Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 20, 1907)
42 Two Born in Parsonages, Chosen foi the Elective Office "in the World. I -I . . n j-t , , f ,,,, , .., . ' .' Ill jsz&-s tr GAZzmzz, site?: JV WHICH GFOVtt TIT DEXTER MARSHALL. TUB two most picturesque sons of clergymen now prominent In the eye of the world are EX li. Harrlman and Senator J. I. Uollivar, of Iowa. Twice in the hlalury of the Republic a minister's son was th moot prominent Tnan In the country. O. A. Arthur. ireaJ dent by reason or Garfield's death, was a clergyman's son, and so vas Crover Cleveland. The father of on Vlce-Preildent. Levi r, Morton, was a minister. W. B- llomblower, th clever &ew York lawyer, whom Olaveland vainly tried to make a. JuBtlc of th Bupreme Court, la a. mln- Jpter's son. Richard Watson OlUer, a reai editor, and Henry James, famous novelist, are minister's sons. James B. Dill. the creator of great corporations, la another. You would need to go a long way to ftnd men of greater personal force, of more pronounced achievements, of stronger f n- divWuallty, than these prominent sons of ministers. In his way Mr. Harrlman. the rallroail Kapoleon who promised Mr. Rooseveit the other day to turn back the rebellious water of the Colorado River, is the won der of his ago. When he first appeared In Wall street, as - a boy, a good many years ago, ho was noted, as he is now, because of his dislike for too many words, his self-reliance and his energy. His independence went almost to the point of surliness. At first he did errands -he didn't "run" them, however; accord ing to a printed statement by James Stlll- ma.n. president of Rockefeller's city bank. "nobody ever eaw Bd Harriman run" for a urnall firm of brokers. He planned, to make his own way In Wall street. Althougb his father was a poor minister "over la Jersey," he had rich relatives, but the hoy refused to be beholden to them. From the beginning he was a speculator, and old-timers of the etreet will tell yon that he always Tfon, Ho eecmea to nava his own methods of making: money, and In 1S70, 36 years ago, he had enough to buy a seat on the atoclc Exchange, He was then "atxmr 25; notwdy. Knows exactly; m fact nobody but himself knows Just how old Harrlman Is today, and he won't tell. He formed, a stock brokerage firm with Ms brother, and, presently, was a factor In the Illinois Central Railroad manage ment out of which he so Incontinently X'ltohed Stujrveaant Pish last Fall. Mr. Fish's early friendship for Harrlman was one of thft latter's most valuable assets In his climbing days. It was at about that time that Harrlman made his first million, and he has never had a real eat- back since, although there were a few day about 14 years ago that he came ear going under during the "currency famine of "98." It lsoften said that no man in finance h more feared today than B. H. Harrl man. yet In and about Arden, N. Y.. near Tuedo, him neighbors' children know him n "Vncle Hank," and 'I"o4V Harrlman. Short of stature, lively In his movements, curt ot tongue, he Is the personal anti thesis of Senator Dolllver, with whom I ihewe brackMAl him. Dolllver 1m m. slant. He Is hearty and magnetic. He glories In words. Hie vo cabulary Is Inexhaustible, and his accent nan all tne engag-ina? qualities or ttva South, where he waa horn, and of trie estern prairies, where he has made food. "Jonty" DolllTer. "The Minister's Boy." Dolllver ts probably 'be most engag ing story teller of all the ministers' sons nftw prominent. Porty years aeo. among the mountain boys of what Is now West Virginia, where Ms chief fllstlnctlons were his good nature and the fact that he was "the minister's boy." he was "Jonty" XXtlliver in everybody's mouth,, and ii 'Jonty" ho remained even after ho had fmtered the University of West Virginia ana oecome famoiwj for hie readiness in aeoaie ana nis love lor tne classics. He was still only a boy, however. He va8 Narad uated when only 17 and couldn't have been more than IS or 14 when he entered. As an undergraduate he won reputation for more than a silver tongue ana Btuuiousness, Everybody who Knew him at all knew him to be about the best fisherman and the most daring; swimmer tn the whole student body. Whenever he tells hie friends how much he- enjoyed Ashing and swimming In the waters of tho Mononguhcla. as a college boy, he does the story so well that you can al most hear the swish of the stream he 6wam In an4 Bee the glistening scales of the fish he drew out of It. Ho Is still as fond of fishing: as ever, btlt hla angrlins: Is now done mostly upon the Des Molnea Instead of the Alononffahela; "they sy mm MS? I 3mm l L M CLEVELAND he can catch as many baes with a nsh- pole and old-faflhloned tackle as most any other man can with the finest jointed rod and the most elaborate book of riles. Jonatnan arntles xolliver's fatner was a Methoulst circuit rlUer. This means, as some of my younger reajera W ill need tn have crnlai nd to thfim. that ulthouRh a regularly ordained mlnistor of his church, his preaching; was not confined to one place; he has several "appointments" for every Sun- um..v, in umiy in Hunuoi uuubkb -nunia ox them in the log cabin homes of his people , that were scattered over . a, rather wMq area. He was constantly on the go over his "circuit." In the middle of the last century, when 1 X1I Iv.r pcra was at the height of his activity, the roads in the mountain regions of the Mononga hela Valley were pretty bad and he had to (go from appointment to appointment on horseback, hence the term "circuit rider." His horseback excursions yer not confined to Sundays; he had the sick to visit, the dying to speed on their last long journeys, the bereaved, to console and the families of his var- lous little congregations to call upon In order. That he was In the saddle more than half the time Is by no means improb able, and he must have had, great physical endurance. He never shrank from the snows of Winter or the tor rential rains of Spring and Kail; storms often delayed but they never stopped hi in. This fine specimen of an Ameri can type that has now all but disap peared died only two or three years airo. as proud of his eloquent son as he had a rlfght to be. Wnen in Washington aurlny t&o eB elons "Father1 -Dolllver often went to hear the Senator speak. While the lat ter was In the Mouse of Representa tives It was said that you could always tell when Dolllver was about, to gut loose on the floor. Invariably, an hour or two tn advance, the tall, stalwart son would escort the venerable father. who then had to use crutches from the infirmities of age, to a front seat In the members' g-allery. There he would t?lt and wait for the speech and listen to It with all the Interest In the world, never failing to applaud at tne right moment. Ills son never failed to recog- nio his presence In the gallery by smiling at him two or three times In the course of each speech. How Dolllver Struggled. Senator Dolllver was born In 1858. andt wsavonly 3 years eld. wh td Civil War broke out, and not far trora elght when it closed. He had to pay part of his own way through college, for bis circuit riding father's income was r. better than the average country minister's. At 17, when the boy had won his graduation diploma, he plunged Into the study of law and. was admitted at 20. Even then he was ambitious to be come a political figure, and that is per. haps one of the reasons why ho chose to make his career In Iowa instead of West Virginia, for Iowa was safely id) lv';l iltiiH1lu.lt t - 1 bwPk:-' 111 7 K:,-" -, . -:r - ..... ., 1 ii , mvWrttS PAUGffTEz s&rrry c&imes - 1 - " . WHO MAS Won PANE. . mvEU&r - , , t rw? taken at - -r-5fe THE SUNDAY OREGONIJLX. PORTLAND, JANUARY -20, 1907. Highest rr I Republican, and all bis sympathies were with, that party. So, as they say In Fort Dodge, "one day he blew Into town and settled down." Xila first of fice was over a store. For some time he slept and studied,, and fought for a practice In the one room, often work ing till late at night by the light of a kerosene lamp over bis law boo Its and, his early cases. , Old Fort Dodgers tUl talk about hi a first case." It grew out ot & horse trade, the details of which would have delisrhted the lamented author of "TJlavld Harum." Xolll-ver lost, although the Courtroom ot the Justice before whom i ho made hi argument was crowded - with his newly -made towns folk to hear him. They were amaaed at the young .-giant's Southern elo- quence, which they could not help re- srardlnK as spread on a little thick, so luxuriant was It- It was the beslnnln; of his reputation as an orator, desipite the adverse decision. He got plenty ot cases after that, and he soon began to win them. too. Likewise, he soon be gan to win fame as a political speaaer. It was some time later, however, be II I him United States Senator to flu the an- , K1 4 expired term of the late Senator Gear. At 48 Senator Dollver Is one of the best- r. i.. "Xi; . 2. " f, known men in the country. Quite aside . .x - 4aT from his prominence in Congress, the 1 I I t I . vr- i I I many addresses he makes e s. - ' .... 5- , i fM 7?JCJZ47?P f fore he political known, to the hl&-her powers la bis State. The Clarkson "regency" wag then In 1U a lory. One day in 1882 J. 8. Clarkson went to Fort Dcdff to talk; over that all state campaign with Governor :arntnter. Tha Governor told Clarkson about Dollfvar nnri sinrfirnatpr. that thAV call upon blm- - They found him busy. not In hla nlTIr. hut nn t . V, Itrh wu v' "working out his road tax." .Clarkson liked the young lawyer's appearance and talk; a politcal meeting was hasti ly arranged for that evening and the Courthouse was thrown open. The peo ple Of Fort Dodge, who- by that time had leaded to regard Dolllver's ora tory with great respect, turned' out to hear blm with srreat enthusiasm. He did himself such credit that Clarkson arranged on the spot lor hla active participation In the campaign. . Prom that day to this Dolllver has been a public character. His first election to the lower house of Congress his first political office, by the way-came early In the 80's. and he served as Representa tive continuously till 1900, when leslle AC. Shaw, then Governor of Iowa, appointed. GIL DEE every year. especially at the various Chautauqua as sem biles, have made his personality familiar to hla countrymen and women by the hundreds of thousands. Strikingly Contrasting Personalities. It would be hard to find a stronger con trast than that between this Senatorial minister's son, tall, dark and suggestive of physical as well as mental force In every movement, and Richard Watson Gilder, the slisht, almost shy minister's eon who ecllts the Century Magazine. It Is hardly possible to speak of these two men In any other terms save those of contrast; though the success of each in his chosen line of endeavor offers one line ol comparison. Richard wtaon Gilder looks the dillettante. the elegant amateur who has never had a more diffi cult taslt in his life than to turn out highly finished verse and decide delicate ouestlons of taste. His speech nts nis appearance, often being that of a man who Is bored, to death by anything: less ethereal than poetry and. high art. But Richard Watson Gilder's speech and looks are alike deceptive. The years of his boyhood and young manhood were Q ul t e as tryius as Dolllver'., and his problems as exacting. Only by reason of the most splendid nerve and unnag. glng tenacity was he able to fight his way to the front, and his fight lasted some years, during; which he impressed an acquaintance of mine who knew him well as "ft man of chain lightning and steel springs." Oilder was born In 1844- His father was l Methodist preacher, but not a circuit rider, With so strong an educational and literary bent thaf he spent most, of his lire as an editor ant) a teacher. His editorial chairs were those of the Phila delphia Repository and the Register, both published In the City ot Brotherly Love At the time of Richard WatsWg birth the Oilders were living- at Bordentown, . N J. ; during: most of his boyhood tbey lived at Flushing, I I., where the Rev. Mr. Gilder carried on a school and wrote editorials and articles without pay for a local paper. - - The fact that the father's work for the paper Was done gratuitously induced the editor to teach the son how to set type. The bo was so short that he couldn't reach the "caw" standing on the floor, and so had to stand on a soap box while' being initiated Into the - mysteries of typography.. Nevertheless, he attacked them with such enthusiasm that hts boy ish pockets generally held half a pound pr more or pieces of type. When 14 ha established a paper of nil own which he named the St. Thomas Oaxette. after his father's school, setting up as well as writing the matter that ap peared in its Columns. He was a fragile boy. and had no "school days." actually attending; school a single day only. His father attended carefully to his early Edward 1 Harriman and Senator Jonathan P. v Doliiver Best Known in Ineir to ' IATJT PMTVGKAPff or r &teFZttrvv education, but, like Theodore Roosevelt's father, believed It would be better for his son to spend as much time out of doors as possible and that his mental training could be carried on without much school room confinement during his childhood at least. Naturally the father saw to It that the boy's literary taste was not neglected. It is not surprising therefore, to hear that be was fond Of ".Paradise Lost" be fore reaching his teens. But hlg taste in reading was broad and catholic, for he remembers distinctly that at the time o his greatest devotion to Milton's stately lines he m also mucU wrapped up In a certain dime novel, lent to him toy his uncle's colored coachman and read In the seclusion of the stable. Gllder'S 1rBt newspaper venture bore upon IU face a motto to the effect that its editorials were meant to "Instruct and uplift mankind," but nlam second, which he set up and edited at 16, was the local organ or the Ben w party, a highly important political Or ganization In lt60. but" no doubt never heard of by many of the younger readers Of tills newspaper. The Civil War, which broke out when Gilder MS U. changed the course of his life completely. His father enlisted as chaplain in a Northern regiment, and died at Brandy Station Va. Ot smallpox, in an army hospital which he had entered as volunteer nurse. .Richard Watson had no alternative but to forego college training-, though he has Since received several honorary degrees. The eldest son In the family had to sup- port the other members for a while, at least and he fell to work. Meanwhile. Just when doesn't matter, he studied law for a time In Philadelphia and Berved through the so-called Gettysburg cam- palgn In an emergency organization known as the Laadls' Battery, raised" in Philadelphia, ana acwa ' n j master. He wasn't present at the Battle of Gettysburg, which was fought before his battery was sent to the front, hut ; ho was under fire in tne aeienso ut , lisle. Fa., and saw other active service. iil8 experiences as paymaster were con- fined to the old Camden & Amboy Rail- road, which now forms a part of the Pennsylvania system. He didn't like the Job, and no wonder, among other things tor the reason that he used to have to take the money with which tO pay Off the men over the road on a hand-car and at a time when hold-ups along the line were rather frequent. After th8 paymaster Job he became a re porter on the Newark (N. J.) Dally Advertiser. Later he was editor and part proprietor of the Newark Morning Register, which has long since passed awaf. It Was While he was running the latter named paper that he did hl hard est work. Being fearful of the Regis ter's future, he took the Job or editing Hours at Home, published by the Scrip- nerg. and divided his working hours be- tween two editorial desks, one In New ark and one in New York. The friend who speaks of him as "chain lightning and Steel spring-"" says that no one could tell when he used to sleep m thOSfl crowded years. Oilder began to find himself when Scrlbner's Monthly now the Century was established, with the Scrlbners as puh- llshers. and the late Dr. J. Q. Holland as editor. Holland selected Oilder as managing editor, and gave him a depart ment, "The Old Cabinet," to conduct After Holland's death and Gilder's pro motion to the editorship, "The Old Cabi net" was discontinued: much to the re gret of many readers. Biffins- at his editorial desk one day Mr. Gilder received a call from n. ti Helen Hunt, not yet Mrs. Jackson the author of "Ramona." with her was a young woman art student Miss Helen de Kay-daughter ot Commodore de Kay and granddaughter of Joseph Rodman Drake, and the art student fell In love at drat sight and In due time she became Mrs. Glider. Everybody knows what a biz man he Is in the magazine world today, although raw remember that it was he who created modern magaxino illustration, but it was. Al Chairman Of the New York Tenement House Commission. In 1S94. he was a great factor fn the Improvement of tene ment house conditions everywhere, and the Authors' Club owes Its being to htm. He 18 prouder of his poetry and his 'Topics of the Time" editorials In his magazine than of any other of his achievements. One of his flrt pieces of verse published In Newark told how The red moon stood In the sycamore tree, And this led to a reference In a rival paper to "the young poet who has the moon up a tree." But nobody now knows Who wrote that sarcastic reference.' - R. W. Gilder's sister. Jeannette Gilder, one of the Critic editors, and his brothers. Joseph and W. have all made names tor themselves in the world of letters. Tho only bachelors among the minis- ters sons who have become really emi nent Is Henry James, the expatriated American novelist, brother of William James, the Harvard professor of psychol ogy. Those who do not like Henry as a novel ist say that he knows too much about psychology to be a really pood story teller; those who decry William as a psychologist say that he knowsftoo much about the novelist's art to be a success ful professor, but they have both mado grood for all that. . Their father, Henry James, was a theologian, his specialty being the mystic doctrines of the Swe- denborglana, still strong in Philadelphia, though not now In many other places in this country. Henry James the younger was born in New York 62 years ago. He esteems the town as he knew It half a century back, when a boy, much more than he does the bis; city of toUay. with Its iiibtvays, "17 roads and sKyscrapers. Tou may remember that he returned to thin country lant year after a residence abroad, of 20 or 30 years, occupied mostly In the production of fiction, moat of it rather close to the "edge." bllt Of SUCH perslstsntly Indirect style as to lead one critic to sspeaK of "the sheltering; vague ness of his vice." He TO received liere with the fall-down-and-worshlp-the-eentui attitude on tho part of certain class that is almost universally accorded to hiin in the, literary world of London. Prtm Air- nes Rfppller, Philadelphia's favorite and really charminmr essayist, said of him the day after he had entertained -Philadelphia's Contemporary Club from the plat- form. that "no one ia more able than he to prick us into that mental alertness which leads us almost to the versa of iinrlratanrllnr." Wherever he went "the elect" made quite as remarkable com- ments upon him as those which he emit ted concerning the people and the cities of his native land. Notwithstanding his literary quality Mr. James looks more like a solid, sue- cessful banker, or perhaps a manufac turer. than a literary man. To those who "met him during his American visit be seemed personally 'wholesome, sensi ble and balanced. Mr. James lives at "the decayed port of Rye" in Sussex. 90 miles from London. in an ancient, ,tawny brick structure or the Georgian type, known as lamb house from the name of tne family which oc cupied It for many generations. He Is f 1 1 1 a.n U la. wi nnuuie iieikjiiL. DiiKiitiy ---, a. 11.1 ikd once black hair is rapidly turning; white. rives personal attention to the affairs of hts house. He Is a mat favorite in society and has a large following: of so ciety and literary woman wno avre Known as "the very fleet." Not all of these women are beautiful, tut every one ot them is clever. Mr. Jitmes will not be bothered with stupid disciples, either men or women. - Mr. James has and always has had a competency and needn't care whether his novels sell well as books or not.' They are aUways in demand for serial publication. Presidential Minister's Son, G rover Cleveland, the only llvlntr minis ter's son who has ever been president Of the United States, Is also the .only ilvin .x-Presidcnt Hla personality In at least as strong and pronounced as that of any other minister's son in the land. The people of Caldwell, v. J., where stands the house In which he was born. a modest two-and-a-half-story frame house now painted brown, but for half a century the old-time staring white are duly proud that their town is his btrth- place. They have never purchased the house for preservation, however, as was stated In print a few years ago. sir. Cleveland was born In 1837 and was taken to Fayettevtlle. N. Y when t years old. He got most of hts schooling; for. like Mr. Glider, he never went to college st the Fayettevtlle district school, and while a pupil there marked tne cieaK with his name, bo that President Flnley, of the College of the City of. New York, being: able to Identify It. bought it a few years ago to present to the college. Mr. Cleveland's uncle, Professor Wll- Ham Cleveland, was head of the New York Institution for the Blind when the Rev. Mr. Cleveland died, and Grover, then a hoy Of 16, went to New York to live for a time. Fanny Crosby, the noted blind hymn writer, was then a teacher In the Institution, and she has left a record of how the President-to-be used to assist her by writing out the poems which she composed and could not put on paper because she could not Bee. On one occasion the superintendent of the Institution, whose accounts the hoy was helping to keep, remonstrated against such a waste of time. Grover asked Miss Crosby to tell the superintendent her Opinion of him "in plain prose." She did BO and no further objections were made. Soon after Grover went to Buffalo to live with his uncle. There he read law ln an attic roortKanii there he remained until elected Governor of New York. , Grover Cleveland and Richard Wat son Gilder have been close friends for many yeara. (Copyright. 10T, by Dexter Marshall.) There are now over TOO motor omnibuses owned by London companies. The number of steam omnibuses la 37. i