Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-10-01
SIDE LIGHTS ON HOAR
Massachusetts Senator's Enthu-
 siasm For Rural Life.
LOVER OF THE FIELDS AND WOODS

LOVER OF THE FIELDS AND WOODS Deep Tn statecraft, He Was Very Fond of the Country and Believed In It's Beneacial Worh.-Anecdotes That Depict His Keen Wit How
 His Colleagues Gauged His Humor. A side of the late Senator George | Frisbie Hoar's character with which those who knew him only as states man and a scholar are unfamiliar was his enthusiasm for country life, says the Boston Herald. Rarely have the advantages and attractions of boy life on New England farm been express ed more poetically than by MT. Hoaf in | short speech introducing Senator Lodge at the inauguration of Carroll D. l Wright as president of Clark college at Worcester Oct. 9, 1902, in which he l showed how great was his colleagues misfortune in being city bred.
 During his many years of public life Senator Hoar found time to be out of doors great deal in the summer. His home in Worcester is separated from the neighboring houses by broad lawns and many trees, so that the outlook from the house is suggestive of the country. During recent years the sen ator took great pleasure during the summer in long drives through the beautiful hilly country surrounding Worcester and often enjoyed the scen- cry from seat in trolley car. He ex- pressed his feeling about the country when he said:
 "There was never better gymnasium for body and intellect and soul; there was never filter preparation for col lege or university or for the greater university of the world than the life, from the early settlement of the coun- try down to a day most of us can re- member, on New England farm. What an education in the old days, when the thick wood came up close to the village; when the boy's school mates were the hawk and the owl and the raccoon and the muskrat; when he was schooled in the lore of wood and pond and river; when he went bare foot from the frost in the spring to the frost in the autumn, and thawed out the pump and shoveled out the path through the snow in the winter morn ing, and had
 .'Eyery moral feeling of the soul
 Strengthened and braced by breathing in content
 The keen and wholesome air of poverty And drinking from the well of homeiy life.
 "In those days when boy wanted to have thing done for him he had to do it himself. He had to keep his l eyes and his ears open to natures con stant challenge from wood and field and river and pond. The pickerel in the pond and the muskrat In the river and the hawk in the sky and the wood chuck in his hole and the gray squir- rel on the tree top were calling to him, Get me if you canr He went out to his .day's work with an exhilaration that nobody but Chaucer, the poet of the morning and of toy, could ade- quately describe unless, perhaps, we except Gray, who has told us the story of English country life and of ours in poem, every line of which is a gem more precious than the Kohinoor:
 .sOft did the harvest to the sickle yield;
 Their furrows oft the stubborn glebe
 klaS QrOk6. How. Jocund did they drive their team
 afield.
 How bow'd the woods beneath their
 T account it a great misfortune to any man to have missed that school"
 Senator Hoars wit, harmless as dove among his private friends, was as keen as a stiletto when wielded in the legislative chamber. I might mention a few instances in point, says writer in the Pittsburg Dispatch. <.
 Senator Ben Tillman can be a bit prudish on occasions in the use of good English Ex-Senator Allen of Nebras- ka, less careful in the niceties of the language, was noted as the longest winded debater in the senate, fact which lends point to this instance.
 In the course of senate colloQuy Tillman and% Allen disputed over the pronunciation of the word .'situs," the South Carolinian contending that the 'i' should be long, while his opponent stuck to the short sound. The question was referred to Hoar as authority In good English.
 .sThe senator from South Carolina is technically correct" 1" decided the oracle, "but suppose the senator from Ne braska desired to save time by using the short sound.''
 A newspaper correspondent once ask~ ed Senator Hoar for his photograph.
 "Why, certainlyy' said the senator cordially. Garland, go and sit for my picture"
 Garland was one of his private sec retaries The correspondent looked pug zled
 .sOh, that's all night,'' continued the senator. Garland always sits for my portrait because he is much better looking man than am. When I am asked for my autograph get Good win. my other secretary, to write it, for he is, the best penman, and when am asked for my opinion on any matter the inquirer is referred to Doherty, my messenger"
 Doherty was Hoar's handy man, among his duties being to guard the Senatnr'a door He was mentioned in