Evening star., 1928-12-30
|GEN. C.. C.. SNIFFEN. ALERT AT IS,
LETS HOBBIES KEEP HIM YOUNG
Amateur Photography and
Collecting Autographs Are
Old Soldiers Pastime.
Drives Own Automobile and
Recalls Incidents of Abra-
ham Lincoln.

retired paymaster general of the Army,
who will reach the eighty-fifth mile
stone of life Tuesday. Gen. Sniffen
was found at his home In the Ontario
| Apartment looking forward to another
| birthday because he hasn't learned the
meaning of growing old.
| This Wide-awake man of IS drives
! his own automobile through the heavi-
est downtown traffic. He scorns the
aid of eyeglasses when he sits behind
the steering wheel. ''Risky?" he echoed.
why, not at all If you just bear in
mind that the other driver usually
doesn't know what he is doing"
! Gen. Sniffen is quite frank in saying
he has no prescribed formula for keep
| ing young, but his two hobbies give him
away. His hobbies are amateur photog-
raphy and the collection of American
autographs. For so years they have
crowded his leisure hours with zest and
interest. If he has any secret about
keeping young that IS it.
During residence Of IS years in
Washington-Gen. Sniffen has had an
unusual opportunity to follow his pur-
| suit of these hobbies. AS chief
executive clerk and assistant secretary
to Gen. Grant during his two admins
trations, he met and obtained from the
| leading men of those times many
historic letters and autographs Dating
back to 1712, his collection of auto
graphs is one of the rarest and most
valuable to be found in Washington
Gen. Sniffen was somewhat discon-
certed when reporter for The Star
sought him out in his home. He
doesn't see anything out of the ordinary
in being youthful at IS.
"PIJt T haven't oYy formula " 11n YNrn-
tested mildly. Il sleep eight hours,
smoke cigars whenever I wish. take an
occasional walk for exercise and drive
my automobile. That's all that keeps
me well, except an interest in life.
Why. young man, there are so many
things to keep the mind busy and ac-
tive, don't have time to think even of
getting along in years.
Covering the walls of Gen. Sniffen's
apartment are more than hundred
photographs of Presidents, statesmen,
generals scientists and other notables.
many of which he took with his own
camera. Despite his years, the gen.
erals eyes are alert in handling the
camera.
Freak Of Nature.
One Winter scene of Rock Creek
showing breaks in the ice along the
side Of the bank, he takes more than
usual personal pride in showing. Look
closely and tell me what you see In 1t"
| he said Sure enough, a figure began
| to form in the break of snow and ice.
1t was an almost perfect silhouette of
Gen. George Washington's head-only
| protruding from the mouth was some
| thing that looked much like a cigar.
Friends have told me should mark
out the cigar" he said, but prefer to
let it remain as it was developed. It
is freak of nature and should be re-
spected as SUCH"
The Smithsonian Museum has taken
an interest in another Winter scene in
Washington which Gen. Sniffen took
with a time exposure and the aid of
moonlight and the glistening of the
snow.
Gen. Sniffen loves his collection of
photographs because each has a pleas
ant or interesting reminder. In con-
spicuous position is a large picture OF
Col. Charles Lindbergh, which lacks an
autograph.
His autographed pictures of the
Presidents include nearly all since
Abraham Lincoln. Some he obtained
himself, others were sent by them as
testimonial of their friendship.
Gen. Sniffen bemoans the fact that
the typewriter is making letters in the
handwriting of modern Presidents and
statesmen rarer and rarer. In the days
before a President merely made his
signature, most messages and practi-
cally all letters were in the original
handwriting.
Among Most Valuable Documents.
He regards as one of the most valu-
able in his collection document in
the original handwriting of President
Andrew Johnson. Originals in john
he did not learn the art of penmanShip
until taught by his wife. In later years
an injury to his right arm caused him
to write very few letters.
Collectors of autographs must always
| keep on the alert for frauds, Gen.
| Sniffen explained, though he said 1t
was very difficult to initiate the paper
of early documents because of the
| water-marks. Although original letters
and poems of Walt Whitman the poet
are by no means rare, Gen. Sniffen
prizes those he has as though they
were the only ones in existence.
I'VE we're old cronies," he explained.
GAS boy of IA or Is, used to ride
with him in the pilot house of the
Fulton street ferry boat between New
York and Brooklyn every Summer
night and on top of the Fifth avenue
coaches"
Gen. Sniffen missed seeing his old
| friend Whitman for number OF years.
F.! Then they had reunion under strange
| circumstances.
II had waited until the draft of 1868,
and when it didn't include me-" Gen.
Sniffen said, II ran away from home IN
New York with some other boys to meet
| 10
day. when I was Strolling along Penn
sylvania avenue near The Star Office,
alone and homesick, saw Walt Whit
man. He held out his arms to me and
hugged me as though were long-lost
son."
Gen. Sniffen picked out an occasional
document from the three heavy vol
umes containing his collection and re-
lated the history which they told about.
| Most of them are in a fine state Of
preservation. In the light of our pres
ent-day Navy, letter by Robert Full
ton, inventor of the steamboat, ad-
dressed to President James Madison, in
December, 1913, is of more than pass
ing interest.
Fulton proposed to build for the
United States Navy man-of-war 120
feet long, with beam of so feet and
a battery of "a guns, firing 24-pound
shot. This, vessel" he wrote "by. the
power of steam alone, without aid of
wind or tide, to run at least 5 miles
an hour"
Such an engine of destruction, Full
ton believed, would be sure and
cheap means to drive the enemy for
ever from our harbors and coasts" and
would cost only $250,000.
IT have named the new invention the
Demologos-that is, the Argument OF
| the People" Fulton wrote.
| John Adams Letter.