Daily Davenport Democrat. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1864-1874, 1868-11-16
PRIvA re HABITS OF EHC u
ACE GREELEY.


An intimate Acquaintance With distant
relative Of the editor of the Tribune puts II
in my power to furnish the public With the
lsst-pssitively the very last-lnk neces~
sary 10 per-, ct the chain Of knowledge |
already in its possession concerning NJ.
Greeley mean his private habits. We
know al abou. him as regards every other |
department Of his life and services. Be-
cause, whenever magsziniste or bookmaker !
is employed to write, and cannot think Of
n subject, he writes abou. Horace Gresley. |
Even the boys IN the schools have quit
building inspired compositions" on 1.-THE
Horse" and have gone 10 doing Horace
Greeley instead; and when defamation
day comes. around, their voices are no
longer "stil for war" aud Patrick Henry,
but for pease and Horace Greeley. Now,
the natural result Of all this 10 that tho
public have come at last to think that this
man has no life but public life. no nature
but public nature. no habits but public
habits. This is AL wrong. Mr.. Greeley
has a private life. Mr.. Greeley has private
habits
Mr.. Greeley gets up at o'clock in the
tn orning; for it is one Of his favorite MAJ
inns that only early rising can keep the
health unimpaired and the brain vigorous.
lie then wakes up all the houeehold and
assemblies them in the library, by candle
light and, eftsr quoting the beautiful
lines,
early TO bed and early 10 rise
Makes Q man healthy, wealthy and WISE"
he appcin,s each individual . task for the
day, ssts him at it with encouraging words,
and gees back to bed again. mention
here, in no fault-fnding spirit, but with the
do!e,cnr Justly due man who is older,
and wiser, and worthier than |, that he
snorcs awfully. In moment of irritation,
once, | was rash enough 70 say | never
would sleep with him until he broke him
self Of this unfortunate habit. have kept
my word with bigoted and a,sring dc.
termination.
At half past / | o'clock Mr.. Greeley rises
again. He shaves himself. He considers
that there is great virtue and economy il
shaving himself. He does it with dull
razor, sometimes humning . par, Of a tune
Che knows part of tune, and takes an In
noecnt delight in regarding it as the first
half Of Old Hundred; but parties familiar
with that hymn have felt obliged TO confess
that they could not recogn ze it, and, there
fore, the noise he makes 10 doubtless an
unconscious original composition Of Mr..
Greeley ~, and sometimes, whom the razsr
10 especially dull. he accompanies himself
with formula like this: damn the damn
ed razor and the damned outcsst who made
it. H. e.
He then goes cut into his model garden,
and applies his vast store Of agricultural
knowledge to the amslieration Of his Dab
bsges; after which he writes an able agri-
cultural article for the instruction Of Amer
lean farmers, his soul cheercd tho while
with the reflection that If cabbagcs were
worth Gil apiece his msdel farm would pay
lie next goes to breakfast, which is .
frugal, abstemious meal with him, and
consists of nothing but just such things IS
Tho market affords, nothing moro. lie
drinks nothing but matchmaking but
water, aud coffee, and tea, and Scotch ale,
and lager beer, and lemonade with fly in
it-some,imes a house fly. and sometimes a
horse fly, according 20 the amount of in
spira.on required to warm him up t, his
daily duties. During breakfast lie roads
the Tribune all through. and enjoys the
satisfaction Of know ng that ell tie bril>
liant things in it, written by Young, and
Cooke, and Hazard, and myself, are at,ri-
buted to him by a contiding and internal
public
Af.er breakfast he writes short editor
| 81, and puts o .arst dash at The beginning
| of il, thus (-). which is the same as if
| ne put Ii. u. after it, and takes a savage
pleasure in rejecting that none of us under
sirappers can use IT, at dash, except in pri-
fame conversation when cnaffing o1er the
| outrage. lie writes this editorial in his 0w
handwriting. He does it because no is so
vain of his penmsnship. lie always did
take on inordinate pride in his penmanship
Iis hirei cut once, in his young days, as .
writing master, but the enterprise failed
The pupils could not translate his marks
with any certainty. His first copy was
"Virtue is its own reward and they cot it
"Washing with soap is wholly absurd" and
so tho trustees discharged him for attempt
ing to convey bad morals through The mo
dunn Of verse penmanship. But, as | was
saying, he writes his morning 'diterial.-
Then he tries to read i, over, ana can't do
il, and 50 sends it to the printers, and they
try to read it, and cant 90 it; and go they
SET II up at random, ms you may say, put
ting - what words they can make out, aud
Wien tiey get aground on a long word,
| they put in Reconstruction" OF universal
suffrage" and spar Cd and paddle ahead,
aud next morning, if the degraded public
can tell what i. is all about, they say II. G.
wrote il, and il they can I, they nay it is ore
Of thuse imbecilc understrappers, ard that
is the md of it,
On Sundays, Mr.. Greeley sits in prom
irent pew in Nj. Chapin's church, and
ats that ba 10 salaon or1 tbn
gregatisn regard i. as an sccsntricity Of
genius.
When he il going to appear in public,
Mr. Greeley spends tive hours on his toilet.
He is the most pains-taking and elaborate
man about getting up his dress that lives in
America. This is his chisfest and pleas.
ATTEST fsible. He puts on his old white
overcoat and turns up the collar. He puts
on soilsd shirt. saved from the wash. and
leaves one end Of the collar unbottoned.-
Ne puts on his most diapidated hat, turns
it wrong side before, cants it onto the back
of his head, and ams an extra dent in the
side of it. He puts on his most atrocious
boots, and spends 10 minutes tucking the
left leg Of his pants into his boot top in
what shall seem the most careless and I'M
studied way. Bat his cravat-lt il into the
arrangement Of his crayat that no throws
oil his soul, all the powers Of his great
mind. After fixing at it for 40 minutes be-
fore the glass, il is perfsct-it is asksw in
every wny-it overflows his Goa. cellar on
one side and sinks into oblivion on the 9TH
er-it climbs and it delves around about his
nsck-the knot 10 conspicuously display cd
under his left ear, and it stretches one of
its long ends straight out horizontally, and
the other gees after his eye, in the good old
Toodles fashion-and then, completely and
marvelously apparsled. Mr.. Greeley strides
farth, relling like sailor, . miracle Of as
founding esstumsry, the awe and wonder Of
the nations
Woman Sentenced e be Hanged.
Kate O'Brien, who murdered Bridget
NeDermctt in Buffalo, was on Saturday
sentenced TO be executed on the 18th Of
December. When asked If she had any
thing to say Why tho Judgment Of the law
should not be passed upon her, she arose
and delivered an incohercnt appeal to the
court. She spoke in q .ow vsice, and her
words were broken by sobbing, 80 that il
was impossible to catch al that she said.
Its substance was that sho had killed Bird.
get McDermett, but that she was 90 much
under the influence Of liquor that she did