgent Republicans vigorously challenging the truth of the
statement. Vindictive war also was made upon some of the
President's cabinet appointments. The congressional elec
tions of 1910 went against the party in power. His advocacy
of Canadian reciprocity also brought upon him much adverse
WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT 459
criticism, though it was a plank in the platform of the conven
tion that nominated him.
When the Democrats came into power in Congress a bitter
war was begun on the President which continued for two
years. Persistent opposition was given to his every proposal
anent the tariff. However, during his incumbency of the pres
idency he was able to secure much important legislation for
which he asked. A postal savings system and a parcels post
were established; a constitutional amendment empowering
Congress to impose an income tax was ordered submitted to
the states ; publicity of campaign contributions was provided
for ; withdrawals of lands by executive order were authorized,
a very practical step toward conservation. Other important
laws put on the statute books were : establishing a department
of labor with a cabinet officer at the head of it; prescribing
penalties for the white slave traffic ; providing for the organ
ization of a bureau of mines and a children's bureau, thus
tending to improve labor conditions as to health, morals, and
safety; and other measures of an equally progressive nature.
A conspicuous feature of his administration was its impar
tial prosecution of the trusts. With his fairness to all inter
ests and his lack of prejudice he maintained that all trusts
should be prosecuted under the Sherman law, and not only
those that had been especially flagrant violators or whose
officers were persons widely known. This vigorous enforce
ment of the law was assailed in various quarters, but it had
no effect on the President, who believed that laws were made
to be enforced and obeyed.
He was jealous of the prerogatives of his office and vetoed
every attempt of Congress to attach " riders " to bills sent to
him for approval in which it was sought to limit these pre
rogatives.
Especially to be commended was President Taft's handling
of the delicate Mexican situation. He might easily have drawn
us into a war with the republic to the south had he been a man
of less judicial temperament. He is an earnest advocate of
universal peace. His position on this question is well put by
him in a lecture at Yale in 1913 :
460 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
1 ' I am strongly in favor of bringing about a condition of se
curing international peace in which armies and navies may
either be dispensed with or be maintained at a minimum size
and cost ; but I am not in favor of putting my country at a dis
advantage by assuming a condition that does not now ex
ist. . . I am an optimist, but I am not a dreamer, or an in
sane enthusiast on the subject of international peace. "
As the time came for the selection of presidential candidates
in 1912 considerable opposition manifested itself to the renom-
ination of President Taft. After a stormy session of the con
vention the President was given the usual second nomination.
The breach in the party was widened by this action and the
Republicans entered the campaign without any hope of being
successful. They met a crushing defeat at the polls in No
vember.
Not in any way soured by the disaster that had overtaken
him and his party, President Taft smiled in his adversity, ut
tering no complaint, apparently glad to lay down the burdens
of the office he did not covet in the first place, but the duties of
which he had conscientiously performed as he saw them.
In evidence of the patriotism and unselfish character of the
man, it is well to state that a prominent New England senator
went to the Chicago convention in 1912 carrying in his pocket
a letter from President Taft in which the senator was author
ized to withdraw from the consideration of the convention the
name of the President at any time it might seem well so to do.
President Taft was willing to put the welfare of his party and
of his country above personal advantage and vindication.
No one can accuse Mr. Taft of insincerity or of political
cowardice. He believes with a great American of old that it
is a greater honor to be right than to be President — or pop
ular. His belief on this question is stated rather clearly in
one of his Yale lectures when he was discussing the initiative
and referendum. He said :
"The man from whom the people really secure the best
service is the man who acts on his own judgment as to what is
best for his country and for the people, even though this be
contrary to the temporary popular notion or passion. The
WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT 461
men who are really the great men of any legislative body are
those who, having views of their own, defend them and sup
port them, even at the risk of rousing a popular clamor against
themselves. ' '
It is interesting to note, also, in view of his experience in
the presidency, the following quotation from the same lecture :
"Look back through the history of the United States and
recount the number of instances of men who filled important
offices and whose greatness is conceded today, and tell me one
who was not the subject of the severest censure for what he
had done, whose motives were not questioned, whose character
was not attacked, and who, if subjected to a recall at certain
times in his official career when criticism had impaired his
popularity, would not have been sent into private life with
only a part of his term completed. ' '
After retiring from the turmoil of the presidency Mr. Taft
accepted the Kent professorship of law in his alma mater, a
position he is filling with eminent ability and usefulness. May
we not prophesy that in his case the compensations of peace
are greater than the rewards of war?
We have endeavored here to sketch the Taft his friends love
to contemplate. Big of bone, he also is big of heart. When
his conscience tells him he is in the right, he has the moral
courage of his convictions. A friend of the people, and their
advocate, he freely tells them when he thinks they hold wrong
views or insist on actions that do not square with law and
justice and right. He believes in the square deal as much as
any man in our public life and will insist as strenuously on the
square deal being given. He does not have any faith in " hair-
trigger " reformers, and frankly says so. He makes no ap
peal to the passions and prejudices of men — a thing all
too common in recent years. He has faith in himself and con
fidence in the ultimate good sense and sound judgment of the
American people, whose friend he always has been. Confident
that the future will vindicate his acts, he has ever gone along
the path he believed straight. Criticisms and vindictive at
tacks by those whose pet plans have gone awry have not mo
lested him or taken away any of that sweet character and
462 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
amiable disposition he posseses in such an eminent degree.
He is a true personification of the courageous, patriotic, sym
pathetic American.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Labor and Capital. Address by William Howard Taft before
Cooper Institute, N. Y., January 10, 1908.
Popular Government. (Yale Univ. Press, 1913.) By William How
ard Taft.
Taft's Training for the Presidency. (Boston, 1908.) By Raymond
Patterson.
The Presidents of the United States. (Scribner's, 1914.) Edited by
James Grant Wilson.
William Howard Taft, American. (Boston, 1908.) By Robert Lee
Dunn.
William Howard Taft, the Man of the Hour. (1908.) By 0. K.
Davis.
PERIODICALS
Character of Taft. Independent, 66 :492.
Governor Taft in the Philippines. By F. W. Nash. Review of Re
views, 29 :164.
Labor Decisions of Judge Taft. By F. N. Judson. Review of Re
views, 36 :212.
President Taft. Atlantic, 109 :164.
President Taft on Tariff Making. By. F. E. Luepp. Outlook, 100:
495.
President Taft's Record in the Philippines. By J. A. LeRoy. Inde
pendent, 56:191.
Taft's Work in the Philippines. By Theodore Roosevelt. Outlook,
69:166.
OSCAR W. UNDERWOOD
BY NEYLE COLQUITT
THE keynote to the character of Oscar Wilder Under
wood is quiet force. Indeed, no character in the realm
of history, fiction or present day life exemplifies this
characteristic to a greater extent than does the great House
Leader. This quiet force, in turn, comprehends many qual
ities. Imperturbable, well informed, deep thinking, of rare
judgment and prescience, Oscar Wilder Underwood is a born
leader of men. Without show, with no apparent effort and
with a determination completely screened by a serene smile,
he makes history at the nation's capitol. As Mr. Thomas F.
Logan, writing in the World's Work once said,1 "He tries
to avoid any conflict with the rank and file of his party. He
seems always to be bowing to their judgment, even when they
are accepting his." And yet he reduces to law the great pol
icies of the Democratic Party as easily as the glazier molds
his putty. And where party and platform is concerned, he
stands stronger than Gibraltar — stronger, for while history
relates instances where that proverbially impregnable fortress
has been successfully assaulted, the history of the House, as
contained in the Congressional Record, discloses no instance
where Oscar W. Underwood was out of line with his party.
And, whatever may be said of the variableness of party plat
forms, Mr. Underwood's record has been one of rare con
sistency.
Biographers have called him "the despair of the yellow
journalist" and "one of the most hopeless subjects that the
pen of the lurid impressionists of modern journalism ever en
countered." Why? Because he is not bizarre. In address
ing the House he does not seek to shame the aurora borealis
or deal in Himalayaic phrase. His language is plain, well
chosen, direct. There is nothing of the patent medicine pol
itician about him. He is not a politician : he is a statesman.
i World's Work 23:539.
464 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
He neither shuns nor seeks publicity. A hard student and a
tireless worker, he is at the capitol early, and never leaves
until his desk is clean.
Nothing ruffles him. Arthur B. Krock, writing in Harper's
Weekly r, aptly says of him : 2
"Should a doctor place his fingers on the wrist of Oscar
Underwood and proceed to feel the pulse of that interesting
young man, let the time be midnight or dawn, during a Con
gressional recess or in the heat of a political struggle, he
would find it thumping seventy-two. Should a doctor force a
pocket thermometer down Underwood's throat, it would regis
ter 98.4 degrees. For Underwood is that most abnormal of
creations, a normal man."
His attitude before, during, and after the history-making
convention of the Democratic Party in Baltimore in 1912
gives us insight into his character. Repeatedly before and
during that convention he said that, while his friends were
good enough to present his name to Democracy, if they be
came convinced that there was any other Democrat who could
give greater assurance of Democratic victory, he would de
sire that they support such a Democrat in preference to him
self. The success of his party, not his own advancement, was
his chief concern. If he was disappointed in the action of the
convention no trace of it appeared on his countenance. He
remained the picture of imperturbability ; he showed the same
sweet smile he had worn in the hour of his greatest triumph.
Mr. Underwood is a man of simple tastes. His home life is
ideal. His wife (nee Miss Bertha Woodward, of Birming
ham) is his help-meet in all his affairs. He is a good golfer
and is very fond of chess, but with him the time-honored rule
of business before pleasure is especially applicable. His fidel
ity to trust was emphasized when, in the presidential pri
maries, he refused to leave his work in Washington, even
when his opponent, the present president, invaded Georgia on
his campaign tour ; and again, in his recent race for the United
States Senate, he remained in Washington while his oppon
ent, Captain Richmond P. Hobson, campaigned in Alabama.
2 Harper's Weekly 56:9, June 1, 1912.
Copyright by Harris & Ewing, Washington
OSCAR W. UNDERWOOD 467
In March, 1915, he will take his seat in the Senate, a well-
merited distinction, but one which deprives the Democratic
Party of its great leader in the House. And this recalls the
fact that many Democratic delegates in the Baltimore conven
tion declared that they were constrained not to vote for Mr.
Underwood for the presidential nomination because the party
could not afford to lose his services in the House. This was
not altogether illogical, particularly as the party had so much
excellent material for the presidency, but it was somewhat in
considerate of a faithful servant. In addition to having as
loyal a following as had any candidate in that convention, Mr.
Underwood was, unquestionably, the alternative choice of at
least four-fifths of the delegates, and had the two leading can
didates failed to secure the necessary two-thirds majority, as
at one time seemed inevitable, Mr. Underwood would, in all
probability, have been the nominee, and the occupant of the
White House to-day. But, barring conjunctions, he was the
most universally popular of those whose names were men
tioned in the convention ; which speaks well for the past and
augurs well for the future. He could have had the nomina
tion for the vice-presidency by acclamation, and might now be
the presiding officer of the Senate, but he preferred to remain
in the House and complete his duties, the performance of
which made Democratic success possible. He is ideally fitted
by experience and endowment for the presidency of the nation.
Mr. Underwood is a young man, two and fifty on the sixth
day of May, 1914. One would suppose that the Congressional
Directory, in which appear all the biographies of the members
of Congress, would be the best book to consult for a biography
of a congressman, and this would seem especially true when
it is borne in mind that the congressmen themselves write their
life stories. If, however, one should look there for Mr. Under
wood 's biography, he would find recorded these bald words:
1 1 Oscar W. Underwood, Democrat, of Birmingham, was born
in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky, May 6, 1862 ; was
educated at Rugby School, Louisville, Ky., and the University
of Virginia ; was elected to the Fifty-fourth, Fifty-fifth, Fifty-
sixth, Fifty-seventh, Fifty-eighth, Fifty-ninth, Sixtieth, Sixty-
468 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
first, Sixty-second and Sixty-third Congresses.'' So much in
formation is required by the publishers of the directory.
By analyzing the foregoing, however, we find that he was
born in a border state during the Civil War. When three
years old, the family, on account of his mother's health, moved
to the then frontier country of Minnesota, and lived there ten
years. General Custer and General Hancock were his neigh
bors and Buffalo Bill was one of the influential citizens of the
community. Returning to Kentucky he went to Rugby School,
after which he took a law course at the University of Virginia.
Shortly thereafter he cast his lot in his chosen profession in
Birmingham, Alabama, then a town of four thousand inhab
itants. Mr. Underwood's progenitors were nearly all South
erners. Himself a Southerner, by choice, not by profession,
he is, above all, an American. In appearance he does not re
semble the conventional Southern congressman, for his attire
is rather that of a prosperous president of a Chamber of
Commerce. But he has the unaffected, soft, Southern accent
in his speech, and occasionally a tell-tale "you all" or an
"over yonder" proclaims his geographical habitat. When
Oscar Underwood wheels in his chair, looks you squarely in the
eye, and, in answer to your query, commences with: "Well,
I '11 tell you — ' ' you may know you are going to get an exact
estimate of the situation. Many a man in Congress, with
smaller knowledge of pending legislation than has Oscar W.
Underwood, votes with his chief because, as he expresses it,
"Underwood is a safe man to follow."
His father was Eugene Underwood, of Kentucky. His
mother before her marriage was Fredericka Virginia Smith,
of Petersburg, Virginia. His paternal grandfather was Joseph
Rogers Underwood, Kentucky colleague of Henry Clay in the
United States Senate, a leader of the Union forces in that state
during the Civil War, and a confidential adviser of President
Abraham Lincoln.
Further analysis and comparison of Mr. Underwood's mod
est autobiography will show that there are but four men, out
of a total of four hundred and thirty -five in the House of Rep
resentatives, who have had longer continuous service than he.
OSCAR W. UNDERWOOD 469
More than three thousand men have served in the House since
he began his career in Washington, and but four remain who
started before he did ; and yet he was the youngest of all the
presidential candidates in the 1912 primaries.
His immense popularity and recognized ability in Birming
ham and the surrounding district is attested by the fact that
he has been nine times nominated for Congress without op
position. The first recognition of his ability by his party
came when, during his early service, he was made Democratic
"whip." No man in Congress has had a wider experience.
He has served on the Committees on Judiciary, Rules, Ap
propriations, Public Lands, and Ways and Means, five of the
most important committees of Congress. He is chairman of
the last named, which is the most important committee of the
greatest legislative body in the world. This committee nom
inates the members of all the other committees of the House.
Its chairman is leader of the majority party, and, next to the
President himself, is considered the most influential member
of the party in power. Mr. Underwood 's succession to this
position gave him his first opportunity to demonstrate his true
greatness, and as evidence of the fact that he did so, he re
ceived in the 1912 Democratic National Convention electoral
votes from Maine and Florida, Connecticut and Georgia,
Michigan and Mississippi, Maryland and Massachusetts, New
Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, Alabama,
Alaska, Hawaii, and Porto Rico, though he was the youngest
man in the race, the last to enter the lists, and the first for
midable candidate from "way down South " since the Civil
War, and despite the fact that in more than two-thirds of these
states neither he nor his friends made any campaign what
ever. It was a spontaneous, voluntary tribute to merit.
In 1910, when the Democrats came into power in the House,
on all sides were heard the words accredited to James G.
Elaine that "the Democrats always do the wrong thing at the
right time. ' ' But this time there was a Democratic Samson in
the ranks, who spread dismay among the Philistines. He was
able, because of his training and his qualities of steadfastness,
integrity, and thoroughness, to meet a national emergency.
470 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
Leaders of the Republican opposition have declared Mr. Un
derwood the most resourceful antagonist they have ever found
upon the Democratic side of the House.
Mr. Underwood's position when the Sixty-second Congress
was called into special session by President Taft for the pur
pose of passing the reciprocity legislation, was one of tre
mendous difficulties. He was made chairman of the Ways and
Means Committee, with which he had been associated during
the preparation of the Dingley and Payne tariff bills. The
Democrats had a majority of nearly seventy. They had not
had possession of the House for sixteen years and were polit
ically hungry and thirsty for patronage. They represented
every element of Democracy. They saw ahead a glimmering
hope for the election of a Democratic President in 1912 and
full access to the places and prerogatives of a Democratic
administration, and each man of the two hundred and twenty-
eight Democrats was full of ambition to secure a position of
influence in the House, in order that he might eventually ob
tain a commanding seat at the feast. In all this discord, Mr.
Underwood was elected chairman of the Ways and Means
Committee without a dissenting voice.
The Democrats were anxious to revise the tariff, in order to
keep faith with the people, but they had many plans for re
vision and a thousand shades of opinion. The House Lead
er's task was to hold these men in line, to get them to work
harmoniously and effectively. The first tariff bills formulated
in the House under Mr. Underwood's direction were vetoed
by President Taft, on August 22, 1912. This action made it
possible for the Democrats of the country to elect Woodrow
Wilson President of the United States and unhorse a Repub
lican majority in the Senate.
But Mr. Underwood's field of endeavor in the House has
not been confined to the tariff. Indeed, it would take a volume,
and a very large one at that, to recount the full history of his
activities in the halls of Congress. He was influential in abol
ishing the fee system which obtained in many departments of
the government ; he first proposed the construction of a gov-
OSCAE W. UNDERWOOD 471
ernment armor-plate factory to break up the existing monop
oly ; he advocated and secured the appropriation of large sums
of money for fighting yellow fever; he has always been an
earnest advocate of rural free delivery of the mails and the
direct election of United States Senators ; he has fought for a
tax on inheritances, and the present income tax law is em
bodied in the tariff bill which bears his name ; he has worked
hard for the irrigation of arid lands, which have furnished
free homes to thousands of settlers and have converted barren
deserts into fertile fields; he has always earnestly advocated
large appropriations for the work of the Department of Agri
culture; he believes in giving large power to the Interstate
Commerce Commission and has always thrown his vote and in
fluence in that direction; he has cordially supported all em
ployee safety bills and legislation for an eight-hour day for
laboring men employed on government contracts. For years
he has been the balance wheel of the House. Among his most
recent labors were those in connection with the new currency
law, to secure the passage of which the President sought Mr.
Underwood's assistance.
His greatest single achievement in the realm of legislation,
however, is the great tariff bill which bears his name — the
Underwood Bill. The opponents of the measure acknowledge
that it represents a clean redemption of the pledge contained
in the party's platform to revise and lower the tariff so as to
make it a tariff for revenue only. The best evidence of its
popularity may be found in the fact that it entered the statute
books with less adverse comment than any other tariff bill in
history.
Efforts have been made by Mr. Underwood's political an
tagonists to place him in the class of the reactionaries. Nat
urally this effort could not meet with success. Others have
called him a conservative, a term that jars the very ear-drums
of the progressive element. But Mr. Underwood is nothing if
not progressive. Witness his own tariff bill. Witness the
great national currency law. Witness his income tax. Wit
ness his advocacy of the direct election of United States Sen
ators. True he has not taken the initiative, referendum, and
472 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
recall to his bosom and he believes that prohibition and woman
suffrage are questions for the several states to settle, but he is
a progressive of progressives. He is not a radical, however,
not one of the "Farthest North " progressives. He does not
believe in the recall of judges. He simply believes in study
ing a proposition in all its phases and from every angle, being
sure he is right, and then going ahead.
In short, he is thorough, this man of quiet, yet dynamic,
force. Eternal vigilance is the price of his success. Keeping
everlastingly at his task is the reason, not the secret, of his
rise to fame.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PERIODICALS
Chairman Underwood. By Willis J. Abbot. World's Work 23:534.
Getting a Line on Underwood. Current Literature 50 :605.
Intimate View of Underwood. By A. B. Krock. Harper's Weekly
56:9.
Men We Are Watching. Independent 70 :1413 ; 72 :144 ; 75 :435.
Progress of a Sane Young Man. By Samuel G. Blythe. Saturday
Evening Post, Dec. 30, 1911.
Underwood — House Leader. By Alfred Henry Lewis. Cosmopolitan
52:109.
Underwood of Alabama, Democracy's New Chieftain. By Robert
Woolley. Review of Reviews 44 :196.
What I am Trying To Do ; an Authorized Interview with Underwood.
By Thomas F. Logan. World's Work 23 :538.
Where Underwood Stands. By Oscar King Davis. Outlook 99 :196.
JOHN H. VINCENT
BY HENKY G. JACKSON
IT is said that an explorer among the tombs of ancient
Egypt found, in the dried-up hand of a mummy, a few
grains of wheat, that many centuries ago friends had
placed there in token of their belief in immortality, or, at
least, of their belief that there remains a germ of life that
death is unable to destroy. The traveler, desiring to test the
appropriateness of this symbol of their faith, took the grains
from the patient hand that had preserved them through the
waiting years, and, on his return to his home, planted them
in suitable soil and awaited the result. In due time, greatly
to his surprise, the moistened seed germinated, grew and pro
duced a little harvest, fresh and golden, in spite of the an
tiquity of the ancestral seed ; and, for anything that is known
to the contrary, millions of acres of waving grain are the
descendants of the handful of seed so long held in waiting.
In like manner it is the happy fortune of some adventurous
explorers among the tombs of buried ideas to set free from
the relentless grasp of forgotten years some deathless germ
of truth, and so to plant it that, by its reduplication, it may
reach and enrich the mind of the world.
Eminent among those who have thus contributed to the
advancement of knowledge is the subject of this biographical
sketch — Bishop John Heyl Vincent — who, after serving his
generation with distinguished ability and success, still lives
in the enjoyment of an honored and serene old age. John
Heyl Vincent's paternal ancestors were Huguenots, who, after
the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, fled from their home in
southern France and came to America. One branch of the
family settled in Pennsylvania, near Milton, Northumberland
County, where the father of the future bishop was born.
About 1820, he removed to Alabama, where he married, his
wife being the daughter of a sea captain, Bernard Easer, of
Philadelphia. From this union, John Heyl, son of John Him-
474 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
rod and Mary Baser Vincent, was born in Tuscaloosa, Ala
bama, February 23, 1832.
Mr. Vincent, the father, was, as might be expected from the
character of his ancestry, a Christian whose religion was a
ruling factor in his life. Consequently, his household was
governed according to the precept, "The fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom," and in harmony with the strictest
tenets of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he was a
member. But, strict as the home life was, it was preeminent
ly happy. It was made especially attractive and hallowed by
the presence of the mother, Mrs. Vincent, whom her son eulo
gizes as "the incarnation of consistency, fidelity, self-sacrifice,
and serenity." By the mother John was consecrated to the
ministry from his birth, and it is said he accepted his calling
so early that at the age of five years he began discoursing on
religious themes to the negro children of the neighborhood.
It may readily be believed that these infantile discourses were
somewhat lacking in theological profundity ; nevertheless, they
were doubtless listened to with due respect by his uncritical
auditors.
When the boy was six years old his parents returned to
Pennsylvania, where he began his education under a gover
ness. During those years preachers of different denomina
tions were, from time to time, entertained as guests by the
hospitable family; and, no doubt, the alert mind of the boy
derived not a little profit from the conversations listened to at
the home fireside.
When the period of instruction under the governess was
completed, he attended academies at Milton and at Lewis-
burg. With these advantages such progress was made that
at the early age of fifteen he became a teacher. Further evi
dence of his precocity is seen in the fact that at the age of
eighteen he was licensed to exhort, and soon thereafter he be
came a local preacher. Thus he who had exercised his call
in childish sermons to an audience of negro children was now
authorized to preach to congregations of adults in the church
of which he was a member.
Compelled to abandon his long cherished desire to go to
Copyright by Moffett Studio, Chicago
JOHN H. VINCENT 477
college, he took a brief course of study at the Wesleyan In
stitute, Newark, New Jersey. Subsequently he completed the
Conference course of study, required of all who enter the
Methodist ministry. This of itself comprises a pretty thor
ough theological course. Nevertheless, the longer he engaged
in preaching, the more he felt the need of the mental training
afforded by a course in college. He endeavored to make up
for his deficiency in this respect by laying down for himself a
systematic course of study to be pursued privately. In this
way he studied Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, and Physical
Science, and beside, gave considerable time to general liter
ature. A trip to the old world, in 1862, likewise contributed
an important part to his intellectual training. On this trip
he visited Egypt, Palestine, Greece, and Italy, as well as the
other countries and cities usually included in a trip abroad.
In 1855 he was ordained deacon and continued preaching in
the New Jersey Conference. Two years later he received
elder's orders, was transferred to the Rock Eiver Conference
and was appointed pastor, successively, at Joliet, Mount
Morris, Galena, Eockf ord, and Chicago.
Any one acquainted with the genial disposition and sym
pathetic nature of Bishop Vincent can readily believe that he
was an ideal pastor. He was one whom the most timid could
approach with perfect confidence, sure of a kindly reception
and a patient hearing, as well as all the counsel and consola
tion that the case might require.
As respects the Sunday school part of the pastorate, Dr.
Vincent was a thorough reformer. As early as 1855 he had
organized the Palestine Class, for the study of Bible geogra
phy and history. This class suggested to him the necessity of
a thorough training of Sunday school teachers, and in 1857,
in Joliet, he organized a church normal class for this purpose.
The work grew rapidly, spreading beyond the limits of his
own parish and awakening unusual interest in Bible study.
In 1861 he held the first Sunday school institute in America.
During this year he prepared a manual entitled Little Foot
prints in Bible Lands. This was the first of a large quantity
of Sunday school literature, chiefly of an undenominational
478 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
character, that the new ideas called forth. In 1865 he estab
lished the Northwestern Sunday School Quarterly, and the
next year, The Sunday School Teacher, in which he intro
duced the present system of Sunday school lessons and lesson
leaves.
In 1866 he was elected general agent of the Methodist Epis
copal Sunday School Union ; and in 1868, corresponding secre
tary of the Sunday School Union and Tract Society, with resi
dence in New York City. As corresponding secretary Dr.
Vincent became editor of all the Sunday school publications
of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Under his management
the circulation of the journal increased, in a brief period, from
16,000 to 160,000 copies ; and that of the lesson leaves to near
ly 2,500,000 copies. A complete series of his books forms an
encyclopedia of modern Sunday school literature, including,,
among others, The Berean Question Books, a series of hand
books for normal work, a volume on the Modern Sunday
School, and another on the Church School.
The work under his hand having progressed thus far found
its culmination in the Chautauqua Sunday School Assembly,
organized in 1874; when an institute, undenominational in
character, met for two weeks at Chautauqua, New York, for
the training of Sunday school teachers. From year to year
the organization grew, new plans were adopted, the time was
extended to eight weeks, and the work made to include a com
plete summer school, with courses of literature, lectures, and
various entertainments. Chautauqua became a meeting place
for different Christian bodies, while still retaining its original
purpose of Sunday school instruction and Bible study. This
assembly, which has exerted such an influence in the matter of
Bible study and popular training in Sunday school teaching,
was organized by Dr. John H. Vincent and Mr. Lewis Miller,,
a wealthy inventor and philanthropist of Akron, Ohio. The
location of the assembly is at Chautauqua Lake, a beautiful
sheet of water about twenty miles long and from one to two
miles wide. The grounds, formerly known as Fair Point,
were purchased by the Assembly in 1874. The area comprises
about 300 acres. The original town of Chautauqua has grown
JOHN H. VINCENT 479
to be a city of more than 500 cottages, a large hotel, twenty-
five public buildings, lecture halls, recitation rooms, a museum,
gymnasium, etc. Chautauqua has a complete sewerage sys
tem, a fire department, and other municipal features. The
summer population is about ten thousand, and its activities
are witnessed annually by fifty thousand people.
The plan of applying scientific principles to Bible study
and Sunday school teaching, soon expanded to include classes
in literature, language, science, art, etc. The combined agen
cies now known as the Chautauqua System of Education in
clude two general divisions; namely, Summer Work, and
Home Eeading and Study.
The first division is conducted at Chautauqua, and may be
designated as The College. It offers courses in college stud
ies, with instructors from various leading institutions. The
school in Sacred Literature and the Sunday School Normal
Department give biblical instruction and pedagogical training.
The Teachers' Retreat deals with psychology, pedagogics, and
practical methods for secular teachers. The schools of music
and physical training offer exceptional opportunities for those
who desire instruction in those departments. There are
classes also in art, oratory, manual training, etc.
In fact, for variety of studies comprehended and opportun
ities afforded by this summer school, it more nearly resembles
a university than an ordinary college; while the attractive
ness of the method of imparting instruction surpasses that
of either. The number of those who avail themselves of these
schools in summer, being enrolled in the regular classes and
pursuing one or more of the courses of study, varies from
one to two thousand.
The second division consists of the Chautauqua Literary
and Scientfiic Reading Circles, by which definite courses of
reading are arranged for individuals in the home, or for clubs
or circles formed in communities and villages throughout the
country. This plan was inaugurated in 1878, and within a few
years more than 100,000 readers were enrolled. For the ben
efit of these readers a literature has been created, unique in
form and comprehensive in its selection of subjects, including
480 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
English Literature, History, Science, Greek and Latin Class
ics (in translation), and other subjects which, taken together,
comprise a liberal course of reading. It has been prepared
by competent scholars and authors for the use of the various
classes in the reading circles — by means of which one can
easily acquire an acquaintance with the best English litera
ture as well as with the Greek and Latin authors usually re
quired in college curriculums; so that, not seldom, when the
young collegian comes home, he finds his mother or sisters
as familiar with the ancient classics as he is himself.
The lecture and entertainment feature, adopted in the be
ginning, may be classed as another department of the Chau-
tauqua plan. It has proved to be one of the most attractive
and profitable means of instruction employed. The popu
larity of the lecture courses has secured for them a support
that has enabled the management to obtain the most eminent
lecturers in the field, both in Europe and America.
A distinguished lecturer, whose opportunity to test the mat
ter has been ample, says: "The Chautauqua Platform-af
fords the public man with a message, an opportunity, and a
place to proclaim it more favorable than almost any other.
The audience is a select one and always composed of the
thoughtful element of the community, and, as they pay ad
mission, they stay to hear. I believe that a considerable part
of the progress that is now being made along the line of moral
and political reform is traceable to the influence of Chautau
qua. ' ' Another lecturer with similar experience says that the
Chautauqua has been a powerful force in directing the politi
cal thought of the country, and that the Chautauqua lecturers
with whom he has been associated constitute as fine a group
of men and women as can be found among the splendid citi
zenship of America.
That this means of public instruction is not waning is evi
dent from the fact that there are eight hundred more Chau-
tauquas in the United States now than there were one year
ago, making the present total 2,939. From the original Chau
tauqua, attended annually by about 50,000 people, the idea
has spread to many important places where large permanent
JOHN H. VINCENT 481
assemblies are maintained. It is fortunate in having the
good will of the best people. It stands for democracy and
education ; it brings new visions and inspiration to the young ;
it is a feeder to colleges and universities ; and it leaves a defin
ite effect for good on the community life where the assemblies
are held. Above all, however, the Chautauqua stands for the
development of the more mature. It has brought to light the
possibility of continuous education even in the midst of busy
life. It was the hand of John Heyl Vincent that planted the
grains, so long undiscovered, that have produced this abund
ant harvest.
Deprived of the advantages of a college training, John Heyl
Vincent has brought those advantages within reach of the
multitudes who, like himself, have felt the need of such train
ing but were without the means of acquiring it in early youth.
They have been enabled to satisfy a thirst for knowledge,
which, without his intervention, would have been ungratified.
More than this, he has been the creator of a desire for knowl
edge in thousands of individuals, who, but for the opportuni
ties and incentives presented by him, would not even have
entertained such aspirations. The Chautauqua idea, with its
practical illustration during forty years, at the original as
sembly and its numerous followers, and in the Home Beading
Circles, has proved an inestimable blessing to multiplied thou
sands of people.
Some men are born, live, and die without materially af
fecting anything more than the small circle immediately sur
rounding them. Others, with no better opportunities, exert
an influence that is ever widening until countless multitudes
are molded in character, life purpose, and efficiency for good,
not for a single generation only, but for all time to come. The
first class have little to do in giving character to the age, in
shaping public opinion, or in promoting the advance of civili
zation. As they found the world, so they leave it, if not worse,
at least no better because they have lived in it. Beyond add
ing a name to the census they contribute nothing to the live
assets of the community in which they have lived. While
482 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
living they are ciphers; and when they die the rim of the
cipher is simply rubbed out.
Fortunately, not all belong to this do-nothing class. There
are some whose lives are positive, whose energies are not all
exhausted in the mere process of living, and whose purposes
are not all limited to self and selfish interests, and because of
them the world moves, and civilization, with accumulating
benefits, is constantly developing. To such men in each gen
eration every succeeding generation is debtor, for the sum
of their activities and achievements makes the civilization of
the day. But this sum total does not consist wholly, or even
for the most part, of the actual accomplishments of the in
dividual actors, but of the forces that they have set in
motion in others. The originator himself may do little or
nothing in the practical operation of his idea or invention,
but the multitude of workers who owe their opportunity to
work and their means of working to his initiative, are the
agents through whom he works. The inventor of wireless tel
egraphy may be sitting in his quiet home ; but really it is he
who is calling over leagues of ocean billows to summon help
for the endangered vessel and rescue for hundreds of im
periled lives.
Moreover, these new discoveries and inventions do not die
with their authors or with the passing of the age that wit
nesses their birth. Ideas never die. Their application to
practical purposes may be neglected or forgotten, but truth
can never cease to exist; and, when occasion demands, its
vitality will be found unaffected by neglect or lapse of time.
Thus it is that the greatest benefactors of the race are those
who have wrought in the mines of thought ; whose discoveries
have been in the realm of truth, rather than in that of phy
sical appliances. Intelligence is the source of all advancement
in the physical, moral, or spiritual world.
When Martin Luther first felt the force of the truth, "The
just shall live by faith, " and rose from his tired knees on the
sacred stairway in Eome to proclaim this truth to the world,
he started a spiritual revolution which has gone on with in-
JOHN H. VINCENT 483
creasing momentum until the present day, and counts its re
sults by millions of followers. Through John Wesley, the
Reformation received new life and a new impetus, simply
because, in that little meeting in Aldersgate street, London,
he "felt his heart strangely warmed, " and recognized Jesus
Christ as his personal Savior from sin. And we have in John
Heyl Vincent, a Reformer in the methods of Sunday school
teaching and Bible study, an example as striking, and almost,
if not quite, as far reaching in effect as that of Martin Luther
or John Wesley.
Luther emancipated the minds, that, under corrupt ecclesi
astical domination, had become slaves to ignorance and super-
stitution. Wesley aroused the spiritually indifferent and care
less, and effectually warned the impenitent to "flee from the
wrath to come. ' ' Vincent, recognizing the importance of both
intellectual and spiritual awakening, sought to accomplish
both these ends by methods hitherto untried. His plans to
engage the attention and interest, and to make study attrac
tive have been the most successful yet devised. His directions
as to subjects to be taken up, and the best methods for secur
ing time for their study, have aided and encouraged home
students who, without his helpful suggestions, would never
have undertaken the work of self -education ; or, having begun
it, would have become discouraged and have given up in
despair.
Dr. Vincent was married in 1858 to Elizabeth, daughter of
Henry and Caroline Dusenbury, at Portville, New York. His
only son, George E., a graduate of Yale, is now president of
the University of Minnesota.
In the year 1888, by the general conference of the Metho
dist Episcopal church, Dr. Vincent was elected to the episco
pal office, the highest position in the church, and generally
esteemed the greatest honor within its gift. His organizing
and executive ability, familiarity with the discipline and or
der of the church, power in the pulpit and on the platform,
ready adaptation to the various conference situations, inti
mate knowledge of human nature, and geniality of disposi-
484 FAMOUS LIVING AMEEICANS
tion, eminently qualify him for the duties of this high office,
which he successfully discharged until his retirement because
of advanced age.
Bishop Vincent is a great bishop, a great preacher and lec
turer, and a man of wonderful versatility of talent; but that
which especially distinguishes him from his associates in the
episcopal office and among church workers, in all denomina
tions of Protestant Christians, is his preeminence in Sunday
school work.
He will long be remembered as a tender hearted, sympathe
tic pastor; as an eloquent preacher of the gospel; as an en
tertaining and instructive lecturer ; as a graceful and charm
ing writer; as a worthy and dignified bishop of the church;
and as a resourceful and inspiring teacher of Biblical truth.
But with all these characteristics and achievements, the move
ment instituted and directed by him, exemplified in the numer
ous and constantly increasing Chautauquas throughout the
land, must ever be the evidence and crown of his triumph.
This is the golden harvest of his planting, that, self -multiply
ing, will continue to feed the multitudes long after the sower
shall have passed to his reward.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography. (D. Appleton & Co.)
Chautauqua Movement. (Chautauqua Press.) By J. H. Vincent.
National Cyclopedia of American Biography. (J. T. White & Co.)
Universal Cyclopedia and Atlas. (D. Appleton & Co.)
PERIODICALS
Chautauqua of To-day. By W. Frank McClure. Review of Re
views 50:53.
Founder of Chautauqua. Outlook 100 :648.
Founder of " Chaiitauquaa " By Henry Oyen. World's Work 24:
100.
Courtesy Gutekunst, Philadelphia
JOHN WANAMAKEE
BY IDA ELIZABETH BILEY
PERHAPS there are few men to whom the term " public-
spirited " is more applicable than to John Wanamaker.
His mind is a net-work of plans for improving business
methods and human conditions; the plans work out and the
net-work increases beyond expectation. The Quaker City is
justly proud of this man to whom people in every part of the
country turn for advice. His interest in social and economic
conditions in the city of Philadelphia, as evidenced by gifts of
money supplemented by personal attention and time, is a good
illustration of his trait of self-spending for the good of the
commonwealth. As long ago as 1876, he helped make a suc
cess of the Centennial Exposition held in that historic city,
and in 1882 was an enthusiastic worker for the celebration of
the two hundredth anniversary of the founding by William
Penn of that city which may be called the birthplace of Amer
ican freedom — the city in which the Declaration of Inde
pendence was signed, the First Continental Congress met, and
the Constitution of the United States was framed. He shows
a healthy interest in clean politics and is an active factor in
all phases of the progress of his native city. His capacity for
feeling and helping to relieve distress is shown by the active
part which he took in the relief work during the Irish famine,
the yellow fever epidemic in the south, the recent Ohio river
flood, and the great Russian famine. Mr. Wanamaker has re
ceived recognition in various ways in his own state and coun
try. He has been offered many political nominations, most of
which he has declined. In 1911 the French government made
him an Officer of the Legion of Honor.
On February 22, 1913, was dedicated at Fort Wadsworth,
Staten Island, New York, the Indian Memorial of which Mr.
Wanamaker was the donor. It was an event fraught with
meaning for the nation. The thirty-three full-blooded Indian
chiefs, who participated in the dedication, voluntarily drew
488 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
up and signed a declaration of allegiance to the United States,
thereby showing that even an Indian can forget injustices
done him, when his rights are restored to him. The Rodman
Wanamaker Expedition of Citizenship to the North American
Indian left Philadelphia in June, 1913, to visit each of the
one hundred and sixty-nine Indian tribes at the eighty-nine
reservations, and to assure them of the good will of the Presi
dent and of the people of the United States. Each tribe was
given an American flag. Thus Mr. Wanamaker, living in the
"city of brotherly love," has gone back to the very foundation
of our country to restore the rights of the first inhabitants and
to assure them of the white man's sympathetic interest in all
that makes for their welfare.
Mr. Wanamaker has a reputation for sound business sense
and integrity. The success of his mature years is but the
result of adherence to the ideals of his boyhood. His ances
tors were sturdy pioneers of the time of William Penn, who
came to America from Germany and France for the sake of
religious freedom. He received what was for that early pe
riod a good education. His school life was characterized by
close application. He did not seek out the easy tasks ; if he
had a hard problem in arithmetic to solve, he would remain
after school hours until he was satisfied with the result. With
clear insight he chiseled out a solid foundation of honesty,
sobriety and industry ; and he has builded thereon one of the
most heroic characters known to the business world. He now
stands a prince among merchants, an example of right living
among men. His early beginnings were small. While yet in
school he worked in his father's brick yard. Leaving school
at the age of fourteen he worked as errand boy for a publish
ing house at one dollar and twenty-five cents per week. Later,
in a retail clothing store, his salary was two dollars and a
half a week. Next, he was employed at an increase in salary
in what was then the largest clothing store of the city. The
proprietor, Joseph M. Bennett, said of him: "John was the
most ambitious boy I ever saw. I used to take him to lunch
with me and he would tell me how he was going to be a great
merchant. He was always organizing something. He seemed
JOHN WANAMAKER 489
to be a natural born organizer. This faculty is probably ac
countable for his great success. " Close application to the
task in hand gained for him steady advancement in financial
circles and a like zeal for searching out and doing what was
to be done in helping his fellowmen has made for him a prom
inent place among the benefactors of the race.
In 1858, at the age of twenty, he was elected the first sal
aried secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association in
America. He felt a great interest in this work which had been
in existence but a short time. Later he became chairman of
the International Committee.
Always ready for the heroic task, he attempted to enlist in
the army on the outbreak of the Civil War, but the frailty of
his health proved a barrier. Not to be deterred from his pur
pose of serving his country and humanity, he helped organ
ize the great "Christian Commission, " which aided the sick
and wounded soldiers on both sides throughout the war.
In April, 1861, he married Miss Mary B. Brown and in the
same year entered into partnership with her brother, Nathan
Brown, opening a small clothing store. This business, nur
tured by his unflagging industry, grew to be the largest retail
clothing establishment in the country. His business in Phila
delphia was added to and perfected and an establishment in
New York City opened. In 1907 was completed a fourteen-
story building on Broadway, Eighth and Ninth streets, in New
York City. Prominent people from all over the Union were
present at its formal opening ; and an address was made by the
Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. In Philadel
phia his trade is carried on in a twelve-story granite structure,
with three floors underground. He has in this building a
working force of from twelve thousand to fifteen thousand,
according to the season.
Mr. Wanamaker personally superintends much of the gen
eral detail of these vast enterprises. His success has been
of gradual although enormous growth. He understands the
various stages that a boy or man starting in business needs
to pass through and just what his needs are at each stage.
He is a helpful advisor and takes an interest in the affairs of
490 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
the man who is still climbing. In his speech at the opening
of the recent pure food exposition at Philadelphia he urged
a spirit of cooperation among merchants: " There are hun
dreds of small dealers throughout the city who would find
upon experiment that newspaper advertising is the most pow
erful of all means for increasing their trade. A business as
sociation as such can make use of newspaper advertising to
increase the trade of its individual members and the increase
is such as would surprise you. Business men should mark
each other up, instead of marking each other down."
Mr. Wanamaker was founder, in 1876, of the " department
store. ' ' The idea which originated with Mr. Wanamaker has
been developed by him and by hundreds of other financiers,
until one finds that variety of merchandise and equipment
which is too complex for description. In some department
stores may be found the social secretary who looks after the
welfare and the development of the employees and investi
gates conditions with a view to raising in every possible man
ner the standard of efficiency of the entire establishment. In
1900, the Industrial Commission called upon Mr. Wanamaker
to give expert witness on the subject of department stores.
"He argued," says the Outlook? "that such stores are a nat
ural evolution from conditions of established trade-laws, and
beneficial to society, having a substantial economic and moral
basis for their existence, and that, while the inspiring motive
of such stores was the usual one of making money for their
owners, such a purpose was not without conspicuous advan
tages to the public."
It is characteristic of Mr. Wanamaker that his business en
terprises are not carried on upon an individualistic basis but
are considered by him as public trusts which he holds for the
benefit of others. The tale of his life is a record of splendid
purposes, of lofty ideals and gigantic achievements. Men
have ceased to marvel when some new and remarkable plan is
brought to completion by Mr. Wanamaker; it is only in ac
cord with his well-known manner of procedure to produce
magnificent results from small beginnings.
i Outlook 64:94.
JOHN WANAMAKER 491
While money seems to increase at his word of command,
yet at the same time the economic, social, moral, or esthetic
needs of the race are ministered to. He has supplemented
his business activities with participation in affairs of state
and of the church; has manifested great interest in educa
tional institutions and reforms, and has given largely of his
means for school, library, hospital, and charitable institu
tions. He has a more vital interest in humanity than that of
a doler-out of vast sums of money; he gives his time and en
ergies to improving conditions. He was given this increase
because of perseverance and industry, and for a faithful ad
herence to his principles, notable among which are a strict
observance of the Christian Sabbath and total abstinence.
As postmaster-general during the administration of Gen
eral Benjamin Harrison, he greatly reduced Sunday work in
post-offices throughout the country; he introduced sea post-
offices; abolished the lottery; enlarged free delivery; estab
lished rural delivery; and urged the postal telegraph, postal
savings depositories, and the parcels post.
He has exerted a powerful influence in opposition to "boss
rule" in the politics of his own state and is faithful in all his
duties as a citizen of the United States. Mr. Wanamaker's
attitude towards politics has been rather remarkable. He
has never sought office, and it was only on account of his op
position to machine rule that he consented, in 1897, to run in
opposition to Senator Quay. Although defeated, he was able
for a time to prevent the election of Senator Quay. Com
ments of the press at that time, both Republican and Demo
cratic, show that he stood for reform in his party. His in
fluence turned the balance of power for good government and
brought about reform in the management of the Keystone
State.
He has been enthusiastic and energetic in endeavoring to
make Philadelphia conform to his ideals of clean politics. He
has had many opportunities to run affairs in his own inter
ests, but is an example of that type of politician who seems
to be on the increase, one who is engaged in doing what he
can for the good of the whole people. In his own city, he
492 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
helped to secure a satisfactory water supply ; offered a higher
price for the gas plant than the city was on the point of ac
cepting and likewise offered a greater price than was about
to be paid for the street-railway franchise. These are but
a few of the ways in which he has tried to prove a source of
help to his city.
Prior to his nomination to the postmaster-generalship by
Benjamin Harrison, he had been offered many nominations
to public office but had declined these. He was a delegate to
the Republican National Convention in 1912. In order to at
tend the convention he cut short his vacation in Europe. His
participation in this convention was entirely unselfish as may
be seen from the fact that he refused the nomination to the
Vice-Presidency.
It is of interest to know what he himself looks upon as the
secret of success. In the Central Christian Advocate for
January 14, 1914, Mr. Wanamaker answers the question,
"What Wins?" which was put to a group of prominent men.
He says: "The best place for a young man to learn the facts
of life is from the only book that is an absolute authority for
both of the worlds with which we have to do, the Bible. . .
When I first came a country boy to Philadelphia, I went on an
errand to the office of an insurance man who was a Christian.
A small white card with small black letters on it was fastened
upon the end of his desk where I read, 'He is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek Him.' As I look back to-day upon
that card and remember its influence upon me, it still seems
to be the greatest thing that I ever saw in Philadelphia, be
cause it spoke to me ; I believed the statement ; and I trusted
myself to lean back upon the Word of God. Everybody told
me to be honest and truthful, and energetic, but not even the
strongest of men could make me an absolutely sure promise.
The promises of God have behind them His knowledge and
power, and if He rewards a man that diligently seeks Him,
we shall find out the meaning of the Savior's words when he
said, 'Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and all these
things shall be added unto you. ' ' ?
Mr. Wanamaker is as universally known for his Sunday
JOHN WANAMAKEE 493
school and church activities as for his purely business achieve
ments. He early identified himself with the Presbyterian
Church under the pastorate of Rev. John Chambers, in whose
honor he dedicated, in 1902, the John Chambers Memorial
Church, which he erected at a cost of eighty thousand dollars.
He organized the world-famed Bethany Sunday school in
1858. This school first met in the room of a cobbler, but the
membership has grown from twenty-seven scholars to over
five thousand. In 1868, Mr. Wanamaker purchased a large
lot and erected a substantial stone Sunday school hall which
has since been enlarged several times until it will now ac
commodate thirty-five hundred people. A large Bible Union
meets in the auditorium of the church adjoining. In 1868, he
opened a savings bank for the young people of the Bethany
Sunday school, accepting deposits of ' i one cent and upwards. ' '
In 1913, the bank had over twenty thousand depositors and
deposits amounting to about two million dollars. He suc
ceeded in framing and having passed by the Pennsylvania
legislature a general law regulating savings funds, so that
the investments were fixed in certain securities, and loans
disallowed to any of the officers, directors, or employees of
the savings fund. He maintains, also, in connection with the
Bethany Church work, a dispensary where about ten thou
sand patients are treated annually.
Mrs. Wanamaker and he built the children's ward of the
Presbyterian Hospital, which he helped to found and of which
he is trustee. He takes a deep interest in the welfare of boys
and men. Not least among his enterprises are the " Men's
Friendly Union," with a membership of one thousand men,
connected with the John Chambers Memorial Church, and the
"Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip," with nearly one thou
sand men, for whom was erected the Bethany Brotherhood
House, equipped with reading room, museum, auditorium,
supper room, swimming pool, lockers, gymnasium, roof gar
den, etc. The members carry on an active Building and Loan
Association. Near this building is the "Free Library of
Philadelphia, John Wanamaker Branch."
He was an ardent admirer of John B. Gough and has taken
494 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
an active part in temperance reform. Always a total ab
stainer, he can, however, sympathize with the man who has
fallen through drink. To aid the drunkard to reform, he
established, in 1895, "The Men's Friendly Inn," which is not
only a temporary home for those- who wish to break off the
drink habit, but also for other men who are in need. It is a
fine building, which accommodates about one hundred fifty
men. They are furnished with an evening dinner, lodging
and breakfast, at moderate expense. As far as possible, em
ployment is secured for all who prove worthy. Hundreds of
men have been helped and restored to their families by means
of this Inn. Many a man is filled with gratitude that John
Wanamaker is not among the number of those who have said,
"A man should be strong enough to let liquor alone"; he has
been courageous enough to stand by his principles and, at the
same time, has shown sympathy in a practical manner for
those who have felt the curse of the liquor traffic. The
strength of his manhood and tenderness of his sympathies
supplement his prosaic devotion to business detail.
Too public-spirited to keep his resources for his own use, or
for his city, or his state, widening the circle to include even
the native red men, Mr. Wanamaker lends support also to
foreign missions. Among his contributions are those to the
Allahabad, India, mission; the Madras Y. M. C. A. building,
erected at a cost to him of about sixty thousand dollars ; the
Calcutta Y. M. C. A. Boys' Hall; the Beyrut, Syria, School;
the gift of Y. M. C. A. buildings to China, Japan and Korea,
and contributions to the Italian, French, and Bohemian
churches.
Mr. Wanamaker 's life has not lacked an underlying prin
ciple. The wonderful results that he has been able to bring
about are not accomplished by all men. If a few men amass
great fortunes they are looked upon as possessors of remark
able talent; but to produce the means for vast enterprises
and at the same time to keep in close touch with the lives and
souls of men of all conditions and classes throughout this and
other countries is a task for a man of titanic understanding
and power. The satisfaction that comes to him from so gen-
JOHN WANAMAKER 495
eral a distribution of his means cannot be measured by any
known standards. It is simply beyond computation.
He has been greatly interested in the cause of education.
He founded the Bethany Industrial College, which has as its
object the provision of an education for young people whose
early education has been limited. He has been trustee of the
Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades from the
founding of that institution. He has made valuable contribu
tions to the archaeological collections in the Museum of the
University of Pennsylvania, of which he is vice-president.
He has collected many valuable art trophies for the art gal
lery in his department store. In 1888, having obtained the
famous Munkaczy painting, "Christ Before Pilate, " in which
all of the figures were life-size, he sent it around the country
to be exhibited to the people, as a means of doing good.
In even an incomplete review of the life of John Wana
maker, it is easy to see the many sides of his nature. He
must needs bring a broader outlook to those whom he en
counters. The economic, social, ethical, and esthetic needs of
the individual and of groups of individuals are all subjects
of interest to him. Mr. Wanamaker has built up the reputa
tion for generosity which he deserves. With a capacity for
acquiring wealth, his ambition for its possession has ever
been coupled with philanthropic motives. He has held his
talent as a trust and has developed it, not as a means of add
ing luster to his own name, but as a means of strengthening
the brotherhood of man. His name will go down not as that
of a man who has amassed a great fortune and in old age or
by will has made provision for its distribution, but as that of
one who has added to his fortune for the sake of and by the
very fact of his free use of it for the help of humanity.
Charles S. Gleed in an article in the Cosmopolitan? applies
to Mr. Wanamaker the statement which Peter Cooper made
about himself: "While I have always recognized that the
object of business is to make money in an honorable manner,
I have endeavored to remember that the object of life is to do
good. Hence I have been ready to engage in all new enter-
2 Cosmopolitan 33 :88.
496 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
prises, and, without incurring debt, to risk the means which
I have acquired in their promotion, provided they seemed to
me calculated to advance the general good. ' ' The name John
Wanamaker stands in the business world for honesty, indus
try, and skill; in political life for freedom from "boss rule"
and for government in behalf of the public good as regards
health, prosperity and morals; in social and religious circles
for the strengthening of the brotherhood of man. In com
mon everyday life the man Wanamaker is a sober and indus
trious business man, a devout and self-sacrificing church and
Sunday school worker, a sympathetic friend to man. ' ' Think
ing, trying, trusting is all of my biography, " says Mr. Wana
maker.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PERIODICALS
Mr. Wanamaker 's Confessions. Nation 52: 472.
Mr. Wanamaker on Department Stores. Outlook 64:94.
My Measure of Success. By John Wanamaker. System 24:35.
Sketch. By C. S. Gleed. Cosmopolitan 33 :88.
The Wanamaker Expedition. Outlook 104:642.
What Wins. By John Wanamaker. Central Christian Advocate
58 :464.
/7<
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
BY EGBERT E. PARK
WITH the possible exception of Andrew Carnegie and
Theodore Roosevelt, there is no man in America to
day whose name is known to so many different per
sons and in so many different parts of the world as is the
name of Booker T. Washington, principal and founder of the
industrial school for negroes in the little, quaint, old-fash
ioned, ante-bellum town of Tuskegee, Alabama, and author of
Up From Slavery, a book which has been translated into all
of the languages of Europe. Booker T. Washington was
born some time about 1858 or 1859 — he is himself not quite
sure of the date — on a slave plantation near Hale 's Ford,
in Franklin county, Virginia. His mother, who went by the
name of "Aunt Jane," was the plantation cook. His father
was a white man ; Booker Washington never knew him, or, if
he did, never claimed him. When his master, whose name
was Burroughs, died, some time during the Civil War, an
inventory was made of his property. A copy of this inven
tory is still in the possession of the Burroughs family. It
contains, among others, the names of the slave, " Booker/' his
mother, brother, a sister, and some other more distant rela
tives. At that time Booker Washington, who is now regard
ed as one of the world's "most useful citizens," was valued
at the conservative sum of $300. His brother John, who was
considered the more promising of the two, was valued at $400.
The United States has been called the "land of opportun
ities," and the twentieth century has inherited from the
nineteenth the legend of an amazing progress, and of the mir
aculous rise from poverty to prosperity, from obscurity to
greatness, of many of its most important citizens ; but surely
there is in America no other instance of a man, who, starting
so low has risen so high, none whose personal history more
completely illustrates the possibilities of American life at the
end of the nineteenth century, as that of the man who, born a
500 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
slave, is now counted among twenty or thirty of the world's
most valued citizens.
This is the more remarkable and the more significant be
cause, starting thus at the bottom, at the very lowest round
of the ladder, he has reached this eminence simply as a private
citizen. Booker Washington never held a public office, never
was a soldier, and never led a forlorn hope to glorious vic
tory. He has, on the contrary, been all his life merely a negro
schoolmaster, the eloquent preacher of what was for many
years an unpopular educational doctrine; and he is to-day
the most conspicuo-is member and leader of a struggling and
unpopular race.
This is the day of the schoolmaster. At no time in the his
tory of the world has the school held a more important place
in society; nevertheless it is safe to say that few single insti
tutions have been more important than the Tuskegee Normal
and Industrial Institute, the school founded by Booker T.
Washington some thirty years ago, in the Black Belt of Ala
bama, a region in which black people outnumber the whites
five to one. Tuskegee, however, has had the advantage of
beginning its work soon after the rise of a great social prob
lem which has given practical aim and effect to all that it has
done or attempted to do.
Some years ago I had an opportunity to hear Booker Wash
ington tell his own story under circumstances of exceptional
interest. He had been invited to speak at the Virginia State
Fair at Eoanoke, Va. Hale's Ford, where he was born, is
about thirty miles away. The day following the address, we
started with a party of friends to visit the old plantation,
which Dr. Washington had not seen since, shortly after the
War, he crossed the mountains with his mother, and went
into West Virginia to join his step-father who had found
work at the Salt Works at Maiden, near Charleston, West
Virginia.
The visit to the old Burroughs homestead meant a long and
tedious journey across the mountains, through what before
the Civil War had been a region of flourishing plantations,
now long since deserted. The negroes had left the country
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 501
shortly after "the surrender, " we were told, and more re
cently the poor white population has been gradually trickling
away to the factories at Danville and elsewhere. It was the
middle of the afternoon before we reached the old Burroughs
place, an old run-down plantation in the midst of a now bar
ren and desolate countryside. The plantation house, which
had never been an imposing structure, had fallen into decay.
The Burroughs family had not belonged to the slave-holding
aristocracy, but had been well-to-do people of the small slave-
holding class. Frederick Douglass, the first distinguished
leader of the negro race, had belonged to a proud and aristo
cratic family that owned hundreds of slaves and thousands
of acres of land ; but Booker Washington did not even inherit
the distinction of being the slave of a rich man.
The announcement that the former slave and present negro
leader was coming back to visit his old home had preceded
the party, and a little crowd of people, among them a mem
ber of the Burroughs family, and one or two of the old slaves,
was waiting to welcome Dr. Washington when he arrived.
Some little time was spent in reviewing old acquaintances,
exchanging reminiscences and identifying remembered places.
Many of the old landmarks had disappeared. The old out
door kitchen, in one corner of which Washington was born,
had gone, but the site of it was found. Nearby stood an old
willow tree and Dr. Washington remembered that from this
tree his master had cut the switch with which he gave him
his first whipping. The old dining room, with its big swing
ing fan, suspended from a beam in the ceiling, was still there,
just as it had been nearly fifty years before, when Aunt Jane's
" Booker " used to operate it. It was the first work Booker
Washington ever did and is worth remembering of the man
who, on the whole, has probably done as much real work as
any other person living. It is a tradition at Tuskegee that
the principal never stops work and that he rests only when
he is on a railway train, speeding over the country to one or
another of his various appointments.
Of this early life on the plantation Booker Washington has
told in his autobiography. Two incidents in particular were
502 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
recalled during the visit to the old home. One of these was
the bringing home from the War of the dead body of young
master Billy, one of the younger sons of the Burroughs fam
ily, whom young Booker had known and played with as a boy.
It was the first vivid impression that the people on the plan
tation had of the War. Across the road from the "big house "
there is a little plat of ground where the young master was
buried. It is covered over with wild growth, but Dr. Wash
ington found the spot, paused to look at the headstone and
to recall the incident, which had made a deep impression upon
his boyish mind.
The second big impression of those early days which this
visit recalled referred to the memorable day on which the
people on the plantation learned that they were free. Booker
Washington has described the occasion in one of the most im
pressive paragraphs in his remarkable autobiography. He
says : *
The night before the eventful day, word was sent to the
slave quarters to the effect that something unusual was going
to take place at the "big house" the next morning. There
was little, if any, sleep that night. All was excitement and
expectancy. Early the next morning word was sent to all the
slaves, old and young, to gather at the house. In company
with my mother, brother, and sister, and a large number of
other slaves, I went to the master's house. All of our mas
ter's family were either standing or seated on the veranda
of the house, where they could see what was to take place and
hear what was said. There was a feeling of deep interest, or
perhaps sadness, on their faces, but not bitterness. As I now
recall the impression they made upon me, they did not at the
moment seem to be sad because of the loss of property, but
rather because of parting with those whom they had reared
and who were in many ways very close to them. The most
distinct thing that I now recall in connection with the scene
was that some man who seemed to be a stranger (a United
States officer, I presume) made a little speech and then read
a rather long paper — the Emancipation Proclamation, I
think. After the reading we were told that we were all free,
and could go when and where we pleased. My mother, who
was standing by my side, leaned over and kissed her children,,
Up From Slavery, pp. 20-22.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 503
while tears of joy ran down her cheeks. She explained to us
what it all meant, that this was the day for which she had
been so long praying, but fearing that she would never live
to see.
For some minutes there was great rejoicing, and thanks
giving, and wild scenes of ecstasy. But there was no feeling
of bitterness. In fact, there was pity among the slaves for
our former owners. The wild rejoicing on the part of the
emancipated colored people lasted but for a brief period, for
I noticed that by the time they returned to their cabins there
was a change in their feelings. The great responsibility of
being free, of having charge of themselves, of having to think
and plan for themselves and their children, seemed to take
possession of them. It was very much like suddenly turning
a youth of ten or twelve years out into the world to provide
for himself. In a few hours the great questions with which
the Anglo-Saxon race had been grappling for centuries had
been thrown upon these people to be solved. These were the
questions of a home, a living, the rearing of children, educa
tion, citizenship, and the establishment and support of
churches. Was it any wonder that within a few hours the wild
rejoicing ceased and a feeling of deep gloom seemed to per
vade the slave quarters ?
Among the people who had turned out to welcome the for
mer slave 's return to the old plantation were several who had
been present and taken part in this impressive little ceremony
and whose memories of all the old life were still vivid. The
little human incidents that they related seemed to complete
the picture and give it its proper setting.
It was after this that Dr. Washington stood upon the front
steps of the old house and told to the little group of neigh
bors, white and black, the story of his life since he had gone
away. He told how, as he was working one day down in the
mines, he had overheard one of the miners during a pause in
their work reading from a scrap of paper by the light of a
little miner 's lamp of a school, called Hampton Institute,
where a negro boy, if he was earnest and industrious, could
go to school and earn his way working at a trade. Presently
the men began discussing this school, and he, Washington,
crept close and listened to what they had to say, and made
up his mind then and there that he would find that school,
504 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
and get an education. He described his journey across the
mountains to Virginia, traveling by stage until his money
failed and then walking, carrying his little bundle on his back,
getting now and then a lift from a friendly driver whom he
met, until he finally reached Richmond, hungry, ragged, and
penniless. He was still many miles from Hampton Institute,
but he felt compelled to stop here until he could earn some
money to go on. He found a job loading iron ore on one of
the boats in the James River. Meanwhile, because he had no
other place to go, he slept under the friendly shelter of the
sidewalk. There he spent several nights, until he had suc
ceeded in earning money enough to go on and complete his
journey.
His account of the manner in which he succeeded in pass
ing his entrance examination to Hampton can best be told
in his own words : 2
As soon as possible after reaching the grounds of the
Hampton Institute, I presented myself before the head
teacher for assignment to a class. Having been so long without
proper food, a bath, and change of clothing, I did not, of
course, make a very favorable impression upon the teacher,
and I could see at once that there were doubts in her mind
about the wisdom of admitting me as a student. . . For
some time she did not refuse to admit me, neither did she de
cide in my favor, and I continued to linger about. . . After
some hours had passed, the head teacher said to me: "The
adjoining recitation-room needs sweeping. Take the broom
and sweep it. ' '
It occurred to me at once that here was my chance. Never
did I receive an order with more delight. . . .
1 swept the recitation-room three times. Then I got a dust
ing-cloth and I dusted it four times. All the woodwork around
the walls, every bench, table, and desk, I went over four
times with my dusting-cloth. Besides, every piece of furni
ture had been moved and every closet and corner in the room
had been thoroughly cleaned. I had the feeling that, in a
large measure, my future depended upon the impression I
made upon the teacher in the cleaning of that room. When
I was through, I reported to the head teacher. She was a
"Yankee" woman who knew just where to look for dirt. She
2 Up From Slavery, pp. 51-'53.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 505
went into the room and inspected the floor and closets; then
she took her handkerchief and rubbed it on the woodwork
about the walls, and over the table and benches. When she
was unable to find one bit of dirt on the floor, or a particle of
dust on any of the furniture, she quietly remarked, "I guess
you will do to enter this institution/' . . .
The sweeping of that room was my college examination.
. . . I have passed several examinations since then, but I
have always felt that this was the best one I ever passed. . .
After graduating from Hampton Institute, Booker Wash
ington was sent by Gen. Armstrong, Principal of Hampton,
to the little town of Tuskegee, Alabama, and there in 1881
he founded the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute,
of which he has ever since been the head. Starting there in
1881, as he said, in a little negro church "with thirty pupils,
one teacher, and no property but a blind mule," this school
has grown in numbers, property, and influence until to-day it
has, large and small, upwards of one hundred buildings, two
hundred teachers and helpers, twenty-four hundred acres of
land, and something like sixteen hundred pupils.
The people to whom Booker Washington told this story
were back country people; some of them "poor whites " who
had themselves obtained little or no education, all of them
persons who shared the prejudices of Southern people in
regard to the education of the negro. But as he proceeded
in his simple, direct way with the story of his own struggle;
as he set forth the plain and practical plan of the education
he had tried to give his students and, finally, as he described
in convincing detail, the results of this education upon the
pupils themselves, and upon the communities in which they
lived, I think we were all profoundly impressed. It was a
lesson in civilization, and I believe we all saw, as we had not
seen before, the part that the school had played and was
destined to play in the solution of the race problem, and per
haps, also, of some other problems which have not prospered
under the ministrations of politicians and the influences of
party politics.
It was not until 1895 that Booker Washington began to as
sume the proportions of a national figure. Up to that time
506 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
he had been an obscure negro school master, chiefly remarka
ble for his persistence, for the shrewd and practical common
sense of his judgment on the race problem and for a certain
native simplicity and vigor in his manner of expressing them.
A year or two before this time he had had an opportunity
to speak at the National Education Association in Wiscon
sin, where he made a profound impression on those who heard
him. In 1893, also, he had an opportunity to make a few min
utes7 speech at the international meeting of the Christian
Workers, at Atlanta. Except for these two meetings he was
unknown to the larger American public not directly interest
ed in negro education. He made a good impression, however,
in the few minutes ' address in the interest of the Cotton States
Exposition which he gave before a congressional committee,
so that when it was finally decided to permit a member of the
negro race to make one of the addresses at the opening of this
exposition in Atlanta, Booker Washington was invited to per
form that function.
Before that time, it was said — although this is not exactly
true — that no negro had ever spoken from the same plat
form as a white man in the South. At any rate, the announce
ment that a black man was to have a place on the program
aroused much discussion, and some misgivings, the result of
which was that the public was in a state of anxious expecta
tion to hear what the black orator was going to say. With
the exception of Lincoln's Gettysburg address, perhaps, no
speech ever uttered by an American has had deeper and more
lasting influence upon the history of this country. Looking
back upon the event to-day it is hard to realize the impres
sion which this speech made upon the whole country.
The best contemporary account of the scene was that tele
graphed to the New York World, by James Creelman. After
describing the great audience, some of them skeptical, some
of them a little anxious, all of them curious in regard to the
outcome, he said:
All this time the eyes of the thousands present looked
straight at the negro orator. A strange thing was to happen.
A black man was to speak for his people, with none to inter-
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 507
rupt Mm. ... A great shout greeted him. He turned
his head to avoid the blinding light, and moved about the
platform for relief. Then he turned his wonderful coun
tenance to the sun without a blink of the eyelids, and began to
talk. ...
The sinews stood out on his bronzed neck, and his muscular
right arm swung high in the air, with a lead-pencil clasped in
the clinched brown fist. His big feet were planted squarely,
with the heels together and the toes turned out. His voice
rang out clear and true, and he paused impressively as he
made each point. Within ten minutes the multitude was in
an uproar of enthusiasm — handkerchiefs were waved, canes
were flourished, hats were tossed in the air. The fairest
women of Georgia stood up and cheered. It was as if the
orator had bewitched them.
And when he held his dusky hand high above his head, with
the fingers stretched wide apart, and said to the white people
of the South on behalf of his race, "In all things that are
purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as
the hand in all things essential to mutual progress," the great
wave of sound dashed itself against the walls, and the whole
audience was on its feet in a delirium of applause, and I
thought at that moment of the night when Henry Grady stood
among the curling wreaths of tobacco-smoke in Delmonico's
banquet-hall and said, ' ' I am a Cavalier among Roundheads. ' '
I have heard the great orators of many countries, but not
even Gladstone himself could have pleaded a cause with more
consummate power than did this angular negro, standing in a
nimbus of sunshine, surrounded by the men who once fought
to keep his race in bondage. . . .
That speech made Booker Washington famous. It was
copied and commented upon in papers all over the United
States. It brought him showers of letters, invitations to speak
- to write for the magazines. As he says in his recent work,
My Larger Education, the sequel to his earlier autobiography,
he found himself suddenly and unexpectedly hailed as "the
successor to Frederick Douglass, " the " Moses " of his race,
and so forth. Almost everyone seemed to think that he would
now give up his school and go into politics, devote himself,
in short, to the profession of a "race leader."
If any such idea entered Booker Washington's head, he
never seriously entertained it. He had other and different
508 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
plans. As he began to realize the opportunities that this
sudden accession of popularity gave him, he determined to use
it to carry out the purpose that he had gradually come to re
gard as his mission : the moral and intellectual emancipation
of his race. Lincoln and the war had freed his peoples' bod
ies, he said, and he wanted to do something that would free
their minds.
Perhaps the finest and best comment upon the Atlanta
speech was that of Clark Howell, the editor of the Atlanta
Constitution, who said: "That man's speech is the begin
ning of a moral revolution in America." But Booker T.
Washington is about the last man in America who would de
liberately set out to effect a "moral revolution. " The ex
pression is too large, too sounding, too abstract. He would
not know just what the thing meant. He is too direct and
practical. He does not think in those terms. In fact he is
not a thinker, in the ordinary sense of the word : he is a work
er, a doer, and the marvelous thing about it all is that he
almost always does the right things. He has vision, the gift
of seeing things clearly and seeing them whole.
And so Booker Washington would never speak of his task,
his mission, as that of leading a "moral revolution. " He
would say that his work was education ; that his mission was
to change public opinion. He has said that he thinks that the
most important achievement of the Tuskegee Institute con
sists in what it has done, first, to teach his own people the
dignity of labor ; to inspire them with the faith in themselves
and in their future ; to make them realize that in the long run
their future depends upon what they make of themselves;
second, to convince Southern white people that it pays to
educate the negro ; that, in the long run the health, the pros
perity, and the moral welfare of the black man is bound up
with that of the white ; that it is a mistake to believe that one
man's evil can ever be another man's good. As he puts it,
' ' one race can not hold a man down in the gutter without stay
ing down there with him. ' *
On the other hand he has very little confidence in any re
forms that are brought about by the mere passage of laws.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 509
He believes that, if the politician will leave the negro problem
alone, the two races can settle their difficulties among them
selves and that, in any case, the passage of laws without the
power and the public sentiment to enforce them, tends to ag
gravate rather than cure the evils from which the races are
now suffering. He has had the wisdom to see that there is a
region above and beyond all formal legislation and law in
which the destinies of individuals, as well as of races, are
finally determined.
One could hardly find two persons who, in their individual
tempers and personal fortune, are wider apart than Booker
T. Washington, the Negro Moses, and Count Leo Tolstoi, the
Russian prophet. And yet there is something in common be
tween these two men. Both men, each in his own peculiar
way, have been what we used to call " non-resistants "; both
believe profoundly in the masses of their people ; both are con
vinced that no mere alteration of external conditions, no mere
emancipation by proclamation, nothing but the slow and silent
evolution of the latent potentialities of the people can effect a
permanent change in the conditions of their life. But here
the likeness between the two men ended.
Booker Washington, true to the instinct of his race and of
the American people, is an outward rather than inward-look
ing man. He sees the difficulties which his people have to
meet; he understands and appreciates their faults as well as
their virtues, but he always maintains a cheerful outlook on
life. He believes in his own people ; he trusts the good will
of the South ; and he has a profound faith in the sense of jus
tice and fair play of the American white man. He never al
lows himself to become discouraged or embittered. He says
that early in life he made up his mind that he would never let
another man drag him down by causing him to hate him. On
the whole he seems to relish the fact that fate has bound him
up with the solution of a hard and perplexing problem. One
time, when his attention was called to what seemed a particu
larly cruel and unjust factor in the situation of the negroes
in the South, he listened patiently to the end. Then he said :
510 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
"Well, that simply makes the problem all the more interest
ing."
His unfailing humor, with which he so frequently disarms
the criticism of those who oppose him, his inexhaustible good
will, which has frequently made him the victim of self-seeking
individuals, but has just as frequently converted an open en
emy into a sincere friend and supporter, are the striking fea
tures of his mind and character.
Booker Washington has received many honors and made
many friends among the best and most distinguished men in
this country and in Europe. Harvard University, in 1897,
conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts.
He has been received, in spite of the fact that he was a negro,
by the highest representations of the people at home and
abroad. When he went abroad in 1912, he was entertained
at dinner by the King of Denmark. He had previously, in
company with Mrs. Washington, visited England in 1899, and
had been received at Windsor Castle by Queen Victoria.
He has used all the influence and power which these dis
tinctions have brought him for the single purpose of further
ing the work to which he has devoted his life. His work is not
yet done ; but he has lived to see the program which he laid
down in his Atlanta speech adopted by the best elements of
both races in the South. As an old colored preacher once said
speaking not of Booker Washington, but of one of the mis
sionary teachers whom Booker Washington had sent out into
one of the dark corners of the South : "It was midnight when
he came here. Now it is daybreak. ' 9
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Little Journey to Tuskegee. By Elbert Hubbard.
Man Farthest Down. ( Doubled ay, Page & Co.) By Booker T. Wash
ington.
My Larger Education. (Doubleday, Page & Co.) By Booker T.
Washington.
Story of the Negro. (Doubleday, Page & Co.) By Booker T. Wash
ington.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 511
Tuskegee. (Small and Maynard.) By Max Bennet Thrasher.
Up from Slavery. (Doubleday, Page & Co.) By Booker T. Wash
ington.
PERIODICALS
Booker T. Washington and Tuskegee; a Southern Opinion. Outlook
67 :629.
Booker Washington's Personality. By Max Bennett Thrasher. Out
look 69:629.
Exemplary Citizen. By William Dean Howells. North American
Review 88:280.
Ostracized Race in Ferment. By Ray Stannard Baker. American
66 :63.
Why Booker Washington Has Succeeeded in his Life Work. By
Francis E. Leupp. Outlook 71 :326.
HENRY WATTERSON
BY LOGAN ESAEEY
OF all men a genius is the most hopeless to his bio
grapher. His manner of thought and above all his man
ner of life are not along common lines. He does not
move along conventional paths. For that reason no common
man can understand or appreciate him. Where common men
plod along from point to point, he jumps from peak to peak,
often without leaving along the course of his flights any trace
by which he can be followed.
Not only in his mental life but in his ordinary conduct the
genius is not impelled by ordinary motives. Society has
marked out with tolerable accuracy a certain line of promotion
along which successful men move as they progress through
life. Nearly all men look upon this scale of promotion as
being dominated by two factors, money and honor. A com
mon man may have a satisfactory position but if another posi
tion opens up with an increased salary he at once becomes
a candidate for the new, higher-priced position. Likewise
nearly all men look upon the public service as a very desir
able work. They will sacrifice quite a little in the way of sal
ary or convenience, or both, in order to gratify this thirst for
public honor. The genius sees farther and, like Emerson,
knows there is more honor in making a good mouse trap than
in being a poor Congressman. In a single sentence, genius
knows enough to follow its own bent and not to turn aside to
the disappointing temptations of money and honor.
Not being influenced by these like ordinary men, the genius
acquires the reputation among his fellows of being eccentric.
For that reason it is most difficult for a biographer to get at
the facts concerning his life. Those who are too dull to feel
any sympathy whatever with any purpose in life higher than
accumulating wealth leave it as their conviction that he is
lacking sadly in common sense. Another class who have an
inkling of his ability fear him and label him as dangerous,
Courtesy Steffens, Louisville
HENRY WATTERSON 515
given over to deep-laid schemes against the common welfare.
If to his genius you add a small tincture of inspiration, that
element in some characters which occasionally raises them
high enough above the disturbances of the present and the
immediate vicinity to enable them to get a connected view
over considerable time and space, you will have about the
most difficult thing for analysis in the world.
Such a man is Henry Watterson. The above difficulties
are not the only ones. For in Mr. Watterson 's life is em
bodied in a small degree the tragedy of the Civil War. His
parentage, his training, his sentiments, his local surroundings
in Tennessee, Washington, and in Louisville, all emphasize
this tragedy. His father, Harvey Magee Watterson, was a
representative from Tennessee, 1839-1843, editor of the Nash
ville Union, 1847-1851, editor Washington Union, 1851. He
was a lawyer by profession, practicing many years in Wash
ington.
From 1840 to 1860 young Watterson grew up in the at
mosphere of the national capital, his social sympathies tend
ing toward the chivalric society of the old South while his in
tellectual sympathies were largely Northern. His fondness
for the Union was a reflection of his inherited tendencies and
of his observation and study at Washington. His father was
the successor in the House of Representatives of James K.
Polk. He was a friend and companion of Andrew Jackson,
and held the same views regarding the Union as Old Hickory.
It is doubtful if the inhabitants of any other section of the
country equalled those of old Tennessee in disinterested love
of the Union. That sentiment was shared by both Henry Wat
terson and his father.
Henry Watterson was born in Washington City, February
16, 1840. The twenty years following were full of meaning
for the boy and young man. One is tempted to say that he
was fortunately physically unable to attend school. Again,
one is tempted to say that his father was fortunately too
busy to give much attention to the educational training of the
son. The latter was uncertain in his tastes. He early
showed a tendency toward music. He pursued his musical
516 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
education with energy for several years, until an accident
cost Mm the use of his left hand. He seems to have given up
a musical career without any regret. In fact it is entirely
possible that he was tiring of the art and glad to drop it.
His education was entirely in the hands of private tutors.
He spent four years at the Academy of the Diocese of Penn
sylvania in Philadelphia under the instruction of Dr. George
Emlin Hare. He developed a taste for literature, and his
early writings show that the great essayists of the Georgian
Era of English Literature had a decisive influence on him.
We can only surmise what would have been the result had he
been permitted, as Edmund Burke and Washington Irving
were, to spend years of leisure in the company and enjoy
ment of these literary masters.
Washington City at that time was the meeting point of all
the currents of American life. With his knowledge of all
these currents, with his intimate acquaintance with all the
characters who then visited annually the cosmopolitan capital,
and with Washington society as a background, what might he
not have hoped for in the way of a literary career !
Young Watterson also showed decided talent as a critic of
the stage. He frequently wrote for the press. These brief
articles leave no doubt that had he given his time and energy
to work along this line he would have taken rank with Lowell
or Poe as a critic. But these and other early adventures
only show the versatility of his genius. He could have made
his mark in any field to which he might have given his atten
tion. These activities were, moreover, all parts of an educa
tion that was unconsciously fitting him for a career which was
to be of inestimable benefit to the nation, and there was no
sentiment which so completely commanded his life as pa
triotism.
While the young man was thus casting about, following first
one inclination and then another, a political crisis was fast
coming upon the nation. The Civil War broke out and, dur
ing the year in which Watterson became of age, completely
and forever shattered that society with which he had become
HENRY WATTERSON 517
so familiar. The father did all in his power to lay the storm,
but when he saw it was impossible he withdrew to a retired
estate among the mountains and took no part in the fight.
The young man was not able to do this, although at the time
he was editing a Union paper in Tennessee. His life had
been spent in action. When he saw that the Union was to be
destroyed he took sides with that party which he thought
most nearly represented the old Union of Jackson, and Clay,
and Jefferson.
In doing this he only did what thousands of patriotic
Southern men did. He entered the Southern army reluctantly
but once enlisted he fought loyally for the South as long as
there was any hope of victory. He enlisted from Tennessee
in 1861. He was at first an aide to the famous cavalry gen
eral, Forrest, but later served on the staff of General Leon-
idas Polke, better known as one of the great bishops of the
Protestant Episcopal Church. He was a daring, reckless sol
dier and during the Atlanta campaign he served as a scout.
During all his four years of service he was rarely on regular
duty. He preferred independence where his own initiative
might have free play. For this reason he was usually as
signed to scout duty.
Although Colonel Watterson as a soldier lost the cause for
which he was fighting, he came out of the war with rugged
health and an iron constitution. Four years of life on horse
back and in camp in the mountains of Tennessee had devel
oped for him a physique that was to stand him in good stead
in his long and arduous service as editor.
Even during the war Colonel Watterson had not entirely
forgotten his first love. As mentioned above, he had spent
some time as an art critic on the newspapers of Washington.
The opening of the war had found him editing a paper in Ten
nessee. As soon as the war was well under way he recognized
the great advantage there would be in a newspaper at some
central point which would give the military news of the Con
federate armies. Carrying out this idea there appeared at
Chattanooga in October, 1862, the first number of the Rebel,
518 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
edited by Mr. Watterson. It at once attained great popular
ity. The Confederate commanders made it the medium of
their correspondence.
Mr. Watterson lost no time at the close of the war lament
ing the fate of the Confederacy. The devastation wrought
by contending armies was disheartening. Worse than this
was the discouragement and gloom that settled down over the
leading men of the South. Worst of all was the faction in the
North which, after the death of Lincoln, determined to make
political capital out of the results of the war. Here is where
Mr. Watterson 's vision helped him to rise above the tem
porary questions on which the common politicians wasted
their energy. The military occupation of the South, the op
pression of the freedmen, the raids of the Ku Klux, the force
bill, and freedman's bureau, in his eyes were partisan meas
ures which only hindered the restoration of the Union to its
old-time glory. The only work worthy of a patriotic states
man under the circumstances was that which Lincoln had out
lined in his second inaugural, "to bind up the nations 's
wounds. ' ' The results of the war should be frankly accepted.
The smoke of battle had hardly cleared away before Mr.
Watterson was publishing a newspaper in the capital of Ten
nessee. No State except Virginia had felt the ravages of war
so keenly as Tennessee. Thousands of its most intelligent
men were refugees north of the Ohio River. Other thousands
had sacrificed both life and property for the Confederacy.
Still other thousands whose sympathies had not led them into
either army had been driven from their homes and for years
had lived like outlaws. Mr. Watterson soon realized that this
was no place to try to establish a newspaper of national repu
tation.
In this situation Mr. Watterson took advantage of an op
portunity which presented itself in the winter of 1866-67 to be
come editor and part owner of the Louisville Journal. This
paper had been edited for many years by the celebrated
George D. Prentice. With Henry Clay as its political sponsor
and Prentice as its editor it had enjoyed a national reputation
for nearly two scores of years. Before the war the Journal
HENRY WATTERSON 519
had been opposed by the Courier. Now that both were sup
porting the Democratic Party it seemed useless to run both.
Accordingly during the late fall of 1868 the two were consol
idated, the Louisville Democrat being included in the merger.
The first number of the Courier -Journal appeared November
8, 1868. The veteran editor, Prentice, continued in service
until his death in 1870. Since the latter period, over a third
of a century, the Courier -Journal and Henry Watterson have
been synonyms throughout the United States.
This does not mean that Mr. Watterson was accepted with
out question by the readers of the Courier -Journal as a
worthy successor of Prentice. The shadow of the older ed
itor hung for some years across the pathway of the new.
Every departure was measured by the yardstick of Prentice.
But it was not long before the literary style and broad, lib
eral, forward-looking policy of the younger editor gained rec
ognition not only in Kentucky, but throughout the Union.
The fight for political leadership in Kentucky was longer
and more bitterly contested. Kentucky has never welcomed
outsiders who sought political distinction in the State. Clay
and Prentice had both been required to fight stubbornly for
their political supremacy. Mr. Watterson took a position
with the younger progressive group of Democrats, and so at
once brought down upon himself the main attacks of the older,
unreconstructive, reactionary politicians.
Among his first contests was one for the political status of
the negro. He saw at once that it was impossible to have in
the commonwealth a large body of freemen who were not cit
izens. Either the colored men must be slaves or must have a
right to protect themselves by the power of the courts. With
out this latter power they would have to defend themselves
by force of arms against oppression. This in turn would
mean civil war as the normal condition of the State. As was
his custom, Editor Watterson did not count the cost of his
struggle, but at once took up his cudgels to fight for the ad
mission of negro evidence in court. The fight was fast and
bloody. Those politicians who supported him and were can
didates for office were driven from political life. But Mr.
520 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
Watterson was safe from defeat in his editorial position.
The serious second thought of the people showed them clearly
that he was right, and the negro gained the protection of the
courts. This contest also showed him beyond question that
a great editor could not afford to be a candidate for or to hold
public office.
There was at this time an organization of corrupt men high
up in the management of the Republican Party. This gang in
large measure controlled the Federal government. It kept
itself in power very largely by waving the bloody shirt ; that
is, by denouncing the Democratic Party for bringing on the
Civil War. Since it was necessary for this gang also to keep
the South under military government, Federal troops were
stationed at the polls. All the Southern leaders who had
taken part in the war — and that meant practically all of
them — were kept out of public life, their place being taken
by a class of political buccaneers called carpet-baggers. The
narrow policy of the Southern leaders in countenancing law
lessness in the South gave these men just the material they
wished for their speeches to Northern voters. In the North
politics were controlled by the soldiers, who still felt bitter
toward the South.
Surely it was a stupendous task which confronted the small
group of Southern progressives. Here again many of Mr.
Watterson 's Southern friends were unable to understand him.
In vision he saw a New South without the slavery he had
hated almost as much as Lincoln, with railroads, rivers, and
canals busy carrying the commerce of the busy population,
with cotton factories rivaling those of New England, with
steel mills to use up the vast mineral resources in the Ap
palachian Mountains. While he talked and wrote of these
beautiful visions, his heavy-footed companions could see noth
ing where he pointed but the wreck and ruin of a terrible
struggle, and over all the heavy hand of the Northern op
pressor.
There was a movement started by some of the more ag
gressive Confederate officers, Mr. Watterson among the num
ber, to organize a new party for the South, one free of the
HENRY WATTERSON 521
war associations. A meeting of the leaders of this movement
was held at Ashland. But not even the spell of Clay could
endow the party with the breath of life. Mr. Watterson was
charged with treason, with insincerity, with being a dreamer
when they wanted a doer. On this yelping pack of curs bark
ing at his heels he bestowed very little attention but trained
his editorial guns on the corruption in the Republican Party.
To the Courier -Journal as much as to any other organ was
due the revolt of 1872 in the Republican Party. Editor Wat
terson, while a journalistic Bohemian, had become acquainted
with Horace Greeley. The Liberal Republican movement was
not successful in electing Greeley, but it was successful in
bringing to an end the orgy of unrighteousness known as the
government at Washington.
Mr. Watterson sat as a delegate-at-large in the Democratic
national convention of 1872 which endorsed Greeley. Four
years later he presided over the Democratic convention at St.
Louis which nominated his friend, Samuel J. Tilden, for the
presidency. Into the campaign which followed he threw his
whole soul. He is never so much at home or so effective as
an editor as when denouncing fraud, shams, or dishonesty of
any kind. These hurt his artistic soul like brambles on a fair
estate. In this campaign he was confident of victory. As
soon as he learned of the frauds in the Southern elections he
set out for New Orleans, arriving there ahead of the Repub
licans. The situation was not very promising. It seemed
that the party which had the most money would get a favor
able report by the election commissioners.
It happened during the previous campaign that Mr. Wat
terson, in answer to a request from Mr. Tilden, had been
elected to Congress to fill a vacancy. This, the only case in
which he violated his determination not to hold office, enabled
him to take part in the famous struggle in Congress over
counting the votes in the Hayes-Tilden election. His experi
ence in this session of Congress did not increase his taste for
office, and when his partial term was over he never afterwards
permitted himself to be elected or appointed to office. High
office was within his reach many times. He might have been
522 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
a senator from Kentucky, a governor, or perhaps a cabinet
officer. But such, service he correctly saw, as parties then
were, would " begin in slavery and end in poverty. " He be
came greatly excited over the struggle in Congress concerning
the election of Hayes. It was said that he threatened to lead
a hundred thousand armed Kentuckians to Washington to de
mand justice, but it is certain he had no intention of doing it.
After the defeat of 1876 Mr. Watterson settled down to the
work of building a new Democratic Party. The Civil War
had left the old party without a platform. Mr. Watterson
was a believer in a low tariff. The high tariff of the Repub
lican Party was too much of a hindrance to trade. As a re
sult of his advocacy the Democrats accepted the principle of
a "tariff for revenue only." Along with that he placed a
declaration for civil service. While these were both impor
tant questions they did not arouse the people. The burning
question of the late seventies was the money question. Here
Mr. Watterson found an ample field for his wit and his wis
dom. He had no patience with cheap or fiat money. He
linked the question with the morals of the people. Harper's
Weekly took special delight in cartooning him on this issue.
In answer to the statement that the government could make
paper a legal money he answered that it could also make soft
soap money but it would neither be wise nor honest. Almost
twenty years later, when the managers of the sound money
campaign telegraphed him at his summer home in Switzer
land asking what attitude to take on the "sixteen to one"
plank in the Democratic platform of 1896 he answered back,
"Make no compromise with dishonor." He refused to sup
port the ticket. From 1876 to 1892 he sat as a delegate-at-
]arge from Kentucky in every Democratic national conven
tion and as much as any man helped mold the political opin
ions of that party. With all this party service to his credit
it cannot, however, be said that he was a party man. His
democracy always began with a small "d." He quarreled
with Cleveland, refused to support Bryan, and denounced
Wilson.
Mr. Watterson will be remembered for his political labor,
HENRY WATTERSON 523
but it would be a great mistake to leave the impression that
he was only a politician. His social and literary abilities
were known and appreciated as widely as his political work.
Sham, dishonesty, and immorality drew his severest criticism.
His critical arrows were tipped with fire but never dipped in
poison.
As an orator Mr. Watterson has been in demand for the
last quarter of a century. No man on the American platform
to-day excels him. When the Columbian Exposition was ded
icated, he appeared with Chauncey Depew as the official
spokesman of the government. His lectures on " Money and
Morals " and "Abraham Lincoln " have been delivered in al
most every city in the United States. Among his writings
may be noted Oddities of Southern Life and Character, a vol
ume of humor, The Spanish American War, written as the
war progressed, and the Compromises of Life, a compilation
of his lectures. He has for many years been engaged on a
Life of Lincoln. This will no doubt be his masterpiece in the
literary field. No one is better prepared to interpret Lincoln
than Watterson.
In 1865, Mr. Watterson married the daughter of the Hon
orable Andrew Ewing. They had five children. At his coun
try home, Mansfield, twelve miles south of Louisville, he is
enjoying life in the good old Southern style. His summers
are usually spent in Switzerland, his winters in Florida.
Thoughtless writers like to talk glibly of the witticisms,
terse expressions, sparkling editorials, and heated denuncia
tions of Mr. Watterson, as if those were the chief character
istics of his life work. Such writers have tried to make of
Lincoln a wag and a practical joker. No man has had a
clearer vision of a united, moral, glorious republic, than Mr.
Watterson. And few men have striven more faithfully
through as long a period to realize these ideals. Around this
central vision the struggles of his long, unselfish life can be
harmonized. As an editor he used the Courier- Journal for
this purpose. He is the last of his type of editors. He no
more resembles the modern editor than a Methodist circuit
rider resembles a Wall Street financier. He would and did
524 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
at times sacrifice his paper rather than "compromise with
dishonor. ' '
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Biographical Congressional Directory.
Unpublished Memoir. By Mrs. Watterson.
Unpublished Memoir. By 0. H. Rothacker.
PERIODICALS
Compromises of Life. By H. T. Peck. The Bookman 18 :635.
Henry Watterson. By Mayo W. Hazeltine. North American Review
187:841.
Henry Watterson — an Appreciation. By Daniel E. 0 'Sullivan.
Harper's Weekly 48 :1730.
Metaphors of Colonel Watterson. Bookman 26 :113.
EDWARD DOUGLASS WHITE
BY WALTER CARLETON WOODWARD
IT is almost unthinkable to-day that a man would give up a
seat in the United States Senate to become governor of his
state. But such action has been known in our early history.
Stranger still would it seem, were a member of the Supreme
Court of the United States to resign to take a place at the head
of his state judiciary. Yet such was the course of John Rut-
ledge of South Carolina in the first decade of our national gov
ernment. In a century and a quarter of political develop
ment, however, predominating power and prestige have def
initely shifted from our state to our federal institutions. The
great factor in effecting this transformation, in raising aloft
the national ideal and at the same time elevating itself to pre
eminent power, is the Federal Supreme Court. In short it
has performed the proverbially impossible in lifting itself
high by its own boot straps. How high, is indicated in the fact
of common understanding that a living ex-president with re
luctance resigned his prospects of a seat on the Federal Su
preme Bench to take the road which led to the White House.
Of extreme interest is the study of this judicial body — the
most august and powerful judicial tribunal in the world; the
study of this, "our most distinctive political institution " —
"our continuous constitutional convention. " Of inseparable
interest likewise is the character of the men who constitute
this high court of justice, and particularly that of the man
who sits at its head.
Many striking circumstances contributed toward making
the appointment of Edward Douglass White of Louisiana to
the office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United
States, one of the most notable and significant events in the
history of the national tribunal. Indeed, it may be said to
have marked the close of one epoch in our national history and
the beginning of another ; to have drawn the curtain upon an
era of sectionalism, provincialism and narrow partisanship;
526 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
and to have betokened the coming of a new unity, a broader
tolerance and a deeper nationalism.
What could be more striking than the fact that the head of
this peculiarly strong national institution should once have
been in arms against John Marshall — in defense of the doc
trine of state sovereignty ! Yet this ' ' solid Southerner, ' ' ex-
Confederate, Roman Catholic Democrat was appointed by a
Northern, Protestant, Republican president and sworn in by
a Republican justice, a Grand Army veteran. One instance
will further serve to illustrate how rapidly of late years sec
tional animosities are being forgotten. When, in 1894, Mr.
White was appointed Associate Justice by a Democratic pres
ident, Mr. Cleveland, the appointment was bitterly criticised
by no less stanch a Democratic journal than the Brooklyn
Eagle. The lingering ' < bloody shirt ' '-waving proclivities, and
the strangely provincial attitude as well, relative to the make
up of the Supreme Court, were strongly shown by the Eagle.
" Never before," it declared, "has a New Yorker's successor
among the Associate Justices been other than a New Yorker
and never before has one who was a rebel soldier been chosen
for an exclusively Northern circuit. ' ' And only sixteen years
later we are told that the appointment of Justice White as
Chief Justice "was urged by a progressive Republican, rail
roaded through the Senate by a conservative Republican and
unanimously approved by all the Democratic, as well as Re
publican senators. " Waived, even, was the usual formality
of referring the President's nomination to the Judiciary Com
mittee. Such action was doubly significant. It was a high
tribute to the man. It was also a tacit admonitory declara
tion to the country — "Let the dead past bury its dead."
Justice White has the distinction of being the first Chief
Justice to be promoted to the head of the Court from the Su
preme Bench itself. He was the first ex-Confederate soldier
to be appointed to the Supreme Court. His appointment was
perhaps the first great national honor or trust which had gone
to that section of the nation which controlled the government
in ante-bellum days. With the exception of Roger B. Taney
he is the only Roman Catholic to occupy a seat on the Supreme
EDWARD DOUGLASS WHITE
EDWARD DOUGLASS WHITE 529
Federal Bench. As a rather striking antithesis to the religion
and antecedents of the present Chief Justice, the first head of
our national judicial tribunal, John Jay, was the grandson of
a Huguenot refugee and attended school at New Rochelle,
New York.
In his rise to power and responsibility Justice White breaks
another rather thoroughly established American precedent.
He was not a poor boy, of humble, obscure parentage. On the
other hand he comes from a family of circumstance, well
known in the political annals of his state. His grandfather,
James White, was a judge of western Louisiana, while his
father, Edward White, served his state both as congressman
and governor.
In outline, the life and career of the Chief Justice may be
readily summarized. He was born in Parish Laf ourche, Louis
iana, November 3, 1845. The name of his birthplace suggests
his Franco-Romanic ancestry. He received his education in
various Roman Catholic institutions — Mount Saint Mary's
College, Emmittsburg, Maryland; Georgetown University,
Georgetown, D. C. ; and the Jesuit College of New Orleans.
Though a mere lad of sixteen years when the Civil War broke
out he left college at Georgetown and enlisted as a private in
the Confederate army. He was a member of General Beale 's
staff during the siege of Port Hudson, and on its surrender
in the summer of 1863, following the fall of Vicksburg, he was
among the prisoners taken by the Union forces under General
Banks. At the close of the war he took up the study of law
in the office of Edward Bermudez who later became Chief Jus
tice of Louisiana. In 1868 he was admitted to the bar of his
state. A few years later found him in politics, and he was
elected to the state senate. His next preferment was judicial,
in his appointment as Associate Justice of the Louisiana Su
preme Court.
In 1890 and 1891 the lottery question furnished the burning
issue in Louisiana politics, attending the expiration of the
charter of the Louisiana Lottery Company. Mr. White re-
entered the political field, allying himself with the reform
forces, among whom he became a dominant figure before the
530 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
campaign was brought to a successful issue. The ability, re
source and generalship shown by him made him a marked
man in the Louisiana Democracy, and the sequel was his elec
tion to the United States Senate in 1891. This signal political
distinction has been directly attributed to his successful lead
ership of the anti-lottery campaign forces.
In the United States Senate, the man from Louisiana was
soon recognized as a member of influence and ability. His
senatorial career, though comparatively brief, was marked by
two policies. It was in the days when the cloud with the silver
lining appeared in the West on the Democratic horizon; the
cloud which brought the storm separating the Democracy into
two camps and alienating the majority from its president.
Senator White was loyal to his chief and to the cause of sound
money. As to his second policy, let it be known that our
Southern Democratic senator was one of Louisiana's wealthy
sugar planters. Now the very name Democracy has long
been looked upon as a sort of restful, reassuring synonym for
the common weal, with emphasis upon common; and at the
same time a challenge to special privilege masquerading un
der whatsoever kind of cloak. The thrifty Louisiana planter
Democrats wore a very undemocratic kind of cloak called a
sugar bounty; that is, it seemed very undemocratic to those
Democrats who had no cloak at all. Following up their cam
paign covenant with the American voter, the Democratic
Party proceeded with its free trade program, and forthwith
ran afoul of Louisiana Democracy, which was just as sure then
as it is now in the year of our Lord 1914, that there should be
an exception to the very best and most democratic of Demo
cratic doctrines. The Louisiana senators filed their bill of ex
ceptions with such urgency and effectiveness, and so close was
the vote in the Senate, that they forced the Democratic Party
to its knees in a compromise, at once costly and humiliating.
In this instance Senator White may possibly be said to have
returned to a phase of the state 's rights idea — a phase which
has long characterized our American political system, what
ever the party regime — a system representing widely diverse
and apparently conflicting interests.
EDWARD DOUGLASS WHITE 531
Senator White did not fill out his term in the United States
Senate. In 1893 a vacancy occurred on the Federal Bench
through the death of Justice Blatchford of New York. In the
appointment of a successor to the latter, President Cleveland
nominated a New York man. The appointee was unwelcome
to the New York senators and they were able to hold up con
firmation in the Senate. Exasperated over the humiliating
complication, President Cleveland executed a flank movement
upon the opposition in February, 1894, by turning to the ex
treme South for his appointee in the person of Senator White.
The senators confirmed the nomination of their popular col
league without a word and Senator White removed the toga
for the ermine, becoming Associate Justice White. After six
teen years of distinguished service on the bench, he was se
lected by President Taft in 1910 to succeed Melville W. Fuller
as Chief Justice. How popular was President Taft's choice
has been already indicated.
Edward D. White is the ninth Chief Justice to preside over
the Supreme Court, his predecessors in order having been,
John Jay, of New York; John Eutledge, of South Carolina;
Oh* ver Ellsworth, of Connecticut ; John Marshall, of Virginia ;
Roger B. Taney, of Maryland; Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio;
Morrison R. Waite, of Ohio; Melville W. Fuller, of Illinois.
In breadth of learning and culture, in profoundness in the law,
in mental precision and exactitude, Chief Justice White ranks
with the best men of this notable list. In some respects his
preparation and training for his exalted position are superior
to those of any of his predecessors. He is not only well
grounded in the principles of English and American jurispru
dence, based upon the English common law, but he also comes
from the one state in the Union whose legal system is Ro
manic, based upon the Code Napoleon. Accordingly he
brought to our national high court of justice a thorough knowl
edge as well of the Civil law. He is said to be the only Jus
tice who can argue a case in French. Indeed, he has been said
to have a Latin mind, capable of delivering an extemporaneous
speech in the tongue of Papinian and Ulpian. Be that as it
may, it is certainly highly fitting that the head of our great
532 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
judicial system should have a command of both the great sys
tems of jurisprudence upon which western civilization has
been built.
There are three criteria by which a jurist is closely judged,
and by which his position and his power are determined. The
first has to do with his attitude toward the fundamental struc
ture of our government — toward the question of the relative
position of state and federal functions; or, stating it popu
larly, toward the policy of loose or strict construction. Nur
tured in the school of strict construction and states rights, the
attitude of the Chief Justice might be readily assumed; too
readily indeed. There is no little significance in the fact that
hanging upon the wall of his library and study — his work
shop — are the pictures of the two men who are most insep
arably connected with the national ideal ; the one giving it the
broad foundation through legal interpretation, the other rais
ing its superstructure through the convincing eloquence of the
forum — John Marshall and Daniel Webster. Like many an
other Southerner, the young Confederate soldier apparently
accepted the settlement of the vexed question, given in a bap
tism of blood, as final, and in his capacity as Justice, has fur
ther developed the field of national function and activity
broadly surveyed by his eminent predecessor. This is illus
trated in his judgment in the famous Insular cases respecting
our relations with our newly acquired island possessions, in
which he united in the majority decision which upheld the
principle of loose construction and supported the broad posi
tion taken by the Federal Government. One notable exception
to his general support of the Government's contentions is
found in his minority decision in the case for the dissolution
of the Northern Securities Holding Company. He ably main
tained that the organization of the company had involved no
unreasonable restraint of trade, that the transfer of proper
ties was a bona fide, legal transaction, and that the Govern
ment had accordingly no grounds for its action. The best
business sense of the country probably upholds Justice White
in his statement of the issues involved.
A second criterion, somewhat closely related to the first, has
EDWARD DOUGLASS WHITE 533
to do with a jurist's tendency to render his decisions in ac
cordance with the apparent intent of the law or Constitution,
or to base them upon more narrow, technical grounds. In one
of his most famous opinions, Justice White demonstrated the
former attitude, and again later in a minority decision. In
fact, ' i again and again, ' ' says a recent writer,1 ' ' Justice White
has differed from the majority of his colleagues and his dis
senting opinions have brought every resource of a powerful
logician to bear upon the destructive analysis of the prevail
ing arguments." The Cleveland administration had passed
an income tax law which was promptly attacked in the courts
upon the ground of its unconstitutionality. The Federal Con
stitution provides that all direct taxes shall be laid in propor
tion to the population. By direct taxes the framers of the
Constitution evidently had in mind land and poll taxes, the
only direct taxes known to them, and an income tax, though
direct, was manifestly not included nor implied. But a nar
row interpretation, such as was given by the majority of the
Court, rendered the law unconstitutional and made necessary
the passage of the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
The third and, in this time of rapid social and industrial de
velopment, the most vital criterion for estimating a jurist has
to do with whether he has the forward or static tendency ; with
whether he applies the law in accordance with new conditions
or whether he has never learned that often in law as else
where, "Time makes ancient good uncouth." The famous
Bakeshop case came up to the Supreme Court from the state
of New York where a law regulating the length of the working
day in bakeries had been attacked on the ground that it con
travened the constitutional provision insuring freedom of con
tract. Justice White voted with the minority in upholding
the law, maintaining that under its police powers the legisla
tive branch of the state government was clearly within its jur
isdiction in enacting such a regulatory measure. His minority
contention has since been vindicated in the very general tend
ency toward the acceptance of the broad principle which he
declared.
i Review of Reviews 43 :4.
534 FAMOUS LIVING AMEEICANS
In the words of a leading periodical 2 in summing up Chief
Justice White's attitude as manifested in the cases cited, he
"has shown himself to be a Nationalist and a Humanist and
believes : that the union of states constitutes a Nation and pos
sesses all the prerogatives which belong to a Nation ; that the
liberties of the individual must be exercised in subordination
to the general welfare of the community; that both the law
and the Constitution are to be construed in a large way as in
struments for the protection of human rights and the promo
tion of liberty and justice ; and that the powers conferred by
the Constitution must not be so hedged about by narrow con
struction as to prevent their free exercise in securing the gen
eral ends for which in the preamble of the Constitution it is de
clared the Union was formed. ' '
One of the striking characteristics of the Chief Justice is his
wonderful power of concentration, coupled with a marvelous
memory that is almost uncanny in its achievements. He is
said to dictate his opinions to his stenographer and to be able
to repeat his decisions from memory after one dictation. An
illustration of his marked ability in this connection is cited in
his rendering of the minority opinion in the income tax case
already alluded to. After reading a few sentences or para
graphs he laid his manuscript aside and delivered from mem
ory his famous opinion, including a bewildering array of ref
erences and quotations, threading his way step by step
through a maze of legal intricacies with a precision that was
all but astounding to his auditors. This rare mental capacity,
together with the fact that he is a prodigious worker, renders
it possible for him to get a vast amount of work accomplished.
And he steadfastly refuses to be drawn from the work which
he considers his. Visited by a committee which came to so
licit from him a public address, he gave a firm refusal, point
ing, in justification, to a pile of work that had accumulated
upon his table within the past twenty-four hours.
This graphic picture of the Chief Justice presiding over the
Court is given by an observer : 8 "On the bench, clad in the
Outlook 96:895.
By Igaae F. Marcosson. Munsey 44:747.
EDWARD DOUGLASS WHITE 535
garb and the authority of his high magistracy, he looks the
student. The great face is becalmed; he literally personifies
judgeship. Often he sits with his eyes shaded by his hand to
keep out the light, and his bulky presence broods over the
whole courtroom. At such times he may look as if he were
asleep ; but that apparently somnolent calm has misled more
than one lawyer, for out of it there has suddenly been pro
jected a searching question that showed complete knowledge
and understanding of everything that had been said and done. "
With all the dignity and learning that befit the first judge
in the greatest of republics, Justice White, the man, is the em
bodiment of that spirit of democracy which is the touchstone
of our republican institutions. His innate democracy, fla
vored with the rich grace of Southern charm, gives him a per
sonality peculiarly winning and attractive. From the White
home radiates an atmosphere that is typically domestic and
American in its graces of unaffected simplicity, mutual regard
and true hospitality ; or, at least, that atmosphere that we like
to think of as typically American. Unhedged by false form
ality, he greets his callers face to face in the spirit of "A
man's a man for a' that."
This simplicity of attitude is further exemplified in his
choice of exercise and recreation. His Honor is known as a
regular and enthusiastic pedestrian, walking back and forth
from his home to the Capitol, 1 1 just like an ordinary citizen, ' '
which he professes himself to be. As a further mark of his
true Americanism, he is a devotee of baseball and while watch
ing an exhibition of the great American game has been known
to hobnob with chance seat mates with the camaraderie of the
typical fan.
At the time of his elevation to the Chief Justiceship, Sen
ator Money of Mississippi said of him: "He is personally
one of the most delightful men in Washington society. Built
on a generous plan — brain, heart, and body — he is a man
of universally good humor, relishing keenly a good story and
telling one with good effect. I have never heard of his being
angry with anybody. His charities are universal. His kind
ness of heart is so well known that it is a sort of proverb. In
536 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
his domestic relations there could be nothing more admirable. ' '
In fine, we have in Chief Justice Edward Douglass White,
"a profound lawyer and a just judge, " 4 "with such talent for
the expounding of our Constitution and laws, and such gifts of
clear and keen analysis, that he may well help us to keep from
losing faith in our most distinctive political institution." In
the various capacities of student, soldier, lawyer, politician,
planter, legislator, and jurist, he epitomizes that versatility
that is characteristically American. Appointed by a president
of an opposing party, he represents a reassuring tendency to
place our supreme judicial tribunal upon a plane high above
partisanship. Catholic-bred and Jesuit-trained, his confirma
tion to his high station of public trust, without protest, is the
herald of a new day of religious tolerance and unity. A son
of the Confederacy, sitting at the head of our great national
tribunal of justice, he is the embodiment of a new nation, re
united and regirded, ready to face with confidence the issues
and problems of a new era.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PERIODICALS
Appointment of Justice White. Public Opinion 16 :521.
Chief Justice White. By Hernando D. Money. Independent 70 :455.
Chief Justice White. Harper's Weekly 54:4.
New Chief Justice. Outlook 96 :894.
New Chief Justice. Current Literature 50 :16.
New Supreme Court. By Isaac F. Marcosson. Munsey 44 :738.
Our New Chief Justice. Review of Reviews 43 :2.
Supreme Court as It Now Is. World's Work 21:139.
Supreme Court Justices. By Elbert E. Baldwin. Outlook 97 :162.
Progress of the World. Eeview of Reviews 43:3.
Copyright by Mo/ett Studio, Chicago
WOODROW WILSON
BY CECIL CLARE NORTH
A COLLEGE professor in the President's Chair! It is
true that the politicians and other practical citizens had
some warning : to put on the scrap heap so thoroughly
efficient a machine as the New Jersey State Democracy and
arouse from a Rip Van Winkle sleep the political conscious
ness of so conservative a commonwealth should have told them
that here was a man to be reckoned with. But to walk quietly
forward and sit down in a seat supposedly reserved for those
whose training had been something else besides weaving intel
lectual cobwebs was a feat that practical minded Americans
did not expect of Woodrow Wilson.
But the people of the western Republic had been surprised
before and, being above all practical, they immediately for
gave him for having been a pedagogue and good-naturedly
and expectantly lined up and waited for the ' * kick-off. ' ' And
since the day the whistle blew the American people have been
behind their quarterback in every play, and the politicians,
too, finding that the life of the study and the class-room did
not necessarily make him less a good fighter, have accepted
the situation as gracefully as possible and have apparently
concluded that here is a man not to be taken lightly.
Who is this Woodrow Wilson? What are his antecedents?
Out of what kind of background does he emerge to take his
place in American history? Of course, Woodrow isn't all the
name he has. In fact, that cognomen was something of an
afterthought with his parents, who wished thereby to perpetu
ate the family name of his mother. To the people who knew
him as a boy, he was "Tom" Wilson.
The home that gave him birth was that of a sturdy Presby
terian minister, the son of Irish immigrants, who left the
"auld sod" in 1807. William Bayard Hale,1 his biographer,
1 See the series of articles on Woodrow Wilson by Wm. Bayard Hale in the
World's Work, volumes 22 and 23.
540 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
says that Thomas Woodrow Wilson 's ancestors were men and
women who had displayed to a conspicuous degree the qual
ities of a sturdy race: they were people of imagination, of
hope, venturesome ; they were stubborn, shrewd, industrious ;
they were inclined to learning, strongly tinctured with piety,
yet practical and thrifty.
We are less inclined today than formerly to account for
everything in a man's life by referring to his ancestry, but a
line of editors and clergymen, pioneers who were not afraid
to fare forth into untried fields or fight for strongly held con
victions is a fact that cannot by any means be neglected in
trying to understand a man's life. And these antecedents of
Woodrow Wilson are a part of the explanation of his force-
fulness, effectiveness, and persistence.
Woodrow Wilson was born December 28, 1856, in the par
sonage of the Presbyterian church at Staunton, Virginia.
Two years and a half after, the family moved to Augusta,
Georgia, where the father became pastor of the Presbyterian
church, occupying a prominent position among the clergy of
the South. It was here that the boyhood of young Woodrow
was spent. Augusta was out of the line of greatest hard
ships during the war and so the boy escaped many of the
more unpleasant experiences that came to the Southern youth
of his day.
His education first received serious attention from his
father at home, and later he attended a private school taught
by a retired Confederate soldier. When the family moved,
in 1870, to Columbia, where the father became a professor in
the Theological Seminary, he was put into another private
school.
In 1873, at seventeen years of age, he was sent to Davidson
College, a small old-fashioned Presbyterian school. But be
fore the year was out he was taken ill and went home to Wil
mington, North Carolina, whither the family had moved.
Here he remained for a year, gaining some physical strength
and beginning his social training in the cultured group of
people that gathered about the parsonage. In the fall of
WOODROW WILSON 541
1875 he set out for Princeton College, which was to play such
a large part in his life.
The four years at college are a pretty sure index of much
that happens later in a man's life. Not that the best abilities
always show themselves at this time, nor that the estimates
placed on a man by his instructors or his fellow-students are
always correct. The character of the life of the college must
influence greatly the expression of a man's abilities, and the
standards of judgment are frequently artificial, or at least
greatly different from those by which a man will be judged in
later life. But the direction of a man's interests, his native
reactions to situations, the main current of his ambitions, his
tastes and ideals, must show themselves in a marked degree
in the college life. Here is the first little world in which the
young man tastes freedom and self-reliance, the first free
field in which he may exercise some considerable degree of
choice. How this freedom and choice are used is an im
portant indication of the stuff that is in the student.
Woodrow Wilson's career as a student at Princeton is no
exception to this. The class which entered in September,
1874, and graduated in June, 1879, had a remarkable number
of men of high ability. Hale says there never has been a
Princeton class of so high an average ability. In this group
of men Wilson easily made a place for himself, not only as a
leader of student activities, but as a man conspicuous for his
personality and all-round ability.
Like many another man who has "made good" in later life,
his name was not among the list of highest for grades made
and honors received. He was, however, much above the av
erage and was ranked 41 in the class of 122. The chief mark,
however, of his career as an undergraduate was his pursuit
of an interest freely chosen and followed with stubborn per
severance. Before he had been in college a half year he had
determined on public life as a career and the preparation
for it as his chief business in college.
From that time on the college curriculum and all other col
lege activities were incidental to this one central purpose.
He did much independent reading on his favorite theme. In
542 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
the debating club he won recognition, not only for his knowl
edge of the principles of government, but for his ability in
forceful and convincing presentation of his convictions. It
is recorded that he refused to participate in a contest that
would in all probability have resulted in making him the
representative of his club in the annual college debate, be
cause he drew by lot the side of the question in which he did
not believe. It is significant that it was a protective tariff
that he refused to defend. But his abilities were shown in
other directions than debating. He was elected to the board
of editors of the college paper and later to its managing ed
itorship, besides serving as president of the Athletic Com
mittee and of the Baseball Association.
A crowning honor to his undergraduate career came in his
senior year, when he had accepted by the International Re
view, a journal of high standing, an article on "Cabinet Gov
ernment in the United States/' For those who have been
surprised at the emphasis from the White House on open deal
ing as the essential quality in the conduct of public affairs, it
may be interesting to read in that article written by the under
graduate Wilson that secrecy is the evil that corrupts govern
ment and that Congress should do its work as though the
whole country were present and looking on. So well does the
youth foretell the man.
A year of law study in the University of Virginia followed
immediately upon graduation from Princeton. Writing for
publication in journals, debating, and singing with the glee
club served to break the monotony of hard study on law and
rigorous class work. But near the middle of the second year
indigestion sent him home for a period of rest and reading.
Without returning to the University of Virginia young
Wilson, looking about for a field in which to exercise his legal
talents, hit upon Atlanta, Georgia. There he set up a part
nership with another young man, Edward T. Eenick, who was
beginning the practice of law. It took just eighteen months
of waiting for clients to convince Wilson that his future was
not bound up in securing justice for litigious individuals.
The law had appealed to him at all events as merely an open-
WOODROW WILSON 543
ing into public life. And now there appeared a more at
tractive avenue to the same goal ; namely, that of the student.
But before reentering upon the life of a student, he did
claim from the South a permanent contribution to his life's
success and happiness. Miss Ellen Axson (herself a de
scendant of a line of Southern preachers) who had been a
childhood playmate, now appeared again as a visitor at the
home of his relatives in Rome, Georgia. A brief renewal of
the old acquaintance was enough to settle the domestic fate
of the unsuccessful aspirant for legal honors. Their engage
ment took place immediately before Wilson's departure from
the South.
But before the marriage could occur he must establish him
self in his career. He entered Johns Hopkins University for
a period of two years' study. Here he found the congenial
atmosphere of what was at that time the leading postgraduate
institution of the country. During the last year he held the
Historical Fellowship, an indication of his intellectual rank
in a group of exceptionally strong men. His work was in the
field of the interest that had claimed him from the first year
of his undergraduate days, political science.
In the early part of the year 1885 he published his first
piece of work to claim general recognition from scholars,
Congressional Government, "a study of government by Com
mittee." This publication meant much in many ways. It
gave him a recognized place among thinking people. It in
sured his degree from Hopkins, since it was to be received
for the doctor's thesis. It brought opportunities for teach
ing that made marriage possible. In June of the same year
Miss Axson and he were married, after he had accepted a
position as associate professor in History and Political Econ
omy in Bryn Mawr.
The three years at this young college for women furnish
little that is different from the first three years of any college
professor's life. The life was pleasant and agreeable and the
connection of the college with Johns Hopkins insured the
maintenance of scholarly standards. The fact that the
544 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
young professor was growing in favor was attested by his ap
pointment to a special lectureship at Hopkins in 1886.
In 1888 a call came from Connecticut Wesley an University,
which was accepted. During the two years he spent here his
popularity as a teacher, student, and popular lecturer contin
ued to grow. In 1890 he was called to the professorship of
Jurisprudence and Politics at Princeton. Thus in eleven
years from the time of graduation he brought back to his alma
mater a reputation as a seasoned teacher, a widely-known
scholar, and an inspiring lecturer. His twelve years as pro
fessor at Princeton seem to have been marked by unusual suc
cess. He drew students into his classes by enthusiasm and
charm on the one hand, and by thorough knowledge and the
practical application of political theories on the other. His
lectures are said to have been no dry recital of theories of gov
ernment but a live presentation of the facts of government as
it is actually carried on, and a frank criticism of present day
political problems.
His popularity among the students and faculty came nat
urally. There was no forced espousal of popular causes to
win applause : no sacrifice of the dignity of the teacher or of
the standards of the best scholarship. Hard work, genuine
human sympathy, a mastery of his subject, and real intel
lectual leadership seem to have been the tools with which he
carved his name on the minds and hearts of his students and
colleagues and the world of Princeton men.
Hale, his biographer, says that a study of his lectures and
speeches and books produced in this period will show in addi
tion to these factors that in themselves must have won large
recognition, another quality. This was a deep and abiding
devotion to democracy. The years that were to come held
problems that would test this devotion. And no man could
have played the part he did in the few years that were to fol
low who did not have a clear conception of the fundamental
elements of healthy social life and a hatred of all insidious
influences that would tend to undermine social foundations.
It would be strange indeed if there did not appear to his stu
dents during these days of quiet class-room activities, some
WOODROW WILSON 545
sparks of fire that burned deeply in the spirit of the man.
This fire was destined to burst out into flames when once he
was brought into contact with forces that opposed his convic
tions of democratic education.
And so, we are told, that when in 1902 a man too old in
body and spirit to cope with the problems of a modern uni
versity retired from the presidency of Princeton there seems
to have been no discussion as to who should become head of
the institution, although Wilson was the first layman to be
elected to that position.
The first task of the new president was to turn the "dear
old college " into an educational institution. He found Prince
ton a delightful country club. He proposed to make it a place
where young men should be able to get an adequate return
in intellectual discipline and inspiration to justify four years
of residence there. Princeton was not the chief sinner among
the colleges of the country; for to a greater or less degree all
the colleges have felt the pressure of athletics and social
pleasures against the ideals of intellectual discipline. But
those colleges where the student body is made up chiefly of
the sons of the wealthy class have felt it most. For many
young men of this class the college offers a pleasant four
years of companionship with other good fellows and a leisure
ly absorption of conventional culture and polish. The college
should not be too severely held to account, however, for many
parents send their sons and daughters to college with these
motives distinctly in mind. Princeton was conspicuous for
the degree to which this conception of the function of the col
lege had come to prevail among many of the alumni and most
of the student body. It had become distinctively a college of
the aristocratic with the emphasis on pleasant living rather
than upon learning.
President Wilson proposed to change this conception, or at
least, the practice of it. The first year or two of his admin
istration, therefore, was devoted to a study of and reorgan
ization of the curriculum and teaching. This in itself was a
body blow at tradition. To imply that anything was wrong
with Princeton was a distinct shock to Princeton men. No
546 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
institution is more in danger of the sin of complacency than
an institution of learning. Add to this a loyalty and devo
tion to alma mater that has seldom been equaled and we have
the Princeton that Wilson found on his hands to administer.
But not only did he call for improvement in the method and
quality of the work done, but he announced that the univer
sity should turn out men who differed in point of view from
the past generations of Princeton men. The younger genera
tion should have on them the stamp of the newer democracy,
and in their hearts the awakening of the new social conscience
that the outside world had already felt.
Here was the announcement that education should prepare
men for participation in the new and fresh life of the twen
tieth century. The two distinct steps in this direction were a
revision of the course of study to make it conform to the de
mand for accurate knowledge in some one field, and the pre
ceptorial system, which would bring the instruction of stu
dents into their everyday life. More intellectual work by the
student, a better coordination of his work, and intimate and
close supervision of his study were the three things that came
out of these first reforms that the new president instituted.
These changes, startling as they were, and handling the tra
ditional repose of old Princeton roughly as they did, could
not but command support and cooperation from the faculty,
the board of trustees, and the more alert alumni. They were
too rational and too obviously needed to permit of any suc
cessful opposition.
But the next step struck at a more tender spot and was
complicated with so many other vital problems that it was
destined to have open and bitter opposition. This step in
volved a reorganization of the social life of the students.
Princeton had always prohibited college fraternities. But
there had grown up in their place exclusive eating clubs, with
sumptuous quarters, and with all the snobbishness that wealth
and exclusiveness can engender. These clubs included in
their membership slightly more than half the two upper
classes. The other half were left in the outer darkness of
social oblivion. The freshman and sophomore classes were
WOODKOW WILSON 547
torn asunder with the ambitions of the members to insure
election to some club in the junior year.
President Wilson proposed to substitute for this plan of
living what was known as the "quad system. " The college
was to be divided into groups for living purposes, each to be
a distinct social unit in which the members of all classes
should mingle freely, eat in a common dining hall and develop
a spirit of fellowship that would include all the members of
the "quad."
The board of trustees approved the plan and it was well on
the way to being put into operation when the storm of opposi
tion broke. The alumni scented the destruction of the prin
ciple of exclusiveness in social life. Aristocracy and priv
ilege would not die easily. So strong was the devotion to the
old system that four months after it had been approved by
the board, the same board asked the president to withdraw the
proposal. But this was not the end. The controversy over
the issue between democracy and aristocracy was too bitter
to be stopped by the withdrawal. The president, in speeches
before alumni clubs and in conversation, continued to cham
pion the cause of democracy. Some alumni, some faculty
members, and some of the board championed the cause of ar
istocracy. The president was drawn on from a proposal that
began as a purely educational one to defend it as the neces
sary step in redeeming the college from the blight of priv
ilege. The opposition made more clear to him that the power
of wealth and social exclusiveness were hostile to the demo
cratic ideals that he held for college education.
But before this storm had begun to diminish in force a new
situation arose to complicate the problem. A movement for
a graduate college had been initiated and had the support of
the board and many friends of Princeton as well as that of
the president. But a contributor to the fund had made as a
condition of his contribution that the new building should be
erected in conformity with a certain plan for the graduate
school that Dean West had proposed. The president and
board were not committed as yet to any plan, least of all to
this one, and they asked for the removal of the condition to
548 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
the contribution, whereupon the offer itself was withdrawn.
After much bitterness and open discussion of the merits of the
plan of the new graduate school and the wisdom of turning
away money from the college, another event happened. Three
million dollars were left for the building of the college on the
plans which were opposed by the president. Events seemed
to be against him. He bowed to a defeat which came in a way
that no man could have escaped.
The continuation of the controversies over the abolition of
the clubs and over the plans for the new graduate college, in
volving as they did deep and powerful emotions, had devel
oped an intensity of feeling that is rarely realized in the col
lege world. No one who does not know Princeton can quite
understand it. And the depth of the feeling made it inevit
able that President Wilson should feel that his place was no
longer at Princeton. His enemies could not cause his dis
missal but they had made his stay undesirable.
But his fight for democracy and human rights against the
power of money had not escaped the attention of the people
of the country, and especially of the people of New Jersey.
The tide of opposition to political dishonesty and inefficiency
was rising in that state, so long dominated by corrupt influ
ences. Moreover, the democratic party of the state was then
out of power. What was more natural than that the leaders
of the party, taking advantage of the rising tide of progres-
siveness, should ride back into power with a popular hero who
stood for popular rights? There was no mistaking the char
acter of the leaders of the Democratic Party in New Jersey.
They were political bosses of the usual type. How, then,
could there be any alliance between such men and a man who
stood for the things that Wilson did? The answer is, first,
that some such man was their only hope to get the party into
power; and second, they believed that once in power they
could easily manage a pedagogue.
There is no evidence that Mr. Wilson in any way com
promised himself in accepting the nomination of the party.
On the other hand there is every evidence that he frankly
stated both publicly and privately his opposition to the meth-
WOODROW WILSON 549
ods they were in the habit of using. And so the nomination
was made and accepted, and his resignation was handed to
the board of trustees of Princeton and accepted.
The campaign was conducted in the open. Mr. Wilson
espoused every progressive cause proposed, and openly stated
that if elected he would be absolutely independent of any sort
of influence from any quarter, although he would gladly hear
advice from anybody. The election was an overwhelming en
dorsement of him. He received 49,150 majority in a state
that had long been a Republican stronghold.
But the real test came a few days after election. James
Smith, Jr., the man who had organized his campaign, secured
his nomination, and stood as the head of the Democratic or
ganization, now came forward with a claim on the United
States senatorship. James E. Martine had been elected by
the Democratic primary as the party candidate. Mr. Smith
claimed precedence over Mr. Martine on the ground that the
primary was a joke. Mr. Wilson lacked sufficient sense of
humor to see the joke. On the other hand he flatly refused
to be a party to the breaking of the party pledge in its vote
for Mr. Martine. And later, when Smith, refusing to accept
Governor Wilson's view of the case, went before the legisla
ture as an avowed candidate, the governor took the field
against him and secured his defeat and Martinets election.
It was no use to charge ingratitude. There were his state
ments of independence before election, even before his nom
ination ; and there was the vote of the party in the primary.
After the election of the United States senator the program
laid down in the party platform demanded attention. The
platform was a most progressive one. It stood for direct
primaries, a corrupt practices act, a public utility commission
with power to fix rates, employers' liability, and workmen's
compensation. Would the legislature pass these measures?
It was evident that it would not unless there was some pretty
vigorous pressure. The story of how the battle for direct
primaries was won differs not greatly from an account of sim
ilar battles in other states. There was the entrenched power
of the machine, and the realization that direct primaries
550 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
meant the death of much of the power of the boss. On the
other side was a man who seemed not to have stepped out of
a college chair. With tact and understanding, but above all
with open frankness, he brought to bear the force of public
opinion as few trained politicians could have done. After
the triumphant passage of this first ditch, the march toward
a complete victory was less uncertain but still fraught with
difficulties. In the end, however, the state of New Jersey had
put upon its statute books more progressive laws than had
been dreamed of in many other communities long regarded
as less boss-ridden than New Jersey. The whole program
of the platform was carried out, and at the close of the ses
sion many legislators who had begun the session hostile to
the governor were his warm admirers.
Soon after this the movement to make Mr. Wilson the nom
inee of the Democratic Party for President of the United
States at the election of 1912 was set going. It was no arti
ficial boom nursed and fostered in the quiet nooks of political
secrecy. It was the natural and normal answer to the grow
ing demand for a progressive candidate to lead a party that
had long been out of power, but which had recently become
dominated by conservative elements.
It is true, of course, that his campaign had the backing and
management of shrewd politicians. The press bureau was
skilfully managed and his name carefully kept before the na
tion. But it manifestly was not backed by the reactionary
elements of the party. From the first it seemed to be Wilson
against the conservative field. As the Baltimore convention
drew near this fact became more evident, and when at last
the fight came, the issue was squarely joined between the
forces of the party that believed that nothing should be done
to antagonize the business interests of the country, and the
forces that believed that a new day had dawned in American
politics and that it was the opportunity of the Democratic
Party to step in and become the knight to fight for the peo
ple's rights.
What has happened since that day is well known. It might
be said that Mr. Wilson would never have been elected had it
WOODROW WILSON 551
not been for the break in the Republican Party. On the other
hand it might be said that even with the break another Demo
crat could not have been elected. But whether the election
was the result of a peculiar political situation or of the appeal
of Mr. Wilson's intellect and personality to the American
people, or of both, he was put into the president's chair.
Any estimate of his fitness for the position cannot well be
made at such close range of time. But several things are
evident at even this near perspective. The American people
are no longer afraid of a college man in politics. The intel
lectual discipline of the classroom, and the careful application
to a study of the principles of government do not seem to un
fit a man for participation in the real game of politics and the
real business of government. Moreover, the fight for dem
ocracy and human rights is a many-sided one. Privilege and
the claims of special interests show themselves in many places
and in many forms. A man who is their foe in one form or
in one place may be expected to be their foe in other forms or
places. Apart from the merits of the legislation which he
has secured, three things stand out in his policy: his refusal
to allow any traditional system of checks and balances to keep
him from using the presidential office to force from Congress
legislation that the people have demanded; his disregard of
precedent, when such disregard is in the interest of greater
effectiveness and service; his deliberate purpose to make a
party responsible for the measures that it has advocated in
its platform.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PERIODICALS
Dr. Woodrow Wilson's Policies. Outlook 96:300.
Kind of Man Woodrow Wilson Is. By W. G. McAdoo. Century
85 :744.
President Woodrow Wilson. By Robert Bridges. Review of Re
views 26 :38.
Woodrow Wilson. Century 65:161.
Woodrow Wilson. By Alfred L. P. Dennis. Contemporaneous Re
view 102 :790 ; Living Age 276 :3.
552 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
Woodrow Wilson and the New Jersey Governorship. Review of Re
views 42:555.
Woodrow Wilson — a Biography. By William Bayard Hale. World's
Work 22:14940-53; 23:64-77, 229-235, 297-310, 466-472, 522-534.
Woodrow Wilson as a Man of Letters. By Bliss Perry. Century
85 :753.
Woodrow Wilson 's Work as Governor. Review of Reviews 47 :131.
Copyright by Clinedinst, Washington, D. C.
LEONARD WOOD
BY EMERSON BECK KNIGHT
ON the blistering sands of Jolo, in the Philippine Islands,
a detachment of United States soldiers were prepar
ing to turn in for the night. A day of rampaging
through the stewing jungle on the trail of a shadowy enemy
had dragged the men down with weariness, and here on the
burning beach they were preparing for rest.
A sweating orderly stood at the general's elbow and
brought a hand to his brow in salute.
"I report your boat off-shore, sir, and a tender on the
beach ready to take you out. ' '
Aboard the general's boat were cool breezes and white
sheets.
i i I'll stay with the men," said the general, dismissing his
orderly and turning to scoop out a place in the cooler sands
for his bunk.
Democracy and doggedness! Those two words character
ize General Leonard Wood during a career that has led in a
brief span of years from the office of army surgeon to the
highest position in the United States Army — chief of staff
and ranking major-general.
In the vicinity of Cape Cod Leonard Wood spent a vigor
ous boyhood. He is a thorough New Englander, as the asso
ciation of his name with Cape Cod, Middleboro Academy,
where his early schooling was taken, Harvard University,
where he graduated, Boston, where he began medical prac
tice, and Peregrine White, the first child born in the Plymouth
colony, from whom he claims direct descent, would indicate.
He comes by his military instincts naturally. His great-grand
father, John Nixon, commanded a regiment at Bunker Hill,
and his father was a surgeon on the Union side during the
Civil War. He was born in the midst of wartimes — 1860.
There on the Atlantic coast Leonard Wood laid a foundation
for the constitution that was to carry him so marvelously
556 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
through the events of his after-life. He sailed cat-boats,
fished, swam in the surf, and indulged in all the other whole
some pleasures known to salt-water youths. He went through
Middleboro Academy, profiting by experiences common with
boys who, though not especially studious, are skilful with
boxing gloves — or bare fists — and who are active in other
branches of athletics. At Harvard he was noted as the best
long-distance runner in school. Strongly influenced by the
desire of his father, whom an injury during medical service
in the War of the Rebellion had crippled for life, young Wood
studied medicine at Harvard and on graduation went to Bos
ton for hospital training and practice.
Just about this time old Geronimo and his Indian band were
making things lively in the Southwest. "Indians Capture
American Outpost, " "Geronimo Drips With Warpaint" —
such were the headlines that blazed on front pages of Eastern
newspapers. To a certain young doctor sitting idly in a back
office in sleepy old Boston, drugs took on the smell of gun
powder and scalpels changed to sabres. Far out on the west
ern plains there was fighting to be done, and plenty of it.
There was a call for fighting men. So Leonard Wood hit the
westward trail by reason of his natural inward promptings
and an appetite for battle.
In 1885 he passed the examination for army-surgeon, and
was attached to Lieutenant-Colonel Lawton's command as
civilian-surgeon and soldier in the line at $100 a month.
"Well, what are you here for?" snapped Colonel Law-
ton of the well-set-up, tow-headed civilian who reported to
him at his tent on the dusty prairie.
"Action," replied the young man.
And action is what fell to his lot.
It was as if the warfare was carried on with an unseen en
emy. Reports would come to camp that a lonely ranch house
had been fired upon, and away the command would clatter
only to find all trace of the red-skins covered up in the track
less hills of New Mexico. A still-hunt would ensue, and in
that Leonard Wood's cross-country training stood him in
good stead.
LEONARD WOOD 557
They say he could actually outwalk an Apache in his native
wilds. James Creelman describes the soldier-doctor in such
a manner as this: "Well above average height, with broad
shoulders, small waist, the bulging, muscle-padded chest of a
gorilla, and arms like a blacksmith. He was quick as light
ning in his action. ' ' 1
Proof of the iron endurance and absolute dependability of
the young fellow came constantly before Colonel Lawton, and
from a position in the ranks, which Wood had been given
along with his rather light medical duties, he was raised to
head of a company of infantry and given a real chance to
show the stuff he was made of. After having marched twen
ty-five miles with his men one day, he rode horseback seventy-
three miles at night with a message and, returning next day,
walked thirty-four miles with the troops to a new camp.
Repeated praises of Leonard Wood reached the department
commander in letters from Colonel Lawton. To General Nel
son A. Miles the colonel wrote in 1894 :
"Concerning Dr. Leonard Wood, I can only repeat what I
have before reported officially and what I have said to you;
that his services during the trying campaign were of the high
est order. I speak particularly of services other than those
devolving on him as a medical officer ; services as a combatant
or line officer, voluntarily performed. He sought the most
difficult and dangerous work, and by his determination and
courage rendered a successful issue of the campaign pos
sible. "
In 1898 Colonel Lawton wrote the following to the governor
of Massachusetts:
"It was mainly due to Captain Wood's loyalty and resolu
tion that the expedition was successful. . . He will be a
credit to his state in any capacity of soldierly duty ; . . . "
After the Indian uproar had been quieted Wood was award
ed a Congressional Medal of Honor.
He was called to Washington in 1895 to act as attending-
surgeon at the White House. At this time Theodore Roose
velt was assistant secretary of the navy. The two were of
1 Pearson 's.
558 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
the same type of courage and manliness and became close
friends. They wrestled, boxed, played golf, and rode horse
back with each other, and when the Spanish-American War
broke out decided to get into it as comrades-at-arms. The
colonelcy of a volunteer cavalry regiment to be raised was
tendered Roosevelt. He said:
"Let Leonard Wood be colonel. He knows all about rais
ing and equipping a regiment. I will be content to serve
under him as lieutenant-colonel, until I can prove myself
worthy of a higher position. ' '
Out on the plains of Texas and the Southwest, where Wood
had fought and Roosevelt punched cattle, the two pounded
together a dare-devil company of cavalrymen, who made
themselves famous at San Juan Hill. Wood outdid the
shrewdest and most experienced army officer in the quickness
and completeness with which he got up the troop and fitted
it out.
The Rough Riders went into service right away, and stayed
in the thick of it. Colonel Wood was made Brigadier-General
of Volunteers, and at San Juan Hill commanded one of the
two brigades that composed General Joe Wheeler's cavalry
division. Throughout the war General Wood maintained
characteristic democracy toward his men, commanding them
to no task he would not do himself, and sharing all their
hardships. He was in touch with every detail of camp life,
even attending frequently in person the digging of trenches.
Writing to Secretary of War Alger, General Shafter spoke of
Generals Wood and Lawton as the two best men in the army.
When the war was over Wood was made governor of Santiago
province and set to work on a job of cleaning up that would
have staggered Hercules.
"Dirt" and the city of " Santiago " had been synonymous
for two centuries. On the 20th of July, 1898, when General
Wood landed at the city gates, the streets and courts and
houses had come to the height of filth and wretchedness. The
war had paralyzed its power to feed itself. He set out imme
diately on a tour of inspection and vultures flew up about him
from gorging on human bodies. Little children with distend-
LEONAED WOOD 559
ed abdomens that bespoke starvation crawled about the
horses' feet begging for crusts, and many died as they begged.
The death rate was over two hundred a day. Some houses
were found with as many as ten decaying corpses — a result
of the epidemic. Garbage and offal clogged the streets. Dur
ing the four centuries of Santiago's existence no systematic
cleaning had ever been done, and the accumulation of ages
was slowly choking out its life.
The most urgent need, as General Wood saw it, was for the
relief of starvation; the next, cleaning up the city; and the
next, giving it a government. These duties required a man
of exceptional resources — an expert in sanitation, a phys
ician, a soldier, and a law-giver. By incidental education
General Wood was the first; by practice, training, and nat
ural inclination he was doctor, soldier, and governor.
Food was extremely scarce. What could be obtained was
carefully portioned out to a network of relief stations. With
in forty-eight hours the backbone of the famine had been
broken. Then a plan for the supply of food under ironclad
rules was published.
Meat was selling for ninety cents a pound. Even at that
price there was very little to be had. The war had cut off
for a time the regular sources of supply, and all the meat that
could be had passed through the hands of butchers who
wished to recuperate their shattered fortunes. Equally pro
digious prices kept bread and vegetables beyond the reach of
the people. Summoning a conclave of butchers, bakers, and
vegetable venders, Wood learned the original cost of the food
stuffs, set a much lower figure, and commanded the city alder
men to see that no more was charged at the risk of their own
positions. In a jiffy prices for edibles were back in the old
notch, and the regular channels of import gradually began to
open and bring affairs back to normal.
In the work of sanitation General Wood received no help
or sympathy from the native Cubans or Spaniards. With
American mules and American men he set to work to remove
all dead bodies, soak them with kerosene, and burn them on
the outskirts of the city. As many as eighty-seven corpses
560 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
were consumed on one funeral pyre. It was slow and nasty
work. A week passed before any decided change could be
noticed. After the human bodies had been gathered and
burned, General Wood turned his attention to the animal
carcasses and filth in the streets, and then to a more strict
inspection of the houses. Santiago houses, instead of being
built with front yards, have square enclosures or courtyards,
and the uncleaned cesspools in the centers of these were
springs of sickness. Property owners were ordered to clean
them under penalty, and to report all conditions of unclean-
liness to the headquarters of their districts. Corrosive sub
limate was used plentifully, and slowly and gradually it be
came more easy for a person to live within the city-limits
without accumulating countless germs of typhoid, yellow-
fever, or other virulent maladies.
No provisions had ever been made for carrying off the
city's refuse, and its removal had been left to natural drain
age and the vultures. Santiago is built on a sort of ridge.
Garbage was thrown out into the streets and, when the rains
came, allowed to wash down onto the beach where it lay rot
ting until devoured by the birds. General Wood ordered
householders to prepare their garbage daily to be hauled away
by wagons. At the end of a month or so he had succeeded
in enlisting the partial cooperation of residents in the work of
sanitation — what with appeals to common sense and jail
sentences to the obdurate, who preferred familiar smells to
the odor of chloride of lime.
Prisoners from the jails had occasionally in times past been
forced to sweep the square around the palace ; that is as much
of a street cleaning system as Santiago had ever had. The
streets were narrow, crooked lanes, which became rivers of
mud in the rainy season. General Wood put all idle Cubans
he could find to work on paving the streets in an up-to-date
manner, paying each man fifty cents a day and board.
In the vermin-ridden holes that served as jails General
Wood found hordes of creatures incarcerated, against whom
only the flimsiest charges could be found. He passed a rule
that no man should be held in jail over forty-eight hours with-
LEONARD WOOD 561
out a hearing, and set himself the task of visiting the prison
ers each week to consider complaints against them. Steps
to improve the sanitation of the prisons were also quickly
taken.
He caused the schools to be severed from the Catholic
church, and enlarged their curricula, hiring teachers trained
in the United States.
Regular trips were made to the hospitals. It is said of
General Wood that once seeing a face stamped it and the
owner's name indelibly on his mind.2
Henry Harrison Lewis tells this story :
"On our way to visit the hospitals everyone we passed —
high or low — tipped his hat to General Wood, who returned
every salute courteously. At a corner we bumped into a sol
dier who halted and stood at attention with military prompt
ness.
" 'When did you leave the hospital, Boyd?' asked the Gen
eral kindly.
" 'Yesterday, sir,' was the reply.
" 'And you feel quite well?'
"The man nodded.
" 'Well, take good care of yourself. Keep away from the
rum, and be careful what native fruit you eat. And remem
ber that you are responsible not only for your own health,
but for the health and efficiency of an American soldier.'
" 'Is that an old acquaintance?' I asked Lieutenant Han-
na, the General's aide, who was with us. 'Did he serve in
General Wood's regiment?'
" 'No. I think we ran across him in the hospital last week.
The General goes through the wards every few days, you
know. And he never forgets a face.' "
Justice among the natives, Spaniards, and American sol
diers was dispensed with impartial hand, and every disturb
ance was investigated to the bottom and punished severely.
One evening when filled with a raging fever — the native
calentura — he left the government palace early for his home
on the edge of town. News of a riot between the newly-
zMcClure's Magazine, March, 1899.
562 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
created native police and a number of American soldiers
reached him as he was preparing for bed. The trouble had
occurred at San Luis, twenty miles away, and a lieutenant,
three natives, and a woman with a baby at the breast had been
killed. General Wood's temperature was 105°. He went im
mediately to the telegraph station with his chief signal officer,
Captain J. E. Brady, and sat there for three solid hours to
hear evidence from the parties embroiled, giving orders with
a decisiveness that betrayed no sign of his suffering. Next
day, although still in the grip of fever, he made a special
journey to San Luis to investigate further and to mete out
punishment.
As an illustration of his quickness in an emergency we are
told this story. Great jealousy and bitterness prevailed be
tween the Cuban residents and the remaining Spaniards, and
it was heightened by General Wood's retaining several Span
iards in office. The Plaza de Armas is surrounded by four
principal buildings: the Palace, the Cathedral, San Carlos
Club (the Cuban stronghold), and the Spanish Club. One af
ternoon General Wood was placidly writing letters in his
office in the Palace when a wild-eyed sentry burst in upon him
with the news that a mob of five hundred or more Cubans was
attacking the Spanish Club with sticks and stones. The Gen
eral calmly picked up his customary weapon — a riding whip
- and strode across the square, followed by the soldier. Plac
ing himself in the Spanish Club doorway he faced the raging
mob and said to the sentry:
" Shoot the first man who sets foot upon this step."
Within an hour the rioters had vanished.
No matter how busy the General may have been he was al
ways ready to listen to complaints from native residents, chat
with an officer or private over a proposed ball game to break
the ennui of camp life, or discuss questions of city govern
ment with Santiago citizens, great or small. His office door
was permitted to swing at the touch of all classes of people.
A writer in McClure's Magazine about this time makes an
estimate of what was accomplished in Santiago during just
four months of the Leonard Wood regime. The entire popu-
LEONARD WOOD 563
lation had been rescued from starvation; one of the foulest
cities in the world had been transformed into one of the clean
est; its daily death-rate had been reduced from two hundred
to ten ; much progress had been made toward paving the city ;
radical reforms had taken place in the custom house service ;
municipal expenses had been greatly reduced; the misman
agement of jails, hospitals, schools, and courts had been cor
rected ; business confidence had been restored.
Wood was appointed military governor of Cuba December
12, 1899, and served in that capacity until the formation of
the Cuban Republic in 1902.
After his advancement to the rank of Major-General in
1903 came an offer of forty thousand dollars a year from a
private concern and, at the same time, an appointment from
President McKinley to head of the Department of Mindanao
in the Philippines. On the one hand was rest and affluence;
on the other, danger and moderate pay. General Wood went
to the Philippines.
Journeying to his post of duty by way of India, Ceylon,
Java, and the Straits Settlements he took occasion to study
colonial conditions at each stop, collecting cases of statistics
for assistance on the job. He talked with British and Dutch
officials, and investigated conditions among the natives. How
thoroughly he prepared for his new work is shown by an anec
dote told by Robert H. Murray.3
"A visitor, sitting with him in his library in Manila, glanc
ed at the bookshelves which covered three walls of the room.
Most of the volumes were on military and colonial subjects.
" 'I have gathered them together since I came out here,'
remarked the General.
" 'It's a fine collection. When do you expect to find time
to read them?'
" 'Bead them,' replied Wood, 'I've already read every line
in every one of them. They've helped me a lot.'
General Wood reached Manila in July, 1903. He held a
conference with Governor Taft regarding the civil aspect of
3 World's Work, October, 1908.
564 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
the situation, and with his predecessor, General Davis, re
garding the military side of it, then rolled up his sleeves.
The Moro province of Mindanao and the provinces next to
it are at the extreme southern limit of the archipelago. As
far as bringing the light of civilization into these spots of
darkness was concerned, the Spaniards might as well have
planted colonies in Iceland. The Americans had to begin
practically at the bottom in their Philippine work. The
twenty tribes in Mindanao were united by no other bond than
hatred of white men. Slavery and polygamy flourished. As
to religious sects there were, beside pagans, Mohammedans,
Chinese Confucians, and a few Christians in the towns. In
ter-tribal feuds and lawless cavortings of power-bloated datus
were a few of the annoyances that went with the Mindanao
job. The main problem was to force the tribes to a recogni
tion of the white man 's government. For bringing this about
General Wood was endowed not alone with the power behind
the throne : he was the throne itself — as every sultan, rajah,
maharajah and datu ruler on the island were made to realize
before the end of the first month.
General Wood resolved upon a personal tour of inspection,
and with a detachment of men he plunged into the wilds at
Zamboanga and introduced himself to the astonished sav
ages. Some came cringing to his camp expecting favoritism.
He knew the byword: "You can trust a native as far as you
can see him ; in the jungle you can probably see him two feet
before you" — and he treated all alike. He impressed upon
their uncouth minds that they must deal openly with the
Americans. Some wouldn't learn the lesson. That was un
fortunate for them and troublesome for him, for later he had
to shoot them.
Months on end he and his men floundered through the jun
gle, paddled canoes over the streams, preached the power of
white men to head-hunters, and humbled haughty dignitaries.
At Jolo the sultan was off on a spree. The Moros in Jolo
were robbing and killing all over the island, and Eajah Mu-
dah — the sultan's acting regent — refused to discuss the
situation with General Wood, saying he had a boil. General
LEONARD WOOD 565
Wood ordered Colonel Scott to take a few men and make a
sympathetic call. The rajah repulsed all friendly advances
and refused to let Colonel Scott see his boil. Captain How-
land put his company into line with a snap, and the Moros
came running from all sides to see what was up. The rajah
decided to accept the company as a guard of honor while he
called on General Wood, saying that he thought the open air
walk might soothe his complaint.
Upon reaching camp he was greeted cordially by General
Wood, and showed about the camp, being allowed especially
to see a few pieces of artillery mow down a grove of trees.
After this visit Rajah Mudah became enthusiastically friendly.
No plan of governing the entire province had ever been
worked upon. The system of tribal monarchies prevailed.
General Wood divided the entire province into districts ruled
by district governors, and the districts into wards where the
native datus were made rulers with the sub-chiefs under them.
By incorporating many fragments of tribal law into the new
government and giving the native chiefs practically the same
power except that they were to be responsible to the central
government, General Wood got around the snag of rebellion
that he might have struck had he placed one chief above an
other arbitrarily. He gave every petty chief a share in the
government and took none of the legitimate powers away
from the tribal officers. In short, he brought unity out of
chaos — not, however, without bloodshed.
Datu Ali and his tribe refused to give up their slaves and
fortified themselves against attack. The Americans routed
them from their fort and killed the datu. A similar fate over
took the fanatical Tarracas, who had never been conquered,
and believed their position at a crater's edge impregnable.
They were practically annihilated.
In keeping up the spirits of the soldiers during the dismal
round of garrison life Wood proved himself almost a wizard.
He took time from his plans of civil and military action to
arrange baseball games and all sorts of contests between the
different regiments during the dry season; and during the
wet season prepared other diversions. There still remained
566 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
among the officers — especially the West Pointers — a trace
of resentment over Wood's rapid advancement, but his thor
ough fitness for the high honors given him and the unassum
ing way in which he bore them took the sting from the thought.
A young officer in the Philippine service is quoted by Robert
H. Murray as follows : 4
" 'When Wood came out in 1903, the army in the Philip
pines didn't know him. There were plenty of officers who re
viled him as a favorite of the White House and "cussed him
out" for it. The worst were the old fellows whom he had
jumped, and the youngsters took their cue from them. He
was a doctor, he wasn't a soldier, they said. But that didn't
last long after Wood started in down at Mindanao. Pretty
soon part of the army began to realize that he was a hustler ;
that he knew a good deal about the soldier's game ; that he did
things and did them right ; that, when he sent troops into the
field, he went along with them; that, when they had to eat
hard-tack and bacon, he did it, too; that, when there were
swamps to plod through, he was right along with them ; that,
when the reveille sounded before day-break, he was usually
up and dressed before us; that, when a man was down and
out and he happened to be near, he 'd get off his horse and see
what the matter was and fix the fellow up if he could; that he
had a pleasant word for all hands, from the Colonel down to
the teamster or packer ; that when he gave an order it was a
sensible one, and he didn't change it after it went out; and
that he remembered a man who did a good piece of work, and
showed his appreciation at every chance.
" 'Well, the youngsters began to swear by Wood, and the
old chaps followed; so that from "cussing him out" they began
to respect him, then to admire and love him. That's the word
— love. It's the easiest thing in the world now to pick a
fight out there by saying something against Wood. It is al
ways the same when men come in contact with him. I don't
honestly believe there is a man in the department now who
wouldn't go to hell and back for Leonard Wood. He draws
men to him, they feel that he is a big man. Take the older
* World's Work, October, 1908.
LEONARD WOOD 567
officers, the chaps who were soldiering when he was a "kid."
They all feel that, while they know their business, he knows it
a lot better than they do, and that he knows it by instinct,
backed up by learning.' "
When in 1905 General Wood had to return to the States
for a surgical operation the Moros were working together in
peace and unison for the first time in their history. Upon
his return to the Islands Pail in 1906 he was made Commander
of the Philippine Division, and set about bringing all the
Philippinos into harmony with the same vigor and dispatch
that marked his Mindanao labors.
General Wood was called from the Philippines in 1908 to
head the Department of the East, with headquarters at Gov
ernor's Island, near New York City. The same spirit of
democracy and fairness which opened his office door to all
classes of men during the other incumbencies followed him
here, and the humblest peanut merchant gained as careful an
audience as would any civil or military official.
Returning from a special embassadorial mission to the Ar
gentine Republic in July, 1910, General Wood found waiting
for him the highest office in the army it is possible for a man
to fill — that of Chief of Staff. He is now military adviser
to the President and representative of the Secretary of War
in formulating and carrying on the military policy of the gov
ernment. This year, by natural rotation, this office will pass
on to some one else, and General Wood will probably resume
duties in the Department of the East.
Now at the age of fifty-four, with years of usefulness ahead,
Leonard Wood can look back placidly on his quarter of a cen
tury of action and pride himself on a career of the most re
markable development — a doctor's scalpel grown to a Gen
eral's sword; leaving the paths of peace he has mounted over
trained soldiers and over monstrous obstacles to the loftiest
pinnacle of military attainment. Some narrow-minded men
squeak: "White House favoritism," "Pull." But in every
instance of advance, merit has shown itself unquestionably,
and General Wood earned every honor before it came to his
door. Those who look into his indomitable grey eyes say
568 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
he owes Ms present position rather to inborn and overpow
ering democracy and doggedness !
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PERIODICALS
Case of General Wood. Outlook 76 :15.
Character Sketch. By R. S. Baker. McClure's 14:368.
Chief of General Staff of the United States Army. By Theodore
Roosevelt. Outlook 95 :711.
General Wood. Harper's Weekly 56:6.
Meteoric Career of Wood. Current Literature 47:31.
Pacifier of the Philippines. By R. H. Murray. World's Work 16:
10773.
Promotion of Leonard Wood. Independent 55:2780.
Talk with General Wood. Outlook 68 :669.
Wood in Cuba. Review of Reviews 21 :213.
Wood's Future. Harper's Weekly 46:986.
Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, New York
ORVILLE WEIGHT
BY SAMUEL RAYMOND DUNHAM
OKVILLE WRIGHT was born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1871.
His father was a poor and respected clergyman with
scientific tastes, who had invented a typewriter but
never perfected it. His denomination recognized his abilities
by making him bishop. Mrs. Wright was a college-bred
woman, the best mathematician in her class, who delighted to
encourage her children in studious habits. One of the older
boys put on the market, as his own invention, an improved
hay-press. The daughter, Miss Catherine Wright, is a classical
graduate of Oberlin college and teaches Latin in the Dayton
schools.
Orville inherited the scientific and inventive mind. When
he was eight years old, his father brought home a little toy
which left a permanent impression on his mind. It was a
light frame of cork and bamboo covered with paper, which
formed two propellers or screws, driven in opposite direc
tions by rubber bands under torsion. The scientific name was
helicoptere, but he called it the "bat" because when thrown
into the air it would ascend and strike the ceiling, where it
would flutter awhile before falling to the floor. The boys be
gan making helicopteres of increasing sizes until, thinking
themselves too old for such toys, they turned to kite-making
and kite-flying, at which Orville was an expert.
When fifteen years of age, he and a friend issued a four-
page paper called The Midget and three years later they pub
lished a larger weekly, The West Side News, of which they
were editors, typesetters, pressmen, and delivery boys. The
press, which was of their own make, was good and attracted
the attention of a large printing-press house.
Like many another boy, Orville was enthusiastic on the sub
ject of bicycles. He and his brother made their own with
home-made tools. They created considerable amusement by
appearing on a tandem which they had made out of two old-
572 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
fashioned high wheels connected by a fifteen foot gas pipe.
Orville was a good amateur bicycle racer, being especially
successful when riding with a close competitor.
It is necessary here to mention his relations with his broth
er, Wilbur, who died in 1912, and who was his co-worker in
the invention of the aeroplane. Wilbur was the older and
more reserved of the two — a bit phlegmatic as contrasted
with Orville 's enthusiastic frankness. The combination was
a happy one, for each mind checked or stimulated the other
in practically every undertaking in which either was inter
ested. Neither claimed the preeminence in the great achieve
ment for which they are justly famous.
The boys were fond of reading, and eagerly devoured every
book which treated of scientific and mechanical devices. The
home library of more than two thousand volumes contained
many works of this class and the parents heartily encouraged
both the reading and the experimenting. The mental atmo
sphere was stimulating and conducive to original work. The
early interest of the boys, aroused by the helicoptere toy, was
revived by their reading of the experiments of Otto Lilienthal,
a German inventor, who had made some successful flights in a
gliding machine. Even the news of his death — by falling
eighteen yards from his machine — did not check their ardor.
They eagerly sought all that had been written on the subject
of aeronautics by Chanute, Langley, Sir Henry Maxim, and
others. They did not have a fortune to waste in experiment
ing. They made and repaired bicycles for a living. They
had no wealthy patrons to back them and no scientific asso
ciation was interested in helping them to the goal. Their
rivals in the field of aeronautics had personal fortunes, scien
tific cooperation, and governmental encouragement. With lit
tle more than pluck, persistence, and confidence in their own
ability, without college or technical training, they have gone
ahead of many who with wealth, training, and encouragement
have been experimenting for many years.
The impression has gone forth that the Wrights were sim
ply skilful mechanics who studied the problem of flying as a
mere mechanical problem, but the truth is to the contrary*
ORVILLE WRIGHT 573
They approached the subject and carried on their studies and
experiments in a scientific way. Their discovery can well be
called one of the most scientific of the world 's achievements.
They worked out the formula with great care and precision.
While they owe much to the enthusiasm of Moullard and
Lilienthal, they obtained a good understanding of the prob
lem of flying from Chanute's Progress in Flying Machines,
Langley's Experiments in Aerodynamics, the Aeronautical
Annals of 1905, 1906, and 1907, as well as several pamphlets
published by the Smithsonian Institution.
Gliding flights enlisted their attention at the first, chiefly
because of the greater expense necessary for experimenting
with power machines. At the very outset they met the great
est problem of aviation — that of equilibrium. They discov
ered that one who has not actually navigated the air cannot
appreciate the difficulty. They learned how false is the com
mon belief that the atmosphere runs in comparatively regular
currents, called winds. Whoever attempted a gliding flight
under such a theory would find himself thrown about, rising
or falling ten, twenty, or even thirty feet in a few seconds.
The air along the surface of the earth is continually churn
ing. It is thrown upward from every irregularity, like sea
breakers on a coast line; every hill and tree and building
sends up a wave of slanting current. The currents move, not
directly back and forth, but in whirling rotary masses rising
in some instances to hundreds of yards. In a fairly strong
wind the air near the earth is more strongly disturbed than
the whirlpools of Niagara.
Their opinion was that, to work intelligently, one needed to
know the effects of the multitude of variations that could be
incorporated in the surfaces of flying-machines. The pres
sures on squares are different from those on rectangles, cir
cles, triangles, or ellipses ; arched surfaces differ from planes,
and vary among themselves according to the depth of curva
ture; true arcs differ from parabolas, and the latter differ
among themselves; thick surfaces differ from thin, and sur
faces thicker in one place than another vary in pressure when
the positions of maximum thickness are different; some sur-
574 FAMOUS LIVING AMEEICANS
faces are most efficient at one angle, others at other angles.
The shape of the edge also makes a difference, so that thous
ands of combinations are possible in so simple a thing as a
wing.
They studied the flights of birds. Many hours of many
afternoons they spent lying flat on their backs watching the
birds wheel, circle, and soar, unconscious of the spying eyes
which were slowly catching their secrets and would one day
successfully claim the supremacy of the air. Their results
are told by Orville Wright himself. A bird is really an aero
plane. The portions of its win'gs near the body are used as
planes of support, while the more flexible parts outside, when
flapped, act as propellers. Some of the soaring birds are lit
tle more than animated sailing machines and few can rise
from the ground without a running start. Everyone who has
been outdoors has seen a buzzard or a hawk soaring; or ev
eryone at sea has seen the gulls sailing after a steamship for
miles with scarcely a movement of the wings. All these birds
are doing the same thing — they are balancing on rising cur
rents of air. The buzzards and hawks find the currents blow
ing upward off the land; the gulls that follow the steamers
from New York to Florida are merely sliding downhill a
thousand miles on rising currents in the wake of the steamer,
and on the hot air rising from her smoke-stacks. On clear,
warm days the buzzards find the high, rotary, rising currents
of air, and go sailing around and around in them. On damp,
windy days they hang above the edge of a steep hill on the
air which comes rising up its slope. From their position in
the air they can glide down at will.
The brothers studied the various principles of balancing,
and pored over the best data obtainable, but again and again
their experiments failed. Finally they cast aside as little
more than guesswork the existing tables and began experi
menting for a new law of aerodynamics. Small sheets of
steel of different sizes and shapes were delicately balanced in
a long tube through which steady currents of air were blown.
Then by changing the angles and speeds of air they noted
down carefully the results. By studying the mass of figures
ORVILLE WEIGHT 575
obtained, they perfected their apparatus until it gave them
identical results as often as they repeated the experiment,
and by comparing figures they learned how to plot the shape
of a surface so that it would do what they wanted it to do.
They hit upon a fundamentally different principle from any
which they found already set forth. They made the machine
as inert as possible to the effects of change of direction or
speed, and thus reduced the effects of windgusts to the mini
mum. They did this in the fore-and-aft stability by giving
the aeroplanes a peculiar shape ; and in the lateral balance by
arching the surfaces from tip to tip : just the reverse of what
their predecessors had done. Then they sought some suitable
contrivance, actuated by the operator, which would regulate
the balance. The method of balancing the machine by shift
ing the weight of the operator's body was deemed impractic
able for use under large conditions. By means of their tests
they learned the angles to which the wings would need to be
warped or turned in order to maintain equilibrium. Then
they made the wings capable of being warped by the operator,
who also adjusted the supplementary surfaces or rudders. A
device was discovered whereby the apparently rigid system
of superposed surfaces, invented by Wenham, and improved
by Stringfellowr and Chanute, could be warped in a most un
expected way, so that the aeroplanes could be presented on
the right and left sides at different angles to the wind. This,
with an adjustable, horizontal front rudder, formed the main
feature of the first glider.
The gliding experiments were begun in October of 1900, at
Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The place was extremely dif
ficult of access, but they were told by the weather bureau that
there the winds were the strongest and steadiest of any part
of the United States. They made no great mystery of their
work but invited the members of the life-saving crew, and
others who lived near, to watch the flights. Only when spies
or photographers were known to be near did they cease their
activities. They calculated by Lilienthal's tables that the
glider, which had a surface of 165 square feet, should be sus
tained by a wind of twenty miles an hour. Instead of hours
576 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
of gliding, as they had hoped, they had only two minutes of
actual sailing that year. Nevertheless they came to some
very satisfactory conclusions. The new method of steering
and balancing by shifting surfaces instead of weights worked
well and promised to work as well in larger machines. In
1901 they were again at Kitty Hawk with a machine, this time
nearly twice as large as had been counted safe before. It had
a surface of 308 square feet, measured twenty-two feet from
tip to tip, and weighed with the operator about 250 pounds.
Its trial flights were so successful that in 1902 they construct
ed another glider on advanced lines. Some seven hundred
to a thousand glides were made that year, the longest of which
was 622 feet. In addition, they established definitely many
corrections in the tables of calculations for aerial flight. These
experiments were not mere slides down an inclined plane in
the air, for often the machine would be lifted above the point
of starting and held soaring in one place for as long as half
a minute.
Thus far they had been experimenting purely for sport, but
one day an eminent engineer and authority in flying, Dr. Oc
tave Chanute of Chicago, appeared on the ground, carefully
observed their flights, and studied their calculations. He
startled them into seriousness by saying that they had gone
ahead of all others in the conquest of the air. With a dawn
ing and overwhelming appreciation of the value of these en
couraging words, they began to give more thought to the sub
ject and to spend more time away from their Dayton bicycle
shop.
Having now accurate data for making calculations and a
system of balance effective for winds as well as calm, they
built their first power machine. The first designs provided
for a total weight of 750 pounds. The screw-propellers which
they intended to use were not easily designed although they
were simply wings traveling in a spiral course. They found
that the theories of the marine engineers were unreliable and
once more the Wrights wrestled with an unsolved problem.
When at last they arrived at a clear understanding of the dififi-
OEVILLE WEIGHT 577
culty, they designed suitable propellers, with proper diameter,
pitch, and area of blade. High efficiency in a screw-propeller
is not dependent upon any particular or peculiar shape, and
there is no such thing as a "best" screw. Every propeller must
be designed to meet the particular conditions of the machine to
which it is to be applied. This use of the screw-propeller
appears to some aeronautical authorities to be the greatest
weakness of the Wright designs because of the great difficulty
of getting two wooden blades of the same resistance and pow
er. The severest injury which Orville Wright has sustained
was caused by a fall from his machine when a propeller-blade
snapped.
The first flights with the power machine were made on De
cember 17, 1903. Five persons besides the inventors witness
ed the four flights. The first attempt lasted only twelve sec
onds, but in the last the machine sustained itself in the air for
fifty-nine seconds and covered eight hundred and fifty-two
feet of ground against a twenty-mile wind. In 1904, they
made another machine with which they made the successful
flights of 1904 and 1905 — over one hundred and fifty in all,
averaging one mile each.
They had not been flying long in 1904 before they found
that the problem of equilibrium had not been fully solved.
Sometimes, in making a circle, the machine would turn over
sidewise in spite of anything the operator could do. When
the causes of these troubles were finally overcome late the
next year, the flights rapidly increased in length until the
experiments were discontinued on account of the number of
people attracted to the field. In May, 1907, experiments were
resumed at Kitty Hawk. These flights were made to test the
machine's ability to meet the requirements of the United
States government which asked for a flyer capable of carry
ing two men and sufficient supplies for a flight of one hundred
and twenty-five miles, with a speed of forty miles an hour.
The machine used in these tests was the same one with which
the flights were made near Dayton in 1905, though several
changes had been made to meet present requirements. The
578 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
operator assumed a sitting position, instead of lying prone,
and a seat was added for another passenger. A larger motor
replaced those previously used.
Mr. Augustus Post, secretary of the Aero Club of America,
gives an account of the final test made at Ft. Meyer, Va. The
test was to be made over a measured course of five miles from
Ft. Meyer to Alexandria, Va., and return, making a total of
ten miles over trees, railroads, and rough and unbroken coun
try — a feat never before attempted and much more difficult
than crossing the English Channel. The difficulty of main
taining a level course, when the valleys and gullies sometimes
drop one hundred and more feet, can hardly be realized.
The price to be paid for the machine depended upon its speed,
which was calculated at forty miles an hour. The government
had agreed to pay $25,000 for the machine, and for every mile
above this speed they were to pay a bonus of $2,500 ; and for
every mile per hour less, to the minimum of thirty-six miles an
hour, they would deduct the same amount. If the flyer should
get very low and have to climb higher it would retard the
speed, just as an automobile would go slower uphill; and the
danger of landing among the trees if the motor should stop
added one more serious element to be taken into considera
tion. A vast number of people were assembled. At least
five hundred automobiles were parked back of the President's
enclosure, and trolley cars and wagons stood on the Arlington
side. The whole government was represented : senators, con
gressmen, officers of the army, chiefs of bureaus, and many
of the clerks were there.
Orville Wright calmly adjusted his goggles, which are fitted
with shades to protect his eyes from the sun, changed his coat,
put on a cap, which he pulled down over his eyes, and took
his seat in the aeroplane. Lieutenant Benjamin D. Foulois,
who had been chosen to accompany the aviator upon the speed
test, took his place. Everything being ready, the machine
was released, and they rose steadily and slowly, circling the
field twice to get up speed and to attain sufficient elevation.
They turned sharply by the starting tower and passed be
tween the flags which marked the starting line. Amid the
ORVILLE WRIGHT 579
cheering of the spectators and the tooting of automobile horns
the machine sped away toward the two captive balloons which
marked the course and gave some idea of the proper altitude
to maintain. It grew smaller and smaller in the distance, and
it could be seen that the wind was carrying it slightly out of
its course toward the east, but it turned and made for the
balloon marking the turning point, where representatives of
the United States Signal Corps were stationed. They took
the official time of the turn, and the machine started back.
There was a moment of suspense when it disappeared from
view. The strong downward currents of wind bore the aero
plane lower and lower until it was hidden by the trees. Soon
it came into sight again and rapidly grew more distinct until
it swept over the finishing line, almost over the heads of the
cheering crowds, and with a graceful circle landed near the
aeroplane shed. The greatest aeronautical event in history
was finished. The time was fourteen minutes and forty-two
seconds, which meant a speed of a little more than forty-two
miles an hour.
Just before he left for Europe, Orville Wright stated that
the machine could fly for a period of twenty-five hours; and
if it maintained a speed of forty miles an hour, this would
mean covering about a thousand miles, which, in the light of
present developments, does not seem too much to expect.
He is not over-sanguine about the aeroplane 's revolutionizing
the transportation of the future. It will scarcely displace the
railroad or the steamboat ; its expenditure of fuel is necessar
ily too great. The airship, he thinks, will have its chief value
for warfare, and for reaching inaccessible places : it may also
be used for service like carrying mail. The eventual speed
of the aeroplane will be easily sixty miles an hour with a prob
ability of its being forced up to a hundred miles an hour.
Orville Wright objects that many writers have character
ized the brothers as mechanics, and have taken it for granted
that their invention has come from mechanical skill. "We
are not mechanics/' he said, including his brother,
scientists. "
580 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Aerial Navigation. (Appleton.) By A. F. Zahm.
Historic Inventions, pp. 273-295. (G. W. Jacobs & Co.) By R. S.
Holland.
Story of Aeroplane. (Small, Maynard & Co.) By C. Grahame-
White.
PERIODICALS
Bleriot's Channel Flight. Scientific American 101:86.
How the Wrights Discovered Flight. By A. W. Page. World's Work
20 :13303.
Orville Wright's Fool-proof Plane. Literary Digest 48:374.
Popular Aeronautic Sports. By George E. Walsh. Independent
60:1358.
Presentation of the Aero Club Medals to the Wright Brothers. Sci
entific American 100:459.
Return of the Wright Brothers. Scientific American 100 :366.
The Wright Brothers' Aeroplane. By Orville and Wilbur Wright.
Century (Poole) 54:641.
Wright Disaster. Independent 65 :685.
Wrights — Yesterday and Today. By Augustus Post. World's
Work 18 :12168.
Courtesy Jarvis Weed, Chicago
ELLA FLAGG YOUNG
BY JOHN T. McMANis
THE public schools of the second city of America are ad
ministered by a woman. In this great cosmopolitan city
of many interests and many tongues, the superintendent
of schools determines the welfare of three or four hundred
thousand children, of six and a half thousand teachers and
employes and the annual expenditure of seventeen or eighteen
millions of dollars. To handle adequately so vast a problem
requires courage, insight, patience, unselfishness, and loyalty
— in fact, all of those strong traits of character and mind
which we usually attribute to great men, but which in this case
we find embodied in an unassuming woman, Ella Flagg Young.
To talk to Mrs. Young about herself or her qualifications
for the position she holds is not an easy task. She is ready
and anxious to discuss the education of children, or the train
ing and comfort of teachers, but meagre in her information
about her own achievements. She will tell you that she is do
ing nothing that many another person might not do far more
successfully than she. Allegiance to the welfare of her adopt
ed city is the strongest trait of her character and in a quiet,
direct way she gives her heart to bettering opportunities for
Chicago '& future citizens. Behind her quiet exterior there is an
indomitable will. Courage marks every step she takes. No
matter how difficult the task, nor how uncertain the outcome,
she sticks to it until results are obtained. Stalwart in her own
honesty, she hates sham. She demands honesty in others and
is able to inspire them with some measure of her own spirit of
loyalty. Her judgment is quick and unerring. No one can
work with her long without feeling her keen, fine sympathy, her
quick, subtle sense of humor, and her whole-hearted devotion
to the cause of education and the care of the young people of
the city.
Every admirer of success in human life will ask how a
woman like Mrs. Young came to occupy this place of leader-
584 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
ship among men and women of her time. By what steps has
she raised herself to the head of a great system of schools and
to an international reputation as an educator? Was she
' ' born great, " was "greatness thrust upon her," or has she
won greatness by devotion and application to her profession!
The story of her life reads like that of many another Ameri
can who has struggled with the forces of life and has succeed
ed in molding them to a definite purpose ; it thrills with such
work and service as should stir us to our highest endeavor.
From it may be constructed the real answer to these questions,
and that answer will not attribute her success to chance or to
accident.
Asked what secret lies concealed in her rise to her present
position, Mrs. Young replies with characteristic brusqueness
and pointedness, "systematic work." The key to her life is
this word systematic. One of the plans formulated by her
when she first began to teach was for the disposition of her
time outside of school. On three evenings of each week she
studied; Sunday evenings she reserved for church; and the
three other evenings she devoted to amusement and social
pleasure. Her first task on each evening for work was an oral
review, made to herself, of the reading or study of the pre
vious night. This plan, to which she has adhered throughout
her life, has made her efficient in a very high degree. She
works with a minimum expenditure of energy because she has
acquired the habit of dealing with problems in a systematic
way. At the same time, as will be noticed, the plan includes
association with people outside of her school work. This has
added to her breadth of view of men and affairs.
Ella Flagg was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1845. Her
parents were of Scotch descent. She is proud to tell that her
mother came of the Highland clan of Cameron. She grew up
and had her earliest training in an atmosphere of Scotch Cal
vinism. Because of delicate health during her early years
most of her associations were with adults, which deprived her
of the sturdy play activities of childhood, and her education
was obtained mainly outside of schools. This fact probably
accounts in part for her serious-minded attitude as a child and
ELLA FLAGG YOUNG 585
for much of her early reading. She learned to read after she
was eight years of age and refused to learn to write until she
was nearly fourteen. Before she was ten she had committed
to memory the Westminster Catechism and most of Matthew,
Mark, Luke, John, the Epistle to the Corinthians, and the
Psalms. The Call to the Unconverted, by the Scotch Cov
enanter, Baxter, fell into her childish hands, and she read this
until her mother found her out and replaced it with books
more appropriate for her age.
She tells with tenderness how her mother rescued her from
the laughter of certain ladies calling at the house when she
had expressed her own youthful notions gleaned from these
strange books. "She took me seriously," says Mrs. Young,
and this grateful recollection may be one reason for the serious
consideration and respect which she herself shows to children.
Her father was a man of keen insight, much interested in sci
ence, a taste which sometimes set him at issue with some of
the orthodox dogmas of the church such as Predestination.
He always took great interest in his daughter's education and
accustomed her to discuss with him in the evening her studies
of the day, questioning her keenly, and encouraging her to ex
press with freedom her own impressions and judgments and
to test their soundness in daily life. From this atmosphere
of religious and moral alertness and intellectual freedom, the
keen, sensitive child gained habits of reflection and respect
for the finer qualities of human life, and her mind was given
a philosophical and scientific turn which later showed itself
in the work she took up and the methods she used.
Her professional preparation for teaching was made in the
old Normal School of Chicago, whither her people had come
to live. Her mother's fear lest she had been too much sep
arated from children in her own childhood to be able to come
into sympathy with them and so to become an acceptable
teacher no doubt sharpened her determination to attain the
proper equipment. At that time there was no school in which
students in training to become teachers could practice teach
ing; "practice schools " were unknown. Mrs. Young delights
to tell how she made her own practice school. After normal
586 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
school hours she began seeking out some elementary school
at a distance where she could sit and observe children and
teacher. By and by she found a schoolroom where teacher
and children seemed in perfect accord, like a happy family.
She visited again and was then asked to take charge of a class.
This became a regular part of her program. It was here that
she got the insight into child nature and inspiration which her
mother had said she lacked. In making her own practice
school she was unconsciously preparing herself for her early
promotion to the headship of the first practice school estab
lished in the city. The working out into new lines in this case
was characteristic of her constant preparation for progress
from one position to another.
When in 1862 she began teaching in Chicago, she was only
seventeen years of age. She started at once, as has already
been pointed out, into a systematic study of the problems of
education, and gave all her strength and mind to the work she
had selected. An interesting story is told of her first year in
school, when, having been put into one of the higher grades,
she had pupils larger and older than herself. It was her cus
tom to work at school until late in the day ; and one evening
a big, overgrown, troublesome boy remained to remonstrate
with her for staying so long at school and going out alone on
the streets in the dark. We have, however, no record that the
youthful schoolmistress heeded this suggestion. After one
year in this position she became head assistant in one of the
large schools. In 1865, with the children of this school she
marched across the city to the public funeral of Lincoln.
At the age of twenty she became the first head of the prac
tice school for teachers. Here again, as in her work at the
Normal School, she was beforehand in her preparation for the
position that she was to fill. In the Normal School of Os-
wego, New York, the so-called object-method of teaching was
in vogue at the time and Ella Flagg went there to study this
system before she took up the work in the practice school.
One of the earliest attempts at practical application of art
work in the Chicago Public Schools was begun by her when
she got the students to decorate tastefully the practice school
ELLA FLAGG YOUNG 587
rooms. The girls "turned out" from the classes of this old
school have remained life-long friends of their teacher and
tell to-day of her sympathy for them and for the children un
der her charge. In 1869 she was married, but went on with
her school work. Later she became teacher of a high school
class and in 1874 went back to the Normal School as instructor
in mathematics.
In 1876 she became principal of an elementary school and in
this work spent eleven years. This position gave her an op
portunity for broader work and study and was an important
step in her training for supervision and management of
schools. One of her pupils gives an interesting picture of
Mrs. Young at this time : " When I was a little girl about ten
years of age I went to the old Scammon School on Monroe
street. Our principal, Ella Flagg Young, gave me a tortoise-
shell-handled penknife as a present for making two grades in
one year. I prized the knife greatly and kept it until I had
growrn up. I always call her 'our principal ' in speaking of my
school days, for I loved her dearly then, and still love her. I
wish you could see her as she stands before me in my mind's
eye : a little bit of a woman about five feet tall, all vim, push,
and go-ahead. My, how she would make those boys fly. She
always dressed in black, very plainly. And her eyes — eyes
that looked you through and through ! When she was trans
ferred to the Skinner School I asked her if she would allow me
to go there too, but she told me she could not without a permit
from the board of education. As my mother was always too
busy to get the permit and I was not old enough to go for my
self, I consequently lost all interest in the school when we lost
our beloved principal, and I quit going. I lost my beautiful
little knife, too, the only thing I had to remember our prin
cipal by, except her picture, which will last forever engraved
in my heart. ' '
The measure of Mrs. Young's service in the positions she
has held cannot be told by saying that hers has been a com
plete devotion to duty. She has gone beyond that point and
has given more than the job required. While principal of
schools she organized her teachers into a study class. The
588 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
first work taken up was English grammar, but later on the
club took up Shakespeare and the Greek dramas, and still
later, philosophical and ethical works. Once or twice a year
this club gave formal readings of plays, usually before invited
guests at the home of Mrs. Young. It was as a principal of
schools that she first took her stand against the corporal pun
ishment of children, which she abolished in her own school and
has since seen abolished in city and state.
From principal Mrs. Young was promoted to the position
of assistant superintendent in 1887, which position she held
until 1899. In this office she devoted her time to working
into practice the latest and best methods and ideas in the edu
cational world. She delivered each year a lecture on the
progress of the schools. This lecture was always largely at
tended. Because of her own devotion to duty, her own sin
cerity of purpose and dislike for shirking, she was uncompro
mising towards superficiality and lack of consecration in
teachers. In this way during her service as assistant super
intendent, she acquired among some of the teachers the repu
tation of being a cold and hard master. She was, therefore,
feared by many and her visits to the schoolrooms were dread
ed. She tells with a twinkle of humor in her eye how on one
occasion she discovered the secret signal by which her pres
ence in a school was made known from one to another when
she saw a small boy leaving the room with an eraser which
was to be carried to another room and then to be sent from
room to room. But even the people who thought her hardest
in her attitude always say that she never criticized negatively
the work of teacher or pupil, but always pointed out lines
along which improvement might be made. Wherever she
found sincere effort and interest in the work she gave help and
encouragement. She left the office of assistant superintend
ent when it was reduced to a mere clerical job, for she refused
to give up her own independence of mind for the sake of hold
ing the position. This action shows an attitude toward her
work which is characteristic of her, as has been often illus
trated.
ELLA FLAGG YOUNG 589
As soon as she left the public schools she was offered a posi
tion as professor of Education in the University of Chicago.
But she refused promotion until after she had taken an ad
vanced degree. While she was assistant superintendent she
attended late Monday afternoons Professor John Dewey's
seminars in logic and philosophy at the University of Chi
cago. She read before the Education Club of the University
a paper which, at Professor Dewey's suggestion, she expand
ed later for her thesis when she came up for the degree of
doctor of philosophy, which was awarded after a year of grad
uate work in the University, following three years' attendance
on the seminars. While in the University she wrote a num
ber of papers on Education and Ethics. In 1904 she resigned
her professorship, following her principle of leaving a posi
tion that did not give her a chance to put her best self into her
work. She went abroad at that time, spending a year study
ing the schools of the great European cities. Upon her return
the next year she was elected to the principalship of the Chi
cago Normal School and held this place until 1909, when she
became superintendent of the city schools.
Since she became superintendent, the schools of Chicago
have made unthought-of advances towards freedom and effi
ciency. Only a few years ago if boys and girls wished train
ing along any special lines to fit them for life, they were com
pelled to get such training outside of the schools. The only
instruction to be found in the schools was in academic sub
jects, in subjects leading to leisure and a so-called cultured
life. Mrs. Young has made many changes in all this scheme.
To-day every class of children, from crippled and sickly chil
dren to restless and overactive boys, have been provided for
in the city schools. Education is no longer a grind along nar
row, set lines of dry-as-dust subjects which every boy and girl
hates, but has become an interesting way of living and of
learning how others live. Pets are kept by children in the
lower grades ; shops and kitchens and laboratories are found
in all the higher grades. Schools have playgrounds, gym
nasiums, swimming pools, and gardens. Centers have been
opened for various amusements under right conditions. Penny
lunches have been established. And not only have all sorts
590 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
of arrangements been made for promoting the health, growth,
and happiness of school children, but improvements have been
made in directing them into the most desirable kinds of occu
pations and in fitting them to fill these places, Pre-vocational
courses have been established in the elementary grades, where
children may get their first direct contact with the tools and
occupations of life. In the high schools vocational courses
have been provided so that now boys and girls may carry on
work in any line and gain a high degree of skill in it. Educa
tion in Chicago has come to mean the direct preparation of
young people for their life work. We are no longer contented
with giving a general smattering in reading, writing, and
arithmetic, and then allowing boys and girls to drift anywhere
on the sea of economic inefficiency. This change in the schools
has been due mainly to the leadership of the present superin
tendent.
Mrs. Young realizes more clearly than most of her contem
poraries the vastness of the city and the numbers of its chil
dren. She realizes the difficulty the city has in providing safe
opportunities for the young to grow in the midst of noise and
confusion and vice and greed. She is attempting to bring
the schools into such a position that they will form a bridge
for children from their eager inexperienced youth to the world
of trained citizenship and intelligent and efficient industry.
All the wonderful changes in Chicago schools during the past
five years mark an advance towards a true democracy and
give each child and each teacher more chance to grow and
work freely along lines best adapted to his or her particular
capacity. The latest course of study for the elementary
schools gives teachers the right to select one of the studies to
be taught by them in their own grades, studies which they are
best fitted to teach. Such an innovation was previously un
heard of except in higher institutions where for a long time
teachers have been allowed to specialize in their work.
Mrs. Young has had to fight for every improvement she has
secured in the education of children in Chicago. Many of the
most vital improvements in the schools have been killed by be
ing dubbed "fads." Such a cry has been set up in Chicago
again and again and the superintendent has had to meet it
ELLA FLAGG YOUNG 591
with patience as best she could. But the hardest fights which
she has had to go through have been those waged by ' ' special
interests ' ' intrenched in the politics of the city. The fact that
the superintendent is a woman was sufficient grounds for op
position to her continuance by political spoilsmen. When the
women of Illinois were granted the franchise, Mrs. Young's
position became more secure, but it did not relieve her from
the attacks which politicians are adepts in devising. On two
separate occasions during the past year it seemed that the
forces of opposition were too strong for any one individual,
however powerful, to stem, that these forces would "get her,"
to use the phrase current at the time. Never before, however,
had this woman's wonderful resourcefulness and strength been
shown as on these occasions. When she found that single-
handed she could no longer protect the interests of the schools
against special interests, she stepped out of office and by doing
so gave the fight over to the city itself.
With one voice the great daily papers and intelligent public
opinion protested against the acts of the school board and
demanded that she be put back into office. The dramatic up
rising of Chicago parents and their stirring demands for her
return to the headship of the schools is unique in American
city government. By editorials, by sermons, and by public
mass meetings, politicians were condemned, and called upon
to undo what they had done. One daily paper stated it thus :
' 1 Chicago never before gave such a testimonial to any citizen
as the meeting at the Auditorium Saturday in behalf of Mrs.
Ella Flagg Young. The vast hall was jammed, not with peo
ple to see a show, but with solid citizens, bent on showing
their confidence in the city's foremost educator, and on right
ing the wrongs done by politics to the city's schools. A native
son who had been elected president of the United States might
feel flattered at such a demonstration. The gathering of Sat
urday, and the universal outcry from all parts of the city show
that a democracy is not ungrateful for services rendered its
children." Another paper said: "The sort of seismic dis
turbance that shook Chicago's educational system Wednesday
night ought to be impossible. The practical ousting of the
592 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
most efficient superintendent the schools of the city have ever
had, in the middle of the school year, without cause assigned
or cause assignable — that will bear investigation — is an out
rage to public decency and a grave wrong to the people. ' ' Still
another said: "Chicago does Mrs. Young no favor in want
ing her for the place. The whole country realizes the unique
advantage Chicago enjoyed with her at the head of its schools.
The word of her retirement had hardly been telegraphed when
back over the wires came offers from other cities asking Ella
Flagg Young to take charge of their schools. The one thing
that might induce Mrs. Young to forget the slight delivered by
a few petty politicians and take her old position is her tre
mendous sense of duty ; the consciousness of a better citizen
ship than we usually associate with public office/'
What she could not do alone, Mrs. Young succeeded in hav
ing the people of the city do. There was nothing for the
school board to do but to return her to office and free her hands
in the management of the schools. But neither her with
drawal nor her return to the office of superintendent was a
personal matter. If it had been, she might better have chosen
one of the editorial positions offered her by two great dailies
of the city at a larger salary and for very much less work and
responsibility. In resigning, her plan was a part of the edu
cational policy she had at heart for teaching her beloved city
its responsibility for the welfare of its young people. That
she succeeded must be apparent to every one. Never have the
people of a large city been quickened to the needs of popular
education as the people of Chicago were by the action of Mrs.
Young. The biggest piece of constructive education this wo
man has ever done has been to teach a great city democratic
principles in the management of the education of children.
Mrs. Young has done more by her management of the school
situation in Chicago to demonstrate the justice of the claim
to political and economic equality of men and women and to
merit the appellation of "educational statesman " than any
other American woman.
Mrs. Young's educational interests have not been limited
by Chicago nor by the state of Illinois. Her influence has been
felt throughout the country and her name is quoted abroad.
ELLA FLAGG YOUNG 593
In 1910, the National Education Association met in Boston.
It had been the custom of that organization to elect annually a
man as president. A custom had grown up of having a com
mittee make all nominations for offices, and so firmly had this
practice become established, that no one thought of disregard
ing the committee's recommendations. But at the Boston
meeting the unexpected happened. The nominating commit
tee reported as usual, but some intrepid woman moved from
the floor of the convention to substitute the name of Mrs.
Young for that offered by the committee for president. Pan
demonium reigned ; a woman was breaking the revered custom
of generations and leading an attack on a time-honored oli
garchy. For the first time, the teachers, the individual mem
bers composing the body, were taking a hand in the proceed
ings and were selecting someone representing their interests.
Mrs. Young was elected by a large majority of the votes pres
ent and the cause of democracy triumphed once more. Noth
ing has happened to the National Education Association in
recent years of more importance for general education than
this election. Since that time it has been conducted in the
interests of the country as a whole and not of a special set of
institutions. The outcome of the fight has been due mainly to
the power, foresight, and democratic principles of the woman
elected president of the Association. A teacher always, Mrs.
Young has given the very best of herself to the education of
boys and girls and her name has gone out to the ends of the
educational world as a great leader and teacher.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PERIODICALS
Education. By George H. Mead. Survey 31 :443.
Ella Flagg Young. By J. L. Jones. American Magazine 72 :434.
First "Woman Superintendent. Survey 24:619.
Honoring First Woman Superintendent. Survey 24 :474.
Principal of Chicago Normal School. By A. S. Beard. World To
day 9 :1330.
Proceedings of the National Education Association: 1887: 254; 1893:
83; 1896: 111; 1901: 363; 1903: 322; 1906: 121; 1908: 102-115;
1900: 29; 1911: 87-183; 1907: 164-383.
594 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS
Teacher, Woman, Friend. By 0. H. Foster. Harper's Bazar 45 :174.
Woman at Head of Chicago Schools. By J. Evans. Outlook 93 :180.
Woman at Head of Chicago School System. By J. Evans. World's
Work 18 :11992.
Woman Superintendent of Chicago Schools. Independent 67 :323.
Reprints by Grier Press (Chicago.)
Ella Flagg Young. By J. B. Colby.
Test of Chicago. By Jean Masson.
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-184
MAR 7 1930
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