The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1898-12-29
PERSONAL.

The late ex-senator Brice got far more
out of his 50 years OF life than any man
that can be at present named. For the
! first Is years he was boy in the Scantily
furnished home of a pioneer Presbyterian
preacher in the hard, new country OF the
| BLACK Swamp" of Ohio. In Summer ne
ran around barefooted in the dense prime
val forests of that region, and in the
Winter gained such education as the COM
mon schools and his cultivated father
could give him. Then for four years he
was alternating his studies at Miami
University with terms OF service as
| private and an officer in the volunteer
regiments raised by Ohio. Then came
years more of study in the University at
Ann Arbor, and of struggles to get him.
| self established as a lawyer. At last he
struck his gait as railroad builder and
manager, and for the last % years he was
a railroad magnate, capitalist, pOllti-
cal boss, q United States Senator, a social
leader, and popular clubman. At the
time OF his death he was engaged in
colossal enterprise to furnish China with
a grand trunk railroad, in which he had
Interested the Vanderbilts, Eokefellers,
ex-Vice-President Morton, and men OF
that financial caliber, who represented
Altogether over $1,000, 900, 600 OF capital.
Such are the possibilities opened up to
every American boy
None of the coveted medals OF honor
which have been so far given have been
more wortilily bestowed than that which
last week was pinned on the breast OF
Maj. F. W. Haskell, formerly an enlisted
man in the Sd Me-, and afterward Ad
jutant of the 18th Me. The specified act
of gallantry for which it was granted was
,rformed at the battle OF Fair Oaks,
June 1, 1852. At that time Comrade Has
kell was Sergeant-hIajOr of the Sd Me.
1t happened that the three left companies
had become separated from the rest of the
regiment, and were under heavy fire,
with no commissioned officers present.
Comrade Haskell saw that an important
advantage could be gained, and they be
relieved from the fire, by quick advance,
and he shouted to his comrades to charge,
and he led them forward in an impetuouS
assault viii N swept the rebels OIL the
field. Qiite number OF officers wit
messed the act, and he was hi hly praised
for it. The medal came to him without
hi, seeking, and Gen. o. o. Howard, the
Colonel of the Sd Me-, but commanding
the brigade, and number of other officers
united in a request to the Secretary OF
War to grant the medal.
Probably the only Roman Catholic
PRIEST VINO Is OF Il fOSJ III the
GAR is Gen. VIM. A. Olmstead, who
was converted to Catholicism some years
ago, and has been living at the University
of Notre Dune, prepiril g himself for the
Priesthood, and celebrated his first mass
on Christmas. He is Commander OF
Notre Dame Post, 500, Department of
Indiana, GAR, and was one of the
Indi ina Delegates to the National En-
campment at Cincinnati No young sol
der in the Army of the Potomac made a
IN IRE brilliant record than Comrade Ohm
Captain in the I'd ". Y, became Lieu
tenant-Colonel of the regiment and then
Colonel of the 59th N. Y, and Brevet
BriIadier- General He received brevets
for gallantry at Malvern Hill, Fredericks-
burg, Hatcher'S hun, and the Appomat-
tOx Campai IN. He was transferred to the
Regular Army and served there until 1863.
He commanded bri .ade ut Gettysburg
and for a long part Of hi, service.
Our poetical and statistical comrade,
F. ID. Coburn, Secretary of the Kansas
State Board of Agriculture, is out with
another of his cheerful bulletins, gotten
up. as usual, with great topographic taste.
He figures out that the rms OF Kansas
have produced d total of 81 ,923, S23 Of
wealt 4-during the year, beginning with
S32 A33,0i2 worth OF wheat. and $50, 29S.0.4
W ,rth of animals slaughtered or sold f0r
slaughter. He says that -In Kansas the
steer and the hog find their FL Dorado
the favored zone-and are debt-payerS,
n 3rtI dge-remoserS, and promoters OF prog
reSS.