being involved, the opposing counsel insisted that the legal effect of said Act was the creation of a new bank. Butterfield in reply insisted that "a new bank had not been created, but simply the life of the old one prolonged. A case in point, your Honor, precisely 'on all-fours' with this, is the well-authenticated one of the good Hezekiah when the Lord lengthened out his life fifteen years for meritorious conduct. Now, sir, did he thereby make a new Hezekiah, or did he leave him just the same old Hezekiah?"

"GOING OUT WITH THE TIDE"

Soldier, lawyer, and wit was Colonel Phil Lee of Kentucky. When it is borne in mind that he was of exceedingly small stature the following incident - one he often related — will be appreciated.

Immediately upon attaining his majority he was a candidate for the Legislature. On election day he was quietly seated on a barrel in the room where the election for his precinct was being conducted, when an old Deacon from the Tan Bark settlement came in to vote. His choice for the State officers and for Sheriff was called out after some little parleying as to who were the best men, and the voter was about to retire, when one of the judges said,

Deacon, ain't you going to vote for a candidate for the Legislature?"

"Yas, of course, I like to forgot all about that; who is running for the Legislature?"

At which Phil, hopping down from the barrel, said, 'Deacon, I am a candidate."

"Who, you?" inquired the Deacon - with half contemptuous gaze at the diminutive-looking aspirant; then turning to the judge he said, “Just put me down for the other fellow!"

Admitted to the bar at Shepherdsville in his native county of Bullitt, when barely of age, his first appearance was as attorney for the plaintiff in a breach-of-promise case of much local celebrity. His speech held the jury and by-standers literally spellbound, and it was confidently asserted that the

classic banks of Salt River will probably never witness such flights of eloquence again. At its close Phil was warmly congratulated by an old Squire from the "Rolling Fork."

"Phil, that was a mighty fine speech, a mighty fine speech, Phil, now mind, I tell you. That speech reminded me of Henry Clay."

At the first mention of that name, the Squire was promptly invited out to take a drink. The first round of hospitality happily concluded, Phil was in readiness for any additional observations from the Squire.

"Yes, Phil, when you kinder rared back and throwed your right hand straight up, thinks I, Henry Clay, Henry Clay!"

Whereupon the Squire was without unnecessary delay invited to take another drink. This accomplished, the Squire still held the floor.

"Yes, Phil, yes, Phil, todes the last when you made that big swoop with both arms and 'peared like you was gwyen right up to the rafters, thinks I, Shore 'nough, Henry Clay come back from his grave!"

As flesh and blood could not stand everything, the old Squire was promptly invited to take another drink. Number three being properly placed to his credit, the Squire continued: "Yes, Phil, you peared to me to be Henry Clay right over again with jist one leetle difference."

At this Mr. Lee, curious to know what could be the one possible little difference, when there were so many points of resemblance between two such orators as himself and Henry Clay, ventured to inquire. "I think," said the Squire, "this, Phil,- you peared to kinder lack his idees!"

And now comes the tragic ending of a brilliant career. Lee, while Commonwealth's attorney, was in the last stages of that dread disease, consumption. A murder case was on trial in which he felt a deep interest. The case was one of unusual atrocity, and the accused-a man of some local prominence had been exceedingly defiant towards the wan and emaciated prosecuting attorney from its beginning. With much difficulty Colonel Lee succeeded in getting to the court-room in order to make the closing speech to the jury.

Utterly exhausted,- after depicting the horrible crime in all its enormity and demanding the extreme penalty of the law upon its perpetrator, at its close, in tones that touched the hearts of all who heard him, he exclaimed:

"Gentlemen of the jury, I have prosecuted the pleas of this Commonwealth until the blood has dried up in my veins, and the flesh has perished from my bones!"

These were his last words—and his life went out that same night just as the clock struck twelve. At the selfsame hour the steps of the jury were heard slowly ascending to the court-room which had witnessed his last effort — their verdict, "Guilty; the penalty, death!"

LI

THE "HOME-COMING" AT BLOOMINGTON

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MCLEAN COUNTY'S READINESS TO WELCOME HER CHILDREN HONOR TO THE EARLY SETTLERS BEAUTY OF THE COUNTY

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- ITS PROGRESS ITS ORGANIZATION PRAISE OF JOHN MCLEAN HIS CAREER IN CONGRESS, IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE, AND IN THE SENATE - MCLEAN COUNTY'S HEROISM · REMINISCENCES OF THE OLD COURT-HOUSE - FRENCH EXPLORERS IN THE ILLINOIS COUNTRY - MARQUETTE AND JOLIET EXPLORE THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI LA SALLE EXPLORES THE ST. LAWRENCE, THE OHIO, AND THE MISSISSIPPI TO ITS MOUTH EXTENT OF FRANCE'S POSSESSIONS IN AMERICA THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN FRANCE AND GREAT BRITAIN GEORGE R. CLARK CAPTURES KASKASKIA FROM THE BRITISH VIRGINIA CEDES TERRITORY, INCLUDING ILLINOIS, TO THE UNITED STATES THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE ILLINOIS ORGANIZED SUMMARY OF SUCCEEDING EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

HE McLean County (Illinois) "Home-Coming" of June 15, 1907, was an event of deep significance to all Central Illinois. On that occasion I delivered the welcoming address, as follows:

"These rare days in June mark a memorable epoch in the history of this good county. The authoritative proclamation has gone forth that her house has been put in order, that the latch-string is out all things in readiness and that McLean County would welcome the return of all her children who have in days past gone out from her borders.

"In the same joyous and generous spirit in which the welcome was extended, it has been heeded, and from near and far, from the land of flowers and of frosts, from the valley of the Osage, the Colorado, and the Platte, from the golden shores of California, and 'where rolls the Oregon' sons and daughters of this grand old county have gladly turned their footsteps homeward.

"When thy heart has grown weary and thy foot has grown

sore,

Remember the pathway that leads to our door.'

"As in the ancient days all roads led to Rome, so in this year of grace, and in this glorious month of June, all roads lead back to the old home; to the hearthstones around which cling the tender memories of childhood, and of loved ones gone to the little mounds where sleep the ashes of ancestral dead.

"The 'Home-coming' to which you have been invited will leave its lasting impress upon all your hearts. The kindly words that have been spoken, the cordial grasp of the hand, the unbidden tear, the hospitality extended, have all given assurance that you are welcome. Here, for the time, let dull care and the perplexities that environ this mortal life be laid aside, let whatever would in the slightest mar the delight of this joyous occasion be wholly forgotten; so that in the distant future, to those who return and to those who stay, the recollection of these days will be one of unalloyed pleasure; and so that, when in the years to come we tell over to our children of the return to the old home, this reunion will live in our memories as one that, like the old sun-dial, 'marked only the hours which shine.'

"No place so fitting for this home-coming could have been selected as this beautiful park, where the springing grass, transparent lake, and magnificent grove-'God's first temple' seem all to join in welcoming your return. How, from a mere hamlet, a splendid city has sprung into being during the years of your absence! No longer a frontier village, off the great highway of travel, with the mail reaching it semi-weekly by stage-coach or upon horseback,— as our fathers and possibly some who now hear me may have known it, it is now 'no mean city.' Its past is an inspiration; its future bright with promise. It is in very truth a delightful dwelling-place for mortals, and possibly not an unfit abidingplace for saints. Whoever has walked these streets, known kinship with this people, called this his home - wherever upon this old earth he may since have wandered - has in his