The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-10-17

private ONCE was in n remote corner.
Hay and ] used to meet on Saturday
mornings AT the cashiers window. he
TO draw his hundred dollars a week. I
my twelve. \ hundred dollars n week
was considered excellent pay n those
days for a managing editor; twelve
for a Newark reporter WAS supposed
10 ne quite enough.
kept up my acquaintance with
HIy from those early days To the time
when he was Secretary Of State, in
fact to the day Of his death. He was
the most human mar hat | ever knew
and one of the most kindly. lie never
failed TO acknowledge a letter. even in
the days when one wrote ones letters
with ones own hand. When We
changed the critic from n weekly to
a monthly We sent hun II of the first
copies off the press. II" aCknowl-
edged II Immediately. He named cer-
tam things that he particularly liked.
ending up with. 1T Is all good stuff"
Mr., Thaycr tells his readers az the
outset that this il "a personal blog-
raphy and not a political history"
There is. however, nue. that bears on
politics in these pages. He has let
John Hay tell his own story whenever
possible, which was q wise thing to do,
as Hay was AN ideal letter writer. he
recorded his impressions So freshly
and 50 wildly thai he never leaves us
IN doub, as to what he thought of per-
sons, political affairs or life's expert
tnoss."
Mr.. Thaye. begins with Hays be-
ennlngs and he quotes from an add
dress delivered by Hay at a dinner OF
the Ohio Society in New York on
January -, 1903, in which he summed
up certain contrasts In his carecr.
When ! look back on the shifting
scenes OF my life." he said, III ! am
not that altogether deplorable creature,
9 man without n country, ] am, when
II comes to pull and prestige. almost
equally bereft, as | am a man without
4 state. ! was born in Indiana, !
grew up IN Illinois. | was educated in
Rhode Island, and i is DO blame 10
nat scholarly community that ! know
50 little. ! learned my law in Spring
ned and my politics in Washington,
my diplomacy in Europe, Asia and
Africa. have a farm in New Hamp-
sh''e ana desk DON in the District OF
columbia. When ! look to the springs
rom which my blood descends the
mrs. ancestors | ever heard OF were a
Scotchman who was half English and
. German woman who was half
French. or my immediate pr%ogenitors
my mother was from New England
and my father was from the South.
IN MS hewilderment of origin and ex-
peri"nce ! can only put on an aspect
or deep humility in any gathering OF
iaN"rtte sons and confess that ! am
h"'hlng but an American"
Hay spent his youth at Warsaw
ma, whore he attended public school
ho was always marked among his fol-
lows by his brightness and gcniality
Af'er he left college he returned to his
h'hcr's house, where the question was
what TO do with him. He was a bril-
Uaut young man, hut he showed nc
Tcidcd preference for anything except
perhaps the writing Of poetry, and tina
could not be thought of as n profession
FOR a while ne studied law, but he die
N"l AXE kindly to it. Abraham Lin
coin had been n student in the same
ONCE fifteen years before, Little
r'oo d has come to hand Of Hays APP
lrcuticcship 20 the law. He was more
Conspicuous for his social attraction.
Wh.'c no was a student At SpringAek