The Dickinson press., 1888-06-30
PRENTICE AND TRAIN.
INTERVIEW BETWEEN THE AGlTA-
TOR AND THE FAMOUS EDITOR.

INTERVIEW BETWEEN THE AGiTA-
TOR AND THE FAMOUS EDITOR.
Zen Portraits of Two Noted Mcn-Prcn-
tice i'll Everyday Working Dress and
Train i'll n Dandy Suit-Dictatins to an
Amanuensis.
One afternoon about twenty-five or three
years ago, Il debonaire young gentleman
walked into the editorial rooms of tho old
Louisville Journal and asked to see Mr.. Prem
ticc. He was clad in Il handsome blue broad
cloth coat of the swallow tail style, with
smooth and glittering brass buttons. His
trousers were of black doeskin, his shoes
Shiny, patent leather, his vest of Some heavy
buff material over which his coat was but
toned so that it double in front, showing an
inch or W below the front of the coat; and in
his hand he carried u rich looking soft hat.
His hair was black, wavY and plentiful, and
his uppcrl lip was covered with a luXuriant and
well kept mustachc. Altogether there was
an afr OF elegant negligence about him. Tho
man was over the medium height and build,
and presented a card which bore the words
George Francis Train. Civis Americans
Sum-"
Being then Mr.. Prcntice's amanuensis and
private secretary, l presented Mr.. Train to
the immortal George d., wit, poet and cd
itor. Train seemed to be q little staggered.
| presume he expected to SEQ Il large, impos-
ing and severe man, and he beheld "a lean
and slippered pantaloon." Mr.. Prentice was
peculiarly q slouchy man then in his dress,
and altogether careless of his personal APP
-o1c,,- la.l r H.. - NJ
been 'dressy." His hair, which had once
been jet black, fell on his shoulders and even
about his checks, we'll mixed with gray, and
his Whitening beard, which was also very
long, and which covered nearly all of his
face except the nose, eyes and forehead, was
tied as close up as possible with n cotton
twinc, and his ears were stuffed with cotton.
Tobacco juice stained his vest, and hc had u
and of wiping them on his panta-
black frock coat and replaced it with
a brown, somewhat ragged and alto
getlier disrcputable looking old yarn
pea jacket, or what was commonly called in
Kentucky a "warmus." On the table near
him stood his hat. This was a SLOUGH with a
tall crown, and it answered the place of
pockets in his clothes, which sort of reccpta-
cles he never used. He carried in his hat
everything that other men carry in their
pockets, and more too. Being unable to
writo more than q word or two at II time
with his own hand, he would, with both of
his trembling, writer's palsy stricken hands,
make out to scratch memoranda of such
things as he desired to consider upon the
margins of newspapers, and these little bits
he would throw into his bat for future refer
encc. He usually had the old felt about half
full of them. He also carried his pocket
knife, pencils, scissors, keys, ETC., in the hat,
and | ave often seen him, absent mindedly,
drop a well masticated quid of tobacco into
it instead of throwing tho "old soldier'
away.
This was the famous editor, tho author Of
"The Life of Henry Clay" the champion
and bosom friend of "Prinee Harry Of tho
West" during the lattcr's glorious and bril-
liant career rs Il statesman, the writer Of
"Tho Closing Year" and other grand poems;
the man whose keen wit, carstic sarcasm,
%eloquence and tersc dramatic force drove
giants before him with his pen. Yet his
CULVER was filled with arrows of all sizes,
from the Quill of tho eagle to that of the
humming bird, and he could indite n fierce
philippe i'll prose, or tune. his sentences to a
sweet and tender song of sympathy or love
in poetry.
Train exhibited his astonshment for an in
slant, unobserved by MI. Prentice, however,
and at once the two fell into earnest CONVEX
sation. Train was in Louisville with Anna
Dickinson, Susan B. Anthony and a number
of other leading woman's rights women, and
was assisting i'll their suffrage crusade. After
u pleasant stay Of n half hour or so, Train
withdrew and Prentice proceeded to dictate
a pen picture of his late visitor.
For many years Mr.. Prentice had been
forced to write by an amanuensis, being, as
before intimatcd, a sufferer from ~scrivener's
cramp, or writer's palsy, known in surgery
as chorea scriptorum. Ho would walk the
floor in u slip shod way, with his hands
claspcd behind him, and in n somewhat pip
ing voice, with a nasal twang, being also
afflicted with catarrh, he would dictate to his
amanuensis, punctuating the matter as ho
Went. He always began his articles with
what is Known in Typography as a "dst'-a
little cut of the hand with the index finger
pointing, and thus his pen picture of George
Francis Train was like this:
"(Fist ~ A locomotive that has run Off
the track Comma, turned upside down
(comma) with tho cowcatcher buried in a
stump and the wheels making a thousand
revolutions q minute full stop A kite in
tho air that has lost its tail (dash) a
human novel without a hero (uash) a
man who climbs n tree for a birds
nest (comma) out on n limb (comma)
and in order to get it saws the limb
of between himself and the tree full
stop A ship without a rudder (dash)
a clock without hands NasN an arrow
shot into the air dash a sermon that is all
text DASH q pantonimc of words (dash) tine
apotheosis of talk (comma) the incarnation
of CAB full stop Handsome tcomma) viva
cious (comma) muscular comma) as neat as
cat (comma) a judge Of the effect of clothes
(comma) frugal i'll food and regular only in
habits full stop A monday mystery dash
a solved conundrum dash a cipher hunting
for a figure to pass for something semi
COLON with tho brains of twenty men i'll his
head comma) all pulling in different direc-
tons (semi-colon) not bad as to heart (comna)
but a man who has shaken hands with rever-
ence full stop This is George Francis Train
full stop"
Thus did Mr.. Prentice draw q picture Of
the restless agitator which photographs him
inside and out, even to-day.-Win Visscher.
What! The United States:
The name of our country ought to be the