Omaha daily bee., 1889-07-08


years. This fad Is tho collection OF scraps
and so deep seated has this fad become in
him that IL is almost a mania to-day. Mr.
| Wight receives do y. in his office forty or
| fifty newspapers, aud not one ever goes out
| before the scissors have clipped out its best
| features. MIR. Wights scraps are systemati-
cally arranged into chapters and sub
| jects, and although he must have
| at a low estimate two or three million stored
| away in his house, he can get any one when
| needed and at q moments notice, and can
| tell at glance whether or not he has a
| biographical sketch of any man about whom
| IL may be necessary TO write MIR. Wight Is
a quiet, unobtrusve man, but he has n
| library of information under his roof which
! Is perhaps unequnllcd IN Its scope by any
similar collection in the world, He first
commenced while practicing law in Chicago
scrap library was entirely destroyed, but
when he came TO Washington he started
over again, and for nearly twenty years has
been adding daily TO the vast horde which Is
almost Invaluable TO him at this time
Recently Mr.. William Il. Curtis, the welt
known author and correspondent of tho
Chicago Daily News, returned from trip TO
Venezuela, where he had been the guest OF
the president of that republic. Upon his re-
turn from that republic Curtis found note
awaiting HIM from Generul A. w. Greely, in
which the general npologized for not having
aCkuOWltuHeu inc TcCBlpU Oh certain DOCKS
nine years ago General Greely said in his
letter that tie books referred to, which
were a set of Appleton's encyclopedias, had
afforded the men of Point Barrow expedition
great deal of amusement as well as in
struction. He knew, he went on, that they
ought to have returned tho BOOKS but un-
fortunately, owing to the manner in which
the party came back, IL was found absolutely
necessary to abandon eveaything of this
kind, and while the volumes were cashiered
somewhere in the vicinity of the North Pole
if they are ever secured tho general prom
ises that thoy shall be returned to Mr. Cur
ts.
Mr.. Curtis replied to this in letter which
is quite interesting. He said that the books
had been loaned, he knew, but he had only
stipulated that they should be given back to
him because he should like to have them as
mementoes of that trip II they should ever
come back to this country. Then he told the
general how he came i'll possession of du-
plicate set of encyclopedias.
He said some years ago Frank Burr.
newspaper man who made an uuenyinble
reputation by writing bogus memoirs of
Generals Grant and Sheridan, and paiming
them off on the general public as the genuine
articles, had borrowed some money from
him, and when he found that he could bor-
row no more, had put up very handsomely
bound set of Appleton's encyclopedias as
collateral, promising to redeem them with in
year. Mr. Curtis had waited year,
and then had taken them to his
flee: When Captain Howgate asked for
books he sent off the old set with the stipu.
lation above mentioned. Subsequently,, de-
string to have some volumes of the annual
encyclopedia bound in the same style rs the
Burr set, he had been informed by the agent
that the company had been looking for that
set for some time; that 1t had been especial
ly prepared and bound for Mr.. Burr at great
expense, and had never been paid for.
~
IN OF NJ lie oil i,
teresting story of that admirable foundry,
which is of interest at the present time be-
cause it shows how the present naval attache
OF the United States in London was taken
down peg. This attacho is Commander
McCalla, who has a gallant record as an
officer of the marine corps.
Along about 1874 or 1875, somewhere IN that
neighborho0d he was the acting commaudant
of the academy at Annapolis, ana he was
very strict not only in his discipline but in
his demands upon the young men in his care
in the matter of the use of language He
utterly tabooed the word "pants," and when
ever young MILDLY made out requistion
for pair of trousers and called them pants
his requisition was sure to be refused
On one Sunday morning during inspection,
Cadet Slidell Rogers was singled out by the
acting commandant because of the delapida-
tion which was apparent in his neither gar
ments, He explained that he had a very
slim amount due him, and that requisiton
day would not come around again for several |
Nech5. I1e was 10 SeCure II puT OF
trousers, and do it at once. Under the rules |
he had two weeks IN which to comply with |
this demand The next day he made out spe- |
cial requsition for. lone pair of pants" |
Twenty-fouI hours later the requsition was |
returned to him marked "refused." Ho |
knew well the reason, but didn't propose |
to admit that trousers were not pants He I
made another requsition tho following day,
and again it was returned marked ''refused." |
Without saying word the cadet put the i
papers away in his pocket, ana on tho next
inspection day was severely rep
rimanded for failing to obey