The Portland daily press., 1892-03-02


ture, alertness to all that was going on
about him, forceful gestures all con-
tributing to the effect which surprised
all beholders and delighted his friends.
1t is not often we see in the United
States senate or anywhere else a man
.seventy-five years old disporting himself
in the oratorical arena like a man of
forty, with all his faculties unimpaired
and the fires of his eloquence undimmed
by the cloud of age.
The span of this mans life carries us
back to the year 1917. His career has
been synchronous with the development
of nearly all there is of the American
republic. He was almost a man grown
before the iron horse made its appear
ance in the land. In his youth the coun-
try existed chiefly, east Of the Allegheny
mountains. Through all these seventy
five years he has been worker in life's
vineyard, in the very thick of the fight
ing in war and peace, and yet here he is
apparently good for a quarter Of a CEN
fury more Of activity and usefulness.
Like SO many of the great men who
nave been sent to the capital by Illinois,
Senator Palmer is a native of Kentucky
and comes of good old Virginia stock.
His great-grandfather came from Ire
land and was of Scotch ancestry. His
grandfather was born ON the shores of the
Potomac, 100 miles below Washington,
and carried a gun in the war of the Rev.
oIution. y have myself heard my grand
father tell of the battle of Yorktown"
said Senator Palmer day or two ago,
land | remember distinctly little joke
which ne was fond of perpetrating in
that connection. He always spoke of
Lord CORVALLIS as 'Cob-wallis
weshelled the corn off him at Yorktown.
Senator Palmer's father, Lewis D., was
a pioneer.in Kentucky, a cabinet maker
at Lexington, whence he removed to the
Green river country in that state to be-
come farmer. His earthly possessions
were wife, two horses and two boys,
the younger of them being the present
senator. 81 was very young then" said
the senator in recalling some of the in
cidents of his youth, ''but have been
told that father rode one horse with my
brother up behind him, while my mother
rode the other with me in front of her.
was so young that all needed to make
me happy was plenty of food and sleep,
and SO far as know / have been in the
same condition ever since.'
On the Black Jack lands of the Green
river country Lewis Palmer acquired
more children than riches. OF seven
sons he considered John McAuley one of
the dullest and least promising. He sent
the boy to school to Daniel Boone, who
used hazel switch on the future gov
ernor and senator about twice day dur
ing one whole term, and when Palmer
senior returned from the Indian wars,
where he had served for time under
General William Henry Harrison, he
gave it as his opinion that young John
had deserved all he had received and
more. After time Father Palmer
caught the Illinois craze which was then
sweeping over Kentucky. and which gave
to the state, which is now the third Of the
Union, some of the best blood from Ken
lucky and Virginia. Packing up his few
chattels and his seven sons and daugh-
tiers he removed to Madison county, Ills,
firing the imagination of his sons by
telling them that on the prairies they
could all have farm for the asking and
fill their pockets by simply tickling the
virgin soil.
Young John, who was at that time
fourteen years old, very soon began to
eyince an extraordinary desire to secure
I'm education. His father said to him:
John, my son, am q poor man and
cannot give you money. The most l
can do for you is to give you your time.
Go and see what you can do for yourself.
IN those pioneer days father expected
the full benefit of his sons services till he
was twenty-one years old, and he was
considered very generous who made his
son present of three or four years OF
his minority. SO young John started
ont to see what he could do. He worked
by the day for neighborlng farmers,
drove four oxen breaking the prairie SOD
with big plow, husled corn, planted,
cared for stock. One day he went to
town and saw il tailor's shop cotton
suit which the tailor had had left on his
hands. 1t was worth twelve dollars
Young Palmer eyed it enviously. and
the tailor asked him to try it on. As