the strawberry are highly interesting, but must be passed
by here. He manifested no selfishness with respect to his fruits. He was
anxious that their cultivation should become general, and his
discoveries and improvements were always at the service of any and every
one who desired to make use of them.
He was thoroughly devoted to his adopted home, and anxious to secure its
steady improvement. When it was proposed to establish an observatory,
the Mount Adams property, then owned by him, was regarded as the most
fitting site for it. He was asked to name the price for which he would
sell the property. To the astonishment of the parties in charge of the
enterprise, he made a free gift of the land--four acres in extent--to
the trustees. A gentleman who had hoped to dispose of some of his own
property for this purpose charged Mr. Longworth, through the press, with
being influenced by a desire to improve his adjoining property by the
erection of the observatory on Mount Adams. Longworth promptly replied
that if the writer of the article in question would donate four acres of
his own property for an observatory, he (Longworth) would put up, at his
own expense, a building on it equal to that which had been erected on
Mount Adams, and transfer the latter place to the city as a permanent
pleasure ground. He quietly added that in this way his accuser might
himself receive, for his adjacent property, all the benefits of such an
improvement, and at the same time win for himself the lasting gratitude
of the people of Cincinnati. This settled the matter, and no more was
heard from the other side.
"Longworth," says one who knew him, "is a problem and a riddle--a
problem worthy of the study of those who delight in exploring that
labyrinth of all that is hidden and mysterious, the human heart; and a
riddle to himself and others. He is a wit and a humorist of a high
order; of keen sagacity and shrewdness in many other respects than in
money matters; one who can be exact to a dollar, and liberal, when he
chooses, with thousands; of marked peculiarity and tenacity in his own
opinions, yet of abundant tolerance to the opinions, however
extravagant, of others--a man of great public spirit and sound general
judgment.
"In addition to all this, it would be difficult to find an individual of
his position and standing so perfectly free from pride, in the ordinary
sense. He has absolutely none, unless it be the pride of eccentricity.
It is no
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