Gen. Lew Wallace Talks of His Friend, M’Kinley
WELL-KNOWN ARMY OFFICER AND AUTHOR IS IN BUFFALO
TO SEE THE EXPOSITION.
There arrived at the Broezel House
Tuesday Gen. Lew Wallace and his wife, his son, Henry W. Wallace,
and his wife. The author of “Ben-Hur,” one of the famous old generals
of the Civil War, is here to see the Exposition. Yesterday he visited
the Temple of Music and saw the spot where the late President was
shot. The tears came into his eyes as he leaned heavily on the seat
against which he stood.
The old General does not often leave
his home in Crawfordsville, Ind., where he is looked up to as one
of the patriarchs.
Speaking to a Courier reporter Gen.
Wallace said: “I have lived to see three men I loved stricken down
by the hand of a murderous assassin. Old as I am I would take my
sword down from the wall and, ferreting out these fellows, split
them open from forelock to chop.
“I admired and honored Lincoln because
I knew him comparatively intimately, and to do that was to realize
his incomparable worth. Garfield and I were friends. We served in
the same command.
“President McKinley I loved and revered
as the highest type of American citizenship we have as yet had presented
to us. It is with a glad heart I look into the future and know that
in years to come there will be no more illustrious name in American
history than that of William McKinley. We need the retrospect of
a decade to fully appreciate it.”
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