The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1898-09-16
NEW SECRETARY OF STATE.


,Iohn Hays College Days=-1Vas the Hand
,omo, WHY and Popular Fellow NJ
Brown Univsrsity-FeIlar Of Funny
stories.
..The hrst time ever sag John Hay.
coming secretary OF state" snId n mid
dle-aged New Yorker TO New York
press w-lter, was in my college days. I
was a freshman at Brown university.
and had stroiled into my friends
room. There saw boy OF apparently
sixteen or seventeen on his back on the
bed with his heels hlghessfHan his head.
He was telling a particularly funny
,tory. which Interested me Immensely.
though must admit vas more taken
~ with the stranger's Youthful beauty
than was with his stottHis features
were OF exquisite regufAtity and MS
complexion was a wonderful combIna-
ton of pink and white, and as delicate
ms a girls. As soon as tieould asked
my friend who the stranger was, and 1
shall never forget the aooR Of plying
condescenslon he cast unoRme.
".why, that's John HAY, he said. the
smartest fellow In the junior ciasa I
thought everybody In Brown knew Hay,
hut / forgot that you were green
freshman and hardly in college yeti
Then was introduced and I assure
YOU felt the honor qulteiRs much as
should were l to be introduced 10 any
cabinet minister now. That was more
Than forty years ago-iust forty-one, to
be exact, for Hay belonged to the class
OF 49,
Though was two years behind him
and belonged to another college society
he was q Theta Delta Chi, while was
not-John Hay was my friend from that
time on to the end OF our school days,
and has remained so ever since. In fact,
he was a friend to pretty nearly every
one In the school, though we younger
fellows were less intimate with him, OF
course, tlian his own classmates. EV-
erybodY in all the classes looked up to
him. To tell the truth he was the lead
or Of the entire body OF students. SEN
iors and all. He was at once the hand
soonest, the wittlest. the jolllest and the
most sympathetic fellow in the whole
school, and his power over the seniors
was quite as complete as over the
freshmen.
There were times though. when he
wasn't friendly to anyone. Usually he
was all smiles and good words. but oc-
casionally he would appear with
frown as black az thunderbolt upon
his brow. Then his jollity was turned
TO uall and NORWOOD, and whoever adj
dressed him was sure to receive surly
answer. on such occasions we all
avoided him, even going 60 far some
times as to cross to the other side of
the way to save meeting. / can give
you no better notion OF the general af-
lection in which he was held by his fell
low students at Brown than to say that
the whole institution seemed out Of
sorts whenever John Hay had the
blues, and am happy TO say that they
came at rare intervals only and quickly
disappeared as rule.
Not being in any OF his classes I
can't speak with much detail about his
tastes and points OF excellence as a
student, but / am sure that in a gem
eral way he excelled in letters and rhet-
oric. His essays were the admiration Of
the faculty and the despair Of the stu
dents, before whom they were always
held up as models for imitation. 1t
would have been as sensible to order
candles to shine with the brilliance OF
the MONDAY sun.
Hay used to like his own writings
mighty well in those days, OF at least
we thought he did, for It was his In
variable custom to learn every one Of
his essays by heart. hive heard him
repeat more than one piece OF his stu
dent writing verbatim months after
producing 1t, and once for our edlfca-
zion he reeled on whole essay from
memory full year after It was writ
ten. He had a great memory. anyway.
He could commit pages and chapters OF
history bV simply reading them over
once, and It was the same way with
lists OF names, tables of figures and
series OF dates. don't know whether
he will thank me for bringing this 70
the attention OF the public or not; dc
remember he thought lightly OF his
wonderful gift in this direction, and
frequently declared 1t to be faculty
OF no great moment.
In speaking OF his writings as stu
dent ought % say that he wrote verse
then as well as prose, but none OF his
college verse was OF the Jim Bludso' or
Little Breaches variety. And / may
say concerning Little Breaches that he
thought almost as little Of that famous
production when 1t was written as he
evidently does now. He wrote II while
serving as one of President Llncoln,s
secretaries, without intending that II
Ghould ever be put into type. One dag,
when Mr. Lincoln seemed to need some
thing 10 cheer him up, Hay read this
poem to him.
Lincoln liked II right we'll, and in
sisted on Its being published. Hay pro-
tested for come time, but finally yielded.
trembling lest II be rldiculed every
where. But II ever was a writer who
went obscure to bed at night TO awaken
famous next morning, It was Hay, and
It was Little Brooches that brought
him fame.
"Hay had plenty Of money, while a
student Mt Brown, md spent II freely,
too. for his father was well-to-do, though
not as rich by any means as Amasa
Stone, whose daughte: later became
Mrs Hay But John was anything but
foppIsh. or dudish. as you would put II
nowadays. and his clothes were never
OF the latest cut. Neither did he select
most OF his friends from the rich OF his
fellow students The penniless young
man was Just as likely 20 be a special
TavOrite with him as anyone else, and
until the last yenr OF his college course
he passed most OF his hours Of recrea-
ton among his fellows, rather than In
the social circles Of the town that were
open to the students
His closest friends at Brown were
Richard Olney. who was later to hold
the portfolio OF stnte, now soon to be
placed In the hands Of Hay. and WIN
lam L. Stone. now publisher OF the New
York Journal Of CommerceH olney was