The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-03-21
| INCIDENTS IN
 LIE OF GREELEY Americas Greatest Newspaper
 Writer and Editor MADE HIS MERIT KNOWN RecolIections Accounted By a Wash ineton Citizen Who Knew Great
 Editor in the Prime of
 His Power.

J. Praise Richard in Washington Herald
 Incidents touching great men are all ways read with avidlty. Ike reason for this may be found in the fact that these men have by force made their merit known" and stand forth as the master spirits of the age" Even commonplace experiences and conversations by them are sought after with eagerness. The life of Horace Greeley has many of these angular settings. The ones here presented are in harmony with the well known character of America s great news paper writer and editor. The first one was given to me recently by one of Yer mont's favorite sons, pr. J. F. Simond, an intelligent, observant octogenarian, at present dwelling in a nearby suburb of Washington. The doctor is a retired bus mess man, who retains a vivid reeollec- ton of the times when Horace Greeley was in his prime. He was very communi- 1 cative. and evinced a commendable inter- est in the events of those times, and par ticularly the one now related for the first time.
 Probably no one in Washington" con- tinued the doctor, "knew Horace Greeley as l did. I was reared in Poultney Vt 1 where Horace learned his trade as a. printer. In all of his pilgrimages to Poult- ney. after the death of Mir Amos Bliss :, his original patron and friend my fathers l house was his home.
 q have heard Mir Bliss tell repeatedly of Horace's first visit to Poultney, and his employing him as devil in the office of the Spectator"
 The doctor became more animated as he related the special experience which impressed Greeley so wildly upon his memory.
 Upon one occasion" said the doctor, 'when MT. Greeley came to Poultney to give an address at the commencement ex- i erclses of a large seminary located there, he came direct to our house by stage from Troy N Y, a distance of 65 miles, arriving soon after dark.
 After supper, and MT. Greeley had re- tired, my father told me to go to his room and get his boots Cong-legged, sure enough boots) and black them nicely for the next day. There was no bootblacks In those days, except the porters at ho- tels.
 T did as directed, and while I was blacking the first boot, the devil got into me as big as a woodchuck to play some trick on Greeley, as I had heard and read that the boys in New York did. My in- ventive genius was put to the test as to how and what trick I could play on him. Genius was triumphant; and I decided to l leave the other boot unblackened This I did. and stealthily carried both boots and left them at his door In the hall. l Next morning my heart went pit-a- 1 pat, pit-a-pat when I heard Mr Greeley conaing down stairs. He took seat upon the sofa. Soon my father came into the 1 breakfast room also; but I was conven- 1 iently absent just then As father came | in he saw at a glance the abnormal ap- pearance of MT. Greeey's boots, and called me in to give an account of it.
 'As father called me up and also called 1 MT. Greeley's attention to his boots I shall never forget how nnocently he
 Greeley looked down at his feet; how he then laughed outright, while father l frowned and trembled like Belshazzar MT. Greeley had not noticed the dscrep- i ancy in his footgear, and seemed highly i amused at what had done.
 But I had to beg his pardon and finish my job. After Greeley had left the house father called me into his bedroom for a settlement; and taking his faithful cow hide from the closet he proceeded to lay l out upon my back and shoulders the i boundaries of the state of Vermont with ; all the county boundaries and principal l rivers, and the main range of the Green Mountains from the Canada line to the 1 Massachusetts line.
 B.
 so bad as was the lecture which accom- panied it without any extra charge. Be- l fore he got through with me I thought I | was really the meanest boy in America Was he to be humilated and put to shame
 in his old age by his own son? Had it
 come to such pass that he could not n-
 vite distinguished man from New York
 as his guest without his being insulted
 and treated dscourteously? Awful Aw- 1 full! Awful!!!
 Tn subsequent years, whenever I went
 to New York, MT. Greeley's house was my home Whenever he found an opportuni-
 ty he would tell the whole 7scrape to
 others.
 Tn 1851 I went to Iowa to reside as a
 practcing physician. Several years later
 MT. Greeley was at Iowa City dhe then
 capital of the state) when the legislature
 and supreme court were both in session.
 A banquet was given him; speeches were
 made, and toasts were delivered. In his
 speech, MT. Greeley told the whole story
 on me, about his experience in boot
 blacking loved MT. Greeley because he
 was great good man."
 The second incident presents another
 and different phase of Greeleys career
 In 1854, as I learned in 1886, while compil-
 ing history of the Cumberland Valley,
 Pennsylvania MT. Greeley was invited to
 deliver an address at the agricultural fair
 of Franklin county. Col. A. K. Mcclure,
 then editor of the Chambersburg Reposi-
 tory extended the invitation to the dis
 tinguished New York editor. He has left
 on record a substantial report of the | speech which presents some amusing