Evening star., 1911-01-29

Sl!lllfdtt II. ana GlfAaIF Ia aA AtN8AliltiSt t )
for Two hours.
The amount Of work Greeley did in
TINS way was incredible. ! waS told
that he revcr hestated in debating
indeed. his copy was turned out ahead
OF time And after lie had finished
each days task he went 20 the Tribune
Office and. ! presume. stayed there un-
til after midnight
This circumstance. a. wcll as some
others, later on strongly confirmed me
in the opinion that Mr.. Greelcy's com
plete prostration which preceded by
three or four weeks his Gcath after the
presidential election Of 1872 was not
due. as many presumed - be the case.
10 the great mental and physical strain
which the presidential campaign had
brought upon him.
l occasionally saw Mr Greeley after
he was nominated for the presidency
in 1872. once | saw him upon lower
Broadway: ! think he was on his way
10 the custom house. Many persons
stopped TO look at him TWO excited
individuals pointed with their thumbs
toward him, evidently saving. THAT Is
Horace Greeley, the liberal republican
candidate for President" But Greeley
was wholly Indifferent 10 the attention
which he attracted. And in every as
pect Of him which / Was permitted tn
have [ never saw him when lie ap-
peared to be dominated by self-con-
sciousness or by vanity. and he never
possessed. at least when l saw him.
the slightest evidence that he knew
how To maintain a certain heavy and
sham dignity.
About the time / saw Greeley on Broad
way he was preparing for that wonderful
campaign trip which he made. | reinem-
her how eagerly his addresses were read.
Nothing like them had ever been heard
in presidential canvass, and there were
many conjectures as To whether NJ.
Greeley spoke eXtemporaneously, or
whether he prepared those brief speeches.
My own opinion IS that he carefully
thought them out. so that while they
were not ilnpromptu-that X, spoken on
the spur Of the moment-they were eN-
temporaneous in the sense that they mad
not been written out or committed 10
memory. 1t is my recollection that | saw
Mr.. Greeley from a distance after his
return from his campaign trip. | can
not fix the time or place. but | remember
that he seemed 10 me then 10 be In as
vigorous physical and mental condition
he was upon the evening twenty years
earlier. when I heard hin deliver his
campaign speech in support Of Gen. Scott
for the presidency
The election was over Greeley was de-
feated, and / recall that all of his friends
were rejoiced that he was again to as
sumo the chair which he had occupied
from the time the Tribune was founded
until he was nominated for the presi-
dency. / recall, too. the appalling sus-
pense over the mysterious and portent-
Gus disa ppearance of Horace Greeley.
Where was he, what had become of him?
1t was a question that all who had
known him. or who knew OF him, Were
asking. Suddenly he had passed into
personal oblivion. and no man could tell
how or where he had gone.
There began to be whispers that he
sorrowed grievously over his defeat for
be possible. and 1 think none of those
who knew Mr. Greeley well was of the
opinion that his campaign and his de-
feat had broken him down. Then one
day there came the authentic report that
he had broken down completely-that
he was practically unconscious, that
his mind was gone, that in his semi
coherent moments he muttered some
thing about the Tribune. n few days
later we learned that he had passed
away.
With some others / made dilicent in
quiry as TO the cause of his death. And
the truth was told us 1t as | had
surmised. lie had been too long an ac-
tive force-one of the greatest forces
in the political life of the nation not to
understand fully how uncertain are the
chances OF political life. It was moi
political defeat that killed him 1t was his
discovery that his candidacy of the
liberal republicans for the presidency had
cost him the loss of many thousand
readers of the weekly and OF the daily
Tribune-and he was persusded that at
the call of a party he had wrecked his
newspaper, which was the very apple OF
his eye and the center of his life.
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