But he who, with cheerful and contented heart, bears the toil, even privation of his lot, no matter how small or ignoble his station may seem to be; he who, in the affairs of each day, shows a just and generous bearing toward his fellows, he shall fill the measure to overflowing. His life will be one that men must admire, and after death his personality can not fail to be lovingly remembered. Labor is the common fate. He who shuns its obligations and seeks exemption from its hardships, which are more apparent than real, loses most actual happiness and thoroughly fails to impress himself upon others. It is God's will that each of us should, with such talents as have been committed to him, share in the great undertakings of to-day, which in the aggregate, represents the accomplishments of all the ages, and which with our efforts, willingly and unselfishly put forth, must be transmitted in a better and grander form to those who are yet to come. The great and beautiful world is but a struggling mass of humanity where with varied advantages and diverse opportunities each for himself strives to maintain existence, to better his condition and to seek a surer foothold for the future. Hard and bitter is the struggle at all times; but after all it is a glorious thing. It has brought humanity from barbarism and ignorance to intelligence and civilization, and the unpretentious workers of to-day are bearing the standard to heights yet undreamed of. He is a coward who seeks to escape this splendid rivalry, or fails to earn some claim to its achievements.

To bear a happy and contented heart and to show it outwardly is the greatest of the duties of the day; greatest not only because it tends to the happiness of its possessor, but because it scatters highest blessings

among all we meet. And bear well in mind that this end will best be attained by accepting without question or criticism the disposal of Providence, which, after all, directs and controls our destinies. Unquestioned obedience to the Divine will; a sturdy, cheerful spirit; a determination to accept things as they are; to leave carping and criticism to others; to believe that all things are for the best; to, at all times, bear ourselves bravely and well,-is the true philosophy of right living. Realize that the simple, universal things within the reach of all, are, after all, the best things. Realize that even existence in this beautiful world is in itself a boon, the worth of which mortals can not fully understand. Realize that the best lives ever lived, those highest in happiness to their possessors and blossoming sweetest in the memory of those who shared them, have been the simple, faithful lives of those lowly mortals who accepted the blessings and chastisements of God's mercy without question or complaint. Doubtless it is true that:

The happiest heart that ever beat

Was in some quiet breast,

That found the common sunshine sweet

And left to Heaven the rest."

To be just, aye more, to be charitable in our estimation of the conduct of our fellow-men, is right living. He shuts out from his heart much of God's sunshine who sits in swift judgment on the conduct of those about him and condemns them by his own selfish standard. Look with great charity upon the imperfections and short comings of all. Give to each act the best and most kindly construction. Understand that you can not form any just judgment as to the propriety of another's act unless you know all that influenced it. Put yourself in his place. Remember that you know

not the weakness, the temptation, the accidental surroundings which made an act possible; that you can not even thoroughly understand its extent or its motive. Look not with scorn upon the other's failure. Why should one atom assert itself in pride above another? Why should one imperfect mortal, unable to properly appreciate his own relations to the things about him, undertake from his inner consciousness with his imperfect understanding of outward things, to set up a standard by which to try and condemn his fellow-men. If you must judge at all, strive in so far as you can, to use that better and higher test which the Father will surely apply to the acts of men and determine the deserts of each; not by that wherein he succeeded, but that wherein he well meant. Judge not the value of labors by the results attained, but by the sincerity of the intention and the honesty of the efforts that were put forth.

But the subject grows, and the length of this address forbids even a substantial reference to all those elements of right living, the observance of which, as I have said, go to make up the happy, useful, blameless life, the memory of which shall stand forth to challenge admiration and secure loving remembrance in the days when remembrance shall be all that remains of you or me. Let each man for himself make a new resolve toward right living. Let us go back into the world, and, taking up our daily duties, resolve to so discharge them that their outward influence shall come to mankind as a benediction. "Look not mournfully upon the past; it comes not back again. Wisely improve the present-it is thine. Go forth to meet the future with courage and a manly heart."

Response to the Toast, "The President of the United States," at Jackson Day Banquet, Tomlinson Hall, Indianapolis.*

OR a quarter of a century no Democrat was President of the United States. Yet, during this long privation of power, the Democratic party exhibited such fidelity to principle, unselfishness, steadfastness of purpose and greatness in defeat that the history of party politics for all time is challenged for a parallel.

It outlived old men's quarrels. Its chart showed no sectional lines. Young men flocked to its standard and its doctrines found favor alike in factory, field and university. It became the recognized champion of good government, honest money, fair elections, equal taxation. It was a proud party, clean, brave, reliant, aggressive. That such a party must finally succeed was

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*At the conclusion of this speech, Chief Justice Hackney, of the Indiana Supreme Court, addressing the speaker, said: Under the circumstances, it seems to me, that, is the bravest speech ever made." Later, Ex-President Cleveland wrote the following comment upon the speech: Is'he the only one who has seen the condition, or is it true that he alone has the courage and patriotism to exhibit this evil in all its deformity?"

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as certain as that the great globe would hold its course; and when its time of triumph was at hand, it found a fitting candidate in the person of a plain, lifelong Democrat. Not one who had held high place in its ancient counsels, or had been long distinguished in its history, but a man with clean hands and wholesome prejudices, fervid in the faith, recently from the ranks, and who, with brief official opportunity, had come to be known as the great reformer of the East. With him as its candidate, and with all its purposes declared in the one comprehensive word, "Reform," the Democratic party met and overthrew the hosts of misrule, and exalted to highest station Grover Cleveland, the twicechosen and now President of the United States. And thus there came to the Democratic party the opportunity of power and place, and the honors and emoluments of office throughout the whole land; and one would. have thought that thereby the party would be stronger and greater than ever-but was it? No; at the very next election, even in Democratic Indiana, the State House was filled with Republicans. And as for the Legislature, why, notwithstanding a promising gerrymander, one which when enacted looked so perfect that we seemed to "take a bond of fate," we secured a bare majority on joint ballot by the aid of the vote of a Populist Representative, and by swearing we ran my good friend, Judge Nelson, for Lieutenant-Governor merely for the fun of the thing. Then came the defeat of 1888, and power and place departed from Democracy. Did this make the party weak and inefficient? On the contrary, in two years it carried the Congress, and two years later re-elected Mr. Cleveland by such a tremendous vote that it was for a time doubt