St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-07-22
ODDS AND ENDS.


Watterson has made OF the history of
the proposed movement of $1,000 Dem
ocrats to Washington, as a sort of peace
congress, during the electoral trouble
of lS76. Watters0n tells a good story of
Grant. 1t was at dinner few months
before Grants death. where Grant and
Watterson touched elbows at the table.
and the former had charged Watterson
with having made some unkind state
ment about him in the Courier journal.
which the latter denied. As explana-
tions were in order, Watterson said to
Grant: IL heard, Grant, that you said.
in the Tilden-Hayes affair. that II
came to Washington with 100000 Ken
tuckians you would hang NE higher
than Hamap." No. Henry" said
Grant. Il didn't say that-but would"
And that reminds me- of good story
of Grant that Is worth telling again, as
IL shows that the grim and silent warrior
was not slow OF wit nor deficient in
humor. On his return from his voyage
around the world the San Francscans
gave him big reception. Among the
throng who came to meet him was
young lady whom the master Of cere-
monies presented to the general with:
"Gen. Grant. permit me to present Miss
Helen Richmond" With smile the
general bowed and said: That's what
| got the last time was there"
HoweIls made the acquaintance of
Lowell in 1860, and imp reSsed him, the
latter wrote in an introductory note to
Hawthorne, as a "youth who has more
in him than any OF our younger fellows
in the way of rhyme" In later letter
to Howells, Lowell said he thought him
a man of sense as we'll as genius. aud
advised him to keep fast mold of the
one, for it is the clue that will bring
you to the door that will open to the
magic password of the other" won-
dered as | read this if Lowell had not
discerned already in the budding genius
that strain of sentimentallty, the anti
pode of sense, which has so lately deVel-
oped, and whether the advice to keep
a fast hold of sense was not provision
of Howells' "Altruria."
What braggarts these children are, to
be sure; and, like those of their elders
who have not been taught by the ex-
periences of their years to cloak tbs dis
position, into what ludicrous absurdi-
ties it, leads them. There was that
shaver, for Illustration, who. not to be
outdone by his playmate who had told
his teacher Of the souvenir spoon
mamma had brought from the WORT DIS
fair, said that his papa hal been there
and brought home souvenir spoon
too. and it was marked Palmer
House." One other instance OF this de-
sire to exceed was when little girl
showed to a playmate souvenir spoon
her papa had brought from Victoria,
whose handle ended with seals tooth.
This" she told her mate. lis the tooth
of seal" ooh, that's nothing" was
the ready and complacent response;
1--WE have one with an elephants tooth
OH it." Sometimes this disposition has
its embarrassments,as when the assessor
came to make his view and list the
household belongings for taxation, and
the children, as he awaited the coming
of the head of the family. begdiled him
with Munchausen tales of the gold and
silver plate and jewelry the family pos
sessed, revelations which paterfamilias
had some difficulty later in disavowing.
That rough old master, Life, teaches
these little boasters discretion in time,
if repressed, for instance, in the edi-
torial rooms, it breaks out the more
furiously in the circulation Office.
There are mental vacations as we'll as
physical ones; there are summer resorts
among the books as we'll as among the
trees, where one can find relaxation from
the soberer themes which form ones
daily grind OF work, where light fancy
and humor and wit answer for trees
aud flowers and birds and soft winds
One of my favorite summer resorts
among my books is the Letters of
Lowell" for trip to which | frequent
ly drop the heavyweights of tariffs and
strikes and politics to read these letters
and smile at their flashes of humor and
laugh at the sallies of wit and be
touched with their occasional pathos, and
always be charmed with the rich ;person-
atty of the genius which these letters
reveal and which is hidden iu his more
formal writings. Lowell had been ap-
pointed to professorship of language
and literature i'll Harvard, and given a
years vacation to be spent in Europe in
preparatory studies. One of his letters
is from Dresden, where he is studying
German and wrestling with its cases
and genders, getting more often thrown
than throwing. ANY one who has made
the attempt to conquer the difficulties of
that remarkably elastic tongue will ap-
preciate this extract from the letter:
"Aber potztausend Donnerwetter! what
a language 1t is, to be sure! with nomi-
natives sending out as many roots as
that witch-gras which is the pest of all
child-gardeus, and sentences in which
one sets sail like an admiral with sealed
orders, not knowing where the devil he
is going to till he Is in mid. ocean!
The COMPOUNDED gendersl If | die l
will have engraved on my tombstone
that died of der, die, das, not because
caught 'em, but because couldn't"
The devil is never so black as he is
painted. and there is no man or woman