Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 November 1880 — The Greatest Talker on Record. [ARTICLE]

The Greatest Talker on Record.

Matthias Morgridge, eighty-two years of age, lives in the Union settlement, three miles from Equiaunk, Wayne county, Pa. He was born in England. He sailed as a "powder monkey” on board one of the British transports that fetched the forces of .that country to America to engage in the war of 1819. He saw the battle of New Orleans from toe deck of the vessel. The ship he was on took back to England what was left of Pakenham’s command after the battle. Morgridge continued in the British naval service, and was a sailor on the Bellerophon, which conveyed Napoleon Bonaparte to St Helens' in 1817. He quitted the service the same year, and in 1820 came to Wayne county, when the country hereabout was mostly wilderness. Mr. Morgridge’s eccentricities have made him celebrated not only in this but adjoining counties. He is noted for the power or his voice and a remarkable flaw of language. In his prime he could make himself heard half a mile without any exertion. He could speak without cessation at that pitch of voice for twenty-four hours at a time. Once he delivered an address in the barroom of the Allen house, in Honesdale. He spoke two days and a night. Then he was offered tea dollar* to stop. "Ten thousand dollars couldn't make me stop,"he replied, "until I exhaust my subject’’ And he spoke five hours longer and quit He never went into any town that he did not have half of its population at his heela*listening to his rapid and sonorous relation of his experiences and his wonderful fund of anecdotes. He tells with great satisfaction an incident that occurred to him when he went on a visit to England many years ago. The first day out he went on deck and began io speak, walking about as he told hie stories. AU on board followed him from one side of the vessel to the other. This so annoyed the captain that he finally gave Morgridge to go below and sit still while he talked. Morgridge would tell stories hour after hour, replete with wit and humor, and narrated in an inimitable manner. He had a story to fit any emergency., No . one.eyer heard him tell one twice, except it related to his personal experience, and the person is yet to be found who ever heard any of Morgridge’s stories before he told it himself.

Some years after he settled in Wayne county he was elected justice of the peace and appointed postmaster. An enemy had him indicted for holding two offices of trust and profit, contrary to-law. On the trial hip only defense was that neither office was one ot profit, and toe only trust that attached, to eiiher was to that of postmaster, as he trusted everybody for stamps that had asked him to. The defense was accepted by the jury, and he was acquitted. Mr. Morgridge was always a great admirer of Horace Greeley. He took the New York Tribune from its start up to the time of Mr. Greeley’s death. Once he visited New York. He called at the Tribune office, and was admitted to an interview with the great editor. He at once introduced himself, and for two hours, as he relates it, filled the sanctum with incidents of his life, stories and opinions on current subjects and individuals, without giving Mr. Greeley a chance to get in a word. Finally he stopped suddenly and said: “Now, Mr. Greeley, you talk a little.” "Mr. Greeley got out of his chair," says Mr: Morgridge, "as if ha was going out ot the office with a rush.” Then he sat down again and cried out: "By George, Mr. Morgridge, if there’s anything left in creation to be said I’d like to know what it is.l" The Tribune soon afterward printed an account of the interview. At the age of eighty-two Matthias Morgridge is physically in excellent condition. His mind, however, is gradually failing. He has nine living children, thirty-six grandchildren; and twelve great-grandchildren.— Ot. Jf. T. Sea. It sometimes takes an immense quantity of iron to kill a man in battle. At the bombardment of Callao by the Chilian Mia rMHana LWa tfUiavitU VslllllMMl ttoilwl VWU <V'UQaUIU rifled cannons two 600 pound Rodman smooth-bores, four 300 pound rifieo andons 450 pound Armstrong rifle/and fired 120 into town