The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-17
PERSONAL STORIES
 OF SOME AMERICANS
Senator Morgan Traces AnCeS-
 try to Welsh Buccaneer
JOKE ON ADES' BROTHER
How the D. A. R. of Memphis Held Reception for Luke E. Wright, at Which the "Hamlet'
 Was Absent.
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKlN.

pr HlO J. f1A0klTN.
 John Tyler Morgan, one of Alabama's
 two octogenarlan senators, traces his an-
 cestry back to Sir Henry John Morgan, the Welsh buecaneer who was the terror
 of the Spanish Main some two hundred
 and fifty years ago. Morgan was eer- l tainly buccaneer, but historians have
 agreed that he should not be called |
 pirate, although the saeking and destrue- l ton of cities for which he was respon-
 sible would be called piracy nowadays. h.
 ternational law was quite loose in the l seventeenth century, and governments
 gave countenance to methods of warfare
 which would not be tolerated at all in
 these days of telegraphlc diplomacy and
 newspaper publicity. Henry Morgan, the | buccaneer fitted out his fleet in Jamaica
 and preyed upon the commerce of Spain | in American waters. He sacked the towns
 and cities of New Granada, destroyed
 Porto Bello and fought really great bat
 tie which ended with his capture of the
 city of Panama. Taken back to England, l tried for piracy and acquitted, he was
 made a knight and appointed lieutenant l governor of Jamaica, where he spent his I declining years in peace. From Jamaica
 his desoendant came to Georgia, from
 Georgia to Tennessee, and at Athens.
 Tenn, in 1924, John Tyler Morgan was
 born.
 When he was nine years old he removed
 with his parents to Talladega county, Alabama, where the Cherokee Indians l still held sway Young Morgan played with Indian boys and learned the Chero-
 kee tongue, and he has learned everything
 which has come within his range of ob- servation. He works like Morgan" is | saying in Washington which has
 pushed aside the old similes about bees
 and beavers Although now nearly 93 years old and physically feeble, he keeps
 two secretaries busy all the time
 His wonderful ability to grasp a subject
 In short time was illustrated a few years
 ago when he was employed to make an argument in a case involving patent for
 moving machine The client was des-
 perate. and he employed Senator Morgan
 on friends advice. giving the senator
 only six hours in which to prepare. MT
 Morgans argument astounded the court
 and almost paralyzed his client so com
 prehensive and accurate was his knowl-
 edge of the details of mechanics as ap- piled to that particular moving machine
 He has queer mental collection of all
 kinds of history and information which he displays from time to time to the Wonderment of his friends Thomas Clarke
 of Alabama had an engagement to go to church with tue senator one day last winter As they left the Morgan home church bell was ringing The aged l senator stopped on the sidewalk and be- | gan to tell his companion the history of church bells, when they were first used
 the stories of the most famous chimes.
 and so on. When he had done church services had been over for half hour, but MT. Clarke did not complain. MT
 Morgan has been member of the senate for thirty years. and if he shall live un-
 til the expiration of his term in 1913 he
 will be 89 years old at the time of his retirement. With all of his wonderful
 personal history, it Is a peculiar fact that
 he likes to talk of the deeds of his buc-
 cancer ancestor, who was the scourge of the high seas.
 Womans laughter has frightened the
 dim interior of the old Trapplst Monastery at Gethsemanl Kentucky, but few times since the little colony of French monks came up the Mississippi and O,lo rivers In canoes nearly a hundred years ago and made for themselves new home In the heart of the blue grass. That the last | of the three visits made by woman to 1 that mystic shrine was the result of q l romance in which love and politics were | mingled Is even more remarkable, for the | rigorous ascetism of the silent Trappists l admits no thoughts of the pleasures and | delights of love, nor of the wordliness I of the game called politics. In the dawn | of the Christian era St. Benedict ampli- | fled the saying of Jesus concerning rem
 dering unto Caesar that which is Caesars. and commanded the monks to receive their guests as Christ received them, and give | them place according to their rank From | this came the rule of courtesy that the l wife of the governor of Kentucky might be received in the most sacred clolsters 1 of the monastery at Gethsemani
 | In the summer of eee a party of young people visited Gethsemani and were
 shown about the grounds. At one point | the monk who was guiding them stopped | the young ladies. Miss Fuqua laughingly protested that she wanted to go on The | monk replied ''If Mir. Beckham will be- 1 come governor of Kentucky. and you wilt I marry him, then I will promise that you
 may see all of the monastery" MT. Beck 1 hams home was but fourteen miles away I and he was well known to the monks but the guide little suspected that the young | people would make good the conditions he had suggested
 Two years later J. C. w. Beckham was governor of the commonwealth of Ken 1 lucky and Miss Fuqua had become the l bride of the youngest governor in the l union. The monks at old Gethsemanl then, | kept their promise, and the boy governor | and his bride were royalty entertained Mrs. Beckham was shown through all | parts of the monastery.
 | George Ade's father is a country bank
 CT in the Hoosier State. He was not n- l clined to look with favor upon his son, 1 who was destined to make Indiana fun | famous The humorst's brother, will, 1 took to business and Is a partner In the | paternal banking house. After George | had gone into newspaper work his father | still disapproved and when the young I man came home for vacation there | were numerous paternal hints that a bus l mess career was more remunerative and
 more dignified. Brother William was fre- quently held up as an example of what | a young man should do in life.
 | In the meantime, the Fables in Slang l had begun and before long the whole
 world knew George Ade. Brother Will