The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 5, 1897, Page 20

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1897. g ;00 £ SALTIUTUITRTE : g’i o Damaht R, A large and varied assortment @ 3 of | { mazs, CAPS; ) FHATTERS' STOCK, Coustantly on hand o Hats and Caps of every descrip- 4 tion made to urder. I VA o e W e NN HawiLToN, print, 130 Wasbinzton St Among the most interesting documents in the correspondence of Silas E. Burrows, portions of which have recently been published by THE CALL, are papers relating to the early days of this City—the days of old and the days of gold. They deal with the careers of men who are now or have recently been prominently before the public and tell some incidents that will be of desp interest to the pioneers of California. The days when General John C. Fremont, the Pathfinder, was a central figure in San Francisco and when Adoiph Sutro conducted a igar-s'ore on Montgomery street are remembered by many, and these will find pleasure in viewing and reading documents relating to those periods. The story James L. King, the well-known notary, has to tell of Burrows and his most extraordinary career is also of vast interest, for it throws light on many incidents that are but hinted at in the letters or not mentioned at all. Mr. King deems Burrows to have been cne of the most extraor- arv men of th: c2ntury, and marvels that no history of his remarkable as ever before wiitten. o There are two interesting stories of pioneer days, and to men now weil known in this community, tola by as many bil- heads that were found among the age-stained documents in the old chests. One relates to tbe time when Adolph Suiro, now a multi-mil lionaire, owner of the famous CL.ff House and ex-Mavor of San Fran, was a humble cigar-dealer on Montgomery street. The Sutro. 1nnei scheme that made Sutro a financial king was ye: unthought of, the wealthy enemy of corporations was content to deal out fragrant weeds to all who carel to buy. The bill shows that ‘“‘Adolph Sutro, dealer in fine Havana segars, smoking tobacco, genuine meerschaum pipes, etc., No. 116 Montgomery street, between Sacramento and Ca lifornia,” had sold to Silas E. Burrows relating on February 20, 1858, 100 “‘segars’’ at $12. At the foot of the bill is signed “Paid, Adolph Sutro,” in the well-known angular handwriting of the ex-Mayor. The other r:lates to the time when John C. Fremont, the “Path finder,” was a candidate for the Presidency of the United States. John H.Wise, lately Collector of the Port, was a friend of Fremont's, and made him a bet of a hat that he would not be elected. Fremont accepted the bet, and the sequ:lof the tale is brought out by an.order on Burrows to to the order of Boyd & Co., hatters, $10, the price of one hat, and charge the <ame to :he account of John C. Fremont. The order is sizned Jobin H. Wise and is dated January 13, 1857. A receipted bill, signed by the hatters accompanies the crder. The manner in which these remarkable documents reached the place where they were so long concealed is easily explained. Silas Burrows kept the warehouse in early days and at the time of his death they were probably overlooked or kicked to one side as useless waste paper. The sabsequent owners or lessees of the place saw nothing valuable in them and let them lie, because they saw no reason for destroying them. Fortune bas been kind to the son, Ovden Hoffman Burrows, who was his father’s associate in business nere. He amassed a fortune after his father's death and married a daught r of the wealthy ink manufacturer, Mavnard. He has lived abroad with his family for the past seventeen ears, spending his summers in America at his elegant Newport villa. The Burrowses have been presented to the courts of St. James, Prussia, Wurtemberz and Saxony, and one of the daughters married Viscount Gough, an English nobieman who is now first secretary of the English embas y at Berlin, Another daughter is the wife of an Engiish army officer of high rank. James L. King, the well-known pioneer notary and real estate dealer of 308 Califorzia street, was iniimately acquainted with Silas E. Burrows, both in the days of his power and of his adversity, and to him the writer | ¥ -DRAT FINE HAVANA 5 SEGARS ERSCHAUN,: [y M; PIPES | SMD!SW‘G!I‘DBQCCO‘ "6 mop 1 TR CSAN'FRANCISCO © L. 75 B & Cu. NOS. 150 AND 152 COMMERCI'AL STREET. ) Manufacturers and - isindebted for many remarkable facts regarding the American Monte Cristo. Mr. King stands high in the community and his narrative 'of many episodes of Burrows’ life will be accepted by all Californians. {JHis mem- ory of events that occurred half a century ago is remarkable. “'Silas Burrows,” he said a few days ago, “was one of the most re- markable men of this century—I don’t know but the most remarkable in his way. I don’t suppose thatany man who ever lived had kis hand ia s0 many climes or so many seas. No end of the earth was too remote for bis ships to penetrate, and the fact that his romantically wonderiul life was never before written is as remarkable as the deeds that he did. “He was as near the ideal Monte Cristo that Dumas portrayed as any living being could be, and 1 huve no doubt that as many notable acts will never be known as those that are to be given publicity for the first time. “His energy, his ambition and his audacity were boundless. He lived like a prince and was as much at Lome in ihe court of Rvssia and these of other great powers of Europe as he was in his own home in New York-: His purse was open to all who were deserving or could enlist hissym” pathy, and dozens of men who had been, were or became powers in t.e world of finance or statecraft were deeply indebted to him. “I remember when, as a bov, I was clerking in a Wall-street counting_ house he came in to talk over matters of importance wi'h my employers, He had the air of a prince, and his towering frame and great bushy head of hair, as weil as his strongly marked festures and -brilliant biue eyes, made him a man to be noticed anywhere. He always dressed in the height of fashion, and was in every respect a polished gentleman, though at times his manner was a trifle brusque. “Some people looked upon him asa visionary fellow, particularly the staid old Knickerbockers who were satisfied to sit at home aad watch their riches increase, but he was the iaol of the younger generation, who listened to the tales of his adventures in foreign lands and of his armed’ ships that plowed every sea, with open-mouthed wonder and admiration. ‘‘He made and lost fortunes while others pondered over the risks ef ventures, and his ambition—always before him-—was to be the richest man in America. In those days he was considered very wealthy. A fortune of $10,000 constituted great wealth, and $3000 a year enabled a man to keep a spfendid establishment, with plenty of servants to do his bidding. I suppose that in his best days Burrows was worth half a million, and probably had fifteen or twenty thousand a year. His influence the world over, as well as at home, was great, though he never made any ostentatious display of it. “Among the tribes and traders on the African coast he was known and respected, and the slow-going mandarins of China, as well as the money and reigning kings of Europe, were gind to greet him as a guest. *‘Sonie time after his generous donation to the Greeks of New York of a ship in which to send their contributions of arms ana clothing 1o their struggling countrymen Henry Eckford, a great New York ship-builder, got an order from the Greek Government for two frigates, which he built and sent across the Atlantic to fight the Turks. There was soma dispute about the payment for them, and Burrows went to Athens as Eckford's agent to collect the money, amounting to over a million. He was success- ful in his mission, and after that was sought after as the promoter of greut enterprises and as un agent in big transactions. “Burrows was undoubted!y a partner and backer of Furness, the West India trader,whose small, fleet privateers were the terror to the commercg, of nations at war. It was customary in those days for a nation, when fighting another, to rrant letters of marque to the ships of neutral nations, that they might thus cripple the commerce of their adversaries, “Though not considered just the thing by the United States Govern- ment the practice of fighting out privateers was winked at to a certain extent, and many smart privateers sailed out of New York and other Atlantic ports. “They cleared for 8t. Thomas or some other port ‘or a market,” and after discharging what cargo was on board mounted their guns and began cruising in likely localilies for some unfortunate merchantman with a "ADVAIANVYD “TVLLNHAIS AJO.LSIH S.ISIdOYH.ILNV THd /SIH.L 'HO NOLLVNNLLNOD One of the very few living men whose memories inciude a meeing with Lord Byron and an acquaintance with his sis- ter, Augusia Leigh, is just now humbly, prosaically and temporarily wielding a clerical pen out in the Assessor’s office. A copy of an ancient edition of **Childe Haro!d” with an autographic inscription, afterward presented to him by the poet’s sister, is one of his most precious treas- ures. This souvenir and the story of his meeting Lord Byron at Missolonghi when the poet was amid 1he giory which the Greek revolution gave him possess an in- terest that grows with time. This man is Rapert Manuel, who is widely known here, especially in the legal profession, for he is one of the oldest law clerks of San Francisco, having since 1863, for thirty-four years, labored in tire offices of many of the leading law firms of that period. His meeting with Lord Byron was an incident in his varied life, tte before un- written story of which gives & briefand interesting glance at this one of theim- mortals and at a great historical event—a glance from the standpoint of the com- mon people of the day instead of from that of the historian and biographer. “If T remember rightly we were at Corfu when my father heard of Lord Byron’s ar- rival,” is the way Rupert Manuel’s story runs. “He was going to Sicily, but he changed his course and sailed to Misso- longhi simply to see Lord Byron. Ithink he heard thie news through one of those British frigates that were moving about the Levant. I distinctly remember how hilorious over the news my father was when he came aboard. He fairly hugged us in his joy, and I can remember of his saying, ‘We’ll nave 2 new Leonidas, and this Leonidas is more than a fighter, too.’ My father had read Byron’s poems, for he knew English well, and I had heard him repeat often: You have the Pyrrhic dance as yet. Where is the Pyrroic phalenx gone? He said, ‘Now we’ve rot the Pyrrhic phalanx, and he was overjoyed in the be- lief that Lord Byron would win freedom for the Greek people.” . The Angostura dropped anchor at Mis- solonghiduring shis turbulent time. Amid the confusion, lawlessness, diseord and patriotic ardor Byron shone as the star of nope, and the talk of the people was that Byron would become King of Greece, a possibility that Byron’s friend and com- panion, Trelawney, spoke of afterward. This was shortly before Byron's thirty- seventh birthday—January 22, 1824. “I remember well the crowds and the | wonderful enthusiasm over Byron,” says Manue!. *“The talk wasall about Byroa and the war with Turkey. There was plenty of fizhting vim, but the trouble was that the Greeks were fighting among themselves. It was about that time that Byron saved a number of Turkish cap- tives, sending them to the Turkish com- mander with a letter asking that Greek prisoners be treated as humanely, and I | can remember something of the talk { about this and admiration for his | ability and policy. | It was two or three days after we ar- rived that I met Lord Byron. He had ap- pointed a time for a public reception, and during the forenoon some of the ship’s sailors rowed my father and me ashore. | My father had dressed me in a haif-Greek | costume and I wore a little Greek fez | witha tassel on the top. There was a ‘;zrem crowd wearing various picturesque and every mother's son of Greece was fully armed with knives and soon after tue Greek style of that day. Grecian flags were everywhere, and the streets were full of cheering and en- thusiasm. “Late in the afternoon Byron took his | place in an_open public quare dressed in v‘his fuil uniform as commander-in-chief, | and my father and I tooz our placesin a long line that moved forward to where Byron stood. When we reached him my father shook him warmly by the hand | and said, *We cieet you as the savior o | Greece.” My father had a moment’s con- versation with him, and during it I, boy like, took hold of Byron’s hand. He looked down on me smilingly, patted me on the head and said, ‘Be a good boy, my lad.’ How proud andpleased I was. “I remember his appearance perfectly. He wore the splendid Grecian helmet he had made for himself in Italy, had a roll- | ing collar to his military coat and iooked quite splendid with his sword and braid. | His cheek was flushed with red, and I later knew that it was habitually pale. There were generals and captains about him, but none that I remember except a small, lanky man wearing a sword and civilian clotnes, whom I took at the time to be one of Byron’s servants. My father told me afterward that that wes Prince Mavracordato, who was, next to Byron, the greatest man in Greece. There were soldiers about him, and I afterward learned that they were Byron’s Suliotes. “As I grew up I retained the deep inter- est in Lord Byron that I have felt ail my life. In 1836, when I was 21 years old, I was in London, and I called to see Mrs, Augusta Leigh, announcing myself as an admirer of her brother who had seen him at Missotonghi. She seemed overjoyed to meei one who had seen her brother there, even if he was a boy. There were few, if any, besides Trelawney and Fietcher, Byron’s valet, who were with Byron there and to whom she had been able to talk personally about him. rather bashful boy, but she was cuch a pldin, sweet, ladylike, cultured woman that she soon made me feel at ease and at home, bringing we some wine and cakes and talking in a kindly way. I told her when and where I had seen Lord Byron and she plied me with all mannerof k | I was then a| bers the Poet questions regarding the smallest details of how he looked and abeut the place and people. “She had slways been loyal to her brother amid his disgrace and trouble, and she said that she woud have given the world to have seen him while he was doing such a glorious work. I gave her all the account in my power, and told her that if he had lived he would have been King of Greece. She said that there was in him the making of & king. She spoke of him as ‘Dear George, ‘My dear brother,” and ‘Poor George Gordon,’ but told me that she vsed to call kim ‘Duck’ in his life. She doted on his memory. She thanked me for calling and giving the account I could irom my poor memory and asked me to call again after getting my address. “Two or three days later she sent me this copy of Childe Harold with her auto- graph on the fly leaf. She thought this the greatest and best of her brother’s works and it had recently been issued as a special edition at the time when she had erected a monument ‘To the author of Childe Harold.’ I cailed on her again to Lstysrrrer CANTO ol HE MET LORD BYRON A San Francisco Man Who Remem- When He Was in the Height of His Glory thank her for the gift and told her thatI would treasure it ail my life, as I have done. During the conversation I asked | her why she had allowed Tom Moore to destroy the memoir which Byron left to be published after his death, saying that nis own defense against his cilumniators stould have been ziven tothe world in justice to him. Bhe said that she was sorry then that she had consented to the destruction, but she had trusted in Moore’s judgment, and now she doubied that Moore was the truefriend to Bryan that she had thought him 1o be. A few years ago when Mr. Manuel was aavised to go to some hot springs for an attack of rheumatism be promptly chose Byron Springs. This strangely vigorous old man, who has roamed the world so much and who knows most of the diaiects of the East Indies like a native, just now feels again the hunger for traveling afar, and to do so he is anxiously beginning an effort to secure a party of the sons of wealthy families to chaperon on his sixth trip around the world, the path of which is so familiar to him and strewn rapot 21 A ROMAU with his personal acquaintances. Z. ¢pilve Parold*s Pilgrimage. : s I. “Qom Paul’’ Krueger, President of the South African Republic, whose Puritani- cal leanings and simple way of living bave long been explotted, has astonished every- body in the Transvaal by ordering of an English concern a magnificent state coach which is now on its way to South Arica. The accompanying illustration is from a photograph of the coach taken before it was dispatched from London. As will be seen at a glance the vehicle is of the old chariot typ-, still more or less used by European monarchs of the first grade on mmportant state occasions, and it is safe to say that nothing of the kind one-half as imposing has ever been seen south of the equator. The coach ig slung on C springs from “snakes” attached to its body. It is painted black and vermilion, the colors being picked out with thin white lines, The hammer-cloth is a gorgeors affair, sufliciently patriotic in design and deco- ra.ion to suit the most bigoted Boer, but at the same time suggestive enough of { imperial ostentation to move him te won- der, if not to anger and tears. The cloth is of pale blue and bears on each side the arms of the South African Republic, a du- plicate of which design is displayed on the doors of the coach. When “Oom Paui” seats himself in this 00M PAUL'S GARRIAGE. The Wily Old Democratic President of the ~ Boer Republic Has Just Invested in an Equipage Fit for a King. magnificent coach, fit for any king to ride in, he will recline on light blue satin and feast his dull eyes on eagles of solid siiver ten inches high. A team of eight picked thoroughbreds will be attached to the | coach when in use, and these, caparisoned to match the magnificence of the coach and its trappings, will draw “Qom Pau” | over the streets of Pretoria and the rough roads of the outlying districts. The cost of the new state coach was £700, a sum of money great enough to purchase ordinary wagons for an entire Boer community. Just what it was that led this stolid ana show-hating old roler of the Transvaal to make this start- ling departure from the custom of a lifetime it would be interesting to know. Possibly he contemplates a brilliant coup d’etat, and under changed conditions of official life intends to ride as only monarchs and dictators are wont to ride. | Or, may be, as one of his English admir- ers suggests, *Oom Paul’’ is preparing for a visit from his august {riend and cham- pion, the German “War Lord.” All jok- ing aside, says the New York Herald, President Krueger’s notable concession to the little vanities of this fleeting world has caused no end of amusement in Eng- 1ind and given rise to much curious and pointed commernt in the Transvaal, AS RELATED IN HIS LETTERS. S Frmesey, = B4 ougfif of AD()LPH_SU 1851 DEALER IN TINSE. HAVANA S8LEARS, SMOKING TOBACCO, ; Genuine Meerschaum Pipes, &c., No. 116 Montgomery St., between S8acramento & California OW! COUNTRY , PROMPTLY _ATTENDED _TO. / /Z/; S ppplnzr 7 g, rich eargo that would increase the bank account of their owuers. Most of them were commanded and strongly manned by sturdy New Eng- landers, and were heavily armed enough to be formidable adversaries to any but men-of-war. . “Butrows owned several armed vessels himself that cruised in the gulf, and, with those that he fitted out for Furness, made a great deal of money in this way. Asa general thing the prizes were released after be- ing looted and nothihg was heard of the matter. Lafitte, the notorious pirate, started outas the commander of a privateer, and, while Idon’t suppose that Burrows’ captains ever went to the length that Lafitte did, it was close to the verge of piracy. During Bolivar's struggle for the as- cendency in South America Burrows was his champion and ardent sup- porter and spent much of his time and fortune aiding the cause of the celebrated ' South, American. He had a steamer in South American waters and she was used {o carry troops and guns for Bolivar when he wanted to transfer his forces from one place to anotner. “‘With his keen business sense Burrows said that Japan would one day be a great commercial nation and he determined to penetrate thet sleeping country and profit by being early on the ground. In the very early fifties he went to Japan and tried to get into business with the sub- jects of the Mikado. The Japanese wer spicious of strangers and be did not get on with them as he desired. After trying for some time he began a correspondence with the United States Government that finally resulted in the sending of Perry with a fleet that opened the land of the chrysanthemum to the world whether it would or no. “li_‘cw. men could have accomplished this, but Burrows’ intimate acquaintance with nearly all of the men of note of those days and with the high dignitaries of the Government stood him in good stead and he made personai appeals to many Congressmen and Senators, as well as to he Presidént and Cabinet officials, that finally accompiished the desired result. I have no doubt that there are many letters from him on this subject among the archives of the Government if they could be unearthed. ‘When Burrows came to this City I saw him again, when-he was planning some big transaction with the Russian Government. “I think his fortunes were much depleted at that time, but he was the same handsome, debonaire Burrows and as full of schemes and am- bition as ever. He made a great deal of money then, but fortuunes came and went like the wind and I think he died in very moderate circum- siances. e was a great friend and chum of that brilliant orator Ogden Hoff- man, father of the late Judge Hoffman and of Southard Hoffman, the present clerk of the United States Oircuit Court, and one of bis sons he named Ogden Hoffman Burrows after his friend. During the num ber of years that he lived here he was in a number of locations, sometimes with his sons and sometimes alone. He kept a ship-cbandlery at North Beach for a time and later was in the commission business on Montgomery street, near Clay, then the water front. +In 1858. after the trade of Japan had been opened to the world, he and his sons were in business as importers of Japanese and Chinese zoods on Sansome street, near Jackson. What has become of his sons I do not know, but I remember them as young fellows with a gooa deal of their sire’s dash and spirit. One of them was a sea captain, and, it 1 mistake not, was at one time in command of one of his father's ships.” The diréctories of this City published in the early days cive some information regarding Burrows' business. Park’s Directory of 1852 locates him as a commission merchant at 147 Montgomery street, near Clay. Morgan’s Directory of the same year shows that he was in business with his sons at 147 Battery, near Jackson. In 1854 the directory placed him at 6 Davis street, stlll with his sons in the commission line. Silas E. Bur- rows & Sons were located at the corner of Battery and Pacific streetsin 1856 as importers and shipping merchants. The last directory in wbich he appears isthat of 1858, when he was, with Silas E. Burrows Jr. and Ogden Hoffman Burrows, in tne China goods business at 168 Sansome street, near Jackson.