The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-08-18

treaty Whlcn was so unpopular nearly one hundred years ago; and after he came back to this country he was made governor of New York and was reelected. He then decided to retire to private life, and he declined the off, flee of chief justice, which was again offered to him. He was at this time only fifty-six years old, and he had for twenty-seven years served in every department of legislative, diplomatic and judicial trust.
 He had built house at Bedfoad, about forty-four miles from New York City, and he had here an estate of eight hundred acres, which had come to him by inheritance. To this he retired, and here he spent his last days. Seven hundred of these eight hundred acres are now in the hands of his grandchildren, and the old house is still filled with relics of John Jay. The house was altered somewhat in 1860, but it's old features were pre-. served, and it is practically the same as when the ex-chief justice occupied it. It has fine old elms lining the roads leading to 1t, and the dwelling is one hundred feet long, and it has hall eight feet wide running through it's center. It is of two stories and an attic, and it contains many large and comfortable rooms. In the library are John Jays table and chair which he used as chief justice on its mantel are his Spanish pistols, and on its walls hang engraved portraits and 8 painting of him by Gabriel Stuart.
 Here John Jay spent the last twenty five years of his life, and his method of living would form 8 good example to the old men of to-day. Like most of our old statesmen, Washington, Jefferson and John Adams, he was perfectly regular in his habits. He rose at dawn, and in order that he might get the first rays of the sun, hole in the form of a crescent was cut in the solid oaken shutter of his bedroom. As soon as the rays touched his eyes he awoke. He had prayers before breakfast, and he spent most of the day in attending to his farm. He was very fond of an- imals, and during the busiest days of his diplomatic missions abroad he had time to write to his family in regard to his old sorrel mare, as follows:
 "If my old mare is alive, I must beg of you and my brother to take good care of her. l mean she should
 be well fed and left idle, unless my brother Peter should chose to use her
 If it should be necessary to advance money to recover her, am con-
 tent that you should do it, even to the amount of double her value."
 John Jay took his dinner at half-
 past one, and was wont to smoke
 a pipe or two of tobacco after it. He
 was fond of long clay pipe, and he
 had his pipes imported from England
 He devoted great part of his last
 days to literary and scientific investi-
 gations. He was good writer, and
 wrote several of the Federalist papers
 He died on the 17th of May, 1929
 and, according to his own desire, hi
 funeral was as simple as possible. HaG
 cremation been then in fashion h,
 would probably have been cremated
 He would not have himself deposited { in the family vault, and he said h, considered it heathenish to try to keel { the relics of mortality from that dis solution which God has intended fol them. He judged that $20O would b, 3 saved by the simplicity of his funeral
 and shortly before he died he had thi
 amount of silver money counted ou , before him, and directed that it should : be given to some poor and worth, t widow of the neighborhood. This hi ) children did after his death.
 There was much more dignity abou 8 the supreme court in the days o f Washington than there is now. Chic Justice Jay wore black gown witt t scarlet facings, and William Gushing g the man W who was appointed his sue 8 cessor, never appeared without wig He was chief justice of the superio F court of Massachusetts before he wa g made associate justice of the Unite, 7 States, and Flanders, to whom I an t much indebted in this article," tells 1 story of the sensation which his wi, l created when he came to New York l. [ take his seat on the supreme bench. I l was in February, 179O, and it seem , that wigs were not then common among the New York judges. Whel Gushing appeared on Broadway, h B noticed that hundred boys followe' him as though he was the prize ele
 phant of a circus procession. Tn boys did not cry at him, but thei I number was augmented at every step B Judge Cushing was at loss to knov l the reason of their attention, when . sailor who passed by looked at hin 3 and involuntarily exclaimed:
 3 "My eyesl What wigl"
 This disgusted the new suprem !, court judge, and he went to barbe
 and had his hair arranged in the ordi 3 nary style of the day.