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Show THE BULLETIN 65 Years Ago Occurred the Death Of "The President Nobody Knows" f Elephant, Exploited by Barnum Is Still Attraction Top-Ranhin- g and Dictionaries of Biography Give Little Space to Millard Fillmore Yet He Was One of the Most Interesting Characters Who Ever Occupied the White House and Many Important Measures Were Passed During His Administration. Encyclopedias C Western Newspaper Union. that country. Carrying out a strict policy of in the affairs of foreign nations, he used stern measures to sup- By ELMO SCOTT WATSON i CTHE President No-- I body Knows! " That title could be not inappropriateand given, to who died an American ly, 65 years ago this month. He was Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the United States, but he has been the subject of fewer biographies and less space is devoted to him in the encyclopedias and dictionaries of biography than has been the case with any other of our Chief Executives. So the average American knows very little, if anything, about him asamanorasaPresident. Yet he was one of the most interesting characters who ever occupied the White House and during his Presidency occurred several events of oustanding importance in American history. Fillmore was born in a log cabin on a farm in Cayuga county. New York, a few miles southeast of the little city of Moravia, on February 7, 1800. Opportunities for an education were limited in the primitive schools which existed in that region and which 'young Fillmore attended less than three months of each year. There were no newspapers or magazines available and his father's "library" consisted of only two books the Bible and a collection of hymns. In fact, it is said that young Fillmore never saw a history of the United States nor a map of his country until he was 19 years old I When Fillmore was 15, he was apprenticed to a wool carder and clothier and with his first wages purchased a small English dictionary which he studied while attending the carding machine. By the time he was 19 he had resolved to become a lawyer. His term of apprenticeship had two more years to run but he made an arrangement with his employ- er whereby he agreed to relin- his wages for the last year's services and also promised to pay $30 for his time. Next he made an arrangement with Judge Wood of Moravia, a retired country lawyer, by which he was to receive his board in payment for working in the office. He began "reading law" under the judge's direction, and, to supplement his income, he taught school a part of the time. By 1823 he had learned enough law to be admitted as an attorney by the court of common pleas of Erie county, even, though he had Dot completed the course of study quish Statue of falo, N. Y. Fillmore in Buf- usually required. The influence of several leading Buffalo lawyers, whose confidence he had won, was mainly responsible for that. Fillmore's father was then living in Aurora and he went there to begin practice. He won his first case and for doing so was rewarded with a fee of $4! But more important than that to his future career was an event which took place in 1826. During his term as an apprentice, he had met and fallen in love with a young schoolteacher named Abigail Powers. They became engaged before Fillmore moved to Krie county but he wns so poor ihnt for three years he could not afTord to travel the 150 miles to see her. In February, 1826, he journeyed at last to Moravia and they were married in the home of her brother, Judge Powers. Then Fillmore took his bride back to the home he had press filibustering expeditions to the Latin American countries and with equal firmness exacted from other countries respect for our flag. But so unpopular did he anti-slave- MILLARD FILLMORE built for her with his own hands and they began their struggle to live on the meager earnings of the young lawyer. To help her husband continue his studies, Abigail Fillmore went back to school teaching. In 1827 Fillmore was admitted to the bar as a attorney-at-laand the next year he was elected to the state legislature. At that time the excitement full-fledg- ed w anti-Mas- was at its height and Fillmore was sent to Albany as the representative from Erie county of that wing of the Whig party. In 1829 he was granted the right to plead before the state Supreme court and the next year he was' reelected to the legislature. Fillmore distinguished himself by drafting the bill, passed in 1831, which abolished imprisonment for debt in New York. The next year he was elected to congress and after serving one tern retired until 1836, when he was He was again returned to Washington in 1838 and 1840 but declined a renomination in 1842. In 1847 he was elected comptroller of the state of New York and in his annual report for 1848 suggested the establishment of a national bank, with the stocks of the United States as the sole basis upon which to issue its currency. Out of this suggestion grew eventually our present system of national banks. During this same year Fillmore again entered the arena of national politics. Conspicuous for his views, he was chosen by the Whigs as their candidate for vice president and running mate for Gen. Zachary Taylor in the make elehimself with the ment in the North by his signing the bill which admitted California, thus virtually abrogating the Missouri Compromise, and more especially by his signing the Fugitive Slave law and his attempts to have it enforced, that the Whigs denied him a renomination in 1852. During all his career as a statesman in Washington, his "right hand" had been his wife, who has been described as "perhaps the most remarkable of the wives of our Presidents" and "the wings by which her husband soared so high." Finding the White House destitute of books when she became the "First Lady of the Land," Mrs. Fillmore prevailed upon her husband to obtain an appropriation from congress for a library in the executive mansion. So the famous collection of books in the White House today is a perpetual memorial to Abigail Fillmore. Mrs. Fillmore died soon after the inauguration of her husband's successor on March 30, 1853. A year later their only daughter also died and in 1855 the lonely took a trip to England where he received numerous attentions from Queen Victoria and her cabinet ministers. Returning to the United States the next year he became a "third party candidate" for the Presidency when he was nominated by the American or "Know Nothing" party. In the election he received the electoral vote of only ry d. anti-slave- ry campaign of ABIGAIL FILLMORE 1848. By virtue of his election to that office Fillmore presided over the United States senate during the heated debate in the session of 1849-5- 0 over the slavery question. Angered by the bitter language used by the senators, Fillmore made a forcible speech announcing his determination to maintain order and declaring that he would rescind the rule, established by Vice President Calhoun in 1826, which deprived the vice president of authority to call senators to order. Instead of resenting this encroachment upon their procedure by an executive order, the senators cheered Fillmore at the conclusion of his speech and directed that his remarks be entered in full on the pages of the senate journal. Fillmore presided with equal firmness during the exciting debate over Henry Clay's "omnibus bill" which dragged on for Then the controversy weeks. ended abruptly when President Taylor died on July 9, 1850, and Millard Fillmore left the senate to take up his new duties as President at the other end of Pennsylvania avenue. In accordance with his wishes, the severest simplicity marked his inauguration. Fillmore faced one of the most difficult tasks ever undertaken by a President Already the United States was a "house divided against itself over the issue of slavery and his conciliatory policies won him the condemnation of both sides and the wholehearted approval of neither. Due to the fact that his party was in the minority in both houses of congress, many wise measures which he recommended failed to pass. However, the United States is indebted to him for cheap postage, for the extension of the national capitol, the cornerstone of which he laid on July 4. 1S31 ; and for extension of contemporary knowledge of the West Ihrougn various expeditions exploring which he authorized. Even more notable than domestic affairs were the international relations developed during the Fillmore administration. lie sent Perry on the famous expedition which opened the ports of Japan to the world and established diplomatic relations with one state, Maryland, and after that retired from public life to his law practice in Buffalo. In 1858 he married again, this time a widow, Mrs. Caroline C Mcintosh. As the first citizen of Buffalo, he was frequently called upon to welcome distinguished visitors to his city, including Abraham Lincoln when he was on his way to Washington in 1861 to become President. He helped establish the Buffalo Historical society and, although he took no active part in the Civil war, he gave his support to the cause of preserving the Union. Fillmore died in Buffalo on March 8, 1874, and was buried in Forest Hill cemetery in that city. His fame somewhat eclipsed by ' that of another President whom Buffalo had given to the nation Grover Cleveland, it was not until recent years that its citizens honored him by erecting a statue of him within its bounda- ries. But it is different In the little city of Moravia. It is prouder of the fact that it can call Millard Fillmore its own than of the fact that it was the childhood home of John D. Rockefeller. Old timers there will tell you the tradition of how the ambitious young lawyer, not yet 21, first attracted attention by his delivery of a Fourth of July oration which caused some of his hearers to prophesy that he "would make his mark and perhaps become a judge." Apparently, though, no one was so brash as to predict that he would become President of the United States! They will show you the home on Smith street, marked by a tablet erected by the D. A. R which tells you that "In this house the thirteenth President, Millard Fillmore, and Abigail Powers were married on February 5. 13110." And they will take you outside the town to a scenic spot which bears the name of Filinwe Glen, now a state park, where rushing streams that come tumbling down forest chid slopes and flow across mcidows keep fresh the memory of Millard Fillmore. For in Cayuga county, at least, he is not the "President Nobody Knows"! flower-studde- green-carpete- d d, Falls in Fillmore Glen state park, near Moravia, N. Y. A few years ago there came to light in the musty files of the state department at Washington a document which was an interesting echo of the foreign policy of President Fillmore. It was a letter which he sent in 1851 to Seyed Syeed Bin, sultan of Muscat, at Zanzibar in protest against the Sultan's closing the harbors of his country to American commerce. Written in the flowery style of the Orient, the letter pictured the United States with all the extravaganza of an Arabian Nights' Tale. The letter opens with President Fillmore explaining that he is Chief Executive of the 31 United States of America, and enumerating each of the states. The message, the President says, he is sending by an officer of high rank in the United States navy, on the "steam ship Susquehanna, one of the many hundreds of ships belonging to this great nation, which now float over all seas, bearing to all nations offers of peace and good will and serving also as means of defense and national power." Of the size of his country the President tells the Sultan: "From the region of ice which bounds the United States on the north to the flowery land of the orange on the south is a journey of 100 days, and from the east ern shores, which receive the first beams of the rising sun, to those on the west, where rest his setting rays, is 150 days' journey. and this immense country is not a sandy waste, but filled with populous cities, traversed by mighty rivers and crowned with lofty mountains. By railroads or in steamboats the citizens of this immense country pass from one place to another with inconceiv able rapidity. "From the seat of government at Washington I send my com mands in a lew minutes by the Lightning Telegraph, to all parts of the United States; and they are obeyed. I speak of these things not for the sake of boasting: but in the Spirit of Friend ship and Peace, and that you may know that all parts of this country are open to you and your snips and your people for the and purposes of Commerce Trade. I shall welcome in all our ports the Ships which bear your flag. Having thus extended full hos pitality to the Sultan's shins the President then chides his "Great and Good Friend" for not being so generous. "How can you think to be Just.' the President writes, "that while we open so many hundred ports to you, you should wish to confine us to a single port, or prevent our ships from going to all parts of your dominions. Great and Good Friend, this cannot be. Free trade everywhere is desirable, for so can the various productions of different countries best be distributed throughout the world. I hope the traffic of our country with yours is mutually beneficial. I hope it will continue and increase." "The flag of this country," he says, "was treated by you and your people with disresnect. therefore, Consul Charles Ward left your court. In this matter he acted rightly and I approve his course. He has shown me your letters in which you promise to listen to my wishes. If I send another Consul to Zanzibar, I expect that he shall be treated with equal honor as the consuls of other nations, and that the flag which he hoists, and which is his protection, shall have the same honors paid to it, as the flags of d the nations. In these respects I ask for no superiority over other nations, on the part of United States, neither can I admit any inferiority." With these business matters out of the way, the President returns again to pleasanter affairs. He commends and congratulates the Sultan on his enlightened suppression of the slave trade, orately extends his best wishes and promises to write him frequently. The letter ends thus: "I have caused the great seal of these United States, the signal of truth and stump of honor to he. placed on this letter by the olli-rwho is entrusted to hold it, and to use it on great and solemn occasions. "Your good friend, "MILLARD FILLMORE." "By the President Daniel Webster, Secretary of State." most-favore- er or circus would bo its elephants. without In India elephants are captured complete dust over This is stock fellow into forest them throwing by driving ades built of logs strong enough to his hack to entertain a crowd of withstand the charges of the en- admirers. raged monsters. In some districts occurs annually; in injured and killed by such treacherthis round-u-p ous male elephants that today the or three years. two others, every An astounding difference between circus herds are usually made up of females only. elephants and all other animals is their submissiveness to training White Elephants' Are Just That! when adults. Mature jungle eleThat rare individual, the white phants, which have led a life of elephant, another of Barnum's inno complete freedom in the jungle, can vations, is an albino which has been be trained as quickly as those found only in India and Siam. It reared in captivity from babyhood. belongs to the king when captured. No other wild animals captured in The white elephant often is a drain the wilderness when adult can be on the royal exchequer, as feeding it domesticated as can the elephant. is expensive. On this account, acFor this reason elephants are sel cording to tradition, the king at dom bred in captivity. Their slow- -. times would force an objectionable ness in reaching maturity would noble to feed the royal white elemake 'them much more expensive phant; hence the phrase about than specimens. All the "white elephants." brought elephants" "baby The elephant is decidedly differ and ent in anatomy from India are from all other mamhave been taken away from their mals. He looks more or less alike mother at the age of weaning, about at both ends; his trunk is shaped three or four years old, when they much like his tail, both being pracare able to eat solid food. Circuses tically hairless, wrinkled, and of usually exhibit with the baby a fos- about the same length. A sleeping ter mother. elephant, with ears at rest and the Elephants Bred la Europe. very small eyes closed, looks like a No attempt has been made to case of "heads I lose, tails you breed elephants in any of the lead win." Because of this uniformity at ing American zoos, though European the terminal points of his anatomy, zoos have bred and are exhibiting and the wrinkled condition of his elephants born on the premises. The epidermis, the animal looks unfinfirst of these was in the Copenhagen ished. The wrinkles cover his back and zoo, where a female Indian elephant produced three young in a period of sides and sag down over his several years. Her first was born straight, columnlike legs to his when she was 13 years old. The period of gestation varies Omcraphle Society, Prepared by National WNU Service. O. C Waahlncton. No zoo wild-caug- ht d wild-caugh- t, from 21 to 23 months. The young are nursed for two years or more, and, at least in the wild state, are carefully guarded by the mother until they are about four years old. Normally the mother produces one offspring every five years. Very young baby elephants are amusing as kittens and indulge in with a all sorts of mischief-makin- g seeming intent to bully or frighten their indulgent mothers. They will run in corners and hide, then emit squeals of distress, and when the frightened mother comes to the rescue they will rush out and butt her in the belly as hard as they can, At birth they have a woolly coat of downy hair over their grayish- pink skin. Their heads are covered with erect, coarse black hair. Trunk Is Nuisance at First. At first the trunk hangs limp, the baby having no control over it, Nursing is done by the mouth, and for the first few days the infant can just reach its mother's nipples, located between her forelegs. After a few months the youngster begins to lift its trunk a bit and is slowly taught by the mother how to use Patrick and Pachyderm, Gail Patrick, movie $tarf gets a free that appurtenance. ride at winter quarters of one of Then comes the amusing day the major circuses in southern when the youngster tries to drink water as its mother does, through the trunk. At first it blows bubbles in the water, or draws out the trunk and sprays the contents all over the ground. Often a new-boelephant babe will rest by leaning against the fore legs of the mother. In a wild state the infants are pets of the herd and both cows and bulls shower affection upon them. An Indian observer tells how four elephants in a government work herd in Burma gave birth to young about the same time. These young would go to any cow and each cow would suckle and mother them as if they were her own. Often two of the youngsters were seen nursing the same cow. Bulls Taboo in Cirenses. The present-da- y circuses usually carry only Indian elephants and only one sex cows. In Barnum's day an occasional African male was exhibited because of his greater height and enormous, winglike ears. The unforgettable Jumbo was a male African purchased by Barnum from the London zoological gardens, where he had been used for carrying children on his back through the park. Barnum advertised Jumbo so thoroughly that his name still goes marching on as a symbol of colossal size. Male Indian elephants formerly were common in circu.) parades. Sooner or later nearly ull male elephants become periodically dangerous at the recurrence of their "must" period, during which time they are uncontrollable and must be kept heavily chained. Frequently they take violent dislikes to certain of their attendants and craftily await an opportunity to kill them jnawares. So many men have been ra California. knees, which are always baggy. His trousers are never pressed and his clothes never fit him. If you examine the epidermis minutely you will find it finely reticulated or stippled, giving it a distinctive character peculiar to the elephant. Mounted Specimens UnnatnraL The only really or elephants are stuffed specimens in some natural history museums, which possess skins as smooth as rubber balls. The original skin has been covered by a coat of black enamel paint which fills up and hides every wrinkle in the skin. Such taxidermy was changed by Carl Akeley, who knew his elephants and mounted them as nature had made them. He invented a method of tanning the skins and reducing them to the thinness of a kid glove. After the tanned skin was placed manikin Akeover the papier-mach- e ley skillfully modeled the skin from the top or outside by injecting fluid papier-mach- e underneath the skin. In this way the fine reticulations were retained. Not a drop of paint touched the skin of his elephants. Because of the hooflike nails on their huge feet, elephants are assumed to be related to the hoofed animals, such as horses and cattle; but this is a mere superficial resemblance. The secret of the elephant's ancestry was discovered by paleontologists some years ago in the Fnyum beds of Egypt in the Libyan desert. In these beds of Tertiary age were found the remains of animals related to modern elephants, but less than half their size, which had short trunks, as inwell-groom- ed well-tailor- ed dicated by their abbreviated nasal bones. |