EE EE RS Smash
PRESIDENT McKINLEY'S CAREER.
His Early Life—Achieved Fame in Civil War-—Promoted for
Gallantry—He Returned a Major and Began the Prac-
tice of Law at Canton,
O.—Remarkably Active
in Politics, His Administration Replete
with Stirring Events.
The life and work of President William
McKinley, exemplifies the chance an Amer-
ican boy has to secure prominence in the
Nation’s affairs. As others who before him
reached the high office he occupied, he
came from the people.
Here in brief is an outline of the Presi-
dent’s public and military career :
William McKinley was born at Niles,
Trumbull county, O., January 29th, 1843.
His ancestors lived in Pennsylvania, whence
they emigrated from Scotland fully 200
years ago. His grandfather, Daniel Me-
Kinley, was a soldier in the revolution,
distinguished for his gallantry at Brandy-
wine, Germantown, and Monmouth. His
father was an industrious and prosperous
iron manufacturer, who died in 1892 at
the age of 85; his mother died some years
later at Canton, O., at the advanced age of
88. Young McKinley was educated at the
public schools, and at the Poland (Mahon-
ing county) academy, and attended for a
short time the Methodist Episcopal college
at Meadville, Pa. :
In June,1861,he enlisted in the Twenty-
third Ohio volunteer infantry as a private
soldier. On September 24th, 1862, he was
promoted to second lieutenant: on Feb-
ruary 7th, 1862, to first lieutenant; on
July 25th, 1864, to captain, and was
brevetted major by President Lincoln for
gallant and meritorious services at the bat-
tles of Opequan, Fisher’s Hill and Cedar
Creek. He served on the staff of ex-Presi-
dent Hayes and Major General George
Crook, and after Crook’s capture he served
for a time on the staff of Major General
Hancock, and subsequently on the staff of
General Samuel S. Carroll. He was with
the famous Twenty-third in all its battles,
and was mustered out with it on July 26th,
1865. He had a liking for the military
profession, and it was said that but for the
advice of his father he would, at the
solicitation of General Carroll, bave at-
tached himself to the regular army.
HIS FIRST POLITICAL POSITION.
At the close of the war McKinley return-
ed to Ohio, studied law, opened an office
in Canton, Stark county, in 1867, and in
1869 was elected prosecuting attorney of
Stark county.
He was elected to Congress in 1876, and
served continuously in the House of Rep-
resentatives until March, 1891—14 years
in all—except part of his fourth term,when
he was unseated late in the first session.
His seat was given to the late Jonathan
Wallace, of East Liverpool, his Democratic
competitor.
In 1891 Major McKinley was unanimous-
ly nominated for Governor. He made the
contest against Governor James E. Camp-
bell, and was elected by a plurality of over
21,000. Two years later he was again
unanimously nominated, and it was then
that he received the highest vote ever cast
for any candidate in Ohio. He defeated
‘‘Larry”’ Neal, his Democratic opponent,
by a majority of 80,995 votes.
In 1896 he was elected President over
Wm. J. Bryan and re-elected in 1900 over
the same man.
Niles, in 1843, was one of the smallest
towns of Ohio, a place where farmers came
to trade and where there was an iron fur-
nace. McKinley’s father was managing
this furnace, and the boy, from his family’s
intimate connection with the iron business,
gained iu early life part of that knowledge
of industrial affairs and work which since
has stood him in such need in public life.
The house in which McKinley was born at
Niles was of frame, a combination of coun-
try store and dwelling. There was a good-
natured family dispute when he came into
the world as to what his name should be.
There was already a David in the family, a
James, a Mary and a Sarah. What more
natural, than that he should be given the
father’s name?
PRESIDENT’S SCHOOL TEACHER.
Niles had poor school advantages for the
many children in the McKinley family.
Father and mother saw this. They were
ambitious for the future of their children,
and schooling they must have. So they
moved to Poland, in Mahoning county,
where there was an academy, one of the
old-time institutions of learning of which
there are few counterparts in these days.
Poland is on Yellow Creek and it is a
place of trees, sweet singing wateis a great
white mill, and one street that goes up
and down a hill. Here McKinley, not
quite 16. studied in the academy, pursued
a law course, led the village debating so-
ciety, performed many of the duties of the
postmaster, taught school, found work for
his hands to do at all times, and became
easily the most promising young man of
the community.
It was at this time—in 1858—that he be-
came a member of the Methodist Episcopal
church of Poland, a religious organization
with which he was connected ever after.
They are many who remember his char-
acteristics in those days when he was first
forming his character. His mother was an
Allison before her marriage in 1827 to
William McKinley Sr. She was born -in
1809 near New Lisbon, Ohio.
Young McKinley left Poland when he
was 17, to pursue a course of study at Alle-
gheny college, Meadville, Pa., but a sud-
den illness compelled him to return home
and he took up school teaching. He went
from the schoolmaster’s desk into the army
to fight for the Union. In June, 1861,
Lincoln, had just issued his call for troops,
and Poland was to send a company to the
front. McKinley was the first man to en-
list others followed. They became Com-
pany E of the Twenty-third Ohio, one of
the foremost regiments sent by that State
to the army. The company marched
from Poland to Youngstown and
at Camp Chase, Columbus, join-
ed its regiment and entered on actual
service. ;
The Twenty-third Ohio was made up of
a superior class of men—men whose fam-
ilies were iargely of New England origin.
McKinley took his place among them, ac-
cording to the testimony of every associate
he ever bad in the army, .by sheer “force of
executive ability. He became a commis-
sary sergeant and then a second'lieutenant.
This latter promotion was for gallantry at
the battle of Antietam and was made on
the recommendation,.or his colonel. In
1862, after he had became a second lieu-
tenant, Colonel Hayes, to become a Presi-
dent himself at a later day, made him one
of his staff. Afterward he served as a staff
offirer with Generals Hayes, Crook, Sheri-
dan and Hancock. He became a first lieu-
tenant of bis own home company in 1863
and captain of Company G, Twenty-third
Ohio, in 1864. He was acting assistant
adjutant general of the Firstydivision. First
Army Corps, on the staff of General Car-
roll; was brevetted major in March, 1865,
and mustered out of the service July 26th,
1865.
It was almost at the close of his army
life that McKinley became a Mason, re-
ceiving the degrees in Hiram lodge, Win-
chester, Va., May 1, 1865. He was a
Knight Templar, a Knight of Pythias and
a Greek fraternity, a member of Sigma Al-
pha Epsilon.
In Congress Mr. McKinley won his great-
est fame, and his name will be always as-
‘sociated with the tariff measure, for which
he stood sponsor. When he entered Con-
gress first he was 33 years old. In 1877 he
was, like other Republicans, for a protec-
tive tariff ; in 1888 he flang qualifications
to the winds and became the champion of
protection.
McKinley's first four years were a prep-
aration for his greater work, which began
when Garfield was elected to the presidency
in 1880, and the place he had held on the
ways and means committee of the House
was given to the young man, who soon be-
came known as the champion of pretection.
But Congress was not ready for the question
when he first came to Washington. John
Sherman, as secretary of the treasury, was
preparing for resumption of specie pay-
ment, and the great efforts of the adminis-
tration and the Republican party were to
bring about that result.
The history of the McKinley tariff hill,
its passage, the persistent attacks made on
it, which led to the defeat of 1890, and the
retirement from Congress of Major McKin-
ley, are too well known to need repetition.
But McKinley was defeated.
There was another time during his con-
gressional career when he barely escaped
defeat at the polls, and then was unseated
by a Democratic House. That was in 1882,
another Democratic tidal wave year. That
year his original district had been restored,
and he was seeking a ‘‘third term,’’ some-
thing not before accorded _its representa-
tives. He had strong opposition for the
nomination, some of it rankliug up until
the election, and that, with the popular dis-
content temporarily prevailing, brought
his majority down to eight votes.
Mr. McKinley bad a fame won in anoth-
er field than that of official life. It had
been gained as a political campaign orator.
He was a favorite on the stump for years.
In every campaign the demands for hisserv-
ices far exceeded the possibility of his meet-
ing them. His greatest was in the fall of
1894.
MADE A GREAT TOUR.
This was indeed a memorable tour. It
took in the States of Indiana, Illinois, Mis-
souri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota,
Wiscongin, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennes-
see, Alabama. Mississippi, Louisana, West
Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and
Ohio. On undertaking it Major McKinley
agreed to make 46 speeches. He made
them—and 325 more. For over eight
weeks he averaged seven speeches a day,
ranging in length from 10 minutes to an
hour. It was a long, arduous and tiresome
journey, covering thousands of miles. But
Major McKinley bore up under his labors
with wonderful vigor.
MeKinley was a phenomenal success as a
politician. He presided over the Republi-
can State convention of Ohio in 1884 and
assured the other leaders who wished to be
delegates-at-large to the National conven-
tion that he would not be a candidate for
either of these places. There was a strug-
gle between the Sherman and Blaine men
of the State. McKinley was for Blaine.
But when it came to the selection of the
delegates-at-large there was a bitter strug-
gle. While his State presented the name
of Sherman to that convention, McKinley
had been elected as a Blaine man, and he
had no hesitancy in giving his most earnest
support to Blaine.
At the critical moment in that conven-
tion, when Curtis and Rooseve:t were clam-
oring for adjournment to defeat Blaine,and
some of the Blaine leaders were demoraliz-
ed to the extent that they were trying to
prevent a recognition of the motion, Me-
Kinley mounted a chair and said: ‘*Let the
motion he put and let everybody favorable
to the nomination of Blaine vote against
it.” That settled it. The Blaine men ac-
cepted the challenge, voted down the ad-
journment, and the victory was won.
In the convention of 1888 McKinley was
pledged te Sherman, as he was four years
before pledged to Blaine. But some of his
own Ohio men saw that Sherman could not
win, and they thought McKinley could.
They were overheard discussing his chances
when McKinley walked into the room and
told them that it would never do. The in-
cident of 1880 could not be repeated. This
was a long and exciting contest. The con-
vention was in session over a week. Mr.
Blaine, then in Europe, was ardently sup-
ported: by many, despite his celebrated
‘‘Florence letter’’ declining to be a candi-
date. There grew up a strong feeling for
McKinley. Many of the leaders favored
his nomination as the hest solution of the
difficulty. ;
WAS LOYAL TO SHERMAN.
On Saturday. June 22, every Republican
Member of the House then in Washington
joined in a telegram to Chicago saying tbat
the best interests of the party demanded
the nomination of Major McKinley. That
same day, while the balloting was going on
Connecticut cast a vote for McKinley. He
rose in the midst of the roll call and said
Ohio had sent him there to support John
Sherman and his heart and judgment ac-
corded with his instructions. He could
not remain silent with honor, nor counsist-
ent with the credit of Ohio, honorable fi-
delity to John Sherman, nor with his own
views of personal integrity, ‘‘consent or
seem to consent to be a candidate.”
‘“‘Iwounld not respect myself,”’ said he,
“if I could find in in my heart to do, or to
say, or to permit it to be done, that which
would even be ground for anyone to sus-
pect that I wavered in my loyalty to Ohio,
devotion to the chief of her choice, and the
chief of mine. I donot request, I demand
that no delegate who would not cast a re-
flection upon me shall cast a vote for me.’’
There was no misunderstanding his posi-
tion. Governor Foraker, a delegate with
him said : th mg 3
‘Major McKinley is here under the most
rigid instructions to support John Sher-
man, and no extraneous circumstances, or
extraordinary inducements could for a mo-
ment divert his attention from the central
idea of his presence here. McKinley isas
thoroughly impressed with the gravity of
the situation a he can be, and no man has,
or can have,
ty to bis trust.”
When approached by the New Jersey
delegates and told that they were going to
cast their ballot for him,and that he would
be nominated, McKinley’s answer was:
‘‘Rather than that I would suffer the loss
of my good right arm. Yes, I would suffer
death. To accept a nomination, if one were
possible, under these circumstances would
inevitably leadl to my defeat. and it ought
to lead to my glefeat."’
Major McKinley remained steadfast in
his position,and when Blaine’s letter came,
reiterating his refusal to be a candidate,
the nomination went to Benjamin Harrison
and was ratified by election in the fall. It
is bardly making a rash statement to say
that Major McKinley’s fidelity to John
Sherman lost him the presidency. But it
increased the confidence of the people in
his honor and faithfulness to his trust.
CHAIRMAN OF CONVENTION.
Four years later came the Minneapolis
convention. Major McKinley was its
permanent chairman. When it became
evident that Blaine could not defeat Har-
rison many of his friends turned toward
McKinley. There was great excitement
when the convention began to ballot.
Major McKinley was in the chair and an-
nounced that the ballot for President
should be taken. The first State called—
Alabama—told that some, at least, of
Blaine’s strength was going to McKinley.
When Ohio was called the vote was an-
nounced as ‘‘44 for McKinley, 2 for Har-
rison.”” The convention went wild. Amid
thedin Major McKinley demanded a poll
of the delegation. ‘‘I am a delegate from
Ohio’’ he cried, ‘‘and I demand that my
vote he counted. I challenge the State's
vote.”’
**You were not here,’’ shouted Foraker,
‘‘and your alternate voted for you,’’ and
again the shouts went up. The pool was
taken, and Obio cast 45 votes for MeKin-
ley and one for Harrison. The one Har-
rison vot. was given by Major McKinley.
Harrison was nominated, receiving 535
votes, but McKinley came within a frac-
tional part of one vote of having as many
as were cast for the idol of the Republican
party, James G. Blaine. Blaine had 182 5-6
votes and McKinley 182 1-6.
QUAY ALSO A CANDIDATE.
But in 1896 there was practically no op-
position to McKinley, and one State after
another instructed for him, so that at the
convention his nomination, with Garrett
A. Hobart, of New Jersey, for Vice Presi-
dent, was practically unanimous. At this
convention one of the humorous incidents
was M.:8. Quay, of Pennsylvania, insisting
on getting the vote of his State for the high
office. During the campaign Mr. : MeKin-
ley remained at his home in Canton and
conducted his famous *‘front porch’’ meet-
ings. After his election, and while pre-
paring for a secoud term he made Eastern,
Southern and Western trips.
Senator Hanna has in private conversa-
tion told the story of his first acquaintance
with the President. It was not an agree-
able introduction so far as Mr. Hanna was
concerned. He was the general manager
of a big coal company, with mines in Stark
county. He had a strike in 1875, and this
was followed by a riot and the destruction
of the works. About 40 of the miners were
arrested and indicted. Major McKinley
took up their case and was their attorney.
No one would accusz Mark Hanna
of being u dude in these days, but twenty
years ago he was younger, handsomer
perbaps, certainly more careful as to
his dress, and supported a style befitting
his position as one of the rising young husi-
ness men of Cleveland. When he and
their partners and his attorneys went down
to Canton to prosecute the miners they
took their trunks with them, stopped at
the best hotel in the little town,lived well,
dressed exceptionally well, and, with their
good looks, made a more favorable impres-
sion on the fair sex of the place than they
did upon the miners or their young attor-
ney.
Mr. Hanna now admits that McKinley
showed excellent judgment in his line of
defense, but he has never quite forgiven
him for the personal allusions he made to
the prosecution, their style, and their dis-
play of wealth, as contrasting with the
sturdy sons of toil, whom they were prose-
cuting. The case attracted much atten-
tion, and the court room was crowded day
after day as the trial progressed. The
handsome, well-dressed mine owners were
the most conspicuous men in the room,
and Mr. Hanna does not deny that they
rather enjoyed their distintction until Me-
Kinley began his argument for the defense.
He neglected none of the legal points, and
made a very strong argument, but he did
not stop there.
PLEADED FOR THE MINERS.
He was even then looked upon as an ora-
tor with considerable power to sway the
judgment of other men, and he did not
neglect to use his power. He made a strong
and eloquent plea for the miners, and then
turning to Mr. Hanna and his companions,
he drew a striking contrast between them
and the defendants. He called attention
to the handsome young men, who faces
showed no lines of care, whose hands were
free from the stains aud callous marks of
honest toil, to their most fashionable at-
tire, their gaudy cravats and diamond pins,
to their patent leather shoes, and described
them at their ease in the hotel corridors,
where they smoked fragrant Havana cigars
and drank champagne, or drove about the
city in the finest equipages to be found in
Canton. :
He’ pictured them as princes of pluto-
crats, and then he tnrned to the poor min-
ers and told the story of their trials and
bardships, contrasted their clothes and gen-
eral appearance with their prosecutors’ and
made a most touching appeal for their
wives and children. This defense created
a sensation, and Mr. Hanna and his com-
panions suddenly found that their good
looks and their fashionable clothes were no
longer an agreeable attraction in the court
room. McKinley bad ina few minutes
made them to appear as prosecutors, who
had been making their wealth and ease and.
luxury from the toil of these half starved
miners who were on trial for their liberty,
‘| and jury and spectators from that moment
could see nothing pleasant or attractive in
the handsome business men from Cleveland.
All the miners, except one, were acquitted,
and he was given a sentence of one year in
the penitentiary, hut was pardoned by
Governor Hayes when Major McKinley
went to Columbus and made an appeal for
clemency.
THE WAR IN CUBA.
For more than half a century before Mr.
McKinley became President, insurrections,
revolutions, and all manner of disturbances
in Cuba, due to Spanish mal-administra-
tion, had been observed with anxiety by
the government of the United States. To
apy reason to doubt his fideli- |
William MeKinler, however, and not to
Thomas Jefferson, who thought that Cuba |
who |
ought to be annexed, or to Grant,
shared with Congress his concern over the
menace of constant Cuban uprisings, came |
the task of securing Cuba's freedom from
Spanish rule.
It is still a mooted question how far the
war with Spain was forced upon the Presi-
dent by a clamorous Congress. For a long
time before war appeared inevitable the
President unquestionably moved with cau-
tious tread, while violent and incendiary
speeches in and out of Congress fanned pub-
lic indignation into a flame. Looking
back to that exciting and critical period,
and remembering how conservative Presi-
dent McKinley seemed to be, itis easy
enough now to give him credit for patient-
ly exhausting all means of securing through
diplomacy the relief of the distressed
Cubans. Itis not difficult to recall the
feeling of disappointment and irritation
which found expression as each successive
message of the President seemed to find
him halting on the brink of warlike mea-
sures; and yet these messages, read to-day
in the light of events, are found to be fair-
ly bristling with phrases that betrayed the
heart of the man beneath ' the official ex-
terior of the chief executive. It was ‘‘the
cruel policy of coucentration’’ which he
denounced, hecause it was ‘‘not civilized
warfare.”
The war cloud burst, and in less than 90
days the skies were clear again. Yet in
that brief time the equilibrium of the
world had been touched. Cuba had been
liberated, all the Spanish West Indies had
been gathered under the American flag,
and as an indirect but necessary result,
Hawaii had been annexed. All of these
things were not to be compared in import-
ance, however, with the fact that the de-
feat of the Spanish fleet in Manila harbor
by Commodore Dewey’s squadron had
ousted the Spanish from their possession of
the Philippine islands, a possession which
they had enjoyed in undisturbed fashion
for three centuries. The United States
suddenly hecame a world power in the
Orient. All the other events of McKin-
ley’s administration—pale into in-
significance before this acquisition
of a vast archipelago, with 1,200 isl-
ands and 10,000,000 people, situated
7,000 miles from our shores.
CESSION OF THE PHILIPPINES.
It is undoubtedly a fact, although the of-
ficial records<have ‘never been published,
that the President was at first favorable on-
ly to the acquisition of the island of Lu-
zon, and so instructed the American peace
commissioners at Paris. The popular idea
is that his mind was influenced in the di-
rection of securing the entire archipelago
by the sentiment of the Western people for
this acquisition manifested during his visit
to the Umaha exposition. At any rate the
cession of all the Philippines was finally
demanded of Spain. Compliance was se-
cured without difficulty, especially as the
commissioners agreed that the United
‘| States shotld pay«Spain.the sum of $20,-
000. In the meantime a large fleet of
transports Had been plying back and forth
across the Pacific, carrying troops and am-
munition, until the foothold which the
United States had obtained in the islands
made American dislodgment practically
impossible.
As if the war with Spain and the war in
the Philippines were not enough for one
administration. President McKinley was
called upon to direct the movements of
American troops upon the soil of China.
On June 19th the foreign ministers in
Pekin were imprisoned in their legations
as the result of anti-foreign uprising, head-
ed by the Boxers. The relief of the be-
sieged representatives, including the
American minister, Mr. Conger, became an
imperative necessity, and the President,
without convening Congress ordered troops
from the Philippines to march upon Pekin.
The sentiment of the country upheld this
decisive action and applauded, also, the
magnificent diplomacy which placed the
United States in the lead of all the world
in dealing with the critical situation. In
the same way, there was a universal sigh
of relief when after the American minister
had been rescued, the President decided
that the purposed of invasion had been
achieved, and the United States could not
be a party to any scheme of spoliation or
revenue. Throughout the Chinese troubles
the President acted with the same conser-
vatism which characterized his treatment
of previous problems.
It was a triumph for President McKin-
ley that he secured in The Hague interna-
tional arbitration treaty the first formal
aud specific recognition of the Monroe doc-
trine by all European powers. In return,
therefore, a pledge was given that the
United States would remain aloof from any
European complications. Singularly
enough, this pledge was invoked against
the effort of Great Britian to crush out of
existence the Boer republic in South Africa,
and the President was compelled to endure
partisan criticism because of his apparent
indifference to the fate of the republic.
Two things were not done during Presi-
dent McKinley’s administration. No law
bas heen enacted to control the vast com-
binations of ‘capital known as (trusts, al-
though the President relieved himself of
responsibility by recommending to Con-
gress, more than once, that such legis-
lation should be enacted. The growth of
trusts during Mr. McKinley’s adminis-
tration was unparalleled‘in the history of
the country, and 1s attributed by many to
the protection which the tariff affords to
the products of capital. The second fail-
ure of the administration concerns the Nic-
aragua canal, but there is every prospect
that the next four years will see the con-
struction of this great water-way com-
menced. The negotiation of a treaty with
Great Britain, possibly conceived in the
idea that it would hasten the beginning of
the work upon the canal, was in reality a
retarding factor. While it was pending in
the Senate, there was ample excuse for not
considering the Nicaragua canal bill, and
now that it is to he allowed to lapse by
England, Congress will be compelled to ac-
complish, by direct methods, the abroga-
tion of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty- This
step could, and doubtless would, have heen
taken months ago but for the submission of
the Hay-Pauncefote treaty to the Senate.
President McKinley made five changes
in his cabinet since March 4th, 1897, Sec-
retaries Day, Alger and Bliss, Postmaster
General Gary, and Attorney General Mec-
Kenna having been succeeded, respective-
ly, by Secretaries Hay, Root and Hitch-
cock, Postmaster General Smith and At-
torney General Griggs by P. C. Knox, of
Pittsburg, Secretary. Alger was asked to
resign from the Cabinet because the ad-
ministration did not desire to carry the
burden of the so-called ‘‘embalmed beef
scandal.”
The war in the Philippines dated from
the destruction of the Spanish fleet by Ad-
miral Dewey on May 1st, 1898. The city
of Manila was captured on August 13th,
1899, and the insurgent warfare began
February 4th, 1900. The Filpino war is
still being carried on in guerilla manner,
| but Aguinaldo and his chief generals have
surrendered.
Major McKinley was 59 years old. He was
| strong and vigorous, well preserved. His
form erect, his eyes bright, but many a
gray thread gleamed among his dark hair.
He worked but did not worry. His dress
was plain, and always of black material.
His coat was a frock, always buttoned.
In summer his clothing was of lighter ma-
terial, but black in color, and he wore a
straw hat instead of the silk hat worn in
other seasons and on all formal occasions.
His neckties were black or dark blue. Be-
yond a plain gold ring, he wore no jewel-
ry, but in the button-hole was always
seen the bronze badge of the Grand Army
of the Republic, or the red, white and
blue rosette of the Loyal Legion.
DID NOT USE LIQUOR.
He did not use intoxicating liquors, but
was a great smoker. No man was a better
judge of good cigars, and he did not smoke
any others. When not at work the blue
smoke from his cigar was constantly carl-
ing in the air as he talked or tiaveled.
Those who did not know him well
might have thought him rather reseryed.
if not austere. This was a mistake. With
his friends he was a most jolly companion.
While be never told a story in his speech-
es,he was an excellent story-teller, and
enjoyed listening to them. His apprecia-
tion of humor was most keen, and when
among his inti mate associates there was
no better sign that he was in excellent hu-
mor and liked the person with whom he
talked than the way in which he jokingly
teased him on some harmless matter.
His home life was happy in the extreme.
In 1971 he married Miss Ida Saxton, of
Canton. Mrs. McKinley is a gentle, ac-
complished lady, but for years she has
been an invalid. Thedevotion of husband
and wife to one another was touching. No
young lover ever manifested greater affec-
tion, more constant, loving care than did
Major McKinley for his invalid wife.
When absent from her, not a day passed in
which he did not find time to send a brief
letter or telegram to her at frequent inter-
vals.
Their two children died in infancy, an
especially deep affliction toa couple who
loved children as they did. Mrs. MeKin-
ley will frequently stop her carriage while
out driving and call a child to her. All
her friends must bring their babies for her
to see. Both she and the major were fond
of the society of young people, and it was
a souice of regret to them that circum-
stances prevented their entertaining them.
DEVOTED TO HIS WIFE.
Mrs. McKinley’s life was a constant ob-
ject lesson to ber husband, an inspiration
which his best friends felt constantly spur-
ring him on to greater achievements. She
was for 14 years a resident at the Ebbit?,
the period during which Major McKinley
was in Congress. Their old home in Can-
ton has become a historic place. It isa
large brick structure, located on the princi-
pal business street of the city, and has a
roof under which have been sheltered
Hayes, Garfield, Blaine, Fred Grant, Gen-
eral Sherman, Senator Sherman, Logan and
a host of otherfamous men. Probably
few private residences in this country have
ever had at one time or another as many
famous men visit it as this modest struct-
ure.
Apropos of this story, known to be his-
torically true, a touching little incident
in the life of Mrs. McKinley of the White
House. was told by an intimate friend. In
the days when the Major first became in-
terested in politics and determined to run
for Congress his frequent absences from
home pained his wife, and one day she
spoke of it to his mother. That wise ma-
tron, mindful of the happiness of her child-
ren, told her son of this. and reminded
him of the sad condition of his wife’s health
a condition brought on at the birth of their
second child. The young politician was
deeply pained, and immediately sought
his wife and told her that he had no object
in life except to make her happy, and that
if she would be happier if he sought fame
and success in private life, he would cheer-
fully give up his public ambition.
The wife of only five years asked for a
day to answer such a momentous question,
and then she told her husband, not with-
out shedding tears, that his ambition
should be hers, and that it was her hope
to belp and not to hinder him in whatever
career he felt himself most fitted io succeed.
The President often attested how faithful-
ly his wife kept this promise during the
many political vicissitudes through which
they passed.
Disappearing Deserts.
In a Few Years There'll Be No Such Thing as
a Desert in America.
Surely the ‘‘Great American Desert’’ of
our childhood days will soon be a thing of
the past. The only conception of desert
that the next generation will be able to
obtain must come from pictures and des-
criptions of something that once existed,
but is no more. Indeed, it is quite likely
that we shall not have to wait for the next
generation to: witness the realization of
this change.
A special dispatch from San Bernardino
to the ‘‘Times announces that an artisian
gusher, with a flow of nealy 200 inches of
water, has been struck on the Mojave
desert, near Victor, at a depth of less than
200 feet, by parties who were drilling for
oil. This is not'hy any means the first
time that water has been struck in South-
ern California by persons who were seek-
ing for oil, and in‘ some cases the water
has proved to be more valuable than a
moderate amount of oil would be. :
Out on the Colorado desert, below sea
level, they have found a fine snpply of ar-
tesian water at a moderate depth, and at
the other end of the desert, near Yuna,
water is flowing through a canal which is
long enough to be navigated by a steam
launch. :
All this is only a slight foretaste of what
is to come within the next forty years.
That favorite quotation of our friend, the
country editor. ‘‘The desert shall blos-
som as the rose,’’ is destined to be exem-
plified to a remarkable degree in Southern
California within the next decade. Not
only shall the desert blossom as the rose,
but also as the less beautiful but more pro-
lific cabbage and potato and cauliflower
and sugar beet and watermelon and fruit
tree and many other things which profit a
man’s stomach and swell his bank account.
Saved a Mill Girl's Life.
Josephine Murphy's Hair Caught in a Textile
Machine.
Caught by the hair in a machine at the
Lincoln Woolen Mills at Chester, Miss
Josephine Murphy was being drawn to her
death when a workman saw her danger and
threw the beltin g from the shafting.
Miss Murphy got under the machine to
see what clogged it when a cog caught her
long hair.
Mountain Movements.
The Rockies are Said to Be Constantly in Motion.
“The mountains are constantly moving’’
was the remark of an officer of the Denver
& Rio Grande Road recently in speaking of
the great landslides in the canon above
Glenwood Springs, Col. ‘‘We find from
actual experience in maintaining tunnels,
bridges and tracks in the mountains that
the mountains are moving. It costs a rail-
way passing through the n:ountains a great
deal of money in the course of ten years to
keep the tracks in line, and maintenance of
tunnels is even more expensive. Drive a
stake on the side of a mountain, take the
location with the greatest care and return
after a few months. The stake is not in the
same location. The whole side of the
mountain has moved. This experiment
has often been tried and in all cases the re-
sult proves that the mountains are moving.
The mountains are gradually seeking the
level of the sea.”
While we do not quite agree with the
last assertion that ‘‘the mountains are seek-
ing the sea level,”” there appears no gues-
tion but that local movements are in prog-
ress 10 the Rockies and the observations of
the railroad surveyor are confirmed by those
experienced in some of the mines. In quite
a number of mines located on fissure veins
or between highly tilted strata, or in the
vicinity of great faults, movements have
heen for a long time observed, and some-
times of so pronounced a nature that tim-
bers after a few years are found so out of
place as to require a complete new lumber-
ing of portions of the mine, and these
movements do not seem to be the result, as
in coal mines, of a creeping from excava-
tion of material, but actual slipping or
faulting movements of the mountain itself
along certain lines, especially old fault
planes and veins, the latter generally oc-
cupying fissures along fault lines.
A notable instance is in the mines of
Smuggler Mountain at Aspen, Col., where
in some of the deep workings, timbers two
feet thick and eight to ten feet long placed
across the slopes are snapped in two like
reeds and their ends broomed up by the
overwhelming pressure and slipping move-
ments of the walls. The ore bodies lie be-
tween strata almost vertically uplifted
against a granite mountain or wall, and
abound in faults and slipping planes.
These movements are not the result of ex-
cavation of the ore, but appear to come
from a general movement of tke hills slip-
ping or faulting off from the gianite wall.
——————
Union County’s Coming Fair.
To Be Held at Brook Park. Lewisburg. Penna.
The 48th annual fair and exhibition of
the Union County Agricultural Society
will be held at Brook park, Lewisburg,
Pennsylvania, on September, 24th, 25th,
26th and 27th, 1901.
This organization, nearly half a century
old, is one of the standard agricultural so-
cieties in the Keystone Commonwealth. It
has a reputition far and wide for the ex-
cellence of its annual exhibitions and the
high character of attractions, attested to
by the large crowds that assemble each
year on its spacious and well equipped
grounds just beyond the western suburbs
of Lewisburg.
Each year the society has been increas-
ing the number of attractions and this
year they promise to eclipse all attempts of
the past.
Between the races there will be trapeze
and acrobatic performances by high grade
professional artists.
The society has an excellent track, with
a record of 2:08;. The grand stand is so
located that all portions of the track may
be seen. Private boxes and chairs add to
the convenience and comfort of the patrons
of the grand stand.
The premium list, enlarged and revised,
will be more attractive than ever and will
draw to the county fair many owners of
fast horses and raisers of fancy and high
bred cattle.
The society is distinctively agricultural
in its purpose and method and hence farm-
ers, their wives, sons and daughters, farm-
er’s organizations, manufacturers and mer-
chants are invited to enlarge and enrich
the display in the exhibition building and
compete for the various premiums.
Full particulars are given in the annual
books just published by the society. Send
a postal to C. Dale Wolf Cor., Sec., Buck-
nell P. O., Pa., and he will send you a
copy and will be glad to give you any
further information you may desire.
Aged Bridegroom Dies.
Paul 8S. Brown, 90 Years Old, Left Bride and
Fortune of $100,000.
Paul Landstrom Brown, ninety years
old, died at the home of his nephew in
Monroe place, Bloomfield, N.'J. late Fri-
day night of old age. Mr. Brown, who
was reputed to be worth $100,000 princi-
pally in real estate and stocks and bonds,
was quietly married just a week before his
death to Miss Augusta Andress, a good
looking woman thirty-seven year old, who
Was a trained nurse and Jived in New York
ity. :
Miss Andress met Mr. Brown through an
advertisement which his nephew, Mr, Car-
rington, inserted in a New York newspa-
per, asking for a housekeeper. * She was se-
lected from about fifty applicants and her
manner and style of cooking so won the
hearts of uncleand nephew that the for-
mer asked her to become his wife
She was surprised and asked him to
think it over. Miss Andress really cared
for the old man, and after consulting
friends in New York she told Mr. Brown
that she would marry him. He sum-
moned Arthur Russell, a real estate opera-
tor of Glen Ridge and Bloomfield, and
Tyndon G. Fitch, his nearest neighbor,
and in their presence signed a marriage
contract which Mr. Russell drew up. It is
said that the contract provides that the
bride shall receive deeds to valuable prop-
erty owned by Mr. Brown in New York
and Brooklyn three montls after the mar-
riage ceremony. . :
Mr. Brown’s three grown sons live in
Brooklyn, and one of them was called to
Bloomfield by the tidings that his father’s
condition was serious.
He did not arrive until after his father
had died.
Mrs. Brown has property of her own in
New York. What disposition Mr. Brown -
made of the hulk of his. fortune is not
known.
Magistrate—It has been proven that you
struck your wife, and— :
Defendant—Well, Judge, I stood her
bossin’ as long as I could.
Magistrate—That doesn’t excuse you.
She is a weaker vessel and you should—
Defendant—Weaker vessel, ¢h? Then
why does she carry so blame much sail ?
——Fred C. Easton, son of the late J. C.
Easton, a retired millionaire, will give
$100.000 toward ‘the erection of a new
Presbyterian college in La. Crosse, Wis.