The Wichita daily eagle., 1891-09-22


him. He has a fine brickyard also,
which is more than self supporting. He
| built it for the manufacture of his own
bricks with which to build his new house
near mine, but the bricks were so evil
IDENTIFY superior to those made heretofore
/ in this country that he was importuned
/ to supply a number of builders and con-
tractors at good prices.
His nursery, between Biltmore and
Asheville, on the Richmond and Dan
vile road, is also, like my own nursery,
q bowling success. He grows almost
everything known to the botanist and
pomologist. The Baron De Lange has
charge of the agricultural department,
and on bright morning it is gladstone
sight to see Mr.. Vanderbilt and the
haron wedding onions or tarring the
noses of their sheep.
Mr.. Vanderbilt showed me yesterday
picture frame which he has designed,
and which will be used for large photo
graph of myself to sit on his piano in the
off parlor 1t is designed to contain
nothing but products of his place, such as
cereals and other grains, seeds, nuts,
acorns, ETC., etc. These are glued on a
pine frame and then coat of shellac Is
put on over the whole so as to look al
most like boughten frame. There will
be an inner row of buckwheat, then a
row of fax seed, then two rows of rye
and one of wheat, then corn, oats, ETC.,
with acorns and nuts, chinkapins, ETC.,
ETC., in the corners, with rosette Of
corn in the ear and festoons Of dried
apples over the whole.
At s a. m. every day Mr.. Vanderbilt
rings his bell at my door and with a
long handled dipper he hands US out our
milk, also our nice, new laid hen eggs,
fresh from the hand of the artisan, and
warm with the atmosphere of the home
nest, and with now and then dear lit
tie white feather still clinging to them.
He also fetches us our roasting ears, and
when he butchers we get all sorts of
novelties from him. No man need ever
ask for better neighbor than George
is He helps me during the hoeing sea
son, and | help him in harvest We
own a thrashing machine together, and
in the fall we not only do our own
4 thrashing with it, but can make as high
as eighty dollars, we think, by thrashing
for the neighbors,
We lead happy life here, as l say,
destitute of cark. There has been but
one case of cark here since came. One
case of cark and one of Milwaukee beer.
The day goes blithely by, and at night |
write for an hour in my diary lot of
moral thoughts, which will be eagerly
published after my death. l have de-
cided to make no dying speech, for /
might die at the same time when some
other eminent man is doing the same
thing, and so what | said might not re-
ceive that attention which it so justly
merited.
How | would hate to play against Mr..
Blaine, for instance, man who could
easily score a deathbed success at any
time, while L am timid and feel almost
certain that in any forensic effort of that
kind would probably cork myself and
say something which would afterward
| bitterly regret. What can be more pitt
ful than bad break in grammar or the
frequent use of tautology in a dying
speech? 1t is for this reason that have
decided to keep diary, to be published
when am gone. 1t will be a good
thing. 1t will show me in my serious
moods and also, here and there, have
little trickles of pure merriment in it, a
thing could not introduce into dying
speech with credit TO myself. will
also thus have a chance to rectify the
grammars in it and hav punctuated
as go along.
AS | say, we move along quietly here
from day to day. with little to excite or
overstimulate the brain. Last Saturday
a man with dreamy look In his pale
blue eyes came here and sat down on my
porch 70 look at my view. have a good
view here. and keep my horses in de-
serted sawmill. He sat there with his
hat of. drinking in the view and tanning
his high, smooth brow with his hat. AT
6rst took him to be my dcppelgdnSer
ae had the same Ben Davis style of
Adams apple. and his high forward in
dicated that he was just as brainy as he
could be.
For time let him sit there. Then |
stepped out and passed the time of day
with him He answered rather in a
brief and distracted way. bat finally
asked my name. told him what it was
and he took my hand. de said he had
been frequently taken for me | was
glad of it. | did not care if he had been
taken for me, only why did those au-
thorities who took him for me Jat him
60 again!