The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-09-20

Political ActtV1tteS--Captatn Nathan
 ieI Hayden a Lover of Thoroughbred
 Horses--RepOrt of Connecticut Com
 mission on St. Louis Fair Widely Dis-
 tributed.
 Hartford, Sept. 19.-Ex-Bank Com 'hnissioner Samuel @, Porter, of Farm ington, one of the oldest politicians in the state has not lost the old time in- terest in the republican party. The Fact that he Is beyond eighty-f1ve years of age does not prevent his keeping up the political news of the day and the programme of Connecticut republican, ism. MT. Porter's political life began in 1869, when he was representative in the house from Pennington. Mar shall Jewell was governor and Orville H. Platt speaker. With both he was on terms of intimacy and friendship, believed fully in the political princi- pies which they represented. In the sessions of 1880 and 1882 he was chair man of the house committee on rail- roads, receiving the appointments from Speakers William C. Case and William Edgar Simonds, both of whom he has outlived. His last term in the house was in 1899. He has served as bank commissioner, rendering impor- tant service in that capacity. His public life has reflected credit on the state and is remembered with satisfac- tion by the older republicans in Con- necticut MT. Porter is the brother of Professor William Porter of Beloit col lege, who will be eighty-seyen years old in January and has been profess sor of Latin for half a century. This aged Latinist will give up active work at Beloit in a few months His long service as a teacher of Latin recalls fhe days and work of Professor Thom- Rs Thacher of Yale, who impressed himself for life on the minds and hearts of Yale men. Professor Porter has been spending the summer here with ex-Bank Commissioner Porter and his son, Dr. William Porter of Hartford.
 Captain Nathaniel Hayden of Union- Kille, who commanded Company c of the Sixteenth Connecticut at Antietam and was wounded in the engagement, is one of the few officers left of the original field and line of that regiment. At the age of seventy he likes nothing better than handling the lines behind his spirited roadsters Like Senator Peck of Waterbury, who has some of the fastest trotters in New England, Captain Hayden has been a lover of thoroughbreds through life. At the outbreak of the civil war he was in one of the dry goods houses in Hartford and had the pick of the young men of the city in enlisting his company for the field. He was one of the original ''Wide Awakes" that gave Abraham Lincoln the notable reception which he received in Hartford before his election as president. The wife of Captain Hayden belongs to the Dodd family of New Jersey. Her father, Colonel Jo- seph Dodd, was in the war of 1872, be- ing an officer of the line in the New Jersey Fencibles. He won the title of colonel in the New Jersey militia. In 1S16 he received an appointment in the New York city post office when the mails were handled by three men. Colonel Dodd began his post office ca- reer under President James Madison and remained through thirteen presi- dential administrations, covering pe- riod of fifty-eight years. When he be- gan that long lfe-work he was charged with conveying the mail bags Nh a skiff between New York and Jer- sey City. Once he was carried in his skiff by the ice almost to Sandy Hook, and was twenty-four hours in making his way back, most perious adven- lure. He was justly boastful of the fact that he had never lost mailbag dn his life. The old United States law that negro should not be employed dn the postal service was the result of an adventure of Colonel Dodd's. A ne- gro, who had been assigned by the New York post office to assist him in carrying the southern mails across te Jersey City, stole a letter containing $1GO. After the theft had been un raveled the anti-negro service statute was passed by congress. It was not abolished until the days of Charles Sumner in the United States senate Captain Hayden and wife live in one o1 the most attractive homes in Union vile and have part in the intellectua and religious life of the community
 The report of the Connecticut com mission on the St. Louis fair knowr as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition which was prepared by the secretary J. H. Vail of Winsted, has been dis tributed far and near, making it al most impossible to secure one of the volumes at the present time. The re- port is admirably arranged, the trained Journalistic habits of Secretary Val being evidenced on every page, Int work contains a series of illustrations that does credit to Connecticut. There Is also choice department of biogra- phy comprising the lives of Connects cut artists, that will be often consult ed. Colonel Frank L. Wilcox of Berlir was the president of the commission and Frederick A. Betts of New HaveI was one of the national commissioners Mrs, John M Holcombe of Hartfort was also a member of the nationa board, having the exposition in charge Mrs. Louis R. Cheney of Hartford Mrs, George H. Knight of Lakevill, and Miss Anne H. Chappell of New Dondon were members of the stat, tcommission. Judge William J. MeCon. vile, who has made the most notable contest for the republican nomination dor probate judge that has been wit messed in the Hartford district, Is ir Atlantic City for rest and recuperation mi. l,,drnsi lnr,rol. l..... | =. -. L.