The Sunday Oregonian., June 13, 1909, SECTION SIX, Page 4, Image 48

IE
Dewey's Dream Was to Become a World-Famous
Sailor: Dr. Koch's to Become a World-Famous
Doctor The Childhood Dreams of the World's
G reat Singers That Led Them to . Persevere
Until Success Came to Them.
7 V. jr
I avis you a ay dream mat you are
striving to make a reality a
cuhUp in Spain that you are en
deavoring to transplant from the realm
of the clouds to that of the unmistak
ably earthly? Then it may interest,
and perhaps inspire, you to learn that
not a few men and women in the public
rye today secured eminence or pre
eminence by making at least one of
their day dreams a reality by trans
forming at least one castle In Spain
Into a striking accomplishment.
But while It has been given to a
comparatively goodly number of well
known men and women to realize a
day dream apiece, the number of celeb
rities who have realized more than one
of their respective day dreams is very
limited. Indeed. And a member of this
exceedingly small group la that states
man whose name was constantly on
the lips of the British Empire some
years ago Ixrd Rosebery, who has
realized not one. or two, but the three
day dreams of his young manhood. So
far as is known his Is a unique record
In day dream realization.
Kven hefore he was out of his teens
Lord Rosebery. now In his 63d year,
dreamed of making a trio of conquests,
any one of which would have been
thought sufficient for a nobleman, and
certainly for a commoner. His first
ambition was to own a horse that
would win the rerby. His second am
bition was to marry the richest heiress
In rat Britain. The third was some
day tn become Prime Minister of Great
liritatn. These were the dreams of his
childhood, his castles in Spain, and
every one of them was realized, for he
did win the Oerby, he married Miss
Hannah Rothschild, and he became
Prime Minister.
It is not remarkable that a young
nobleman, born with the traditional
gold spoon In his mouth, should have
cultivated gentlemanly sports, and so
trained his Judgment with regard to
speedy horses that he was able to have
a stable which contained the winner of
the lerby. Nor was It an unreasonable
ambition for a peer of the realm, who
was a handsome young fellow, agree
able, tactful and something of an aris
tocratic democrat, to aspire to the hand
of the richest heiress of Great Britain.
But it did require Some courage, even
audacity, for the boy to expect some
day to be named Prime Minister of
Great Britain, for that office does not
go by favors, and there is no divine
right of birth which Justifies laying
claim to It.
There was even greater audacity, al
most absurdity. In the dreams of a
young machinist, leader of a political
Bang on the East Side of New York, a
rough and tumble fighter dreams In
whlrh h pictured himself the day
w hen he should stand upon the English
turf and see his horse win the great
est of the world's races. But Richard
Ookor did have a dream of that kind
when he was mill a young man, a
hlrt-sleeved mechanic, training him
self for politics In the rough life of an
K.ist Side political gang in New Tork
I'ity. When, many years later, the
cable brought the report that Croker's
horse had won the Derby, one of his
friends declared that it must have been
with a strange sensation that the old
Tammany boss realized the audacious
dream of his young manhood, the win
ning of that great race.
lr'nm of an Itinerant Boy.
Audacious, and seemingljf hopeless,
also, was the day dream that came to
the poor, friendless boy who years later
came to be universally recognized in
lcpul circles as one of the ablest Jurists
of the country.
Years ago there was an old cobbler, a
quaint and funny character, whose
tumble-down shop on the lower East
Fide of New York City was frequented
by rhlldren who were fond of hearing
him tell curious stories. Among these
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151
youngsters -was a little fellow who had i
no father or mother, a street waif, who j
listened with such big eyes and with :
so much wonder to these anecdotes !
that at last the cobbler took the boy
In and taught him to be an expert
cobbler.
When this boy was 21 years of'agre
he decided to open a cobbler's shop In
Buffalo, he "having: heard somewhere
that there was opportunity in that
town for a young- cobbler. So he took
his kit of tools and his little bundle of
clotbing and started out on foot, hop
ing to pay his way on that long ex
cursion from New York to Buffalo
along the highways by cobbling shoes.
He reached the town of Geneva, N. Y.t
at a time when a criminal trial, which
was the exciting- topic in all "Western
New . York, . was in progress. The
young journeyman had never been .in a
court room, had never heard a lawyer
argue, or seen a judge upon the bench.
His curiosity was stimulated as he
heard the town's people discuss this
trial, and when he modestly asked
whether strangers were allowed in the
court room, and was told they were if
they behaved themselves, he ventured
into that place.
In an hour his whole outlook on life
was changed. He dreamed of the day
when he, obscure, poor young cobbler
as he was. might himself some day sit
upon the bench as judge. It seemed to
him that lawyers were men of wonder
ful gifts, and he sat absorbed through
the argument one of them . made,
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not understanding the legal terms'.
Court adjourned. He went on his way
on foot to Buffalo, opened a little cob
bier's shop, and with his first savings
secured a copy of Blackstone's Com
mentaries. And he read while at work,
the rat-tat of his cobbler's hammer
keeping rhythm to the legal message
that was in Blackstone.
By and by he was admitted to the bar.
and in the course of a few years was
elected Judge, became a Judge of the
Supreme Court of New York state, and
one day sat upon the very bench on
which, from a distance, and as a dusty,
road-stained cobbler, he had. observed for
the first time a Judge sitting in a court
of justice. And for an hour or two there
were for Judge Daniels vivid, overwhelm
lng recollections of the time and circum
stances connected with the day dream
that had. reshaped the whole course of his
life a dream that had full realization.
Judge Daniels served as Justice of the
Supreme Court of New York until he was
compelled to retfre by age limitation, and
was then elected- a member of Congre;
from one of the BufCalo districts. And
when he died a -few years ago it was said
of him that one of the ablest jurists who
had -ever sat upon the bench of any court
in the United States had passed away.
Iay Dreams of Dewey and Koch.
Because, as a . Green Mountain lad,
George Dewey spent his- leisure time
weaving day dreams of the time when he
would be a world-famous sailor, he 1b
today at the head of the American Navy
the world-famed hero of Manila Bay.
And because he persisted In dreaming his
i.
KA
dream, in spite of family opposition, the
boy at last influenced his father to se
cure for him an appointment to the Naval
Academy. But it was not until many,
many years later that George Dewey
woke up to the act 'that his day dream
had at last become a startling reality.
Oolonel George Harvey, known, on two
continents as the editorial director of the
various Harper publications, can also look
bax;k on a boyhood day dream that has
had its full realization. 'He, too, spent
his youth in Vermont, and there came to
his home in the heart of the Green Moun
tains a magazine published once every
three months in Boston. The boy watched
the mails for the coming of the period
ical. It was bound in paper covers, these
being of a reddish brown hue. and It
seemed to the lad that this was the most
appropriate color for any book or maga
zine to have. The magazine was edited at
one time by James Russell Lowell. The
great names in American literature of
that day were often found In Its list of
contributors, and young -Harvey, as he
buried himself in the pages of a fresh
number, dreamed again and again of the
time when he, too, would become editor
and owner of that very magazine. Today
the North American Review is .the sole
property of the boy who once dreamed of
owning it, and some of Colonel Harvey's
close friends are of the opinion that he
has greater pride in seeing his name, as
editor, printed upon the cover of the
magazine than has come to him by rea-
on of any of his other successes that
made him famous.
Robert Koch, whom Colonel Harvey
would undoubtedly dearly delight to have
as a contributor to his pet publication,
has to his credit day dreams realized.
Shy in most matters as a lad, he at once
lost his reserve when any one in the little
II art z Mountain village in which he lived
asked him what he Intended to do when
he grew up. Promptly and frankly would
come the answer: "I was just thinking
that when I grow up I am going to be a
great doctor." The thought was ever
with him during his waking hours, he
dreamed of it by night, and his quiet de
termination to become some day a famous
man of medicine at last caused his
father, a mining engineer, to let the
child have his way and thus Robert
Koch was started on the path that led
him to make the acquaintance of " the
tuberculous germ and world fame at one
and the same time. But before he had
realized his first day dream, another had
come true for him, and this occurred.
when he called wife for the first time the
little playmate to whom he was wont to
confide his ambition of some day being a
world leader in the medical profession.
Dream of a Continent Explored.
One of America's engineers of today
who has International fame within his
profession Is Colonel George Earl Church,
of whom it was said at a recent meeting
of the Royal Geographical Society of
Great Britain, There is not a mountain
nor river nor estuary nor plain on the
South American continent with which
Colonel Church is unfamiliar.''
Colonel Church's boyhood home was
near the sea that beats upon the southern
shores of New .England, and he was in
the habit of wandering along the cliffs
and picturing to himself the South Ameri
can continent, the wonders of the inte
rior, then but little known, and finding
laacinatlon in the stories that told of the
attempts to discover somewhere In what
is now Venezuela the fabled El Dorado.
And, quite naturally, he dreamed of the
time when, possibly, he might see the
wonders of the interior South America
and sail up the Amazon on a voyage of
exploration.
Jn his young manhood he -became a civil
acd topographical ccglneer. &od . &a sadi
13, 1909.
gained his first modicum of repuLation as
one of the builders of the Hoosac, then
the longest railway tunnel in the United
States. That work done, he had laid be
fore him a proposition to help make the
survey for the first railroad in the Argen
tine Republic. He seized It with avidity
it was one step forward toward the real
ization of his dream to know the interior
of South America.
At laet there came a time when an
officer of the American Navy, after al
most incredible and unheard-of difficult
tie3 and dangers, crossed South America
from the West Coast of the Continent.
crossing Northern Bolivia, then a region
of deepest mystery. Thus he discovered
that if certain rapids and waterfalls of
the interior rivers could be canalized, or
If a good portage could be constructed
around them, then It would "be possible to
maintain steamship communication, via
the Amdzon, between the United States,
Europe and Central South America, and
to develop the enormous oiatural re
sources that are there.
Bolivia and Brazil united with Great
Britain to furnish the many millions of
capital necessary to back an expedition
which had for its purpose the construc
tion of a railway around the Amazonian
falls and rapids, and Colonel Church, who
had urged this development, was placed
in charge of the expedition, both as ad
ministrative officer and as chief en
gineer. In a little steamer the expedition
ascended the Amazon some 2000 miles.
Then, one day. its leader, surrounded by
almost Impenetrable forests, took a spade
and turned the first soil of the enter
prise.
His boyhood dream was a reality, al
though the expedition itself, by reason of
circumstances beyond the control of Col
onel Church, was a failure. Recentlv
however, in his home in London, Colonel
Church has learned that what he at
tempted to do in South America is now
being accomplished, and that from the
identical spot where he first turned the
sod with simple ceremony, engineers have
constructed a railway, extending it to
ward Bolivia, and are confident of its
completion within five years. Then inter
ior South America will have been con
quered, at least for- purposes of trans
portation. Pew men have had historic work to do
In as many countries as has fallen to
the lot of Colonel Church; and few have
had as adventurous a career. Of course,
the dangers that he ran in South Amer
ica, while getting intimately acquainted
wttn its interior, were well nigh innumer
able. During the Civil "War, as command
er of a volunteer regiment, he braved the
death that is oelched from guns. Iater,
while in Mexico on a confidential mission
for General Grant, he planned the cam
paign for Jaurex that led to the capture
or -Maximilian; ana then he tried most
desperately to save the unhappy Emper
or's life, even hastening to Washington
to secure, if possible, our Government's
intercession. Today he is engaged in the
construction of the trans -Canadian rail
road, which is to connect Quebec with
.Port Simpson on the Pacific.
But despite all these things it is as an
explorer and pioneer engineer in the cen
tral South America the region of his
boyhood dreams that he is 'best known.
and because of his highly important work
there the Royal Geographical Society of
Great Britain has made him a member.
Dreams of the World's Great Singers
The childhood dreams of some of those
who afterwards became famed for their
gift of song pictured to them brilliant suc
cesses on the operatic or the concert
stage.
Oliver Fermstad, when, a little girl in a
distant Minnesota, home, though never
ha-ing seen or heard an opera singer nor
an operatic performance, nevertheless
ME
Major General J. Franklin
of an Army Reorganized After the Plan He
Mapped Out for it Thirty Odd Year Ago
How Colonel George - Harvey Realized His
Boyhood Dream.
u-yfe.'-" --I'Ali ? fwi.ftHf'-vWVtiA.
was in childish fancy constantly singing
before applauding multitudes. In her long
preparatory work as a church singer, and
as a student under some of the great
masters of song, she never lost this child
ish fancy, at last to be realized by her
brilliant successes upon the Metropolitan
opera stage in New York City.
In her early childhood little Lillian Nor
ton, granddaughter of a famous down
East circuit riding and camp meeting
preacher, sang so sweetly as to attract
me attention or tnose wno came to ner
home. The child, even before she had
received any musical training, dreamed
of the day when .she ' would sing in
iiUcia, in "Martha and in ir ova-
tore," although she was familiar with the
arias in these operas in no other way than
as she had heard them sung in concert
In her native town. But Nordica never
dreamed of the great triumph that await
ed her as one of the finest of dramatic
sopranos, singing, to the admiration of
the world, the majestic strains of the
Wagner operas.
In another Maine town, not far from
the childhood home of Nordica, the
parents of Emma Eames lived, although
it so happened that by reason of her
father's temporary professional engage
ments in China, she was born not in
Maine, but in China. As a mere child I
she dreamed of triumph upon the oper
atic stage, and when she was in Boston
receiving her first Important instruction,
her r day dream of operatic . success was
so vivid that no discipline, no ' training,
was too excessive for her to submit to.
At one time she had a fancy that some
day one of the world's great composers
would hear her -sing, and would say that
she had the voice for the leading part in
his opera. Curiously enough, that day
dream also was perfectly realized.
When Gounod had finished the score of
his opera "Romeo and Juliette" he
searched with some anxiety among the
known singers of Paris for some one who,
both with voice and in personal appear
ance, could do justice to his melodic con
ception of- Juliette. He appealed to
Madame Marchesi, asking her If she had
among her pupils any one who could sing
like a great artist of song, and at the
same fime in personal appearance ideally
suggest the heroine of- that great love
poem. So it happened that Marches! said
to Emma Eames: "Tomorrow I will take
you to Gounod, and -you shall sing for
him."
When Gounod heard the young Ameri
can sing, and realized that, in addition to
a beaunful voice, she had also a beauti
ful personality, perfectly reflecting in it
the traditional youth of Juliette, he ex
claimed, "This is the Juliette for my
opera." And then it was that Emma
Eames suddenly . remembered the odd
fancy that had so often possessed her as
a child, that some day she would be
chosen by a great composer to sing
leading part In a new opera of his. As
Juliette she appeared for the first time
in opera, and the morning after the per
formance . she was famous not only in
Paris, but also m the United States.
Mademoiselle La Jenneuse, a Canadian
girl, was engaged to sing in a church
choir in Albany, N. Y. Sometimes, when
singing in the choir, there came before
her with such vividness that the pic
ture seemed fo be almost an apparition,
a vista of herself appearing in grand
opera. At that time no critic, no mat
ter how rash in his statements, would
have predicted for the young church
choir singer triumphs in grand opera.
But as Madame Albanl she having taken
that name in recognition of the kindness
of the City of Albany to her she came
to' be ranged among the greatest of prima
donnas, and is today living in London in
retirement.
Who would have thought that the
little girl Emma Wixom, whose home
was amid the foothills of the Rocky
Mountains at Austin, Nev., and who had
never heard any of the world's great
masters of song or music, was justified
in those childish fancies of hers which
led her to tell her father and her mother
that some day she would be known as
an .opera singer? But these day dreams
that came to her when living among the
primitive surroundings of frontier life
were afterward realized when, as Emma
Nevada naming herself for her native
state she gained the plaudits of Paris
and the" ITnitd States for the beauty of
her voice and the perfection of her art.
Aj Mrs. Raymond Palmer, this world
famous song bird of the early '80s is now
living in Paris. '
You have probably - heard that, as
Bell Is Chief of Staff
youngsters the Wright brothers, who
have solved the problem of air flight,
and thereby made the acquaintance of
kings as well as of world fame,
dreamed a double dream of flying ono
day, and to that' end devoted many of
their youthful hours to studying the
methods of flight of birds. That, Is
true; and it Is likewise true that Major-General
James Franklin Bell is
chief of an army organized along the
lines that be dreamed out for It back:
j jn tao late 80i
in "78 to be exact.
Air Flight and Army Reorganization
At that time Bell was a second lieu
tenant of cavalry stationed, out West.
Intensely Interested In the problems
of army organization, he one day
mapped out in his mind a complete
reorganisation of . the army. giving
It a general staff, war colleges and
Joint annual maneuvers. He did more;
he drew ud his scheme In the form
of a report and forwarded It to the
War Department in Washington. Over
a score of years later, when Ellhu
Root was Secretary of War, he planned
a radical reorganization of the Army.
He appeared before the committees of
Congress in .support of the bill he had
prepared, . setting forth the details of
this reorganization. Every Army offi
cer knew that Mr. Root., who had no
export knowledge of Army organiza
tion, must have received valuable as
sistance from some officer trained in
our military history and service. But
when the bill became a law, and the
reorganization was perfected, it was
recognized by friends of General Bell
that the reorganization was practi
cally similar to that which he had
dreamed and afterwards forwarded to
the War Department. And it is in
ferred that when studying the ques
tion of Army reorganization and look
ing over the records and reports in
his department, Secretary Root may
have come across this report. If not.
the identity of the plan advocated by
him and of that dreamt by General
Bell when he was a second lieutenant,
is an extraordinary coincidence.
(Copyright, 1909, by the Associated
Literary Press.)
Rural Mallcnrrler.
There's lots of Jobs a chap can have be
neath old Uncle Sam,
From serving in the Army down to
testing beef and ham!
Or being a department clerk down thar
in Washington,
And working down in Panama, they
say, is lots of fun;
But when it comes to gov'ment jobs a
country chap can nail.'
I'd rather be the carrier who serves the
rural mail.
It's 10 o'clock each morning, or some
where thereabout.
When Jason White, the carrier, comes
jogging down his route;
His yellow sulky creaking loud behind
his speckled nag.
And Jason busy sorting mall out of
each leather bag;
A letter here, a paper there his mem'ry
must not fail.
I tell you what, it takes a head to serve
the rural mail.
Its fun to watch the folks come out
when Jason's whistle blows.
And see him dealing out the mall as
down the road he goes.
The catalogues and sample seeds and
Down East magazines.
And postal cards from Kastport, Maine,
clean to the Philippines,
Love letters for the love-sick gals, with
town beaus on the trail
By gosh! there's lots of happiness hid
in the rural mail.
And
once, when we were . near the
school, we heard young Jason
shout.
And then we saw him halt his nag and
call the teacher out;
And when she asked him what he had,
in such a pretty way.
He
By
leaned way out and kissed her
gosh! her face was red all day.
hen! of all the gov'ment jobs a
country chap can nail.
I'd raiher be the carrier who serves the
-rural mail.
Jud ge.