Garfield's Library

Tonderu-e of the Cleveland reader. .uier a raranjiDR talk on general matters, the general suid, "See liere, what a fine tóeathisisin tlie way of a memoranda oí' reading and study," and he brought out a large leather-bound blank book, arranged inJexes and classification, divisions for the name, autííor, page and subject of books, 80 tbat a student niight hoard scraps from liis fugitivo readings. Tbis incident ehangod the topic, and the general went intoan cuthusiastic dcscription ofthis system of study, thereby howing that he njatured it with much thought, and credited it witli huving a great deal to do with the 8 of bis extemporaneous speeches, the likc of which fot wealth of inforuiation are leard in cither braneh of congress today, and have not been for raany years. There is a comuionpluco sayinj; in tlie reporter's gallery that, when Garfitld chooses wcrain on a subject, there is no man in Washington who oan stand before the _ DEUTOE OF FACTS with whicli he will overwhelm all opposition. He oponed his desk and brought up an arinful of largo memorandum books for my examiuatioii. There were many hundreds oí' pages filled with scraps, annotations, picked sentonces,inoidentsand witticisius from a collection of authors and newspapcrs, representing the best thought 10 tijo literatures, modern aud aneient, of uhnost the entire world. Befeide these quotations there were uumerous thoughts cm' hia own upon the innumerablo things he had rcad during the courso of his prolonged studies, and which bc had eiubaliued in black and white when the "idea divine" was warm and living in his brain. All were arranged in the nicest order, and turough the series of books one could follow tho trail of the great debater's readings from their beginning alniost to the present linie. Thus for the ycar 1859, you find the lirst annotations on financia! subjects. These aro at first somewhat straggling ; uiixtd in with more or less of the classic poets ; then they become more frequent until they ontnumber all other topics, and are iull of "Tooke's History of Prices," and "Sir Archibald Allison," when Garfield followed Pig Iron Kelley into the history of Franco and England last winter and fall to the discomfiture of the old man and hil soft money fricnds. Keinforcing the scrap book, the general has a large case of pigcon-holüs, holding perhapa 6Ü boxes labelled "The Press," "French Spoilatioo," "Tariff," "Geneva Award," '"Jeneral Politics," " State Politics," "Public men," " Parliamontary Decisions," "Anei:doton," 'Electoral Laws and Commission," ett. These are all filled with the choicest references and bits of current literature on the various special topics, and are continually replenisbed from overy product of the printing presa. It is coiumon for men of affaire, lawyers, editors, statesmen and litterateurs to have a system of this kind, and I write not of Gen. Garfield's as being a new idea, but because itis intoresting on aceouut of the WONDERFÜL C0MPKEHENS1VENESS of his readings and the closonesa with which he follows such a great number of public qucstions, and is thus able to prepare in an hour's time to spcnk with detailed intolligencc onany question that may bfl ,-prung in the house of representativas. I n MM he wants to talk against the demócrata when they are yeüing "fraud" and denouncing tho electoral commission, he goes to his box and runs over the newspapcr clippings on that subject, and is almost sure to find just the thing he wants - soino ugly fact that the opposition bas forgotten, because none of' thein have taken the care to preserve it in the cold exactness of black and white. "Oh," said the genera], "I'd 'rather have this old hencoop, which bas cost me 20 years of mental toil to stock, a thousand times over than old Sam Tildcn's barrel and all it contains," and he lookcd at the unimpressivc and modest affair more alfectionately than most men gaze on tlieir wives. George Alfred Townsend's versatility in writing of public men is duo, in a great measure, to a similar system. He has a atock of scrap books running back for 20 years, filled entirely with personal items, and there is hardly a man that the newspapera have spoken of during that time but that Townsend can ihi'l somethiüg interesting abouthim in his compilation. With Bancroft, tho histor ian, this systeniatic arrangement of knowledge, however, s probably more extensively developed than with any one else in the country. He, however, works oo a special subject, and has a score of stenographers and book worms espccially trained for the purpose, as large as the editorial forcé of a rcspectable newspaper, while Geu. Garfield compiles for referenoo on an immense range of public questions, greator, pcrhajis, ilian any other public man in America. Indeed, it is doubtful if there is a debater in any of' tho Kuropean countries that possesses a broader literary culture than he.