Show washington LETTER the more we are thrown into the company of those who have become officially great the more do we realize that the greatest of men are human there is an old and true saying no man is great to his bis own valet for this reason a prophet has no honor in his own country and among his own kin the mortal side of his nature is always visible to those associated with him his weakness weak ness is apparent to everybody acquainted with his private life when we read the speeches of great orators the communications which flow from the pen of a gifted correspondent or the glowing accounts of grand receptions by official dignitaries we are apt to them in the light of perfection we do not impute to them tle the weakness we realize in ourselves and the prefix of honorable or his excellency 1 9 is an arched doorway before whose awful pl presence plesence humanity bows itself but when we have once entered through the sacred portal of such prefix sat in the same room shaken the hand and heard the conversation of the official whose dignity we have contemplated from afar the fact dawns upon us that we are in the presence of a mortal existence a human being clothed with that covering of clan which has inherited the love of this world and yields to most of its temptations the more we converse ana the more familiar we become the stronger is our conclusion that in some general particulars at least all men were created equal and those are indeed great who notwithstanding our familiarity with their weakness and the unveiling to us of their humanity can impress us with their goodness and genius or even with their social qualities of heart and retain our respect affection and regard these ideas were suggested to my mind on hearing bearing the remarks of a newspaper re at the capitol the other day during toe the commemorative mora tive services supplemental to the inaugural ceremonies of president washington looking around from the press gallery upon the splendor of the occasion graced as it was by all the dignitaries of the land and representatives from foreign countries crowded into the house of representatives the reporter said it takes quiet a large man not to feel small in the presence of such an assembly I 1 jo do not desire to depreciate in the estimation of the public those whom the people have se selected lecko as their choice to mccu occupy y positions because go go etere where you will you flud find imperfection is the lot of humanity but when I 1 heard beard tile foregoing remark I 1 could not help reflecting upon those things which pervade arvade all alike in a greater or less degree degree and make men so different from the perfect model which our imagination would mark out for them in tile the assemblage alluded to were the president of the united states and all his cabinet among them secretary blaine whom many call 08 the power behind the throne 11 and whom the republicans COD consider Sider the smartest man in the united states yet the time is within the recollection of every reader of politics when the democratic papers denounced this gentleman and he was caricatured in the ae public prints as the tattooed neall 11 doubtless too if the democrats were in power things might be brought to the mind that have beet been said about some of them individually with just as great propriety as s against this republican in fact IU 0 o political circles ial position instead of being a safeguard ird against attack renders a man a target to be shot at aud and no game flies so high that a political fue foe dare not fire but with the general public it is different A man who reaches position or acquires wealth is wor shipped by the multitude regardless RI in many instances of the means used to the accomplishment of so desirable desir dest aole an end or the rock of in significance from whence such sue suc cess was hewn those who worship the wealth of elijah morse of massachusetts do not know perhaps and ami do na care away that he commenced lifes a boy by peddling stove polish which he be carried in a basket on bis is arm the ne fact that he now owns immense buildings and stores and even a railroad and is a millionaire in Q the true sense ot of the word throws 6 9 sanctity around his person and forms a halo such as is described to in sacred pictures which would keep thousands of men from dt d siring airing to meet i he ahe gentleman lest they should abound be thrust back from his presence as unworthy to look upon him but ut to those who have the temerity co to enter his room and speak familiarly with him lie he is as approachable able now W as when a boy and per stif ha ne of his boyish peculiarities i htiu a part ral of his private life although A he be is s an excellent speaker and atad used to speechmaking speech making yet he is a fledgling in the congressional nest aud who knows with what weak eakels ea joep kees and nervous flutter inga gs tl he e will approach his maiden veech speech before his breth brethren reB law aw mak ers orb notwithstanding the pedestal lof of popularity Ppul arity upon which he lias has been raised or the foundation of wealth in i which that pedestal is laid his friends lends mid find him a genial companion without ostentation and more loope proud that he has risen from the ranks by his own efforts than of the e fact that he be now figures in the congressional forum such self made men as elijah morse orse of massachusetts W J connell of nebraska frank W michigan dark clark lewis 01 of mississippi and david D B runner of pennsylvania have far anore to be proud of than those who hy y rich heritages of wealth early opportunities in education and aad the fluence nu ence of family have been pushed to the froni front and brought by circumstances rather than by their wn energies and genius into the splendors lendor of official life self made eq have lave the truest training cfall of all at which to is obtained by combat i S we the fierce opposition of a stub bolij wa fate and of surmounting biffl curties which only genius could coald bring into subjection others are more i n the nature of tropical plants planta cannot be expected to have the same sympathies or to u der stand the details contingent upon a life of toll toil like those who have endured such a life and mastered its conditions at the cm commemorative services before referred refea J to I 1 could not help forming comparisons our american officials many of whom were cradled in such trying circumstances as have just been described and the consuls anti and ambassadors from other nations who clad in all the tinsel of official nobility marched tied in with regal hearing bearing and before the people in the galleries I 1 thought to myself while educational polish is a valuable acquisition aud and in some respects indispensably nece experience peri ence euce in the vicissitudes of life and td a knowledge of the hardships which are entailed upon people in a new country add much to the other acquisition in foral forming rig the philosophical statesman and the competent jud geas they do to the qualifications of a lawyer in following his hia calling if there ts id one thing which shows the weakness of a man in official life more than another to my ml mandit od it is the absence of knowledge regarding I 1 rig the detal details Is of hutman human existence A familiarity with the use of implements of labor would do more moie good to college colle students stude nisin in after life when they are seeking to apply the lessons of their youth than do gymnastic exercises for which they are so note noted dani aim will h simply developed dev elope the but leave the mind uninformed by any peri onal contact or experience as to the methods by which many people get their living by which trades and manufactures are carriea on and the hum of industry and prosperity AAy made to resound throughout the land it seems to me jue that for the welfare of society at least oue one industrial school or college should exist in every state and territory in ID the union it would he be better than a reform school and might avoid the necessity of extending the area of our prisons arid and penitentiaries aries some students come fron from college too proud to work and it is from this class frequently that cou forgers and confidence men are made while if they had been taught something ng at the carpen carpenters bench instructed ji ii the art of cabinetmaking or if they were initiated into the mysteries of farming so that they would know a little more than mark awain said he did when he commenced as an agriculturist they might resort to some of those professions in an honorable and upright themselves from disgrace and the public annoyance any of course I 1 do not wish t P assert that all criminals come from this class although vice generally springs from ignorance of some kind and perhaps the teachings teach Jugs of some men are born of the truth when they toll tell us that if the world were properly instructed ted criminals would be rare barera indeed we must all agree that much of the narrowness which now DOW prevails in considering great questions is largely caused by a lack of information such as is obtained by travel and contact with people and institutions the more we kno the broader we become and it is certainly no obstruction to official life that a man knows how to make a bench beluch of a bedstead when mark twain tafil undo unde took stock raising and farming in a far off territory he says 1 I already knew a horse from a cow and was willingto will ing to learn more and he certainly did learn more concerning agricultural agra and other practical pursuits before he was able to depict to the public mind so vividly the queer clui characters and ridiculous positions in everyday life which are portrayed in iii his leading works and have convulsed the reading world with laughter in fait fact the ers und the manufacturers of the world are the nobility of nature we may call them the true economists econome for they take the elements which seem to be going to waste and apply them toward obtaining g the means of existence when they bring this experience to bear upon the duties of public station and it is mingled with the refining polish of the law school it forms formis a good background for the picture of of political life and furnishes good material for showing lam the lie lighter tints of classi cal work I 1 am confident readers will watch the ilie movements of members mt abers of our congressional legislature who have had the experience peri ence now mentioned they y will be satisfied that the theories dwelt upon in this letter are not far from correct of comae no one cas can deny that legal knowledge know ledge is if essential to the lawmaker law maker and few if any ot of those who have undertaken to tinker with the laws without that knowledge have ever made much of a success s at it it is an old and true saying that when hen a man is his own lawyer he be has a fool tor for a client etisa it is a goott good deal like the individual who undertook to make his own boots they always leaked somewhere it would be folly in the extreme for people to suppose that mere in ordinary life without learning would qualify them for the construction of laws to govern the people the nice discrimination concerning the meaning of sentences the proper use nee of words a knowledge of the e rule ru lesof grammar and that grand acquisition the ability to spell correctly is also essential to the congressional mind talking of the weak ness of officials reminds me that gossip almost depends for its rumors upon the of those i in n official life the doings of ordinary people do not so much interest the public it is the acts act of prominent persons that create excitement cit ement and sensation some time ago a senator of seventy married a young lady of twenty five and the rumors of the ma match and herbus her suspected abou amou amours rs have not yet gone I 1 nto into oblivion yet a gentleman of eighty two quite lately married b b lady of twenty five and there was such a disturbance amo amog lg the young iada lad Is family while they were warding boarding with her mother that the young oung couple had to move away and set cougle uj up housekeeping ouse keeping for therus themselves elves in a neighboring town but the gossip gossi about it has already died out and nobody cares what capers cupid cuts up because they are not prominent people there is more interest shown iu in the way president harrlson harrison holds the reins when he is driving or how his wife sits in a chair than in what is happening among thousands of people people who dont happen to be president or prominent in some other way CHASLES CHA W STAYNER washington NaToN D C dec 1889 |