MR. CHAUNCEY DEPEWS MEMORIES:* Fox many years past Mr. Chauncey

Depew has been one of the most popular speakers in America and one of the most influential members of the Republican Party. His recollections of a long and busy life are as good as his speeches—of which, he reminds us, there are twelve volumes in print—and make an uncommonly entertaining book. Mr. Depew was born at Peekskill, on the Hudson, eighty-eight years ago, and graduated from Yale in 1856, and at once went into politics. He entered the New York Legislature in 1861, and was Secretary of 'State to the Governor from 1863 to -1865. It was his duty at the critical Presidential election of 1864 to see that the New York troops in the field had an opportunity of voting. Stanton, the Secretary of War, was reluctant to give permission, but Lincoln, hearing of the proposal, at once recognized its importance and ordered the soldiers' votes to be taken. The Republicans, despite their party divisions, were thus able to win New York by the narrow majority of 6,749, and Lincoln's re-election, which had seemed very doubtful, was assured. Mr. Depew recalls the Republican Convention of that year, and declares that the selection of Andrew Johnson for Tice-President was due to Lincoln and Seward. The New York delegates would have preferred Daniel S. Dickinson of their own State, who, like Johnson, had been a Democrat before the war, but they agreed by a majority of one to defer to the President's wish. America would have been spared much painful controversy, when Johnson unexpectedly became President after Lincoln's murder, had one of the New York delegates voted the other way. Mr. Depew records a conversation in which Lincoln defended his practice of using anecdotes as arguments :-

" In regard to this story-telling, he said : 'I am accused of telling a great many stories. They say that it lowers the dignity of the presidential office, but I have found that plain people (repeating with emphasis plain people), take them as you find them, are more easily influenced by a broad and humorous illustration than in any other way, and what the hypercritical few may think I don't care.' In speaking Mr. Lincoln had a peculiar cadence in his voice, caused by laying emphasis upon the key-word of the sentence. In answer to the question how he knew so many anecdotes, he answered : ' I never •invented a story, but I have a good memory and, I think, tell one tolerably well. My early life was passed among pioneers who had the courage and enterprise to break away from civilization and settle in the wilderness. The things which happened to these original people and among themselves in their primitive conditions were far more dramatic than any- thing invented by the professional story-tellers. For many years I travelled the circuit as a lawyer, and usually there was only one hotel in the county towns where court was held. The judge, the grand and petit juries, the lawyers, the clients, and witnesses would pass the night telling exciting or amusing occurrences, and these were of infinite variety and interest.' He was always eager for a new story to add to his magazire of ammunition and weapons."

Mr. Depew himself has an astonishing stock of witty stories, as his readers will see. He was offered various offices in 1865, but he decided to join Commodore Vanderbilt in the capacity of legal adviser to the New York Central Railroad, with which he has ever since been connected.

Mr. Depew recalls the successive Presidents up to Mr.

Roosevelt, and has some kindly stories to tell of each of them. He says that Mr. Cleveland, for whom he has a great admiration, became very unpopular because he could not satisfy all the Democratic office-seekers :- " Vance, who had a large proportion of the citizens of North Carolina on his waiting list, and could get none of them appointed, said that the situation, which ought to be one of rejoicing at the election of a president by his own party, was like that of a client of his who had inherited a farm from his father. There were so many difficulties about the title and getting possession of it and delay, that the son, said : I almost wished father had not died.' "

Mr. Roosevelt, when standing as a candidate for the Governor- ship of New York, found at a meeting one of the Rough Riders

4 My meawries al Eighty Years. ByChanneeyld. Depew. London : deribnere 'fins. net.]

whom he had led in Cuba. The man insisted on making a speech to this effect :- " ' My friends and fellow-citizens, my colonel was a great soldier. He will make a great governor. He always put us boys in battle where we would be killed if there was a chance, and that is what he will do with you.' " The author repeats one of the best of Mr. Roosevelt's favourite anecdotes :-

"While he was on the ranch the neighbours had caught a horse thief and hung him. They soon discovered that they had made a mistake and hung the wrong man. The most diplo- matic among the ranchers was selected to take the body home and break the news gently to his wife. The cowboy ambassador asked the wife : ' Are you the wife of — t ' She answered ' Yes." Well,' said the ambassador, you are mistaken. You are his widow. I have his body in the wagon. You need not feel bad about it, because we hung him thinking he was the horse thief. We soon after found that he was innocent. The joke is on us.' "

Mr. Depew's recollections of the twelve years that he served in the Senate are instructive as well as amusing. They illustrate the immense power of the Senators, which Europe failed to recognize and which even America does not wholly comprehend. Mr. Depew says that a few Senators, who are seldom heard of, exercise unbounded influence in the Committees where the real work is done. " It requires a possible revolution to overcome the hostility of a Committee, even if the House [of Representa- tives] and the country are otherwise minded." The author devotes a chapter to his railway company, which, he says, has had to face only one strike during his long connexion with it, and that occurred while he was away in Europe. Two of his railway anecdotes are to the point :-

" I was going over the line on an important tour at one time with John Burroughs, superintendent of the Western Division. We were on his pony engine, with seats at the front, alongside the boiler, so that we could look directly on the track. Burroughs sat on one side and I on the other. He kept on commenting aloud by way of dictating to his steno- grapher, who sat behind him, and praise and criticism followed rapidly. I heard him utter in his monotonous way : Switch misplaced, we will all be in hell in a minute,' and then a second afterwards continue : We jumped the switch and are on the track again. Discharge that switchman.' . . . Mr. C. M. Bissell was a very efficient superintendent, and for a long time in charge of the. Harlem Railroad. Ho told mo this incident. We decided to put in effect as a check upon the conductors a system by which a conductor, when a fare was paid on the train, must tear from a book a receipt which he gave to the passenger, and mark the amount on the stub from which the receipt was torn. Soon after a committee of conductors called upon Mr.

Bissell and asked for an increase of pay. Why,' Bissell asked, ' boys, why do you ask for that now Y' After a rather embarrassing pause the oldest conductor said : Mr. Bissell, you have been a conductor yourself.' "

Mr. Depew knows England as well as America. He says that he was used by one of Mr. Gladstone's colleagues to secure Irish-American support for die Home Rule Bill—it is not clear from the context whether it was the Bill of 1886 or the Bill of 1893. Parnell told him that the Nationalists did not want to break away from the British Empire, as many Irishmen found careers in the Services. Mr. Depew was dining with Lord Spencer when the Cabinet was much divided over Home Rule :— " The guests at the dinner were all (Iladstonians and lamenting these differences and full of apprehension that they might result in a split in the Party. The earl asked me if we ever had such conditions in the United States. I answered : Yes.' Mr. Blaine, at that time at the head of President Harrison's Cabinet as Secretary of State, had very serious differences with his chief, and the people wondered why he remained. Mr. Blaine told me this story apropos of the situation : The author of a play invited a friend of his to witness the first production and sent him a complimentary ticket. During the first act there were signs of disapproval, which during the second act broke out• into a riot. An excited man sitting alongside the guest of the playwright said : Stranger, are you blind or deaf, or do you approve of the play ? "The guest replied : My friend, my sentiments and opinion in regard to this play do not differ from yours and the- rest, but I am here on a free ticket. If you will wait a little while till I go out and buy a ticket, I will come back and help you raise hell.' " A capital story of Disraeli is attributed to Sir Henry Irving:— "Sir Henry told me a delightful story about Disraeli. A young relative of Irving's took orders and became a clergyman in the Established Church. At the request of Irving, Disraeli appointed this young man one of the curates at Windsor. One day the clergyman came to Irving in great distress and said : The unexpected has happened. Every one has dropped out, and I have been ordered to preach on Sunday.' Irving took him to see Disraeli for advice. The Prime Minister said to the young clergyman : If you preach thirty minutes, Her Majesty will be bored. If you preach fifteen minutes, Her Majesty will be pleased. If you preach ten minutes, Hes Majesty will be delighted.' But,' said the you clergyman, my lord, what can a preacher possibly say in only ten minutes ? ' "rhat,' answered the statesmaA, will be a matter of indifference to Her Majesty.' "

Lastly, we must quote one of the many little encounters which used to take place between Mr. Depew and his old friend and rival orator, Mr. Choate :-

"Choate and I were both to speak, and Choate came first. As usual, he threw a brick at me. He mentioned that a reporter had come to him and said : Mr. Choate, I have Dopew's speech carefully prepared, with the applause and laughter already in. I want yours.' Of course, no reporter had been to either of us. Mr. Choate had in his speech, an unusual thing for him, a long piece of poetry. When my turn came to reply I said : The reporter came to me, as Mr. Choate has said, and made the remark : " I already have Choate's speech. It has in it a good deal of poetry." I asked the reporter : " From what author is the poetry taken 7 " He answered : " I do not know the author, but the poetry is so bad I think Choate has written it himself." ' "

Mr. Depew's cheerful and happy book will delight many readers on both sides of the Atlantic.