The Indianapolis journal., 1899-04-17

to treat him, and one had to know him
closely TO see that he really had unusual
ability. His lack of tact, which he seems
Europe, made him too often a subject of
jest. His deep-set blue eyes and his
tceably thin face even then told the hours
he spent IN reading when his associates
were abeG-
His eccentric dress is best remembered
by his classmates at Cornell. He was as
fastidious as any one in the university in
those days. He wore a cutaway coat. IaVen-
der-hued trousers actually skin tight and
patent leather CATERS with yellOWish plush
TO the lobes of his ears and cuffs that
projected two inches from his coat sleeves.
He was ultra-faShionable. When checks
were in vogue Balestier wore suits having
the loudest checks in college. When watch
fobs were worn he had one that dangled
He lived in a little but select boarding
house and seldom associated with the stu
dents. His ambition at that time was to be
to study history specially under the instruc-
ton OF Andrew D. White. then president of
Cornell and now United States ambassador
at Berlin, to the end Of perfecting himself
for editorial work. The Garfield-Hancock
presidential campaign of 1850 was on, and
Balestier was heart and soul in the cam
paign for Garfield. / remember that Henry
Ward Beecher came TO Ithaca that fall TO
speak for Garfield. Balester went and
called upon the famous preacher from
Brooklyn and asked his advice about becom-
ing an editor. In his eagernesS TO see what
talent he had for editorship he mailed sew
eral long editorials in support of Garfield
Tribune. and watched eagerly for their ap-
pearance. He never talked more of his
torlal came back as fast as the mails could
carry 1t.
He was nothing of student in the sense
that his classmates were but we found a
few years later that he had lived in a diff
ferent world from ours while he was among
us. He was plucked in geometry. and he
desplsed the required course in rhetoric.
When the terms work came to a close i'm
chemistry he would not even take the eX
aminations. But he was an incessant reader
and the university library, with its 10000
volumes. was treasure house to him. He
once said that his idea of heaven was a spot
where one might live in peace and comfort
and read Alexandra Dumas and Victor Hugo
throughout all eternity. He used to love to
walk alone about the old college town late
at night, often for an hour or two long after
midnight. He once remarked to a friend
that he knew his inmost thoughts better
then than at any other time. His landlady,
however, found fault with Balester'S noe
turnal perambulationS and musings, because
he awoke her going in and out.
The straw that broke the camel's back
and made Balestier suddenly give up his
college course was burlesque of a descrip-
tive article OF his which appeared in the
Cornell Review. 1t was a story of a visit
he lad made during the previous summer
vacation to the well-knoWn New England
poets, the GOOdale sisters BaleStier'S ar
ticle was very sophomore, ard il seems re-
mdrkdDIe now that IL ever came from his
pen. There were such phrases in it as look
ing down through the horoscope of the past"
and 'effulgent rays illuminate the dome Of
thought" The article set the whole stu
dent body in laughter. There were few
there who knew that young Balestier had q
soul above collars and patent feathers. ~
weak later the Cornell Era came out with
a really very humorous burlesque entitled,
"a Visit to the Badbeer Brothers," All of
Balestier'S sophomorisms were aped and his
literary quirks were turned into shafts Of
ridicule.
The edition of the Cornell Era was soon
exhausted and every student in the uni
versity was smiling over the nonsense. A
week later it was noised about that Bales
tier had packed up and gone home to
Rochester. He never returned TO Cornell.