The Alaska citizen., 1911-04-17

iSi0 the statement that he per sonally knew and can distinctly rc. member all the presidents Of the United States except sIN.-fur that is the paragraph which is going the rounds of the press touching the writer of these lines Tc- qutres the explanation that he Was a child of Tennessee paTen age born in Washington Guy. because, to cover Jackson ana John quincy Adams not to say Polk and ay- Tor - II must have been so; for Jackson was not in Washington be tween 1SiV and his death Iu l>i@. while Adams died there iu lNiN. the four of them. Adams. Jackson, Polk and Taylor. al being iu their graves before l was Il years old.
 To say that | personally Knew them would need 10 De qualified as the knowledge of child, al though l can distinctly remember used to take me across the rstuuda to the library of congress and get me books to read, his arm ofteu about my neck; and when he fell ill the house of representatives. fol- lowed the excited curJ,gc To the speakers room. and ku,lt, weeping, by the old mans out4trc',ucd form as he lay dying upon ;he eota-0ed improyised for the occasion
 My grandfather was a fellow sol dier with General Taylor. and when the general came to Nashville, ell his way to the national capital ill ls49, l was taken to see him by his former Comrade. luIs same grand father had been nyt only General Jackson's stan officer. but his ino- long neighbor and friend. and We children were often driven over tC the Hermitage from the adjoining farm of an uncle. the late Robert Buchanan, to sit on the hcro.s knee and be dandled in his arms; al though, truth 10 say, it's kind ol dream. the far-away memory oi the very white-haired and rather de crepit old man. The Folks and the Waters were closely connected. My father succeeded MT Polk ill congress; and l not only played about the White House while he was president, but about his own house in Nashville. attending his funeral and seeing him as he lay In his coffin.
 The other presidents l met often when I was q full grown man, most of them famiiiarly. thus making il true that knew them, from the sixth president, John Quincy Adams, to Roosevelt, the 21lh. William Howard Taft, curiously enough, met for the first time but recently, and William Henry Harrison died when l was an infant ill arms.
 Just across the street from the hotel where We lived i'll Washing. ton stood a livery stable kept by a man named Kimban over his stable were a few rooms to let, oc, cupied by single gentlemen. In those days people Lad to live d, they might in the National Capital. Mir Kimball was an imposing per rufiied shirt. He was kind 10 little boys, and l became pet of his.
 One day in the early spring of 1852 I was nestled iu q chair al the entrance to the stable door the proprietor filling his accustomed seat opposite. A tall, greasy, ill- clad man came down the street, and pulling up immediately in front of us said:
 "Kimbal, I've just got a letter from Frank"
 This he produced and | heard him read it. It was all about the coming National Democratic con. vention, the writer a candidate for the presidential nomination, the style familiar and confidential. listened intently. and mary elcd much that two men should be discussing such a communication from possi- ble candidate for chief magistrate of the United States; and when l went back to the hotel l described what had happened to my father, and expressed my wonder. My son, said he, the greasy old man was Mir. John c. Rives, a very distin- guished and influential Democrat. The letter was from General Frank lin Pierce, of New Hampshire. whom some of us are hoping will be our nominee for president. Mr. kimball is a New Hampshire man and a close and highly esteemed friend of General Pierce"
 Two or three months later, when in Philadelphia, news of the nomi- nation of General Franklin Pierce at Baltimore arrived, l knew all about 1t and him, and was regarded in the immediate family circle as a prodigy of political learning.
 was preparing for great times in the White House, Benjamin Pierce, like myself an cnly child, was exactly my own age. His fath- CT and mother and my father and mother had been inseparable dur ing their congressional sojourn. Then occurred the tragic railway ac- cident Soon after March f, my mother took me to the White House. A pale, thin woman in black held me in her arms and cried her heart out.
 Franklin Pierce was beautiful man. He did not look day ever five and thirty when he took office. He was sentimentalist and loved his friends with consuming love.
 Willard Fillmore was most sub- stantial man - not unlike Grover Cleveland in some of his physical aspects. He was stalwart and forid, extremely simple and approachable I knew him very well later. It is related that Daniel Webster once said to him: Fillmore, l like Clay but he rides rough, sir-very rough!"
 In connection with MT. Fillmore a curious incident occurred to me