The Wichita daily eagle., 1896-01-02
BREWER OF KANSAS.

| DdNlu .JoSidH bTeWtT WIS DeTU uL-
der one of the luckiest stars of 1887, a
| year in which so many great Kansans
accepted earthly existence. The wri-
ter of these lines, himself, is in his
fifty-ninth year, which is the most
modest way that he can think of in
! calling attention to a fact of such uni
verSal recognition for many miles up
and down the ArkanSaw. But to that
| other and more prominent personality
of that epochal year, and formerly a
Kansas, David Josiah, who first saw
the light of this corporate-ridden world
in Smyrna. Asia Minor The way Da-
vid came to be born in the dominion Of
the Sublime Porte was owing partially
to the fact that his father was Il mis-
Sionary to the Greeks, but principally
for the reason that his mother happen
ed TO be with his father. Besides
Kansas had not then been discovered.
Whatever else David JoSiah's father
may have done or been in the way Of
a preaher he was too smart 10 become
a missionary among cannibals, and he
was orthodox enough to load his son
well down with the names of gentle
men who had prominently fiourished
in that quarter Of the world in Bibn-
cal times But il was not his names
which made him great so much as the
fact that great men are all born Of
great mothers, and his mother was
sister of David Dudley and Cyrus w.
Field. Taking the conjunctions of his
natal year and maternal begetting and
David ]. Brewer would have probably
turned out a great man had he never
discovered Kansas. However he tit our
great commonwealth in every partic-
ufar, save as To its motto. "Ad astra
per aspera'' was never written for Da
vid Brewer. He never reaches any
thing through tribulatiOn. He simply
smoothly sailed into all of his various
exalted deStinieS. His first break, af
ter reaching Kansas, was to sail up the
great Arkansas valley for Pixies Peak
Other prominent KanSanS born in the
same year, we have a vivid, no less
than regretful remembrance, did the
same thing. In fact when it comes 10
the great men of Kansas it becomes
difficult to eliminate the great Arkan
sas valley. Afterwards, locating in
by fighting shy of Dan
our hero commenced his pO- |
litical ascent since which time his AL |
pine banner of Excelsior" has always |
to keep at the head of the
political procession. From probate |
Judge he went like meteor to the |
district bench. After four years he |
slipped back to the position of county |
for a more solid footing and |
then made leap for the supreme
bench, where, it is unnecessary to add.
be successfully landed, with both feet.
The writer here again came into con-
junction with greatness by being secre-
rary of the state convention which
nominated David Josiah and was his
warm supporter. AT this point the
pathS Of the great men of 1887 widely
iiverged, Plumb giong to the United
States senate, Brewer TO the United
States circuit bench and the other of
he trio into ill-deserved obscurity, on
Y TO be finally discovered by the Nor
i'll administration and by it consigned
o infamy. But to our hero, David
Josiah, of the upward and onward
Before he had time to be-
.ome acquainted with the clerks and
attorneys of the circuit bench, with
barely time in which TO write out an
opinion or two fearfully Swiping the
corporate powers of the country it is
to the world that discrim-
mating chief Executive had named
lim for an associate justice of the su-
Dreme court of the United States of
America. There seemed nothing but
he presidency itself left for this name
'ake of a shepherd-king and of a
prophet of Israel. But not so. The
ucky star of his political horoscope
brought to light an unsettled boundary
inc of a sister republic of the twin
continents. and through a war cloud,
80 dense and vast as to shadow all
he civilizations Of the world. David
Josiah. formerly of Kansas, is hailed
~ the chief of his nation as another
nan Of destiny whom he at once off
tally recognized and named by a prin-
:ipal factor to the exigency of an emer-
yency which will send his biblical cog
lomen hustlinS around the globe and
along the corridors of time in
'uch pronounced way aS promises TO
'orce our hero. at no late day. TO write
{: ''David Josiah Brewer. President
,f tho I-Ditod Sto-,S Of A,,or;co