St. Paul daily globe., 1889-06-30

"reminiscences The death OF zen.
SIMON CAMERON has
of Simon recalled to my mind
some "reminiscences of
Cameron. his life as they were
related to me by the
veteran politician himself during a
pleasant interview l had with him
several years ago. In the summer of
1877 was an invalid at the Greenbrier
White Sulphur springs. which was one
of Gen. CAMERON's favOrite summer
resorts. One day we sat together on
the piazza in front of his cottage; and, as
he seemed to in an unusually chatty
mood, I derived immense pleasure
from listening to his recital of Incl
dents that belonged to a past history.
He told me of his harsh experiences
when working as printer boy, and his
earnings did not average 81 week.
His father was a tailor, who travelled
around the neighborhood from house
to house, cutting out clothes that
were made up with the assistance
of his patrons families. He had
great reverence for the memory
of his mother. whom he de-
scribed as patient, hard-wOrking
woman, of lovely disposition, who had
to be fertile in resource in order to pro-
vide for the wants of the humble home.
He bought his first school book with
eggs that his mother had saved for the
purpose, and when he took them tothe
store to be exchanged for the spelling
book he found that the price of eggs
had fallen, and he was dozen short of
enough to pay for the coveted spe1ler.
II took good cry over It," said the
general, "but the kind-hearted store
keeper cheered me up by telling me
that he would trust me for the balance;
so I got the book and went home hap
py lad" He was left an orphan at ten
years of age, and at seventeen was APP
prenticed to the printers trade. He.
afterwards got ia job in the public print
ing Office at Washington at So per week,
and worked from o'clock in the morn
ing until 8 o'clock at night. That was
in 1921, and up to that time his accumu-
lations amounted to just 500. He
worked at his case two or three
hours every night by candle light,
for which he got extra pay.
In two years he had laid by
enough to buy an interest in weekly
paper at Harrisburg, and made it red
hot ANDREW JACKSON organ. Gen.
CAMERON had great admiration for Old
Hickory, and was one of his staunchest
partisans. When LAFAYETTE visited
America, in 1924. Gen. CAMERON went
down to Philadelphia as one of the Har-
risburg representatives, to participate
in the reception to the distinguished
Frenchman. 'TThat was the first time
l ever tasted champagne" remarked
the general, with smile on his face
and significant smack of the lips, as
he recalled the incident. eve didn't
know what the stuff was. / thought it
was some new-fangled cider, and pulled
away at it in regular old-fashioned
Pennsylvania style. I wondered, too,
why everybody got so tipsy on it,
ANDREW JACKSON gave Gen. CAMERON
his first start in politics by making him
the leader of his forces in the Balti-
more convention of 1928. JACKSON was
sure of the nomination himself, but
he wanted to keep JOHN C. CALHOUN
off of the ticket as candidate for vice
president. 1t was CAMERoN's genius
for political engineering that secured
that time forth he held the leadership
in Pennsylvania politics. SIMON CAM
ERoN and JAMES BUCHANAN were
staunch friends. He secured BUCHAN-
ANS election to the senate. and then
succeeded him when BUCHANAN went
into PoLK's cabinet. Gen. CAMERON
was always an anti-slavery man. and
went over to the Republican party in
1856, when Fremont was nominated.
The rest is history.
During our conversation asked him
question in relation to his speeches in
the senate ON a certain question. ''My
speeches." he replied, with tone of
surprise; why, bless your soul. my
young friend. never made speech in
my life. I had to talk sometimes about
matters in the senate; but in all the
ponderons volumes Of the Congressional
Globe you cannot find anything from
me worthy the title of speech. l was
satisfied to let the other fellows talk. l
always had my hands full of work, and
l think my work was, usually as effect
i've in the end as some of these big
speeches which are sounding down the
ages" There was look of mex
pressible satisfaction on the face
of the veteran politician as he
spoke these words. Whatever 9th
ers might think of his public career,