Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-01-28
THE KING OF)CRANKS
ODDITIES AND ECCMTRICITIES
OF CITIZEN TRiAIN.
A Man Of Many Parts-The Greatest
Egotist in History'L
a Genius.

death of being a "reformer agitator, rev.
olutionist, evolutionist, psychologist, finan-
cier, builder of railroads, linguist, globe
trotter and the only sane man among men, "
finally proved the fallacy of his dearest
theory. He had long predicted that he
would live 200 years. He died last Tuesday
| at the age of seventy-five.
So firmly did Citizen Train, as he some
times referred to himself, believe that his
career would extend over two centuries
that for twenty-six years he had not
shaken hands with any one except children.
Contact with an adult he Thought drained
him of his psychic force" From children
he said he absorbed perennial youth Each
day in pleasant weather until in recent
years he was wont to sit on a bench in
Madison Square and dole out stories or
who clambered over his knees. He clasped
their hands long and fondly. He told them
what he believed to be the secret of life and
Of death. He listened to their childish
questions with an illimitable patience.
On his SEVENTEEN birthday the greatest
egotiSt of history" he once entitled him.
self, gave a dinner to his friends, not alone
to celebrate the event, but to proclaim
again his unusual destiny The tables were
spread in the basement of Mills Hotel No.
1, in Blocker street, where he had a small
corner room for his home. He was gOr-
geously dressed, and wore the red scarf of
freedom, which was a characteristic part
of his attire ever since he said he organized
the French commune. Yet when one of his
guests ventured to congratulate him on his
birthday he retorted:
Born Anew Daily.
Birthday, sir? 1 never had a birthday.
Every day for seventy years 1 have been
born anew. Birthdays are only advertise
ments for notables. There is only one can
die in my cake. 1 now begin life anew,
wiping out the threescore years and ten"
Faith in a bicentennial existence was
also the cause of his selection of the Mills
Hotel No. l as his home. Although he
claimed to be worth more than $30O000O0,
yet he spent only So a week for room and
board. He saved his wealth, SO he once
told an intimate FRIEND in order that he
might live out the two centuries without
danger of restitution. When he owned
Train Villa, at Newport, in 1868, he was
said to have entertained for a season at a
cost of $1,000 week. Yet he declared a
year ago that he was happier at the
mills Palace" than at Train Villa. At the
hotel he ate only bread, nuts, milk and
vegetables Flesh, whisky and tobacco he
claSSed together as pOisons.
When sick from mild form of smallpox
last summer Citizen Train drank egg
nog which his physician had prescribed for
him. He was confined at the time in an
isolation camp just outside of Stamford
Conn, where the home of his daughter
Mrs Gulager, is situated. But no sooner
had he swallowed the eggnog than he eX-
claimed:
Il find that my so-called medicine is a
poison. 1t has been doctored with alcohol
Never having tasted poisonous liquor be-
fore, / decline to take any more"
Mr.. Train also refrained from handling
newspapers, as he said they were satu-
rated with carbolic acid. When he discov
cred that his sick room was being disin
fected with this germicide he said, remon-
stratingly:
His Psychic Force.
Each day my nurse sprinkles my iiooH
several times with this poison, diluted.
Now, 1 believe the poison to be absorbed
by the seven million pores of the skin. She
also zsponges me all over with carbolic
acid solution. Unless this persecution is
stopped / shall die, and the vast amount
of psychic force which l have stored up
in my body will all go for nothing"
Mr. Train afteIward sued the town of
Stamford for $4,000 damages for wha-
he termed his false arrest and imprison-
ment."
Throughout the hermit life which he led
the last thirty years of his life Citizen"
Train manifested the same restless energy
which characterized him when successful
merchant and a brilliant financier. With
much the same dash and vim with which
he promoted the Atlantic and Great West
ern railroad, in 1858, and the Union Pacific
railroad in 1864, the venerable Citizen"
wrote his last book, entitled MY Life In
Many States and Foreign Lands" He die
tated it's 400 pages in thirty-five hours. On
afternoons in the months of July and Au-
gust in 1902 he devoted an hour at time
to distating his "reminiscences to a stenog
rapher. He refrained from writing line
himself, for fear of exhausting his psychic
force" The volume bears this significant
dedication
"To the children and to the children's chill
dren in this and all lands who love and be-
1ipVa in hapanSe they know | al
believe in Them.
In the preparation of this book the "Citi-
ZEN first drafted a rough outline, which
he entitled MY Autobiography Boiled
Down. Four Hundred Pages in Two Hun
dred Words His life, as co. .densed by
himself in his own quaint language, is as
follows:
His Autobiography.
Born 1924, 80 Orphaned New Orleans,
SO Gather, mother and three sisters-yel-
low fever). Came north alone, four years
old, to grandmother. Walthain, Mass. Sup
ported self since babyhood. Farmer till
fourteen; grocery boy, Cambridgeport, two
years; shipping clerk, sixteen; manager
eighteen; partner, Train & Co., twenty On
come 100000; Boston, twenty-five t$15, 000)
Established G. F. Train & Co., Melbourne
Australia, SO. Agent, Earrings, Duncan &
Sherman, White Star Line dncome, $685.
900. Started forty clippers to California
20. Flying Cloud, Sovereign of the Seas,
Staffordshire. Built A. & G. w. R. r., con-
Meeting Erie with Ohio and Mississippi, 400
miles.
Pioneered first street railways, Europe,
America, Australia (England: Birkenhead,
Darlington, Staffordshire, London, 'C0).
Built first Pacific railway GU. P.) '62-'6J;
went through first trust, Credit Mob.lier.
Owned 5000 lots, Omaha, worth $4,000, UOU.
(Been in fifteen jails without crime)
Train Villa, built at Newport, '6S. Daugh-
ter's house, No. 158 Madison avenue go Or
ganized French commune, Marse.ne,
League du Midi October, 20, while on re-
turn trip around the world in eighty days
Jules Verne, two years later, wrote fiction
of my fact
Made Independent race for presidency
against Grant and Greeley, '71-'72
Cornered lawyers, doctors, clericals, by
quoting three columns of the Bible to re-
lease Woodruff C1a1in from Jail. Now luna
tic by law, through six courts.
Now living at Mills palace. 81 against
$1,000 week, at Train villa. Daughter
always room for me in country Played
Carnegie party years ahead Three gener-
atoms living off Credit Mobilier. Author
dozen books out of print wide "Who
Who" Allibone, Appleton's Cyclopedia)
Four times around the world. First two
years; second, eighty days. 10; third sixty
seven and half days, 80; fourth. sixty
clo