The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-02-19

scattered here and there, and was IN
terested in many things beside. The
late James W. Hustled, perhaps the
closest lifelong friend of the captain ;
son, once told the writer that Captain
Depew was more like Commodore Van
derbilt than any other man he ever
knew. The captain was possessed of an
iron will, and under the rough exterior
there were generous impulses and a
kindly heart. Mrs. Depew. the mother
of Chauncey, was one OF the cieverest'
most lovable, most tactful women The
elder Depew ruled everything about
him, but she ruled him, and their home
life was perfect. From the father.
Chauncey learned that the monosylla-
BILE mo- was sometimes a good word
to use; from the mother he learned to
say Eyes"
COULD SPEAK PIECES
Young Depew got his early schooling
and his fitting Tor college in Peekskill
He stood fairly we'll in his classes, but
he was exceptionally brilliant in one
direction only. He could speak pieces
better than any of his school fellows,
and his selections used to delight his
bluff old father. Daniel Webster's re-
ply to Hayne, Patrick Henry's famous
addresses, or that one of John Adams
which began sink or swim, live or die,
survive or perish were among them
1t was not a part of his boyish plan
of life to go to college. He liked to be
outdoors and he wanted to be a farmer.
The old captain did not like the boys
plan, but had tact enough not to make
any direct opposition. Instead, as the
senator-elect sometimes delights to tell,
the captain seemed to fall in with the
youths design, and allowed him to go
TO work on one of the family farms.
But the man in charge was instructed
to see to il that the boy should be al
lowed to find out just how laborious
were thoroughly fulfilled, and it was
not long before the son decided against
an agricultural career.
HIS FIRST POLITICAL SPEECH.
As everyone knows, Chauncey Mitch
ell Depew got his college training at
Yale, and loyalty to his alma mater is
one of his strongest traits to this day.
He was graduated in 1856, the first year
of the Republican party's existence.
Before he had been at home a fort
night the young man had plunged into
the rigorS of the campaign as an en-
thusiastic supporter of Fremont, the
first Republican presidential candidate.
The circumstances which led to this
We're related to the writer by Mr.. De
pew in his office at the Grand Central
station on the day he was notified of
his formal election to the United States
senate.
In the campaign of 1856, as in all
campaigns" said the senator-elect,
the party had one star speaker. He
was George William Curtis. and by
great good luck the Republicans of
Peekskill had got him to promise that
he would speak to them l went to
the meeting. of course, for 1 was in
tenSely interested in current public
matters. Well, Mr.. Curtis didn't APP
pear. a big audience turned out. but
there was no speaker In the circum
stances the committee had TO do some
thing TO interest the crowd, and some
body called me up to the platform. No
one expected me to make a speech;
least of all myself. But it was known
that although my father and all his
brothers We're bitter prO-Slavery Demo-
Gratis, 1 had recently declared myself
an abolitionist, and that life had for
that reason been made decidedly I'M
pleasant for me at home.
The plan was to make me commit
myself, and 1 was asked to tell my
neighbors why 1 was a Republican. 1
started out to do this, entirely infOr-
maily and without special preparation.
When 1 had finished I imagined 1 had
been talking a few minutes only; had
really spoken an hour and a half.
Next day was asked by the Repub-
hcan state committee, a body of which
1 had never heard before, to go on the
stump. 1 accepted the invitation and
have been on the stump ever since"
DEPEW AS A SOLDIER.
1t was nine years after that first
speech before Chauncey NJ. DepeW en-
tered the employ of the Vanderbilt rail
roads. In the meantime he had worked
hard both at politics and the law. In
1861 he was elected to the state legiS-
ture as an assemblyman and reelected
in 1862; in the fall of 1863 he was elect
ed secretary of state. Earlier in the
latter year he served his country as a
soldier, though his military career was
not sanguinary, and that is how he
comes to be a Grand Army man.
He had Joined the state militia some
time before he held the post or adjutant
of the Eighteenth regiment His mill
tary duties were not eXacting, but even
if they had been he would have had
time enough to attend to them, for his
Peekskill law practice was not extern
sive. But one intensely hot day early
in July there came a summons which
made him about the busiest man in all
Peekskill. This summons was caused
by Lees historic invasion of Pennsyl-
vania, which was turned back at Get
tySburg. The militia of that day was
designed for home guard service
chiefly. but here was chance that the
confederate forces might reach the con-
fines of the state of New York and the
Eighteenth, like some other state regi-
mentS, was at once called out 10 march
to the south and help combat the ad-
vancing hosts DeDew received the call
as adjutant and as adjutant he was ex-
pected to notify his comrades in the or
ganization.
Inside of twenty-four hours after the
reception of the call the entire regiment
embarked on a string of springless
"lumpy'' freight cars on the way TO
Baltimore There the soldiers of the
Eighteenth regiment remained until
after the battle of Gettysburg. when
they were instructed to garri-
son Fort Marshin, some three
miles from the city That was as
near actual fighting as the Eighteenth
New York militia regiment and its adj
jutant ever got. They defended the
fort against nobody at all for two or
three months, and then were ordered
north again.
Later Depew was a colonel in the
New York national guard. and in 1878
was attached to the staff of General
James w. Hustled.
DEPEW'S jokes AND STORIES.
No man in public life today has been
more criticised than Mr.. Depew by
those not in sympathy with him, be-
cause of his lighter utterances. Con-
corning this he said to the waiter re-
Gently:
II have always been under a good
deal of pressure; 1 have for many years
been subject daily to all sorts of wor-
ries. When a young man 1 saw that l
must forget these things at night if I
wished to be fresh and rested the next