Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-07-10

| of him until midsummer, when he sent me cablegram from London. He was in hospital there, out of money and out of health. cabled him s1,000 and asked him to come home as soon as he could. It was my first personal experience with that far from uncom- mon American type, the periodic drunkard. I had to cable him money three times before he started.
 When he came to me at Washing ton, in December, he looked just as before-calm, robust cool, cynical and dressed in the very extreme of the extreme fashion. I received him as if nothing had happened. It was not until the current of mutual liking was again flowing freely between us that I said: Doc, may impose on your friendship to the extent of an in- trusion into your private affairs?" He started, and gave me a quick look, his color mounting. "Yes," he said after moment.
 When heard from you,". went on. q made some inquiries. owe you no apology. You had given me a'shock-a one of the severest of my life. But l they told me that you never let-that -that-that peculiarity of yours in- terfere with business"
 His head was hanging. q always go away" he said. Nobody that knows me ever sees me when-at that time" 1 I laid my hand on his arm. Doc, why do you do-that sort of thing?"
 The scar came up into his face to put agony into the reckless despair that looked from his eyes. For an in- stant stood on the threshold of his chamber of remorse and vain re- gret-and we'll I knew where I was Why not?" he asked, bitterly. There's always a-sort of horror-in- side me. And it grows until cant bear it. And then-I drown it-wliy shouldn't I?"
 That's very stupid for man of your brains" said I. There's nothing nothing in the world, except death that cannot be wiped out or set right Play the game, Doc. Play it with me for five years Play 1t for all there is in it. Then-go back, if you want to-"
 He thought long time, and I did not try to hurry him. At length he said, in his old offhand manner: Well, I'll go you, senator; I'll not touch drop.' ..z And he didn't. Whenever thought I saw signs of the savage internal bat tie against the weakness, gave him something important and absorbing | to do, and I kept him busy until I knew the temptation had lost its pow CT for the time.
 This is the proper place to put it on the record that he was the most scrupulously honest man have ever l known. He dealt with the shadiest and least scrupulous of men-those who train their consciences to be the eager-servants of their appetites; he | handled hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions first and last, all of IL HlUuSS TUT uS Soulu hSfCi have been forced to account He had at one time as much as half million dollars in checks payable to bearer. I am not confiding by nature or train ing, but I am confident that he kept not a penny for himself beyond his salary and his fixed commission. I put his salary at the outset, at ten thousand a year; afterward, at fif- teen. finally at twenty. His cimmis- sions, perhaps, doubled it.
 There are many kinds of honesty nowadays. There is corporate hon. esty," not unlike that proverbial "honor among thieves" which secures a fair or fairly fair division of the spells. Then there is personal hon. esty," which subdivides into three kinds-legal, moral and instinctive. Legal honesty needs no definition. Moral honesty deEes definition-how untangle it's interwinings Of motives of fear, pride, insufficient temptation, sacrifice of the smaller chance in the hope of larger? Finally, there is in- stinctive honesty-the rarest, the only bedrock, unassailaible kind. Give me the man who is honest sim ply because it never occurs to him, and never could occur to him, to be anything else. That is Woodruff.
 There is, to be sure, another kind of instinctively honest man-he who disregards loyalty as well as self in- terest in his uprightness. But there are so few of these in practical life that they may be disregarded.
 Perhaps I should say something here as to the finances of my com blne, though 1t was managed in the main precisely like all these polit- ical-commercial machines that con- trol both parties in all the states, ex- cept few in the south.
 My assessments upon the various members of my combine were sent, for several years, to me. afterward to Woodruff directly, in s1,000. S5,000 and s10,000 checks. sometimes by mail. and at other times by express or messenger.
 These checks were always payable to bearer; and I made through Wood ruff, for kept to the far background all my combines affairs, an ar engagement with several large banks in different parts of the state. inciud- ing one at the capital. that these sa ha question. no matter who presented them. provided there was a certain flourish under the line where the