The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-03-07
PLAT IS DEAD.
Continued from Page one.)

Continued from Page one.)
Wood. formerly a clerk in government
employ, for a divorce on the strength
of a third marriage never proved to
have taken place.
The episode with. Conkling, which
say the newspaper files of that day, by
any event il the civil war. was as fol-
lows:
The ConlzIing Episode.
Platt was elected to the senate in
1881. He and his colleague, Conkling
became embroiled with President Gar
field in bitter controversy over the
appointments of VIM. H. Robertson to
be collector of the port of New York.
The selection was distasteful to the
New York organization and both Platt
and Conkling refused to confirm it In
nominations made at their instance,
among which were those of Stewart L.
Woodford to be United States district
attorney, and Lou F. Payn, recently re-
membered as an 'accelerator Of public
opinion to be United States marshal.
Finding themselves in a hopeless
deadlock, Plat and Conkling both re-
signed.
Conkling was caught in the great
blizzard of 1888 and died of exposure.
Plat was supposed to be frozen out
of politics. Nothing of the sort-he
turned his attention to building in
fiuence in the southern tier of New
York counties. became state leader
again in 1894 and 1897, was elected a.
second time to the United States sen
ate, succeeding David Bennett Hill, He
fell out with Governor Frank Black
and to defeat his denomination put for
ward Theodore Roosevelt, a type whose
undeveloped possibilities he did not
justly estimate 1t was Roosevelt's
rapid progress toward popularity and
power that later led Platt to suggest
him for the vice presidency, hoping
that in the quiet of that dignifed office
he might be forgotten.
Sketch of His Life.
Plat was born in Oswego. Tioga
county, New York, on July 15 1888, of
Puritan ancestry. He entered Yale col
Iege with the class of '49. but left in the
middle of his junior year because of i'll
health.
His father wished him to study for
the ministry, but he never advanced
far In that direction. A brief ap-
ed by more congenial employment in
business. He prospered in Michigan in
the lumber trade, returned to OsWego
and became president of the Tioga Ma
tional bank; was chosen director and
later president of the Southern Central
Railroad company, and in 1879 was
elected general manager and secretary
of the United States Express company,
of which he became president in 1880,
so remaining until his death.
In physique Platt as young man
was pleasant in appearance. dehcately
built. restless and nervous. In later
years his viSage took on grimneSS. By
his first marriage to Ellen Barstow, Of
Oswego, he had three sons-Frank h,
Edward T. and Harry B. Platt. He
had been in feeble health for some
years before his death.
Platt's Love of Humor.
There probably never has been a
man in public life in America who has
NV. 11v.es mil
as Thomas G. Platt. The
general conception of Mr.. Platt has
been that he was a saturnine, grim,
and dismal person, with set lips and
fixed eyes, and a constant scowl. In
reality, there was never a greater
lover of fun than=Mf. Plat, or a man
who had a keener sense of the ridi-
culous or a greater capacity for its
enjoyment His observant eye was as
keenly directed to the humorous
things that are to be seen upon the
streets of New York as was that of
Charles Dickens to those of London.
He could tell q funny story with unc-
tuous delight, and even in those days
in the senate when, with Roscoe COnk-
ling, he was experiencing a strain
such as he never experienced again,
he found genial relaxation in study
ing the comical attitudes Of BILLY"
Malone of Virginia, with his lace
frilled coat and petticoated skirts and
trousers DallOOn-ShapeO at the knees
and laced at the ankle.
At the conventions where Mr.. Platt |
has been pictured to the timid dele |
gates as plotting unusual, almost |
wicked, schemes, it has often happen |
ed that he was really letting his hum |
orous perceptions run riot with him
and getting out of this theater of ac- |
tual life as much fun as a farce upon |
the stage would give him.
Mr.. Plat has always been a great |
reader. With one or two |
exceptions he has made it a practice !
to read every paper published in this |
city every day. In this respect he |
placed Democratic and mugwump pa |
pers upon the same footing as the Re |
publican ones. He has always gone |
over the editorial pages of the news |
papers carefully, and seen all that was |
said for or against himself. His theory |
has been that no man can succeed in |
business or anything else unless he |
reads the newspapers. He also be- |
lieved that a man should keep posted |
as to what his opponents were saying |
about him, and that he could only do |
this by reading the opposition papers. |
His Experience With Depew.
The making of public man is pro-
the press, but in Mr.. Platts |
case the contrary would seem to be |
true. No man has been attacked so |
much, no man has been the subject of |
SO many cartoons. To all this the |
senator has said that he did not |
care" as his business has been with |
the few who made the states and not |
with the people. But at the same /
time no man liked better to get a |
friendly word from the newspapers. |
He has always been a hard man to |
Interview. I'm too busy to talk was
in general his brusque reply to the |
questions of reporters, but tickle him |
q little under the ribs of prejudices |
and he would talk like a phonograph |
because he couldn't helm it.