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RECOLLECTIONS.

BY

GEORGE W. CHILDS.

" So runs the round of life from hour to hour."
Tennyson.

'0&

PHILADELPHIA:
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.
1890.

Copyright, 1890, by J. B. Lippincott Company.

RECOLLECTIONS.

THE STRATFORD-UPON-AVON MEMORIAL, FOUNTAIN.

THE MEMORIAL WINDOWS TO
HERBERT, COWPER, AND MILTON.

THE ANDREWES AND KEN
REREDOS.

THE PRINTERS' BANQUET.

PEEFAOE.

When Mr. Childs consented, with un
feigned reluctance, to tell the story of his
tranquil life, he was not at all persuaded of
the propriety of sitting down before the
public and chatting familiarly of himself
and his friends. He had been asked to do
this many times before, but neither the
persistent importunity of enterprising pub
lishers, nor, of course, the tender of gold,
could move him. Finally the temptation
to do a friendly act overcame his scruples,
and the readers of Lippincott' s Magazine were
given the series of four entertaining papers *
embodied in the present volume. However
stubborn the resistance of Mr. Childs may
have been, and whatever doubts he may
have entertained as to the wisdom of the

* Published in the issues of June, July, August, and
September, 1889. 1* 5

G In Explanation.
undertaking, he could not have been other
than deeply gratified by the flattering recep
tion of his Recollections by press and people.
Perhaps no magazine articles of the year —
certainly none of the multitudinous volumes
of reminiscences — were so loudly heralded,
so extensively quoted, so unanimously ap
proved. Extracts are still current in the
country papers; rare and cordial words of
appreciation still come from the four quar
ters of the world. Sir Edwin Arnold was
kind enough to say that he had read the
personal memoirs of Mr. Childs with profit
and pleasure ; and General Sherman avowed
that they would have "fifty times their
value fifty years hence." Without exception
known to me, the newspapers of this coun
try and England extolled the interest of the
articles, the Boston Herald* saying that
" Mr. Childs's recollections are so good that
he ought to publish everything he knows.
about Grant;" and the Chicago Neios-f
urging that " when these reminiscences are
concluded they should be published in book
form," making this suggestion, as it went
on to say, " in behalf of the very many who
wish to preserve Mr. Childs's interesting

* July 17, 1889. f August 8, 1889.

In Explanation. 7
and valuable contributions in a convenient
and handsome shape."
The suggestion had been made before;
it was made repeatedly, and by many whose
disinterested and critical judgment had
naturally so much weight with Mr. Childs
that this book is the happy result. To the
text of the four original papers have been
added the story of the Memorial to Shake
speare at Stratford-upon-Avon; an account
of the Window in Westminster Abbey to the
memory of the Christian poets Herbert and
Cowper; the Window commemorative of
the virtues and genius of the poet Milton, in
St. Margaret's Church, Westminster; and of
the Reredos erected in St. Thomas's Church,
Winchester, England, as a memorial to
Bishop Ken of that ancient cathedral city ;
together with a sketch of the celebration of
the birthday of Mr. Childs by the printers
of Philadelphia, with an introduction by
Professor Richard T. Ely, of Johns Hopkins
University. Melville Philips.

RECOLLECTIONS.

CHAPTER I.
A HOST OF MEMORIES.
Early Life — Publishing Experiences — Purchase of the
Ledger — Irving, Hawthorne, Lowell, Holmes — Dis
tinguished Guests.
I want to set out by saying that I am sure
you in kindness exaggerate the interest the
world takes in me and my affairs. You say
I am a successful man. Perhaps I am ; and
if so, I owe my success to industry, temper
ance, and frugality. I suppose I had always
a rather remarkable aptitude for business.
James Parton, at any rate, was right in
speaking of me in his biographical sketch
as " bartering at school my boyish treasures,
¦ — knives for pigeons, marbles for pop-guns,
a bird-cage for a book."
I was self-supporting at a very early age.
9

10 Recollections.
In my twelfth year, when school was dis
missed for the summer, I took the place of
errand-boy in a book-store in Baltimore, at
a salary of two dollars a week, and spent
the vacation in hard work. And I enjoyed
it. I have never been out of employment ;
always found something to do, and was
always eager to do it, and think I earned
every cent of my first money. When first
at work in Philadelphia I would get up very
early in the morning, go down to the store,
and wash the pavement and put things in
order before breakfast, and in the winter
time would make the fire and sweep out the
store. In the same spirit, when books were
bought at night at auction, I would early
the next morning go for them with a wheel
barrow. And I have never outgrown this
wholesome habit of doing things directly
and in order. I would to-day as lief carry a
bundle up Chestnut Street from the Ledger
office as I would then. As a matter of fact, I
carry bundles very often. But I understand
that certain young men of the period would
scorn to do as much.
At the age of thirteen I entered the
United States navy, and passed fifteen
months at Norfolk; but I didn't like it.
Returning to Baltimore, I attended school

A Host of Memories.- 1 1
for a time. Then I came to Philadelphia,
and entered a book-store kept by Mr.
Thomson at the corner of Sixth and Arch
Streets. I was both clerk and errand-boy,
worked from early in the morning until late
at night, and received a salary of three
dollars a week. Gradually I began to at
tend the evening auctions, which at that
time were frequently held in this city; I
became familiar with the titles and prices
of valuable books, and was soon able to buy
them cheaply. In this way I assisted Mr.
Thomson for four years ; his business kept
increasing ; and at length he sent me to
represent him at the book- trade sales held
every six months in New York and Boston.
Here, of course, I made the acquaintance of
many book-buyers and publishers, — excel
lent men, whom I have never forgotten, and
who, I am glad to say, have not forgotten
me. Those still living often visit me, and
whenever they do the old life and the old
faces are very vivid in my memory, — the
Harpers, Lippincotts, Putnams, Ticknors,
Fields, Appletons, Little & Browns.
I had saved enough money when about
eighteen years old to go into business for
myself; so I set up a modest store in a
small room in the old Public Ledger build-

] 2 Recollections.

ing. It' was a success: I made money
slowly but surely. Meanwhile, it is said of
me that I aspired to higher things; that I
was even heard to say, " I shall yet be the
owner of the Public Ledger." If this is true,
and doubtless it is, I do not seem to have
overreached myself at that early age.
I was twenty-one years old when I entered
into the book-publishing business under the
firm name of R. E. Peterson & Co., after
wards Childs & Peterson. One of our first
books, Dr. Kane's " Arctic Explorations,"
was a great hit. It did not look at first as
though we had made a wise venture. When
the work was ready to be issued, I took a
sample copy and went over to New York to
solicit orders from the leading booksellers.
The largest house would only give me a
small order. " Mr. Childs," they said, " you
won't sell more than a thousand altogether."
They ordered at first only one hundred
copies, but soon after sent for five thousand
more to meet the demand. Within one
year after the publication we paid Dr. Kane
a copyright of nearly seventy thousand
dollars. It was the Doctor's original inten
tion to write only a scientific account of the
expedition in search of Sir John Franklin,
-but I persuaded him to make of it the popu-

A Host of Memories. 13
lar narrative he did, and he afterwards ad
mitted to me that I was right in my sugges
tion. When the manuscript was finished
he sent me a pathetic note, in which he said,
"Here you have the book complete, and,
poor as it is, it has been my coffin." No
doubt he had then some premonition of the
beginning of the end of his remarkable
career. He died in Cuba within a year
after receiving his copyright money; and
doubtless many people remember well the
splendid tribute arranged for him: that
funeral was one of the most remarkable in
history. We made another hit with Parson Brown-
low's book, of which fifty thousand copies
were ordered in advance of publication.
Other successful works issued by us were
" Peterson's Familiar Science," of which a
quarter of a million copies have been sold ;
Bouvier's Law Dictionary; Sharswood's
Blackstone ; and Dr. Allibone's great " Dic
tionary of British and American Authors."
It cost over sixty thousand dollars to publish
this last-named important book in its three
large volumes, and a great deal of the credit
for the successful completion of the under
taking is due to the enterprise of the late
J. B. Lippincott, who brought out the last
2

14 Recollections.
two volumes upon my retirement from the
book-publishing business in 1863.
The following year I purchased the Public
Ledger. And I want to say just here that
much of the success of the paper has been
due to the cordial and intelligent co-opera
tion of my friend, A. J. Drexel.
The war, by greatly increasing the cost
of labor and material, chiefly the white
paper, had made it impossible to continue,
save at a loss, the publication of the Ledger
as a penny paper. It had been sold at a
cent ever since it was started in 1836, and
Messrs. Swain & Abell, then the proprietors,
though they had lost over one hundred
thousand dollars by keeping the rate at " six
and a quarter cents per week," were averse
to a change. There they made their great
mistake. They seemed to regard the past
prosperity of the Ledger as due alone to its
selling for a penny. They forgot that in
1864 the purchasing power of a penny was
not what it was before the war. Cheapness,
indeed, was a vital feature of the journal ;
but to sell the Public Ledger for a penny was
to give it half away. Thus the proprietors,
unable to agree to increase the price of the
paper or the rates of advertising, determined
to dispose of their property. The Ledger

A Host of Memories. 15
was for sale, and I bought it — the whole of
it, just as it was — for a sum slightly in ex
cess of the amount of its annual loss.
It was not generally known, of course,
that the establishment was then losing about
four hundred and eighty dollars upon every
number of the paper which it issued. To
all appearances it was as prosperous as ever;
the circulation was groat, the columns were
crowded with advertisements. Yet, as a
matter of fact, there was a weekly loss of
three thousand dollars, or a hundred and
fifty thousand dollars a year.
The Ledger was purchased on the 3d of
December, 1864. A week later I announced
two simple but radical changes. I doubled
the price of the paper and advanced the
advertising rates to a profitable figure. Of
course there was an instant and not incon
siderable falling oft' of patronage. But the
Ledger was already an " institution" of the
city : for twenty years it had been the estab
lished medium of communication between
employers and employed, between buyers
and sellers, landlords and tenants, bereaved
families and their friends. To very many
people it was a necessity. So, although at
first I lost some subscribers and advertisers,
they were soon won back again. At the

16 RecoUections.
end of a month the price of the Ledger was
reduced from twelve to ten cents a week,
and from that day to this the circulation and
advertising have increased.
I worked hard to make the paper a suc
cess ; for several years I seldom left the ed
itorial rooms before midnight, averaging
from twelve to fourteen hours a day at the
office. I strove to elevate its tone, and think
I succeeded. If asked what I mean by this,
perhaps I had better quote the friendly
words of the late Rev. Dr. Prime : " Mr.
Childs excluded from the paper all details
of disgusting crime ; all reports of such vice
as may not be with propriety read aloud in
the family; that poison the minds of young
men, inflame the passions and corrupt the
heart; all scandal and slang, and that whole
class of news which constitutes the staple
of many daily papers. The same rule was
applied to the advertising columns, and
from them was excluded all that, in any
shape or form, might be offensive to good
morals. The friends of the new publisher
predicted an early and total failure, and the
more speedy because he doubled the price
of the paper and increased the rates of
advertising. But he was governed in his
course by two considerations : first, he had

A Host of Memories. 1 7
his own strong convictions of what is right,
and, secondly, as strong convictions of what
would pay ; and it has been well said that
when one's views of duty coincide with his
pecuniary interests, all the faculties work
in perfect harmony. The effect of this sud
den change was at first to sink the sinking
concern still lower. A class of readers and
advertisers fell off. A less conscientious
and a less courageous man would have stag
gered in the path he had marked out. Not
so with Mr. Childs. He employed the best
talent, and paid fair wages for good work.
He published six days in the week only, and
on the seventh day he rested from his labors.
His paper and his principles began to obtain
recognition in the city. He made it a family
journal. It gained the confidence of the
best people, who became its daily readers,
and therefore it was sought as the best
medium of advertising." It is not for me
to add to or comment upon these compli
mentary words. On the 20th of June, 1867,
the present Ledger building was completed
and formally opened. The ceremonies were
followed by a banquet attended by many
distinguished men from different parts of
the country.
I look back with genuine pleasure upon
b 2*

18 Recollections,
my experiences as a publisher. I was more
than prosperous in acquiring the friendship
of so many worthy men among the pub
lishers, booksellers, and authors with whom
I came in contact. If I were to enumerate
them, their names would fill a page of Lip-
pincott's Magazine.
I can recall, as though it were yesterday,
a solemn conversation in the office of the
Harpers, then on Cliff Street. The four
founders of the great firm were present.
I was one of a group of Philadelphians,
and we were discussing the first number of
Harper's New Monthly Magazine. It seemed
so certain to us that the publication would
be a failure. " It can't," said one Phila-
delphian, emphatically, — " it can't last very
long." The only successful magazines then
published in the United States were those
issued in Philadelphia, — Graham's, Godey's,
Sartain's, and Peterson's.
I have personally known and corresponded
with Longfellow, Emerson, Lowell, Holmes,
Whittier, John Lothrop Motley, William
Cullen Bryant, George Bancroft, W. H.
Prescott, Fitz-Greene Halleck, Nathaniel
Hawthorne, Washington Irving, and a score
of other writers who have given us an Amer
ican literature.

A Host of Memories. 19
Washington Irving I remember well. His
was not a face one readily forgot. A kindly
humorous man, of big brain and heart. I
visited him several times at " Sunnyside :"
he would go to sleep at dinner, but his
guests understood his physical weakness and
respected it. "He was a very sensitive and
nervous man. I saw his desk piled up with
papers, the last time I was there, and re
marked that he seemed to have a heavy mail.
It was shortly after the publication of the
first volume of his Life of Washington.
" Yes," he said, " I haven't the courage to
look at it. I'm afraid to learn what the
critics are saying of my book."
Hawthorne was another sensitive man
and extremely shy. The last time we met
was under very distressing circumstances.
He was travelling South for the benefit of
his health, accompanied by his friend W. D.
Ticknor, the publisher. They stopped at
the Continental Hotel in Philadelphia, and
both came down to the Ledger office to call
on me. They were in excellent spirits ; and
that was on Friday. It was agreed that they
should attend a party to be given the next
evening by Mr. Joseph Harrison. These
Saturday evening parties were then a feature
of social life in Philadelphia. Neither

20 Recollections.
Ticknor nor Hawthorne came, greatly to
our disappointment. As no explanation of
their absence was sent me, I called on Sun
day morning at the hotel and went directly
to their rooms. I knocked on the door, and
receiving no answer, opened it and walked,
in. There I found Hawthorne pacing up
and down the room, apparently dazed.
. " Hawthorne," I said, " how are you ?
Where is Ticknor ?"
" They have taken him away," said he.
" What do you mean ?" I asked. " I don't
understand you."
" Well," he said, " it is too bad. He was
my best friend ; I depended on him ; and he
came here to please me."
I could make nothing out of it at all : he
seemed to me bewildered. I feared for his
mind, and, going down to the office, asked
the clerk, Mr. Duffy, what it all meant. He
then staggered me with the information that
Ticknor had died that morning.
" Where is his body ?" I asked.
" It was taken early this morning, to the
undertaker's," he said.
I was astounded, but, hastening back to
Hawthorne, comforted him as much as I
could, implored him to keep quiet, and at
last succeeded somewhat in calming him.

A Host of Memories. 2 1
I then went to the undertaker's, took charge
of Ticknor's body, saw that it was properly
cared for and embalmed, and telegraphed
to his partner, my old friend James T.
Fields. One of Ticknor's sons at once came
on to Philadelphia and took his father's
remains to Boston.
It was a deplorable and distressing event ;
a fatal journey. Hawthorne lingered here
in Philadelphia with me for a few days, and
then I placed him in the keeping of the
good Bishop Howe, of Pennsylvania, a com
mon friend, who accompanied him to Boston.
There he passed the night with James T.
Fields, who says that they sat up late talking
about Ticknor, and that Hawthorne was in
a very excited and nervous state, recalling
incessantly the sad scenes he had been pass
ing through in Philadelphia. In the morn
ing he returned to his old home in Concord,
and shortly after he died at Plymouth, New
Hampshire, whither he had gone under the
charge of his life-long friend, Ex-President
Franklin Pierce.
I have still in my possession the touching
letter written by President Pierce to Mr.
Fields in which he describes the peaceful
death of Hawthorne. It was plainly penned
under the greatest excitement and distress

22 . Recollections.
of mind. It contained a note announcing
to Mrs. Hawthorne her bereavement, and
was carried to Mr. Fields by Colonel Hib-
bard. " Oh, how will she bear this shock?"
the note says. "Dear mother! dear chil
dren ! When I met Hawthorne at Boston a
week ago, it was apparent that he was much
more feeble and more seriously diseased than
I had supposed him to be. We came from
Senter Harbor yesterday afternoon, and I
thought ho was, on the whole, brighter than
he was the day before. He retired last
night soon after nine o'clock, and soon fell
into a quiet slumber. In less than half an
hour he changed his position, but continued
to sleep. I left the door open between his
bedroom and miue, our beds being opposite
to each other. I was asleep myself before
eleven o'clock. The light continued to burn
in my room. At two o'clock I went to H.'s
bedside. He was apparently in a sound
sleep. I did not place my hand upon him.
At four o'clock I went into his room a^ain,
and, a3 his position was unchanged, I placed
my hand upon him, and found that life was
extinct. I sent immediately for a physician,
and called Judge Bell and Colonel Hibbard,
who occupied rooms, upon the same floor
and near me. He lies upon his side, his

A Host of Memories. 23
position so perfectly natural and easy, his
eyes closed, that it is difficult to realize,
while looking upon his noble face, that this
is death. He must have passed from natural
slumber to that from which there is no wak
ing, without the slighest movement. I can
not write to dear Mrs. Hawthorne, and you
must exercise your judgment with regard to
sending this and the unfinished note enclosed
to her."
It was a beautiful death, but a sad event.
Hawthorue I shall always hold vividly in
remembrance. I have the original manu
script of his " Consular Experiences," and
the copy of the first edition of the " Scarlet
Letter," brought to light so wonderfully by
Mr. Fields. Hawthorne wrote me, soon
after its publication in 1851, that he was
much gratified by my favorable opinion of
the charming romance, and that I might
be interested to know " that it was so far
founded on fact that such a symbol as the
Scarlet Letter was actually worn by at least
one womau in the early times of New Eng
land." Whether this personage, he added,
resembled Hester Prynne in any other
circumstances of her character, he could
not say; nor whether this mode of igno
minious punishment was brought from be-

24 Recolleotions.
yond the Atlantic or originated with the
New England Puritans. At any rate, he
said, the idea was so worthy of them that
he felt " piously inclined" to allow them all
the credit of it.
Longfellow I knew well and entertained
at my home. He was a quiet, gentle, ad
mirable man ; a poet in all his moods. We
often corresponded, and I remember how
glad he was when he heard that I had bought
an estate near the historic church of St.
David's, Radnor, the resting-place of General
Anthony Wayne, celebrated by Longfellow
in exquisite verse. " The Radnor Church
poem," he wrote me from Nahant in 1880,
" shall be copied for you when I return home
in August or September. Here by the sea
side I have no paper fit for the purpose.
You shall have it all in due time for the
honor to be conferred on it. I congratulate
you on having a country-place in the beau
tiful region round Radnor. I am sure you
will all enjoy it extremely."
I prize very much the tender note he sent
me, March 13, 1877, apropos of his seventieth
birthday. " You do not know yet," it reads,
" what it is to be seventy years old. I will
tell you, so that you may not be taken by
surprise when your turn comes. It is like

A Host of Memories. 25
climbing the Alps. You reach a snow-
crowned summit, and see behind you the
deep valley stretching miles and miles away,
and before you other summits higher and
whiter, which you may have strength to
climb, or may not. Then you sit down and
meditate, and wonder which it will be. That
is the whole story, amplify it as you may.
All that one can say is, that life is oppor
tunity." How very true this is I know full
well. My experience enables me to perceive
the wisdom of the poet's words.
There is a curious incident in my ac
quaintance with James Russell Lowell. It
happened lately that he was in Philadel
phia while I was confined to the house with
a slight attack of sickness, and he came
promptly and kindly to call upon me and
pass the afternoon. One of the treasures
of my library is the manuscript of Lowell's
poem " Under the Willows," which, accord
ing to a marginal note, was begun in 1850
and finished in 1868. We spent a quiet,
pleasant afternoon together, and he seemed
to be much interested in my collection of
original manuscripts, which includes " Our
Mutual Friend," by Dickens, Poe's " Mur
ders in the Rue Morgue," and many other
precious writings. Finally I surprised him

26 Recollections.
with a glimpse of his own poem. He had
half forgotten it, and at my request took the
volume away with him, returning it in a few
days with the following explanatory note :
"A part of this poem (as the note on the
margin opposite says) was written in 1850 as
an introduction to the ' Nooning,' a projected
volume of tales in verse. By changes and
additions I tried to make a self-subsident
poem out of material already prepared for
another purpose. Old and new are so inter
woven that I cannot now, after an interval
of twenty years, distinguish between them."
About twenty-five years ago, on a wretched,
rainy, sloppy, and muddy day, I was in a
book-store in Boston, when I saw the striking
figure of a little man, wearing a slouched
hat, his pantaloons rolled up, dashing along
the street. He looked as little like a poet
as a man could. I turned to the bookseller
and asked him who that was. " That is
Oliver Wendell Holmes," he said. " Well,
I want to know that man;" and I got to
know him, and we have been the best of
friends ever since. A more genial, genuine,
delightful man, and a finer conversationalist,
I never knew. A copy of " The Autocrat
of the Breakfast-Table," which he sent me,
contains an interesting letter giving me his

A Host of Memories. 27
reasons for beginning the papers in the At
lantic Monthly, a name which he says he gave
to the magazine.
As I speak, a thousand faces pass before
me. None more gentle and kind than that
of Emerson. He visited me with his daugh
ter; a tranquil, lovable man; and he wrote
me letters. It is a pity, by the way, that I
failed to preserve my correspondence; much
of it, doubtless, would be now of consider
able interest.
John Lothrop Motley, W. H. Prescott,
and George Bancroft were valued friends.
I remember Motley writing me that he
thought no history of our great civil war
should be written within fifty years of its
close. Prescott had the last photograph of
himself taken for me. He wrote to tell me
so, and said, " I shall never sit again for
another picture, unless it is taken from the
back of my head." Bancroft I am still
enabled to honor as one of my oldest and
most precious friends.
With the novelist G. P. R. James I was
quite intimate. While he held the post of
British Consul at Richmond, Virginia, he
would often come up to Philadelphia to see
me ; and he told me once that he dictated all
his books. Then there were T. Buchanan

28 Recollections.
Read, who painted Longfellow's portrait for
me, and who was present at the dinner I
gave Longfellow in Rome, W. W. Story,
Fitz-Greene Halleck, Jared Sparks, William
Gilmore Simms, William Cullen Bryant,
Professors E. A. Freeman and Bryce, of
Oxford, Henry C. Carey, Paul B. Du Chaillu
(he brought me from Africa the wood for
the ebony table now in my library), Thomas
Hughes, Joaquin Miller, Wilkie Collins, —
a whole troop of them, my honored friends
and guests. Above all, I should not forget
to note one of my earliest and most intimate
friends, the elder James Gordon Bennett.
He was a quiet, unobtrusive, forcible man.
For years, he told me, he had his office a
few doors from the Brooks's, — Erastus and
James, of the Evening Express, — and yet had
never met them. We often talked together
in reflective moods. He was eminently
practical. " Childs," he once said, " how un
fortunate it is for a boy to have rich parents !
If you and I had been born that way, per
haps we wouldn't have amounted to much."
I might, indeed, go on recalling names
until you wearied of hearing me. It has
been my good fortune to possess the friend
ship or acquaintance of a very large number
of the men and women who have distin-

A Host of Memories. 29
guished themselves in the politics, science,
arts, literature, and commerce of this coun
try and Europe during the last thirty years.
There was Edward Everett, for instance,
who used to spend much of his time in
this city, the guest of his friend Charles
Macalester. I have a notable letter from
him, written under date of Boston, July 9,
1862, in which he remarks, " I ought to say
that, though I think the arrest of Mason
and Slidell was authorized by the Law of
Nations, I think it was expedient to give
them up. I therefore approved of their sur
render by Mr. Seward, and rejoiced that, he
was able to find grounds for it, though not
concurring with him in all his views."
I have been on friendly terms with men
of all parties and creeds. I accompanied
Thomas H. Benton to Boston when he
delivered his great oration there. Setting
aside General Winfield Scott (who sent me
an early copy of his book, of which he had
estimated the hundreds of thousands of
people in the United States who would pur
chase copies), Benton was beyond comparison
the most kindly and agreeably egotistical
man I ever met.
Thurlow Weed, an extraordinary man in
many ways, I knew very well. He once
3*

30 Recollections.
gave me an illustration of the great variety
and curious character of his wonderful stock
of information. He told me that there was
an old Roman well on such and such a spot
on the Strand in London. I went to John
Murray while in London and asked him
about it, as Murray's guide-book made, no
mention of the fact. Murray was in utter
ignorance of the well, but it was really where
Thurlow Weed had said it was.
It is a pleasure for me to recall the myriad
faces of my guests during many years, here
in Philadelphia, at Wootton, and at Long
Branch. Besides those I have mentioned,
there was the great and good George Pea-
body. We were very close to each other.
He had his portrait painted for me by the
Queen's artist, and there it hangs on the
wall, one of the most valued of my pos
sessions. His name recalls that of Peter
Cooper. These two were considerate and
broad-minded philanthropists. I went with
Mr. Cooper on his ninetieth birthday to Bal
timore during the sesqui-centennial celebra
tion. He there told me an interesting story
of his early life in that city when he had be
come manager of the iron-works at Canton.
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company
had built their road beyond Point of Rocks,

A Host of Memories. . 31
but no engine could get round the curve.
Cooper then, with fifty gentlemen, em
bracing the directors and others interested
in the road, improvised an engine built of
gun-barrels, and successfully rounded the
curve. When we were in Baltimore to
gether, only one man, J. H. B. Latrobe, be
sides himself, was left of the original fifty.
[It is a brave array of names, the guests of Mr.
Childs, — Generals Grant, Sherman, Meade, Sheridan,
Hancock, McDowell, and Patterson, Edmund Quincy,
Chief Justice Waite, A. J. Drexel, Asa Packer, the
Astors, Cadwaladers, Prof. Joseph Henry, Hamilton
Fish, Kobert C. Winthrop, Charles Francis Adams,
Presidents Hayes, Arthur, and Cleveland, Chauncey
M. Depew, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Thomas A. Edison,
Simon Cameron, Henry Wilson, William M. Evarts,
James G. Blaine, John Welsh, J. B. Lippincott, Morton
McMichael, August Belmont, Alex. H. Stephens, Sam
uel J. Tilden (one of his last requests was to have Mr.
Childs visit him at Greystone), Cyrus W. Field, B. J.
Lossing, Mrs. Grover Cleveland, Charlotte Cushman,
Christine Nilsson, Harriet Hosmer, John Bigelow,
Thomas A. Buyard, Parko Godwin, Andrew Carne
gie, and many others. Mr. Childs does not hesitate
to say that one of the chief pleasures of his life has
been the keeping of an open house to worthy and
distinguished people. The reception he gave to the
Emperor and Empress of Brazil was perhaps the most
notable gathering of people ever assembled in any
private house in America. There were over six hun
dred guests; and Mr. Childs's was the first private
house at which the Emperor and Empress had ever

32 Recollections,
been entertained. But one must not overlook in this
incomplete list of visitors the names of the Duke and
Duchess of Buckingham, the Duke of Sutherland, the
Duke of Newcastle, Lords Dufferin, Rosebery, Hough
ton, Ilchester, Ross, Iddesleigh, Rayleigh, Herschell,
Caithness, and Dunraven, Sir Stafford Northcote,
Lady Franklin, Dean Stanley, Canon. Kingsley,
Charles Dickens, George Augustus Sala, Joseph
Chamberlain, M.P., J. Anthony Froude, Prof. Tyn-
dall, Prof. Bonamy Price, Admiral Lord Clarence
Paget, Sir Philip Cunliffe Owen, Colonel Sir Herbert
Sandford, Charles Kean, Marquis de Rochambeau, John
Walter, M.P., Sir Richard Temple, Herbert Spencer
(who was sadly afflicted with insomnia while visiting
Mr. Childs), Thomas Hughes, M.P., Sir John Rose,
Sir Edward Thornton, and Robert Chambers, D.C.L.
There are countless souvenirs of these and other
guests in Mr. Childs's home, — a photograph of the
Emperor of Brazil, with his autograph, painted por
traits, a chair embroidered by the Duchess of Buck
ingham for Mrs. Childs. The library is full of pre
sentation copies of books from many authors ; some of
them have dedicated volumes to him. But no doubt
the most interesting souvenir is Mrs. Childs's album ;
it contains the signatures and sentiments of a host of
distinguished men and women in all professions who
have been her guests. Thomas Nast, for example,
sketches himself in it ; Oscar Wilde, Bishop Doane,
George Bancroft, Goldwin Smith, Walt Whitman,
Lord Houghton, and Lord Dufferin contribute poems ;
and Charlotte Cushman, Modjeska, and Henry Irving
each an appropriate Shakspearian sentiment. Dean
Stanley, Matthew Arnold, Sir Edwin Arnold, Bishop
Potter, and Archdeacon Farrar write sentiments
appreciative of their hospitable entertainment.]

CHAPTER II.
A TRIP ABROAD.
Dickens — The Duke of Buckingham — Lady Franklin-
Longfellow — Dom Pedro.
Late in the autumn of 1868 I went
abroad, and one of the first letters that
reached me at the Langham Hotel in
Regent Street, London, bore, under date
of November 4, a genial greeting from
Charles Dickens. " Welcome to England !"
it said. " Dolby will have told you that I
am reading again, — on a very fatiguing
scale, — but that after the end of next week
I shall be free for a fortnight as to country
readings. On Monday next I shall be in
town, and shall come straight to pay my
respects to Mrs. Childs and you. In the
mean time, will you, if you can, so arrange
your engagements as to give me a day or
two here in the latter half of this month ?
My housekeeper-daughter is away hunting
in Hampshire, but my sister-in-law is al-
e 33

34 Recollections.
ways in charge, and my married daughter
would be charmed to come from London to
receive Mrs. Childs. You cannot be quieter
anywhere than here, and you certainly can
not have from any one a heartier welcome
than from me." We certainly could not :
to Gad's Hill Place we went, and passed a
quiet, delightful time. I had corresponded
with Dickens for a number of years : in my
library there is a set of the Osgood edition
of his works in fifty-six volumes, in each of
which is inserted an autograph letter of the
author to me, the first being dated 1855.
During this visit we were much together:
he accompanied us to London, and when we
parted he clasped my hands and said,
"Good-by; God bless you!" and the tears
were in his eyes.
He told me that before beginning anyone
of his works he thought out the plot fully, and
then made a skeleton from which he elab
orated it. The most interesting and valu
able memento I have of him is the original
manuscript of " Our Mutual Friend." It is
the only complete manuscript of any of
Dickens's novels outside of the South Ken
sington Museum ; though one or two of his
short Christmas stories, I believe, are to be
found in this country and in England. A

A Trip Abroad. 35
skeleton of the story is prefixed to each
volume, the -first covering sixteen, the sec
ond eighteen pages of quarto paper. These
skeletons show how Dickens constructed his
stories. They are very curious. Here is a
sample page :
OUR MUTUAL FRIEND, NO. 1.
CHAPTER I.
ON THE LOOKOUT.
The Man, in his boat, watching the tides.
The Gaffer, — Gaffer — Gaffer Hexam —
Hexam.
His daughter rowing. Jen, or Lizzie.
Taking the body in tow.
His dissipated partner, who
has " Robbed a live man !"
Riderhood — this fellow's name.
CHAPTER II.
THE MAN FROM SOMEWHERE.
The entirely new people.
Everything new — Grandfather new — if they
had one.
Dinner Party — Twemlow, Podsnap, Lady Tip-
pins, Alfred Lighthouse, also Eugene — Mor
timer, languid and tells of Harmon the Dust
Contractor.

36 Recollections.
Then follow sentences, written everywhere
on the page, like this : " Work in the girl
who was to have been married and made
rich," etc. There is also this outline head
ing: FOUR BOOKS.
I. The Cup and the Lip.
II. Birds of a Feather.
III. A Long Lane.
IV. A Turning.
The story is written in small, oddly-
formed letters, with frequent erasures, on
heavy, light-blue paper in dark-blue ink.
It is marked as completed September 2,
1865, and has a postscript in lieu of a pref
ace, under which is given this date. The
manuscript is just as it came finally from
Dickens's hands, even the names of the
compositors in the printing-office remaining
at the head of each " take."
It was through Dickens that I became
acquainted with Wilkie Collins, one of the
most agreeable men I ever met, and whom
I have since entertained in this country.
The two families were very intimate, as Mr.
Collins's brother had married Mr. Dickens's
daughter. From Gad's Hill Place we went to Stowe,

A Trip Abroad. 37
one of the estates of the late Duke of Buck
ingham, the last of the Plantagenets. I had
first met the Duke a few years before, when,
as Marquis of Chandos, he came to this
country in the suite of the Prince of Wales
and was entertained by me while in Phila
delphia. I found him always an unaffected,
able, and agreeable man. It may be said of
him that he was the first English nobleman
who broke an entail to pay his father's debts.
He was one of the most hospitable of men.
I gave many Americans letters of introduc
tion to him, and he entertained them royally.
He was a man of much ability, — an astute
politician and a successful railroad manager.
He knew the name and the place of every bolt
in an engine ; and it was he who invented the
ingenious trough arrangement by means of
which engines in motion can replenish their
tanks with water. Stowe is a vast building,
some twelve hundred feet in length. One
of its attractions was a unique chapel, built
of cedar and gold, brought by the Duke's
ancestors from Spain. He told me that one
day in Spain he was talking with a priest
who described a beautiful little church that
had once stood on the spot where they were
conversing. The priest mourned its loss,
saying that it had been actually plucked

38 Recollections.
from the soil and transported to England.
He never suspected that the Duke owned it.
Stowe was connected by the Duke with
his other residence of Wootton by means of
a railroad. At this latter place, which had
been in his family over seven hundred years,
and after which I named my own country-
seat near Bryn Mawr, we also passed some
pleasant days. There was a notable oak-tree
there that had been planted by Queen Eliza
beth. While at Stowe we slept in the same
rooms that had been occupied by Queen
Victoria when the Duke of Buckingham's
father entertained her majesty one week at- a
cost of seventy-five thousand dollars. Later
on, when we were stopping at the Langham
Hotel, near the Duke's residence on Chandos
Street, I had an amusing adventure. The
Duke had asked me to visit his church, sit
uated in that street, and one morning I
strolled there, and, entering, requested the
pew-opener to show me to the ducal pew.
" The servants' pew ?" he asked. When I
related this experience to the Duke he
laughed, and said it was not so amusing
as one of his own. He had gone one day,
he said, while chairman of the London and
Northwestern Railway, to the office of the
company and requested one of the attend-

A Trip Abroad. 39
ants to show him to the room of a certain
official, the . head of a department. The
man eyed the Duke critically, and observed,
"You won't do: you're too lightweight."
It then transpired that the official had ad
vertised for a porter, and the attendant
mistook the Duke for an applicant for the
situation. The first wife of the Duke of Buckingham
was a lovely woman, a Miss Harvey, and
their marriage had been one of love. Mrs.
Childs has still an embroidered chair pre
sented to her by the Duchess, who had
worked it for her. One of the most inter
esting mementos I have of the Duke is a set
of photographs of his governmental col
leagues. They were hospitality itself to us.
One day we were asked whether we cared
to visit Fountain Abbey, the picturesque
property of Lord Ripon (Earl de Grey),
whom I knew when he was in this country
as one of the High Joint Commission, and,
availing ourselves of the invitation, special
permission was accorded our party to drive
in the grounds and view the private build
ings. We drove over from Harrogate in
carriages, and enjoyed the jaunt immensely.
The duchess lingered outside the abbey for
a time, sketching, and when we rejoined

40 Recollections.
her she told us that she had overheard a
party of visitors discussing our entrance into
the private precinct, and one of them, glan
cing at the carriages, had said, " Well, I'll
wager they're Americans : those people are
admitted everywhere."
Altogether, our stay in England was very
delightful, made largely so by the number
of interesting and agreeable people with
whom we came in contact, as at "Bear
wood," the splendid home of Mr. Walter,
of the London Times, where we met Charles
Kingsley, Archdeacon Benson, now Arch
bishop of Canterbury, Lord Houghton, and
many other distinguished personages. As
might be imagined from the circumstance
of my publication of Dr. Kane's book, I had
a peculiar pleasure in making the acquaint
ance of Lady Franklin. She was afterwards
my guest for a week at Long Branch. She
was on a journey round the world, and she
came with her niece, a man- and a maid
servant, her cooking-utensils, and a Whole
baggage- wagon -full of traps. I can dis
tinctly recall her standing upon the lawn
and looking out over the sea. " What is it
across there ?" she asked, pointing straight
ahead. " Portugal," I told her. " I've just
come from there," she said.

A Trip Abroad. 41
Not only in England but on the Conti
nent our trip abroad was made very pleasant
by the acquaintanceship and hospitality of
many agreeable people. Here and there we
met old friends and fellow-countrymen. In
Rome, for instance, we passed some delight
ful weeks with Longfellow, who had resided
there for a lengthy period in earlier years,
and by living in Italian families had be
come very well known and very popular.
He was much feted. I gave him a dinner
at which some of the Roman dignitaries,
artists, and writers were present. T. Bu
chanan Read, the artist-poet, was at that
time in the Eternal City, and one of my
guests. At dinner, Read's famous paint
ing of Longfellow's three daughters was dis
cussed, and Longfellow observed that the
picture was a good one save in one particu
lar ; Read, he said, had painted one of his
children to look as if she had no arms. Ho
illustrated his criticism with a story, saying
that the daughter in question and himself
had heard a boy at a watering-place cry
ing photographs for sale of "Longfellow's
daughters, — one without arms !"
As I make no other pretension in these
chats than idly to recall some salient or
diverting incidents in my career or acquaint-
4*

42 Recollections.
ance with notable men, I may take advan
tage of this second allusion to Longfellow
to say a word or two about a man of exalted
station and intellect, — that modest ex-mon
arch, Dom Pedro, late Emperor of Brazil.
Speaking of Longfellow reminded me of
the time when Dom Pedro, gazing at the
portrait of Longfellow which hangs in my
library, exclaimed, " That is your great
American poet. I have translated his works
into Portuguese, and made known the
beauty of his verse to all Brazil."
This was in 1876, when, during the Cen
tennial Exhibition, the Emperor was my
guest and I naturally arranged for him to
visit the various places of interest in Phila
delphia. At my house I presented to him
the late James L. Claghorn, President of
the Academy of Fine Arts, who invited him
to visit the Academy, and on his expressing
a desire to go, inquired what hour would
be most agreeable to his majesty. "Six
o'clock," he said. It was a favorite hour
with him ; but Mr. Claghorn, not knowing
this, was aghast. However, promptly at the
appointed time he had the directors of the
Academy on hand to greet the Emperor,
who exhibited an unfeigned and very intel
ligent interest in the art treasures of the

A Trip Abroad. 43
building. When introduced to Dr. Rusch-
enberger, President of the Academy of
Natural Sciences, he surprised the doctor
and those about him by saying, " I know
£ou as an author;" and he proceeded to
name the books the doctor had written, some
of them being out of print.
He accepted an invitation for the next day
to visit the coal-regions, and set again his
favorite hour of six o'clock as the time to
start. We went in Judge Packer's private
car, and visited various coal-mines and iron
works, the Emperor's interest never flag
ging. He seemed to understand all the
details of manufacture, and paid particu
lar attention to the Bessemer and Siemens
processes of steel-making. A curious inci
dent happened while we were at the Thomas
Iron-Works. Mr. Thomas (who introduced
the process of making iron with anthracite
coal) came to me and said that his grand
daughter would like to be presented to the
Emperor, as she had previously met him in
Egypt. So we turned to his majesty, and I
had hardly named the young lady, when he
exclaimed, " Oh, I met you at the Pyramids,
and gave you my photograph, did I not?"
We were fourteen hours on that jour
ney, returning to Philadelphia at eight p.m.

44 Recollections.
I was quite worn out, and went to bed.
Rising early, I picked up the Ledger, and
about the first thing that caught my eye
was an account of the Emperor's attend
ance the night before at a meeting of the
Academy of Natural Sciences, where, it ap
peared, he had taken part in the discussions
of the evening. I mention all this to show
that one monarch in the world, at least, is
a man of energy and broadest intelligence
and kindest sympathy. He seemed to
know all about Professor Henry of the
Smithsonian Institution when I made the
two acquainted, and spoke of his original
and practical application of the telegraph.
By invitation of the professor he visited
Washington and the Smithsonian Institution.
Again, when I introduced him to Joaquin
Miller, he instantly spoke in praise of the
Sierra Nevada . poems. Indeed, there was
apparently nothing notable in literature, art,
or science that had not engaged his atten
tion. In women's medical colleges he was
much interested. I broached the subject
during our trip to the coal-regions, and he
amazed me with the breadth of his informa
tion, dwelling, as he did, upon the labors of
those women who were sent out as mission
aries.

A Trip Abroad. 45
I cannot help holding the unfortunate
Dom Pedro in the kindest remembrance;
and it is gratifying to kuow that I have him
as a loyal friend. He presented me with a
large photograph likeness bearing an auto
graph inscription, and with a copy of his
book of travels in which he wrote some
kindly words. It was one of the pleasing
methods he employed to show me I was not
forgotten, that I have been honored with
an early and welcome visit from each new
Brazilian minister to the United States.
And perhaps I may be pardoned for quoting
at this appropriate place the following ex
tract from a letter which the Hon. Thomas
A. Osborn, late American Minister to Bra
zil, recently wrote to a friend, describing
his presentation to the Emperor : " I have
thought," he says, " that you might not be
uninterested in learning that the Emperor,
in an informal conversation which followed
the presentation of my letter of credence,
inquired quite feelingly after Mr. George
W. Childs, and manifested a deep concern in
his welfare. The Emperor spoke of the hos
pitalities extended to him in Philadelphia,
and was especially warm in his expressions
touching Mr. Childs."
Senhor J. G. do Amaral Valente, Brazilian

46 Recollections,
Minister to the United States, had delivered
to me in October, 1889, a cup and saucer
of beautiful design and exquisite finish, a
present from the Emperor. The following
letter gives an account of the presentation.
"Brazilian Legation-,
» Washington, October 15, 1889.
" Mr. George W. Childs :
" My dear Sir, — I take pleasure in for
warding by express to your address a small
box containing a cup and saucer which the
Emperor has been pleased to send you as a
souvenir. "Perhaps you would be interested in
learning the circumstances that originated
His Majesty's special mark of kindness to
you, and therefore I think myself justified
in saying a few words in this connection.
"As you well know, the Emperor has
always kept the most pleasant recollections
of his visit to this country, as well as a
grateful and cordial remembrance of you,
after whom he never fails to inquire when
ever an opportunity presents itself. Lately,
before my departure from Rio de Janeiro to
the States, I had the honor to call to receive
His Majesty's orders. At the close of the
interview I was instructed to give his affec-

A Trip Abroad. 47
tionate regards to some of his friends, your
name being mentioned in the first place. I
then took the liberty of suggesting that you
had a very curious collection of china, and
that I believed a cup and saucer coming from
His Majesty would be very much appreciated
by you and considered a great addition to
the same collection. The Emperor said that
if that was the case he would be very much
pleased to send you one, and added, ' Well,
I shall send Mr. Childs the same cup and
saucer I use to-morrow at my breakfast,'
and immediately gave his chamberlain the
instructions to that effect.
"I need not say how glad I feel at the
acquisition you are going to make. I trust
that you will receive the said souvenir in
perfect order.
"Believe me, " Yours very truly,
" J. G. do Amaral Valente."

The following self-explanatory letter from
Captain Luiz Philippe de Saldanha da Gama,
of the Brazilian navy, a very close friend
of the Emperor, will doubtless prove inter
esting in view of the recent revolution in
Brazil :

48 Recollections.
"Washington, November 22, 1889.
"Dear Sir, — When I came from Brazil
about a month ago to join the Maritime
International Conference as a delegate, I had
the honor to be the bearer of an autograph
letter of His Majesty Dom Pedro H., ad
dressed to you. Unable, however, to move
away from this city on the days following
my arrival, and at the same time unwilling
to forward such a letter to you by mail, I
was still awaiting the leisure that should
permit me to go to Philadelphia, and deliver
myself, into your own hands, so expressive a
mark of His Majesty's kind recollection and
cordial feelings towards you. But now, in
the face of the grave events which have just
occurred in Brazil, I consider it my duty to
delay no longer the fulfilment of the charge
His Majesty imposed upon me, and, there
fore, I take the liberty to send you his letter,
herewith enclosed.
"Allow me to thank you for your edi
torial of the 20th instant in reference to
the Emperor's personality and to the revo
lution which has just dethroned him. As
a patriotic Brazilian, as well as a most de
voted and faithful personal friend to His
Majesty, I must say I felt extremely gratified
in reading the enlightened views expressed

A Trip Abroad. 49
by a republican journal like the Public Ledger
on the Emperor's character, his learning, his
correct behavior, his unselfishness, his good
intentions, and his patriotic feelings.
" However, the revolution in Brazil seems
to be at present an accomplished fact; "and
he, who never condemned any of his fellow-
countrymen to expatriation, is now on his
way to a strange shore, — he, who really was,
during fifty years of reign, the firm guar
antee of the rights and prerogatives of all
Brazilians, has been compelled to leave his
country in an hour's time, and by night, like
a wretched criminal. I dare hope he will
reach in safety the land of exile, and meet
yet with marks of love and affection from
those who knew him well and from those
who are indebted to him for many favors.
"Pray, therefore, accept once more my
most grateful thanks for what you have
written of Dom Pedro de Alcantara, both
as a man and as Emperor of Brazil,
" And believe me, etc.,
" L. P. de Saldanha da Gama,
" Captain.
" To Mr. George W. Childs."
The following is a translation of the letter
sent by Dom Pedro :
o d 5

50 Recollections.
"Mr. G. W. Childs, — In recalling your
kindness and the splendid evening that you
gave me in Philadelphia, I recommend to
you the captain of the Brazilian navy, Mr.
Luiz Philippe de Saldanha da Gama, and I
am sure that you will make his second visit
to you in Philadelphia as agreeable as the
first, and that he will give me news of your
beautiful collections. "Affectionately yours,
" D. Pedro d' Alcantara."
"Riode Janeibo, October 4, 1889."

CHAPTER III.
library treasures.
Precious Manuscripts — Poe's Murders in the Rue Morgue
— A Collection of Valuable Autographs — Andrew
Johnson's Letters.
You would like to see " the treasures" of
my library ? There they are, — several thou
sand of them ; many of them notable books
indeed. The presentation copies alone, I
suppose, contain enough interesting auto
graph inscriptions of their authors to amuse
you. There are many curios in the collec
tion, — many valuable manuscripts. Here,
bearing the date of May 17, 1703, written
in a small, compact, but legible hand, is the
original of a sermon by Cotton Mather. To
set it oft", here are two volumes that were
once in the library of Charles Dickens, — one
the Poetical Works of Leigh Hunt, with an
autograph inscription to " Charles Dickens,
from his constant admirer and obliged friend,
Leigh Hunt," the other a copy of Hood's 61

52 Recollections.
"Comic Annual" for 1842. It contains
these characteristic lines in Hood's hand
writing: Pshaw ! away with leaf and berry
And the sober-sided cup 1
Bring a goblet, and bright sherry 1
And a bumper fill me up.
Tho' I had a pledge to shiver,
And the longest ever was,
Ere his vessel leaves our river,
I will drink a health to Boz I
Here's success to all his antics,
Since it pleases him to roam,
And to paddle o'er Atlantics,
After such a sale at homo I—
May he shun all rocks whatever,
And the shallow sand that lurks,
And his passage be as clever
As the best among his works I
. A manuscript I prize is the translation
of the first book of the Iliad by my friend
William Cullen Bryant. Not less interest
ing is the manuscript of Edgar A. Poe's
remarkable story of " The Murders in the
Rue Morgue." It is written in a fine close
hand on seventeen pages of large legal-cap
paper, and has quito a history. Tho lato Mr.
J. W. Johnston, from whom I secured it,
wrote me that it was in the spring of 1841,

Library Treasures. 53
at the time he was an apprentice in the office
of Barrett & Thrasher, printers, in Phila
delphia, that the manuscript came into his
possession. It was at this office that Gra
ham's Magazine, in which the story first ap
peared, was printed. After the tale had
been put in type and the proof read, the
manuscript found its way into the waste-
basket; but Mr. Johnston picked it up,
and, obtaining permission to keep it, took
it home to the residence of his father. He
then, it seems, lost sight of the manuscript
for years. His father removed from Phil
adelphia to York County, Pennsylvania,
thence to Maryland, and thence to Virginia,
and in these several pilgrimages, unknown
to himself, carried the Poe manuscript along
with him, folded up in one of the books of
his library. Determining to return to Penn
sylvania, he made sale of his personal effects,
and among a lot of old books offered was
found the Poe manuscript. It was at once
recognized, rescued from the rubbish among
which it had so nearly been lost, and for
warded to Mr. Johnston the son, who in the
mean time (1847) had removed to Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, and begun business as a da-
guerrotypist. Twice his daguerrean rooms
took fire, and once (March 8, 1850) almost
5*

54 Recollections.
all his books, papers, pictures, and apparatus
were consumed; but the Poo manuscript,
folded within the leaves of an old music-
book, escaped the wreck.
"About the year 1857," he goes on to
say, in his letter to me, "a grocery-store,
occupying the first floor of the building in
which were my rooms, took fire and burned
furiously. The flames did not reach my
rooms, but the smoke did, and the firemen
drenched them with water, destroying books,
papers, and other property ; but, by rare good
fortune, the Poe manuscript again escaped all
injury, except a slight discoloration. From
1861 to 1864 I was in the army, but on my
return therefrom I found the Poe manuscript
in the old music-book where I had left it on
leaving home. In the spring of 1865 I took
charge of the Swan Hotel, Lancaster. Re
moving therefrom in 1869, a great deal of
rubbish was consigned to the ash-pile, the
old music-book sharing the fate of many
worthless articles. The next-door neighbor,
thinking it had been inadvertently thrown
away, picked it from the ash- pile and handed
it to me. On opening the book, I again be
held the much-neglected manuscript. Re
solved that it should not again be subjected-:
to so many risks, I at once had it bound."

Library Treasures. 55
I have a very interesting letter written
under date of August 13, 1841, by Poe to
the Philadelphia publishers Lea & Blanchard.
" I wish," he says, " to publish a new collec
tion of my prose tales, with some such title
as this : ' The Prose Tales of Edgar A. Poe, in
cluding " The Murders in the Rue Morgue" the
" Descent into the Maelstrom," and all his later
pieces, with a second edition of the " Tales of the
Grotesque and Arabesque." '
" The later pieces will be eight in number,
making the entire collection thirty-three,
which would occupy two thick novel volumes.
" I am anxious that your firm should con
tinue to be my publishers, and, if you would
be willing to bring out the book, I should be
glad to accept the terms which you allowed
me before, — that is, you receive all profits,
and allow me twenty copies for distribution
to friends."
I possess an interesting relic of Lord By
ron, — his writing-desk, on which he wrote
" Don Juan" and other poems. It bears his
crest and monogram. Byron's works are
represented in my library by Murray's sump
tuous six-volume edition (1855), inscribed to
me " In testimony of kind remembrance,
from John Murray." The first volume con
tains portions of tho manuscript of " The

56 Recollections.
Bride of Abydos." It also gives a curious
illustration of Byron's dislike of Words
worth. When " Peter Bell" appeared, By
ron cut it out, placed it in the beginning of
a copy of his own works, and on the margin
of the page wrote a parody of the poem.
It will be remembered that "Peter Bell"
ran in this way : prologue.
There's something in a flying horse,
And something in a huge balloon ;
But through the clouds I'll never float
Until I get a little Boat
Whose shape is like the crescent moon.
And now I have a little Boat,
In shape a very crescent moon : — etc.
Byron's parody is as follows :
epilogue.
There's something in a stupid ass,
And something in a heavy dunce ;
But never since I went to school
I heard or saw so damned a fool
As William Wordsworth is for once.
And now I've seen so great a fool
As William Wordsworth is for once,
I really wish that Peter Bell
And he who wrote it were in hell,
For writing nonsense for the nonce.

Library Treasures. 57
"I saw the light in ninety-eight,"
Sweet Babe of one-and-twenty years I
And then he gives it to the nation,
And deems himself of Shakespeare's peers.
He gives the perfect work to light!
Will Wordsworth, if I might advise,
Content you with the praise you get
From Sir George Beaumont, Baronet,
And with your place in the Excise.
Ravenna, March 22, 1820.
Here is the original manuscript of Wil
liam Godwin's " Cloudesley : a Novel." It
is written on both sides of the sheets of
old parchment paper, but in a strikingly
clear and smooth hand. Shakespearian
scholars, I suppose, would be particularly
interested in my copy of Mrs. Mary Cowdcn
Clarke's " Complete Concordance to Shake
speare." It contains a selection of fifty
closely-written pages of the original manu
script, together with a long and exceedingly
interesting autograph letter, which gives a
detailed account of the progress of the work
from its inception, through the twelve years
occupied in its compilation, and four more
of press-corrections, to its final publication;
also copies of a congratulatory letter from
Douglas Jerrold, the author's application for
tho privilege of dedicating the work to the

58 Recollections.
Queen, and the Queen's reply, besides sev
eral portraits, a large number of newspaper
cuttings, etc. In a letter to me, written from
Villa Novello, Genoa, February 8, 1879, Mrs.
Clarke says, " The notice in your paper was
read through tears of proud emotion at tho
way in which .your reviewer recognized the
admirable characters of my Parents : It was
enjoyed in concert by our family party, then
assembled around our breakfast-table here ;
which included my brother Alfred, my sister
Sabilla, and our two charming Italian nieces,
Portia and Valeria Gigliucci — to whom I
read aloud, as well as my streaming eyes
would allow me, this American warmth of
tribute to Vincent and Mary Novello's moral
and intellectual excellence."
From the late Anna Maria Hall and her
husband, S. C. Hall,* I procured a valu-
* I received, early in the year 1889, a long letter from
Mr. Hall.' It was written December 8, 1888, but delayed
many weeks in transmission by the correspondent with
whom it was designed to make me acquainted. This
was no doubt one of the last letters written by the
venerable author, and its concluding lines are full of
pathos. " My dear, much-honored, and greatly loved
friend," it reads. " This may be the last letter of con
sequence I shall write. It is high time I loft earth. I
think my work is very nearly done, — and I shall soon
meet my beloved at the Golden Gute. Wo shall meet

Library Treasures. 59
able collection of letters, manuscripts, and
sketches of many celebrated people of the
past fifty years. Mrs. Hall presented me
with the Bible of Tom Moore, in which
the poet entered the names and birth- and
death-dates of his children. I have also an
original score signed by Tom Moore, and
the poet's famous Irish harp.
I have perhaps the only complete manu
script of any of Thackeray's works in ex
istence. It is his "Lectures on the Four
Georges," and is entirely in his own hand
writing. The volume is illustrated by nu
merous original drawings by Thackeray,
some of which are colored by himself. I
have also the original manuscript of Walter
Scott's " Chronicles of the Canongate,"
which he presented from his Abbotsford
library to his publishers, with a kind and
appreciative note.
Among many other origiual manuscripts
in my possession are " The Need of Two
Loves," by N. P. Willis ; James Fenimore
there, I am very sure 1 Yet I am in fair health, my
friends do not neglect me, and I am well taken care of
by an excellent nurse-attendant."
A postscript reads : " I write this letter in the eighty-
ninth year of my age. And if I say farewell, you will
not be astounded."

60 Recollections.
Cooper's "Life of Captain Richard Som-
ers ;" Mary Howitt's translation of Frederika
Bremer's "Hertha;" Bulwer's "Pilgrims
of the Rhine" and " Godolphin ;" Gray's
" Habitations of our Kings ;" Harriet Mar-
tineau's " Retrospect of Western Travel ;"
the Dickens manuscripts to which I have
previously alluded ; and " The Italian Bride,"
an original tragedy by John Howard Payne,
author of "Home, Sweet Home." This
tragedy by Payne is in four acts, and
was Written for Charlotte Cushman ; but it
was never produced, and it has never been
printed. Payne left two manuscript copies
of his play. One was given to his friend
Mr. James Rees, a well-known literary
man of Philadelphia, from whom it passed
directly to me. It consists of ninety-six
pages entirely in the handwriting of Payne
himself, with only a few pencil-marks and
some stage-directions on the alternate blank
pages. The manuscript of " The Cow-Chase"
must not be overlooked. This satirical
poem, written by Major Andr6, was founded
upon an unsuccessful attempt of a party
under General Anthony Wayne to capture
a block-house upon the Hudson, a short
distance from New York City, on the 21st

Library Treasures. 61
of July, 1780. It is said to have been the
last literary effort of the ill-fated young
Englishman, and, singularly enough, the
last canto was published in New York, in
Rivington's Royal Gazette, on the same day
upon which he was arrested. The poem
was afterwards printed, with full notes, for
private circulation, and this with the original
manuscript was the property of the Rev.
Wm. B. Sprague, of Albany, New York,
an extensive collector of autographs, who
prized it as probably the most valuable
article in his collection. The manuscript
has been admirably illustrated by my friend
Air. Ferdinand J. Dreer, of Philadelphia,
with portraits of the generals of the Revo
lution, both Continental and English, well-
known and historical landscapes, charac
ters, and buildings. The closing stanza of
Andre's epic, which is complete in three
cantos, runs as follows :
And now I've closed my epic strain,
I tremble as I show it,
Lest this same warrior-drover Wayne
Should ever catch the poet.

Soon afterwards Andre was caught, and
some unkind hand thus continues the poem :
6

62 Recollections.
And when the epic strain was sung,
The poet by the neck was hung,
And to his cost he finds too late
The "dung-born tribe" decides his fate.
It would not be interesting merely to cat
alogue my collection, which includes poems,
letters, and manuscripts of Burns, Swift,
Longfellow, Bryant, Holmes, Tennyson,
Pepys, Pope, Thomson, Shelley, Keats,
William Penn, Voltaire, Goethe, Irving,
Lamb, Gibbon, Hume, Lord Clarendon, and
others. Coleridge is represented by a long
letter, in which he states that he would be
glad to go to London if he could be assured
of a guinea a week. Here is a noteworthy
manuscript of Schiller, — his dramatic poem
entitled " Demetrius." It occupies two folio
pages, and was secured for me through the
kindness of Longfellow. There is also the
original manuscript draught of Tennyson's
dedicatory poem to the Queen, which is
prefixed to the last collected edition of his
poems. I will do no more than enumerate a letter
of Lord Nelson, written four days before his
death; a number of presentation- volumes
from the brothers Chambers, Robert, Wil
liam, and David; many curiously illustrated,
inlaid, and arranged works, especially Tick-

Library Treasures. 63
nor's Life of Prescott, two volumes quarto,
with several hundred illustrations; Life of
Everett, quarto ; Rogers's Italy and Poems,
inlaid with three hundred engravings, all
first impressions ; a work on the empire of
Brazil, presented by Dom Pedro in 1876,
and containing his autograph; a copy of
Chambers's " English Literature," which has
autograph letters, about seven hundred extra
'plates, and numerous newspaper cuttings
and references, the work being extended to
eight volumes ; many books upon the North
American Indians ; quite a large collection
of Americana; Lamb's Works, with auto
graph letters of Lamb ; Talfourd's Life of
Lamb, with a manuscript poem by Talfourd,
and a letter written to myself; Shakespeare's
Works in many editions; a Collection of
the Illustrations of H. K. Browne, better
known as " Phiz," which contains all the
sketches, several hundred in number, that
can be obtained, and is enriched by memo
randa and notes in the artist's own hand;
and three large volumes of photographs,
many bearing also the autographs, of inter
esting and well-known people I have met at
home and abroad.
One of the most unique works in my
library is "A Collection of Autographs,

64 Recollections.
made by a Scrivener." Mr. W. G. Latham,
a lawyer of New Orleans, compiled the
book. As a notary public he had access to
many original documents, and he presently
began to make accurate copies of the notable
signatures which came under his notice. He
thus employed the leisure hours of twenty-
five years, and made at least one trip to
Europe to complete his remarkable collec
tion. If lost it could never be replaced.
There are about four thousand names in
the book, and they embrace distinguished
Americans of all professions from the be
ginning of our history ; British authors from
before Shakespeare until within a few years ;
men of renown in authorship, medicine,
theology, natural history, botany, music, the
drama, and the fine arts; a complete list of
the signers of the Declaration of Indepen
dence ; Washington and his generals ; Na
poleon and leading men of his time and
nation ; and the royalty, nobility, and mili
tary and naval celebrities of Europe for
the past three centuries. Appended to al
most every signature is a brief biographical
sketch. I have reserved for final mention a vol
ume in my library that no doubt exceeds all
others in historical interest. It is & large

Library Treasures. 65
folio containing portraits and autograph let
ters of every President of the United States
from Washington to Harrison. Eight of the
letters are personal ones from the various
Presidents to myself.
The first letter is one of the most inter
esting. It was written by Washington to
Colonel Clement Biddle, of Philadelphia,
under date of Mount Vernon, December 8,
1799, — that is to say, only six days before
Washington's death. It was the last letter
he wrote. There is not the slightest in
dication of approaching dissolution in the
firm handwriting; the letters are carefully
formed, the words carefully chosen; and,
though he spells cabin with two b's, his
shrewdness in business dealing is illustrated
in the stately announcement to Colonel Bid-
die that he has it in mind to send him " a
hundred or two barrels of flour to dispose
of for me in the Philadelphia market, as it
commands a better price there than in Alex
andria, and some barrels of fish also, — on
commission." He also instructs his corre
spondent about the purchase of various kinds
of seeds.
John Adams's letter is addressed to Com
modore Bainbridge; he declines an invita
tion to visit the latter, on the ground that " an
c 6*

66 Recollections.
octogenarian gentleman and a septuagena
rian lady (his wife) cannot be too cautious
of engaging in bold, daring, and hazardous
enterprises without an object of public good."
The letters are all of a private and entertain
ing character : Pierce's letter is the touching
one to James T. Fields to which I have
already referred in connection with the death
of Hawthorne; the Lincoln letter is the
famous one of April 9, 1862, containing in
structions to General McClellan and con
cluding with the underscored words, "But
you must act;" and General Grant is repre
sented by the noted letter he wrote me, June
6, 1877, from London. This is the letter,
fourteen pages in length, which I telegraphed
to the London Times.
Autograph letters of Andrew Johnson are
very hard to obtain, — harder than the letters
of any other President. Letters written by
his secretary and merely signed by himself
are common enough. I have been enabled,
however, to secure quite a store of Johnson's
original manuscripts, including the account-
books he kept while a tailor. They are full
of droll expressions. The letter I have
selected to represent him in the volume of
the Presidents is an interesting communica
tion to his friend Major (afterwards General)

Library Treasures. 67
Sam Milligan. It is ill written, and notable
for its odd misspelling and its frank political
gossip. It breathes a feverish anxiety for
the action of the Southern leaders, and hopes
"there is still intelligence enough and virtue
in the country sufficient to save it." " As
you say," he writes, " they" (meaning the
" treasonable men") " have given me ' thun
der' in some places."
Perhaps his nearest friend was the Hon.
Samuel J. Randall, who fairly lived at the
White House during Johnson's stormy
administration. Yet, as illustrating the
scarcity of Johnson's autograph letters,
even Mr. Randall has none in his possession.
I have three addressed to Major Milligan
which are full of entertaining chat about
politics. But haven't I talked enough about my
friends ? For these books and manuscripts
are as much my friends as human beings.
And I had almost forgotten the clocks. I
have a collection of nearly fifty in various
places, and it has been said that a whole
history of clock- and watchmaking might
be written from a study of them. The most
important clock in my possession is the one
constructed by David Rittenhouse, the great
astronomer, for a rich citizen of colonial

68 Recollections.
Philadelphia. It now stands in my office.
Barton, in his Life of Rittenhouse, gives its
interesting pedigree. There is attached to
it the mechanism of a musical clock, besides
an accurate little planetarium, placed on its
face above the dial-plate. It was made for
Mr. Joseph Potts, who paid six hundred and
forty dollars for it; in the spring of 1774 it
was purchased by Mr. Thomas Prior, who'
refused General Sir William Howe's offer
of one hundred and twenty guineas for it,
shortly before the evacuation of Philadelphia
in 1778, and another offer of the Spanish
Minister of eight hundred dollars, made with
a view of presenting it to his sovereign.
After Mr. Prior's death, in 1801, it became
the property of Professor Barton, the biog
rapher of Rittenhouse, and from him passed
into the possession of the late James Swain,
at the sale of whose effects I bought it in
October, 1879.
But the mention of that office of mine,
about which so much has been written, must
not tempt me into further talking. What
ever it may be to others, it is hallowed for
me by a thousand associations. Look any
way I will, a familiar face confronts me : on
this side Bishop Simpson, on that Dean
Stanley and Dickens; over there my old

Library Treasures. 69
friends Robert C. Winthrop and General
Grant; faces of men and women, — of Nils-
son and Modjeska; of Mine. Bernhardt, —
a portrait painted by herself.
This is a fitting place to stop. Just one
parting reflection. If asked what, as the
result of my experience, is the greatest
pleasure in life, I should say, doing good to
others. Not a strikingly original remark,
perhaps; but seemingly the most difficult
thing in the world is to be prosperous and
generous at the same time. During the war
I asked a very rich man to contribute some
money to a certain relief fund. He shook his
head. " Childs," he said, " I can't give you
anything. I have worked too hard for my
money." That is just it. Being generous
grows on one just as being mean does. The
disposition to give and to be kind to others
should be inculcated and fostered in children.
It seems to me that is the way to improve
the world and make happy the people who
are in it.

CHAPTER IV.
GENERAL GRANT.
Personal Characteristics — The Electoral Commission —
His Simplicity — Domestic Life.
General Grant was one of the truest and
most congenial friends I ever had. We first
met in 1863, after the victory of Vicksburg.
The general and Mrs. Grant had come to
Philadelphia to make arrangements to put
their children at school in Burlington, New
Jersey. From that time until his death our
intimacy grew. In his life three qualities
were conspicuously revealed, — justice, kind
ness, and' firmness.
Seeing General Grant frequently for more
than twenty years, I had abundant oppor
tunity to notice these qualities. We lived
at Long Branch on adjoining properties, on
the same land, without any division, and
I may say there never was a day when we
were together there on which either I was
not in his house or he in mine. He would
70

General Grant. 71
often come over and breakfast or dine with
me. I never saw him in the field, though I
corresponded with him during the war, and
whenever an opportunity presented itself he
would come to Philadelphia for the purpose
of seeing his family at Burlington, and would
often stay with me, and in that way he made
a great many friends. That was as early
as 1863. He always seemed to enjoy his
visits here, as they gave him rest during the
time he was in the army. These visits to
Philadelphia were continued after he became
President, and he always found recreation
and pleasure in them.
Much has been published about General
Grant, but there are many things I have not
seen stated, and one is that he had consid
erable artistic taste and talent. He painted
very well. One of his paintings, twelve by
eighteen inches, he gave to his friend the
late Hon. A. E. Borie, of Philadelphia, who
was the Secretary of the Navy in his first
Cabinet. That picture is, I believe, one of
the two that he is known to have painted.
On the death of Mr. Borie it was presented
by his family to Mrs. Grant, and the engrav
ing of it was made from the original sent
to me for the purpose by Colonel Fred. D.
Grant. Of the other painting there is no

72 Recollections.
trace. General Grant stood very high with
his professor of drawing at West Pointj and
if he had persevered in that line might, it
has always seemed to me, have made a good
artist. He was throughout his cadetship apt
in mathematics and drawing. The picture
alluded to is that of an Indian chief, at a
trading-post in the Northwest, exchanging
skins and furs with a group of traders and
trappers. The Indian stands in the foregound
and is the central object, — a noble figure,
well painted, and in full and characteristic
costume. I have often seen the painting,
which has been very much admired. The
general took a good deal of pride in it
himself. General Grant was not an ardent student.
Early in life he was somewhat of a novel-
reader, but latterly he read history, biog
raphy, and travels. He was a careful reader,
and remembered everything he read. He
was a great reader of newspapers. I recall
an incident which happened while we were
at Long Branch, just after General Sher
man's Memoirs had been published. Re
ferring to the work, I asked him if he had
read it. He said he had not had time to do
so. One of the persons present observed,
" Why, general, you won't find much in it

General Grant. 73
about yourself. Sherman doesn't seem to
think you were in the war." The general
said, " I don't know ; I have seen some ad
verse criticisms, but I am going to read it
and judge the book for myself."
After he had perused the work carefully
and attentively, I asked him what he thought
of it. "Well," he said, "it has done me
full justice. - It has given me more credit
than I deserve. • Any criticism I might make
would be that I think Shermau has not done
justice to Logan, Blair, and other volunteer
generals, whom he calls political generals.
These men did their duty faithfully, and
I never believe in imputing motives to
people." General Sherman had sent to me the
proof-sheets of that portion of the Memoirs
relating to General Grant before the book
was published, and asked if I had any sug
gestions to make, and if I thought he had
been just to the general. I informed Gen
eral Grant that I had read these proof-sheets,
and that I thought, as he did, that General
Sherman had done him full justice. General
Grant had the highest opinion of General
Sherman as a military man, and always en
tertained a great personal regard for him.
He was always magnanimous, particularly

74 Recollections.
to his army associates. He was a man who
rarely used the pronoun I in conversation
when speaking of his battles.
There is an amusing little incident I re
call, apropos of a large painting of General
Sherman on his " March to the Sea," which
hangs in the hall of my Long Branch house,
and which was painted by Kauffmann. Sher
man sits in front of the tent, in a white
shirt, without coat or vest. The picture
shows a camp-fire in front, and the moon
light in the rear of the tents. The criticism
of General Grant when he first saw it was,
" That is all very fine ; it looks like Sher
man ; but he never wore a boiled shirt there,
I am sure."
While living at Long Branch few Confed
erate officers who visited the place failed to
call upon General Grant. He was always
glad to see them, and he invariably talked
over with them the incidents and results of
the war. The general held in high estima
tion General Joseph E. Johnston, and always
spoke of him as one of the very best of the
Southern generals. At one of my dinners
I had the pleasure of getting Johnston,
Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan together.
With regard to election matters General
Grant was a close observer, and had a won-

General Grant. 75
derful judgment respecting results. One
particular case may be cited. During the
canvass of his second term (towards the
latter part of it) there began to be doubts
throughout the country of his election.
Senator Wilson, who was then running on
the ticket for Vice-President, and who was
a man of the people and had had a good
deal of experience in election matters for
forty years, made an extensive tour through
the country, and came to my house, just
afterwards, very despondent. He went over
the ground and said that the result was in
a great deal of doubt. I hastened to see
General Grant, and told him of this feeling,
particularly as it impressed Senator Wilson.
The general said nothing, but sent for a
map of the United States. He laid the map
on the table, went over it with a pencil, and
said, " We will carry this State, that State,
and that State," until he nearly covered the
whole United States. It occurred to me he
might as well put them all in, and I ventured
the remonstrance, " I think it would not be
policy to talk that way; the election now is
pretty near at hand." When the election
came, the result was that Grant carried every
State that he had said he would, — a predic
tion made in the face of the feeling through-

76 Recollections.
out the country that the Republican cause
was growing weaker, and in spite of the fact
that the candidate for Vice-President on the
ticket with Grant, who was deeply interested
in the election, had visited various parts of
the country, South and West, and had come
back apprehensive and dispirited.
This mention of Henry Wilson reminds
me that when Lord Houghton (Richard
Monckton Milnes) was my guest in Philadel
phia, he asked me to show him a "typical
American." I told him that Vice-President
Wilson was the man he was seeking,- — that
he illustrated most admirably, in his astonish
ing career from a shoemaker's bench to the
presiding chair of the Senate, the possibili
ties of American citizenship. I sent for Mr.
Wilson, and the two men spent some days
together at my house. Shortly after, Wilson
was stricken down with illness, and died in
the room of the Vice-President in the Capitol
building at Washington.
General Grant was staying with me in
Philadelphia at the time of the Tilden and
Hayes campaign, and on the morning of the
momentous day after the election, when the
returns gave Tilden a majority .of all the
electors, he accompanied me to my office.
After a few moments an eminent Republican

General Grant. 77
Senator and one or two other leading Repub
licans walked in, and they went over the
returns. One of these leaders, notwithstand
ing the returns, said, "Hayes is elected,"
an opinion in which the others coincided.
General Grant listened to them, but said
nothing. After they had settled the matter
in their own minds, he said, " Gentlemen, it
looks to me as if Mr. Tilden is elected."
When the contention on this point took
such bitter and angry form and excited so
much hot blood, the more conservative and
the wiser men in Congress, like Randall,
Garfield, Abram S. Hewitt, and Kasson in
the House, and Edmunds, Bayard, and
Conkling in the Senate, seeing the necessity
of adopting some quieting and reassuring
measures, began to consider what ultimately
took form in the Electoral Commission.
About this time General Grant asked me
to make him a visit. He had patriotically
espoused the proposal for an amicable adjust
ment of the threatening dispute in any prac
tical form, and warmly favored the idea of
an Electoral Commission. When I got to
the White House he said, " This matter is
very complicated, and the people will not be
satisfied unless something is done in regard
to it which will appeal to their sense of
7*

78 v Recollections..
justice. Now," he continued, "I have
thought of an Electoral Commission, but
the leaders of the party are opposed to it,
Avhich I am sorry to see. They say that if
an Electoral Commission is appointed we
might as well count in Mr. Tilden. I would
rather have Mr. Tilden than that the Repub
licans should have a President who could be
stigmatized as a fraud. . If I were Mr. Hayes,
I would not have the office unless my claim
to it were settled in some way outside the
Senate. This matter is opposed by the lead
ing Republicans in the House and Senate
and throughout the country."
- President Grant invited several leading
Republican Senators to dine with him to
meet me and to get their views. He said to
me, " You see the feeling here. I find them
almost universally opposed to anything like
an Electoral Commission." I named a lead
ing Democrat in the House (Hon. Samuel J.
Randall), who was one of the most promi
nent men in the country, a man of large
influence and of great integrity of character,
and whom it would be well to see. I sent
for Mr. Randall to come to the White House
to see me, and put the dilemma to him, as
follows: " It is very hard for the President
and very embarrassing to men on his own

General Grant. 79
side that this matter'does not seem to find
favor with them, besides having Democratic
opposition. Republicans think, they might
as well count Tilden in as to agree to an
Electoral Commission; but. as the feeling
throughout the country demands as'horiest
a. count of the vote as possible, this Electoral
Commission ought to be appointed;" -.There
was every prospect that the great majority
of the Democrats would ultimately support
the measure, though chafing and angry
under what they appeared to regard as a,
great wrong to them and to the country.
Mr. Randall was Speaker of the House at
the time. His language in reply made it
manifest that he felt it his duty to exert in
all proper ways his powerful .influence for
a peaceful adjustment. He was careful in
speech, for he evidently realized if an Elec
toral Commission was created by law that
he, as presiding officer of the House of
Representatives, would have to see, in part
at least, that such law was faithfully carried
out,— a task which he executed with. firmness
amid an excited assembly.
- General Grant, however, did send for Sen
ator Conkling, and said, with deep earnest
ness, " This matter. is a serious one, and the
people feel it very deeply. • ,-¦. I think this Elecr

80 Recollections.

toral Commission ought to be appointed."
Conkling answered, "Mr. President, Sen
ator Morton" (who was then the acknowl
edged leader of the Senate) " is opposed to
it and opposed to your efforts ; but if you
wish the Commission carried, I can help
to do it." Grant said, "I wish it done."
Thereupon Mr. Conkling took hold of the
measure and. contributed his powerful aid
in putting it through the Senate.
Few persons not in public life understood
fully at the time how near the country was to
another civil war, and of course had no ade
quate appreciation of the vital service done
by the statesmen named above, and by those
of both parties who patriotically stood up in
their support. But the peril was imminent,
and the people of the country owe to all of
them a great debt of gratitude, — and espe
cially to Messrs. Randall, Edmunds, Conk
ling, and General Grant.
General Patterson, of Philadelphia, who
had been an intimate friend of President
Jackson, and a life-lopg Democrat, was
also sent for at that time by President
Grant. General Patterson had large es
tates in the South, and a great deal of in
fluence with the Democrats, and particularly
with Southern Democrats. He was then up-

General Grant. f81
wards of eighty, but he went to Washington
and remained one or two weeks with Presi
dent Grant, working hard to accomplish the
purpose in view. After the bill had passed
and while it was awaiting his signature,
General Grant went to a State Fair in
Maryland upon the day it should have
been signed, and there was much perturba
tion about it. I was telegraphed by those in
terested that General Grant Vas absent, and
that they were anxious about the signing. I
•replied that they might consider the bill as
good as signed. The. President returned to
•Washington that night and put his name to
the document.
Just before General Grant started on his
journey around the world he was spending
some days with me, and at a dinner with Mr.
A. J. Drexel, Colonel A. K. McClure, and my
self, he reviewed the contest over the creation
of the Electoral Commission very fully and
with rare candor. The chief significance of
his view lay in the fact, as he stated it,. that he
•expected from the beginning until the final
judgment that the electoral vote of Louisiana
would be awarded to Tilden. He spoke
of South Carolina and Oregon as justly be
longing to Hayes, of Florida as reasonably
doubtful, .and of Louisiana as for Tilden.
/

82 Recollections.
General Grant acted in good faith through
out the whole affair. It has been said that
the changing of the complexion of the court
threw the office into Hayes's hands, and that
if the court had remained as it was, Tilden
would have been declared President. Gen
eral Grant was the soul of honor in this
matter, and no one ever hinted that he was
unfair or untruthful in any way. I, for one,
do not believe that he could possibly tell a
lie or act deceitfully.
There is another point in politics not gen
erally known. General Garfield, during his
canvass, became very much demoralized.
He was fearful that the Republicans would
not carry Indiana, and was doubtful whether
they would carry Ohio. In that emergency
urgent appeals were made to General Grant,
and he at once threw himself into the breach.
He saw his strong personal friends and told
them they must help. There was one very
influential man, Senator Conkling, whom
General Grant sent for and informed that
he must turn in and assist. He at first de
clined, being hard pressed with professional
engagements, but at General Grant's urgent
solicitation finally entered the field and con
tributed handsomely to the victory. In order
to do so he was compelled to return to clients

General Grant. 83
seventeen thousand five hundred dollars,
which had been paid him as retaining fees
in cases to be tried in October during his
absence- General Grant went into the can
vass with might and main. The tide was
turned, and it was through General Grant's
individual efforts, seconded by those of his
strong personal friends, who did not feel any
particular interest in the election, that Gar
field was successful.
General Grant never by word or by letter
suggested to any one that he would like to
be nominated for a third term. Neither Mr.
Conkling nor General Logan nor Senator
Cameron had any assurance from him in
any way that he wished the nomination,
and they proceeded in their contest for it
without any authority from him whatever.
His heart was not on a third term at all.
He had had enough of politics. After his
second term he told me, " I feel like a boy
out of school." At first General Grant in
tended to decline. In conversation with me
he said, "It is very difficult to decline a thing
which has never been offered;" and before
he left this country for the West Indies, I
said, " General, you leave this matter in the
hands of your friends." He knew I was op
posed to a third term. His political friends,

84 Recollections.
however, were in favor of it, not merely as
friends, but because they thought he was the
only man who could be elected by the Re-*
publicans. There is not a line of his in ex
istence in which, he expresses any desire to
have that nomination. Towards the last,
when the canvass became very hot, I sup
pose "his natural feeling was that he would
like to win. But he neVer laid any plans. -
He never encouraged or abetted anything
looking towards a third-term movemeut.
General Grant was very magnanimous to.
those who differed with him, and when I'
asked him what distressed him most in his'
political life he said, " To be deceived by
those I trusted." He had a great many
distresses. ;
Of his quick perception in financial mat
ters I remember a striking instance. On
one of the great financial questions — the
Inflation Bill, pending before Congress — he.
was consulting with Mr. A. J. Drexel, of-
Philadelphia, whom he regarded as one of:
his strongest personal friends. In Sep'tem-.'
ber, 1873, the" general had gone to New-
York, and had listened for a day to appeals:
from inflationists to expand the currency "by
issuing the forty-four millions of greenbacks'
then in the Treasury. He patiently heard'

General Grant. 85
their arguments, but refused their request."
Still, he was so strongly impressed with cer
tain views held by many of the ablest' men
in the country who had opinions on the sub
ject different from his own, that he stated
them to Mr. Drexel. Mr. Drexel combated
these opinions, and as the result of that dis
cussion the general adopted his views; and!
when the measure to which I allude was
laid before him, he returned it' to Congress:
with his disapproval. Here was' a subject
he had considered, as he thought, fully, but
when new light was given to him by Mr.
Drexel, whom he knew to be a well-in
formed, conservative, unselfish, and reliable
man, and an experienced and able financier,
and who possessed the public confidence, he'
changed his opinions, and wrote the veto
message of April 22,1874. Congratulations:
immediately poured in upon him from all-
parts of the country, and even the strongest
advocates of the bill acknowledged that the
President's final judgment was right, and'
that in this matter especially he was im
measurably superior in statesmanship to the
Congressional majority.
A great many people had an idea that
General Grant was very much set in his
opinions ;: but, while he had decided opin-
8

86 Recollections.
ions, at the same time he was always open
to conviction. Very often in talking with
him he would make no observation, and
when one had got through it would be diffi
cult to tell exactly whether he had grasped
the subject or not, but in a very short time,
if the matter was alluded to again, it would
be found that he had comprehended it
thoroughly. His power of observation and
mental assimilation was remarkable.
Of his simplicity and unpretentiousness I
will give an illustration. During one of his
drives with me through Fairmount Park,
Philadelphia, I called his attention to the
little log cabin which we were passing on
one of the main avenues, and which was his
headquarters during the war. With a merry
twinkle of his eye he said, " I can tell you
a little story connected with that cabin. For
a long time my officers were urging me to
let them put up a building for my headquar
ters. My headquarters had previously been
on the field and in the saddle, and I had
never thought of any other. I begun to
suspect that their solicitude for my comfort
was not altogether disinterested, and told
them they might put up a small affair. Al
most instantly, as if by magic, headquarters
grew up in every direction. So it turned

General Grant. 87
out that they were partly thinkingof their
own comfort." There was no " nonsense"
about him. He was always neat in dress,
but not fastidious. He said he got cured of
his pride in regimentals when he came home
from West Point.
There was a slight tinge of superstition
in his composition. I remember hearing
him say that he never would turn back if he
could possibly avoid it, and he illustrated
the remark by telling me of an incident that
occurred when he was a boy living in the
country. He had started on horseback to
go to the mill, and while musing he had
passed the road that led to it; instead of re
tracing his steps, he drove a long distance
around, so that he could reach the mill with
out going back. Was not this trait one of
the secrets of his success in the war ? When
I spoke to my old friend, Paul Du Chaillu,
in regard to this peculiarity of General
Grant, he replied that it was an old super
stition, and that he could trace it to the
Vikings of the ninth and tenth centuries,
many of their great warriors believing in it.
General Grant, surrounded by those he
knew well, always did two-thirds of the talk
ing. He was a reticent and diffident man in
general company, and it was not until ho

t88 .' Recollections:
was out of the Presidency that .he became a
'public speaker. He toldit story that he was
.once notifiedthat he was expected to make a
speech in reply to a sentiment given him, and
he looked it over and wrote his answer care
fully, but when he got up he was stricken
:dumb. He utterly lost himself, and caulcLnot
say a \yord. After that he did not want to
hear what was going to be said, and never
prepared anything. "Hon. Devi P. Morton
told me that, in going to Liverpool and Man
chester with General Grant, a committee
¦came down to meet the general and. brought
a report of what they intended to say, for his
¦inspection. He said, a No, I have had one
experience in that line. I don't want to see
¦it." The Hon. Robert C. Winthrop writes
to me, " What you say of his early reticence
reminds me that I had to make two speeches
.for him in the early. days of the Peabody
Education Trust. One of them was in the
tobacco-factory at Baltimore, and the other
on my door-steps here at Brookline, when
our village band came up to 'serenade him.
He would not go to the door unless I would
promise to acknowledge the compliment for
-him." ; The last speech heJever made was at Ocean
Grove. Governor- Oglesby, of Illinois, was

General Grant. 89
staying with him at his cottage at Long
Branch. George H. Stuart, who was one
of his earliest and dearest friends, came up
to ask him if he would go down to Ocean
Grove. Prior to this invitation he had not
appeared in public since his misfortunes. He
was then lame, from a fall on the ice as he
was leaving his carriage at his residence in
New York on Christmas-eve, and was com
pelled to use crutches until his death. Upon
reaching Ocean Grove he found ten thou
sand people assembled. They rose en masse
and cheered with a vigor and unanimity very
uncommon in a religious assemblage. This
touched him profoundly, for it was evidence
that the popular heart was still with him.
He arose to make acknowledgment, but after
saying a few words he utterly broke down,
and the tears trickled down his cheeks.
That was the last time he ever appeared in
public. Speaking of Ocean Grove, General Grant
always evinced great interest in its progress
and success, and often took part in the re
ligious exercises there. While at Long
Branch he and his family attended the Meth
odist church in the village, and since his
death a large memorial window of stained
glass has been placed in the chancel. He
8*

<90 . . RecoHeetions;.
sometimes went to! the Episcopal chapel at
Elberon, in which .a brass memorial tablet
has been placed.. It bears the following
inscription, prepared, at my. request, by the
:Hon. Robert C. Winthrop:
in memory oy
The Virtues and Valor -
of
""" ULYSSES S. GRAJTT,
*: <~reneral of the Union Army,
and - -
President of the United States.
Born 27th April, 1S22.
Died 23d July, 1885. ¦
A few of his friends erect this tablet, as a token of
;their affection, while the- whole country does homage
to his career and character.
I remember that in 1884 I was notified
that a number of scientists would meet in
Montreal from all parts of the world to at
tend a convention. Sir William Thomson,
Lord Rayleigh, and others, who were to be
.my guests, asked, whether I would present
them to General Grant. Some of them had
met him. Of course I was very glad to
introduce them. I said to him in the morn
ing, "General, the scientists from Canada
are coming down here, and they are very
anxious to pay their respects to you. " " Oh,"

General Grant 31
lie replied, " I have met some of these people
abroad: I. will be very glad to see them."
They came to my house, and we walked
across the lawn to the general's. He sat on
the piazza, not being able to stand alone
without the use of crutches, and was pre-
jsented to every one of them, shaking hands
.with each. He would say to one gentleman,
*k How are you, professor ? I met you in
Liverpool;" and to another, "Why,, how
are you; I met you in London;" andV"I
am glad to see you ; I met you in Manches
ter." So he recognized each of these visitors
as soon as he laid eves on him. Manv of
them said to me afterwards, in speaking of
the incident, " Why, I only met him casually
with a party of people."
This power of recognition was remarkable.
I subsequently asked him whether he had
lost the power; he answered, " No, I have
not lost the power. If I fix my mind on a
person, I never forget him ; but I see so many
that I don't always do it." I can give a re
markable instance of his memory of persons.
During one of the times that he was staying
with me in Philadelphia we were walking
down Chestnut Street together, and just as
we arrived in front of a large jeweller's
establishment a lady .came out of the store

92 Recollections.
and was about to enter her carriage. General
Grant walked up to her, shook hands with
her, and put her in the carriage. "General,
did you know that lady?" "Oh, yes," he
replied; "I know her." "Where did you
see her ?" " Well, I saw her a good many
years ago out in Ohio at a boarding-school.
.She was one of the girls there." " Did you
never see her before or since ?" He said,
"No." The lady was the daughter of a
very prominent Ohio man, Judge Jewett,
aud the next time we met she said, " I sup
pose you told General Grant who I was." I
replied, "I did not." " Why, that is very
remarkable," she answered, in a tone of sur
prise ; " I was one of two or three hundred
girls, and only saw him at school. I have
never seen him since."
I remember an amusing incident which
occurred when the English banker Mr.
Hope, with his wife and three children, was
visiting me at Long Branch. The children
wanted to see the general, so one day they
were taken over and presented to him.
When they came back and were asked
whether they had seen him, one of them
replied, in a rather disappointed tone, " Yes ;
but he had no crown."
During one of his visits at Wootton, my

General Grant. 93
country-seat, he planted, on October 16,
1882, an oak, and always held it in remem
brance. Just before his death he asked me
if the tree was flourishing. One day when
we were at Wootton together he remarked
what a beautiful place it was, adding that it
seemed a pity to him that its beauty should
be spoiled by bad roads. Acting on this
hint, the roads round about the neighbor
hood were Telforded.

CHAPTER V.
general grant. — (continued.)
Fondness for Horses— The "Personal Memoirs"— The
Indian Commission — Generals Halleck and Fitz-John
Porter — Grant's Fatal Disease.
General Grant was very fond of horses,
and was a thorough horseman. While a
cadet at West Point he was always called
upon whenever a horse was unmanageable,
and he never failed to subdue the most
vicious or fractious animal. In early life
he rode a great deal, but after he left the
army he generally drove a pair of spirited
horses ; sometimes, when he had a favorite
fast horse, he drove singly. With all his
liking for horses, he could never be induced
to attend a race, or to bet on a horse. At
agricultural fairs of course he witnessed and
enjoyed seeing horses trotting or running.
The last horse General Grant owned and
drove was the mare " Silver," now twenty
years old and in good condition. I have her
at Wootton, with her two colts, Julia and
94

General Grant. 95
Ida, sired by " Kentucky Prince," the horse
for which fifty thousand dollars were offered.
On his sick-bed the general longed to see
them. As to General Grant's power of thinking
and of expressing his thoughts, he wrote
with great facility and clearness. His Cen
tennial Address, at the opening of the Ex
hibition in 1876, was prepared at my house,
and there were only two or three corrections
in the whole manuscript. Soon after his
arrival in England he wrote me a letter of
fourteen pages, giving an account of his
reception in that country. The same post
that brought the letter contained another
from Mr. John Walter, proprietor of the
London Times, saying that he had seen our
mutual friend General Grant on several oc
casions, and wondered how he was pleased
with his reception in England. The letter
which I had received was so a pi'opos that I
telegraphed it over that very day to the
London Times, — fourteen pages of manu
script, — without one word of alteration, and
that journal next morning published this
letter with an editorial on it. It happened
that the cablegram arrived in London the
very night the general was going through
the London Times office to view the establish-

96 .Recollections.
ment. In "the letter he said he thought the
English people admirable, and he was deeply
sensible, of the unexpected attention and'
kindness shown him. The letter contained.
these lines, " It has always been my desire
to see all jealousy between England and the
United States abated, and all sores healed
up. Together they are more powerful for^
the spread of commerce and civilization
than all others combined, and can do more;
to remove- the. cause of wars by creating;
mutual interests that would be so much dis-.
turbed by war, than all other nations." The
letter was written, privately to me, he not
supposing that it would ever be put in print,
and not one word, as I have said, had to be
altered. I cite this to show General Grant's
facility in writing.
The necessity of earning some money in
duced him to write the Series of admirable.
articles for the Century Magazine. Upon
their appearance. I urged him, as did other-
friends of his, to expand them into a sym
metrical and continuous narrative. Thus,
had it not been for his financial reverses,
it is doubtful whether American litera
ture would have been enriched with his
" Personal Memoirs," a book of surpassing-
interest, which has enjoyed the largest ciiv

General Grayit. 97
culation and yielded the largest copyright
(over four hundred and fifteen thousand
dollars) of any work issued in modern times.
Just before his death the general requested
Mrs. Grant to send me his " Memoirs," and
as soon as the work was published Colonel
Grant sent me a handsomely bound copy
with a very kind note.
The man who was perhaps nearer to him
than any other in his Cabinet was Hon.
Hamilton Fish. Grant had the greatest re
gard for his judgment. It was more than
friendship — it was genuine affection which
existed between them, and General Grant
always appreciated Mr. Fish's remaining in
his Cabinet, because Mr. Fish, had he been
governed by his personal interests, would
not have done so. I know that it was
General Grant's desire to have him his
successor in the Presidency. Mrs. Fish's
influence and example were very great in
Washington, and she left an impress on
society there which is felt to this day. She
was a typical American woman. A strong
friendship existed between Mrs. Grant and
Mrs. Fish, and their united kind acts, and
many good deeds, will be long remembered
in Washington.
When, in 1865, after the surrender of
e g 9

98 Recollections.
General Lee at Appomattox,' General Grant
went to Washington to superintend the dis-
bandment of the army, he found the national
capital, as it always had been, a city of mag
nificent distances. Its long, broad avenues
and streets seemed by their rough condition
to increase and render more conspicuous
these distances. The tramp of cavalry, the
almost continuous movement of trains of
heavy artillery and ammunition- and bag
gage-wagons had, assisted by the recurring
winters' alternate freezings and thawings,
reduced them to a condition little better
than that of the rough, rude trails left by
the Army of the Potomac on its march
upon the Confederate capital.
They were still in this neglected state in
1868 when General Grant was elected Presi
dent, and when, in the following year, he
was inaugurated, he manifested the strongest
public interest in designs for their improve
ment, and spoke to me very strongly on the
subject. Indeed, it may justly be said, that
the concern he evinced regarding the noble
avenues and spacious streets of Washington
was the inspiring cause which eventually led
to their improvement. The subject was an
engrossing one to him, and he made it the
frequent theme of his conversation. Gen-

General Grant. 99
eral Grant's far-seeing wisdom was conspic
uously demonstrated in this matter. He
maintained that the national capital should,
and under favorable conditions would, be
come the winter Saratoga — the social oentre
— of the entire country. He felt so strongly
and spoke with such earnestness regarding
the necessity of improving the city as to
finally impress the importance of it upon
the minds of those who had the authority
to give practical realization to his sugges
tions. Inspired by his public spirit and the inter
est he showed in its consummation, the work
of improvement was begun, and when it was
finished, upon the intelligent, generous plan
which was adopted, the avenues and streets
which had been as country roads, ploughed
into deep ruts by artillery, and roughened
by the action of innumerable frosts and suns,
were so well graded and paved as to vie with
those of the noblest highways of Old World
capitals. Washington is still a city of mag
nificent distances, but so great and many
were the improvements made during Presi
dent Grant's administration as to suggest not
so much distance as magnificence, for as its
noble highways were extended, broadened,
made smooth and pleasant to the sight,

100 Recollections.
noble mansions were built upon them, and
General Grant's prediction of the capital
becoming the winter social centre of the
country was realized. The imposing im
provements which were made, and which
were largely inspired by him, render Wash
ington a particularly attractive city to which
the representatives of the nation's wealth and
refinement are drawn. There was nothing
more characteristic of General Grant than
his public spirit, which was so strongly dis
played in the transformation from incon
venience and ugliness to comfort and beauty
of the avenues and streets of Washington.
With regard to the treatment of the
Indians, he informed me that, as a young
lieutenant, he had been thrown among them,
and had seen the unjust treatment they re
ceived at the hands of the white men. He
then made up his mind that if he ever had
any influence or power it should be exercised
to try to ameliorate their condition. The
Indian Commission was his own idea. He
wished to appoint the very best men in the
United States. He selected William Welsh,
of Philadelphia, William E. Dodge, of New
York, Felix Brunot, of Pittsburgh, Colonel
Robert Campbell, of St. Louis, and George
H. Stuart, of Philadelphia. They composed

General Grant. 101
the Indian Commission which he had worked
hard to establish, and they always could
count upon him to aid them in every pos
sible way. He always took the greatest
interest in the Commission. Even to his
last moments he attentively watched its
progress. It was, at all times, a very diffi
cult affair to handle, especially as there was
a powerful Indian ring to break up.
He was of a very kindly nature, generous
to a fault. I would often remonstrate with
him, and say, " General, you can't afford to
do this," and would try to keep people away
from him. On one occasion, when certain
persons wanted him to contribute to an im
portant matter, which I did not think he
was able to do, I would not let them go
near him. He was reached, however, by
some injudicious person, and he subscribed
a thousand dollars.
General Grant venerated his mother, and
loved his family. He seemed happiest in
his home circle, surrounded by his devoted
and loving wife and his children and grand
children. I have never seen an instance of
greater domestic happiness than that which
existed in the Grant family. Perfect love
had indeed " cast out fear," and it was
delightful to see his grandchildren romping
"9*

102 Recollections,
with him, and saying just what came up
permost in their thoughts in their childish
innoceuce. General Grant always felt that he had
been badly treated by General Halleck, but
he rarely spoke harshly of any one. During.
one of my last visits to him he showed me
his army orders, which he had kept in books.
He had a copy of everything he ever did or
said in regard to army matters. He was
very careful about that, and had written all
the orders with his own hand. He pointed
to one of this large series of books, and said
that it was fortunate that he had kept these
things, because several of the orders could
not be found on any record in the War
Department. During our long friendship I
never heard him more than two or three
times speak unkindly of Halleck, although
he had been very unjustly treated by him,
— as is borne out by the records.
I told him of something that I had learned
in connection with the officer in charge of
the war records at Washington. That offi
cer had been a strong friend of Halleck,
and was prejudiced against General Grant,
and was in the office where all these things
passed through his hands. But after twenty
years of examination, he said that there was

General Grant. 103
not a line relating to Grant which would not
elevate him in the minds of thinking people.
It was through me that General Grant
first went to Long Branch. He always en
joyed being there, and said that he had
never seen a place in all his travels which
was better suited for a summer residence.
He drove out twice a day, and knew every
by-way within twenty miles. It was his
habit to drive out every morning after
breakfast for a long distance, and then he
would come home and read the papers or
any books he might have on hand. He was
one of the most companionable of men ; to
tally unspoiled by all tho honors conferred
upon him. He was simple, unaffected, and
attached everybody to him. Ho was very
careful in answering his correspondence.
Most of the letters received were begging
letters of some kind or other, and I remem
ber an incident showing his justness and
tenderness of heart.
Once he had two cases of petition. He
said, " I did a thing to-day that gave me
great pleasure. There was a poor Irish
woman who had a boy in the army, and she
came down from New York and spent all
her money. She had lost several of her
boys in the war, and this one she wished

104 Recollections.
to get out of the service to help support her.
I gave her an order, and was Very glad to
do it." But he did not add that he gave her
also some money, which was the case. " In
contrast to that there was a lady of a very
distinguished family of New York, who came
here and wanted me to remove her son from
Texas. He was an officer in the army, and
I told her I could not do that. My rich peti
tioner then said, ' Well, could you not remove
his regiment?' This would have involved a
cost of over one hundred thousand dollars."
General Grant did not hesitate a moment to
refuse a rich woman's unreasonable request,
but it gave him pleasure to grant the petition
of a poor friendless Irishwoman.
He was very kind to the poor, and, in fact,
to everybody, especially to widows and chil
dren of army officers. I gave him the names
of quite a number of army and navy officers'
sons for appointment in the navy or army.
He said, " I am glad to have these. I like
to appoint army and navy men's children,
because they have no political influence."
Nearly all his appointments to the Military
and Naval Academies were the children of
deceased army or navy officers, young men
without influence to get in at West Point or
Annapolis. There was hardly an army man,

General Grant. 105
Confederate or Union, who was not a friend
of General Grant.
For General Sheridan he had an affection
ate regard, and I have often heard him say
that he thought Sheridan the greatest fighter
that ever lived, and if there should be an
other war he would be the leader. I knew
that General Sheridan had carefully pre
served all the letters he had received from
General Grant, and I asked Mrs. Sheridan
to let me have them arranged and bound for
her, which she did. They make a volume
of great historical value and interest.
General Grant was so just that he never
excited the jealousy or enmity of army men.
When mistaken there was no man more
ready to acknowledge himself in error. He
was always accessible and courteous. He
showed great tenacity in sticking to friends
longer than he ought to have done. When
ever I spoke to him about this he would
answer, " Well, if I believed all I hear, I
would believe nearly everybody was bad."
General Grant would say there was hardly
anybody who came in contact with him who
was not traduced, and that he very often had
" to depend upon his own judgment in such
cases. One of his expressions was, "Never
desert a friend under fire."

106 Recollections.
He rarely alluded to those who had abused
his confidence, even in conversation with his
most intimate friends. No matter how much
a man had injured him, he was wont to say
that he felt at the end what he might have
felt at the outset.
General Grant had the greatest admiration
for General Joseph E. Johnston, and Johns
ton for him ; and when it was first proposed
to bring up the retiring bill, Johnston, who
was then in Congress, was to take the initia
tive in the matter. The passage of that bill
gave great gratification to the general. I
happened to be with him on the 4th of
March, and said, " General, that bill of
yours will pass to-day." " Mr. Childs," he
said, " you know that during the last day of
a session everything is in a turmoil. Such a
bill cannot possibly be passed." " Well," I
said, " Mr. Randall assured me that measure
would be passed." He answered, "If any
body in the world could pass that bill, I think
Mr. Randall could. But I don't think it is
at all likely, and I have given up all expec
tation." While I was talking (this was about
11.30 a.m.), I got a telegram from Mr. A. J.
Drexel, saying that the bill had passed, and'
the general seemed exceedingly gratified.
I remarked, " General, the part that some

General Grant. 107
of the members took in the matter was not
justified." " Oh, perhaps they thought they
were right. I have no feeling at all : I am
only grateful that the measure has been
passed," he answered. Mrs. Grant came in,
and I said, "We have got good news: the
bill is passed." She cried out, " Hurrah !:
our old commander is back." In answer to
a remark that it would be very good if it
could be dated from the time of going out,
he said, " Oh, no; the law is to date from
the time one accepts. In the early part of
the war I saw in the newspapers that I was
appointed to a higher rank, and wrote on at
once and accepted on the strength of the
newspaper report. In about two months'
time, through red tape, I got my appoint
ment, but received my pay from the time I
wrote accepting the newspaper announce
ment. I saved a mouth's pay by that."
As to General Fitz-John Porter's case, I
spoke to him during the early stage of it, at
a time when his mind had been prejudiced
by some around him, and when he was very
busy. Afterwards, when he looked into the
matter, he said he was only sorry that he
had so long delayed making the examina
tion he should have made. He felt that if
ever a man had been treated badly Porter

108 Recollections.
was. He had examined the case most care
fully, gone over every detail, and was per
fectly satisfied that Porter was right. He
wanted to do everything in his power to
have him righted, and his only regret was
that he had neglected the case so long and
allowed Porter to rest under injustice. I
had General Porter to meet General Grant
at dinner, and placed them together, so that
they could talk over the matter for the first
time. There are few men who would have taken
a back track as General Grant did so pub
licly, so determinedly, and so consistently
right through. I had several talks with him
i n regard to General Porter, and he was con
tinually reiterating his regrets that he had
not done justice to him when he had the op
portunity. He ran counter to a great many
of his political friends in this matter, but his
mind was absolutely clear about it. Not one
man in a thousand would go back on his
record in such an affair, especially when he
was not in accord with the Grand Army or
his strong political friends. General Grant
went into the question most carefully, and
his publications show how thoroughly he
examined the subject, and he never wavered
after his mind was settled. Then he set to

General Grant. 109
work to repair the injury done Porter. If
General Grant had had time to examine the
case while he was President, he would have
carried through a measure for the relief of
Porter. That he had not done so was his
great regret. He felt that while ' he had
power he could have passed it and ought to
have done so. When General Grant took
pains and time to look into a subject, no
amount of personal feeling or friendship for
others would keep him from doing the right
thing. He could not be swerved from the
right in any case.
Another marked trait of his character was
his purity in every way. I never heard him
express an impure thought or make an in
delicate allusion. There is nothing I ever
heard him say that could not be repeated
in the presence of women. He never used
profane language. He was very temperate
in eating and drinking. In his own fam
ily, unless guests were present, he seldom
drank wine. If while he was President
a man were urged for an appointment,
and it was shown that he was an immoral
man, he would not appoint him, no matter
how great the pressure brought to bear by
friends. He had no fondness for music, nor could
10

110 Recollections.
he remember a tune or note, with perhaps
the single exception of " Hail to the Chief,"
which he had heard so often during and after
the war. His old friend, Hon. Hamilton
Fish, writes to me, " I do not think that
the general knew ' Hail to the Chief;' he
did know, or thought that he knew, 'Yankee
Doodle.' " My friend, Mr. Robert C. Win
throp, says in a recent letter, " Your allusion
to his insensibility to music, and to the saying
of Governor Fish, recalls General Grant's
remark to me, when I was sitting next to
him at a concert in Baltimore at the Pea-
body Institute : * Why, Mr. Winthrop, I only
know two tunes. One is Yankee Doodle,
and the other isn't.' "
General Grant was robust, blessed with
general good health, and great powers of
endurance. He was a small eater, and could
sleep more or less at any time, or could do
without sleep and food, for a long period,
without inconvenience. He never ate any
thing rare ; everything had to be thoroughly
cooked. Some time after the war he told me
that he thought he was failing physically.
I asked him why. He answered by saying
he could no longer do without eating or
sleeping for forty-eight hours without feel
ing it. During the war he often passed two

©

General Grant. Ill
days and nights without tasting food or lying
down to sleep.
General Grant would sit in my library
with four or five others chatting freely, and
doing perhaps two-thirds of the talking.
Let a stranger enter whom he did not know,
and he would say nothing more while the
stranger remained. That was one peculiar
ity of his. He wouldn't talk to people un
less he understood them. He possessed a
great deal of quiet humor, was an excellent
story-teller, was full of anecdote, and en
joyed a good joke. He was always refined,
and would not tolerate coarseness in others.
At a dinner-party among intimate friends he
would lead in the conversation, but any alien
element would seal his tongue. This great
shyness or reticence sometimes caused him
to be misunderstood.
When his attention was first directed to his
fatal disease, he told me that he had a dry
ness in his throat, which seemed to trouble
him, and that whenever he ate a peach, a
fruit of which he was very fond, he always
suffered pain. I said that Dr. Da Costa, of
Philadelphia, one of the most eminent physi
cians of the country, was coming to Long
Branch to spend a few days with me ; that he
was an old friend ; and that he would be

112 Recollections.
glad to look into the matter. Dr. Da Costa,
on arriving, went over with me to the gen
eral's house, examined his throat carefully,
gave a prescription, and asked the general
who his family physician was. He replied,
Dr. Fordyce Barker, of New York, and he
was advised to see him at once. I could see
that the general was suffering a good deal,
though he was uncomplaining. During the
summer he several times asked me if I had
seen Dr. Da Costa, and seemed anxious to
know exactly what was the matter with him.
Dr. Da Costa knew at once the disease was
cancer, and when Dr. Barker came to confer
with him in regard to General Grant he so
told him. General Grant, after he got worse,
said to me, " I want to go to Philadelphia
and stay a few days with you, and have a
talk with Dr. Da Costa." He was not afraid
of the disease after he knew all about it,
and the last time I saw him, just before he
went to Mount McGregor, he said, " Now,
Mr. Childs, I have been twice within half
a minute of death. I realize it fully, and
my life was only preserved by the skill and
attention of my physicians. I have told
them the next time to let me go."
The general had great will-power, and the
determination to finish his book kept him

General Grant. 113
up. He quickly made up his mind that his
disease would prove fatal, but he was reso
lute to live until his work was done. He
said, " If I had been an ordinary man, I
would have been dead long ago."
In good health General Grant would
smoke a dozen very large, strong cigars a
day ; but he could stop smoking at any time.
He told me that towards the latter part of
the summer of 1884 he was smoking fewer
and milder cigars, perhaps two or three a
day. In February of 1885 he expected to
pay me a visit. He wrote, saying, " The
doctor will not allow me to leave until the
weather gets warmer. I am now quite well
in every way, except a swelling of the tongue
above the root, and the same thing in the
tonsils just over it. It is very difficult for me
to swallow enough to maintain my strength,
and nothing gives me so much pain as to
swallow water." I asked him about that,
and he said, "If you could imagine what
molten lead would be going down your
throat, that is what I feel when I am swal
lowing." In that letter he further said, " I
have not smoked a cigar since about the 20th
of November; for a day or two I felt as
though I would like to smoke, but after that
I never thought of it."
k 10*

114 Recollections.
General Grant always retained a warm
interest in West Point, and favored it greatly
while President. He left a written memo
randum requesting that his grandson , Ulysses
Grant, son of Colonel Fred. D. Grant, should
be educated at West Point, provided he could
secure an appointment to enter the Academy
as a cadet. Speaking on one or two Occa
sions of the burial of soldiers, he observed
that his old chief, General Scott, was buried
at West Point, and that he would like to be
buried there also. This was some years be
fore his death, and mentioned merely in
casual conversation. I think it might have
been alluded to incidentally once or twice
afterwards. His wishes in regard to his final resting-
place may be gathered from the subjoined
interesting correspondence taken from the
New York World of September 29, 1889.
" The World has received the following
letter from Colonel Frederick D. Grant,
United States Minister to Austria, relative
to recent suggestions that the body of his
father be removed from Riverside Park. It
will be read with great interest by all the
friends of the great general, and gives new
and pathetic facts concerning General Grant's
wishes as to his burial-place :

General Grant. 115
"U. S. Legation, Vienna, Austria,
"September 13, 1889.
" To the Editor op The World :
"Two evenings ago I received your mes
sage by cable, which was as follows :
" ' Press agitating question of removing
General Grant's remains to Washington or
Illinois. What is the sentiment of the widow
and family ? The World.'
" I have answered you by cable that I
would write to yOu in reply. I carried your
cablegram home with me and read it to my
mother, who is now visiting me. She and
I unite in expressing appreciation of the
interest which is shown by the American
people in the tomb of General Grant, which
is now in the city of New York, owing to
the following circumstances, viz. :
" About a week before General Grant's
death he handed me a paper which he indi
cated that he would like me to read. I
found its contents were directions in regard
to his own burial, the note being in about
the following words, which I quote from
memory : ' I have given you directions about
all of my affairs except my burial. We own
a burial-lot in the cemetery at St. Louis, and
I like that city, as it was there I was married

116 . Recollections.
and lived for many years, and there three
of my children were born. We also have a
burial-lot in Galena, and I am fond of Illi
nois, from which State I entered the army at
the beginning of the war. I am also much
attached to New York, where I have made
my home for several years past, and through
the generosity of whose citizens I have been
enabled to pass my last days without experi
encing the pains of pinching want.' The
last sentence seemed to indicate that a burial-
lot might be purchased in New York City.
" After reading this little note I said, ' It
is most distressing to me, father, that you
think of this matter, but if we must discuss
this subject and you desire to have my opin
ion, I should say that in case of your death
Washington would probably be selected for
the place of your burial.' Father then took
back the paper he had written me, which he
tore up. He then retired to his own room,
but. soon returned and handed me another
little note (at that time he could not speak
without great pain), which was in substance
as follows : ' It is possible that my funeral
may become one of public demonstration,
in which event I have no particular choice
of burial-place ; but there is one thing which
I would wish you and the family to insist

General Grant. 117
upon, and that is that, wherever my tomb
may be, a place shall be reserved for your
mother at my side.' My own mention of
Washington seemed to have reminded Gen
eral Grant that the nation might wish to take
part in his funeral.
" Upon the death of General Grant, July
23, 1885, many telegrams were immediately
received, containing offers from various
places of ground for his last resting-place.
These telegrams being considered by the
widow and family, it was soon decided that
the offer made by New York was the most
desirable one, as it included the guarantee
which General Grant had desired before his
death, — that his wife should be provided
with a last resting-place by his side, — there
fore this offer was accepted.
"A little later I received a letter from
General Robert Macfeeley, of Washington,
containing an authoritative offer of a site in
the ' Soldiers' Home,' near Washington, as
the burial-place of my father, at the same
time promising that my mother and family
might also be buried there. But already
the matter had been settled, and my mother
held the written guarantee of New York's
mayor that upon her death she should be
-placed beside her husband, General Grant.

118 Recollections:
" In a parting letter left to my mother by
the general he reiterated what he had said
to me, mentioned several places which might
be available for his burial, but expressed as
his one and only desire that she, upon her
death, should rest at his side.
" My mother, myself, and all our family
feel deep gratitude for the delicate and touch
ing attentions paid to General Grant's mem
ory and to his tomb at ' Riverside- by the
citizens of New York, as well as by the citi
zens of other States, and since the nation
made his great funeral, and wishes to build
his tomb, they were and are ready to accede
to any plan for his tomb which the nation
may decide is best, provided, of course, that
his expressed wish be carried out.
" Most touching of all to my mother are
the loving tributes which are annually placed
upon my father's tomb by his old comrades
of the Grand Army of the Republic and by
many others from all parts of the country
which he served during his life.
" Yours, very sincerely,
"F. D. Grant."
On May 17, 1877, General Grant began
a tour of the world in company with Mrs.
Grant, that had long been one of their cher-

General Grant. 119
ished schemes. From the day of his depart
ure from Philadelphia until his return in the
autumn of 1879, it was an unceasing ovation
from people, emperors, and kings and rulers
of all couutries and nationalities. The best
record of this triumphal progress is to be
found in the two beautiful volumes, " Around
the World with General Grant," by John
Russell Young, who was his companion from
the start until General Grant returned to the
Pacific slope. In making his preparations
for this tour General Grant had no idea of
the reception that awaited him, and it was
only on the eve of his departure, while he
and Mrs. Grant were my guests, that I sug
gested the necessity of his taking his uni
form and sword. Uniform General Grant
no longer owned, but one was soon got at
Wanamaker's, and his swords were all de
posited in Washington, but one was hastily
sent to him. Simple in this as in all his
tastes and habits, General Grant meant to
travel as an American citizen. The splendid
popular demonstration given him by way
of farewell by the people of Philadelphia
was, however, significant of the reception
that awaited him at every stage of his jour
ney around the world. When the steamer
"Indiana" brought him to Liverpool, the

120 Recollections.
mayor of that great commercial city formally
extended its civic hospitalities to the gen
eral ; the city of London conferred upon him
its highest honor, the freedom of the city,
and this example was followed by several of
the other chief towns ; the Queen and the
Prince of Wales entertained him and his
wife, and they were in succession the guests
of every crowned head through whose do
minions they passed. In France and Switz
erland, our sister republics, he was heartily
welcomed, and, although he travelled as a
private citizen, everywhere he was welcomed
with distinguished honor. All of this he
quietly accepted as an evidence of respect
to his country, for, as he wrote to me, he
" loved to see our country honored and re
spected abroad," and he had helped to make
it so. In many of the letters which I re
ceived from him during his trip around the
world, the sense of General Grant and of
Mrs. Grant that the honors and compliments
paid him were regarded simply as a tribute
to his native country was emphasized with
rare modesty and delicacy. In the East
especially General Grant was made the re
cipient of the most marked attention. In
China the highest authorities of the empire
showed him every personal and official cour-

General Grant. 121
tesy, and just as Bismarck and the other
great European statesmen united in honor
ing him, so in India the native princes, in
China the viceroy, Li Hung Chang, and
Prince Kung, and in Japan from the Em
peror down, all welcomed General Grant as
the greatest American citizen. Indeed, the
Chinese and Japanese authorities asked him
to act as arbitrator in the settlement of
their disputes. To this day his visit is re
ferred to as one of the historical events in
Japan, and recent travellers are shown tem
ples and sacred shrines that were opened to
General Grant, but, as before, are again
closed to the rest of the world. The Fourth
of July was the day on which the Emperor
received him.
That his foreign tour is still affectionately
remembered abroad is shown by the hearty
welcome given to Colonel Fred. D. Grant in
Vienna, where his appointment as United
States Minister by President Harrison was
received as a special mark of honor. The
Austrian authorities and the great world of
Vienna join in doing honor to the son as
the national representative, just as they did
to the father in his capacity of private
citizen. General Grant was again received on his
y 11

122 Recollections.
return home by the strongest demonstration
of popular affection, but his nature remained
simple and unspoiled as ever, and his one
constant wish was to be permitted to live a
quiet, unostentatious life. Most of the won
derful and unusual gifts which all the coun
tries bestowed on him were sent to me from
time to time to be cared for, and finally they
were deposited by him for safe-keeping in
the National Museum at Washington, where
they are still an object of interest to thou
sands of his countrymen. General Grant's
journey around the world, was not only a
source of great pleasure to him, but it did a
real service to his country in making for
eigners of all nationalities better acquainted
with it.
He was very fortunate "in his travelling
companions, for at one time he was joined
by his old friend, Mr. Adolph E. Borie, Sec
retary of the Navy in his first Cabinet, and
his nephew, Dr. J. M. Keating, an able young
physician, of Philadelphia, who printed a
very graphic account of their visit to India.
Colonel Fred. D. Grant, too, made one of
the party in the East, and thus had an oppor
tunity to make that preparation which fitted
him so well for his present office of Minister
to Austria. Mr. John Russell Young was

General Grant. 123
with the general through the whole journey,
and he was a very welcome addition to the
party, for as a journalist he had a large
knowledge of men and things, and the gen
eral appreciated his great merit and ability,
an appreciation shown by his appointment
as Minister to China, where Mr. Young
showed that a good newspaper man was
good for nearly everything, even for difficult
and delicate diplomatic duties. No man ever
saw so much, was so honored, feted, and en
tertained as General Grant in this journey,
and none ever came home a more thoroughly
good citizen, proTid of his country and happy
to be able to live and die under its flag.
GENERAL GRANT IN PHILADELPHIA,
General Grant's reception in Philadelphia
on his return from his tour was thus noticed
in Harper's Weekly of January 10, 1880 :
" The departure of General Grant on his
tour around the world was marked by a
splendid ovation in Philadelphia. His re
turn to that city was the occasion for a re
ception which exceeded even that splendid
celebration in every way, and was a fitting
close to a round of honors seldom equalled
in the history of any other hero the world
has ever known. On both these occasions

124 . Recollections.
General Grant was the guest of Mr. George
W. Childs, and naturally people are curious
to know something of the home thus hon
ored. It is a stately white marble building
at the corner of Walnut and Twenty-second
Streets, built in 1872, and first thrown open
to the world by a reception given to General
and Mrs. Grant, where his Cabinet and many
of the men and women of note in the Quaker
City were gathered, together with many dis
tinguished persons from other places. The
hospitality thus begun has been continued
from that time onward, and the house is full
of the memories of great' assemblies that
have, met within its walls.
" Passing through a vestibule richly orna
mented with fine marble, the visitor enters a
broad hall of highly-polished mahogany and
satin-wood, the walls enriched with rare Chi
nese cloisonne plaques and vases, and finds
on his right a library, with a wealth of rare
and curious books and manuscripts that have
given bibliographers material for many de
scriptions. On the walls hang portraits of
George Pcabody, A. J. Drexel, Henry W.
Longfellow, and the Emperor of Brazil ; ou
the book-shelves are choice editions of the
great authors, many of them enriched with
autographs and notes, while within its al-

General Grant. 125
coves are manuscripts of inestimable value.
The collection of letters by the Presidents
of the United States is unequalled, while
among its other treasures are such rarities
as an original sermon by Cotton Mather,
complete manuscripts of Sir Walter Scott,
Dickens, Thackeray, and Hawthorne, Bry
ant's First Book of the Riad, and letters of
Byron, and Moore, and Gray, and Burns,
and Pope, and Coleridge, and Schiller, and
Lamb. On the other side of the hall is a
large drawing-room, opening into a music-
room, both decorated with exquisite taste,
and full of memorials of guests who have
gathered there in rapid succession.
" Beyond is the dining-room. On its walls
there are cabinets filled with rare china, glass,
and silver-ware; and a wonderful carving
from the Black Forest, representing the
conversion of the Germans, is appropriately
mated with modern French bronzes of un
usual splendor. Around the hospitable table
have gathered some of the best people who
have visited Philadelphia. General Grant
has been a frequent guest, and around him
have sat the generals who helped him to save
the Union, — Sherman and Sheridan, Meade
and Hancock, McDowell and McClellan.
Brazil was represented there by its Emperor
n*

126 Recollections.
and Empress, whose presence gave the Cen
tennial Exhibition at least a continental if
not a universal character. England has been
welcomed there in its ambassadors, and
noblemen whose titles are the least of their
honors, such as Lord Dufferin, Lord Rose-
bery, Lord Houghton, the Earl of Caithness,
and Lord Dun raven; and Dean Stanley,
Archdeacon Farrar, Matthew Arnold, and
Charles Kingsley, Froude and Goldwin
Smith, Tyndall and Herbert Spencer, Henry
Irving and Christine Nilsson, John Walter
and Sir Edward Thornton, have shared and
appreciated the generous greeting given them
in this country. Indeed, Lord Houghton in
his article describing his visit to America,
and Stanley in his, George Augustus Sala
in his racy letters to, the London Telegraph,
and Dickens in his letters, and Kingsley in
his, have made all the World witness of their
enjoyment of Mr. Childs's hospitality. Our
own best American men and women have
been familiar guests around the well-spread
table, and Longfellow and Holmes, Bancroft,
Russell Lowell, and Emerson, George Pea-
body and his successor J. S. Morgan, of
London ; Chauncey M. Depew and George
B. Roberts, Asa Packer and Austin Corbin j
Cornelius Vanderbilt and William Waldorf

General Grant. 127
Astor; James G. Blaine, James A. Bayard,
and Samuel J. Randall; Bishop Simpson,
Bishop Potter, and Cardinal Gibbons ; Rev.
Dr. McCosh, of Princeton College, Andrew
D. White, of Cornell University, and D. C.
Gilman, of Johns Hopkins University; Paul
B. Du Chaillu ; J. II. B. Latrobe and Rev-
erdy Johnson, of Baltimore; Joseph H.
Choate and J. Pierpont Morgan ; Anthony
J. Drexel and Francis A. Drexel; Henry
Wilson and Hamilton Fish; Professor Jo
seph Henry and T. A. Edison, have led the
long list of the representatives of American
genius and distinction that have shared in
Mr. Childs's inexhaustible hospitality.
" A broad staircase, with noble marble
wainscot and ebony rail, leads to the upper
floors. One room above, the family sitting-
room, is rich in photographs, signed by the
originals, representing many of the guests
who have shared the hearty welcome, of the
house. One of the paintings is by Ernest
Longfellow, the son of our great poet, and
an artist who gives promise of making a
name for himself. In three cabinets there
is such a collection of rare and beautiful
carvings in ivory as might well make an
observer suppose that Mr. Childs had de
voted all his time to the study of this curious

128 Recollections.
branch of art. Throughout the house there
is a wealth of clocks, each with its own
special merit of artistic beauty, historical
rarity, famous associations, or intrinsic value,
and at every step there is something note
worthy. A working library is comfortably
housed in a quiet nook on the top floor of
the house* and there the student might find
the best books of the best writers, and
material for almost any direction of literary
investigation. Here, too, there is an organ
and a musical library of the great masters,
showing that the heavenly art is diligently
pursued in its highest form, just as the two
grand pianos in the alcove opening out of
and making part of the great drawing-room
bear evidence to the fact that not all the en
grossing cares of the host and hostess, nor
the manifold charitable claims upon their
time and purse, deprive them of the solace
of good music. It was to this house that Gen
eral Grant returned to receive the hearty wel
come of his Philadelphia friends, who came
to pay their respects to Mr. Childs's guest in
quiet, unostentatious, friendly fashion.
" In this same house General Grant wrote
his memorable address on the opening of
the Exposition, and he was the chief at a
famous gathering, met on Mr. Childs's in-

General Grant. 129
vitation, on the evening of the 10th of May,
1876, to celebrate the opening of the Cen
tennial Exhibition. Tho President of the
United States and Mrs. Grant, all tho mem
bers of his Cabinet, the Supreme Court of
the United States, the leaders of Congress,
the governors of ten or a dozen States, tho
chiefs of our army and navy, the diplomatic
representatives of all the foreign countries
in this country, the Emperor and Empress
of Brazil, the numerous and distinguished
foreign Commissioners to the Centennial,
and as many famous men from all parts of
this country and all its varied interests and
pursuits, filled the great halls of Mr. Childs's
house, and lent to the Centennial that social
side which went so far to make its success,
and to secure the hearty approval of its thou
sands of visitors. On a different occasion
Mr. Childs brought together all the Centen
nial Commissioners, — their name was legion,
— and their wonderful costumes, striking
decorations, and delightful incongruity of
tongues made a gathering not easily de
scribed or forgotten. Chinamen in heavy
stuffs, and with the pigtail, the peacock's
feather, and the mandarin's mysterious but
ton ; Japanese in uniform that showed the
baneful effect of civilization, in banishing

130 Recollections.
their own comfortable and easy costumes;
Egyptians in court dresses and fez; Euro
peans rich in orders ; and Americans whose
names were their best passports both at
home and abroad, crowded the mansion.
"But there have been gatherings there,
fit though few, which have had even greater
interest for the fortunate guest. Sir Edwin
Arnold, as well as Lord Houghton's anxiety
to meet Walt Whitman was gratified, and
the English poet-peer there sat by the side
of the American poet whose wood-note wild
had sounded so attractively in the ear of his
far-off reader. Dean Stanley held high con
verse with the liberal clergymen of all types
and schools of theology, and shared with
them in discussing the methods and the hope
of making the world wiser and better by set
ting it the example of a religion broad enough
to take in all who seek to make life purer
and nobler. The Marquis de Rochambeau
was welcomed there as the representative
of a name dear to every American, for his
ancestor was the leader of the French allied
force that helped to make the Revolution and
to establish the independence of this country,
Charles Francis Adams and Edmund Quincy,
both for their own sakes as indefatigable
workers and as the representatives of the

General Gi-ant. 131
honored historic names of our own earliest
days, were received with hearty welcome;
and Robert C. Winthrop, with a lineage that
goes back to the earliest of New England's
leaders, and Hamilton Fish, with the double
claim of ancestral merit and of his own
services to the State, Chief Justice Waite,
and William M. Evarts, as the leader of the
American bar, were glad to meet around Mr.
Childs's hospitable table the Philadelphia
lawyers whose names recall their ancestors,
— Rawlcs and Cadwaladers, Ingersolls, Dal
las's, Tilghmans, Biddies, and Whartons."
General Grant was made a member of the
Grand Army of the Republic in my private
office, in the Ledger Building, on the morn
ing of May 16, 1877. On his consenting to
join General George G. Meade Post, No. 1,
of Philadelphia, arrangements were made
for the usual muster in the post-room, but
in preparing for his proposed tour around
the world General Grant was delayed in
reaching the city, and then the engagements
made for his entertainment, both public and
private, occupied every moment of his time.
It became necessary to change the plans, and
Colonel Beath, then Adjutant- Gen oral of the
Grand Army of the Republic, and Samuel

132 Recollections.
Worthington, Adjutant of Post 1, called on
me to fix the hour that would best suit Gen
eral Grant for the Grand Army service.
Accordingly, at the time fixed, the officers
and members of Meade Post met in my
office, and there General Grant assumed the
obligations of the order, and received the
badge of membership, which he wore fre
quently during his tour abroad, and at home
on public occasions.
At noon of the same day a public recep
tion was held in Independence Hall, and
thousands of veterans, with other citizens,
shook hands with General Grant, bade him
good-by, and wished him a prosperous voy
age. Upon his return from this remarkable
tour, Philadelphia, of course, welcomed him
with unstinted liberality.
The evening of December 12, 1879, was
devoted to the Grand Army of the Republic,
the Academy of Music being packed with an
audience of over five thousand enthusiastic
veterans. Only a few personal friends could
be admitted on that occasion, Bishop Simp
son, A. J. Drexel, George H. Stuart, and
myself being of the number.
The escort of General Grant from the
Continental Hotel to the Academy of Music

General Grant. 133
was probably one of the most thrilling and
touching scenes ever witnessed in Philadel
phia. A guard composed of members of
Post 1 and representatives from all the city
posts acted as escort, and grouped around
General Grant's carriage were a large num-
her of color-bearers carrying tattered and
battle-stained flags. Fireworks blazed at
every point along the route. The streets
were densely packed with an enthusiastic
throng, and altogether the scene was one
never to be forgotten by those who wit
nessed it.
General Hartranft, Commander-in-Chief
of the Grand Army of the Republic, presided
at the meeting, and Governor Henry M.
Hoyt made an eloquent address of welcome.
General Grant's reply was made in a clear
and distinct tone, that was plainly heard all
over the building, and was listened to with
the closest attention. He said, —
" It is a matter of very deep regret with
me that I had not thought of something or
prepared something to say in response to the
welcome which I am receiving at your hands
this evening, but really since my arrival I
have not had the time, and before that I
scarcely thought of it. But I can say to you
all that in the two years and seven months
12

134 Recollections.
since I left this city to make a circuit of the
globe, I have visited every capital in Europe
and most of the Eastern nations, but there
has not been a country which I have visited
in that circuit where I have not found some
of our members. In crossing our own laud
from the Pacific to the Atlantic side, there
is scarcely a new settlement, a cattle-range
or collection of pioneers, that is not largely
composed of veterans of the late war. It
calls to my mind the fact that while wars
are to be deplored, and unjust wars always
to be avoided, yet they are not an unmixed
evil. The boy who is brought up in his
country home, or his village home, or his
city home, without any exciting cause, is
apt to remain there and follow the pursuits
of his parent, and not develop beyond it,
and in the majority of cases not come up
to it ; but being carried away in the great
struggle, and particularly one where so much
principle is involved as in our late conflict,
it brings to his view a wider field than he
contemplated at his home, and although in
his field service he longs for the home he
left behind him, yet when he gets there he
finds that a disappointment, and has struck
out for new fields, and has developed the
vast dominions which are given to us for

General Grant. 135
our keeping, — for the thousands of liberty-
seeking people. The ex-soldier has become
the pioneer, not only of our land, but has
extended our commerce and trade, and
knowledge of us and our institutions, to
all other lands, and when brighter days
dawn upon other nations — particularly those
nations of the East — America will step in
for her share of the trade which will be
opened, and through the exertions of the
ex-soldiers — the comrades, veterans — and, I
might say, members of the Grand Army of
the Republic.
" Comrades, having been compelled, as
often as I have been since my arrival in San
Francisco, to utter a few words not only to
ex-soldiers, but to all other classes of citizens
of our great country, and always speaking
without any preparation, I have necessarily
been obliged to repeat, possibly in not the
same words, but the same ideas. But the
one thing I want to impress on you is that
we have a country to be proud of, to fight
for and die for if necessary. While many
of the countries of Europe give practical
protection and freedom to the citizen, yet
there is no European country that compares
in its resources with our own. There is no
country where the energetic man can, by his

136 Recollections.
own labor, and by his own industry, ingenu
ity, and frugality, acquire competency as he
can in America.
" A trip abroad, and a study of the insti
tutions and difficulties of a poor man making
his way in the world, is all that is necessary
to make us better citizens and happier with
our lot here.
" Comrades, I thank you for the very cor
dial welcome you have given me."
General Grant retained his membership
with Post 1 until his death, and when he
died at Mount McGregor, Post No. 327, of
Brooklyn, through associations with Colonel
Fred. D. Grant, tendered their services as a
guard of honor, and they so acted at the cot
tage and during the funeral ceremonies
with a similar detail from Post 32, of Sara
toga. The Grand Army of the Republic cere
monies at the grave at Riverside Park,
New York City, were exceedingly solemn
and appropriate, and were conducted by tho
officers and members of Meade Post.
On the first Memorial Day after the burial
of General Grant, General John A. Logan,
who had the distinguished honor of directing
the observance of May 30, as a memorial
day for the Union dead, delivered a most

General Gi'ant. 137
eloquent eulogy over the grave of his dead
comrade. I may say here that the growth of the
Grand Army has been somewhat phenom
enal in view of the time that has elapsed
since the war. The order was instituted in
April, 1866, by Dr. D. F. Stephenson, of
Springfield, Rlinois, and for some years had
a somewhat precarious existence. It did not
seem to have the confidence of the veterans
of the country, and after the first start it de
clined very rapidly. It reached its lowest
point in 1876. When General Grant joined
Post 1 in 1877 it was a very small post, and
the whole order only numbered twenty-six
thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine in
twenty-two departments. Each year there
after, however, the advance was marked.
Over eighty thousand were mustered in a
single year, and now the membership is over
four hundred thousand in forty-three depart
ments. The amount of relief directly disbursed
by the posts has reached nearly two million
dollars. The following, written at the time of the
general's death by his devoted and valued
friend, General E. F. Beale, of Washington,
12*

138 Recollections.
is so accurate and just that I am glad to
quote it here :
" He was so truthful, so serene, so frank
and of such simplicity, that it was impossi
ble to know and not to love him. I feel that
the world is better that he has lived. Many
a one thinking of his patience will suffer
with more fortitude trials and misfortunes,
and, knowing how beautiful virtue made his
life, endeavor to imitate it. History will tell
how he won great battles, and how the most
occult problems of state-craft were dealt with
in his masterly way, but it would be better
if the world knew more of the sweetness and
purity of his private life. I had the high
honor of his friendship, and saw him in his
familiar hour when the mask which all pub
lic men must wear in public was laid aside
with the reserve which accompanies it. I
was his companion in his walks and rides,
and saw and heard him talk in his quiet,
reposeful manner on all gentle themes. He
loved to ride through woods and note the
different trees, and ho knew them all, and
speak of their growth and habits. He loved
the growing grain and the means and pro
cesses of quickening it. He loved horses and
farm animals, and a quiet, contemplative life
mixed with the activity of out-door work."

West Point. 139
I never heard General Grant say, nor did
I ever know him to do, a mean thing. His
entire truthfulness, his perfect honesty, were
beyond question. I think of him, now that
he is dead, with ever-increasing admiration ;
I can recall no instance of vanity, of bom
bast, or of self-laudation. He was one of the
greatest, noblest, and most modest of men,
— equally great in civil and military life.

CHAPTER VI.
west point.

Gift of the Portraits of Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan
— Presentation Ceremonies.
In June, 1887, I was in attendance at
West Point as President of the Board of
Visitors. On a certain important occasion
both Generals Sherman and Sheridan were
present, and the latter remarked to me that
he had heard of the portrait of General
Grant which I had presented to the Military
Academy, and desired to see it. I told him
that it was hung in " Mess Hall," the name,
of which building, upon the presentation

140 Recollections.
of the painting, was changed at ray sugges
tion to Grant Hall. So we went down and
saw the portrait, one nearly of full length.
Sheridan admired it very much; and I
turned to him and said, "Now, general,
if I outlive you I will have your portrait
painted to hang alongside of Grant's."
So it came about. The portraits of Sheri
dan, and Sherman were painted, and along
with Grant's were placed in Grant Hall, and
were formally presented to the government
on October 3, 1889.
The following is from Harper's Weekly,
New York, Saturday, October 19, 1889 :
MR. CHILDS AT WEST POINT.
" The gift of the portraits of Grant, Sher
man, and Sheridan is not the only bene
faction of Mr. Childs to the West Point
Academy, as the following letter shows :
" ' The visitor to the beautiful cemetery of
the Military Academy, on the hill-side over
looking the Hudson at West Point, will see
there, above the graves of officers and cadets,
a number of monuments, which are all of
the same original and striking design. The
massive base of each is of gray unpolished
granite ; on that rests a block of red granite,

West Point. 141
polished, and on that a bronze cannon-ball
of fifteen inches in diameter; on one side of
that is placed a large bronze shield, at the
top of which is the insignia of tho rank of
him to whose memory it was erected; below
that are the name, dates of birth and of
death, and an appropriate epitaph; These
monuments are all the gift of Mr. George
W. Childs, of Philadelphia, and how they
came there is told by Colonel Wilson, the
present Superintendent of the Military Acad
emy. ,
" ' In 1887 Mr. Childs was appointed by
President Cleveland a member of the Board
of Visitors to West Point, and during his
extended visit there, in the discharge of his
duties as President of the Board, he saw in
the cemetery of the Academy several graves
above which no memorials were erected.
Mr. Childs suggested to General Merritt,
the then superintendent, who entirely sym
pathized with his generous design, that ef
forts should be made to ascertain from the
friends of those whose graves were marked
by no stone if it was their purpose to erect
monuments above them, and if not, to ob
tain their consent to Mr. Childs doing so.
The result was that the above-described
monuments were placed in the cemetery,

142 Recollections.
Mr. Childs having had the design of them
especially made, and paying the entire cost
of their construction and erection. Mr.
Childs is the author of many good gifts,
but we know of no other which so much as
this denotes the gentle, kindly nature of the
man. The following editorial is from the New
York World, October 5, 1889 :
" Mr. George W. Childs's gift of portraits
of Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan to the
Military Academy at West Point illustrates
anew that gentleman's rare gift of doing
the right thing at the right time, in the
right way. Not many men have the im
pulse to give and to do public-spirited things
in so large a measure as he, and still rarer
are those wTho share his genius for seeing
what may be best done and how it may be
most fitly accomplished. Now that he has
hung upon the walls of the Military Acad
emy these portraits of the three great leaders
of the Union armies from 1861 to 1865, it
is obvious to every intelligence that this was
a peculiarly fit and excellent thing to do.
But nobody else had the gift to recognize
the need and the generosity to supply it.
This peculiar grace and quickness of per-

West Point. 143
ception have distinguished all of the liberal
Philadelphian's benefactions and greatly en
hanced their value and their influence. He
is a consummate artist in well doing, and
the accomplishment is an exceedingly rare
one." The Secretary of War, in his annual report
for the year 1889, says, —
" Through the patriotic generosity of
Mr. George W. Childs, of Philadelphia, the
Academy was enriched, through interesting
ceremonies on the 3d of October last, by
the presentation of fine oil-paintings of the
three generals of the army whose names
will remain indissolubly connected with the
war for the preservation of the Union, —
Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan."
LETTER FROM PRESIDENT HARRISON.
Executive Mansion, Washington,
September 30, 1889.
George W. Childs, Esq., Philadelphia.
My dear Sir, — I am just in receipt of
your kind invitation to attend the exercises
at West Point on the 3d proximo in con
nection with the presentation by you to the
Academy of the portraits of Generals Grant,
Sherman, and Sheridan.

144 Recollections.
Let me assure you that I decline the in
vitation with regret. But my engagements
here are such as to make an acceptance
impossible. The observation by the cadets
of the portraits of these great captains and
patriots cannot fail to be a source of in
spiration and encouragement. Very sincerely yours,
Benj. Harrison.
LETTER FROM GENERAL HOWARD.
Headquarters Division of the Atlantic,
Governor's Island, N. Y.,
October 1, 1889.
George W. Childs, Esq., Ledger Building,
Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.
My dear Sir, — Nothing but a positive
engagement of long standing and one of
great importance could have kept me from
being with you at the presentation on the
3d inst. Allow me to thank you for these
ever-increasing evidences of your large-
heartedness and patriotic devotion.
Sincerely your friend,
0. 0. Howard,
Mo 'j. -Gen. U. S. Army.
The New York Tribune gave the follow
ing account of the formal presentation of
the portraits :

West Point. 145
" West Point, N. Y., October 3, 1889.—
Many interests were happily woven into
one to give distinction to a memorable day
at this place. Memorable indeed it must in
any case have been. So much the occasion
assured. But it was a happy circumstance,
and added greatly to heighten the interest
and impressiveness of the ceremonies, that
the presentation to the corps of cadets by a
liberal citizen of the portraits of our three
great patriotic commanders should not only
have drawn together so distinguished a com
pany of our own people, but should also
have been witnessed and honored by the
presence of the International American Con
gress, the official representatives of nearly
all the republics of the three Americas.
And in all this remarkable audience none
looked on and listened with greater interest
and attention than the dignified men whose
whole demeanor to-day showed that they
have come here not as foreigners, but as
friends. They seemed to feel that the name
of America might be broad enough to
embrace and unite a hemisphere. . . .
"After a national salute from the field
battery on the plain, in honor of the Con
gress of tho Americas, the battalion of cadets
formed in line, under the orders of the com-
q k 13

146 Recollections.
mandant, Lieutenant-Colonel J. P. Hawkins,
and, after passing in review in common and
double time before the superintendent, Col
onel John M. Wilson, and the Secretary of
War, marched in a body to Grant Hall, and
stood at parade rest at the south end while
the company seated itself in the body of the
hall and on the platform at the north end.
Here, on the walls, concealed by handsome
silk flags, hung the three large paintings
of Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan, which
George W. Childs, of Philadelphia, was
about to present to the Academy. Beneath
them, besides the members of the Congress,
sat General Sherman himself, with Mr.
Childs on his right; Colonel Wilson, with
Secretary Proctor on his left, and Chaplain
Postlethwaite on his right; Generals Van
Vliet, Fitz-John Porter, Horace Porter,
Michael V. Sheridan, Adjutant- General Kel-
ton, Hon. John Bigelow, Hon. Hamilton
Fish, Jr., Hon. Wayne MacVeagh, Alex
ander Hamilton, Senor Romero, Mexican
Minister (a devoted friend of General Grant),
J. G. do Amaral Valente, Brazilian Minis
ter, and many noted soldiers and citizens,
together with the officers of the academic
staff and the ladies of their families.
" After a short and earnest prayer by the

West Point. 147
Rev. W. M. Postlcthwaitc, the chaplain of
the Academy, the three flags fell simultane
ous! v at a signal from Colonel Wilson, and
the portraits stood revealed. They are all
the work of Mrs. Darragh, of Philadelphia.
Grant, which naturally hangs in the middle,
was painted from Gutekunst's photograph
of 1865, and represents him in an easy atti
tude in full general's uniform, without sword
or epaulets, the frock-coat unbuttoned, tho
right hand thrust in the trousers-pocket, and
the left resting in the folds of the breast.
Shermau, on Grant's left, is from Hunting
ton's portrait of 1874; while Sheridan, on
tho opposite side, was taken from life, shortly
before his death. They areall extremely
lifelike, as the men looked at the time. Gen
eral Sherman naturally looked older than
his counterfeit, but a startling resemblance
to Sheridan was seen and remarked in the
person of his brother, who survives him, and
who sat there as if to invite the verification.
The audience stood while the band played
' Hail, Columbia.' Then General Horace
Porter made an eloquent, scholarly, and
even masterly, presentation speech in behalf
of Mr. Childs. He was well received and
heartily applauded throughout, as well as at
the close."

148 Recollections.
The New York World, of October 4, re
cords the presentation as follows :
" The ceremonies of the unveiling of the
portraits quickly followed the review in
Grant Hall, and as the assemblage took their
seats the appearance of General Sherman
and Mr. Childs on the platform brought
about a storm of applause. The old hero
bowed and smiled good-naturedly, and Mr.
Childs modestly, seated beside Colonel Wil
son, who presided as tho chairman of tho
meeting, blushed as though some one had
asked him to take command of the army.
It was military throughout, the way the
ceremonies began. The Post-chaplain said
a short prayer. At its close Colonel Wilson
raised his hand, and silence prevailed. Be
hind the platform there were three American
flags hauging against the wall, and all eyes
were fixed upon them. The colonel's hand
came down on the table in front of him,
there was one beat of the drum, and the
three flags disappeared as if wiped out by
electricity, and the three portraits of the
great generals were revealed. Round upon
round of applause followed, the cadets
marched in the hall behind the audience,
presented arms, and the band struck up
'Hail, Columbia.' As Mr. Childs stood up

West Point. 149
liko the others on the platform to gaze upon
the portraits, he was applauded to the echo,
the ladies waving their handkerchiefs, and
the cadets beating the floor with the but-
ends of their muskets. What Mr. Childs
had promised General Sheridan in 1887,
when he said, ' General, if I outlive you I
will have your portrait painted and hung
there beside that of Grant; I think it would
be a good idea to paint Sherman also, and
to hang him on the one side of Grant and
you on the other,' was an accomplished fact.
Mr. Childs looked towards General Sherman
as he took his seat, and the old hero clasped
him warmly by the hand.
" General Horace Porter's address was
listened to with great attention and loudly ¦
applauded. When Mr. Childs's name was
mentioned as well as General Sherman's, the
applause was loud and long-continued.
COLONEL WILSON'S REMARKS.
" Colonel Wilson's reply to General Por
ter, accepting the portraits for the Academy,
was a ringing one and astonished his fellow-
soldiers by its oratorical delivery. Even
Secretary of War Proctor remarked, in the
few words he said to the audience on be
ing called for, that 'West Point evidently

150 Recollections.
brought out not only good soldiers but
splendid orators.'
" ' Mr. Childs,' said Colonel Wilson, ' in
the name of the United States Military
Academy I accept these splendid portraits
of the trio of heroes to whom our country
is so much indebted for its grandeur and its
unity. It is particularly appropriate that
you, One of the ablest leaders in that profes
sion which is surely kindred to that of arms,
the press of the nation, should present to
this, their Alma Mater, the portraits of these
eminent men. The power of the press is
to-day felt throughout the civilized world.
It is the press that urges us to " do noble
deeds, not dream them all day long." It is
men like you who are leading these magnifi
cent armies of the press in peace, that are
reducing the Malakoffs of vice and Redans
of evil. In the name of the Military Acad
emy I thank you for this generous and noble
gift, and may I not express the hope that,
to prove to those who come after us " that
peace hath its victories as well as war," we
ere long may see upon these walls, among
the portraits of these eminent soldiers, that
of the able, upright, philanthropic, con
scientious Christian citizen, that generous,
true-hearted man, Mr. George W- Childs ?'

West Point. 151
" The Secretary of War then made a few
remarks, which were well received.
" General Sherman, who, during all these
ceremonies, had sat on the platform with
folded hands and tear-dimmed and down
cast eyes, in response to many calls, was
next introduced. As the general arose the
assemblage broke forth into wild cheering.
" The applause was persistent as General
Sherman stood upon his feet, after repeated
calls. He spoke with feeling, and his deeply-
lined face, closely watched by those who
never before had seen him, was moved by
intense earnestness. The light of clustered
lamps fell upon his silvered head as he spoke,
and his strong face was tremulous with emo
tion as he referred to the fact that by a
strange accident of nature he was the only
one living now of the three whose portraits
were before his hearers, and there was a sad
quality in his voice when he said, ' I was
older than either Grant or Sheridan.'
GENERAL SHERMAN'S REMARKS.
" ' Ladies and Gentlemen and those
Cadets behind : I fear that West Point is
losing that good old reputation for doing
and not speaking. I have done more talk
ing than I should have done, and I believe

152 Recollections.
I have done some good, though not such
as I thought of doing. It is one of those
strange incidents of my life that I am per
mitted to stand before you to-night the sole
survivor of the trio, or trinity, of the gen
erals of the army of the United States. I
was older than Grant or Sheridan. No three
men ever lived on the earth's surface so
diverse in mental and physical attributes as
the three men whose portraits you now look
upon. Different in every respect except one,
— we had a guiding star ; we had an emblem
of nationality in our minds implanted at
West Point, which made us come together
for the common purpose like the rays of the
sun coming together make them burn. This,
my young friends in gray, I want you to re
member, that men may differ much, but that
by coming together in harmony and friend
ship and love they may move mountains.
" ' I knew these men from the soles of
their feet to the tops of their heads. They
breathed the same feelings with me. We
were soldiers to obey the orders of our coun
try's government and carry them out what
ever the peril that threatened us. Having
done so, we laid down our arms, like good
citizens that wo hope to have been, giving the
example to all of the world that war is for

West Point. 153
one purpose, — to produce peace. A just war
will produce peace ; an unjust war has am
bition or some other bad motive. Our war
was purely patriotic, to help the government
in its peril. We were taught to idolize that
flag on the flag-staff, obeying the common
law, and working to a common purpose.
No jealousies, nothing of the kind; work
ing together like soldiers, the lieutenant
obeying the captain, the captain his colonel,
the brigadier the general, and all subordinate
to the President of the United States, — the
commander-in-chief. There is no need to
prophesy; it is as plain as mathematics.
You cau look in the heavens and read it.
It is the lesson of life. When war comes
you can have but one purpose— your country,
— and by your country I mean the whole
country, not part of it.' "
At the close of the remarks of General
Sherman immense cheers rang through the
hall.* * In a letter to me, dated New York, November 3,
1889, General Sherman, speaking of my " Piecollections
of General Grant," which had been sent to him in con
venient pamphlet form, says, " The substance of tho
contents of this pamphlet I had read before, but it is
mere valuable in being thus arranged for safe-keeping,
though I would prefer it in octavo instead of duodecimo,
because my habit is to collect such pamphlets and onco

154 Recollections.
GENERAL HORACE PORTER'S ADDRESS.
General Horace Porter was General Grant's
trusted and tried friend for the last twenty-
five years of his life. He was one of his staff
officers throughout the war, and his military
secretary while he was President of the
United States. The following is the touch
ing and elegant address which he delivered
on this occasion :
" The only representatives of royalty recog
nized in this land are our merchant princes.
We are indebted for the occasion which
brings us together to-day to the princely act
of a public-spirited and patriotic citizen who
has conferred upon the Military Academy
souvenirs of her three most distinguished
graduates whose historic features have been
transferred to canvas by the limner's art.
One dwelling in our midst, two dwelling in
our memories. One bearing the laurel upon
a living brow, two wearing the laurel inter
twined with the cypress. The history of
a year to overhaul them, select enough each year to
make a book of about five hundred pages, and have
them indexed and bound for futuro reference In this
way I collect much valuable matter. I am sure this
little 'primer' of yours will have fifty times its value
fifty years hence."

West Point. 155
their lives is the most brilliant chapter in
the history of their country. It savors more
of romance than reality; it is more like a
fabled tale of ancient days than the story of
American soldiers of the nineteenth century.
" Most of the conspicuous characters in
history have risen to prominence by gradual
steps, but the senior of the triumvirate,
whose features are recalled to us to-day,
came before the people with a sudden bound.
Almost the first sight caught of him was in
the blaze of his camp-fires and the flashes
of his guns those wintry days and nights in
front of Donelson. From that time until
the closing triumph at Appomattox the
great central figure of the war was Ulysses
S. Grant. As light and shade produce tho
most attractive effects in a picture, so tho
singular contrasts, the strange vicissitudes
of his eventful life surround him with an
interest which attaches to few characters in
history. His rise from an obscure lieu
tenant to the command of the veteran ar
mies of the great republic; his transition
from a frontier post of the untrodden West
to the Executive Mansion of the nation ;
his sitting at one time in a little store in
Galena, not even known to the Congress
man from his district; at another time strid-

1 56 Recollections.
ing through the palaces of the Old World,
with the descendants of a line of kings
rising and standing uncovered in his pres
ence, — these are some of the features of his
marvellous career which appeal to the imag
ination, excite men's wonder, and fascinate
all who make a study of his life.
" He was created for great emergencies.
It was the very magnitude of the task which
called forth the powers that mastered it.
In ordinary matters he was an ordinary
man ; in momentous affairs he towered as a
giant. When performing the routine duties
of a company post, there was no act to
make him conspicuous above his fellow-
officers, but when he wielded corps and
armies the great qualities of the commander
flashed forth, and his master-strokes of
genius stamped him as the foremost soldier
of his age. When he hauled wood from
his little farm and sold it in St. Louis his
financiering was hardly equal to that of the
small farmers about him, but when a mes
sage was to be sent by a President to Con
gress that would puncture the fallacies of
the inflationists and throttle by a veto the
attempt of unwise legislators to cripple the
finances of the nation, a state paper was
produced which has ever since commanded

West Point. 157
the wonder and admiration of every believer
in a sound currency. He was made for
great things, not for little. He could collect
fifteen millions from Great Britain in settle
ment of the Alabama claims ; he could not
protect his own personal savings from the
miscreants who robbed him in Wall Street.
" If there is one word which describes
better than any other the predominating
characteristic of his nature, that word is
loyalty. He was loyal to his friends, loyal
to his family, loyal to his country, and loyal
to his God. This trait naturally produced
a reciprocal effect upon those who were
brought into relations with him, and was
one of the chief reasons why men became
so loyally attached to him. Many a public
man has had troops of adherents who clung
to him only for the patronage dispensed at
his hands, or being dazzled by his poAver
became blind partisans in a cause he repre
sented; but perhaps no other man than
General Grant ever had so many personal
friends who loved him for his own sake,
whose affection only strengthened with time,
whose attachment never varied in its devo
tion, whether he was general or President,
or simply private citizen.
"He was generous alike to friends and
14

158 Recollections.
foes. So magnanimous was he to his enemy
that we find him after the close of the war
risking his commission in saving from pros
ecution in the civil courts his great military
antagonist upon the battle-fields of Virginia.
" Even the valor of his martial deeds was
surpassed by the superb heroism he dis
played when fell disease attacked him, when
the hand which had seized the surrendered
swords of countless thousands was no longer
able to return the pressure of a comrade's
grasp, when he met in death the first enemy
to whom he ever surrendered. But with
him death brought eternal rest, and he was
permitted to enjoy what he had pleaded for
in behalf of others, for the Lord had let him
have peace.
" Turn we now to Grant's immediate suc
cessor in the office of general-in-chief, his
illustrious lieutenant with whom he divided
a field of military operations which covered
half a continent, the skilful strategist, the
brilliant writer, the commander whose or
ders spoke with the true bluntness of the
soldier, who fought from valley's depth to
mountain height, who marched from inland
rivers to the sea, — William T. Sherman.
"He has shown himself possessed of the
highest characteristics of the soldier. Bold

West Point. 159
in conception, self-reliant, demonstrating by
his acts that ' much danger makes great
hearts most resolute,' prompt in decision,
unshrinking under grave responsibilities,
fertile in resources, quick to adapt the
means at hand to the accomplishment of
an end, possessing an intuitive knowledge
of topography, combining the restlessness
of a Hotspur with the patience of a Fabius,
unswerving in patriotism, of unimpeachable
personal character, with a physical constitu
tion which enabled him to undergo every
hardship incident to an active campaign, it
is no wonder that he has filled so large a
measure of military greatness, that he stands
in the front rank of the world's great cap
tains. " No name connected with American war
fare inspires more genuine enthusiasm, ap
peals more to our sentiments, or more ex
cites our fancy than that of the wizard of
the battle-field, Philip H. Sheridan. The
personification of chivalry, the incarnation
of battle; cheering, threatening, inciting,
beseeching, inspiring all men by his acts,
he roused his troops to deeds of individual
heroism unparalleled in the history of mod
ern warfare, and his unconquerable columns
rushed to victory with all the confidence of

160 Recollections.
Caesar's Tenth Legion. Generous of his
life, gifted with the ingenuity of a Hanni
bal, the dash of a Murat, the courage of a
Ney, the magnetism of his presence trans
formed routed squadrons into charging col
umns, and snatched victory from defeat.
He preferred shot and shell to flags of truce ;
he would rather lead forlorn hopes than
follow in the wake of charges.
"His standard rose above all others on
the field; wherever blows fell thickest his
crest was in their midst ; despite the daring
valor of the defence, opposing ranks went
down before the fierceness of his onsets
never to rise again; he paused not till the
folds of his banners waved over the strong
holds he had wrested from the foe. While
his achievements in actual battle eclipse,
by their brilliancy, the strategy and grand
tactics employed in his campaigns, yet the
skill and boldness exhibited in moving large
bodies of men into position entitle him, per
haps, to as much credit as the marvellous
qualities he displayed in the face of the
enemy. "Brave Sheridan! Methinks I see your
silent clay again quickened into life, once
more riding Rienzi through a fire of hell,
leaping opposing earthworks at a single

West Point. 161
bound, and leaving nothing of those who
barred your way except the fragments scat
tered in your path.
" Matchless leader ! Harbinger of vic
tory, we salute you !
" As long as manly courage is talked of or
heroic deeds are honored, there will remain
green in the hearts of men the talismanic
name of Sheridan.
" Nearly every great war has given birth
to one great general; no other war than our
own has produced three such eminent com
manders. In their portraits future graduates
will gaze upon the features of three soldiers
who were heroes, comrades, friends. As
iron is welded in the heat of the forge, so
was their friendship welded in the heat of
battles. With hearts untouched by jealousy,
with souls too great for rivalry, they saved
us from the spectacle presented by a Marius
and a Sulla, a Caesar and aPompey, a Charles
the First and a Cromwell. They placed
above all personal ends the safety of the
state, and, like the men in the Roman pha
lanx of old, stood shoulder to shoulder
and linked their shields against a common
foe. " In this life little is learned from precept,
something from experience, much from ex-
l 14*

162 Recollections.
ample. It is said that for three hundred
years after Thermopylae every school child
in Greece was required each day to repeat
from memory the names of the three hun
dred immortal heroes who fell in the defence
of that pass. It would be in itself a liberal
education to the future defenders of the
republic who bear diplomas from this his
toric spot, where patriotism early found a
stronghold and' treason's plots were baffled,
if they could daily utter the names and con
template the exalted characters of the trio
whose faces will henceforth look down upon
them from the artist's canvas. As we gaze
upon the features of each one of them we
may fittingly apply the words of Milton, —
" ' Thither shall all the valiant youth resort,
And from his memory inflame their breasts
To matchless valor.'
"The imperishable scroll on which the
record of their deeds is written has been se
curely lodged in the highest niche of Fame's
temple. No one can pluck a single laurel
from their brow; no man can lessen the
measure of their renown.
" It is an auspicious circumstance which
permits these ceremonies to take place be
fore so distinguished and influential a body

West Point. 163
as that of the International -American Con
gress. The presence of its delegates upon
this Post dedicated to war is an augury that
states may be saved without the sword ;
that henceforth our differences in the New
World may be settled without resorting to
the ' last argument of kings,' and that con
gresses, bearing in their hands the olive-
branch, will labor to avoid war, which
wastes a nation's substance, to foster com
merce, which is a nation's life, and to pre
serve that peace and good-will which should
everywhere prevail among men.
" Three years ago there was selected as
President of your Board of Visitors a citi
zen of Philadelphia, whose heart is as large
as his purse, and whose generosity dwells
in a land which knows no frontiers, — Mr.
George W. Childs. His thoughtfulness
prompted his liberality to procure for the
Academy these gifts which are to grace its
walls. " The likeness of General Grant was exe
cuted by Mrs. Darragh, of Philadelphia.
It was made from a photograph taken by
Gutekunst, of that city, in 1865, which Mrs.
Grant and a number of the general's friends
considered the best of the many pictures
taken of him just after the war. Repre-

164 Recollections.
senting him as he appeared nearly thirty
years ago, his features do not seem so famil
iar to those who saw him only in later years.
Mrs. Darragh was also commissioned to exe-
cute the portraits of Sheridan and Sherman.
In the preparation of General Sherman's
picture her chief guide was the famous por
trait of him painted by Huntington, fifteen
years ago, and her aim was to represent the
general as of that period. General Sheri
dan sat for his portrait, and she painted it
from life, representing the general as he ap
peared but a short time before his lamented
death. "It now becomes my agreeable duty, in
the name of Mr. Childs, to present to you,
Colonel Wilson, as Superintendent of the
Military Academy, the portraits of three of
her sons who have borne the highest mili
tary titles, as an offering from an untitled
citizen, who, in his living, has verified the
adage that the post of honor is the private
station. " His good works have made him honored
in other lands as well as this, where his
name is held in grateful recollection by the
many who have been the recipients of his
practical philanthropy; and not only the
graduates of West Point, but the people at

West Point. 165
largo, will, I am sure, make grateful ac
knowledgment of the means he has taken,
in those testimonials, to manifest his appre
ciation of the Military Academy and the
three distinguished sons she trained to battle
for the integrity of our common country."
There were loud cheers as the general
sat down, and then the band struck up
"Yankee Doodle," the ladies and guests gen
erally rushed from their seats, and as they
filed out into the dark after tho cadet corps
Mr. Childs was surrounded by the officers
and the American delegates, who shook him
by the hand heartily and congratulated him
upon the grand success of his patriotic plan
of 1887. '
HISTORY OF THE PORTRAITS.
Major John M. Carson, chief of the Phila
delphia Ledger Bureau at Washington, has
furnished the following account of the paint
ing of the portraits of Generals Grant,
Sherman, and Sheridan for tho Military
Academy :
"Tho creation of portraits of Generals
Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan, now hung
in the Cadet Mess Hall — to be hereafter
known as Grant Hall— at the United States

166 Recollections.
Military Academy, West Point, was begun
about three years ago. The original pur
pose was confined to a portrait of Grant.
The portraits of Sherman and Sheridan
sprang from this purpose, and, considering
the relations of Mr. George W. Childs, to
whose patriotism and liberality the Military
Academy is indebted for the portraits, with
those three military chieftains, the Sherman
and Sheridan paintings were an easy and
logical outgrowth. The scheme from which
these three large valuable paintings ema
nated was evolved from a comparatively
unimportant incident. About four years
ago, with that skill and ingenuity which
have made him famous in the management
of the Cadet Mess, Captain William F.
Spurgin, treasurer, quartermaster, and com
missary of cadets, succeeded in giving the
Mess Hall a new floor and having its walls
brightened. " Captain Spurgin next conceived the
idea of making the Hall still more attrac
tive by hanging pictures and portraits upon
the walls. This was approved by General
Wesley Merritt, then superintendent of the
Academy, who authorized the transfer from
the library of several portraits for this pur
pose. When these were hung in the Mess

West Point. 167
Hall a new idea was suggested to Captain
Spurgin, and he concluded that it would be
most appropriate to collect for the Hall por
traits and photographs of the distinguished
graduates of the Academy. It was naturally
thought that the daily presence with the
cadets of these exemplars of the Academy
could not fail to exercise a wholesome influ
ence upon the corps. They would furnish
cadets when at meals suggestions for thought
and conversation, and those who occupied
seats at tables once occupied by Grant, Sher
man, Sheridan, Meade, Thomas, Hancock,
and other eminent graduates, as they looked
upon the portraits, would be encouraged to
emulate the lives of those great chieftains.
In addition to this, it was thought that such
a gallery might be collected through relatives
and friends, without expense to the govern
ment or the Academy.
"During one of my periodical visits to
the Academy Captain Spurgin outlined his
scheme, and said he would like to obtain a
good picture of General Grant. It was sug
gested that Mr. George W. Childs had sev
eral good large-size photographs of Grant,
and would doubtless be glad to contribute
one of them for this use. Captain Spurgin
wrote to Mr. Childs, who agreed to comply

168 Recollections.
with the request made. Shortly thereafter
Mr. Childs mentioned this matter to Mrs.
U. S. Grant, who said that -she would like,
above all things, to have a good likeness of
her husband at the Military Academy, for
which he always entertained a feeling of
admiration and love. Some years prior to
this Mr. Childs had Leutze, who painted
' Westward the Course of Empire' upon the
wall of the west stairway to the gallery of
the House of Representatives at Washington,
paint a portrait of General Grant, and sug
gested that the Leutze painting be trans
ferred from the library to the Cadet Mess
Hall. The Leutze portrait was not liked
by Mrs. Grant, and she did not, therefore,
care to have it used for this purpose. Mr.
Childs then said he would have a portrait
of the general made for West Point from
any picture Mrs. Grant might select. The
photograph made by Gutekunst, of Phil
adelphia, in 1865, was selected by Mrs.
Grant, and Mrs. Darragh, of Philadelphia,
was commissioned to paint a portrait from
it. The general stood for this photograph.
It is regarded by his family, and those who
were his associates, as a correct likeness of
the general as he appeared at the close of
the war. When the photograph was taken

West Point. 169
General Grant wore upon his left arm a
badge of mourning for President Lincoln.
This emblem of mourning does not appear
in the painting. To many of those who
knew General Grant after he became Presi
dent, the Darragh portrait is not considered
good, but by the family of the general, and
by those who were intimate with him during
and immediately after the war, it is regarded
as a faithful likeness and an excellent por
trait. It was sent to the Academy in May,
1887, and hung on the north wall of the
Cadet Mess Hall. General Merritt, ' in
honor of the great graduate of the Academy,
whose portrait, a present to the Academy
from Mr. George W. Childs, sanctifies the
hall as a gallery for the portraits of gradu
ates,' issued an order directing that there
after the cadet dining-hall should be known
officially as Grant Hall.
"In June, 1887, a few days after the
Grant portrait had been hung, Mr. Childs
visited the Military Academy as a member
of the Board of Visitors, upon which occa
sion I accompanied him. General Sheridan
also visited the Academy at that time in his
official capacity as lieutenant-general com
manding the army, and it proved to be his
last visit to the institution. In company
h 15

170 Recollections.
with Mr. Childs General Sheridan visited
the dining-hall to inspect the Grant portrait,
and during this inspection Mr. Childs said
to the genera], in his quick but cheerful
manner in conversation, —
" ' General, if I outlive you I will have
your portrait painted and hung there beside
that of Grant.'
" Sheridan responded, ' Mr. Childs, if you
intend to have painted a portrait of me I
would like to see it before it is hung in this
hall.' '-' 'All right,' said Mr. Childs; ' you shall
see it. I would prefer to have you painted
while living.'
"After further conversation about the
Grant portrait, the two gentlemen left the
hall and walked to the house of the superin
tendent, General Merritt, at which General
Sheridan was a guest. Mr. Childs proceeded
to the West Point Hotel. Sheridan arrived
at the Point that morning, and was to review '
the corps of cadets in the afternoon, and, as
it was near the hour fixed for the parade
when General Merritt's house was reached,
he went directly to his room to don his
uniform. While thus engaged he sent a
messenger to Mr. Childs, asking that gentle
man to join him before ' parade,' and, at the

West Point, 171
same time, invited the Board of Visitors,
through Mr. Childs, who was President of
the Board, to attend him duriug the cere
monies of parade and review.
" When Mr. Childs joined the general on
the porch of the superintendent's house, the
latter said, —
" ' Mr. Childs, while putting on my uni
form, I could not help musing about our
conversation in the Mess Hall. If you are
in earnest about painting my portrait for the
Academy, I want to be painted from life.'
" ' I am in earnest,' replied Mr. Childs.
' The portrait shall be painted, upon one
condition, — it must please Mrs. Sheridan.
I think it would be a good idea to paint
Sherman also, and to hang him on the one
side of Grant and you on the other.'
. " ' That certainly would be a generous
act upon your part,' said Sheridan, ' and one
which would be appreciated by Sherman
and myself. I would rather have you do
this service than any other man, because no
one could do it with so much propriety.
The relations between Grant and you were
bound by strong ties of mutual affection.
Those between you, Sherman, and myself
have been most intimate. We have all
been guests at the same time, and many

172 Recollections.
times, at your house. You have come to
know us better than other men know us.
Grant, Sherman, and myself were closely
connected with the suppression of the re
bellion. United thus in our lives, we should
be placed together here, returned as it were
to the Academy from which we started out
in the morning of life as second lieutenants.
Associated as you have been with us, you are
the very man to keep us united after death.'
"'All right, general,' said Mr. Childs.
' The portraits shall be painted and hung in
the Mess Hall. Now select your artist.'
"When Mr. Childs spoke to General
Sheridan in the Mess Hall about painting-
his portrait, the latter did not think that
Mr. Childs was serious. I happen to know
that Mr. Childs formed the determination
to add the portraits of Sherman and Sheri
dan to his contribution prior to his visit to
the Academy, and informed General Sheri
dan of this fact upon his return to Wash
ington from West Point during a conversa
tion in which he related to me what I have
stated touching the conversation with Mr.
Childs at West Point, and also the conver
sation between Childs, Sheridan, and Sher
man in relation to painting a portrait of the
general last named.

West Point. 173
" Shortly after the conversation between
Childs and Sheridan on the porch of the
superintendent's house, the battalion was
formed on the parade-ground. General
Sheridan, accompanied by the superinten
dent and staff and the Board of Visitors,
had passed down the front and up the rear
of the battalion, with its well-aligned and
rigid ranks, in which he had once stood as
a cadet, and had taken his place at the
point designated for the reviewing officer,
when General Sherman rode up from Crans
ton's Hotel, located about a mile south of
the reservation. Sherman remained in his
carriage, which was drawn up in front of
the parade-ground and directly in rear of
the reviewing officer. As the corps passed
in common, and subsequently in double
time, Sherman stood up and watched, with
old-time eagerness and pride, the columns
of gray and white until they wheeled into
a faultless line, tendered the final salute
to the reviewing officer, heard the cadet
adjutant announce 'Parade is dismissed,'
and saw the companies move, to lively mu
sic, from the parade-ground to the cadet bar
racks. Then he alighted from the carriage,
pushed through the crowd that always
fringes the parade-ground upon occasions
15*

174 Recollections.
of parade and review, and joined Sheridan
and the other officials who still lingered on
the ground. When the usual salutations
and introductions had been concluded,
Sheridan drew Sherman and Childs apart
from the crowd and said,-—
" ' Sherman, Mr. Childs informs me that
he intends to have portraits of you and me
painted, to hang beside that of General
Grant in the Mess Hall. He proposes to
wait until we die, but I insisted that the
paintings be made before we die, so we may
see how the artist executes us. He has
agreed to do this, and I told him ho is the
one man who can and should do it.'
"General Sherman expressed great grati
fication at this. ' Childs,' said he, 'that is
a good idea. I think it will be admitted,
and I can say it without suspicion of ego
tism, that Grant, Sheridan, and myself were
the three central military figures of the war,
and I would like that we should go down
to posterity together. I like the idea of
hanging our portraits in the Mess Hall here,
and I agree with Sheridan that the scheme
can be better, and with greater propriety,
carried out by you than by any other man.'
" ' Well, it is all understood and settled,'
said Mr. Childs. 'I have told Sheridan to

West Point. 175
select his artist, and I now repeat that order
to you.'
" When it was publicly announced that
Mr. Childs was to have the portraits painted,
the two generals were overrun with letters
from artists soliciting the work. In Sheri
dan's case the applications were so numer
ous as to become annoying, and upon his
request a paragraph was published in the
newspapers announcing that he had selected
an artist. It was Mr. Childs's desire to
have the two portraits finished in time for
the annual commencement in June, 1888,
and by his direction I several times urged
Sheridan to select an artist and have the
work begun. This was not an easy matter
for him to do, but he finally succeeded in
finding an artist in New York with whom
he partially arranged to paint his portrait.
In the mean time he sent to Mr. Childs a
large photograph, taken about the time ho
left Chicago to succeed Sherman in command
of the army. It shows Sheridan in the full
uniform of his rank, and was his favorite
picture. Supposing, upon receipt of the
photograph, that the general intended that
he should select an artist, Mr. Childs com
missioned Mrs. Darragh to paint the portrait,
and she proceeded with the preliminary

176 Recollections.
work, using the photograph referred to.
Some time thereafter I received a letter
from Mr. Childs informing me that Mrs.
Darragh would visit Washington to consult
General Sheridan about giving her ' sittings/
and requesting me to arrange with the gen
eral for an interview. He was very much
displeased upon being informed of the se
lection of Mrs. Darragh, and declared, with
an exhibition of temper, that he would not
see her. He did not believe a woman could
paint a man's portrait. Finally he cooled
down and said the woman should have a
fair chance. Upon her arrival in Washing
ton I accompanied Mrs. Darragh to the War
Department and presented her to the gen
eral. The lady went to the Department
with fear and trembling. She had been
informed that Sheridan was not pleased
with her selection, that he was a choleric, ill-
maunered man, and she therefore imagined
that he would be frigid, turbulent, and dis
agreeable. I assured the lady that she had
received a wrong impression about Sheridan,
—that he was quiet and gentlemanly in de
portment, and that she would be given a
kind reception and respectful hearing. It
was plain, however, that she was not im
pressed with my estimate of the general,

West Point. 177
and entered his office with nervous appre
hension which she vainly strove to conceal.
The general received Mrs. Darragh with
the utmost kindness. A cadet of the first
class could not have exhibited greater
suavity. The lady was made to feel at per
fect ease. After considerable talk about
the work in hand, Sheridan said to Mrs.
Darragh, —
" ' I have an idea you artists get your
own individuality into your work. I have
been painted by artists of several nationali
ties, but never by a woman. The Italian
artist made me look like a brigand; the
Frenchman made me resemble Napoleon,
between whom and myself there is no physi
cal resemblance, except, perhaps, in height;
the Spaniard made me look like two or three
Mexican generals whom I have met. Now,
madam,' he continued, with a twinkle in his
eye, and a smile that illuminated his bronzed
features, ' I am confident you will make a
good picture, but I beg you will not make
me look like a woman.'
" Mrs. Darragh brought her canvas to
Washington, where the general gave her
several sittings. He saw the portrait com
pleted in every detail except the sabre, and
was well pleased with it. A few weeks prior

m

1 78 Recollections.
to his fatal sickness he sent 'for me, and after
a general talk about the portrait, which I
had recently seen while visiting Philadelphia,
said he desired to have the old sabre which
he carried through the war painted in the
picture, and he related to me its history.
The scabbard is covered on both sides with
the names of the engagements in which the
general participated, and their dates. The
original scabbard, however, had to be dis
carded during the war, on account of inju
ries received in action. It had been struck
several times by musket-balls and bruised
in three or four places by being kicked or
trampled by horses. Finally a new scabbard
had to be procured, and this shows signs of
hard usage. I had the sabre forwarded to
Mr. Childs. After he was struck down by
disease, and before his removal from Wash
ington to Nonquitt, the general sent me an
inquiry about the sabre, and received the
assurance that it was in Mr. Childs's posses
sion and would be carefully guarded. Its
next and final duty was to rest on Sheridan's
coffin. After his death the artist changed
the uniform in the portrait from that of lieu
tenant-general to that of general, to which
rank he succeeded by act of Congress while
on his death-bed.

West Point. 179
"The same artist was selected to paint
General Sherman, but before it was finished
members of the general's family expressed
a desire to have the portrait made to repre
sent him as he looked fifteen years ago. The
general yielded to this desire, and the artist
changed the face, using for a guide the por
trait of Sherman by Huntington, painted in
1874, which now hangs in the War Depart
ment, and which General Sherman regards
as the best portrait ever made of him, in
which judgment Mrs. Sherman and the
family concurred."*
From the New York Sun, February 14,
1888: THE WEST POINT "REPORT."
"Washington, February 13. — The Mili
tary Academy Appropriation Bill is expected
to go through both Houses this year without
* Writing to me, under date of New York, Septem
ber 18, 1889, Sir Edwin Arnold speaks flatteringly of
my Recollections of Grant, " which," he says, " I have
read with all the more profit and pleasure because I
have met General Sherman here, and wo talked much
about Grant, whom you knew so well. He shows in
your most interesting paragraphs all that I believed him,
— a noble, grand, and beautiful hero, raised up to save
his country iu her dark hour."

1 80 Recollections.
opposition, and possibly even without dis
cussion, unless with a view to giving some
members an opportunity to pay a compli
ment like that which was so pleasantly in
troduced by General Wheeler recently, when
he presented to the House the Report of the
Board of Visitors for the past year. The
distinguished Alabama cavalryman and Con
gressman is a graduate of West Point, a
soldier of renown, and qualified to discuss
with professional intelligence the important
subject-matter of the report, which is that
of military science and education. Never
theless, representing no doubt the judgment
of his colleagues on the Board of Visitors,
as well as his own, he committed the fortunes
of the report exclusively to the weight it
would carry as the utterances of Mr. George
W. Childs, the President of the visiting body.
General Wheeler's address, as reported in
full in the Congressional Record, was as
follows :
" ' Mr. Speaker, in presenting the report
of the President of the Board of Visitors to
the Military Academy, I desire to ask present
action on the resolution which I send to the
Clerk's desk.
" ' The high character of the distinguished
President of the Board must add much

West Point. 181
weight to the suggestions contained in the
report. " ' They are made by a man whose phil
anthropic generosity is not limited by the
boundaries of municipalities, States, sections,
or peoples, but extends beyond oceans, to
races foreign to us in language, customs, and
ideas; a man whose purpose in life is to do
good to mankind, and to help the weak and
the lowly.
" ' The recommendations of such a man
upon the subject treated of in the report
cannot be too widely disseminated.'
" On examination the report, which is now
distributed to the public, is really found to
be signed not only by Mr. Childs as Presi
dent, but by General Wheeler, as Vice-Presi
dent, by W. A. Courtney, Secretary, and by
eight other gentlemen, beginning with Gen
eral R. II. Anderson, of Georgia, and ending
with the Hon. Ben. Buttcrworth, of Ohio.
There is also a minority report signed by Mr.
George H. Bates, of Delaware. It is further
observable that the plural verbis always used
with the word Board as a subject in the. main
report, in such phrases as ' the Board are,'
' the Board think/ ' the Board feel/ and so
on. This does not appear to be a mere ex
tension of the editorial we; yet, as will be
16

182 Recollections.
seen by the speech of General Wheeler, that
gentleman preferred to efface not only him
self, but all his colleagues, and to present
the report as that of President Childs. It
is doubtful, also, whether any preceding
instance could be quoted of so direct and
high a compliment as his, accompanying
any similar occasion of presenting an annual
report of a Board of Visitors.
" The resolution submitted by General
Wheeler was for the printing of the usual
five thousand extra copies of the report, but
it was accompanied with the unusual pro
posal to consider the resolution at once, in
stead of referring it to the Committee on
Printing. General Wheeler politely pointed
out that there was a peculiar reason for
departing, on this occasion, from the ordi
nary course :
" ' It is not often that we have reports from
a gentleman like Mr. George W. Childs,
whose grand sympathetic heart and bank
account are always tuned to the same
music; but as the gentleman from Georgia
[Mr. Blount] insists that the resolution be
referred to the Committee on Printing, and
as the Chairman of that committee assures
me it shall be reported back very promptly,
I will interpose no objection.'

West Point. . 183
" The House Committee on Military Af
fairs adopted without a moment's hesitation
or a single change the report prepared by
tho sub-committee for tho Military Academy,
which exceeds that of last year, items being
introduced for improving the wharf and
building a new laundry.. Probably still
larger appropriations might have been se
cured under the general good-will felt for
President Childs, as expressed by General
Wheeler. " The annual report of the Board is an
unusually full and elaborate document, com
prising one hundred and thirty-three printed
pages, and rather a gala affair is made of it
by the innovation of some full-page illustra
tions of landscape and interior views at
West Point."

MEMORIALS

TO

SHAKESPEARE,

HERBERT AND COWPER, MILTON,
BISHOPS
ANDREWES AND KEN.

16* 185

EXPLANATORY.

As there is nothing, however remote or in
significant, connected with Shakespeare that
is without value to those who, with Ben Jon-
son, "love the man," or "do reverence his
memory," I have thought that the "story"
of The Memorial Fountain erected at Strat
ford-upon-Avon by Mr. George W. Childs
would be neither valueless nor uninteresting.
For the compiling of this Story of the
Stratford Fountain, which is but a gathering
and putting together of what has been else
where said aud written, I have no better
warrant than that, not only have I found
therein a pleasant occupation for some leis
ure hours, but to me the subject seemed
worthy of being revived from the newspapers
— in which, through patient delving, I mainly
found it — and of receiving a more permanent
form.. Whatever value this sketch may have
187

188 Explanatory.
lies, I know, solely in the fact that it tells,
with more or less completeness, the Story
of the Origin, Building, and Dedication of
the most imposing architectural monument
erected in any country to the genius of
Shakespeare. There must be both pride and
pleasure to every American in the reflection
that this Stratford Memorial is the gift of
a fellow-citizen who in giving and building
neither gave unwittingly, nor builded better
than he knew; he did both in the confident
hope and faith, I am convinced, that his gift
would add another link — however slight —
to that chain of brotherhood between Eng
lishmen and Americans which so many of
the leading minds in Religion, in Politics,
in Literature, and on the Stage on either
side of the Atlantic have been, during late
years, so earnestly engaged in welding
firmer, and closer, and stronger.
In selecting that which is herein presented
from the great mass of material in the pub
lic journals of the day, both English and
American, I rejected all that did not seem
pertinent to the objects I had in view, where
of the first is to give permanency to the his-
•tory of the Stratford Fountain, and whereof
the other is to let the story bear record to

Explanatory. 189
the general recognition of the fine motive
which inspired the gift. If I have retained
anything which may not seem germane to
these objects, and which should, perhaps,
have been rejected, I have erred only through
a zealous wish to present as much evidence
as possible of the sincerity and universality
of that international spirit of fraternity to
the existence of which the newspapers of
the Old Country and of the New testified so
strongly in their remarks upon Mr. Childs's
Shakespeare Memorial.
To the Story of the Fountain I have
deemed it not inappropriate to add brief
accounts of certain other gifts which, in
the interest of the same broad spirit of in
ternational brotherhood, Mr. Childs, as a
representative American, has presented, at
different times, to England and to the Eng
lish people. L. C. D.

I

SHAKESPEARE MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN,
Stratford-upon-Avon.

THE
STRATFORD-UPON-AVON FOUNTAIN.

THE INCEPTION AND ERECTION OF THE
MEMORIAL.
In the autumn of 1878 the Very Reverend
Arthur P. Stanley, D.D., Dean of Westmin
ster, visited the United States, and during
his sojourn in Philadelphia was, as so many
distinguished foreigners previously were and
have since been, the guest, of Mr. George
W- Childs. In the course of an after-din
ner talk the venerable Dean, whose love of
the literature of his country was not less
sincere than his knowledge of it was pro
found, spoke feelingly of the absence of any
suitable memorial of some of those who had
laid so broad and deep the foundations of
English poetry. Especially he spoke of
Shakespeare, and of the strange neglect of
the British-speaking people to erect an ap
propriate monument to him even in the
place of his birth. The Dean of Westmin- 191

192 Tlie Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
ster was greatly impressed by what he had
seen and heard in America, and particularly
was he moved by the noble hospitality of
which he was everywhere the recipient, and
which he was modestly pleased to think
emanated not so much from personal regard
for himself as from the common feeling of
kinship which he felt bound the peoples of
the two countries together. For his cousins
across the sea he was inspired with admira
tion, respect, and affection, and his broad and
generous sympathies induced him to think
that no better thing could be done by Eng
lishmen or Americans than to strengthen the
belief that was surely growing up among
their leaders of thought in the reality of
their mutual feeling of fraternity and fellow
ship. The gift of Mr. Childs of the Herbert and
CowpOr Window to Westminster Abbey had
been suggested by Dean Stanley, and it was
on the occasion to which reference is above
made that this eminent divine ventured to
state to his host that a memorial of similar
or other character of Shakespeare set up in
the Church at Stratford-upon-Avon by an
American would have a certain influence
for good throughout England and America.
Subsequently, after the Dean's return to his

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 193
own country, Mr. Childs wrote to him to
sav that he had considered the suggestion
of placing a memorial window to Shake
speare in the Church by the Avon, which is
the Poet's tomb, and that he would be pleased
to make the gift upon the sole condition that
Dean Stanley would himself not only de
termine what form it should assume, but
personally undertake the execution of the
donor's purpose.
In a letter dated December 3, 1878, Dean
Stanley said, in reply to Mr. Childs, —
''With regard to your generous offer of the window,
will you let me delay my complete answer till the week
after next, when I shall hope to have seen the Church?
I am inclined to think that Stratford being, next to
Westminster Abbey, the place (I believe) most fre
quently visited by Americans, might be considered
an exceptional locality."
Subsequently, on December 18, 1878, Dean
Stanley wrote, from Stratford-upon-Avon, —
"My dear Mr. Childs, — In pursuance of my
promise I have come here to look at the Church and
see what place there would be for the window which,
in accordance with my suggestion, you so kindly
offered to give.
"I find that on one side of the chancel there is a
place for windows containing subjects from the Old
Testament, of which one has already been erected
I n 17

1 94 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
by the collective contributions of Americans, and two
others remain to be supplied. It would, I think, be
very suitable that the one next in order should come
from Philadelphia. It consists of seven or eight com
partments, and 1 would suggest that as the window
alongside contains The Seven Ages of Man, taken from
different characters of the Old Testament', so the next
should contain some other Shakespearian subject also
taken from the Old Testament. If you will allow me
to think over this, I will do my best for your generous
intentions. You will be interested in learning that the
last visitor to Shakespeare's home before my arrival
here was a Philadelphian ; also the last guest whom I
entertained in London before I left to deliver my ad
dress in Birmingham (which was on the History of the
United States) was your excellent Minister, Mr. John
Welsh. " We have been much gratified in England by the
sympathy shown in America for our Queen.
" Yours, with all kind remembrances,
" A. P. Stanley."
This was the last communication which
Mr. Childs received from the Very Rever
end Dean of Westminster on the subject of
the Shakespearian Memorial Window, it be
ing understood between them that a window
such as recommended should be placed in
the Church of Holy Trinity, Dean Stanley
undertaking to have it designed and exe
cuted. The onerous and exacting character of his

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 195
public duties prevented the Dean proceeding
immediately with the work, and it was not
long afterwards that failing health interfered
with his purpose, and his death, which oc
curred in mid-July of 1881, brought to a
closo for the time being the intention of Mr.
Childs to carry out his reverend and vener
able friend's suggestion.
Iii 1886, however, it was proposed, and a
Committee was appointed by some of the
most distinguished lovers of Shakespeare in
England, to restore the church at Stratford-
upon-Avon in which the bones of Shake
speare lie. Appeals for contributions to se
cure the execution of this object were made,
not only to the cultivated people of Great
Britain, but to those of the -United States
as well. Among others who were greatly
interested in the plan of restoration was
James Macaulay, M.D., an honored and es
teemed British scholar, editor of The Leisure
Hour. Dr. Macaulay, who is one of the old
est friends of Mr. Childs, personally appealed
to him to contribute to the Restoration Fund.
To this appear Mr. Childs promptly replied
that he would give whatever sum Dr. Ma
caulay should suggest as desirable and befit
ting; but before an answer was received to
this generous offer the Restoration Commit-

196 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
tee disagreed in respect to the character and
extent of the work to be done, and the
entire scheme failed of accomplishment.
Subsequently, on September 9, 1886, Dr.
Macaulay wrote to Mr. Childs, acquainting
him with the failure of the Committee to
carry out the contemplated alteration or
restoration of Holy Trinity Church, and
advising him that the request for a contri
bution to that object was withdrawn. In
this letter Dr. Macaulay, however, suggested
that, if his friend had yet a desire as an
American to pay tribute to the genius of
Shakespeare in his own town, he could do it
in no better way than by erecting a drinking-
fountain to his memory, " to be placed in
the Market Square, where there is none,
and which would be a handsome thing from
an American." Dr. Macaulay added, "I
think I once suggested this to you, and that
it might be associated with Shakespeare by
a motto taken from his works. It would be
a useful gift both to man and beast."
Mr. Childs, it appears, accepted this sug
gestion readily, it being in happy accord
with the spirit in which he had previously
contributed the Memorial Window to the
genius of the Christian poets, Herbert and
Cowper, in Westminster Abbey, and subse-

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 197
quently, the Milton Window, in St. Mar
garet's, Westminster. It evidently seemed
to him to afford another opportunity to add
to the ties of fraternity and friendship be
tween England and America, an object which
appeared most desirable, and which being
accomplished in the Queen's Jubilee Year
would have the greater significance as be
ing a recognition by Americans of Victoria's
brilliant and useful reign of half a century.
Mr. Childs's hearty compliance with Dr.
Macaulay 's suggestion was communicated by
the latter gentleman to Sir Arthur Hodgson,
Mayor of Stratford-upon-Avon, who, on the
15th of December, wrote to the editor of
The Leisure Hour the subjoined letter:
'* My dear Sir, — Many thanks for your kind letter :
the name of Mr. Childs is no great surprise to me, and
I shall be delighted to announce his most generous offer,
which will supply a much and long needed want in this
borough, and to move the acceptance of Mr. Childs's
offer at the meeting of my Council on the 21st instant."
On the next day notification was sent by
the Town Clerk to the members of the Cor
poration Council :
" The Mayor requests your attendance at a special
meeting of the Council to be liolden at tho Town Hall,
on Tuesday, the 21st day of December, instant, at 11.30
17*

198 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
o' the clock in the forenoon precisely, where the follow
ing business is proposed to be enacted : . . .
"The Mayor to read a letter, dated December 8,
1886, from James Macaulay, Esq., M.D., the editor of
The Leisure Hour, London, conveying an offer from
George W. Childs, Esq., of Philadelphia, to the Mayor
and Corporation of Stratford-upon-Avon of a Public
Drinking-Fountain as ' the gift of an American citizen
to the town of Shakespeare in the' Jubilee Year of
Queen Victoria.'
"The Mayor to move that Mr. Childs's kind and
generous offer be accepted, with grateful thanks, by
this Corporation."
On the 22d of December Sir Arthur Hodg-
son wrote to Dr. Macaulay :
" My dear Sir, — I have much pleasure in enclosing
copy of a resolution unanimously and with acclamation
adopted yesterday at a full and special meeting of the
Council of the Corporation of Stratford-upon-Avcn."
The following is the resolution above re
ferred to :
" That Mr. George W. Childs's (of Philadelphia)
kind and generous offer of a Public Drinking-Fountain,
1 a gift to the Corporation of Stratford-upon-Avon of
an American citizen in the Jubilee Year of Queen
Victoria,' be accepted by the Corporation with grateful
thanks." The London Times of the 22d of Decem
ber, under the caption of the " Queen's Ju-

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 199
bilee," gave this account of the Council's
proceedings: "At a meeting of the Stratford-upon-Avon Town
Council yesterday afternoon, a letter was read from
Pr. Macaulay, editor of The Leisure Hour, stating
that he was authorized by Mr. George W. Childs, of
Philadelphia, to olfvr for the acceptanco of tho Corpo
ration a handsome Drinking-Fountain as tho gift of an
American citizen to tho town of Shakespeare in the
Jubilee Year of Queen Victoria. Mr. Childs expressed
the hope that the fountain would be evidence of tho
good-will of the two nations who have the fame and
works of the poet as their common heritage. Dr.
Macaulay added that Mr. Samuel Timinins, of Bir
mingham, had kindly undertaken to obtain from an
eminent architect designs of the proposed structure for
the approval of the Town Council. The Corporation
passed a hearty resolution of thanks to Mr. Childs for
his munificent gift."
On the day after the passage of this reso
lution the New York Herald published from
its London correspondent this special de
spatch :
"The Corporation of Stratford-upon-Avon has voted
the heartiest thanks of the town to Mr. George W.
Childs, of Philadelphia, for his gift of a Drinking-
Fountain to the place. In his letter presenting the
gift Mr. Childs expresses the hope that the fountain
will prove an evidence of good-will between the two
nations having the fame and works of Shakespeare as
a common heritage."

200 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
With reference to this despatch, on its
editorial page the Herald, in its issue of the
same date, said, —
" Mr. George W. Childs has given a Drinking-Foun
tain to Stratford-upon-Avon, 'as evidence of good-will
between the two nations having the fame and works
of Shakespeare as a common heritage.'
" It was a graceful act on the part of Mr. Childs,
and is gracefully acknowledged by the Corporation
of Stratford-upon-Avon, as will be seen in our foreign
despatches. Such little acts of courtesy are not the
least effective of incidents in sustaining pleasant inter
national relations."

On December 24, 1886, the same journal
published the subjoined special despatch
from its Stratford correspondent :
" Stratford-upon-Avon, December 23, 1886. — The
name of the great American philanthropist, George W.
Childs, will henceforth be associated here with the
name of Shakespeare.
" At the meeting of the Town Council on Tuesday
the Mayor, Sir Arthur Hodgson, while stating that
Mr. Childs had offered to present Shakespeare's birth
place with a magnificent Drinking-Fountain in honor
of the Queen's Jubilee, referring to a letter which he
held in his hand, added, 'The donor simply asks the
Corporation to furnish water, and at night lights. Mr.
Childs would submit to the Corporation several designs
for their choice, and he suggested that the fountain
bhould be dedicated either on tho next birthday of the

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 201
poet, or on June 20, the anniversary of the Queen's
accession to the throne fifty years before.'
"Alderman Bird, amid rcneAved cheers for America
and Mr. Childs, seconded the Mayor's motion of ac
ceptance and thanks. In the course of some very
eulogistic remarks concerning the donor the Alderman
said, ' The latter's generosities are widely known to
tho civilized world. Especially Englishmen remem
bered Mr. Childs's gift of an American Window to
Westminster Abbey in memory of the poets Herbert
and Cowper, which had an additional interest from tho
fact that the late Dean Stanley furnished the inscription
to it." After a conference the Council agreed
to devote Jubilee Day to the ceremonies of
receiving the gift.
The Illustrated London Neivs of February
26 contained the ensuing reference to the
gift by the eminent author, George Augustus
Sala :
"Mr. G. W. Childs, of Philadelphia, U.S.A., well
known not only for his enterprise as a newspaper pro
prietor, but for the splendid hospitality which he has
so long dispensed to travellers in the States, — he was
the friend of Dickens and of Thackeray, — has made a
graceful and generous Jubilee gift to the town of Strat
ford-upon-Avon. Some time since, Mr. Childs offered
through Dr. Macaulay, the editor of The Leisure Hour,
to present a Drinking-Fountain to Stratford, as the
offering of an American citizen to the town of Shake-

202 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
speare in the Jubilee Year of the good Queen Victoria.
The offer was gratefully accepted by the Corporation ;
and a few days since the site for the fountain was fixed
upon by a committee of taste, including the Mayor, Dr.
Macaulay, Mr. Samuel Timmins, Mr. Charles Flower,
and several members of the Town Council, accom
panied by the Borough Surveyor. It was finally de
cided to erect the fountain in the large open space in
Bother Street, which is midway between the Great
Western Railway Station and the central part of the
town. " Mr. G. W. Childs has already won golden opinions
of the English people by his munificence in placing in
Westminster Abbey a noble window of stained glass
in memory of two English poets and worthies, George
Herbert and William Cowper.
" G. A. Sala."
On February 17, 1887, the New York
Herald's special correspondent at Stratford-
upon-Avon cabled these particulars with
regard to the proposed gift :
"Sir Arthur Hodgson, the Mayor, Dr. Macaulay,
editor of The Leisure Hour, the friend and correspond
ent of Mr. George W. Childs, with members of the local
Town Council, met here today and decided upon the
site and the design for a Drinking-Fountain, which is
the Jubilee gift of Mr. Childs to Shakespeare's town.
As hitherto cabled to the Herald, the design is by the
architect Cossins, of Birmingham. The structure will
be of granite, sixty feet high, the base being twenty-
eight feet in diameter, and in the upper part four. It
is to be faced by an antiquo clock, with an archway

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 203
under tho centre cut through the base and wide enough
for one vehicle. Underneath, beside a drinking-trough
for horses, is a smaller one for dogs. At the entrances
are cups.
"Upon the panel of the base is the inscription, 'The
gift of an American citizen, George William Childs, of
Philadelphia, to the town of Shakespeare, in the Jubi
lee Year of Queen Victoria.' There are to be four mot
toes cast. One will be from Washington Irving's de
scription of Stratford-upon-Avon ; another will be this
Shakespearian line from Timon : ' Honest water that
ne'er left any man in the mire.' The remaining two
are not yet known. They are probably to be selected
by Mr. Childs.
"The design harmonizes well with the principal
tower of the Shakespearian memorial buildings. The
site is in the open market-place, near Rother Street,
midway between the centre of the town and the great
railway station, and within five minutes' walk of
Shakespeare's house and the church-yard."
The Council of Stratford proceeded with
the work with commendable energy. In its
mid-month issue of the ensuing June the
Illustrated London News published a sketch
of the fountain, with the accompanying in
teresting description of it, which the New
York World published subsequently :
"A lofty, spire-like, and highly ornamental Drink
ing-Fountain, with clock tower, is now being built in
the Rother Market, Stratford-upon-Avon, at the cost
of Mr. George W. Childs, of Philadelphia, an Ameri-

204 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
can citizen, who, by this munificent and noble gift to
the birthplace of Shakespeare, supplies the inhabitants
of the town with what has long been felt to be one of
its most pressing needs. It will be a durable and
beautiful memorial of the friendly feeling existing
between the two nations in this Jubilee Year of our
Queen. The base of the tower is square on plan, with
the addition of boldly projecting buttresses placed
diagonally at the four corners, terminating with acutely
pointed gablets surmounted by a lion bearing the arms
of Great Britain alternately with the American eagle
associated with the Stars and Stripes. On the north
face is a polished granite basin, having the outline of
a large segment of a circle, into which a stream of
water is to flow constantly from a bronze spout ; on
the east and west sides are large troughs, of the same
general outline and material, for the use of horses and
cattle, and beneath these smaller troughs for sheep and
dogs. On the south side is a door affording admission
to the interior, flanked by two shallow niches, in one
of which will be placed a barometer and in the other
a thermometer, both of the best construction. Imme
diately over the basins and the door are moulded
pointed arches, springing from dwarf columns, with
carved capitals. The tympanum of each arch is filled
by geometric tracery, profusely enriched with carvings
of foliage.
" The next story of the tower has on each face a
triple arcade with moulded pointed trefoiled arches on
slender shafts. The arches are glazed, and light a
small chamber, in which the clock is to be placed. At
the corners are cylindrical turrets, terminating in con
ical spirelets in two stages, the surfaces of the cones
enriched with scale-like ornament. In the next story
are the four dials of the clock, under crocketed gables,

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 205
with finials representing ' Puck,' ' Mustard-seed,' ' Peas-
blossom,' and ' Cobweb.' The clock-faces project
slightly from a cylindrical tower flanked by four other
smaller three-quarter attached turrets of the same
plan; from the 'main central cylinder springs a spire
of a slightly concave outline, and the four turrets
have similar but much smaller spirelets, all five spring
ing from the same level, and all terminating in lofty
gilded vanes. Immediately below the line of spring
ing is a band of panelling formed of narrow trefoiled
arches. The central spire has on four opposite sides
gablcted spire-lights, and, at about one-third of its
height, a continuous band of narrow lights to spread
the sound of the clock-bells. The height from the road
to the top of the vane is sixty feet. The clock will be
illuminated at night.
" The materials of which the monument is being
constructed are of the most durable kind, — Peterhead
granite for the base and troughs, and for the super
structure a very hard and durable stone of a delicate
gray color from Bolton Wood, in Yorkshire."

Mr. Childs, naturally desiring that the
name of an American poet should be asso
ciated with the dedication of the memorial,
suggested to Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes,
whose sympathies for the great master of
the English Drama are known to lie so broad
and deep, that he should write a poem ap
propriate to the occasion. The good and
genial poet at first stoutly demurred, plead
ing that his muse, like himself, was growing
18

206 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
old, and delighted most in restful, inactive
ease by the sea. But, being further urged,
Dr. Holmes, on the 17th day of August,
1887, wrote, from Beverly Farms, Massa
chusetts, to his old friend in these words :
" Dear Mr. Childs, — I have written a poem for the
celebration of the opening of the fountain.
" There are nine verses, each of nine lines, as it now
stands. I mean to revise it carefully, transcribe it,
and send you the copy in the course of this week.
• " I have taken pains with it and I hope you will like
it. Please do not take the trouble of replying before
you get the poem. "Always truly yours,
" 0. W. Holmes."

Two days later the poem as it appears
in the subsequent accounts of the celebra
tion was received by Mr. Childs. Its many
classical allusions testify as much to the
generous culture of the author's mind as
does the rare beauty of his verse to his
poetic genius.
In the Brooklyn Eagle there appeared while
the fountain was still building, under the
caption of " Childs at Avon," an article as
brilliant in manner as it was scholarly in
matter. The writer, who modestly hid his
identity under the initial H., and of whose

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 207
paper we make this free, brief abstract,
said, —
" If no Shakespeare had been born and lived and
died at Stratford-upon-Avon, I should still remember
it as one of the most charming spots in Warwickshire.
Often when staying at Leamington have I set out early
on a summer morning and spent my day by tho banks
of Avon and visited the house where he was born, in
cluding the low-ceiling bedroom in which ho first saw
tho light when Mary Arden brought him into the
world in which, after his death, he was to be the most
mysterious and inspired of teachers. Many an hour
have I spent in the beautiful parish church of Holy
Trinity at Stratford, reading the epitaph upon his
grave, and feeling, with a much-sneered-at poet, ' Satan'
Montgomery, whom Macaulay so pitilessly criticised,
that I, for once, could
' Tread tho ground by genius often trod,
Nor fool a nuturo moro akin to God.'
"Tho gift of Mr. George W. Childs, of Philadelphia,
of a public drinking-fountain in honor of Shakespeare,
to the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, is memorable as
being a tribute to the Queen of Shakespeare's nation
on her Jubilee.
" The first thought that strikes me — for I leave the
noble benefactions of Mr. Childs for the latter part of
this article — is how the immortal Shakespeare would
have stood amazed had he beheld this grand water-
fountain erected to his memory. Although he praises
water in the words ' Honest water that ne'er left any
man in the mire,' which is to be one of tho inscrip
tions on. Mr. Childs's memorial drinking-fountain, the
habits of his time were certainly not in favor of water

208 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain,
as a beverage. There were many in that age, like Sir
Walter Raleigh, who abhorred drunkenness and de-'
nounced it with as much emphasis as King James I.
did the tobacco which Raleigh extolled with enthusi
asm. But it would have taken a long journey, I think,
to have found a teetotaler in England in the days of
Shakespeare. • Good Queen Boss' drank ale at break
fast. King James rolled drunk from his throne.
Shakespeare himself was thoroughly convivial, though
not a drinker to excess.- He lived like the men of his
time, enjoyed his social glass of sack or canary with
Ben Jonson, or Burbage and other authors or actors,
and, no doubt, sometimes woke with a headache next
morning. There is nothing disrespectful to his memory
to say that his early death at the age of fifty-two has
been generally attributed to the effects of a convivial
evening. A recent Shakespearian enthusiast, Mrs. Dall,
says, in her ' Handbook to Shakespeare,' ' The pleasant
days went on for a few weeks. Jonson and Drayton
came to see Shakespeare, and very likely went to the
old inn where he had been accustomed to watch the
antics of a "fool," that he might immortalize him in
the company of Sly, Naps, Turf, and Pimpernell. The
hilarity of the party had attracted the attention of the
villagers, for when, in March, 1616, the poet was
stricken with fever, the rumor ran that it came from
too much drinking with his friends.' He died on the
23d of April.
"But if, as I have ventured to suggest, Shakespeare
would have been amazed at a water-fountain erected to
his memory, he would probably have been still more
astonished at such poor relations as dogs and horses
participating with his fellow-citizens in the benefit of
it. Such is Mr. Childs's arrangement, and I think it
indicates the true humanity of his nature. The dog

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 209
is the only animal that will forsake his own kind for
the sake of man and will die upon his master's grave.
There are miscreants and scoundrels in all races, and
the canine is not an exception. But there are as many
virtuous dogs as virtuous men, and from them wo may
learn affection, patience, long-suffering, unselfishness,
and friendship and fidelity till death. No wonder
that the poor Indian of Pope's ' Essay on Man,'
' Whoso soul proud Scionco novcr taught to stray
Far as the solar walk or milky way,
. * * * * # *
Yet thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company.'
" Let us hope that if the great soul of Shakespeare
looks down on Queen Victoria's Jubilee at Stratford-
upon-Avon he will approve of Mr. Childs's munificent
gift to the corporation of which his family, especially
his father, John Shakespeare, were ancient and honor
able members, even though it has embraced the thirsty
souls of dogs and horses as well as of men, women,
and children.
" Of Mr. Childs, whom I have never seen, it is im
possible for any public-spirited mind of any nationality
to think too highly. He is not a flatterer of English
noblemen, but a benefactor, first to his own people and
then a hospitable host to distinguished foreigners. In
fact, Mr. Childs is away ahead in wealth and respecta
bility of most of tho notables to whom he has extended
his hospitality. Beginning as an errand-boy, when he
went from Baltimore to Philadelphia, in mere child
hood, he became printer, bookseller, publisher, and
newspaper proprietor by that resolute virtue of perse
verance and honesty which overcomes the world, and,
while some may envy his prosperity, no one can dis-
o 18*

210 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
pute that he has earned it by a life of integrity and
industry such as few even in America have equalled.
Upon the fountain in honor of Shakespeare at Strat
ford-upon-Avon will stand the words, 'The gift of an
American citizen ;' and this reminds me of the words
of the late Dean Stanley, when he visited this country
for the first and only time in 1878, referring to Mr.
Childs's Memorial Window in his abbey to George
Herbert and William Cowper: 'There is in Westmin
ster Abbey a window dear to American hearts because
erected by an honored citizen of Philadelphia.' It
might seem strange that the gift should be made in the
Centennial Year of American Independence, but Mr.
Childs has the right idea of the commonwealth of
letters, and believes that the great writers of the Eng
lish tongue belong to the Anglo-Saxon and English-
speaking races, wherever they may be ; and as he did
honor to George Herbert and William Cowper, so now
he has done honor to the greater name of Shakespeare,
who belongs to no country, but is the admiration of all
civilized races.
"Mr. George W. Childs's fountain completes the
homage which Americans have paid to Shakespeare.
Years ago, when I talked to an old woman who showed
me over the house he was born in, she said, in answer
to a question, that Americans seemed to take most
interest in it. The case of Miss Delia Bacon is most
pathetic, although I believe it was not her Baconian
theory which made her so unhappy. She was a woman
of singular talent, coming from one of the most big-
brained families of New England. An early disap
pointment had made her feel the need of an eccentric
enthusiasm, and by the kind and very unusual permis
sion of the Vicar of Stratford she was allowed to pass
whole nights in the church wherein the bones were

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 211
laid which he forbade strangers to remove, but not
to keep their vigils by. Although Miss Bacon was
hallucinated, her 'Philosophy of Shakespeare's Plays,'
introduced by Hawthorne, elicited the praise of Ralph
Waldo Emerson. Her special vagary was that Shako-
speare had not been Shakespeare and that Francis
Bacon was the real Shakespeare, and so the idol of her
mind was destroyed by her own imagination. As I
said, she was not alone in this ridiculous theory, but it
is sad to think of the lonely, enthusiastic woman wor
shipping night and day at the shrine of a god whom
she would end by disbelieving in altogether. Yet
Samuei Taylor Coleridge was not much wiser when he
said of Shakespeare, ' Does God inspire an idiot?'
" Mr. Childs's gift and its acceptance by the corpo
ration of Stratford set the seal, at any rate, to our
American belief in the identity as well as the great
ness of Shakespeare. His will more than ever be the
shrine which American travellers, with Washington
Irving's description of Stratford in their hands, will
visit. It is said that in Virginia, in a church-yard
sheltered by southern foliage, there is a tombstone
with the inscription commemorative of a man who
died in the seventeenth century: 'One of the pall
bearers of William Shakespeare.' The only relic of the
man I have read of is a pair of gauntlets possessed by
an American, one of the most eminent and honored of
Shakespearian scholars and critics, Dr. Horace Howard
Furness, of Philadelphia. If it be so, it only confirms
the fact that the Americans have been his greatest and
most dispassionate admirers, even if the Germans were
the first to discern his singular yet universal genius,
and are still the most enthusiastic witnesses of his
plays. In France, also, M. Taine and other great
writers, including Victor Hugo, have been earnest

212 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
lovers of Shakespeare ; but when English or American-
tragic actors have played his principal characters in
Paris, they have found far less appreciative audiences
than they have in Berlin or Frankfort or any other
German city. At any rate, Mr. Childs has helped to
make one picturesque little town by a beautiful river
in England more famous than even Shakespeare's
name had made it before, and henceforward no one
who visits England will leave it without spending a
few hours, at least, in the quiet town of Stratford-
upon-Avon."
DEDICATION OF THE FOUNTAIN.
On October 17, 1887, the fountain was
dedicated with imposing ceremony, an ex
haustive report of which was published on
the following Friday, in the Stratford-upon-
Avon Herald, and which is here presented
anew from that journal :
"All things combined to give ecldt to the important
event of Monday last, — the inauguration of the hand
some fountain given by Mr. Childs, of Philadelphia.
It was a happy thought of that prominent and re
spected citizen to arrange that this splendid memorial
of American admiration for and sympathy with Eng
land's greatest poet should take place in the Jubilee
Year of Queen Victoria's reign ; and it was also a
happy idea to secure the greatest of English actors to
carry out the important function. So distinguished an
assemblage of gentlemen has rarely come together in
Stratford-upon-Avon. Art, literature, and the drama
were well represented, and the ceremonial was one of
international interest. The fountain forms both a

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 213
welcome and substantial benefit to the town, and a
graceful addition to its many points of natural and
historic interest. Stratford accepted the bequest with
a heartiness at once agreeable to the giver, and illus
trative of the friendly feeling of Warwickshire for the
people of the great Republic of the West.
" Preparations for the celebration of the event were
made on Saturday. The scaffolding, which so long
impeded a full view of the fountain, was removed, the
final touches were put to the stonework of the elegant
erection, and a tent was erected in which the ceremony
was to take place in the event of the weather proving
unpropitious. Mr. Irving, who performed the inau
gural ceremony, arrived in Stratford the previous day,
and was the guest of Mr. Charles E. Flower at Avon-
bank. The distinguished actor only finished his Liver
pool engagement on Saturday night, this being the last
place on his provincial tour before his departure for
America. On Sunday morning he travelled to Blis-
worth, via Rugby, a special train on the East and
West Junction Railway meeting him at the former
place. On his arrival at Stratford he received a very
cordial welcome. A large number of people had as
sembled on the platform and outside the building, and,
as soon as he emerged from the railway carriage and
was recognized, a very vigorous cheer was given. He
was met by Mr. Flower, and proceeded at once to
Avonbank. "Monday morning, as we have said, opened most
auspiciously. The sun soon dispersed the early mist,
and at noon, the time fixed for the ceremony, there
was almost an unclouded sky, and in the splendid
autumn light the fountain showed itself to perfection.
The rich light gray stone seemed to reflect the sun's
rays, and the vane, which caps the edifice, shone with

214 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
great brilliancy. The fountain was complete, with
one exception, — the clock-faces were there, but not the
hands. Sir Arthur Hodgson (the Mayor), in accept
ing Mr. Childs's munificent gift, arranged for an in
augural ceremonial befitting its international as well
as its practical character. Sir Arthur issued invita
tions on a scale of imposing hospitality, and the Clop-
ton House was filled with a number of distinguished
guests. Shortly before twelve o'clock a procession was
arranged at the Town Hall, the local volunteers with
their drum-and-fife band forming the lead, and followed
by the Snitterfield brass band. Then came the Mayor,
on each side of whom walked the Lord High Steward
(Earl de La Warr) and his Excellency the American
Minister (Mr. Phelps). Mr. Henry Irving, accom
panied by his secretary, Mr. Bram Stoker, came next,
and then succeeded the Mayors of Leamington, War
wick, Coventry, and Lichfield, wearing their gold chains
of office. The members of the corporation and their
officers brought up the rear, those present being Alder
men Bird, Cox, Newton, R. Gibbs, E. Gibbs, and Col-
bourne ; Councillors Flower, Cole, Eaves, Rogers,
Birch, C. Green, Hawkes, L. Greene, Maries, Kemp,
and Morris. The streets during the moving of the
procession presented a very animated appearance, there
being a liberal display of bunting throughout the route.
Arriving at the site of the Memorial, they found as
sembled a very large concourse of persons, all anxious
to witness the proceedings, and to listen to the elo
quence of the great English actor. His address was
delivered in the silvery tones so familiar to those who
have seen and heard Mr. Irving on the stage. He was
studiously brief, but what a large amount of feeling
and meaning his few words contained 1 The inaugural
speech over, the water was turned on, and the fountain

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 21 5
was dedicated to the public forever. Cheers followed
the announcement, and the formal ceremony soon came
to an end. Everything had been happily done, and
the fraternal relations of the two great nations which
regard the works of Shakespeare as a common heritage
were thus increasingly cemented. There were mutual
congratulations : common praise of Mr. Childs's mag
nificent gift, of the architect's skill and taste, of the
builder's sound workmanship. The whole proceedings
were happily conceived and successfully carried out.
" The speeches at the fountain and at the luncheon
which followed are fully recorded below.
" The Mayor announced that he had received letters
explaining inability to attend from the High Sheriff,
the Lord Lieutenant, Lord and Lady Hertford, his
^Excellency the American Minister at Paris, the Secre
tary of Legation of the United States, Sir Stafford
Northcote, the Dean of Queen's College, Oxford, and
Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps. His Worship afterwards read
the following letters from Mr. James Russell Lowell
and Mr. J. G. Whittier :
LETTER OF JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.
" ' Dear Sir Arthur Hodgson, — I should more
deeply regret my inability to be present at tho interest
ing ceremonial of the 17th were it not that my country
men will be more fitly and adequately represented thcro
by our accomplished Minister, Mr. Phelps.
"'The occasion is certainly most interesting. Tho
monument which you accept to-day in behalf of your
townsmen commemorates at once the most marvellous
of Englishmen and the Jubilee Year of the august
lady whose name is honored wherever the language
is spoken of which he was the greatest master. No

216 The, Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
symbol could more aptly serve this double purpose
than a fountain ; for surely no poet ever " poured forth
so broad a river of speech" as he, — whether he was the
author of the Novum Organum also or not, — nor could
the purity of her character and example be better
typified than by the current that shall flow forever
from the sources opened here to-day.
"'It was Washington Irving who first embodied in
his delightful English the emotion which Stratford-
upon-Avon awakens in the heart of the pilgrim, and
especially of the American pilgrim, who visits it. I
am glad to think that this Memorial should be the gift
of an American, and thus serve to recall the kindred
blood of two great nations, joint heirs of the same
noble language and of the genius that has given it a
cosmopolitan significance. I am glad of it because it
is one of the multiplying signs that these two nations
are beginning to think more and more of the things in
which they sympathize, less and less of those in which
they differ.
" ' A common language is not, indeed, the surest
bond of amity, for this enables each country to under
stand whatever unpleasant thing tho other may chance
to say about it. As I am one of those who believe that
an honest friendship between England and America is
a most desirable thing, I trust that we shall on both
sides think it equally desirable, in our intercourse one
with another, to make our mother-tonguo search her
coffers round for the polished rather than the sharp-
cornered epithets she has stored there. Let us by all
means speak the truth to each other, for there is no
one else who can spenk it to either of us with such a
fraternal instinct for the weak point of the other ; but
let us do it in such wise as to show that it is the truth
we love, and not the discomfort we can inflict by means

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 217
of it. Let us say agrcoable things to each other and
of each other whenever wo conscientiously can. My
friend, Mr. Childs, has said one of these agreeable
things in a very solid and durable way. A common
literature and a common respect for certain qualities
of character and ways of thinking supply a neutral
ground where we may meet in the assurance that we
shall find something amiable in each other, and from
being less than kind become more than kin.
" ' In old maps tho line which outlined the British
Possessions in America included the greater part of
what is now the territory of tho United States. Tho
possessions of the American in England aro laid down
on no map, yet ho holds them of memory and imagina
tion by a titlo such as no conquest over established and
no revolution can ever overthrow. Tho dust that is
sacred to you is sacred to him. Tho annals which
Shakespeare makes walk before us in flesh and blood
are his no less than yours. These arc the ties which
we recognize, and are glad to recognize, on occasions
like this. They will be yearly drawn closer as Science
goes on with her work of abolishing Time and Space,
and thus renders more easy that " peaceful commerce
'twixt dividable shores" which is so potent to clear
away whatever is exclusive in nationality or savors of
barbarism in patriotism.
" 'I remain, dear Mr. Mayor, faithfully yours,
" ' J. R. Lowell.'
LETTER FROM JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER.
'"Oak Knoll, Danvhrs, Mass., 6th Mo. 30th, 1887.
" « Mr. G. W. Childs :
" ' Dear Friend,— I have just read of thy noble and
appropriate gift to the birthplace of Shakespeare. It
K 19

218 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
was a happy thought to connect it with tho Queen's
Jubilee. It will make for peace between the two great
kindred nations, and will go far to atone for the foolish
abuse of England by too many of our party orators
and papers. As an American, and proud of the name,
I thank thee for expressing in this munificent way the
true feeling of our people.
"'lam very truly, thy friend,
"'John G. Whittier.'

THE ADDRESS OF MAYOR HODGSON.
"The letters having been read, the Mayor said
he must say a few words about the origin of the
fountain. It came about in this way. It had been
first suggested to Mr. Childs, of Philadelphia, by an
eminent English divine and scholar (the late Dean.
Stanley), that it would be a good and graceful thing
for an American to leave his mark in the historic
borough wherein Shakespeare was born, and lived, and
died, and was buried. After the death of the Dean
nothing more was said of the project until Mr. Childs's
friend, Dr. Macaulay, wrote to him expressing the
same idea which had been four years before presented
to the giver of the Herbert and Cowper Window to
Westminster Abbey ; but Dr. Macaulay urged that the
best gift would be a drinking-fountain, of which Strat-
fordians stood very much in want. All of Mr. Childs's
several letters respecting the fountain, extending over
twelve months, evinced a spirit of affection for dear
old England, and a feeling of deep regard for our
most gracious Queen. Therefore we chose the Jubilee
Year for the presentation. In all this Mr. Childs has
proved that blood is stronger than water. Yes, in this
case blood is stronger than water. Mr, Childs had

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 219
imbued his feelings, English and American,— mixed
them up together, as it were. Then, of course, ar
rangements had to be made. He did not hesitate to
say that, if it had not been for Dr. Macaulay, and
the valuable assistance ho gave, they could not have
proved the fountain, as he believed they intended to
do that day, a success. Dr. Macaulay helped them
heartily, and he felt deeply grateful for his valuable
assistance. Then came the question, who should in
augurate the stately Memorial ; and Dr. Macaulay and
himself both agreed that they could not choose a better
man than their celebrated English tragedian, Mr.
Henry Irving. They were not at all sure of securing
the valuable presence of his Excellency, Mr. Phelps,
the American Minister in this country, and thought it
better to be sure of their ground. However, he was
there, and Mr. Irving, and, on behalf of the borough
of Stratford-upon-Avon and the corporation, of which
he had the honor to be Mayor, he returned to them
their most grateful thanks for having come among them
on that auspicious occasion. He knew very well that
Mr. Phelps had travelled night and day from the north
of Scotland to be present, not only to lend his counte
nance to the gathering, but to endorse the munificent
act of his noble countryman. It was, again, a great
satisfaction to the people of Stratford to be able to
secure the services of the great tragedian, who, they
were glad to know, was one of the trustees of Shake
speare's Birthplace. They thanked Mr. Irving for
coming among them, and he would conclude his re
marks by asking Mr. Irving to dedicate the noble
fountain to the borough of Stratford-upon-Avon for
ever. " Mr. Irving, on stepping forward, was received with
great cheering. He said he had been requested to read

220 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
a poem which had been dedicated to the fountain at
Stratford-upon-Avon,— a poem written by a man who
was loved wherever the English language was spoken."
Mr. Irving then read the following poem
by Oliver Wendell Holmes :
Welcome, thrice welcome, is thy silvery gleam,
Thou long-imprisoned stream 1
Welcome the tinkle of thy crystal beads
As plashing raindrops to the flowery meads,
As summer's breath to Avon's whispering reeds I
From rock-walled channels, drowned in rayless night,
Leap forth to life and light ;
Wake from the darkness of thy troubled dream,
And greet with answering smile the morning's beam !
No purer lymph the white-limbed Naiad knows
Than from thy chalice flows ;
Not the bright spring of Afric's sunny shores,
Starry with spangles washed from golden ores,
Nor glassy stream Blandusia's fountain pours,
Nor wave translucent where Sabrina fair
Braids her loose-flowing hair,
Nor the swift current, stainless as it rose
Where chill Arveiron steals from Alpine snows.
Here shall the traveller stay his weary feet
To seek thy calm retreat ;
Here at high noon the brown-armed reaper rest ;
Here, when the shadows, lengthening from the west,
Call the mute song-bird to his leafy nest,
Matron and maid shall chat the cares away
That brooded o'er the day,
While flocking round them troops of children meet,
And all the arches ring with laughter sweet.

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 221
Here shall the steed, his patient life who spends
In toil that never ends,
Hot from his thirsty tramp o'er hill and plain,
Plunge his red nostrils, while the torturing rein
Drops in loose loops beside his floating mane ;
Nor the poor brute that shares his master's lot
Find his small needs forgot, —
Truest of humble, long-enduring friends,
Whose presence cheers, whose guardian care defends 1
Here lark and thrush and nightingale shall sip,
And skimming swallows dip,
And strange shy wanderers fold their lustrous plumes
Fragrant from bowers that lent their sweet perfumes
Where Psestum's rose or Persia's lilac blooms ;
Here from his cloud the eagle stoop to drink
At the full basin's brink,
And whet his beak against its rounded lip,
His glossy feathers glistening as they drip.
Here shall the dreaming poet linger long,
Far from his listening throng, —
Nor lute nor lyre his trembling hand shall bring ;
Here no frail Muse shall imp her crippled wing,
No faltering minstrel strain his throat to sing !
These hallowed echoes who shall dare to claim
Whose tuneless voice would shame,
Whose jangling chords with jarring notes would wrong
The nymphs that heard the Swan of Avon's song?
What visions greet the pilgrim's raptured eyesl
What ghosts made real rise !
The dead return, — they breathe, — they live again,
Joined by the host of Fancy's airy train,
Fresh from the springs of Shakespeare's quickening
brain 1 19*

222 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
The stream that slakes the soul's diviner thirst
Here found the sunbeams first ;
Rich with his fame, not less shall memory prize
The gracious gift that humbler wants supplies.
O'er the wide waters reached the hand that gave
To all this bounteous wave,
With health and strength and joyous beauty fraught;
Blest be the generous pledge of friendship, brought
From the far home of brothers' love, unboughtl
Long may fair Avon's fountain flow, enrolled
With storied shrines of old, —
Castalia's spring, Egeria's dewy cave,
And Horeb's rock the God of Israel clave !
Land of our Fathers, ocean makes us two,
But heart to heart is true 1
Proud is your towering daughter in the West,
Yet in her burning life-blood reign confessed
Her mother's pulses beating in her breast.
This holy fount, whose rills from heaven descend,
Its gracious drops shall lend
Both foreheads bathed in that baptismal dew,
And love make one the old home and the new 1
MR. IRVING' S ADDRESS.
"Mr. Irving then spoke as follows: 'The occa
sion which has drawn us here to-day has an excep
tional interest and a special" significance. We have
met to celebrate a tribute which has been paid to
the memory of Shakespeare by an American citizen,
and which is associated with the Jubilee Year of our
Queen. The donor of this beautiful monument I am
happy to claim as a personal friend. Mr. George W.

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 223
Childs is not only an admirable specimen of the public
spirit and enterprising energy of Philadelphia, but he
is also a man who has endeared himself to a very wide
circle by many generous deeds. I do not wonder at
his munificence, for to men like him it is a second
nature ; but I rejoice in the happy inspiration which
prompted a gift that so worthily represents the common
homage of two great peoples to the most famous man of
their common race. We are honored to-day by the pres
ence of a distinguished American, the political represen
tative of his country in England. But it would do far '
less than justice to Mr. Phelps to affirm that he is with
us in any formal and diplomatic sense. On this spot,
of all others, Americans cease to be aliens, for here
they claim our kinship with the great master of Eng
lish speech. It is not for me to say in Mr. Phelps's
presence how responsive American life and literature
are to the influence which has done more than the work
of any other man to mould the thought and character
of generations. The simplest records of Stratford show
that this is the Mecca of American pilgrims, and that
the place which gave birth to Shakespeare is regarded
as the fountain of the mightiest and most enduring
inspiration of our mother-tongue. It is not difficult
to believe that among the strangers who write those
imposing letters U.S.A. in tho visitors' book in the his
toric house hard by there are some whose colloquial
speech still preserves many phrases which have come
down from Shakespeare's time. Some idioms, which
are supposed to be of American invention, can be
traced back to' Shakespeare. And we can imagine that
in the audience at the old Globe Theatre there were
ignorant and unlettered men who treasured. up some
thing of Shakespeare's imagery and vivid portraiture,
and carried with them across the ocean thoughts and

224 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
words, "solemn vision and bright' silver dream,"
which helped to nurture their transplanted stock.
For it is above all things as the p'oet of the people
that Shakespeare is supreme. Ho wrote in days when
literature made no appeal to the multitude. Books
were for a limited class, but the theatre was open to
all. How many Englishmen, to whom reading was a
labor or an impossibility, must have drawn from the
stage which Shakespeare had enriched some of the
most priceless jewels of the human mindl One of
the inscriptions on this fountain is, perhaps, the most
expressive tribute to Shakespeare which the people's
heart can pay : " Ten thousand honors and blessings
on the bard who has gilded the dull realities of life
with innocent illusions." Those simple words speak
a gratitude far more eloquent and enduring than whole
volumes of criticism. It is not only because Shake
speare is the delight of scholars, or because he has
infinite charms for the refined, that he wields the un
broken staff of Prospero over the imagination of man
kind. It is because his spell is woven from the truth
and simplicity of Nature herself. There lies the heart
of the mystery. Without an effort the simplest mind
passes into the realms of Shakespeare's fancy. Learned
and simple, gentle and humble, all may drink from the
inexhaustible wisdom of' this supreme sage. And so
it seems to me that no happier emblem of Shakespeare's
genius in his native place could have been chosen than
this Memorial Fountain. I suppose we shall never
be content with what little we know of Shakespeare's
personal history. Yet we can see him in his home-life
here, the man of genial manners and persuasive speech,
unassuming and serene, and perhaps unconscious that
he had created in the world of letters as great a marvel
as his contemporary Galileo's discovery in the world

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 225
of science. And wo may conjure other fancies. Wo
can picture Shakespeare returning from his bourne to
find upon tho throno a quoon who rules with gentler
sway than tho great sovereign that he knew ; and yet
whoso reign has glories moro beneficent than thoso of
Elizabeth? We can try to imagino his emotion when
he finds " this dear England" he loved so well ex
panded beyond the 6eas ; and we can at least be happy
in the thought that when he had mastered the lessons
of tho conflict which divided us from our kinsmen in
America, ho would be proud to see in Stratford the gift
of a distinguished American citizen, — this memorial
of our reunion under tho shadow of his undying
name.' REMARKS OF SIR PniLIP CUNLIFFE OWEN.
" In response to a call from the Mayor, Sir Philip
Cunliffe Owen, who was originally associated with tho
British Commission of tho Centennial Exhibition of
1S76, in Philadelphia, said that, as an old personal
friend of Mr. Childs, he was gratified at being per
mitted to say a few words on that interesting occasion,
and to express the gratitude of a large number of
English people who had received Mr. Childs's hospi
tality. That hospitality was well known in that ' City
of Brotherly Lovo,' — Philadelphia, — and Mr. Childs
was beloved both over thcro and in this country. Ho
was very much pleased indeed that ho should have
been allowed, in the name of those who loved Mr.
Childs, — as all who had met him in America did, — to
join with the orator who had just charmed them by
his eloquence in expressing their gratitude for that
noble gift.
"The water was then turned on, and, filling a cup,
Mr. Irving drank ' To the Immortal Memory of Shakc-
V

226 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
speare,' while the Mayor announced to the company
that the water had been pronounced by authority to be
clear, palatable, and good. The band in the mean time
played the National Anthem and 'Hail, Columbia,'
while hearty cheers were afterwards given for the
Queen, for the President of the United States, for the
American Minister (Mr. Phelps), for Mr. Childs, the
munificent donor of the fountain, for the Mayor and
Lady Hodgson, and for Mr. Irving. This part of the
proceedings then terminated."
THE MAYOR'S BANQUET.
At one o'clock the Mayor entertained a
large and distinguished company at lunch
eon, in the upper room of the Town Hall,
concerning which the Herald continues :
" The Mayor, in giving the toast of ' The Queen,'
said it was one which, in this ancient, loyal, and his
toric borough, was always well received. This year
Stratford had done its best to honor the Jubilee. By
a happy coincidence, the foundation-stone of the hand
some fountain they had inaugurated that morning was
laid on Jubilee Day by the Mayoress. They all felt
that the Queen sat enthroned in the hearts of her sub
jects. He thought they might truly say that she was
the most constitutional sovereign who had ever reigned
over them. Throughout her long and glorious reign
we had had a government of the people by the people
for the people. Of Victoria it might be said, as by
Cranmer (in 'Henry VIII.') of another Queen, 'She
shall be to the happiness of England an aged princess.
Many days shall see her, yet not a day without a deed
to crown it.'

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 227
"The toast was received with hearty cheers, after
which the Mayor proposed, ' Tho Prince and Princess
of Wales and tho rest of the Royal Family,' which met
with an equally cordial reception.
REMARKS OF EARL DE LA WARR.
"Earl de La Warr said he had great pleasure in
proposing the next toast, ' The President of tho United
States.' They had that day witnessed a ceremony
which had excited the liveliest interest of all who had
the pleasure of being present. The function at which
they had assisted that morning was more than a mere
ceremony : it was an indication of the sympathy exist
ing between England and America. He thought he
was speaking the sentiments of the nation as well as
of the borough when he said that they viewed that
auspicious occasion, not only as a proof of the great
interest which was felt in America in the memory of
the immortal poet, but also as drawing more closely
the bonds of unity and friendly feeling between the
United States and this country.
" The toast was very cordially received.
ADDRESS OF MR. PHELPS, THE AMERICAN MINISTER.
" His Excellency the American Minister, Mr. Phelps,
who experienced a hearty greeting, said, in response, —
" ' It is certainly a very grateful duty to respond to
a sentiment honored by Americans everywhere and
under all circumstances, which has been proposed in
such felicitous terms by Lord de La Warr, and received
so cordially by you all. And for the kind allusions to
myself which I have heard to-day and for your more
than kind reception, I can only offer you my thanks
and my wish that they were better deserved. The
manner in which the name of the President of the

228 The Stratfordrupon-Avon Fountain.
United States is always received when it is brought
forward in an English company, and the kindnesB
which everywhere is made to surround the path of his
representative in this country, are exceedingly gratify
ing, because they are the expression, and the more
significant because they are often the spontaneous ex
pression, of the cordial, friendly feeling which animates
the heart of the people of this country towards their
kinsmen across that sea which used to divide but which
now unites them. The relations between these two
countries are not the property of themselves alone;
they are the property of the civilized world. It would
be a calamity too great to be anticipated, and which I
trust may never be realized, to all the civilized world
if these relations were to be severed. But it is to be
borne in mind that they depend far less upon govern
ments and public men than upon the spirit which
animates the people on either side. Mr. Irving happily
remarked this morning that I was not here in a diplo
matic capacity. Diplomacy, that black art as it used
to be known in the world, and I hope has ceased to be
known, has very little place among the straightforward
Saxon race. It cannot be too strongly borne in mind,
I think, that it is on the cultivation of a friendly spirit
on both sides that our cordial relations depend. So
far as I have observed, people do not quarrel unless
they desire it. When they are hostile, provocation is
not far to seek ; when they are friendly, there are very
few provocations that will not somehow be patched up
and adjusted. It is in the intercourse so admirably
depicted in the letter of my predecessor, Mr. Lowell,
by which the people of the two countries come to know
each other and understand and appreciate each other,
to partake of each other's hospitality, to enjoy with
each other the amenities of social, personal, individual

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 229
lifo, that tho spirit arises that will always make these
people friends. And it may be usefully remembered
by those philanthropists and humanitarians who are
anxious to preserve the peace of the world, that- it is
much better maintained by justice and kindness in the
treatment of each other internationally than it is by
obtaining paper promises that injustice and unkindness
shall not be resented. Such promises arc either worth
less or needless. They are needless while nations aro
friendly ; they are worthless while nations are hostile.
It is one of the amenities to which I have alluded that
brings us together here to-day. I must say a word,
before I sit down, about the gift of my warm-hearted
and distinguished countryman which has been inaugu
rated this morning. I should rather mar what you
have already heard if I were to attempt to add much
to what has been said, and so well said, by the Mayor,
Mr. Irving, and Mr. Lowell. It seems to me that in
every possible way all the proprieties and all the
unities have attended it. It seems to be a graceful
offering, modest, unobtrusive, unheralded, accepted in
the spirit in which it is given. I wish Mr. Childs
might have been present here to-day. I wish he
might have observed for himself the spirit in which
his gift was received. It is appropriately erected on
the place where the memory of Shakespeare has extin
guished all other memories, a place to which Ameri
cans, by the pilgrimage of successive generations, have
established a title as tenants in common with Eng
lishmen by right of possession, — one of those posses
sions described by Mr. Lowell, not laid down on the
map, but of which the title is just as strong as if it
were marked by geographical boundaries. I have
sometimes thought that there is no bond of union be
tween Americans and Englishmen that is stronger
20

230 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
than that of a common literature: I mean the litera
ture that pervades and influences the -general intelli
gence of the country ; the literature that was so ably
protrayed by Mr. Irving this morning in his observa
tions on the character of Shakespeare's writings; a
literature which is not the property of a class, but for
all mankind and for all time; and, therefore, this
birthplace of Shakespeare, where almost all the me
morials which remain to him are gradually being
gathered together, here, if anywhere in England, is
the appropriate place for a permanent gift from an
American. It is appropriate also in the time of offer
ing, — the Jubilee Year of your sovereign, the Jubilee
of which I was a most interested spectator in all its
progress from beginning to end. And the impression
which it made upon me was that its success and its
distinction did not arise from its pageantry or its cere
monies or the distinguished concourse which attended
it from afar. It has been in the manifestation of that
deep and universal loyalty of this people towards their
Queen and their government. That, as it appears to
me, is the lesson, the significance, the glory, and the
success of the Jubilee. The loyalty of Americans is
to their own government; they appreciate the loyalty
of your people to yours, and they understand and feel,
I am sure, through the whole length and breadth of
that country, what was so well expressed by tho Mayor,
when he said that the throne of the Queen is in the
hearts of her people. And, therefore, a gift which,
though it comes from one citizen only in America,
will be applauded by thousands, and to which thou
sands would have gladly contributed if it had been
requisite, may well come in the year when you are
celebrating an event so rare in the history of nations.
The gift, too, in its inauguration has been fortunate in

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 231
the ceremonies that attended it. It is fortunate that it
should have been inaugurated in an address so fittinsr
and so elegant by a gentleman who interprets Shake
speare to both the nations in whom we claim a share
and always shall, whom we always welcome heartily,
and always unwillingly let go. I cannot wish him a
speedy return, in justice to my countrymen, in the
voyage ho is about to undertake. I hope he may have
a safe and happy one. I hope that, when the curtain
falls in America upon somo representation of the great
master which has entranced a theatre crowded with the
best intelligence of my countrymen, and when the call
riot unfamiliar to his ear compels him to say something
for himself, he will tell them what he has seen and
heard to-day. He may be too modest to tell them how
much he has contributed to it; but I hope he will tell
them something of the manner and the spirit in which
the gift to his country was received, and I am sure it
will not make his welcome the less cordial. Long may
this fountain stand, sir, and flow, an emblem, a monu
ment, a landmark— not the only ono by many, I hope
— of the permanent, intimate, cordial friendship of my
countrymen and yours 1 May many generations of
Englishmen and Americans drink together of its
waters 1 May many a school-boy, creeping unwillingly
to school, or rushing joyously away from it, when he
pauses to slake his thirst at its current, take in with
the water a kindly thought of his kinsmen beyond the
sea, — kinsmen who have so much in common, whoso
history, whose religion, whose literature, whose lan
guage are all in common, and who are to share in
common hereafter, beyond all and above all, in that
limitless American future which opens its magnificent
doors free and wide to you and your children as well
as to ours 1'

232 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
THE QUEEN'S TELEGRAM.
" At the conclusion of the address of the American
Minister, which was received with the most enthusi
astic manifestation of good-will, the Mayor announcedj
amid great cheering, that he had just received a tele
gram from her Majesty. It was as follows :
" ' Tho Queen is much gratified by the kind and loynl
expressions contained in your telegram, and is pleased
to hear of the handsome gift from Mr. Childs to Strat
ford-upon-Avon. " ' (Signed) Henry Ponsonby.'
" It may be stated that a few minutes earlier tho
Mayor had wired, —
" ' To Sir Henry Ponsonby, Balmoral Castle.
" ' The toast of her Majesty's health most enthusi
astically received on the occasion of the inauguration
of the drinking fountain by Mr. Childs, a distinguished
citizen of Philadelphia. " ' (Signed) Arthur Hodgson,
" ' Mayor of Stratford.1
REMARKS OF MR. WALTER, OF THE LONDON " TIMES."
" Mr. Walter, the proprietor of the London Times,
proposed the next toast, which he said might truly be
described as the toast of the day, the health of the
honored donor of the gift which they had assembled to
inaugurate. He had no claim whatever to be selected
for so high an honor as that of proposing Mr. Childs's
health, except from the circumstance that he had had
the privilege of being intimately acquainted with Mr.
Childs for more than twenty years, and that he and his

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 233
family had, when visiting the United States, received
unbounded proofs of his hospitality and affectionate
feeling towards them, which had always mado him
(Mr. Walter) feel when within tho States as a free cit
izen of that community. Only those who had had the
good fortune to know America intimately could form
any adequate idea of tho feelings of veneration and
attachment which most educated Americans entertained
towards this country, and especially to those localities
which were identified with noble, historic, and other
glorious associations. And of all the counties of Eng
land, the county of Warwick, perhaps, from the his
toric associations connected with such places as Kenil-
worth, Warwick, and, above all, Stratford-upon-Avon,
appealed most to the hearts of Americans, to make
them feel that they were of one kindred and one race
with ourselves. Sometimes, indeed, it had happened
that the feeling had manifested itself in a somewhat
extraordinary and not altogether acceptable manner.
He remembered one instance of this which brought to
his mind the feeling which Henry V. expressed towards
Catherine when he said that he loved France so well
that ho would keep it all to himself. About thirty
years ago — it might be more ; it was when he was a
young man — it occurred to an enterprising American
that there was not sufficient feeling in Stratford-upon-
Avon towards the memory of her immortal poet, and
that it would be far better for tho good, at all events
of America, if the Americans put in practice the art
for which they were known to be so eminently distin
guished, — the art of transplanting houses. It actually
occurred to an enterprising dweller in tho States to
purchase and remove to America Shakespeare's house.
Whether or not this was intended as a scaro to compel
that which was afterwards done — tho purchase and the
20*

234 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
public guardianship of that wonderful treasure — it was
not for him to say, but the impression it made on his
mind was perfectly fresh, and he had no doubt it was
familiar to most Americans. It had produced beneficial
results to them in making them more highly and more
thoroughly appreciate the honor of being the custodians
of Shakespeare's house.
" With regard to Mr. Childs himself he must say a
few words, though, as the American Minister had said,
that was a subject on which there was little more to
say. Mr. Childs was probably personally unknown to
most of those now present. Ho was a man with a
very remarkable history, — one of those examples of
self-made men of which the American soil seemed to
be prolific ; men who, by an early career of great in
dustry, energy, shrewdness, and perseverance, acquired
large fortunes and employed them for the public good.
Mr. Childs began life in a very humble capacity,
making what few dollars he could in the best way he
could find to his hand. He became a publisher, and
amassed in that business a considerable sum. But he
was an instance of a man who, like the Mayor, in
stinctively obeyed the wise teaching of their great poet
by remembering that ' there is a tide in the affairs of
men which taken at the flood leads on to fortune.' He
took his chance at the flood, and became the purchaser
of the Public Ledger, which he had made a most lucra
tive and highly honorable paper, and upon that he had
built a fortune which had enabled him to perform those
acts of public and private generosity and unbounded
hospitality to all Englishmen who had the good fortune
to be introduced to his acquaintance, and of which
the occasion of their present gathering was one of the
most conspicuous examples. The other day, in reading
a book which Mr. Childs gave him many years ago,—

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 235
a remarkable book, by an American, — he came across
a passage which seemed to him singularly appropriate
to the present occasion, which ho hoped would bo
sufficient excuse for his quoting a conplo of stanzas
from it. Tho poot was apostrophizing Shakcspearo,
and said, —
'Dcop in tho West, as Independence moves,
His bannors planting round the land ho lovos,
Whoro Naturo sleeps in Eden's infant grace,
In Time's full hour shall spring a glorious raco.
Thy name, thy verso, thy language shall they boar,
And deck for thee the vaulted temple Ihorc !
'Our Roman-hearted fathers broke
Thy parent empire's galling yoke;
But thou, harmonious master of tho mind,
Around their sons a gentler chain shall bind !
Onco more in theo shall Albion's sccpt.ro wave,
And what her monarch lost her monarch-bard shall save!'
" One word to give some idea of Mr. Childs. At tho
present moment it was about a quarter-past nine by
Philadelphia time, and Mr. Childs was sitting at his
breakfast, — a piece of dry bread and a cup of milk, —
and wondering what sort of a day it was going to bo
in England, and how the most interesting ceremony
at Stratford was about to pass off, and possibly even
thinking in what terms his own health might be pro
posed. The news would probably have reached him
before he had drunk his last cup of milk. Now, if ho
had to describe the character of Mr. Childs in a single
word, he should do so in a word which was impressed
upon his mind by very early associations, and which
tho Mayor would forgivo him for mentioning on tho
present occasion. Fifty-eight years ago he knew a little
boy at school, with rosy cheeks, genial, beaming coun-

236 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
tenance, and such delightful qualities of civility, good-
humor, and readiness to oblige, that his school-fellows
applied to him the epithet of ' trump.' Most school-boy
epithets were not complimentary, and he had never
known of the application of that particular epithet to
any other boy than that one, whom he remembered as
Trump Hodgson. He had developed, in the course of
his interesting history, into the Worshipful Mayor of
Stratford-upon-Avon. The Mayor would excuse him
for mentioning the circumstance, and not think he was
guilty of wishing to infringe upon his monopoly of the
title, but if he had to apply one epithet rather than
another to Mr. Childs he should say he was a trump.
He was a man of guileless habits, unselfish disposition,
a readiness to do good in any way, and who could not
possibly do an ill turn to any one. They were all
indebted to Mr. Childs for having performed an act
which more than anything else would help to impress
upon their minds the duty they owed to preserve the
memory of their immortal bard always fresh in their
minds. He ardently wished tho rising generation could
be persuaded to read more and more of Shakespeare
and less of the trash which they daily devoured. He
commended to them the health of their distinguished
absent friend, Mr. Childs, and asked them, not only to
drink to his present health, but also to wish him a long
continuance of prosperity and happiness.
" The toast was drunk amid loud applause.
REMARKS OF DR. MACAULAY.
"Dr. Macaulay, who, as an old friend of Mr. Childs,
was asked to reply in his behalf, said he had been told
by many persons that this gift of Mr. Childs to Strat
ford was creating an impression in America perhaps
even beyond the value of tho gift. And why? For

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 237
the same reason as in England, that it was regarded as
a pledge of the good feeling between the two nations.
At the present time there was a very unusual deputa
tion in America, — many members of Parliament, with
others, — having an interview with tho President of the
United States, trying to get from him a contract that
there should be no more war between the two nations,
and that every question in dispute should be submitted
to arbitration. But Mr. Phelps had very wisely told
them contracts were of no avail unless they were sup
ported by public opinion, and he (Dr. Macaulay) was
sure that nothing would do more to create the desired
state of public opinion than this generous act of Mr,
Childs. It was a happy thought, this gift to the town
of Shakespeare in the Jubilee Year of Queen Victoria,
and he believed it would strengthen public opinion and
make any diplomatic arrangement the more easy by
making the two peoples foel that they had a common
origin, a common feeling, and a common sympathy in
all things, and when England and America were joined
there was good hope for the security of the freedom and
progress of tho civilized world.
MR. IRVING'S REMARKS.
" Mr. C. E. Flower said he was sure that the Mayor
had allotted to him a most pleasing as well as a most
honorable duty in asking him to propose the health of
their friend, Mr. Henry Irving.
"Mr. Irving, who was greeted with cheers again
and again renewed, said : ' I thank you most heartily
for your most kind welcome. An actor can crave
no higher distinction than that of being prominently
associated with some public work in connection with
Shakespeare's memory in Shakespeare's native town.

238 The Stratford-upon-AvOn Fountain.
It is the lasting honor of the actor's calling that the
poet of all time was a player, and that he achieved im
mortality by writing for the stage. Of all the elo
quent tributes which have been paid to Shakespeare
one ever recalls the words of his fellow-actors, to whose
loving care we owe the first edition of his works, and
who tell us that " as he was a happy imitator of Nature,
he was a most gentle expresser of it." All we can desire
in the artistic embodiment of life this " most. gentle
expresser of Nature" has given us. I would like to
quote a few words on this subject which seem to me to
embrace a very great deal, — a few words written by your
Excellency's famous countryman Emerson, in which he
pays Shakespeare a tribute which it would be very
difficult to excel. He says, "We can discern, by his
ample pictures of the gentleman and the king, what
forms and humanities pleased him ; his delight in troops
of friends, in large hospitality, in cheerful giving. Let
Timon, let Warwick, let Antonio the merchant answer
for his great heart. So far from Shakespeare being the
least known, he is the one person in all modern history
known to us. What point of morals, of manners, of
economy, of philosophy, of religion, of taste, of the
conduct of life, has he not settled? What mystery
has he not signified his knowledge of? What offices,
or functions, or district of man's work has he not re
membered? What king has he not taught state, as
Talma taught Napoleon ? What maiden has not found
him finer than her delicacy? What lover has he not
outloved? What sage has he not outseen? What
gentleman has he not instructed in the rudeness of his
behavior?" These are things which the actor treasures
to the full as dearly as the student, and the actor's art
to-day comes much nearer Shakespeare's estimate of
its importance in the intellectual life of the community

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 239
than in tho times when the corporation of Stratford
refused to permit the performance of Shakespeare's
plays. I don't intend that reminder to touch any
tender spot in your municipal pride now, for tho
players were not treated with contumely in Stratford
at all, and perhaps it was the influence of Shakespeare's
memory which induced the corporation on one occasion
to pay them the handsome sum of forty shillings to
keep away. But times are better now, and I am quite
sure that when a troop of Lyceum players come to
Stratford they will settle down under the wing of the
Worshipful Mayor. In a few days I shall sail for the
great country where any worthy representation of
Shakespeare on the stage commands as stanch support
from the public as in our own, and I cannot help thank
ing Mr. Phelps for his most genial words, which repre
sent the more than cordial — I may say affectionate —
welcome which we have always received from his
countrymen, I shall act as your ambassador to Mr.
Childs, and I hope that in the course of the next fort
night I may convey to him your enthusiastic appre
ciation of his generous gift. I shall remember, Mr.
Walter, your kind wishes and the affectionate tribute
you have paid him, and I shall be the happy per.son to
convey, I hope, to him my impressions of to-day. Tho
ceremonial of to-day must have given the greatest
pleasure to all, for it has renewed our hallowed asso
ciations with the mighty dead, and it ha3 reminded
two great nations of a bond which no calamity can
dissolve. And, believe me, I am sure it will make
every English-speaking actor in the world prouder
than ever of the calling which I have the privilege of
representing here to-day.'
"The Mayor, in the course of the afternoon, re-

240 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
ceived the following telegraphic despatch from the
donor of the fountain : " ' Philadelphia.
" ' To Sir Arthur Hodgson :
" ' You have my warmest thanks for the enlightened
attention you gave to everything relating to the Shake
speare Fountain, and its successful dedication, which
is a personal courtesy superadded to the official duty so
well performed, and which it was certainly very gra
cious in you to bestow.
" ' George W. Childs.'
" An occasional poem, written by Mrs. R. S. de C.
Laffan, on the opening of the fountaiu, was read by
Mr. Henry Irving to the company assembled at Avon
Bank on the eve of the ceremony :
" ' Brothers yet, though ocean sever
Your free land that fronts the west
From the church-yard by the river,
Where our common fathers rest:
" ' Brothers, by the twin rills flowing
From one foupt of English speech,
By the common memories glowing
Deep within the heart of each :
" ' It is yours, as it is ours,
This most favored spot of earth,
Where the spring-time crowned with flowers
Gave our gentle Shakespeare birth.
"'Here, whore every stone reminds us
Of the name that eaoh reveres,
Symbol of tho love that binds us,
Changeless through the changing years,

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 241
" ' Rear tho fountain : let tho chiming
Of its peal of silver bells
Thrill like some sweet singor's rhyming
Every heart in Avon's dells.
" ' Let its waters, softly plashing,
Woo the weary and the worn,
Brightly through tho gloaming flashing,
Brightly through tho summer morn.
'"So tho wanderer onward pressing,
Thirsty, way-worn, weak of knee,
Halting here shall drink a blessing
To a Friend beyond the Sea.' "
VOICE OF THE PRESS.
The London Times, on the next day,
October 18, published an account of the
dedication ceremonies, including the poem
of Dr. Holmes, the addresses, and letters
above given, filling four of its broad long
columns, which it prefaced as follows, under
the caption of " Shakespeare and America:"
" For all English-speaking people there is a pecu
liar and almost romantic charm about the town in
which the opening and closing scenes in the life of
Shakespeare were enacted. So inseparably, indeed,
are most of the scanty personal records of the poet
associated with Stratford-upon-Avon that the place
itself has long since been invested with a character
not far removed from that attaching to the shrine of
a saint in the Middle Ages. Thousands of pilgrims
annually resort to the quaint little midland town to
examine with an interest akin to reverence the relics
L q 21

242 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
it contains, to look on scenes which must have been
familiar to the poet, and to stand on the ground for
ever sacred to his name and memory. Since the days
of Washington Irving, American faces have been as
numerous in Stratford as those of English people, and
a handsome Memorial Window in the church where
Shakespeare's dust reposes bears testimony to Ameri
can appreciation of the poet and his work. Another
evidence of transatlantic veneration for the memory of
Shakespeare was seen yesterday at Stratford. This time
the Memorial has assumed the form of a public drinking
fountain and clock-tower, which an American citizen,
Mr. George W. Childs, of Philadelphia, has presented
to the town. The ceremony connected with the dedi
cation of this new monument was one which can hardly
fail to be of general and almost world-wide interest.
The representative company which had assembled to
witness the event, together with the international char
acter of the gift itself, conspired to lend a more than
ordinary importance to the proceedings on this occasion.
" The ceremony of inaugurating the fountain was
performed yesterday at noon by Mr. Henry Irving, in
the presence of the Mayor of Stratford-upon-Avon (Sir
Arthur Hodgson, K.C.M.G.), the Corporation, and a
very numerous assemblage of visitors and townspeople.
In the main streets of Stratford the Union Jack and
the Stars and Stripes were conspicuously displayed,
and the town wore an air of festivity and gayety
throughout the day."
On the same day the London Daily Tele
graph published an account of the celebra
tion as extended as that of the Times, with
the subjoined introduction :

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 243
"Stratford-upon-Avon — supremely lovely at all
times; hallowed with its immortal memory of Shake
speare; consecrated to literary men and all lovers of
tho stage by anniversaries, and jubilees, and kindly
ceremonies without number — was never lovelier than
on the sunny October morning when, under the happy
auspices of sunshino and good-fellowship, the leading
actor of England dedicated, inaugurated, and conse
crated the gift of an American citizen to the homo and
the birthplace of the poet of all time. All the hospi
table houses in tho neighborhood were full of distin
guished guests. Tho genial and popular Mayor, Sir
Arthur Hodgson, had invitod his Excelloncy tho
American Minuter, who appeared not in any diplo
matic capacity, but as tho mouthpiece and representa
tive of his fellow-countryman, Mr. Georgo W. Childs,
of Philadelphia, whoso handsome presontof a drinking
fountain now stands unveiled and flowing with fresh
water in the old Rother Market, and Sir Theodoro
Martin, who was selected to propose in his own grace
ful and felicitous manner the solemn toast of the 'Im
mortal Memory of Shakespeare.'
"There was the imposing new fountain, the im
mediate object of attention to the Countless pilgrims,
the beautiful and costly gift of Mr. Childs ; the monu
ment all pinnacles and stone tracery, the handsomo
combination of drinking-trough and clock-tower that
stood uncovered in the bright October sunshine, attract
ing innumerable visitors to admire its proportions, to
discuss its style of architecture, and to read the Shake
speare texts engraved on every available panel.
" Monday broke over Stratford even warmer, sunnier,
and more genial than the day before, and at a very early
hour the visitors scattered about in various directions.
The greater part naturally betook themselves to the

244 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
Shakespeare Memorial Buildings, on the Avon bank,
already mellowing down with age, and containing the
fruit of the anxious and devoted labors of the Flower
family and their friends. The handsome and insulated
theatre, standing at the lovely bend of the silent river
close to the old church, is now supplemented by a library
and a picture-gallery of ample proportions, and addi
tions to both are earnestly asked by those who have by
degrees made the old town one of the show-places of
England, and directed thither the footsteps of countless
American pilgrims, who recite Washington Irving in
the cosey parlors of the celebrated Red Horse, and
quote Shakespeare in the busy market-place or the
quiet church-yard. There was clearly much to be done
before mid-day arrived, the hour fixed for dedicating
Mr. Childs's fountain to the use and benefit of Shake
speare's native home. No one, for instance, could
neglect to pay a visit to the old house in Henley Street,
which Mr. Walter, in the course of the day, pleasantly
reminded us was, once upon a time, threatened with
annihilation by an enterprising American, who pro
posed to carry it bodily away and transplant it on the
other side of tho Atlantic. The old custodian's bell at
tho Shakespeare House was constantly set ringing,
and those oharming and courtoous ladios, the Miss
Chattaways, wore continually ropoating the well-known
lecturo in the same pleasant and cheerful terms.
"Shortly before mid-day a procession wa9 formed
at the Town Hall, headed by Sir Arthur Hodgson,
K.C.M.G., the Mayor of Stratford, who was preceded
by the beadle and mace-bearers of tho ancient cor
poration, and followed by the Mayors of Worcester,
Lichfield, Coventry, Warwick, Leamington, and other
distinguished guests. There was only one sad disap
pointment. The worthy Mayor had received a letter

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 245
from Mr. James Russell Lowell regretting his inability
to ho present, and the letter of apology was so eloquent
that ho did not hesitate to read it to tho assembled
people at the commencement of tho ceremony."
Succeeding this was a report of the im
posing ceremony, the poem, letters, and ad
dresses; and on the editorial page of this
great journal there appeared a striking lead
ing article, the style of which will readily
be recognized as that of the great Oriental
scholar and poet, Sir Edwin Arnold :
" The handsome fountain and clock-tower just erected
in Shakespeare's town, and inaugurated by Mr. Henry
Irving, are the gift of an American citizen, Mr. George
W. Childs, of Philadelphia, well known already in his
own country for an enlightened mind and munificent
deeds. Such a tribute to the memory of the greatest
of English poets is one that can be heartily hailed,
and for which, in this Jubilee Year of our Queen,
there was place and propriety. Equally appropriate it
was that the dedication of this graceful gift to the town
of Stratford should have been made by the first among
living interpreters of the text of Shakespeare upon the
stage. No actor would dispute this title with the ac
complished and scholarly gentleman who has done so
much to revive popular delight in the works of the
chief of dramatists, and by this and other examples
has so notably elevated the status of his profession.
In the excellent speech which Mr. Irving delivered at
the foot of the ' Jubilee Memorial,' ho touched the cen
tral point of the ceremony at once by remarking that
in that spot, of all spots, Americans and Englishmen
21*

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 247
serve to recall the kindred blood of the two great na
tions, joint heirs of the same noble language and of
the genius that has given it a cosmopolitan significance.
I am glad of it because it is one of the multiplying
signs that those two nations are beginning to think
more and more of the things in. which they sympathize,
less and less of those in which they differ.'
"Thus, then, even from his ashes our great English
man renders us all a splendid new service, drawing
closer together those portions of the English-speaking
race which must never again be enemies. The key
note which had been so well and justly struck by Mr.
Irving and taken up by Mr. James Russell Lowell was
harmoniously utilized by the American Minister, who
in a most genial and friendly speech said a great many
happy and handsome things about our Queen, our coun
try, and the relations between Englishmen and Ameri
cans. Mr. Phelps did, indeed, actually charge Mr.
Henry Irving with a regular diplomatic mission, for
he bade the universally popular actor not to lose an op
portunity, the next time ho was called upon for a speech
before the curtain in the States, of relating what had
been said and done at Stratford-upon-Avon in the
inauguration of the Childs' Memorial. ' I am sure,'
said the American Minister, 'it will not make his wel
come less cordial ; and long may this fountain stand
and flow, an emblem, a monument, a landmark — not
the only one by many, I trust— of the permanent, en
during, hearty, cordial friendship between my country
men and yours I May many- generations of English
men and Americans drink together of its waters 1'
Nothing but good all round can result from so per
fectly well-conceived a ceremony ; nor could any
words more fitly express this than those with which
Mr. Irving closed his speech of thanks, observing:

246 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
ceased to be other than fellow-countrymen. We might,
indeed, almost call Stratford-upon-Avon the joint cap
ital of the British England and of the American Eng
land, as the Greeks looked upon Delphi as the true
centre of the habitable globe. American life and lit
erature, as Mr. Irving remarked, are as much stamped
with the influence of the Bard of Avon as are our own ;
and it is at once the most satisfactory and the most
natural thing in the world that half the names of the
visitors inscribed in the book kept at the ' historic cot
tage' should have after them ' those imposing letters,
U.S.A.' We rejoice to think that every American beyond
the Atlantic longs to visit the birthplace of Shakespeare,
and almost every one who comes over to our shores goes
thither first of all if he can. They are quite right.
Shakespeare belongs to thein as much as to us, and the
fountain of Mr. Childs is an impressive and accepta
ble way of emphasizing their sense of property in the
memorable name. Nor was Mr. Irving otherwise than
happily inspired in praising the character of the gift
to the little town. It is simple, natural, homely, and
for universal use — is a fountain — like the genius of the
poet. As he remarked, 'Learned and unlearned, gen
tle and humble, may all alike drink from it; and so it
6eems to me,' said the speaker, ' that no happier emblem
of Shakespeare's work in his native place could have
been chosen.' Possibly We English might have been a
little jealous if Mr. Childs had proposed to erect by the
silver Avon a colossal statue, or a prodigious pyramid,
or something which would have made British devotion
look small; but the fountain and clock-tower are as
becoming as they are significant of the feelings so de
lightfully conveyed in the letter of Mr. James Russell
Lowell. ' I am glad to think,' he wrote, ' that this
memorial should be the gift of an American, and thus

248 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
1 To-day's ceremonial has given infinite pleasure to all,
for it has renewed our hallowed associations with the
mighty dead, and it has reminded two great nations of
a bond which no calamity can dissolve. And, believe
me, it will make every actor in the world-wide sphere
of Shakespeare's influence prouder than ever of the
calling which I have the privilege of representing
here.' "
The London Globe of the 18th of October
said in introducing an attractive account of
the dedicatory ceremonies :
"There was general rejoicing at Stratford-upon-
Avon yesterday, the occasion being the inauguration
of a splendid drinking-fountain, which has been pre
sented to the town as a Jubilee Memorial of the
Queen's reign by Mr. George W. Childs, of Philadel
phia, the donor of the American Window in West
minster Abbey to the genius of Herbert and Cowper.
The ancient borough accepted the gift with enthusiasm,
and the Mayor and corporation issued invitations to
one hundred guests. The American Minister (Mr.
Phelps), Sir Philip Cunliffe Owen, and Mr. John
Walter were the guests of the Mayor, Sir Arthur
Hodgson ; Sir P. Cunliffe Owen, and Mr. Walter, pro
prietor of tho Times, being personal friends of Mr.
Childs. Mr. Henry Irving, who had accepted the task
of making the dedication, was among the distinguished
guests. The early trains brought the Lord Lieutenant
of Warwickshire and the Mayors of the surrounding
towns. The weather was beautifully fine, and the
town was decorated with bunting. At half-past eleven
o'clock the Mayor and the members of the corporation
met at the Town Hall, and shortly before noon marched

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 249
in procession to the site of the memorial, accompanied
by Mr. Irving and the numerous representatives of
literature, art, and the drama who had been invited.
Mr. Irving, in making the dedication, spoke of Mr.
Childs as not only an admirable representative of the
public spirit and enterprising energy of Philadelphia,
but also as a man who had endeared himself to a very
wide circle by many generous deeds.
" A telegram was received from the Queen, in which
Her Majesty stated that she was much gratified by the
kind and loyal expressions conveyed, and was pleased
to hear of the handsomo gift by Mr. Childs to Stratford-
upon-Avon. Great cheering acknowledged the receipt
of this telegram. Mr. Phelps's speech, in which he
spoke of the loyal feeling towards tho Queen enter
tained by Americans, was also received with loud
cheers." The thorough and genuine appreciation
of Mr. Childs's gift by the English people
is thus finely expressed by the Warwick
Advertiser, a journal of influence published
near to the home of Shakespeare :
"The opening of the Childs Memorial Fountain at
Stratford-upon-Avon was an event of international
importance. The spirit in which the gift was proffered
and received will tend to cement the bond which unites
us with our kinsmen beyond the sea in that great
republic of the West, which has such boundless pos
sibilities in 6tore for the Anglo-Saxon race."
In the issue of October 18, the London
Pall Mall Gazette published a very effective

250 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
pictorial sketch of the fountain, with the
accompanying account of the ceremonies :
" The handsome clock-tower and fountain which Mr.
Childs, of Philadelphia, has presented to the town of
Stratford-upon-Avon, were inaugurated to-day by Mr.
Henry Irving. It is fitting that a memorial to the
greatest English dramatic poet should be inaugurated
by that poet's greatest living interpreter on tho stage.
Mr. Irving is, moreover, a personal friend of the donor,
Mr. Childs, to whom in a few days he will carry tho
enthusiastic thanks of the town for his generous gift.
Mr. Irving eulogized Mr. Childs as being not only an
admirable representative of the public spirit and enter
prise of Philadelphia, but also as a man who had en
deared himself to a very wide circle by many generous
deeds." The editorial comment of the Pall Mall
Gazette was as follows :
" It is not often that an inauguration goes off with
6uch unclouded €clat as yesterday's function at Strat
ford-upon-Avon. The day was of October's best, and
the ceremonywas one of unique interest, — the open
ing, namely, by the first actor in England, of the
drinking-fountain and clock-tower which have just
been erected in the Rother Market as a tribute by an
American citizen to the genius of Shakespeare and to
tho virtues of Queen Victoria. Mr. Childs makes the
Jubilee Year the occasion of his gift. But it was per
haps not so much either the fountain, or its cost, or
even the international character of the gift, which col
lected from all parts of England the distinguished com-

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 251
pany which assembled yesterday in tho Rother Market,
Few Englishmen have travelled in America who have
not, like Sir Philip C. Owen, Mr. Walter, Mr. Irving,
and Dr. Macaulay, been acquainted with Mr. Childs
and enjoyed his sumptuous hospitality. He has been
to them a sort of British proxenos in Philadelphia, and
it was a desire to testify their gratitude and friendship
for a very lovable man which brought many to Strat
ford yesterday. There was, moreover, a certain appro
priateness in tho selection at the subsequent lunch of
Mr. Walter, the owner of the London Times, to pro
pose the health of Mr. Childs, the owner of the Phila
delphia Ledger. In their respective cities those two
p.apcrs represent, and have now for many years repre
sented in a remarkable degree, the sober traditions and
stereotyped proprieties of long-established journalism.
But if the Times represents what is sober and solid, the
Ledger is the very essence of sobriety and solidity. It
has never yet condescended to attract readers by the
exhibition of posters ; no map or plan, still less any
portrait or engraving, has ever variegated the uniform
ity of its pages. Indeed, many people go so far as to
say that the thousands of persons who peruse the
Ledger read it from pure affection and regard for Mr.
Childs. One of its most distinctive peculiarities is
that it never says an ill word of any one, not even of
a mother-in-law. But perhaps the real secret of Mr.
Childs's popularity is not so much his abstinence from
ill words as the abundance of his good deeds. Tho
Stratford fountain is one of many public benefactions,
but his public benefactions, as any one acquainted with
Philadelphia will bear witness, are far outnumbered
by a multitude of acts of private charity and kindness
of which the public never hears at all. 'I intend,'
said Mr. Childs to a friend on last New Year's day,

252 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
1 to be kinder this year than ever I was before 5' and
the saying and the fact that he said it are very char
acteristic of Mr. Childs.
" Perhaps, however, of all said and written, the
sentence that will last longest is one of those selected
by Dr. Macaulay and engraved on the fountain, which,
for appropriateness, was never surpassed and deserves
to appear on other fountains: 'Honest water, which
ne'er left man i' the mire.' (' Timon of Athens,' Act
1, Scene 2.) A bottle filled-with this ' honest water,'
and carefully sealed up, was delivered to Mr. Irving,
and will be duly conveyed by him to America next
Thursday for presentation to Mr. Childs in Philadel
phia." In its issue of October 18, the Birming
ham Daily Post, a journal which in character
and influence is to England's provincial press
what the London Times is to metropolitan
journalism, gave the subjoined introduction
to an account of the memorial ceremony,
which occupied the larger part of one of its
spacious pages :
" Stratford-upon-Avon arrayed herself in a festival
garment of sunshine yesterday, for a function which,
if not quite, as the Mayor enthusiastically called it,
'the crowning event of the Jubilee Year,' was of
striking internal and literary significance. Mr. Henry
Irving inaugurated the memorial fountain and clock-
tower which Mr. G. W. Childs, a citizen of Philadel
phia, has presented to the town. The function was a
singularly quiet one, as all functions in such an old-

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 253
world place as Stratford must necessarily be ; but it
was not the less significant and interesting on that
account. Mr. Childs's beautiful gift is remarkable
alike as a reverent tribute to the memory of Shake
speare from a distant member of the English-speaking
race, and as a token of the good-will which subsists
between the British and tho American nations. More
over, the little crowd which gathered to assist at the
ceremony was representative in some degree of the
whole race, of all tho learned professions, and of all
estates of the realm."
In the same number of the Daily Post, the
following editorial comment was made :
" Literature and Art, the Press and the Stage, Eng
land and America, joined hands yesterday at Stratford-
upon-Avon, in doing honor to one of tho most illustri
ous representatives of our common stock, and in doing
so it is scarcely necessary to add that they did honor
to themselves and contributed in no mean degree to
draw closer the bonds of union between the great two
branches of the English-speaking race. The memorial
fountain and clock-tower, which were formally pre
sented to Shakespeare's native town on this occasion
on behalf of Mr. Childs, the well-known newspaper
proprietor and editor of Philadelphia, are not by any
means the first tribute of the kind which has been
offered up by American citizens at that beloved shrine,
which is every year the Mecca for so many troops of
reverent pilgrims from beyond the Atlantic ; but Mr.
Childs's gift possesses a special international signifi
cance from the expressed desire of the donor that it
should be construed as a token of good-will towards us
22

254 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
in this year of the Jubilee, and should serve to cement
the union of two great nations * that have the fame
and works of the poet Shakespeare as their common
heritage.' And that nothing might be wanting to the
completeness of yesterday's function, the dedication
was graced by characteristic contributions from some
of the most renowned men of letters in the great
republic of the West, including Mr. James Russell
Lowell, the ex- American Minister ; Mr. John Green-
leaf Whittier, the venerable Quaker poet ; and Dr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, whose poem, specially written
for the occasion, so happily and eloquently expresses
the aspirations to which the gift naturally lends itself.
On the English side, the stage, which is under so deep
and special a debt of gratitude to the great dramatist,
was not unworthily represented by Mr. Irving, on
whom devolved the proud task of inaugurating the
memorial ; whilst the English newspaper press, in the
person of Mr. Walter, the chief proprietor of the Times,
cordially acknowledged and welcomed this substantial
token of good-will from a brother journalist of the
New World. The Queen's message of congratulation
was a happy thought, which cannot but assist the
working of the charm ; and the proceedings altogether
were of an order to entitle the day to a red-letter mark
in the calendar, not only of Stratford, but of England
and the United States."

On the same day the Liverpool Post,
another provincial journal of high char
acter, prefaced the long and interesting re
port of the proceedings at Stratford with
these friendly remarks :

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 255
" The fraternal relations of the two great nations
which regard the works of Shakespeare as a common
heritage were shown in a happy manner at Stratford-
upon-Avon to day. Some time ago a prominent and
respected citizen of the United States, Mr. George W.
Childs, of Philadelphia, determined to celebrate the
Jubilee Year of Queen Victoria's reign by a memorial
of American sympathy to be erected in the birthplace
of England's greatest poet. Mr. Childs, it may be
recollected, is the donor of the American window
placed in Westminster Abbey to the memory of George
Herbert and William Cowper. Mr. Childs's gift to
Stratford has taken the form of a drinking-fountain
and clock-tower, and their inauguration to-day was
made the occasion of a ceremonial of international in
terest, forming both a welcome and substantial bene
fit to the town and a graceful addition to its many
points of natural and historic interest. Stratford ac
cepted the bequest with a heartiness at once agreeable
to its author, and illustrative of the friendly feeling of
the Warwickshire people for those of the great republic
of the West."
The American newspaper press demon
strated, by the publication of special cable
despatches, by letters from special corre
spondents, and by editorial expressions of
approval and admiration, that the interest
in and sympathy with the spirit of Mr.
Childs's gift were not less strong among
the people of this country than among
those of England. The despatches from
Stratford to the New York World filled

256 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
four and a half columns of that journal, of
which the accompanying abstract is made :
" George W. Childs's memorial to Shakespeare was
inaugurated to-day with much imposing ceremony.
Stratford-upon-Avon has never before held so many
strangers within its walls as to day. Hundreds of
Americans ran down from London last night and by
the early morning trains, taxing to the utmost the some
what limited facilities of the quiet old town for harbor
ing transient guests. The new Shakespeare House was
packed with transatlantic pilgrims, and some amuse
ment was created by tho boniface shouting out, as the
weary wayfarers arrived, ' Take this young couple up
to Romeo and Juliet.' The chambers in the old inn bear
the names of the works written by tho immortal Will
— or somebody else. A melancholy American trage
dian, lately crushed by the English critics, seemed
somewhat put out when shown up to 'Hamlet,' and
an elderly couple from Chicago did not like their
quarters in ' Love's Labor's Lost.' For the first time
in two weeks, according to the local weather man, the
sun shone in Stratford this morning, setting off the
handsome gift of the philanthropic Philadelphian to its
best advantage. From dawn until mid-day tho roads
from the surrounding country were thronged with
every sort of vehicle, from the dog-cart of the gentry
to the ox-team of the yokel. The local and neighbor
ing dignitaries, bearing up proudly under their massive
gold chains and other weighty insignia of office, strode
through the broad streets lined with quaint old-fash
ioned houses, making a truly old-world picture.
"When the time came Mayor Hodgson wound up
the clock in the stone spire, and Henry Irving turned
on the first flow of the precious liquid. But the arrival

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 257
of the Queen's, telegram was the sensation of the day,
not being on the card and being quite unexpected. The
telegraph-operator rushed headlong from the office down
to the square. Mr. Phelps's speech was interrupted,
and the precious despatch was read. It was the first
time that Stratford has heard from the Queen tele
graphically for thirty-five years.
"Graceful in its inception, the generous gift of Mr
Childs was gracefully received, and the ceremonies
concluded in the most graceful manner possible by a
banquet, which was as excellent in the material way as
had been the preceding flow of wit and wisdom. The
Stratford folk do not seem to be imbued in the least
with any belief in the Baconian theory. In fact, they
look upon it as a base attempt to rob their town of one
of its chief claims to revenue and repute, and regard
it as being inspired by an invidious neighbor."
The account of the day and its ceremonies
telegraphed to the New York Herald was
only less extended than that published by its
neighbor the World, but it was still lengthy
enough to serve as a brief epitome and chron
icle of the notable celebration, its author
being Hon. A. Oakey Hall, formerly Mayor
of New York City, but at the time of the
dedieation he was, as he now is, an eminent
London journalist, representing in the great
metropolis with scholarly ability the Herald.
Mr. Hall's account is so admirably written,
and presents so attractive a view of Stratford
on the day of the fountain's dedication, as to
r " 22*

258 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
render its introduction here more than par
donable. Mr. Oakey Hall said, —
" The names of William Shakespeare and George
William Childs will be indissolubly united after this
day in this city, where the editor's fountain and clock-
tower were added to the bard's memorials to glorify
this historic spot. The Philadelphian's gift was long
ago described in the Herald when the designs were
adopted. As completed and this morning dedicated,
the gift is doubtless one of the most artistic fountains
in the world, as will be seen when some of the several
thousand photos now multiplying reach New York.
" At noon a procession left the Town Hall to march
a quarter of a mile to the fountain, which fronts a
square formed by the junction of several streets and
is looked upon by Shakespeare's house. The procession,
headed by the Mayor and aldermen in full regalia, es
corting Mr. Irving and thirty guests, was preceded by
a band playing British patriotic airs. On arriving at
the variegated granite gift, Mayor Hodgson, in gorgeous
robes and chain, presenting a decidedly classic face and
figure, took his stand at the foot of the steps leading
up to the fountain.
" After reading a quaint letter from the poet Whittier
and another from James Russell Lowell, he briefly ex
plained the object of the gathering, with eulogistic and
well-ex pressed references to Mr. Childs, and compli
mentary allusions to America, ' the adopted country
of Shakespeare,' and introduced Minister Phelps as
the representative of the United States. The latter's
speech, given with diplomatic skill, was short but full
of meaning.
" Mr. Irving stood within the dry basin in dedicating
the gift, and, with fine elocution, made an address last-

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 259
ing a quarter of an hour, in the course of which he
Baid, as a part of the peroration, —
" ' The donor of this beautiful monument I am happy
to claim as a personal friend. Mr. George W. Childs
is not only an admirable representative of the public
spirit and enterprising energy of Philadelphia, but he
is also a man who has endeared himself to a very wide
circle by many generous deeds.
" ' I do not wonder at his munificence, for to men
like him it is second nature ; but I rejoice in tho happy
inspiration which prompted a gift which so worthily
represents the common homage of two great peoples to
the most famous man of their common race.
"' The simplest records of Stratford show that this
is the Mecca of American pilgrims, and that the place
which gave birth to Shakespeare is regarded as the
fountain of the mightiest and most enduring inspira
tion of our mother tongue.'
"The following was his epilogue: 'Let me conjure
fancies. Let me picture Shakcspearo to-day returning
from his bourne to find upon the throne ono who rules
with gentler sway than tho great sovereign that ho
know, and yet whose reign has glories more beneficent
than those of Elizabeth. We can try to imagine his
emotion when he finds this dear England he loved so
well expanded beyond seas.
"'We can at least be happy in the thought that
when he had mastered the lessons of the conflict which
divided us from our kinsmen in America, he would be
proud to see in Stratford this gift of a distinguished
American citizen — this memorial of our reunion — •
under the shadow of his undying name.'
" During his speech Mr. Irving referred to the manu
script ode which he had previously read, and which
was written for the occasion by Dr. Holmes.

260 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
. " Then Dr. Macaulay, as a personal friend of Mr.
Childs, and Mr. Irving, representing the authorities,
jointly turned on the water into the large drinking-
fountain for horses and cattle, the smaller one for
dogs, and the interior one for thirsty pedestrians, while
simultaneously invisible hands inside the clock-tower
Bet the hour and started the works. The first flow,
however, was caught in a flat glass jar, bought at the
bar of the Shakespeare Inn, hard by, and was handed
by Sir Philip Cunliffe Owen to Mr. Irving, to be by
him presented in person to Mr. Childs.
" The royal toasts were fully honored. Minister
Phelps eulogized President Cleveland and gallantly
referred to Mrs. Cleveland. Dr. Macaulay and then
Sir Philip Cunliffe Owen responded to the health of
Mr. Chiles ; but the best speech was by Mr. Irving,
responding to the memory of Shakespeare, and con
cluding thus :
" ' In a few days I shall sail for the great country
where any worthy representation of Shakespeare on
the stage commands as stanoh a support from the pub
lic as in our own land. I shall carry, as your ambas
sador to Mr, Childs, your enthusiastic appreciation of
his generous gift.'
" In response to a call, John Walter, of the London
Times, made a few off-hand remarks about Mr. Childs's
hospitality to himself when in America, applying to
Mr. Childs the line about taking the tide at flood which
led him on to fortune.
"Next, turning towards Mayor Hodgson, he said,
'We were boys at Eton. Until to-day we have not
met in half a century. He was known at school as
" Trump Hodgson." When I saw him to-day, my
salutation was, " How d'ye do, Trump?" And cer
tainly, along with Mr. Childs, as I turn from the

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 261
fountain to the banquet, he has proven himself a very
trump.' "This was heartily received by all tho guests, and
all separated with tho lino aptly chosen at tho end
of tho menu from 'All's Well That Ends Well:' 'A
good travollcr is something at the latter end of a
dinner.' "
With no known exception the leading
newspapers of the United States printed
special or Associated Press despatches from
Stratford, which were generally accompanied
by editorial remarks referring to the cele
bration of the previous day. Of the several
hundred appreciative editorial articles which
were kindly sent me by their writers I have
thought it not unfit to use a few to round
out this history of the Shakespeare Memorial
on the Avon-side. That which so attrac
tively characterized all the elaborate reports
and remarks of both the English and Amer
ican journals was the common recognition
and fine appreciation of the spirit of inter
national good-will which inspired Mr. Childs
to set up there, near by the poet's home, an
enduring memorial of the love and reverence
of all English-speaking people for that sub
lime genius who filled not only the spacious
times of Great Elizabeth but all times sinco
with the wondrous wisdom and beauty of
his thought and feeling.

262 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
The New York Times referred editorially,
on October 18, to the dedication of the
fountain, as follows :
" The proceedings at Stratford-upon-Avon on Monday
in dedicating to the memory of Shakespeare the me
morial fountain presented to the town by Mr. George
W. Childs, of Philadelphia, afforded one of those oc
casions upon which Englishmen and Americans, espe
cially the latter, delight to recognize the common ties
of tradition and literature which unite the two peoples
in a relationship made too strong by natural kinship
to be severed by oft-recurring conflicts of interest. It
is doubtful if, even in England, there is such a universal
reading and understanding of the works of Shakespeare
among the mass of the people as in this country, or
such a general appreciation of the grand heritage of
English literature. The sympathy produced by this
common possession of a language and literature is
stronger than is generally acknowledged, and it is the
basis of a mutual understanding that ought to be a
guarantee of perpetual friendly relations. Incidents
•like that of yesterday, brought about by a generous
and public-spirited American, are of value in remind
ing the two nations of what they have in common, and
in teaching them to be tolerant in those things in
which they differ."
The Daily News, of Baltimore, referring
to the universal interest which everything
of moment relating to Shakespeare creates,
said, —
" The description of the dedication of Mr. Childs's
fountain has been given as much space by the press —

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 263
British and American — as some great political event
might have been.
" The Stratford ceremonies were in every way in
teresting. Mr. Childs, in presenting the beautiful
fountain to tho town, only did what many others
would like to havo done. Some other object he might
have offered, — there are many ways in which his ad
miration for the poet might havo expressed itself; but,
after all, as Mr. Irving remarked, there seems some
thing particularly appropriate in the fountain which
has been erected in the middle of the quaint old town,
for the use of all, and for beast as well as man.
"The occasion was altogether one of which Amer
icans may bo as proud as Mr. Childs must bo. As
Irving remarked, it is the Americans who have always
been foremost in making pilgrimages and paying
tributes to the Stratford poet. Mr. Childs has done
many things to show the exalted character of his mind
and his goodness of heart, and it seems that ho could
not rest until he had made a gift of this beautiful foun
tain — according to all accounts, one of the most artistic
in the world — to the memory of Shakespeare."
No one has more pleasantly told the story
of the fountain than has Mr. William Whi
ter, the poet, journalist, and critic. His
sympathy with the purpose of the giver of
the memorial is as broad as his reverent love
for Shakespeare is profound, and to both
which sympathy and love he has borne tes
timony in books, essays, poems, letters, and
criticisms. He is one of the most brilliant of
American writers, and one whose audience,

264 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
while always large, is always fit. Harper's
Weekly of October 22, 1887, published an
excellent illustration of the Stratford Foun
tain, accompanied by a characteristic sketch
by Mr. Winter, from which are taken the
following extracts :
" American interest in Stratford-upon-Avon springs
out of a love for the works of Shakespeare as profound
and passionate as that of the most sensitive and rev
erent of the poet's own countrymen. It was the father
of American literature — Washington Irving — who in
modern times made the first pilgrimage to that Holy
Land, and set the good example, which since has been
followed by thousands, of worship at the shrine of
Shakespeare. Wherever in Stratford you come upon
anything that was ever associated, even remotely, with
the name and fame of Shakespeare, there you will
surely find the gracious tokens of American homage.
"A noble token of this American sentiment and a
permanent object of patriotic interest to the pilgrim in
Stratford is supplied by the Jubilee gift of a drinking-
fountain, made to that city by George W. Childs, of
Philadelphia. It never is a surprise to hear of some
new instance of that good man's constant activity and
splendid generosity in good works : it is only an ac
customed pleasure. With fine-art testimonials in the
Old World as well as at home his name will always be
honorably associated. A few years ago he presented a
superb window of stained glass to Westminster Abbey,
to commemorate in the Poet's Corner George Herbert
and William Cowper. He has since given to St. Mar
garet's Church, Westminster, where Skelton and Sir
James Harrington (1611-1677) were entombed, and

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 265
whore was buried the headless body of Sir Walter
Raleigh, a pictorial window commemorative of John
Milton. His fountain at Stratford was dedicated on
October 17, 1887, with appropriate ceremonies con
ducted by the city's Mayor, Sir Arthur Hodgson, of
Clopton Hall, and amid general rejoicing. The coun
trymen of Mr. Childs are not less interested in this
structure than the community that it was intended to
honor and benefit. They observe with satisfaction and
pride that he has made this beneficent, beautiful, and
opulent offering to a town which for all of them is
hallowed by exalted associations, and for many of them
is endeared by delightful memories. They sympathize
also with the motive and feeling that prompted him to
offer his gift as one among many memorials of the
fiftieth year of the reign of Queen Victoria. It is not
every man who knows how to give with grace, and the
good deed is ' done double' that is done at the right
time. Stratford had long been in need of such a foun
tain as Mr. Childs has given, and therefore it satisfies
a public want, at the same time that it serves a purpose
of ornamentation and bespeaks and strengthens a bond
of international sympathy. Rother Square, in which
the structure stands, is the most considerable open
tract in Stratford, and is situated near the centre of
the town, on the west side. There, as also at the in
tersection of High and Bridge streets, which are the
principal thoroughfares of the city, the farmers, at
stated intervals, range their beasts and wagons and
hold a market. It is easy to foresee that Rother
Square, as now embellished with this superb monu
ment, which combines a convenient clock-tower, a
place of rest and refreshment for man, commodious
drinking-troughs for horses, cattle, dogs, and sheep,
will become the agricultural centre of the region.
M 23

266 The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
"The base of the monument is made of Peterhead
granite; the superstructure is of gray stone — from
Bolton, Yorkshire. The inscriptions at the base are
these : L
' The gift of an American citizen, George W. Childs, of
Philadelphia, to the town of Shakespeare, in the
Jubilee Year of Queen Victoria.'
IL
'In her days every man shall eat, in safety
Under his own vine, what he plants ; and sing
The merry songs of peace to all his neighbors.
God shall be truly known : and those about her
From her shall read the perfect ways of honor,
And by those claim their greatness, not by blood.
Henry VIII., Act V., Scene IV.'
III.
' Honest water, which ne'er left man i' the mire.
Timon of Athens, Act I., Scene IL'
IV.
'Ten thousand honors and blessings on the bard who
has gilded the dull realities of life with innocent illu
sions. — Washington Irving' s Stratford-upon-Avon.'
" Stratford-upon-Avon, fortunate in many things, is
especially fortunate in being situated at a considerable.
distance from the main line of any railway. Two
railroads indeed skirt the town, but both are branches,
and travel upon thorn has not yet become too frequent.
Stratford, therefore, still retains a measure of its ancient
isolation and consequently of its quaintness. Antique
customs are still prevalent there, and odd characters
may still bo encountered. The current of village gos
sip flows with incessant vigor, and nothing happens in

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 267
the place that is not thoroughly discussed. An event
so important as the establishment of this American
fountain has, of course, excited great interest through
out Warwickshire. It would be pleasant to hear the
talk of those old cronies who drift into the bar-parlor
of the Red Horse Hotel, on a Saturday evening, — the
learned Guppy, resting from the labors of Her Majesty's
Post-office ; the genial Cole, fresh from his auctioneer's
pulpit; the aristocratic Vet,« whose visage so plainly
manifests his noble origin ; and Richard Savage, scholar
and antiquary, — as they comment on the liberal Amer
ican whose generosity has thus enriched and beautified
their town. This Red Horse circle is but one of many
in which tho name of George W. Childs is spoken with
esteem and cherished with affection. The present
writer has made many visits to Stratford and has
passed much time there, and he has observed on many
occasions tho admiration and gratitude of tho War
wickshire people for the American philanthropist. In
the library of Charles Edward Flower at Avonbank, in
the gardens of Edgar Flower on the Hill, in the lovely
home of Alderman Bird, at the hdspitablo table of Sir
Arthur Hodgson in Clopton Hall, and in many other
representative places, he has heard that name spoken,
and always with delight and honor. Time will only
deepen and widen the loving respect with which it is
hallowed. In England, more than anywhere else on
earth, the record of good deeds is mado permanent, not
alone with imperishable symbols, but in the hearts of
tho people. The inhabitants of Warwickshire, guard
ing and maintaining their Stratford Fountain, will
never forget by whom it was given. Wherever you
go in the British islands you find memorials of tho
poet and of individuals who have done good in their
time, and you find that these memorials are respected

268 Tlic Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain.
and preserved. Warwickshire abounds with them.
Many such memorials might be indicated. Each one
of them takes its place in the regard, and gradually
becomes entwined with the experience, of the whole
community. So it will be with the Childs Fountain
at Stratford. The children trooping home from school
will drink of it and sport in its shadow, and reading
upon its base the name of its founder will think with
pleasure of a good man's gift. It lies directly in the
track of travel between Banbury and Birmingham, and
many weary men and horses will pause beside it every
day for a moment of rest and refreshment. On festival
days it will be hung with garlands, while all around it
the air is glad with music. And often in the long,
sweet gloaming of the summer times to come the rower
on the limpid river Avon that murmurs by the ancient
town of Shakespeare will pause with suspended oar to
hear its silver chimes. If the founder of this fountain
had been capable of a selfish thought, he could have
taken no way better or more certain than this for the
perpetuation of his own name in the affectionate esteem
of one of the loveliest places and one of the most re
fined communities in the world.
"All the country-side is full of storied resorts and
cosey nooks and comfortable inns. But neither now
nor hereafter will it be otherwise than grateful and
touching to such an explorer of haunted Warwickshire
to see, among the emblems of poetry and romance
which are its chief glory, this new token of American
sentiment and friendship, the Drinking-Fountain of
Stratford, the gift of George W. Childs."
I know of no words which have been
spoken to show the reason for the good-will

The Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain. 2G9
that should forever be maintained by the
people of England and America, each for
the other, which more clearly exhibit it,
than those of " Honest John Bright," who,
in the dark days of the republic's stuggle for
life, speaking in 1864 to a great multitude
of his countrymen in the city of London,
asked them, —
"Can wo forget that, after all, we are ono nation,
having two governments ; that wo are tho same noble
and heroic race ; that half the English family is on this
side of the Atlantic, in its ancient homo, and tho other
half — thero being no room for them here — is settled on
the American continent?"
The spirit of the question asked by the
Great Commoner, and which inspired him
to sympathize with this government of tho
people, for the people, and by the people, is
the very sentient one which inspired Mr.
Childs to erect on Avon's bank the fountain
to Shakespeare, and to set up elsewhere in
England's sacred shrines other fit memorials
to venerable British worthies, the story of
which is herein told.

THE HERBERT AND COWPER MEMORIAL
IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

That which came next in his love for his
holy office to Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D.,
Dean of Westminster, was the Abbey, the
story of which he has so fully and pleasantly
told in his " Historical Memorials." The
first chapter of this scholarly work, which
he wrought out to so noble a conclusion, has
the following introduction, copied from a
contemporaneous biography- of Edward the
Confessor in a Harleian manuscript :
" The foundation of Westminster Abbey. The devout
King destined to God that place, both for that it was
near unto the famous and wealthy City of London, and
also had a pleasant situation among fruitful fields lying
round it, with the principal river running hard by,
bringing it from all parts of the world great variety
of wares and merchandise of all sorts to the city ad
joining ; but chiefly for the love of the Chief Apostle,
whom he reverenced with a special and singular affec
tion." 271

272 The Herbert and Cowper Memorial
Dean Stanley never spoke of the Abbey
save with the tenderest, most reverential
feeling. He knew all that could be known
about it,— its foundation, its growth, its leg
endary and historical origin; its relics, its
tombs, its shrines, its chapels, its transepts,
its cloisters, and its illustrious dead. For
years he had moved and had his being
among them. Through them he lived in
all times of England's triumphs and defeats.
To his broad and all-embracing mind there
was no difference between the ashes lying
there of the courtly nobles of Charles I. and
those of the rude Titans of the Common
wealth. It was this feeling which enabled
him to say, in Chapter IV. of his " Me
morials,"—

" Of all the characteristics of Westminster Abbey
that which most endears it to the nation and gives
most force to its name — which has, more than any
thing else, made it the home of the people of England
and the most venerated fabric of the English Church —
is not bo much its glory as the seat of the coronations
or as the sepulchre of the Kings ; not so much its
school, or its monastery, or its chapter, or its sanctuary,
as the fact that it is the resting-place of famous Eng
lishmen, from every rank and creed and every form of
mind and genius. It is not only Rheims Cathedral and
St. Denys both in one, but it is also what the Pan
theon was intended to be to France — what the Valhalla

in Westminster Abbey. 273
is to Germany — what Santa Croce is to Italy. It is
this aspect which, more than any other, won for it the
delightful visits of Addison in the ' Spectator,' of Steele
in the ' Tatler,' of Goldsmith in ' Tho Citizen of tho
World,' of Charles Lamb in 'Elia,' of Washington Ir
ving in ' The Sketch-Book.' It is this which inspired the
saying of Nelson, ' a Peerage — or Westminster Abbey 1'
and which has intertwined it with so many eloquent
passages of Macaulay. It is this which gives point
to the allusions of recent statesmen least inclined
to draw illustrations from ecclesiastical buildings.
It is this which gives most promise of vitality to
the whole institution. Kings are no longer buried
within its walls ; even the splendor of pageants has
ceased to attract ; but the desire to be interred in West
minster Abbey is still as strong as ever."

Nowhere in his story of tho famous Abbey
does the venerable Dean exhibit so much
feeling in the telling of it as in that part
which has to do with the great dead poets
of England. The historian lingers long and
fondly in the " Poet's Corner," for, though
they all lie not there, monuments are therein
erected to the memory of Chaucer, Spenser,
Shakespeare, Drayton, Ben Jonson, Ay ton,
Davenant, Cowley, Dryden, Milton, Butler,
Rowe, Steele, Addison, Congreve, Prior,
Gay, Pope, Thomson, and Gray.
Dean Stanley's cultivated and refined
mind sympathized profoundly with the- men

274 The Herbert and Cowper Memorial
of genius who, through recurring ages, have
by their so potent art made glorious the lit
erature of England, and probably with no
others more than with these two, among the
greatest and sweetest singers of them all, —
the Christian poets, Herbert and Cowper,—
to whose genius there had been no memorials
set up in the Abbey, though it was long his
most ardent wish there should be. Among
those to whom Dean Stanley communicated
his desire was his friend, Mr. George W.
Childs, of Philadelphia, and with what se
quence is thus briefly told by the Rev. Alex
ander B. Grosart, in a note to his complete
works of George Herbert, printed for private
circulation only: "To the praise of George
W. Childs, Esq., of Philadelphia, U.S. A., be
it recorded that, on learning the wish of the
Dean of Westminster and others to place a
memorial window in our great Abbey in
honor of George Herbert and William Cow
per, as Westminster school boys, he spon
taneously and large-heartedly expressed his
readiness to furnish such a window at his
own cost. The generous offer was cordially
accepted." Mr. Childs was almost as well known in
England as in America. His " House Beau
tiful" in Philadelphia had long been famed

in Westminster Abbey. 275
as the home of the most splendid and refined
hospitality which had been gratefully enjoyed
by many of the most distinguished English
men visiting America. Among them was
the venerable, learned, and good Dr. Stanley,
Dean of Westminster. In a sermon preached
in St. James's P. E. Church, Philadelphia,
on the morning of September 29, 1878, the
Dean, then the guest of Mr. Childs, said, —
" It has been one happy characteristic of the Church
of England that it has retained both sides of the Chris
tian character within its pale. There is in Westmin
ster Abbey a window dear to American hearts because
erected by an honored citizen of Philadelphia, in which
these two elements are presented side by side. On the
one hand, the sacred poet most cherished by the eccle
siastical, royalist, priest-like phase of the Church,
George Herbert ; on the other hand, the sacred poet
most cherished by the puritan, austere, lay phase of
the Church, William Cowper. That diversity is an ex
ample of the way in which God's will is wrought on
earth as it is in heaven. I have said that we do not
speculate on the names or natures of angels, yot as
symbols and outlines of the divine operations they may
be most useful to us. In the rabbinical and mediaeval
theology this diversity used to be represented by the
manifold titles of the various principalities and powers.
Most of these have now dropped out of use; but there
are some few which, either from their mention in the
biblical or the apocryphal books, or from the trans
figuring hand of artistic or poetic genius, have sur
vived."

276 The Herbert and Cowper Memorial
The Window dedicated to Herbert and
Cowper, which has become one of the con
spicuous memorials of Westminster Abbey,
owes its place there to the strong and abid
ing love which this great English prelate had
for this country, and to Mr. Childs's recog
nition of the fraternity of feeling which
nature has planted deep in the hearts of
Englishmen and Americans.
In concluding an appreciative and grace
ful tribute to the character of Dean Stanley,
then lately gone to his reward, the Public
Ledger, on the 20th of July, 1881, said, —
" He believed in a national church, but his Angli
canism reached across the water, and he was fonder and
more appreciative of this country than many a citizen
of the United States. Freedom and reverence, peace
born of struggle, and faith in justice worth hard knocks,
the charity that comes of knowledge, not of indifference,
a prayer ' that we may hot be persecutors,' a creed like
the rainbow, that spanned from the horizon to tho zenith,
— these were the rich gifts of Stanley's mind, and his
legacy to the world are his twin beliefs in unswerving
law and all-surrounding love."
It was out of his love for the people of
the United States — and of his perception of
the common bonds that bound and made
them one with Englishmen — that the Her
bert and Cowper Memorial grew. There

in Westminster Abbey. 277
was, at the time the request for tho Window
was made and freely responded to, the same
thought in the minds of both Dean Stanley
and Mr. George W. Childs,— the thought
that, if there were set up in the venerable
Abbey, the last resting-place of so many
eminent Englishmen, a memorial to those
great worthies, Herbert and Cowper, by an
American citizen, who was indisputably a
representative of American thought and
feeling, it would be, so long as time spared
that ancient edifice, a token of the cordial
sympathy existing between the two coun
tries. When in 1867 Sir Charles Wentworth
Dilke had finished the story of his travels
through the British Colonies and the United
States, he could find no title so fit for his
attractive work as that of " Greater Britain."
He saw, during his protracted visit to this
country, only his own country magnified in
area, population, wealth, and greatness. He
found here the same manners and customs
as those of his own land; here he also found
the same language, the same political insti
tutions, the same literature, the same art, the
same science, the same religion. He was
quick to perceive that they of Old England
and of New England, of Great Britain and
24

. 278 The Herbert and Cowper Memorial
the United States, were one people in their
love of virtue, freedom, intelligence, courage,
and iu their vast, far-reaching enterprise.
The broad ocean separated them ; prejudices,
growing out of misunderstandings, had some
times caused them often to look askance at
each other, to regard each other with distrust.
But, despite all prejudices and misunder
standings, they were and are as one in all
that proclaims the identity of the same
people, though living apart.
This thought or sentiment, it need not be
said, is not a new one, but as old, at least, in
the minds of Englishmen and Americans as
was the Mayflower on the day there passed
over her side to Plymouth Rock the Pilgrim
Fathers. But again, and a thousand times
again, has it been newly formulated, and
most eloquently, by that learned and devout
scholar, F. W. Farrar, D.D., Archdeacon of
Westminster, in a paper of great inter
national interest and attractiveness contribu
ted by him to Harper's Magazine of January,
1888, which bears the title of " The Share
of America in Westminster Abbey."
The Venerable Archdeacon, whose fame
for piety and learning is as great in this
country as in his own, begins his brilliant
paper with the words following :

in Westminster Abbey. 279
"Westminster Abbey is most frequently entered by
the great northern door, usually known as Solomon's
Porch, now in course of a splendid restoration, which
will soon be completed. I will, however, ask the cour
teous American visitor to walk through St. Margaret's
Church-yard, and round tho western facade of the
Abbey, and to enter by the door under Sir Christopher
Wren's towers, opposite the memorial raised by West
minster scholars to their school-fellows who died in the
Crimean war. Pass through tho westorn door, and
pause for a moment
' Where bubblos burst, and folly's dancing foam
Melts if it cross tho threshold.'
Of all the glory of this symbolic architecture, of the
awe-inspiring grandeur and beauty of this great min
ster, which makes us feel at once that
'They dreamt not of a perishable homo
Who thus could build,'
how much may be claimed in part by America?
"In one sense all of it which belongs to the epoch
which elapsed between tho ago of Edward tho Con
fessor and the disastrous days of Charles I. and Arch
bishop Laud. An English writer who lives in America
has said that ' in signing away his own empire George
III. did not sign away the empire of English liberty,
of English law, of English literature, of English blood,
of English religion, or of the English tongue.' Amer
icans enjoy, no less than we, the benefit of tho great
Charter, the Petition of Right, the Habeas Corpus Act.
They need not go back for their history to Indian
annals or Icelandic sagas. Theirs are the palaces of

280 The Herbert and Cowper Memorial
the Plantagenets, the cathedrals which enshrine our
old religion, the illustrious Hall in which the long line
of our great judges reared by their decisions the fabric
of our law, the gray colleges in which our intellect and
science found their earliest home, the graves where our
heroes and sages and poets sleep. Indeed, I have under
stated their share in the Abbey. It reaches down not
only to the days of the Pilgrim Fathers, but to the
War of Independence. Chatham and Burke and Barre"
as well as Patrick Henry advocated the American
cause, which engaged the sympathy of the great mass
of Englishmen, if not that of Grenville and North."
The recognition both by Dean Stanley
and by Mr. Childs of the truth of that which
Archdeacon Farrar so eloquently said had
been previously demonstrated by the setting
up in the ancient Abbey of the Memorial to
Herbert and Cowper, of which, in the above-
quoted paper, Archdeacon Farrar says, after
referring to the monuments to Kingsley and
Craggs,— " There are two other memorials which combine with
these to give to this spot in the Abbey the name of the
'Little Poets' Corner.' They are the stained glass
Windows in memory of George Herbert and William
Cowper. They belong entirely to America, for they
are the gift of an American citizen, my honored friend,
Mr. George William Childs, of Philadelphia. In the
stained glass are the effigies of the two poets. Both
of them were Westminster boys, and the most beautiful
representatives of all that is holy in two very opposite

in Westminster Abbey. 281
schools of religious thought. It was a happy inspira
tion which suggested tho erection of this Window.
George Herbert and William Cowper were well deserv
ing of Memorials in the Abbey, apart from the fact
that they had so often played in its cloisters and
worshipped in its choir. The combination of the two
suggests the higher unity which reconciles all minor.
points of ecclesiastical difference."
HERBERT.
Gentle Izaak Walton concluded the re
markable sketch of the life of the pious
scholar and poet, George Herbert, which is
one of the noblest ornaments of our litera
ture, in these words :
"Thus he lived, and thus he died like a saint, un
spotted of the world, full of alms-deeds, full of humil
ity, and all the examples of a virtuous life ; which I
cannot conclude better than with this borrowed ob
servation : " ' All must to their cold graves;
But tho religious actions of tho just
Smell sweet in death, and blossom in the dust.'
" Mr. George Herbert's have done so to this, and
will doubtless do so to succeeding generations. I have
but this to say more of him, that if Andrew Melville
died before him, then George Herbert died without an
enemy. I wish (if God be so pleased) that I may be
so happy as to die like him."
In the estimation of those of wisest censure
there are none of the old English divines or

282 The Herbert and Cowper Memorial
sacred poets whose fame is more deserved,
or who are- more reverenced by those who
speak the language in which the "holy
Herbert" gave his writings, in prose and
verse, to the world. COWPER.
On the long roll of England's distinguished
men of letters there are few names which
shine with so strong, steady, and enduring
a light as that of William Cowper. There
has been no lessening of his great fame with
the passing of time ; it was long ago con
ceded that by his poems he had not only
raised " to himself an imperishable name,"
but that he had added enduring beauty to
the English language. His is a name which
is not only reverently cherished in the affec- .
tions, but which appeals to the best thought,
high conscience, and lofty sentiment of all
men of noble mind.
When Mr. Childs undertook the fufil-
ment of the desire of his friend, the vener
able Dean of Westminster, to set up the
Memorial Window in the Abbey to Her
bert and Cowper, the same thought inspired
them both, — the thought that if the object
were accomplished by an American it would
be accepted by every Englishman as a tribute

in Westminster Abbey. . 283
of brothers to brothers. The works of these
sacred singers live after them in the love and
admiration of all English-speaking peoples,
and nowhere more truly than among the
people of this broad land. The Window in
Westminster, though the munificent gift of
but one of them, represents the common
reverence for the great poet of all Ameri
cans of gentle, pious feeling, as his songs
were sung for those of all lands of refined
natures and devout aspirations.
In Sunday at Home, a magazine of high
character, published in London (in the num
ber for June, 1877), there appeared, as a
frontispiece, a colored illustration of the
Herbert and Cowper Memorial Window,
with reference to which Dean Stanley con
tributed the following explanatory note :
" The southwest corner of the Abbey — once the
Abbot's private chapel, then the Baptistery, and now
the Lay Clerks' vestry— was selected some twenty
years ago as the place for the erection of the statue
of the poet Wordsworth, probably in connection with
the font. Within the last ten years the present Dean
resolved to make it a second poet's corner— chiefly for
sacred poets — in order to relieve the great pressure on
the south transept.
" When Mr. George W. Childs, of Philadelphia, with
truly American generosity, most generously complied
with my request that he should give a window of stained

284 The Herbert and Cowper Memorial
glass, it was suggested to bim that it should be placed
in this chapel, and commemorate George Herbert and
William Cowper, — both religious poets, both Westmin
ster scholars, — and especially two opposite poles of the
English Church, — George Herbert, the 'ecclesiastical,'
and William Cowper, the ' evangelical,' tendency. In
the Window, Herbert is represented in his clerical vest
ure, standing by his church porch, and the lines under
neath are taken from the introduction to his poems, and
(in reference to the Baptistery, or the entrance to the
Abbey) touch at the start on the Christian life. Cowper,
on the other side, is in his well-known cap and dressing-
gown, in the neighborhood of Olney, with his hares
in the garden, looking at his ' Mother's Picture,' from
which poem are taken the lines which are also appro
priate to the associations of the Baptistery. The her
aldic devices above represent their respective families, —
both, as it happens, great in the English aristocracy."
The editor of Sunday at Home added to the good
Dean's note that " it was a happy thought of Dean
Stanley to associate the names in the Memorial, and
tho gift of the Window was a fitting and graceful trib
ute from an American citizen in the Centennial Year
of Independence."
In a private letter to Mr. Childs written
by a distinguished man of letters in England,
and referring to the death of Dean Stanley,
the writer said, —
" The good Dean valued your friendship deeply, and
I have often heard him speak with enthusiasm of your
affection for England and the Abbey, and the munifi
cently splendid way in which you showed it. I have

in Westminster Abbey. 285
no doubt that the recollection by you of the truly kind
and genial reception which you gave him in Philadel
phia will remain with you as one of the brightest inci
dents of your life."
In W. W. Nevin's entertaining " Vignettes
of Travel" there occurs this reference to Mr.
Childs's gift to the Abbey :
"Passing from the ancient abbot's palace, now the
dwelling of the Dean, by private entrance to the church,
just before we entered the transept of the main build
ing. Dean Stanley, to whom my presence started recol
lections of Philadelphia, said, ' Stop a moment ; I want
to show you something that will remind you of home,'
and ascending by a side entry three narrow steps, into
a little chapel shut off by an open railing from public
entrance, we stood suddenly before the handsome Me
morial Window of Mr. Childs to the two English poets,
— a grand blaze of illumination, covering almost an
entire wall of the chapel. It is a beautiful and costly
work of art, in the conventional ecclesiastical style of
glass-painting, rich and impressive.
" It is the usage of the Abbey to inscribe on all mon
uments the incidents of their erection, but the story
of this ono is very simply and frankly told in a single
line: ' D. D* Georgius Gulielmus Childs. Civis
Americanus.' "This is the first appearance of our country in tho
historic Abbey. There aro a few other American names,
—some Royal refugees in the War of 1776-83, somo
colonial worthies, some British soldiers killed in tho

* Donum dedit.

286 The Herbert and Cowper Memorial.
Revolution and French Wars ; but this is the only
description which distinctly places the new nation of
' The United States of America' in the monumental
archives of Westminster."
Mr. Joel Cook, in his entertaining book
entitled " A Holiday Tour in Europe," says,
' regarding the gift of Mr. Childs, —
" The Memorial Window erected by Mr. George W.
Childs is eagerly sought for by Americans visiting
the Abbey. . . . Mr. Childs's gift is in two parts, or,
as it were, two complete windows, one in memory of
Herbert and the other of Cowper. It is the extreme
western window on the south side of the nave, and is
in the Baptistery, somewhat secluded on account of the
high tombs standing in front of it, and the stone arched
railing separates the Baptistery from the nave, but pour
ing a rich flood of mellow light over them."

THE MILTON WINDOW.

The gift by Mr. George W. Childs to St.
Margaret's Church, Westminster, # of the
Memorial Window to Milton was made
subsequently to that of the Fountain, com
memorative of Shakespeare, at Stratford-
upon-Avon, and was inspired by a letter to
him from his friend Archdeacon Farrar, in
which was regretfully recited the absence
of any appropriate memorial in England to
the great Cromwellian poet, except that
erected in 1737 by Auditor Benson in West
minster Abbey. To this letter its recipient
at once replied by offering to place in St.
Margaret's Church, of which the Venerable
Doctor Farrar is Rector, a window, the de
sign of which should be determined wholly
by the judgment of the latter, Mr. Childs's
only request to his friend being that he
should undertake the setting up of a monu
ment which should appropriately commem
orate the virtues and genius of Milton, whose
287

288 The Milton Window.
works are held in as great esteem, and whose
memory is as profoundly reverenced in this
country, as in that of his birth. The sug
gestion which came to Mr. Childs was in
harmony with the sentiment which had in
duced the presentation of the Memorial to
Herbert and Cowper in Westminster Abbey,
and the Fountain at Stratford-upon-Avon to
Shakespeare, which were to serve as a sign
of the appreciation in America of the genius
of the poets to whom they were dedicated,
and to give assurance to the world of the
warmth of the affection and the sincerity of
the esteem existing in the United States for
these great masters of English literature,
Who embellished and ennobled our common
language by their contributions to it.
"London and Westminster," says old
Heywood, " are two twin-sister cities, as
joined by one street, so watered by one
stream ; the first a breeder of grave magis
trates; the second the burial-place of great
monarchs." St. Margaret's Church is in
Westminster, standing hard by the stately
Abbey. The present sacred edifice indicates
no earlier period of its existence than that
of the reign of the Plantagenets ; but Mr.
Mackenzie Walcott says of it: "There is,
with the exception of the Abbey of St. Peter

The Milton Window. 289
and St. Paul's Cathedral, no other ecclesi
astical edifice throughout London and West
minster which can boast of a greater an
tiquity, or more interesting foundation," tho
original structure dating, it is stated, from
a few years before the Conquest. One story
of its origin is to the effect that, "Edward,
the Confessor, finding, as was natural, that
a population was growing up around the
Abbey walls, and was continually increased
further by a miscellaneous crowd of persons,
who, for good or for bad reasons, sought the
shelter of the Sanctuary, raised here a church
in the round-arched Saxon style, and dedi
cated it to St. Margaret."
In the reign of Edward the First the edi
fice was almost wholly taken down and re
built. There are some notable tombs in St.
Margaret's Church, among others that to
William Caxton, " who, as early as the year
1477, set up a printing-press in the Abbey ;
there is also a mural tablet set up within
which recites that Sir Walter Raleigh's body
was buried here on the day of his execution
in Palace Yard."
Until very recently the Speaker and the
House of Commons were wont to attend at
St. M.argaret's Church upon the days of what
were known as the " State Services." In
K t 25

290 The Milton Window.
1858 these were, by an order in Council,
stricken out of the Book of Common Prayer,
and since then the Speaker has not appeared
in St. Margaret's in his official wig and
robes. In the year 1656 John Milton was married
to his second wife, Catherine Woodcock, in
St. Margaret's Church, and there he subse
quently worshipped.
It may be proper to note here that, as a
token of the high appreciation of Mr.
Childs's gift to St. Margaret's, there has
been set apart in perpetuity in that sacred
temple a pew for the exclusive use of Amer
icans. It was in the latter part of 1886 that
Archdeacon Farrar originally referred to the
pitiful lack of imposing monuments to the
poet Milton in England. It was then that
he wrote the following lines, with which he
concluded his interesting article entitled
" The Share of America in Westminster
Abbey," before referred to in these pages,
and which were published in Harper's Maga
zine more than a year afterwards :
"There are, perhaps, fewer memorials of Milton
than of any Englishman of the same transcendent
greatness. I am extremely desirous to erect a worthy
Window in his honor in the Church of St. Margaret's,

The Milton Window. 291
close beside the Abbey. Our register contains tho
record of his marriage to Catherine Woodcock, his
second wife, in 1656, and also records, in the following
year, her death and that of her infant daughter. It
was to her that ho addressed the noblo sonnet which
begins — 'Methought I saw my lato espous6d sa'nt
Come to me like Alcestis from the grave.'
Milton's connection with die Church of St. Margaret's
was therefore very close, and if any of his American
admirers aro willing to assist me in my design, I shall
on public grounds most heartily welcome their munifi
cence. They havo already beautified this fine old his
toric Church by their splendid gift of a Window in
honor of Sir Walter Raleigh, whose headless body lies
under the altar. Milton has even higher claims on
their gratitude and admiration,"
This, in effect, was the text of the letter
which was written by the Venerable Arch
deacon to Mr. Childs in November, 1886,
and to which the latter replied by offering
to contribute such a memorial as his friend
should deem appropriate.
The other letters which have come into
the Editor's possession having reference to
the Milton Window are the following: the
first is from Archdeacon Farrar to Mr. Childs,
dated at Dean's Yard, Westminster, London,
February 4, 1887 :
" My dear Mr. Childs, — I did not write at once to
express my delight and heartfelt gratitude for your

292 The Milton Window.
splendidly munificent offer in compliance with my sug
gestion of a Memorial to John Milton, because I wanted
to give you full particulars. I did not say that Milton
himself was buried at St. Margaret's, but that he was
married in the Church, was closely connected with it
through the Parliament (for it is and always has been
the Church of the House of Commons), and that his
dearest wife, the one to whom he wrote the immortal
sonnet which begins —
' Methought I saw my late espoused saint' —
was buried in the Church, as was his child, -wholly
without memorial. The fact is that no man of his
pure and noble genius is so wholly un com mem orated
in England. There is a poor bust to him in the Abbey ;
that is all. For one hundred and fifty years after his
death the Stuart reaction against Puritanism and the
adoration of ' King Charles the Martyr' caused Milton's
name to be execrated. But America is the glorious
child of Puritanism ; and it is to me a most touching
and significant fact that a Memorial to Milton in the
Church of the House of Commons for which he so
greatly labored should now be given by a descendant
of the Pilgrim Fathers after I had tried in vain to get
it from Englishmen.
"But I could not write till I was able to inform you
what the cost would be, nor shall I formally accept
your generous offer until you have been informed of
the cost and character of the proposed window. The
central compartments would illustrate scenes in the
Life of Milton, the side compartments would contain
scenes from the ' Paradise Lost.' The Window would
be worthy of Milton, worthy of the church, and worthy
of your munificence.
" I shall not set tho artist to work till I receive your

The Millon Window. 293
sanction in another letter. If you approve, I will have
a fine design of the Window executed and sent to you.
Mr. J. R. Lowell wrote the lines under the Raleigh
Window in my church, and Lord Tennyson those under
the Caxton Window. I would get some great poet to
write the lines under the inscription which would
record, to all future time, your honor of the illustrious
dead. " I have of course not mentioned the matter publicly,
nor will I do so till I receive the final notification of
your gift.
"Most gratefully and sincerely yours,
" F. W. Farrar.
" P.S. — Immediately after writing this letter I went
to read prayers, and the lesson was the message to the
Angel of the Church of Philadelphia."
The following is Mr. Childs's reply to the
forep-oing: " Philadelphia, February 16, 1S87.
" My dear Archdeacon Farrar, — Your kind note is
just received, and is most satisfactory. I have but one
thought with regard to the Memorial, which is that I
am particularly anxious you should write the inscrip
tion. All other matters I leave to your taste and good
judgment, but this one request I hope you will grant
me. " With cordial regards, sincerely your friend,
" Geo. W. Childs."
Enclosed in the above letter from Mr.
Childs was a draft for an amount covering
the entire cost of the work.
25*

294 The Milton Window.
Writing to his friend from Dean's Yard,
Westminster, London, on the 5th day of
March following, Archdeacon Farrar said, —
"My dear Mr. Childs, — How can I thank you
warmly enough ? Your order for £  has reached
me safely, and the Window, which will be a very beau
tiful one, will be at once proceeded with. Before long
I hope to send you a painting of it which will show
you how very beautiful it is likely to be. I need hardly
say that, as you wish it, I will myself write the inscrip
tion, and, further, I shall record that it is the gift of
the same noble munificence which has already enriched
Westminster Abbey and Stratford-upon-Avon.
" I wish that there were some chance of your seeing
it 1 Of course, it will take some months to finish, and
may be you will have to come over to England some
day, before or after the Memorial is set up.
" You cannot tell how much I am pleased by the
thought that one of the greatest, purest, and least com
memorated of English poets should receive one more
testimony to the immortal gratitude which is his due,
and that the Memorial to this mighty Puritan should
come from the land of the Pilgrim Fathers, and be
placed in the Church of the House of Commons, with
which he was so closely connected.
" Believe me to be, dear Mr. Childs, sincerely and
gratefully, your friend, " F. W. Farrar."
On the 19th day of the same month Arch
deacon Farrar again wrote to Mr. Childs,
from Dean's Yard, Westminster, regarding
the Window, as follows :

The Milton Window. 295
"My dear Mr. Cuilds,— I hope, in the course of
a few weeks, to send you a beautifully painted copy of
the design for the great Milton Window which we owe
to your munificence. When the design is completed, I
shall publicly announce your gift to the old historic
church. The enclosed outline will give you a general
conception of the mode of treatment. In the centre is
Milton dictating to his daughters the 'Paradise Lost;'
underneath is a scene from his student-life, and his visit
to Galileo. All around are scenes from ' Paradise
Lost' and ' Paradise Regained.' Above are tho re
joicing angels, and figures of Adam and of our Lord.
It will bo a very beautiful work of art, and an eternal
monument to Milton's genius and your generosity.
"Believe me to be, dear Mr. Childs, sincerely and
gratefully your friend,
" F. W. Farrar."
The gift of Mr. Childs was formally un
veiled on the eighteenth day of February,
1888, an account of which was furnished- by
Archdeacon Farrar himself in the following
letter to the donor :
" 17 Dean's Yard, Westminster, S. W.,
"February 18, 1888.
"My dear Mr. Childs, — I have just returned from
the unveiling of the Milton Window. I only invited
a select number of friends. Among those present were
the poets Mr. Robert Browning and Mr. Lewis Morris,
among others Mr. Lecky, Mr. Courtney Herbert, Mr.
and the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, the Speaker's family,
the United States Minister and Mrs. Phelps, Professor
and Mrs. Flower, Lord Stanley of Alderly, General Sir

296 The Milton Window.
Edward Staveley, and other distinguished personages.
Mr. Matthew Arnold read a very fine paper on Milton,
which is to be published in the Century, and which
will, I am sure, please you very much. After the paper
had been read in the Vestry we went into tho Church
and unveiled the Window. It is very fine in color and
execution. In the centre is Milton dictating to his
daughters the ' Paradise Lost ;' below is Milton as a boy
at St. Paul's school, and Milton visiting Galileo. All
round are scenes from the 'Paradise Lost,' — Satan
awaking his legion, Satan entering Paradise, the fall,
and the expulsion from Eden. Above are four scenes
from the ' Paradise Regained,' — the nativity, the an
nunciation, the baptism of Christ, and the temptation
in the wilderness. At the top are jubilant angels, and
Adam and our Lord, — the first and the second Adam.
In the course of next week I hope to send you the
picture (colored) of the Window. Underneath is the
inscription :
' To the glory of God, and in memory of the Immortal Poet,
John Milton, whose wife and child lie buried here, this Win
dow is dedicated by George W. Childs, of Philadelphia,
mdccclxxxviii.' " On the other side are Mr. Whittier'a four fine lines.
" So that now, my dear Mr. Childs, your noble gift
has come to fruitful completion, and in the Church of
the House of Commons will be a lasting and beautiful
Memorial both of the great poet and of your munifi
cence. " It has carried out a wish which I long cherished.
Heartfelt thanks I
"I shall preach on Milton to-morrow, and I shall
ask you to accept the MS. of the sermon. Pray give

The Milton Window. 297
my kindest remembrances to Mrs. Childs, and believe
me to be, " Yours, very sincerely and gratefully,
" F. W. Farrar."
The selection of St. Margaret's Church
was probably due to the fact mentioned in
this letter, that Milton's wife and child are
buried there ; and what more fitting memo
rial could there be than this of him who in
his " 11 Penseroso" wrote of —
" Storied windows richly dight
Casting a dim religious light" ?
The following recognition of the gift by
Mr. Childs of the Milton Memorial Window
is part of the eloquent and learned address
delivered by the late Matthew Arnold in St.
Margaret's Church, Westminster, on the
18th day of February, 1888, on the occasion
of the unveiling of the Memorial Window,
being the same which is referred to by Arch
deacon Farrar in the foregoing letter to Mr.
Childs :
"We have met here to-day to witness the unveiling
of a gift in Milton's honor, and a gift bestowed by an
American, Mr. Childs, of Philadelphia, whose cordial
hospitality so many Englishmen, I myself among tho
number, have experienced in America. It was only
last autumn that Stratford-upon-Avon celebrated the

298 The Milton Window.
reception of a gift from the same generous donor in
honor of Shakespeare. Shakespeare and Milton,— he
who wishes to keep his standard of excellence high
cannot choose two better objects of regard and honor.
And it is an American who has chosen them, and
whose beautiful gift in honor of one of them, Milton,
with Mr. Whittier's simple and true lines inscribed
upon it, is unveiled to-day. Perhaps this gift in honor
of Milton, of which I am asked to speak, is, even more
than the gift in honor of Shakespeare, one to suggest
edifying reflections to us.
" Like Mr. Whittier, I treat the gift of Mr. Childs
ns a gift in honor of Milton, although the Window
given is in memory of the second wife, Catherine
Woodcock, the ' late espoused saint' of the famous
sonnet, who died in childbed at the end of the first
year of her marriage with Milton, and who lies buried
here with her infant. Milton is buried in Cripplegate,
but he lived for a good while in this parish of St.
Margaret's, Westminster, and here he composed part
of ' Paradise Lost,' and the whole of ' Paradise Re
gained' and ' Samson Agonistes.' When death de
prived him of the Catherine whom the new Window
commemorates, Milton had still some eighteen years
to live, and Cromwell, his ' chief of men,' was yet
ruling England.
"The English race overspreads the world, and at
the same time the ideal of an excellence the most
high and the most rare abides a possession with it
forever." The full text of this eloquent address was
published in the Century Magazine for May,
1888.

The Milton Window. 299
This noble tribute to Milton was the last
work which this learned and graceful scholar
lived to do. A short time after its delivery
Mr. Arnold died. The following letter from
Archdeacon Farrar to Mr. Childs will be
found interesting in its reference to the final
literary effort of the great scholar and
divine : " Ateen.eus! Club, Pall Mall, S. W.,
"May 1, 18SS.
" My dear Mr. Childs, — I felt Mr. Matthew Arnold's
death deeply. Ho died on a Sunday, and only tho
Friday before he had been talking to me here at tho
Athenajum in the very highest spirits. He had alluded
to the Milton Article (which has since appeared, a post
humous work). It will be interesting to you to know
that it was called forth by your noble gift, and that it
was the last thing which came from that brilliant intel
lect. I took part in his funeral at the quiet little vil
lage church of Lateham, where we laid him beside his
three boys, — two of whom had been my pupils at
Harrow. " The Window is beautiful.. It will be a permanent
and historic ornament to the Church, which will now
have a record of your generosity as well as Westminster
Abbey, where only yesterday I was reading the plate
which commemorates your gift of tho Cowper and
Herbert Window. " Cordially and sincerely yours,
" F. W. Farrar."
The Window is remarkable for its fulness
of detail and richness of color. Both in

300 The Milton Window.
artistic design and execution it is worthy of
high praise. It is divided by its stone work
into four lights with tracery openings, and
is of fifteenth-century character, known as
the " perpendicular" style, which is that of
the church generally. The design of the
stained glass filling the Window in memory
of the author of " Paradise Lost" is planned
on three lines of panels in horizontal order,
the middle tier being of somewhat larger
depth than those above and below it. In
the two divisions of the central portions of
the whole, four panels — viz., those of the
central and lower tiers respectively of these
lights — are devoted to the personal history
of the poet. In one. of the bottom panels
the boy Milton is shown at St. Paul's school
among his fellow-schoolmates. In the next
panel Milton's visit to Galileo is depicted.
Above these are two of the larger panels
combined to make one central subject repre
senting the poet dictating " Paradise Lost"
to his daughters. Around these panels arc
eight others illustrative of "Paradise Lost"
and " Paradise Regained."
In reference to the former are represented
the incidents of: 1. Satan's summons to his
legions. 2. Adam and Eve at prayer in
Paradise, Satan looking* on. 3. The temp-

The Milton Window. 301
tation. 4. The expulsion. In the upper
tier the four panels are devoted to the illus
tration respectively of: 1. The annunciation.
2. The nativity of our Lord. 3. The bap
tism of our Lord. 4. The defeat of Satan
in his temptations of our Lord. In the
tracery openings are jubilant angels and at
the apex of the whole figures of Adam on
the left and our Lord on the right, repre
senting thus the first and second Adam re-
spectively. At the base of the window is
the following inscription :
" To the Glory of God : and in memory of the im
mortal poet, John Milton: whose wife and child lie
buried here : this window is dedicated by George W.
Childs, of Philadelphia, mdccclxxxviii."
Occupying a corresponding space and
position in the Window is the following
fine verse thereon emblazoned, which was
especially written for the Memorial by the
American Quaker poet, John Greenleaf
Whittier, as a tribute to his brother poet of
long ago :
"The New World honors him whose lofty plea
For England's freedom made her own more sure,
Whose song, immortal as its theme, shall be
Their common freehold while both worlds endure."
26

302 .flie Milton Window.
' Regarding these lines Mr. Whittier. wrote
to Mr. Childs :
" My dear Friend, — I am glad to comply with thy
request and that of our friend Archdeacon Farrar. ' I
hope the lines may be satisfactory. It is difficult to
put all that could be said of Milton in four lines. How
very beautiful and noble thy benefactions are ! Every
one is a testimony of peace and good-will.
"I am, with high respect and esteem, thy aged
friend, "John G. Whittier.
" I think even such a scholar as Dr. Farrar will not
object to my use of the word ' freehold.' Milton him
self uses, it in the same way in his prose writings, viz. :
" 'I too have my chapter and freehold of rejoicing.' "
The religious services were the ordinary
Lenten ones, except that the hymn pre
ceding the sermon was Milton's —
" Let us with a gladsome mind
, Praise the Lord, for he is kind." -
Canon Farrar, who preached from. La
mentations iv. 7, further emphasized the
occasion in his opening remarks." As the
discourse proceeded and the congregation
warmed in sympathy with the impassioned
but well-weighed eloquence of the preacher,
the gloomy weather without cleared, and

The Milton Window. 303
the wintry sun gleamed through the richly-
stained windows with which St. Margaret's
is generally adorned and glinted on the Mil
ton Memorial, relieving the semi-obscurity
of the interior and illuming the impressive
scene in which the worshippers mingled
with devotion to the Almighty the full meed
of. admiration of Milton's inspired genius
which the preacher's fervency demanded.
On the Sunday following the unveiling of
the memorial to the poet, Archdeacon Farrar,
in order to give greater impressiveness to the
event, preached a special sermon in St. Mar
garet's. The day was bitterly cold, the wind
blowing sharply from the northeast, and the
snow falling intermittently during the morn
ing ; but, undeterred by the churlish weather,
a vast multitude, including many of the most
distinguished religious, social, political, and
literary leaders of England, met to listen
to the eloquent words of the venerable
Archdeacon. The pews were all filled, and
chairs were placed in the aisles to accom
modate the great concourse assembled to
testify by their presence their interest in
the impressive ceremony. Among those
who were in attendance were Mr. Phelps,
the American Minister, and his wife; Mat
thew Arnold; the poet, Robert Browning;

304 The Milton Window.
the Baroness Burdett-Coutts ; the Rev.
Phillips Brooks, of Boston; and many
prominent American residents of London,
as well as distinguished representatives of
the nobility.
In the occasional sermon preached by Dr.
Farrar, he said, —
" It has been my desire during twelve years to sur
round this ancient and famous church with noble asso
ciations ; to revive the memories of those great men with
which it has been connected, and thus to indicate the
relation in which it stands to the history of England.
" This church may claim its special interest in the
mighty name of Milton. That name is recorded in our
marriage register; and here lies buried, with Milton's
infant daughter, that beloved wife — ' my late espoused
saint' — whose love flung one brief gleam of happiness
over the poet's troubled later years. Once more we are
indebted to an American citizen for the beautiful Mil
ton Window which was yesterday unveiled. The well-
counselled munificence of Mr. Childs, of Philadelphia,
who has already enriched Stratford-upon-Avon with
a memorial of Shakespeare, and Westminster Abbey
with the Window in memory of Herbert and Cowper,
has now erected this abiding memorial to the great
Puritan Poet. Myself the debtor to American friends
for great kindness, I cannot but rejoice that the Church
of St. Margaret's should furnish yet one more illustra
tion of those bonds of common traditions and blood
and language and affection which unite England to
the great Republic of the West; and I am glad that
the public spirit of the church-wardens has assigned
from henceforth the use of one special pew in this

The Milton Window. 305
church to our friends and visitors from the other side
of the Atlantic.
" There was something specially appropriate in the
Milton Window being the gift of an American. For
the United States represent much that Milton most
deeply loved; the Commonwealth which, happily fail
ing in England, in America gloriously succeeded; the
Puritanism which, crushed in England, inspired vigor
and nobleness into our kin beyond the sea.
" The venerable poet, Mr. Whittier, who has written.
the lines for yonder window, most justly says, —
" ' The Now World honors him whose lofty plea
For England's freedom made her own more sure,
Whoso song, immortal as its theme, shall be
Their common freehold while both worlds endure.'"
The sermon was subsequently published'
in full in The Churchman, of New York, with:
the accompanying note :
"St. Margaret's, Westminster,
"February 19, 1888.
"This manuscript of a sermon preached at St. Mar
garet's, Westminster, — tho Church of tho House of
Commons, — on the occasion of tho unveiling of tho
Window in memory of Milton, presented to the church
by George W. Childs, Esq., of Philadelphia, is pre
sented to Mr. Childs, with grateful regard, by
'; " Frederick W. Farrar,
" Archdeacon of Westminster.'1''
The subjoined editorial reference to the
Window was printed in the same number
of The Churchman:
u 26*

306 The Milton Window.
" Under the shadow almost of the northern transept
of Westminster Abbey and within a stone's throw of
Westminster Hall and the Houses of Parliament stands
a church which is probably known to every American
who has visited London, — the Church of St. Margaret' 8.
Interesting as it is because of its monuments and its
being tho Church of the House of Commons, it has
just now gained an added attraction in the Memorial
Window to Milton, which has been placed there by the
munificence of Mr. George W. Childs, of Philadelphia."

AMERICAN COMMENT.
The leading newspapers of the United
States very generally published interesting
accounts by cable of the dedicatory cere
monies, with appropriate comments there
upon. From the mass of such accounts or
comments which were collected by the Edi
tor he has selected the following only, from
the Brooklyn Eagle of February 19, 1888, as
suggestive of the character of them all :
"Yesterday the ceremony of unveiling the Milton
Memorial Window presented to St. Margaret's Church,
Westminster, by George W. Childs, Esq., of Philadel
phia, attracted one of the largest congregations ever
gathered within the walls of the venerable edifice.
Archdeacon Farrar preached the sermon, postponing
his usual Lenten exhortation and confining his remarks
to the lessons of Christianity as exemplified by the
noble life of the great English poet and moralist. The
brief extracts communicated by cable indicate that the

The Milton Window. 307
effort was worthy of the speaker and the occasion. He
confessed the satisfaction it gave him that the Church
of St. Margaret's should furnish another illustration
of those bonds of common blood, traditions, language,
and affection which unite the mother-country with her
marvellous offspring, the giant Republic of the West,
and alluded to the peculiar fitness of the honor done
by an American to the memory of one who represented
much that was most deeply loved in the Commonwealth,
which, failing in England, inspired vigor and nobleness
in the Commonwealth to which it gave birth beyond
the sea.
" Need it be said that the countrymen of Mr. Childs
participate with him in the reciprocation of the feeling
which inspired these utterances of Archdeacon Farrar?
The motive that prompted the Philadelphia philanthro
pist is a motive which challenges the approval and
sympathy of every enlightened American. There is,
in his gift of the Milton Window, a teaching larger
than that of any sect, class, or faction. It has even a
nobler significance than that to which the archdeacon
adverted. It means more than a recognition of the ties
that unite the two leading nations of the Anglo-Saxon
race. It is an expression of the veneration which fills
every elevated mind for one of the most extraordinary
examples in the history of genius and virtue. In con
ceiving this honor to the memory of Milton, Mr. Childs
revealed not only the benevolence of his nature, but
his appreciation of the truly great and good. Like his
Shakespeare Memorial and the beautiful Windows in
the ancient Abbey that recall the genius of Herbert
and Cowper, it bespeaks the lofty ideals not less than
the kindly impulses of the donor.
" Of the author of ' Paradise Lost,' it has been said
that he is withdrawn from the ordinary world as an

308; The Milton Window.
Alp is withdrawn, — by vastness, by solitariness of*
snows, and by commerce with heaven. Mr. Childs has
shown that the ordinary world may venture to invade
this isolation and to mitigate the grandeur of the poet's
solitude by the proofs that his genius cannot thua
divorce him from the great heart of humanity. If the
sublimity of his intellect and the austerity of his morals
lift him far above his kind, the pathos of his life and
those passages in which he confesses his heritage of
weakness and sorrow, make him our brother and equal.
Wisely has Mr. Childs chosen this last, object of his
generosity and munificence. Fittingly have the Eng
lish people, speaking by the tongue of Archdeacon
Farrar, accepted the offering as at once a tribute to the
mighty dead and as a pledge of the fraternity of the
race that boasts his ashes as a consecrated legacy."

THE REREDOS OF ST. THOMAS'S CHURCH,
WINCHESTER.

Among the gifts which Mr. Childs has
made to England is that of the Reredos
which is now one of the most striking
adornments of St. Thomas's Church, Win
chester. The inception of this gift is to be found
in a letter written October 11, 1887, to Mr.
Childs by his friend, the Reverend Arthur
B. Sole, Rector of St. Thomas's Church.
Referring to the Herbert and Cowper
Memorial in Westminster Abbey, and to
the Shakespeare Fountain at Stratford, Mr.
Sole said, —
" Now that you have shown the midland counties and
the metropolis an American citizen's appreciation of
England's great poets, you must not leave out in the
cold the ancient city of the country, Winchester, tho
one centre to which every American is attracted.
" Could you not give us a monument or memorial to
Bishop Ken, who lived close under the shadow of St.
309

310 The Reredos of St. Thomas's Church.
Thomas's old Church ? We sorely need a new Reredos,
and, coming from a well-known citizen of that Greater
Britain beyond the sea, the gift would be highly esteemed
by Englishmen."
With this request Mr. Childs complied
with characteristic generosity.
On December 6, 1887, the Rev. Mr. Sole
wrote to his friend :
" We feel very grateful to yon for your ready com
pliance with my request, and for choosing our Church
as the recipient of your gift which shall show respect
and veneration for the good Bishop Ken. The church
is a very noble one, and the largest in Winchester, so
that it is fitting his monument shall be in it.
" It has been suggested that you might like to have
good Bishop Andrewes's name connected with Bishop
Ken's in the work, since he was very often with us in
Winchester, and the Church of the seventeenth century
owes much to him."
A year later, December 28, 1888, the Rev.
Mr. Sole communicated with Mr. Childs,
saying,— "The following resolution was passed at a special
and influential Vestry that was called last week to dis
cuss the Reredos :
" ' Parish op St. Thomas and St. Clement,
Winchester.
" ' At a Vestry meeting held according to due notice
on. Thursday, the 20th day of December, 1888, to con-

The Reredos of St. Thomas's Church. 311
sider the subject of the gift of a Reredos to the Church
by an American citizen, and to record a vote of thanks
to the donor, —
"'Proposed by Captain Budden, and seconded by
Mr. Alfred King, that this meeting of the Rector,
Church-wardens, and parishioners in Vestry assembled,
do hereby offer to George William Childs, Esquire, of
Philadelphia, U.S.A., their most cordial thanks for his
very handsome gift towards the beautifying of their
parish Church, and to which they would beg to add the
hope that, should Mr. Childs ever visit England, they
may have the pleasure of seeing him in Winchester,
and thanking him in person for the kindly interest he
has shown in this ancient city and parish of the old
mother-country. " ' Alfred King,
'"J. A. Morrah (Colonel),
" ' Church- Wardens.
" ' Arthur D. Sole, Rector.' "
On February 15, 1889, the Rector of St.
Thomas's again wrote regarding the Me
morial :
" The Reredos is growing rapidly, and will be un
veiled at 4.30 on Friday afternoon, March 1, by the Very
Reverend the Dean of Worcester.
"He is a most eloquent preacher, and I have no
doubt will say some helpful words concerning tho cir
cumstances under which the erection is made, and your
very sympathetic kindness and good- will toward the old
city of your fathers.
" The inscription I have not yet prepared. I have

312 The Reredos of St. Thomas's Church.
waited to take counsel with the Bishop. I should like
it to take such a form as this :
"'To the glory of God, this Reredos has been erected by
George W. Childs, of Philadelphia, U.S.A., and to record the
undying esteem that is shared by the Church of the New World,
reciprocally with the ancient city of Winchester, in the saintly
lives of two of her sons and citizens, Bishop Andrewes and
Bishop Ken.'
" The Reredos was unveiled last Friday before a large
concourse of worshippers. It looked very beautiful,
and was spoken of by many as a munificent gift of love
from you."
AN ACCOUNT OF THE DEDICATION.
Under the caption of " The New Reredos
at St. Thomas's, Winchester," the Hampshire
Gazette, in its issue of March 2, 1889, of that
ancient metropolis said, —
"An interesting and historical Reredos has been
placed in the Church of Sts. Thomas and Clement,
Winchester, under unusually pleasing circumstances,
connecting Old and New England. A friend of the
Rector's (the Rev. A. B. Sole), Mr. Childs, of Phila
delphia, presented him with a eheck to defray the
cost of a Reredos to commemorate Bishops Lancelot
Andrewes and Ken, prelates certainly of saintly re
nown, whose names and fame are revered wherever
Englishmen are, for both were stanch Churchmen ;
both have left writings which are yet prized as manuals
of devotion and aids to religion ; and both have an his
toric interest, for Andrewes administered the Diocese
of Canterbury whilst the Primate from an accident to

The Reredos of St. Thomas's Church. 313
his keeper was held to bo incapacitated, and Kon was
one of the ' Seven Bishops.' Both are to be reinom-
bered for their learning, and Ken especially to bo
honored for his firmness of purpose against William
III. (when Prince of Orange), Charles IL, and James,
when he considered morality and honor were jeopard
ized. The Reredos is a very handsome work, although
it includes the arcade of the formor one, which consisted
of panels with the Commandments, etc. These are
now removed to another place close by, and the span-
drils of the arches have been carved with conventional
foliage and fruit, and an angel in the north and south
spandrils. Above this arcade is another of five panels,
forming, with its cornice and cross, a pediment or finish
to the Reredos. The cross, with the Agnus Dei painted
in colors, surmounts the whole, and the hand-mould
ings and other ornaments of the shafts of the panels
ar.o in tho best stylo of work. In the panels arc fixed
as many p.aintings by ladies of Winchester. In the
centre is Christ ascending and blessing ; on either side
aro angels with the chalice and 'golden crown;' and
on the outer panels are, on the south, Saints Thomas,
the apostle, and Clement, the third Bishop of Rome,
martyred in the time of Trajan, each with emblems, —
the spear and the anchor ; in the north are representa
tions of Andrewes standing with his pastoral staff, and
Ken kneeling, both vested in Reformation robes, and
with mitres at their feet. The pastoral staff indicates
that Andrewes died in office, whereas Ken, from scru
ples of conscience, died out of office, being a non-juror.
Close to this panel is another in the wall over tho
credence-table, which bears, under a cross-surmounted
globo delineating England and America, the following
words, — ' Slat Crux dum evolvit orbis,1 followed by this
inscription :
o 27

314 . The Reredos of St. Thomas's Church.
" ' In token of the unity of spirit and bond of peace between
the Churches of the Old and New World, this Reredos is dedi
cated by George W. Childs, of Philadelphia, to the memory of
two Bishops of the Church universal, both connected with this
Cathedral city — Bishop Lancelot Andrewes and Bishop Ken. —
MDCCOLXXXIX.'

" The Reredos was unveiled yesterday (St. David's
Day), at Choral Evensong. There was a numerous
congregation. The service opened with the Old Hun
dredth Psalm. The anthem was ' How amiable are
Thy tabernacles,' and it was well sung by the choir.
The hymn before the sermon was 'We love the place,
0 God.' The preacher was the Very Rev. Dr. Gott,
Dean of Worcester, who chose for his text the words
' From strength to strength,' from the seventh verse of
the Eighty-fourth Psalm. In the course of an eloquent
sermon he said they were met together that afternoon
to worship God, not only in spirit but in truth, and to
give a blessing in God's name to the new addition to the
altar which graced their church, and indicated their
devotion. Concluding, he asked what was the strength
added to their Church since the days of Ken? Ho did
not think he could put it in words, — he could not hold
the world in his hands, he could not express the mighty
strength which had come over the Church of God from
those days till now 1 How wide the Church had spread,
how fertile had been her daughter Churches within
the last century, how rich she was in founding new
branches of the old Church, how strong in infusing the
spirit of the one true religion — the religion of Christ
— into the old religions of the East 1 How wonderful
had been the strength of the Church in the country of
the donor who sent the offering to the city whence these
two saintly men came I Were they personally going

The Reredos of St. Thomas 's Church. 315
from strength to strength ? As years passed over them,
and as tho troubles— perhaps the pleasures— of lifo
thickened around them, wore they going from strength
to strength? Let the faith bo handed on pure and
untarnished to their children, and their children's
children, until at last they appeared before Iliui who
was their Almighty strength, and more than conquer
ors received from Him the power which Eternity would
bring. The hymn 'Lift the strain of high thanks
giving' was sung during the offertory."
The Story of Mr. Childs's Memorials to
some of the noblest of Old England's wor
thies, which is here brought to an end, has
grown under the hands of the Editor, despite
his efforts to keep it within more modest
limits. But long as it is, he indulges, at
least, the hope that it will be found inter
esting to those who agree with him that it is
permitted to no one to do better work in
this world than that of fostering fraternal
feeling between peoples who are akin, but
who are separated by the broad ocean, and
who have been sometimes estranged by mis
understandings, conflicting interests, or un
toward circumstances. This is the work
which Mr. Childs appears to the Editor to
have had a mind to do in the making of
every one of those gifts to our cousins across
the sea with whom Americans can claim
even a closer degree of consanguinity than

316 The Reredos of St. Thomas's Church.
that of cousinship, — their just claim is that
of Common Brotherhood.
The sacred poets, Herbert and Cowper;
Milton, the sublime singer of the Cromwell
ian epoch; and Shakespeare, whose genius
illuminates the present not less effulgently
than it glorified the age of Elizabeth, spoke
in no strange tongue, but in our very own,
— in that of our motherj-country. In these
great masters of the English language, in
their work and their fame, Americans have
also their full share and part, and whoso
giveth recognition to that which they did
and reverence to their memories in noble,
impressive monuments does that which
strengthens the feeling of fraternity which
nature itself demands should exist between
the two countries. This, as it seems to the
Editor, is what Mr. Childs has done, and
for doing which he deserves the sincerest
respect and the warmest gratitude of Eng
land and America.

MR. CHILDS
AND THE
WORKINQMAN BY
RICHARD T. ELY, Ph.D.,
ASSOCIATE IN POLITICAL ECONOMY, JOHNS HOrKINS
UNIVERSITY, BALTIMORE.

27* 317

GEORGE W. CHILDS

IN HIS

RELATIONS TO HIS EMPLOYEES.

It is with sincere pleasure that I accept
the invitation which has been extended to
me by Mr. Phillips, the editor, to contribute
a few pages to the present volume on the
relations of Mr. Childs to his employees. I
shall do something more than this, because
in treating these relations I almost of ne
cessity touch upon his relations to the labor
movement in general. It was, in fact, while
writing my work on " The Labor Movement
in America" that I first came to know the
affectionate nature of the relations existing
between Mr. Childs and his employees.
It occurs frequently that an industrial
leader makes himself an object of love and
admiration to his own employees, although
even this does not happen so often as one
319

320 George W. Childs in his
could desire. ' Mr. Childs has, however, done
far more than this. He has made himself
beloved by an entire craft — namely, that to
which the most of those employed upon his
great newspaper, the Public Ledger, belong,
the compositors — throughout the United
States. The reader may travel south to
Texas, north to Minnesota, east to Maine,
or west to the shores of the Pacific, and
wherever he mentions the name of Mr.
Childs he touches a warm spot in the heart
of the compositor. I was studying the labor
question in Richmond, Virginia, a few years
ago, when I happened to mention the name
of Mr. Childs to the president of the local
organization of compositors. " Oh, sir," said
he, as his face brightened with loving grati
tude, " if all employers were like Mr. George
W- Childs there would be no labor ques
tion." Similar expressions are often heard
at gatherings of printers everywhere.
The following words are taken from an
address delivered on the occasion of a ban
quet, by one of the employees in the Ledger
office, and will bring to the reader some idea
of their appreciation of the character of
their benefactor: "My recollection of the
gentleman who is being honored by this
banquet dates back to boyhood. To use a

Relations to his Employees. 321
quoted expression, Mr. Childs is ' an Israelite
without guile.' The thing in him that is
plainest to me is that there is less of evil in
him than in any man I ever knew. No
one can say that he went to him with a tale
of true sorrow and went away empty-handed.
He overlooks our shortcomings in the Ledger
office, and many of us have done that which
might be cause for dismissal from other
establishments. But we are all there, still
at work, because he could not frame his
lips to say the word that would cause our
departure." At this banquet a letter was read from
a Boston printer, in which these words
occur : " To George W. Childs, more than
to any other man living, are we indebted for
the present era of good feeling existing be
tween employers and members of our craft,
which has taken the place of the antagonistic
spirit of former years."
And it was but a few days since that I
received a letter from a Washington com
positor, in which Mr. Childs was alluded to
as " the Patron Saint of the printers."
Here we have testimonies from Boston,
Philadelphia, Washington, and Richmond,
and they might without trouble be gathered
from every quarter. Is not this remarkable 2

322 George W. Childs in his
The newspapers are full of bitter quarrels
between employers and employed, and here
is a man who has established such wholly
satisfactory relations between himself and
his employees that an entire craft look upon
him with enthusiastic admiration, and re
gard him as an ideal character. Surely it is
worth while to reflect for a few moments on
these relations; surely it is worth while that
the facts should be published to the world,
as an incitement to others to " go and do
likewise." Mr. Childs is called a philanthropist, and
no man can have a nobler title. One who
is a lover of his kind partakes in so far of:
the divine nature. God is love, and Christ,
who came to manifest to us the love of God,
said that the second of the two great com
mandments, which bids us to love our fel
lows, was of the same nature as the first,
which bids us to love God. Moreover, when
men professed to love God, Christ and the
apostles always put their professions to the
proof in testing this love for their fellow-
men. No one can be a Christian without at
the same time being a philanthropist.
While all this is true, the word philan
thropist does not always convey to us such
impressions of exalted goodness as it should.

Relations to his Employees. 323
One reason is, doubtless, that we are not
sufficiently Christian ourselves to appreciate
philanthropy at its value; and another is that
there is in this world much more spurious
than genuine philanthropy. Mere giving is
not philanthropy. A man may give millions
of dollars in alms, and yet be a contemptible
fellow. St. Paul tells us, indeed, that a man
may give his body to be burned, but that
without love this is nothing. Philanthropy
is first of all a state of the heart, — a loving
heart, — and, when it is giving, it is loving
giving directed by intelligence : all of the
giver's powers are placed at the service of
his fellows.
But this is not all. Love is not weakness.
Love is gentle firmness and at times is even
severity. Charles Kingsley, indeed, has said
that there is no severity so terrible as the
severity of love.
George Eliot is celebrated for her insight
into character, and in one of her letters I
find these words : " I prefer a country where
I don't make bad blood by having to see one
public house to every six dwellings, — which
is literally the case in many spots around us.
My gall rises at the rich brewers in Parlia
ment and out of it, who plant these poison-
shops for their million-making trade, while

324 . George W. Childs in his
probably their families are figuring some
where as refined philanthropists or devout
Evangelicals and Ritualists."
We must go back of the giving and know
something about methods of acquisition be
fore we can pass judgment on the giver.
Thieves, pirates, gamblers, have often been
generous, as is well known, but no one would
think of calling them on that account phi
lanthropists. It is quite as improper to call
a generous railroad- wrecker a philanthropist,
or any one who, even in conformity with
legal forms, coaxes other people's money
into his pockets without a fair equivalent.
The recipients of Mr. Childs's bounty may
enjoy it without any feelings of compunction,
as they well know that his fortune has been
honestly gained in a legitimate business con
ducted according to high principles. It is
a source of proper satisfaction to Mr. Childs
to be able to say of the Public Ledger, " This
property was built up without breaking
other people down."
When Mr. Childs acquired the Public
Ledger in 1864, he made a distinction in
the management of his business which too
many overlook, although it is fundamental.
" Meanness," said he, " is not necessary to
success in business, but economy is."

Relations to his Employees. 325
As early as 1867 Mr. Childs had acquired
a reputation as " a just and liberal employer,
and a kind-hearted, charitable man," and
had been made an honorary member of " the
Philadelphia Typographical Society." This
society was in the following year the recipi
ent of a large and valuable tract of ground
in Woodlands Cemetery, near Philadelphia,
which was beautifully enclosed and orna
mented, and which has siuce been known
as " The Printers' Cemetery." The ex
penses connected with its maintenance have
been met by the donor for over twenty years.
The good deeds of Mr. Childs, which are
unknown to any one but himself, are so
numerous that they could not be described
in a brief sketch. I have in mind only those
which are known ; but there is every reason
to believe that a larger proportion of them
never become known, although affection
prompts many to let the world know what
he has quietly and unostentatiously done for
them. The individual cases of distress re
lieved by him are simply innumerable, and
among those relieved are naturally many
present or past employees : but now we are
concerned chiefly with his regular relations
with his employees. One form which his
beneficence takes is to place insurance on
28

326 George W. Childs in his
their lives, which in case of death will pro
vide for those who are dependent on them.
Another form of Mr. Childs's philanthropy
is seen in his pension system which places
all those who have served him long and
faithfully beyond want in their old age. I
wish to call particular attention to this, be
cause I believe there is perhaps no single
measure likely to add so much to human
happiness as a judicious pension system,
well developed and placed on a secure finan
cial basis. I believe, too, that it is practi
cable to develop such a system both for
public and private employees. It has never
been clear why a pension system should be
confined to the army, because if it is good
for the army it is also good, as other coun
tries have found out, for the civil servants
of city, state, and nation. The abuses which
have been connected with pensions are no
argument against this position, because the
abuses are accidental rather than essential
parts of the system. It should be under
stood that the pension system which obtains
in Mr. Childs's office is a regular part of the
remuneration received by all employees, aud
not simply a gift to the poor and needy.
Mr. Childs sees no reason why a man who
has been prudent, thrifty, aud fortunate

Relations to his Employees. 327
should be deprived of his pension; and it is
said that recently a pensioner of the Public
Ledger was worth a quarter of a million
dollars. The proper aim of life has often been de
scribed to be the full and harmonious devel
opment of all our faculties; but it has been
too often tacitly, if not explicitly, assumed,
that this full and harmonious development
is for the few only, and not for the many.
This is not, however, the belief of Mr. Childs.
He furnishes the most cheerful, wholesome,
often luxurious rooms for the entire working;
force of the Ledger, and in the printers'
apartment he has not even forgotten to use
those colors on the walls which are least
trying to their heavily-taxed eyes. Vaca
tions interrupt regularly the hard work of
the Ledger employees, and with the vacation
there comes a present of means for a trip,
sometimes even across the continent or to
Europe. On each Christmas-eve every em
ployee receives a present in money, the total
amount being many thousands of dollars
annually. This is what Mr. Childs modestly
calls profit-sharing. It is, in truth, however,
the noblest form of genuine philanthropy.
There are three events in the relations
of Mr. Childs to his employees which are

328 George W. Childs in his
peculiarly pleasing. The first concerns the
rate paid for type-setting. This rate is for
Union offices fixed by the "International
Typographical Union," and most employers
think they are doing well if they pay with
out murmuring all that is asked. Not so
Mr. Childs. In 1876 a delegation of his
employees came to him with the announce
ment that they were willing to have their
wages reduced from forty-five cents a thou
sand ems to forty cents, which had become
the Union rate. Mr. Childs, however, re
plied that he saw no reason why he should
reduce their wages. He received the same
price as formerly for his advertisements, the
Public Ledger sold for the same price; in
short, his business was prosperous, and he
saw no good reason why his employees
should not share in his prosperity. He was
satisfied if they did. The result has been
that for over thirteen years Mr. Childs has
been paying his printers in the aggregate
over ten thousand dollars a year more than
the Union rate required, or more than he
need have paid. This, too, is an expression
of his philanthropy disguised by him as
profit-sharing. The second noteworthy event to which I
have referred occurred ten years later, in.

Relations to his Employees. 329
1886. It was during the annual meeting of
the International Typographical Union, and
consisted in the presentation of a check for
ten thousand dollars to that body, one-half
given by Mr. Childs and the other half by
his life-long friend, the well-known banker,
Mr. Anthony J. Drexel. The gift was made
without conditions of any sort, and its final
use has not yet, I believe, been precisely de
termined. It was, however, gratefully ac
cepted, and it was decided to employ it for
the construction of some kind of a perma
nent memorial, probably a building in Phil
adelphia to serve as the headquarters of the
organization. It was at once resolved to in-
crease the fund by a beautiful arrangement.
It was voted that the printers east of the Mis
sissippi should setathousand ems for the fund
on each of Mr. Childs's recurring birthdays,
May 12, and that those west of the Missis
sippi should seta thousand ems for the fund
on every September 13, which is Mr. Drexel's
birthday. Accordingly, every time these an
niversaries occur the printers send to the
trustees of the Childs-Drexel fund whatever
is received for setting a thousand ems, and
thus it grows at the rate of several thousand
dollars a year, and now amounts to twenty-
five thousand dollars. 28*

330 George W. Childs in his
It is seen from this that Mr. Childs is not
hostile to labor organizations; indeed, he
openly says that he favors them, and he be
lieves that had no organization existed among
the printers their rate of remuneration would
hardly be one-half what it is at present.
Mr. Childs holds to the doctrines of equal
rights-for all classes, and cannot understand
why employees have not as much right to
organize as their employers. A man who
is able to take so broad and generous a
view of much-maligned labor organizations
deserves the highest commendation.
There is scarcely room for more than one
opinion about labor organizations on the
part of intelligent and impartial men who
have investigated their claims, and that is
favorable to them. This does not mean that
they are free from faults. What human or
ganization is free from faults ? Has the his
tory of that organization which we call the
Christian Church been such that her mem
bers can contemplate it with unmingled sat
isfaction ? By no means. Yet it is safe to
say that that organization is a good thing,
and that the world is to-day a thousand times
happier and better than it would be had the
Christian Church never existed.
Labor organizations doubtless have their

Relations to his Employees. 331
faults, although most of the objections
brought against them are slanders. The
true course would then seem to be to con
tend only against their bad features, and
to give them, as a whole, encouragement.
This is the policy which Mr. Childs has
pursued, and it is safe to say that the In
ternational .Typographical Union is on his
account to-day animated with a far more
conservative, conciliatory spirit than would
otherwise be the case.
Labor organizations are not merely eco
nomic organizations in a narrow sense. They
are that, and, well conducted, can within
certain limits raise wages or keep wages
from falling. They enable labor to make
the best of the existing situation, and this
can be as clearly proved, perhaps, as any
thing in political economy. But labor or
ganizations are generally active temperance
organizations, many of their members being
total abstainers and prohibitionists. Fur
thermore, they are educational societies,
training their members in speaking, writing,
and discussion, out of all of which proceeds a
better understanding of the questions of the
day. They are, finally, social organizations,
where the social side of the nature of their
members is cultivated, and in the crowded

332 George W. Childs in his
modern city this is of special importance.
All this makes it plain how good a deed is
done by any one who helps to develop tho
best features of labor organizations.
The experience of Professor Thorold
Rogers, of the University of Oxford, is so
typical that it is worth while to quote it
here. I may say in this place thaj; it is quite
similar to my experience, although I presume
I do not expect so much from the organiza
tion of labor alone as does Professor Rogers.
" These institutions," says Professor Rogers,
" were repressed with passionate violence
and malignant watchfulness as long as it was
possible to do so. When it was necessary
to relax the severities of the older laws, they
were still persecuted by legal chicanery,
whenever oppression could on any pretence
be justified. As they were slowly emanci
pated, they have constantly been the object
of alarmist calumnies and sinister predic-.
tions. I do not speak of the language of
newspapers and reviews. . . . Far graver
were the allegations of Senior and Thorn
ton. . . . Even my friend Mr. Mill treated
these forces of industrial life with a strange
indifference. I confess to having at one
time viewed them suspiciously ; but a long
study of the history of labor has convinced

Relations to his Employees. 333
me that they are not only the best friends
of workmen, but the best agency for the
employer and the public, and that to the
extension of these associations political econ
omists and statesmen must look for the solu
tion of some among the most pressing aud
the most difficult problems of our time."
Another illustration will show how far
Mr. Childs carries his friendly interest in
whatever concerns his employees. A few
years ago there appeared in Philadelphia a
new labor paper. It was stated that Mr.
Childs had presented every workingman in
his establishment with a year's subscription.
What a contrast this is to the conduct of
those employers who are willing to discharge
men for reading labor papers !
The third event to which I alluded was
the attempt to bring forward Mr. Childs as
a candidate for the Presidency. His name,
it is said, was first mentioned for this posi
tion by the Washington weekly, The Crafts
man, long the official organ of the Inter
national Typographical Union. The pro
posal was greeted with enthusiasm in many
quarters, and in its issue of February 25,
1888, The Craftsman voiced the sentiment of
many printers when it said, " George W.
Childs before the people ! It is too good to

334 George W. Childs in his
be true." Yet many tried to make it true,
and it was not merely in labor quarters that
the proposal was favorably received. The
more people turned the idea over in their
minds, the stronger did it become, and vol
untary offers of influential support began to
pour in from every side. Democrats, Re
publicans, capitalists, and wage-earners were
eager to unite in the Presidential campaign
with Mr. Childs as leader. The proprie
tor of a Democratic newspaper in the East
pledged the support of his influential journal,
and offered himself to subscribe one hundred
thousand dollars for campaign expenses. A
proprietor of a leading Democratic journal of
the West made a similar pledge, with an offer
of a personal subscription of fifty thousand
dollars. Proprietors of leading Republican
newspapers likewise promised to rally around
Mr. Childs as Presidential candidate. Mr.
Childs, however, never could see his way
clear to an acceptance of all this unsought
and enthusiastically-pledged support, and, in
spite of all entreaties, positively declined to
allow his name to be used, going so far as to
say that he would feel compelled to refuse
the office even if he should be elected to it.
This declination was doubtless a bitter dis
appointment to many printers who had

Relations to his Employees. 335
hoped to see their true friend occupying the
highest office in the gift of the people. Yet
they acquiesced in his decision, and their
admiration and affection suffered no abate
ment. Those printers and pressmen who have rep
resented Philadelphia at the annual meetings
of the International Typographical Union
have formed an organization called " The
Association of Ex-Delegates of Philadelphia
Typographical Union No. 2 and of Press
men's Union No. 4 to the International Ty
pographical Union," and they determined
in 1888 to hold a grand celebration on May
12 in honor of Mr. Childs's birthday. A
banquet was provided at which many
speeches were made eulogizing Mr. Childs,
and from one of them I have already quoted.
Several visitors from Washington, including
Congressmen who had once been composi
tors, attended this memorable banquet. It
was proposed that they should each set up a
thousand ems and donate the proceeds to the
Childs-Drexel fund, but at the close of the
banquet it was too late. The intention was
mentioned by Congressman James O'Don-
nell, of Michigan, and naturally it was vo
ciferously applauded. As a matter of fact,
Mr. O'Donuell, and his printer colleagues,

336 George W. Childs in his
eight in all, after their return to Washington,
did on May 19 set up a thousand eras each,
and contribute the amount received to the
fund mentioned.
Remembering the hostile feelings existing
so often between large employers and labor
organizations, it is well to make extracts from
two of the letters of leading officers of the
International Typographical Union which
were read on that occasion. The following
is from the letter of Wm. Aimison, the
President of that body :
" I regret my inability to be present, owing to the
nearness of the meeting of the International Typo
graphical Union and the rush of business incident
thereto. There is no one to-day within the jurisdic
tion of the I. T. U. whom the printers of the country
would delight to honor more than Mr. Childs. May
his birthdays be continued, and when the warm heart
and charitable hand are stilled in death, may his mem
ory be as a refreshing draught to strengthen and to
re-encourage us in the battle of life."
The following extract is from the letter of
David P. Boyer, the chief organizer :
" I hereby send my regrets at not being able to at
tend. No other labor organization in this or any other
country has ever received such consideration at the
hands of any one man as did the International Typo
graphical Union in June, 1886, from George W. Childs,

Relations to his Employees. 337
whose name is revered and honored throughout the
entire jurisdiction of the grand body. . . . Long life
and happiness to the friends of Union printers, George
W. Childs and Anthony J. Drexel."
It ought to be mentioned in this connec
tion that in the local headquarters of the
printers of Washington and several other
cities a handsome portrait of Mr. Childs
adorus the walls and is regarded as one of
their most cherished possessions.
I think I can in no way more fitly con
clude this paper on Mr. Childs's Relations
to his Employees than by quoting the ad
ditional testimony given by Harper's Weekly
of January 11, 1890, in the following just
tribute to that generous consideration which
Mr. Childs shows in so practical a manner
for all those in his employ :
" It was long ago said of Mr. George W. Childs, the
publisher of the Philadelphia Public Ledger, that he
was the two 'Cheeryble Brothers' rolled into one; but
probably a more appropriate name for him would be
the Santa Claus of the newspaper world. On this last
Christmas day Mr. Childs, it is said, gave presents
amounting to many thousands of dollars in hard cash
to the editors, reporters, compositors, pressmen, and
other employees of the Ledger. When it is considered
that the salaries and wages paid by Mr. Childs are as
large as the largest paid by other Philadelphia publish
ers, it will be recognized that any one associated with
T w 29

338 George W, Childs in his
him in his work has cause to be satisfied with his em
ployer. It is said by his employees, however, that they
have even greater cause for satisfaction with him be-
causo of his daily consideration for them than for his
Christmas bounty. It is represented to be pretty much
of the same admirable sort as that of Mr. Fezziwig for
his employees^ which was so warmly described by
Scrooge. ' He has the power,' said old Jacob Marley's
partner, ' to render us happy or unhappy ; to make our
service light or burdensome, a pleasure or a toil. Say
that his power lies in words and looks, in things so
slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and
count 'em up ; what then ? The happiness he gives is
quite as great as if it cost a fortune.' That is said to
describe with wondrous accuracy Mr. Childs's relations
with his employees, who say he is a man who honors
Christmas in his heart, and keeps it always."
The Philadelphia Record prefaced the
above, in republishing it, with the caption,
"True — Every Word of it;" to which the
New York Sun, in its republication, added,
" And Hundreds of Men in all Parts of the
Country will Confirm it."
All that I have written reads more like a
fairy story than a description of real life,
and it is refreshing to a political economist
who is so continually concerned with clash
ing social interests, occasionally to find a
great industrial establishment where such
peace and harmony prevail as to make it
seem like a veritable happy family.

Relations to his Employees. 339
We often hear the expression that the
interests of labor and capital are harmoni
ous; that they are allies, not enemies: but,
curiously enough, the practical conclusion
which seems to be drawn from this is that
labor should always submit to the commands
of capital, although it is not clear why it is
not just as logical to expect capital always
to accede to the demands of labor if their
interests are identical. I have never been
able to reconcile this beautiful sentiment
with the hard facts of life. At the same
time, I think that any one who will study
the experience of Mr. Childs and other em
ployers who might be mentioned, — some of
them, indeed, in tho same line of business, —
will be convinced that, if the interests of
employers and employed arc not always pre
cisely identical, there is, at any rate, not that
diversity of interests which might be inferred
from the too frequent conduct of both parties.
A more conciliatory spirit on both sides
would certainly be mutually advantageous.
Philanthropy is of two sorts, — positive
and preventive. Positive philanthropy tries
to mitigate or remedy evils. It builds hos
pitals for the sick and relieves paupers. This
is all very well in its way, but there is a
far higher kind of philanthropy, though it

340 Relations to Employees.
attracts less attention. It is preventive. It
looks ahead and takes measures to lessen the
need of almshouses and hospitals. The
philanthropy of a model employer is of this
latter sort. He pays good wages and de
serves to rank higher than a capitalist who
cuts wages and who contributes largely to
ordinary charitable institutions. He helps
men to help themselves, and lifts them to a
higher plane of thought and life.
Richard T. Ely.
January, 1890.

CELEBRATION OF THE
BIRTHDAY OF GEORGE W. CHILDS.

The following account of the Banquet of
" The Association of Ex-Delegates, of Phil
adelphia Typographical Union, No. 2, and
of Pressmen's Union, No. 4, to the Inter
national Typographical Union," May 12,
1888, is taken from the Printers' Circular,
Philadelphia. May 12, 1888, will long be remembered by the
printers of Philadelphia and vicinity for the celebra
tion by them of the birthday of their steadfast friend
and distinguished fellow-citizen, George W. Childs,
publisher of the Public Ledger.
The Association of Ex-Delegates of Philadelphia
Typographical Union, No. 2, and of Pressmen's Union,
No. 4, to the International Typographical Union, hav
ing resolved that some fitting celebration of the day
should be held, it was decided that a Testimonial Ban
quet should be given at Dooner's Hotel, to which should
29* 341

342 Celebration of Hie
be invited the eight printers who were members of the
United States House of Representatives, together with
many distinguished members of the printing and pub
lishing fraternities throughout the country.
When in 1886 Messrs. Childs and Drexel sent their
respective checks for five thousand dollars to the Con
vention of the International Typographial Union, then
in session at Pittsburgh, provision was made that the in
dividual members should have the opportunity to assist
in augmenting the fund until such time as it was seen
fit to make disposition of it. It was then arranged that
the printers east of the Mississippi should, for this pur
pose, contribute the price paid for setting one thousand
ems on Mr. Childs's birthday, May 12, of each year, and
that those west of the Mississippi should do likewise on
the annual recurrence of Mr. Drexel's birthday, Septem
ber 13. Following out this plan of mutual assistance, the
printers west of the Mississippi have made two annual
contributions to the fund, and on Saturday, May 12,
the second contributions of printers this side of the
great river were made. . Excluding these last contri
butions, of which but meagre returns have yet been
received, the fund has already increased to over sixteen
thousand dollars.
The earnest efforts of the Ex-Delegates to appropri
ately observe Mr. Childs's natal day, and the sponta
neous and hearty responses of distinguished men who
had graduated from the printing-office, resulted in a
celebration as memorable as it was successful and
enjoyable to all who participated in it.
The handsome diningrhall was decorated with the
national colors, and behind the President's chair was
placed a magnificent painting of the Public Ledger
building, in a massive frame, on one side of which
hung a life-size portrait of Mr. Childs, and on the other

Birthday of George W. Childs. 343
a corresponding portrait of Mr. Drexel, elegantly framed
and decorated. Over these were the stars and stripes,
and below a bank of flowers, the gift of the employees
of the "Ledger Job office." To the left of Mr. Childs's
portrait was displayed the silken banner of Typograph
ical Union, No. 2, of Philadelphia, and to the right of
Mr. Drcxel's portrait hung the beautiful banner of
Pressmen's Union, No. 4, of this city.
On the table and about the banquet-hall flowers and
flowering plants were profusely distributed, producing,
with the other elaborate and tasteful decorations, a most
pleasing and graceful effect. In front of each plate was
placed a menu card, noticeable for its typographical
beauty, and, in addition, before the plate of each Con
gressional guest was a remembrance from Mr. Childs
in the shape of a fragrant bouquet. Besides these,
numerous bouquets and plateaus were sent as birthday
gifts to Mr. Childs, with the compliments of warm per
sonal friends and invited guests who could not be pres
ent, among whom was William M. Singerly, Esq., pro
prietor and editor of the Philadelphia Record, who sent
as a token of his friendship and esteem a floral gift of
great natural beauty and elegance of design. During
the evening, and between the speeches, music was dis
coursed by Simon Hassler's orchestra.
THE BANQUET.
At half-past seven o'clock Mr. John A. Dardis, Presi
dent of the Ex-Delegates' Association, called the com
pany to order, and the one hundred members and guests
were s"eated. Mr. Dardis said, —
Gentlemen, — As President of the Ex-Delegates' As-
sociation of Philadelphia, it becomes my pleasant duty
to welcome you, and to ask your hearty co-operation

344 Celebration of the
in this effort fittingly to celebrate the birthday of oar
distinguished fellow-citizen and benefactor, George W.
Childs, publisher' of tho Public Ledger.
While the printers east of the Mississippi are cele
brating the day by each setting a thousand ems of type
as a contribution to the Childs-Drexel fund, it seemed
to us that the printers of Philadelphia should, in addi
tion to their contribution, publicly bear testimony to
their appreciation of Mr. Childs's noble, unselfish, and
long-continued generosity to the entire printing fra
ternity. Hence this Testimonial Banquet in his honor, to
which you are cordially invited ; and, with your assist
ance, we hope to make it one of the most memorable
events in the history of the art preservative.
I now take great pleasure in introducing to you
Mr. James J. Dailey, Chairman of the Committee of
Arrangements. Mr. Dailey, upon being introduced, briefly ac
knowledged the applause with which he was greeted,
and introduced the Rev. John R. Moses, Rector of St.
Jude's Protestant Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, who
invoked the Divine blessing.
The announcement was made that letters and tele
grams, expressing their regret, because of their ina
bility to be present, had been received from non. Simon
Cameron, who is probably the oldest printer in the
United States ; Hon. John Russell Young, late U. S.
Minister to China; Hon. John H. Oberly, ex-President
of the International Typographical Union and Civil-
Service Commissioner, and the following printers or
ex-printers :
Congressman J. H. Gallinger, of Concord, N. H.
Congressman Thos. L. Thompson, of California.

Birthday of George W. Childs. 345
Harper & Bros., Publishers, Now York.
E. M. Paxson, Chief Jnstico Supreme Court of Penn
sylvania. Hon. A. K. McClure, Editor Philadelphia Times.
Thomas MacKollar, of MacKollar, Smiths & Jordan,
type-founders, Philadelphia.
Wm. Ailnison, President International Typograph
ical Union.
David P. Boyer, Chief Organizer of the I. T. U.
Ex-President Witter, of St. Louis, Mo.
John O'Donnell, of Boston, ex-Secretary-Treasurer
I. T. U. „
Wm. Bodwell, New York Sun, ex-President I. T. U.
Dr. Egle, State Librarian of Pennsylvania.
R. P. Boss, of the Boston Globe.
John Vincent, of the Boston Globe.

"i

After the more material part of tho banquet had been
discussed by the members and guests, the feast of rea
son and flow of sentiment and wit were begun by
Chairman and Toastmaster Dailey announcing the
first regular toast, " The International Typographical
Union," and introducing Congressman John M. Far-
quhar, the " War President of the International Typo
graphical Union," to respond to it.
CONGRESSMAN FARQUHAR's SPEECH.
Mr. Farquhar, of Buffalo, New York, arose, amid an
outburst of applause, and after paying a compliment to
Typographical Union, No. 2, of Philadelphia, for its
steadfastness and reliability, said that his feeling of
gratification was divided between meeting and congrat
ulating Mr. Childs and meeting and congratulating his
old comrades of the composing-room. He said, —

346 Celebration of the
Thirty-seven years ago there was cradled in the city
of New York an organization which, by its wise con
stitution and sensible deliberations upon matters of
interest to the printers' fraternity, placed itself in the
van of labor organizations and made itself first — the
leader — the exponent of every individual man's right
to the full value of the labor of his bands, as well as
his brain.
He referred to the International Typographical
Union, the high honor of which he vindicated, and to
the great satisfaction he entertained, personally, in the
recollection of the early days of the Union. Strange
as it may seem, this was the first time that the toast,
" The International Typographical Union," had been
assigned to him, and on such an occasion he was proud
to refer to it, and to the way he had won his spurs,
" stick" in hand, at the journeyman's case. He then
said, —
It is germane that I should say a word, as a journey
man printer, about the gentleman whose birthday we
celebrate. I never knew one act of a public or private
citizen of this country that struck me with more mean
ing in it than the present of Messrs. Childs and Drexel
of five thousand dollars each to this organization. It
was not a restricted donation, but a present — a free
and absolute gift. No association has ever before been
placed in the position of roceiving a gift without some
hesitancy, whether it was intended as a tribute to merit
or not. But from these men it came and was accepted
as an acknowledgment of merit, urging us to step
higher. It was a gift unconditional, and with it went
the message of encouragement: "We acknowledge
your work, and here we show, by our hands and our
hearts, that you are an organization we lovo."
Mr. Farquhar proceeded to eulogize Mr. Childs and

Birthday of George W. Childs. 347
Mr. Drexel, growing very earnest in his praises of their
generous act, which he regarded as of great significance
to workingmen. Raising his voice, he exclaimed,
"Every Union printer in America will say, 'God bless
George W. Childs and Anthony J. Drexel  ' " The
remainder of the sentence was drowned in applause,
for at that moment Mr. Childs, to the surprise of every
body in the banquet-hall, made his appearance. Mr.
Farquhar took his seat, Messrs. Chairman Dailey and
Joel Cook welcomed Mr. Childs, and the orchestra
played llassler's waltz, "Wootton." The effect was
strikingly dramatic, and Mr. Farquhar was congratu
lated on the appropriateness of his closing remarks.
As soon as the applause subsided, Mr. Dailey intro
duced Mr. Childs as the first citizen of Philadelphia,
and, " in the hearts of the printers, the first citizen of
America." Mr. Childs bowed his acknowledgments.
On behalf of Mr. Joseph Pulitzer, proprietor and editor
of the New York World, Mr. Dailey then presented
Mr. Childs with a magnificent bouquet. This token
of good feeling on the part of the distinguished New
York publisher was also warmly recognized. Mr.
Childs remained for about half an hour, and was then
escorted around the table to enable him to shake hands
with the men who had met to do him honor, and to
receive their congratulations. This pleasant duty being
over, he retired.
The next toast, " THE DAY WE CELEBRATE,"
was responded to by Mr. Eugene H. Munday (the well-
known printer-poet and prose writer of Philadelphia),
who said, —
Mr. President and Gentlemen, — I have not felt at

348 Celebration of the
liberty to decline the invitation to respond to this toast,
though most sincerely do I wish that the honorable
duty had been assigned to some one better qualified to
treat the theme as it deserves. I have not felt free to
decline the invitation, because it comes from the valued
friends of my whole life ; and if it shall appear that
kind regard for me has caused the committee to err in
choosing a spokesman for this occasion, I hope that you
will all emulate that spirit of kindness and excuse the
shortcomings that may be too obvious in what I shall
say. On the twelfth day of May, 1829, George W. Childs
was born in the city of Baltimore, and this body of
printers assembles here to-night to celebrate that event.
A small body of men we are, of no special importance
in the great world, or even within the limits of our
own city ; and shallow ill-nature might carp at our
action as savoring of presumptuous forwardness. But
there is, I venture to assert, eminent propriety in such
a meeting of just such men for just this purpose.
This modest Association, having no object but social
intercourse and the cultivation of friendly relations,
is composed of men who at different times have been
selected to represent the journeymen printers of Phila
delphia in National and International Conventions.
We cannot be sure that they at all times adequately
represented their constituents ; but who can doubt that
they will represent the feelings, not only of the printers
of this city, but of the workingmen of the whole
country, if they shall in any measure acceptably com
memorate the birth of a man who — untainted by dem-
agogism — is preeminent as the intelligent and powerful
friend of all legitimate efforts to assert and maintain
the rights of organized labor ; who, in his use of wealth,
and in the conduct of his business, daily typifies the

Birthday of George W. Childs. 349
highest functions of capital ; and who stands ever ready
personally and in the columns of his influential journal
—by generous acts and cheering words— to forward
every well-considered movement that promises to benefit
the toiling masses. And if our little celebration seems
to be not worthy of the occasion, we at least mark out
the course that larger and more influential bodies may
follow in coming years.
There is, I say, an eminent fitness in the inaugura
tion of such celebrations by a body of practical printers.
Far-reaching as has been the beneficence of Mr. Childs,
it has been most direct, most constant — closest— to the
craft of which wo arc members, and which hails him
as chief among its honored chiefs. And tho striking
fact must be noticed that the regard and honor that
wait on him are borne alike by the most prominent and
the most obscure of all classes in the printing frater
nity. Successful publishers and struggling beginners ;
authors whose fame is part of their country's, and
those who languish unrecognized; editors of command
ing influence, and unknown hack-writers ; master
mechanics who conceive, construct, put into motion,
and control the vast machinery now necessary to the
life of a great daily newspaper, and the veriest tyro
that blunders in the shop ; the patient, alert proof
reader, and the careless, sleepy copy-holder ; tho skil
ful, self-respecting compositor, and the poor fellow
who borrows a quarter on the curb, — all these varieties
and grades of men unite in respect, bordering on ven
eration, for the proprietor of the Public Ledger. He
has achieved the triumph of commanding tho admira
tion of all, while exciting the jealousy of none.
Nor is this respect confined to tho circle that feels
most directly the action of his impulses and the force
of his character. 30

350 Celebration of tlte
Throughout our broad land— yea, and far across the
seas — there is felt for George W. Childs a degree of
active and warm personal regard which has never be
fore, I believe, been accorded to a private citizen, and
which waits only for his consent (wisely withheld) to
take him from the private station and clothe him with
the highest honor that a free people can bestow.
Abreast of Mr. Childs in public esteem— so closely
identified with him in good works that it is difficult to
think or speak of them apart — stands the great Amer
ican banker, Anthony J. Drexel. Great, I say, not
because of his wealth and his commanding position,
but because of the wise and liberal use that he makes
of the rich fruits of his industry and business acumen ;
great not merely in the power that he wields, but in
the goodness that directs that power ; great in the fine
qualities of his brain, greatest in the generous impulses
of his heart. Happy if all possessors of great wealth
and power had the wisdom and grace to follow the lead
of Drexel and Childs. Then might the clouds that
overhang and threaten our social fabric bo dispelled ;
then might we hope for the realization of the dream
of the poets of all ages ; then might we look for the
crowning fruition of Christ's precepts, and hail the
establishment of the brotherhood of man.
Many admirable sketches of Mr. Childs's career have
been written, notably that by James Parton ; that by
Col. John W. Forney ; and that by J. W. Huff, which
appeared in the Printers1 Circular, and which has the
grace of thorough and genial appreciation. But it
must be said that they are all unsatisfying, and mainly,
I fancy, to their authors. I have experimented in that
direction myself. Certainly they fail to devolop the
occult philosophy which Hamlet longed for, and which
alone might fully explain a truly unique character.

Birthday of George W. Childs. 351
This is not strange when we know that a man so emi
nent, so conscientious, and with so careful a habit of
mind as the late Professor Joseph Henry, of the Smith
sonian Institution at Washington, deliberately wrote,
"Mr. Childs is a wonderful man. . . . Like man in the
classification of animals, he forms a genus in himself.
He stands alone ; there is not another in the wide
world like him." And Hon. John Russell Young, in
a late number of the Star, gives prominence to a
quality that is often overlooked in. estimating the
make-up of this distinguished man. He says, " Far
and away above any man with whose career I am at
all familiar, I place Mr. Childs as the best business
man in American journalism."
These, bear in mind, are the well-considered opinions
of men who knew the weight of words.
Thus lot me close. This is not the time to attempt
anything like an analysis of the elements that go to
make up the singularly beautiful and interesting char
acter of " the best-loved man of our land ;" nor should
I, at any time, assume a task that much abler men
have but imperfectly performed.
My purpose is fairly accomplished if, without weary
ing you, I have given good reasons why we — printers
— should thus meet and honor " The Day We Cele
brate." It is the one that, fifty-nine years ago, noted
the advent into this life of a rare spirit, which, in its full
and gracious development, commands the unstinted ad
miration of the brightest and worthiest men of our time.
After the applause with which Mr. Munday's cordial,
graceful effort was greeted had subsided,
CONGRESSMAN THOMAS R. HUDD,
of Wisconsin, responded to the toast " Our Guests."
After humorously alluding to his personal experience,

352 Celebration of Vie
Mr. Hudd turned his attention to " the celebration of the
natal day of that gentleman known, respected and ven
erated in the West, that honored Philadelphian, George
W. Childs." Touching upon the presentation of the
Stratford-upon-Avon drinking-fountain in memory of
Shakespeare, Mr. Hudd said that the Went also re
vered that man, and " took no stock in Donnelly, who
forced Bacon in what he wrote." He then lauded Mr.
Childs for his beneficence and unselfishness. " Taken
all in all," he said, " we may never see his like again."
Mr. Hudd then drew a beautiful picture of the purity
of Mr. Childs's character as likened to the spotless
flowers in the bouquet before him, and closed with the
following quotation as applicable to the honored guest
of the evening:
" You may break, you may shatter the vase if you will.
But the scent of the roses will hang round it still."
GENERAL NEILSON's SPEECH.
To the toast "Philadelphia Typographical Union"
Gen. Wm. H. Neilson, President of No. 2, responded.
He said that he had been astounded, in the course
of his interviews with employing printers, at the igno
rance many of them displayed regarding the rules and
regulations of the Union. . He dwelt upon the value
of the Union, which recognizes the futility of strikes,
as a medium for placing employees upon an equality
and in a position where they may be able to protect
themselves against the unscrupulous. He touched upon
the principles underlying the organization, and the effi
cacy of the ballot to redress the grievances of working-
men, and said, —
At the same time, the workingmen have been de
ceived by concentrating their support upon candidates

Birthday of George W. Childs. 353
for Congress who have forgotten their promises and
turned in with corporations and monopolies. Phila
delphia is the only city that has ever produced a man
that did seem properly to recognize what the working-
man was worth and to what he was entitled. When
the Typographical Union reduced the price of compo
sition from forty-five to forty cents per thousand ems,
Mr. Childs refused to accept the reduction. He said
that he was making money enough to pay the old rate,
and he continued to pay it, and has done so until this
day. I would to God there more of such men in this
country ; then the workingmen would say, " We are
perfectly satisfied : we are perfectly contented."
SPEECH OF CONGRESSMAN CUMMINGS.
" The Printer as a Journalist" was responded to in
an inimitable way by Hon. Amos J. Cummings, of
New York, late managing editor New York Sun, who
was frequently interrupted by applause. He said, —
Mr. Chairman and Brothers or the Typograph
ical Union, — It is with sincere pleasure that I join
you in honoring tho birthday of George W. Childs.
You honor yourselves in honoring Mr. Childs. I honor
him for the substantial testimonial of his esteem for
Union printers ; I honor him for his manifold public
charities; but I honor him most for his love for his
fellow-men. He is the only man whom I have ever
known, or of whom I have ever heard, who has gone
clear through the Golden Rule in his love for mankind,
and landed on the other side. He is not only good, but
great— and all the greater because he is good.
I find that I am to respond to the toast of " The
Printer as a Journalist." I have carefully studied the
art of speech-making in Congress. The first requisite,
x 30*

354 Celebration of tfie
as exemplified by our brother, Congressman Hudd, of
Wisconsin, this evening, seems to be a plentiful supply
• of poetry. The only poem applicable to this occasion
is that beautiful effusion of Clarence Cook, written more
than fifty years ago, entitled " Abram and Zimri." A
second requisite for Congressional speeches appears to
be a pile of Congressional Records as a foundation on
which to place a written speech. The Records, alas,
are not here, and I must perforce enter upon my duty
without them.
The type-setter and proof-reader become editors un
consciously. The evolution from the case into editorial
life is as natural ns the evolution of a butterfly from a
chrysalis. There is nothing marvellous about it. The
true typo will develop into tho true editor, if time and
opportunity serve. No careless or incompetent printer
ever became a competent editor. No plodding black
smith can ever become a skilled machinist. I have
seen many men taken from the case and thrown into an
editorial room, and all but one became successful and
accomplished reporters, editors, and correspondents.
The one exception was thus delineated by the tongue
of an old journeyman : " I don't wonder that he failed
as an editor, for he had the dirtiest proofs of any man
in the office."
The qualities that make a man an efficient compositor
are the very qualities requisite to make him an influ
ential editor.
Who ever knew of a country prin ting-office that was
not haunted by some quaint urchin eager to learn the
mysteries of the case ?
Sometimes he is awkward and uncouth. Oftentimes
he is barefooted. Frequently his hands are so dirty
that they look like toads' backs. Occasionally he has a
freckled face and a red head. Again he develops a

Birthday of George W. Childs. 355
peculiar reticence that betokens restlessness and am
bition. Whether retiring and reserved, or whether talkative
and full of life, the printing-office has a peculiar charm
for him.
You will find him picking type from the sweepings
of the office while on his way to school. You will see
him forcing an imprint from the type upon the blank
pages of his school-books. The country editor is, in
his eyes, a greater man than the rural parson. The
boy has a longing look as he gazes at the office. It is
indicative of the one desire of his heart, — that of pre
siding over the hell-box and reaching the mighty and
exalted post of printer's devil. Horace Greeley walked
twelve miles through the snow to Poultney to secure
such a place. Such boys are the germs of editorial
life. Watered by the dews of opportunity, and warmed
by the sun of prosperity, they eventually rule on the
editorial tripod.
Let us see how they are developed. The true printer's
devil is something more than an imp. In the fermen
tation of his nature he presents many curious contrasts.
His deviltry may throw the whole town into hysterics,
but it quickly passes from a physical to an intellectual
stage, ne mounts a candle-box and learns the alpha
bet at the case. The calibre of the boy is quickly seen.
The types have opened a new world to him. They
attract him by night and by day. His "stent" is
hardly done before he is at work for himself. Fugitive
sketches and local sarcasms are printed on slips and
circulated by his eager hands. He drinks in the com
ments of his acquaintances on the emanations of his
brain, and is spurred to renewed efforts.
There are probably few compositors within the sound
of my voice who cannot recall some such experience.

356 Celebration of the
The boy sets the town agog anew by his intellectual
efforts. Gradually he becomes a journeyman. He
learns the nrt of punctuation and the use of capital
letters and italics. He unconsciously develops a liter
ary taste, and becomes a critic. The rules of composi
tion set themselves in his mind without effort. The
marks of the proof-reader annoy him, and many a
wordy dispute follows, but always inuring to the
mental benefit of the typo.
The news of the day is ever before his eyes. He
gets it in scraps known as " takes," and these scraps
incite a thirst for information that is only satiated -by
a careful perusal of the daily newspapers. Standard
works flow into the editor's sanctum, and magazines
and exchanges. Some of them fall under the eyes of
the apprentice. He may devote a few of his nights to
dissipation, but there will be much burning of mid
night oil. Dickens, Bulwer, Thackeray, Marryat,
Cooper, Scott, Hawthorne, and even Ned Buntline
may be digested. Macaulay, Rollin, Gibbon, Bancroft,
and Motley may be read. The life of Napoleon and
Lamartine's descriptions of scenes in the Reign of
Terror will ever fascinate such young compositors.
The poems of Tom Moore, Walter Scott, Robert Burns,
Byron, Shakespeare, and other great bards will pass
through his mental hopper. The aphorisms of Ben
Franklin will radiate in his atmosphere. While at
work distributing type and correcting proofs, he will
find himself unwittingly discussing the news of the
day and entering into political controversies. If he
has any originality in the field of thought, it is sure to
be developed and strengthened day by day, hour by
hour, minute by minute. He is ever working in the
domain of intellectuality, and is ever drawing inspira
tion from the fertility of his surroundings.

Birthday of George W. Childs. 357
•
When a journeyman printer, his mind is broadened
anew. He deserts the home newspaper and wanders
from city to city. If true to his craft, he seeks admis
sion to a Typographical Union, and in course of time
gains a sure knowledge of the labor problem. He
verifies by travel what he has read. His knowledge is
no longer theoretical, but practical. He becomes self-
reliant and politic in his dealings. Ho gains a knowl
edge of the country surpassed only by his knowledge
of human nature. At times ho suffers penury and bitter
disappointments ; but anon fortune gleams anew on his
pathway, and, strengthened by his adversity, ho again
lopes over the trail of life with all the freshness of
youth. The rambling propensity dies away with the weight
of years, and a desire for the comforts of life supplants
it. The newspaper has not lost its glamour for the
wanderer. He is now a seasoned printer, with a
seasoned mind, seasoned habits, and a seasoned ambi
tion. Where could a better editor be found? Where ono
more efficient? No school of training could bo moro
thorough. All tho cloment.s that mako up a great
editor have been exorcised and knit firmly in the hey
day of life. The successful editor is the one who col
lects the news of the day and presents it to his readers
in the most concise and attractive form. He must be
sure of his facts, and he must clothe them conscien
tiously. But it is essential that he should know what
nows is before he essays to collect it.
Who is there so competent to select news as tho
careful compositor, — the man who has been sifting it
all his life? Who is so able to satisfy tho newspaper
demands of the pooplo? IIo has been among thoin
and of them in his wanderings, and in his character as

358 Celebration of Hie
editor he is still of and among them. He moulds his
editorial expression of thought from an experience
born from a direct association with those interested.
He speaks by the card alone. His ticket to newspaper
prosperity is unpunched by collegiate education, but it
is a ticket readily recognized by the people, and one
that frequently passes its owner into the realm of
wealth and the fane of fame. The born printer, Mr.
Chairman, is the born editor.
Some say that a new era is dawning in journalism ;
that men educated in collegiate schools are assuming
the helm ; that aesthetic methods are to be applied to
the columns of the new newspapers dotting the land
like mushrooms in a sheep pasture ; that a web of
newspaper trusts is to cover the country and secure the
patronage of the people, and that all the old journals
must follow suit or go to the wall.
All this may go for what it is worth. The past
shows that the people have recognized the printing-
office as the true school of journalism, and I fancy that
it will hold good in the future and as long as a Typo
graphical Union lives and flourishes on the free soil of
this Republic. " pressmen's union, no. 4,"
the next toast, was responded to by Charles W. Miller,
who said, —
When the International Typographical Union began
its work of organizing the pressmen into separate
bodies, it seems to me, they must have been convinced
that we were rapidly drifting towards what might be
termed an age of specialties, and that such were the
multiplied devices of human genius that success was
now to be attained in almost any enterprise or pursuit
of an honorable character.

Birthday of George W. Childs. 359
The printers of to-day are more distinctly divided
into two classes than in former times, — that is to say,
they ranked as compositors and pressmen, known to
tho mass of the people simply as printers, but still
quite distinct in their labors. Each has a well-defined
line of operation to pursue, although the art of print
ing cannot be developed without duo attention to both,
nor excellency attained in either without tho skilful
manipulation of types and the intelligent management
of presses, -which in the hands of pressmen clearly
define the " rules" and make " impressions" that are
in keeping with a full knowledge of the times in which
we live.
As is well known, our branch of typography has its
local organizations, but we are all subordinate to one
spirit prevailing over all, because there is one object in
view, — the happy result and development of individual
labor. For it is a fact that when one spirit has infused
itself into other spirits and there is one spirit pervading
all, then the best results are accomplished. Unity is
that power which, like a subtle force streaming from
mind to mind, produces harmony of thought and action.
It is a silver cord thrown by ono member around an
other so as to bind the two together. It is an influence
which clothes the feeblest arm with strength.
Pressmen's Union, No. 4, is largely composed of
competent pressmen, — such pressmen as are found in
Philadelphia, the home of George W. Childs,— press
men who appreciate the blessed results of unity ; press
men, the light from whose presses flashes in all direc
tions ; pressmen who possess the ability so to ornament
the pages of a book that they become as pleasing and
attractive to the eye as the contents are interesting to
the mind and heart; pressmen to whose care is com
mitted machinery of intricate and costly workmanship.

360 Celebration of the
And still the pressman is a co-operator with the
compositor in joint efforts to promote tho same end.
If we had type, but no presses, of what avail are they
to any considerable extent? If we had presses in
abundance, but no type, nor intelligent compositors to
set the same in order, where the pressman's calling?
An editor writes hurried lines; they are given to the
compositor ; by him transmitted to the pressman ; in
the morning the sheets fly abroad ; before night thoy
have carried their weight of influence over space
enough for an empire. Neither the editor, compositor,
nor pressman is visible to the multitudes ; but from
the pen that writes a volume and the press that sends
it forth to the world there flows a current of intellectual
power that can shape the affairs of a nation. As the
sun is not conscious of the overflowing light which he
pours upon the world, so the pressman is not aware of
the widely extended influence of his work. But he is
always making " impressions" while fulfilling his daily
task. Again, as the light of the sun is not the least
abated by shining upon two continents instead of one,
so the work of a pressman will be admired and ap
preciated in any part of the globe where there are in
telligent minds, with hearts to feel and eyes to read.
I referred a few moments ago to the happy results
of union in the development of individual labor. Let
me say that there is at this day no brighter example
of the happy results of a steady aim and singleness of
purpose than that afforded by the life and beneficent
acts of George W. Childs. To him, as a Philadelphian,
we may point with just pride. He is the printer's un
wavering friend, and yet the unselfish advocate and
helper of all pursuits that have a tendency to elevate
the human race. Over and over again I say, honor to
the name and praise to the deeds of George W. Childs I

Birthday of George W. Childs. 361

"TnE CniLDS-DREXEL FUND"
was ably responded to by Mr. August Donath, one of
the trustees of that fund, who, in the course of his re
marks, said, —
One thing the Pittsburgh convention did not expect
was the ten-thousand-dollar gift. The confidence re
posed in the I. T. U. and the craft, which was implied
by that gift, was keenly appreciated all over the land.
That confidence kept inviolate, and the fund increased
in so graceful a manner, made all the Union printers
feel proud of their profession. It was a token of good
will and encouragement to workinjrmen.

was responded to by Mr. William C. Bleloch, who
said, —
The Philadelphia Typographical Society is tho
printers' beneficial society, organized in 1803 for the
purpose of relieving distress among its members and
their families, occasioned by sickness and death. From
the date of organization to the present time — a period
of eighty-five years — it has not failed in its sacred
mission. The sick have been visited, the dead buried,
and the widows and orphans cared for, to the best
alility of the officers in charge, and to the greatest ex
tent that the limited means at their disposal would
permit. Its active membership has at all times included the
best men of the craft in Philadelphia ; and among its
honorary members have been many who, as printers,
publishers, and authors, have shed lustre upon their
several callings, and dignified and honored the Society
by their membership. Among these names, enrolled
Q 31

362 Celebration of the
in 1867, is that of George W. Childs, who, at that early
date, had endeared himself to the printing fraternity
as a just and liberal employer, and a kind-hearted,
charitable man.
In October, 1868, Mr. Childs donated to the Society,
without restriction or incumbrance, a large and beauti
fully enclosed lot in the Woodlands Cemetery, valued
at eight thousand dollars, as a Printers' Cemetery.
This noble benefaction — free to all printers — excited
the wonder and admiration of the country. It was
gratefully received by the Society, and has frequently
been used for the purpose intended. For nearly twenty
years all expenses oonnected with its keeping have been
defrayed by its generous donor; and in addition, hun
dreds of dollars have been contributed by him to the
Society's general relief work.
The incident referred to by General Neilson is an
other instance of Mr. Childs's continuous generosity.
He not only knows how to do a good thing, but he
does not weary in well-doing. Taking an average com
positor's day's work, the money paid by him to the
Ledger compositors, over and above the Union scale of
prices, amounts to the large sum of over ten thousand
dollars per annum, and this has been going on un
grudgingly for twelve years. Is it any wonder that
the printers of Philadelphia and the country love and
esteem such a man ?
As disciples of Franklin, we must also thank George
W. Childs for displaying in front of the Public Ledger
building the only statue of the Printer-Philosopher of
which Philadelphia can boast.
To quote the elegant language of the late Chief
Justice Ellis Lewis (an old printer), " Mr. Childs has
planted himself in the human heart, and there he will
have his habitation while man shall dwell upon earth.

Birthday of George W. Childs. 363
He has built his monument upon the broad base of
univorsal benevolence; its superstructure is composed
of good and noble deeds : its spire is the love of God,
and points to Heaven."
He stands out among men —
"Like some tall cliff, that lifts its awful form,
Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm ;
Though round its base the rolling clouds may spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on its head."

The address of Mr. George Chance, of the Philadel
phia Record, and late President of Typographical Union,
in answer to the toast " Tho Union Printer," was
probably the most humorous and entertaining of the
evening. He said, —
Mr. Chairman, — I hardly know how to respond to
the sentiment just given without, to a certain extent,
appearing in the light of praising myself as well as
those around me. " The Union Printer" may be viewed
from two stand-points. The employer who desires to
buy his labor in the cheapest market can see nothing
in him that is commendable or necessary. He sees
only a man who bands himself with others of a like
ilk to control his employer's business ; who, by joining
a Union, commits an act which is destructive of the
individual freedom of the workman by taking away
from him the natural right to the control of his labor.
Of course, the non-Union employing printer recognizes
and praises the freedom of action which allows him
to dictate terms to each person he employs. He soon
finds the weakness and necessities of each, and gener
ally uses his knowledge for all it is worth. The Union
employer views "The Union Printer" in a different

364 Celebration of the
light, ne recognizes the right of his employees to a
voice in regulating the price of their labor. They meet
and agree upon a soale of wages, which tho employer
pays willingly. In return the Union printer gives hia
boat recompense in the way of honest work. He is
ever watchful of his duty to his employer, and equally
vigilant over his own rights. He is true not only to
himself but to his fellow-unionists in all that the word
implies. He is a necessity in every community. By
his unionism he secures the nearest approach to that
text which says, " The laborer is worthy of his hire."
By his unionism he helps to make the State and Nation
prosperous. A city or State may be wealthy and
powerful while its people may be poor and unhappy.
It is part of tho duty of the Union printer to see that
tho people partake of tho general prosperity. lie
boliovcs in principles before men, and would make any
sacrifice to prosorvo his connection with the Union.
He is a boliover in the rights of man ; believes that his
handicraft should receive the highest possible roward,
and that he has tho right, by organization, to obtain
what he could not get singly, — a just recompense for
his labor.
Mr. Chance facetiously alluded to the ability of the
printer to edit a newspaper far better than the man
aging editor, to make the local column more interest
ing than the city editor, and to a knowledge of finance
superior to that of the editor in charge of the financial
column. He was surprised that any good Union printer,
with all these bright prospects before him, should ever
descend to go to Congress.
It might bo true, as Junius Henri Browne suggested,
that " printers do not keep all the commandments ;"
but, in all seriousness, the Union printer is an honor
able man, who believes in doing right by his employer

Birthday of George W. Childs. 365
and living up to those principles of loyalty which his
Union instilled into his mind.
The Hon. Mr. Farquhar has stated that, thirty-seven
years ago, the Typographical Union was organized in
New York. I havo in my possession a copy of a con
stitution of the Philadelphia Typographical Union, or
ganized in 1850, and the President of that Union still
lives in this city, and, although unable to make his
living by the pursuit of his trade, he has been placed
by Mr. Childs in a position where he will never want.
[Mr. Chance referred to John L. Henderson, one of
the oldest Ledger compositors, who has been retired
many years by Mr. Childs on full pay.]
There was an employer who, in the goodness of his
heart, sent five thousand dollars to the International
Typographical Union. There was another who did the
same. Never were printers more taken by surprise.
At Pittsburgh it was made possible to meet here to
night, and on successive twelfths of May to commemo
rate the gift of this gentleman, and, when he shall have
passed away, for the Union printers to erect a monu
ment to his memory. A monument whose foundation
would be built on strong man's love : the shaft of
which would be stronger than steel and more lasting
than brass : whose polished sides would be inlaid with
diamonds and pearls, — the diamonds representing
widows' grateful tears; the pearls, orphans' prayers
offered up in grateful thanks for the good deeds done
by this man during his life.
JOEL COOK'S SPEECH.
In a pleasant way, Mr. Joel Cook responded to " The
Press," and paid his compliments to the Congressmen
and the printers. "Although the editors and the
printers differ about many things, they can shake
31*

366 Celebration of the
hands over the chasm of one thing, and that is the
annihilation of tho proof-reader."
When the laughter following this pleasantry had
subsided, Mr. Cook turned his attention to the New
York Sun, for which the obituary poetry of the Ledger
had a peculiar fascination. " One great redeeming
trait of that paper, however, is that it always gives
credit to the journal from which it makes extracts. In
pursuing this policy it charged Mr. Childs with putting
this poetry in the paper. In this it made a mistake,
for the man who really did it was 'Jim' Dailey, the
foreman." Growing serious, Mr. Cook said, —
My recollection of the gentleman who is being hon
ored by this banquet dates back to boyhood. To use a
quoted expression, Mr. Childs is " an Israelite without
guile." The thing in him that is plainest to me is that
there is less of evil in him than in any man I ever knew.
No man can say that he went to him with a tale of true
sorrow and came away empty-handed. He overlooks
our shortcomings in the Ledger office, and many of us
have done that which might be cause for dismissal from
other establishments. But we are all there, still serv
ing, because he could not frame his lips to say the word
that would cause our departure.
Mr. Cook then seconded a suggestion of Mr. Munday
that, if Mr. Childs could preside so well over the Ledger
office, he could preside equally well over the nation.
He spoke of Mr. Childs's pronounced and outspoken
views on the labor question, and said that he recog
nized the value of organization, and the recompense
of honest toil, believing that to be the very foundation-
stone upon which the nation rests. Mr. Cook touched
upon the International Union, which he regarded as
the greatest labor organization on the face of the globe,

Birthday of George W. Childs. 367
and urged that, by wise counsel and adherence to honest
principles, it might continue doing a beneficent work
for the whole country.
CONGRESSMAN JAMES o'DONNELL,
of Michigan, was the next speaker, but, owing to the
lateness of the hour, his remarks were brief. Ho was
received with a very hearty demonstration of regard.
He said that, a long time ago, when he was contem
plating the number of railroad ties between his West
ern home and Philadelphia, he sent ahead of him a
letter addressed to the Public Ledger, asking employ
ment. The letter had not been answered to date, but
he had no complaints to make. Mr. O'Donnell enter
tained his hearers with some humorous suggestions,
and then passed to the honored guest of the evening.
"Have you ever thought," he asked, "of the chaplet
above in reward for the good deeds that he has done?"
He then passed rapidly over what he regarded as note
worthy points in Mr. Childs's career, and closed with
a reference to the flag of the Union and to the typical
flag of strength in the Union, the flag of tho Interna
tional Typographical Union. Mr. O'Donnell said that
it had been the intention of the printer-Congressmen
and the other visiting ex-printers to go to some office
in the evening and set up a thousand ems as a contri
bution to the Childs-Drexel Fund. Owing to tho late
ness of the hour, however, they would not be able to
fulfil the intention. The spirit of the suggestion was
warmly applauded.*
* Mr. O'Donnell and his printer colleagues, eight in all, after
their return to Washington, on May 19, did set up one thousand
ems each, and handed the amount to Mr. August Donath, one
of the Trustees of the Childs-Drexel Fund, who forwarded it
to Treasurer Dailey.

368 Celebration of the
CONGRESSMAN- JOHN NICHOLS,
of North Carolina, spoke as follows :
Beautiful deeds, like beautiful thoughts, whether in
scribed on the printed page, or transferred to the artist's
canvas by the hand of genius, will live forever.
It is not the most bountiful benefactions nor the
grandest displays of honor or admiration that make tho
most pleasing and lasting impressions on the human
mind. It is the spirit, the manner, and the motive that
actuated their performance.
The assemblage here this evening is for the purpose
of doing honor, in a humble way, to one of our most
distinguished and most honored citizens'.
But nothing that we can do, nothing that we can say,
will add a single laurel to his crown or make him more
honored in the estimation of the American people. It
would be like an effort to paint the rainbow or to gild
the beams of a noonday sun. He stands forth without
a rival as the great American editor.
There is nothing that discloses real character more
thoroughly than the grand position of editor of an
influential public journal. Perhaps there is not an
instance in the history of journalism in this country
where self has been so thoroughly subordinated to tho
public welfare and the happiness of his fellow-man as
has been exhibited in the person of the gentleman who
does us all honor by his presence this evening.
It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most people
can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a
man really is, give him power and influence. This is
the supreme test.
Your distinguished guest occupies a position to-day
far more honorable than if he sat in the highest councils
of bis country, and can and does wield more influence
than the bedecked marshal of a nation.

Birthday of George W. Childs. 369
One of the highest compliments ever paid an editor
is contained in a single line. A contemporary, speak
ing of the newspaper over which your honored guest
presides with such distinguished ability, says, "Noth
ing false is printed iu the Ledger"
While no compliments that we can bestow, no honors
we can confer, will elevate him in the estimation of
his countrymen, yet this large and intelligent gather
ing of American printers is not an unmeaning occasion.
It is to do honor and manifest our appreciation of his
worth as a citizen and a journalist, and to pay homage,
if that be the correct expression, to the great printer-
philanthropist.. It is with that spirit that I accepted your kind invi
tation to be with you this evening, and I thank the
Committee on Invitations for the opportunity of being
present. This meeting, as I understand it, is one of Ex-
Delegates to the International Typographical Union.
Strictly speaking, I do not know that I can claim that
distinguished designation. In 1861 I had the honor
of being elected a delegate to the National Union by
Raleigh (N. C.) Typographical Union, No. 54, of which
I was then an active, and of which I am now an hon
orary member.
It will be remembered, however, that about that time
there was a strike on the south side of the Potomac,
and the form of the Union was slightly pied. A press
of circumstances rendered useless for a while all the
implements known to the profession, except the shoot
ing-stick. With positive instructions to follow copy, in
stead of going to the National Union, I went elsewhere.
This change of situation did not secure any very fat
takes, but as we were on by time, and not by the piece,
no question was raised about pay.
y

370 Celebration of the
During the conflict that resulted from this ill-advised
and unfortunate strike, which we now look back upon
with emotions of wonder and astonishment, there were
many columns of live matter knocked into pi, and some
of the best types of living manhood wholly destroyed.
After a long and fearful struggle, however, the form
of the Union was reset and stereotyped, and an impres
sion made on the hearts of the American people that
time can never blot or obliterate.
Now, with duty plainer, let us stand up to the rack,
and leave no stone unturned to upbuild the waste places
of our country, but press on in setting good examples
to the world, and present clean proofs that henceforth
and forever we are solid for the American Union.
CONGRESSMAN ROBERT J. VANCE,
of Connecticut, was then introduced. After telling a
story, he said that in his rounds during the day he had
seen the statue of one of the first American printers in
front of the Ledger building. That printer came from
New England. His name was Franklin, and he had a
loaf of bread with him. " The only fault that I have
to find with the statue of this printer," said Mr. Vance,
"is that it does not represent the original with a loaf
of bread under his arm."
Growing earnest, Mr. Vance said that if there were
any among historic men who had won fame, they were
George Peabody, Peter Cooper, and George W. Childs.
Peabody scattered his money abroad for the benefit
of mankind ; Cooper invested in monuments in New
York ; and Childs constructed monuments in this city.
The last was the greatest of all philanthropists. His
every impulse was good. There were none of the
vile ingredients in him. He was " a man, take him all
in all."

Birthday of George W. Childs. 371
REMARKS BY MAJOR J. J. NOAH.
" The Printer as a Washington Correspondent" was
the next toast proposed, and Major Jacob J. Noah,
Washington correspondent of the Denver News and
Kansas City Times, was called upon to respond. Major
Noah said, —
He deemed it a high privilege to be present on this
occasion, and join with his fellow-craftsmen in doing
honor to that eminent citizen and philanthropist, George
W. Childs, whose name was a synonyme throughout the
civilized world for all that was upright, honorable, and
beneficent. The orbit of his good deeds had not been
restricted to the limits of his own country, but his
name was justly honored among the men of other
lands. While all that he is and all that ho possesses
were the legitimate fruits of his own indomitable
energy and illimitable enterprise, yet had he always
reached out the helping hand to the needy, and, to tho
extent of more than his ability, relieved the distresses
of his fellow-man. That this had been the great
pleasure and solace of his busy life was more than
apparent. The quality of his long line of mercies had
not been strained, for truly had it " blessed him that
gives and him that takes," and Shakespeare's tribute
to Mercy's great virtues found substantial echo in the
hearts of the sturdy members of the Typographical
and Pressmen's Unions, and the many friends gathered
here to honor and celebrate the anniversary of his
birth. Major Noah stated that when he called upon Mr.
Childs that morning and was presented by his friend
and colleague, Major John M. Carson, his hand was
grasped and he received warm welcome. "I knew
your father before you," said Mr. Childs. "He was

372 Celebration of the
the leading editor of his day and time, and, I think,
was born in Philadelphia."
Major Noah added that he was taken by surprise,
from the fact that thirty-seven years bad passed since
the death of his father, the late Mordecai M. Noah.
He was dead, but evidently not forgotten. The fact
was then recalled that Messrs. Swain, Abell, and Sim
mons, the original founders of the Philadelphia Ledger,
worked as journeyman printers in his father's news
paper office at New York, in the halcyon days of the
" sixpenny press," and that their subsequent successes
in establishing the " penny press" had been a measure
of great satisfaction to their old employer.
Major Noah then narrated various interesting remi
niscences of leading journalists who were at the fore
when he first came upon the newspaper scene, among
them James Watson Webb, James Gordon Bennett, Sr.,
William L. Stone, Horace Greeley, Park Benjamin,
Nathaniel P. Willis, Gen. George P. Morris, Evert A.
Duyckinck, Cornelius Mathews, Casper C. Childs,
Thaddeua W. Meighan, Henry J. Raymond, Charles
A. Dana, David M. Stone, and others.
He closed his remarks by observing that George W.
Childs was worthy the title given the late Gen. George
H. Thomas by Col. H. M. Duffield, the orator at the
late reunion, of the Army of the Cumberland, " omnium
gentium facile princeps." Thomas, as a soldier, was
of all soldiers the " recognized chief." George W.
Childs, as citizen and philanthropist, was of all citizens
equally the " recognized chief."

REMARKS BY MAJOR JOHN M. CARSON.
When the applause ceased which followed the con
clusion of Major Noah's remarks, Major John M. Car-

Birthday of George W. Childs. 373
son, Chief of the Public Ledger Bureau at Washington,
was called upon.
He said it was a peculiar gratification to him that he
could claim membership with the fraternity represented
upon this occasion. The men present to-night did not
receive a parchment certificate when they were gradu
ated, yet they were constituents of alumni in whose
ranks have been found many men of the highest intel
lectual force, of great moral worth, and great practical
usefulness. In none of the vocations could there be
found a greater degree of intelligence than was found
among printers, and to that fact might be ascribed
their strength and their influence when united. No
other vocation could send forth a class of representa
tives such as were here to-night, every one of whom
had started in life as a journeyman printer. The
printing-office was a continuation of the public school,
and its opportunities rightfully improved almost in
variably led men to higher walks of usefulness and
kept its graduates untainted by those meretricious
influences that so often attended and remained with
graduates of colleges.
There were present to-night gentlemen who had
reached the halls of Congress through the printing-
office. They w7ere among the most able and useful men
in that body, and there was no doubt that the knowl
edge and experience acquired in the printing-office had
mainly contributed to their success in life.
Many years ago, when working at "case" in this
city as an apprentice, with James J. Dailey occupying
an adjoining " alley," and Joel Cook learning to set type
with the aid of a discarded " font," he did not dream
he would ever be associated with those two boys on the
Public Ledger, which was then, as it now is, the repre
sentative newspaper of the city and State.
32

374 Celebration of the
Referring to the special object of the gathering to
night, Major Carson said he was particularly delighted
at the privilege of joining the Association in doing
honor to George W. Childs. There was a comprehen
siveness and significance in the gathering which was
only limited by the boundaries of the American conti
nent; which represented and which reached to the
very bottom of the hearts of men who labor ; which
commanded the admiration and approval of the friends
of those who labor, and which was an enigma to that
selfish and merciless class of men who use their fellows
only to promote their own personal aims and ambitions.
It must be a gratifying reflection to Mr. Childs that
he has won not alone the love of those with whom he
has been brought in frequent personal contact, and the
gratitude of the many who have been relieved by his
charity and gladdened by his liberality, but the esteem
and good- will of the people of the United States. Was
it to be wondered at that the American people, coming
to know this man through his unselfish and benevolent
works, — tired of the hypocrisy of political parties,
the masquerading of partisan propagandists, and the
treachery of partisan leaders, — should naturally turn
to and ask him to become their ruler as well as their
guide and friend ?
" And yet,y continued Major Carson, with earnest
ness, " this simple citizen, this unostentatious man,
who has won the hearts of the people by kind acts', has
recently given an exhibition of self-abnegation, an
illustration of patriotic fervor, an example of sublime
courage that has excited public wonder, and challenged
universal respect; he has positively, deliberately re
fused to be even considered in connection with the
bestowal of the highest reward that can come from a
free people, and the most honorable office that can

Birthday of George W. Childs. 375
bo conferred upon mortal man, — in short, George \V.
Childs has refused to become President of the United
States. " The horde of speculating politicians who fasten
themselves upon successful parties, with ravenous
appetites for distinction and provender; who, like By-
Ends, in ' Pilgrim's Progress,' followed Religion for
the silver slippers she wore, affect to make light of tho
spontaneous popular movement which manifested itself
for Mr. Childs. It is not the first time that camp-
followers were mistaken in the real purpose of those
who move grand armies in the field, and grander armies
in the realm of healthful thought. This movement
was not superficial and ephemeral ; it was deep and
deliberate and earnest, and was frustrated only by Mr.
Childs's honest determination and direct outspoken
refusal. "My position in Washington affords opportunities
for meeting representative men, and studying popular
sentiment on national questions, and my observation
has enabled me to form an estimate of the extent and
sincerity of the movement for Mr. Childs, among the
representative men of the whole country and to which
reference has been made to-night by different speakers.
To show its extent and sincerity, let me say that the
publisher of one of the strongest .and most influential
Democratic daily newspapers in the East begged Mr.
Childs to permit himself to be nominated for President
of the United States, and gave force to his entreaty by
the assurance that Mr.' Childs should have the earnest
support of his newspaper, and pledged himself to sub
scribe ono hundred thousand dollars, the day Mr.
Childs should bo nominated, towards defraying tho
necessary expenses of the election. Another distin
guished man, the -proprietor of one of the leading

376 Celebration of the
Democratic newspapers of the West, mado similar
appeals to Mr. Childs, and offered to subscribe fifty
thousand dollars to elect him. Requests and offers of
like character were made by men who control powerful
Republican journals. Leading men of the two political
parties recognized the depth of this popular feeling,
and the more sagacious of them admitted if it were
not interfered with it would result in the nomination
and election of Mr. Childs to the Presidency of the
United States. These facts are personally known to
me, and many others to the same effect might be cited.
They are mentioned here to show that the movement
to make Mr. Childs President of the United States was
real and substantial, and extended to all classes of
people. But the production of corroborating testimony
upon this point is not necessary in this assembly, where
Mr. Childs is so well known and so thoroughly ap
preciated." Major Carson concluded with an appropriate tribute
to the character and virtues of Mr. Childs; a man
whose every-day life furnished a lesson for emulation ;
a man who was moved by the spirit of an unbounded
benevolence ; whose charity was not restricted by par
tisan or sectarian lines ; who " would not follow Nep
tune for his trident, or Jove for his power to thunder ;"
who carried sunshine to the homes and hearts of a
greater number of people, and who represented a
broader arid deeper and purer humanity than any man
with whom he had been brought in contact. "You
do well," he said, in conclusion, " as individuals and
as an association to honor this man, and in doing honor
to him you most do honor yourselves."
After singing " Auld Lang Syne," in which nil
present joined, the pleasant assemblage slowly dis-;

Birthday of George W. Childs. 377
pcrsod from what was a remarkably successful'celebra-
tion. We insert a few out of the large number
of letters and telegrams received from prom
inent persons who were unable to be present.
LETTER FROM HON. SIMON CAMERON.
Bkookfield Farm, May 12, 1888.
I am sorry, beyond my power to express, that I will
not be able to meet my fellow-craftsmen at dinner this
evening, as I had so hoped to do.
To do Mr. Childs honor is always a real pleasure to
me, but I find myself in such condition that it is far
easier for mo to go home than to take the risk of at
tending the banquet.
My life as a printer is ono of the periods of it to
which I look back with groat satisfaction, and I know
very well that the good men and true who will celebrate
Mr. Childs's birthday to-night are keeping undimmed
the glorious record of their noble and useful calling.
Sincerely your friend,
Simon Cameron.

Franklin Square, New York, May 15, 1883.
Dear Mr. Childs, — We regret that we were unable
to join with our brethren of the craft in their dinner of
the 12th inst., commemorating your birthday. While,
however, it would have been an honor to honor you
on that occasion, there is left to us the abiding pleasure
of honoring you on all occasions, and of assuring you
of our faithful friendship. 32*

378 Celebration of the
It is a satisfaction to us to believe that we of the
second and third generation of our house retain the
cordial regard shown to our fathers by you, our illus
trious fellow-printer and countryman, who by your
kind and worthy acts have won the grateful love of the
world. Yours always, very sincerely,
Harper & Brothers.

LETTER FROM COL. A. K. M'CLURE, EDITOR
PHILADELPHIA TIMES.
Philadelphia, May 12, 1 888.
A pressure of engagements compels me to deny
myself the pleasure of joining in the appropriate cel
ebration of the birthday of George W. Childs ; but I
cannot let the occasion pass without expressing my
appreciation of the foremost of publishers and em
ployers in all that attaches the highest honors to those
vocations. There is not a publisher in Philadelphia who does
not heartily join in the highest tribute to Mr. Childs,
whose distinction is above the reach of jealousies, and
who has justly won the trust and affection of the
printers of the whole land. He is the one man of ex
ceptional success who is beloved by all, and his name
will be crystallized in history as the benefactor of his
age. The world will honor the man above all others who
can sincerely decline its highest honors of public trust :
and the celebration of his birthday is commemorating
the noblest qualities of American citizenship.
Very truly yours,
A. K. McClure.

Birthday of George W. Childs. 379

LETTER FROM THE CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME
COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA. Philadelphia, May 12, 1S88.
My dear Mr. Childs, — I regret that my official en
gagements will prevent my presence at the dinner this
evening in your honor. I have, as you well know, a
warm feeling for the craft. In my boyhood days I
became fired with the ambition to edit and publish a
country newspaper, and in order to enable me to do so
successfully I acquired a practical knowledge of tho
business. I look back upon those days as among the
happiest of my life, and the associations then formed
will long be cherished. The late Bayard Taylor and
Hon. Wm. Butler, our admirable Judge of the United
States Court, were among my companions in the
printing-office. You will understand, therefore, why
my heart always warms to the craft, and especially
does it warm to yourself and my noble friend, Mr.
Drexel, who have done so much to contribute to the
happiness and prosperity of the order, by your broad
and intelligent charity. May the Lord bless you both,
and increase your prosperity, that you may have the
means to bless others.
I am sincerely your friend,
Edward M. Paxson.
Mr. Geo. W. Childs.
LETTER FROM TnOMAS MACKELLAR, OF MACKELLAR,
SMITHS & JORDAN, TYPE-FOUNDERS.
Philadelphia, May 12, 188S.
During the very many years of my acquaintance with
my much-esteemed friend Mr. George W. Childs, he has
always manifested the admirable traits of character and

380 Celebration of the
demeanor which still characterize him as a man among
men, — the same kindness, urbanity, generosity, benev
olence, public spirit, and business enterprise, that impel
the printing craft (among whom I am proud of having
been reared) to remember and celebrate his birthday.
Aware, as I am, of his private benevolences to weary
and worn-out printers and their families which are un
known to the world, as well as of his well-known pub
lic good doings, I often say, Would there were many
more George W. Childs's in this world to lessen the sum
of human sorrow in it 1 God bless him I
So prays
Thomas MacKellar.
letter from hon. john russell young, late
u. 8. minister to china.
Herald Office, New Yobk, May 12, 1888.
I am much honored by your kind invitation to attend
the banquet to be given by the Ex-Delegates to the In
ternational Typographical Union on the occasion of the
birthday of George W. Childs.
I have known Mr. Childs intimately since my boy
hood, and under circumstances which have enabled me
to know his character and career. I know of no char
acter that may be better studied, for the good that will
come, by the young men of the nation, who in their
entrance upon life seek the example of the wise and
true men that have gone before. In him they will see
absolute rectitude, a command of himself above the
allurements and temptations of the day amounting to
asceticism ; patient, persevering, knowing his own
mind, and ever going to his purpose with a Napoleonio
clearness and alertness of vision ; believing in himself
and in the work he has to do ; with the genius of com
mon sense; with perfect courage; a judgment that

Birthday of George W. Childs. 381
wastes no time on illusions or dreams ; the best busi
ness head I have ever known ; in poverty and in wealth,
in obscurity and in fame, always found by me to
be the considerate, courteous, ever-thoughtful, high-
minded gentleman and friend. The instinct which
prompts you to honor such a man is an honest one, and
to be commended in all ways as your due and loyal
tribute to him.
I am sorry that I cannot be with you. I send you
my good wishes and best thanks for your remembrance.
I trust that I may be permitted to unite with you in
the hope that our noble friend may live for many and
many a happy year to enjoy the day you celebrate.
Yours sincerely,
John Russell Young.
letter from congressman gallinger.
Concord, N. H., May 11, 1888.
When I left Washington for my New England home
a few days ago, it was my purpose to plan my return
trip so as to be in attendance upon the banquet on
Saturday evening. Unfortunately, business matters,
which can neither be transacted before that time nor
permanently neglected, render it utterly impossible for
me to be with you on the interesting occasion.
It has never been my privilege personally to meet
the great, good man whom you are to honor, but to me,
in common with all true printers in the country, his
name is a household word and a synonyme for every
thing that is honorable, true, and philanthropic. When
earning my living as a printer I knew of George W.
Childs, and learned to revere his name as an ideal
member of the craft, and in later years, with my
energies and purposes directed in other channels of
honorable effort, I have never forgotten to do honor, in

382 Celebration of the
thought at least, to the noble man whose birthday yoa
are to celebrate to-morrow evening.
I can only add that I sincerely trust that Mr. Childs
may live to enjoy many more birthday anniversaries,
and that the occasion from which I am unavoidably kept
may be one of rare pleasure and profit to those who
may attend. Very sincerely yours,
J. H. Gallinger.
TELEGRAM FROM CONGRESSMAN THOMPSON.
Washington, D. C, May 12, 1888.
I am unavoidably obliged to forego the anticipated
pleasure of banqueting with the Ex-Delegates' Associ
ation in honor of the birthday of Mr. Childs, who so
eminently fills, in your city of friends, the place of the
great preceptor of our craft. My hearty congratula
tions to Mr. Childs and your Association !
Thos. L. Thompson.
TELEGRAM FROM CIVIL-SERVICE COMMISSIONER
J. H. OBERLY, EX-PRESIDENT I. T. U.
Washington, D. 0., May 12, 1888.
Much to my disappointment, I find myself unable
to be present at the birthday dinner of Mr. George W.
Childs. I send my hearty wishes for the entire success
of the occasion, and my personal congratulations to Mr.
Childs on the recurrence of the day which the craft of
the -whole country honors in your celebration.John H. Oberly.
LETTER FROM WM. AIM] SON, PRESIDENT I. T. U.
Nashville, Tenn., May 5, 1888.
... I regret my inability to be present, owing to the
nearness of the meeting of the International Typo-

Birthday of George W. Childs. 383
graphical Union, and the rush of business incident
thereto. There is no one to-day, within the jurisdic
tion of the I. T. U., whom the printers of the country
would delight to honor more than Mr. Childs. May
his birthdays be continued, and when the warm heart
and charitable hand are stilled in death, may his
memory be as a refreshing draught to strengthen and
to re-encourage us in the battle of life !
Very respectfully,
Wm. Aimison.
letter from ex-president witter.
St. Louis, Mo., May 9, 1S88.
... I desire to assure you of my hearty sympathy
with your efforts to do honor to the birthday of Mr.
Childs. Our craft has especial cause for gratitude to
Mr. Childs ; not merely because of his generous recog
nition of our organization, and the good-will which
has always characterized his conduct towards us, but
because the day when fair-dealing shall bo the rulo in
every printing-office is hastened by his conspicuous
example. Such examples are to us a guarantee for
the future. Justice between men is the simple solution
for the perplexing "problem." Mr. Childs has not
only been wise enough to see the truth, but unselfish
enough to practise it. Fraternally yours,
M. R. II. Witter.
LETTER FROM CHIEF ORGANIZER BOYER.
Columbus, 0., May 8, 1S88.
... I hereby send my regrets at not being able to
attend. No other labor organization in this or any
other country has ever received such consideration at

384 Celebration of the
the hands of any one man as did the International
Typographical Union, in June, 1886, from George W.
Childs, whose name is revered and honored throughout
the entire jurisdiction of the grand body. . . . Long
life and happiness to the friends of Union printers, —
George W. Childs and Anthony J. Drexel !
Faithfully yours,
David P. Boyer.

LETTER FROM JOHN VINCENT.
Globe Office, Boston, April 30, 1888.
. . . Permit me to unite with you in expressing to
your honorable guest the wish for his long-continued
health and happiness. Though confident of the reward
that awaits him in eternity, may it be many years
before he is called from a field in which, by his gen
erous, unselfish nature, he has proved himself so useful
and valuable !
To George W. Childs, more than to any other man
living, are we indebted for the present era of good
feeling existing between employers and members of our
craft, which has taken the place of the antagonistio
spirit of former years.
In conclusion, allow me to suggest for your consid
eration, as a slight recognition of his many acts of
kindness to the craft, and of his munificent donation
to the I. T. U., that steps be taken to have the likeness
of George W. Childs placed on the face of the Union
travelling card ; for he of all men, living or dead, is
entitled to this honor. And in this suggestion I am
confident of being seconded by every member in our
ranks. Sincerely and fraternally,
John Vincent.

Birthday of George W. Cldlds. 385

LETTER FROM STATE LIBRARIAN EGLE.
Harrisburg, Pa., May 10, 1888.
... I need not assure you how I would appreciate
being in the goodly company of so many disciples of tho
typographic art, who meet to do honor to that great
warm-hearted American gentleman, George W. Childs.
He who has done so much good for mankind well
merits the lovo and revercnco of his fellow-citizens :
and, as a token of my high esteem, and as a member
of the royal craft, I would be delighted to add my meed
of praise to him who is deserving of tho grandest tes
timonial that the printers or the press can bestow.
Sincerely yours,
William H. Egle.
EDITORIALS.
As a fitting close we introduce a few edi
torials from various journals relative to the
Banquet.

From The Craftsman, Washington, Saturday, May
19, 1888.
(Official Paper of the International Typographical Union.)

THE TWELFTH OF MAY.
Right royally did the Ex-Delegates' Association of
Philadelphia celebrate this red-letter day in the Union
Printers' calendar. From near and far were craftsmen
gathered around the social board, and " the Day we
Celebrate" was marked by a tribute to the noble man
whose name was on every tongue, which proved how
thoroughly the many kindly deeds of George W. Childs
r z 33

386 Celebration of the
are appreciated by a craft which is, perhaps, less prone
to hero worship than any other. The gathering was
a notable one, embracing as it did a number of Union
printers who, though their names are now inscribed
high on the roll of fame, are yet proud and happy to
acknowledge allegiance to tho International Typo
graphical Union, and to unite with their less promi.
nent brothers in doing honor to one who has so con
spicuously, again and again, been pleased to honor the
craft and its organization.
No man occupying the position of Mr. George W.
Childs has ever Bhown his good-will, his regard, his
genuine respect for us so nobly. When bad men would
throw suspicion on our endeavors, when unfair jour
nals would present us to the world as conspirators
whose association was a menace to the peace of the land,
this nobleman of God's own making showed his good
opinion of us, before the world, in his own practical
and magnificent manner. Is it a wonder that we speak
his name as one near and dear to us ? Is it a wonder
that on the anniversary of his birth we feel glad and
happy and joyous that so good, so great a friend was
given us ?
The career of Mr. Childs is marked by good deeds,
by kindly acts, so continuous that it really seems as if
his thoughts were ever occupied, not in devising how
to make money, but rather how to disburse his princely
income so as to make the largest number of deserving
persons happy and comfortable. He is not of those
who, having made a munificent donation, takes comfort
in the thought that he has given to the cause of human
ity a goodly and sufficient share. Much as Mr. Childs
has done to lighten the burdens and gladden the hearts
of his fellow-men, he never wearies of the blessed work,
but every day he marks by deeds which to him havo

Birthday of George W. Childs. 387
become part of his existence. The craft will imitate
our Philadelphia brothers, we are sure, by similar cele
brations as the years bring anniversaries of the glad
day ; and thus the name of Childs will live in the
printers' hearts, year after year, more enduring by far
than monuments of bronze or marble.
From The Union Printer, New York, May 12, 1888.
. . . While George W. Childs needs no encomium
from us — his life and deeds being a lasting eulogium —
we feel an irresistible impulse to linger over his exalted
interest in the welfare of printers. His example is an
inspiration, and in doing him honor we thereby attest
our appreciation of those noble qualities of mind and
heart which have been the guiding principles of his
career. From The Evening Bulletin, Philadelphia, May 24,
1889.
RECOLLECTIONS OF MR. CHILDS.
It is a customary thing for the people of every
European nation ruled by an hereditary monarch to
celebrate the sovereign's birthday. In fact it is a
popular function, prescribed by the State, and the
community that neglects the perfunctory performance
is suspected of disloyalty. The real honor of birthday
congratulations, however, consists in their being spon
taneous and heartfelt. Mr. George W. Childs had a
birthday anniversary lately, and it would be good for
the world if he could have thousands of them. He
is not an hereditary sovereign, or even a temporary
holder of a high office. But he received congratula
tions more numerous and more sincere than any that
were ever offered to the greatest of rulers or heroes.

388 Celebration of the
Thousands of newspapers, and perhaps as many letters
and telegrams, bore greetings and good wishes to him.
Good men and good women wrote to him, not mere
formal words of compliment, but honest, fervent ex
pressions of sincere admiration and affection, united
with prayerful invocations for all possible blessings.
If Mr. Childs were to collect these and edit them for
the public eye, they would astonish that public. But
such things are sacred in his estimation. He cannot,
however, muzzle the press, or prevent such a writer as
Mr. George William Curtis from printing this para
graph in the last number of Harper's Weekly:
" The universal kindly greeting to Mr, George W,
Childs upon his late birthday is a pleasant illustration
of the esteem in which he is held. Especially agree
able to him probably was the hearty tribute of the
printers, who have more than once testified their regard
for him. His heart and hand are always open to good
causes, and his Ledger, a journal of great circulation,
is directed with a candor and courtesy and ability
which give it a distinctive character. The smiles of
Fortune upon this, one of her favorites, are certainly
justified by the spirit and manner in which he shares
his favors with others."
This and similar words only faintly express the
popular love for Mr. Childs. Still more faintly do they
suggest his incessant, untiring generosity, which is
beyond description. An example of it, which will
reach hundreds of thousands of magazine readers, is
«»een in a series of articles begun in the June Lippin
cott, the writer of which frankly says that he obtained
the information contained in them from Mr.. Childs,
who, when appealed to for some " Recollections" of his
life, was " proof against every temptation save that of
doing a friendly act." To this he yielded, because it

Birthday of George W- Childs. 389
would help the writer, who, in turn, gives to the public
some very entertaining and equally instructive pictures
of the private life, from boyhood upward, of a man in
whose career every one takes a peculiar interest. When
completed these papers will make an autobiography
that will be better worth regarding as a classic than
those of many celebrated men of past times, who,
unlike Mr. Childs, had sins to conceal or shames to
confess. Such a life as his teaches a lesson to the
youth of America that will help them much more than
any to be found in the most famous books of auto
biography or the most brilliant of the kind called
Confessions. For this and coming generations these
" Recollections" are better than Franklin's autobiog
raphy, and it is a happy circumstance that they have
been put on paper and placed before the public.

IE"DEX.

Adams, John, President of United States, letter of, 65, 66.
Aimison, AVilliam, President of International Typographical
Union, letter from, 336.
Album belonging to Mrs. George W. Childs, 32.
Allibone, Samuel Austin, author of "Dictionary of British and
American Authors," 13.
Amaral Valontc, do, J. G., Brazilian Minister to United States,
letter from, to Mr. Childs, 46, 47.
attonds presentation ceromoniea at West Point, 146.
Andrfi, Major John, manuscript of his poem "The Cow-
Chase," 61.
Andrewes, Lancelot, Bishop, 310, 312, 313.
"Arctic Explorations," by Dr. Kane, publication of, 12, 13.
Arden, Mary, mother of Shakespeare, 207.
Arnold, Sir Edwin, poet, visits Mr. Childs, 130.
extract from letter of, 179 (note).
editorial of, in London Daily Telegraph, 245-248.
Arnold, Matthew, poet, address of, 297, 298.
death of, 299.
"Around tho World with General Grant," by John Russell
Young, 119.
Bacon, Delia, theory of, 211, 257.
Baltimore Dailg News, extract from, 263.
Bancroft, George, historian, 27. 391

392 Index.
Barnnm, P. T., proposal of, to remove Shakespeare's house to
America, 233, 244.
Beale, E. F., General, expresses his admiration of General
Grant, 138.
Bennett, James Gordon, Sr., journalist, personal characteristics
of, 28.
Benton, Thomas H., 29.
Biographical sketch of Mr. Childs, by Eugene H. Monday,
347-351.
Birmingham Daily Post, extraot from, 252-254.
Boyer, David P., letter from, to printers' banquet, 336, 337.
Bright, John, quotation from, 269.
Brooklyn Eagle, extracts from, 207-212 j 306-308.
Browne, H. K., artist, colleotion of the illustrations of, 63.
Bryant, William Cullen, poet, his translation of first book of
the Iliad, 52, 125.
Buckingham, Duke of, personal characteristics of, 37.
entertains Mr. and Mrs. Childs at Stowe and Wootton, 37,
anecdotes of, 38, 39.
Byron, George G. N., Lord, poet, writing-desk of, 55.
his parody of Wordsworth's " Peter Bell," 56, 57.
Cameron, Simon, letter of, 377.
Carson, John M., journalist, his aeoount of the painting of
portraits of Generals Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan,
167-179.
remarks of, at printers' banquet, 372-376.
Century Magazine, 298.
Chair embroidered by Duchess of Buckingham for Mrs. Childs,
82, 89.
Childs, George W., incidents in early life of, 9-14, 209, 234.
enters United States navy, 10.
goes into business for himself, 11.
becomes member of the firm of R. E. Peterson & Co., 12.
purchases Public Ledger, 14, 234, 324.
letters to, from H. W. Longfellow, 24, 25.
purchases country-seat near Bryn Mawr, 24.
names it " Wootton," 38.
guests of, list of, 31, 82.

Index. 393
Childs, George W., letters to, 33, 34, 46-50, 143, 144, 284, 285.
his trip abroavl, 33-41.
visits Charles Dickons, 3-1.
Duke of Buckingham, 37, 38.
Fountain Abbey, 39, 40.
Mr. John Walter, proprietor London Times, 40.
gives dinner to Longfellow at Homo, 41.
letter from General Grant, 95.
" Personal Memoirs" presented to, by Colonel Grant, 97.
description of Philadelphia residence, 124-128, 131.
appointed Prcsidont of Board of Visitors at West Point,
139, 141, 163, 171.
presents portraits of Gonorals Grant, Sherman, and Sheri
dan to Military Academy, 110, 142, 143, 140, 164.
letter to, from President Harrison, 143, 144.
is present at presentation ceremonies, 146, 148, 149, 165.
letter to, from General Sherman, 153, 154 (note),
wator from Shakespeare Fountain sent to, 252, 260.
letter from, to Archdeacon Farrar, 293.
sketch of his life by Eugene II. Munday, 347-351.
rolations of, to his employees, 319-338.
is made honorary member of tho Philadelphia Typograph
ical Society, 325.
presents burial lot to Typographical Society, 325.
philanthropy of, 325-329.
pension system of, 326, 327.
his profit-sharing, 327, 328.
extra wages paid by him to type-setters, 328.
gift of, to International Typographical Union, 329.
policy of, towards labor organizations, 331.
proposal to make him Presidential candidate in 1888, 333,
334, 374, 376.
celebration in honor of his birthday, 335.
tribute to, from the press, on his birthday, 337, 338.
"Chronicles of the Canongate," by Sir Waltor Scott, manu-
. script of, 59.
Churchman, The, New York, extract from, 306.
Claghorn, James L., invites Dom Pedro to visit Aoademy of
Fine Arts, 42.

394 Index.
Clock, Rittenhouse, history of, 67, 68.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, poet, autograph letter of, 62,
125.
"Collection of Four Thousand Autographs, A, made by a
Scrivener," by W. G. Latham, 64.
Collins, William Wilkie, novelist, 36.
" Comic Annual," by Thomas Hood, 52.
"Complete Concordance to Shakespeare," by Mary Cowden
Clarke, original m&nusoript of, and letters concerning, 67.
Congressman Farquhar, of New York, speech at the printers'
banquet, 345-347.
Cummings, of New York, speeoh at the printers' banquet,
353-358.
O'Donnell, of Michigan, speeoh at the printers* banquet,
367.
Niohols, of North Carolina, speeoh at the printers' ban
quet, 368-370.
Vance, of Connecticut, speech at the printers* banquet, 370.
Hudd, of Wisconsin, speech at the printers' banquet, 351.
Gallinger, of New Hampshire, letter to the printers'
banquet, 381, 382.
Conkling, Roscoe, Senator, favors Electoral Commission, and
bis influence to hasten its appointment by tho Senate,
80.
assists in Garfield campaign, 82, 83.
" Consular Experiences," Hawthorne's, original manuscript, 23.
Cook, Joel, account of the Herbert-Cowper Window in West
minster Abbey, 286 ; speech at printers' banquet, 335.
Cooper, Peter, philanthropist, incident of his early life, 30, 31.
Cossins, J. A., arohitect of Shakespeare Fountain, 202.
" Cow-Chase, The," by Major John AndrS, manuscript of, 60.
Cowper, William, poet, 275, 281, 282, 284, 316.
Craftsman, The, Washington, editorial on Mr. Childs's birth
day, 385-387.
Darragh, Mrs., artist, paints portraits of Generals Grant, Sher
man, and Sheridan, 147, 163, 164, 168, 175, 177, 179.
Davis L. Clarke, account of Mr. Childs's gifts to England:
Shakespeare Fountain at Stratford-upon-Avon, Memorial

Index. 395
Windows in Westminster Abbey, St. Margaret's, Westminster,
etc, 187, 316.
Dedication of Shakespeare Fountain, account of, 212-226, 242,
248, 249, 250, 252, 254, 255-257, 259-262, 2G5.
De La Warr, Earl, Lord High Steward, 214.
proposes toast to President of tho United States, 227.
" Dcmotrius," by Schiller, manuscript of, 62.
Description of Shakespeare Fountain, 202-205.
Dickens, Charles, novelist, invites Mr. Childs to visit him, 33.
his manner of constructing his stories, 34-36.
"Dictionary of British and Amorican Authors," by Dr. S. A.
Allibone, 13, 14.
Dilke, Sir Charles Wentworth, 277.
Drexel, A. J., banker, 14.
is consulted by President Grant, 84, 85, 106.
gift of, to International Typographical Union, 329, 346,
347-350.
Electoral Commission proposed, 77-80.
bill passed appointing it, 81.
Ely, Prof. Richard T., Mr. Childs and tho Workingraan, his
Connection with his Employees, 319, 340.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, essayist, visits Mr. Childs, 27.
quotation from, 238.
Everett, Edward, orator and statesman, letter from, 29.
Farrar, Rev. F. W., Archdeacon of Westminster, 287, 305.
quotations from, 279-281, 291, 304, 305.
letters from, 291-297, 299, 305.
Fields, James T., publisher, 21.
letter to, from Ex-Prcsidont Franklin Pierce, 22, 23, 66.
Fish, Hamilton, Hon., 31, 127, 131.
made member of Grant's Cabinet, 97.
Flower, Charles E., Councillor, 202, 213, 214, 267.
proposes toast to Mr. Henry Irving, 237.
Franklin, Lady, visits Mr. Childs, 40.
Garfield, General James A., President of United States, 82.
" Godolphin," by Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, manuscript of, 60.

396 Index.
Gott, Rev. Dr., Dean of Worcester, sermon of, 314, 315.
Grand Army of the Republio, growth of, 137.
Grant, Frederick D., Colonel, letter of, to New York World,
115-118.
appointment as Minister to Austria, 121.
accompanies General Grant on his tour around the world,
122.
Grant, General Ulysses S., President of United States, letter
of, 66.
recollections of, 70-139.
personal characteristics of, 70-75.
artistic tastes and paintings of, 71, 72.
counsels appointment of Electoral Commission, 78.
assists in Garfield's campaign, 83.
opposed to a third term, 83.
vetoes Inflation Bill, 85, 156.
some experiences in speech-making, 88.
his last speech, 89.
incidents showing his remarkable power of recognition
of persons, 91, 92.
plants oak-tree at Wootton, 93.
his fondness for horses, 94.
extract from letter of, in regard to England, 96.
his " Personal Memoirs," 98, 97.
his friendship for Hon. Hamilton Fish, 97.
¦sleeted President, 1868, 98.
avenues and streets of Washington improved during his
administration, 99, 100.
establishes Indian Commission, 100.
generosity of, 101.
, domestic happiness of, 101.
unjustly treated by General Halleck, 102.
his manner of life at Long Branoh, 103.
his regard for General Sherman, 73.
his regard for General Sheridan, 105.
passage of his retiring bill, 106, 107.
justifies General Fitz-John Porter, 108, 109.
purity of his character, 109, 111.
, his insensibility to music, 110.

Index. 397
Grant, Gonoral Ulysses S., first symptoms of cancer, 111.
Dr. Da Costa examines him and prescribes, 112.
goes to Mount McGregor, 112.
extracts from lettor to Mr. Childs, 113.
his wishes regarding plaoe of burial, 114-118.
his tour around the world, 118-123.
is treated by all countries with great honors, 119-121, 156.
farewoll receptions in Philadelphia, 119, 123, 132.
gifts presented during tour, 122.
receptions in Philadelphia upon his return, 123, 132, 133.
made a member of the Grand Army of the Republic in
Mr. Childs's private office, 132.
speech of, before the members of the Grand Army of tho
Republic, 133-136.
portrait of, presented to Military Academy, West Point,
140, 142, 143, 146, 154.
eulogy of, by General Horace Porter, 155-158.
Guests of Mr. Childs, names of, 31-32.
" Habitations of our Kings," by Thomas Gray, manuscript of,
60.
Hall, Hon. A. Oakey, journalist, 257.
Hall, S. C, letter from, 58, 59 (note).
Halleck, Henry Wager, General, 102.
Hampshire Gazette, extract from, 312-315.
Harper & Brothers' letter on Mr. Childs's birthday, 377.
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, first number of, 18.
extracts from, 279-281, 290, 291.
Harper's Weekly, extracts from, 123-131, 140-142, 264-268,
337, 3S8.
Harrison, Benjamin, President of United States, his letter to
Mr. Childs, 143, 144.
Hawkins, J. P., Lieutenant-Colonel, commandant of Military
Academy, 146.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, poet, 21.
death of, 22.
extract from letter of, 23.
Henry, Professor Joseph, invites Dom Pedro to visit Smith
sonian Institution, 44. 34

398 Index.
Henry, Professor Joseph, opinion of Mr. Childs, 351.
Herbert, George, poet, 276, 281, 284, 316.
quotations from Walton's life of, 281.
Herbert and Cowper Memorial in Westminster Abbey, 271-
286.
" Ilertha," by Fredrika Bremer, manuscript of Mary Howitt's
translation of, 60.
"Historical Memorials," of Westminster Abbey, quotations
from, 271-273.
Hodgson, Sir Arthur, Mayor of Stratford, 202, 214, 226, 229,
242, 243, 248, 268, 260, 265, 267.
letters from, 197, 198.
addroes of, 218, 219.
proposes toasts to Queen and the rest of the Royal family,
226, 227.
receives message of thanks from Mr. Childs, 240.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, poet, memories of, 26, 27.
letter from, 206, 254.
poem of, on Shakespeare Fountain, 220-222, 254, 259.
Holy Trinity Church, Stratford, 207.
memorial window proposed for, 193, 194.
proposed restoration of, 195.
Houghton, Lord, Richard Monokton Milnes, visits Mr. Childs,
130.
Howard, O. O., General, letter from, 144.
Illustrated London News, extract from, 203-205.
Indian Commission, organization of, 100, 101,
Inscriptions upon Shakespeare Fountain, 266.
Irving, Henry, actor, 213, 214, 219, 228-231, 242, 246-250,
252, 254, 263.
address of, 222-225, 248, 259.
reads Dr. Holmes's poem, 220.
drinks to Shakespeare in first water that flows from Foun
tain, 225.
response to Mr. Flower's toast, 237-239, 260.
Irving, Washington, author, 19, 211, 216, 244, 264, 266.
" Italian Bride, The," by John Howard Payne, manuscript of,
60.

Index. 399
James, G. P. R., novelist, visits Mr. Childs, 27.
Johnson, Andrew, President of United States, letters of, 66.
Johnston, Joseph E., General, dines with General Grant at Mr.
Childs's house, 74.
aids in passage of Grant's retiring bill, 106.
Jonson, Bon, 20S, 273.
Kane, Dr. Elisha K., "Arctic Explorations" of, 12, 13.
Ken, Thomas, Bishop, 310, 312-314.
Laffan, Mrs. R. S. de C, poem by, 240, 241.
Ledger building formally opened, 1867, 17.
Library Treasures of Mr. Childs, 51-69.
" Life of Captain Richard Somers," by James Fenimore Cooper,
manuscript of, 60.
Lincoln, Abraham, President of United States, letter of, 66.
Lippincott, J. B., publisher, 13.
Liverpool Post, extract from, 255.
Logan, John A., General, dolivers eulogy ovor gravo of Gen
eral Grant, 137.
London Daily Telegraph, extracts from, 242-248,
London Globe, extraot from, 248, 249.
London Pall Mall Gazette, extract from, 250-252.
London Times, extracts from, 199, 241, 242.
Longfellow, Henry W., poet, letters from, 24, 25.
dines with Mr. Childs in Rome, 28, 41.
Lowell, James Russell, poet, visits Mr. Childs, 25-126.
manuscript of his poem "Under the Willows" in Mr.
Childs's possession, 25.
letter from, on Shakospearo Fountain, 215-217,228,229,
245, 246, 254, 258.
lines of, under Raleigh Window in St. Margaret's, 293.
Macaulay, James, M.D., editor, 195, 197, 199, 202, 218, 219, 251.
suggests ereotion of drinking-fountain to Mr. Childs, 196.
replies to toast to Mr. Childs, 236, 237, 260.
Mackellar, Thomas, letter to tho printers' banquet, 379.
Martin, Sir Theodore, proposes toast to Shakespeare, 243.
Mather, Cotton, sermon of, 51, 125.

400 Index.
MoClure, Colonel A. K., conversation with General Grant, 81.
letter to the printers' banquet, 378.
Milton, John, poet, 290-292, 294, 295, 297, 298, 302, 305, 316.
Milton Window in St. Margaret's Chnroh, Westminster, 287-
308.
Mooro, Thomas, poet, his Bible and Irish harp, 69,
Motley, John Lothrop, historian, 27.
Munday, Eugene H., printer-poet, sketch of Mr. Childs at
printers' banquet, 347-351.
" Murders in the Rue Morgue," by Edgar A. Poe, manuscript
of, 25.
history of, 62-54.
" Need of Two Loves, The," by N. P. Willis, manuscript of, 69.
Neilson, General, speech at printers' banquet, 352.
Nelson, Horatio, Lord, letter of, 62.
Nevin, W. W., account of Herbert-Cowper Window in West
minster-Abbey, 285.
New York Herald, extracts from, 199, 202, 203, 258-261,
New York Sun, extract from, 179-183.
New York Times, extract from, 262.
New York Tribune, extract from, 145-147.
New York World, extracts from, 114-118, 142, 143, 148-165,
203-205, 256, 257.
Noah, Major J. J., remarks at the printers' banquet, 371.
Osborn, Thomas A., American Minister to Brazil, extract from
letter of, 45. ,
"Our Mutual Friend," by Charles Dickens, manuscript of, 25,
34.
Owen, Sir Philip Cunliffe, remarks of, 225, 260.
Patterson, Robert, General, sent for by President Grant, 80.
Paxson, Chief-Justice, letter from, 379.
Peabody, George, philanthropist, presents his portrait to Mr.
Childs, 30.
Pedro, Dom, de Alcantara, Emperor of Brazil, inoidents during
his visit to the United States, 42-44.
his letter to Mr. Childs, 50.

Index. 401
Pedro, Dom, de Alcantara, Emperor of Brazil, sends cup and
saucer to Mr. Childs, 46.
presents photograph and book of travels to Mr. Childs, 45.
is present at Centennial Exhibition, 42, 126.
Pew in St. Margaret's Church, London, appropriated to Ameri
cans, 290.
Phelps, Hon. Edward J., American Minister to England, 214,
215, 219, 223, 239, 243, 247, 248, 200, 295, 303.
address of, 227-231, 249, 257, 258.
Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, editorial on Mr. Childs's birth
day, 387-389.
Pierce, Franklin, President of United States, letter of, 22, 23, 66.
" Pilgrims of tho Rhine," by Sir Edward Bulwer Ly tton, man
uscript of, 60.
Poo, Edgar A., poet, extract from letter of, 55.
Poetical Works of Leigh Hunt, with autograph inscription to
Charles Dickens, 51.
Porter, Fitz-John, General, Grant's justification of, 107, 108.
Porter, Horace, General, presentation speech of, portraits of
Generals Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan, 147, 149, 154-165.
Prescott, William H., historian, his last photograph taken for
Mr. Childs, 27.
Prime, Rev. Dr., commends Mr. Childs for improvement in the
character of Public Ledger, 16, 17.
Printers' banquet on Mr. Childs's birthday, 341, 389.
Proctor, Redfield, Secretary of War, present at presentation
ceremonies, 146.
remarks of, 149, 151.
Public Ledger, purchased by Mr. Childs, 14, 15, 234.
price of, doubled, and advertising rates increased, 15.
obaraotor of, changed, 16.
criticism of, 251.
extract from, 276.
Randall, Hon. Samuol J., Speakor of House of Representatives,
78, 79,80,-106.
Read, T. Buchanan, artist, paints portrait of Longfellow for
Mr. Childs, 28.
dines with Mr. Childs in Rome, 28, 41.
aa 34*

402 Index.
Recollections by Mr. Childs, 9-183.
Relations to his Employees, George W. Childs in his, 319-340.
Reredos of St. Thomas's Church, Winchester, 309-316.
Resolution of Counoil of Stratford accepting Fountain, 198.
Resolution of thanks to Mr. Childs, from Vestry of St. Thomas's
Church, Winchester, England, 311.
" Retrospect of Western Travel," by Harriet Martineau, man
uscript of, 60.
Rochambeau, Marquis de, entertained by Mr. Childs, 130.
Rogers, Professor Thorold, his opinion of labor organizations,
332, 333.
Roman well in London, 30.
Saint Margaret's Church, Westminster, origin of, 289.
Milton Window in, 197, 265, 287, 294, 295, 299, 304, 305.
description of, 295, 296, 300, 301.
unveiling of, 295, 296.
Saint Thomas's Church, Winchester, reredos in, 310-314.
description of, 313, 314.
unveiling of, 312, 314.
Bala, George Augustus, journalist, 126, 202,
Saldanha da Gama, de, Luiz Philippe, Captain, letter from, to
Mr. Childs, 48, 49.
" Scarlet Letter," Hawthorne's, some facts concerning, 23.
Soott, Winfield, General, sends copy of his book to Mr. Childs,
29.
Shakespeare, John, father of Shakespeare, 209.
Shakespeare, William, poet, 187, 191, 195, 196, 207-209, 211,
224, 225, 238, 239, 243-246, 250, 253, 259, 262, 264, 273,
316.
pall-bearer of, 211.
Sheridan, Philip Henry, General, portrait of, presented to Mil-
' itary Academy, 140, 142, 143, 146, 154, 164.
eulogy of, by General Horace Porter, 159-161.
sabre of, history of, 1 78.
Sherman, William T., General, memoirs of, 72, 73.
portrait of, presented to Military Academy, 140, 142, 143,
146, 154, 164,
present at presentation ceremonies, 146, 148, 149, 151.

Index. 403
Sherman, William T., General, remarks of, 151-153.
eulogy of, by General Horace Porter, 158, 159.
Site of Shakespeare Fountain chosen, 202.
Sole, Rev. Arthur B., letters from, 309-312.
Stanley, Rev. Arthur P., Dean of Westminster, 271-276, 282.
is a guest of Mr. Childs, 130, 191, 210, 218, 275.
letters from, 193, 194.
extract from sermon of, 275.
note by, 283, 284.
" State Services" in St. Margaret's Church, 289, 290.
Stowo and Wootton, residences of Duko of Buckingham, some
interesting fcaturos of, 37, 38.
Stratford-upon-Avon Fountain, 191-269.
Stratford-upon-Avon Herald, oxtraot from, 212-241.
Sunday at Home, London, oxtract from, 283, 284.
Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, poet, manusoript draught of his dedi
catory poem to the Queen, 62.
lines of, under Caxton Window in St. Margaret's, 293.
Thackeray, William Makepeace, manuscript of his " Lectures
on the Four Georges," 59.
Ticknor, W. D., publisher, visits Philadelphia, 19.
death of, 20, 21.
Tilden and Hayes oampaign, 76-81.
Union Printer, The, New York, editorial on Mr. Childs's birth
day, 337.
Victoria, Queen, Jubilee Yoar of, 197-199, 202-204, 207, 209,
212, 215, 218, 230, 237, 248, 250, 255, 265.
messago from, 232, 2-19, 257.
toast to, 226, 232.
"Vignettes of Travel," quotation from, 285, 286.
Walter, John, proprietor of London Times, entertains Mr.
Childs at " Bearwood," 40.
writes to Mr. Childs, 95.
present at dedication of Shakespeare Fountain, 248.
proposes toast to Mr. Childs and gives short sketch of his
life, 232-236, 251, 254, 260.

404 Index.
Walton, Izaak, author, 281.
Warwiok Advertiser, extract from, 249.
Washington, George, President of United States, letter of, 66.
Weed, Thurlow, journalist, 29, 30.
Westminster Abbey, Herbert and Cowper Window in, 192, 196,
202, 210, 218, 255, 264, 274-277, 280, 282, 283, 299, 304,
307.
description of, 284-286. .
West Point Military Academy, 139-183.
monuments in cemetery at, 140, 141.
portraits of Generals Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan pre
sented to Military Academy, and ceremonies attending,
140, 145-165.
description of portraits, 147, 168, 164, 169, 175.
West Point Report, 179, 183.
Wheeler, General, introduces West Point Bill, 180, 181.
Whitman, Walt, poet, visits Mr. Childs, 130.
Whittier, John G., poet, letters from, 217, 218, 254, 258, 302.
lines of, under Milton Window in St. Margaret's, 296, 2S8,
301,305.
Wilson, Henry, Vice-President of United States, visits Mr.
Childs, 75, 76, 127.
death of, 76.
Wilson, John M., Colonel, si -'^ y "I itendent of Military Acad
emy, 146, 148, 164.
acccpt3 portraits for Academy, 150.
Winter, William, journalist, description of Shakespeare Foun
tain, 263.
Winthrop, Hon. Robert C, extract from letter of, 110.
is a guest of Mr. Childs, 131.
inscription in chu.ch at Elberon, New Jersey, on General
Grant, 90.
Woodcock, Catherine,' fwife of Milton, 290-292, 297, 298, 304.
Wordsworth, William, poet, 56.
Young, John Russell, journalist, accompanies General Grant
on his tour around the world, 119.
appointment as Ministor to China, 123.
letter from, 380.

YALE UNIVERSITY

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