New-York tribune., 1909-05-02
Anglo-AmeriCan Memories
XIII.
Copyright. 1909. by George W. smaney)

later in 1872. when he came to Europe for rest
which his long warfare, first with President
Johnson and then with President Grant, had
made imperative. He came first to London,
staying-or, as the English perversely say, stop
plng,-at Fenton's Hotel, in st. James's street;
then hosiery of repute. extinct. He had
a large suite of rooms on the ground floor at the
back; gloomy, and intensely respectable. dined
with him the night of his arrival q don't
know what kind of a dinner they viii give US"
said Sumner. but you shall havc a bottle Of
Chateau Laftte of 1917, and the rest viii mat
ter less" He loved good Bordeaux. as all good
men do: and his talk flowed like old wine
full, pure stream. with both favour and bou-
quet; and not much of the best claret has both.
It is not possible to repeat much of Summers
talk, for it was mostly personal and intimate.
But I asked him whether he still felt the effects
Of those coward blows which Preston Brooks had
dealt him from behind he sat imprisoned in
his chair in the Senate. He was not sure. He
doubted whether he had ever completely recov-
cred though it was now some sixteen years
since that particular piece of South Carolina
chivalry had been perpetrated He thought
everything had been done for him which could
be done. What he told me may may not
have been printed. 7 do not know. When the
moxa was TO be applied to his spine. DR.
Charcot proposed to give him an anasthetic.
But" said Sumner. docs not the effect you
seek to produce.-the counter irritation,-depend
more less on the pain the patient would en-
dure without the an9sthetc?" Yes" Charcot
admitted, reluctantly. 1t probably does
Then let US go ahead without ether" said sum
ner; and they did. I understood the treatment
consisted in laying along the spine cotton wool
soaked in oil and setting fire to it. When, after
two or three days the burn IS partly healed.
the operation is renewed, and the pain, OF
course, more severe. But no ether was admin
istered. After his first attack Of angina pee
toris the pain" said Sumner, which l en-
dured in a single second from one of those
spasms was more than all I ever suffered from
all the applications Of the moXa'
We went together from London by way of
Boulogne TO Paris staying two nights at Bou-
logne at one of the beach hotels. Sumner was
like boy: his sixty-one years sat lightly on
him and his interests were as fresh as I had
ever known them. He loved the sea and the
sea air-an air so much more exhilarating on
the southern coast of the channel than the
northern. He was amused to hear that the
customs authorities had passed all our luggage
his and rnine-because had told them he was
q Senator: and still more amused later when
the Dover customs on our return had shown
him the same indulgence as THE Honouraole
Charles Sumner: :-honourable denoting in Eng
/
a family the head of which Is a Peer In Paris
as in London. we had rambled about among the
| bookshops L dare say" remarked Sumner
! You thought from my books at home that /
care nothing for books as books; or for bind
! ing But YOU viii see" And he proceeded TO
| buv certain number Of so-called fine bindings:
which. alas. were net so fine as they ought to
! have been.
| Less than two years after his last months IN
! Europe. he died I have still much TO say about
! him and there are many letters OF his 70 me
| which hope TO print; but they are not here
| and I must end. When I remember what has
| been said so often OF Sumner by men who did
! not know him or did not like him, I may be
| allowed 10 end with a tribute Of affection. !
| thought him. and I shall ever think him, one Of
| The most lovabIe Of men; more than loyal 70
| his friends delighting in kndnesses TO them OF
| an implacable honesty sincerity deFouoh 10
duty and to high ideals-an American to whom
America has paid high honor but never yet
| .,,r-b G. ". 8.