Norwich bulletin., 1920-04-29
Five Minutes a Day
 With Our Presidents Copyright 1s2o-By James Morgan
xI-A BACHELOR PRESIDENT

xL-A BACHELOR PRESIDENT
 1791-April ss, James Buchanan
 born in Franklin County, Pa.
 Is09-Graduated from Dickinson
 College
 l812-Beeame a lawyer in Lancas-
 ter, Penn.
 1sis-Is-Member of the LsgisIa-
 ture. :.
 Is1s-Tragic death of his betrothed,
 Annie c. Coleman.
 1s21-S1-Members of Congress.
 lsS2-4--sIinister ts Russia.
 1SS4-45--Senator.
 lS45-9-aSecretary of State.
 IS53-6-Minister to Great Britain.
 .lsse-Democratic nominee for Pres
 ident.
 James Buchanan was the last presi- dent to wrap his neck in stock, as Monroe was the last to wear knee brooches -and he was the last of an era. An age passed away as he passed out of the White House.
 -After Buchanan's birth in a Penn sylvania log cabin, his father. who was an Irish immigrant, prospered as .a country storekeeper and was able to send his son to college. But the college sent him back as a wild spirit that it could not tame. The pastor of the scandalized family begged and obtained chance for the waySsard youth, who in- proved it so well that he graduated first in his class. Nevertheless, the still un- forgiying faculty denied him the honors of his rank
 Buchanan always loyally credited his mother with having exerted upon him the greatest influence for good. Possibly the severe lesson which he received from his stern alma mater may have been somewhat responsible for the prosy pro- priety of his life ever after.
 This would be but dull story of law and politics were it not for single tragic episode which cast shadow over the whole after life of our bachelor pres ident-the only president to die a bache- Tor, A young woman to whom Buchan- an was engaged in early manhood a daughter of the weaIthiest family in the county, wrote him letter of dismissal under the spell of jealousy which had been aroused by gossips. Pride on both sides kept the two apart until their sep aration was made irrevocable by her sudden probably by suicide h 1 grief and horror, the young lover wrote 1 to the father of the dead girl, begging the privilege of looking upon her re- mains and of following them to the grave. But the letter was returned to him unopened.
 Four and forty years passed and Bu. ehanan went to his grave without evel having taken any other woman n his heart. When his executors opened ths papers. which the aged ex-president hat f left in bank vault they found amcus them a little packet of treasured lov, i letter from his sweetheart of long ago But in accordance with the request writ | ten on the outside, those faded menaen toes of his only love were burned withou breaking the seal on them,
 l That old wound was torn open by ! most cruel campaign lie when Buchanan was a. candidate for president. In thi atrocious attack. he was accused by thi editor of the New York Herald, the eide James Gordon Bennett, of having gon, out and hanged himself to escape tn, vengeance of brother of his betrothed Although he was cut down, according t, the malicious yarn. in time to save hin l from suicidal death. 1t was only nee tessary for Bennett to point the credulou reader to the way in which the candidat always carried his head tilted to one sid as proof that his neck had been perma nently twisted in his attempt at suicide Every one could not know that this ia miliar. habit was due to an imperfee vision.
 Buchanan was. by no means crabbe old bachelor. He remained always mos courteously attentive to women. thoug with perfect impartiality, Nor did | keep bachelors hall. At Whetland, hi country place, near Lancaster, Penn, brought up from early childhood; Nf ? orphaned son of one of his sisters an the orphaned daughter of another. wi 5 became. as Miss Harriet Lane. one,
 the most admired mistresses of u
 White House, A monument, which VI f shortly rise to the memory of B 0 chanan. will stand also as memori y of the grateful loyalty of this niee
 who left s10e.o00 for it's creation to
 president who would otherwise go U # honored in stone.
 After Buchanan had risen to top raj z at the, the Pennsylvania bar, with T practice that brought him as much I