New-York tribune., 1909-02-14
Anglo American Memories
Copyright. 1903. by George ". smsn.y,

among the 10e graduates Of 1883 There are
many more There is Wayne Macveagh the
most delightful Of companions counsel in great
causes all his life Attorney General Of the United
States, Ambassador to Rome, one OF the men
who paid least respect TO social conventionali-
ties yet In Washington central figure in So
ciety. But neither law nor society gave full
scope for the restless energy Of his mind. Dur
Ing all the later years I have known Macveagh
he has been a thinker serious, daring, too often
unsound- His reading has been largely among
books dealing with those new social problems
which vex the minds of men; often needlessly
and disturb clear brains Novelties interested
him; and the drift of his thoughts was toward
radical reconstruction and toward form or
another OF socialism. He espoused new opin-
Ions with vehemence: and sometimes reverted
with vehenence to the old. We met again in
London some five and twenty years ago. Mac
veagh delivered to little company at lunch a
brief but reasoned and rather passionate dis
course against diplomatic service in Eu-
rope When I suggested that we had none, he
retorted:
But have Ministers and Legations and
though some of our Ministers are good and
able men, they are wasted No Minister is
needed. All the business of the United States
in Europe could be done and ought to be done
by Consuls and all the Legations ought to be
forget just how long it after this out
burst that Macveagh was appointed Minister to
Constantinople; and accepted and served: with
credit and distinction, and afterward more eff
ciently still Ambassador to Rome.
He had a pretty wit in conversation and a
power of repartee before which many an antag
onst went down. A celebrated American
cduseur attacked him as q Democrat
Yes" answered MacVeagh. "I am a Democrat
and lyT,rx oy,sf
know it. You have just been made President Of
a great railroad corporation The stock sells to-
day at 120; but before you have been President
three years. you will have brought 1t within
reach Of the humblest citizen"
An unfulhlled prophecy, but that is what
makes prophecy SO useful as an instrument Of
debate Only time prove it false.
These men and many more gave distinction to
the class. Randall Gibson, of Louisiana, after
ward Confederate General and United States
Senator, cannot be omitted from the briefed
catalogue. He was of a small band Of
Southerners at Yale. When you came to know
him you understood what the South means by
the word gentleman; and by its application Of
the title to the best OF its own people. TO the
ruling class in the South a whole Already,
Of course. and in this younger brood. the
clash of interests and sentiments the prologue
TO the omen coming on" the strained relations
between South and North, were visible and
vexatious enough in social intercourse. Randall
Gibson saturated with Southern ideas and
perhaps had the prejudices Of his race, but he
kept them to himself did not impart them to
US Of the North He had the upper air, yet he
looked down on nobody. There more
popular man, yet no who held himself so
completely aloof from the familiarities common
enough between classmates
In after Iife from the havoc Of ana other
causes he suffered much and bore disaster with
courage. He man with reference to whom
it is possible. and always possible, to use
the nuch-abused word chivalrous. with the GER
tainty It could not be misunderstood When he
died there passed away beautiful example of
type common in literature rare in life, rarest Of
all in this generation, the grand seigneur.
There is a living Englishnan, Earl Spencer.
whom Randall Gibson resenbled; slightly in ap-
pearance closely in those essential traits which
20 to the making of character. The same
urbanfty: the same considerateness to others;
the same loyalty Of nature: the same shining
courage: the same unfailing effort TO conform to
high ideal Both rnen had the pride Of race and
of descent In both it turned to fine effects
have known Lord Spencer to submit-he will
forgive me this distant allusion-to what can
only be called an extortion rather than engage
IN a legal controversy he thought undignihed,
vet out of which he would have come victorious
have known Randall Gibson accept the verdict
Of fate the award Of undeserved adversely
rather than defend himself when his success
might have exposed his comrades TO censure.
The world may call it in both Of them quixotic,
hut the world would be much better place to
I,,,s in IL e1uixotry Of this sort were coHnoner
than II is Neither Of these two men rallied
AGAINST the world. or complained Of its ethical
standard. All they did was to have each q
standard Of his own and TO govern their own
lives accordingly. q. W. ..