, 1903-02-27

HE became not only facile with the
pen. but developed as a speaker and
turned to the platform: his party want
ed him in their campaigns: the dinner
tables of the metropolis found that he
was a charming addition to the after
dinner speaking.
Here you have his varied career.
He entered congress-; he was there for
Is years, and he so impressed himself
upon his associates that he received
the extraordinary honor. but very few
times granted, of being awarded a pub
lie funeral on the floor Of the house.
1.-The character and career Of Amos
J. Cummings were not formed In the
parsonage, nor in the counting room,
nor in the association with his friends,
the compositors; nor with the adventur-
ers in Nicaragua nor with his COM
rades in the army. They built
by the overmastering influence of two
men of extraordinary genius. whom
he neutrality-suspicious. Horace Greeley,
the other Charles A. Dana.
mo proper appreciation of the life
and services OF ability and character
of Horace Greeley has W. beer writ
ten. There was a time-and at that
time Cummings was with him-when
there came every day from the Tri-
bune office a paper with those editor
ials written by that pen which infuen-
ced the judgment Of millions, which
controlled the action Of parties and
dominated the legislation Of the coun-
try.
81 have seen many a deathbed in my
life; l have seen life go out under con-
ditions that were sad or sweet, hopeful
or despairing. l but once saw a
man die of broken heart, and never do
I wish to see such a tragedy again.
II made a speech with Mr.. Greeley in
his presidential campaign just before
its close. We spoke from the same
platform and both of us knew that he
was to be beaten. We went back to
his home, and he was jeered upon the
train and at the depot when we arrived
We went into his study, which was lit
terer with those famous ~caricatures Of
Mast. representing him as the embodi-
ment Of all that was evil or vile in ex-
preston or practice in life. Mr.. Gree
ley glanced them over for a moment,
and then he said:
my life is a failure. I never have
sought to accumulate a fortune. l
never have cared for fame, but l did
want to leave a monument Of what I
had done for my fellow men, in lifting
them up and in doing away with the
curse of slavery and the curse Of rum,
but I am, at the close of this campaign
so represented to my countrymen that
the slave will always look upon me as
having been n OF his owners. and
reform will look up me as a fraud
Then his head falling upon his desk.
he broke into uncomfortable sobs. I
sent for his family. The brain that had
done such splendid workedsnapped. The
next morning he was taken to an asy-
lum, where he died. His heart literally
broke.
when Mr.. Cummings came to the
house of representatives 1t was at that
moment when there seemed to have
come, like an inspiration and almost
in an hour, the idea to the people Of
the United states and to congress that
W must have a powerful navy. 1t had
been een by American statesmen for
generation that such a navy must
come, but the spirit of economy had re-
sisted it always as unnecessary be-
cause of the strength of our isolation.
But the first year that Cummings
was in congress that idea suddenly and
almost as an electric spark, permeated
the whole republic. It caught 1t once
lpon . mind which had been trained