The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-04-13
SENATORS, OLD AND YOUNG.
HARRIS OF TENNESSEE THE PATRI-
ARCH OF THE CHAMBER.


Was Born, and Napoleon Was sim
Upon the Stnge-MOrgan of Ala
bnma Comes Next in Point of Years
The Members at the Other
End of the Class.
Washington, April 1O.-The honor of be-
ing the Oldest senator does not seem 20
be properly appreciated. That distinction
probably belongs TO the ex-confederate
soldier. Isham c.. Harris of Tennessee, but
wild horses could not draw from him the
date of his birth. He is as sensitive on
that point as a spinster of certain age
and carefully refrains from giving any in
formation which will lead up to It. even
In the photographed sketches that
| grace the congressional directory. How
ever one may come within gun-shot of
the mark by figuring out the years of his
public service. For instance, he says he
began the practice of law in a; supposing
him to have been "A years of age at that
time, he would now be SO-but he was
| probably nearer 30 when he acquired his
| profession, in those early days when edu-
cation was not easily and rapidly obtain
ed as now. When Zachary Taylor and
Lewis Cass ran against Martin Van Blu
rem, he was presidential elector. well on
toward middle age. 1t seems to me that
such long life, which embraces much Of
the worlds history is thing to he proud
Of, rather than disguised and hidden as
If ones coming into the world at an early
date were an indiscretion of which one
ought not to have been guilty. But then,
we all have our weaknesses you know,
and that of appearing ashamed of length
of years is not confined to the senator
from Tennessee. When he was born
King George ", was on the English
throne, and Napoleon had not passed off
the stage. His memory goes back to days
when there were less than 10000 goo people
in this baby republic, which now boasts its
100000 and more; when Virginia was the
center of population, wealth and aristoc-
racy, and Philadelphia the frontier of a
wilderness bordering on the bowling, and
all the country west OF Ohio terra incog-
ntta, represented on the map by yellow
blotch called The Northwest Territory
Dispute his weight of years and few
bodily inHrmities, Senator Harris Is by no
means like a word dat some cody done
said and den forgotten" as the aged dar-
tally, If not physically, as many of his
| colleagues whose memories can reach
back no farther than a few years "befo
the wah 3" IN the Vernacular of his section
Next in years in the United States Sen.
ate is the eX-confederate brigadier gen
eral. John T. Morgan Of Alabama, whose
name in the directory, Ike Abou Ben Ad-
hams in the famous poem, leads all the
rest He was born in p. Just two years
ahead Of Senator Hoar, although he looks
a score Of years younger than tn latter
To look at him, you would be ready to
swear he couldn't be day older than 60
That comes of being naturally small
spare and wiry Of frame and phlegmatle
| of temperament; and no doubt longevity
is a heritage from his Welsh prcgenitors.
His father died at "a, his grandfather at
81, and mis- great-grandfather at 49, Sem
ator Morgan says: Il remember feeling
quite chagrined because my father did not
live to be 100. He really ought to have
done so, and might as well as not If he
| hadn't been crank on the subject Of
total abstinence. In his later years his
physicians told him he must take stimu-
lants. Blu he obstnately refused, saying
that he had lived all his life without
touching spurious liquors and was not
going to begin in + old age. He thought
he had lived long enough anyway and
went peacefully to his Like one who
wraps the drapery Of his couch about him
and lies down to pleasant dreams
This remarkable southern gentleman
who cheerfully curtailed a few years Of
life rather than indulge in a mild daily
tpple, designed his son John T., for a
minister of the Gospel But the son had
other views. He determined to be a tin
smith, and actually went to a mechanic
of that guild and asked to be apprenticed
In an interview the other day, Senator
Morgan said to me: II did not go against
my fathers wishes because did not be-
lieve in the tenets of the Christian reig-
ion. ! have always been firm believer
in the holy scriptures from Geneses to
Revelations; but / had formed a most
exalted ideal of the life and duties of a
clergyman and feared that ! could not
come up to the mark" A compromise
was finally effected between pater fam
ilias and himself, In favor of the law; so
a lawyer he became, and a good one, too,
although, to again use his own words: II
never stepped foot upon a college campus
in my life, until one day during the war
had occasion to take my regiment be-
hind the brick walls Of the campus Of
| William and Mary College, on the Nir-
| ginia peninsula, to find protection from
the minie-balls and rifle bullets that we're
| whizzing in our direction" He was adj
mitted to the bar Just fifty-two years ago
and says that in looking back over the
years of his law practice IL gives him the
| greatest satisfaction TO remember that OF
the fifty-seven men charged with capital
crimes whom he defended only one was
hanged. Whether any Of the others de-
served to be is not the question. In the
south II is a natural transition from the
bar to politics. Gen. Morgan took his seat
in the United States Senate in n and
has been in continuous service ever since
his present term expiring in 1901. His wife
died some years ago, but he still keeps an
ideal home in Washington, with his grown
up children. His house is a roomy, sub
stantial structure, far from the fashion
able west end opposite the church which
President Cleveland formerly attended and
near 70 the district court and pension
buildings. The family love II because Il
has large rooms and high ceilings and
plenty Of windows to let In sun and air
from across the wide judiciary square
The senator's study. on the second floor
is ample enough to make three Of the av-
| erage Washington apartments. In the
center stands his great desk with its num-
| erous compartments systematically la
| belled a huge bookcase against the wall
| contains volumes OF the Congressional Re
cord from away back and such books as
| he frequently reads, while uDon smaller