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Show lm very nnhaiipy were ho comindled to livtj faraway from tho secretary tif state. I liave ,h niory to tell on Hitt. who i.i famous its a conversationist. .Inst after his return from the ctmipaiKii lust fall llitt wan mi tiering from a coniliinathm of "campaign sore throat" and a bad cold, which made speech exceedingly painful and difficult. "You will excuse me for not talking lnticli to you," lie huskily whispered to a caller one day; "1 havo bevn abjectly miserable for nearly a week because I have lo.st tie-Use of my voice." "Oh, it's) not mi bad asthat." said Mrs. lilt t. justly noted asa woman of both wit and beauty "it's not so bad asthat. Mr. Kassoii was hereto see Mr. Hitt lust niht. You know Mr. Kasson, ex-inini-ter to Austria! lb' is atfoiHl deal of a ta'ker himself, but I was sorry for him last imjht. The poor man t-at here for two hours, and wasn't a bin to fct a word in edgewise. Mr, Hilt's throat is ho re, but ho hasn't entirely en-tirely loNt the use of his voice." .Speaking of the ex-minister to Austria, Aus-tria, reminds me of another lUiuoU statesman who once occupied a diplomatic diplo-matic post ill that country General Post, once consul general at Vienna, now coui?i-es-inaii from the tfroat whisky emporium, l'eoi ia. 1 was taking luncheon lunch-eon with General Post not luiijf Kiticn, when wo had soiii" froinan de brie for dessert. "It is not often one limbs an Americati win likes brie," naid General l'o.-t. "Do you know that thin cliee.e was oiiei; decided to be the greatest clieesi! in the world by t tie highest au-tlioT-ily that could be brought to pass o;i Bueh a (piestion? It was nearly a hundred hun-dred years iio, in Vienna. At ft diplomatic, diplo-matic, dinner, ntti'iided by ambassadors from all over tho world, discussion aroso as to the nc-riis of various cheeses. 'Filially a proposition was made that two months after there should ba le-l l in Vienna a cheese dinner. The representative repre-sentative of each country was to h ii 1 home for perfect specimens of theclc eses made by his people, ami t he ambassadors were to sit us a jury. Well, the dinner was niveii. Such an array of cheese was probably never before or since seen on a diplomate's table. There was much tasting and smacking i f lips over tiia choicest products of all lands. Then the, vote was taken. Line received a majority major-ity of tho votes, and was declared tho perfect cheese tin do siecle as tho Parisians say. Roquefort camo net, and in these two wo undoubtedly havo the finest cheeses that tho ingenuity of man and tho richness of milk havo beta able to produce." General Post told inoa story of his foreign experiences. i nt tended it swell dinner in Loudon. The great folk were till there, but the conversation was very stupid. Finally America camo up for discussion, and tho talk was more lively. A majority of the gnosis thought if t'nero was any subject in the world with which they wore familiar it was America and her semi-barbarous population. popu-lation. The newspapers bad just reported report-ed tho explosion of a Mississippi steamer, with loss of life, and tho Englishmen were expressing their horror at tho reck-lessnessof reck-lessnessof tho Yankees. They wondered how it was people could be induced to travel on Mississippi steamboats, since they were almost sure to be blown up or roasted lief ore reaching tho end of their journey, and General Post was appealed to for an explanation. "It is ns lunch a mystery to mo as to you," he replied. "Probably our peoplo are the most reckless jn-oplo on earth. To show you how indifferent we are to disaster and death, let mo tell yon of tho experience n friend of inino had a year aj;o last Rummer. Ho bought a plantation planta-tion on the banks of the Mississippi, but on moving in with his family found a (Treat hole in the roof of the mansion. He immediately had it repaired, though against tho somewhat mysterious advice of the former owner, who hinted that he would save money by leaving tho roof as he found it. My friend thought the man was joking, and put the carpenter to work. About a week later the household house-hold was startled by a crash overhead, and looking up they saw the boiler of a Mississippi steamer imbedded in tho rafters and attic floor. Luckily no one in the house was hurt, though the river was full of floating bodies. "In about two weeks tho boiler had been lifted out of the house anil tho root repaired, when along camo another boiler, alighting in the same spot. By this time my friend began to understand the hints of the former owner of tho plantation, but being a plucky fellow ho pulled tho boiler out and had the roof repaired once more; but the boilers kept coming. About once a fortnight a now mass of twisted and blackened iron lighted on the top of tho house. Tho first year he was there my friend got twenty-one boilers and repaired his roof twenty-onetimes. IVing a smart Yankee, Yan-kee, ho loaded all these boilers on aflat boat, floated them down to New Orleans and sold them for enough to pay the expenses ex-penses of repairing the roof, with a handsome profit besides. "On concluding this wild tale." said General Post, "I expected to be reward-nil reward-nil with a general laugh at the absiu. lity of the thing, and this was to bo my answer an-swer to the criticisms of my friends, lint imagine my consternation when they accepted the story as gospel truth, and with solemn, horror stricken coun lenanees renewed with tenfold vigoD their denunciations of the reckless, life -wasting Yankees. That was my finit and last experience at' making a joke c r telling a story in English company." WAI.-I-Kt! VVl't.l.M.VN. A T1U0 OF (iiaUT MX fJK. PER WELLMAN ON EDMUNDS, ! SHERMAN ANO BLAINE. t . 1 The !n:itnr X,,t tt !,! Tlll,y Are CirnrrHllyllvllrvpil tullr - lllnlnn-. Mil!,-. Brlimu unit I.h. Ic uf r.evi.ntr.ili,,,,,. Wahlll;tM (onip. ISpeciul t'lii respiiliileii. u.) Washington. Auci'- -Mmn'oers of tJongress, usually as pli'iitiful in the Cap-itil Cap-itil City a.s bees in a clover patch, are now rare birds among us. A few sen-Ators sen-Ators and representatives are still here, ! resting after their labor during the re cent "long" congress, but the great majority ma-jority are at home attending to private, business, in some cases to,) long neglect-ed. neglect-ed. I saw Senator F.diuunds here a week or two ago. It, was just oef'oro his resig. nation from tho seuaU, after a career of just twenty-live yvrirsof great distinc-tion. distinc-tion. Tho old g mtlemiin sat in t!i h-brary h-brary of his 'joautiful liome, talking about everything under the sun, but not consenting to have anything said by him published as an interview. Gossip has been busy of late with the Haines of lMiiiunds and Sherman, who with Secretary Blaine form the trio of living men who have played tho froat--; est parts and had greatest influence upon politics and legislation in this country during the last quarter century. The rumor of Ivlnmnds' intended f'tin meet turned out to bo true, but it is not likely that Sherman will leave the senate for , Mine years to come. ICdinunds and ,'fchermati have had the reputation of being be-ing the two coldest men in the senate. Innumerable jokes havo been made of their alleged frigidity. Yet there win never a greater injustice; and I thought as I sat chatting with the veteran from A'ermont, as I had once before thought -while visiting Senator Sherman in his library, how little tho great public knows of the real natures and dispositions disposi-tions of famous men. As a matter of fact, both Kdmiinds and Sherman are in their homes warm hearted, genial, lova-Ide. lova-Ide. A new phase of tho former's character was shown when I asked permission to publish some of tho interesting remarks which he had made to me. "N'o," ho paid, "I cannot. More than a month ago I promised another newspajHT frieml of mine that the first time I was interviewed inter-viewed ho should bo tho interviewer. I am waiting for him to come to see me. A scow of newspaper correspondents have asked for interviews, but to all I liavtj been compelled to return the same answer. I must keep my promise." A few days later tho correspondent vho had the senator's pledge called for Lis interview, and was not disappointed. Secretary lilaino has lost none of his famous magnetism. Ho Btill possesses that almost magic power of charming men who como in contact with him. He is much less accessible than formerly, however. He has evidently reached tho period of life in which ho wants to work in quiet, undisturbed by callers. Very few men see the secretary of state nowadays. nowa-days. Ho does most of his work at homo, : walking over to the state department very day for an hour or so, and generally gener-ally dropping in to see tlio president on his way. To this day probably there ia no man in public lifo who has so many devoted admirers, and some of these friends are inclined to grumblo liecauso ' they are hot received as freely an they we re in years gone by. They evidently forget that Mr. Hlaino has grown beyond tho field of personal polities. It ia no ' longer necessary for him to attach friends to himself, to manipulate men. His realm now ia more that of the purely intellectual. in-tellectual. ".Mr. Maine's present creed," said one of his intimate friends to me, 1 "is that ideas rule the world, and all the men and -women in it." A man very near to Mr. Maine now is William K. Curtis, tho newspaper correspondent. cor-respondent. Since the death of his son Walker, Mr. lilaino has instinctively turned to Curtis as his most trusted lielper in all practical affairs. This reminds re-minds me of Mr. Maine's remarkable facility for attaching to himself men who once belonged to hiseneinies. This Mr. Curtis was for years a friend and confidant of Hoscoe Conkling, and at one time probably disliked lilaino as much as Conkling did. Murat Halstead, tho brilliant writer and editor, was once bitterly opposed to Maine. Ho fell under un-der the magnetic, spell, however, and is now Blaine's devoted admirer. Tho name thing is true of that great old man, JlT. Medill, tho editor of tlio Chicago Tribune. General John V. Foster is still another an-other instance of this remarkable facility j of Mr. Maine, be it amiability, for- i givetiess, forgetfulness or whatever it : is. General Foster is the only American, Ameri-can, it is said, who had the distinction , of filling three first class foreign mis- ; Kions. Ho was minister to Russia, to Spain and to Mexico. He was devoted to Judge Walter Givsham, who never did like Mr. Maine, lie was dooted also to Chester A. Arthur, and was in the Arthur administration one of tlio j earliest workers in the field of reciprocity, j Yet Mr. Maine now lias this man, who i has borue him no very friendly feeling in the past, as one of his most trust y and most oftieient aids in the reciprocity propaganda. Mr. Foster is now m Spain, j , endeavoring to negotiate a trealy, and has with him Mr. Maine's younger son, j James (., Jr. ! There is Cabot Lodge, too. Only seven or eight years ago Mr. Lodge wi.i bo eager for the nomination of Mr. lvl-lliunds lvl-lliunds tor the presidency that he nar- , rowly e-caped "lungwninpiiig" whin Mr. iilainu took the prize. H'j is now one of Mr. Maine's warm admirers and : close friends. These instances tend to : establish the truth of what was once said to mu of Mr. Maine by one who knew him intimately. "Maine," said this geut.leman'. "is incapable of being any one's enemy. lie cannot hold spite, as the saying is. The most bitter enemy lie has in the. world, or over had, he would take by the hand at any moment mo-ment and, if he could, make him his friend. "Some yearsago I was out driving with Mr. i'l.-utio here in Washington. A carriage, car-riage, in which sat a man who had bo-come bo-come note as an enemy of Mr. Maine, passed us. To my surprise Mr. lilaino greeted bin with a warmth which could Hot have Veen oveede.l had they been dose friends. 'Mr. Maine." said I. 'don't j'Hi l.-nov.- that man is your sworn enemy?' That's so,' replied Maine; 'come to think of it. 1 gn-ss no is; bless .lueif 1 hadn't forgotten all about it. I only remember that we were friends years ago in the bouse of representatives.'"' representa-tives.'"' Mr. Maine's friend. Ifitr, tVcongross-laau tVcongross-laau from General Grant's t wnof Galena, Ga-lena, is null in the city. Mr. Hut would |