Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 March 1883 — A Garfield Reminiscence. [ARTICLE]

A Garfield Reminiscence.

Gen. Garfield was very anxious to see the world during his college life, and the first time he went to New York he haunted all parts of the city in the strangest manner. Everything was new to him, and he would walk along the wharves, putting his hands on the great ocean steamers and going upon them, thinking, no doubt, of the stories he would tell at home of his visit to the great city. One day he entered an auctioneer’s shop, where a brawny man with his sleeves bare was pounding and hammering away in tones of thunder to half a dozen straw men. It was jewelry that he was selling, and when Garfield entered he at once singled him out as a victim. He directed his talk to him and offered the goods at ridiculously low prices, aiming to get a bid. Garfield looked at him with his great eyes, and apparently was regarding him as a new study of the genus homo. The auctioneer pounded away, but, finding he was making no impression, and that all his sarcasm, bantering and coaxing availed nothing against the honest stare, he grew very angry and jumped down from the box, saying he would thrash the fool who would not take good goods as a gift. Garfield was standing in a corner. His hands were hanging by his side, and he fixed his eyes sternly on the auctioneer as he approached, swearing and throwing his fists in true boxing style. The man came a little closer, but Garfield did not move. He still looked at him with those eyes of honest, stern determination. The man could not understand it. He quailed finally and slunk back without striking a blow. Had he not done so Garfield would have crushed him, for he was young then, and his frame was iron. He said afterward: “I was ready for the man, and, had he come within reach of my arm, I intended to give him one blow straight from the shoulder. I thought I was strenger than he, and I had no intention of being whipped without a vigorous physical protest.”— Cleveland Leader.