GEORGE FRANCIS TRAIN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 244, 4 January 1878, Page 17

GEORGE FRANCIS TRAIN.

The- New, York correspondent of the Catholic Union sends the following :—: — , ' , 1 ! ' "You know George Francis Train. Of course you have heard of the Train who ran for the , presidency of £he, United States in 72. , Everybody has heard of him, but his true history has ney,er been told. If you will walk with me over to Madison Square, I, .will introduce him to you. ,N0,,1 can only point himout to. you, for he never speaks any more to apers'on over fourteen years of age. However, I notice that he occasionally gets deceived in the age of young ladies, and speaks to tHose who are- two .or, three years beyond the standard. This eccentricity began €wo or three years ago, since which he has occupied a bench under one of the' trees in Madison Square almost constantly. He appears 'at his seat, both summer and winter, wet or cold, at precisely six o'clock in the morning, and never leaves it before ten o'clock at night. In dress, except when mussed by rain or snow, he is a picture of neatness. A two thousand dollar cluster sparkles from his bosom, and a four hundred dollar watch, hung to his vest by a two hundred dollar chain keeps for him- the time of day. He owns a fifty thousand dollar residence in Madison avenue a few rods away, the inside of which he has not seen for three 'years. In its place, he rents a fourth story hall bedroom to a house' in Fourth street, near Second avenue, paying therefore two dollars a week, the money being handed to a ten-year old son of the landlord every Sunday morning. Except in a case of a-severe storm, he invariably takes the blankets from his beds and ascending, through the scuttle, sleeps on the roof. His landlord stated 1 to' me that during the past year Train had not missed above forty nights from his roof. Even the coldest nights of last winter found him there. .He never wears any covering |to his head and allows himself but one regular meal a day, which he takes ftt half-past five in the morning at a coffee house on Third avenue, opposite Cooper institue. He enters the park in the morning with every pocket crammed with candies, fried cakes and crullers. In a paper bag he parcels out to the children and the birds during the day. The birds partake first of his bounty in the morning. They have become so accustomed to his hospitality that the ground about his seat will be - covered ' with them the moment he arrives. They will alight on his, head, shoulders, and eat from his hand, a dozen at asfcime. The* children begin to gather around him at seven o'clock, they are treated" with less generosity than the birds, his bag and pockets being of less capacity than their stomachs. Neither the children nor the sparrows seem to think Mr. Train insane. Everybody else about New York does, but a com- | mittee of doctors have pronounced him harmless. I think him insane, and the cause I attribute to an excessive and disappointed desire for popularity and fame/ , ,