Ellsworth American., 1883-08-02
Phil Sheridan.
THE MAN WHO Is TO BECOME GENERAL or
THE ARMY.
Ms HONE LIFE And PERSONAL HABITS.


When asked what State he halls from. the
man IN search Of information concerning the
birthplace of General Phil II. Sheridan, i,
very liable To be mIsIutormed unless he
searches the records. 1t is little singular
that the man who Is about to become the
head OF the army has been claimed by two
States Massachusetts and Ohio-while Ire
land put IN her title when his star began 10
dazzle. Two American authors give him
10 Massachusetts.
The gentleman himself never bothered
about the mistake. There is good old
mother ~ Years of age, down in Perry,
Somerset county, Ono, who is occupying
the same house to-day that She did when
her boy, Phil came into life She i, a
modest mother. Into the light which her
son fame has created she has never intrud-
ed. From the dem onstratons that have
clustered about him she has stood alnnf
about its hearihstone once year the man
who charmed old King William is to be
seen chatting TO bis mother. Nothing deiers
him from these annual pilgrlmages, where
he sees the cradle in which he was rocked.
The father il asleep out IN the field beyond
the oldest son and sister are near by. John
l.. is a LAWYER by profession and cattle
trader in the Indian Territory. Philip Is -
year, old, and is soon to step into the shoes
of William Tecumseh Sherman Michael
is Lieutenant Colonel on the staff and prl-
yate secretary.
The average blographer's weakness is
the bo,hood Of his hero in detail. Not so
With the writer's Of the life of Gen. Sherl-
dan. This failure has not annoyed the man
who has lived at 2,0o7 Michigan avenue, in
h. liz. IL sim
ple in its exterior. The furnishings are
plain. One would know as he wanders
about il that lis master had been a soldier at
some time. The pictures on the wall, the
sta,uar,. the books in the library, indicate
the character Of the man. There is one
room that i filled with helmets, bonnets.
swords. spears. shell, and the various I'M
plenlents OF war used by civilized and saw
age nations. He has gathered storehouse
of these. And when he saunters about
them. or when he looks at his pictures or
hi, books, the twins toddle after him, get
tangled in his feet. and tug at the tail OF has
coat until he picks them up, one IN each
arm, and goes rollicking about the lawn
with them, if 1t is as bright IN the sky as 1t
is under his own roof. Two others, boy
and girl, the first Phil Sheridan, Jr., come
in for recognition, and get il. II doesn't
take an, fathoming to discern that the wife
! and mother Of this home IS just the happiest
in Chicago. Thi. is all the more pleasant
to think about when one IS reminded that
4 she is not much more than half way up 10 him
| in wears
| They all sit down to the table together,
when nobodv's there to intrude. Those
twins get served first. They get helped as
often as the platter holds out. They kno"
there is a ride for them, and they know that
no circus can ever come and get away with
out their presence, guarded by the same
man who attracted the eve Of Grant at Mis-
sionary Ridge. They have their little par
ties and their little entertainments. They
shout and roll about and play, and some
times 90 to the maiinees. The General
plays euchre with his guests-the only game
he does play-and these cherubs never dis
turb him, though they may crawl between
his legs and steal his cards.
ii don't know what he wants with car
rage for himself" said one Of his friends
"he never gets into 1t when he can help 1t
If the dav is fine he likes to walk dowr
town and if ii isn't, he had rather come IL
horse car" BY the way it is little curl
Gus that a man who is so fond OF horse
flesh as he, and who is so superb wher
mounted, should never be found in the sad
die any more. When his last war horse
Winchester" died few years ago, his low
for the possession of that sort of flesh wen
out with him.
. One who knows him well vouches for tn
truth of the story, that the first time Phi
Sheridan was ever on horse was when Bill
Seymour, a boy in Perry, Ohio, put him o.
/ q fiery animal, unsaddled. and unbridled
and told him to hold on with his knees
And he did, until the horse had galope
e about two miles across an open countr,
n | When the beast came to halt Phil wa
a still on his back. holding on with his knee
e 1t became the talk Of the country. Gossi
a was scarce in those days.