Los Angeles herald., 1891-10-18
DORSEY'S FREAKS.
The Ex-senator as a Pullman
Car Traveller.
He Camps in the Smoking Room
and Talks.
Strange Tales About Grant, COnk-
ling and Others.
He Sacrifices Comfort to Oblige Lady:
His Opinion as to His Own Great
ness and GoOdness-SOme OF
His "Reminiscences.
whats the matter with Dorsey?"

SWhat's the matter with Dorsey?"
els he crazy?"
These are questions which passengers
on west-bound Santa Fe train asked of
each other the other day. They related
to the Hon. Stephen w. Dorsey, ex-
United States senator, who was pas
senger, on his way to his ranch in New
Mexico.
The queries were suggested by the
manner in which the ex-senator acted
and talked and the way he looked.
At first Mr.. Dorsey was not personally
known to his fellow travellers. but the
train men all knew him, and very soon
every man travelling in the same car
knew him. 1t was not necessary to ask
the conductor, as some of the passen-
gers did at an early stage, who that man
was, for "that man" at the outset took
possession Of commanding seat in the
smoking room, and to all who visited
that end of the car-which meant all the
male persons on the cAr-the senator
freely introduced himself. His excess
i've and aggressive sociability and affa-
biiity caused him to be the object of
general interest and the subject OF COM
the car at Kansas City. 1t was not in
any degree by distinguished appearance
that he attracted attention, for so per
cent of tile passengers looked more
distinguished than he. In his plain,
mixed suit, mostly of gray, and well
worn, he looked quite an ordinary per-
son, q prosperous farmer perhaps, and
until it was learned that he was Senator
Dorsey, his noisy assertions were calcu-
lated to give one the impression that he
was quite vulgar person. He wore
SLOUGH hat pulled down over his eyes,
and he had tired look which excited
sympathy. The train was starting on
the long Journey to the Pacific coast,
and already he appeared to be travel
worn. He is stout, heavily-built man,
weighing 200 pounds or more. His
movements on that occasion were slow
aud sluggish; but that was undoubtedly
due to condition. 1t was a condition
and not theory that had control OF the
e'senator' that day. Whether the con-
dition was temporary or permanent
che senator's fellow-t travellers had no
means OF proving conclusively. 1t lasted
until he left the train, and he remained
aboard two days. The senator q
within a few months of being so
wears old and his full beard is tmged
with grey. His countenance. jofhich is
naturally of a heavy, sulle.T cast, was
rendered doubly heavy and sinister on
that occasion by the remarkable lazlness
of his large eyes, which only at long
intervals would consent to look up or
take any part in the conversation, and
then they did it very ungraciously and
apparently against their will, as pee
wish baby shakes hands under compul-
sion.
The senator never joked and never
smiled from beginning to end of the
trip. He was serious and solemn all
the time. Much of the time, even while
he himself was talking, his head was
bowed down as if in thought, but per-
haps it was due less to thought than to
WEAKNESS, for the senator was undoubt-
eddy wearied. Fortunately the ice
water was within easy reach of the
smoking room and several times per
hour, several dozen times per day would
the senator refresh himself at the water
tank The water served as the second
course of the refreshment. To inn
prove the water the senator
carried in his pocket a flask OF
good old rye, and it is a positive fact
that for the two days which he remained
on the train he never left that smoking
car except to go to his gripsack and re-
plenish the flask, and he never went to
bed, but spent the night with pillow
in the smoker.
In this connection Mr.. Dorsey must
he credited with nice piece of gallantry.
The car was crowded. The demand for
sleeping accommodations on that train
was such that the conductor could have
sold every berth twice over. Mr.. Dor
aey was lucky enough TO have lower
BERTH and he was travelling alone. He
learned OF a married couple who were
sheIyed away on an upper berth, and
calling the husband of that combination
TO him he placed the lower berth at his
disposal. Never" the senator ex-
claimed. ''never while / have a lower
berth shall lady in the car have to
climb to an upper" All the
smokers applauded the sentiment
vigorously and the travelling fam
iIy man thankfully accepted
the favor, which indeed was very de-
sirable thing in his situation. When
uiwht came the senator did not feel dis
posed to climb to the upper and so he
spent the night in the smoking car.
Whether he slept part of the night or
spent all the time in smoking, nobody
took the pains to inquire, but if he gave
the cigar rest during the night it was
the only rest it got in the tWenty-1our
hours. AS long as the day lasted he
never allowed the fire to go out, but IS
soon as one cigar had been smoked
down he lit fresh one at the stump.
And during the entire trip he never ate
as much as a sandwich or an apple.
BY turns he was reminiscent, argu-
nnentative, poetical; but always ex-
tremely egotistical. Many of his
statements were palpably false, and
large proportion Of them seemed inn
probable. His mental meanderings
were eccentric and incoherent, most of
them utterly senseless; but through all
the turnings and windings of his tortu-
Gus talk he never forgot himself, his
own goodness and his own greatness.
His Majesty, Myself That was the
bugaboo that kept possession of his
mind all the time.
When he first began to talk about the
greatness of Grant and Conkling and
Webster, and the few men-living and
dead-whom he admitted to be great,
and when he associated himself with
them and mingled his deeds, his meth
DDS. bis character with theirs, the gen.
fIemen around took it of course for
lest and jokingly backed him up. But