Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 April 1902 — HOTSPUR IN OLD AGE. [ARTICLE]

HOTSPUR IN OLD AGE.

Lord Salisbury Lives Almost Entirely Aloof from Social Life. The mental aloofness of Lord Salisbury Is capitally illustrated by a story found in the Manchester Guardian; Lord Salisbury, the present Bishop of London, and some others were in a room with King Edward. “Do you know,” said the King to the Bishop, “what Lord Salisbury has just said about you?” Naturally the Bishop did not know, tnd the King continued: “He pointed you out and asked, ‘Who is that young-looking cleric?’ ” Then to take off the edge of the Bishop's embarrassment, bis majesty, whose geniality never fails, added: “But you need not mind that. I just showed him the latest photograph of myself, and after looking at it some moments in silence, he said, sympathetically, ’Poor old Buller!’ ” The shyness, the reserve, the strange aloofness from the general run of men of the Premier of England could not be better illustrated than by this tale. Probably no man who holds a public position to-day, certainly no man of Lord Salisbury’s great position as nobleman and politician, leads a life of equal seclusion. It is said that social London knows him scarcely at all. When be entertains at Hatfield House it Is after the official fashion and In the fulfillment of a public duty. There are many members of his own party with whom he has never exchanged a word. At the Carlton Club, where members of his parliamentary flock congregate, he is rarely buttonholed, even by his equals. As Lord Robert Cecil he alternately delighted and horrified the House of Commons by his ferocious tongue. The Salisbury of to-day can be fiery and caustic, although he prefers to freezevery completely and adroitly, to be sure the members of the House of Peers, and incidentally the rest of the world. He is an aged man. He is no longer powerful as of old. In his latest utterances there are signs of the philosophical spirit which detects, undrt- all its brilliant trappings, life’s sad, seared face. Weary of mumming he may be, but Lord Salisbfiry is a great man still, and he must ever remain oue of the most powerful figures In the political history of England.