Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-09-14
PRENTICE AND TRAIN.
INTERVIEW BETWEEN THE AGlTA-
TOR AND THE FAMOUS EDITOR.


Pen Portraits of Two Noted DIen-Pren-
tice in Everyday Working Dress and
Train in a Dandy Suit-Dictating to an
Amanuensis.
One afternoon about twenty-five or three
years ago, debonaire young gentleman
walked into the editorial rooms of the old
Louisville Journal and asked to see Mr.. Prem
tice He was clad in 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 doubled in front, showing an
inch or two below the front of the coat; and in
his band he carried rich looking soft hat
His hair was black, wavy and plentiful, and
supper lip was covered with luxuriant and
well kept mustache. Altogether there was
an air of elegant negligence about him. The
man was over the medium height and build,
and presented card which bore the words
"(ieorge Francis Train Civis Americans
Sum"
Being then Mr.. Prentice's amanuensis and
private secretary, presented MIR. Train to
| the immortal George D., wit, poet and ed
| itor. Train seemed to be little staggered
| | presume he expected to see large, impos-
| ing and severe man, and he beheld "a lean
| and slippered pantaloon." MIR. Prentice was
| peculiarly slouchy man then in his dress,
and altogether careless Of his personal ap-
pearance. Indeed, | believe he never had
been "dressy" His hair, which had once
been let black, fell on his shoulders and even
about his cheeks, well 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 a cotton
Irvine, and his ears were stuffed with cotton
Tobacco juice stained his vest, and he had
habit of using his fingers for paste brush
and Of wiping them on his panta-
looms He had taken off his long,
black frock coat and replaced it with
brown, somewhat ragged and alto
gether disreputabie looking old yarn
pea jacket, or what was commonly called in
Kentucky "warmus" On the table near
him stood his hat. This was SLOUGH with a
tall crown, and it answered the place Of
pockets in his clothes, which sort of recepta-
cles he never used He carried in his hat
everything that other men carry in their
pockets, and more too. Being unable to
write more than a word or two at a time
with his own hand, he would, with both of
his trembling, writers 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 hat for future refer
ence. He usually had the old felt about halt
full of them He also carried his pocket
knife, pencils scissors, keys, etc, in the hat,
and have often seen him, absent mindedly,
drop well masticated quid of tobacco into
it instead of throwing the "old soldier
away.
This was the famous editor, the author Of
1.-THE Life of Henry Clay" the champion
and bosom friend of "Prinee Harry of tbs
Vest during the latter's glorious and bril-
liant career as a statesman, the writer o.
THE Closing Year" and other grand poems
the man whose keen wit, caustic sarcasm
, eloauence and terse dramatic force drovl
| giants before him with his pen. Yet hi
culver was filed with arrows of all sizes
from the quill of the eagle to that of tn
, humming bird, and he could indite ferc
, philippe in prose, or tune his sentences to
sweet and tender song OF sympathy or Low
, in poetry.
, Train exhibited his establishment for an in
, slant, unobserved by Mr. Prentice, however
r and at once the two fell into earnest CONVEX
sation. Train was in Louisville with Ann
, Dickinson, Susan B. Anthony and a humble
, of other leading woman's rights women, an
10 sta
pleasant stay of half hour or so, Trai
3 withdrew and Prentice proceeded to dictat
pen picture of his late visitor.
, For many wears Mr. Prentice had bee
} forced to write by an amanuensis, being, q
r before intimated, a sufferer from scrivener
: cramp, or writer's palsy, known in surger
as chorea scriptorum. He would walk th
floor in slip shod way, with his hand
clasped behind him, and in a somewhat piI
:, ing voice. with a nasal twang, being ais
afflicted with catarrh he would dictate to b
amanuensis, punctuating the matter as
:, went. He always began his articles wit
what is known in Typography as fist
. little cut of the hand with the index ingt
n pointing, and thus his pen picture of Georg
Francis Train was like this:
"Fisn - A locomotive that has run o
the track lcommal turned upside dow
comma with the cowcatcher buried in
" stump and the wheels making a thousaI
J. revolutions minute full stop A kite
the air that has lost its tail dash
r. human novel without hero dash
man who climbs a tree for bird
u nest comma out on a limb comm
TT and in order to get it saws the lin
" off between himself and the tree 1T
stop ship without a rudder (das
q clock without hands dash an AFRO
shot into the air dash sermon that is E
text dash a pantomime of words tdash) t
apotheosis of talk comma the incarnatit
of CAB full stop Handsome comma viz
cious comma muscular tcommal as neat
a cat (commal judge of the effect of cloth
(comma) frugal in food and regular only
\ habits full stop A monday mystery tdas
a solved conundrum dash cipher huntil
( for figure to pass for something tsen
colon with the brains Of twenty men in
head tcommal all pulling in different dirt
lions tsemi-colon, not bad as to heart comm
T but man who has shaken hands with rev,
ence full stop This is George Francis Ira
: full stop"
Il Thus did Mr. Prentice draw picture
& the restless agitator which photographs h
u inside and out, even to-day.-Will Vissche