Few men have been better fitted for such a task. He was a born campaigner. He had a constitution of iron and remarkable recuperative powers. His lungs were strong, and his vocal powers were all that one could desire. He could sleep under the most uncomfortable conditions, and eat anything in almost any quantity and at any time.

A Man of the People.-Then, too, he was a man of the people, and the people instinctively recognized him as a brother. He knew how to get along with people. He remembered faces well and could generally recall a name, and everywhere he went he was sure to meet old friends and to make new ones. He was always approachable, and could always talk easily and freely with those he met.

Assemblyman Adler, of New York City, met him on a railway train in 1891 near Steubenville, Ohio. Relating the incident to a Sun reporter he said:

"I boarded a train one day at Steubenville, and the brakeman said to me, 'Go inside that car. There's the Major there. Just introduce yourself.' I walked up to Major McKinley, held out my hand and said: Major, allow me to congratulate the next Governor of Ohio.' ""Thank you,' he said with a smile. You're a traveling man I take it. Sit down. I am always glad to meet you gentlemen.'

"I sat beside him, and I will never forget the pleasant conversation we had. He talked glowingly of the future of the United States, and incidentally the tariff issue was brought up.

"Young man,' he said, 'we love the United States. When anybody advocates free trade for this grand, rich Republic of ours just tell them for an answer that one of the reasons that you love this country is for the gold there is in it, and you want it to stay here.'

"At that time I had no thought of going into politics, but from then on I was a protectionist. In 1895 when I was a member of the Assembly, Speaker Fish one day announced to the members: 'Gentlemen, allow me to introduce to you Governor McKinley, of Ohio,' and we members all passed up to shake hands with the Governor. When

it came to my turn he looked at me sharply and asked: 'Aren't you the young man I met on a train one day near Steubenville? I think you are and that you said you were a drummer.'

"I am,' I replied.

""Then what are you doing up here?' he asked.

""The people down where I live sentenced me up here,' I said. "Are you a member of the Assembly?' he asked.

"Yes, and a good Republican member,' I answered.

"I am glad to hear it,' he replied. 'I am glad to see one of your profession so highly honored. I won't forget you, young man.'

"It was only about a year ago that I went to Washington to seek a pardon for one of my constituents. It was a deserving case, and I felt that after I talked with the President he would grant my request. The minute I entered his chamber he recognized me and held out his hand.

"I am pleased to see you,' he said. 'You are the young drummer I met on the train in Ohio and afterward in Albany. Are you still in politics?'

"Yes; I am still a member there,' I said.

"I explained my errand, and my request was granted right away. The next day I had the pleasure of restoring to his wife and children a father who had been sentenced to a long term in Sing Sing for a crime of which I knew he was innocent."

Always on the Lookout for Information.-Mr. Halstead says that it was especially interesting to observe in a campaign how anxious Mr. McKinley was for information. When he went to a town he would listen to the talk of the politicians, to every statement about party conditions, and local affairs, and especially about every industry. He would not cross-question them, he would only listen, and at the meeting afterward it would be seen that their talk had gone to the spot, and he would use the information he got to give a touch of local color to his argument, something he could always do with great effect.

It used to be often said that he had but one speech. That was because the tariff of which he was the recognized exponent was sure to come in for discussion. Of course the basis of this discussion was necessarily the same, but his language and illustrations were constantly varying.

Those who attended him in his campaigns said that he would outlast all who accompanied him. He knew how to take things pleasantly. He had the knack of making people feel that he was not only satisfied with what they had done for him but that he felt honored by their attentions. On the train he would talk familiarly with the conductors and brakemen, and they became very proud of his friendship. While waiting at a station he would generally manage to get in conversation with the baggage man or the station agent or any one who might be loitering about, and thus every day and every hour he was adding to his army of friends. If those who accompanied him grumbled about the arrangements that were made for them he did not hesitate to take them aside and reprove them, and if he found them engaged in levity of a hurtful sort he reproved them for that too. It was particularly noticeable that when he came to a town that was noted for its religious atmosphere he would insist that every one who went with him should. in every possible way show respect for the feelings of the people whose guests they were.

X.

AS AN ORATOR.

As a public speaker McKinley stood in the front rank of those who carefully studied the matter of their discourses, leaving the manner to nature and the occasion. Whatever else he might be he was always natural. He never dealt in sensations. He never went to work to make people weep. He never tried to stir up excitement. He simply thought out as thoroughly as he could what he wanted to say, and then said it in the simplest and most unaffected way he could. His style was clearness and straightforwardness exemplified, and so direct that no effort was required to follow him even through the least interesting parts of his speech.

A Happy Faculty.-"He displayed to perfection that happy faculty for which he has since become famous of clothing with the magnetic charm of life the cold, practical facts of economic philosophy and experience. His voice, high but resonant, clear and musical as a bell, pierced to every corner of the house, and it was evident to his hearers that a new leader had sprung into the front ranks of the great Republican party."

Noble Sentiments.-Mr. Halstead says that phrases and sentences would come trickling and bubbling forth from him apparently without preparation, and sometimes they would form the most beautiful constellations of great oratorical effect and oratorical beauty. It could not be said that he was epigrammatic, and he will not live in the memory of the people as a proverb maker; yet he left behind him some sentiments as noble as ever fell from the lips of man.

At Petersburg (Virginia) in 1885 he said: "I am for America because America is for the common people."

At Woodstock (Conn.) in 1891 he said: "If the party is wrong,

make it better. That's the business of the true partisan and good citizen."

It was he who said that "the North and the South no longer divided on old lines but on principles and policies."

It was at the Omaha Exposition that he uttered the noble sentiment, "Peace is the national desire and the goal of every American aspiration."

At the Peace Jubilee in Chicago he cried, "Duty determines destiny."

At the Peace Jubilee in Atlanta he said: "The time has now come in the evolution of feeling under the providence of God when in the spirit of fraternity we should share with you in the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers."

At Tuskegee he reminded the colored students that "intelligence and industry are the best possessions which any man can have, and every man can have them;" and he remarked to the surviving volunteers returned from the Philippines, that "these heroes died for their country, and there is no nobler death."

In his tribute to Washington at Mount Vernon he said: "The nation is his best eulogist and his noblest monument."

And who will ever forget the last sentence of his last message to the people the day before the final tragedy: "Our earnest prayer is that God will graciously vouchsafe prosperity, happiness and peace to all our neighbors and like blessings to all the peoples and powers of the earth."

Not a Humorist.-There was a noticeable absence of funny stories from his speeches. He was not a humorist, and besides, he always felt that his cause was too sacred for jokes. He went at his work with the tremendous earnestness of the old pioneer preachers who would save the people from their sins. Yet, while he was in no sense a humorist, few men had a keener sense of humor. The story is told that a New magazine not long ago sent one of its best writers to Canton with

York