, 1884-06-08
BL.AINE:'S OLD HOME.
A Visit TO the Spot Which Gave
Birth
To the Republican Party Nominee
for President.
Something About the Maine Mans
Family History.


man could doubt after being in it for an
hour, nor could it be Il sure thing that the
average lunatic could not be convinced
of this fact with small trouble. Blaine's
popularity here is due not so much to
what the people remember of him, as
what he remembers ofthcm. He was born
across the river in West Brownsville, and
lived there uEtil he began to be IA chunk
of a boy, ~ as | heard one of the old citiz-
ems express it to-day. Then he went to
Ohio, where he spent considerable time
among his relatives, the Ewings and the
Becchers, and when he came back it was
to 20 to college at Washington. He
graduated when not more than seventeen
years old, came home, and before he had
fairly gotten accustomed t. the looks of
his sheepskin went to Kentucky to teach.
When he boarded the boat that was to
take him to his Southern home, although
he didn't know it, he was putting an end
to his career as Il Pennsylvania. He
never came back as a resident.
STRANGER TO HIS BIRTHPLACE.
1t is easy to see how very little of his
life was spent at his birthplace. When
the years of his college existence and the
time of his Ohio visits are deducted from
his seventeen summers there is not a great
deal left, and the major portion Of that
time belongs to the period of collie, catnip
tea and measles. He has visited here but
seldom; twice certainly, three times per
haps, but not more than that. There is
just a possibility that in this lies the secret
Of Blainc's popularity in Washington
and Fayettc counties. A boy of II years
is not apt to have made many enemies
who would hold a grudge for four decades,
nor to have stirred up rivalry which would
persistently refuse to have its rufied plum
age smoothed. Everything was in his
favor. While here he was well-behaved;
he went away and made Il name. All of
his immediate family are gone and the
memories of them are of the kindliest ma
ture. His father was a man who spent
his money freely, fond of show and fonder
of being looked upon as being a great
man. To be sure he went through his
fortune, but others helped enjoy it and he
died without leaving behind him a legacy
OF debt, as many a man has done. More
than this, when Ephraim Blaine came
into his fortune he paid the debts of his
father before him, and to this day he is
held up as an example to boys who may
one day be Senators and Presidents.
Surely if the sins of the father are visited
upon the children, in this case the son is
rcaping the benefit of the fathers virtues.
BLAINE's WONDERFUL MEMORY.
But the greatest element of Blaine's
strength here is his recollections of his
early days. His power of holding names
and faces in his memory and his skill in
using them have passed into a proverb.
The great statesman has taken care that
the counties which he knew when a boy
should not slip from that storehOuse
where he keeps such a large portion of
his political capital. Il never met a man
who could ask as many questions or re
member as many things as Jim Blaine
said Mr.. j. r. Dutton to me this after
noon. Il was one of a halE-dozen friends
who escorted him down to the BOAT when
he left here to 60 to Kentucky to teach.
From that night | didn't see him again
until we met in the Monongahela House
a few years ago. He asked me about
men and things that | had forgotten
until he recalled them
Blaine, when a youth, liked to chase
the bushy-tailed fox over the hills, 50
plentiful in this region, and was fond of
the company Of Randolph Tcarle, the
best hunter of the valley. This Tearle was
a colorcd man. and, | calculate from sur
face indications, not exactly the proper
person for leader of a Sunday school, but,
for all that. a mighty hunter, with great
skill in woodcraft. That Blaine should
remember the sablc-faced leader of the at
tacks on willy Reynard, and should speak
of him as he has done, is referred to with
satisfaction by many of the staid citizens
who had personal rccollections of the said
Tcarle.
MEMESTOES OF I'll BLAINES.
If Brownsville and West Brownsville
are without Blaines and Gillespies, they
are well supplied with monuments to
them. Get a genuine old-timer for a
guide should you visit here, and he will
show you the old house where Captain
Blaine-frst of the name in Brownsville
"