The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 12, 1901, Page 7

JHE story of keenest interest to every American boy is not found within the confines of two simple covers, but its chapters are picked from the history of the nation and may be grouped together under the simple but significant title of “From the Log Cabin to the White House.” It is a title that would have no meaning :0 the ambitious ) youth of other nations, but to the Amer- jcan lad it tells in a sentence of the rise to highest emirence in his own land of who was born 'mid lowly sur- the boy ro ir and forced almost from the day of his birth to Pattle alone and unaided struggle of life. ontire natior is payving en- of those boys ay the astic tribute to one 7 forms such an important stery of the men who ed their the backwoods to the All the r c way mble cabin of refront of the world's action feverish with patriotic f the chief exceu ay when armhcuse, od in his heart and bravery in He indeed, knows how well that was determined to win, and ion bas been sustained. ps of his own e of boys s pleased to et them, whether at the White House, :e or upon his journey- is the the pilk of our na- often sald ks the rough or lowly lap of lux man of to-dz her he be ded by the or whether and art: it is the of sturdy American oods s e country ok for the stability and character morrow. Just as the youth of the country to-day s before the eyes of his ambition the ndid example in the person and char- r of the President to nerve him on to harder knocks and greater attainments, £0 had William McKinley spread out be- fore him the story of great men who at- tained their highest ideal! from the moest umble surroundings. It is said that in the President’s youth he was a great admirer of that sturdy old 1 of early days, Andrew Jackson. ps, indeed, he saw in “‘Old Hickory™ , too, he tain, like he gift of Amers Perh eness of himself, and perha formed an ambition to hero, the most lofty post in peeple. rictly speaking, Andrew Jackson was first of the frontier Presidents—the first boy to make his way from the log cabir. of the forests to the executive When the cld Liberty n- sion of the nation. delphia first rung out in dec- 1 of independence Jackson was but vears of age. His mother died in the t of the revolution and little “Andy” h not small by any means for his —received many a hard knock at the of distant relatives and guardians This treatment didn’t io him a bit of harm, as he afterward but rather prepared him for the harder knocks which in store for him. He was more of a thinker than a “book scholar,” and his lack of the “book 1 v caused him many embarrass- spelling was before he was 15. were ments in later life. hs something to be wondered at and it caused more than one tilt between “Old Hick- after he became President, and his private secretary. in those are now—expert steno- with many vate secretaries were not they etc., ants. But rather were they more in the nature of clerks or messenger boys. The President would write most of the letters and the private secretary would read them over, punctuate wherever nec- essary, seal them and mail: One day, when “Old Hickory” was in a particular- ly angry mood, he rushed to his desk and as hurriedly as was possible with him scribbled off a letter to a political opponent who was the cause of his an- ger. Giving the letter to his secretary he began to pace the floor of the office. The writing was fearful; the spelling worse. The secretary, not wishing to see such a letter leave the White House, spoke to Jackson about its defects, without refer- ring to the spelling, a tender point with the President. But the latter wanted the letter to go just as it was written. Fin- ally, as a last hope, the secretary said: “The writing is not only bad and illegi- ble, Mr. President, but the speiling is of the worst.” “I don’t care,” replied Jackson, glaring furiously—“that fellow will understand what I mean!” Jackson won lasting fame at New Or- jeans—*“the battle of the cotton bales”— where with & small body of rifiemen, armed with the old fiint lock, he slew 7000 of the British enemy, and almost annihi- % lated the last foreign army in the colo- s what graphers, etc., as- THE SUNDAY CALL,} e Log Cabin to Men Who Have Carved Their Wal. ite House e nies. Later, fighting the Seminoles in Georgia, he followed a large band of them across the frontier into Florida and seized that country, then a Spanish possession for the government of the colonies. Jackson was 6 years of age when an- other boy was born, far out on what was in those days the extreme western fron- tier of civilization, who was also destined to find His way in the course of time to the White House. This boy was Willlam humble and life did not seem at all roseate to the ambitious young man when the great civil war broke out. He at once determined to go to the front, and in the succeeding four years went through all the grades from that of a drill sergeant to a major geperal of volunteers. In early life young Harrison declared that he would some day be President. Of course he had the example of his grand- father before him, but when this was quaint yet grand and tragic pictures ras the world than those of the young “rail- splitter,”” who got his education at night, reading by the light of pine knots, and of the barefooted canal boy of Mentor driv- ing the tired mules along the Ohio mud embankment, of their elevation to the highest position in the gift of a great peo- ple, and of their being stricken down while bravely doing their duty to their country? BIRTHPLACE OF JAMES A, GARFIELD, Herry Harrison, the hero of Tippecanoe and the grandfather of another President, Benjamin Harri William Henry was the ting kind of a lad, too, and when he was given chase the India sen. nmand of some troops to s, he knew how to do the work and do it well. Used to the priva- tions of the backwoods settlements Har- rison had also studied carefully the ways of the wily Indian and knew his fighting At Tippecance, July &7, 1811, he defeated a great army of the tactics. severely savages and ended their depredations in that section of the country. At this bat- tle Harrison fought like one of the men and two bullets passed through the rim of Lis hat. The second President Harrison found also the inspiration of his boyhood and . early manhood among primitive surround- ings. Nor did he ever outgrown the love of the forests, of hunting and of fishing. Like McKinley, he was born in Ohio, and just ten years earlier than the present chiel executive. His surroundings were called to mind, he remarked: “It is not our grandfathers who lay out the paths of life for us. No American boy need fear the race, and, as for the latter, I am in {t.” Harrison in his younger years taught school, cnnvassfid for books, studied law, clerked in an office and worked upon a farm. In fact he was always looking for some work, some labor that might tend to advance his station and broaden his in- tellect. No honorable employment was beneath him and this trait of character was further emphasized when we find him, following his term of office as Presi- dent, studying hard like a country law=- yer upon law cases at his home in In- dianapolis. Both the martyred Presidents were chil- dren of the forest and farm. The stories that are told of the early days of Lincoln and Garfield are worthy to be handed down from generation to generation and century to century for the guidance and hope of the boys of America. What more PRESIDENT A KINL President McKinley, together with his many other titles, might appropriately be termed the “traveling President,” for he has covered more miles of territory dur- ing his term of office than any of his predecessors. It is interesting to note that no other ruler in the world to-day could take a journey of equal length within his own dominions to that upon which Mr. Mec- Kinley is embarked. This, of course, re- fers to a continuous trip by rail. The Czar of Russia might start out from St. Petersburg for Vladivostok over the trans-Siberian Railway, a distance of 7650 miles, but he would be compelled to tra- verse the same road on the return to his capital. The present journey of the Presi- dent contemplates the going over of nearly 9000 miles of track in the same train, a feat unprecedented. Of McKinley's immediate predecessor Mr. Harrison was the greatest traveler, although nearly all the long journeys he made were during the time of his candi- dacy, and not after he had attained his goal. President Cleveland was busy declining invitations to visit various sections of the country, because traveling was exceed- ingly irksome to him. During his term of office he never traveled “in state,”” so to S ing to their death when, as he expressed it, “they might be spared for the peaceful glory of the country.” Invariably, when in the grim ways of war a soldier was to be shot and the sentence needed the approval of the President, Mr. Lin- coln’s great heart would dictate another telegram to tke commanding general in the fleld asking If there were not some ex- tenuating circumstances. If the sentenced soldier was young almost always the Lincoln was born in a cabin in Kentucky and spent all of his early years along the frontier. He went when young to Iili- nois and began the hewing out, literally and actually, of that great career Into which was crowded such momentous events, His early days in that region were long in advance of the coming of the school and his associates were the hardy President would grant him a pardon. One of Garfleld’s first “jobs” was the driving of mules along the tow path of the Mentor canal in Okio. He was a rugged and urcouth boy in those days, but he had amtition and wanted to go away to school. His father could not afford to send him, and James decided to hire out to the own- er of a canal boat. His pay was small, and Harbors, as he himself had made a study of waterways, including canals, from early youth. Polk and Johnson were also products of the log cabin. The former was born at Mecklenburg, N. C., where the local peo- ple first defled Great Britain in the Meck- lenburg Declaration, a wordy but rather harmless document. He emigrated to Tennessee and shared with Jackson all th privations of the pioneer. Andrew John- son was also born in North Carolina. His parents were very poor and before he was{ and began earning his livelihood in the forests of Ternessee. Even the rudiments of education were denied him until long after he had attained his majority. Virginia may by courtesy retain the title of the “Mother of Presidents,” but Ohio is surely the “home of log cabin boys™ who have made name and fame in their native land and leveled roads for them- and swamp of ich the Whits selves through the bush life to the clearing in W Heuse is located. Besides th mentioned who cz rom State there are Grant and Hayes, scldiers, statesmen and Presi «ral Grant was reared on an Ohio farm, and porn into a family the lot of Wi members was abiding toil. His birth was during the administration of Monroe, and ready great both Gen- al that lents. his patriotism was fixed by the thea re- cent War of 1812. In the war with Mex- ico, eutenant of a Grant displayed exceptional ability ery. His rapid rise in the War of the Re- belllon from a lisutenant of an infantry as a lery, and brav- company to the supreme command of all the armles tike the of the gigantic conflict the ple in their heartfelt thanksgiving and gratitude placed the Ohio* farm boy in the President’s chair at Washington. No other history than ours tells the story of as remarKkable a galaxy of men. The debt the country owes to the Union _reads almost At the close American peo- of the fables of old. condi- tions under w! great part In the service of the nation and of the world is immeasurable. Our guest is probably the last President whose life will span the space between the log cabin and the White House; the last svhose hand gained on the plow han- dle and ax handle the fir tery to guide our wonderful state. ess and mas ship of “The number of playing cards used in the United States 1§ something wonderful, there being as many as 12,000,000 packs sold throughout the country last year,” remarked a large manufacturer the other day. thirty-five factories, fourteen of which are located in New York. The latter city is the second, if not the greatest, card cen- ter in the world. The rivalry between it and London is very close. London pro- duces about 4,200,000 packs and New York INTERIOR OF A MODERN LOG CABIN OWNED BY COLONEL JOHN P. IRISH. frontfersmen who cut the forests and tilled the soil and wore the homespun and the buckskin. During his lifetime Lincoln never lost interest in the struggling young _man, especially he whom fortune had not favored in his youth. In the great civil war he often expressed his sorrow that S0 many sturdy sons of the soil were go- speak, and his longest trips were to St. Augustine, Fla., and to the Adirondack Mountains, in New York, where his favor- ite hunting and fishing grounds were lo- cated. On these latter trips Mr. Cleveland usually went “incog.”—that is, the people along the route never knew in advance that he was coming. Even at Baltimore, where all chief executives are supposedly well known to the average citizen, Mr. Cleveland's hunting attire and careless fashion served as a good mask to his identity. As a candidate Mr. Cleveland made quite an extended tour of the South and Middle West. but, as may be imagined, his expenses were light, and he kept them down by de- clining to wear shoes—very luxurious and expensive articles in those days in Ohio. In after years, when Garfield was in Con- gress, he would laughingly say to fellow- members of the House that his place was at the head of the Committee on Rivers EY AS A TRAVELER Grant was, as every one knows, a great traveler, if going around the world would Jjustify such an appellation. During his term of office, however, he was on the road but little. Of the earlier Presidents none of them were great travelers, even as the term was understood in their time. It is stated that ‘Washington never went the entire length of the thirteen Colonies during his two terms of office. It is well to remember in this connection, though, that the Father of his Country, great and glorious and truthful as he was, could not, either by authority of the Great Jehovah or the Continental Congress, invoke a vestibuled about 3,850,000 packs annually. The cards |\ made in the United States, especially in New York, are the handsomest, the most durable and convenient, known to the trade. The European makers are satisfled with old styles and methods. e “The average pack of cards in London, Paris, Madrid, Vienna and Berlin is very much' the same to-day as it was in the ‘beginning of the last century. Those made in this country show slight improvements from year to year. American ‘manufac~ turers were the first to introduce the rounded cormerr and the squeezer, and also the elaborately designed card backs and the elastic satin glaze which makes new cards so handsome and increases their durability. - “The American market is a curlous one. Very few people care to buy the cheapest kind of cards. It is the 25 and 50 cent qual- ities which sell the best. There is a lim- ited but constant demand for very hand- some cards, especially when they are In- tended as”a present or a holiday gift. There is a heavy tax or tariff on cards in every European country, which prevents our invading their markets.” & & \ 1 they trained for their {A’ “These cards were made in some §o 7 \