The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-05-16
PUBLIC MEN AND TOPICS.
MATTERS OF CURRENT INTEREST AS
SEEN IN WARRINGTON.

Senator Piatt and Life ut the CapitaI-sennto
Proctor = Contributor to John Brown'
Raid-.Pacinc Coast saen-Fsannn ana the
Observation-Disclosures story or Thomas law.
WASHINGTON, May l6.-The New York sena
TOR, Plat, came along by the Arlington Hotel,
straight, steady, not unneighborly, and I said:
"This city must seem idle to you, accustomed
TO your regimen of real labor in New York;"
"work enough here" he replied. but the
glamour OF Washington life has gone
Yet Mr.. Plat is only 81; but he was only 40
when he came to Congress here. i see his col'
league. Murphy, being driven sometimes behind
n span OF horses; he is 80 and past. Omit from
Mr.. Platt's life his political relation, and there APP
pear s.S. a record @Stc q eyo5 HSb ITtyat s2s yiFtq 1rs as dS5esF:
but when ho reached for the tree OF Congress
and got some OF the fruit the big And LITTLE E ios
Thus tho public life has a stigma, and II the boys
read the jargon OF mmen upon PoItics.
country at ali, except In the dead statesmen;
But the dead also erred in tho. public. life and
know its ingratitudc. Our patriotism Is still In
the boys.
Riding along with Senator Proctor Of Yer
mont through Pleasant Valley, which parallels
the valley John Brown hid in before descending
on Harper's Ferry, that Senator said to me-:
81 was n contributor to John Browns raid.
~ NHb unCOIioSloubis, vi NouioC. WhA 20 "
about 1t.
"In February, eight months or moro before
We heard OF Brown at Harper's Ferry. he came
90 Vermont lecturing on Kansas. At Proctors-
vile, near Rutland, l went to hear him. He was
right interesting. and after the lecture the hat
was passed, and I put in what was at hand.
The next day occurred one of our regular Yer
mont SHOWS. and i went over to Gov. Fletcher's
and there found Brown, and he talked Kansas
preston on me that ] Just emptied my pockets
and gave him all had OF money. He had never
Tor Kansas. But / suppose my money went
against Harper's Ferry, for he did not go back to
John Brown captured my Judgment as we'll as
my feelings. He had no self praise; not much
the Southern character and he said they ad:
pired nothing but force, and an exhibition Of
0as by force, he said: GO thou and invade Mis-
souri, He was nightly calm. His force was in
h his S Snie s, pGIw %sr ! ! 5hink b he ES%ld e1 hays mSde
and that was what we stood in need Of the most.
E = ranger en- G e. P 2tnInn s,S snteFHP 's a.rn FSsr1 FsrT or
raid. measured by other things. was wild, but he
was the greatest being in It. His INSTRUMENTATION
The historic consistency and dignity"
Said William Penn Nixon of the Inter.Ocean,
coming to Washington from Chicago:
Moral causes are generally physical causes.
Cheap paper made from wood and straw instead
Of cotton rags has lowered the prices and
tone of our better journals. Circulation became
the motive to print and the aim fell lower down.
Yet. from what we hear. the most profitable
Journals have maintained their price. Our drop
to one cent in Chicago was the issue OF q compe-
tition between Lawson and Medil. Lawson was
publishing q ,two-cent new morning paper for
on5 cont, while Medill became apprehensive
AtNsrt hta N1H turn nnnf rarar AVID n
war. We ali anne down together to a cent. At
that price there is nothing much at the business;
Sundsy issue; SO they keep up the war. Chicago
has more money in its banks than ever; but the
f ssrYets of b Of tbs are Tr aisfTreed d n M9i d5Sgs &o tas
some hundreds Of thousands OF dollars"
I was riding to Washington with John Cas-
sells, the local director there OF the Pennsylva-
mia Railroad. and C. X. Lord. n Vice-President
Of the baltimore and Ohio. when the forme. said:
THE Pennsylvania Railroad is emphettcally
the property OF its stockholders. 1t has $780,
900. 900 of stock and $50, 00O, 900 of bonds. Half
its stock Is owned in England. When its Presi-
dent wants money. he goes to its stockholders.
went to his bondholders. There is a security OF
employment, a civil service running all through
Yes" said Mr.: LORD. THAT is your strong
play. your men feeling that they have a life In
I think Mr.. Casseiis said that the employed
force through the Pennsylvania system was near
100, 900 men.
Said ex-United States Senator Charles n.
FELTON, of California. who succeeded Senator
Hearst and was beaten by Senator White: Cal
ifornia is, to a reasonable man. the most salts
factory land on the globe. But our people de-
Hight in grievances. Their idea 10 to make out
of their farms several thousand dollars a year
each and spend it all. With Eastern thrift they
would generally be long ahead of the world.
Wheat and fruit have both been subsequent re-
turns, as mining long was thought to be our re-
lance. They growl at the prices, but their
market is always widening. 1t is a good thing
that the mines have given way TO agriculture
and manufactures. Our Mining Exchange is
hardly a vitality any more. A few persons once
gambled with the society and got its all. Nevada
has only 10000 votes. so much have her mines
fallen, and they could just as easily have been
handled by Jones and Stewart upon high ideas
rs silver demagogy. / have been an officer
Of the Mint, and it was always apparent to me
that gold and silver never could be kept at the
same valuation. Ages attempted 1t in vain. and
finally their fluctuations compelled the cheaper
of the two to be dropped. Generally speaking,
the dervishes in metallurgy and money are poor
business men; that Is the case OF three of them
who keep up this silver crusade, Jones. Stewart.
and Newlands. They are all good fellows, as
nice comrades as You can meet, but see the sums
of money they have all had and by erroneous
management have lost! Newlands paid 800, 900
for one piece of property at Washington offered
him for $45, 900. His country railroad leases tho
city cable road, and the obligations of the con-
Germ, you tell me, rise from half a million to
millions. Jones is a scholarly reader, but
Is Of no consequence to him. He was
the apostle OF gold, and now his silver and fiat