Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-09-23
HOW PROMINENT READ.
"reminiscences of Grant, Lincoln, Mcclellan
Mccullough and Charles Dickens.


the reporter. "Of course, you don't see it,
any more than an ordinary observer secs
character in the way men eat; but there
is nevertheless. have seen all the prom
inent men in the country read the papers
time and again, and not two in a thOus
and read alike. My attention was first
called to the subject several years ago
| by Horace Greeley, who was an ON
niverous reader of the papers. I have
! been a constant observer ever since.
| Horace was the queerest reader you ever
saw. He would begin at the first column
and read every line down to the adver
| tisements. According as he read he
would crumple the paper up in his hands.
| When he got through the paper would be
rolled up in a ball. After he left the
| hotel in the morning to go down town to
his Office all the papers would be strewn
around the floor like so many paper balls
1t used to amuse the guests of the house,
and was the occasion of many bottles of
wine. Some folks said it was affectation
like Mr.. Greely's great white coat; but I
never thought so. To me it indicated an
Inconsistencies, sturdy character which
| looked straight ahead for results, while
paying very little attention to details or
| circumstances.
''Oh, yes; General Grant also had his
! peculiarities. He usually read one paper
through and through. He would stop in
the middle of an editorial and reflect
Grant was a slow reader, but when he put
down a paper he could tell you all the
news and discuss question with great
discrimination. He used to say that one
paper was all he had time to read in
day. He would never feel satisfied glanc-
ing carelessly over several papers. He
said this practice of reading several pa
pers was responsible for a good deal
of the superficial thinking in vogue
nowadays. Whatever was worth read
ing, in his estimation, was worth digest
ing and remembering. People who knew
Grant will recollect what an exhaustive
memory he had for detail. He could re-
lat every circumstance connected with
any important event that occurred long
before the war. He use to say he
didn't remember all about the war, but
he knew more than any one else about
the great events in which he had per-
sonally figured. There is no doubt
whatever that General Grants pre-
2ominenant characteristic displayed it's
self in his minner of reading. He was
slow, patient and painstakidg in every
thing, but when he once arrived al con-
clusiOn there was no dislodging him.
"LincGln never cared for the news of
| the day-that is, he never cared to read
it. He usually had his private secretary
tell him what was in the papers. He
would read editorials, through, by the
hour. When he stopped at the hotel he
would read the editorials in every paper
the first thing in the morning, He used
to say mems views were all he cared
about. It made no difference about the
details of how thing happened. If he
knew the causes of it, and the bearing it
would have upon matters in general, that
was all he wanted to know.
General Mcclellan was just tn. oppo-
site. He cared more about the circum-
stances of a good story than the result.
If he knew that certain bill was passed
or defeated in congress he would read all
about its career, and then form his own
Judgment, Mcclellan, Of course, re-
spected the opinions of others, but he
always made it rule to be self-reliant
IN thought as we'll as in action. On a
certain occasion, few years before the
war, Mcclellan and Greeley were both
staying at the hotel. They
were fast friends. One even
ing the conversation turned upon
the slavery question, and Mr.. Greeley,
who was an ardent admires of Wendell
Phillips, called General McCIellan's at
tention to an attack made against his
character IN leading New York paper
It had grieved Horace so that he almost.
shed tears. Mcclellan burst into a
hearty laugh, and turning to Mr.. Greedy
rather p0intedly asked him if he hadn't
had experience enough to know that it
mattered little what any newspaper said
about a man. Horace was shocked at
unexpected remark, and couldn't be made
to believe that the General meant it.
"a. 7. Stewart was another man who
paid very little attention to the news Of
the day. He would read the market re-
ports eagerly, and that's about all. It
surprised MIR. Stewards friends that he
could so successfully carry on his mann
moth establishment without keeping in
formed of how the world was moving.
Mr.. Stewart told me one day that the
reading of newspapers proved distrac-
ton to him. If he had had no business,
he said nothing would please him more
than to read, but his mind was SO full of
dry goods that there was no room left for
murders, suicides and congressional de-
bates. Even to read a book, which to
the average man is a relaxation, would
be to him, he said, positively danger
ous."
"The friends of the lamsnted John
Mccullough used to wonder how he
could read so much. He was in the hab-
it of spending from three to five hours
daily porting over the papers. Once 1
heard him say that he felt lonesome when
he hadn't read daily paper from every
large city in the Union. He was a ran
dom reader, though, OF course he read
everything that the leading critics had to
say, but for the general news he would
glance over it, selecting Whist happened
| to strike his fancy at the time. never
knew better posted man on stage mat
tiers. He knew what was going on every
where, and could tell how given actor
or actress had been received
for years and years back. He
entertained the highest respect for news