The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-05-01

the frontier. l would like to ask if you
are one of those babies who were rocked In
a sugar troughf'
Il don't know about the sugar trough"
replied Mr. Foster, but l was born within
year after my father and mother were
married, and | was brGughtup in what was
then one of the widest parts of the west "
Where did you GO to school2" l asked.
81 never had much schooling,n was the
reply. I went first to q little log school
house near astoria. 1t was torn down not
long ago, and have been sorry that did
not preserve it Our schools did not
amount to much then. The chief thing was
spelling, and l can remember goin. about
at night to spelling matches where all tried
to spell each other down at the age of four.
L learned here TO read and to spell and got
a smattering Of arithmetic and | then had
the idea that
I WANTED TO BE LAWYER,
and my father sent me to the academy of
Norfork which was a neighboring town. l
was going here to school at the age OF four
teen, when the whole family got sick and
came home. ! found the store closed be-
cause there was no one to attend 10 it, and
L dropped school and opened the store.
This was forty-siX years ago and had the
management of that store until 1887, or for
more than forty years. OF course | was
When | was eighteen my father took me
into partnership with him, and | used to
60 to New York tn buy goods for 1t and
was in it when l was elected TO Congress."
"You were in Congress with Garfield,
were you rot: When did you first meet
him?n
at was during that congressional cam
paign. 1t was at the time of the Franco
Prussian war, and Garfield came over aud
made some speeches IN my district. / had
\ d great number of Germans, and he talked
to them in German and got me lot of
votes.
II was impressed with him as jolly
good fellow, and when he left he en- braced
NE and asked me TO hunt him up when
came TO Washington. He overhowed in
fact with good fellowship, and when few
months later l went on to Washington
rushed up to him and was surprised 10 find
him cold and distant. he apparently
| hardly knew me, and as he acted tie same
way several times after that l decided to
! let him alone. After [ got to know him
better l began to understand his character.
He was q man of moods and he was apt to
| be preoccupied and TO forget faces and
names. 1t is wonderful the difference in
mems minds. was not six weeks in the
House before l knew every member OF
Congress by face and could call him by
name. Garfield who hal be3 years in
| Congress had not a peTs' nal a quaintance
with fifty men aud he Guild no. remember
faces. He could, howevet, read book OF
poem and repeat almost word for word
everything that he read. He could dictate
a speech, and then get up and deliver il
/ Just as he had dictated 1t. l cannot com
nit anything. l can remember the ideas
of the books read but not the words"
"Wherein- consisted Garfeld's strength
in Congress, governor"
sit was in his wonderful debating power
and in his classic expressions sand ideas.
He was the most wonderful debater we
ever had in Congress. His sentences were
so clear and his language so beautiful thai
he always filled the galleries, and he was
perfectly at home on the floor. He had
wonderful power of absorbing informatior
from others, and he had way Of getting
ideas from his friends to add TO his owr
thoughts in his great speeches. He would
sometimes call his friends into his room
the night before he was about to make 8
great speech and discuss the points with
them | remember the speech be made
against Hill, which was you know one Of
the most eloquent ever made in the House
The night before that speech he called s
half dozen of his intimate friends into his
room, and l was among them. He went
over the synopsis or outline of his speech
and asked for suggestions. He got many
new ideas l know and while we were ia X
ing from time TO time books with marked
passages were sent into him by his friend,
and he read these. The next day the cream
of all this matter appeared in his speech
but so transformed ano reyivifed
BY HIS MASTER MIND
that it made one strong symetrical am
beautiful whole. Garfield seldom wrot