New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-01-24
THE KING OF CRANKS
Oddities and Eccentyicities Came
Near Genius in Citizen" Train.

AS- PsScnoiosist. hnancier. builder OF railroads.
hnguist globe trOtter and the only sane man among
men,. finally proved the faIlacy OF his dearest
theory. He had long predicted that he would live
Two hundred years He died last Tuesday at the
age Of seventy-fve
so firmly did Citizen Train as he sometimes re-
ferred to himself believe that his career would e
tend over two centuries that for twenty-six years
ne mad not shaken hands with any one except chill
oren- Contact with adult he thought drained
MN OF his psychic force From children he said
he absorbed perennial youth. Each day in pleasant
weather until in recent years he won't 10 sit on
bench in Madison Square and dole out stories or
peanuts TO the crowds Of boys and girls who clam
oered 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 % their
childish questions with an illimtable patienca.
On his SEVENTEEN birthday the greatest eCotist
Of history, as he entitled himself gave a din
ner 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 l. in Bleecker-s+ where he had a small corner
room for his home. He was gorgeously dressed. and
wore the red scarf Of freedom. which was a charac-
teristic 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:
Birthday sir. I never had a birthday Every day
Tor seventy years I have been born anew. Birth
days are only advertisements for notables There Is
only one candle in my cake now begin urs anew
wiping out the threescore years and ten
Faith IN bicentennial existence was also tia
cause OF his selection Of the Mills Hotel No a.,
his home. Although he claimed to be worth mora
than sSO.0oO00O. yet he spent only IS a week FOR
room and board He saved his wealth SO he ono
told an intimate friend IN order that he might lv.
out the centuries without danger OF destitutou
When he owned Train Villa. at Newport IN Isss
he was said to have entertained for a season as a
cost Of 5000 week Yet he declared a yesr
or so ago that he happier at thu Mills Pal
ace than at Train Villa AT tho hotel he ate
/ only bread nuts milk and vegetables glssh
Xrhf NJ .,Yo--
When sick from mild form OF smallpox lasS
summer Citizen Train drank an eggnoE which
| his physician had prescribed for him He Wa
confined at the time IN isolation camp lust ont
side OF Stamford. Conn. where the horns OF hi4
| daughter, Mrs Guager. Is situated But no soorst
had he swallowed the eggnOg that he s1ciAlnasdz
| IT find that my so-called medicine Is a poasorL
It has been dOctored with alcohol Never hay1ng
| tasted poisonous liquor before. decline to taks
/ any more"
/ Mr.. Train also refraaned from handlfnx snsw.-
/ papers. as he said they saturated with car
eolie acid When he discovered that his sickrocrrs
was being disinfected with this gsrmlcide he said
/ remonstratingly:
Each day my sprinlklss my door ssws-aE
times with this poison. diluted. Now. believe shs
poison 70 be absorbed BY the seven million pores
| OF the skin She also sponges M al over with
carbolic acid solution Unless this persecution 4.
stopped shall die. and the amount OF psychic
| force which have stored up IN my body WIN all
| go for nothing"
for $4,000 damages for what he termed his
| false arrest and imprisonment"
| Throughout the hermit life which he led the last
thirty OF his nfe Citizen Train manifested
the same restless energy which characterized him
| when a successful merchant and a brilliant hnan-
| cier. With much the same dash and vim with
which he promoted the Atlantic and Great Western
| Railroad In 1858 and the Union Pacific Railroad
in 1854 the vensrabls Citizen wrote his last book
entitled My Life in Many States and Foreign
Lands He dictated It's 400 pages IN thirty-ive
hours. On afternoons In the months OF July and
August in 1902 he devoted hour a time TO dc
tating his "reminiscences to stenosrapher He
RETAINED from writing line himself for fear or
exhausting his psychic force" The volume bears
this significant dedication:
To the children and 10 the chidren's children IN
| this and all lands who love and believe IN mo be-
cause they know I love and believe In them
In the preparation OF this book the Citizen
first drafted rough outline. which he entitled My
| Autobiography Boiled Down -Four Hundred Pages
| IN Two Hundred Words" His life. as condensed
by himself IN his own quaint language IS fol-
lows:
Born s-24-'2a. Orphaned New-Orleans. 80 ga
Their. mother and three sisters-yelOw fever. Came
ham, Mass Supported self since babyhood. Farmer
| TIN fourteen; grocery boy. Cambridgeport, two
partner. Train & Co, twenty dncome. $4,000; Bos-
Established G. :. Train a Co. MsIbourns. Aus
tT ITALIA; g. Agent BSEtnss' PgnSan 8 shers
clippers TO Cslifornia 40 Flying Cloud S9vsrsisn
A q 81. X.
| connecting Erie with Ohio and Mississippi 100
miles
Ausfra ngI s sis DaSs6n s
f1rdShlre London. so) Built hrst Pacific Railway
Mobilier Owned 5000 lots. Omaha, worth Ss0oOoO0o-
| CBeen in fifteen tails WITHOUT a crtme)
house. No. 15S Madison-ave 80. Organized French
Commune. Marseilles League du Midi. October, TO
days Jules Verne two years later. wrote fiction oe
Made independent race for Presidency agaiass
Cornered lawyers. doctors. clsrfca1s. By ouottn<
Claim from isa NOW anStIo b. lava th1 wGSSn an
/ courts
/ week, at Train villa. Daughter always room Tor
me In country) Played Carnegie party years
| Author dozen books out OF print wide WHO'S
Who" Allibone. Appleton's Cyclopedial
secCGg t n around ne W Sr Es two years.
half days sO fourth. sixty days. shortest rssord.
sf Thr9ugh pysehio telspathy. am doubling ass.
/ seventy-foUr years young.
The way in which the most eccentric nan n,
/ the world" won his wife shows the daring deter
| mination OF the He hardly more than
twenty-one at the time. In travelling toward Bos-
| ton some business errand his train stopped as
Syracuse. CHANGING 70 look out OF the car window
he espied girl with lovely brown curs' boarding
a train another track
Look at that girl with the curls" he ex-
claimed 20 Alfred Ward. who travelling with
him
do you know he-?' asked Ward
mo. but soon win. and 7 shall have her for
my Wife
He had hardly made this reply when the train
began to start Catching up his grip the youthful
sutton jumped OF the car and clambered aboard
the other train he did not know where il was
going. His only thought the girl with the
beautiful curls. Al last he found her seated with
an elderly man. who acted toward her too defer