"Oh, yes," he responded.

"She and I were nearly the same

age. I often saw her on the street. The old woman was hearty and pleasant all her days. Only a little while before she got sick I saw her with her little market basket on her arm tripping along better than many a woman of fifty years could do.”

"Her head was never turned by the glare of society,” said another acquaintance. "The common people were always fond of her."

On December 15th Congress adjourned out of respect to her memory; and coming generations will point to the grave of Nancy McKinley, as they now delight to point to that of Mary Washington, as the resting-place of a model mother.

Pilgrims who, in coming generations, visit Canton will note this one difference between the grave of McKinley and that of any other President, except Garfield-he sleeps close beside his mother. And how fitting it is! for what man more than the third martyr President avowed his obligation and love to her who gave him birth?

TH

CHAPTER III

McKinley's Boyhood and Education

HE story of William McKinley as a successful fisherman, a skater, a blackberry picker, as a playmate, and of the boy who "licked" him when he was eight years old, is one which makes every boy's and man's heart warm with memories of similar experiences. Niles, Ohio, was McKinley's birthplace. The house in which he was born has recently been cut in two, and the section which includes the room of his birth has been moved a mile away, to a pretty spot known to the people of Niles as Riverside Park. This half of the house has been newly sided up and is occupied by James Maines and family. The house has been the victim of relic hunters. The room in which Mr. McKinley was born bears the marks of penknives on all sides. A chip from the woodwork, a piece of plaster-anything has served as a memento to the sightseer, who has been happening this way for the last few years.

Joe Fisher was for a long time the village constable, the truant officer, and an old soldier. "There," said he, as he pointed the small end of his corncob pipe to a red colored building across the street, "is the old school in which 'Bill' and I learned our A. B. C's. 'Bill' is President now, but he hasn't forgotten Joe Fisher. I never asked him for an office, for I don't believe in that sort of thing, but if ever I happen to be where McKinley is he throws his arm around me and gives my hand such a shake as brings back the days when three of us boys were chums, 'Bill' and Mr. Allison and Joe Fisher." Greatness never spoiled the good President, nor kept him aloof from his old friends and neighbors.

The red building, referred to by Mr. Fisher as the schoolhouse, is now occupied by a marble and granite company, and is situated

on the main street of the town. Just to the rear of its present location once stood the blackberry bushes which McKinley as a boy used to visit with his companions, the blackberry pails suspended in front of them at a convenient height for picking. That section of Niles was then a sort of swamp. To-day it is covered by the nice little homes of the laborers who work in the mills not far distant.

"I declare I never thought 'Bill' would be President," continued Joe Fisher. "Little did I suppose as I sat fishing with him on Mosquito Creek with our legs dangling from the edge of the bridge, or as we caught angle worms to bait our hooks, that I was with a coming President. I well remember his patience with the hook and line. The rest of the boys would get disgusted at not getting a bite and go in bathing, but 'Bill' would keep on fishing. When it came time to go home he would carry a string of fish, while the rest had to be content with their baths. Sometimes we would all have good luck, and the strings of fish we would carry home suspended from a pole across our shoulders would make the eyes of everyone we passed stick 'way out.""

THE PLACE OF HIS BIRTH

Niles is now a city of 9000 to 10,000 inhabitants. It is a busy centre. Furnaces and steel mills are located in the very boyhood footsteps of President McKinley. Fifty years ago there were a few mills there and a number of blacksmith shops. One of the blacksmith shops made the pair of skates on which McKinley learned to skate. Ice skates could not be purchased in the stores of Niles at that time. They were as much a luxury as diamonds are to-day. Allison, McKinley and Fisher all learned to skate on the same pair of skates. They took turns at using them. After they had learned, the first one to the spot where the skates were kept used them first, in accordance with the maxim, "first come, first served." Mr. McKinley was a good skater, although he is not remembered as having attempted to cut any fancy figures.