Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1891-09-18
PRENTICE AND TRAIN.
INTERVIEW BETWEEN THE AciTA-
TOR AND THE FAMOUS EDITOR

INTERVIEW BETWEEN TIE A6iIS-
tor AND THE FAMOUS EDITOR.
tics In Everyday working Dress and
Train In : Dandy suit-Dtctating 70 IN
Amanuensis.
One afternoon about twenty two or three
years ago, debonaire young gentleman
walked into the 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
| toned 80 that it doubled in 'front.' showing an
| inch or two below the front Of the coat, and In
| his hand he carried rich looking soft hat
| His hair was black, wavv and plentiful, and
! his upper lip was covered with a luxuriant and
| well kept mustache. Altogether there was
en- 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. Prentice's 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 be expected to ses large, impos
ing and severe man, and he beheld "a lean
and slippered pontaloon-" Mr.. Prentice was
peculiarly slouchy man then In his dress,
and altogether careless OF his personal ap
pearance Indeed, believe he never had
been "dressy.n His hair, which had once
| R,ft< h. ob< and
about his cheeks, we'll 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 q cotton
twine and his ears were stuffed with cotton.
! Tobacco Juice stained his vest, and he had a
habit Of using his fingers for paste brush
,, and of wiping them on bis panta-
looms He had taken of his long,
black frock coat and replaced 1t with
a brown, somewhat ragged and alto
gether disreputable looking old yarn
J. pea jacket, or what was commonly called in
{ Kentucky "warmus" On the table near
: him stood his hat This was a SLOUGH with a
= tall crown, and it answered the place OF
: pockets in his clothes, which sort Of recepta-
o Giles be never used He carried in his hat
1 everything that other men carry in their
|
: write more than a word or two at time
/ with his own hand, he would, with both OF
his trembling, writer's palsy stricken hands
y make out to scratch memoranda Of such
things as he desired to consider upon the
margins OF newspapers, and these little bits
l. he would throw into his hat for future refer
70 ence He usually had the old felt about hall
full Of them He also carried his pocket
70 knife, pencils scissors keys. etc.. in the hat
~ and have often seen him, absent mindedly
~ drop well masticated quid Of tobacco int
q, it instead Of throwing the "old soldier
y" away
This was the famous editor, the author o
10 THE Life of Henry Clayr the champion
" and bosom friend of prince Harry OF tn
=" West" during the latters glorious and bril-
liant career as a statesman, the writer o
=, THE Closing Year" aud other grand poems
70 the man whose keen wit, caustic sarcasm
eloouence and terse dramatic force drov
!. giants before him with his pen Yet hi
nv y culver was filed with arrows of all sizes
y from the quill of the eagle to that of tn
4, cumming bird, and he could indite fierc
W philippe in prose, or tune his sentences to
sweet and tender song Of sympathy or Low
20 in poetry
~ Train exhibited his establishment for an IL
=, slant, unobserved by Mr. Prentice, however
~. and at once the two fell into earnest CONVEX
~ saton Train was In Louisville with Ann
1-1 Dickinson, Susan B. Anthony and numbt
~ of other leading wonan's rights women, an
was assisting in their suffrage crusade Afts
a.. a pleasant stay of half hour or so, Trai
~ withdrew and Prentice proceeded to dicta
pen picture Of his late visitor
For many years Mr. Prentice had bee
80 forced to write by an amanuensis, being,
rs before intimated sufferer from scrivener
cramp or writer's palsy, known in surgei
h, as chorea scriptorum He would walk Il
LII floor in slip shod way, with his ham
,,,o clasped behind him, and in a somewhat pi
-. ing voice, with a nasal twang, being al
afflicted with catarrh, he would dictate to
,,,a amanuensis punctuating the matter as
:. went He always began his articles wi
what is known in Typography as fist
,,,3 little cut of the hand with the index fling
pointing, and thus his pen picture of Geor
tho Francis Train was like this;
w. "tFisu ~ A locomotive that has run
the track tcommal turned upside dov
tcomma) with the cowcatcher buried in
h;s stump and the wheels making thousa
Won revolutions minute full stop kite
rdi. the air that has lost its tail tdash)
human novel without a hero dash)
man who climbs a tree for Dir
s,,r- nest (commal out on a limo CONN
and in order to get it saws the lii
tton of between himself and the tree If
DOR. stop ship without a rudder ida
for q clock without hands tdashi an arr
gbt shot into the air dash, a sermon that is
text DASH pantomime of words tdash,
apotheosis of talk comma, the incarnat
,und of CAB full stop Handsome comma, vi
one cious (comma) muscular tcommal as neat
a cat (comma) judge of the effect of clot
n in lcomma) frugal in food and regular only
hair habits full stop A monday mystery ida
and solved conundrum dash cipher hunt
-dest for figure to pass for something Use
ming COLON with the brains Oh twenty men III
head (commal all pulling in different dill
the tions tsemi-colon) not bad as to heart tcoml
John but a man who has shaken hands with re'
E did ence full stop, This is George Francis II
full stop"
u of Thus did Mr.. Prentice draw picture
the restless agitator which photographs
inside and out, even to-day.-WiD Vissch
Tha rnited States?