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Show I ABOUT NOTABLE AMERICANS H By FRHUER1C .1. HAHKI.N ' I, . The South has few women so representative repre-sentative and charming1 as Mrs. Virginia Vir-ginia Clay Cloptou of lluulsville, Ala. She is the widow of Clement C. Clay, .Jr., a member of the Confederate Cabinet, Cab-inet, and :i co-prisoner with .Jefferson Davis when that fallen chieftain saw his litflo republic crumble and was sent into humiliating confinement to bear the biirden of a lost cause. Mrs. Clop-t.on Clop-t.on lived in "Washington, many years, 1 and her mcmor- is rich iu stories of the great men and the clever Avoinen I iwlio formed the social world of that period. Her richest reminiscences aro of tho time when Andrew .Johnson was President, and so completely under tho dominion of Secretary Stanton that the Presidential orders were not even Avorth tho paper they Avero written on Avhen presented at. Portress Monroe as passports for her to risil. her husband. She once made a most daring invasion inva-sion of the White House to demand admission ad-mission t.o Fortress Monroe, and added a rather interesting paragraph to his-lory his-lory by openly accusing Mir. .Johnson, of "having no power in his own oflice ;intt ot bonifr au'aiu or bccroiary burn-ton. burn-ton. The President: never denied I lie accusation, but inildy suggested that, she write down l.lic various j-rieva'neeB she had against the government, and he would read tlieni at, the next, meeting of the Cabinet. Mrs. Clay waxed wroth over this and refused to comply with the suggestion, saying: "C will c-OMO and read it myself, if you -will only say so; then 1 will know it was read.'-' Her persevcranco finally won her permission to seo her husband, but her contempt for Johngon never waned, and her hate for Stanton's unfair methods never cooled. A friend was pointing out; to tho sculptor, Charles JL .Nichaus, tho fact that Ill's name did not appear in the nook concerning the statue of John .1. Ingalls, of which Congress ordered LG,-000 LG,-000 copies published and distributed. It: is considered the best piece of portraiture por-traiture that Mr. Nichaus has done, and is ono of tho characteristic works in the Capitol. "Thai is not so bad as it might have been,'' complacently replied re-plied the slighted genius;' 'wo sculptors sculp-tors are used to some phetly hard knocks. Tho hardest, one that X ever had was when the Garfield slattic was unveiled in Cincinnati, which, by the way, is my homo cily. X had been invited in-vited 'by tho commitleo in charge of the arrangements to ride iu one of the carriages in the procession, but 1 did not think 1 would quite like that, so I i sauntered down to where the statue was. J. found that T had forgotten my card to the speaker's ,tand. and when f went near lo the statue I was ordered or-dered away by a policeman. I kept up my inspection, and when the fellow got too insistent J told him quietly who I was. He laughed at me, got rather impudent, and avIioii 1 refused lo move he upiflcd his club to strike i inc. Ho was only prevented from do- j ing so by the interference of a friend i who had been watching the proceedings. proceed-ings. Rut for the timely interference I might have landed in jail for looking i at mv own work. ! The. public hears constantly of the philanthropy of Andrew Carnegie, but. the good works of his friend and lifelong life-long partner, Henry Phipps, are not so widoly heralded. The. pfeoplo of Pittsburg Pitts-burg lovingly refer to him as "the , flower man," on account of his splendid splen-did charities in the way of public conservatories. con-servatories. The most important'' conservatory con-servatory donated by Mr. Phipps is tho ono in Sehcnlv Park. It is tho largest greenhouse in the United States. Tlie walks without; doubling upon themselves them-selves are nearly a mile in length. The original building was erected twelve years ago at a cost of $150,000, but. new buildings are added every year. The lutost addition is the cactus house, where every ,' known variety of this strange plant is being carefully assembled. assem-bled. Upwards of 10,000 people visit tho conservatory in a single day during dur-ing the f refluent- exhibitions. Mr. Phipps himself sometimes joins the crowd and is found bending over some new Tare flower as if he had never seen tho like' before. Ho has provided classrooms in the heart of the woodland wood-land where the children in tho botany classes may pursue their studios in the early spring. His flower charities have also" extended to tho slums and even to the penitentiaries. His most recent benefaction is a gift of $1,000,000 for a great tuberculosis sanitarium for the State of Pennsylvania. - y Elizabeth, the liltlo daughter of the late President Harrison, was visiting at a countrv home near New York, a few miles "back from. Long Island Souud. It was the delight of the Jittlo girl lo climb in the apple trees, then in full bloom, and one day she induced her hostess to ascend a friendly constructed con-structed tree with her. The hostoss took in the view that the surrounding country afforded and inado a discovery. discov-ery. "Oh," she. said, in surprised de- Jight, 'J can see the sound." ''Hut how can vou do that?" said IClizabeth, (juietlv. "llovJ"' The lady looked down at the little face upturned to hers quizzically. "Yes, how?" repeated Elizabeth wonderingly; "how can you sec a sound?" it r One of the best stories in circulation is fold of Josef .HofTnian" at the expense of some would-be music lovers. During one of his tours he went to make a short visit at a country house, where there were a. number of other guests. One dav he heard weird melodies issuing from a piano-player in the music room i and wcut in quietly to investigate. He could not recognize the air that was being played, but supposed it must bo something worth while from tho rapt attention given by the listeners. Ho approached one of the audience and in a whisper asked tho name of the piece that was being plaved. To his amazement amaze-ment he was told that it was Bach's "Pugue iu 1) Minor." He was dumbfounded dumb-founded at his failure to recognize a masterpiece with which ho was perfect ly familiar. The mystery was explained when ' on investigation it was found that the record had been placed on the j roller backward! , .Colin P. Duke, the Norlh Carolina tobacco king, can testify to the fact. I that although Sherman did devastate tho South in his famous march to the sea, he was instrumental in benefiting one Southern industry. Among other things that Sherman's soldiers con (is eatcd for their personal use was the tobacco stored in tho small dring' house of tho Dukes in North Carolina. After the war was over and those men j could not have tho tobacco just for 1 ho taking, they wrote and offered to buy more, thus causing a. revival of the in- ; dustry. .lohn B. Duke was only nine j 3'ears old Ayhcn l.he Avar ended and his i total capital was fifty cents. His fath- ; or had .been so impoverished by the war that thero Avas absolutely nothing to begin with but tho Avasted land. The father borrowed two blind mules from a more fortunate brother and the family wont to work. They raised :ti little crop and made forty dollars the first year. Tho scerot of curing the weed is still their own. All the family worked at .first, then a factory was opened with fifteen men and the old log drying houso trave plaeo to a bigger one. in the early eighties I ho industry indus-try Avas capitalized with $70,000, but Diiko took out only $11000 a year for himself, putting all' Lho rest back into the business. The profits aro now said . to bo something like $30,000,000 a year. . Old-timers in "Washington frequently refer to Mrs. Grovor Otovoland as ono of the most gracious and charming ladies la-dies who over Hrcd in tho White House. She won that reputation by her tact, kindliness and genuine Avhole. someness of character. Whilo always bearing in mind tho dignity of her position, she remained thoroughly democratic dem-ocratic and maintained a simplicity of heart; that, drew her nonror to her friends. Friendliness was ono of her most obvious traits, as a delighted and blushing girl once testified after a reception that had proved a crush. The girl s dress had been sadly torn and sho said to her escort, "Oh. do wait j uutil 1 can get a pin and fix this I i flounce. It is simplv awful." "Stand , still, dear, and L will pin it for you." ; said a quiet voice behind her. The girl stood until the voice said again, "All right, it will nol show now." When she turned to thank her friend-in-need sho was covered with confusion confu-sion to behold the Avife of tho Chief Executive vising from her knees after successfully pinning tlie flounce, back into place. .Mrs. Cleveland had done the little act as simply and quietly as any of the girl's boon companions i would have done. Stephen Uirard. Hie Trench philanthropist philan-thropist who gave so much to T-Miiladel-phia, was eccentric in his charities as in everything else, and it was exceedingly exceed-ingly diflicnlt to work on his feelings for lho purpose of getting mono v. His ono contribution to a local ehari'lv, and in fact his only gift outside his Avar fund to the Nation and his endowment of the school which bears his name, was obtained through the endeavor of : an old Quaker. He had told a most moving talc of suffering to Guard, and it. seemed almost as it the old gentleman's gen-tleman's heart avus touched. He wrote a check for $2000 and handed it to the Quaker, who quietly folded it and put it in his pocket, without looking to see the amount. Uirard sniffed suspiciously. suspicious-ly. "Vou don't know how much I've given ye." " Heggars mustn't bev choosers," Friend Stephen," replied the" Quaker. Uirard. stared in astonishment for a minute, then reached for his check, "(jive it to mo. and I'll make it more." "A bird in the hand is Avorth two in the bush.'' replied the canny Quaker, mindful of Stephen's eccentricities. ec-centricities. Guard's under jaw dropped at this evidence of caution. Reaching for a pen ho added a check for 10,000 to his original contribution. An interesting little personality is I he young daughter of Comnio'dore Peary, christened Marie Ahnighfo Pcar'v. She has the distinction of being be-ing lho "farthest north" Avhite baby up to date. She was born in Greenland Green-land avIioii her distinguished father was on one of his North Pole expeditions. Her mother went norlh the following summer to meet her husband, who Avas returning from one of his dashes toward to-ward lho North Pole. The winter set in sooner than Avas expected, the ship caught in the iee, and mother and daughter spent a long, sunless Arctic winter at ('ape Sabine, se'0iit v-eighl. deurccs and forty-two minutes North Latitude. Little Miss Peary is the possessor pos-sessor of a collection ol furs that mon- ey could not buy. i |
