Omaha daily bee., 1891-09-27
or so being put together In each volume auC
a complete index OF contents made TO IL.
NalunbIp AutoUrnDhs.

In one corner OF the library I saw the great
f]reproof vault In which the senator keeps his
private papers. This vault Is as big as a hall
bedroom. IL is flied with shelves aud ii con
tains tens OF thousands Of private letters and
documents which would make the fortune OF
n litterateur. Hero there IS a large collection
Of scrap books running back to the jimo whom
he entered public life, nearly fifty years ago,
and ull the important letters which he has re-
ceivcd during his long public career are here,
Senator Sherman has boon noted for know
ing how 10 keep his mouth shut aud public
meE have opened their minds to him without
restraint. There are volumes OF unwrltten
history in these letters and the names signed
to them are those Of the. great men and
women in nearly every branch or life, public
aud private, for the last generation and n
half. There are about fifteen volumes, each
as big as a dictionary, which contains letters
put aside principally for their autographs,
and In looking over one OF these, devoted To
men who arc not politicians, / opened at ran
dom to letters from JAY Gould, Cyrus w.
Field, noted sisters of Charity, great preach.
ers and others. As | looked, Senator Sher-
man told me he thought he could show me an
autograph letter from any noted man | should
select who had, during the past forty years,
been prominent either in this country or in
Europe. | rausacked my brain and finally
asked him to show me u letter from Francis
Licbor, the noted German scholar. 81 think
/ have several, ~ replied Senator Sherman,
and with that he turned to the
index OF another volume, and then
turned over the leaves until he came TO
half a dozen letters which Lieber had writ
ten him concerning tho most famous OF his
books.
John and TecuInseh.
Among the most interesting le~ttcrsswhich
Senator Sherman has ever written are those
which he penned to his brother, General
sherman, and the corresp oudence OF these
two brothers will, when it is published, be
one of the most valuable aud interesting
-. - ..tA swNAv,~ Gnnafn IT1n N
has preserved carefully all the letters OF his
brother from the time he went to West Point
TO the day of his death, and these letters
were very full, and they gave n picture OF
General Shermau's intellectual and material
life. Most of them are written in camp, some
times before u battle and sometimes on a
drum head afterward. All of them are vivid
with the life and surroundings of the general
at tho time, and they deal with pJDlic men
and matters of more than fifty years of our
history. One of them tells of the fir dis
covery Of gold in California, and many OF
them detail the inside history OF army move
ments which have never gotten into print.
| Senator Sherman wrote quite as freely as
his brother, and, during his whole career, he
has written several letters q week to him.
These letters General Sherman began to
save in 1850, and his papers include the let
tiers of Senator Sherman from that time 10
this. Senator Sherman has handed over all
of the generals letters to the children OF
General Sherman, and it may be that both
sets will be pu she 1t is hard to realize
the love that existed between John and
William TecumSeh Sherman. During my
talk with tho senator | noticed that his voice
dropped whenever he spoke OF the general,
and, upon my asking whether any OF this COR
reSpondence between BIN and his brother
was dictated, he replied that it was not, and
that he never wrote letters to his family or
his brother except with his own hand.
Sherman's "Reminiscences.
1t was in the big library that l had my
chats with Senator Sherman. The busts o:
Washington, Clay, Webster and Salmon =.
Chase looked down upon us from the tops or
the bookcases as we talked, and back of the
senator | could see on a pedestal among the
books a new bust in marble of himself, by
French. At my left, on an easel, there was u
magnificent marble medallion OF Abraham
Lincoln, and in front of me-, beside a plain
walnut table, with his iron-gray hair hanging
over his great white forehead, and his face
not a day older than it was ten years ago, sat
Senator Sherman. AS | looked at him, |
could hardly realize that he was 63 years old
and that he had been a part of our history for
more than forty-tive years. Senator Sherman
has been represented as a cold man, but |
have never found him so. He is an eXceed-
ingly busy man, but when you can catch him
at his leisure there is no more delightful
talker in the United States, and ne enjoys a
good laugh and a good story quite as well
as some of our s~o-calied great men who spend
Lnelf leisure III nOJel lODDleS anu DafIOOlHS,
and who make much OF their capital
out OF hand-shakiug and haby-kissing. |
asked Senator Sherman to me OF his first
coming to Washington. He ,plied: II first
visited Washington in 1916, eight years be-
fore ! was elected to congress. | spent a
month there at this time. l lived at Browns
hotel and met most of the noted men. |
called upon President Polk at the white
house. lie looked more like a Presbyterian
preacher than anything else and | was
nOt nlltlrllarlV IMPRESSED Win MIN
There were two very pretty girls at the hotel
to whom l was introduced, and one of these
was especially admired by Stephen A. Doug
las. AS | went around with the young ladies
during m stay | saw much of Douglas, and
| met him again when | was elected to con-
gress.n
"How did Douglas impress your l asked.
~ do not remember that he impressed me
at all. | was only 23 years old at that time
and that is an age when a young man feels
more his own Importance than he does that
of other men. 1t was the same with me and
| am sure / was a greater man in my own eS-
timatlon than | have ever been since. / met
Dolly Madison during this visit. She lived
il the house that President Madison left her
on tho corner of Lafayette square and II
street, which is now occupied by tho Cosmos
club. She was Il handsome old lady with Il
beautiful complexion which was emphasized
by the turban which always crowned her
head, She was n bright talker and, though
quite old, was very entertaining. AT this
tlne l went over 10 New 1OfK ana Visited
some of my relatives who lived there AT the
corner of Broadway and Nineteenth street.
There were no houses then above Twenty
third street and fashionable New York was
all down town.
Sherman's First Campaign.
Had you any idea at this time that you
would ever come back to Washington as con-
gresham and senatori''
NO. replied Senator Sherman, "the dis
fript in NVhIph iyaH NIguG larnn.ratt IA, aud
when, at the age of -, | was delegate to the
national convention at Philadelphia ana was
chosen there as secretary, the man who
nominated me said that | came from n dis
trict in Ohio which was so democratic that
| could never get an Office unless that conven-
ton gave me one. This caused a laugh and
they elected me. Schuyler Colfax OF Indiana
was made assistant secretary on the same
grounds, and we walked up together. This
was my first office and my next was during
the same year. | was a delegate TO the con-
vention at Columbus, o., which nominated
Salmon u. Chase for governor. 1t was, |
think, tho first republican convention held
in Ohio and | was chosen as president OF it.
The reason for the choice was that such an
antipathy existed between the older candi-
dates that none OF them could DO chosen and
they picked upon me as n compromise, | re.
member that | was almost scared to death
when they put the gavel in my hand, but |
got through somehow. When l was nomi-
mated for congress l had left Mans
field to practice law at Cleveland,