Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1867-07-25

Modern Biographical writing--Our Re-
porter "Goes for" J. N. Free---where
His Home is--How He Spends His Time
---iiis Fsvorite Booixs---His Daily Hsb-
its-.-fiis walks "Afser supper "---His
Views ON tho Labor Question and Dis
tribution OF the Rheum atissn, sc.
From the Cincinnati Times.
The Jenkinses of the press have recent
ly turned their attention to writing
minute sketches of our public men, how
they live, move and have their spreeing,
when they go to bed, when they get up,
what they eat and drink, what they read,
what they say, &c. Ben. Wade was put
over the course while ago by q corres--
pondent of one of our city dailies, and
more recently Thad. Stevens received
similar attentions from reporter for a
New York daily. These sketches are
copied so extensively, and read with such
avidity, that we are constrained to try
our hand at it. We accordingly sent
correspondent to hunt up the iliustrious
philosopher, j. N. Free, more widely
known as "The immortal ]. NJ" He is
public man, enjoying national repu-.
tation. He has stood the "pressure
North and South, and has serious inten-
tions of going to Mexico to see what ne
can do for that torn and distracted land.
The following is what our correspondent
has to say about
THE IMMORTAL ~. NJ" AT HOME.
The first difficulty 1 encountered in
hunting up the great philosopher, was
i'm finding where his home was, but after
diligent inquiry / ascertained that he
was dt thonle any ,Dhere He is citizen
of the world, and, 1 may add, that the
world has produced more great men
| than any other place in Ohio, except
| Sheboygan. ~. N" makes himself
perfectly at home wherever he may
| chance to be at the time. He differs from
the man who wrote, "There is no place
like home" for every place is like home
! to him, and all homes are alike. l found
him, at length, sitting in the office of the
! Bungtown Weekly You-Bet, entirely at
home. He occupied the chair of the
editor, who was respectfully standing by
his side listening to the words of wisdom
which fell from the lips the philosopher,
! one of whose feet reposed on the desk,
among unfinished editorials, and the
other on the imposing stone. He semed
entirely at home. / reminded him of an
invitation he extended to me more than
year ago, to visit him at home, and
told him had come to do it.
He said / need MT look any further,
for he was as much at home in one place
as in another, if not more so. He then
commanded the editor of the You Bet to
bring me stool, which being done he
ordered me to be seated with an imperi-
Gus wave of his hand accordingly sat
|. down. / found that here the immortal
philosopher spends large portion of his
time that he spends here and the editor
prints many of his wise sayings in his
weekly, YOu-Bet.
The fearless and immortal philosopher
had Il book in his hands which he had
been perusing. | saw at glance that it
was cold Mother Goose. " He has learn
: ed every line of il by heart, and says he
can beat Ben. Wade repeating 1t. took
n look about the room where ~. N" is
accustomed to making himself so much
; Mt home.
The walls were hung with war maps,
: cobwebs, Fourth of July posters, news
papers, auction bills, old clothes, &c. |
asked ~. NJ" what were his favorite
books. and he pointed to a shelton which
were displayed volume of Patent Office
REPORTS. the Congressional Globe for 1860,
two volumes of Public Documents a work
on the Ohio Canal and the Annual Re-
mort of the ASYLUM for idiots. Some
idea of the massive bent of this mans
mind may be gathered from this.
: ~. N" has keen appreciation of hui
NOR, and consequently is great admirei
of Tupper's Proverbial Philosophy. He
reads it to the editor of YOu-Bet, because,
he says he "do MT like to laugh alone u
He has MT very high opinion of Gree
ley as comic writer but says he does
lust such foolish things as any of them.
Although ~. N" is MT much on war,
he prides himself on understanding
Cesar's campaigns. He is familiar with
} every fight Caesar had having read full
reports of them in the New York Clipper
as they occurred.
har hah
He never dresses himself before he gets
up in the morning, and he do MT dress
! very much then. He rarely washes him.
, self, as it consumes valuable time that
/; should be employed in philosophical re-
; Elections.
t His breakfast is very light, usually
J sometimes confined to picking his teeth
, with broom splnt. After breakfast he
, takesa walk, which isgauged accordngt to
; the distance to henext town. He takes
. great many papers, all, in fact, that any
t editor will permit him to carry away
He has MT eaten dinner for twenty years
if the hotel keeper could keep him away
/ which he can't do very often. All the
rest of the family do as they please
|, about dinner. He uses his knife good
9 deal in cutting his victuals. He cannot
endure any liquor in his whisky Some
one attempted to put some gin In MI
I cocktail once, Wnen ms Dhch was lurheu
but he detected it immediately-ano
! called for some more.
. He takes walk after supper-tht
! length depending on how far he has t.
5 walk after IL.
9 His invariable custom is to retire early
u he acquired the habit while on his tou
5 through the South, where it Is feared, III
n was MT altogether understood. In ever.
Z place where he attempted to make |
i speech, he was compelled to retire early
: He SAYS he do MT mind hens eggs, bu
= they employ goose eggs down there.
e | read him report ofOne of his speech
Q es in the South, reported in the Doggon'
= Review, and he laughed and said 1t wa
g garbled. Said he:
y 81 did MT say labor-saving implement
!, should be allowed 10 vote, and that
d thrashing machine was better than an,
gs othdr man. Neither did j declare mysel
'e 10 be In favor of an equal distribution {
+ the intlammatory rheumatism in tn
3 United States among the people, for i
T. five years It would be In the hands (fee
10 elbows, knee,joints, &c,, of a few agair
:. But what l did say was that mowin
:. machines do not digest as readily as tn
-. | nnn,n,nn N I'M ono fha work inc class