The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-07-09

"Do you think the South will ever equal
the North as an agricultural country?
Il doubt it." was the reply. Climatic
influences are such that the people of the
South will not work like we do in the
North. They can get along with less work
and they will do it. Immigration won't
change this. and the Yankees who go down
there lose their grit in five years and are as
slow as their Southern neighbors. Climate
has a great deal to do with the making of
has everything to do. Take the cattle of
Texas; l was down there not long ago,
and saw those great Texas steers. ali
skin, bones and horns. They are so gaunt
that you can scrape their bones and put all
the meat into their horns. AS looked at
them asked the people why they did not
raise Durham cattle. They replied that
they had tried the experiment, but that
the old cattla quickly died, and that their
offspring grew to be like the others In
year or So"
by the way. Mr.. Secretary, where does
your family come from? You are Scotch.
are you nOt?
was the reply. II was just looking over
my . erd book at the department to-day
L mean my genealogical record. 1t makes
my family angry to have me call it my
herd book. Well, found that one of my
ancestors sold the Mayflower to the Pill
grims and he came over himself on the next
ship. The family drifted from New Eng
land to New York. and my father went
from New York TO Michigan and settled
in Detroit"
Secretary Morton is well-educated man.
he talks huenty, using the best OF Eng
lish, and my chat with him showed me that
his studies had covered wide range. Dur
ing it / asked him where he had gone TO
school and he replied:
Of n1nn1tiNn
acquired at the Michigan University a,
Ann Arbor l was there two years and
then left on account of the action Of the
college as to fraternities. The faculty
decided to wipe out the Greek letter socie-
ties, and in wiring them out they wiped
me out. 81 was member of the Chi Psi
fraternity, the one 10 which Tom Palmer,
the eX-United States Senator and Minister
to Spain, Melville w. Fuller, the Chief
JUS ice of the Supreme Court. and Don
Dickinson belonged. We we're all boys
together. but Palmer had at this time left
college and taken trip 10 Spain. After
leaving Ann ArbCr l went to Union Col
ege at Schenectady, n. Y, which was
then presided over by DR.. Eiiphalet Mott.
aud finished my education there"
How old were you when you went
West?"
81 was just about D." was the reply. II
went West on my wedding tour, and the
greater undertak ing than it Is now. We
went by rail from Chicago to Alton on the
Mississippi River. There was no such a
thing as sleeper at that time and we had
to sit UP all the way. From Alton we went
by steamer to st. Louis and from st. Louis
up the Missouri to st. Joseph by steam
boat. Here we got stage and rode on TO
Council Bluffs. The trip took about eight
days and nights and il was full of hard
ships. 1t could be made now in about a
day.
I'VE settled first at Bellevue. and the
next spring we moved TO Nebraska City,
where we took up the quarter section on
which l now live. l have added little TO
it, but it is The same ground that | got
FROM the Government thrty.eight years
ago. We began life in log cabin. and my
boy, by the way, has just had picture Of
this cabin made in injection with some
others on sheet advertising his cereal
and starch mandatory. Under the cabin
lie has put the words The house in which
the president of the company began bust
ness AS l looked at it asked him what
business he had carried on in the abin,
and be replied: Il suppose you might call
it milking business"
| doubt whether there is man in the
country who loved his wife better than
did Secretary Morton, and there are few
husbands who have been more devoted to
their memories. L heard something of the
story while [ was in Nebraska this sum-
mer. Governor Morton was engaged to
his wife when she was IA. She was mar
ried to him at the age of 81, and their
married life was one long honeymoon of
tTenty-Seven years. She bore him four
boys, and when she died these four sons
formed the pa!l-bearers who bore her 10
the tomb. During my talk with Secretary
Morton spoke of his wife and asked him
ii ne had a picture of her. He took locket
fror of nef nlof md how Add
it to me. On the back of it was the face of
very pretty woman. and as l looked at it
the secretary told me that ii was the pic
ture of his wife, and be feelingly referred
to her influence over his life and her char
acter. He handed me memoir which was
published at The time of her death, ana he
told ME that this lOcket had never been
out of his hands since that time. She was,
indeed. the best half of the secretary's
soul, and his life since she died has been
wratped up in his children and grand
children. The four Morton boys are all
married and the secretary has a number of
grandc lldTen.
On Thanksgiving OF 1890 the Secretary
held sort of Morton reunion at his home,
and photographs were taken of the little
MortOns in all shapes and in all sorts of
groups. A book mas been made of these
pictures and the dignifed Secretary APP
pears in many Of them. In some pictures
the cUlluTeu nave lIleiT HtdUS OIndUenCeu
with leaves and feathers, and one of the
pictures represents wrestling match, In
which one of the participants looks strik-
ngly like Secretary Morton. Another
represents Writ Morton, lusty. laughing
baby, with its finger in its mouth, and the
subscription states that the infant is aged
six months. / noted at the first Of this
book that it bore the book plate IF he Sec
rotary Of Agriculture. 1t consists of a tree
and scroll under it. In which are printed
the words, "Plant trees" Below this is
the inscription "Arbor Lodge" and Secre-
tary Morton's anne, which he parts in the
middle and prints y. Sterling Morton"
AS | looked at this the conversation
turned to the planting of trees and the
Secretary told me that $4,000, 000, 900 trees
have been planted in Nebraska since he
naugurated the institution of Arbor day
there in 1872.
The conversation here turned to the
Department OF Agriculture and l asked
the Secretary whether he was making any
changes in the methods Of running it. He
replied:
II am making great many. and am
trying 10 bring the department down to a
practical business basis, | believe in