Show r rv rt v 1 11 t it i ii 1 A T new news of yesterday 5 I 1 by E J EDWARDS C tale of old park benches r clustering around the seats in chy hall park new york led y to their preservation by the officials 1 I never go to new york bald charles M faye who for many yeara siaa been managing editor of the sago dally news without taking time to visit city hall park and to see tor that the old benches are etall ir their accustomed places lining the walks and encircling the old oun tain in front of the city hall I 1 am always delighted to find them there arthey occupy a tender spot in my mem cry and possibly I 1 am the only man now living who can tell why it Is that these benches have remained tor years undisturbed in the little plot af ground that lies about the seat of government of the nation s me when I 1 was a boy most of the busl ness life and incident of new york city centered about city hall park at a corner of chambers street which bounds the park on the north A T stewart then america s greatest merchant prince had bis store when noontime came it was the almost invariable custom of mr stewart the weather permitting to deave his store for one of the benches in the park there he would have A rought a large lunch basket and around him would gather in the course of the next few minutes a little group at men prominent in the business pro les slona or political life of the city then mr stewart would open the lunch basket and he and those whom bedad invited to take lunch with him would spend perhaps an hour eating telpi irely and chatting and laughing as though they had never a care tn tho world the last time I 1 remember seeing mr stewart lunching in the park he had with him fernando wood then serving bis third term as mayor at new york daniel E sickles then a member of congress and destined to iglay an important role at the battle I 1 at gettysburg and charles A dana then managing editor of the new stork tribune I 1 can see mr stewart ww in the center of the little group ails alert eyes peeping out from un filer the brim of his little low crowned bis little turned up nose alpar antly trying to make connection with arthe brim this was of antebellum happening A little later when the civil war broke out a recruiting station was opened in the lower end of the park t from that end too companies and regiments of soldiers started to the t front and on the benches round about the soldiers were accustomed to receive the members of their families and their friends for the last good bys there my father sat after bis enlistment awaiting the coming of my mother and myself there be bade us good by and it was a permanent good by for he was killed in battle ten years later I 1 should say I 1 learned one day that it was the anten alon of one of the city officials to have these benches around which clustered so many historic and romantic associations ciati ons removed from the park it seemed to me that what he purposed doing was almost in the nature of a sacrilege and I 1 determined to do what I 1 could to prevent it I 1 called upon mr dana then editor of the new york sun whose editorial windows overlooked the park I 1 asked him if be recalled the time when he and mr stem art and others made those benches their noontime luncheon headquarters I 1 reminded him of the many pathetic the many final part ings that had taken place on those benches during the war days then I 1 told him of the plan that was on for the removal of the benches and I 1 closed by stating that it seemed to me that for associations sake the knott a disappointed man won fame as a humorist by his speech about duluth but never thereafter was taken serl bously in congress it was in 1867 that proctor knott who died recently at the alpo age of eighty one years won sudden nation al fame by a humorous speech delivered in congress in which he apos zed duluth glnn as the zen ath city of the unsalted seas four teen years later I 1 came to know him well a man of medium height broad shouldered and deep cheated ch ested with dark eyes surmounted by heavy eyebrows and a somewhat grizzly iron gray mustache he was still a mem ber of congress and his manner was that of the most cerious minded man in the house of representatives ha seldom spoke although had it been announced that proctor knott was to speak the galleries would have been filled and senators would have run over from their side of the capitol to listen to the man who had given du luth its first and greatest tame one day when I 1 boarded a horse car for the national capitol I 1 found a fellow passenger in proctor knott grover cleveland on riches 1 incident while he was trustee of the equitable revealed his way of measuring the ability of men after thomas F ryan at the time ot the famous life insurance kioa of beveral years ago bought a majority of the stock of the equitable life assurance society 62 shares of the par value ot 52 for nearly he created a trusteeship over it the three trustees were ex grover cleveland george and chief justice morgan J 0 dayn of the hew york state supreme cot co t one of toe duties of the trustees was to secure from the upon which might be based toe selection of men to fill such acs as might occur in the society 8 alfard of directors the ob eject of thu was to secure for the pol cy holders in the durec lion of th ol 01 the society every that was rat do to the trustees vt cleveland personally pers orally carefully it was a prodigious task but 19 was as faithful in the per or mance t it as be had baen in bis oversight t every detail midch came to bis attention when he vas v as dent of th united states and which called tor official action or judgment on bis pait in response to the trustees request tor enda tiona to fill certain vacancy lu the board of directors a tennessee policyholder forwarded a letter recommending a fallo tennes beean TU policyholder arter nar rating the qualities of bis bandl date and vouching tor bis integrity of character and ability this mat began with nothing ills family waa ett penniless by the war bo went to vork and worked tor some years with his hands la the fields he saved mona lie bought a little land he bis arm he was patient and frugal at last he began to accumulate ind he la now worth about every penny of it earned by honorable toil tbt la as fine a recommendation i ot a candidate as any policyholder haa Ter BO far as I 1 recollect de cleveland to bis fellow i but salof mr westinghouse it are the mans ability by bb fact that he 1 worth a hundred thousand dollars I 1 don t think the test amounts to very much mr cleveland looked up quickly it seemed to him that mr westinghouse measured ability possibly by the mil lions rather than the thousands although this was not mr westinghouse a point at all the ex president brought bis band firmly down upon the table he was very much in earnest mr westinghouse he eald it a man in the south found himself in pov erty at the close of the war it he went to laboring with his hands if by frugality and industry he began to ac cumila apa it with bis alons li i his farm and 3 yeara butir the war finds abat he Is worth 1100 it seems to me that that or hundred thousand counts for more alan millions of inherited money or a baic i made in speculation in wall other things being equal I 1 faaoi atti election of man as a durecu oi the company and u that brief statement Is to be ed the entire gospel of wealth in which grover cleveland 1910 by E J edwarda all reserved benches should bo left where they were I 1 think BO too ald mr daab most emphatically 1 I wish you would write a letter to the sun betting forth this matter exactly aa you have told it to me if you will do so I 1 will print the letter upon the editorial page of the sun and speak of it in approval in the editorial column I 1 think that will keep the benches where they are 1 I gladly followed mr danas sug gestson gest lon he fulfilled his part of the compact and to my joy the effect was exactly what he believed it would be copyright 1911 by E J edwards AH nights reserved lie was engaged in studiously reading a small volume a latin classic and the contrast between the popular con ot him and my horse car view of him was striking yet I 1 venture to say that in that car I 1 bad a good glimpse ai the real proctor knott we fell into pleasant conversation I 1 suppose mr knott I 1 remarked that there Is no member of the lower house of congress whose name Is bet ter known than your own he smiled and shook his head sad ly what Is reputation kind worth be asked 1 I sometimes see people coma into the gallery I 1 am pointed oue by some one who Is with these strangers and I 1 see them look ing at me intently I 1 know what they are saying to one another they are saying that Is proctor knott who made the duluth speech they dont give a thought to my serious work in congress I 1 am not known an lota by it I 1 am simply proctor knott who made the duluth speech and will be to the day of my death 1 I take it then mr knott I 1 ven aured to say that you believe a gift of humorous expression and the use of it by a man in public life constitute a detriment to his career the most successful men in public life mr knott replied are those who are either intensely serious or who maintain that appearance I 1 am a very serious man but I 1 sometimes look at things on the oblique as it were and I 1 have been told that that Is the essence of humor forced likenesses between things that are unlike this Is my weakness and because I 1 once made a humorous speech that attracted attention I 1 have never thereafter been taken seriously except in my committee room I 1 am without much influence in congress it I 1 were going to give any advice to a young man ato desired to make a public career mr knott continued 1 I should say to him never make a humorous humo rou speech cultivate wit it you have a gift tor it that helps cultivate irony that helps you may tell a funny story to illustrate a point but always be serious in your speech shun humor as you would tho plague bear always in mind that it you make a successful humorous speech you never will be taken seri couely thereafter it was plain that proctor knott looked upon the duluth speech as the fatal mistake of his public career at though it gave him national deputa alon something that he might otherwise not have attained copyright 1911 by E J edwards all righta reserved |