The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-11-25
"HOOT MON

serve to show how inefficient Is the fore
sight Of the greatest men and how poorly
the keenest mental vision pierces the
future.
In 1888 when a proposition to build
post road between st. Louis and Wash
ington territory was up Daniel Webster
wrote: What do we want of that
enormous tract Of barren land stretching
to the westward for hundreds Of miles;
of those gray clad mountains capped
with eternal SHOWS: What do we want
with that seacoast 1900 miles in extent
with scarcely a harbor on it,"
It is now known that the vast Daniel
was entirely mistaken about the coun-
try back Of Massachusetts,. It has
proved valuable outlet for the pent-up
energies Of New England men who, had
they stayed at home, could never have
gone to the senate There was, how
ever, little excuse for Daniel saying there
was scarcely a harbor on the coast, since
the Golden Gate was then known and
San Francisco was q settlement.
Another great man who went wrong
on his predictions was William b. Glad
stone, who, in a letter to Cyrus w. Field,
written in 1862, strongly advised the
American people to let the southern
states go in peace rather than pursue
"this destructive and hopeless war"
That Gladstone was sincere in his esti-
mate of the capacities Of the southern
people to resist is shown by the fact
he bought confederate bonds for his
grandchildren which his grandchildren
later used to paper dolly houses with.
Mr. Gladstone at that time was not only
off his base but off his trolley as well.
He has left an apology to the American
people which his biographer, John Nor
ley, has incorporated in his life Of Glad
stone. In this Gladstone admits it was
all right for a private Englishman to
have opinions about American affairs,
but it was in bad taste for him, a min
lister of the empire, to be taking sides.
Gladstone, however, has long ago been
forgiven, especially as he did not make
anything on his confederate bonds.
.~
Another active letter writer appears to
have been the third Napoleon. After
some digging in the archives a letter
has been discovered which Napoleon
wrote regarding the presence of French
troops in Mexico. For some reason Ma
poleon did not want his intentions made
known to Seward, and therefore took the
course of addressing a letter to General
James Watson Webb gentleman who
had befriended Napoleon when the flu
ture emperor of the French was an exile
in New York. It is supposed that Cen
eral Webb, who was then a newspaper
editor, not only paid Napoleon's room
rent but invited him out to an occasional
square meal, which proved extremely
gratifying to the man who was AFTER
wards to cut such dash in Europe
only to fall suddenly from an almost
unexampled height. ! Anyway, General
Webb's relations with the emperor were
so cozy that he felt; quite free to drop
in on the emperor even on busy days
and, disregarding the sign on the desk,
state some things freely. Among other
things he told Napoleon was that the
Monroe doctrine stood in the way of his
performances in Mexico, and that as
soon as the civil war was over Abe Lin
coin would jump down on him with a
million troops. Napoleon said he saw
the point and promised Webb to get out
soon. 1.-THE sooner the BETTER said
Webb. whereupon the emperor smiled a
rather sickly smile and remarked that
he would get out when he got good and
ready but that he was almost ready. W.
It was agreed that he should write a
letter to Webb to be shown to Lincoln.
including a promise to retire from Mex
leo. This letter was not to be shown to
Seward nor was the subsequent definite
agreement about retirement of French
| troops to be known either to the Ameri-
can minister at Paris or to the .secre-
tary Of state at Washington. Napoleon
appears to have made the acquaintance
Of two Americans who could keep Sc
cret, Lincoln and Webb, and he stuck to
them.
| ..1Sg = 80
T After Washington, D.. c., had filtered
its, water and found that typhoid had not
lost a precinct it fell back on the old
theory that the disease is due to oysters.
If Washington has to choose between
typhoid and the oysters it will be quite
apt to make the, reply of the man who
was asked to elect between eyesight
and whisky. He said he had seen nearly
everything worth seeing.
The value Of advertising is again e4-
enpli1ed: in a story that comes thru an
eastern exchange. A bachelor bought a
pair of socks and found in one a paper
with these words: II am a young lady
Of 20 and would like to correspond with
a bachelor with a view to matrimony.' -
The name and address were given The
bachelor wrote ands in a few days got
this reply: s.:& e. 49,.
Mama was married twenty years
ago., You must have bought your socks
from a man who does not advertise,
else he would not have been so long in
disposing Of them.''
Henry James, the novelist, says the
expression handing a lemon conveys
no meaning. If this is really true, the
inquiry naturally and inevitably arises,
jrry11n III To- ,sors,,~
Frank E. Nimocks shows symptoms of
being. a rather wide-awake member Of
the legislature. Evidently he does not
propose to be caught mapping, as he was
once when reporting the proceedings Of
the Monday morning ministers meeting
for an afternoon paper. The ministers
in those days were indiscreet enough to
invite reporters into their very midst.
and on this particular Monday they got
into a debate about some tdereliction OF
the city administration which waxed
furiously hot and set the reporters taking
notes frenziedly, all except Nimocks, who
had fallen asleep in his chair and had
missed the drift Of the polemical de-
bate entirely. The morning newspaper
men, who were myself and Harold Cha
pin, decided that Nimocks ought not to
be bothered with the matter, so we tip
toed out Of the room very softly. The
ministers, having had their fling, began
to feel pretty sick over the freedom they
had used in the discussion, and when
Nimocks awoke and asked what had hap
|pened they soothed him with an innocu-
GUS account Of the routine proceedings.
It was not until the morning papers came
out next day that he realized how
thoughtful we had been Of his comfort
and what an amount of work we had