The San Francisco call., 1898-06-05

He won fame and honor as Sheridans chief officer in the great bat ties of the war. He was an unrelent- ing warrior, once fighting nine battles in ten successive days.
 His military career is more or less on record, but of his private life little has been given to the public.
 General Wesley Merritt's father, John Willis Merritt, was a New York lawyer, having an office at 134 Nassau street, when the boy was born, De ceTnber l, 1886, at e North Moore street. He was one of eight brothers. Twenty months later the law office was at ? Spruce street, the family hav- ing removed to Brooklyn.
 When Wesley was four years old his father, having a large and increasing family, abandoned law for agriculture and bought farm at Looking Glass Prairie" near Bellville, H., not far from St. Louis. Young Merritt at tended the school of the Christian Brothers, Catholic institution, at Bell vile. The Merritts were not of that faith, but they sent the boy thither be- cause it was a good school. Later he worked on the farm for three years, helping his brothers raise corn and pork, for which that section has always been famous.
 Young Merritt often drove the farm team seventeen miles to town, getting only 15 cents a bushei for his corn. Everything a farmer produced in those days was cheap as dirt, and there be- ing little money in circulation paste board checks circulated in some local ities, and their merchandise seemed high. because it took so much corn. and pork to pay for it.
 Being a lawyer and a man of lit 'erary turn of mind, the boys father aspired to do something besides rais- ing corn. He started a local evening newspaper at Beilville, called the Ad- vocate. and later a weekly of the same name at Lebanon. Both were Douglas Democratic organs. and, like most of the Democratic journals of that day, were for territorial extension, the an .nexation of Texas and the settlement of the vexed and formidable Oregon question," by taking possession of the country clear to the Pacific Ocean.
 Young Merritt helped his father and brothers publish this kind of a Demo- cratic newspaper He mastered the business of running a country newspa- per. taking his turn in looking after petty details, besides learning to set type ana DecOulliA5 S<ApSAN PA4A@N~A while but a boy.
 At the age of Is he went to read law in the office of Judge Haynie in Salem He was making rapid progress when Governor Bissell, then a member of Congress. secured him q cadetship for West Point.
 Said General Merritt to a Herald re- porter yesterday: Up to that time I had no idea of becoming a soldier. My ambition was to be good lawyer and politician, and enter public life. I be- lieved that my forte lay in the direc ticn of discussion and public speaking. However. when my father pointed out the great advantages of a West Point education, a careful consideration of the subject in the light of his experi- ence and arguments convinced me of his wisdom I accepted his views and entered West Point At that particu- lar time the course of study at the Military Academy was five years. I got along very well. I did not stand high in. my class except in English. Was rather slow in mathematics. l think I