Omaha daily bee., 1916-06-25

said once, "and interested in every
thing that came along; my mind was
clear and active, but it is not true
that | found my recreation in Greek
and Latin roots, or amused my child
isl hours with exercises in differential
calculus. However, | did read prac-
tically all of Shakespeare's plays be-
fore | was 8 years old"
Passing through Madison univer-
sity and Brown university, and later
graduating from Columbia Law
school with a prize fellowship, he
between times caught mathematics,
Greek and Latin at Delhi academy,
gained admission to the bar at D.,
and tended toward a civic rather than
religious evangelism. All day he
worked as a law clerk in the office
of Chamberlain, Carter & Horn
blower. Two nights a week he gave
to his prize fellowship as tutor at
Columbia, carrying $500 year, and
two other nights a week he gave to
private tutoring in law. He wasted
no time. His austere devotion to eff
ficiency allowed him to waste no un-
necessary motions, even in counting
The legend runs that he found no
time to call upon the young woman
he later married-Miss Carter, daugh-
ter OF his partner-till after he had
clinched the engagement
As boy he promised his father
that he would not read fiction till his
college days were over and he had
acquired his other book learning"
Following years Of application as a
closet lawyer, a lawyer whom other
lawyers consulted for his extensive
reading of law, he yielded to fiction
but not for empty relaxation. In the
midst of his hard struggle for govern
mental reforms in New York with the
bosses of his party against him, when
he was at the executive chamber from
9 to midnight, he would read, before
retiring to sleep, Dumas's novels. The
late James Creelman once related:
Zone night in the last stages of a
fierce legislative session which had
taxed his skill as leader, Governor
Hughes announced:
"'I have read six Of Dumas's novels
since the session began and If it keeps
up much longer III have to begin on
Gaboriau
There was purpose, there was JUS
tifieation, outside of mental refresh
ment, in his turn to stories of stirring
things. For he remarked about that
time:
I'VE must go back to the days of
chivalry to get the spirit that can
make men do their duty today in
public office. Those old fellows SEEM
ed to have no regard for human life,
no conception of democratic ideals,
and their views of society and its
aims and obligations were apparently
all wrong, but-they would sacrifice
life and property on a point of honor!
We see the people pointing their
fingers at men who forget personal
honor in the struggle for wealth.
Nothing could better illustrate what
poor bargain man makes who ex-
changes his sense Of personal honor
for money or for power. l believe
firmly that we must return to the age
OF chivalry to catch the knightly spirit
that will make us secure against the
corruption that has wrought so much
harm in our country"
1t is apropos to quote that percep-
tive journalist, Creelman, who wrote
when Hughes defeated Hearst for the
governorship:
1T may be true that when he drives
group Of political rebels into sub
mission, smashes scheme of graft,
or writes veto message that makes
the blood Jingle with respect, he never
even thinks of how much greater
field he would have for his ability if
he were president Of the United
States-that may be so-yet every
step of this mans life, from early
childhood, reveals in him an over
powering ambition to become some
thing, an ambition so strong and en-
during as TO turn weak and excess
sively timid boy into a strong man of
lion-like courage and aggressiveness,
an ambition so absorbing and intense
as to engulf all the ordinary attributes
OF normal human nature, smashing
all obstacles, moving in straight lines
with thoroughness and efficiency as
the deliberately acquired elements of
power. No one has ever slapped him
on the backl Is that not the sign of a
nature hoping for human greatness
and assuming in advance an attitude
of deep respect for its own dignity"
Truman Cross in Boston Transcript.