Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1890-03-12
FROM PRENTICE MILFORD.



Especial Correspondence
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 25.--It was quite a
novelty for me to be interviewed, as I was
the other night in the office of the Occidental
hotel, by a small battalion of journalistic
gentlemen. did not know that l was OF
sufficient importance to be interviewed.
OF course, when potatoes are very scarce,
we think more of small one than when they
are plentiful. don't know what the report
ers got out of me- But the following is what
got out of them:
First Reporter-San Francisco must seem
much changed to you, Mr.. Mulfords
Myself have been told many times. 10!
these ten years, Of the great change in San
Francisco. 1t has not changed SO much as /
was led to expect. Anatomically the people
| here seem to me as they were years agone
| For the most part they have two legs and
two arms and presume that internally they
are constructed on the old ''49' pattern, and
that the workings OF their physical organiza-
| tons are on the same constitutional basis as
OF yore. l observe that the morning fog,
like the poor, is still with you, and that some
OF your whisky causes still that incisive,
| Jagged, not to say burning, sensation while
passing down the throat that it had in the
Argonautish classical period when it was
never less than two bits drink
First Reporter-What are your plans, Mr.
| Mulfordl
Myself have no plans. nssver had any
do not belieTe in having plars. You will
| live Just as lorg and have nucE less trouble
| in ceasiug TO bother yourself wi III plans You
didn't plan how you should c1me into this
! world, did you2 Or who should be your
| father and mother? Didn't vou come and
get here all Che same? Why tlot follow the
same rule now you're here! ] hold plans in
| life as | do habits. When l isas a boy, de-
| string to livn an upright ard correct life,
asked my father one day what habits should
| form. Says the old man: "D,nt have any
habits, my son. They are dargerous things
First Reporter-How old afa YOU, Mr.. Null
fore!
Myself am fifty-six. | Eever was fifty
six before. l may never be again. am on
the shady side of forty. ara verging on the
sere and yellow leaf. l am soon to try ON the
''lean and siippered rantalools." l am nearer
than ever before to the place where the wicked
cease from troubling and the -eary pull down
til sir veSts
First KeLorter-But-
Myself-l)on't but me now You asked me
my age 1 am trying to give it you. / am
old enough 20 be wiser than I was I don't
know whether | ain or not, | don't care
much. Ihsve arrived at that period of mans
life where he should soar ab.:ye the unruly
passions and desires of youth. l say have
arrived at the time. Still I do not soar so
much as I might. may not soar until am
seventy. l shall put off soaring as long as I
can. hope you have got my age down cor
rectly. Did 1 say fiftv-six or fifty? My age
varies according TO circumstances. When l
have close shave at the BARRIERS I am only
forty-fve. / have a sort of folding age It
can contract or expand at will. | borrowed
it of a lady who did not want it any longer
because she was dead.
First Reporter-How long have you been
away from California, Mr.. M
Myself-Twenty years. That is long
time. Yes Had it been forty years, it would
have been twice as long have remarked
that mathematical concurrence all my life. I
have not lived in vain.
Second Reporter-Do you find many Of
your old acquaintance here's
Myself-Not many. Most of them are
dead; at least they call them dead do not
believe in death myself My old friends have
simply lost their bodies. which, through lack
of Judgment in the use of whisky and the
other good things of life, were not worth
keeping. But their minds, their real selves.
are as much here as ever, some Of them as
spiritual buns, loafing about barrooms, and
ardently desiring the coming of the coming
man who will treat.
Second Reporter-But do you find any of
them alivel
Myself-Well, don't know whether to call
such as ! have met who still walk the earth
alive or not Some of them are really dead,
bat they don't know it. In more enlight-
ened age and condition OF affairs, such as is
inferred in Bellamy's work Looking Back
ward, they would be put in their collins and
straightway buried There is great deal Of
nonsense about Death ending all" There's
a great deal of the desirable that's ended
with some folks before they've drawn their
last breath. l put mankind now in three
classes: live folks. half alive folks and dead
folks. If the half alive and the dead folks
were all under ground. there would be more
go and snap in this world and times wouldn't
be so hard
Second Reporter-W are your plans on
this coast, Mr. Mulfordl
Myself-I intend tomorrow to have four
shirts, ten collars and seven pairs Of cuffs |
washed. I shall probably buy morning pa
per and read it. shall not put mustard in
my coffee, nor soap in my tea.
Second Reporter-But-
Myself-Don't but me now. ! am telling !
you my plans on this coast. l acknowledge /
the right Of the press to know every mans |
husinees, down TO the minutest details, and 4
now that | am started you've got TO take /
them. Tomorrow. probably, l shall DO /
guilty OF some sins both of omission and COM /
mission. may load up with few drinks. |
shall not drink behind the bar Because / |
have no bar TO drink behind. I hope young 1
man, You have got that all down. Because il /
may De OF Importance to some one. It Isn't /
10 ne, aud don't see much sense in what I
an Saying, bat this is world Of evolution. !
discoveries and surprises. and no one knows
At what moment something may come out Of /
nothing. Further as to plans, / would say
that intend to get my hat blocked incasa 4
my brains now in plug. When / lived cut I
here twenty years ago, / would wear then
ONLY the soft fell somhrero. Now I wear a /
plug TO STOW that have riseu above mere 4
sectional prejrdics. 4 plug gives the i'm 1
preston also among strangers inst YOU are a 4
railroad director, and If properly worn gen
crates on the part Of the landlord q certain
respect and trus, in your inferred finances
Further as 10 plans. /
Second Reporter-But-
Mysef-DOnSt interrupt me You asksd
ME as 20 my plans You must rave them.
Besides, Won have acted On NV mind as a sort
OF laxative. snd you compel me 10 pour out
plans. You are responsible: you brought THIS
thing on. When ] gec up tomorrow morning
/ snail pu. my right leg out o, be-: first. Il