St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-03-02
A DAY WITH DAVID.
How the Handsome Bachelor
Governor Of New York
Lives.
Jeffersonian Simplicity, Til
den Method and Grant
Tenaeity.
Statecraft an Exclusive Pas
sion and a LiberaliZing
Art.
He Eats Well, But Does Not
Drink or Smoke--His
Walks.

ALBANY, n. Y, Feb. 27.-"OuI Bach
elor Governor" This is very popular
toast in the city that knows so we'll the
chief executive of the Empire State,
David Bennett Hill.
Other cities know him personally, and
his political fame has swept from ocean
to ocean, but here at the capital Of the
state he has become a social as well as a
political factor.
HIPS personality has many sides. 1t
is hard even for his friends to know the
man. The governor is known to every
body.
There is a great deal of dignity in the
governor, not born altogether of official
life, but innate and natural to him. To
those who only see him as the public
servant he is distant, reserved, and
seemingly cold. 1t takes time to thaw
this ice, but underneath it runs a cur
rent of geniality which, warming through
acquired confidence, melts away reserve.
People at large will hardly believe
how completely this reserve can diSap-
pear. HILL and humor seem as far apart
AS were mercy and Napoleon. Yet the
governor enjoys joke, and l have seen
him throw himself upon a sofa. beating
his knees and shaking with laughter,
like any school boy.
In these moments of relaxation Hill
is an enjoyable companion. The man
Is SO keyed mp all the time to concert
pitch by the strain of official life and
the responsibility of party leadership
that when these moments come he tries
hard to stretch them into hours. The
governor would find the hours of pleas
ure would come far more frequently if
he had some one at home to drive away
dull care and heavy thought.
HIPS TiiIne-LOcked Heart.
But there is no hope. He is a con-
firmed bachelor. Budding beauty,
Scheming SpInSterS aud designing
mothers have tried their arts in vain.
Love may laugh at locksmiths, but Hill
has combination that beats him. Cupid
will have to take lessons from first
class safe breaker and use dynamite to
gain an entrance into Hills heart. Yet
those who would say that Hill is a
woman hater are wide of the mark. He
loves them, but as whole.
Still there is a goddess who lives with
him at the executive mansion. He wOoS
her night after night in the solitude of
his bachelors study and carries out her
mandates at his chamber in the capitol.
She is siren whose soft voice and
reckoning finger has lured many a man
to his ruin. She is the goddess of poll
tics and to her alone Is the governor
welded. Hill says that politics is his
only recreation. The world says that
ii is his business.
1t is interesting to watch the governor
daily going his way from his desk to his
home. A feeling of pity will come into
ones mind as he thinks of what cheer
less existence his must be. There goes
man tagged out with hard days
work to a lonely meal, with hours to
spend alone before he can lose himself
in sleep.
What can he do to pass the time?
How are his evenings SpenC?
Heading will do for time. and friends
may drop in sometimes for social
chat, but there must be hours and hours
and hours which would hang upon an
ordinary man and drive him nearly
crazy with their monOtony.
Not so Hill. Most bachelors have
their clubs. whist and their various dis
SlpatiOns. Hill will have none of these.
Then what does he do in the long
dull hours of evening?
He has reyeries.
They are not the dreams of the bache-
lor. OF story; no rosy picture OF home,
wife and children is framed by the
cIrcllng smoke of a fragrant cigar.
lie doesn't smoke.
Where Fancy Leads Him.
He sits down by the crate fire and his
goddess takes her seat by his side.
Then before his half closed eyes troop
the counties of the state. On their
banners are emblaZoned the respective
majorities of the two great parties. He
smiles at Chemnng. Onondaga brings
a froWn and as Montgomery is fitting
by the procession haltS. The dreamer
smiles again as these figures change
and the democracy leads. New York
dips her banner low and Kings trails
hers on the ground in reverence. JEFF
ferSon and OSWego appear. They
wheel out from the line. Hill sees him
self leading the Democratic forces in
these two counties to their first victory
and beholds change upon their ban
nerS.
Nightly this parade takes place, and
daily the dreamer, then wide awake. at
tacks the weak spots of the enemy, dis
covered Ill his reveries. OF late this
ghostly parade has wreathed the dream
er'S face III one continuous smile. The
figures on nearly all the banners are re-
verSed.
Such is Hill. To his never ending
thinking and acting for his party does
the Democracy of the state owe its
present taste of power and its bright
hopes for the future. 1t is the nearest
approach to perpetual motion that has
yet been discovered.
Is Hill more than an exceedingly
clever politician? He was not six ears
ago, but he has broadened. In spite of
what the mugWumpS say the governor
IS remarkable man in many respects.
recognizing his deficiencies, his ambl-
ton has led him to devomr every word
on Statecraft that he could possibly OBJ
ain.
The life and public papers of every
statesman IN every country have be-
come rs familiar to him as the constitu-
ton of his state. Both sides of every
political question that has arisen at
Washington in olden and modern times
have been studied by him. A close
student OF HIPS policy as governor, it
IS said, can easily detect the effect of
his reading and study.
Student OF Great Masters.
He affects Jeffersonian simplicity.
follows Tilden in policy and Grant i'm
tenacity OF purpose
lie is more careful than bold, more
alert than decided, more Diplomatic
than all. He is not eloquent.
There are hundreds of men far below
Hill i'll mental capacity who are better
takers" Given time, Hill will pre-
pare speech clear in argument and
thoroughly cover his subject He will
deliver it well. He knows Just how
much of a speaker he is and never
wadeS beyond his depth in oratory. In
this. as with all other things through
which he is brought in contact with the
public, the governor is most careful ard
most solicitouS about effect. Men NAV
differ with Hell on all other points, but
they must agree that he never did a
silly thing or assumed or could be
forced into playing the role of foolish
man.
a day with the governor is not OF. "
an interesting experience, but discloses
the many sides of his nature. He rises
shortly before s O'Clock every morning.
winter and summer. The habits of the
o,-ff ~. 4