Omaha daily bee., 1899-08-27
u c TOP U C ALL.
STORIES ABOUT NOTED PEOPLE.

Thirty years ago." says George G. Rock
wood, the veteran New York photographer,
to a reporter, my studio was at Thirteenth
street and Broadway, then a residence sec
ton. At the corner, facing Union Square,
was the old Roosevelt mansion where Gov
| ernor Theodore Roosevelt spent his boy
hood.
Several years ago when the governor was
police commissioner he came into my pres
ent studio and of course I personally super
intended posing him. After I had fixed him
in the chair and asked him to look pleas
ant, please 1 said, carelessly:
"I wonder whether you are the little fat
boy who used to throw stones at my sky
light in Thirteenth street about thirty years
ago?'
"Mr. Roosevelt's eyes twinkled. That's a
long time ago, Mr.. Rockwood,' he said. It's
pretty nearly outlawed by this time. But as
l have the police on my side now and I'm
not afraid of being arrested, I'll admit that
I was the boy. But don't let that make you
spoil this picture
at didn't, for 1t was the best likeness
that had ever been taken of Mr.. Roosevelt
up to that time. In fact, 1t was the only
one that didn't make him look severe"
General Benjamin F. Tracy, former secre-
"a y VI ~ navy ohu "ho ~ wv Wv 49,
associate of General Benjamin Harrison in
representing this government in the matter
of the Venezuelan boundary dispute, finds
the keenest enjoyment in smoking. The
general was nearly so years old before he
acquired the taste for tobacco. Previous to
that time smoking made him i'll.
During the early '7Os, relates the Phila-
delphia Post, he was engaged as counsel in
a celebrated case, and was compelled to
devote not only the day but the greater
part Of the night to his task. Once when
he was thoroughly tagged out an associate
suggested that a cigar with his coffee might
have a soothing effect. General Tracy sue
cumbed to the temptation, and before he
was aware of 1t had finished his third cigar.
They seemed to quiet his nerves, and he
was able to work over his papers the whole
of that night. Since that time, perhaps out
of gratitude for the effect of those three
cigars, General Tracy has been a smoker.
Robert Smalls, the colored politician and
ex-congressman OF South Carolina, tells a
good story in answer to the democratic
politicians who want to divide the negro
vote,
st always reminds me-" he said to a
Chicago Record correspondent, "of a man
called Captain Jack, who used to run a fiat
DOdI on Lue river uOWu III my country duu
was one Of the smartest men | ever knew.
Captain Jack was going down the river
one Sunday and his boat got stuck on a
eandbar right opposite a colored Methodist
He tried every way he could to
bulge her, but she was fast. and there was
no way to get OFF except by sinking the
stern until the bow was free, and then
her around into the curreCt. The
minute Captain Jack heard the singing and
VI at the nesting house he saw a
way to get out Of his scrap. He sent up
a colored messenger to announce that he
had come to Jesus and wanteu to hold a
prayer meeting ON his boat. All the darkies
from the church came down, and Captain
Jack meantime got seats fixed for them in
The stern. They crowded back there sing
Ing. praying and blessing the Lord for
Captain Jack to .the mourner's
bench. Meanwhile the hands "a the boat
working to shove her of. ii did
not take long. In about half an hour she
was floating in the stream. Then turning
around to his guests, Captain Jack shouted:
Get OFF here now. every one of you blank
niggers. This prayer meeting lis
General Smalls argued that such was the
way in which the democratic party desired
TO divide the colored vote.