Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-11-16
ALEXANDER STEPHENS. HOME.
Liberty Hall, IN Witch He Enter;ained
the Last One of the Irish Kings.
IFrom the Atlanta Constitution

@Wc ANS1 One OF TIC Irish Kings.
From the Atlanta constitutional
The committe appointed to escort Alex
ander n. Stephens from his home to the
gubernatorial mansion, arrived at the Lib
erty Hall estate early ON Monday morning.
The members of the committee were in
vited to breakfast. No less than eight SER
wants clustered about the table and helped
the guests, while a major-domo of un-
yielding dignity directed their movements,
three ~pickaninnies stood by the open
fireplace. and watched the proceedings
with undisguised interest. A family OF
i've kittens tumbled about the floor, while
two dogs, occupying the rounds of a stair
case that led from the dining-room into
the second story, overlooked the scene.
Il bought this house." said MI. Stephens.
sin 1S42, from Mr.. Bird--and to-day. for
the first time, it is to be closed up. We
are packing up everything, and the house
will be closed up to-day, except for Mr..
ONeill, an old friend Of mine, who is now
approaching his ninetieth year, and who
will continue to live here.
"This is a library said Mr.. Stephens.
IN which 1 have spent many a day and
night of work, and which I leave with
great reluctance" It was not a preten-
tious room, but well filled. An immense
basket of seed for distribution sat on the
foor. In a corner was a pile of sweet DO
tatoes. The entire wall space was covered
with books. These were mostly on topics
relating to the war and constitutional
questions. Every conceivable history of
the war and every treatise on government
eyer published, it appeared, were here,
and the most OF them well thumbed.
You will notice." said Mr.. Stephens
that l have my house lighted with gas. It
is a curious fact, but my gas costs me less
than my matches" "You must have un-
skillful scratchers, them" mo. But a
great many of my visitors smoke pipes. as
l do, and it takes four or five matches to
light a pipe, especially in the hands of
those who are used to Goals. 1t costs me
fifty cents a week for matches, and only
S19 a year for gas. There is
no investment a country gentleman can
make that pays so well as to have his owa
gas-machine,
This room," said Mr.. Stephens. en-
tering a bedroom adjoining the library,
was occupied the night it was finished by
Smith O'Brien, the last Of the line of Irish
kings of Munster. He spent a week with
me and was the grandest man in some re-
spects l ever knew. His book ON repre-
sentative government is the ~profoundest
work l ever read, except Mr.. Calhoun's.
and is much more elaborate. He was the
foremost of the Irish patriots in dignity
and power. I had Toombs here to meet
him frequently, and it was interesting to
see them together. Mr.. Toombs was then
very extreme-it was in 1859, and 1 had
resigned in view of the coming storm-and
was fond of painting to O'Brien what a
magnificent republic we could make OF the |
South if we were only cut Off from the |
main body of death, as he called the |
North. In his quiet but positive way
OfBrien would insist that the perpetuity of |
the American Union was the only hope for |
true representative government on earth.
l never entertained a greater man than
this brave and saddened Irishnan.
1t is we'll known that Mr.. Stephens is
He spends his income on charity |
and in entertaining. and has always done
SO. Whila he Is s~crupalously exact in his
W personal expenses, he has little
thought of money spent on others. 1t is
his boast that he has never turned any one |
away from his door. His income on his
books amounted to but little. An old ne |
gro Of seventy-six, who is one month !
younger than Mr.. Stephens, and has been
with him seventy-slx years, said: why
he's better to dogs than most folks is to
folks. He feeds every dog as comes to
him, and when he dies he don't just let
him dry up; he buries him" .Buries the
dogs:" Eyes, sir. just like folks; he's got
a regular dog graveyard in his garden. I
buried Frank there two weeks ago, and
Rio was buried there, and there's a heap O
dogs buried there"
As the car rolled out OF the little town
this old veteran was seen waving a latter
ed kerchief. while what seemed to be the
entire population Of Crawfordville cheered
Justify and gave the new governor a hearty
SecGOTo