Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-02-02

patented and had gone into S
business and thriving
Presently the State of New -
York offered fifty thousand
dollar prize for a practical method of navigat-
ing the Erie Canal with steam canal boats.
Orion worked at that thing for two or three years
invented and completed method, and was
more ready to reach out and seize upon imminent
wealth, when somebody pointed out defect his
time: and in the summer time the commotion its
wheels would make in the water would wash away
the State of New York on both sides
Innumerable Orions projects for acquiring
the means to pay off the debt to me- These projects
extended straight through the succeeding thirty
years; but in every they failed. During all
those years his we'll esta bshed honesty kept him in
offices of trust where other peoples money had to
be taken of, but where salary paid. He
was treasurer of all the benevolent Institutions he
took of the money and other property of
widows and orphans; he never lost cent for any
body and never made one for himself Every time
he changed his religion the church of his new faith
was glad to get him; made him treasurer at once;
and at once he stopped the graft and the leaks in
that church
He exhibited facility in changing his political
complexion that was marvel to the W hole COM
munity. Once the following curious thing happened,
and he wrote all about it himself:
One morning he was Republican. and upon in
vitation he agreed to make campaign speech at
the Republican meeting that night He pre-
pared the speech. After luncheon he became
Democrat and agreed to write score of exciting
mottos to be painted upon the transparences which
the Democrats would carry in their torchlight pro-
cession that night He wrote these shouting Demo-
cratic mottos during the afternoon, and they
pied SO much of his time that it night before
he had chance to change his politics again; SO he
actually made a rousing Republican campaign
speech in the open air while his Democratic trans
parencieS passed by in front of him. to the Joy OF
every witness present.
He most strange creature; but in spite Of
his eccentrcities he beloved all his lfe what
soever community he lived And he also held
in high esteem, for at bottom he sterling
A BOUT twenty-five years ago,-along there
Z where,-l suggested to Orion that he write an
autobiography Iasked him try tell the straight
truth in it: to refrain from exhibiting himself in
credtable attitudes exclusively: and to honorably
set down all the incidents of his life which he had
found interesting to him. including those which
burned into his memory because he
ashamed of them. l said that this had never been
done, and that if he could do it his autobiography
would be most valuable piece OF literature. said
l was offering him job which could not duplicate
in my case, but would cherish the hope that
he might succeed with it.
| recognize now that was trying to saddle upon
him an mpossibility. / have been debating this
autobiography of mine daily for three months;
have thought of fifteen hundred two thousand
incidents in my life which | am ashamed of, but
have not gotten one OF them to consent to 60 on
paper yet l think that that stock will still be
complete and unimpaired when l finish these
mors, if ever finish them. believe that if should
put in all or any Of those incidents, should be
to strike them out when came to revise this book.
Orion wrote his autobiography, and sent it to me.
But great was my disappointment, and my
ton too. In it he constantly making hero Of
himself exactly as should have done and am do
ing now, and he constantly forgetting to put
in the episodes which placed him in unheroic
light. knew several incidents of his life which
distinctly and painfully unheroic: but when came
across them in his autobiography they had changed
color. They had turned themselves inside out,
and were things to be Unexpectedly proud of In
my dissatisfaction l destroyed considerable part
OF that autobiography. But in what remains there