Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-10-01
ANECDOTES OF GARFIELD.
PLEASING "REMINISCENCES BIZ REPRESENTATIVE
WILLIAMS OF WISCONSIN.

| WILLIAMS, Of WtSSokSIN.
| From the Milwaukee OWLS. Sentinel Sept a.
congressman Williams was in the city yester
| day, and, in answer to questions as to his ac-
quaintance with the lamented President, replied:
Happening to sit within one seat of him for
| four years in the House. !, with Others perhaps
| had better opportunity to see him In all his
moods than those more removed. In action
he was giant of duty he was great, noble
| boy. He never knew what austerity Of man.
! ner or cerem0niOus dignity meant. After
| some Of his greatest efforts in the House.
| such as will live in history. he would
| turn to me or any one else and say: We'll, old
boy. how was that!' Every man was hts conf
dant and friend. so far as the Interchange of
every day good feeling was concerned. He once
| told me how he prepared his speeches: that first
he filled himself with the subject. massing all the
facts and principles involved. so far as he could;
then he took pen and paper and wrote down the
salient points in what he regarded their logical
order. Then he scanned these critically and
nNed them in his memory. And then. said he,
L leave the paper in my room and trust 10 the
emergency He told me that when he spoke at
the serenade in New York year ago he was
pressed by callers that the only opportunity he
had for preparation was to lock the door and walk
| three times around the table when he was called
out 10 the balconyto begin. All the world knows
what that speech was He was wrapped ND in his
family. His two boys would cone IN to the House
Just before adjournment and loiter about his
desk with their books in their hands. After the
House adjourned other members would 60 of i'm
cars or carriages. walk down the Avenue i'm
groups. But Garfield. with boy on each side
of him, would walk down Capitol Hill. as we
would say in the country 'cross-lots,' all
three chatting together on equal terms
ne ne said said to me one day during
eyes: 4 have done no more coming up from
poverty than hundreds and thousands Of others
but am thankful that have been able to keep
my family by my side and educate my children
with impunity. l have said repeatedly that
were Garfield alive and fully recovered. and
dozen of his intimate friends were to go
to him and advise that Guiteau be let
of. he would say: Eyes, let him GO" The
man positively knew no malice. And for such
man to be shot and tortured like dog and by
dog! He was extremely sensitive. l have
seen him come into the House in the morning
when some guerrilla of the press had stabbed
him deeper in his feelings than Guteaus bullet
did in the body, and when he looked pald from
suffering and the evident loss of sleep: but he
would utter no murmur. and i'm some short time
his great exuberance Of spirits would surmount
1t all, and he would be boy again. He never
went to lunch without a troop of friends with
him. He loved to talk at table, and there is no
gush in saying he talked like a god. socially
and Intellectually. Some Of his Off-hand eX-
pressiOns were like a burst of inspiration.
Like all truly great men, he did not seem to
realize his greatness. And, as l have said,
he would talk as cordially and cOnfidentially
with child as with a monarch. And / only
refer to his conversations with me because
you ask me to, and because think his off-hand
conversations with any one reveal his real traits
best. Coming on the train from Washington
after his nomination he said. 'Only think of this
am yet young man; if elected and serve my
term shall still be young man. Then what
am going to do? There seems to be no place
In America for an eX-Presidentp And then came
in what | thought the extreme simplicity and
real nobility of the man. Why said he, Il had
no thought of being nominated. l had bought |
me some new books and was getting ready for
the Senate laughed at the idea of his buying |
books, like boy going to college, and remem
bered that during his congressional career he had
furnished material for a few books himself And
then, with that peculiar roll Of the body and
slap on the shoulder with the left hand which
all will recognize. he said: why! do you know
that up to 1856 never saw Congressional Globe |
nor knew what one WASP And he then eX-
planned how he stumbled onto one in the hands |
of an opponent in his first public anti-slavery
debate. friend remarked the other day that |
Garfield would get as enthusiastic in digging a |
six foot ditch with his own hands as when |
making speech in Congress. Such was my |
observation. Going down the lane he seemed |
to forget for the time that there was any Presi- /
Dental canvass pending. He would refer to first /
one thing then the other, and always with that /
of-hand originality which was his great char
acterstic. Suddenly picking up smooth, |
round pebble he SAID: Look at that Every stone
mere sings OF the seal Asking why he bought |
his farm, he said he had been reading abort |
metals, that you could draw them to a certain |
point a million times and not impair their |
strength, but if you pass that point once YOU |
could never get them back. So said he, Il /
bought this farm to shift the muscles of my |
mind Coming to two small wooden structures |
in the field he talked rapidly Of how the neigh |
bOrs guessed he woulddo in Congress, but would 1
not make much of a fist at farming. and they |
called my attention to his corn and buckwheat |
and other crops, and said that was a marsh but |
he underdrained with tile and found spring water
flowing out Of the bluff and found he could get
a five foot fall, and with pumps ola given dimen-
sion, a water dam could throw water back so rods
to his house and 80 feet above it. "But, said he,
in his jOcularly impressive manner, i did my sur
veying before did my work."
Mr.. Williams added that had not Garfield ex-
pressed a wish to be buried in Cuyahoga Gene
terry, the place for his body to rest was on that
hillside where he did his engineering, in sight of
the lake and the Lake Shore road, where a
monument erected high by the nation would be
seen by the millions that passed and repassed
forever. Mr.. Williams said, in conclusion. the
roots of Garfelds life ran deep into the hearts
of his wife and children, and it was hard to tear
them out. That he had great confidence in Ar
thurs executive ability. and believed he was
wholly sincere in all his acts.