BRUCE.
BRUEN.
he was living in Missouri, and he removed to a
free state, where he taught school; after which,
with the means thus acquired, he pursued an
elective course of study at Oberlin college. In
1868 he went to Mississippi, where he engaged
in cotton planting with great sviccess. In the
following year he was chosen sergeant-at-arms
of the Mississippi senate; and in 1871 was elected
sheriff and tax collector of Bolivar coimty, and
also a member of the Mississippi levee commis-
sion. In 1874 he was
elected to the U.S.
senate. On appearing
in the senate chamber
March 4, 1875, he Avas
without an escort, his
colleague failing to
present him to the
presiding officer, as
was customary, and
Senator Conkling,
noticing the omission,
stepped forward and
said: "Excuse me, Mr.
Bruce, I did not until
just now see that you were without an escort.
Permit me." He thereupon gave his arm, and
the two advanced to the vice-president's desk.
After the oath was administered, he escorted
Senator Bruce back to the seat. He was made
chairman of the committee on Mississippi levees,
and of the select committee on the Freedman's
savings bank, the affairs of which institution he
closed, selling its property, and reimbursing the
unfortunate depositors with the proceeds. His
first speech was on the admission of P. B. S.
Pinchback of Louisiana to a seat in the senate;
but his speeches on the investigation of elections
in Mississippi, and on the " Chinese Bill," are the
most noteworthy of his senatorial term. He was
on several occasions called to preside over the
senate, and elicited the encomitmis of his fellow
senators, by the ease and dignity with which he
wielded the gavel of the second officer of the re-
public. At the expiration of his term in the
senate, Mr. Bruce was appointed register of the
treasury by President Garfield, and this position
he held imtil the first administration of President
Cleveland, when he accepted an engagement as a
platform lecturer. His principal lectures were.
Popular Tendencies and The Race Problem.
He served as a delegate to nearl}- every national
Republican convention after the reconstruction
era, and he was the first colored man ever called
upon to preside over a national convention, wiiicli
he did at Chicago in 1880. He was recorder of
deeds for tiie District of Columbia, 1891-'93 and
1897- '98. He also served as school trustee. He
died in Wasliingtou, D.C., March 17, 1898.
BRUCE, George, type-fovmder, was born in
Edinburgh, Scotland, June 26, 1781. In 1795 he
joined his brother David, who had emigrated to
the United States some years previously, and
after learning the printer's trade in Philadelphia,
George found employment in New York. He
became the printer and publisher of the New
York Daily Advertiser in 1803, and was an occa-
sional contributor to its colimms. In partner-
ship with his brother he opened a book-printing
establishment in 1806, and among the first works
brought out by the new firm, who did the entire
work theJiiselves, was an edition of " Lavoisier's
Chemistry. ' ' In their efforts to introduce the art
of stereotyping, which David went to England in
1812 to learn, they encountered many mechanical
difficulties, which they succeeded in overcoming
by inventing new machinery, and casting new
type. They sold out the printing business in
1816 and established a type foundry, introduced
many innovations, and with the assistance of his
nephew, David Bruce, Jr., George invented a type-
casting machine, which was in use in 1896. He
^vas a prominent member of the Mechanics' insti-
tute, and of the various industrial societies con-
nected with the craft. He died in New York
city, July 6, 1860.
BRUCE, Wallace, poet, was born at Hillsdale, Colimibia county, N. Y., Nov. 10, 1844. He was graduated at Yale college in 1867, with distin- guished honors, and then visited Europe, where, while in Paris in 1870, he witnessed some of the stormiest scenes of the Franco-Prussian war. Returning to the United States in 1871, he lec- tured before literary societies. In 1875 he deliv- ered his poem, " Parson Allen's Ride," at the centennial celebration at Bennington, Vt. Mr. Bruce was appointed United States consul in Edinburgh, Scotland, July 1, 1889, by President Harrison. While in Scotland he was instru- mental in securing the erection in Edinburgh of a statue of Lincoln to commemorate the service of Scottish- American soldiers in the American civil war. The monument was designed by a Union veteran soldier, and stands in Old Carlton burying-ground, where a nvunber of Scotch- American soldiers are buried. He published in 1878 The Land of Burns, in 1880 The Yosemite, in 1882 The Hudson, in 1883 The Long Drama, a centennial poem, delivered at Newburg, N.Y., in 1884 From the Hudson to the Yosemite. in 1888 Old Homestead Poems, and in 1894 Way- side Poems.
BRUEN, riatthias, clergyman, was born at Newark, N.J,, April 11, 1793. He was graduated from Columbia college in 1812, and after study- ing theology he was licensed to preach in 1816. From 1816 to 1819 lie resided in Eurojie, at first travelling for his health, and having been
