The age-herald., 1902-05-06
STORIES OF CUMMINGS.

called at his office and explained his errand. He brusquely told Cummings that he did not care to be interviewed, and by his manner rather than his words told the newspaper man to leave the office. Cummings. never mild of temper. was furiously angry in an instant.
 You forget, sir" said he, looking the secretary full in the eyes, that there are three parties to this interview"
 What do you mean?' asked the as- tonished Mir. Seward.
 First of all," said Cummings, "there is you, the secretary of state of the Uni ted States of America and one of the foremost men in the world today; second, there is a newspaper man who has come to you upon a perfectly legitimate err rand and asked his question in a proper and gentlemanly way, and, third, sir, there is an American citizen, who will not take an insult from you or from any man on the face of Gods green earth"
 Secretary Seward looked at Cummings in open admiration, told him to be seat cd. and then gave him a talk which
 
 scored a hit
 Cummings had for comrades on the Walker expedition Englishmen fresh from Sebastopol, Hungarans who had bled under Kossuth, red-shirted Italians who had ridden behind Garibaldi and In dians who were descended from Toltecs and Astecs. Cummings used to chant for the pleasure of his friends
 How would you like a soldiers life On the plains of Nicara-goo? Marching away and fighting all day, Nothing to eat and as much to pay,
 We do 1t all for glory. they say, On the plains of Nicara-goo, Not bit of breakfast did I see,
 And dinner was all the same to me; Two fried oats and three fried rats, Was supper at Nicara- goo. Marching away and fighting all day, l Nothing to eat and as much to pay, We do it all for glory, they say.
 On the plains of Nicara-goo.
 When Horace Greeley offered him an editorial position on the Tribune several years after he had left the printing de- partmcnt, he hesitated to accept the place, because Greeley had once called him a fool. The story of their scrap" was one MT Cummings liked to tell. He i found while setting type that report of a well known New Jersey mans death was about to be printed in the paper. Go l ing to Mir Greeley, he said that he knew the subject of the report was alive and well.
 "Who the h. are you?" was the ed- itor's response. "IIe is dead. You are ! because the paper had to retract the statement that the man had died. l Periodically, In the course of his news paper career, MT. Cummings had to give up work and seek health in travel. He was never strong, but untiring energy and good grit helped to balance things with him. In addition to the increasing bad health of years, MT. Cummings had suffered during the last year of his life l from the effects of bicycle accident in New Haven. He fell and sustained a compound fracture of the leg, and while recovering from the mishap began to snow signs of the organic trouble for which he was forced recently to under go an operation.
 His well-phrased comments on things political were relished by all parties. MT. Cummings, when in good health. was jealous In his attention to his Congress sional duties. He occupied seat well down toward the front, where for years he had been a familiar figure, flashing l forth occasionally in vigorous debate that invariably commanded immediate atten- | ton.
 One of his last dramatic utterances on the floor was during the passage of the urgent deficiency bill. early in the ses- sion. It happened on the item for appro- l priating $500,000 for army barracks in Manila Just as the vote was being taken l he exclaimed to some of his party asso- ciates. with strenuous gesture that they would regret going on record against the proper housing of the boys in blue in the Philippines. His articles all illustrated perfectly the different phases of his character. He wrote Mayor Van Wyck Just As He Is. Men I Have Fished With" Charles A. Dana." "The Chance of Success for a Young Man Without Capital Entering the l Newspaper Business" One of the most famous of his articles was "The Crickets | of Journalism" In which he described phases in the life of a newsboy and talked of the great men of the day, who had been newsboys in their youth. In his | article Editors in Congress- he showed the number of men of that profession who had represented the people, but, with characteristic modesty, omitted his own name from the list Of the number he was the greatest. During the Democratic National Convention in Kansas City in 1900 Mir. Cummings performed many hours of arduous political work yet found time to write freely of the proceedings of the convention to Eastern newspapers. which eagerly sought his services because of the absolute reliability of his news.
 He was a warm friend of William Me Kinley, the two having served side by side on the House committee on ways and means for years. It was told of Cum mings that during one particular cam- paign it was desired that he go to Ohio and stump McKinley's district for the Democrats. This he refused to do, and, | though Mckinley was defeated Tn that campaign, he never forgot this mark of friendship on the part of the New York CT. He was also a close friend of ex- Speaker Reed. they having one particular taste in common. Both were on,riverous readers, and. like Reed, in spite of the