The Washington herald., 1911-09-17
ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN

is as necessary as wisdom or foresight.
either in business, politics. or the learned
professions He says that his mother,
Hetty Green. never forgets anything that
she ought to remember, even keeping
in mind procession Of. figures halfway
| across a sheet of note paper.
Memory" he said, can be developed
with painstaking practice. The politician
who can remember names has a decided
advantage over the politician who has
no ability in that particular. I went to
st. Louis in 1896 as a delegate to the
Republican national convention. One day
a dark-complexioned man came to me
and said:
MIR. Green, I am a newspaper cor
respondent. I am tired out but I can't
find a place to sleep. I heard that you
have five or six rooms at this hotel
May lie down in one of them and take
nap?'
Il didn't catch his name, but I told
him to walk right upstairs and take any
bed he liked. The next month, in Texas,
my secretary, an Irishman, came into
my office with a newspaper covered with
big headlines and a picture.
Here's the lad he cried, who slept
in one of your rooms at st. Louis. He's
William Jennings Bryan, and the Demo-
Gratis have nominated him for PresI-
dent
Sure enough I said with a gasp
I'VE entertained an angel unawares,' or
words to that effect.
Some time in October following, I was
going to Washington on the Chesapeake
and Ohio. At Huntington, w. Va. the
conductor said the train would wait a
few minutes for Mr.. Bryan, who was
paking speech. I sat on the railing
Of the last car when Mr.. Bryan came up
the steps.
Hello. Texas he called. How are
you, Mr.. Green?
so far as I know, he had never seen
me but once. but he recognized me in
the dim light, although 1 was hundreds
OF miles from Terrell. my home in the
Southwest
Still, referring to his mother, he had
observed that other gifts than memory
were necessary to headway in financial
matters.
Mrs. Green" he said, rarely sells
any of her property. Whatever she buys
is, In Aer opinion, good enough to keep.
Many years ago she thought Pullman
Sleeping Car stock V sound investment.
She has about 5000 Shares now that cost
her Ikss than $50 each. Among her real
estate purchases In Chicago was a lot
seventy-flve feet wide near the business
to buy 1t after the region in which II
was situated became the center of the
retail trade. She turned them away.
Finally Mr. Field came to her In person.
That's what she wanted.
You did me a favor many years
ago., my mother said, and I shall pay
you back, although I would rather keep
the land than sell It.. But you must give
me a bond signed by yourself that you
will use It for a store building and moth
ing else. You are not to speculate with
IT under any circumstances
why DR.. Abbott Ceased to BE n
Lawyer.
The father of DR.. Lyman Abbott wrote
about two hundred books. An Of the
Abbotts have been ready men with ink
and paper. Lyman followed his brothers
into the law and practiced several years.
But he said to me at his country
home, in Cornwall-on-the-Hu my
early inclination had been toward the
ministry. At the University OF New
York, from which was graduated al
the age Of eighteen, read widely OF
history and theology. ! am not lone who