The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-09-03
MEMORIES OF BRYANT
THE POET AS HI WAS KNOWN
 TO KANSAS cITYAN.
His Favorite Fruit Trees and How They Were Guarded-His study' The Trapeze in His sleep
 ing Boom.

Kansas City Journal. ,..
 Ch.tstian A. Ulmer, waterman TOT one ,,f the large breweries In hansAs City, worked for the eminent AmesiSsn author and poet. Wtiiiam CuuSn ..,n Bryant, and can remember many he ren,iniecences of Bryant anq Bryant home, once or Hoseiyn,
 fsermany. in 1854, and came to America n,ith his fat,ier, C. A. Ulmer, who pc can,as coachnYan for MT. Bryant, It IS ,vith keenest pleasure that he speaks ofathe luxurious grounds and the pleas, ent horne of the eminent American ana the great newspaper mans househoio' when speaking of his favorite topic, 7 ,vhich he does in greatest animat'on and vividness, one who listens cannot hut become impressed with respect TOT Rrva nj the man as well as Bryant tne man of letters.
 Fl was only 13 when employed oy Mr. Bryan" said Ulmer. and saw mn almost constantly during the suHaeI months and twice every week m win,sI during a period of three years. ,as lived in a magnificent villa on ricn j, Sortv.acre tract of land, all of which was under the most careful cultiVa- tion. On his place he had an immense hot house, in which he kept all. the rare fruits on earth, I euppose, ana as many peculiar plants and flowers. Hut he took most interest in his fruit trees, am sure. To see him s,u1y them was very interesting. He hdd tacn tree labe ed, scientific names. you know, and knew all the peculiaritiss q growth that any book ever tells. ana /, learned facts about them that weren in even books. The tree trunks were wnitewashed carefully. sprayed with drugs to keep insects away. ana thoroughly washed often. These par ticular fruit trees, which were oT to themselves, he would allow no one 10 even touch, without his permission: TO fruits were ever picked of and even when dead ripe and fallen to the ground he would allow no one eut himself or in his absence. his gardener to touch them. When a fruit WouAl fall he picked it up carefully an car" ried it to his study to think ove- Il long time. When away, he left ihstruc- tIons that the gardener note trom which tree 1t fell, when. and From what twig and write it on tag. when had to be placed on the fruit an l car, ried to his room. Sometimes he woulo take me through this conservA.o:y anu point out the peculiar things aoous them. Never touch anything. n9: even tha fallen fruit, for. Chris, that nature. Leave nature alone. And l never did. Oh, the kinds of fruits there .were-figs. pomegranates, peacnee, plums bananas, and what not. ana no" heautiful all were In their carerally tended growth! Of course, there were orchards for the family to eat. nVt these in the hot house with glass roor he allowed no one to meddle with: ne guarded them like we would paoles' Sometimes MT. Bryant wrote ot taese plants, he said, and I know he must have written interestingly. Hes' fir' he could tell when one fruit was mss ing from any one tree; you couldn fool a smart man like Mir Bryant in
 Mir. Bryant's Library.
 "His library? An, his library! If he didn't have a library. though! Why, he mad a great room literally packed with hooks. books and books, never saw so many books in my life. thought rthat all7the books in the country were in Mir. Bryant's library. It was h fine room to read in, was that room of books in which Mir. Bryant spent so much of his time. Flowers in sus- pended baskets. aquariums, and all tha' 1t represented thousands of dollars Tn furnishings alone, not to mention the tkorsanis of books.
 "Mr. Bryant's sleeping room was alsu immense. A big trundle bed was In 1t, the Kind of bed that you have to use a stool to get up in. Right in the middle of the room, suspended from the ceiling, was a trape1e. He took Ill his exercise this trapeze. And tell you, he was slick at the business. Never saw such caper6 cut dp even Tn circuses. He was just like boy. then and the things he would do on that high trapeze were a caution: swing by his feet drop and catch, act on ons hand, turn, and do sucn things as the full-irop. II was wonderful to seq him. I want to repeat That head of lis which knew books-fuli of learning and the greatest of his day, and I be- lieve of any day. would go around on the trapeze like ton, now up in the air, now shooting down as though fall ing, and again up on level with the bar. He was never sick day in his life. that I kEow of. and no wonder he lived 50 long with all the exercise he took Chris said he often. "ex- ercise is the greatest thing for men of all. Never gorget to take plenty of exercise. when you grow up As tool plenty then, he did not need to say take some while ] was young. fo, goodness knows got plenty.
 Besides MT. Bryant. of course. m! father was my boss: the gardner wal my boss. Mrs. Bryant was my boss the stable man was my boss. and next to MT. Bryant. Miss Julia. his daughter was especially my boss. I was hired more for Miss Julia than any one else
 
 her horse. Snow Flake. and did every thing she wanted me to. tell you. liked Miss Julia. And she always tried to please her father. He mapped out her reading and such. and she tried always 70 read we'll those things Ter father suggested. Miss Julia wasn't believe so very pretty. but SD n'te and kind to every one. Everybo1 ! liked her. O. but didn't she hay
 aaIl lArr z .