The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-05-02

then, subsequently, one of Horace
friends" but Tom Acton, then president of our
metropolitan police, now chief of the assay Office
in this city, was closer. Acton took Greeley to
his pleasant farm in Connecticut, where, by
careful nursing, sedulously avoiding politics
and all exciting TOPICS with a comfortable room,
well kept, and plenty to eat and drink, he
brought back to their original status the nerves
and muscles, which, when in healthful condition,
combined to make one of the great men Of the
century.
Meantime the intimacy with johnson grew and
grew, although keen-eyed observers regarded
the utilization as one of a class, for there never
was a man who had more hangersOn than
Horace Greeley, and, in later years, when the
Tribunes course attracted the sorrowful notice
of its best friends, johnson stood close and firm
by his side. You remember, of course, Mr.,
Greeley's resignation was temporary affair, III
case of defeat. Had he been elected President
he wouldn't have resumed his position as
editor-in- chief Of the Tribune. AS it was, a
different class succeeded him, headed by the
present editor, Mr.. Whiteaw Reid who, while
politically and pecuniarily ambitious was, and
always has been, an utand-out partisan,
with no faint of concealment or shadow
of deceit so far as his political course and writ
ing are concerned Greeleys struggles and
work in that Campaign will never be forgotten.
The task before him was tremendous. 1t was
as though tender child had endeavored to push
an enormous load uphill. He was sensitive to
criticism and took to heart every unkind ana
ungenerous word said by his old-tme friends,
and having at no time restful home, where
real domesticity gave him what his used-up
nature demanded and needed, he sought such aid
and help as outside association could furnish. L
remember he passed some time during the cam
paign in the house of friend in Brooklyn. At
times he went into the country, at others he went
to Mr. Johnson's. Now it makes no differ
ence how intimate you are with this, that, or
the other person, there is no place like home for
a tired head and weary body. A man wants
his own room, his own bed his own pillows, his
own bath, his own night shirt, his own every
thing, when he is utterly exhausted with mental
or physical labor. These things Horace Greeley
never had. dare say there will be some people
who will pop up and say he had good home, af-
fectionate children, and all that. l don't intend
to be drawn into any arguments simply make
Statements bold assertion. All who knew
Horace Greeley well will know he never had in
his lifetime that grand domestic rest which
man of his peculiarly nervous temperament alb
solutely demanded.
AS time rolled on it became perfectly clear to
the entire country that Greeley would be de-
feated He was plunged into despondency so
deep that no man can estimate it; but, with all
that certainty of disaster before him, there was
glimmer of hope which made him think that per
haps and possibly there would come the unex
pected, which, as we know, often happens. 1t
didn't happen this occasion, and his defeat
was one of the tremendous developments which
seem, like an ocean tide, now and then to roll
over this country from Maine to Georgia, and
came the reaction. If ever poor tired head
needed a soft and dOwny pillow, his did. If ever
an exhausted and worn physique needed the
calm seclusion of an affectionate home and the
tender care of those who loved him, his did.
What did he getl He was Hospitality welcomed
in the house of Mr. Alvin johnson, and there he
went for the rest and calm his body needed.
Without presuming to follow the thread of mo
tive which has been suggested by some of Mr..
Greeley's friends without intending by word or
hint to traverse the good intention of Mr.. John
son, Mr. Reid, Mr.. Sinclair, Mr.. Anybody whose
pecuniary interest perhaps was better served
with Mr. Greeley out OF the way than with him
back in the Tribune am confronted by this
one fact, that instead of the gentle, loving,
affectionate treatment given him by Mr.. Acton,
Mr.. Greeley's condition judged by Mr..
johnson and his friends to be such as to de-
mand the treatment of lunatic asylum.
We all know what that is. We all know
what "seclusion' means. We all know what
precautions" signify. Every sensitive heart
can take in, with the aid of imagination, the ex
perience of terror of helplessness. of apprehen-
sion that this man suffered in common with all
others 50 confined. Men of experience thought
he was in no condition to attend to the Tribunes
affairs and that there was no need of him. The
same hand. now resting firmly upon its rudder
guided it then One day, it is said, when Mr.
Greeley's "eccentricties' had developed in rather
extreme fashion, his hat was put upon his head,
and his outer clothing given him, and he was
told that 1T was necessary for him to go else
old man. who, in spite of his worldly wisdom in
certain directions big a baby as ever
WAS born, regarded his informant. The man
who told me subsequently said it was positively
pitiful to see the child-like tenacity with which
Greeley chung to .>e railing and beseeched his
friends not to take him away but to let him stay
whore he was. Don't send me away, Alvy
please don't Alvy; please let me stay; won't you
Alvyl" he repeated. But, to make long story
short, he was bundled into the carriage, and off
he went
L feel and always have felt peculiar interest
in this, because of great wrong that was at
tempted upon me at that time. knew perfectly
well, no matter how, that Mr.. Greeley had been
taken from Johnson's house and was confined in
lunatic asylum That fact l published
regarding it an outrage that a man
who was not so violent as to preclude
possibility of his being cared for at his
own expense and by his own friends and attend
ants, should be put in place where, as | con-
tend. no living person should be placed, until he
has gone below the line which separates man
hood from bestiality. One of my employees had
printed and placed upon the bulletin board in
front of my Office the startling announcement
that Horace Greeley was in a lunatic asylum or
madhouse You can imagine the excitement oc
casioned in Printing House Square. and that
evening the cheerful Mr.. Simonton, then mana
ger of the Associated Press, telegraphed all over
the country, upon authority, that the story
was only ''another of Joe Towards lies"
1 was annoyed beyond measure,
anu embarrassed Deyong description, LOT,
although 1 knew the fact to be pre-
cisely as had given it. had no right to disclose
my source of information. The fates were
kinder to me than poor Greeley, for inside of
forty-eight hours after Mr.. Simonton's glowing
d spatch, the country was in mourning and
obituary notices of the great departed filled the
columns Of every journal in the land. 1t was
believed then, and the belief is revived now that
had Horace Greeley been taken to a homo where
gentle, loving, tender and accustomed hands
might have administered to him, he could have
been brought out of his brain trouble, precisely
as he was brought out of similar trouble by his
a singular coincidence that should meet Eng
land and Johnsons coffin today for on the
day 1 made the announcement that
Greeley was in a madhouse met both Eng
land and johnson, neither of them, fortunately,
in a coffin, and England said to me as he lifted
his hands my God, this cannot be true. this