ordinary duties, Mr. Blaine is a pattern man. He has been fortunate in life, but his good fortune has been the result of good habits and good sense, and he has been so generous, not only with money, but with time and sympathy, that envy and jealousy have not followed him. He has an elegant, refined, Christian home, open to every demand of hospitality; and there is not a poor man in the town who hesitates to enter it for relief, or who goes away empty-handed.

"Mr. Blaine has always been a model of honor and uprightness in his financial dealings. His word is as good as his bond, and no debt was ever unpaid, or grudgingly paid, or evaded by him. This whole community will absolutely testify to his liberality, and bear witness how wisely and constantly he has given to all good and worthy objects.

"Men may be tempted by the necessities of a desperate political campaign to resort to 'mudthrowing' to assail Mr. Blaine's character, but against all such efforts we present a man who has the universal respect and attachment of neighbors who have known him throughout his whole career, and know that he has been a centre of good and not of evil all his life; a man who has a State behind him of absolute unanimity, and who has to-day a more devoted and enthusiastic personal following than any other man in the United States."

As an example of Mr. Blaine's sympathy and generosity, an incident coming within the observation of the writer may be noticed. A young journalist, who had been friendly to Mr. Blaine, or at least not prejudiced against him, was lying very ill at his residence in Washington. His expenses were heavy, and his income was wholly cut off. Another journalist told Mr. Blaine of the condition of the sick man and his family. Mr. Blaine, then Speaker, was about to open the day's session of the House. When he heard the story, he said, "Wait a moment," and went to his official desk. The usual morning prayer was said, and then, while the Journal of the previous day's session was being read, Mr. Blaine called a member to the chair and joined his newspaper friend in the Speaker's lobby.

"Come with me," said he; and, going directly to the office of the Sergeant-at-Arms, he drew one hundred dollars in bills, and, handing them to the gentleman, said, "If you get a chance to give this to his family without wounding their pride or subjecting them to obligation, do so, only do not let my name be mentioned." It so happened that the money was not needed, but the kindly disposition of the man was thus illustrated. And this is only one instance among the almost numberless cases where his purse has been opened wherever its contents could relieve distress or misery, or serve some good cause.

The following remarks of the Rev. Dr. Ecob, now in charge of a large congregation in Albany, N. Y., are appropriate in this connection. No truer, better man than he ever entered a pulpit.

"I have known Mr. Blaine," says this gentleman, "since 1872. During nearly ten years of that time I was pastor of the church in Augusta of which Mr. and Mrs. Blaine are members. The satisfaction I take in his nomination is based upon such a knowledge of him as only a pastor can gain. I believe that I am too true a Republican, and I know that my conception of citizenship is too high, to permit me to ratify the exaltation of any man whose character has not the true ring. I have been very near to Mr. Blaine, not only in the most trying political crises, but in the sharper trial of great grief in the household, and have never yet detected a false note. I would not be understood as avowing too much for human nature. I mean that as I have known him he has stood loyally by his convictions; that his word has always had back of it a clear purpose, and that purpose has always been worthy of the highest manhood.

"In his house he was always the soul of geniality and good heart. It was always summer in that house whatever the Maine winter might be without. And not only his 'rich neighbors and kinsmen' welcomed him home, but a long line of the poor hailed the return of that family as a

special providence. In the church he is honored and beloved. The good old New England custom of church-going with all the guests is enforced strictly in the Blaine household. Whoever is under his roof, from the President down, is expected to be with the family at church. Fair weather or foul, those pews were always well filled. Not only his presence on the Sabbath, but his influence, his wise counsels, his purse, are freely devoted to the interest of the noble Old South Church of Augusta.

"The hold which Mr. Blaine has maintained upon the hearts of such great numbers of his countrymen is not sufficiently explained by brilliant gifts of magnetism; the secret lies in his generous, manly, Christian character. Those who have known him best are not surprised that his friends all over the country have been determined that he should secure the highest honor within their gift. It is because they believe in him. The office has sought the man, the political papers to the contrary notwithstanding. I have absolute knowledge that in 1880 he did not lift a finger to influence the Convention. He was quietly at home devoting himself to his business affairs, and steadfastly refused even the entreaties of his own family to interest himself in behalf of the nomination. I, for one, shall put my conscience into my vote next November."

CHAPTER V.

AN AMERICAN OF THE AMERICANS.

THERE is nothing which has more commended Mr. Blaine to the admiration and enthusiastic support of his fellow-countrymen, whether they were distinctly conscious of the quality in him or not, than the thoroughly native quality and fibre of his character. He is above all things an American. It is scarcely necessary to qualify this by saying that there is in him none of the narrowness of the so-called "Native American," "Know Nothing," and none of that harmful excess of feeling to which the French, who afford perhaps the best specimens of it, have given the name of "Chauvinism." His sympathies, though first for his own nation, are also wide enough to embrace the whole "boundless continent," which he thinks ought to be "ours" by the peaceful conquest of mutual commerce and friendship, and every man is to him an American who gives his undivided faith and allegiance to the Constitution and the Union, and is ready to merge himself in the body of the American people. With only this proviso he is ready to espouse the cause of any citizen or class of citizens, wherever they may