The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-02-27

squares below it is the brick house
which Senator Window built on Scott
circle, long before he was made secre-
tary Of the treasury. Window, as you
know, started life as a tailor, studied
law and finally became great states
man.
When he was in the senate he built
this house, and during his next cam
paign for reelection some of his on
pOnents distributed photographs of it
over the state of Minnesota and queS-
toned how man who was once so
poor could make enough to build it.
The result was his defeat, although |
doubt not that every cent of the money
put into the house was honestly made.
About midway between the old Win
dom mansion and Senator Foraker's
new house is the palatial structure
which 'SecOr'' Robson built when he
was secretary of the paVy. You re-
member the scandals connected with
his administration. He left Washing
ton comparatively poor man, and the
house was for long time a drug on
the market. Then Bourke Cochran
bought it, only to drop out of public
life here when he had just come to be
known. Within a rifles shot of For
akers house is the mansion which
once belonged to the late Senator Van
Wyck, of Nebraska. A photograph of
it was circulated among his constitu-
ents and brought him to ruin, as far
as his political prospects were concern
ed. During James G.. Blaines cam
paign photograph of his house on Du-
pont circle was generally distributed
over the United States, and, in fact,
the day seems to have come when the
building of a big house is almost the
foreshadOw of political ruin.
At any rate, it takes a strong man
to carry the burden, and 1 wonder if
Foraker will ever sit in his parlor, as
the late Senator Stockbridge is said to
have done, and long for a parrot
When Stockbridge had made his pile,
he built a homestead at Kalamazoo
which cost him something like quar-
ter of million dollars He put about
half of that amount in furniture and
then, plain and simple man that he
was, sat down to enjoy it. He had,
however, no appetite for gOrgeo -sn SIS,
and one day when a friend of his had
gone with him over the house and was
looking with amazement, at the evil
dences of his prosperity, the Million
aire lumberman said:
Il am glad you like it, Jim. I think
myself it is very fine of the kind, but
there is only one thing L lack. l want
a parrot"
"A parrot replied the visitor. "a
parrot, Stockbridge! What on earth
do you want with a parrot?'
'Tll tell you, jim said Stockbridge,
in a whisper so low that the ladies in
the next room should not hear it. Il
want a parrot to sit on a perch over
that door and say every time 1 come
in, Here comes the id fool that built
this shantyr"
Poor Once, but Now, oh, My!
Still Senator Foraker passed his boy
hood in a log cabin. You have heard
the tradition of his coffee sack trous-
erS, and the story Of how, by pure
brains and nerve, he is now broad
cloth United States Senator with ap-
parently money to burn. l know Of
a score of public men who started life
poor boys, and who now live in pal
aces. Secretary Alger was born in a
cabin, worked for four dollars a
month, and for a time lived upon
thickened milk and cornmeal He has
a magnificent home in Detroit, and has
rented a house here near the corner of
Sixteenth and H streets, for which he
pays more per month, l venture, than
he earned in the first six years of his
working life. He has pictures which
are worth more than a congressman S
salary, and some of his rugs have cost
more than his whole housekeeping
outfit with which he began his mar
ried life.
Levi q. Letter, the northumberland,
whose son has been cornering the
wheat of the United States in Chicago.
cierked during a part of his boyhood
for few dollars a week in Columbus,
O., living in a cheap boarding house.
He began his career in Chicago as a
bookkeeper, and his circumstances were
such that he dared not kick if the po-
tatoes were soggy or the butter was
strong. Today he has a palace here
which surpasses the White house in
its grandeur 1t stands on ground
which cost 100000, and the cream
white Milwaukee brick of which it was
made came here in individual pack
ages, each brick being wrapped up in
brown paper. There is no chance for
the Letter butter to get strong, for
there is an ice house in the mansion
in which you can store away enough
ice to last for a month"; and the cold
storage rooms are such that the beeves,
sheep and game which are served up
on the table can be kept there for
weeks without spelling. Young Letter
had to eat what was set before him.
The millionaire Letter of today raises
his own beef and mutton on his farm
IN Wisconsin. 1t is killed there by his