Omaha daily bee., 1913-10-26

papers have youP'
I'VE have scattering papers Of William
Henry Harrison, Zach Taylor and Millard
Fillmore, but we have no collections Of
these presidents. The Fillmore papers
are in the custody Of the Buffalo Histori-
cal society and they will probably be
sent here after a while. They are not
very important He was not nearly as
strong as Tyler. John Tyler was a per-
sonality. Fillmore was in many respects
nonentity Az to the papers of Zachary
Taylor, after his death they remained in
the hands OF his son on the old Taylor
plantation In Louisiana Then the house
was burned down and all the papers de-
stroyed. The papers OF william Henry
Harrison were lost In the same way at
the time his house was burned, and SO
there are collections OF neither Taylor
nor Harrison.
I'VE have the papers Of Franklin
Pierce, such as they are. They are not
many and they do not amount to much
President Pierce was charming man.
and / do not think full justice has been
done him. BY the way, there is an In
teresting story told about him in con-
noCLOil WIFI
This comes from a Mr.. Gamble, who was
a boy at the time. Young Gamble and
his father had gone to the Inauguration
and after the parade were walking home
They had come about half way from the
capitol when a gentlman came up be-
hind them and asked permission to walk
along with them. They turned around
and discovered IL was Franklin Pierce
going home on foot from the Inauguration
OF his successor to the presidency. As to
Buchanan, his papers are in tho hands
OF the Pennsylvania Historical society
and are now In Philadelphia, They ought
to be here"
sample of Jaclxson's Letters.
In looking over the papers OF the presi-
dents Mr.. Hunt showed me some inter
esting letters. I saw papers of Andrew
Jackson relating to his duties ana as to
how he raced horses. There is one memo
randum made by Andrew Jackson as
boy which gives full details OF now
to feed a cock before you fight IT," This
says that you should give the chicken
some picked beef cut fine three times a
day, and let him have sweet milk instead
of water to drink. Give him dry Indian
corn and a little white bread soaked in
sweet milk. Feed him as much as he can
eat for eight days, and he will then be
ready to fight" I saw also receipts
signed by Jackson showing that he was
a good churchgoer while he was presi-
dent He rented pews in three different
churches and probably took the whole
family with him. Mr.. Hunt tells me,
however, that Andrew Jackson did not
stop racing horses when he became prssi-
dent He merely raced them under an
other name. The last thing he did as
president was to make q bet about Van
Burens election. He never composed a
single state paper that went out under
his own name. Such things were written
for him by Edward Livingston, Amos
Kendall. James X. Polk and others They
wrote more strongly than they would
have written for themselves, but Jackson
was never afraid to take the responsible
ity. Mr.. Hunt says that Jackson believed
In the duei and that he tried when pos
sible to be the challenged party. He
usually selected pistols and chose the
distance Of from six 10 nine PAGES. Such
a distance he said put both men on equal
tage over the bad one.
Searching Foreign Archives.
The Library OF Congress has under way
most important undertaking In collect
Ing the material for our colonial history.
This is the having copied everything in
the European archives which pertains TO
the American colonies. For some years
men have been at work In the govsrn
ment archives Of Great Britain. France.
Spain and Mexico. They are copying
government documents. letters and papers
OF all kinds relating to the story OF Amer
lea and to the American colonies. The
most OF the English transcripts have al
ready been made. They begin with the
discovery OF America and extend to the
peace Of i7Sa They number more than
9Oc 900 folios and the copying has been
all done by hand on a hAndmads paper
Hanufactured especially for the purpose.
The writing Il like copper-plate. ana as
the papers are chrOnoiOs1eally arranged
any period is easily accessible These