The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-09
Essay Written By Cleveland
 When Nine Years Old
ED BAXTER OF NASHVILLE
Gen. Frederic D. Grants Popularity With Men in the Army-csrmack on Lecture Platform for First
 Time This Winter.
BY FREDERIC J. HAskIN.

To every American school boy the pos siblity of becoming President of the Uni ted States sometimes appears in rose ate dream of the future. Only two men who have reached the dignity of that high office now survive Theodore Roosevelt and Grover Cleveland. No one doubts but that the White House loomed large in ths eyes of the boy Theodore, for he has been hard at politics all his life. But MT. Cleveland whose tastes are so different, might not be expected to look upon the presidency so young. No doubt his visions were only those fieeting ones of the every day school boy, inspired by school-book precepts Nevertheless it is interesting to read an essay written by Stephen Grover Cleveland when he was years old, a. pupil of the Fayetteville academy. Here it Is.
 Time is divided into seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years and centuries. If we expect to become great we must improve our time when we are young. George Washington improved his time when he was boy and he was not sorry when he was at the head of a large army fighting for his country Jackson was a poor boy, but he was placed in school, and by improving his time he found himself President of the United States, guiding and directing a powerful nation If we wish to become great and useful (sic) in the world, we must im- prove our time in school" This essay on "Time" is preserved in the manuscript and is signed IS. c. Cleveland"
 MT Cleveland dropped the use of the name Stephen" early in life but it clung to him until after his first sue cessful campaign for the presidency. The first time MT. Clevelands name appeared in print was when his uncle, Lewis F. <Allen of Buffalo, gave credit in the pre- face of the American Shorthorn Year Book of 1861 for valuable assistance rem dered bN Grover Cleveland, Esq, of Buffalo, a gentleman of the legal profess sion." Young Cleveland had worked sev- eral years on that annual herd book while studying law in Buffalo, and it was the prospect of that work which induced him to stop at Buffalo when on hs way west to Cleveland to make his for tune School boy essays are generally made up of platitudinous precepts, but no one may say that the Grover Cleveland of years preached what the Grover Cleveland of manhood failed to practice
 
 Among the leading railroad lawyers Of the United States is Judge Ed Baxter of Nashville. He practices almost exclusive ly before the interstate commerce com mission in Washington and Is regarded as the highest authority on interstate com merce law at the bar. The names of l7 railroad systems are inscribed upon the door of his office. As newspaper report CT soldier in the Confederate army, poll tcan, lawyer, judge and teacher he has been prominent in Tennessee for half century, although for several years he has devoted himself entirely to his speciality As a lecturer in the law school of Vanderbilt university he imparted in- strueton to many young men, and one of them was Joseph Wngatet Folk, now governor of Missouri At the recent home- coming celebration in Tennessee, Cover nor Folk was the guest of Judge Baxter at a luncheon in Nashville, which was really reunion of. BaXters old law pupils On that occasion Governor Folk paid the highest of tributes to his old preceptor and thanked him for his sue cess.
 The striking characteristic of Ed Baxter
 
 as a lawyer is that he thinks he doesn't know anything. While others believe that he knows more railroad law than any body Baxter is doubtful. Thus 1t is that he never relies on his own memory, the most minute details are carefully looked up and verified. and therefore there are no Baxter mistakes. And as for interstate commerce law, Judge BaN- ter confesses he doesn't know it. despite the seventeen railroads who think he Yknows 1t all In the building of the com mission in Washington there are two ele- vators On each Is placard which fur nlshes tho information that the car sta toned above will carry passengers down and the car stationed below will carry passengers up. No one of the elevators has been known to be where prospec- tive passenger imagines it to be. The other day Judge Baxter looked at the placard long and carefully, and then re- marked to a friend: That sign is about as ineligible to me as the interstate commerce act.'
 There recently died in Washington a