The herald., 1893-10-21
ROMANCE OF a. NEWsRoY.
Incidents In the Career of Ex-Governor
Waller of Connecticut.

Incidents In the Career oil Ex-GovernoF
Waller of Connecticut.
Who does not know genial Tom Wal
Ter Of Connecticut? Tom was for years
the leading lawyer of Hartford, twice
member of the assembly in the Connec-
ticut legislature, once senator and twice
governor of the Nutmeg State. He failed
the third time because he inundated
himself on the political altar to save
Cleveland. The president rewarded his
self abnegation by making him consul
general at London, the richest office in
the administration.
Tom Walter 40 years ago was news
boy on the ferryboats which piled
between Brooklyn and New York. There
was no big bridge in those days, and the
boys hovered around the ferryboats,
which carried all of the human freight
of the two great cities at that time. The
lads real name was Thomas Waller
O'Grady, and he descended from a fam
lily renowned in Irish history.
One ancestor is the famous Baron
feather O'Grady, Ireland's greatest jurist
and the compeer of Grattan, Curran,
Phillips and other renowned Irish bar
risters. His granduncle was Thomas
Standish Walter O'Grady, the bitterest
Tory and hardest landlord in the good
old bailiwickof Limerick.
Thomas Waller O'Grady's parents
died while he was almost child in arms.
He was adopted by an old Dutch family
in New York, but the restrictions i'm
posed upon the future statesman were
so irksome that he ran away and became
a newsboy. Many is the time in his
precarious calling in those days that
young Tom was compelled to sleep in a
dry goods box at night after an unsatis-
factory days labor. Tom had dropped
the family name and was known by his
youthful associates as Tom Waller.
One day while crossing the Fulton ferry
from Brooklyn to New York he met a
fussy old gentleman who wished copy
of the Hartford Courant. 1t was the
favorite paper of his native town, and
as he thought away ahead of all metro
politan journals. OF course New York
newsboys did not sell country papers,
and Tom told him SO.
However," said the cute little fellow
in a reassuring way, 81 think can get
it for you" By good luck Tom had seen
an old lady in the saloon reading tAat
very paper, which he recognized by the
ancient typein its headline, and he forth
with came up to the dame and offered to
exchange a copy of New York paper
for the medieval country sheet. The
lady was a New Englander and ready
for bargain. She had read The Cou-
rant and had no further use for it. She
thought she had made clever deal when
she exchanged the country morning pa
per for bright metropolitan evening
journal. Tom knew he had. When he
presented The Courant to the fussy old
gentleman, that dignitary gave him 81
for his pains. Then he inquired his name.
"Tom Waller" promptly responded
the newsboy. The old gentleman stood
aghast. 1t was his own name. He took
down the lads address, looked up his ref
erences and in fortnight adopted him.
He had no children, and Tom was his
idol He gave him a sound preliminary
education and then sent him to Yale col
lege. There Tom graduated with high
honors. HIS subsequent history is too
familiar to the public to require repeti-
tton.-Boston Herald.