Omaha daily bee., 1889-07-14
General Brisbin's Recollections of
the Late Simon Cameron.
WHEN HE RAN A COUNTRY eANK.
The Farmers Preferred His Notes to-
Goid-How He helped Young
Men His Relations With
James Buchanan.
A Grand Old Man.

the present century began, for more
than fifty years he was a central figure
in American politics and his name was
as familiar to the American people as
that of Jackson, Clay, Calhoun, Web
ster and Benton who were his compeers.
l have known Simon Cameron all my
life and he was forty years old when L
was born. One of my earliest recol-
lections is that of seeing General Cam
eron come to Bsllefonte, where his
daughter, Mrs. Judge Burnsides, lived.
He was then president of the Middle
town bank and used to bring trunk
full of gold with him to exchange for
Middletown bank notes. He was very
shrewd and understood the nature of
our Peunsylvania-German farmers per-
fectly. They believed Cameron's Mid
dletown bank notes were just as good as
gold and preferred them to all other
money. This was when we had many
wildcat banks in the state and it was
something to have bank that was re-
liable. Every year Cameron came to
Bellefonte to see his daughter and
would then redeem as many Of the
boarded Middletown bank notes
as he could get the German farmers to
give up. They had stockings filed with
Middletown money and so it happened
that when the country was flooded with
bad money and shinplasters, as they
were called, which sold for twelve cents
on the dollar, the notes of one bank
were
AS GOOD AS GOLD,
made so by the honest name of one man
Simon Cameron. l printed a little
country paper then just across the street
from Judge Burnside's residence and
when up in Bellefonte on his annual
visit to his daughter, every morning
after he had eaten his breakfast, Cen
eral Cameron would come over to my
office and read the exchanges. 1 was
very poor ana the Office had not single
comfortable chair in 1t. Indeed there
were only two chairs of.any kind. re-
member borrowing from lawyers office
near by an arm chair so that the gen
| eral might be more comfortable while
reading, and that chait. was the best in
vestment [ ever made? 1t was a little
act of courtesy, but thegreat man no
ticcd it and spoke of it, Nor did he
ever forget it. II every inch of wood
in that chair had beem athundred dollar
"
returned me us much as Simon Cameron
| has since then.
OF course. was a Cameron man, and
anyone who knew the old gentleman as
| l did could not help, being Cameron
man. He was delightful to converse
| with, and so full of stories and interest
| ing "reminiscences of bygone days that
| | loved to sit and listen to him. Cen
| eral Jackson was his friend, and he
Il ALL, e.. N.l.-
| Clay, Calhoun, Benton and many other
| statesmen.
| One day, speaking of Calhoun, he
told me the following remarkable story.
| have related it before, but so long ago
| that most people who read it then must
| be dead, and it will not be stale now.
| General Cameron was not present at
the table when Calhoun told of his
dream, but he vouched for the correct
| ness of the narrative. He said:
CALHoUN'S STRANGE DREAM.
cit was during the notification days
when Calhoun was preaching disunion
and old Andy Jackson was vowing by
| the Eternal he would hang Calhoun
and his crowd of disatfected nullifiers
| if they did not stop. One morning
| table looking pale and worried, as
we'll he might, for those were hot
| days for him. He sat down
at table where several other gentle
men were eating, among them Toombs
| of Georgia, who was then quite a young
man. 1t was observed that Ca houn
| kept frequently rubbing his right haud
] and would brush the back of it with his
| left in II nervous and excited manner.
docs your hand pain you, Mr.. Cal
| houn?" asked Mr.. Toombs, in his most
| dignitied manner.
mo, SIR" replied Calhoun, seemingly
annoyed at the question and at the fact
| that he had attracted the attention of
| others by his strange actions. Then,
after few moments silence, he added:
"Pshaw! 1t was nothing but dream
| and | should not mind it,"
"Pray what did you dream, Mr.. Cal
houn?" inquired Toombs, with, Il show
of interest.
IL dreamt last night" said Mr.. Cal
houn, THAT had II large black spot on
| spot, black as ink, but OF course it was
| only an optical delusion in dream.
You see there is no spot there" and he
held out his hand for them to look
| at it,"
'But there is,n said one of his ac-
quaintances, jokingly. Instantly Cal
houn turned deadly pale and could get
| his breath with difficulty. After the
laugh which the remark had occasioned
had subsidized and the others had assured
HIM there was no spot'o1 his hand, he
became composed and said:
"How foolish to let such things annoy
us, but mine was certainly most singu-
| lar dream.". Jib.
"What was your dream like, may /
ask, said Toombs. II am not supersti
tiouS about dreams, but sometimes they
have a great deal of meaning in
them" il,
"Then you had better hear it, Toombs,
for you are in the ,Il
SAME BOAT NTH ME-"
said Calhoun, but he paused.
OF course the curiosity of the whole
company was by this time aroused, and
I they all begged Mrs Calhoun to relate
his dream to them. '2f
Again Mr.. Calhoun brushed the back
OF his right hand with his left, and
then said:
Last night was very tired, as had
been busy all day. / went to my room
late, but late as it was had some let
ters to write. One, a very important
| one to au old friend about this unfor-
tunate difference between South Caro-
lima and the president. So took off
my coat and fell to writing at once. l
suppose must have fallen asleep over