Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1898-09-01

life for thirty years since waited in
the ante-r Dom where john Hay sat.
Gen. II race p rter, an engine Of
Grant, came there with messages.
Gen. Miles was dashing young Of
ficer, winning a generals brevet by
the most reck ess bravery on the field
Dewey, Sampson. Schley were mod
est naval lieu enants Conk,iug.
Blaine, Morrill,, Grow, Wilson, Cam
eron we're aiding in making history
They all had frequent business with
Mr. Lnc In and with his secretaries.
More than all, Mr.. Hay was in daily
iLt recourse with Lincoln himself, as
a subordinate and a friend. He
knew the giant as no one else could
know him. He saw little Of army
life, Winning his title of colonel in
a staff position, as adiutant to Presi-
dent L ncOln n the field, but his SER
vice as private secretary was vastly
more important to himself and to the
country.
Col. Hay is not exactly ashamed of
having published the Pike County
Ballads, but he's sorry he ever did it.
No by Of Little Brooches or Jim
Bludsoe can be found in the Hay
mansi II in Washingt n Their auth r
cons nted to republication som 2
years ag1, but he has never quite rec
onciled himself to the fact that these
newspaper jingles, limitations Of Bret
Harte, should be better known than
Castilian Days. 1t was, however, ole
Of those rare cas- S where the imita-
ton is better than the origins The
Ballads were an instant success The
author of Alice In Wonderland, as
much classic As Robinson Crusoe,
would never avow his W rk. He had
written some stuffy mathe NAUTICAL
treatisCs Of which he was proud Rud-
yard Kipling threw The Recessional
into the scrap basket, whence his
wife rescued it. Longfellow thought
he could write prose. Col. Hay, like
other authors, is not the best judge
OF his own work The monumental
teu-volume Life of Lincoln, by Nico-
lay and Hay, will always be a stand
ard work. These young men had the
rare sense to realize that they were
living in stirring times. They
planned their great work in 1868, and
saved for it the mass of original ma
teral which makes it the necessary
basis Of all subsequent Lincolniana
They worked for years upon the act
ri hn ;1
authoritative, necessary; but it is not
literature. 1t is too continuously
Mandatory. 1t is written In the
spirit of hero worship, which is not
that of the critical historian Abra-
ham Lincoln was a big enough man
TO have big faults-a warm man of
flesh and blcod, not a demi-god. His
character must be read between the
lines of The Life of Lincoln. 1t is
nowhere clearly expressed in them.
Perhaps his seer taries were to- close
tc ann TO see him in his true per-
srective. Their work is such as
n might write Of a father long
dead 1t bears no comparison with
Sloanes Napoleon
But Jim Bludsoa and Little
Brec ches are literature. No one knows
Why they are. Universal consent is,
in such cases, the law from which
there Is no appeal And universal
consent indorses the sentiment of
Little Brooches:
An think that sayin' little one
An bringin' him to his own,
Is a durn sight better business
Than loafn' round the throne.
In all his instincts Col. Hay is
literary man. If he had not led such
a busy life, in camp and court and
office, if he had not married wealth
and incurred responsibilities, he would
have written much more in quantity.
But he has done well as it is, with the
Ballads TO his credit and half share
in the composition of the monumental
Lincoln. There is one thing more:
He is supposed to have written The
BreadWiRners, an extraordinary serial
which appeared in the Century mag
aZine in 1883 and which has been BIT
terIy denounced by labor union leaders
Abl. nay uOtS not dIhutW ltIEt us
authorship. Perhaps he, like others,
realizes that il was written in o per
Tod of storm and stress and that some
OF its views seem now too pessimistic.
Miss Helen Hay, the coionel's oldest
daughter, besides being a society ia
yorite inherits his knack Of rhyming
One who meets Col. Hay notes in
his manner a strange mingling or
rather mingling that is not strange
but perfectly natural-of the suave
diplomat and the brusque managing
editor For Mr.. Hay has been a prac-
teal newspaper man. That he was
under no necessity Of doing Office
drudgery as the political editor of the
Tribune, after his marriage, is con
coded, but he has a real liking for
academic problems Of politics, and in
the Tribune Office devoted himself
much more TO political than to genera
news. In this respect he belonged
distinctly TO a school Of journalists
,,,,t- r,I-1pttpalIy extinct Ruf his iudw-