The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1880-01-24
SOME PERSONALS,

MEzzoFANTI-No linguistic phenomenon
has ever approached Cardinal Mezzofanti, and
the New York Tablet says that there is ira
dition among Italians that his wonderful pow
er was a divine gift conferred under the fol.
loving circumstances: While a young priest
he was summoned to confess two foreign GRIM
inals who were under sentence of death, and
in one night acquired enough knowledge OF
their language to confess them. Thencefor-
ward he could, in al incredibly short time, ac-
quire any tongue lie pleased
WAsnINGToN-W William f. Carne, in Hdr-
per's Hagaztne, says of Washington:
He voted at all the Fairfax elections until
the close of his life, uniformly supporting the
Federal MISUNDERSTANDING candidates.
Although living some distance from the court
house, at the Alexandria market, he generally
voted early. The polls were reached by u
flight of steps outside, which in 1900 had be-
come old and shaky. When the General reach
ed the steps he placed one foot upon them,
and shook the crazy ascent, rs if to try its
strength. Instantly twenty brawny arms, one
above the other, grasped the stairway, and a
dozen mems shoulders braced 1t. Nor did a
man move until the venerable chief deposited
his vote and returned. III saw his last bow"
said one of them half century afterward; "it
was more than klngly."
JoNEs-Senator Jones, of Nevada, is Eng
lish by birth, but spent nearly all his childish
years in Cleveland, o.. where all the education
he acquired was given him in the public
schools. The Ledder Of that city says he was
considered an apt scholar. When he was 20
years old he made, with one of his brothers,
the voyage around Cape Horn to California
a voyage which occupied seven months. After
a short experience as clerk in San Francisco
the young man went out through the state in
snow.drifts, serving in various political offices
and ending as superintendent of mines at Gold
Hill, Nevada, at a salary Of $4,000 a year.
Here, after twenty years of resolute work else
where, he came upon Il fortune. He got con-
troll of the Crown Point mines, which devel-
oped largely soon after they came into his pos
sesslOn-"actually paying" the Leader says,
"a million dollars month in dividends"
Senator Jones is an energetic and pluCky man,
who, 1t is said, never loses control of his tenn
per, and who is devoted to his family, nearly
all Of whom are now in California.
GAMBETTA.- men leap from OBJ
security to fame in day. One of this rare sort
Is Leon Gambetta. On certain day IN 1868
Jules Favre, the renowned advocate, statesman
and academcian, had great cause to plead !;
II cause, however, more political than legal.
But that day he was Ill; some one must take
his place: and at \ somewhat rash venture, he
chose IL his substitute an almost absolutely
unknown, outatebows, loud-talking Bohem-
ian cate-orator. NJ. Favre knew Gambetta but
little; and mainly knew him as an ardent and
ouLspoken Republican. The mere issue of the
trial. which was that Of certain editors for
opening their columns to the Baudin subscrip-
ton, was nothing. AT a time when, under the
Empire, free speech was forbidden the Repub-
licans on the platform, such trials were seized
upon by Republican orators as the occasions
of fierce attacks upon the NapOleonic regime.
What was needed, then, was a bold, eloquent,
redhOt Republican. who would stand up and
lash the Empire without mercy, before a bench
of Imperial judges. Gambetta electrified all
France by his speech, 1t was tremendous
Indictment against Napoleonism. Never did
an orator produce more immediate or more
overwhelming effect The broad road of pc
litical fortune lay open before him.-G0od
Company.