Evening journal., 1914-09-23
New News Of Yesterday
Two Senatorial Colleagues
Who Were Congenial
BY Holland.

The late John r. Wait. who repre-
sented the Eastern Connecticut dis
trict in Congress for nearly twenty
years. having first been elected in
1876, through a vacancy, told me OF
an interesting conversation which he
had one afternoon with George T..
Hoar, then a United States Senator
from Massachusetts and earlier for
many years representative of the
Worcestershire, Massachusetts dis
trict In Congress Colonel Wait ad-
mired Senator Hoar as a man and es-
pecially as a speaker who had won
derful command of a vigorous Eng
lish style. He said TO Senator Hoar
that he happened TO be I'm Washington
in the early seventies. where he was
paying a visit TO his lifelong friend
William A. Buckingham who at that
time was a Senator from Connecticut,
and who gained distinction as one OF
the governors at the time Of the Civil
War
Colonel Wait said 10 Senator Hoar
that he had been greatly impressed
by the attitude the two United States
Senators from Massachusetts,, Charles
Sumner and Henry Wilson, bore to-
ward each other. 70 was conspicuous
from his seat in the gallery, and II was
clear TO Colonel Wait, that the rela-
tions between those two Senators
were those Of the closest personaf
friendship. although in appearance
and in manner they were strikingly
different.
THAT is correct" Senator Hoar
said 81 suppose no two Senators who
were at the same time representing
the same State were ever in closer
personal relation than were Senator
| Sumner and Senator Wilson. Yet, as
you say there we're striking differ
ences in their personal appearance
and in their manner These differ
! ences were even more marked in their
intellectual character and in their
| learning
Sumner was the flower of Massa-
chusetts' intellectual aristocracy. He
was a man of wonderful learning, and
I suppose no Senator ever possessed
such undoubted historical and clas-
]
OF the great authors whom he read
in the original, than Sumner.
"On the other hand. Wilson is the
perfect type of what may be called a
| 'self-made American All that he is he
owes entirely to himself He was a
shoemaker by trade and a farmers
boy before he learned TO make shoes
He had little time 10 study and no time
whatever for the cultivation Of social
amenities. In one respect he and
Sumner we're alike, both of them were
strangely lacking in a sense Of hui
NOR
Wilson revealed his natural abilt.
ties very early and these were entire
ly in the field of politics. AT twenty
one he was still a shoemaker and
when a little past forty, he was a Uni
ted States Senator. I have Otter
thought that these two Senators VIII,
represented Massachusetts, admir-
ably typified all that Is best in Amer
ican institutions
Il will tell you why Sumner an
Wilson maintained such cordia
friendship. Sumner was elected Uni
ted States Senator by coalition. II
. | Mdo tnOotu ny very Huldll AudIuIllN q
the vote of the legislature. The propo
sition was made to Wilson that he con
sent to be- a candidate, with the assur
ance that his consent would be fol
lowed by his election, since It woul,
be easier for the coalition to supper
him than any other man. But III
peremptorily declined, saying that HI
he could not accept election withou
disloyalty to Charles Sumner, who's
election he earnestly advised.
= after Sumner was elected, the firs
thing he did was TO write a cordial ant
appreciative letter to Mr. Wilson. II
that way their friendship began ant
two years later Wilson himself wa
elected Senator"
Copyright, 1914. by e. J. Edwards
All rights reserved.
2 Tomorrow Mr. Edwards will tel
"An Anecdote of Black Hawk, the In
/ dian Chief"