The Savannah morning news., 1903-07-19
NEW YORK LETTER
GOSSIP AND CURRENT COMMENT
OF THE METROPOLIS.

Citizen G. F. Trains suits Growing
Out of His Illness from smallpox
Reminds Newspaper Men OF stories
About Him-HOw He Tried, In
enectuaIIy, to Psychologist n Kid
RepOrter-A Proposition to Tour
the Country i'm n BarOuche Drawn
by Four Horses, with a COrnetist
on the BOx-COnfusing George
Francis Train With "MRrk Twain"
Samuel L. CIemensD-HOw a Re-
porter Tried to Interview the
HumOrist, but Was Himself Inter-
viewed Instead.
New York July 1S.-The various law
, suits brought by Citizen George Fran
els Train as a result of his recent ILL
ness of smallpox in nearby town will
probably drag their slow length along
for considerable time to come.
At all events they are serving to re-
mind a good many persons of various
| happenings within their memory in
which the Citizen played a not unim-
portant part,
RECALLING each other with such anec-
dotes an evening or so ago when one
| of them remarked:
You may say what you like about
| Citizen George Francis Train, but 1
aver without hesitation that he is the
most adaptable man in all the world.
1 found this out twenty years ago.
Train was then in the habit of de-
livering lectures at various places in
series of six. He had a series to de-
liver in Rochester, where 1 was then
serving my apprenticeship as cub re-
porter. 1 was told to report the lee
| lures and to make 'em funny I liked
the job, and, in my own mind, l made
| the reports funny I don't know
whether anybody agreed with me or
not, at first but 1t is certain that Cti-
| zen Train didn't. At the conclusion of
| the third lecture he begged the au-
| dience-about thirty persons-to remain
| for u few minutes.
Then he entered upon a good lively
( TRADE against the 'callow would-be-re-
| porter for the Daily -, who was
trying hard to have fun with the great
est master of psychology the world
had ever known.
This young man-Train said he as
sumed he was young, for no one of any
| years would dare be so foolish as to
set himself against the psychology of
| the universe - had outraged every
sense of decency and must be punished
Psychologist awful power ought to be
exerted against the daring one without
delay. Then the Citizen read one of
my reports aloud for the benefit of any
present who had not seen them.
Before the awful punishment
| should be melted out Train said he
wished to get the sense of the audience
on the matter. Those present. he said
had heard the Train lectures so far,
some of them had read reports them
selves, and all of them had heard him
read onsvof them. They were capa-
BILE therefore of voting intelligently
upon the question: Should psychology
work its will upon the reporter?
IAN who were minded that it should,
that the impudent, presuming, rude,
ill-mannered, vulgar, ignorant, Hitter
ate, Inbred scribbler, who had tried
to make fun of the lectures, were re-
quested to rise.
ITO the surprise of Citizen Train,
nobody arose, though a good many
giggled. snorted and guffawed, while
two of three hooted and uttered cat
calls
1.-The Citizen expressed his unbounded
amazement at this. and invited ev-
eryone who thought the psychological
powers of the speaker ought to be
turned against himself to rise. Every
man got on his feet-there were no
women present-with the utmost
promptitude.
"'WelI. said the Citizen, with the
utmost geniality, this shows how COM
pletely a single human being may be
mistaken. even when he has universal
psychology at his back
Don't misunderstood me. There
was a tremendous psychological i'm
pulse with this young man in it's very
| focus But the impulse was in his IA
vor-not against him. as 1 supposed.
Now, continued the Citizen, I
want to make amends. The reporter
was evidently right. was clearly
wrong. If he will come to the stage
1 shall take the greatest pleasure IN
shaking his good, right hand, thereby
throwing all the psychological power
l possess directly to him. l shall
| psychologist him completely, and, OF
course, he will psychologist me. We
shall both be benefited greatly by
coming into personal contact
1T went up and met the Citizen, of
decided to shake hands with adults no
| more, and his grasp was hearty. We
| had a very enthusiastic visit of ten
| or fifteen minutes and the next day he
sent his manager to see me.
''The manager had a curious plan to
| propose 1t was just before the
| Fourth Of July, and Train was going
1 to speak at some place up the Genesee
| Valley on the nations natal day. He
| proposed driving there from Rochester
| on July Sd in an open barouche, drawn
| by four horses. On the box beside the
| driver he proposed to have cornetist
/ sit and blow patriotic tunes to apprise
| the country folk of his progress. In
/ the body of the barouche the Citizen,
| his manager and myself should sit and
receive the plaudits of the populace as
| we drove along 1t would be a big adj
| vertisement for all concerned and lots
| of fun besides.
1T couldn't agree to the proposition.
| It looked likely to me that we would
probably receive more stale eggs, an
| Client turnips and over-ripe tomatoes
| than plaudits, and begged off. few
| weeks later Train began to flood me
with his writings 1t was a hobby of
his to have each article written on a
| single piece of paper. AS the articles
were all too long to be written origin
ally on single pieces, he wrote them on
narrow strips and pasted the strips
"a =trfnc rapaiUad