Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-12-17
GEN. GARFIELD At HOME.
An Hour with the Prcsident-EIect at
Mentor.

LFrom Cleveland Correspondent ofthe N Y Timcsl
Halfway between Mentor and Willoughby |
as the express train rusheB along, the passen- |
gers catch glimpse of Gen. Garfield's home |
Near clump of bare trees a sharply pitched |
and reddish roof is seen now half covered |
with snow. A barn and one or two smaller |
roofs are come into view, and before the at |
tention has subsided the place is left away in |
the rear Mentor station is small and common
place. There is a woodpile, a water'tank, |
and side-track that is little used in the way
of Mentor freight, small depot, and small
er hotel. The snow to-day was two inches |
deep, and the slush of unknown depth under
that. No livery sign offers an invitation, and
the voice of no hackman suggests relief. !
II is a mile and half 10 Gen. Garfelds, and
the outlook is not promising. A half grown
boy whose specially afterwards turns out to
be horses, and whose chief detestation seems
to be politics, comes to the rescue. He
will tote" you over to the Generals-he has
some one on every train so his bony nag,
"that used to lick everything hereabout in
the way of running" is brought into requsi-
ton, and the transportation problem is solved.
colored gentleman, with cane, who has
come down on the train, is ovcrtaken and
passed He wants pension, says the boy,
who has made politicians study. Two white
men are passed a little further on. Post
offices" says the youth laconically. When
asked how he had become possessed of so
much knowledge, the boy answered 20, |
worked for Garfield five weeks this summer,
and we saw all kinds Of 'em but l tell you
they didn't get many promises out of US
"Lawnheld" is the fancy name that some
writer has applied to Gen. Garheld's farm
home, although the Garfield family has rather
ignored this appellatiop. The building is
modern, and suggests the usual country house,
with its broad veranda and open hall and
stairs. The surroundings are all Of the farm,
except the little Office just back Of the house
and IN the edge Of that orchard SO often in
vaded during the summer past. A wheat-field
lies across the road, a garden TO the left of
the house, few tall locusts near the door,
and an open gate through which the youth
drives with familiarity that suggests entire
acquaintance backed up by young American
self-confdence. Mrs. Garfield herself opens
the door. "Will you walk in 7" A letter of
introduction to Gen. Garfield is offered, but
just then the General, on his way down stairs
to dinner, takes the letter, looks at the direc.
ton, and then says heartily: "Glad to see
you. Have you been to dinnerf Happy in
being able to say Yes, sir, without false
hood, the visitor is seated, while the General
conducts his guests two or three ladies and
gentleman, into the dining room. He then
returns to a side-room, and is so busy telling
some little anecdote to a friend that he has to
be called once or twice before he will take his
place at the table. By this time the two gen
tlemen who were suspected of post offices
| have arrived and turn out to be two warm
personal friends of the General who have
| come over from Mahoning county for little
quiet talk. The visitors all sit in the open
hall, about new base-burner, and study ar
chitecture, pictures, and country life, while
the General and his guests are at dinner The
building is neatly and plainly finished in
| yellow wood, maple or pine, stained like ma
| pie. In one corner of the room is an ancient
family clock reaching from the floor near to
the ceiling Everything was warm and com
Portable, and the "make-y yourself .at-home"
air all about seemed almost sufficient to make
even an Office hunter believe that he was wei
come.
| Dinner over, the General entered, welcom-
ed his Youngstown constituents, and invited
his guests into the parlor. OF course one or
two of those present had been with Garfield
at Hiram school, and thither the conversation
turned 1t would be hard to find group of
Garfeld's friends in which there was not
little Hiram leaven. Said prominent Cleve-
land gentleman once to the writer: THAT
college has been Of great aid to Garfield. 1t
| is close corporation in one sense, and when
youth is made a member of it his loyalty to
every other member becomes marked thing.
As Iowa and Kansas especially are settled
from Ohio, and as every town of any size in
the West has Ohioans among her adopted cit
izens, Garfield, naturally, had a strong brig
ade of defenders all over the West, many of
whom had either been his classmates or pu-
pills. Every one of them spoke up for him
like a man, and silenced more than one SIAN
der that might otherwise have hunt him. +"
Any one who visits Gen. Garfield these days
goes as a friendly caller, or goes not at all.
He will not be interviewed, and the conver-
sation that occurs before his parlor or study
fire is informal and universally respected as
private. He has keen sense of the respon-
sibilities of his position, and also the good
sense to ''be very good listener now" to
use his own expression, and yet not to say
much He has no hesitation in speaking of
the Chinese letter, and denounces it as an in
famous transaction, deserving the most ex-
treme punishment He can Joke about it
now, and on seeing Cleveland acquaintance
in a buggy ready for home, he shouted good
naturedly, Hello any more Chinese letters
floating about Cleveland now ?" OF cabinets
and senatorships and appointments, he might
as well be in deaf and dumb asylum, for he
will say nothing The General is hearty
man in a running conversation, and overflows
with anecdote and good humor He sees the
lights as well as the shadows in events pass
ing before the vision, and although too healthy
in body and mind to grow morbid over posi-
BILE dangers, he can face them with all seri-
BUSINESS, and bring judicial fairness to theii
settlement. The conclusion that one arrives
at after hearing him talk is that he means tC
give the country safe and careful govern
ment, with the idea still forever in mind thai
the watchword of this country is progress,
aud that there is nothing SO enervating as
} stand-s -still. Some people, in whom hot
7 headedness is a synonym for valor, have ac
cused Gen Garfield of cowardice of a mora
Z sort but the next four years will prove tina
he can do brave things, and yet be careful o.
t the interests of his party and his country
t His political ideas are stalwart, and he be
D lieves in his party with the hearty faith tina
s is a characteristic of the constituency tina
/ sent him to Congress again and again. Ye
Q he is open-eyed to the rights of minoritie
and the reasonable claims of opponents, anC
/ has never made a charge against the Demo
r cratic party that he did not thoroughly be
d lieve to be true. visit to his cozy office a
y the rear of the house finds everything in or
e der, from the row of Congressional Globes a
5 the right to the newspaper slips cut out AM
d classified to-day by one of his secretaries
His mail comes in large quantities, sometime
letters and papers making near a bushel
d day. About one-third of the letters receiy
It the Generals attention, and the others, afte
It being attended to by his secretaries, are in
n dexed and filed away.
l. After an hours call the visitor bids the Gen
d eral adieu, and leaves him to the tender mel
a cies of other callers who are propelled fol
d ward by ambition, newspaper enterprise, Gu
5, riosity, and other motives. The large fel
opened by this latter classification is best illu'
t trated by the colored gentleman above referre
e to- On returning he was found seated in tn
l. depot, close to the roaring stove, his can
s. against his knee, and large coat thrown owe
le his lap. With the voluble confidence of h
it class when encouraged to talk, he said tht
g he had been to Gen. Garfelds to secure h
ie aid in obtaining a pension. Although h
ID lameness had been caused by rheumatisi
rather than wounds he said that the gener
had treated him kindly, and, although NAL