CHAPTER XXI.

ARTHUR J. SEWALL.

Arthur J. Sewall, the Democratic nominee for vice-president, is sixty-one years old, but is rugged and well and will pass for a man a decade younger. He prides himself on his descent from an old and honorable family-one of the oldest in America in fact—and he points to a business career devoted to the maintenance of an industry in which America was supreme until the fortunes of war intervened to nearly destroy it. Following in the footsteps of his father, he has for many years been a successful shipbuilder, and has striven to restore the United States to supremacy in that industry. The first American ancestor of the Democratic nominee was John Sewall, who came from Coventry, England, in 1634 to take possession of a tract of land Massachusetts granted him by the crown. This favor of the English king is pointed as evidence that the Sewall colonist must have been a man of considerable importance in his mother country. He made his home in a settlement that is now known as Newburyport, and his descendants lived in the ancestral home for more than a century. In 1769 they moved to a newer country and located in what is now known as the

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State of Maine. They secured a tract of land whose title had passed through only three names since the original grant of King George.

Since the year 1760, sixteen years before the declaration of independence, the Sewalls have been born and married in the old homestead and have been carried from one of its houses to their last resting places. They have long prided them. selves on their Americanism, and believe they have abundant reason for it in the long line of I descendants in this new world of the west. The grandfather of Mr. Bryan's running mate was William D. Sewall, who established the shipbuilding yards at Bath in 1823. He was succeeded by his sons under the firm name of E. & E. A. Sewall. The firm is now Arthur J. Sewall & Co.

The Democratic nominee has associated with him his nephew, Samuel S. Sewall, and his son, William D. Sewall. From the days of its first boat, the Little Diana, to the steel ship Dirigo, launched in 1894, this firm has led the country in designs for merchant vessels. For seventy three years its private signal, a white "S" on a blue field, has fluttered from the main spar of some of the staunchest and swiftest vessels in the merchant marine, carrying the stars and stripes into every foreign port. The Sewalls have built ninety-five ships. It is the proud boast of the present representatives of the house of Sewall that it has turned out tonnage every year since the start,

except two years, in which conditions prevented.

Thanksgiving day of 1835 was an occasion for more than ordinary gratitude in the Sewall family, for there was ushered into the world on that day the son who succeeded to the honors and the estate of the family and has brought new fame to its record by being selected as one of the Democratic standard-bearers. Mr. Sewall grew up among the scenes of the shipyards and the seashore, and in due time was inducted into the mysteries of the shipbuilding business. His firm is now the owner of forty vessels turned out by its yards. It sails the vessels on its own account and manages the carrying trade which they do. It enjoys the distinction of having built the first steel sailing vessel ever launched in American waters. She is called The Dirigo, which is the motto of the State of Maine. Mr. Sewall's enterprises on land and sea prospered, and in the accumulation of wealth he sought means for its reinvestment and engaged in many lines of business outside of shipbuilding.

SUCCESSFUL BANKER AND BUSINESS MAN AND UN

FLINCHING BIMETALLIST.

Mr. Sewall has been indentified largely with banking and railroads; he has been president of the Bath National Bank of this city since 1871. For several years he was president of the Maine

Central Railroad, a director in several other New England roads, also director in several southwestern roads, president of the Maine Water Company, a concern which has plants in seven cities of this State.

It was Col. Dummer Sewall who, when the first news of the battle of Lexington reached the little bustling town on the Kennebec, proceeded to assemble the neighbors, marched to Harward's dock, where for years the British had maintained a dock for shipping spars cut in Maine for the royal navy, and in a loud voice, to quote the ancient history, "commanded the Englishmen who were then engaged to depart in peace and without delay."

Mr. Sewall first gave his allegiance to the Whig party, with which he remained until that organization ceased to exist. Then he became an earnest Democrat, and has been an active member of the Democratic party to this day.

There has never been any faltering in his allegiance or his enthusiasm for this party, and the confidence which is felt in him by his associates has been shown in the last two national campaigns, when he headed the subscription list with $10,000, and inspired many other business men to put down corresponding sums, to carry on the campaign even though it was known that there would be little chance to win in this State.

But above all Mr. Sewall is identified with the

American marine. Ships and ship-building have occupied the greater part of his attention and of the attention of his family. He is a believer in American ships and their possibilities. When he returned from Glasgow three years ago he declared that with free raw materials and five years' experience his steel ship-building plant would be ready to compete with any of the world's shipbuilders and would beat them all.

"Give us a few years to get the practice," said he to The Globe reporter at that time, "and you may pass a free ship bill as soon as you want to. We would ask no favors."

Mr. Sewall was largely instrumental in securing the great advance in our shipping statistics which came with the admittance of the steamships "City of Paris" and "City of New York" to American registry.

At that time the feeling in Bath was hotly against such a change, but the practical foresight of Mr. Sewall grasped the results which must come from the building of such steamers which were made compulsory under this concession, and his convincing explanation disarmed opposition so that Bath indorsed the measure.

This is but an illustration of the effect which he always produces upon those with whom he is brought in contact whenever he feels called upon to maintain any position he may have taken. It is this earnestness and power of transmitting