Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1891-10-31
PRENTICE AND TRAIN.
INTERVIEW BETWEEN THE AGlrA-
TOR AND THE FAMOUS EDITOR.

TOR AND the FAMOUS EDITOR.
Pen Portraits OF Two Noted Men-Pren-
tice I'm Everyday Working Dress and
Train In q Dandy suit--Dictating 10 an
Amanuensis.
Ono afternoon about twenty two or three
years ago, debonaire young gentleman
walked into tho editorial rooms of the old
Louisville Journal and asked TO see Mr.. Prem
tice He was clad In handsome blue broad
cloth coat OF the swallow tail style. with
smooth and glittering brass buttons His
/ trousers were Of black doeskin, his shoes
shiny, patent leather, his vest OF some heavy
/ buff material over which his coat was but
1 toned 40 that IL doubled In front, showing an
i inch or two below the front OF the coat: and in
/ his hand he carried rich looking soft hat.
I His hair was black, wavy and plentiful, and
4 hisupper lip was covered with a luxuriant and
i well kept mustache Altogether there was
! an air of elegant negligence about him The
/ man was over the medium height and build,
and presented card which bore the words
+ "George Francis Train Civis Americans
/ Sum"
Being then Mr.. Prentices amanuensis and
private secretary, presented Mr. Train to
the immortal George d.. wit, poet and ed
/ itor. Train seemed TO be a little staggered
/ presume he expected TO see a large, ihpos
/ Ing and severe man, and no bcheld "a lean
and slippered pantaloon." Mr. Prentice was
| peculiarly a slouchy man then In his Dress
and altogether careless of his personal APP
pearance. Indeed, | believe he never had
been "dressy" His hair, which had once
been jet black, fell on his shoulders and even
about his cheeks, well mixed with gray, and
his whitening beard, which was also very
long. and which covered nearly all Of his
face except the nose, eyes and forehead. was
tied as close up as possible with cotton
Irvine, and his ears were stuffed with cotton.
+ Tobacco juice stained his vest, and he had
habit OF using hts fingers for paste brush
and OF wiping them on his panta-
/ looms He had taken of his long
black frock coat and replaced IL with
/ brown, somewhat ragged aud alto
4 gether dsreputablo looking old yarn
/ pea jacket, or what was commonly called in
i Kentucky a "warmusH On the table near
/ him stood his hat This was a slouch with
/ tall crown, and IL answered the place Of
pockets in his clothes, which sort Of recepta
| Giles he never used lie carried In his hat
everything that other men carry In their
pockets, and more too Being unable to
/ write more than word or two at a time
with his own hand, he would, with both Of
his trembling, writers palsy stricken hands.
make out 30 scratch memoranda Of such
things as he desired to consider upon the
margins of newspapers, and these little bits
/ he would throw into his hat for future refer
ence. lie usually had the old felt about half
/ full of them He also carried his pocket
knife, pencils scissors, keys, etc, In the hat
and have often seen him, absent mindedly
drop well masticnted quid OF tobacco into
| 1t instead Of throwing the "old soldier"
away.
This was the famous editor, the author Of
'sThe Life Of Henry Clay;" the champion
and bosom friend OF prince Harry Of tho
West" during tho latters glorious and bril-.
/ liant career as a statesman, tho writer of
THE Closing Year" and other grand poems,
the whose keen wit. caustic sarcasm,
eloquence and terse dramatic force drove
giants before him with his pen Yet his
CULVER was filled with arrows of all sizes
from the Quill Of tho eagle 10 that of the
hummng bird. and he could indite fierce
philippe in prose, or tune his sentences to
sweet and tender song Of sympathy or love
in poetry
Train exhibited his astonishment for an In.
slant, unobserved by MIR Prentice, however
and at once the two fell into earnest CONVEX
sation. Train was In Louisville with Anna
Dickinson, Susan b Anthony and a number
OF other leading womans rights women, and
was assisting In their suffrage crusade After
a pleasant stay Of half hour or so, Train
withdrew and Prentice proceeded to dictate
n pen picture OF his late visitor
For many years MIR Prentice had been
forced TO write by an amanuensis being, as
before intimated, sufferer from scriyener's
-.
as chorea scriptorum lie would walk the
floor in a slip shod way. with his hands
, clasped behind him, and in a somewhat pip
ing voice, with nasal twang being also
afflicted with catarrh, be would dictate to his
amanuenss, punctuating the matter as he
went He always began his articles with
what Is known In Typography as a "hstn-a
little cut Of the hand with the index finger
pointing, and thus his pen picture OF George
Francis Train was like this
"tFisp sff- locomotive that has run off
the track comma, turned upside down
tcommal with the cowcatcher buried in
, stump and the wheels making a thousand
revolutions a minute full stop kite in
; the air that has lost its tail dash
human novel without a hero DASH
man who climbs tree for a birds
nest lcommal out on a limb lcommal
! off between himself and the tree dull
stop A ship without a rudder ldashl
: clock without hands l,iashl an arrow
shot into the air dash a sermon that Ia all
text dash a pantomime Of words gdashl the
apotheosis Of talk Icommal the incarnation
Of CAB full stop handsome tcommal viva
} cious tconmal muscular Icommai as neat as
a cat tcommal a judge Of the effect of clothes
! tcommal frugal in food and regular only In
: habits tfull stop MONDAY mystery DASH
a solved conundrum DASH cipher hunting
for figure TO pass for something tsemi
) colon with the brains Of twenty men In his
head lcommal all pulling In different direc.
9 tions semi-colonl not bad as 10 heart lcommal
> but man who has shaken hands with rever.
enee full stop This Is George Francis Train
dull stop"
Thus did Mr. Prentice draw picture Of
the RESTLESS agitator which photographs him
inside and out, even to-day. WIZ tlzscher