Jeffersonville (IN) Weekly Journal, March 5, 1897, p. 3. DESULTORY DISSERTATIONS We are told that John Hay will be very acceptable to the English government as Minister to the Court of St. James because of his truly English style and aristocratic lineage. Well, this is a good joke and must be relished by those who know something of John Hay's early life. In the town of Salem, 35 miles north of Jeffersonville, John Hay, the author of "Little Breeches," was born in a little, one-story, vine-covered cottage of small dimensions. His father, Charles Hay, was a physician of modest means who loved to the little Indiana town from Lexington, Ky., about 1830. Dr. Hay did not only practiced medicine in Salem but was the editor of the village paper and was reputed a good, progressive citizen of more than average intelligence. The burial place of the Hay family is on the highlands near Salem, and the neglected grave of the father of the illustrious poet is marked by a rude tombstone of the old style. John Hay's mother was born in Harrison County, Ind., near the old town of Corydon. She was one of several sisters, all celebrated for their beauty, and was an accomplished woman of that day but far from being an aristocrat. We all love John Hay for his talent and esteem him for the many pretty and quaint verses he has written, as well as for the fact that he is a brother Hoosier. But we hope he has not grown "too English," for when as a boy he waded ponds and puddles about Salem he had no more aristocratic tendencies in him than a mud cat.