Evening journal., 1914-06-18
New News Of Yesterday
Senator Vance and His
Old-age Theory
By HOLLAND.

Iebulon b. Vance was. when knew
him, man Of striking physical per-
sonality He had at the time OF my
first meeting with him served as Sen
ator from North Carolina for one term
and was beginning second term
While he was a man Of personal dig
nifty he was absolutely free from self
consciousness and never seemed To ba
contemplating his own greatness. uis
manner was unconventional and cor
dial without at any time lacking die
nifty uis-
re possessed the quickest. readiest
VIII OF any Of the members OF the SON
ate OF his time, and the charm of bis
VII iay IN that fact that II was all
s0lutely spontaneous. He smoke ~
pidly and yet always clearly ana bfs
addresses In the Senate were an tbe
more closely listened TO because III
was apparent that he was speakine ~
al sincerity and without the slightest
conscious preparation or studied III
rect. His bushy hair. his bristling
lhustaehe, his overhanging eyebrows.
and his rudy complexion made him
conspicuous among his felIow-mem-
bers OF the Senate.
! was walking with Senator Vance
one afternoon through Mcpherson
Square Ia Washington and CHANGED Ia
see passing at some distance one who
was az one time a distinguished pre-
decessor Of Senator Vance as a repre-
sentative OF North Carolina in the
Federal Senate, the late General
Thomas Clingman.
lie had served in the Senate some
years prior to the inauguration Of
Abraham Lincoln, and he was one of
those who retired from the Senate af-
ter the Confederate government was
organized
said to Senator Vance that General
Clingman had once told me that Sen
ator Willie p. Mangum. who for sew
eral terms represented North Carolina
In the Federal Senate, had resigned
his seat in that body and gave as his
reason the fact that he believed that
a man should retire from public office
before he got too old to know when
he should retire
Yes said Senator Vance, Il have
heard that story. Ii was circulated in
North Carolina about the time / enter
ed public life. | don't believe it was
true. think Senator Mangum who
was man of very great ability and
at one time a prominent candidate for
the Presidential nomination, resigned
because he had got tired Of public |
life.
There is nothing in this prevalent
opinion that men get too old to serve 4
rT-I -
Supreme Court bench. Some Of the |
most vigorous minds on that bench 1
are those of men past seventy years 1
OF age. Take the Senate as II is now |
constituted Why, the other day |
heard Senator Morrill,, who, believe, /
is past eighty years of age. make a /
very able speech and one which had 4
great literary charm, ! think, take 4
them ais a whole that the members I
of the Senate who are getting along I
toward seventy years Of age, or who 4
are even past that, compare favorably 4
with the younger men.
"Who is there among the younger I
men who can make a speech that will I
compare in learning and in magnifi- /
cent flow OF English with the speech I
of John Morgan, the Alabama Sena-
tor? OF course, when man gets
along in years he doesn't feel like
quite as fast as he did in his
younger days Perhaps that is a good
thing. II a man has normal health
there is no reason why his mind
should not be as good at eighty or
even eighty-five as 1t was when he
was fifty or sixty. / was talking the
the other day with a gentleman who
is familiar with public affairs in Eng
land He told me that it very rarely
happened that man was put upon the
bench OF the higher courts of Eng
land till he was past sixty years OF
age
= never took the trouble to find
out whether the story were true that
Senator Mangum resigned because he
thought man ought to get out of
public life while he was still in Wig
orous mental health lest be stay in
too long, because never believed that