The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-03-20

United States and the probable appoint
ment of Colonel John Hay as his success
sor, recalls the Washington City careers of
two of the most remarkable men in public
life. Both Hay and Reid came TO WASH
ington City poor and unknown ard both
are today rich and famous. Both have
made fortunes for themselves and both
have married other fortunes in the daugh-
tiers of millionaires. Colonel John Hayis
one of the managers of Amasa Stones
estate, which amounts to millions, and he
has an income which would enable
him to make social success OF
any diplomatic position to which
he might be appointed. Whitelaw
Reds wife is the daughter of the noted
millionaire, ID. o. Mills, and Mr.. Reds
country home at White Plains Is said to
have cost 100000 The grounds upon
which John Hays big Washington home
stands cost about ten years ago 70 1901,
and it Is worth SIS foot today. You
would have to carpet 1t with two-doiiar
greenbacks to buy 1t, and the mansion
triumph of architecture in BRICK 1t was
designed by Richardson, and the brick
of its walls and chimneys is SO
arranged that it looks as If 1t
might have been carved out of an immense
old mountain of red sandstone, and its in
terror is Que of the most beautiful in
America. The library Is about tw enty feet
wide by forty feet long. 1t Is finished in
old English oak, with a wainscoting OF
books. It's ceiling is panelled in oak.
Great beams cross each other at right
angles, and in the center of each panel Is a
disc of oak, the grain of which shows
through the gold leaf with which it is COW
cred This library is hung with magnificent
pictures Its windows look out on Lafay-
cite square and from them you can almost
recognize the faces of the people going in
and out of the White House across the
way. 1t was in the White House that
Colonel Hay first lived in Washington,
and he came here as President Lincoln's
private secretary at salary probably less
than So 900 year. He was q good writer,
however and he could have made q big in
come outside of his official career, and he
made, am told, something like $4,000
out of the magazine publication OF his his
tory of Lincoln.
When Whitelaw Reid came to Wash
ington City he was not making much more
than Colonel Hay. He began here as cor
respondent of the Cincinnati Gazette. and
he helped out his salary by getting an APP
pointment as librarian of the House of
Representatives. He had been engaged i'll
newspaper work in Ohio, and heard him
once say that his first work as cores
pondent was on the Cincinnati Times, and
that his wages were IS a week. He soon
made reputation here at Washington,
and he added to the fame he had gotten as
war correspondent. He was given an in
terest in the Cincinnati Gazette, and then
went to the New York Tribune and made
fortune. Both Hay and Reid have been
good friends for years, and during Mr..
Reid's shorter abseLces in Europe, Colonel
Hay has sometime taken his place as the
editor of the New York Tribune.
Colonel Hay would be credit to the
United States in any diplomatic position.
He has been connected more or less with
ha ata 70 RI mi for nd ba
secretary of legation at Paris number of
years ago, and was afterwards transferred
TO Madrid. He was assistant secretary of
state under Mr.. Eyarts, and it is said that
had Blaine been elected he might have
been secretary of state. He is charming
writer ana he has true poetic genius.
Years ago he wrote THE Pike County
Ballads" in order to ridicule the dialect
poems of Bret Harte and Joaquin
Miller, and he was rather surprised
when he found his poetry taken
in sober earnest and himself famous
through it. He is, 1 am told, rather
ashamed of these poems now, and his
work in poetry which has lately appeared
in the Century. has been on a higher plane
During his stay in Spain he wrote Gas
lillian Days" and if he remains in Paris
we may get some of his pretty pictures of
French life. He will be another addition
TO the literary diplomats of the United
tiers have been literary men. Washington
Irving did famous work in Spain, and
Bayard Taylor was the most popular
American minister Germany ever had.
W. d. Howells got his literary start while
he was consul at Venice, and Julian Haw-
thorne wrote some of his best works when
he had a soft consular position in England.
Elihu Washburne kept diary while he
was minister to Paris, and his story of the
siege of that city during the Franco-Prus-
sian war is the most interesting book
which has been published on the subject.
Joel Barlow, the author of the "Colum-
bad" was minister to Russia, and Sam
Coxs' Diversions of Diplomat" is one OF
the best books published on Turkey |
know of several of our foreign
ministers who are now engaged in
the preparation of books about the coun-
tries with which they have been con-
nected. Andrew Curtin, who was minister
to Russia, will have an interesting chapter
or two concerning his experiences there in
his memoirs. which he is writing at Belle
fonte, Pa, and General DENLY. who for
the last eight years has been minister to
Pekln. has the material for an excellent
book on China and the Chinese. The
Hon. Jacob Childs. of Missouri, who was
minister TO Siam under Cleveland, has a
book on that country in the course of pre-
paration, and by all odds the best book
ever published on China was that of Wells
Williams, who went to the country as a
missionary, but who was connected with
our diplomatic service for years.
Speaking about public men as writers, l
understand that Senator Ingalls, is again
working on the Washington novel which
he had about ready for the press when the
lire occurred ut his house in Atchison and
burned his valuable library. This ire de
stroyed large amount OF manuscripts and
important letters, and it wiped out in one
night the bottled-up results of Senator In
gals intellectual life. Ingalls, had a way
OF keeping his notes upon the subjects he
was studying in the shape of marginal ref
erences on the pages ofthe books connected
with them. If bright sentence
or hrigh idea struck him while he was
reading, he jotied it down on the side of
the page and mis- memory was such that he
could always tell Just where such a note
WAS 10 he found, and his library was in
this way the half of his soul. He is 4 very
rapid writer. and he writes, if anything,
better than he talks. He has not heen
doing much writing since he left the sem
ate, but he has been put in a had light
night along hy the reporters and bv his
enemies IN Kansas. He has, metaphor
iCaliy speaking, been kicked and
cuhed in every direction and bv every
body, and his recent statement as to how
his own party treated him during the asst
campaign, is fair example of the actions
81 some Of his other so-ca.ied friends Not
long ago he came 10 Chicago. He arrived
ct the hotel with binding headache and
bad cold AMI went to his room, giving
directions that he would see no one The
reporters OF the various papers called and
sent M their cards and the word
was sent back that Mr. ingalls, was
not in. This was the case
from time 70 time during the whole after