Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-11-26
A SKETCH OF MIR. E. w. HALFORD.
The Life and Training of Gen. Harri.
sons New Private Secretary.

/ Indianapolis Special to the New York Tribune
Elijah W. Halford, who has been appointed
private secretary by President-elect Harrison.
is man in every way qualified by training. as
ISOLATION and bent Of mind to fill the place soon
to be vacated by Daniel Lamont. 1t has almost
passed into proverb, during the incumbency
| of the discreet and interchangeable colonel that
little man makes the best private secretary.
So far as stature goes the coming man is very
nearly counterpart of the retiring presiden-
tial Fidus Achates. There is the same restless
activity which marks the born managing editor.
Although the faces differ. the rival secretaries
might sustain the conception of s.Tbe Two
Dromlos, with credit to the city of Albany
and distinction to the city of Indianapolis. II
Is an open secret that Col. Lamont's fine knowl-
edge or men and measures. his intimate nc
quaintance with state and national nolitics and
his almost feminine ability in dissecting human
character and motives, have steered the nm
wleldy and stubborn President through many
breakers, and kept him from dashing his head
against many rocks. He is the first man who
has elevated the presidential private secretary
snip TO the dignity of power, power almost
equal 10, II not IN certain instances higher than,
that OF cabinet minister. President Cleveland
might have survived without cabinet. He
Lamont.
An easier task than that which fell TO the lot
OF the clever little New Yorker awaits, no
douDt, the executor of the Indianapolis Journal
ueh. harrison Is cool man, of clear and WELL
formed convictions. He possesses quite as
much backbone as the retiring head of the ma
tlon. but he carries better judgment whereby
to keep it in place. He is a man of more in
tultve refinement, and will attract rather than
rePeI the men OF his party whose counsel is
valuable and whose friendship is a precious
gift, to be desired and cherished He will hold
TO no dogma which has been proved to his logi-
cal understanding to be fallacious He will
prove all things, and hold fast to that which is
good: II VIII be his private secretarys pleas
ing duty to act adjutant- general, and to
carry out the orders of his well-bal-
aneed chief. To do so with Judgment,
with trained ability, and with faithfulness,
no man in the United States is better qualified
than Mr. Halford. Brought up from boyhood
in a newspaper office, and that Office in In
annapolis, Mr. Halford has been trained to
rapldlty and exactness of action and to thor
oughness and finish in execution He has ex-
hloited during his newspaper career a genius
for poiltlcs. In every branch of newspaper
work he has displayed remarkable powers of
assimilation and adaptability
When, shortly after the great Chicago fire,
Mr.. Jonathan Y. Scammon made the dry bones
OF the moribund Republican of that city
live, and named it The Inter- Ocean MIR. f.. w.
Halford was the man chosen to be its editor.
10 be picked out from among many hundreds
OF bright young journalists by a man of Mr.
Scammond's profound learning and unerring
Judgment was high compliment, and Mr.. Hal
1ord showed himself IN every way worthy of
the trust. Under his able management. the
paper gained its feet. The time was not vet
1lpe for an organ of the tone assumed by The
hs'er- Ocean, but Mr.. Halford made its wav
straight. 1t was not then, and never has been
until recently, financial success. but it was in
many respects a better paper during Mr.. Hal
ford's administration than it has ever been
since. Mr.. Haiford returned to his old posi-