“Were you a reader of books?”
“I have always been fond of reading, and have read books to advantage,
but for forty years I have been so engaged with business and politics
that I have not had the time to gratify my taste for literature, which
is strong. Reading is of great advantage to a young man,—that is, the
reading of good books.
“I was fortunate in my early friendships. A man’s character and success
are greatly effected by his friends. A man is known by the company he
keeps. It used to be that a man was known by the newspaper he read.
That is not so now.”
“Why?”
“Because there are so many and so cheap that a man can and does take
and read more than one. I read them all,—those which agree and those
which disagree with me politically.”
“You are reputed to have been a fine singer when a young man.”
“I had a voice which gave me much delight and seemed to please others.
I was for many years the leader of the Owego Glee Club, which was very
popular. We used to be called for as far as Elmira, Ithaca, Auburn,
and Binghamton. With Washington Gladden to write the verses, our glee
club to sing them, and Benjamin Tracy, a young lawyer of the town, to
make the speeches, we gave considerable inspiration to the social and
political gatherings of our community.”