The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-05-16
TODAY's BIRTHDAY PARTY

s
 Levi Parsons Morton. ex-vice President Of the United States, ex- Governor of New York. ex-Minister to France. banker and insurance magnate. was born ninety years ago to-day, May 16. 1924. at Shorehana, Vt He was born during the admin istration of the fifth President of the republic, James Monroe His father was the Rev. Daniel Oliver Morton, a descendant of George Morton, of Battery, Yorkshire, who was the fewer Pilgrims.
 Like most rural c1ergymen of that period. the father of the future Vice President was far from rich, and young Levi had early to go to work for himself. After graduating from Shorehazn Academy in his native vil- lage, at the age of sixteen he became clerk in a country store. He had considerable business ability, and soon became the proprietor of 8 hourishinE store Of his own in Hanover. N. H. At twenty-five he went to Boston, and, although he had little capital, he was admitted as a partner in prominent mercantile concern.
 After five years in Boston Mir. Nor ton removed to New York, where he quickly made a name for himself in the financial world. In 1868 he founded the banking house of Nor ton. Bliss & Company, with a Lon- don branch under the name of Nor ton, Rose & Company. Later he founded the Morton Trust Company Of New York, and became president of the Fifth Avenue Trust Company. director of the Equitable Life. Home and Washington Life Insurance com- panies, and was largely interested in other banks and trust companies.
 MT fA4orton's active participation 1,J; r7 $r7 when he was elected to Congress. Tn 1881 President Garfield appointed him minister to France, and he rep resented the United States at Paris. until 1885. when President Cleveland occupied the White House and ap- pointed Robert M. McLaine as his,
 In 1888 MT. Morton was given tlas Republican nomination for the Vtce-s Presidency on the ticket headed by Four years of comparative obscurity satisfied Mr Morton. and at the Re- publican convention of 1892 in Min- neapolis Whitelaw Reid was nomin-. ated as Harrison's running mate. In 1894 he was elected Governor of the Empire state, and retired from pub lie life after serving one term at Al bany.
 Although Mir. Morton was a youth of seventy when nominated for Gov erner of New York, many politicians declared that he was too old for the risors of a campaign The orator who seconded his nomination began his speech:
 ..Levi P Morton was born in the State of Vermont One hundred and nineteen years ago.
 The orator had intended to make some remarks touching on and aps pertaining to the patriotism of Ethan Allen and other early Vermonters, but he was cut short by the loud. question: We know he is old-too o1d--but is h as old as that ?''
 The Morton homes includes Fifth Avenue resId enee in New York, a. half million dollar palace in Wash fngton. and 1ilerslie. "a country estate of thousand acres at Rninecliffe-a n-Hudsons N. Y.
 The former Vice President became a convert to the doctrines of fresh. air and exercise In his early youth. and illness has seldom visited him. His name appears in the rolls of sev-s era1 patriotic societies, including the sons of the Revolution, the society Of MayhoWer descendants, and the New England Society
 The first envelope of which there is any Knowledge enclosed letter. sent 21S wears ago to-day, May 16. 16a6 by Sir William TurnbulI to Sir V with English affairs of state, and, with it's covering. is carefully preserv- ed in the British Museum. At that period, and long afterward, it was tho general custom to fold letters and seal them with Wafers of wax, and it is still fashionable to use sealing WAX on the flaps of envelopes. Many peo- pie now living can remember the time when envelopes were novelty and when the old method of sealing was still in use. A reference to a letter with an envelope is found in a poem written by Swift in I726 Early in the last century envelopes began to come into more general use and stamped adhesive envelopes achieved wide popularity in England shortly after the establishnent of the penny post in 1s4o and in 50 were Largely used on this side Of the At lantic. The first machine for the manufacture of envelopes was patent- ed in 1s44 by George Wilson, an Eng Iishman, and improvements were made the following year by Warren De La Rue and E. Hill.