Omaha Sunday
PART III.
No PUOry
HALF-TONE SECTION
PACSS 1TO 4.
THE OMAHA OCa
Best West
SINGLE COPY FIVE CENTS.
OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 26. 10S.
VOL. XXXVTH NO. 6.
The
Bee
JOHN THORN CROFT WATCHES THE WORLD DRIFTING BY
Simple Story of a Man Who for More Than Ninety Years Has Borne a Life of Unusual Activity With the Grace of a Brave Spirit and Still Enjoys Each Day.
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THE lion and the Iamb do not generally He down together.
The Siberian pine and the palm tree are not-found growing
In the same' soli and climate. The battering power o the
threshing machine and the gentle, musical ticking of a fine
watch are not found In the same mechanism. Take the
latter two and combine them and convert the hybrid rrsultant Into
a human being and you have John Thorn Crolt, a cltizf n of Omaha
who Is remarkable In many ways. He possesses the qualities both
of the Hon and the lamb, of the threshing machine and the watch.
He has moed In the thick of raging battles; he has dealt with
the lawless breed of men who rubbed the first roughness from the
wild western plains; he has fought the Indians; he has hunted
the fierce wild animals of the mountains. These activities show
the qualities of the lion. But he has also devoted fourscore years
to those gentle symphonies of the great life which Is not seen, the
life of music. He Is a true Bohemian In his present style of liv
ing and has been so always. He carried ' violin with him through
all the adventures of his tempestuous career. He has it today.
It has soothed him, comforted him, encouraged him, for he under
stands that language which Is known to so few.
In addition to being a sort of combination of threshing machine
and delicately balanced watch, Mr. Croft possesses the qualities of
a powerful dynamo, a dynamo that does not wear out. Look at
that erect figure, those clear eyes unglazed. the full head of white
hair, the healthy hue of his fac, the softness of the kin on his
hands. See him move about with quick, alrt stop and hear him talk
with animated voice and with perfect memory. How old would
you Judge this man to be? Possibly seventy but very well pre
served for that age. Your gut as Is good but you have missed It
Just twenty-four years. Mr. Croft ig in his 94th year, a marvel
of perpetual youth, physical and mental. ..
He wus born January 23, 1815. He Inherits longevity. His
grandfather died at the age of 95; his grandmother at the age
of 96 and his father was cut off at the untimely age of 90 years.
His ancestors were sea-faring people and gained eminence In Eng
land. His great grandfather war Commodore John Thorq Croft
of the English navy who was with Nelson at the battle of Trafal
gar. Much of John Croft's boyhood was spent on the sea. He
had relatives in New England and In England and, as his uncle
was captain of a ship, he traveled back and forth, getting part
of his education on each side. His aunt had married Lord Cecil
and they lived at Brighton, England, near the house where King
Georgo IV spent part of the summer.
Meeting Wilh King George IV
That monarch, shut up by necessity of state within his exiguous
island, used to talk to the little boy who lived with Lady Cecil
and had traveled all the way to America. One day the king patted
John T. Croft on his boyish head and said:
"Little boy, what do the people in America do in the evening?"
And he was surprised when he learned that the people in
far off America had as many amusements as the people in the
midst of civilized England. Victoria, who was to become queen
of England and empress of India, was a little girl at the time
also and little Johnny Croft knew her In their childhood days.
Thus early was he intimate with great people and continued tq
be so through his life. He became Intimately acquainted with three
presidents of the United States, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan
and General Grant, besides knowing scores of lesser dignitaries.
At an early age he ran away from home and began work on a
farm. From a child he had bad an idea of harmony and a fine voice.
He naturally took to the study of music. In 1832 he was attending
McGlll college Montreal, Canada, when the plague of Asiatic cholera
raged there and saw the carta driving through the streets with the
ghostly call, "Bring out your dead." When he was 17 years of age
he took charge of a school in Canton, N. V. Later he, taught in
Kingston, Upper Canada. About 1840 the time of the "Tippecanoe
and Tyler Too" campaign, when Croft waa already a man of 25
years he went to Boston and had attained such proficiency as a
musician that he became a teacher in the Boston Academy of Music
tinder the famous Lowell Mason. He was there eight years, during
which he made a name in the world of music. He gave many
concerts in the high circles of Boston society at which the famous
Mendelssohn quintet played which Included Anna Stone, the great
singer of Boston and George F. Hayter, the great pianist. During
the summer he conducted "floral concerts" In England cities and
towns.,
I
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serves to catch the raindrops from the kitchen roof and convey
them to a rain barrel.
You knock at the door. Immediately there Is the sound of
a quick step, evidently that of a young man. He appears. It Is a
young man in spite of white hair ard mustache. But this young
man is 94 years of age. He ushers you in with that cordiality
which Is universally recognized as the outward sign of a warm
heart. It Is necessary to remove two violins from the chair In
order to provide a place for the visitors. The room Is large and
a glance around gives the impression that It Is inhabited by violins.
There are four lying on a small center table, two repoBe on top
of the piano, three are standing in a conversational group on a
large arm chair. They seem to be everywhere while In one corner,
liko the widower father of the whole family stands a 'cello. There
Is also a piano. On the walls an pictures of famous violinists
ranging from some of the old masters down to Kubellk. It Is
evident by a glance at this and the adjoining rooms that the master
of the house keeps bachelor hall and also that he has the Bohemian
temp rament, too much bound up li. the charms of his art to care
for the everyday routine of eating and drinking aud sleeping.
Charming as a Host
JOHN THORN CROFT.
Associate of the Websters
During his residence In Boston the Mexican war broke out. He
and his friend, Fletcher Webster, son of Daniel Webster, undertook
You may talk to this man for hours and you won't get tired of
his conversation. He can tell you about things that happened before
your lather was born and tell It with vividuess, as though It had
happened yesterday. He talks rapidly and animatedly and ho laughs
freely as a boy. lie has a piece of music which he will sing for
you. It is the song he used to Blng with the daughter of Prof.
Lord, president of Dartmouth college more than seventy years ago.
The mossy marble of the tomb has rested upon her mortality for
ninny a year but his voice is nearly as good as it was then. He
will tell you of his experiences in the hard fight of the world and
of his delight In the realm of mublc. He tells of all these things
without boasting.
It Is easy to see that his whole soul Is bound up in music. He
taught music in recent years without compensation beyond the
pleasure of seeing his pupils develop under his instruction. Today
he has a few pupils whom he teaches for pure pleasure. He doea
not need to do It for his living. Hlb whole heart Is wrapped up
In them. When he talks of some of these Juvenile pupils tears of
affection come into his eyes. They are to him as his own children.
For he has a nature which demands soma object for its love.
His wife Is gone and all his children are dead but one, his son,
John Croft who lives In the house adjoining him. In his music
and his pupils he finds outlet fo. his adoption.
"When I am playing and when I am Instructing a beloved
pupil," he says, "I forget my grief Music makes me forget. When
I am with people they think I never am anything but happy. But
V have some of the most gloomy and melancholy moments that
can possibly come to men. My wife died in 1872 and I never
cared for another woman. She was said to be the most beauti
ful woman who ever came to NebraskV She waa as good as she
was beautiful. She was also a great social favorite,. When General
Sherman visited Omaha, for instance, he led the march at the ball
given in his honor and Mrs. Croft was his partner. She dropped
dead on the street In 1872. She had never been 111 a day before
that."
Love of His Violins
He regards his violins with almost the love of a parent. He
has eighteen of them. His 'own he has had more than seventy
years. One of them waa formerly owned by Father Desmythe,
a missionary among tho Blackfeet Indians. Upon his death it
was kept as a sacred relic by the chief of the. tribe in a buckskin
bag for forty years. Major Croft looks on the violin as the most
wonderful of musical Instruments, eulogized not too strongly by
Oliver Wendell Holmes who wrote as follows:
"Violins! The sweet old Amatl! The divine Stradivari! Played
on by ancient maestro until the bow band lost its power and the
flying fingers stiffened. Bequeathed to the passionate young en
thusiast who made It whisper his hidden love and cry his inarticu
late longings and scream his untold agonies and wail his monoton
ous despair. Passed from his dying hand to the cold virtuoso who
let it slumber in its case for a generation till when his hoard was
broken up It came forth once more and rode the stormy symphonies
of royal orchestras beneath the rushing bow of their lord and
leader. Into lonely prisons with Improvement artists; into convents
from which arose day and night the holy hymns with which
Its tones were blended; and back again to orgies where it learned
to howl and laugh as If a legion of devils were shut up In It; then
again to the gentle dlllettante who calmed it down with easy
melodies until It answered him softly as in the days of the old
maestros; and so given Into our hands, its pores all full of music,
stained like the meerschaum through ana through with the con
centrated hue and sweetness of all the harmonies which have kind
led and faded on Its strings."
Judging by the vigor of Major Croft, he may live far past
He himself declares he "would rather die be-
a despondent nature
tain of Company B. The troops remained at Benton Barracks for faith In men. I took a man's word at par whether it Involved a dol-
some time during which Captain Croft wps raised to the rank of lar or a hundred thousand dollars. I had a wonderful faculty
major with his battalion. Then an order came that he should be for making money, but I also had a wonderful faculty for losing It."
permanently detached from his regiment and report to General He was an intimate friend of Brighara Young as well as
Grant at Fort Henry. He reported and on March 11. 18C3 he of otner of the elders who stood high in Mormon counsels. ' Once
was ordered with hU battalion to Paris, Ky.. where with part of he met Ferlmore Ltttle, a nephew of Young In Omaha and Little
General Lew Wallace's regiment and Buell's battery he attacked had no place to stay. Croft took him under his own roof. Whea
Clay King's command known as the "Kentucky hellhounds," and Croft wa8 jn Salt an opportunity arose for Little to return
gained a victory over them. He was wounded near Clarksvllle tne compliment which he did with great cordiality,
and came home to Omaha on a furlough.
After the war be began freighting, working some time for Home of His Old Age
tne Western Telegraph company. He was successful and made
money rapidly. He took a contract to "clean up" all the freight Visit this remarkable man who seems to have foiled Father Time
of several wagon trains of the Butterfield Freighting company and who defies death, this man who has fought bravely and cour-
to raise a regiment When half of the regiment was raised Fletcher wh,cl hd been captured by the Indians on Smoky hill. The trains ageously, loved deeply and unceasingly and at the same time
Webster was ordered to the front with it while Mr. Croft remained were T1"ea) with their contents at $1,600,000. lie was successful listened with trained and appreciative ear to the lifelong harmony
behind for the purpose of recruiting the other half. Before this was ,n th,B venture and brought the goods to Denver and contracted to which is vouchsafed only to the loftiest souls. The house in
accomplished peace was declared. take them on to Salt Lake. At the latter city he sold his train which he lives is built in bungalow style. It stands back from the
The number of his friends in erudite New England Is great. ,or 9122.000. 'street at 1920 Ames avenue on part of that land which young
Ha met Mn. Pierce, while he was teaching in Concord. N. H.. "I never saw one cent of that money," he says with the amused Mr. Croft bought when he first came to Omaha in 1856. It is
nnrt through her ha met her husband who was to become Dresl- 'uKh the philosophically minded man who looks back upon ideally situated, commanding a wide view across the valley to where the centurv mark
dent of the United States. He was a frequent visitor in the home tbe Tentures h h" made In the affairs of men, ventures so puny the Missouri flows and across that stream to the high bluffs on the tween now and morning." He is not at all of
of Prof. Lord, president of Dartmouth college. na ephemeral and unimportant viewed from the eminence of four- other side. There Is a garden around on one side of the house; but he considers his usefulness past, a view in which his many
He left Boston In 1848 and went to Philadelphia wheie he Bcore and ,ourteett years. "I think my fault was having too much there are vines climbing up at the windows; a long wooden trough friends by no means concur,
became identified with the big music publishing firm of J. E. t
Gould & Co. He went from there to Harrlsburg, Pa., where he
opened a branch store for the house. His natural qualities, his
energy and interest in affairs which have always been In striking
contrast to the artistic temperament which he certainly has, soon
made him acquainted with the political leaders. Not only was
be acquainted with them, but he was on intimate terms. His
music store there was made unofficial headquarters of many of
the big state and national leaders. Many an unrecorded meeting
at which big plans were made war held in a little room back of
the music store. Once James Buchanan. Chief Justice of the United
States Gibson, Attorney General Black, Simon Cameron, "Dave"
Wilniot and David Porter were assembled in this room at one
time.
Mr. Croft was already 38 years of age in 1853 when he decided
to come west. That was eight years before the civil war began.
These two facts give a vivid Impression of the age to which Mr.
Croft has attained. In that year he married Miss Elizabeth Nichols,
Of Boston. Her family was one of the eldest In New England
having settled near Searsport. Me., on land granted by King Georga
I. Miss Nichols was the niece of Jacob Sleeper of Boston, known as
the richest Methodist In the United States.
Intelligence Displayed by Ants at Work and at War
Omaha and Prosperity
Coming west with his beautiful young wife, he stopped first
In Chicago wh?re they remained a few months. Then they came
on to Davenport, la. There the young musician invested his savings
In Iowa lands. In the winter of 1856 they arrived in Omaha.
Mr. Croft immediately Invested heavily in a suburban farm which
Is the land now comprised between Sixteenth and Twenty-fourth
street and Ames avenue. He laid out 122 lots and built seven
houses. The following year he lost the whole thing because tbe
homestead title of the man from whom he had bought it was
proven to be valueless. This took practically all his possessions.
But he was not discouraged. He managed to get a start and
bought and sold cattle to the Mormons. At one time he had
1,200 oxen, 480 horses, 200 mules and scores of wagons standing
on his property near Nineteenth street rnd Ames avenue; for he
again secured possesion of the land out of which he had been
defrauded.
When the civil war began he was commissioned through the
Influence of his friend. Senator Simon Crmeron to raise two com
panies of cavalry to be attached to the First Nebraska. Later
these companies were consolidated at Benton Barracks with Min
nesota, Missouri and Iowa companies and became known as tbe
"Curt horse" under Colonel William Lowe. Mr. Croft was cap-
T AND around the foot of an eld apple tree
In our back yard," said an Omaha man
who this year Is leading the simple
life in the pleasant country north of
the city, "we planted nasturtiums and
other flowers last spring, and aa they began to
appear above ground I spent a good deal of my
spare time watching them grow. Although the
apple tree Is in bearing, its stem is hollow at the
butt, with a large, knotty opening on one side
three feet or so from the ground.
"As the season advanced I began to notice that
what I had at first supposed was a little sprinkling
of sawdust that had In some way been spilled
at the foot of the tree, beneath the opening in the
side, was growing and forming into a mound of
considerable size. And then for the first time I
began to take notice of numerous black ants, some
of them a third of an inch long, and with enor
mons heads, whose traveling up and down the
stem of the old tree had Dot before attracted my
attention. I was not long In discovering that
they were of a colony of ants that had taken pos
session of the hollow tree trunk and which was
fixing up that Interior for Its home. Then the
mystery of the mound of sawdust was cleared up.
"Somewhere In the hidden depths of that hol
low it was plain that members of the ant colony
were busily mining away the decayed wood to
form such apartment as were requited, while oth
ers were industriously bearing the debris up from
the depths and casting it out at the opening. Ant
after ant appeared at the edge of the opening, in
continuous procession, each with a grain of wood
in 1U Jaws, which it would drop to the ground.
Little showers of these grains were in the air con
stantly. "About three Inches below the opening to the
hollow trunk a bit of the tree's bark was loose at
the upper end and flared out from the wood so
that it made a pocket a couple of Inch wide and
of the same depth. Into this some of the grains
would lodge, and by and by it was nearly filled.
Then one day an ant of much larger size and who
acted to me as If he was a sort of boss or Inspec
tor came up out of the hollow and went to looking
around. The accumulation of mine waste behind
that bark appeared to catch his eye and he hur
ried down the trunk, passed around and over it,
inspected it from all sides and then hurried ex
citedly back to the opening above. I am not pre
pared to say what he did the next few seconds,
but when he reappeared at the end of that time
and came hurriedly down the tree to the pocket
he waa accompanied by a dozen or more of the
smaller ants, which, apparently under his orders,
went to work clearing the debris from that pocket
and dropping It to the mound below until it was
all removed.
" 'That's all exceedingly amazing!" I found my
self saying to myself, 'but what's to hinder the
anu from filling that pocket from above the same
as before? And what difference does it make,
anyhow?'
"Just what difference It made I, of course, will
never know, but the boss ant must have thought
it made a difference or he wouldn't have ordered
the pocket cleaned out; but I soon found out what
would hinder It from filling up again. From the
time the debris was removed from behind that ob
structing bit of bark the procession of ants that
bore the mined wood from the depths carried
their burdens down below the pocket before dump
ing them. ,
"After I had watched this further exhibition
of Intelligent management a long time I inter
fered to save the extra labor and stripped the flar
ing piece of bark off the tree. The ants made
several trips down to where It had been, though
before they seemed to become aware of the re
moval of the obstruction. Then they resumed
their old dumping plaoe at the mouth of tbe open
ing. The boss ant appeared on the scene some
time after those ants had found that trip unneces
sary and he acted to me as If he was all put out
because the others were not following orders. But
he soon discovered what had happened and re
turned calm and satisfied to his post, whatever it
was, down in the mining district of the tree.
"Thus the work went on, das and days, with
out further incident until the mound from the hol
low tree had risen three or four Inches in height
and covered a foot or more of ground. Then I
noticed that at Intervals several of the bigger ants,
the inspectors or bosses, as I classed them, came
out of the works and made tours of the mound,
going around it and over it and evidently sizing
it up. Then one day down came half a dozen or
so of these big anu, and with them a host of the
ants that seemed to be doing the menial labor.
"These instantly 'threw off their coats,' 'so to
speak, and buckled In to the work of carrying that
mound of stuff away. Taking It up grain by grain
that army of laboring ants carried It off In all di
rections, spreading It around on the ground until
after several days the mound bad been reduced to
a level. I couldn't see any reason for this, but it
wasn't for me to reason why. When the work
was done at last the laboring ants returned to
their places In the depth of the tree.
"Tbe work of mining inside the tree and the
dumping of the debris out of tbe opening contin
ued all through the month of June, and although
another mound of dust was formed It was not dis
turbed. But in the meantime there had been ex
citing episodes in the life of the colony. Our nas
turtiums had come into bud and blossom and the
radiant bank of bloom attracted to it various
winged things and things that were not winged.
And one day, set king these, came a solemn, big
eyed toad, Bitting between the edge of the refuse
and the Inner border of the nacturtiuiu bed. What
was either an inbpectlng or bcoutiii party of the
big ants from the colony in the hollow was pass
ing in Irregular course that way. There were
three in the party and tbe course of one of them
was taking itAvithln the line of the toad's vision,
but at least four inches distant. As the ant came
in line the toad cocked his head on one side as If
to make sure that he saw something, and then,
quick as a flash of lightning, he hurled his long,
glutinous tongue at the ant and in another flash
the ant was In the toad.
"One of the ant's companions had been eye
witness to this tragedy, having turned In that di
rection at that instant. He stopped and quickly
backed away out of possible range and seemed
to ponder the situation. The third ant, uncon
scious of tha sad fate that had befallen his com
rade, was some distance ahead, hurrying toward
the tree. The ant that had witnessed the tragic
taking off of his late associate paused but an in
stant as he was beginning the trip up the tree
trunk. He must have told this ant right there
and then what had happened, for this one raised
to an almost upright position, and for all the
world It looked to me as If he was exclaiming:
"'Great heaven' You don't tell me!'
. "At any rate, after an excited confab at the
foot of the tree the two ants went up the trunk
a ways and then made their way around it until
they came to a spot directly above where the toad
sat. The two ants gazed down at the monster
awhile, held another excited confab and then
turned up the tree and disappeared into it
through a smaller opening, which I had some days
before discovered was a rear entrance to the
colony's abode. I was quite sure something was
going to happen.
"Soon out of that rear entrance a stream of
ants began to pour, enormous fpllows, bigger than
any I had seen yet. Some of then) seemed half
an inch long, and they were armed with powerful
(Contluued on Pag Three.).
