Omaha daily bee., 1899-11-08
ORIGINAL or MDAVtD hARuM."
wcstcottA Noted Character n Forme 7
Rrsihcnt Of Homer. n. y.

Rcsidcnt OF Homer, y, y.
Edward Noyes Westcytt has done for
Homer little village OF central New York,
what others have done for New England,
Kentucky and. the south, save a writer in
the Home Magazine. within the narrow
confines Of it's rural surroundings he found
enc OF the most characteristics types, from
childhood to old age. in American fcticn,
Mr.. westcott cmbelished this type with
master hand. but when Hcmer first read
David Harum" it recognized underneath
| the literary pain. with which the original
Of the hero had been rctouched the rugged,
wide-awake, homely countenance of David
Hannum who had been character in
town Of quaint long headed dryly humorous
characters UP to a few years ago 1t was
Homer's hrst literary sensation, and 1t was
no nine days wonder in the little town.
The good neaple are wondering even yet that
one Of their number should get into print.
II don't see why this here Westcott picked
out Dave Hannum to put in a book said
ne cid resident to me the other day. This
town had a heap sight bigger men than ever
Dave Hannum wuz. We sent men to con-
gress, and there's lots of fellers who has
gone west and made their fortins, and wuz
a darn sight more distinguished than Dave.
Now. il / wuz wrltin book I'd have picked
out, some fellers as those. Dave wuz an
ordinary kind of amusin' cuss, but he never
done anythin' much. and he died poorer an
a church mouse"
Nevertheless Fomer vs. full of stories OF
Dave" Hannum, banker and horse dealer
droll, shrewd sharp, yet tender-a charac-
ter they love to talk about. He always had
a supply of "hosa-swapping stories, and
would rather trade horses and make 5000
than make 50 900 in business operation.
He began without cent in the world, made
a fortune and died with no more money
than he began with. .....,... F..
Next to being horse trader, Dave" per-
haps would rather have been a Snowman.
He had all the instincts Of Barnum. In
1853 New York gave a grand exhibition at
the famous Crystal palace in Bryant park.
Dave" found horse whose name was so
thick that it gave him somewhat the appear
ance of buffalo. Hannum bought the
animal at once and took him to New York,
trimmed ite name so as to heighten the IL
lusion, and exhibited him as the buffalo
horse" New Workers. lccked to the
curiosity and added many dollars to Dawes"
stock. Then came the famous Cardiff giant.
When Stub Newell dug up the strange
image on his farm at Cardiff people focked
by the thousands to see what they consid-
cred to be the remainder OF some prehis-
toric man.. David Hannum was among the
first He saw the money making possbili- |
ties in the thing, and set out at once to Sc
cure an interest. He succeeded, as he
usually did, and for time reaped har-
vest Then he sold his share to DR.. West !
cott the father of Edward, but took it back
after Dr. Westcott's death, and was prob |
ably the sole owner of tie famous humbue |
at the time Of his death. Among his pcs |
sessions when he died was found the key to
the vault in which the giant lay.
The writer called to see David Hannum's !
sister, Mrs. Gibson, while at Homer mo-
she said, II have never read Westcotts |
book and never will, so there now. He put |
words and spelling into David's mouth such |
as anyone in Homer will tell you he never
used
He was certainly notable character. His
charity was ofothe slyest and most whole,
sale kind. N o ene will ever know how much
he gave to thetpoor, because it Is probable
that he didn't know himself. He saw to 1t
at Christmas and Thanksgiving that no poor
family went without their turkey even
though he was compelled to borrow the
money to pay for It, His was wonderfully
large heart; and there was nothing mean
or petty about his moral or mental make
up.
"People live and die here in Homer every
day." exclaimed citizen, "but there never
was but one Dave Hannum, and he was
the livin', breathn' David Harum. "