Los Angeles herald., 1908-04-12

Memoirs Of Cornelius Cole. former
senator of the United States from Califor-
mia McLoughlin Brothers. New YORK, 1918
TIME foregoing is the stereotyped an
nouncement common to all new
II books. but in this instance 1t can
give no adequate conception or Whal
This book means to Calfornians.
Eighty-flve years young, Cornenus
Cole, resting in the beautiful home he
carved from the once waste places now
so well known as ColegroVe ana Holy
wood, looking back over an evehtlui
lifetime in the white light OF the ma
fional political arena, puts in motion
the great enginery of his mental FORCES
that has. in the troublous days of re-
construction, gripped and held the at
tention and respect of the United states
senate, and brings upon the stage the
men and measures of forty years ago.
To be able to grasp the Importance OF
this hook TO the men now on the stage
of life, as well as to those TO come, II
is necessary to picture California as
she was In the COS and 70s Redeemed
from the taint of disloyalty, and work
Ing upward in the march OF empire, the
men who had saved the state from DIS
honor were in the common struggle IN
cident to commercial development
Mental giants in all lines of endeaVor
were to the fore. In the church, aArcn-
bishop Alemany and DR.. Stebbins Vled
with Dr. McKensie and DR.. Thompson
in the moral line. In the law, were
Burch Terry, Barnes, Casserly, Wheel
er and a score of other great lights.
The press was manned by the brightest
aggregation Of writer's in its history
The Chronicle had Charlie De Young;
the Call and Bulletin were conducted
by Pickering and Fitch, who called
Sam Seabough to the editorial chair
from the Sacramento Union; the EX-
aminer. newly changed from Phil Roach
and an evening issue, was managed by
Henderson; Bret Harte with the Over
land. and Frank Plxley with the Argo-
naut were supplemented in the work cf
caustic comment on all men and all
things by Ambrose Bierce and the
News Letter, and Henry George, of
Progress and Poverty" fame, was lift
ing the Post out of obscurty. In finance
the Bank OF California and Meigs and
Mills and the big Four" of the Com
stock mines, seconded by the (then as
now, crafty and grasping Central Pa
cifc railroad coterie, all held the pup-
lie purse. while the public then as
now held the sack"
curbed Might of Finance
But for the sturdy manhood of Sem
ator Cole and few loyal sons who
stood with him, the might of finance
would have been the right of the times.
and the railroad incubus of today
would have been insupportable. In the
frenzied strife for wealth. men of ac-
knowledged previous good character
fell victims to their greed, driving such
men as Ralston to suicide at Black
Point and Harry Meigs to an exile's
grave in Peru.
Pauperized labor was just beginning
to find its latent strength, urged there
to by the almost daily record of sui
cides and the deaths from starvation.
The writer, then employed on the local
1-st H. h n
daily report from Poverty alley, OIL
California street, where fortunes were
made and lost in one hour the change
punctuated with the violent death of
some luckless speculator.
When CONFESS and Haight and
Booth, and Sargent. and Stanford, and
men of like mental and financial cali
ber fought for the political loaves and
personal fishes, 1T required truly
brave man to enter the ring and call a
halt in the name Of patriotism and
principle Such a man was Cornelius
Cole, United States senator, the au-
thor of the above mentioned book.
The author passes rapidly over the
wears of his young life, having been
born on a farm in eastern New York
and comes at once to his beginning of
a career at the bar. his first case be-
Ing won by the kindness and assistance
of Governor afterward Secretary of
State, Seward. AS this incident is in
dicative of the self abnegaton of the
author seeking to hold others to the
front while masking self from sight, 1t
is here produced:
'On the trial of my first case of any
Importance (t was at Waterloo, In my
naive county, / called upon Cover
nor Seward for assistance and he, not
I won the case. The governor was one
of the most kindly natured persons in
the world. He was the very soul of
honor and nothing could swerve him
from his sense of right or duty. He
was bravery itself in the defense of
his views and without being obtrusive
was always ready to vindicate them.
His real character shone forth in his
reply to an offensive personality in
dulged in by some one toward him In
a heated discussion. Stewards only re-
Spouse was: No gentleman will insult
me and no other cam
Most Prominent Of His Time
He deserved to be, as he really was.
for many years the most prominent
public character of his time, and the
world will not in many years look upon
his like again."
The foregoing is condensed word
painting of the character of a great
man in everyday life, which the writer
believes to be equal to Gibbons best
work in the decline and Fall
In writing of the events of 1928 he
takes the reader through the innermost
recesses of the party politics of that
day and tells of Gen. Jackson and his
great fight against the Nicholas Biddle
national bank.
"By far the most conspicuous charac-
ter in the United States in the decade
of the sos was Andrew Jackson-in
MANY respects a remarkable man. His
chief traits were self-reliance, infiexi-
bilty. independence and sterling hon
esty. He had the reputation of being
abrupt. but that only occurred when
the reverse might have resulted in use