The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-03-14

| White House, where he was official
stenoprapher Sometime | shan en-
deavor to get from Mr.. HIT ms feia-
tons as stenographer to Mr.. Lincoln,
Mr.. Lincoln has been described ~
nearly everybody else on eaFth eNc-pD
nv his stenographer. This task IS lett
| Mr.. Hit.
A few years after the war, Hit was
made stenographer to Senator Lew I.
Morton and was by him later made
clerk of the committee Of Privileges
and Elections of which Morton was
chairman. He was promoted to chleI
secretary of Legations in Paris under
Washburne, Hayes and Morton as
Ministers. and was afterwards made
Assistant Secretary of State by Gar
field. He remained in Paris seven
wears. When Arthur came in, he re-
turned to Illinois. This was in 1881.
He was elected to Congress in 1882;
was put on the Foreign Affairs COM
mittee in the following Congress, and
has been on it ever since, serving as
chairman in the Fifty-frst Congress
and in this Congress.
Mr.. Hit is recognized as a man we'll
versed in foreign affairs, but 1T is two
to one the stenographer mind, the
waiting mind,'' hangs to him still, that
mind which depends and listens for
dictation. For his presentation Of the
Cuban resolution was wretchedly
slovenly in spite of the entreaty OF
Turner. of Georgia, to have from him
some reason for all the rumpus. But
Hit gave no specifications. He said
the committee had good reasons, and
on this the resolution passed. Mr.. HIT
emphasized one good reason-without
giving it. 1t has since transpired this
was that one good reason. One MI.
Adkins. a Boston man of prominence,
had written to the State Department
asking if his property in Cuba would
be protected by the United States IN
case of Spanish revolution Of rights.
When the President was called upon
for the Cuban correspondence, he chose
to nut in this letter from Adkins which
in the parlance of the newspaper craft
hereabouts gave the governments
ease away" Prior to this, Mr.. Hit
had not, it seems, intended to report
the Cuban resolution favorably, but
after reading this letter Of Adkins, he
Welded to the opportunities of his fell
low members and came forward IN the
mild way dictated by Boss Reed.
have taken occasion to elaborate
this much in order TO show the two
lights that have warmed the Cuban
resolution into life, namely Chairman
Hit, of the House, and John Sherman
in the Senate, giving the reasons as
far as / was ablee to do SO.
The Cuban resolution, which is the
only matter of news of interest now
before Congress must be looked at
under these two lights TO be properly
understood.
Mr.. HIT is fragile. weak-voiced
man, blue eyes and close cropped
white moustache His hair is white
and thin and inclined to badness. He
is student-like and careful, modest in
domestic life. quiet in entertainment,
vet charming in hospitality and rich
with "reminiscences.
Mr.. Hit shows what stenographer
NAV come TO in this world, provided
he be a stenographer to big men.
While Mr.. Sherman sinks slowly in
the west to join the dark shadows of
Grant. and Lincoln and Fish and
Tecumseh Sherman and the rest. His
hattering words are listened to intent
Nv these latter days: they come rarely.
But the pathos Of his mental falling
away yesterday was alike painful and
memorable.
w. u. CHRISTIAN.