The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1901-07-12
INTERVIEWING SHERMAN.
An old Newspaper Reporters Recollec.
ton of the Crus,y Commander.

u SooooO VI Oou' ohOiAAo' Va
the south drive at the Pan American
exposition. The head is thrown back
into just the poise it had at the eli
max of my last interview with him.
The face, however, although st. Gau-
zen has made striking likeness, is
much more serene than it was at the
time to which 1 refer. 1t must have
been something over fifteen years ago
when l called on him in behalf of GER
tain citizens of st. Louis, who were
interested in securing his influence
with the war department. against
changes at Jefferson Barracks, which
would have been to the detriment of
st. Louis trade. Then, as now, had
a more or less remote connection with
the newspaper business, and it was
one of Gen. Sherman's harmless false
pretenses that he had a fierce dislike
for newspaper men, I think now, as
l thought at the time, that the only
newspaper man he really disliked
with any approach to the cordiality he
pretended was the one who had reach
ed the newspapers with the report OF
the result of the first days fight at
Shiloh. l have never written report
OF my last interview with him till
now. and l can not pretend that am
reporting it verbatim at this late
date, but it made deep impression
on me, and 1 think can say conscien-
tiously, that, in part, it was substan-
TALLY as follows:
Bring him in," heard him say.
as I waited in his reception hall, after
having sent him my card. Bring
him in, and if he don't want to inter-
view me, let me see what he does
want.
In compliance with this not very en-
couraging consent to see me, very
polite young man came out into the
hall and hold me that the general
would be pleased to have me walk in.
L walked in, accordingly, and the
general, who was sitting at his desk
with his back to me, wheeled half way
round in his chair, and said with the
very slightest suggestion of amiability
in bis severe official manner: "Well,
sir, what do you want this timer
What can do for your
AS l had bearded most of the great
West Pointers of the civil war genera
ton, and as l knew that Gen. Sherman
was one of the least formidable to
newspapermen of them all, was
not to any considerable extent intimi-
dated, and when he pushed chair to-
ward me l sat down and proceeded to
tell him with as much humility as
thought necessary what had come to
his house to say. By the time he had
finished telling me what he could and
could not do with the war department.,
ne was in great good humor, and, as
1 had expected, had forgotten all about
his alleged objections to newspaper
men. At bottom when you got below
his guard he had the simplicity of a
child, and any one who knew how to
ask him leading questions which
would not involve him in things which
he did not care to talk about, could
turn him from one of the gruffest to
one of the most affable men living.
He was still being mentioned as
presidential possibility, and when the
conversation turned, perhaps not
wholly without my connivance, in
that direction, he told me ,bluntly that
he never had been and never would be
a presidential candidate. He said that
the general of the army had no bust
ness to be. The subject was evidently
not displeasing to him, however, and
the conversation rapidly drifted back
to the beginning of the civil war.
"Grant and !" he said, ''were both
Democrats, and if the Democratic party
had had any sense we might be yet.
1t never did have any, however,
since I have known it, and I don't
suppose it ever will He discussed
the Civil war and the leaders on both
sides in way which. as 1 remember
it, was in accordance with the views
he has expressed in his book. I would
not attempt to quote him in that con-
nection in any event, however, as it
was only the latter part of the inter
view which made an impression so
deep that l can recall now, as l think
accurately, not only what he said, but
just how he looked when he said it,
1t was not long after his hose license
trouble with the st. Louis city
authorities, and perhaps I may have
had some slightly malicious recollec-
tion of the official severity of the tone
with which he had received me when
asked him (just as l was about to
as. a place of residence His manner
became vigorous at once. He told me
with increasing animation what he
liked and disliked about the city. 1
happened to know that one of his st.
Louis acquaintances-a lady whom
while further south, say in 1868, he
had suspected of holding communica-
ton with her husband in the Confed-
OyQ 70 n cd lob Iatn ID
revenge for his request that she and
her family should move into the Con-
federate lines. by sending him all the
newspaper jokes she could find about
the difficulty he had in sprinkling his
lawn with an unlicensed hose. [ was
not wholly surprised that his ANNA
lion increased as he gave me his views
OF the pernicious effects of slave hold
ing on society. As he warmed up to
the topic he half rose in his chair
and brought his fist down on the desk
with an energy which suited the eli
max. think l can recall his last SEN
tence exactly: "Yes, sir. he said, 81
like st. Louis and will go on liking
it. The only trouble I have found
with st. Louis people is that there are
so many of them who think a man
never can amount to anything unless
his daddy owned a niger p I did
not think it safe to wait for an anti
climax after this, and I rose, thanking
him for the time he had given me and
assuring him he had understood COR
rectly my promise not to ''interview"
him. AS this is the first time. have
ever attempted to put anything of the
interview on paper, I suppose that if
he were alive. as he seems to be in the
st. Gaudens statue, he would hold