Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1880-06-24

posted on all topics of the day. Mrs,
Gartield's personal appearance has al
ready been described in a previous dis
patch, but her manifold accomplishments
shine to greater advantage here III her
home than elsewhere, although she is
fitted TO adorn and does adorn the circle
OF society IN which she moves, both ut
Mentor and at Washington. The chill
dren are five In number. Two of them
Harry A. and James r. Garfield, the
one aged II and the other 15-are at St
Pauls school, Concord, n. H., under the
care of Rev. DR.. Colt, but are expected
home III couple of weeks to spend their
summer vacation. The third is Mary,
or "Mollie. as the family call her, aged
ID. The next is Irwin Mcdowell, aged
8, to named as a sort of protest against
the unwarranted abuse which Gen. Nc
Dowell, an old friend of the general,
received. The youngest one OF the
family is Abraham, aged 6, and named
after the generals father 1t is hardly
necessary to state that "Abe's" favorite
pastime during these hot days IN June
consists in climbing cherry tree few
feet away from the veranda, and pluck
ing and devouring the rich red fruit with
boyish satisfaction.
About a mile and half west of the
generals home is curiosity IN the shape
of Joe Smiths first Norman temple. 1t
is n plain but queer-looking structure,
that served its purpose for awhile, but is
now only regarded as n curiosity-some-
thing to look at, but about as good as
useless.
SO much of biography has been pre-
scented in one form and another since
Gen. Garfield's nomination that it is diff
ficult to add anything which has not al
ready been said. The ground has been
pretty fully covered. What can now be
CLEANED in addition thereto forms the few
final pieces that fit into the grand mosaic
of his life. His early love for books has
often been referred to. In speaking on
this topic the other day, the general re-
ferred with smile to his youthful cram
ming of sea-tales, and said that if any
body had offered him cadetship he was
sure it would have killed him; he would
have exploded with JOY.
A good deal has been said about the
wood-chopping episode at independence,
O., and when one reflects that the Job
the boy undertook was to cut up 100
cords of four foot wood, it does seem
rather an extensive layout of work. 1t
was while looking up from his work, be
tween successive blows OF the axe, That
! his eye rested on the blue waters of the
/ lake, and his ambition to go to sea was
| all the more inhamed. But the canal,
and not the sea, claimed him. He worked
on to the end of the season, and, as he
now very freely says, was fortunately
taken sick. Then came the five months
of utter prostration. When in the pur-
! gatorial state, as he expresses it, between
health and sickness, his mother was wise
enough to give him the scent for books
again by suggesting that he go to Ches-
ter This he did, remaining four terms.
At the end of the second, little before
he was IS, he began to teach school.
While at Chester the institution ut Hiram
was built The people We're Disciples,
and, as Hiram was being built by that
sect, and a number of his friends were
going there, he left Chester and began
studying at Hiram in 1850.
In the midst of his second term one of
the teachers was taken sick, and he was
called III to fill the vacant place. From
| that time on he was retained III the posi-
| ton until he became a regular teacher.
| His wife, then Miss Lucretia Rudolph,
was one of his pupils at Hiram, recitipg
Latin and Greek to him for two or three
years Both she and the general keep
up their classical studies yet and derive
great satisfaction from doing so. 1t is
said that Mrs Garfield, when a girl at
Hiram, used to remark that her Latin
and her Greek would be of no use to her
in after life. Two or three years ago,
having grown little "rusty" on the
dead languages, she expressed wish
that she had not forgotten her Latin, as
she would like to teach the boys. One
day when Gen. Garfield was starting for
the capitol, he gave her Caesar, and told
her he would hear her recite page of it
that night She had not looked at the
great Commentaries for years, but when
night came she recited the page very
fairly, and from that time on for two
years she took the two older boys and
carried them through their Latin. The
/ little children have never been to school,
! but have been taught at home by their
accomplished mother.
/ 1t is generally understood that when
informed of the nomination both the
generals wife and mother expressed to
their intimate friends that "now there's
an end of anything like privacy for sew
erai years. The generals mother, from
her newspaper reading, was not surprised
at the outcome, but is reported to have
said that she expected it, Mrs. Garfield,
III the course of conversation with the
correspondent, said she had, of course,