Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-01

lis. While Minister to England his di-
plomacv brought about the settlement of
the Northwestern boundard question, and
while Minister to Germany he established
the right of the immigrant to America to
abjure his allegiance to his native land, and
SO opened wide the doors for the greatest
emigration from one part of the world to
another ever known in all history.
Mr.. Bancroft suffers now and then from a
cold, but his mental and physical tenacity
usually carry him past such inadvertences
and he seems likely to round out the cen
tury. He eats two meals day, dieting on
simple, elementary foods, preferring oat-
meal, white bread and pure white wines.
He takes in good deal OF fresh air, and
may be seen on all fair days with his Ger
man secretary walking about the streets en-
joying himself thoroughly.
ELECTED SENATOR FIVE TIMES.
Another monument towering DER the
wrecks of public life is Justin S. Morrill,,
who has for the fifth time been elected to the
United States Senate. On the third of last
December he completed 35 long years of SER
vice in Congress OF this IL were spent in
the House and % in the Senate. When
April comes again be will be 81 years old.
No other man was ever elected to the United
States Senate after passing the eightieth
birthday. His four score years sit lightly
upon him, though his tall, spare form is
bent and he has suffered severe illness at
times during the past year. Yet he has at
tended the sessions of the Senate, taken an
active part in debate, and in the committee
room has brought to the discussion of the
tariff the cumulative force of his long years
OF experience in financial legislation.
When Mr.. Morrill, came to Congress in
the prime OF life, rich from keeping a coun-
try store in a small Vermont town, he knew
nothing of the tariff He was in Congress
one whole term before he paid any attention
to it, and even then would not have thought
twice of making a study of the tariff but Ior
a singular circumstance.
James l.. Orr was Speaker of the Thirty
filth Congress, and in making up his COM
mittees he tried to put the weakest Repub-
licans he could think OF on the Ways and
Means Committee. He chose Mr.. Morrill,
as the New England member. TIE spare
thin-taced Yankee merchant seemed to him
not person to cause much trouble in the
committee-room when the questions of the
proposed low tariff were discussed.
A SPEAKERS MISTAKE.
But Mr.. Orr caught a Tartar. Mr. Nor
rill buckled down to hard study, and four
years later he was the author of the Morrill,
tariff, and had earned the title of "Father
of the tariff" which he wears TODAY, He
was also the father of the agricultural col
leges of the country, laying foundations that
some day will bear worthy superstructures.
Mr.. Morrill,, when in Washington, lives
in one of the pleasantest homes on Massa-
chusetts avenue at the intersection with
Vermont avenue and Fourteenth street, his
next door neighbor being Senator Allison.
The plain old brick house looks out to the
the frequent scene of CHEEKY old-fashioned
hospitalities, and every one WHO has once
enjoyed one of the 40 dishes which Senator
Morrill, can himself cook from Indian corn,
treasures the memory OF it as one of the
most important experiences of a life time.
If the aged Senator survives the term for
which he has Just been elected he will be Sc
years old, and if he retains his strength and
vitality as we'll as be has in the past ten
years he may ftly be a candidate for his
sixth election to the Senate. He has long
ago surpassed Tom Benton's remarkable
period oil public service.
AS AN AUTHOR.
Besides finance the senior Vermont Sena-
tor loves books, and his houses at Washing
ton and at Stratford, VT, are full of them.
He is himself the author OF just such a
quaint work as might be expected from such
a canny, dry-witted old fellow. Its title is
"SelEConsciousness of Noted Men," ard it
ranges from Thucydides to Garfield.
The Senatorial author refrains carefully
from giving specimens of cotemporaneous
selfconsciousness, aud, as to himself, saws
nothing, simply vouchsafing this hint: "All
unite in the Scotchman's prayer-'Good
Lord give US guild conceit O. oursels,'
but all should agree with the ancients that
it is not becoming to sacrifice to our heroes
till after sunset"
JULIUS A. TRUEsDELL.