Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-06-13
TlLDEN AT HOME.
Hcw He Entertained the Blue Grass
Editor.
A GREAT READER AND OBSERVER.
Mr.. Watterson Learns Enough to Say
That in No Case viii Gov. Tilden
Be a Candidate for the
Presidency.

NEW YORK, June 12.-Henry Watterson,
in letter to the Courier-J ournal, to be
published tomorrow, will say:
81 have been spending few days at Grey
stone with ex-Gov. Tilden, and not merely
because his old friends in the West and
South have an ever present personal in
terest in him, but because his name at the
moment is upon the lips of the politicians
of every class all over the country 1 pro-
pose to give the readers Of the Courier
Journal some particular account Of him.
When parte from him a year ago / did
never expect to see him again. Indeed I
was so skeptical of the stories concerning
his restoration to health as to feel del
icacy about
IntrudIng Upon His Privacy.
He was good enough to send for me, and
went over to Gramerey Park, in some
what sOrrowful, sympathetic state Of mind,
and my surprise almost exceeded my graft
fication. The old house is undergoing re-
construction and enlargement on a mag
niteent scale, but the old library is
still the same, being held from the
hand Of despoiling splendor for the
last. l take it as tribute of
affectionate remembrance Of old times, old
friends and old books. There l found the
Governor; if an apparitiOn had stood be-
fore me, could not have been more as
tonished. The days of 1857 seemed to
again, his eyes were bright and his cheeks
rosy,
as sinewy and clear and his wit as incisive
as they were when he made nothing of
riding Blackstone to Harlem and back
or driving the Kentucky bays from
GramerCy Park TO GreystOne. He took
me all over the new house, pointing out
the various changes, explaining his general
design, and discussing architecture aud
architects with characteristic intelligence.
he quite tired me out, favorite way he
has of Furnishing his friends, climbing
long stairs, meandering through labyrinths
of decorative art and threading the tapes
tried and frescoed masses OF corridor and
chamber. On current affairs he talked
with his usual pungency and candor
When endurance had
Ceased TO be n Virtue.
I said, Governor, don't you think we
have had enough of this?" He smiled and
in his dry, Multiplying, halfsarcastic way,
replied, IF you are tired we will 60 down
stairs" At Greystone his life is of the
simplest and busiest he has farm hard
by, and no end Of pigs, poultry and blood
ed stock. OF course had to be dragged
over this farm, and the devices which the
old gentleman put slyiy forth to trap me
into some unguardpd treason to the butter
and eggs of my blue grass cOuntry were
many and ingenious. | stood my ground
like a hero but il must be owned that
the Governors farming is like everything
he undertakes,
Thoroughly Well Done.
I asked him whether he tried to make any
| money out OF it. "Oh, no. he said ''it is
easier made some other way" While |
was at Greystone not so much as the
shadow or the ghost of politician crossed
the Threshold or appeared upon the
| ground. Surrounded by his nieces and
! his books, the old statesman and philoso-
| pher was as unreseryed in his conversation
| as he was and always is, simple and cor
| dial in his hospitality. One of the young
| ladies told me that the little household
| had got through over two hundred vol
| Umes the last winter. The Governor is a
yOraCious and versatile reader, no less so
| than an attentive and
wise Observer of Affairs,
| and we talked OF everything from Thomas
| A. kempis to Thomas A. Hendricks. lie
! playfully observed that the chief objec ton
/ he had heard to the election Of Mr.. Carlisle
| to the Speakership was that in some re-
| cent volumes published by one Mr. rrouue,
! there was a suspicion that he had mis-
treated his wife. Here i must stop. |
knew that the public is most curious to
learn what are Mr.. Tlden's views OF politi-
cal affairs current and prospective. l have
/ little doubt that if had the right to speak
| could. by faithfully reporting him, make
myself at once entertaining and instruc-
| tive, but the
Opinions OF Every Man
are his own and his house is sacred. l
| never knew a man more entirely frank in
| his intercourse. with his friends than this
sage OF Greystone, but am not his mouth
piece and it is not for me to come all the
way from Kentucky to New York to do
| that which he is 50 much better able to do
| for himself lean say however, for myself,
that nothing passed which leads nae to
modify the opinion l have so often ex-
| presSed-tEat no power on earth could IN
| duce him TO accept the Presidency"
| Signed. IL. W.