The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-05-14
MAI. HAYES AsToNIsHED.
The Man He Rejected as g. Recruit
Now a millionaire and Congressman.
From the New York Times.

From the New York Times.
Washington, May 4-Official society
here is too much convulsed over the ex-
perience of an army officer and a CON
gresham to discern the lesson which is
hidden in an interesting incident. Pre-
liminary to the narrative it should be
said that Maj. E. M. Hayes, Seventh
Cavalry, was in 1881 stationed at st.
Louis as recruiting officer. He was
then captain of the Fifth cavalry
The other day he was on his way to
Washington, and while seated in the
parlor car was approached by neatly
attired gentleman, who asked him if he
were an army officer. Mai. Hayes ack-
nowledged his connection with the service
and was glad to know that his visitor
had always had an interest in the army.
In the explanation that followed the
gentleman related that he had met Mai.
Hayes at St. Louis, where in 1881 he had
gone. little better than a tramp, to enlist
in the army. Mai. Hayes rejected him
for official disqualificatiOns, and the
wOuld-be recruit walked to Le3venworth,
Kan, where he obtained employment as a
cook for the army teamsters. This was
, interesting to Mai Hayes, and he was
naturally curious at the signs of prosper
ity attaching to d man who had been ten
years before simply mule drivers chef.
In the course of conversation the gen
tleman disclosed the fact that he owned
considerable property in Ohio, through
which state they were passing; that he
was greatly interested in horses and
owned large stable, and that when he
got to Washington he was going to stay
i at the Shoreham. Mai Hayes made up
mis- mind that man who had ten years
before been rejected as an army recruit
and who talked so Familiarity of landed
estates, railroads, manufactures, valuable
live stock and high-toned hotels must be
a crazy person whose harmlessness might
disappear at any moment, He moved
ReryOusly in his chair as the gentleman
continued the conversation, betraying
himself as a man of immense wealth, and
felt that his fears were fully justified
when the gentleman said he was a mem
Der of the next House.
Mai. Hayes was not treasured until he
had sought congressional friend and
found that his companion of the parlor
car was Congressman William J. White of
Cleveland, and that in the ten years which
had elapsed since the now millionaire was
rejected by Mai Hayes as unsuitable for
service in the army ne had amassed
fortune out of so small thing as chewing
gum.
White, while cooking for the mule
drivers in Kansas, extended the hospital
ity of the kitchen one night to an old
peddler of chewing gum. The appear
ance of the peddler was always sign for
the expenditure of the spare change Of
the soldiers, for he brought an article of
better flavor than the raw spruce gum
which had up to that time reached the
camp. White purchased the receipt for
the old peddlers gum and started on
small scale the production Of the material.
In half the period it has taken Mai. Hayes
to go from the grade of captain to that Of
major, the hostler's beanbaler has devel-
oped into a leading American manufact-
urer, millionaire and congressman.