1 files changed, 7470 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/14964.txt b/14964.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..59236f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14964.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7470 @@
+Project Gutenberg's From Canal Boy to President, by Horatio Alger, Jr.
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: From Canal Boy to President
+       Or The Boyhood and Manhood of James A. Garfield
+
+Author: Horatio Alger, Jr.
+
+Release Date: February 7, 2005 [EBook #14964]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM CANAL BOY TO PRESIDENT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Josephine Paolucci, Joshua Hutchinson
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: JAMES A. GARFIELD,
+AT THE AGE OF 16.
+_Copied by permission of_ J.F. RYDER, _Cleveland, G._]
+
+
+
+
+FROM
+
+CANAL BOY TO PRESIDENT,
+
+OR THE
+
+BOYHOOD AND MANHOOD
+
+OF
+
+JAMES A. GARFIELD.
+
+BY
+
+HORATIO ALGER, JR.,
+
+AUTHOR OF RAGGED DICK; LUCK AND PLUCK; TATTERED TOM, ETC.
+
+_ILLUSTRATED_.
+
+NEW YORK
+
+AMERICAN PUBLISHERS CORPORATION
+
+310-318 SIXTH AVENUE
+
+1881
+
+
+
+
+TO
+
+HARRY AND JAMES GARFIELD
+
+WHOSE PRIVATE SORROW
+
+IS THE PUBLIC GRIEF,
+
+THIS MEMORIAL OF THEIR ILLUSTRIOUS FATHER
+
+Is inscribed
+
+WITH THE WARMEST SYMPATHY.
+
+
+
+
+GENERAL PREFACE.
+
+
+The present series of volumes has been undertaken with the view of
+supplying the want of a class of books for children, of a vigorous,
+manly tone, combined with a plain and concise mode of narration. The
+writings of Charles Dickens have been selected as the basis of the
+scheme, on account of the well-known excellence of his portrayal of
+children, and the interests connected with children--qualities which
+have given his volumes their strongest hold on the hearts of parents.
+These delineations having thus received the approval of readers of
+mature age, it seemed a worthy effort to make the young also
+participants in the enjoyment of these classic fictions, to introduce
+the children of real life to these beautiful children of the
+imagination.
+
+With this view, the career of Little Nell and her Grandfather, Oliver,
+Little Paul, Florence Dombey, Smike, and the Child-Wife, have been
+detached from the large mass of matter with which they were originally
+connected, and presented, in the author's own language, to a new class
+of readers, to whom the little volumes will we doubt not, be as
+attractive as the larger originals have so long proved to the general
+public. We have brought down these famous stories from the library to
+the nursery--the parlor table to the child's hands--having a precedent
+for the proceeding, if one be needed, in the somewhat similar work, the
+Tales from Shakespeare, by one of the choicest of English authors and
+most reverential of scholars, Charles Lamb.
+
+Newtonville, Mass.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+If I am asked why I add one to the numerous Lives of our dead President,
+I answer, in the words of Hon. Chauncey M. Depew, because "our annals
+afford no such incentive to youth as does his life, and it will become
+one of the Republic's household stories."
+
+I have conceived, therefore, that a biography, written with a view to
+interest young people in the facts of his great career, would be a
+praiseworthy undertaking. The biography of General Garfield, however
+imperfectly executed, can not but be profitable to the reader. In this
+story, which I have made as attractive as I am able, I make no claim to
+originality. I have made free use of such materials as came within my
+reach, including incidents and reminiscences made public during the last
+summer, and I trust I have succeeded, in a measure, in conveying a
+correct idea of a character whose nobility we have only learned to
+appreciate since death has snatched our leader from us.
+
+I take pleasure in acknowledging my obligations to two Lives of
+Garfield, one by Edmund Kirke, the other by Major J.M. Bundy. Such of my
+readers as desire a more extended account of the later life of Gen.
+Garfield, I refer to these well-written and instructive works.
+
+HORATIO ALGER, JR.
+
+New York, _Oct_. 8, 1881.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+I.--THE FIRST PAIR OF SHOES
+
+II.--GROWING IN WISDOM AND STATURE
+
+III.--IN QUEST OF FORTUNE
+
+IV.--ON THE TOW-PATH
+
+V.--AN IMPORTANT CONVERSATION
+
+VI.--JAMES LEAVES THE CANAL
+
+VII.--THE CHOICE OF A VOCATION
+
+VIII.--GEAUGA SEMINARY
+
+IX.--WAYS AND MEANS
+
+X.--A COUSIN'S REMINISCENCES
+
+XI.--LEDGE HILL SCHOOL
+
+XII.--WHO SHALL BE MASTER?
+
+XIII.--JAMES LEAVES GEAUGA SEMINARY
+
+XIV.--AT HIRAM INSTITUTE
+
+XV.--THREE BUSY YEARS
+
+XVI.--ENTERING WILLIAMS COLLEGE
+
+XVII.--LIFE IN COLLEGE
+
+XVIII.--THE CANAL-BOY BECOMES A COLLEGE PRESIDENT
+
+XIX.--GARFIELD AS A COLLEGE PRESIDENT
+
+XX.--GARFIELD BECOMES A STATE SENATOR
+
+XXI.--A DIFFICULT DUTY
+
+XXII.--JOHN JORDAN'S DANGEROUS JOURNEY
+
+XXIII.--GARFIELD'S BOLD STRATEGY
+
+XXIV.--THE BATTLE OF MIDDLE CREEK
+
+XXV.--THE PERILOUS TRIP UP THE BIG SANDY
+
+XXVI.--THE CANAL-BOY BECOMES A CONGRESSMAN
+
+XXVII.--GARFIELD'S COURSE IN CONGRESS
+
+XXVIII.--THE MAN FOR THE HOUR
+
+XXIX.--GARFIELD AS A LAWYER
+
+XXX.--THE SCHOLAR IN POLITICS
+
+XXXI.--THE TRIBUTES OF FRIENDS
+
+XXXII.--FROM CANAL-BOY TO PRESIDENT
+
+XXXIII.--THE NEW ADMINISTRATION
+
+XXXIV.--THE TRAGIC END
+
+XXXV.--MR. DEPEW'S ESTIMATE OF GARFIELD
+
+XXXVI.--THE LESSONS OF HIS LIFE
+
+
+
+
+THE
+
+BOYHOOD AND MANHOOD
+
+OF
+
+JAMES A. GARFIELD.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE FIRST PAIR OF SHOES.
+
+
+From a small and rudely-built log-cabin a sturdy boy of four years
+issued, and looked earnestly across the clearing to the pathway that led
+through the surrounding forest. His bare feet pressed the soft grass,
+which spread like a carpet before the door.
+
+"What are you looking for, Jimmy?" asked his mother from within the
+humble dwelling.
+
+"I'm looking for Thomas," said Jimmy.
+
+"It's hardly time for him yet. He won't be through work till after
+sunset."
+
+"Then I wish the sun would set quick," said Jimmy.
+
+"That is something we can not hasten, my son. God makes the sun to rise
+and to set in its due season."
+
+This idea was probably too advanced for Jimmy's comprehension, for he
+was but four years of age, and the youngest of a family of four
+children. His father had died two years before, leaving a young widow,
+and four children, the eldest but nine, in sore straits. A long and
+severe winter lay before the little family, and they had but little corn
+garnered to carry them through till the next harvest. But the young
+widow was a brave woman and a devoted mother.
+
+"God will provide for us," she said, but sometimes it seemed a mystery
+how that provision was to come. More than once, when the corn was low in
+the bin, she went to bed without her own supper, that her four children,
+who were blessed with hearty appetites, might be satisfied. But when
+twelve months had gone by, and the new harvest came in, the fields which
+she and her oldest boy had planted yielded enough to place them beyond
+the fear of want. God did help them, but it was because they helped
+themselves.
+
+But beyond the barest necessaries the little family neither expected
+nor obtained much. Clothing cost money, and there was very little money
+in the log-cabin, or indeed in the whole settlement, if settlement it
+can be called. There was no house within a mile, and the village a mile
+and a half away contained only a school-house, a grist-mill, and a
+little log store and dwelling.
+
+Two weeks before my story opens, a farmer living not far away called at
+the log-cabin. Thomas, the oldest boy, was at work in a field near the
+house.
+
+"Do you want to see mother?" he asked.
+
+"No, I want to see you."
+
+"All right, sir! Here I am," said Thomas, smiling pleasantly.
+
+"How old are you?" asked the farmer.
+
+"Eleven years old, sir."
+
+The farmer surveyed approvingly the sturdy frame, broad shoulders, and
+muscular arms of the boy, and said, after a pause, "You look pretty
+strong of your age."
+
+"Oh, yes, sir," answered Thomas, complacently "I am strong."
+
+"And you are used to farm work?"
+
+"Yes, sir. I do about all the outdoor work at home, being the only boy.
+Of course, there is Jimmy, but he is only four, and that's too young to
+work on the farm."
+
+"What does he want?" thought Thomas.
+
+He soon learned.
+
+"I need help on my farm, and I guess you will suit me," said Mr. Conrad,
+though that was not his name. In fact, I don't know his name, but that
+will do as well as any other.
+
+"I don't know whether mother can spare me, but I can ask her," said
+Thomas. "What are you willing to pay?"
+
+"I'll give you twelve dollars a month, but you'll have to make long
+days."
+
+Twelve dollars a month! Tom's eyes sparkled with joy, for to him it
+seemed an immense sum--and it would go very far in the little family.
+
+"I am quite sure mother will let me go," he said. "I'll go in and ask
+her."
+
+"Do so, sonny, and I'll wait for you here."
+
+Thomas swung open the plank door, and entered the cabin.
+
+It was about twenty feet one way by thirty the other. It had three small
+windows, a deal floor, and the spaces between the logs of which it was
+built were filled in with clay. It was certainly an humble dwelling, and
+the chances are that not one of my young readers is so poor as not to
+afford a better. Yet, it was not uncomfortable. It afforded fair
+protection from the heat of summer, and the cold of winter, and was
+after all far more desirable as a home than the crowded tenements of our
+larger cities, for those who occupied it had but to open the door and
+windows to breathe the pure air of heaven, uncontaminated by foul odors
+or the taint of miasma.
+
+"Mother," said Thomas, "Mr. Conrad wants to hire me to work on his farm,
+and he is willing to pay me twelve dollars a month. May I go?"
+
+"Ask Mr. Conrad to come in, Thomas."
+
+The farmer entered, and repeated his request.
+
+Mrs. Garfield, for this was the widow's name, was but little over
+thirty. She had a strong, thoughtful face, and a firm mouth, that spoke
+a decided character. She was just the woman to grapple with adversity,
+and turning her unwearied hands to any work, to rear up her children in
+the fear of the Lord, and provide for their necessities as well as
+circumstances would admit.
+
+She didn't like to spare Thomas, for much of his work would be thrown
+upon her, but there was great lack of ready money and the twelve dollars
+were a powerful temptation.
+
+"I need Thomas at home," she said slowly, "but I need the money more. He
+may go, if he likes."
+
+"I will go," said Thomas promptly.
+
+"How often can you let him come home?" was the next question.
+
+"Every fortnight, on Saturday night. He shall bring his wages then."
+
+This was satisfactory, and Thomas, not stopping to change his clothes,
+for he had but one suit, went off with his employer.
+
+His absence naturally increased his mother's work, and was felt as a
+sore loss by Jimmy, who was in the habit of following him about, and
+watching him when he was at work. Sometimes his brother gave the little
+fellow a trifle to do, and Jimmy was always pleased to help, for he was
+fond of work, and when he grew older and stronger he was himself a
+sturdy and indefatigable worker in ways not dreamed of then.
+
+The first fortnight was up, and Thomas was expected home. No one was
+more anxious to see him than his little brother, and that was why Jimmy
+had come out from his humble home, and was looking so earnestly across
+the clearing.
+
+At last he saw him, and ran as fast as short legs could carry him to
+meet his brother.
+
+"Oh, Tommy, how I've missed you!" he said.
+
+"Have you, Jimmy?" asked Thomas, passing his arm around his little
+brother's neck. "I have missed you too, and all the family. Are all
+well?"
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+"That is good."
+
+As they neared the cabin Mrs. Garfield came out, and welcomed her oldest
+boy home.
+
+"We are all glad to see you, Thomas," she said. "How have you got
+along?"
+
+"Very well, mother."
+
+"Was the work hard?"
+
+"The hours were pretty long. I had to work fourteen hours a day."
+
+"That is too long for a boy of your age to work," said his mother
+anxiously.
+
+"Oh, it hasn't hurt me, mother," said Thomas, laughing. "Besides, you
+must remember I have been well paid. What do you say to that?"
+
+He drew from his pocket twelve silver half-dollars, and laid them on
+the table, a glittering heap.
+
+"Is it all yours, Tommy?" asked his little brother wonderingly.
+
+"No, it belongs to mother. I give it to her."
+
+"Thank you, Thomas," said Mrs. Garfield, "but at least you ought to be
+consulted about how it shall be spent. Is there anything you need for
+yourself?"
+
+"Oh, never mind me! I want Jimmy to have a pair of shoes."
+
+Jimmy looked with interest at his little bare feet, and thought he would
+like some shoes. In fact they would be his first, for thus far in life
+he had been a barefooted boy.
+
+"Jimmy shall have his shoes," said Mrs. Garfield; "when you see the
+shoemaker ask him to come here as soon as he can make it convenient."
+
+So, a few days later the shoemaker, who may possibly have had no shop of
+his own, called at the log-cabin, measured Jimmy for a pair of shoes,
+and made them on the spot, boarding out a part of his pay.
+
+The first pair of shoes made an important epoch in Jimmy Garfield's
+life, for it was decided that he could now go to school.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+GROWING IN WISDOM AND STATURE.
+
+
+The school was in the village a mile and a half away. It was a long walk
+for a little boy of four, but sometimes his sister Mehetabel, now
+thirteen years old, carried him on her back. When in winter the snow lay
+deep on the ground Jimmy's books were brought home, and he recited his
+lessons to his mother.
+
+This may be a good time to say something of the family whose name in
+after years was to become a household word throughout the republic. They
+had been long in the country. They were literally one of the first
+families, for in 1636, only sixteen years after the Pilgrims landed on
+Plymouth rock, and the same year that Harvard College was founded,
+Edward Garfield, who had come from the edge of Wales, settled in
+Watertown, Massachusetts, less than four miles from the infant college,
+and there for more than a century was the family home, as several
+moss-grown headstones in the ancient graveyard still testify.
+
+They did their part in the Revolutionary war, and it was not till the
+war was over that Solomon Garfield, the great grandfather of the future
+President, removed to the town of Worcester, Otsego County, N.Y. Here
+lived the Garfields for two generations. Then Abram Garfield, the father
+of James, moved to Northeastern Ohio, and bought a tract of eighty
+acres, on which stood the log-cabin, built by himself, in which our
+story opens. His wife belonged to a distinguished family of New
+England--the Ballous--and possessed the strong traits of her kindred.
+
+But the little farm of eighty acres was smaller now. Abram Garfield died
+in debt, and his wife sold off fifty acres to pay his creditors, leaving
+thirty, which with her own industry and that of her oldest son served to
+maintain her little family.
+
+The school-house was so far away that Mrs. Garfield, who appreciated the
+importance of education for her children, offered her neighbors a site
+for a new school-house on her own land, and one was built. Here winter
+after winter came teachers, some of limited qualifications, to instruct
+the children of the neighborhood, and here Jimmy enlarged his stock of
+book-learning by slow degrees.
+
+The years passed, and still they lived in the humble log-cabin, till at
+the age of twenty-one Thomas came home from Michigan, where he had been
+engaged in clearing land for a farmer, bringing seventy-five dollars in
+gold.
+
+"Now, mother," he said, "you shall have a framed house."
+
+Seventy-five dollars would not pay for a framed house, but he cut timber
+himself, got out the boards, and added his own labor, and that of Jimmy,
+now fourteen years old, and so the house was built, and the log-cabin
+became a thing of the past. But it had been their home for a long time,
+and doubtless many happy days had been spent beneath its humble roof.
+
+While the house was being built, Jimmy learned one thing--that he was
+handy with tools, and was well fitted to become a carpenter. When the
+joiner told him that he was born to be a carpenter, he thought with joy
+that this unexpected talent would enable him to help his mother, and
+earn something toward the family expenses. So, for the next two years
+he worked at this new business when opportunity offered, and if my
+reader should go to Chagrin Falls, Ohio, he could probably find upon
+inquiry several barns in the vicinity which Jimmy helped to build.
+
+He still went to school, however, and obtained such knowledge of the
+mysteries of grammar, arithmetic, and geography as could be obtained in
+the common schools of that day.
+
+But Jimmy Garfield was not born to be a carpenter, and I believe never
+got so far along as to assist in building a house.
+
+He was employed to build a wood-shed for a black-salter, ten miles away
+from his mother's house, and when the job was finished his employer fell
+into conversation with him, and being a man of limited acquirements
+himself, was impressed by the boy's surprising stock of knowledge.
+
+"You kin read, you kin write, and you are death on figgers," he said to
+him one day. "If you'll stay with me, keep my 'counts, and 'tend to the
+saltery, I'll find you, and give you fourteen dollars a month."
+
+Jimmy was dazzled by this brilliant offer. He felt that to accept it
+would be to enter upon the high-road to riches, and he resolved to do
+so if his mother would consent. Ten miles he trudged through the woods
+to ask his mother's consent, which with some difficulty he obtained, for
+she did not know to what influences he might be subjected, and so he got
+started in a new business.
+
+Whether he would have fulfilled his employer's prediction, and some day
+been at the head of a saltery of his own, we can not tell; but in time
+he became dissatisfied with his situation, and returning home, waited
+for Providence to indicate some new path on which to enter.
+
+One thing, however, was certain: he would not be content to remain long
+without employment. He had an active temperament, and would have been
+happiest when busy, even if he had not known that his mother needed the
+fruits of his labor.
+
+He had one source of enjoyment while employed by the black-salter, which
+he fully appreciated. Strange to say, his employer had a library, that
+is, he had a small collection of books, gathered by his daughter,
+prominent among which were Marryatt's novels, and "Sinbad the Sailor."
+They opened a new world to his young accountant, and gave him an
+intense desire to see the world, and especially to cross the great sea,
+even in the capacity of a sailor. At home there was no library, not from
+the lack of literary taste, but because there was no money to spend for
+anything but necessaries.
+
+He had not been long at home when a neighbor, entering one day, said,
+"James, do you want a job?"
+
+"Yes," answered James, eagerly.
+
+"There's a farmer in Newburg wants some wood chopped."
+
+"I can do it," said James, quietly.
+
+"Then you'd better go and see him."
+
+Newburg is within the present limits of Cleveland, and thither James
+betook himself the next day.
+
+He was a stout boy, with the broad shoulders and sturdy frame of his
+former ancestors, and he was sure he could give satisfaction.
+
+The farmer, dressed in homespun, looked up as the boy approached.
+
+"Are you Mr. ----?" asked James.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I heard that you wanted some wood chopped."
+
+"Yes, but I am not sure if you can do it," answered the farmer,
+surveying the boy critically.
+
+"I can do it," said James, confidently.
+
+"Very well, you can try. I'll give you seven dollars for the job."
+
+The price was probably satisfactory, for James engaged to do the work.
+There proved to be twenty-five cords, and no one, I think, will consider
+that he was overpaid for his labor.
+
+He was fortunate, at least, in the scene of his labor, for it was on the
+shore of Lake Erie, and as he lifted his eyes from his work they rested
+on the broad bosom of the beautiful lake, almost broad enough as it
+appeared to be the ocean itself, which he had a strange desire to
+traverse in search of the unknown lands of which he had read or dreamed.
+
+I suppose there are few boys who have not at some time fancied that they
+should like "a life on the ocean wave, and a home on the rolling deep."
+I have in mind a friend, now a physician, who at the age of fifteen left
+a luxurious home, with the reluctant permission of his parents, for a
+voyage before the mast to Liverpool, beguiled by one of the fascinating
+narratives of Herman Melville. But the romance very soon wore off, and
+by the time the boy reached Halifax, where the ship put in, he was so
+seasick, and so sick of the sea, that he begged to be left on shore to
+return home as he might. The captain had received secret instructions
+from the parents to accede to such a wish, and the boy was landed, and
+in due time returned home as a passenger. So it is said that George
+Washington had an early passion for the sea, and would have become a
+sailor but for the pain he knew it would give his mother.
+
+James kept his longings to himself for the present, and returned home
+with the seven dollars he had so hardly earned.
+
+There was more work for him to do. A Mr. Treat wanted help during the
+haying and harvesting season, and offered employment to the boy, who was
+already strong enough to do almost as much as a man; for James already
+had a good reputation as a faithful worker. "Whatever his hands found to
+do, he did it with his might," and he was by no means fastidious as to
+the kind of work, provided it was honest and honorable.
+
+When the harvest work was over James made known his passion for the
+sea.
+
+Going to his mother, he said: "Mother, I want above all things to go to
+sea."
+
+"Go to sea!" replied his mother in dismay. "What has put such an idea
+into your head?"
+
+"It has been in my head for a long time," answered the boy quietly. "I
+have thought of nothing else for the last year."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+IN QUEST OF FORTUNE.
+
+
+James had so persuaded himself that the sea was his vocation, and was so
+convinced of the pleasures and advantages it would bring, that it had
+not occurred to him that his mother would object.
+
+"What made you think of the sea, James?" his mother asked with a
+troubled face.
+
+"It was the books I read last year, at the black salter's. Oh, mother,
+did you ever read Marryatt's novels, and 'Sinbad the Sailor'?"
+
+"I have read 'Sinbad the Sailor,' but you know that is a fairy story, my
+son."
+
+"It may be, but Marryatt's stories are not. It must be splendid to
+travel across the mighty ocean, and see foreign countries."
+
+"A sailor doesn't have the chance to see much. You have no idea of the
+hardships of his life."
+
+"I am used to hardships, and I am not afraid of hard work. But you seem
+disappointed, mother. What have you thought of for me?"
+
+"I have hoped, James, that you might become a learned man, perhaps a
+college professor. Surely that would be better than to be a common
+sailor."
+
+"But I wouldn't stay a common sailor, mother. I would be a captain some
+time."
+
+I suppose there is no doubt that, had James followed the sea, he would
+have risen to the command of a ship, but the idea did not seem to dazzle
+his mother.
+
+"If you go to sea I shall lose you," said his mother. "A sailor can
+spend very little time with his family. Think carefully, my son. I
+believe your present fancy will be short-lived, and you will some day
+wonder that you ever entertained it."
+
+Such, however, was not the boy's idea at the time. His mother might have
+reason on her side, but it takes more than reason to dissipate a boy's
+passion for the sea.
+
+"You speak of my becoming a scholar, mother," he said, "but there
+doesn't seem much chance of it. I see nothing but work as a carpenter,
+or on the farm."
+
+"You don't know what God may have in store for you, my son. As you say,
+there seems no way open at present for you to become a scholar; but if
+you entertain the desire the way will be open. Success comes to him who
+is in earnest."
+
+"What, then, do you want me to do, mother! Do you wish me to stay at
+home?"
+
+"No, for there seems little for you to do here. Go to Cleveland, if you
+like, and seek some respectable employment. If, after a time, you find
+your longing for the sea unconquered, it will be time to look out for a
+berth on board ship."
+
+James, in spite of his earnest longing to go to sea, was a reasonable
+boy, and he did not object to his mother's plan. The next morning he
+tied his slender stock of clothing in a small bundle, bade a tearful
+good-bye to his mother, whose loving glances followed him far along his
+road, and with hope and enthusiasm trudged over a hard road to
+Cleveland, that beautiful city, whither, nearly forty years afterward,
+he was to be carried in funereal state, amid the tears of countless
+thousands. In that city where his active life began, it was to finish.
+
+A long walk was before him, for Cleveland was seventeen miles away. He
+stopped to rest at intervals, and it was not until the sun had set and
+darkness enveloped the town that he entered it with weary feet.
+
+He betook himself to a cheap boarding-place whither he had been
+directed, and soon retired to bed. His fatigue brought him a good
+night's sleep, and he woke refreshed and cheered to look about him and
+decide upon his future plans.
+
+Cleveland does not compare in size with New York, Philadelphia, or
+Boston, and thirty-five years ago it was much smaller than now. But
+compared with James' native place, and the villages near him, it was an
+impressive place. There were large business blocks, and handsome
+churches, and paved streets, and a general city-like appearance which
+interested James greatly. On the whole, even if he had to give up going
+to sea, he thought he might enjoy himself in such a lively place as
+this. But of course he must find employment.
+
+So he went into a store and inquired if they wanted a boy.
+
+"What can you do?" asked the storekeeper, looking at the boy with his
+countrified air and rustic suit.
+
+"I can read, write, and cipher," answered James.
+
+"Indeed!" said the storekeeper smiling. "All our boys can do that. Is
+that all you can do?"
+
+James might have answered that he could chop wood, work at carpentering,
+plant and harvest, but he knew very well that these accomplishments
+would be but little service to him here. Indeed, he was rather puzzled
+to know what he could do that would earn him a living in a smart town
+life Cleveland. However, he didn't much expect to find his first
+application successful, so he entered another store and preferred his
+request.
+
+"You won't suit us," was the brusque reply. "You come from the country,
+don't you?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"You look like it. Well, I will give you a piece of advice."
+
+"What is that, sir?"
+
+"Go back there. You are better suited to country than the city. I
+daresay you would make a very good hand on a farm. We need different
+sort of boys here."
+
+This was discouraging. James didn't know why he would not do for a city
+store or office. He was strong enough, and he thought he knew enough,
+for he had not at present much idea of what was taught at seminaries of
+a higher grade than the district schools he had been accustomed to
+attend.
+
+"Well," he said to himself, "I've done what mother asked me to do. I've
+tried to get a place here, and there doesn't seem to be a place for me.
+After all, I don't know but I'd better go to Ohio."
+
+Cleveland was not of course a sea-port, but it had considerable lake
+trade, and had a line of piers.
+
+James found his way to the wharves, and his eye lighted up as he saw the
+sloops and schooners which were engaged in inland trade. He had never
+seen a real ship, or those schooners and sloops would have had less
+attraction for him.
+
+In particular his attention was drawn to one schooner, not over-clean or
+attractive, but with a sea-faring look, as if it had been storm-tossed
+and buffeted. Half a dozen sailors were on board, but they were grimed
+and dirty, and looked like habitual drinkers--probably James would not
+have fancied becoming like one of these, but he gave little thought to
+their appearance. He only thought how delightful it would be to have
+such a floating home.
+
+"Is the captain on board?" the boy ventured to ask.
+
+"He's down below," growled the sailor whom he addressed.
+
+"Will he soon come up?"
+
+He was answered in the affirmative.
+
+So James lingered until the man he inquired for came up.
+
+He was a brutal-looking man, as common in appearance as any of the
+sailors whom he commanded, and the boy was amazed at his bearing. Surely
+that man was not his ideal of a ship-captain. He thought of him as a
+sort of prince, but there was nothing princely about the miserable,
+bloated wretch before him.
+
+Still he preferred his application.
+
+"Do you want a new hand?" asked James.
+
+His answer was a volley of oaths and curses that made James turn pale,
+for he had never uttered an oath in his life, and had never listened to
+anything so disgusting as the tirade to which he was forced to listen.
+
+[Illustration: THE CANAL BOY]
+
+He sensibly concluded that nothing was to be gained by continuing the
+conversation with such a man. He left the schooner's deck with a feeling
+of discomfiture. He had never suspected that sailors talked or acted
+like the men he saw.
+
+Still he clung to the idea that all sailors were not like this captain.
+Perhaps again the rebuff he received was in consequence of his rustic
+appearance. The captain might be prejudiced against him, just as the
+shop-keepers had been, though the latter certainly had not expressed
+themselves in such rude and profane language. He might not be fit for a
+sailor yet, but he could prepare himself.
+
+He bethought himself of a cousin of his, by name Amos Letcher, who had
+not indeed arrived at the exalted position of captain of a schooner, but
+was content with the humbler position of captain of a canal-boat on the
+Ohio and Pennsylvania Canal.
+
+This seemed to James a lucky thought.
+
+"I will go to Amos Letcher," he said to himself. "Perhaps he can find me
+a situation on a canal-boat, and that will be the next thing to being on
+board a ship."
+
+This thought put fresh courage into the boy, and he straightway
+inquired for the _Evening Star_, which was the name of the boat
+commanded by his cousin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+ON THE TOW-PATH.
+
+
+Captain Letcher regarded his young cousin in surprise.
+
+"Well, Jimmy, what brings you to Cleveland?" he asked.
+
+"I came here to ship on the lake," the boy answered. "I tried first to
+get a place in a store, as I promised mother, but I found no opening. I
+would rather be a sailor."
+
+"I am afraid your choice is not a good one; a good place on land is much
+better than going to sea. Have you tried to get a berth?"
+
+"Yes, I applied to the captain of a schooner, but he swore at me and
+called me a land-lubber."
+
+"So you are," returned his cousin smiling "Well, what are your plans
+now?"
+
+"Can't you give me a place?"
+
+"What, on the canal?"
+
+"Yes cousin."
+
+"I suppose you think that would be the next thing to going to sea?"
+
+"It might prepare me for it."
+
+"Well," said Captain Letcher, good-naturedly, "I will see what I can do
+for you. Can you drive a pair of horses?"
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+"Then I will engage you. The pay is not very large, but you will live on
+the boat."
+
+"How much do you pay?" asked James, who was naturally interested in the
+answer to this question.
+
+"We pay from eight to ten dollars a month, according to length of
+service and fidelity. Of course, as a new hand, you can not expect ten
+dollars."
+
+"I shall be satisfied with eight, cousin."
+
+"Now, as to your duties. You will work six hours on and six hours off.
+That's what we call a trick--the six hours on, I mean. So you will have
+every other six hours to rest, or do anything you like; that is, after
+you have attended to the horses."
+
+"Horses!" repeated James, puzzled; for the animals attached to the boat
+at that moment were mules.
+
+"Some of our horses are mules," said Captain Letcher, smiling.
+"However, it makes no difference. You will have to feed and rub them
+down, and then you can lie down in your bunk, or do anything else you
+like."
+
+"That won't be very hard work," said James, cheerfully.
+
+"Oh, I forgot to say that you can ride or walk, as you choose. You can
+rest yourself by changing from one to the other."
+
+James thought he should like to ride on horseback, as most boys do. It
+was not, however, so good fun as he anticipated. A canal-boat horse is
+by no means a fiery or spirited creature. His usual gait is from two to
+two and a half miles an hour, and to a boy of quick, active temperament
+the slowness must be rather exasperating. Yet, in the course of a day a
+boat went a considerable distance. It usually made fifty, and sometimes
+sixty miles a day. The rate depended on the number of locks it had to
+pass through.
+
+Probably most of my young readers understand the nature of a lock. As
+all water seeks a level, there would be danger in an uneven country that
+some parts of the canal would be left entirely dry, and in others the
+water would overflow. For this reason at intervals locks are
+constructed, composed of brief sections of the canal barricaded at each
+end by gates. When a boat is going down, the near gates are thrown open
+and the boat enters the lock, the water rushing in till a level is
+secured; then the upper gates are closed, fastening the boat in the
+lock. Next the lower gates are opened, the water in the lock seeks the
+lower level of the other section of the canal, and the boat moves out of
+the lock, the water subsiding gradually beneath it. Next, the lower
+gates are closed, and the boat proceeds on its way. It will easily be
+understood, when the case is reversed, and the boat is going up, how
+after being admitted into the lock it will be lifted up to the higher
+level when the upper gates are thrown open.
+
+If any of my young readers find it difficult to understand my
+explanation, I advise them to read Jacob Abbot's excellent book, "Rollo
+on the Erie Canal," where the whole matter is lucidly explained.
+
+Railroads were not at that time as common as now, and the canal was of
+much more importance and value as a means of conveying freight.
+Sometimes passengers traveled that way, when they were in not much of a
+hurry, but there were no express canal-boats, and a man who chose to
+travel in that way must have abundant leisure on his hands. There is
+some difference between traveling from two to two and a half miles an
+hour, and between thirty and forty, as most of our railroad express
+trains do.
+
+James did not have to wait long after his engagement before he was put
+on duty. With boyish pride he mounted one of the mules and led the
+other. A line connected the mules with the boat, which was drawn slowly
+and steadily through the water. James felt the responsibility of his
+situation. It was like going to sea on a small scale, though the sea was
+but a canal. At all events, he felt that he had more important work to
+do than if he were employed as a boy on one of the lake schooners.
+
+James was at this time fifteen; a strong, sturdy boy, with a mass of
+auburn hair, partly covered by a loose-fitting hat. He had a bright,
+intelligent face, and an earnest look that attracted general attention.
+Yet, to one who saw the boy guiding the patient mule along the
+tow-path, it would have seemed a most improbable prediction, that one
+day the same hand would guide the ship of State, a vessel of much more
+consequence than the humble canal-boat.
+
+There was one comfort, at any rate. Though in his rustic garb he was not
+well enough dressed to act as clerk in a Cleveland store, no one
+complained that he was not well enough attired for a canal-boy.
+
+It will occur to my young reader that, though the work was rather
+monotonous, there was not much difficulty or danger connected with it.
+But even the guidance of a canal-boat has its perplexities, and James
+was not long in his new position before he realized it.
+
+It often happened that a canal-boat going up encountered another going
+down, and _vice versa_. Then care has to be exercised by the respective
+drivers lest their lines get entangled.
+
+All had been going on smoothly till James saw another boat coming. It
+might have been his inexperience, or it might have been the carelessness
+of the other driver, but at any rate the lines got entangled. Meanwhile
+the boat, under the impetus that had been given it, kept on its way
+until it was even with the horses, and seemed likely to tow them along.
+
+"Whip up your team, Jim, or your line will ketch on the bridge!" called
+out the steersman.
+
+The bridge was built over a waste-way which occurred just ahead, and it
+was necessary for James to drive over it.
+
+The caution was heeded, but too late. James whipped up his mules, but
+when he had reached the middle of the bridge the rope tightened, and
+before the young driver fairly understood what awaited him, he and his
+team were jerked into the canal. Of course he was thrown off the animal
+he was riding, and found himself struggling in the water side by side
+with the astonished mules. The situation was a ludicrous one, but it was
+also attended with some danger. Even if he did not drown, and the canal
+was probably deep enough for that, he stood in some danger of being
+kicked by the terrified mules.
+
+The boy, however, preserved his presence of mind, and managed, with
+help, to get out himself and to get his team out.
+
+Then Captain Letcher asked him, jocosely, "What were you doing in the
+canal, Jim?"
+
+"I was just taking my morning bath," answered the boy, in the same
+vein.
+
+"You'll do," said the captain, struck by the boy's coolness.
+
+Six hours passed, and James' "trick" was over. He and his mules were
+both relieved from duty. Both were allowed to come on board the boat and
+rest for a like period, while the other driver took his place on the
+tow-path.
+
+"Well, Jim, how do you like it as far as you've got?" asked the captain.
+
+"I like it," answered the boy.
+
+"Shall you be ready to take another bath to-morrow morning?" asked his
+cousin, slyly.
+
+"I think one bath a week will be sufficient," was the answer.
+
+Feeling a natural interest in his young cousin, Amos Letcher thought he
+would examine him a little, to see how far his education had advanced.
+Respecting his own ability as an examiner he had little doubt, for he
+had filled the proud position of teacher in Steuben County, Indiana, for
+three successive winters.
+
+"I suppose you have been to school more or less, Jim?" he said.
+
+"Oh, yes," answered the boy.
+
+"What have you studied?"
+
+James enumerated the ordinary school branches. They were not many, for
+his acquirements were not extensive; but he had worked well, and was
+pretty well grounded as far as he had gone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+AN IMPORTANT CONVERSATION.
+
+
+"I've taught school myself," said Captain Letcher, complacently. "I
+taught for three winters in Indiana."
+
+James, who, even then, had a high opinion of learning, regarded the
+canal-boat captain with increased respect.
+
+"I didn't know that," he answered, duly impressed.
+
+"Yes, I've had experience as a teacher. Now, if you don't mind, I'll ask
+you a few questions, and find out how much you know. We've got plenty of
+time, for it's a long way to Pancake Lock."
+
+[Illustration: CONFERENCE WITH DR. ROBINSON]
+
+"Don't ask me too hard questions," said the boy. "I'll answer the best I
+know."
+
+Upon this Captain Letcher, taking a little time to think, began to
+question his young cousin in the different branches he had enumerated.
+The questions were not very hard, for the good captain, though he had
+taught school in Indiana, was not a profound scholar.
+
+James answered every question promptly and accurately, to the increasing
+surprise of his employer.
+
+The latter paused.
+
+"Haven't you any more questions?" asked James.
+
+"No, I don't think of any."
+
+"Then may I ask you some?"
+
+"Yes, if you want to," answered the captain, rather surprised.
+
+"Very well," said James. "A man went to a shoemaker and bought a pair of
+boots, for which he was to pay five dollars. He offered a fifty-dollar
+bill, which the shoemaker sent out and had changed. He paid his customer
+forty-five dollars in change, and the latter walked off with the boots.
+An hour later he ascertained that the bill was a counterfeit, and he was
+obliged to pay back fifty dollars in good money to the man who had
+changed the bill for him. Now, how much did he lose?"
+
+"That's easy enough. He lost fifty dollars and the boots."
+
+"I don't think that's quite right," said James, smiling.
+
+"Of course it is. Didn't he have to pay back fifty dollars in good
+money, and didn't the man walk off with the boots?"
+
+"That's true; but he neither lost nor made by changing the bill. He
+received fifty dollars in good money and paid back the same, didn't he?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Whatever he lost his customer made, didn't he?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, the man walked off with forty-five dollars and a pair of boots.
+The other five dollars the shoemaker kept himself."
+
+"That's so, Jim. I see it now, but it's rather puzzling at first. Did
+you make that out yourself?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then you've got a good head--better than I expected. Have you got any
+more questions?"
+
+"Just a few."
+
+So the boy continued to ask questions, and the captain was more than
+once obliged to confess that he could not answer. He began to form a
+new opinion of his young cousin, who, though he filled the humble
+position of a canal-boy, appeared to be well equipped with knowledge.
+
+"I guess that'll do, Jim," he said after a while. "You've got ahead of
+me, though I didn't expect it. A boy with such a head as you've got
+ought not to be on the tow-path."
+
+"What ought I to be doing, cousin?"
+
+"You ought to keep school. You're better qualified than I am to-day, and
+yet I taught for three winters in Indiana."
+
+James was pleased with this tribute to his acquirements, especially from
+a former schoolmaster.
+
+"I never thought of that," he said. "I'm too young to keep school. I'm
+only fifteen."
+
+"That is rather young. You know enough; but I aint sure that you could
+tackle some of the big boys that would be coming to school. You know
+enough, but you need more muscle. I'll tell you what I advise. Stay with
+me this summer--it won't do you any hurt, and you'll be earning
+something--then go to school a term or two, and by that time you'll be
+qualified to teach a district school."
+
+"I'll think of what you say, cousin," said James, thoughtfully. "I
+don't know but your advice is good."
+
+It is not always easy to say what circumstances have most influence in
+shaping the destiny of a boy, but it seems probable that the
+conversation which has just been detailed, and the discovery that he was
+quite equal in knowledge to a man who had been a schoolmaster, may have
+put new ideas into the boy's head, destined to bear fruit later.
+
+For the present, however, his duties as a canal-boy must be attended to,
+and they were soon to be resumed.
+
+About ten o'clock that night, when James was on duty, the boat
+approached the town of Akron, where there were twenty-one locks to be
+successively passed through.
+
+The night was dark, and, though the bowman of the _Evening Star_ did not
+see it, another boat had reached the same lock from the opposite
+direction. Now in such cases the old rule, "first come, first served,"
+properly prevailed.
+
+The bowman had directed the gates to be thrown open, in order that the
+boat might enter the lock, when a voice was heard through the darkness,
+"Hold on, there! Our boat is just round the bend, ready to enter."
+
+"We have as much right as you," said the bowman.
+
+As he spoke he commenced turning the gate.
+
+My young reader will understand from the description already given that
+it will not do to have both lower and upper gates open at the same time.
+Of course, one or the other boat must wait.
+
+Both bowmen were determined to be first, and neither was willing to
+yield. Both boats were near the lock, their head-lights shining as
+bright as day, and the spirit of antagonism reached and affected the
+crews of both.
+
+Captain Letcher felt called upon to interfere lest there should be
+serious trouble.
+
+He beckoned to his bowman.
+
+"Were you here first?" he asked.
+
+"It is hard to tell," answered the bowman, "but I'm bound to have the
+lock, anyhow."
+
+The captain was not wholly unaffected by the spirit of antagonism which
+his bowman displayed.
+
+"All right; just as you say," he answered, and it seemed likely that
+conflict was inevitable.
+
+James Garfield had been an attentive observer, and an attentive
+listener to what had been said. He had formed his own ideas of what was
+right to be done.
+
+"Look here, captain," he said, tapping Captain Letcher on the arm, "does
+this lock belong to us?"
+
+"I really suppose, according to law, it does not; but we will have it,
+anyhow."
+
+"No, we will not," replied the boy.
+
+"And why not?" asked the captain, naturally surprised at such a speech
+from his young driver.
+
+"Because it does not belong to us."
+
+The captain was privately of opinion that the boy was right, yet but for
+his remonstrance he would have stood out against the claims of the rival
+boat. He took but brief time for considerations, and announced his
+decision.
+
+"Boys," he said to his men, "Jim is right. Let them have the lock."
+
+Of course there was no more trouble, but the bowman, and the others
+connected with the _Evening Star_, were angry. It irritated them to be
+obliged to give up the point, and wait humbly till the other boat had
+passed through the lock.
+
+The steersman was George Lee. When breakfast was called, he sat down by
+James.
+
+"What is the matter with you, Jim?" he asked.
+
+"Nothing at all."
+
+"What made you so for giving up the lock last night?"
+
+"Because it wasn't ours. The other boat had it by right."
+
+"Jim, you are a coward," said Lee contemptuously. "You aint fit for a
+boatman. You'd better go back to the farm and chop wood or milk cows,
+for a man or boy isn't fit for this business that isn't ready to fight
+for his rights."
+
+James did not answer. Probably he saw that it would be of no use. George
+Lee was for his own boat, right or wrong; but James had already begun to
+reflect upon the immutable principles of right or wrong, and he did not
+suffer his reason to be influenced by any considerations touching his
+own interests or his own pride.
+
+As to the charge of cowardice it did not trouble him much. On a suitable
+occasion later on (we shall tell the story in due season) he showed that
+he was willing to contend for his rights, when he was satisfied that the
+right was on his side.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+JAMES LEAVES THE CANAL.
+
+
+James was not long to fill the humble position of driver. Before the
+close of the first trip he was promoted to the more responsible office
+of bowman. Whether his wages were increased we are not informed.
+
+It may be well in this place to mention that a canal boat required,
+besides the captain, two drivers, two steersmen, a bowman, and a cook,
+the last perhaps not the least important of the seven. "The bowman's
+business was to stop the boat as it entered the lock, by throwing the
+bowline that was attached to the bow of the boat around the snubbing
+post." It was to this position that James was promoted, though I have
+some doubt whether the place of driver, with the opportunities it
+afforded of riding on horse or mule-back, did not suit him better.
+Still, promotion is always pleasant, and in this case it showed that
+the boy had discharged his humbler duties satisfactorily.
+
+I have said that the time came when James showed that he was not a
+coward. Edmund Kirke, in his admirable life of Garfield, has condensed
+the captain's account of the occurrence, and I quote it here as likely
+to prove interesting to my boy readers:
+
+"The _Evening Star_ was at Beaver, and a steamboat was ready to tow her
+up to Pittsburg. The boy was standing on deck with the selting-pole
+against his shoulders, and some feet away stood Murphy, one of the boat
+hands, a big, burly fellow of thirty-five, when the steamboat threw the
+line, and, owing to a sudden lurch of the boat, it whirled over the
+boy's head, and flew in the direction of the boatman. 'Look out,
+Murphy!' cried the boy; but the rope had anticipated him, and knocked
+Murphy's hat off into the river. The boy expressed his regret, but it
+was of no avail. In a towering rage the man rushed upon him, with his
+head down, like a maddened animal; but, stepping nimbly aside, the boy
+dealt him a powerful blow behind the ear, and he tumbled to the bottom
+of the boat among the copper ore. Before he could rise the boy was upon
+him, one hand upon his throat, the other raised for another blow upon
+his frontispiece.
+
+"'Pound the cussed fool, Jim!' cried Captain Letcher, who was looking on
+appreciatingly. 'If he haint no more sense'n to get mad at accidents,
+giv it ter him! Why don't you strike?'
+
+"But the boy did not strike, for the man was down and in his power.
+Murphy expressed regret for his rage, and then Garfield gave him his
+hand, and they became better friends than ever before. This victory of a
+boy of sixteen over a man of thirty-five obliterated the notion of young
+Garfield's character for cowardice, and gave him a great reputation
+among his associates. The incident is still well remembered among the
+boatmen of the Ohio and Pennsylvania Canal."
+
+The boy's speedy reconciliation to the man who had made so unprovoked an
+assault upon him was characteristic of his nature. He never could
+cherish malice, and it was very hard work for him to remain angry with
+any one, however great the provocation.
+
+Both as a boy and as a man he possessed great physical strength, as may
+be inferred from an incident told by the Boston _Journal_ of his life
+when he was no longer the humble canal-boy, but a brigadier-general in
+the army:
+
+"At Pittsburg Landing one night in 1862 there was a rush for rations by
+some newly-arrived troops. One strong, fine-looking soldier presented a
+requisition for a barrel of flour, _and, shouldering it, walked off with
+ease_. When the wagon was loaded, this same man stepped up to Colonel
+Morton, commanding the commissary steamers there, and remarked, 'I
+suppose you require a receipt for these supplies?' 'Yes,' said the
+Colonel, as he handed over the usual blank; 'just take this provision
+return, and have it signed by your commanding officer.' 'Can't I sign
+it?' was the reply. 'Oh, no,' said the affable Colonel Morton; 'it
+requires the signature of a commissioned officer.' Then came the remark,
+that still remains fresh in the Colonel's memory: 'I am a commissioned
+officer--I'm a brigadier-general, and my name is Garfield, of Ohio.'"
+
+For four months James remained connected with the canal-boat. To show
+that traveling by canal is not so free from danger as it is supposed to
+be, it may be stated that in this short time he fell into the water
+fourteen times. Usually he scrambled out without further harm than a
+good wetting. One night, however, he was in serious pain.
+
+It was midnight, and rainy, when he was called up to take his turn at
+the bow. The boat was leaving one of those long reaches of slack-water
+which abound in the Ohio and Pennsylvania Canal. He tumbled out of bed
+in a hurry, but half awake, and, taking his stand on the narrow platform
+below the bow-deck, he began uncoiling a rope to steady the boat through
+a lock it was approaching. Finally it knotted, and caught in a narrow
+cleft on the edge of the deck. He gave it a strong pull, then another,
+till it gave way, sending him over the bow into the water. Down he went
+in the dark river, and, rising, was bewildered amid the intense
+darkness. It seemed as if the boy's brief career was at its close. But
+he was saved as by a miracle. Reaching out his hand in the darkness, it
+came in contact with the rope. Holding firmly to it as it tightened in
+his grasp, he used his strong arms to draw himself up hand over hand.
+His deliverance was due to a knot in the rope catching in a crevice,
+thus, as it tightened, sustaining him and enabling him to climb on
+deck.
+
+It was a narrow escape, and he felt it to be so. He was a thoughtful
+boy, and it impressed him. The chances had been strongly against him,
+yet he had been saved.
+
+"God did it," thought James reverently, "He has saved my life against
+large odds, and He must have saved it for some purpose. He has some work
+for me to do."
+
+Few boys at his age would have taken the matter so seriously, yet in the
+light of after events shall we not say that James was right, and that
+God did have some work for him to perform?
+
+This work, the boy decided, was not likely to be the one he was at
+present engaged in. The work of a driver or a bowman on a canal is
+doubtless useful in its way, but James doubted whether he would be
+providentially set apart for any such business.
+
+It might have been this deliverance that turned his attention to
+religious matters. At any rate, hearing that at Bedford there was a
+series of protracted meetings conducted by the Disciples, as they were
+called, he made a trip there, and became seriously impressed. There,
+too, he met a gentleman who was destined to exert an important influence
+over his destiny.
+
+This gentleman was Dr. J.P. Robinson, who may be still living. Dr.
+Robinson took a great liking to the boy, and sought to be of service to
+him. He employed him, though it may have been at a later period, to chop
+wood, and take care of his garden, and do chores about the house, and
+years afterward, as we shall see, it was he that enabled James to enter
+Williams College, and pursue his studies there until he graduated, and
+was ready to do the work of an educated man in the world. But we must
+not anticipate.
+
+Though James was strong and healthy he was not proof against the disease
+that lurked in the low lands bordering on the canal. He was attacked by
+fever and ague, and lay for some months sick at home. It was probably
+the only long sickness he had till the fatal wound which laid him on his
+bed when in the fullness of his fame he had taken his place among kings
+and rulers. It is needless to say that he had every attention that a
+tender mother could bestow, and in time he was restored to health.
+
+During his sickness he had many talks with his mother upon his future
+prospects, and the course of life upon which it was best for him to
+enter. He had not yet given up all thoughts of the sea, he had not
+forgotten the charms with which a sailor's life is invested in
+Marryatt's fascinating novels. His mother listened anxiously to his
+dreams of happiness on the sea, and strove to fix his mind upon higher
+things--to inspire him with a nobler ambition.
+
+"What would you have me do, mother?" he asked.
+
+"If you go back to the canal, my son, with the seeds of this disease
+lurking in your system, I fear you will be taken down again. I have
+thought it over. It seems to me you had better go to school this spring,
+and then, with a term in the fall, you may be able to teach in the
+winter. If you teach winters, and work on the canal or lake summers, you
+will have employment the year round."
+
+Nevertheless Mrs. Garfield was probably not in favor of his spending his
+summers in the way indicated. She felt, however, that her son, who was a
+boy like other boys, must be gradually weaned from the dreams that had
+bewitched his fancy.
+
+Then his mother proposed a practical plan.
+
+"You have been obliged to spend all your money," she said, "but your
+brother Thomas and I will be able to raise seventeen dollars for you to
+start to school on, and when that is gone perhaps you will be able to
+get along on your own resources."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE CHOICE OF A VOCATION
+
+
+James Garfield's experience on the canal was over. The position was such
+an humble one that it did not seem likely to be of any service in the
+larger career which one day was to open before him. But years afterward,
+when as a brigadier-general of volunteers he made an expedition into
+Eastern Kentucky, he realized advantage from his four months' experience
+on the canal. His command had run short of provisions, and a boat had
+been sent for supplies, but the river beside which the men were encamped
+had risen so high that the boat dared not attempt to go up the river.
+Then General Garfield, calling to his aid the skill with which he had
+guided the _Evening Star_ at the age of fifteen, took command of the
+craft, stood at the wheel forty-four hours out of the forty-eight, and
+brought the supplies to his men at a time when they were eating their
+last crackers.
+
+"Seek all knowledge, however trifling," says an eminent author, "and
+there will come a time when you can make use of it."
+
+James may never have read this remark, but he was continually acting
+upon it, and the spare moments which others devoted to recreation he
+used in adding to his stock of general knowledge.
+
+The last chapter closes with Mrs. Garfield's advice to James to give up
+his plan of going to sea, and to commence and carry forward a course of
+education which should qualify him for a college professor, or a
+professional career. Her words made some impression upon his mind, but
+it is not always easy to displace cherished dreams. While she was
+talking, a knock was heard at the door and Mrs. Garfield, leaving her
+place at her son's bedside, rose and opened it.
+
+"I am glad to see you, Mr. Bates," she said with a welcoming smile.
+
+Samuel D. Bates was the teacher of the school near by, an earnest young
+man, of exemplary habits, who was looking to the ministry as his chosen
+vocation.
+
+"And how is James to-day?" asked the teacher, glancing toward the bed.
+
+"So well that he is already beginning to make plans for the future,"
+answered his mother.
+
+"What are your plans, James?" asked the young man.
+
+"I should like best to go to sea," said James, "but mother doesn't
+approve of it."
+
+"She is wise," said Bates, promptly. "You would find it a great
+disappointment."
+
+"But, it must be delightful to skim over the waters, and visit countries
+far away," said the boy, his cheeks flushing, and his eyes glowing with
+enthusiasm.
+
+"You think so now; but remember, you would be a poor, ignorant sailor,
+and would have to stay by the ship instead of exploring the wonderful
+cities at which the ship touched. Of course, you would have an
+occasional run on shore, but you could not shake off the degrading
+associations with which your life on shipboard would surround you."
+
+"Why should a sailor's life be degrading?" asked James.
+
+"It need not be necessarily, but as a matter of fact most sailors have
+low aims and are addicted to bad habits. Better wait till you can go to
+sea as a passenger, and enjoy to the full the benefits of foreign
+travel."
+
+"There is something in that," said James, thoughtfully. "If I could only
+be sure of going some day."
+
+"Wouldn't it be pleasant to go as a man of culture, as a college
+professor, as a minister, or as a lawyer, able to meet on equal terms
+foreign scholars and gentlemen?"
+
+This was a new way of putting it, and produced a favorable impression on
+the boy's mind. Still, the boy had doubts, and expressed them freely.
+
+"That sounds well," he said; "but how am I to know that I have brain
+enough to make a college professor, or a minister, or a lawyer?"
+
+"I don't think there is much doubt on that point," said Bates, noting
+the bright, expressive face, and luminous eyes of the sick boy. "I
+should be willing to guarantee your capacity. Don't you think yourself
+fit for anything better than a common sailor?"
+
+"Yes," answered James. "I think I could make a good carpenter, for I
+know something about that trade already, and I daresay I could make a
+good trader if I could find an opening to learn the business; but it
+takes a superior man to succeed in the positions you mention."
+
+"There are plenty of men with only average ability who get along very
+creditably; but I advise you, if you make up your mind to enter the
+lists, to try for a high place."
+
+The boy's eyes sparkled with new ambition. It was a favorite idea with
+him afterward, that every man ought to feel an honorable ambition to
+succeed as well as possible in his chosen path.
+
+"One thing more," added Bates. "I don't think you have any right to
+become a sailor."
+
+"No right? Oh, you mean because mother objects."
+
+"That, certainly, ought to weigh with you as a good son; but I referred
+to something else."
+
+"What then?"
+
+"Do you remember the parable of the talents?"
+
+James had been brought up by his mother, who was a devoted religious
+woman, to read the Bible, and he answered in the affirmative.
+
+"It seems to me that you are responsible for the talents which God has
+bestowed upon you. If you have the ability or the brain, as you call
+it, to insure success in a literary career, don't you think you would
+throw yourself away if you became a sailor?"
+
+Mrs. Garfield, who had listened with deep interest to the remarks of the
+young man, regarded James anxiously, to see what effect these arguments
+were having upon him. She did not fear disobedience. She knew that if
+she should make it a personal request, James was dutiful enough to
+follow her wishes; but she respected the personal independence of her
+children, and wanted to convince, rather than to coerce, them.
+
+"If I knew positively that you were right in your estimate of me, Mr.
+Bates, I would go in for a course of study."
+
+"Consult some one in whose judgment you have confidence, James," said
+the teacher, promptly.
+
+"Can you suggest any one?" asked the boy.
+
+"Yes, Dr. J.P. Robinson, of Bedford, is visiting at the house of
+President Hayden, of Hiram College. You have heard of him?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"He is a man of ripe judgment, and you can rely implicitly on what he
+says."
+
+"As soon as I am well enough I will do as you advise," said James.
+
+"Then I am satisfied. I am sure the doctor will confirm my advice."
+
+"Mr. Bates," said Mrs. Garfield, as she followed out the young teacher,
+"I am much indebted to you for your advice to James. It is in accordance
+with my wishes. If he should decide to obtain an education, where would
+you advise him to go?"
+
+"To the seminary where I have obtained all the education I possess,"
+answered the young man.
+
+"Where is it?"
+
+"It is called the 'Geauga Seminary,' and is located in Chester, in the
+next county. For a time it will be sufficient to meet all James' needs.
+When he is further advanced he can go to Hiram College."
+
+"Is it expensive?" asked Mrs. Garfield. "James has no money except the
+few dollars his brother and I can spare him."
+
+"He will have plenty of company. Most of the students are poor, but
+there are chances of finding work in the neighborhood, and so earning a
+little money. James knows something of the carpenter's trade?"
+
+"Yes, he helped build the house we live in, and he has been employed on
+several barns."
+
+My readers will remember that the Garfields no longer lived in the
+humble log-cabin in which we first found them. The money Thomas brought
+home from Michigan, supplemented by the labor of James and himself, had
+replaced it by a neat frame house, which was much more comfortable and
+sightly.
+
+"That will do. I think I know a man who will give him employment."
+
+"He is a boy of energy. If he gets fairly started at school, I think he
+will maintain himself there," said Mrs. Garfield.
+
+The teacher took his leave.
+
+When Mrs. Garfield re-entered the room she found James looking very
+thoughtful.
+
+"Mother," he said, abruptly, "I want to get well as quick as I can. I am
+sixteen years old, and it is time I decided what to do with myself."
+
+"You will think of what Mr. Bates has said, will you not?"
+
+"Yes, mother; as soon as I am well enough I will call on Dr. Robinson
+and ask his candid opinion. I will be guided by what he says."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+GEAUGA SEMINARY.
+
+
+I have stated in a previous chapter that James became acquainted with
+Dr. Robinson while still employed on the canal. This statement was made
+on the authority of Mr. Philo Chamberlain, of Cleveland, who was part
+proprietor of the line of canal-boats on which the boy was employed.
+Edmund Kirke, however, conveys the impression that James was a stranger
+to the doctor at the time he called upon him after his sickness. Mr.
+Kirke's information having been derived chiefly from General Garfield
+himself, I shall adopt his version, as confirmed by Dr. Robinson.
+
+When James walked up to the residence of President Hayden, and inquired
+for Dr. Robinson, he was decidedly homespun in appearance. He probably
+was dressed in his best, but his best was shabby enough. His trousers
+were of coarse satinet, and might have fitted him a season or two
+before, but now were far outgrown, reaching only half-way down from the
+tops of his cowhide boots. His waistcoat also was much too short, and
+his coat was threadbare, the sleeves being so short as to display a
+considerable portion of his arms. Add to these a coarse slouched hat,
+much the worse for wear, and a heavy mass of yellow hair much too long,
+and we can easily understand what the good doctor said of him: "He was
+wonderfully awkward, but had a sort of independent, go-as-you-please
+manner that impressed me favorably."
+
+"Who are you?" asked the doctor.
+
+"My name is James Garfield, from Solon."
+
+"Oh, I know your mother, and knew you when you were a babe, but you have
+outgrown my knowledge. I am glad to see you."
+
+"I should like to see you alone," said James.
+
+The doctor led the way to a secluded spot in the neighborhood of the
+house, and then, sitting down on a log, the youth, after a little
+hesitation, opened his business.
+
+"You are a physician," he said, "and know the fiber that is in men.
+Examine me and tell me with the utmost frankness whether I had better
+take a course of liberal study. I am contemplating doing so, as my
+desire is in that direction. But if I am to make a failure of it, or
+practically so, I do not desire to begin. If you advise me not to do so
+I shall be content."
+
+In speaking of this incident the doctor has remarked recently: "I felt
+that I was on my sacred honor, and the young man looked as though he
+felt himself on trial. I had had considerable experience as a physician,
+but here was a case much different from any I had ever had. I felt that
+it must be handled with great care. I examined his head and saw that
+there was a magnificent brain there. I sounded his lungs, and found that
+they were strong, and capable of making good blood. I felt his pulse,
+and felt that there was an engine capable of sending the blood up to the
+head to feed the brain. I had seen many strong physical systems with
+warm feet and cold, sluggish brain; and those who possessed such systems
+would simply sit round and doze. Therefore I was anxious to know about
+the kind of an engine to run that delicate machine, the brain. At the
+end of a fifteen minutes' careful examination of this kind, we rose, and
+I said:
+
+"Go on, follow the leadings of your ambition, and ever after I am your
+friend. You have the brain of a Webster, and you have the physical
+proportions that will back you in the most herculean efforts. All you
+need to do is to work; work hard, do not be afraid of over-working and
+you will make your mark."
+
+It will be easily understood that these words from a man whom he held in
+high respect were enough to fix the resolution of James. If he were
+really so well fitted for the work and the career which his mother
+desired him to follow, it was surely his duty to make use of the talents
+which he had just discovered were his.
+
+After that there was no more question about going to sea. He
+deliberately decided to become a scholar, and then follow where
+Providence led the way.
+
+He would have liked a new suit of clothes, but this was out of the
+question. All the money he had at command was the seventeen dollars
+which his mother had offered him. He must get along with this sum, and
+so with hopeful heart he set out for Geauga Seminary.
+
+He did not go alone. On hearing of his determination, two boys, one a
+cousin, made up their minds to accompany him.
+
+Possibly my young readers may imagine the scene of leave-taking, as the
+stage drove up to the door, and the boys with their trunks or valises
+were taken on board, but if so, imagination would picture a scene far
+different from the reality. Their outfit was of quite a different kind.
+
+For the sake of economy the boys were to board themselves, and Mrs.
+Garfield with provident heart supplied James with a frying-pan, and a
+few necessary dishes, so that his body might not suffer while his mind
+was being fed. Such was the luxury that awaited James in his new home. I
+am afraid that the hearts of many of my young readers would sink within
+them if they thought that they must buy an education at such a cost as
+that. But let them not forget that this homespun boy, with his poor
+array of frying-pan and dishes, was years after to strive in legislative
+halls, and win the highest post in the gift of his fellow-citizens. And
+none of these things would have been his, in all likelihood, but for his
+early struggle with poverty.
+
+So far as I know, neither of his companions was any better off than
+James. All three were young adventurers traveling into the domains of
+science with hopeful hearts and fresh courage, not altogether ignorant
+of the hardships that awaited them, but prepared to work hard for the
+prizes of knowledge.
+
+Arrived at Geauga Seminary, they called upon the principal and announced
+for what purpose they had come.
+
+"Well, young men, I hope you mean to work?" he said.
+
+"Yes, sir," answered James promptly. "I am poor, and I want to get an
+education as quick as I can."
+
+"I like your sentiments, and I will help you as far as I can."
+
+The boys succeeded in hiring a room in an old unpainted building near
+the academy for a small weekly sum. It was unfurnished, but they
+succeeded in borrowing a few dilapidated chairs from a neighbor who did
+not require them, and some straw ticks, which they spread upon the floor
+for sleeping purposes. In one corner they stowe their frying-pans,
+kettles, and dishes, and then they set up housekeeping in humble style.
+
+The Geauga Seminary was a Freewill Baptist institution, and was attended
+by a considerable number of students, to whom it did not, indeed,
+furnish what is called "the higher education," but it was a considerable
+advance upon any school that James had hitherto attended. English
+grammar, natural philosophy, arithmetic, and algebra--these were the
+principal studies to which James devoted himself, and they opened to him
+new fields of thought. Probably it was at this humble seminary that he
+first acquired the thirst for learning that ever afterward characterized
+him.
+
+Let us look in upon the three boys a night or two after they have
+commenced housekeeping.
+
+They take turns in cooking, and this time it is the turn of the one in
+whom we feel the strongest interest.
+
+"What have we got for supper, boys?" he asks, for the procuring of
+supplies has fallen to them.
+
+"Here are a dozen eggs," said Henry Bounton, his cousin.
+
+"And here is a loaf of bread, which I got at the baker's," said his
+friend.
+
+"That's good! We'll have bread and fried eggs. There is nothing better
+than that."
+
+"Eggs have gone up a cent a dozen," remarks Henry, gravely.
+
+This news is received seriously, for a cent means something to them.
+Probably even then the price was not greater than six to eight cents a
+dozen, for prices were low in the West at that time.
+
+"Then we can't have them so often," said James, philosophically, "unless
+we get something to do."
+
+"There's a carpenter's-shop a little way down the street," said Henry.
+"I guess you can find employment there."
+
+"I'll go round there after supper."
+
+Meanwhile he attended to his duty as cook, and in due time each of the
+boys was supplied with four fried eggs and as much bread as he cared
+for. Probably butter was dispensed with, as too costly a luxury, until
+more prosperous times.
+
+When supper was over the boys took a walk, and then, returning to their
+humble room, spent the evening in preparing their next morning's
+lessons.
+
+In them James soon took leading rank, for his brain was larger, and his
+powers of application and intuition great, as Dr. Robinson had implied.
+From the time he entered Geauga Seminary probably he never seriously
+doubted that he had entered upon the right path.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+WAYS AND MEANS.
+
+
+James called on the carpenter after supper and inquired if he could
+supply him with work.
+
+"I may be able to if you are competent," was the reply. "Have you ever
+worked at the business?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"At Orange, where my home is."
+
+"How long did you work at it?"
+
+"Perhaps I had better tell you what I have done," said James.
+
+He then gave an account of the barns he had been employed upon, and the
+frame house which he had assisted to build for his mother.
+
+"I don't set up for a first-class workman," he added, with a smile, "but
+I think I can be of some use to you."
+
+"I will try you, for I am rather pressed with work just now."
+
+So, in a day or two James was set to work.
+
+The carpenter found that it was as he had represented. He was not a
+first-class workman. Indeed, he had only a rudimentary knowledge of the
+trade, but he was quick to learn, and in a short time he was able to
+help in many ways. His wages were not very large, but they were
+satisfactory, since they enabled him to pay his expenses and keep his
+head above water. Before the seventeen dollars were exhausted, he had
+earned quite a sum by his labor in the carpenter's-shop.
+
+About this time he received a letter from his brother.
+
+"Dear James," he wrote, "I shall be glad to hear how you are getting
+along. You took so little money with you that you may need more. If so,
+let me know, and I will try to send you some."
+
+James answered promptly: "Don't feel anxious about me, Thomas. I have
+been fortunate enough to secure work at a carpenter's-shop, and my
+expenses of living are very small. I intend not to call upon you or
+mother again, but to pay my own way, if I keep my health."
+
+He kept his word, and from that time did not find it necessary to call
+either upon his mother or his good brother, who was prepared to make
+personal sacrifices, as he had been doing all his life, that his younger
+brother might enjoy advantages which he had to do without.
+
+At length the summer vacation came. James had worked hard and won high
+rank in his respective studies. He had a robust frame, and he seemed
+never to get tired. No doubt he took especial interest in composition
+and the exercises of the debating society which flourished at Geauga, as
+at most seminaries of advanced education. In after-life he was so ready
+and powerful in debate, that we can readily understand that he must have
+begun early to try his powers. Many a trained speaker has first come to
+a consciousness of his strength in a lyceum of boys, pitted against some
+school-fellow of equal attainments. No doubt many crude and some
+ludicrous speeches are made by boys in their teens, but at least they
+learn to think on their feet, and acquire the ability to stand the gaze
+of an audience without discomposure. A certain easy facility of
+expression also is gained, which enables them to acquit themselves
+creditably on a more important stage.
+
+James early learned that the best preparation for a good speech is a
+thorough familiarity with the subject, and in his after-life he always
+carefully prepared himself, so that he was a forcible debater, whom it
+was not easy to meet and conquer.
+
+"He once told me how he prepared his speeches," said Representative
+Williams, of Wisconsin, since his death. "First he filled himself with
+the subject, massing all the facts and principles involved, so far as he
+could; then he took pen and paper and wrote down the salient points in
+what he regarded their logical order. Then he scanned these critically,
+and fixed them in his memory. 'And then,' said he, 'I leave the paper in
+my room and trust to the emergency.'"
+
+When the vacation came James began to look about for work. He could not
+afford to be idle. Moreover, he hoped to be able to earn enough that he
+might not go back empty-handed in the fall.
+
+Generally work comes to him who earnestly seeks it, and James heard of
+a man who wanted some wood cut.
+
+He waited upon this man and questioned him about it.
+
+"Yes," he answered, "I want the wood cut. What will you charge to do
+it?"
+
+"How much is there?"
+
+"About a hundred cords."
+
+James thought of the time when he cut twenty-five cords for seven
+dollars, and he named a price to correspond.
+
+"I'll give you twenty-five dollars," said the proprietor of the wood.
+
+It was a low price for the labor involved, but, on the other hand, it
+would be of essential service to the struggling student.
+
+"I will undertake it," he said.
+
+"When will you go to work?"
+
+"Now!" answered James promptly.
+
+How long it took him to do the work we have no record, but he doubtless
+worked steadfastly till it was accomplished. We can imagine the
+satisfaction he felt when the money was put into his hands, and he felt
+that he would not need to be quite so economical in the coming term.
+
+Accordingly, when the vacation was over and James went back to the
+seminary, he did not re-engage the room which he and his two friends had
+rented the term before. He realized that to be in a condition to study
+well he must feed his body well, and he was in favor of a more generous
+system of diet. Besides, the labor required for cooking was so much time
+taken from his study hours.
+
+He heard that a widow--Mrs. Stiles--mother of the present sheriff of
+Ashtabula County, was prepared to receive boarders, and, accordingly, he
+called upon her to ascertain if she would receive him.
+
+She knew something of him already, for she learned that he had obtained
+the reputation of a steady and orderly student, and was disposed to
+favor his application.
+
+The next question was an important one to young Garfield.
+
+"How much do you expect me to pay?"
+
+He waited with some anxiety for the answer, for though he had
+twenty-five dollars in his pocket, the term was a long one, and tuition
+was to be paid also.
+
+"A dollar and six cents will be about right," said Mrs. Stiles, "for
+board, washing, and lodging."
+
+"That will be satisfactory," said James, with a sigh of relief, for he
+saw his way clear to pay this sum for a time, at least, and for the
+whole term if he could again procure employment at his old trade.
+
+A dollar and six cents! It was rather an odd sum, and we should consider
+it nowadays as very low for any sort of board in any village, however
+obscure or humble. But in those days it was not so exceptional, and
+provisions were so much lower that the widow probably lost nothing by
+her boarder, though she certainly could not have made much.
+
+James had no money to spare for another purpose, though there was need
+enough of it. He needed some new clothes badly. He had neither
+underclothing nor overcoat, and but one outside suit, of cheap Kentucky
+jean. No doubt he was subjected to mortification on account of his
+slender supply of clothing. At any rate he was once placed in
+embarrassing circumstances.
+
+Toward the close of the term, as Mrs. Stiles says, his trowsers became
+exceedingly thin at the knees, and one unlucky day, when he was
+incautiously bending forward, they tore half-way round the leg, exposing
+his bare knee.
+
+James was very much mortified, and repaired damages as well as he could
+with a pin.
+
+"I need a new suit of clothes badly," he said in the evening, "but I
+can't afford to buy one. See how I have torn my trowsers."
+
+"Oh, that is easy enough to mend," said Mrs. Stiles, cheerfully.
+
+"But I have no other pair to wear while they are being mended," said
+James, with a blush.
+
+"Then you must go to bed early, and send them down by one of the boys. I
+will darn the hole so that you will never know it. You won't mind such
+trifles when you become President."
+
+It was a jocose remark, and the good lady little dreamed that, in after
+years, the young man with but one pair of pantaloons, and those more
+than half worn, would occupy the proud position she referred to.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+A COUSIN'S REMINISCENCES.
+
+
+During his school-life at Geauga Seminary James enjoyed the
+companionship of a cousin, Henry B. Boynton, who still lives on the farm
+adjoining the one on which our hero was born. The relationship between
+the two boys was much closer than is common between cousins; for while
+their mothers were sisters, their fathers were half-brothers. Henry was
+two years older than James, and they were more like brothers than
+cousins. I am sure my young readers will be glad to read what Henry has
+to say of their joint school-life. I quote from the account of an
+interview held with a correspondent of the Boston _Herald_, bearing the
+date of September 23, 1881:
+
+When General Garfield was nominated to the Presidency his old neighbors
+in Orange erected a flag-staff where the house stood which Garfield and
+his brother erected for their mother and sisters with their own hands,
+after the log hut, a little farther out in the field nearer the wood,
+had become unfit for habitation. Thomas Garfield, the uncle of the
+President, who not long since was killed by a railroad accident,
+directed the manual labor of rearing the shaft, and was proud of his
+work.
+
+There is nothing except this hole left to mark his birth-place, and the
+old well, not two rods off, which he and his brother dug to furnish
+water for the family. In the little maple grove to the left, children
+played about the school-house where the dead President first gathered
+the rudiments upon which he built to such purpose. The old orchard in
+its sere and yellow leaf, the dying grass, and the turning maple leaves
+seemed to join in the great mourning.
+
+Adjoining the field where the flag floats is an unpretentious home,
+almost as much identified with Gen. Garfield's early history as the one
+he helped to clear of the forest timber while he was yet but a child. It
+is the home of Henry B. Boynton, cousin of the dead President, and a
+brother of Dr. Boynton, whose name has become so well known from recent
+events.
+
+"While rambling over this place the correspondent came upon this near
+relative of Garfield, smaller in stature than he was, but in features
+bearing a striking resemblance to him.
+
+"General Garfield and I were like brothers," he said, as he turned from
+giving some directions to his farm hands, now sowing the fall grain upon
+ground which his cousin had first helped to break. "His father died
+yonder, within a stone's throw of us, when the son was but a year and a
+half old. He knew no other father than mine, who watched over the family
+as if it had been his own. This very house in which I live was as much
+his home as it was mine.
+
+"Over there," said he, pointing to the brick school-house in the grove
+of maples, around which the happy children were playing, "is where he
+and I both started for school. I have read a statement that he could not
+read or write until he was nineteen. He could do both before he was
+nine, and before he was twelve, so familiar was he with the Indian
+history of the country, that he had named every tree in the orchard,
+which his father planted as he was born, with the name of some Indian
+chief, and even debated in societies, religion, and other topics with
+men. One favorite tree of his he named Tecumseh, and the branches of
+many of these old trees have been cut since his promotion to the
+Presidency by relic-hunters, and carried away.
+
+"Gen. Garfield was a remarkable boy as well as man. It is not possible
+to tell you the fight he made amid poverty for a place in life, and how
+gradually he obtained it. When he was a boy he would rather read than
+work. But he became a great student. He had to work after he was twelve
+years of age. In those days we were all poor, and it took hard knocks to
+get on. He worked clearing the fields yonder with his brother, and then
+cut cord-wood, and did other farm labor to get the necessities of life
+for his mother and sisters.
+
+"I remember when he was fourteen years of age, he went away to work at
+Daniel Morse's, not four miles down the road from here, and after the
+labors of the day he sat down to listen to the conversation of a teacher
+in one of the schools of Cleveland, when it was yet a village, who had
+called. The talk of the educated man pleased the boy, and, while intent
+upon his story, a daughter of the man for whom he was working informed
+the future President with great dignity that it was time that _servants_
+were in bed, and that she preferred his absence to his presence.
+
+"Nothing that ever happened to him so severely stung him as this
+affront. In his youth he could never refer to it without indignation,
+and almost immediately he left Mr. Morse's employ and went on the canal.
+He said to me then that those people should live to see the day when
+they would not care to insult him.
+
+"His experience on the canal was a severe one, but perhaps useful. I can
+remember the winter when he came home after the summer's service there.
+He had the chills all that fall and winter, yet he would shake and get
+his lessons at home; go over to the school and recite, and thus keep up
+with his class. The next spring found him weak from constant ague. Yet
+he intended to return to the canal.
+
+"Here came the turning-point in his life. Mr. Bates, who taught the
+school, pleaded with him not to do so, and said that if he would
+continue in school till the next fall he could get a certificate. I
+received a certificate about the same time The next year we went to the
+seminary at Chester, only twelve miles distant. Here our books were
+furnished us, and we cooked our own victuals. We lived upon a dollar a
+week each. Our diet was strong, but very plain; mush and molasses, pork
+and potatoes. Saturdays we took our axes, and went into the woods and
+cut cord-wood. During vacations we labored in the harvest-field, or
+taught a district school, as we could.
+
+"Yonder," said he, pointing to a beautiful valley, about two miles
+distant, "stands the school-house where Garfield first taught school. He
+got twelve dollars a month, and boarded round. I also taught school in a
+neighboring town. We both went back to Chester to college, and would
+probably have finished our education there, but it was a Baptist school,
+and they were constantly making flings at the children of the Disciples,
+and teaching sectarianism. As the Disciples grew stronger they
+determined their children should not be subjected to such influence; the
+college of our own Church was established at Hiram, and there Garfield
+and I went."
+
+Though the remainder of the reminiscences somewhat anticipate the
+course of our story, it is perhaps as well to insert it here.
+
+"We lodged in the basement most of the time, and boarded at the present
+Mrs. Garfield's father's house. During our school-days here I nursed the
+late President through an attack of the measles which nearly ended his
+life. He has often said, that, were it not for my attention, he could
+not have lived. So you see that the General and myself were very close
+to one another from the time either of us could lisp until he became
+President. Here is a picture we had taken together," showing an old
+daguerreotype. "It does not resemble either of us much now. And yet they
+do say that we bore in our childhood, and still bear, a striking
+resemblance. I am still a farmer, while he grew great and powerful. He
+never permitted a suggestion, however, to be made in, my presence as to
+the difference in our paths of life. He visited me here before election,
+and looked with gratification upon that pole yonder, and its flag,
+erected by his neighbors and kinsmen. He wandered over the fields he had
+himself helped clear and pointed out to me trees from the limbs of which
+he had shot squirrel after squirrel, and beneath the branches of which
+he had played and worked in the years of his infancy and boyhood.
+
+"I forgot to say that one of Gen. Garfield's striking characteristics
+while he was growing up, was, that when he saw a boy in the class excel
+him in anything, he never gave up till he reached the same standard, and
+even went beyond it. It got to be known that no scholar could be ahead
+of him. Our association as men has been almost as close as that of our
+boyhood, though not as constant. The General never forgot his neighbors
+or less fortunate kinsmen, and often visited us as we did him."
+
+More vivid than any picture I could draw is this description, by the
+most intimate friend of his boyhood, of James Garfield's way of life,
+his struggles for an education, his constant desire to excel, and his
+devotion to duty. We have already pictured the rustic boy in his humble
+room, cooking his own food, and living, as his cousin testifies, on a
+dollar a week. Is there any other country where such humble beginnings
+could lead to such influence and power? Is there any other land where
+such a lad could make such rapid strides toward the goal which crowns
+the highest ambition? It is the career of such men that most commends
+our Government and institutions, proving as it does that by the humblest
+and poorest the highest dignities may be attained. James was content to
+live on mush and molasses, pork and potatoes, since they came within his
+narrow means, and gave him sufficient strength to pursue his cherished
+studies. Nor is his an exceptional case. I have myself known college and
+professional students who have lived on sixty cents a week (how, it is
+difficult to tell), while their minds were busy with the loftiest
+problems that have ever engaged the human intellect. Such boys and young
+men are the promise of the republic. They toil upwards while others
+sleep, and many such have written their names high on the tablets in the
+Temple of Fame.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+LEDGE HILL SCHOOL
+
+
+Ever since he began to study at Geauga Seminary James had looked forward
+to earning a little money by keeping school himself; not an advanced
+school, of course, but an ordinary school, such as was kept in the
+country districts in the winter. He felt no hesitation as to his
+competence. The qualifications required by the school committees were by
+no means large, and so far there was no difficulty.
+
+There was one obstacle, however: James was still a boy himself--a large
+boy, to be sure, but he had a youthful face, and the chances were that
+he would have a number of pupils older than himself. Could he keep
+order? Would the rough country boys submit to the authority of one like
+themselves, whatever might be his reputation as a scholar? This was a
+point to consider anxiously. However, James had pluck, and he was ready
+to try the experiment.
+
+He would have been glad to secure a school so far away that he could go
+there as a stranger, and be received as a young man. But no such
+opportunity offered. There was another opening nearer home.
+
+A teacher was wanted for the Ledge Hill district in Orange, and the
+committee-man bethought himself of James Garfield.
+
+So one day he knocked at Mrs. Garfield's door.
+
+"Is James at home?" he asked.
+
+James heard the question, and came forward to meet his visitor.
+
+"Good-morning," he said, pleasantly; "did you want to see me?"
+
+"Are you calculating to keep school this winter" asked his visitor.
+
+"If I can get a school to keep," was the reply.
+
+"That's the business I came about. We want a schoolmaster for the Ledge
+Hill School. How would you like to try it?"
+
+"The Ledge Hill School!" repeated James, in some dismay. "Why, all the
+boys know me there."
+
+"Of course they do. Then they won't need to be introduced."
+
+"Will they obey me? That's what I was thinking of. There are some
+pretty hard cases in that school."
+
+"That's where you are right."
+
+"I wouldn't like to try it and fail," said James, doubtfully.
+
+"You won't if you'll follow my advice," said the committee-man.
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"Thrash the first boy that gives you any trouble. Don't half do it; but
+give him a sound flogging, so that he will understand who's master.
+You're strong enough; you can do it."
+
+James extended his muscular arm with a smile. He knew he was strong. He
+was a large boy, and his training had been such as to develop his
+muscles.
+
+"You know the boys that will go to school. Is there any one that can
+master you?" asked his visitor.
+
+"No, I don't think there is," answered James, with a smile.
+
+"Then you'll do. Let 'em know you are not afraid of them the first day.
+That's the best advice I can give you."
+
+"I shouldn't like to get into a fight with a pupil," said James,
+slowly.
+
+"You'll have to run the risk of it unless you teach a girls' school. I
+guess you wouldn't have any trouble there."
+
+"Not of that kind, probably. What wages do you pay?"
+
+"Twelve dollars a month and board. Of course, you'll board round."
+
+Twelve dollars a month would not be considered very high wages now, but
+to James it was a consideration. He had earned as much in other ways,
+but he was quite anxious to try his luck as a teacher. That might be his
+future vocation, not teaching a district school, of course, but this
+would be the first round of the ladder that might lead to a college
+professorship. The first step is the most difficult, but it must be
+taken, and the Ledge Hill School, difficult as it probably would be, was
+to be the first step for the future President of Hiram College.
+
+All these considerations James rapidly revolved in his mind, and then he
+came to a decision.
+
+"When does the school commence?" he asked.
+
+"Next Monday."
+
+"I accept your offer. I'll be on hand in time."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The news quickly reached the Ledge Hill district that "Jim Garfield," as
+he was popularly called, was to be their next teacher.
+
+"Have you heard about the new master?" asked Tom Bassett, one of the
+hard cases, of a friend.
+
+"No. Who is it?"
+
+"Jim Garfield."
+
+The other whistled.
+
+"You don't mean it?"
+
+"Yes, I do."
+
+"How did you hear?"
+
+"Mr. ----," naming the committee-man, "told me."
+
+"Then it must be so. We'll have a high old time if that's so."
+
+"So we will," chuckled the other. "I'm anxious for school to begin."
+
+"He's only a boy like us."
+
+"That's so."
+
+"He knows enough for a teacher; but knowing isn't everything."
+
+"You're right. We can't be expected to mind a boy like ourselves that
+we've known all our lives."
+
+"Of course not."
+
+"I like Jim well enough. He's a tip-top feller; but, all the same, he
+aint goin' to boss me round."
+
+"Nor me, either."
+
+This conversation between Tom Bassett and Bill Stackpole (for obvious
+reasons I use assumed names) augured ill for the success of the young
+teacher. They determined to make it hot for him, and have all the fun
+they wanted.
+
+They thought they knew James Garfield, but they made a mistake. They
+knew that he was of a peaceable disposition and not fond of quarreling,
+and although they also knew that he was strong and athletic, they
+decided that he would not long be able to maintain his position. If they
+had been able to read the doubts and fears that agitated the mind of
+their future preceptor, they would have felt confirmed in their belief.
+
+The fact was, James shrank from the ordeal that awaited him.
+
+"If I were only going among strangers," he said to his mother, "I
+wouldn't mind it so much; but all these boys and girls have known me
+ever since I was a small boy and went barefoot."
+
+"Does your heart fail you, my son?" asked his mother, who sympathized
+with him, yet saw that it was a trial which must come.
+
+"I can't exactly say that, but I dread to begin."
+
+"We must expect to encounter difficulties and perplexities, James. None
+of our lives run all smoothly. Shall we conquer them or let them conquer
+us?"
+
+The boy's spirit was aroused.
+
+"Say no more, mother," he replied. "I will undertake the school, and if
+success is any way possible, I will succeed. I have been shrinking from
+it, but I won't shrink any longer."
+
+"That is the spirit that succeeds, James."
+
+James laughed, and in answer quoted Campbell's stirring lines with
+proper emphasis:
+
+  "I will victor exult, or in death be laid low,
+  With my face to the field and my feet to the foe."
+
+So the time passed till the eventful day dawned on which James was to
+assume charge of his first school. He was examined, and adjudged to be
+qualified to teach; but that he anticipated in advance.
+
+The building is still standing in which James taught his first school.
+It is used for quite another purpose now, being occupied as a
+carriage-house by the thrifty farmer who owns the ground upon which it
+stands. The place where the teacher's desk stood, behind which the boy
+stood as preceptor, is now occupied by two stalls for carriage-horses.
+The benches which once contained the children he taught have been
+removed to make room for the family carriage, and the play-ground is now
+a barnyard. The building sits upon a commanding eminence known as Ledge
+Hill, and overlooks a long valley winding between two lines of hills.
+
+This description is furnished by the same correspondent of the Boston
+_Herald_ to whom I am already indebted for Henry Boynton's reminiscences
+contained in the last chapter.
+
+When James came in sight, and slowly ascended the hill in sight of the
+motley crew of boys and girls who were assembled in front of the
+school-house on the first morning of the term, it was one of the most
+trying moments of his life. He knew instinctively that the boys were
+anticipating the fun in store for them in the inevitable conflict which
+awaited him, and he felt constrained and nervous. He managed, however,
+to pass through the crowd, wearing a pleasant smile and greeting his
+scholars with a bow. There was trouble coming, he was convinced, but he
+did not choose to betray any apprehension.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+WHO SHALL BE MASTER?
+
+
+With as much dignity as was possible under the circumstances, James
+stepped to the teacher's desk and rang the bell.
+
+This was hardly necessary, for out of curiosity all the scholars had
+promptly followed the young teacher into the school-room and taken their
+seats.
+
+After the introductory exercises, James made a brief address to the
+scholars:
+
+"I don't need any introduction to you," he said, "for you all know me. I
+see before me many who have been my playfellows and associates, but
+to-day a new relation is established between us. I am here as your
+teacher, regularly appointed by the committee, and it is my duty to
+assist you as far as I can to increase your knowledge. I should hardly
+feel competent to do so if I had not lately attended Geauga Seminary,
+and thus improved my own education. I hope you will consider me a
+friend, not only as I have been, but as one who is interested in
+promoting your best interests. One thing more," he added, "it is not
+only my duty to teach you, but to maintain good order, and this I mean
+to do. In school I wish you to look upon me as your teacher, but outside
+I shall join you in your sports, and be as much a boy as any of you. We
+will now proceed to our daily lessons."
+
+This speech was delivered with self-possession, and favorably impressed
+all who heard it, even the boys who meant to make trouble, but they
+could not give up their contemplated fun. Nevertheless, by tacit
+agreement, they preserved perfect propriety for the present. They were
+not ready for the explosion.
+
+The boy teacher was encouraged by the unexpected quiet.
+
+"After all," he thought, "everything is likely to go smoothly. I need
+not have troubled myself so much."
+
+He knew the usual routine at the opening of a school term. The names of
+the children were to be taken, they were to be divided into classes, and
+lessons were to be assigned. Feeling more confidence in himself, James
+went about this work in business fashion, and when recess came, the
+comments made by the pupils in the playground were generally favorable.
+
+"He's going to make a good teacher," said one of the girls, "as good as
+any we've had, and he's so young too."
+
+"He goes to work as if he knew how," said another. "I didn't think Jimmy
+Garfield had so much in him."
+
+"Oh, he's smart!" said another. "Just think of brother Ben trying to
+keep school, and he's just as old as James."
+
+Meanwhile Tom Bassett and Bill Stackpole had a private conference
+together.
+
+"What do you think of Jim's speech, Bill?" asked Tom.
+
+"Oh, it sounded well enough, but I'll bet he was trembling in his boots
+all the while he was talkin'."
+
+"Maybe so, but he seemed cool enough."
+
+"Oh, that was all put on. Did you hear what he said about keepin'
+order?"
+
+"Yes, he kinder looked at you an' me when he was talkin'."
+
+"I guess he heard about our turnin' out the last teacher."
+
+"Of course. I tell you, it took some cheek to come here and order 'round
+us boys that has known him all his life."
+
+"That's so. Do you think he's goin' to maintain order, as he calls it?"
+
+"You just wait till afternoon. He'll know better then."
+
+James did not go out to recess the first day. He had some things to do
+affecting the organization of the school, and so he remained at his
+desk. Several of the pupils came up to consult him on one point or
+another, and he received them all with that pleasant manner which
+throughout his life was characteristic of him. To one and another he
+gave a hint or a suggestion, based upon his knowledge of their character
+and abilities. One of the boys said: "Do you think I'd better study
+grammar, Jimmy--I mean Mr. Garfield?"
+
+James smiled. He knew the slip was unintentional. Of course it would not
+do for him to allow himself to be addressed in school by a pupil as
+Jimmy.
+
+"Yes," he answered, "unless you think you know all about it already."
+
+"I don't know the first thing about it."
+
+"Then, of course, you ought to study it. Why shouldn't you?"
+
+"But I can't make nothin' out of it. I can't understand it nohow."
+
+"Then you need somebody to explain it to you."
+
+"It's awful stupid."
+
+"I don't think you will find it so when you come to know more about it.
+I shall be ready to explain it. I think I can make you understand it."
+
+Another had a sum he could not do. So James found the recess pass
+quickly away, and again the horde of scholars poured into the
+school-room.
+
+It was not till afternoon that the conflict came.
+
+Tom Bassett belonged to the first class in geography.
+
+James called out the class.
+
+All came out except Tom, who lounged carelessly in his seat.
+
+"Thomas, don't you belong to this class?" asked the young teacher.
+
+"I reckon I do."
+
+"Then why don't you come out to recite?"
+
+"Oh, I feel lazy," answered Tom, with a significant smile, as if to
+inquire, "What are you goin' to do about it?"
+
+James thought to himself with a thrill of unpleasant excitement, "It's
+coming. In ten minutes I shall know whether Tom Bassett or I is to rule
+this school."
+
+His manner was calm, however, as he said, "That is no excuse. I can't
+accept it. As your teacher I order you to join your class."
+
+"Can't you wait till to-morrow?" asked Tom, with a grin, which was
+reflected on the faces of several other pupils.
+
+"I think I understand you," said James, with outward calmness. "You defy
+my authority."
+
+"You're only a boy like me," said Tom; "I don't see why I should obey
+you."
+
+"If you were teacher, and I pupil, I should obey you," said James, "and
+I expect the same of you."
+
+"Oh, go on with the recitation!" said Tom, lazily. "Never mind me!"
+
+James felt that he could afford to wait no longer Turning to the class,
+he said, "I shall have to delay you for a minute."
+
+He walked deliberately up to the seat where Tom Bassett was sitting.
+
+Tom squared off in the expectation of an assault; but, with the speed of
+lightning, the young teacher grasped him by the collar, and, with a
+strength that surprised himself, dragged him from his seat, in spite of
+his struggles, till he reached the place where the class was standing.
+
+By this time Bill Stackpole felt called upon to help his partner in
+rebellion.
+
+"You let him alone!" he said, menacingly, stepping forward.
+
+"One at a time!" said James, coolly. "I will be ready for you in a
+minute."
+
+He saw that there was only one thing to do.
+
+He dragged Tom to the door, and forcibly ejected him, saying, "When you
+get ready to obey me you can come back."
+
+He had scarcely turned when Bill Stackpole was upon him.
+
+With a quick motion of the foot James tripped him up, and, still
+retaining his grasp on his collar, said, "Will you go or stay?"
+
+Bill was less resolute than Tom.
+
+"I guess I'll stay," he said; then picked himself up and resumed his
+place in the class.
+
+Apparently calm, James returned to his desk, and commenced hearing the
+class recite.
+
+The next morning, on his way to school, James overtook Tom Bassett, who
+eyed him with evident embarrassment. Tom's father had sent him back to
+school, and Tom did not dare disobey.
+
+"Good morning, Tom," said James, pleasantly.
+
+"Mornin'!" muttered Tom.
+
+"I hope you are going to school?"
+
+"Father says I must."
+
+"I am glad of that, too. By the way, Tom, I think I shall have to get
+some of the scholars to help me with some of the smaller pupils. I
+should like to get you to hear the lowest class in arithmetic to-day."
+
+"You want me to help you teach?" exclaimed Tom, in amazement.
+
+"Yes; it will give me more time for the higher classes."
+
+"And you don't bear no malice on account of yesterday?"
+
+"Oh, no; we are too good friends to mind such a trifle."
+
+"Then," said Tom, impulsively, "you won't have no more trouble with me.
+I'll help you all I can."
+
+There was general surprise felt when the young teacher and his
+rebellious scholar were seen approaching the school-house, evidently on
+the most friendly terms. There was still greater surprise when, during
+the forenoon, James requested Tom to hear the class already mentioned.
+At recess Tom proclaimed his intention to lick any boy that was impudent
+to the teacher, and the new Garfield administration seemed to be
+established on a firm basis.
+
+This incident, which is based upon an actual resort to war measures on
+the part of the young teacher, is given to illustrate the strength as
+well as the amiability of Garfield's character. It was absolutely
+necessary that he should show his ability to govern.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+AMES LEAVES GEAUGA SEMINARY
+
+
+While teaching his first school James "boarded round" among the families
+who sent pupils to his school. It was not so pleasant as having a
+permanent home, but it afforded him opportunities of reaching and
+influencing his scholars which otherwise he could not have enjoyed. With
+his cheerful temperament and genial manners, he could hardly fail to be
+an acquisition to any family with whom he found a home. He was ready
+enough to join in making the evenings pass pleasantly, and doubtless he
+had ways of giving instruction indirectly, and inspiring a love of
+learning similar to that which he himself possessed.
+
+He returned to school with a small sum of money in his pocket, which was
+of essential service to him in his economical way of living. But he
+brought also an experience in imparting knowledge to others which was
+still greater value.
+
+An eminent teacher has said that we never fully know anything till we
+have tried to impart it to others.
+
+James remained at the Geauga Seminary for three years. Every winter he
+taught school, and with success. In one of these winter sessions, we are
+told by Rev. William M. Thayer, in his biography of Garfield, that he
+was applied to by an ambitious student to instruct him in geometry.
+There was one difficulty in the way, and that a formidable one. He was
+entirely unacquainted with geometry himself. But, he reflected, here is
+an excellent opportunity for me to acquire a new branch of knowledge.
+Accordingly he procured a text-book, studied it faithfully at night,
+keeping sufficiently far ahead of his pupil to qualify him to be his
+guide and instructor, and the pupil never dreamed that his teacher, like
+himself, was traversing unfamiliar ground.
+
+It was early in his course at Geauga that he made the acquaintance of
+one who was to prove his closest and dearest friend--the young lady who
+in after years was to become his wife. Lucretia Rudolph was the daughter
+of a farmer in the neighborhood--"a quiet, thoughtful girl, of
+singularly sweet and refined disposition, fond of study and reading,
+and possessing a warm heart, and a mind capable of steady growth."
+Probably James was first attracted to her by intellectual sympathy and a
+community of tastes; but as time passed he discerned in her something
+higher and better than mere intellectual aspiration; and who shall say
+in the light that has been thrown by recent events on the character of
+Lucretia Garfield, that he was not wholly right?
+
+Though we are anticipating the record, it may be in place to say here
+that the acquaintance formed here was renewed and ripened at Hiram
+College, to which in time both transferred themselves. There as
+pupil-teacher James Garfield became in one branch the instructor of his
+future wife, and it was while there that the two became engaged. It was
+a long engagement. James had to wait the traditional "seven years" for
+his wife, but the world knows how well he was repaid for his long
+waiting.
+
+"Did you know Mrs. Garfield?" asked a reporter of the Chicago
+_Inter-Ocean_ of Mr. Philo Chamberlain, of Cleveland.
+
+"Yes, indeed," was the reply. "My wife knows her intimately. They used
+to teach school together in Cleveland. Mrs. Garfield is a splendid lady.
+She wasn't what you would call a brilliant teacher, but she was an
+unusually good one, very industrious, and the children made rapid
+progress in their studies under her. And then she was studious, too.
+Why, she acquired three languages while she was in school, both as a
+student and a teacher, and she spoke them well, I am told. They were
+married shortly after he came back from Williams, and I forgot to tell
+you a nice little thing about the time when he paid Dr. Robinson back
+the money he had spent on him. When Dr. Robinson refused to take the
+interest, which amounted to a snug little sum, Garfield said: 'Well,
+Doctor, that is one big point in my favor, as now I can get married.' It
+seems that they had been engaged for a long time, but had to wait till
+he could get something to marry on. And I tell you it isn't every young
+man that will let the payment of a self-imposed debt stand between him
+and getting married to the girl he loves."
+
+Without anticipating too far events we have not yet reached, it may be
+said that Lucretia Garfield's education and culture made her not the
+wife only, but the sympathetic friend and intellectual helper of her
+husband. Her early studies were of service to her in enabling her
+partially to prepare for college her two oldest boys. She assisted her
+husband also in his literary plans, without losing the domestic
+character of a good wife, and the refining graces of a true woman.
+
+But let us not forget that James is still a boy in his teens. He had
+many hardships to encounter, and many experiences to go through before
+he could set up a home of his own. He had studied three years, but his
+education had only begun. The Geauga Seminary was only an academy, and
+hardly the equal of the best academies to be found at the East.
+
+He began to feel that he had about exhausted its facilities, and to look
+higher. He had not far to look.
+
+During the year 1851 the Disciples, the religious body to which young
+Garfield had attached himself, opened a collegiate school at Hiram, in
+Portage County, which they called an eclectic school. Now it ranks as a
+college, but at the time James entered it, it had not assumed so
+ambitious a title.
+
+It was not far away, and James' attention was naturally drawn to it.
+There was an advantage also in its location. Hiram was a small country
+village, where the expenses of living were small, and, as we know, our
+young student's purse was but scantily filled. Nevertheless, so limited
+were his means that it was a perplexing problem how he would be able to
+pay his way.
+
+He consulted his mother, and, as was always the case, found that she
+sympathized fully in his purpose of obtaining a higher education.
+Pecuniary help, however, she could not give, nor had he at this time any
+rich friends upon whom he could call for the pittance he required.
+
+But James was not easily daunted. He had gone to Geauga Seminary with
+but seventeen dollars in his pocket; he had remained there three years,
+maintaining himself by work at his old trade of carpenter and teaching,
+and had graduated owing nothing. He had become self-reliant, and felt
+that what he had done at Chester he could do at Hiram.
+
+So one fine morning he set out, with a light heart and a pocket equally
+light, for the infant institution from which he hoped so much.
+
+The Board of Trustees were in session, as we learn from the account
+given by one of their number, when James arrived and sought an audience.
+
+After a little delay, the doorkeeper was instructed to bring him in.
+
+James was nineteen at this time. He was no longer as homespun in
+appearance as when he sat upon a log with Dr. Robinson, in the seclusion
+of the woods, and asked his advice about a career. Nevertheless, he was
+still awkward. He had grown rapidly, was of slender build, and had no
+advantages of dress to recommend him. One who saw him in after-life,
+with his noble, imposing presence, would hardly recognize any similarity
+between him and the raw country youth who stood awkwardly before the
+Board of Trustees, to plead his cause. It happens not unfrequently that
+a lanky youth develops into a fine-looking man. Charles Sumner, at the
+age of twenty, stood six feet two inches in his stockings, and weighed
+but one hundred and twenty pounds! Yet in after-life he was a man of
+noble presence.
+
+But all this while we are leaving James in suspense before the men whose
+decision is to affect his life so powerfully.
+
+"Well, young man," asked the Principal, "what can we do for you?"
+
+"Gentlemen," said James, earnestly, "I want an education, and would like
+the privilege of making the fires and sweeping the floors of the
+building to pay part of my expenses."
+
+There was in his bearing and countenance an earnestness and an
+intelligence which impressed the members of the board.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Mr. Frederic Williams, one of the trustees, "I think
+we had better try this young man."
+
+Another member, turning to Garfield, said: "How do we know, young man,
+that the work will be done as we may desire?"
+
+"Try me," was the answer; "try me two weeks, and if it is not done to
+your entire satisfaction, I will retire without a word."
+
+"That seems satisfactory," said the member who had asked the question.
+
+"What studies do you wish to pursue?" asked one gentleman.
+
+"I want to prepare for college. I shall wish to study Latin, Greek,
+mathematics, and anything else that may be needed."
+
+"Have you studied any of these already?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"At the Geauga Seminary. I can refer you to the teachers there. I have
+studied under them for three years, and they know all about me."
+
+"What is your name?"
+
+"James A. Garfield."
+
+"There is something in that young man," said one of the trustees to Mr.
+Williams. "He seems thoroughly in earnest, and I believe will be a hard
+worker."
+
+"I agree with you," was the reply.
+
+James was informed that his petition was granted, and he at once made
+arrangements for his residence at Hiram.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+AT HIRAM INSTITUTE.
+
+
+Hiram, the seat of the Eclectic Institute, was not a place of any
+pretension. It was scarcely a village, but rather a hamlet. Yet the
+advantages which the infant institution offered drew together a
+considerable number of pupils of both sexes, sons and daughters of the
+Western Reserve farmers, inspired with a genuine love of learning, and
+too sensible to waste their time on mere amusement.
+
+This is the account given of it by President B.A. Hinsdale, who for
+fifteen years has ably presided over its affairs: "The institute
+building, a plain but substantially built brick structure, was put on
+the top of a windy hill, in the middle of a cornfield. One of the cannon
+that General Scott's soldiers dragged to the City of Mexico in 1847,
+planted on the roof of the new structure, would not have commanded a
+score of farm houses.
+
+"Here the school opened at the time Garfield was closing his studies at
+Chester. It had been in operation two terms when he offered himself for
+enrollment. Hiram furnished a location, the Board of Trustees a building
+and the first teacher, the surrounding country students, but the
+spiritual Hiram made itself. Everything was new. Society, traditions,
+the genius of the school, had to be evolved from the forces of the
+teachers and pupils, limited by the general and local environment. Let
+no one be surprised when I say that such a school as this was the best
+of all places for young Garfield. There was freedom, opportunity, a
+large society of rapidly and eagerly opening young minds, instructors
+who were learned enough to instruct him, and abundant scope for ability
+and force of character, of which he had a superabundance.
+
+"Few of the students who came to Hiram in that day had more than a
+district-school education, though some had attended the high schools and
+academies scattered over the country; so that Garfield, though he had
+made but slight progress in the classics and the higher mathematics
+previous to his arrival, ranked well up with the first scholars. In
+ability, all acknowledged that he was the peer of any; soon his
+superiority to all others was generally conceded."
+
+So James entered upon his duties as janitor and bell-ringer. It was a
+humble position for the future President of the United States; but no
+work is humiliating which is undertaken with a right aim and a useful
+object. Of one thing my boy-reader may be sure--the duties of the
+offices were satisfactorily performed. The school-rooms were well cared
+for, and the bell was rung punctually. This is shown by the fact that,
+after the two weeks of probation, he was still continued in office,
+though doubtless in the large number of students of limited means in the
+institute there was more than one that would have been glad to relieve
+him of his office.
+
+It will hardly be supposed, however, that the position of janitor and
+bell-ringer could pay all his expenses. He had two other resources. In
+term-time he worked at his trade of carpenter as opportunity offered,
+and in the winter, as at Chester, he sought some country town where he
+could find employment as a teacher.
+
+The names of the places where he taught are not known to me, though
+doubtless there is many an Ohio farmer, or mechanic, or, perchance,
+professional man, who is able to boast that he was partially educated by
+a President of the United States.
+
+As characteristic of his coolness and firmness, I am tempted to record
+an incident which happened to him in one of his winter schools.
+
+There were some scholars about as large as himself, to whom obedience to
+the rules of the school was not quite easy--who thought, in
+consideration of their age and size, that they might venture upon acts
+which would not be tolerated in younger pupils.
+
+The school had commenced one morning, when the young teacher heard angry
+words and the noise of a struggle in the school-yard, which chanced to
+be inclosed. The noise attracted the attention of the scholars, and
+interfered with the attention which the recitation required.
+
+James Garfield stepped quietly outside of the door, and saw two of his
+oldest and largest pupils engaged in a wrestling match. For convenience
+we will call them Brown and Jones.
+
+"What are you about, boys?" asked the teacher The two were so earnestly
+engaged in their conflict that neither returned an answer.
+
+"This must be stopped immediately," said James, decisively. "It is
+disrespectful to me, and disturbs the recitations."
+
+He might as well have spoken to the wind. They heard, but they continued
+their fight.
+
+"This must stop, or I will stop it myself," said the teacher.
+
+The boys were not afraid. Each was about as large as the teacher, and
+they felt that if he interfered he was likely to get hurt.
+
+James thought he had given sufficient warning. The time had come to act.
+He stepped quickly forward, seized one of the combatants, and with a
+sudden exertion of strength, threw him over the fence. Before he had
+time to recover from his surprise his companion was lifted over in the
+same manner.
+
+"Now, go on with your fighting if you wish," said the young teacher;
+"though I advise you to shake hands and make up. When you get through
+come in and report."
+
+The two young men regarded each other foolishly. Somehow all desire to
+fight had been taken away.
+
+"I guess we'll go in now," said Brown.
+
+"I'm with you," said Jones, and Garfield entered the school-room, meekly
+followed by the two refractory pupils. There was not much use in
+resisting the authority of a teacher who could handle them with such
+ease.
+
+James did not trouble them with any moral lecture. He was too sensible.
+He felt that all had been said and done that was required.
+
+But how did he spend his time at the new seminary, and how was he
+regarded? Fortunately we have the testimony of a lady, now residing in
+Illinois, who was one of the first students at Hiram.
+
+"When he first entered the school," she writes, "he paid for his
+schooling by doing janitor's work, sweeping the floor and ringing the
+bell. I can see him even now standing in the morning with his hand on
+the bell-rope, ready to give the signal, calling teachers and scholars
+to engage in the duties of the day. As we passed by, entering the
+school-room, he had a cheerful word for every one. He was probably the
+most popular person in the institution. He was always good-natured, fond
+of conversation, and very entertaining. He was witty and quick at
+repartee, but his jokes, though brilliant and sparkling, were always
+harmless, and he never would willingly hurt another's feelings.
+
+"Afterward he became an assistant teacher, and while pursuing his
+classical studies, preparatory to his college course, he taught the
+English branches. He was a most entertaining teacher--ready with
+illustrations, and possessing in a marked degree the power of exciting
+the interest of the scholars, and afterward making clear to them the
+lessons. In the arithmetic class there were ninety pupils, and I can not
+remember a time when there was any flagging in the interest. There were
+never any cases of unruly conduct, or a disposition to shirk. With
+scholars who were slow of comprehension, or to whom recitations were a
+burden, on account of their modest or retiring dispositions, he was
+specially attentive, and by encouraging words and gentle assistance
+would manage to put all at their ease, and awaken in them a confidence
+in themselves. He was not much given to amusements or the sports of the
+playground. He was too industrious, and too anxious to make the utmost
+of his opportunities to study.
+
+"He was a constant attendant at the regular meetings for prayer, and
+his vigorous exhortations and apt remarks upon the Bible lessons were
+impressive and interesting. There was a cordiality in his disposition
+which won quickly the favor and esteem of others. He had a happy habit
+of shaking hands, and would give a hearty grip which betokened a
+kind-hearted feeling for all. He was always ready to turn his mind and
+hands in any direction whereby he might add to his meagre store of
+money.
+
+"One of his gifts was that of mezzotint drawing, and he gave instruction
+in this branch. I was one of his pupils in this, and have now the
+picture of a cross upon which he did some shading and put on the
+finishing touches. Upon the margin is written, in the name of the noted
+teacher, his own name and his pupil's. There are also two other
+drawings, one of a large European bird on the bough of a tree, and the
+other a church yard scene in winter, done by him at that time. In those
+days the faculty and pupils were wont to call him 'the second Webster,'
+and the remark was common, 'He will fill the White House yet.' In the
+Lyceum he early took rank far above the others as a speaker and debater.
+
+"During the month of June the entire school went in carriages to their
+annual grove meeting at Randolph, some twenty-five miles away. On this
+trip he was the life of the party, occasionally bursting out in an
+eloquent strain at the sight of a bird or a trailing vine, or a
+venerable giant of the forest. He would repeat poetry by the hour,
+having a very retentive memory.
+
+"At the Institute the members were like a band of brothers and sisters,
+all struggling to advance in knowledge. Then all dressed plainly, and
+there was no attempt or pretence at dressing fashionably or stylishly.
+Hiram was a little country place, with no fascinations or worldly
+attractions to draw off the minds of the students from their work."
+
+Such is an inside view--more graphic than any description I can give--of
+the life of James Garfield at Hiram Institute.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THREE BUSY YEARS.
+
+
+Among the readers of this volume there may be boys who are preparing for
+college. They will be interested to learn the extent of James Garfield's
+scholarship, when he left the Geauga Academy, and transferred himself to
+the Institute at Hiram. Though, in his own language, he remembers with
+great satisfaction the work which was accomplished for him at Chester,
+that satisfaction does not spring from the amount that he had acquired,
+but rather that while there he had formed a definite purpose and plan to
+complete a college course. For, as the young scholar truly remarks, "It
+is a great point gained when a young man makes up his mind to devote
+several years to the accomplishment of a definite work."
+
+When James entered at Hiram, he had studied Latin only six weeks, and
+just begun Greek. He was therefore merely on the threshold of his
+preparatory course for college. To anticipate a little, he completed
+this course, and fitted himself to enter the Junior class at Williams
+College in the space of three years. How much labor this required many
+of my readers are qualified to understand. It required him to do nearly
+six years' work in three, though interrupted by work of various kinds
+necessary for his support.
+
+He was not yet able to live luxuriously, or even, as we suppose,
+comfortably. He occupied a room with four other students, which could
+hardly have been favorable for study. Yet, in the first term he
+completed six books of Caesar's commentaries, and made good progress in
+Greek. During the first winter he taught a school at Warrensville,
+receiving the highest salary he had yet been paid, eighteen dollars a
+month--of course in addition to board.
+
+At the commencement of the second year the president sent for him.
+
+James obeyed the summons, wondering whether he was to receive any
+reprimand for duty unfulfilled.
+
+President Hayden received him cordially, thus dissipating his
+apprehensions.
+
+"Garfield," he said, "Mr. ----, tutor in English and ancient languages,
+is sick, and it is doubtful whether he will be able to resume his
+duties. Do you think you can fill his place, besides carrying on your
+own work as student?"
+
+Young Garfield's face flushed with pleasure. The compliment was
+unexpected, but in every way the prospect it opened was an agreeable
+one. His only doubt was as to his qualifications.
+
+"I should like it very much," he said, "if you think I am qualified."
+
+"I have no doubt on that point. You will teach only what is familiar to
+you, and I believe you have a special faculty for imparting knowledge."
+
+"Thank you very much, Mr. Hayden," said Garfield. "I will accept with
+gratitude, and I will do my best to give satisfaction."
+
+How well he discharged his office may be inferred from the testimony
+given in the last chapter.
+
+Though a part of his time was taken up in teaching others, he did not
+allow it to delay his own progress. Still before him he kept the bright
+beacon of a college education. He had put his hand to the plow, and he
+was not one to turn back or loiter on the way. That term he began
+Xenophon's Anabasis, and was fortunate enough to find a home in the
+president's family.
+
+But he was not content with working in term-time. When the summer
+brought a vacation, he felt that it was too long a time to be lost. He
+induced ten students to join him, and hired Professor Dunshee to give
+them lessons for one month. During that time he read the Eclogues and
+Georgics of Virgil entire, and the first six books of Homer's Iliad,
+accompanied by a thorough drill in the Latin and Greek grammar. He must
+have "toiled terribly," and could have had few moments for recreation.
+When the fall term commenced, in company with Miss Almeda Booth, a
+mature young lady of remarkable intellect, and some other students, he
+formed a Translation society, which occupied itself with the Book of
+Romans, of course in the Greek version. During the succeeding winter he
+read the whole of "Demosthenes on the Crown."
+
+The mental activity of the young man (he was now twenty) seems
+exhaustless. All this time he took an active part in a literary society
+composed of some of his fellow-students. He had already become an easy,
+fluent, and forcible speaker--a very necessary qualification for the
+great work of his life.
+
+"Oh, I suppose he had a talent for it," some of my young readers may
+say.
+
+Probably he had; indeed, it is certain that he had, but it may encourage
+them to learn that he found difficulties at the start. When a student at
+Geauga, he made his first public speech. It was a six minutes' oration
+at the annual exhibition, delivered in connection with a literary
+society to which he belonged. He records in a diary kept at the time
+that he "was very much scared," and "very glad of a short curtain across
+the platform that hid my shaking legs from the audience." Such
+experiences are not uncommon in the career of men afterward noted for
+their ease in public speaking. I can recall such, and so doubtless can
+any man of academic or college training. I wish to impress upon my young
+reader that Garfield was indebted for what he became to earnest work.
+
+While upon the subject of public speaking I am naturally led to speak of
+young Garfield's religious associations. His mind has already been
+impressed with the importance of the religious element, and he felt
+that no life would be complete without it. He had joined the Church of
+the Disciples, the same to which his uncle belonged, and was baptized in
+a little stream that runs into the Chagrin River. The creed of this
+class of religious believers is one likely to commend itself in most
+respects to the general company of Christians; but as this volume is
+designed to steer clear of sect or party, I do not hold any further
+reference to it necessary. What concerns us more is, that young
+Garfield, in accordance with the liberal usages of the Disciples, was
+invited on frequent occasions to officiate as a lay preacher in the
+absence of the regular pastor of the Church of the Disciples at Hiram.
+
+Though often officiating as a preacher, I do not find that young
+Garfield ever had the ministry in view. On the other hand, he early
+formed the design of studying for the legal profession, as he gradually
+did, being admitted to the bar of Cuyahoga County, in 1860, when himself
+president of Hiram College.
+
+So passed three busy and happy years. Young Garfield had but few idle
+moments. In teaching others, in pursuing his own education, in taking
+part in the work of the literary society, and in Sunday exhortations,
+his time was well filled up. But neither his religion nor his love of
+study made him less companionable. He was wonderfully popular. His
+hearty grasp of the hand, his genial manner, his entire freedom from
+conceit, his readiness to help others, made him a general favorite. Some
+young men, calling themselves religious, assume a sanctimonious manner,
+that repels, but James Garfield never was troubled in this way. He
+believed that
+
+  "Religion never was designed
+    To make our pleasures less,"
+
+and was always ready to take part in social pleasures, provided they did
+not interfere with his work.
+
+And all this while, with all his homely surroundings, he had high
+thoughts for company. He wrote to a student, afterward his own successor
+to the presidency, words that truly describe his own aspirations and
+habits of mind. "Tell me, Burke, do you not feel a spirit stirring
+within you that longs _to know, to do, and to dare_, to hold converse
+with the great world of thought, and hold before you some high and noble
+object to which the vigor of your mind and the strength of your arm may
+be given? Do you not have longings like these which you breathe to no
+one, and which you feel must be heeded, or you will pass through life
+unsatisfied and regretful? I am sure you have them, and they will
+forever cling round your heart till you obey their mandate."
+
+The time had come when James was ready to take another step upward. The
+district school had been succeeded by Geauga Seminary, that by Hiram
+Institute, and now he looked Eastward for still higher educational
+privileges. There was a college of his own sect at Bethany, not far
+away, but the young man was not so blinded by this consideration as not
+to understand that it was not equal to some of the best known colleges
+at the East.
+
+Which should he select?
+
+He wrote to the presidents of Brown University, Yale, and Williams,
+stating how far he had advanced, and inquiring how long it would take to
+complete their course.
+
+From all he received answers, but the one from President Hopkins, of
+Williams College, ended with the sentence, "If you come here, we shall
+be glad to do what we can for you." This sentence, so friendly and
+cordial, decided the young man who otherwise would have found it hard to
+choose between the three institutions.
+
+"My mind is made up," he said. "I shall start for Williams College next
+week."
+
+He was influenced also by what he already knew of Dr. Hopkins. He was
+not a stranger to the high character of his intellect, and his
+theological reputation. He felt that here was a man of high rank in
+letters who was prepared to be not only his teacher and guide, but his
+personal friend, and for this, if for no other reason, he decided in
+favor of Williams College. To a young man circumstanced as he was, a
+word of friendly sympathy meant much.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+ENTERING WILLIAMS COLLEGE.
+
+
+James Garfield had reached the mature age of twenty-two years when he
+made his first entrance into Williamstown. He did not come quite
+empty-handed. He had paid his expenses while at Hiram, and earned three
+hundred and fifty dollars besides, which he estimated would carry him
+through the Junior year. He was tall and slender, with a great shock of
+light hair, rising nearly erect from a broad, high forehead. His face
+was open, kindly, and thoughtful, and it did not require keen perception
+of character to discern something above the common in the awkward
+Western youth, in his decidedly shabby raiment.
+
+Young Garfield would probably have enjoyed the novel sensation of being
+well dressed, but he had never had the opportunity of knowing how it
+seemed. That ease and polish of manner which come from mingling in
+society he entirely lacked. He was as yet a rough diamond, but a diamond
+for all that.
+
+Among his classmates were men from the cities, who stared in undisguised
+amazement at the tall, lanky young man who knocked at the doors of the
+college for admission.
+
+"Who is that rough-looking fellow?" asked a member of a lower class,
+pointing out Garfield, as he was crossing the college campus.
+
+"Oh, that is Garfield; he comes from the Western Reserve."
+
+"I suppose his clothes were made by a Western Reserve tailor."
+
+"Probably," answered his classmate, smiling.
+
+"He looks like a confirmed rustic."
+
+"That is true, but there is something in him. I am in his division, and
+I can tell you that he has plenty of talent."
+
+"His head is big enough."
+
+"Yes, he has a large brain--a sort of Websterian intellect. He is bound
+to be heard of."
+
+"It is a pity he is so awkward."
+
+"Oh, that will wear off. He has a hearty, cordial way with him, and
+though at first we were disposed to laugh at him, we begin to like
+him."
+
+"He's as old as the hills. At any rate, he looks so."
+
+"How old are you?"
+
+"Seventeen."
+
+"Compared with you he is, for he is nearly twenty-three. However, it is
+never too late to learn. He is not only a good scholar, but he is very
+athletic, and there are few in college who can equal him in athletic
+sports."
+
+"Why didn't he come to college before? What made him wait till he was an
+old man?"
+
+"I understand that he has had a hard struggle with poverty. All the
+money he has he earned by hard labor. Dr. Hopkins seems to have taken a
+liking to him. I saw him walking with the doctor the other day."
+
+This conversation describes pretty accurately the impression made by
+Garfield upon his classmates, and by those in other classes who became
+acquainted with him. At first they were disposed to laugh at the tall,
+awkward young man and his manners, but soon his real ability, and his
+cordial, social ways won upon all, and he was installed as a favorite.
+The boys began to call him Old Gar, and regarded him with friendship and
+increasing respect, as he grew and developed intellectually, and they
+began to see what manner of man he was.
+
+Perhaps the readiest way for a collegian to make an impression upon his
+associates is to show a decided talent for oratory. They soon discovered
+at Williams that Garfield had peculiar gifts in this way. His speaking
+at clubs, and before the church of his communion in Hiram, had been for
+him a valuable training. He joined a society, and soon had an
+opportunity of showing that he was a ready and forcible speaker.
+
+One day there came startling news to the college. Charles Sumner had
+been struck down in the Senate chamber by Preston S. Brooks, of South
+Carolina, for words spoken in debate. The hearts of the students
+throbbed with indignation--none more fiercely than young Garfield's. At
+an indignation meeting convened by the students he rose and delivered,
+so says one who heard him, "one of the most impassioned and eloquent
+speeches ever delivered in old Williams."
+
+It made a sensation.
+
+"Did you hear Old Gar's speech at the meeting?" asked one of another.
+
+"No, I did not get in in time."
+
+"It was great. I never heard him speak better. Do you know what I
+think?"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Gar will be in Congress some day himself. He has rare powers of debate,
+and is a born orator."
+
+"I shouldn't wonder myself if you were right. If he ever reaches
+Congress he will do credit to old Williams."
+
+James had given up his trade as a carpenter. He was no longer obliged to
+resort to it, or, at any rate, he preferred to earn money in a different
+way. So one winter he taught penmanship at North Pownal, in Vermont, a
+post for which he was qualified, for he had a strong, bold, handsome
+hand.
+
+"Did you know Mr. Arthur, who taught school here last winter?" asked one
+of his writing pupils of young Garfield.
+
+"No; he was not a student of Williams."
+
+"He graduated at Union College, I believe."
+
+"Was he a good teacher?"
+
+"Yes, he was very successful, keeping order without any trouble, though
+the school is considered a hard one."
+
+This was Chester A. Arthur, whose name in after years was to be
+associated with that of the writing-teacher, who was occupying the same
+room as his Presidential successor. But to James Garfield, at that time,
+the name meant nothing, and it never occurred to him what high plans
+Providence had for them both. It was one of those remarkable cases in
+which the paths of two men who are joined in destiny traverse each
+other. Was it not strange that two future occupants of the Presidential
+chair should be found teaching in the same school-room, in an obscure
+Vermont village, two successive winters?
+
+As the reader, though this is the biography of Garfield, may feel a
+curiosity to learn what sort of a teacher Arthur was, I shall, without
+apology, conclude this chapter with the story of a pupil of his who, in
+the year 1853, attended the district school at Cohoes, then taught by
+Chester A. Arthur. I find it in the Troy _Times_:
+
+"In the year 1853 the writer attended the district school at Cohoes. The
+high department did not enjoy a very enviable reputation for being
+possessed of that respect due from the pupils to teacher. During the
+year there had been at least four teachers in that department, the last
+one only remaining one week. The Board of Education had found it
+difficult to obtain a pedagogue to take charge of the school, until a
+young man, slender as a May-pole and six feet high in his stockings,
+applied for the place. He was engaged at once, although he was
+previously informed of the kind of timber he would be obliged to hew.
+
+"Promptly at nine o'clock A.M. every scholar was on hand to welcome the
+man who had said that he would 'conquer the school or forfeit his
+reputation.' Having called the morning session to order, he said that he
+had been engaged to take charge of the school. He came with his mind
+prejudiced against the place. He had heard of the treatment of the
+former teachers by the pupils, yet he was not at all embarrassed, for he
+felt that, with the proper recognition of each other's rights, teacher
+and scholars could live together in harmony. He did not intend to
+threaten, but he intended to make the scholars obey him, and would try
+and win the good-will of all present. He had been engaged to take
+charge of that room, and he wished the co-operation of every pupil in so
+doing. He had no club, ruler, or whip, but appealed directly to the
+hearts of every young man and young lady in the room. Whatever he should
+do, he would at least show to the people of this place that this school
+could be governed. He spoke thus and feelingly at times, yet with
+perfect dignity he displayed that executive ability which in after years
+made him such a prominent man. Of course the people, especially the
+boys, had heard fine words spoken before, and at once a little smile
+seemed to flit across the faces of the leading spirits in past
+rebellions.
+
+"The work of the forenoon began, when a lad of sixteen placed a marble
+between his thumb and finger, and, with a snap, sent it rolling across
+the floor. As the tall and handsome teacher saw this act, he arose from
+his seat, and, without a word, walked toward the lad.
+
+"'Get up, sir,' he said.
+
+"The lad looked at him to see if he was in earnest; then he cast his
+eyes toward the large boys to see if they were not going to take up his
+defense.
+
+"'Get up, sir,' said the teacher a second time, and he took him by the
+collar of his jacket as if to raise him. The lad saw he had no common
+man to deal with, and he rose from his seat.
+
+"'Follow me, sir,' calmly spoke the teacher, and he led the way toward
+the hall, while the boy began to tremble, wondering if the new teacher
+was going to take him out and kill him. The primary department was
+presided over by a sister of the new teacher, and into this room he led
+the young transgressor.
+
+"Turning to his sister he said: 'I have a pupil for you; select a seat
+for him, and let him remain here. If he makes any disturbance whatever,
+inform me.' Turning to the boy he said: 'Young man, mind your teacher,
+and do not leave your seat until I give permission,' and he was gone.
+
+"The lad sat there, feeling very sheepish, and as misery loves company,
+it was not long before he was gratified to see the door open and observe
+his seat-mate enter with the new teacher, who repeated the previous
+orders, when he quietly and with dignity withdrew.
+
+"The number was subsequently increased to three, the teacher returning
+each time without a word to the other scholars concerning the
+disposition made of the refractory lads. The effect upon the rest of the
+school was remarkable. As no intimation of the disposition of the boys
+was given, not a shade of anger displayed on the countenance of the new
+teacher, nor any appearances of blood were noticeable upon his hands,
+speculation was rife as to what he had done with the three chaps. He
+spoke kindly to all, smiled upon the scholars who did well in their
+classes, and seemed to inspire all present with the truth of his remarks
+uttered at the opening of the session.
+
+"At recess the mystery that had enveloped the school was cleared away,
+for the three lads in the primary department were seen as the rest of
+the scholars filed by the door. While all the rest enjoyed the recess,
+the three lads were obliged to remain in their seats, and when school
+was dismissed for the forenoon, the new teacher entered the
+primary-room, and was alone with the young offenders. He sat down by
+them, and like a father talked kindly and gave good advice. No parent
+ever used more fitting words nor more impressed his offspring with the
+fitness thereof than did the new teacher. Dismissing them, he told them
+to go home, and when they returned to school to be good boys.
+
+"That afternoon the boys were in their seats, and in two weeks' time
+there was not a scholar in the room who would not do anything the
+teacher asked. He was beloved by all, and his quiet manner and cool,
+dignified ways made him a great favorite. He only taught two terms, and
+every reasonable inducement was offered to prevail upon him to remain,
+but without avail. His reply was: "I have accomplished all I intended,
+namely, conquered what you thought was a wild lot of boys, and received
+the discipline that I required. I regret leaving my charge, for I have
+learned to love them, but I am to enter a law office at once."
+
+"That teacher was Chester A. Arthur, now President of the United States;
+the teacher of the primary department was his sister, now Mrs.
+Haynesworth, and the first of the three refractory boys was the writer.
+When it was announced that our beloved teacher was to leave us, many
+tears were shed by his scholars, and as a slight token of our love, we
+presented him with an elegant volume of poems."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+LIFE IN COLLEGE.
+
+
+Probably young Garfield never passed two happier or more profitable
+years than at Williams College. The Seminaries he had hitherto attended
+were respectable, but in the nature of things they could not afford the
+facilities which he now enjoyed. Despite his years of study and struggle
+there were many things in which he was wholly deficient. He had studied
+Latin, Greek, and mathematics, but of English literature he knew but
+little. He had never had time to read for recreation, or for that higher
+culture which is not to be learned in the class-room.
+
+In the library of Williams College he made his first acquaintance with
+Shakespeare, and we can understand what a revelation his works must have
+been to the aspiring youth. He had abstained from reading fiction,
+doubting whether it was profitable, since the early days when with a
+thrill of boyish excitement he read "Sinbad the Sailor" and Marryatt's
+novels. After a while his views as to the utility of fiction changed. He
+found that his mind was suffering from the solid food to which it was
+restricted, and he began to make incursions into the realm of poetry and
+fiction with excellent results. He usually limited this kind of reading,
+and did not neglect for the fascination of romance those more solid
+works which should form the staple of a young man's reading.
+
+It is well known that among poets Tennyson was his favorite, so that in
+after years, when at fifteen minutes' notice, on the first anniversary
+of Lincoln's assassination, he was called upon to move an adjournment of
+the House, as a mark of respect to the martyred President, he was able
+from memory to quote in his brief speech, as applicable to Lincoln, the
+poet's description of some
+
+  "Divinely gifted man,
+  Whose life in low estate began,
+  And on a simple village green,
+    Who breaks his birth's invidious bars,
+  And grasped the skirts of happy chance,
+  And breasts the blows of circumstance,
+    And grapples with his evil stars;
+  Who makes by force his merit known,
+    And lives to clutch the golden keys
+    To mould a mighty state's decrees,
+  And shape the whisper of the throne;
+  And moving up from high to higher,
+    Becomes on Fortune's crowning slope
+    The pillar of a people's hope,
+  The center of a world's desire."
+
+I am only repeating the remark made by many when I call attention to the
+fitness of this description to Garfield himself.
+
+Our young student was fortunate in possessing a most retentive memory.
+What he liked, especially in the works of his favorite poet, was so
+impressed upon his memory that he could recite extracts by the hour.
+This will enable the reader to understand how thoroughly he studied, and
+how readily he mastered, those branches of knowledge to which his
+attention was drawn. When in after years in Congress some great public
+question came up, which required hard study, it was the custom of his
+party friends to leave Garfield to study it, with the knowledge that in
+due time he would be ready with a luminous exposition which would supply
+to them the place of individual study.
+
+Young Garfield was anxious to learn the language of Goethe and
+Schiller, and embraced the opportunity afforded at college to enter upon
+the study of German. He was not content with a mere smattering, but
+learned it well enough to converse in it as well as to read it.
+
+So most profitably the Junior year was spent, but unhappily James had
+spent all the money which he had brought with him. Should he leave
+college to earn more? Fortunately, this was not necessary. Thomas
+Garfield, always unselfishly devoted to the family, hoped to supply his
+younger brother with the necessary sum, in installments; but proving
+unable, his old friend, Dr. Robinson, came to his assistance.
+
+"You can pay me when you are able, James," he said.
+
+"If I live I will pay you, doctor. If I do not--"
+
+He paused, for an idea struck him.
+
+"I will insure my life for eight hundred dollars," he continued, "and
+place the policy in your hands. Then, whether I live or die, you will be
+secure."
+
+"I do not require this, James," said the doctor kindly.
+
+"Then I feel all the more under obligations to secure you in return for
+your generous confidence."
+
+It was a sensible and business-like proposal, and the doctor assented.
+The strong, vigorous young man had no difficulty in securing a policy
+from a reputable company, and went back to college at the commencement
+of the Senior year. I wish to add that the young man scrupulously repaid
+the good doctor's timely loan, for had he failed to do so, I could not
+have held him up to my young readers as in all respects a model.
+
+There was published at Williams College, in Garfield's time, a magazine
+called the _Williams Quarterly_. To this the young man became a frequent
+contributor. In Gen. James S. Brisbin's campaign Life of Garfield, I
+find three of his poetic contributions quoted, two of which I will also
+transfer to my pages, as likely to possess some interest for my young
+reader. The first is called
+
+"THE CHARGE OF THE TIGHT BRIGADE,"
+
+and commences thus:
+
+  "Bottles to right of them,
+  Bottles to left of them,
+  Bottles in front of them,
+    Fizzled and sundered;
+  Ent'ring with shout and yell,
+  Boldly they drank and well,
+  They caught the Tartar then;
+  _Oh, what a perfect sell!_
+    Sold--the half hundred!
+  Grinned all the dentals bare,
+  Swung all their caps in air,
+  Uncorking bottles there,
+  Watching the Freshmen, while
+    Every one wondered;
+  Plunged in tobacco smoke,
+  With many a desperate stroke,
+  Dozens of bottles broke;
+  Then they came back, but not,
+    Not the half hundred!"
+
+Lest from this merry squib, which doubtless celebrated some college
+prank, wrong conclusions should be drawn, I hasten to say that in
+college James Garfield neither drank nor smoked.
+
+The next poem is rather long, but it possesses interest as a serious
+production of one whose name has become a household word. It is entitled
+
+"MEMORY.
+
+  "'Tis beauteous night; the stars look brightly down
+  Upon the earth, decked in her robe of snow.
+  No light gleams at the window save my own,
+  Which gives its cheer to midnight and to me.
+  And now with noiseless step sweet Memory comes,
+  And leads me gently through her twilight realms.
+  What poet's tuneful lyre has ever sung,
+  Or delicatest pencil e'er portrayed
+  The enchanted, shadowy land where Memory dwells?
+  It has its valleys, cheerless, lone, and drear,
+  Dark-shaded by the lonely cypress tree.
+  And yet its sunlit mountain tops are bathed
+  In heaven's own blue. Upon its craggy cliffs,
+  Robed in the dreamy light of distant years,
+  Are clustered joys serene of other days;
+  Upon its gently sloping hillside's bank
+  The weeping-willows o'er the sacred dust
+  Of dear departed ones; and yet in that land,
+  Where'er our footsteps fall upon the shore,
+  They that were sleeping rise from out the dust
+  Of death's long, silent years, and round us stand,
+  As erst they did before the prison tomb
+  Received their clay within its voiceless halls.
+
+  "The heavens that bend above that land are hung
+  With clouds of various hues; some dark and chill,
+  Surcharged with sorrow, cast their sombre shade
+  Upon the sunny, joyous land below;
+  Others are floating through the dreamy air,
+  White as the falling snow, their margins tinged
+  With gold and crimson hues; their shadows fall
+  Upon the flowery meads and sunny slopes,
+  Soft as the shadows of an angel's wing.
+  When the rough battle of the day is done,
+  And evening's peace falls gently on the heart,
+  I bound away across the noisy years,
+  Unto the utmost verge of Memory's land,
+  Where earth and sky in dreamy distance meet,
+  And Memory dim with dark oblivion joins;
+  Where woke the first remembered sounds that fell
+  Upon the ear in childhood's early morn;
+  And wandering thence along the rolling years,
+  I see the shadow of my former self
+  Gliding from childhood up to man's estate.
+  The path of youth winds down through many a vale,
+  And on the brink of many a dread abyss,
+  From out whose darkness comes no ray of light,
+  Save that a phantom dances o'er the gulf,
+  And beckons toward the verge. Again, the path
+  Leads o'er a summit where the sunbeams fall;
+  And thus, in light and shade, sunshine and gloom,
+  Sorrow and joy, this life-path leads along."
+
+During the year 1856 young Garfield was one of the editors of the
+college magazine, from which the above extracts are made. The hours
+spent upon his contributions to its pages were doubtless well spent.
+Here, to use his own words, he learned "to hurl the lance and wield the
+sword and thus prepare for the conflict of life." More than one whose
+names have since become conspicuous contributed to it while under his
+charge. Among these were Professor Chadbourne, S.G.W. Benjamin, Horace
+E. Scudder, W.R. Dimmock, and John Savary. The last-named, now resident
+in Washington, has printed, since his old friend's death, a series of
+sonnets, from which I quote one:
+
+  "How many and how great concerns of state
+    Lie at the mercy of the meanest things!
+    This man, the peer of presidents and kings;
+  Nay, first among them, passed through dangers gate
+  In war unscathed, and perils out of date,
+    To meet a fool whose pistol-shot yet rings
+    Around the world, and at mere greatness flings
+  The cruel sneer of destiny or fate!
+  Yet hath he made the fool fanatic foil
+    To valor, patience, nobleness, and wit!
+    Nor had the world known, but because of it,
+  What virtues grow in suffering's sacred soil.
+    The shot which opened like a crack of hell,
+    Made all hearts stream with sacred pity's well
+    And showed that unity in which we dwell."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE CANAL-BOY BECOMES A COLLEGE PRESIDENT.
+
+
+During his second winter vacation a great temptation assailed James. It
+was not a temptation to do wrong. That he could easily have resisted.
+
+I must explain.
+
+At Prestenkill, a country village six miles from Troy, N.Y., the young
+student organized a writing school, to help defray his expenses. Having
+occasion to visit Troy, his interest in education led him to form an
+acquaintance with some of the teachers and directors of the public
+schools.
+
+One of these gentlemen, while walking with him over the sloping sides of
+a hill overlooking the city, said: "Mr. Garfield, I have a proposition
+to make to you."
+
+The student listened with interest.
+
+"There is a vacancy in one of our public schools. We want an experienced
+teacher, and I am sure you will suit us. I offer you the place, with a
+salary of twelve hundred dollars a year. What do you say?"
+
+The young man's heart beat for a moment with repressible excitement. It
+was a strong temptation. He was offered, deducting vacations, about one
+hundred and twenty-five dollars a month, while heretofore his highest
+wages had been but eighteen dollars per month and board. Moreover, he
+could marry at once the young lady to whom he had been for years
+engaged.
+
+He considered the offer a moment, and this was his answer:
+
+"You are not Satan and I am not Jesus, but we are upon the mountain, and
+you have tempted me powerfully. I think I must say, 'Get thee behind
+me!' I am poor, and the salary would soon pay my debts and place me in a
+position of independence; but there are two objections. I could not
+accomplish my resolution to complete a college course, and should be
+crippled intellectually for life. Then, my roots are all fixed in Ohio,
+where people know me and I know them, and this transplanting might not
+succeed as well in the long run as to go back home and work for smaller
+pay."
+
+So the young man decided adversely, and it looks as if his decision was
+a wise one. It is interesting to conjecture what would have been his
+future position had he left college and accepted the school then offered
+him. He might still have been a teacher, well known and of high repute,
+but of fame merely local, and without a thought of the brilliant destiny
+he had foregone.
+
+So he went back to college, and in the summer of 1856 he graduated,
+carrying off the highest honor--the metaphysical oration. His class was
+a brilliant one. Three became general officers during the
+rebellion--Garfield, Daviess, and Thompson. Rockwell's name is well
+known in official circles; Gilfillan is Treasurer of the United States.
+There are others who fill prominent positions. In the class above him
+was the late Hon. Phineas W. Hitchcock, who for six years represented
+Nebraska in the United States Senate--like Garfield, the architect of
+his own fortunes.
+
+"What are your plans, Garfield?" asked a classmate but a short time
+before graduation.
+
+"I am going back to Ohio, to teach in the school where I prepared for
+college."
+
+"What is the name of the school?"
+
+"Hiram Institute."
+
+"I never heard of it."
+
+"It has only a local reputation."
+
+"Will you get a high salary?"
+
+"No; the institute is poor, and can pay me but little."
+
+"I think you are making a mistake."
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"You are our best scholar, and no one can rival you in speaking in the
+societies. You should study law, and then go to one of our large cities
+and build up a reputation, instead of burying yourself in an
+out-of-the-way Ohio town, where you may live and die without the world
+hearing of you."
+
+"Thank you for your good opinion of me. I am not sure whether I deserve
+it, but if I do, I shall come to the surface some day. Meanwhile, to
+this humble school (it was not yet a college) I owe a large debt of
+gratitude. I am under a promise to go back and do what I can to pay that
+debt."
+
+"In doing so you may sacrifice your own prospects."
+
+"I hope not. At any rate, my mind is made up."
+
+"Oh, well, in that case I will say no more. I know that if your mind is
+made up, you are bound to go. Only, years hence you will think of my
+warning."
+
+"At any rate," said Garfield, cordially, "I shall bear in mind the
+interest you have shown in me. You may be right--I admit that--but I
+feel that it is my duty to go."
+
+I doubt whether any man of great powers can permanently bury himself, no
+matter how obscure the position which he chooses. Sooner or later the
+world will find him out, and he will be lifted to his rightful place.
+When General Grant occupied a desk in the office of a lawyer in St.
+Louis, and made a precarious living by collecting bills, it didn't look
+as if Fame had a niche for him; but occasion came, and lifted him to
+distinction. So I must confess that the young graduate seemed to be
+making a mistake when, turning his back upon Williams College, he sought
+the humble institution where he had taught, as a pupil-teacher, two
+years before, and occupied a place as instructor, with an humble salary.
+But even here there was promotion for him. A year later, at the age of
+twenty-six, he was made president of the institution. It was not,
+perhaps, a lofty position, for though Hiram Institute now became Hiram
+College, it was not a college in the New England sense, but rather a
+superior academy.
+
+Let us pause a minute and see what changes have taken place in ten
+years.
+
+At the age of sixteen Jimmy Garfield was glad to get a chance to drive a
+couple of mules on the tow-path of the Ohio and Pennsylvania Canal. The
+ragged, homespun boy had disappeared. In his place we find James A.
+Garfield, A.B., president of a Western college--a man of education and
+culture. And how has this change been brought about! By energy,
+perseverance, and a resolute purpose--a soul that poverty could not
+daunt, an ambition which shrank from no hardship, and no amount of
+labor. They have been years of toil, for it takes time to transform a
+raw and ignorant country lad into a college president; but the toil has
+not harmed him--the poverty has not cramped him, nor crippled his
+energies. "Poverty is very inconvenient," he said on one occasion, in
+speaking of those early years, "but it is a fine spur to activity, and
+may be made a rich blessing."
+
+The young man now had an assured income; not a large one, but Hiram was
+but an humble village. No fashionable people lived there. The people
+were plain in their tastes, and he could live as well as the best
+without difficulty. He was employed in a way that interested and pleased
+him, and but one thing seemed wanting. His heart had never swerved from
+the young lady with whom he first became acquainted at Geauga, to whom
+he was more closely drawn at Hiram, and to whom now for some years he
+had been betrothed. He felt that he could now afford to be married; and
+so Lucretia Rudolph became Mrs. Garfield--a name loved and honored, for
+her sake as well as his, throughout the length and breadth of our land.
+She, too, had been busily and usefully employed in these intervening
+years. As Mr. Philo Chamberlain, of Cleveland, has told us elsewhere,
+she has been a useful and efficient teacher in one of the public schools
+of that city. She has not been content with instructing others, but in
+her hours of leisure has pursued a private course of study, by which her
+mind has been broadened and deepened. If some prophetic instinct had
+acquainted her with the high position which the future had in store for
+her, she could have taken no fitter course to prepare herself to fulfil
+with credit the duties which, twenty years after, were to devolve upon
+her as the wife of the Chief Magistrate of the Union.
+
+This was the wife that Garfield selected, and he found her indeed a
+helper and a sympathizer in all his sorrows and joys. She has proved
+equal to any position to which the rising fame of her husband lifted
+her. Less than a year ago her husband said of her: "I have been
+wonderfully blessed in the discretion of my wife. She is one of the
+coolest and best-balanced women I ever saw. She is unstampedable. There
+has not been one solitary instance in my public career when I suffered
+in the smallest degree for any remark she ever made. It would have been
+perfectly natural for a woman often to say something that could be
+misinterpreted; but, without any design, and with the intelligence and
+coolness of her character, she has never made the slightest mistake that
+I ever heard of. With the competition that has been against me, such
+discretion has been a real blessing."
+
+Public men who have risen from humble beginnings often suffer from the
+mistakes of wives who have remained stationary, and are unfitted to
+sympathize with them in the larger life of their husbands. But as James
+A. Garfield grew in the public esteem, and honors crowded upon him, step
+by step his wife kept pace with him, and was at all times a fitting and
+sympathetic companion and helpmeet.
+
+They commenced housekeeping in a neat little cottage fronting the
+college campus; and so their wedded life began. It was a modest home,
+but a happy one, and doubtless both enjoyed more happy hours than in the
+White House, even had the last sorrowful tragedy never been enacted. As
+President, James A. Garfield belonged to the nation; as the head of
+Hiram College, to his family. Greatness has its penalties, and a low
+estate its compensations.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+GARFIELD AS A COLLEGE PRESIDENT.
+
+
+When James Garfield presented himself at Hiram, an awkward, overgrown
+boy of nineteen, in his rustic garb, and humbly asked for the position
+of janitor and bell-ringer, suppose the trustees had been told, "In
+seven years your institute will have developed into a college, and that
+boy will be the president," we can imagine their amazement.
+
+Yet it had all come true. Nowhere, perhaps, but in America could such a
+thing have happened, and even here it seldom happens that such an upward
+stride is made in so short a time.
+
+After all, however, the important question to consider is, "What sort of
+a college president did this humble canal-boy, who counted it promotion
+when he was elected a janitor and bell-ringer, become?"
+
+For information upon this point, we go to one of his pupils, Rev. I.L.
+Darsie, of Danbury, Conn., who writes as follows:
+
+"I attended the Western Reserve Institute when Garfield was principal,
+and I recall vividly his method of teaching. He took very kindly to me,
+and assisted me in various ways, because I was poor, and was janitor of
+the buildings, and swept them out in the morning and built the fires, as
+he had done only six years before, when he was a pupil in the same
+college. He was full of animal spirits, and used to run out on the green
+every day and play cricket with his scholars. He was a tall, strong man,
+but dreadfully awkward. Every now and then he would get a hit, and he
+muffed his ball and lost his hat as a regular thing.[A] He was
+left-handed, too, and that made him seem all the clumsier. But he was
+most powerful and very quick, and it was easy for us to understand how
+it was that he had acquired the reputation of whipping all the other
+mule-drivers on the canal, and of making himself the hero of that
+thoroughfare, when he followed its tow-path, only ten years earlier.
+
+[Footnote A: I have seen it somewhere stated that when a Congressman at
+Washington he retained his interest in the game of base-ball, and always
+was in attendance when it was possible, at a game between two
+professional clubs.]
+
+"No matter how old the pupils were, Garfield always called us by our
+first names, and kept himself on the most intimate terms with all. He
+played with us freely, and we treated him out of the class-room just
+about as we did one another. Yet he was a most strict disciplinarian,
+and enforced the rules like a martinet. He combined an affectionate and
+confiding manner with respect for order in a most successful manner. If
+he wanted to speak to a pupil, either for reproof or approbation, he
+would generally manage to get one arm around him, and draw him close up
+to him. He had a peculiar way of shaking hands, too, giving a twist to
+your arm, and drawing you right up to him. This sympathetic manner has
+helped him to advancement. When I was janitor, he used sometimes to stop
+me, and ask my opinion about this and that, as if seriously advising
+with me. I can see now that my opinion could not have been of any value,
+and that he probably asked me partly to increase my self-respect and
+partly to show that he felt an interest in me. I certainly was his
+friend all the firmer for it.
+
+"I remember once asking him what was the best way to pursue a certain
+study.
+
+"'Use several text-books,' he answered. 'Get the views of different
+authors as you advance. In that way you can plow a deeper furrow. I
+always study in that way.'
+
+"He tried hard to teach us to observe carefully and accurately. He broke
+out one day in the midst of a lesson with, 'Henry, how many posts are
+there under the building down-stairs?' Henry expressed his opinion, and
+the question went around the class, hardly any one getting it right.
+Then it was, 'How many boot-scrapers are there at the door?' 'How many
+windows in the building?' 'How many trees in the field?' He was the
+keenest observer I ever saw. I think he noticed and numbered every
+button on our coats. A friend of mine was walking with him through
+Cleveland one day, when Garfield stopped and darted down a cellar-way,
+asking his companion to follow, and briefly pausing to explain himself.
+The sign, 'Saws and Files,' was over the door, and in the depths was
+heard a regular clicking sound. 'I think this fellow is cutting files,'
+said he, 'and I have never seen a file cut.
+
+"Down they went, and, sure enough, there was a man recutting an old
+file; and they stayed ten minutes, and found out all about the process.
+Garfield would never go by anything without understanding it.
+
+"Mr. Garfield was very fond of lecturing in the school. He spoke two or
+three times a week, on all manner of topics, generally scientific,
+though sometimes literary or historical. He spoke with great freedom,
+never writing out what he had to say, and I now think that his lectures
+were a rapid compilation of his current reading, and that he threw it
+into this form partly for the purpose of impressing it upon his own
+mind.
+
+"His facility of speech was learned when he was a pupil at Hiram. The
+societies had a rule that every student should take his stand on the
+platform and speak for five minutes on any topic suggested at the moment
+by the audience. It was a very trying ordeal. Garfield broke down badly
+the first two times he tried to speak, but persisted, and was at last,
+when he went to Williams, one of the best of the five-minute speakers.
+When he returned as principal, his readiness was striking and
+remarkable."
+
+Henry James says: "Garfield taught me more than any other man, living
+or dead, and, proud as I am of his record as a soldier and a statesman,
+I can hardly forgive him for abandoning the academy and the forum."
+
+So President Hinsdale, one of Garfield's pupils, and his successor as
+president, testifies: "My real acquaintance with Garfield did not begin
+till the fall of 1856, when he returned from Williams College. He then
+found me out, drew near to me, and entered into all my troubles and
+difficulties pertaining to questions of the future. In a greater or less
+degree this was true of his relations to his pupils generally. There are
+hundreds of these men and women scattered over the world to-day, who can
+not find language strong enough to express their feeling in
+contemplating Garfield as their old instructor, adviser, and friend.
+
+"Since 1856 my relations with him have been as close and confidential as
+they could be with any man, and much closer and more confidential than
+they have been with any other man. I do not say that it would be
+possible for me to know anybody better than I know him, and I know that
+he possesses all the great elements of character in an extraordinary
+degree. His interest in humanity has always been as broad as humanity
+itself, while his lively interest in young men and women, especially if
+they were struggling in narrow circumstances to obtain an education, is
+a characteristic known as widely over the world as the footsteps of
+Hiram boys and girls have wandered.
+
+"The help that he furnished hundreds in the way of suggestions,
+teaching, encouragement, inspiration, and stimulus was most valuable.
+His power over students was not so much that of a drill-master, or
+disciplinarian, as that of one who was able to inspire and energize
+young people by his own intellectual and moral force."
+
+An illustration of the interest he felt in his pupils may be given.
+
+A student came to the president's study at the close of a college term
+to bid him good-bye. After the good-bye was said, he lingered, and
+Garfield said: "I suppose you will be back again in the fall, Henry?"
+
+"No," he stammered, "I am not coming back to Hiram any more. Father says
+I have got education enough, and that he needs me to work on the farm;
+that education doesn't help a farmer along any."
+
+He was a bright boy--not a prodigy, by any means, but one of those
+strong, awkward, large-headed fellows, such as James Garfield had
+himself been.
+
+"Is your father here?" asked the young president, affected by the boy's
+evident sorrow.
+
+"Yes, father is here, and is taking my things home for good."
+
+"Well, don't feel badly. Please tell him Mr. Garfield would like to see
+him at his study before he leaves the college."
+
+"Yes, sir, I will."
+
+In half an hour the father, a sturdy farmer, entered the study and
+awkwardly sat down.
+
+"So you have come to take Henry home, have you?" asked the president.
+
+"Yes," answered the farmer.
+
+"I sent for you because I wanted to have a little talk with you about
+Henry's future. He is coming back again in the fall, I hope?"
+
+"Wal, I think not. I don't reckon I can afford to send him any more.
+He's got eddication enough for a farmer already, and I notice that when
+they git too much, they sorter git lazy. Yer eddicated farmers are
+humbugs. Henry's got so far 'long now that he'd rather have his head in
+a book than be workin'. He don't take no interest in the stock, nor in
+the farm improvements. Everybody else is dependent in this world on the
+farmer, and I think that we've got too many eddicated fellows settin'
+'round now for the farmers to support."
+
+To this Garfield answered that he was sorry for the father's decision,
+since his son, if permitted to come the next term, would be far enough
+advanced to teach school, and so begin to help himself along. Teaching
+would pay better than working on the farm in the winter.
+
+"Do you really think Henry can teach next winter?" asked the father, to
+whom the idea was a new one.
+
+"I should think so, certainly," answered Garfield. "But if he can not do
+so then, he can in a short time."
+
+"Wal, I will think on it. He wants to come back bad enough, and I guess
+I'll have to let him. I never thought of it that way afore."
+
+The victory was won. Henry came back the next term, and after finishing
+at Hiram, graduated at an Eastern college.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+GARFIELD BECOMES A STATE SENATOR.
+
+
+Probably Garfield considered now that he was settled in life. He had
+married the woman of his choice, set up a pleasant home, and was fully
+occupied with a class of duties that suited him. Living frugally, he was
+able to lay by a portion of his salary annually, and saw the way open,
+if life and health continued, to a moderate prosperity. He seemed to be
+a born teacher, and his life seemed likely to be passed in that pleasant
+and tranquil office.
+
+Many years before, while still unmarried, his mother had been a teacher,
+and one of her experiences when so occupied was so remarkable that I can
+not forbear quoting it:
+
+"About the year 1820 she and her sister were left alone in the world,
+without provision, so far as the inheritance or possession of property
+was concerned. Preferring to live among relatives, one went to reside
+with an uncle in Northern Ohio, and the other, Eliza, afterward Mrs.
+Garfield, came to another uncle, the father of Samuel Arnold, who then
+lived on a farm near Norwich, Muskingum County, Ohio. There Eliza Ballou
+made her home, cheerfully helping at the house or in the field, as was
+then sometimes the custom in a pioneer country. Having something more
+than what at that day was an ordinary education, Eliza procured about
+twenty pupils, and taught a summer school.
+
+"The school-house was one of the most primitive kind, and stood in the
+edge of dense and heavily-timbered woods. One day there came up a
+fearful storm of wind and rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning.
+The woods were badly wrecked, but the wind left the old log-house
+uninjured. Not so the lightning. A bolt struck a tree that projected
+closely over the roof, and then the roof itself. Some of the pupils were
+greatly alarmed, and no doubt thought it the crack of doom, or the day
+of judgment. The teacher, as calm and collected as possible, tried to
+quiet her pupils and keep them in their places. A man who was one of the
+pupils, in speaking of the occurrence, says that for a little while he
+remembered nothing, and then he looked around, and saw, as he thought,
+the teacher and pupils lying dead on the, floor. Presently the teacher
+began to move a little. Then, one by one, the pupils got up, with a
+single exception. Help, medical and otherwise, was obtained as soon as
+possible for this one, but, though life was saved for a time, reason had
+forever fled."
+
+This was certainly a fearful experience for a young teacher.
+
+It was while on a visit to her sister, already married, in Northern
+Ohio, that Eliza made the acquaintance of Abram Garfield, the father of
+the future President. In this neighborhood, while on a visit to his
+relatives, at the age of seventeen, James obtained a school and taught
+for a single term.
+
+Having retraced our steps to record this early experience of James'
+mother, we take the opportunity to mention an incident in the life of
+her son, which was omitted in the proper place. The story was told by
+Garfield himself during his last sickness to Mr. Crump, steward of the
+White House.
+
+"When I was a youngster," said the President, "and started for college
+at Hiram, I had just fifteen dollars--a ten-dollar bill in an old,
+black-leather pocketbook, which was in the breast pocket of my coat, and
+the other five dollars was in my trowsers' pocket. I was walking along
+the road, and, as the day was hot, I took off my coat and carried it on
+my arm, taking good care to feel every moment or two of the pocketbook,
+for the hard-earned fifteen dollars was to pay my entrance at the
+college.
+
+"After a while I got to thinking over what college life would be like,
+and forgot all about the pocketbook for some time, and when I looked
+again it was gone! I went back mournfully along the road, hunting on
+both sides for the pocketbook. Presently I came to a house where a young
+man was leaning over a gate, and he asked me when I came up what I was
+hunting for. Upon my explaining my loss, and describing the pocketbook,
+the young man handed it over. That young man," the President added,
+turning to his devoted physician, "was Dr. Bliss. He saved me for
+college."
+
+"Yes," said the doctor, "and if I hadn't found your ten dollars you
+wouldn't have become President of the United States."
+
+Many a true word is spoken in jest. It might have happened that the boy
+would have been so depressed by the loss of his money that he would have
+given up his plan of going to Hiram and returned home to fill an humbler
+place in the world.
+
+But it is time to return from this digression and resume our narrative.
+
+Devoted to his profession, young Garfield had given but little attention
+to politics. But in the political campaign of 1857 and 1858 he became
+interested in the exciting political questions which agitated the
+community, and, taking the stump, he soon acquired the reputation of a
+forcible and logical stump orator. This drew the attention of the voters
+to him, and in 1859 he was tendered a nomination to the Ohio Senate from
+the counties of Portage and Summit. His speeches during the campaign of
+that year are said to have been warm, fresh, and impassioned, and he was
+elected by a handsome majority.
+
+This was the first entrance of the future President upon public life.
+The session was not long, and the absence of a few weeks at Columbus
+did not seriously interfere with his college duties.
+
+In the Senate he at once took high rank. He was always ready to speak,
+his past experience having made this easy. He took care to inform
+himself upon the subjects which came up for legislation, and for this
+reason he was always listened to with respectful attention. Moreover,
+his genial manners and warmth of heart made him a general favorite among
+all his fellow legislators, whether they belonged to his party or to the
+opposition.
+
+Again, in the session of 1860-61, being also a member of the Senate, he
+took a prominent part in such measures as were proposed to uphold the
+National Government, menaced by the representative men of the South. He
+was among the foremost in declaring that the integrity of the Union must
+be protected at all hazards, and declared that it was the right and duty
+of the Government to coerce the seceded States.
+
+When the President's call for seventy-five thousand men was made public,
+and announcement was made to the Ohio Senate, Senator Garfield sprang to
+his feet, and amid loud applause moved that "twenty thousand troops and
+three millions of money" should be at once voted as Ohio's quota! He
+closed his speech by offering his services to Governor Dennison in any
+capacity.
+
+This offer the Governor bore in mind, and on the 14th of August, 1861,
+Garfield was offered the Lieutenant-Colonelcy of the Forty-second Ohio
+regiment, which he had been instrumental in forming.
+
+It was a serious moment for Garfield. The acceptance of this commission
+would derange all his cherished plans. It would separate him from his
+wife and child, and from the loved institution of which he was the head.
+He must bid farewell to the calm, studious life, which he so much
+enjoyed, and spend days and months in the camp, liable at any moment to
+fall the victim of an enemy's bullet.
+
+Suppose he should be killed? His wife would have no provision but the
+small sum of three thousand dollars, which he had been able by great
+economy to save from his modest salary.
+
+He hesitated, but it was not for long. He was not a man to shrink from
+the call of duty. Before moving he wrote to a friend:
+
+"I regard my life as given to the country. I am only anxious to make as
+much of it as possible before the mortgage on it is foreclosed."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+A DIFFICULT DUTY.
+
+
+Having made up his mind to serve his country in the field, Garfield
+immediately wrote to the Governor accepting the appointment.
+
+The regiment to which he was assigned was recruited from the same
+counties which he represented in the State Senate. A large number of the
+officers and privates had been connected as students with Hiram College,
+and were personally known to Garfield.
+
+His first step was to qualify himself for his new position. Of the art
+and mystery of war the young scholar knew little, but he was no worse
+off than many another whom the exigencies of his country summoned from
+peaceful pursuits to the tented field and the toilsome march. It was
+probably the only office which he ever assumed without suitable
+qualifications. But it was not in his nature to undertake any duties
+without endeavoring to fit himself for their discharge.
+
+His method of studying the art of war was curious and original. Falling
+back on his old trade of carpenter, he brought "his saw and jack-plane
+again into play, fashioned companies, officers and non-commissioned
+officers out of maple blocks, and with these wooden-headed troops he
+thoroughly mastered the infantry tactics in his quarters." There was
+this advantage in his method, that his toy troops were thoroughly
+manageable.
+
+The next step was to organize a school for the officers of his regiment,
+requiring thorough recitation in the tactics, while their teacher
+illustrated the maneuvers by the blocks he had prepared for his own
+instruction. He was obliged to begin with the officers, that they might
+be qualified to assist him in instructing the men under their command.
+He was then able to institute regimental, squad, skirmish, and bayonet
+drill, and kept his men at these exercises from six to eight hours daily
+till the Forty-second won the reputation of being the best drilled
+regiment to be found in Ohio.
+
+My boy readers will be reminded of the way in which he taught geometry
+in one of his winter schools, preparing himself at night for the lesson
+of the next day. I would like to call their attention also to the
+thoroughness with which he did everything. Though previously ignorant of
+military tactics he instructed his regiment in them thoroughly,
+believing that whatever was worth doing at all was worth doing well.
+
+He was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel, but by the time his organization
+was completed he was promoted to the Colonelcy.
+
+At last the preliminary work was completed. His men, an undisciplined
+body when he took them in hand, had become trained soldiers, but as yet
+they had not received what Napoleon III. called the "baptism of fire."
+It is all very well to march and countermarch, and practice the ordinary
+evolutions like militia-men at a muster, but how was the regiment, how
+was its scholarly commander likely to act in the field?
+
+On the 14th of December orders for the field were received by Colonel
+Garfield's command, stationed at Camp Chase.
+
+Then came the trial of parting with wife and mother and going forth to
+battle and danger. To his mother, whose highest ambition had been that
+her son should be a scholar, it was doubtless a keen disappointment that
+his settled prospects should be so broken up; but she, too, was
+patriotic, and she quietly said: "Go, my son, your life belongs to your
+country."
+
+Colonel Garfield's orders were to report to General Buell at Louisville.
+He moved his regiment by way of Cincinnati to Catlettsburg, Kentucky, a
+town at the junction of the Big Sandy and the Ohio, and was enabled to
+report to his commander on the 19th of December.
+
+Then, for the first time, he learned what was the nature of the duty
+that was assigned to him. It was no less than to save Kentucky to the
+Union. A border State, with an interest in slavery, public opinion was
+divided, and it was uncertain to which side it would incline. The
+Confederates understood the value of the prize, and they had taken
+measures, which promised to be successful, to wrest it from the Union.
+The task had been committed to Gen. Humphrey Marshall, who had invaded
+Eastern Kentucky from the Virginia border, and had already advanced as
+far north as Prestonburg.
+
+Gen. Marshall fortified a strong natural position near Paintville, and
+overran the whole Piedmont region. This region contained few slaves--but
+one in twenty-five of the whole population. It was inhabited by a brave
+rural population, more closely resembling their Northern than their
+Southern neighbors. Among these people Marshall sent stump orators to
+fire them with enthusiasm for the Confederate cause. Such men would make
+valuable soldiers and must be won over if possible.
+
+So all that portion of the State was in a ferment. It looked as if it
+would be lost to the Union. Marshall was daily increasing the number of
+his forces, preparing either to intercept Buell, and prevent his advance
+into Tennessee, or, cutting off his communications, with the assistance
+of Beauregard, to crush him between them.
+
+To Colonel Garfield, an inexperienced civilian, who had only studied
+military tactics by the aid of wooden blocks, and who had never been
+under fire, it was proposed to meet Marshall, a trained soldier, to
+check his advance, and drive him from the State. This would have been
+formidable enough if he had been provided with an equal number of
+soldiers; but this was far from being the case. He had but twenty-five
+hundred men to aid him in his difficult work, and of these eleven
+hundred, under Colonel Craven, were a hundred miles away, at Paris,
+Kentucky, and this hundred miles was no level plain, but a rough,
+mountainous country, infested with guerrillas and occupied by a disloyal
+people.
+
+Of course, the first thing to be done was to connect with Colonel
+Craven, but, considering the distance and the nature of the country to
+be traversed, it was a most difficult problem. The chances were that
+Gen. Marshall, with his vastly superior force, would attack the two
+bodies of soldiers separately, and crush them before a union could be
+effected.
+
+Gen. Buell explained how matters stood to the young colonel of
+volunteers, and ended thus:
+
+"That is what you have to do, Colonel Garfield--drive Marshall from
+Kentucky, and you see how much depends on your action. Now go to your
+quarters, think of it overnight, and come here in the morning and tell
+me how you will do it."
+
+In college Garfield had been called upon to solve many difficult
+problems in the higher mathematics, but it is doubtful whether he ever
+encountered a more knotty problem than this one.
+
+He and Colonel Craven represented two little boys of feeble strength,
+unable to combine their efforts, who were called upon to oppose and
+capture a big boy of twice their size, who knew a good deal more about
+fighting than they did.
+
+No wonder the young colonel felt perplexed. But he did not give up. It
+was not his way. He resolved to consider whether anything could be done,
+and what.
+
+My chief object in writing this volume being to commend its subject as
+an example for boys, I think it right to call attention to this trait
+which he possessed in a conspicuous degree. Brought face to face with
+difficulty--with what might almost be called the impossible, he did not
+say, "Oh, I can't do it. It is impossible." He went home to devise a
+plan.
+
+First of all, it was important that he should know something of the
+intervening country--its conformation, its rivers and streams, if there
+were any. So, on his way to his room he sought a book-store and bought
+a rude map of Kentucky, and then, shutting himself up in his room, while
+others were asleep, he devoted himself to a lesson in geography. With
+more care than he had ever used in school, he familiarized himself with
+the geography of the country in which he was to operate, and then set
+himself to devise some feasible plan of campaign.
+
+It was a hard problem, and required still more anxious thought, because
+the general to whom he was to report it, was, unlike himself, a man
+thoroughly trained in the art of war.
+
+The next morning, according to orders, he sought again his commanding
+officer.
+
+Gen. Buell was a man of great reticence and severe military habits, and
+if the plan were weak or foolish, as might well be from the utter lack
+of experience of the young officer who was to make it, he would
+unhesitatingly say so.
+
+As Garfield laid his rude map and roughly outlined plan on the table,
+and explained his conception of the campaign, he watched anxiously to
+see how Gen. Buell was impressed by it. But the general was a man who
+knew how to veil his thoughts. He waited in silence till Garfield had
+finished, only asking a brief question now and then, and at the end,
+without expressing his opinion one way or the other, merely said:
+"Colonel Garfield, your orders will be sent you at six o'clock this
+evening."
+
+Garfield was not compelled to wait beyond that hour.
+
+Promptly the order came, organizing the Eighteenth Brigade of the Army
+of the Ohio, under the command of Colonel Garfield, with a letter of
+instructions, embodying essentially the plan submitted by the young
+officer in the morning.
+
+When Garfield set out with his command the next morning, Gen. Buell said
+to him at parting:
+
+"Colonel, you will be at so great a distance from me, and communication
+will be so difficult, that I must commit all matters of detail and much
+of the fate of the campaign to your discretion. I shall hope to hear a
+good account of you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+JOHN JORDAN'S DANGEROUS JOURNEY.
+
+
+Col. Garfield had already sent on his regiment in advance to Louisa,
+twenty-eight miles up the Big Sandy.
+
+There he joined them on the 24th, having waited at Catlettsburg only
+long enough to forward to them necessary supplies.
+
+The arrival of the regiment was opportune, for the district was
+thoroughly alarmed. A regiment had been stationed there--the Fourteenth
+Kentucky--but had hastily retreated to the mouth of the river during the
+night of the 19th, under the impression that Marshall was advancing with
+his forces to drive them into the Ohio. It was a false alarm, but the
+Union citizens were very much alarmed, and were preparing with their
+families to cross the river for safety. With the appearance of
+Garfield's regiment a feeling of security returned.
+
+I am anxious to make plain to my boy readers the manner in which the
+young colonel managed his campaign. I think they will have no difficulty
+in understanding that Garfield had two very difficult things to
+accomplish. Colonel Craven knew nothing of Garfield's advance, nor of
+his plans. It was necessary to inform him. Again, if possible, a
+junction must be effected. The first was difficult, because the
+intervening country was infested with roving bands of guerrillas, and a
+messenger must take his life in his hands. How, again, could a junction
+be effected in the face of a superior enemy, liable to fall upon either
+column and crush it?
+
+Obviously the first thing was to find a messenger.
+
+Garfield applied to Col. Moore of the Fourteenth Kentucky, and made
+known his need.
+
+"Have you a man," he asked, "who will die rather than fail or betray
+us?"
+
+"Yes," answered the Kentuckian, after a pause, "I think I have. His name
+is John Jordan, and he comes from the head of the Blaine."
+
+This was a small stream which entered the Big Sandy, a short distance
+from the town.
+
+At the request of Garfield, Jordan was sent for. In a short time he
+entered the tent of the Union commander.
+
+This John Jordan was a remarkable man, and well known in all that
+region. He was of Scotch descent, and possessed some of the best traits
+of his Scotch ancestry. He was a born actor, a man of undoubted courage,
+fertile in expedients, and devoted to the Union cause.
+
+Garfield was a judge of men, and he was impressed in the man's favor at
+first sight. He describes Jordan as a tall, gaunt, sallow man, about
+thirty years of age, with gray eyes, a fine falsetto voice, and a face
+of wonderful expressiveness. To the young colonel he was a new type of
+man, but withal a man whom he was convinced that he could trust.
+
+"Why did you come into this war?" he asked, with some curiosity.
+
+"To do my share, colonel, and I've made a bargain with the Lord. I gave
+Him my life to start with, and if He has a mind to take it, it's His.
+I've nothing to say agin it."
+
+"You mean you have come into the war, not expecting to get out of it
+alive?"
+
+"Yes, colonel."
+
+"You know what I want you to do. Will you die rather than let this
+dispatch be taken?"
+
+"I will."
+
+Garfield looked into the man's face, and he read unmistakable sincerity.
+
+He felt that the man could be trusted, and he said so.
+
+The dispatch was written upon tissue paper. It was then rolled into the
+form of a bullet, coated with warm lead, and given into the hands of the
+messenger. He was provided with a carbine and a brace of revolvers, and
+when the moon was down, he mounted his horse in the darkness and set out
+on his perilous journey.
+
+It would not do to ride in the daytime, for inevitably he would be
+stopped, or shot down. By day he must hide in the woods, and travel only
+at night.
+
+His danger was increased by the treachery of one of his own comrades of
+the Fourteenth Kentucky, and he was followed by a band of guerrillas in
+the Confederate interest. Of this, however, Jordan was not apprised, and
+supposing himself secure he sought shelter and concealment at the house
+of a man whom he knew to be loyal. Near enough to see, but not to be
+seen, the guerrillas waited till the tired messenger was sleeping, and
+then coming boldly out of the woods, surrounded the house.
+
+In a fright the good housewife ran up to his chamber, and shook the
+sleeping man.
+
+"Wake for your life!" she said. "The guerrillas are outside, clamoring
+for you. I have locked the doors, but I can not keep them out long."
+
+Jordan had thrown himself on the bed with his clothes on. He knew that
+he was liable to be surprised, and in such an event time was most
+valuable. Though awakened from a sound sleep, he had all his wits about
+him.
+
+"Thank you," said he. "I have a favor to ask in the name of our cause."
+
+"Be quick, then," said the woman. "They are bursting open the door."
+
+"Take this bullet. It contains a secret dispatch, which, if I am killed,
+I enjoin upon you to convey to Colonel Craven, at Paris. Will you do
+it?"
+
+"If I can."
+
+"Then I am off."
+
+The door burst open, but he made a sudden dash, and escaped capture. He
+headed for the woods, amid a volley of bullets, but none of them reached
+him. Once he turned round, and fired an answering shot. He did not stop
+to see if it took effect, but it was the messenger of Death. One of the
+guerrillas reeled, and measured his length upon the ground, dead in a
+moment.
+
+Fleet as a deer the brave scout pushed on till he got within the
+protecting shadows of the friendly woods. There they lost the trail, and
+though he saw them from his place of concealment, he was himself unseen.
+
+"Curse him!" said the disappointed leader. "He must have sunk into the
+earth, or vanished into the air."
+
+"If he's sunk into the earth, that is where we want him," answered
+another, with grim humor.
+
+"You will find I am not dead yet!" said the hidden scout to himself. "I
+shall live to trouble you yet."
+
+He passed the remainder of the day in the woods, fearing that his
+pursuers might still be lingering about.
+
+"If there were only two or three, I'd come out and face 'em," he said,
+"but the odds are too great. I must skulk back in the darkness, and get
+back the bullet."
+
+Night came on, and the woman who had saved him, heard a low tapping at
+the door. It might be an enemy, and she advanced, and opened it with
+caution. A figure, seen indistinctly in the darkness, stood before her.
+
+"Who are you?" she asked doubtfully.
+
+"Don't be afraid, ma'am, it's only me."
+
+"And you--"
+
+"Are the man you saved this morning!"
+
+"God be thanked! Then you were not killed?"
+
+"Do I look like a dead man? No, my time hasn't come yet. I foiled 'em in
+the wood, and there I have spent all day. Have you any victuals, for I
+am famished?"
+
+"Yes, come in."
+
+"I can not stay. I will take what you have and leave at once, for the
+villains may be lurkin' round here somewhere. But first, the bullet!
+have you that safe?"
+
+"Here it is."
+
+The scout put it in his pocket, and taking in his hand a paper box of
+bread and meat which his loyal hostess brought him, resumed his
+hazardous journey.
+
+He knew that there were other perils to encounter, unless he was
+particularly fortunate, but he had a heart prepared for any fate. The
+perils came, but he escaped them with adroitness, and at midnight of the
+following day he was admitted into the presence of Colonel Craven.
+
+Surely this was no common man, and his feat was no common one.
+
+In forty-eight hours, traveling only by night, he had traversed one
+hundred miles with a rope round his neck, and without the prospect of
+special reward. For he was but a private, and received but a private's
+pay--thirteen dollars a month, a shoddy uniform, and hard-tack, when he
+could get it.
+
+Colonel Craven opened the bullet, and read the dispatch.
+
+It was dated "Louisa, Kentucky, December 24, midnight"; and directed him
+to move at once with his regiment (the Fortieth Ohio, eight hundred
+strong) by way of Mount Sterling and McCormick's Gap, to Prestonburg. He
+was to encumber his men with as few rations as possible, since the
+safety of his command depended on his celerity. He was also requested to
+notify Lieutenant-Colonel Woodford, at Stamford, and direct him to join
+the march with his three hundred cavalry.
+
+On the following morning Col. Craven's column began to move. The scout
+waited till night, and then set out on his return. The reader will be
+glad to learn that the brave man rejoined his regiment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+GARFIELD'S BOLD STRATEGY.
+
+
+Garfield didn't wait for the scout's return. He felt that no time was to
+be lost. The expedition which he had planned was fraught with peril, but
+it was no time for timid counsels.
+
+On the morning following Jordan's departure he set out up the river,
+halting at George's Creek, only twenty miles from Marshall's intrenched
+position. As the roads along the Big Sandy were impassable for trains,
+and unsafe on account of the nearness of the enemy, he decided to depend
+mainly upon water navigation for the transportation of his supplies.
+
+The Big Sandy finds its way to the Ohio through the roughest and wildest
+spurs of the Cumberland Mountains, and is a narrow, fickle stream. At
+low-water it is not navigable above Louisa, except for small flat-boats
+pushed by hand. At high-water small steamers can reach Piketon, one
+hundred and twenty miles from the mouth; but when there are heavy
+freshets the swift current, filled with floating timber, and the
+overhanging trees which almost touch one another from the opposite
+banks, render navigation almost impracticable. This was enough to
+intimidate a man less in earnest than Garfield. He did not hesitate, but
+gathering together ten days' rations, he chartered two small steamers,
+and seizing all the flat-boats he could lay hands on, took his army
+wagons apart, and loaded them, with his forage and provisions, upon the
+flat-boats.
+
+Just as he was ready to start he received an unexpected reinforcement.
+Captain Bent, of the Fourteenth Kentucky, entering Garfield's tent, said
+to him, "Colonel, there's a man outside who says he knows you. Bradley
+Brown, a rebel thief and scoundrel."
+
+"Bradley Brown," repeated Garfield, puzzled. "I don't remember any such
+name."
+
+"He has lived near the head of the Blaine, and been a boatman on the
+river. He says he knew you on the canal in Ohio."
+
+"Oh, yes, I remember him now; bring him in."
+
+Brown was ushered into the general's tent. He was clad in homespun, and
+spattered from head to foot with mud, but he saw in Garfield only the
+friend of earlier days, and hurrying up to him, gave him a hearty grasp
+of the hand, exclaiming, "Jim, old feller, how are yer?"
+
+Garfield received him cordially, but added, "What is this I hear, Brown?
+Are you a rebel?"
+
+"Yes," answered the new-comer, "I belong to Marshall's force, and I've
+come straight from his camp to spy out your army."
+
+"Well, you go about it queerly," said Garfield, puzzled.
+
+"Wait till you are alone, colonel. Then I'll tell you about it."
+
+Col. Bent said in an undertone to Garfield, as he left the tent, "Don't
+trust him, colonel; I know him as a thief and a rebel."
+
+This was the substance of Brown's communication. As soon as he heard
+that James A. Garfield was in command of the Union forces, it instantly
+struck him that it must be his old comrade of the canal, for whom he
+still cherished a strong attachment. He was in the rebel camp, but in
+reality cared little which side was successful, and determined out of
+old friendship to help Garfield if he could.
+
+Concealing his design, he sought Marshall, and proposed to visit the
+Union camp as a spy, mentioning his former intimacy with Garfield. Gen.
+Marshall readily acceded to his plan, not suspecting that it was his
+real purpose to tell Garfield all he knew about the rebel force. He
+proceeded to give the colonel valuable information on this subject.
+
+When he had finished, Garfield said, "I advise you to go back to
+Marshall."
+
+"Go back to him, colonel? Why, he would hang me to the first tree."
+
+"Not if you tell him all about my strength and intended movements."
+
+"But how kin I? I don't know a thing. I was brought into the camp
+blindfolded."
+
+"Still you can guess. Suppose you tell him that I shall march to-morrow
+straight for his camp, and in ten days be upon him."
+
+"You'd be a fool, colonel, to do that, and he 'trenched so strongly,
+unless you had twenty thousand men."
+
+"I haven't got that number. Guess again."
+
+"Well, ten thousand."
+
+"That will do for a guess. Now to-day I shall keep you locked up, and
+to-morrow you can go back to Marshall."
+
+At nightfall Brown went back to the rebel camp, and his report was made
+in accordance with Garfield's suggestions.
+
+The fact was, that deducting those sick and on garrison duty, Garfield's
+little army amounted to but fourteen hundred in place of the ten
+thousand reported to the rebel commander. This little army was set in
+motion the next day. It was a toilsome and discouraging march, over
+roads knee-deep in mire, and the troops necessarily made but slow
+progress, being frequently obliged to halt. Some days they succeeded in
+making but five or six miles. On the 6th of January, however, they
+arrived within seven miles of Paintville. Here while Garfield was trying
+to catch a few hours' sleep, in a wretched log hut, he was roused by
+Jordan, the scout, who had just managed to reach the camp.
+
+"Have you seen Craven?" asked Garfield eagerly.
+
+"Yes; he can't be more'n two days behind me, nohow."
+
+"God bless you, Jordan! You have done us great service," said Garfield,
+warmly, feeling deeply relieved by this important news.
+
+"Thank ye, colonel. That's more pay 'n I expected."
+
+In the morning another horseman rode up to the Union camp. He was a
+messenger direct from Gen. Buell. He brought with him an intercepted
+letter from Marshall to his wife, revealing the important fact that the
+Confederate general had five thousand men--forty-four hundred infantry
+and six hundred cavalry--with twelve pieces of artillery, and that he
+was daily expecting an attack from a Union force of ten thousand.
+
+It was clear that Brown had been true, and that it was from him Gen.
+Marshall had received this trustworthy intelligence of the strength of
+the Union army.
+
+Garfield decided not to communicate the contents of this letter, lest
+his officers should be alarmed at the prospect of attacking a force so
+much superior. He called a council, however, and put this question:
+
+"Shall we march at once, or wait the coming of Craven?"
+
+All but one were in favor of waiting, but Garfield adopted the judgment
+of this one.
+
+"Forward it is!" he said. "Give the order."
+
+I will only state the plan of Garfield's attack in a general way. There
+were three roads that led to Marshall's position--one to the east, one
+to the west, and one between the two. These three roads were held by
+strong Confederate pickets.
+
+Now, it was Garfield's policy to keep Marshall deceived as to his
+strength. For this reason, he sent a small body to drive in the enemy's
+pickets, as if to attack Paintville. Two hours after, a similar force,
+with the same orders, were sent on the road to the westward, and two
+hours later still, a small force was sent on the middle road. The first
+pickets, retreating in confusion, fled to the camp, with the
+intelligence that a large body of Union troops were on their way to make
+an attack. Similar tidings were brought by the two other bodies of
+pickets, and Marshall, in dismay, was led to believe that he was menaced
+by superior numbers, and hastily abandoned Paintville, and Garfield,
+moving his men rapidly over the central route, occupied the town.
+
+Gen. Marshall would have been intensely mortified had he known that this
+large Union army was little more than one-fourth the size of his own.
+
+But his alarm was soon increased. On the evening of the 8th of January,
+a spy entered his camp, and reported that Craven, with _thirty-three
+hundred men_, was within twelve hours' march at the westward.
+
+The big general (he weighed three hundred pounds) was panic-stricken.
+Believing Garfield's force to number ten thousand, this reinforcement
+would carry his strength up to over thirteen thousand. Ruin and defeat,
+as he fancied, stared him in the face, for how could his five thousand
+men encounter nearly three times their number? They would, of course, be
+overwhelmed. There was safety only in flight.
+
+So the demoralized commander gave orders to break camp, and retreated
+precipitately, abandoning or burning a large portion of his supplies.
+
+Garfield saw the fires, and guessed what had happened, being in the
+secret of Marshall's delusion. He mounted his horse, and, with a
+thousand men, entered the deserted camp at nine in the evening. The
+stores that were yet unconsumed he rescued from destruction for the use
+of his own army.
+
+In order to keep up the delusion, he sent off a detachment to harass the
+retreat of his ponderous adversary and fill his mind with continued
+disquiet.
+
+The whole thing was a huge practical joke, but not one that the rebels
+were likely to enjoy. Fancy a big boy of eighteen fleeing in dismay from
+a small urchin of eight, and we have a parallel to this flight of Gen.
+Marshall from an intrenched position, with five thousand troops, when
+his opponent could muster but fourteen hundred men in the open field.
+
+Thus far, I think, it will be agreed that Colonel Garfield was a
+strategist of the first order. His plan required a boldness and dash
+which, under the circumstances, did him the greatest credit.
+
+The next morning Colonel Craven arrived, and found, to his amazement,
+that Garfield, single-handed, had forced his formidable enemy from his
+strong position, and was in triumphant possession of the deserted rebel
+camp.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE BATTLE OF MIDDLE CREEK.
+
+
+Col. Garfield has gained a great advantage, but he knows that it must be
+followed up. His ambition is not satisfied. He means to force a fight
+with Marshall, despite the odds.
+
+He has been reinforced, but Craven's men are completely exhausted by
+their long and toilsome march. They are hardly able to drag one foot
+after the other. Garfield knows this, but he explains to his men what he
+proposes to do. He orders those who have strength to come forward. Of
+the men under his immediate command seven hundred obey the summons. Of
+Craven's weary followers four hundred heroic men volunteer to accompany
+him.
+
+So at noon of the 9th, with eleven hundred men, Garfield sets out for
+Prestonburg, sending all his available cavalry to follow the line of the
+enemy's retreat. At nine o'clock that night, after a march of eighteen
+miles, he reaches the mouth of Abbott's Creek with his eleven hundred
+men. He hears that his opponent is encamped three miles higher up on the
+same stream. He sends an order back to Lieutenant-Colonel Sheldon, who
+is left in command at Paintville, to bring up every available man with
+all possible dispatch, for he intends to force a battle in the morning.
+
+He requires to know the disposition of Marshall's forces, and here the
+gallant scout, John Jordan, again is of service to him. While a dozen
+Confederates were grinding at a mill, they were surprised by as many
+Union men, who, taking them by surprise, captured their corn, and made
+them prisoners. Jordan eyed the miller with a critical eye, and a plan
+was instantly formed. The miller was a tall, gaunt man, and his clothes
+would fit the scout. He takes a fancy to exchange raiment with the
+miller. Then, smearing his face with meal, he goes back to the
+Confederate camp in a new character. Even if he is surprised he will
+escape suspicion, for the miller is a pronounced disunionist, and he
+looks his very image.
+
+His midnight ramble enabled him to learn precisely what it was
+important for Garfield to know. He found out their exact position, and
+that they had laid an ambuscade for the Union commander. They were
+waiting for him, strongly posted on a semicircular hill at the forks of
+Middle Creek, on both sides of the road, with cannon commanding its
+whole length, hidden by the trees and underbrush.
+
+"They think they've got you, general," said Jordan. "They're waitin' for
+you as a cat waits for a mouse."
+
+Upon a steep ridge called Abbott's Hill, the Union soldiers, tired and
+sleepy, had thrown themselves upon the wet ground. There was a dense
+fog, shutting out the moon and stars, and shrouding the lonely mountain
+in darkness. The rain was driven in blinding gusts into the faces of the
+shivering men, and tired as they were they hailed with joy the coming of
+morning. For more than one brave man it was destined to be his last day
+upon earth.
+
+At four o'clock they started on their march. About daybreak, while
+rounding a hill, their advance guard was charged upon by a body of
+Confederate horsemen. In return Garfield gave the Confederates a
+volley, that sent them reeling up the valley.
+
+[Illustration: TURNING THE TIDE OF BATTLE AT CHICKAMAUGA]
+
+It was clear that the main body of the enemy was not far away. To
+determine this Garfield sent forward a body of skirmishers to draw the
+fire of the enemy. He succeeded, for a twelve-pound shell whistled above
+the trees, then plowed up the hill, and buried itself in the ground at
+the feet of the little band of skirmishers.
+
+Noon came, and Garfield made the necessary preparations for battle. He
+could not have been without apprehension, for he knew, though the enemy
+did not, that their force was far superior to his. He sent forward his
+mounted escort of twelve men to make a charge and draw the enemy's fire.
+His plan succeeded. Another shell whistled over their heads, and the
+long roll of five thousand muskets was heard.
+
+It was certainly a remarkable battle, when we consider that a small band
+of eleven hundred men without cannon had undertaken to attack a force of
+five thousand, supported by twelve pieces of artillery, charging up a
+rocky hill, over stumps, over stones, over fallen trees, and over high
+intrenchments.
+
+"The battle was fought on the margin of Middle Creek, a narrow, rapid
+stream, and three miles from where it finds its way into the Big Sandy,
+through the sharp spurs of the Cumberland Mountain. A rocky road, not
+ten feet in width, winds along this stream, and on its two banks abrupt
+ridges, with steep and rocky sides, overgrown with trees and underbrush,
+shut closely down upon the road and the little streamlet. At twelve
+o'clock Garfield had gained the crest of the ridge at the right of the
+road, and the charge of his handful of horsemen had drawn Marshall's
+fire, and disclosed his actual position.
+
+"The main force of the Confederates occupied the crests of the two
+ridges at the left of the stream, but a strong detachment was posted on
+the right, and a battery of twelve pieces held the forks of the creek,
+and commanded the approach of the Union army. It was Marshall's plan to
+drive Garfield along the road, and then, taking him between two
+enfilading fires, to surround and utterly destroy him. But his hasty
+fire betrayed his design, and unmasked his entire position.
+
+"Garfield acted with promptness and decision. A hundred undergraduates,
+recruited from his own college, were ordered to cross the stream climb
+the ridge whence the fire had been hottest, and bring on the battle.
+Boldly the little band plunged into the creek, the icy water up to their
+waists, and clinging to the trees and underbrush, climbed the rocky
+ascent. Half-way up the ridge the fire of at least two thousand rifles
+opens upon them; but, springing from tree to tree, they press on, and at
+last reach the summit. Then suddenly the hill is gray with Confederates,
+who, rising from ambush, pour their deadly volleys into the little band
+of only one hundred. In a moment they waver, but their leader calls out,
+'Every man to a tree! Give them as good as they send, my boys!'
+
+"The Confederates, behind rocks and a rude intrenchment, are obliged to
+expose their heads to take aim at the advancing column; but the Union
+troops, posted behind the huge oaks and maples, can stand erect, and
+load and fire, fully protected. Though they are outnumbered ten to one,
+the contest is therefore, for a time, not so very unequal.
+
+"But soon the Confederates, exhausted with the obstinate resistance,
+rush from cover, and charge upon the little handful with the bayonet.
+Slowly they are driven down the hill, and two of them fall to the ground
+wounded. One never rises; the other, a lad of only eighteen, is shot
+through the thigh, and one of his comrades turns back to bear him to a
+place of safety. The advancing Confederates are within thirty feet, when
+one of them fires, and his bullet strikes a tree directly above the head
+of the Union soldier. He turns, levels his musket, and the Confederate
+is in eternity. Then the rest are upon him; but, zigzagging from tree to
+tree, he is soon with his driven column. But not far are the brave boys
+driven. A few rods lower down they hear the voice of the brave Captain
+Williams, their leader.
+
+"'To the trees again, my boys!' he cries. 'We may as well die here as in
+Ohio!'
+
+"To the trees they go, and in a moment the advancing horde is checked,
+and then rolled backward. Up the hill they turn, firing as they go, and
+the little band follows. Soon the Confederates reach the spot where the
+Hiram boy lies wounded, and one of them says: 'Boy, give me your
+musket.'
+
+"'Not the gun, but its contents,' cries the boy, and the Confederate
+falls mortally wounded. Another raises his weapon to brain the prostrate
+lad, but he too falls, killed with his comrade's own rifle. And all this
+is done while the hero-boy is on the ground, bleeding. An hour afterward
+his comrades bear the boy to a sheltered spot on the other side of the
+streamlet, and then the first word of complaint escapes him. As they are
+taking off his leg, he says, in his agony, 'Oh, what will mother do?'"
+
+Poor boy! At that terrible moment, in the throes of his fierce agony, he
+thought not of himself, but of the mother at home, who was dependent on
+his exertions for a livelihood. For in war it is not alone the men in
+the field who are called upon to suffer, but the mothers, the wives, and
+the children, left at home, whose hearts are rent with anxiety--to whom,
+at any moment, may come the tidings of the death of their loved one.
+
+On a rocky height, commanding the field, Garfield watched the tide of
+battle. He saw that it was unequal, and that there was danger that his
+troops would be overmatched. He saw that they were being driven, and
+that they would lose the hill if not supported.
+
+Instantly he ordered to the rescue five hundred of the Ohio Fortieth and
+Forty-second, under Major Pardee and Colonel Craven. They dashed boldly
+into the stream, holding their cartridge-boxes above their heads, and
+plunged into the fight, shouting:
+
+"Hurrah for Williams and the Hiram boys!"
+
+But their position was most critical, for shot, and shell, and canister,
+and the fire of four thousand muskets are now concentrated upon them.
+
+"This will never do!" cries Garfield. "Who will volunteer to carry the
+other mountain?"
+
+Colonel Munroe, of the Twenty-second Kentucky, responded quickly, "We
+will. We know every inch of the ground."
+
+"Go in, then," cries Garfield, "and give them Columbia!"
+
+I have not space to record the varying fortunes of the day. For five
+hours the contest rages. By turns the Union forces are driven back, and
+then, with a brave charge, they regain their lost ground, and from
+behind rocks and trees pour in their murderous volleys. The battle began
+at noon, and when the sun sets on the brief winter day it is still
+unfinished.
+
+Posted on a projecting rock, in full sight of both armies, stands the
+Union commander--his head uncovered, his hair streaming in the wind, and
+his heart full of alternate hopes and fears. It looks as if the day were
+lost--as if the gallant eleven hundred were conquered at last, when, at
+a critical moment, the starry banner is seen waving over an advancing
+host. It is Sheldon and reinforcements--long and anxiously expected!
+Their shouts are taken up by the eleven hundred! The enemy see them and
+are panic-stricken.
+
+The day is won!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE PERILOUS TRIP UP THE BIG SANDY.
+
+
+I have followed Col. Garfield through the Kentucky campaign, not because
+it compared in importance with many other military operations of the
+war, but because in its conduct he displayed in a remarkable degree some
+of the traits by which he was distinguished. From a military point of
+view it may be criticised. His attack upon an enemy far his superior in
+numbers, and in a more favorable position, would scarcely have been
+undertaken by an officer of more military experience. Yet, once
+undertaken, it was carried through with remarkable dash and brilliancy,
+and the strategy displayed was of a high order.
+
+I must find room for the address issued to his little army on the day
+succeeding the battle, for it tells, in brief, the story of the
+campaign:
+
+"SOLDIERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH BRIGADE: I am proud of you all! In four
+weeks you have marched, some eighty and some a hundred miles, over
+almost impassable roads. One night in four you have slept, often in the
+storm, with only a wintry sky above your heads. You have marched in the
+face of a foe of more than double your number--led on by chiefs who have
+won a national reputation under the old flag--intrenched in hills of his
+own choosing, and strengthened by all the appliances of military art.
+With no experience but the consciousness of your own manhood, you have
+driven him from his strongholds, pursued his inglorious flight, and
+compelled him to meet you in battle. When forced to fight, he sought the
+shelter of rocks and hills. You drove him from his position, leaving
+scores of his bloody dead unburied. His artillery thundered against you,
+but you compelled him to flee by the light of his burning stores, and to
+leave even the banner of his rebellion behind him. I greet you as brave
+men. Our common country will not forget you. She will not forget the
+sacred dead who fell beside you, nor those of your comrades who won
+scars of honor on the field.
+
+"I have recalled you from the pursuit that you may regain vigor for
+still greater exertions. Let no one tarnish his well-earned honor by any
+act unworthy an American soldier. Remember your duties as American
+citizens, and sacredly respect the rights and property of those with
+whom you have come in contact. Let it not be said that good men dread
+the approach of an American army.
+
+"Officers and soldiers, your duty has been nobly done. For this I thank
+you."
+
+The battle had been won, but the victorious army was in jeopardy. They
+had less than three days' rations, and there were great difficulties in
+the way of procuring a further supply. The rainy season had made the
+roads impassable for all but horsemen.
+
+Still there was the river. But the Big Sandy was now swollen beyond its
+banks, and the rapid current was filled with floating logs and uptorn
+trees. The oldest and most experienced boatmen shook their heads, and
+would not attempt the perilous voyage.
+
+What was to be done?
+
+Col. Garfield had with him Brown, the scout and ex-canal-boatman, who
+had returned from reconnoitering Marshall's camp, with a bullet through
+his hat. Garfield asked his advice.
+
+"It's which and t'other, General Jim," he answered, "starvin' or
+drownin'. I'd rather drown nur starve. So gin the word, and, dead or
+alive, I'll git down the river!"
+
+Garfield gave the word, but he did not let the brave scout go alone.
+Together in a small skiff they "got down the river." It was no light
+task. The Big Sandy was now a raging torrent, sixty feet in depth, and,
+in many places, above the tops of the tall trees which grew along its
+margin. In some deep and narrow gorges, where the steep banks shut down
+upon the stream, these trees had been undermined at the roots, and,
+falling inward, had locked their arms together, forming a net-work that
+well-nigh prevented the passage of the small skiff and its two
+navigators. Where a small skiff could scarcely pass, could they run a
+large steamboat loaded with provisions?
+
+"Other men might ask that question, but not the backwoods boy who had
+learned navigation on the waters of the Ohio and Pennsylvania Canal. He
+pushed to the mouth of the river, and there took possession of the
+_Sandy Valley_, a small steamer in the quartermaster's service. Loading
+her with supplies, he set about starting up the river, but the captain
+of the boat declared the thing was impossible. Not stopping to argue the
+point, Garfield ordered him and his crew on board, and _himself taking
+the helm_, set out up the river.
+
+"Brown he stationed at the bow, where, with a long fending-pole in his
+hand, he was to keep one eye on the floating logs and uprooted trees,
+the other on the chicken-hearted captain.
+
+"The river surged and boiled and whirled against the boat, tossing her
+about as if she were a cockle-shell. With every turn of her wheel she
+trembled from stem to stern, and with a full head of steam could only
+stagger along at the rate of three miles an hour. When night came the
+captain begged to tie up till morning, for breasting that flood in the
+dark was sheer madness; but Brown cried out, 'Put her ahead, Gineral
+Jim,' and Garfield clutched the helm and drove her on through the
+darkness.
+
+"Soon they came to a sudden bend in the stream, where the swift current
+formed a furious whirlpool, and this catching the laboring boat,
+whirled her suddenly round, and drove her, head on, into the
+quicksands. Mattocks were plied, and excavations made round the imbedded
+bow, and the bowman uttered oaths loud enough to have raised a small
+earthquake; but still the boat was immovable. She was stuck fast in the
+mud, and every effort to move her was fruitless. Garfield ordered a
+small boat to be lowered, and take a line to the other bank, by which to
+warp the steamer free; but the captain and now the crew protested it was
+certain death to attempt to cross that foaming torrent at midnight.
+
+"They might as well have repeated to him the Creed and the Ten
+Commandments, for Garfield himself sprang into the boat and called to
+Brown to follow. He took the helm and laid her bow across the stream,
+but the swift current swept them downward. After incredible labor they
+made the opposite bank, but far below the steamboat. Closely hugging the
+shore, they now crept up the stream, and fastening the line to a tree,
+rigged a windlass, and finally warped the vessel again into deep water.
+
+"All that night, and all the next day, and all the following night they
+struggled with the furious river, Garfield never but once leaving the
+helm, and then for only a few hours' sleep, which he snatched in his
+clothes in the day-time. At last they rounded to at the Union camp, and
+then went up a cheer that might have been heard all over Kentucky. His
+waiting men, frantic with joy, seized their glorious commander, and were
+with difficulty prevented from bearing him on their shoulders to his
+quarters."
+
+The little army was saved from starvation by the canal-boy, who had not
+forgotten his old trade. He had risked his life a dozen times over in
+making the perilous trip, which has been so graphically described in the
+passages I have quoted. But for his early and humble experience, he
+never would have been able to bring the little steamer up the foaming
+river. Little did he dream in the days when, as a boy, he guided the
+_Evening Star_, that fifteen years hence, an officer holding an
+important command he would use the knowledge then acquired to save a
+famishing army. We can not wonder that his men should have been
+devotedly attached to such a commander.
+
+I have said that the Kentucky campaign was not one of the most
+important operations of the civil war, but its successful issue was most
+welcome, coming at the time it did. It came after a series of disasters,
+which had produced wide-spread despondency, and even dimmed the courage
+of President Lincoln. It kindled hope in the despondent, and nerved
+patriotic arms to new and vigorous efforts.
+
+"Why did Garfield, in two weeks, do what it would have taken one of you
+Regular folks two months to accomplish?" asked the President, of a
+distinguished army officer.
+
+"Because he was not educated at West Point," answered the officer,
+laughing.
+
+"No," replied Mr. Lincoln; "that wasn't the reason. It was because, when
+a boy, he had to work for a living."
+
+This was literally true. To his struggling boyhood and early manhood,
+and the valuable experience it brought him, Garfield was indebted for
+the strength and practical knowledge which brought him safely through a
+campaign conducted against fearful odds.
+
+His country was not ungrateful. He received the thanks of the commanding
+general for services which "called into action the highest qualities of
+a soldier--fortitude, perseverance, courage," and a few weeks later a
+commission as brigadier-general of volunteers, to date from the battle
+of Middle Creek.
+
+So Jim Garfield, the canal-boy, has become a general. It is an important
+step upward, but where are others to come?
+
+If this were designed to be a complete biography of General Garfield, I
+should feel it my duty to chronicle the important part he took in the
+battle of Chickamauga, where he acted as chief of staff to General
+Rosecranz, aiding his superior officer at a most critical point in the
+battle by advice which had an important influence in saving the day. I
+should like to describe the wonderful and perilous ride of three miles
+which he took, exposing his life at every moment, to warn General Thomas
+that he is out-flanked, and that at least seventy thousand men are
+closing down upon his right wing, to crush his twenty-five thousand to
+fragments. Sometimes I hope a poet, of fitting inspiration, will sing of
+that ride, and how, escaping from shot and shell, he plunged down the
+hill through the fiery storm, reaching Thomas in safety, though his
+noble horse at that moment fell dead at his feet. I can not spare time
+for the record, but must refer my young reader to the pages of Edmund
+Kirke, or General James S. Brisbin.
+
+Other duties, and another important field of action, await Garfield, and
+we must hurry on. But, before doing so, I must not fail to record that
+the War Department, recognizing his important services at the battle of
+Chickamauga, sent him a fortnight later the commission of a
+major-general.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE CANAL-BOY BECOMES A CONGRESSMAN.
+
+
+While Garfield was serving his country to the utmost of his ability in
+the field, the voters of the Nineteenth District of Ohio, in which he
+had his home, were called upon to select a man to represent them in
+Congress. It perhaps exceeds any other portion of the State in its
+devotion to the cause of education and the general intelligence of its
+inhabitants. The people were mostly of New England origin, and in
+selecting a representative they wanted a man who was fitted by
+education, as well as fidelity, to do them credit.
+
+Their choice fell upon Garfield, who was known to them at home as the
+head of one of their chief institutions of learning, and whose
+reputation had not suffered in the field. They did not even consult him,
+but put him in nomination, and elected him by an overwhelming majority.
+
+It was a gratifying compliment, for in our country an election to
+Congress is regarded as a high honor, which no one need be reluctant to
+accept. We have on record one of our most distinguished statesmen--John
+Quincy Adams--who, after filling the Presidential chair, was content to
+go back to Washington as a member of the House of Representatives from
+his district in Massachusetts. It was undoubtedly more in harmony with
+the desires and tastes of the young man--for he was still a young
+man--than service in the field. But he felt that that was not the
+question. Where was he more needed? The war was not over. Indeed, it
+seemed doubtful when it would be finished; and Garfield was now in a
+position to serve his country well as a military commander.
+
+When on the march to Chattanooga, Garfield consulted Gen. Rosecranz,
+owning that he was perplexed in attempting to decide.
+
+Rosecranz said: "The war is not yet over, nor will it be for some time
+to come. Many questions will arise in Congress which will require not
+only statesman-like treatment, but the advice of men having an
+acquaintance with military affairs. For that reason you will, I think,
+do as good service to the country in Congress as in the field. I not
+only think that you can accept the position with honor, but that it is
+your duty to do it."
+
+He added, and we may be sure that his advice accorded with the personal
+judgment of the man whom he was addressing, "Be true to yourself, and
+you will make your mark before your country."
+
+Some months were to elapse before he would require to go to Washington,
+for Congress was not to meet till December.
+
+He went to Washington, undecided even yet whether to remain as a
+legislator, or to return to his old comrades in the army. He only wished
+to know where he could be of most service to his country, and he finally
+decided to lay the matter before President Lincoln.
+
+Lincoln gave substantially the same advice as Rosecranz: "We need men
+who will help us carry the necessary war measures; and, besides, we are
+greatly lacking in men of military experience in the House to promote
+legislation about the army. It is your duty, therefore, to enter
+Congress."
+
+When, on the 5th of December, 1863, Garfield took his seat in the House
+of Representatives, he was the youngest member of that body. The
+Military Committee was the most important committee of Congress, and he
+was put upon that, on account of his practical experience in the field.
+This, of course, brought him, though a new and young member, into
+immediate prominence, and his familiarity with the wants of the army
+enabled him to be of great service.
+
+I do not propose to detail at tiresome length the legislative
+achievements of Gen. Garfield in the new position which he was destined
+to fill for eighteen years. I shall only refer to such as illustrate his
+characteristic devotion to duty without special regard to his own
+interests. He never hesitated to array himself in opposition to the
+popular will, if he thought the people were wrong. It was not long
+before an occasion came up which enabled him to assert his independence.
+
+The country needed soldiers, and had inaugurated a system of bounties
+which should tempt men to join the ranks of the country's defenders. It
+was only a partial success. Some men, good and true, were led to join by
+the offer of a sum which made them more at ease about the comfort of
+their families, but many joined the service from mercenary
+considerations only, who seized the first opportunity to desert, and
+turning up in another locality, enlisted again and obtained a second
+bounty. These men obtained the name of bounty-jumpers, and there was a
+host of them. Yet the measure was popular with soldiers, and Congress
+was unanimously in favor of it. Great was the amazement of his
+fellow-members when the young member from the Nineteenth Ohio district
+rose in his seat and earnestly opposed it. He objected that the policy
+was ruinous, involving immense expense, while effecting little good. He
+claimed that the country had a right to the service of every one of its
+children at such a crisis, without hire and without reward.
+
+But one man stood with him, so unpopular was the stand he had taken; but
+it was not long before the bounty system broke down, and Garfield's
+views were adopted.
+
+Later on he had another chance to show his independence. President
+Lincoln, foreseeing that at a certain date not far ahead the time of
+enlistment of nearly half the army would expire, came before Congress
+and asked for power to draft men into service. It met with great
+opposition. "What! force men into the field! Why, we might as well live
+under a despotism!" exclaimed many; and the members of Congress, who
+knew how unpopular the measure would be among their constituents,
+defeated it by a two-thirds vote.
+
+It was a critical juncture. As Lincoln had said in substance, all
+military operations would be checked. Not only could not the war be
+pushed, but the Government could not stand where it did. Sherman would
+have to come back from Atlanta, Grant from the Peninsula.
+
+The voting was over, and the Government was despondent. Then it was that
+Garfield rose, and moving a reconsideration, made a speech full of fire
+and earnestness, and the House, carried by storm, passed the bill, and
+President Lincoln made a draft for half a million men.
+
+Garfield knew that this action would be unpopular in his district. It
+might defeat his re-election; but that mattered not. The President had
+been assailed by the same argument, and had answered, "Gentlemen, it is
+not necessary that I should be reelected, but it is necessary that I
+should put down this rebellion." With this declaration the young
+Congressman heartily sympathized.
+
+Remonstrances did come from his district. Several of his prominent
+supporters addressed him a letter, demanding his resignation. He wrote
+them that he had acted according to his views of the needs of the
+country; that he was sorry his judgment did not agree with theirs, but
+that he must follow his own. He expected to live long enough to have
+them all confess that he was right.
+
+It was about this time that he made his celebrated reply to Mr.
+Alexander Long, of Ohio, a fellow Congressman, who proposed to yield
+everything and to recognize the Southern Confederacy.
+
+The excitement was intense. In the midst of it Garfield rose and made
+the following speech:
+
+"MR. CHAIRMAN," he said, "I am reminded by the occurrences of this
+afternoon of two characters in the war of the Revolution as compared
+with two others in the war of to-day.
+
+"The first was Lord Fairfax, who dwelt near the Potomac, a few miles
+from us. When the great contest was opened between the mother country
+and the colonies, Lord Fairfax, after a protracted struggle with his own
+heart, decided he must go with the mother country. He gathered his
+mantle about him and went over grandly and solemnly.
+
+"There was another man, who cast in his lot with the struggling
+colonists, and continued with them till the war was well-nigh ended. In
+an hour of darkness that just preceded the glory of the morning, he
+hatched the treason to surrender forever all that had been gained to the
+enemies of his country. Benedict Arnold was that man!
+
+"Fairfax and Arnold find their parallels of to-day.
+
+"When this war began many good men stood hesitating and doubting what
+they ought to do. Robert E. Lee sat in his house across the river here,
+doubting and delaying, and going off at last almost tearfully to join
+the army of his State. He reminds one in some respects of Lord Fairfax,
+the stately Royalist of the Revolution.
+
+"But now when tens of thousands of brave souls have gone up to God under
+the shadow of the flag; when thousands more, maimed and shattered in
+the contest, are sadly awaiting the deliverance of death; now, when
+three years of terrific warfare have raged over us; when our armies have
+pushed the Rebellion back over mountains and rivers, and crowded it into
+narrow limits, until a wall of fire girds it; now when the uplifted hand
+of a majestic people is about to hurl the bolts of its conquering power
+upon the Rebellion; now, in the quiet of this hall, hatched in the
+lowest depths of a similar dark treason, there rises a Benedict Arnold,
+and proposes to surrender all up, body and spirit, the nation and the
+flag, its genius and its honor, now and forever, to the accursed
+traitors to our country! And that proposition comes--God forgive and
+pity our beloved State--it comes from a citizen of the time-honored and
+loyal commonwealth of Ohio!
+
+"I implore you, brethren in this House, to believe that not many births
+ever gave pangs to my mother State such as she suffered when that
+traitor was born! I beg you not to believe that on the soil of that
+State another such a growth has ever deformed the face of nature, and
+darkened the light of God's day!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+GARFIELD'S COURSE IN CONGRESS.
+
+
+If Garfield at once took a prominent place in the House of
+Representatives, it was by no means because it was composed of inferior
+men. On the other hand, there has seldom been a time when it contained a
+larger number of men either prominent, or destined in after days to be
+prominent. I avail myself of the detailed account given of its members
+by Major Bundy, in his excellent Life of Garfield. There are some names
+which will be familiar to most of my young readers:
+
+"Its then most fortunate and promising member was Schuyler Colfax, the
+popular Speaker. But there were three young members who were destined to
+a more lasting prominence. The senior of these who had enjoyed previous
+service in he House, was Roscoe Conkling, already recognized by Congress
+and the country as a magnificent and convincing speaker. The other two
+were James G. Blaine and James A. Garfield. Only a year the senior of
+Garfield, Blaine was about to begin a career as brilliant as that of
+Henry Clay, and the acquisition of a popularity unique in our political
+history. But in this Congress there were many members whose power was
+far greater than that of either of the trio, who may yet be as much
+compared as Clay, Webster, and Calhoun were in former days.
+
+"In the first place, there was Elihu B. Washburne, 'the watch-dog of the
+treasury,' the 'father of the House,' courageous, practical, direct, and
+aggressive. Then there was Thaddeus Stevens, who was one of the very few
+men capable of driving his party associates--a character as unique as,
+and far stronger than, John Randolph; General Robert C. Schenck, fresh
+from the army, but a veteran in Congress, one of the ablest of practical
+statesmen; ex-Governor Boutwell, of Massachusetts; ex-Governor Fenton,
+of New York, a very influential member, especially on financial
+questions; Henry Winter Davis, the brilliant orator, of Maryland;
+William B. Allison, since one of the soundest and most useful of Iowa's
+Senators; Henry L. Dawes, who fairly earned his promotion to the
+Senate, but who accomplished so much in the House that his best friends
+regret the transfer; John A. Bingham, one of the most famous speakers of
+his time; James E. English, of Connecticut, who did valiant and
+patriotic service as a War Democrat; George H. Pendleton, now Senator
+from Ohio, and a most accomplished statesman, even in his early service
+in the House; Henry G. Stebbins, who was to make a speech sustaining Mr.
+Chase's financial policy that was unequaled for its salutary effect on
+public opinion; Samuel J. Randall, now Speaker; John A. Griswold, of New
+York; William Windom, one of the silent members, who has grown steadily
+in power; James F. Wilson, who was destined to decline three successive
+offers of Cabinet positions by President Grant; Daniel W. Voorhies, of
+Indiana, now Senator; John A. Kasson, of Iowa, now our Minister to
+Austria; Theodore M. Pomeroy, of New York, afterward Acting Speaker for
+a brief period; William R. Morrison, of Illinois, since a Democratic
+candidate for the Presidency; William S. Holman and George W. Julian, of
+Indiana, both able men; and Fernando Wood--these were all prominent
+members of the House. It will be seen that the House was a more trying
+arena for a young member like Garfield than the Senate would have been;
+for the contests of the former--unsubdued and unmitigated by 'the
+courtesy of the Senate'--were conducted by as ready and able a corps of
+debaters as ever sat in that body."
+
+This was surely a formidable array of men, and a man of ordinary powers
+would have found it prudent to remain silent during the first session,
+lest he should be overwhelmed by some one of the ready speakers and
+experienced legislators with whom he was associated. But the canal-boy,
+who had so swiftly risen from his humble position to the post of college
+president and major-general, till at the age of thirty-two he sat in the
+national council the youngest member, was not daunted. His term of
+service as State Senator was now of use to him, for it had given him a
+knowledge of parliamentary law, and the practice in speaking which he
+gained long ago in the boys' debating societies, and extended in
+college, rendered him easy and master of himself.
+
+Indeed he could not remain silent, for he represented the "boys at the
+front," and whenever a measure was proposed affecting their interests,
+he was expected to take part in the debate. It was not long before the
+House found that its new member was a man of grace and power, with whom
+it was not always safe to measure weapons. He was inclined to be
+peaceful, but he was not willing to permit any one to domineer over him,
+and the same member did not often attempt it a second time.
+
+My young readers are sure to admire pluck, and they will, therefore,
+read with interest of one such occasion, when Garfield effectually
+quelled such an attempt. I find it in a chapter of reminiscences
+contributed to the Boston _Journal_, by Ben Perley Poore, the well-known
+correspondent:
+
+"When the Jenckes Bankrupt Bill came before the House, Gen. Garfield
+objected to it, because in his opinion it did not provide that the
+estates of rebels in arms should escape the operations of the law. He
+also showed that money was being raised to secure the enactment of the
+bill, and Mr. Spalding, of the Cleveland district, was prompted by Mr.
+Jenckes to 'sit down on him.' But Gen. Garfield was not to be silenced
+easily and quite a scene ensued. The next day Garfield rose to a
+personal explanation, and said:
+
+"'I made no personal reference whatever; I assailed no gentleman; I
+called no man's honor in question. My colleague from the Cleveland
+district (Mr. Spalding) rose and asked if I had read the bill. I
+answered him, I believe, in courteous language and manner, that I had
+read it, and immediately on my statement to that effect he said in his
+place in the House, and it has gone on the record, that he did not
+believe I had read it; in other words, that he believed I had lied, in
+the presence of my peers in this House. I felt, under such
+circumstances, that it would not be becoming my self-respect, or the
+respect I owe to the House, to continue a colloquy with any gentleman
+who had thus impeached my veracity and I said so.
+
+"'It pains me very much that a gentleman of venerable age, who was in
+full maturity of life when I was a child, and whom I have respected
+since my childhood, should have taken occasion here in this place to use
+language so uncalled for, so ungenerous, so unjust to me, and
+disgraceful to himself. I have borne with the ill-nature and bad blood
+of that gentleman, as many others in this House have, out of respect for
+his years; but no importunity of age shall shield him, or any man, from
+my denunciation, who is so lacking in the proprieties of this place as
+to be guilty of such parliamentary and personal indecency as the House
+has witnessed on his part. I had hoped that before this time he would
+have acknowledged to me the impropriety and unjustifiableness of his
+conduct and apologized for the insult. But he has not seen fit to take
+this course. I leave him to his own reflections, and his conduct to the
+judgment of the House.'"
+
+Those who listened to these spirited rebukes saw that the young member
+from Ohio would not allow himself to be snubbed or insulted with
+impunity, and the few who were accustomed to descend to such discourtesy
+took warning accordingly. They were satisfied that Garfield, to quote a
+common phrase, would give them as good as they sent, and perhaps a
+little better. The boy, who at sixteen, when employed on the tow-path,
+thrashed the bully of thirty-five for insulting him, was not likely in
+his manhood to submit to the insults of a Congressional bully. He was a
+man to compel respect, and had that resolute and persistent character
+which was likely ere long to make him a leader. So Disraeli, coughed
+down in his first attempt to speak before the English House of Commons,
+accepted the situation, but recorded the prediction that one day they
+would hear him. He, too, mounted step by step till he reached the
+highest position in the English Government outside of royalty. A man who
+is destined to be great is only strengthened by opposition, and rises in
+the end victorious over circumstances.
+
+Garfield soon made it manifest that he had come to Washington to work.
+He was not one to lie back and enjoy in idleness the personal
+consequence which his position gave him. All his life he had been a
+worker, and a hard worker, from the time when he cut one hundred cords
+of wood, at twenty-five cents a cord, all through his experience as a
+canal-boy, a carpenter, a farm-worker, a janitor, a school teacher, a
+student, and a military commander, and now that he had taken his place
+in the grand council of the nation, he was not going to begin a life of
+self-indulgent idleness.
+
+In consideration of his military record he was, at his entrance into
+Congress, put upon the Military Committee; but a session or two later,
+at his own request, he was assigned a place on the Committee of Ways and
+Means. His reason for this request was, that he might have an
+opportunity of studying the question of finance, which he had sufficient
+foresight to perceive would one day be a great question, overshadowing
+all others. He instantly set himself to a systematic and exhaustive
+study of this subject, and attained so thorough a knowledge of it that
+he was universally recognized as a high authority--perhaps the highest
+in the department. He made speech after speech on the finance question,
+and was a pronounced advocate of "Honest Money," setting his face like a
+flint against those who advocated any measures calculated to lower the
+national credit or tarnish the national reputation for good faith.
+
+"I am aware," said he one day in debate, "that financial measures are
+dull and uninviting in comparison with those heroic themes which have
+absorbed the attention of Congress for the last five years. To turn from
+the consideration of armies and navies, victories and defeats, to the
+array of figures which exhibits the debt, expenditure, taxation, and
+industry of the nation requires no little courage and self-denial; but
+to these questions we must come, and to their solution Congress and all
+thoughtful citizens must give their best efforts for many years to
+come."
+
+It was not only a wise but a bold thing to do, for among the members of
+his own party, in Ohio, financial heresies had crept in, and a party
+platform was adopted in 1867, looking to the payment of the bonds of the
+Government in greenbacks. He was advised to say nothing on the subject
+lest it should cost him the nomination in the election just at hand; but
+he met the question boldly, and declared that the district could only
+have his services "on the ground of the honest payment of this debt, and
+these bonds in coin, according to the letter and spirit of the
+contract."
+
+Nevertheless he was renominated by acclamation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+THE MAN FOR THE HOUR.
+
+
+On the 15th day of April, 1865, the country was thrilled from end to end
+by the almost incredible report that President Lincoln had been
+assassinated the evening previous while witnessing a performance at
+Ford's Theatre, in Washington.
+
+The war was not yet over, but peace seemed close at hand. All were
+anticipating its return with joy. The immense sacrifices of loyal men
+seemed about to be rewarded when, like a clap of thunder in a clear sky,
+came the terrible tidings, which were flashed at once over the
+telegraphic wires to the remotest parts of the country.
+
+The people at first were shocked and silent. Then a mighty wave of wrath
+swept over the country--a wrath that demanded victims, and seemed likely
+in the principal city of the country to precipitate scenes not unlike
+those witnessed in the "Reign of Terror" in France.
+
+The boys who read this story can not understand the excitement of that
+day. It was unlike the deep sorrow that came upon us all on the second
+of July, for Lincoln died a martyr, at a time when men's passions had
+been stirred by sectional strife, and his murder was felt to be an
+outgrowth of the passions which it engendered; but Garfield fell, slain
+by the hand of a worthless wretch, acting upon his own responsibility.
+
+I shall venture, for the information of young readers, to whom it may be
+new, to quote the graphic description of an eye-witness, contributed to
+General Brisbin's interesting life of our subject:
+
+"I shall never forget the first time I saw General Garfield. It was the
+morning after President Lincoln's assassination. The country was excited
+to its utmost tension.... The newspaper head lines of the transaction
+were set up in the largest type, and the high crime was on every one's
+tongue. Fear took possession of men's minds as to the fate of the
+Government, for in a few hours the news came on that Seward's throat was
+cut, and that attempts had been made on the lives of others of the
+Government officers. Posters were stuck up everywhere, in great black
+letters, calling upon the loyal citizens of New York, Brooklyn, Jersey
+City, and neighboring places, to meet around the Wall Street Exchange
+and give expression to their sentiments.
+
+"It was a dark and terrible hour. What might come next no one could
+tell, and men spoke with bated breath. The wrath of the workingmen was
+simply uncontrollable, and revolvers and knives were in the hands of
+thousands of Lincoln's friends, ready, at the first opportunity, to take
+the law into their own hands, and avenge the death of their martyred
+President upon any and all who dared to utter a word against him.
+
+"Eleven o'clock A.M. was the hour set for the rendezvous. Fifty thousand
+people crowded around the Exchange building, cramming and jamming the
+streets, and wedged in as tight as men could stand together. With a few
+to whom special favor was extended, I went over from Brooklyn at nine
+A.M., and even then, with the utmost difficulty, found my way to the
+reception room for the speakers in the front of the Exchange building,
+and looking out on the high and massive balcony, whose front was
+protected by a massive iron railing.
+
+"We sat in solemnity and silence, waiting for General Butler, who, it
+was announced, had started from Washington, and was either already in
+the city or expected every moment. Nearly a hundred generals, judges,
+statesmen, lawyers, editors, clergymen, and others were in that room
+waiting for Butler's arrival.
+
+"We stepped out to the balcony to watch the fearfully solemn and swaying
+mass of people. Not a hurrah was heard, but for the most part a dead
+silence, or a deep, ominous muttering ran like a rising wave up the
+street toward Broadway, and again down toward the river on the right. At
+length the batons of the police were seen swinging in the air, far up on
+the left, parting the crowd, and pressing it back to make way for a
+carriage that moved slowly, and with difficult jags through the compact
+multitude, and the cry of 'Butler!' 'Butler!' rang out with tremendous
+and thrilling effect, and was taken up by the people.
+
+"But not a hurrah! Not one! It was the cry of a great people asking to
+know how their President died. The blood bounced in our veins, and the
+tears ran like streams down our faces. How it was done I forget, but
+Butler was pulled through, and pulled up, and entered the room where we
+had just walked back to meet him. A broad crape, a yard long, hung from
+his left arm--terrible contrast with the countless flags that were
+waving the nation's victory in the breeze. We first realized then the
+sad news that Lincoln was dead. When Butler entered the room we shook
+hands. Some spoke, some could not; all were in tears. The only word
+Butler had for us all, at the first break of the silence was,
+'_Gentleman, he died in the fullness of his fame_!' and as he spoke it
+his lips quivered, and the tears ran fast down his cheeks.
+
+"Then, after a few moments, came the speaking. And you can imagine the
+effect, as the crape fluttered in the wind while his arm was uplifted.
+Dickinson, of New York State, was fairly wild. The old man leaped over
+the iron railing of the balcony and stood on the very edge, overhanging
+the crowd, gesticulating in the most vehement manner, and almost bidding
+the crowd 'burn up the rebel, seed, root, and branch,' while a bystander
+held on to his coat-tail to keep him from falling over.
+
+"By this time the wave of popular indignation had swelled to its crest.
+Two men lay bleeding on one of the side streets, the one dead, the other
+next to dying; one on the pavement, the other in the gutter. They had
+said a moment before that 'Lincoln ought to have been shot long ago!'
+They were not allowed to say it again. Soon two long pieces of scantling
+stood out above the heads of the crowd, crossed at the top like the
+letter X, and a looped halter pendant from the junction, a dozen men
+following its slow motion through the masses, while 'Vengeance' was the
+cry.
+
+"On the right suddenly the shout arose, '_The World!_' '_The World_!'
+and a movement of perhaps eight thousand to ten thousand turning their
+faces in the direction of that building began to be executed.
+
+"It was a critical moment. What might come no one could tell, did that
+crowd get in front of that office; police and military would have
+availed little, or been too late. A telegram had just been read from
+Washington, 'Seward is dying!' Just then, at that juncture, a man
+stepped forward with a small flag in his hand and beckoned to the
+crowd.
+
+"'Another telegram from Washington!'
+
+"And then, in the awful stillness of the crisis, taking advantage of the
+hesitation of the crowd, whose steps had been arrested a moment, a right
+arm was lifted skyward, and a voice, clear and steady, loud and
+distinct, spoke out:
+
+"'Fellow-citizens! Clouds and darkness are round about Him! His pavilion
+is dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies! Justice and judgment are
+the establishment of His throne! Mercy and truth shall go before His
+face! Fellow-citizens! God reigns and the Government at Washington still
+lives!'
+
+"The effect was tremendous. The-crowd stood rooted to the ground with
+awe, gazing at the motionless orator, and thinking of God and the
+security of the Government in that hour. As the boiling waters subside
+and settle to the sea, when some strong wind beats it down, so the
+tumult of the people sank and became still. All took it as a divine
+omen. It was a triumph of eloquence, inspired by the moment, such as
+falls to but one man's lot, and that but once in a century. The genius
+of Webster, Choate, Everett, Seward, never reached it. What might have
+happened had the surging and maddened mob been let loose, none can
+tell. The man for the crisis was on the spot, more potent than
+Napoleon's guns at Paris. I inquired what was his name.
+
+"The answer came in a low whisper, 'It is General Garfield, of Ohio.'"
+
+It was a most dramatic scene, and a wonderful exhibition of the power of
+one man of intellect over a furious mob.
+
+How, would the thrilling intensity of the moment have been increased,
+had some prophet, standing beside the inspired speaker, predicted that a
+little more than sixteen years later he who had calmed the crowd would
+himself fall a victim to violence, while filling the same high post as
+the martyred Lincoln. Well has it been said that the wildest dream of
+the romancer pales beside the solemn surprise of the Actual. Not one
+among the thousands there assembled, not the speaker himself, would have
+considered such a statement within the range of credibility. Alas, that
+it should have been!--that the monstrous murder of the good Lincoln
+should have been repeated in these latter days, and the nation have come
+a second time a mourner!
+
+Will it be believed that Garfield's arrival and his speech had been
+quite accidental, though we must also count it as Providential, since it
+stayed the wild excesses of an infuriated mob. He had only arrived from
+Washington that morning, and after breakfast had strolled through the
+crowded streets, in entire ignorance of the great gathering at the
+Exchange building.
+
+He turned down Broadway, and when he saw the great concourse of people,
+he kept on, to learn what had brought them together. Butler was speaking
+when he arrived, and a friend who recognized him beckoned him to come up
+there, above the heads of the multitude.
+
+When he heard the wild cries for "Vengeance!" and noticed the swaying,
+impassioned movements of the crowd, he saw the danger that menaced the
+public order, and in a moment of inspiration he rose, and with a gesture
+challenged the attention of the crowd. What he said he could not have
+told five minutes afterward. "I only know," he said afterward, "that I
+drew the lightning from that crowd, and brought it back to reason."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+GARFIELD AS A LAWYER.
+
+
+In the crowded activities of Garfield's life, my readers may possibly
+have forgotten that he was a lawyer, having, after a course of private
+study during his presidency of Hiram College, been admitted to the bar,
+in 1861, by the Supreme Court of Ohio. When the war broke out he was
+about to withdraw from his position as teacher, and go into practice in
+Cleveland; but, as a Roman writer has expressed it, "Inter arma silent
+leges." So law gave way to arms, and the incipient lawyer became a
+general.
+
+When the soldier put off his armor it was to enter Congress, and instead
+of practicing law, Garfield helped to frame laws.
+
+But in 1865 there came an extraordinary occasion, which led to the Ohio
+Congressman entering upon his long delayed profession. And here I quote
+from the work of Major Bundy, already referred to: "About that time
+that great lawyer, Judge Jeremiah S. Black, as the attorney of the Ohio
+Democrats who had been opposing the war, came to his friend Garfield,
+and said that there were some men imprisoned in Indiana for conspiracy
+against the Government in trying to prevent enlistments and to encourage
+desertion. They had been tried in 1864, while the war was going on, and
+by a military commission sitting in Indiana, where there was no war,
+they had been sentenced to death. Mr. Lincoln commuted the sentence to
+imprisonment for life, and they were put into State's prison in
+accordance with the commutation. They then took out a writ of _habeas
+corpus_, to test the constitutionality and legality of their trial, and
+the judges in the Circuit Court had disagreed, there being two of them,
+and had certified their disagreement to the Supreme Court of the United
+States. Judge Black said to Garfield that he had seen what Garfield had
+said in Congress, and asked him if he was willing to say in an argument
+in the Supreme Court what he had advocated in Congress.
+
+"To which Garfield replied: 'It depends on your case altogether.'
+
+"Judge Black sent him the facts in the case--the record.
+
+"Garfield read it over, and said: 'I believe in that doctrine.'
+
+"To which Judge Black replied: 'Young man, you know it is a perilous
+thing for a young Republican in Congress to say that, and I don't want
+you to injure yourself.'
+
+"Said Garfield: 'It does not make any difference. I believe in English
+liberty, and English law. But, Judge Black, I am not a practitioner in
+the Supreme Court, and I never tried a case in my life anywhere.'
+
+"'How long ago were you admitted to the bar?' asked Judge Black.
+
+"'Just about six years age.'
+
+"'That will do,' Black replied, and he took Garfield thereupon over to
+the Supreme Court and moved his admission.
+
+"He immediately entered upon the consideration of this important case.
+On the side of the Government was arrayed a formidable amount of legal
+talent. The Attorney-General was aided by Gen. Butler, who was called in
+on account of his military knowledge, and by Henry Stanbury. Associated
+with Gen. Garfield as counsel for the petitioners were two of the
+greatest lawyers in the country--Judge Black and Hon. David Dudley
+Field, and the Hon. John E. McDonald, now Senator from Indiana. The
+argument submitted by Gen. Garfield was one of the most remarkable ever
+made before the Supreme Court of the United States, and was made under
+circumstances peculiarly creditable to Garfield's courage, independence,
+and resolute devotion to the cause of constitutional liberty--a devotion
+not inspired by wild dreams of political promotion, for at that time it
+was dangerous for any young Republican Congressman to defend the
+constitutional rights of men known to be disloyal, and rightly despised
+and hated for their disloyal practices."
+
+I refer any of my maturer readers who may desire an abstract of the
+young lawyer's masterly and convincing argument, to Major Bundy's
+valuable work, which necessarily goes more deeply into such matters than
+the scope of my slighter work will admit. His argument was listened to
+with high approval by his distinguished associate counsel, and the
+decision of the Supreme Court was given unanimously in favor of his
+clients.
+
+Surely this was a most valuable _debut_, and Garfield is probably the
+first lawyer that ever tried his first case before that august tribunal.
+It was a triumph, and gave him an immediate reputation and insured him a
+series of important cases before the same court. I have seen it stated
+that he was employed in seventeen cases before the Supreme Court, some
+of large importance, and bringing him in large fees. But for his first
+case he never received a cent. His clients were poor and in prison, and
+he was even obliged to pay for printing his own brief. His future
+earnings from this source, however, added materially to his income, and
+enabled him to install his family in that cherished home at Mentor,
+which has become, so familiar by name to the American people.
+
+I can not dwell upon Garfield's experience as a lawyer. I content myself
+with quoting, from a letter addressed by Garfield to his close friend,
+President Hinsdale, of Hiram College, the account of a case tried in
+Mobile, which illustrates his wonderful industry and remarkable
+resources.
+
+Under date of June 18, 1877, Garfield writes "You know that my life has
+abounded in crises and difficult situations. This trip has been,
+perhaps, not a crisis, but certainly has placed me in a position of
+extreme difficulty. Two or three months ago, W.B. Duncan, a prominent
+business man in New York, retained me as his lawyer in a suit to be
+heard in the United States Court in Mobile, and sent me the papers in
+the case. I studied them, and found that they involved an important and
+somewhat difficult question of law, and I made myself sufficiently
+familiar with it, so that when Duncan telegraphed me to be in Mobile on
+the first Monday in June, I went with a pretty comfortable sense of my
+readiness to meet anybody who should be employed on the other side. But
+when I reached Mobile, I found there were two other suits connected,
+with this, and involving the ownership, sale, and complicated rights of
+several parties to the Mobile and Ohio Railroad.
+
+"After two days' skirmishing, the court ordered the three suits to be
+consolidated. The question I had prepared myself on passed wholly out of
+sight, and the whole entanglement of an insolvent railroad, twenty-five
+years old, and lying across four States, and costing $20,000,000, came
+upon us at once. There were seven lawyers in the case besides me. On one
+side were John A. Campbell, of New Orleans, late member of the Supreme
+Bench of the United States; a leading New York and a Mobile lawyer.
+Against us were Judge Hoadley, of Cincinnati, and several Southern men.
+I was assigned the duty of summing up the case for our side, and
+answering the final argument of the opposition. I have never felt myself
+in such danger of failure before, all had so much better knowledge of
+the facts than I, and all had more experience with that class of
+litigation? but I am very sure no one of them did so much hard work, in
+the five nights and six days of the trial, as I did. I am glad to tell
+you that I have received a dispatch from Mobile, that the court adopted
+my view of the case, and gave us a verdict on all points."
+
+Who can doubt, after reading of these two cases, that had Garfield
+devoted himself to the practice of the law exclusively, he would have
+made one of the most successful members of the profession in the
+country, perhaps risen to the highest rank? As it was, he was only able
+to devote the time he could spare from his legislative labors.
+
+These increased as years sped. On the retirement of James G. Blaine from
+the lower House of Congress, the leadership of his party devolved upon
+Garfield. It was a post of honor, but it imposed upon him a vast amount
+of labor. He must qualify himself to speak, not superficially, but from
+adequate knowledge upon all points of legislation, and to defend the
+party with which he was allied from all attacks of political opponents.
+
+On this subject he writes, April 21, 1880: "The position I hold in the
+House requires an enormous amount of surplus work. I am compelled to
+look ahead at questions likely to be sprung upon us for action, and the
+fact is, I prepare for debate on ten subjects where I actually take part
+in but one. For example, it seemed certain that the Fitz John Porter
+case would be discussed in the House, and I devoted the best of two
+weeks to a careful 're-examination' of the old material, and a study of
+the new.
+
+"There is now lying on top of my book-case a pile of books, revisions,
+and manuscripts, three feet long by a foot and a half high, which I
+accumulated and examined for debate, which certainly will not come off
+this session, perhaps not at all. I must stand in the breach to meet
+whatever comes.
+
+"I look forward to the Senate as at least a temporary relief from this
+heavy work. I am just now in antagonism with my own party on legislation
+in reference to the election law, and here also I have prepared for two
+discussions, and as yet have not spoken on either."
+
+My young readers will see that Garfield thoroughly believed in hard
+work, and appreciated its necessity. It was the only way in which he
+could hold his commanding position. If he attained large success, and
+reached the highest dignity in the power of his countrymen to bestow, it
+is clear that he earned it richly. Upon some, accident bestows rank; but
+not so with him. From his earliest years he was growing, rounding out,
+and developing, till he became the man he was. And had his life been
+spared to the usual span, it is not likely that he would have desisted,
+but ripened with years into perhaps the most profound and scholarly
+statesman the world has seen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+THE SCHOLAR IN POLITICS.
+
+
+In the midst of his political and professional activity, Garfield never
+forgot his days of tranquil enjoyment at Hiram College, when he was
+devoted solely to the cultivation of his mind, and the extension of his
+knowledge. He still cherished the same tastes, and so far as his
+leisure--he had no leisure, save time snatched from the engrossing
+claims of politics--so far, at any rate, as he could manage the time, he
+employed it for new acquisitions, or for the review of his earlier
+studies.
+
+In January, 1874, he made a metrical version of the third ode of
+Horace's first book. I quote four stanzas:
+
+  "Guide thee, O ship, on thy journey, that owest
+  To Africa's shores Virgil trusted to thee.
+  I pray thee restore him, in safety restore him,
+  And saving him, save me the half of my soul.
+
+  "Stout oak and brass triple surrounded his bosom
+  Who first to the waves of the merciless sea
+  Committed his frail bark. He feared not Africa's
+  Fierce battling the gales of the furious North.
+
+  "Nor feared he the gloom of the rain-bearing Hyads
+  Nor the rage of fierce Notus, a tyrant than whom
+  No storm-god that rules o'er the broad Adriatic
+  Is mightier its billows to rouse or to calm.
+
+  "What form, or what pathway of death him affrighted
+  Who faced with dry eyes monsters swimming the deep,
+  Who gazed without fear on the storm-swollen billows,
+  And the lightning-scarred rocks, grim with death on the shore?"
+
+In reviewing the work of the year 1874, he writes: "So far as individual
+work is concerned, I have done something to keep alive my tastes and
+habits. For example, since I left you I have made a somewhat thorough
+study of Goethe and his epoch, and have sought to build up in my mind a
+picture of the state of literature and art in Europe, at the period when
+Goethe began to work, and the state when he died. I have grouped the
+various poets into order, so as to preserve memoirs of the impression
+made upon my mind by the whole. The sketch covers nearly sixty pages of
+manuscript. I think some work of this kind, outside the track of one's
+every-day work, is necessary to keep up real growth."
+
+In July, 1875, he gives a list of works that he had read recently. Among
+these are several plays of Shakespeare, seven volumes of Froude's
+England, and a portion of Green's "History of the English People." He
+did not limit himself to English studies, but entered the realms of
+French and German literature, having made himself acquainted with both
+these languages. He made large and constant use of the Library of
+Congress. Probably none of his political associates made as much, with
+the exception of Charles Sumner.
+
+Major Bundy gives some interesting details as to his method of work,
+which I quote: "In all his official, professional, and literary work,
+Garfield has pursued a system that has enabled him to accumulate, on a
+vast range and variety of subjects, an amount of easily available
+information such as no one else has shown the possession of by its use.
+His house at Washington is a workshop, in which the tools are always
+kept within immediate reach. Although books overrun his house from top
+to bottom, his library contains the working material on which he mainly
+depends. And the amount of material is enormous. Large numbers of
+scrap-books that have been accumulating for over twenty years, in number
+and in value--made up with an eye to what either is, or may become,
+useful, which would render the collection of priceless value to the
+library of any first-class newspaper establishment--are so perfectly
+arranged and indexed, that their owner with his all-retentive memory,
+can turn in a moment to the facts that may be needed for almost any
+conceivable emergency in debate.
+
+"These are supplemented by diaries that preserve Garfield's multifarous
+political, scientific, literary, and religious inquiries, studies, and
+readings. And, to make the machinery of rapid work complete, he has a
+large box containing sixty-three different drawers, each properly
+labeled, in which he places newspaper cuttings, documents, and slips of
+paper, and from which he can pull out what he wants as easily as an
+organist can play on the stops of his instrument. In other words, the
+hardest and most masterful worker in Congress has had the largest and
+most scientifically arranged of workshops."
+
+It was a pleasant house, this, which Garfield had made for himself in
+Washington. With a devoted wife, who sympathized with him in his
+literary tastes, and aided him in his preparation for his literary work,
+with five children (two boys now at Williams College, one daughter, and
+two younger sons), all bright and promising, with a happy and joyous
+temperament that drew around him warmly-attached friends, with a mind
+continually broadening and expanding in every direction, respected and
+appreciated by his countrymen, and loved even by his political
+opponents, Garfield's lot seemed and was a rarely happy one. He worked
+hard, but he had always enjoyed work. Higher honors seemed hovering in
+the air, but he did not make himself anxious about them. He enjoyed
+life, and did his duty as he went along, ready to undertake new
+responsibilities whenever they came, but by no means impatient for
+higher honors.
+
+Filling an honored place in the household is the white-haired mother,
+who, with justifiable pride, has followed the fortunes of her son from
+his destitute boyhood, along the years in which he gained strength by
+battling with poverty and adverse circumstances, to the time when he
+fills the leading place in the councils of the nation. So steadily has
+he gone on, step by step, that she is justified in hoping for him higher
+honors.
+
+The time came, and he was elected to the United States Senate in place
+of Judge Thurman, who had ably represented the State in the same body,
+and had been long regarded as one of the foremost leaders of the
+Democratic party. But his mantle fell upon no unworthy successor. Ohio
+was fortunate in possessing two such men to represent her in the highest
+legislative body of the nation.
+
+Doubtless this honor would have come sooner to Garfield, for in 1877 he
+was the candidate to whom all eyes were directed, but he could not be
+spared from the lower House, there being no one to take his place as
+leader. He yielded to the expressed wishes of President Hayes, who, in
+the exceptional position in which he found himself, felt the need of a
+strong and able man in the House, to sustain his administration and help
+carry out the policy of the Government. Accustomed to yield his own
+interest to what he regarded as the needs of his country, Garfield
+quietly acquiesced in what to most men would have been a severe
+disappointment.
+
+But when, after the delay of four years, he was elected to the Senate,
+he accepted with a feeling of satisfaction--not so much because he was
+promoted as because, in his new sphere of usefulness, he would have more
+time for the gratification of his literary tastes.
+
+In a speech thanking the members of the General Assembly for their
+support, he said:
+
+"And now, gentlemen of the General Assembly, without distinction of
+party, I recognize this tribute and compliment paid to me to-night.
+Whatever my own course may be in the future, a large share of the
+inspiration of my future public life will be drawn from this occasion
+and from these surroundings, and I shall feel anew the sense of
+obligation that I feel to the State of Ohio. Let me venture to point a
+single sentence in regard to that work. During the twenty years that I
+have been in public life, almost eighteen of it in the Congress of the
+United States, I have tried to do one thing. Whether I was mistaken or
+otherwise, it has been the plan of my life to follow my conviction at
+whatever cost to myself.
+
+"I have represented for many years a district in Congress whose
+approbation I greatly desired; but, though it may seem, perhaps, a
+little egotistical to say it, I yet desired still more the approbation
+of one person, and his name was Garfield. [Laughter and applause]. He is
+the only man that I am compelled to sleep with, and eat with, and live
+with, and die with; and, if I could not have his approbation, I should
+have had companionship. [Renewed laughter and applause]. And in this
+larger constituency which has called me to represent them now, I can
+only do what is true to my best self, following the same rule. And if I
+should be so unfortunate as to lose the confidence of this larger
+constituency, I must do what every other fair-minded man has to
+do--carry his political life in his hand and take the consequences. But
+I must follow what seems to me to be the only safe rule of my life; and
+with that view of the case, and with that much personal reference, I
+leave that subject."
+
+This speech gives the key-note of Garfield's political action. More than
+once he endangered his re-election and hazarded his political future by
+running counter to what he knew to be the wishes of his constituents and
+his party; but he would never allow himself to be a slave to party, or
+wear the yoke of political expediency. He sought, first of all, to win
+the approval of his own conscience and his own sense of right, and then
+he was willing to "take the consequences," even if they were serious
+enough to cut short the brilliant career which he so much enjoyed.
+
+I conceive that in this respect he was a model whom I may safely hold up
+for the imitation of my readers, young or old. Such men do credit to the
+country, and if Garfield's rule of life could be universally adopted,
+the country would never be in peril. A conscientious man may make
+mistakes of judgment but he can never go far astray.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+THE TRIBUTES OF FRIENDS.
+
+
+Before going farther, in order that my young readers may be better
+qualified to understand what manner of man Garfield was, I will quote
+the remarks made by two of his friends, one a prominent member of the
+party opposed to him in politics. In the Milwaukee _Sentinel_ of Sept.
+22d, I find this tribute by Congressman Williams, of that State:
+
+"Happening to sit within one seat of him for four years in the House, I,
+with others, perhaps had a better opportunity to see him in all of his
+moods than those more removed. In action he was a giant; off duty he was
+a great, noble boy. He never knew what austerity of manner or
+ceremonious dignity meant. After some of his greatest efforts in the
+House, such as will live in history, he would turn to me, or any one
+else, and say: 'Well, old boy, how was that?' Every man was his
+confidant and friend, so far as the interchange of every-day good
+feeling was concerned.
+
+"He once told me how he prepared his speeches; that first he filled
+himself with the subject, massing all the facts and principles involved,
+so far as he could; then he took pen and paper and wrote down the
+salient points in what he regarded their logical order. Then he scanned
+them critically, and fixed them in his memory. 'And then,' said he, 'I
+leave the paper in my room and trust to the emergency.' He told me that
+when he spoke at the serenade in New York a year ago, he was so pressed
+by callers that the only opportunity he had for preparation was, to lock
+the door and walk three times around the table, when he was called out
+to the balcony to begin. All the world knows what that speech was.
+
+"He was wrapped up in his family. His two boys would come up to the
+House just before adjournment, and loiter about his desk with their
+books in their hands. After the House adjourned, other members would go
+off in cars or carriages, or walk down the avenue in groups. But
+Garfield, with a boy on each side of him, would walk down Capitol Hill,
+as we would say in the country 'cross-lots,' all three chatting
+together on equal terms.
+
+"He said to me one day during the canvass, while the tears came to his
+eyes, 'I have done no more in coming up from poverty than hundreds and
+thousands of others, but I am thankful that I have been able to keep my
+family by my side, and educate my children.'
+
+"He was a man with whom anybody could differ with impunity. I have said
+repeatedly, that were Garfield alive and fully recovered, and a dozen of
+his intimate friends were to go to him, and advise that Guiteau be let
+off, he would say, 'Yes, let him go.' The man positively knew no malice.
+And for such a man to be shot and tortured like a dog, and by a dog!
+
+"He was extremely sensitive. I have seen him come into the House in the
+morning, when some guerrilla of the press had stabbed him deeper in his
+feelings than Guiteau's bullet did in the body, and when he looked
+pallid from suffering, and the evident loss of sleep; but he would utter
+no murmur, and in some short time his great exuberance of spirits would
+surmount it all, and he would be a boy again.
+
+"He never went to lunch without a troop of friends with him. He loved
+to talk at table, and there is no gush in saying he talked a God
+socially and intellectually. Some of his off-hand expressions were like
+a burst of inspiration. Like all truly great men, he did not seem to
+realize his greatness. And, as I have said, he would talk as cordially
+and confidentially with a child as with a monarch. And I only refer to
+his conversations with me because you ask me to, and because I think his
+off-hand conversations with any one reveal his real traits best.
+
+"Coming on the train from Washington, after his nomination, he said:
+'Only think of this! I am yet a young man? if elected and I serve my
+term I shall still be a young man. Then what am I going to do? There
+seems to be no place in America for an ex-President.'
+
+"And then came in what I thought the extreme simplicity and real
+nobility of the man. 'Why,' said he, 'I had no thought of being
+nominated. I had bought me some new books, and was getting ready for the
+Senate.'
+
+"I laughed at the idea of his buying books, like a boy going to college,
+and remembered that during his Congressional career he had furnished
+materials for a few books himself. And then, with that peculiar roll of
+the body and slap on the shoulder with the left hand, which all will
+recognize, he said: 'Why! do you know that up to 1856 I never saw a
+_Congressional Globe_, nor knew what one was!' And he then explained how
+he stumbled upon one in the hands of an opponent in his first public
+anti-slavery debate.
+
+"A friend remarked the other day that Garfield would get as enthusiastic
+in digging a six-foot ditch with his own hands, as when making a speech
+in Congress. Such was my observation. Going down the lane, he seemed to
+forget for the time that there was any Presidential canvass pending. He
+would refer, first to one thing, then another, with that off-hand
+originality which was his great characteristic. Suddenly picking up a
+smooth, round pebble, he said, 'Look at that! Every stone here sings of
+the sea.'
+
+"Asking why he bought his farm, he said he had been reading about
+metals, how you could draw them to a certain point a million times and
+not impair their strength, but if you passed that point once, you could
+never get them back. 'So,' said he, 'I bought this farm to rest the
+muscles of my mind!' Coming to two small wooden structures in the field,
+he talked rapidly of how his neighbors guessed he would do in Congress,
+but would not make much of a fist at farming, and then called my
+attention to his corn and buckwheat and other crops, and said that was a
+marsh, but he underdrained it with tile, and found spring-water flowing
+out of the bluff, and found he could get a five-foot fall, and with
+pumps of a given dimension, a water-dam could throw water back eighty
+rods to his house, and eighty feet above it. 'But,' said he, in his
+jocularly, impressive manner, 'I did my surveying before I did my
+work.'"
+
+This is certainly a pleasant picture of a great man, who has not lost
+his simplicity of manner, and who seems unconscious of his greatness--in
+whom the love of humanity is so strong that he reaches out a cordial
+hand to all of his kind, no matter how humble, and shows the warmest
+interest in all.
+
+Senator Voorhees, of Indiana, was among the speakers at the memorial
+meeting in Terre Haute, and in the course of his remarks, said: "I knew
+James A. Garfield well, and, except on the political field, we had
+strong sympathies together. It is nearly eighteen years since we first
+met, and during that period I had the honor to serve seven years in the
+House of Representatives with him.
+
+"The kindness of his nature and his mental activity were his leading
+traits. In all his intercourse with men, women, and children, no kinder
+heart ever beat in human breast than that which struggled on till 10.30
+o'clock Monday night, and then forever stood still. There was a light in
+his face, a chord in his voice, and a pressure in his hand, which were
+full of love for his fellow-beings. His manners were ardent and
+demonstrative with those to whom he was attached, and he filled the
+private circle with sunshine and magnetic currents. He had the joyous
+spirits of boyhood and the robust intellectuality of manhood more
+perfectly combined than any other I ever knew. Such a character was
+necessarily almost irresistible with those who knew him personally, and
+it accounts for that undying hold which, under all circumstances, bound
+his immediate constituents to him as with hooks of steel. Such a nature,
+however, always has its dangers as well as its strength and its
+blessings. The kind heart and the open hand never accompany a
+suspicious, distrustful mind. Designing men mark such a character for
+their own selfishness, and Gen. Garfield's faults--for he had faults, as
+he was human--sprang more from this circumstance than from all others
+combined. He was prompt and eager to respond to the wishes of those he
+esteemed his friends, whether inside or outside of his own political
+party. That he made some mistakes in his long, busy career is but
+repeating the history of every generous and obliging man who has lived
+and died in public life. They are not such, however, as are recorded in
+heaven, nor will they mar or weaken the love of his countrymen.
+
+"The poor, laboring boy, the self-made man, the hopeful, buoyant soul in
+the face of all difficulties and odds, _constitute an example for the
+American youth, which will never be lost nor grow dim_.
+
+"The estimate to be placed on the intellectual abilities of Gen.
+Garfield must be a very high one. Nature was bountiful to him, and his
+acquirements were extensive and solid. If I might make a comparison, I
+would say that, with the exception of Jefferson and John Quincy Adams,
+he was the most learned President in what is written in books in the
+whole range of American history.
+
+"The Christian character of Gen. Garfield can not, with propriety, be
+omitted in a glance, however brief, at his remarkable career. Those who
+knew him best in the midst of his ambition and his worldly hopes will
+not fail now at his tomb to bear their testimony to his faith in God and
+his love for the teachings of the blessed Nazarene.
+
+"It seems but yesterday that I saw him last, and parted from him in all
+the glory of his physical and mental manhood. His eye was full of light,
+his tread elastic and strong, and the world lay bright before him. He
+talked freely of public men and public affairs. His resentments were
+like sparks from the flint. He cherished them not for a moment. Speaking
+of one who, he thought, had wronged him, he said to me, that, sooner or
+later, he intended to pour coals of fire on his head by acts of kindness
+to some of his kindred. He did not live to do so, but the purpose of his
+heart has been placed to his credit in the book of eternal life"
+
+A correspondent of the New York _Tribune_ suggests that the following
+lines, from Pollok's "Course of Time," apply with remarkable fitness to
+his glorious career:
+
+  "Illustrious, too, that morning stood the man
+  Exalted by the people to the throne
+  Of government, established on the base
+  Of justice, liberty, and equal right;
+  Who, in his countenance sublime, expressed
+  A nation's majesty, and yet was meek
+  And humble; and in royal palace gave
+  Example to the meanest, of the fear
+  Of God, and all integrity of life
+  And manners; who, august, yet lowly; who
+  Severe, yet gracious; in his very heart
+  Detesting all oppression, all intent
+  Of private aggrandizement; and the first
+  In every public duty--held the scales
+  Of justice, and as law, which reigned in him,
+  Commanded, gave rewards; or with the edge
+  Vindictive smote--now light, now heavily,
+  According to the stature of the crime.
+  Conspicuous, like an oak of healthiest bough,
+  Deep-rooted in his country's love, he stood."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+FROM CANAL-BOY TO PRESIDENT.
+
+
+James A Garfield had been elected to the United States Senate, but he
+was never a member of that body. Before the time came for him to take
+his seat he had been invested with a higher dignity. Never before in our
+history has the same man been an actual member of the House of
+Representatives, a Senator-elect, and President-elect.
+
+On the 8th of June, 1880, the Republican Convention at Chicago selected
+Garfield as their standard-bearer on the thirty-sixth ballot. No one,
+probably, was more surprised or bewildered than Garfield himself, who
+was a member of the Convention, when State after State declared in his
+favor. In his loyalty to John Sherman, of his own State, whom he had set
+in nomination in an eloquent speech, he tried to avert the result, but
+in vain. He was known by the friends of other candidates to be
+thoroughly equipped for the highest office in the people's gift, and he
+was the second choice of the majority.
+
+[Illustration: INAUGURATION AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.]
+
+Mary Clemmer, the brilliant Washington correspondent, writes of the
+scene thus: "For days before, many that would not confess it felt that
+he was the coming man, because of the acclaim of the people whenever
+Garfield appeared. The culminating moment came. Other names seemed to
+sail out of sight like thistledown on the wind, till one (how glowing
+and living it was) was caught by the galleries, and shout on shout arose
+with the accumulative force of ascending breakers, till the vast
+amphitheater was deluged with sounding and resounding acclaim, such as a
+man could hope would envelope and uplift his name but once in a
+life-time. And he? There he stood, strong, Saxon, fair, debonair, yet
+white as new snow, and trembling like an aspen. It seemed too much, this
+sudden storm of applause and enthusiasm for him, the new idol, the
+coming President; yet who may say that through his exultant, yet
+trembling heart, that moment shot the presaging pang of distant, yet
+sure-coming woe?"
+
+Senator Hoar of Massachusetts, who was the President of the Convention,
+in a speech made not long afterward, paid the following just tribute to
+Garfield's character and qualifications:
+
+"Think of the qualifications for the office which that man combines. Do
+you want a statesman in the broadest sense? Do you demand a successful
+soldier? Do you want a man of more experience in civil affairs? No
+President of the United States since John Quincy Adams has begun to
+bring to the Presidential office, when he entered, anything like the
+experience in statesmanship of Gen. Garfield. As you look over the list,
+Grant, Jackson, and Taylor have brought to the position great fame as
+soldiers, but who since John Quincy Adams has had such a civil career to
+look back upon as Gen. Garfield? Since 1864 I can not think of one
+important question debated in Congress or discussed before the great
+tribunal of the American people in which you can not find the issue
+stated more clearly and better than by any one else in the speeches in
+the House of Representatives or on the hustings of Gen. Garfield--firm
+and resolute, constant in his adherence to what he thinks is right,
+regardless of popular delusions or the fear that he will become less
+popular, or be disappointed in his ambitions.
+
+"Just remember when Republicans and Democrats alike of Ohio fairly went
+crazy over the financial heresy, this man stood as with his feet on a
+rock, demanding honesty in government. About six years ago I sat by the
+side of an Ohio Representative, who had an elaborately prepared table,
+showing how the West was being cheated; that Ohio had not as many bank
+bills to the square mile as the East, and that the Southwest was even
+worse off than Ohio.
+
+"In regard to the great questions of human rights he has stood
+inflexible. The successor of Joshua R. Giddings, he is the man on whom
+his mantle may be said to have descended. Still he is no blind partisan.
+The best arguments in favor of civil service reform are found in the
+speeches of Gen. Garfield. He is liberal and generous in the treatment
+of the South, one of the foremost advocates of educational institutions
+in the South at the national expense. Do you wish for that highest
+type--the volunteer citizen soldier? Here is a man who enlisted at the
+beginning of the war; from a subordinate officer he became a
+major-general, trusted by those best of commanders, Thomas and
+Rosecranz, always in the thickest of the fight, the commander of
+dangerous and always successful expeditions, and returning home crowned
+with the laurels of victory. Do you wish for an honored career, which in
+itself is a vindication of the system of the American Republic? Without
+the attributes of rank or wealth, he has risen from the humblest to the
+loftiest position."
+
+When the nominee of the convention had leisure to reflect upon his new
+position, and then cast his eye back along his past life, beginning with
+his rustic home in the Ohio wilderness, and traced step by step his
+progress from canal-boy to Presidential candidate, it must have seemed
+to him almost a dream. It was indeed a wonderful illustration of what we
+claim for our Republican institutions, the absolute right of the poorest
+and humblest, provided he has the requisite talent and industry to
+aspire to the chief place and the supreme power. "It was the most
+perfect instance of the resistless strength of a man developed by all
+the best and purest impulses, forces, and influences of American
+institutions into becoming their most thorough and ablest embodiment in
+organic and personal activity, aspiration, and character."
+
+The response to the nomination throughout the country was most hearty.
+It was felt that the poor Ohio canal-boy had fitted himself, after an
+arduous struggle with poverty, for the high post to which he was likely
+to be called. The _N.Y. Tribune_, whose first choice had been the
+brilliant son of Maine, James G. Blaine, welcomed the result of the
+convention thus:
+
+"From one end of the nation to the other, from distant Oregon to Texas,
+from Maine to Arizona, lightning has informed the country of the
+nomination yesterday of James A. Garfield, as the Republican candidate
+for the Presidency.
+
+"Never was a nomination made which has been received by friend and foe
+with such evidence of hearty respect, admiration, and confidence. The
+applause is universal. Even the Democratic House of Representatives
+suspended its business that it might congratulate the country upon the
+nomination of the distinguished leader of the Republicans.
+
+"James Abram Garfield is, in the popular mind, one of the foremost
+statesmen of the nation. He is comparatively a young man, but in his
+service he commands the confidence and admiration of his countrymen of
+all parties. His ability, his thorough study, and his long practical
+experience in political matters gives an assurance to the country that
+he will carry to the Presidential office a mind superior, because of its
+natural qualifications and training, to any that has preceded him for
+many years. He will be a President worthy in every sense to fill the
+office in a way that the country will like to see it filled--with
+ability, learning, experience, and integrity. That Gen. Garfield will be
+elected we have no question. He is a candidate worthy of election, and
+will command not only every Republican vote in the country, but the
+support of tens of thousands of non-partisans who want to see a
+President combining intellectual ability with learning, experience, and
+ripe statesmanship."
+
+The prediction recorded above was fulfilled. On the second of November,
+1880, James A. Garfield was elected President of the United States.
+
+Had this been a story of the imagination, such as I have often written,
+I should not have dared to crown it with such an ending. In view of my
+hero's humble beginnings, I should expect to have it severely
+criticised as utterly incredible, but reality is oftentimes stranger
+than romance, and this is notably illustrated in Garfield's wonderful
+career.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+THE NEW ADMINISTRATION.
+
+
+On the evening of March 3d, preceding the inauguration, the
+President-elect met twenty of his college classmates at supper at
+Wormley's Hotel, in Washington, and mutual congratulations were
+exchanged. He was the first President of the United States selected from
+among the graduates of Williams College, and all the alumni, but more
+especially the class of 1856, were full of pride and rejoicing. From
+none probably were congratulations more welcome to the new President
+than from his old academic associates. If I transcribe the speech which
+Gen. Garfield made upon that occasion it is because it throws a light
+upon his character and interprets the feelings with which he entered
+upon the high office to which his countrymen had called him:
+
+"CLASSMATES: To me there is something exceedingly pathetic in this
+reunion. In every eye before me I see the light of friendship and love,
+and I am sure it is reflected back to each one of you from my inmost
+heart. For twenty-two years, with the exception of the last few days, I
+have been in the public service. To-night I am a private citizen.
+To-morrow I shall be called to assume new responsibilities, and on the
+day after, the broadside of the world's wrath will strike. It will
+strike hard. I know it, and you will know it. Whatever may happen to me
+in the future, I shall feel that I can always fall back upon the
+shoulders and hearts of the class of '56 for their approval of that
+which is right, and for their charitable judgment wherein I may come
+short in the discharge of my public duties. You may write down in your
+books now the largest percentage of blunders which you think I will be
+likely to make, and you will be sure to find in the end that I have made
+more than you have calculated--many more.
+
+"This honor comes to me unsought. I have never had the Presidential
+fever--not even for a day; nor have I it to-night. I have no feeling of
+elation in view of the position I am called upon to fill. I would thank
+God were I to-day a free lance in the House or the Senate. But it is
+not to be, and I will go forward to meet the responsibilities and
+discharge the duties that are before me with all the firmness and
+ability I can command. I hope you will be able conscientiously to
+approve my conduct; and when I return to private life, I wish you to
+give me another class-meeting."
+
+This brief address exhibits the modesty with which Gen. Garfield viewed
+his own qualifications for the high office for which twenty years of
+public life had been gradually preparing him. While all are liable to
+mistakes, it is hardly to be supposed that a man so prepared, and
+inspired by a conscientious devotion to what he deemed to be right,
+would have made many serious blunders. During his brief administration
+he made, as the country knows, an admirable beginning in reforming
+abuses and exacting the most rigid economy in the public service. There
+was every probability of his being his own successor had his life been
+spared.
+
+The inaugural ceremonies were very imposing. Washington was thronged as
+it had never been before on any similar occasion. Private citizens,
+civic bodies, and military companies were present from every part of
+the country. Prominent among the eminent citizens present was the
+stately and imposing figure of Gen. Hancock, who had been the nominee of
+the opposing party, and who, with admirable good feeling and good taste,
+had accepted an invitation to be present at the inauguration of his
+successful rival.
+
+And there were others present whom we have met before. The wife and
+mother of the new President, with flushed cheeks and proud hearts,
+witnessed the ceremonies that made the one they loved the head of the
+State. To him they were more than all the rest. When he had taken the
+oath of office in the presence of the assembled tens of thousands,
+Garfield turned to his aged mother and imprinted a kiss upon her cheek,
+and afterward upon that of his wife. It was a touch of nature that
+appealed to the hearts of all present.
+
+In the White House, one of the best rooms was reserved for his aged
+mother, for whom he cherished the same fond love and reverence as in his
+boyish days. It was a change, and a great one, from the humble log-cabin
+in which our story opens; it was a change, too, from the backwoods boy,
+in his suit of homespun, to the statesman of noble and commanding
+figure, upon whom the eyes of the nation were turned. The boy who had
+guided the canal-boat was now at the helm of the national vessel, and
+there was no fear that he would run her aground. Even had storms come,
+we might safely trust in him who had steered the little steamboat up the
+Big Sandy River, in darkness and storm and floating obstructions, to the
+camp where his famished soldiers were waiting for supplies. For, as is
+the case with every great man, it was difficulty and danger that nerved
+Garfield to heroic efforts, and no emergency found him lacking.
+
+His life must now be changed, and the change was not altogether
+agreeable. With his cordial off-hand manners, and Western freedom, he,
+no doubt, felt cramped and hampered by the requirements of his new
+position. When he expressed his preference for the position of a
+freelance in the House or Senate, he was sincere. It was more in
+accordance with his private tastes. But a public man can not always
+choose the place or the manner in which he will serve his country.
+Often she says to him, "Go up higher!" when he is content with an humble
+place, and more frequently, perhaps, he has to be satisfied with an
+humble place when he considers himself fitted for a higher.
+
+So far as he could, Gen. Garfield tried to preserve in the Executive
+Mansion the domestic life which he so highly prized. He had his children
+around him. He made wise arrangements for their continued education, for
+he felt that whatever other legacy he might be able to leave them, this
+would be the most valuable. Still, as of old, he could count on the
+assistance of his wife in fulfilling the duties, social and otherwise,
+required by his exalted position.
+
+Nor was he less fortunate in his political family. He had selected as
+his Premier a friend and political associate of many years' standing,
+whose brilliant talent and wide-spread reputation brought strength to
+his administration. In accepting the tender of the post of Secretary of
+State, Mr. Blaine said: "In our new relation I shall give all that I am,
+and all that I can hope to be, freely and joyfully to your service. You
+need no pledge of my loyalty in heart and in act. I should be false to
+myself did I not prove true both to the great trust you confide to me,
+and to your own personal and political fortunes in the present and in
+the future. Your administration must be made brilliantly successful, and
+strong in the confidence and pride of the people, not at all directing
+its energies for re-election, and yet compelling that result by the
+logic of events and by the imperious necessities of the situation.
+
+"I accept it as one of the happiest circumstances connected with this
+affair, that in allying my political fortunes with yours--or rather, for
+the time merging mine in yours--my heart goes with my head, and that I
+carry to you not only political support, but personal and devoted
+friendship. I can but regard it as somewhat remarkable that two men of
+the same age, entering Congress at the same time, influenced by the same
+aims, and cherishing the same ambitions, should never, for a single
+moment, in eighteen years of close intimacy, have had a misunderstanding
+or a coolness, and that our friendship has steadily grown with our
+growth, and strengthened with our strength.
+
+"It is this fact which has led me to the conclusion embodied in this
+letter; for, however much, my dear Garfield, I might admire you as a
+statesman, I would not enter your Cabinet if I did not believe in you as
+a man and love you as a friend."
+
+When it is remembered that Mr. Blaine before the meeting of the
+convention was looked upon as the probable recipient of the honor that
+fell to Garfield, the generous warmth of this letter will be accounted
+most creditable to both of the two friends, whose strong friendship
+rivalry could not weaken or diminish.
+
+So the new Administration entered upon what promised to be a successful
+course. I can not help recording, as a singular circumstance, that the
+three highest officers were ex-teachers. Of Garfield's extended services
+as teacher, beginning with the charge of a district school in the
+wilderness, and ending with the presidency of a college, we already
+know. Reference has also been made to the early experience of the
+Vice-President, Chester A. Arthur, in managing a country school. To this
+it may be added that Mr. Blaine, too, early in life was a teacher in an
+academy, and, as may readily be supposed, a successful one. It is seldom
+in other countries that similar honors crown educational workers. It
+may be mentioned, however, that Louis Philippe, afterward King of the
+French, while an exile in this country, gave instruction in his native
+language. It is not, however, every ruler of boys that is qualified to
+become a ruler of men. Yet, in our own country, probably a majority of
+our public men have served in this capacity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+THE TRAGIC END.
+
+
+I should like to end my story here, and feel that it was complete. I
+should like with my countrymen to be still looking forward with interest
+to the successful results of an administration, guided by the
+experienced statesman whose career we have followed step by step from
+its humble beginnings. But it can not be.
+
+On the second of July, in the present year, a startling rumor was borne
+on the wings of the lightning to the remotest parts of the land:
+
+"President Garfield has been assassinated!"
+
+The excitement was only paralleled by that which prevailed in 1865, when
+Abraham Lincoln was treacherously killed by an assassin. But in this
+later case the astonishment was greater, and all men asked, "What can it
+mean?"
+
+We were in a state of profound peace. No wars nor rumors of war
+disturbed the humble mind, and the blow was utterly unexpected and
+inexplicable.
+
+The explanation came soon enough. It was the work of a wretched
+political adventurer, who, inflated by an overweening estimate of his
+own abilities and importance, had made a preposterous claim to two high
+political offices--the post of Minister to Austria, and Consul to
+Paris--and receiving no encouragement in either direction, had
+deliberately made up his mind to "remove" the President, as he termed
+it, in the foolish hope that his chances of gaining office would be
+better under another administration.
+
+My youngest readers will remember the sad excitement of that eventful
+day. They will remember, also, how the public hopes strengthened or
+weakened with the varying bulletins of each day during the protracted
+sickness of the nation's head. They will not need to be reminded how
+intense was the anxiety everywhere manifested, without regard to party
+or section, for the recovery of the suffering ruler. And they will
+surely remember the imposing demonstrations of sorrow when the end was
+announced. Some of the warmest expressions of grief came from the
+South, who in this time of national calamity were at one with their
+brothers of the North. And when, on the 26th of September, the last
+funeral rites were celebrated, and the body of the dead President was
+consigned to its last resting-place in the beautiful Lake View Cemetery,
+in sight of the pleasant lake on which his eyes rested as a boy, never
+before had there been such imposing demonstrations of grief in our
+cities and towns.
+
+These were not confined to public buildings, and to the houses and
+warehouses of the rich, but the poorest families displayed their bit of
+crape. Outside of a miserable shanty in Brooklyn was displayed a cheap
+print of the President, framed in black, with these words written below,
+"We mourn our loss." Even as I write, the insignia of grief are still to
+be seen in the tenement-house districts on the East Side of New York,
+and there seems a reluctance to remove them.
+
+But not alone to our own country were confined the exhibitions of
+sympathy, and the anxious alternations of hope and fear. There was
+scarcely a portion of the globe in which the hearts of the people were
+not deeply stirred by the daily bulletins that came from the sick couch
+of the patient sufferer. Of the profound impression made in England I
+shall give a description, contributed to the New York _Tribune_ by its
+London correspondent, Mr. G.W. Smalley, only premising that the sympathy
+and grief were universal: from the Queen, whose messages of tender,
+womanly sympathy will not soon be forgotten, to the humblest
+day-laborers in the country districts. Never in England has such grief
+been exhibited at the sickness and death of a foreign ruler, and the
+remembrance of it will draw yet closer together, for all time to come,
+the two great sections of the English-speaking tongue. Were it not a
+subject of such general interest, I should apologize for the space I
+propose to give to England's mourning:
+
+"It happened that some of the humbler classes were among the most eager
+to signify their feelings. The omnibus-drivers had each a knot of crape
+on his whip. Many of the cabmen had the same thing, and so had the
+draymen. In the city, properly so called, and along the water-side, it
+was the poorer shops and the smaller craft that most frequently
+exhibited tokens of public grief. Of the people one met in mourning the
+same thing was true. Between mourning put on for the day and that which
+was worn for private affliction it was not possible to distinguish. But
+in many cases it was plain enough that the black coat on the
+workingman's shoulders, or the bonnet or bit of crape which a shop-girl
+wore, was no part of their daily attire. They had done as much as they
+could to mark themselves as mourners for the President. It was not much,
+but it was enough. It had cost them some thought, a little pains,
+sometimes a little money, and they were people whose lives brought a
+burden to every hour, who had no superfluity of strength or means, and
+on whom even a slight effort imposed a distinct sacrifice. They are not
+of the class to whom the Queen's command for Court mourning was
+addressed. Few of that class are now in London. St. James' Street and
+Pall Mall, Belgravia and May Fair are depopulated. The compliance with
+the Queen's behest has been, I am sure, general and hearty, but
+evidences of it were to be sought elsewhere than in London.
+
+"Of other demonstrations it can hardly be necessary to repeat or enlarge
+upon the description you have already had. The drawn blinds of the
+Mansion House and of Buckingham Palace, the flags at half-mast in the
+Thames on ships of every nationality, the Stock and Metal Exchanges
+closed, the royal standard at half-mast on the steeple of the royal
+church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields; the darkened windows of great
+numbers of banking houses and other places of business in the city
+itself--of all these you have heard.
+
+"At the West End, the shops were not, as a rule, draped with black. Some
+of them had the Union Jack at half-mast; a few the Stars and Stripes in
+black with white and black hangings on the shop fronts. The greater
+number of shop-keepers testified to their association with the general
+feeling by shutters overhanging the tops of the windows, or by
+perpendicular slabs at intervals down the glass. Some had nothing; but
+in Regent Street, Bond Street, St. James' Street, and Piccadilly, which
+are the fashionable business streets of the West End, those which had
+nothing were the exception. The American Legation in Victoria Street,
+and the American Consulate in Old Broad Street, both of which were
+closed, were in deep mourning. The American Dispatch Agency, occupying
+part of a conspicuous building in Trafalgar Square, had nothing to
+indicate its connection with America or any share in the general
+sorrow.
+
+"In many private houses--I should say the majority in such streets as I
+passed through during the day--the blinds were down as they would have
+been for a death in the family. The same is true of some of the clubs,
+and some of the hotels. The Reform Club, of which Garfield is said to
+have been an honorary member, had a draped American flag over the door.
+
+"To-day, as on every previous day since the President's death, the
+London papers print many columns of accounts, each account very brief,
+of what has been done and said in the so-called provincial towns. One
+journal prefaces its copious record by the impressive statement that
+from nearly every town and village telegraphic messages have been sent
+by its correspondents describing the respect paid to General Garfield on
+the day of his funeral. These tributes are necessarily in many places of
+a similar character, yet the variety of sources from which they proceed
+is wide enough to include almost every form of municipal,
+ecclesiastical, political, or individual activity. Everywhere bells are
+tolled, churches thrown open for service, flags drooping, business is
+interrupted, resolutions are passed. Liverpool, as is natural for the
+multiplicity and closeness of her relations with the United States, may
+perhaps be said to have taken the lead. She closed, either in whole or
+in part, her Cotton Market, her Produce Markets, her Provision Market,
+her Stock Exchange. Her papers came out in mourning. The bells tolled
+all day long.
+
+"Few merchants, one reads, came to their places of business, and most of
+those who came were in black. The Mayor and members of the Corporation,
+in their robes, attended a memorial service at St. Peter's, and the
+cathedral overflowed with its sorrowing congregation. Manchester,
+Newcastle, Birmingham, Glasgow, Bradford, Edinburgh were not much behind
+Liverpool in demonstrations, and not at all behind it in spirit. It is
+an evidence of the community of feeling between the two countries that
+so much of the action is official. What makes these official acts so
+striking, also, is the evident feeling at the bottom of this, that
+between England and America there is some kind of a relation which
+brings the loss of the President into the same category with the loss of
+an English ruler.
+
+"At Edinburgh it is the Lord Provost who orders the bells to be tolled
+till two. At Glasgow the Town Council adjourns. At Stratford-on-Avon the
+Mayor orders the flag to be hoisted at half-mast over the Town Hall, and
+the blinds to be drawn, and invites the citizens to follow his example,
+which they do; the bell at the Chapel of the Holy Cion tolling every
+minute while the funeral is solemnized at Cleveland. At Leeds the bell
+in the Town Hall is muffled and tolled, and the public meeting which the
+United States Consul, Mr. Dockery, addresses, is under the presidency of
+the acting Mayor. Mr. Dockery remarked that as compared with other great
+towns, so few were the American residents in Leeds, that the great
+exhibition of sympathy had utterly amazed him. The remark is natural,
+but Mr. Dockery need not have been amazed. The whole population of Leeds
+was American yesterday; and of all England. At Oxford the Town Council
+voted an address to Mrs. Garfield. At the Plymouth Guildhall the maces,
+the emblems of municipal authority, were covered with black At Dublin
+the Lord Mayor proposed, and the Aldermen adopted, a resolution of
+sympathy.
+
+"In all the cathedral towns the cathedral authorities prescribed
+services for the occasion. I omit, because I have no room for them,
+scores of other accounts, not less significant and not less affecting.
+They are all in one tone and one spirit. Wherever in England, yesterday,
+two or three were gathered together, President Garfield's name was
+heard. Privately and publicly, simply as between man and man, or
+formally with the decorous solemnity and stately observance befitting
+bodies which bear a relation to the Government, a tribute of honest
+grief was offered to the President and his family, and of honest
+sympathy to his country. Steeple spoke to steeple, distant cities
+clasped hands. The State, the Church, the people of England were at one
+together in their sorrow, and in their earnest wish to offer some sort
+of comfort to their mourning brothers beyond the sea. You heard in every
+mouth the old cry, 'Blood is thicker than water.' And the voice which is
+perhaps best entitled to speak for the whole nation added, 'Yes, though
+the water be a whole Atlantic Ocean.'"
+
+In addition to these impressive demonstrations, the Archbishop of
+Canterbury held a service and delivered an address in the church of St.
+Martin-in-the-Fields, on Monday. Mr. Lowell had been invited, of
+course, by the church wardens, and a pew reserved for him, but when he
+reached the church with his party half his pew was occupied.
+
+"The Archbishop, who wore deep crape over his Episcopal robes, avoided
+calling his discourse a sermon, and avoided, likewise, through the
+larger portion of it, the purely professional tone common in the pulpit
+on such occasions. During a great part of his excellent address he
+spoke, as anybody else might have done, of the manly side of the
+President's character. He gave, moreover, his own view of the reason why
+all England has been so strangely moved. 'During the long period of the
+President's suffering,' said the Archbishop, 'we had time to think what
+manner of man this was over whom so great a nation was mourning day by
+day. We learned what a noble history his was, and we were taught to
+trace a career such as England before knew nothing of.'
+
+"Among the innumerable testimonies to the purity and beauty of
+Garfield's character," says Mr. Smalley, "this address of the Primate of
+the English Church surely is one which all Americans may acknowledge
+with grateful pride."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+MR. DEPEW'S ESTIMATE OF GARFIELD.
+
+
+My task is drawing near a close. I have, in different parts of this
+volume, expressed my own estimate of our lamented President. No
+character in our history, as it seems to me, furnishes a brighter or
+more inspiring example to boys and young men. It is for this reason that
+I have been induced to write the story of his life especially for
+American boys, conceiving that in no way can I do them a greater
+service.
+
+But I am glad, in confirmation of my own estimate, to quote at length
+the eloquent words of Hon. Chauncey M. Depew, in his address before the
+Grand Army of the Republic. He says of Garfield:
+
+"In America and Europe he is recognized as an illustrious example of the
+results of free institutions. His career shows what can be accomplished
+where all avenues are open and exertion is untrammeled. Our annals
+afford no such incentive to youth as does his life, and it will become
+one of the republic's household stories. No boy in poverty almost
+hopeless, thirsting for knowledge, meets an obstacle which Garfield did
+not experience and overcome. No youth despairing in darkness feels a
+gloom which he did not dispel. No young man filled with honorable
+ambition can encounter a difficulty which he did not meet and surmount.
+For centuries to come great men will trace their rise from humble
+origins to the inspirations of that lad who learned to read by the light
+of a pine-knot in a log-cabin; who, ragged and barefooted, trudged along
+the tow-path of the canal, and without money or affluent relations,
+without friends or assistance, by faith in himself and in God, became
+the most scholarly and best equipped statesman of his time, one of the
+foremost soldiers of his country, the best debater in the strongest of
+deliberative bodies, the leader of his party, and the Chief Magistrate
+of fifty millions of people before he was fifty years of age.
+
+"We are not here to question the ways of Providence. Our prayers were
+not answered as we desired, though the volume and fervor of our
+importunity seemed resistless; but already, behind the partially lifted
+veil, we see the fruits of the sacrifice. Old wounds are healed and
+fierce feuds forgotten. Vengeance and passion which have survived the
+best statesmanship of twenty years are dispelled by a common sorrow.
+Love follows sympathy. Over this open grave the cypress and willow are
+indissolubly united, and into it are buried all sectional differences
+and hatreds. The North and the South rise from bended knees to embrace
+in the brotherhood of a common people and reunited country. Not this
+alone, but the humanity of the civilized world has been quickened and
+elevated, and the English-speaking people are nearer to-day in peace and
+unity than ever before. There is no language in which petitions have not
+arisen for Garfield's life, and no clime where tears have not fallen for
+his death. The Queen of the proudest of nations, for the first time in
+our recollections, brushes aside the formalities of diplomacy, and,
+descending from the throne, speaks for her own and the hearts of all her
+people, in the cable, to the afflicted wife, which says: 'Myself and my
+children mourn with you.'
+
+"It was my privilege to talk for hours with Gen. Garfield during his
+famous trip to the New York conference in the late canvass, and jet it
+was not conversation or discussion. He fastened upon me all the powers
+of inquisitiveness and acquisitiveness, and absorbed all I had learned
+in twenty years of the politics of this State. Under this restless and
+resistless craving for information, he drew upon all the resources of
+the libraries, gathered all the contents of the newspapers, and sought
+and sounded the opinions of all around him, and in his broad, clear mind
+the vast mass was so assimilated and tested that when he spoke or acted,
+it was accepted as true and wise. And yet it was by the gush and warmth
+of old college-chum ways, and not by the arts of the inquisitor, that
+when he had gained he never lost a friend. His strength was in
+ascertaining and expressing the average sense of his audience. I saw him
+at the Chicago Convention, and whenever that popular assemblage seemed
+drifting into hopeless confusion, his tall form commanded attention, and
+his clear voice and clear utterances instantly gave the accepted
+solution.
+
+"I arrived at his house at Mentor in the early morning following the
+disaster in Maine. While all about him were in panic, he saw only a
+damage which must and could be repaired. 'It is no use bemoaning the
+past,' he said; 'the past has no uses except for its lessons.' Business
+disposed of, he threw aside all restraint, and for hours his
+speculations and theories upon philosophy, government, education,
+eloquence; his criticism of books, his reminiscences of men and events,
+made that one of the white-letter days of my life. At Chickamauga he won
+his major-general's commission. On the anniversary of the battle he
+died. I shall never forget his description of the fight--so modest, yet
+graphic. It is imprinted on my memory as the most glorious
+battle-picture words ever painted. He thought the greatest calamity
+which could befall a man was to lose ambition. I said to him, 'General,
+did you never in your earlier struggle have that feeling I have so often
+met with, when you would have compromised your future for a certainty,
+and if so, what?' 'Yes,' said he, 'I remember well when I would have
+been willing to exchange all the possibilities of my life for the
+certainty of a position as a successful teacher.' Though he died
+neither a school principal nor college professor, and they seem humble
+achievements compared with what he did, his memory will instruct while
+time endures.
+
+"His long and dreadful sickness lifted the roof from his house and
+family circle, and his relations as son, husband, and father stood
+revealed in the broadest sunlight of publicity. The picture endeared him
+wherever is understood the full significance of that matchless word
+'Home.' When he stood by the capitol just pronounced the President of
+the greatest and most powerful of republics, the exultation of the hour
+found its expression in a kiss upon the lips of his mother. For weeks,
+in distant Ohio, she sat by the gate watching for the hurrying feet of
+the messenger bearing the telegrams of hope or despair. His last
+conscious act was to write a letter of cheer and encouragement to that
+mother, and when the blow fell she illustrated the spirit she had
+instilled in him. There were no rebellious murmurings against the Divine
+dispensation, only in utter agony: 'I have no wish to live longer; I
+will join him soon; the Lord's will be done.' When Dr. Bliss told him he
+had a bare chance of recovery, 'Then,' said he, 'we will take that
+chance, doctor.' When asked if he suffered pain, he answered: 'If you
+can imagine a trip-hammer crashing on your body, or cramps such as you
+have in the water a thousand times intensified, you can have some idea
+of what I suffer.' And yet, during those eighty-one days was heard
+neither groan nor complaint. Always brave and cheerful, he answered the
+fear of the surgeons with the remark: 'I have faced death before; I am
+not afraid to meet him now.' And again, 'I have strength enough left to
+fight him yet'--and he could whisper to the Secretary of the Treasury an
+inquiry about the success of the funding scheme, and ask the
+Postmaster-General how much public money he had saved.
+
+"As he lay in the cottage by the sea, looking out upon the ocean, whose
+broad expanse was in harmony with his own grand nature, and heard the
+beating of the waves upon the shore, and felt the pulsations of millions
+of hearts against his chamber door, there was no posing for history and
+no preparation of last words for dramatic effect. With simple
+naturalness he gave the military salute to the sentinel gazing at his
+window, and that soldier, returning it in tears, will probably carry
+its memory to his dying day and transmit it to his children. The voice
+of his faithful wife came from her devotions in another room, singing,
+'Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah.' 'Listen,' he cries, 'is not that
+glorious?' and in a few hours heaven's portals opened and upborne upon
+prayers as never before wafted spirit above he entered the presence of
+God. It is the alleviation of all sorrow, public or private, that close
+upon it press the duties of and to the living.
+
+"The tolling bells, the minute-guns upon land and sea, the muffled drums
+and funeral hymns fill the air while our chief is borne to his last
+resting-place. The busy world is stilled for the hour when loving hands
+are preparing his grave. A stately shaft will rise, overlooking the lake
+and commemorating his deeds. But his fame will not live alone in marble
+or brass. His story will be treasured and kept warm in the hearts of
+millions for generations to come, and boys hearing it from their mothers
+will be fired with nobler ambitions. To his countrymen he will always be
+a typical American, soldier, and statesman. A year ago and not a
+thousand people of the old world had ever heard his name, and now there
+is scarcely a thousand who do not mourn his loss. The peasant loves him
+because from the same humble lot he became one of the mighty of earth,
+and sovereigns respect him because in his royal gifts and kingly nature
+God made him their equal."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+THE LESSONS OF HIS LIFE.
+
+
+Probably the nearest and closest friend of Garfield, intellectually
+speaking, was his successor in the presidency of Hiram College, B.A.
+Hinsdale. If any one understood the dead President it was he. For many
+years they corresponded regularly, exchanging views upon all topics that
+interested either. They would not always agree, but this necessarily
+followed from the mental independence of each. To Mr. Hinsdale we turn
+for a trustworthy analysis of the character and intellectual greatness
+of his friend, and this he gives us in an article published in the N.Y.
+_Independent_ of Sept. 29, 1881:
+
+"First of all, James A. Garfield had greatness of nature. Were I limited
+to one sentence of description, it would be: He was a great-natured man.
+He was a man of strong and massive body. A strong frame, broad
+shoulders, powerful vital apparatus, and a massive head furnished the
+physical basis of his life. He was capable of an indefinite amount of
+work, both physical and mental. His intellectual status was equally
+strong and massive. He excelled almost all men both in the patient
+accumulation of facts and in bold generalization. He had great power of
+logical analysis, and stood with the first in rhetorical exposition. He
+had the best instincts and habits of the scholar. He loved to roam in
+every field of knowledge. He delighted in the creations of the
+imagination--poetry, fiction, and art. He loved the deep things of
+philosophy. He took a keen interest in scientific research. He gathered
+into his storehouse the facts of history and politics, and threw over
+the whole the life and power of his own originality.
+
+"The vast labors that he crowded into those thirty years--labors rarely
+equaled in the history of men--are the fittest gauge of his physical and
+intellectual power. His moral character was on a scale equally large and
+generous. His feelings were delicate, his sympathies most responsive,
+his sense of justice keen. He was alive to delicate points of honor. No
+other man whom I have known had such heart. He had great faith in human
+nature and was wholly free from jealousy and suspicion. He was one of
+the most helpful and appreciative of men. His largeness of views and
+generosity of spirit were such that he seemed incapable of personal
+resentment. He was once exhorted to visit moral indignation upon some
+men who had wronged him deeply. Fully appreciating the baseness of their
+conduct, he said he would try, but added: 'I am afraid some one will
+have to help me.'
+
+"What is more, General Garfield was religious, both by nature and by
+habit. His mind was strong in the religious element. His near relatives
+received the Gospel as it was proclaimed fifty years ago by Thomas and
+Alexander Campbell. He made public profession of religion before he
+reached his twentieth year and became a member of the same church, and
+such he remained until his death. Like all men of his thought and
+reading, he understood the hard questions that modern science and
+criticism have brought into the field of religion. Whether he ever
+wrought these out to his own full satisfaction I can not say. However
+that may be, his native piety, his early training, and his sober
+convictions held him fast to the great truths of revealed religion.
+Withal, he was a man of great simplicity of character. No one could be
+more approachable. He drew men to him as the magnet the iron filings.
+This he did naturally and without conscious plan or effort. At times,
+when the burden of work was heavy and his strength overdrawn, intimate
+friends would urge him to withdraw himself somewhat from the crowds that
+flocked to him; but almost always the advice was vain. His sympathy with
+the people was immediate and quick. He seemed almost intuitively to read
+the public thought and feeling. No matter what was his station, he
+always remembered the rock from which he had himself been hewn.
+Naturally he inspired confidence in all men who came into contact with
+him. When a young man, and even a boy, he ranked in judgment and in
+counsel with those much his seniors.
+
+"It is not remarkable, therefore, that he should have led a great
+career. He was always with the foremost or in the lead, no matter what
+the work in hand. He was a good wood-chopper and a good canal hand; he
+was a good school janitor; and, upon the whole, ranked all competitors,
+both in Hiram and in Williamstown, as a student. He was an excellent
+teacher. He was the youngest man in the Ohio Senate. When made
+brigadier-general, he was the youngest man of that rank in the army.
+When he entered it, he was the youngest man on the floor of the House of
+Representatives. His great ability and signal usefulness as teacher,
+legislator, popular orator, and President must be passed with a single
+reference.
+
+"He retained his simplicity and purity of character to the end. Neither
+place nor power corrupted his honest fiber. Advancement in public favor
+and position gave him pleasure, but brought him no feeling of elation.
+For many years President Garfield and the writer exchanged letters at
+the opening of each new year. January 5th, last, he wrote:
+
+"'For myself, the year has been full of surprises, and has brought more
+sadness than joy. I am conscious of two things: first, that I have never
+had, and do not think I shall take, the Presidential fever. Second, that
+I am not elated with the election to that office. On the contrary, while
+appreciating the honor and the opportunities which the place brings, I
+feel heavily the loss of liberty which accompanies it, and especially
+that it will in a great measure stop my growth.'
+
+"March 26, 1881, in the midst of the political tempest following his
+inauguration, he wrote: 'I throw you a line across the storm, to let you
+know that I think, when I have a moment between breaths, of the dear old
+quiet and peace of Hiram and Mentor.' How he longed for 'the dear old
+quiet and peace of Hiram and Mentor' in the weary days following the
+assassin's shot all readers of the newspapers know already.
+
+"Such are some main lines in the character of this great-natured and
+richly-cultured man. The outline is but poor and meager. Well do I
+remember the days following the Chicago Convention, when the biographers
+flocked to Mentor. How hard they found it to compress within the limits
+both of their time and their pages the life, services, and character of
+their great subject. One of these discouraged historians one day wearily
+said: 'General, how much there is of you!'
+
+"Space fails to speak of President Garfield's short administration.
+Fortunately, it is not necessary. Nor can I give the history of the
+assassination or sketch the gallant fight for life. His courage and
+fortitude, faith and hope, patience and tenderness are a part of his
+country's history. Dying, as well as living, he maintained his great
+position with appropriate power and dignity. His waving his white hand
+to the inmates of the White House, the morning he was borne sick out of
+it, reminds one of dying Sidney's motioning the cup of water to the lips
+of the wounded soldier. No man's life was ever prayed for by so many
+people. The name of no living man has been upon so many lips. No
+sick-bed was ever the subject of so much tender solicitude. That one so
+strong in faculties, so rich in knowledge, so ripe in experience, so
+noble in character, so needful to the nation, and so dear to his friends
+should be taken in a way so foul almost taxes faith in the Divine love
+and wisdom. Perhaps, however, in the noble lessons of those eighty days
+from July 2d to September 19th, and in the moral unification of the
+country, history will find full compensation for our great loss.
+
+"Finally, the little white-haired mother and the constant wife must not
+be passed unnoticed. How the old mother prayed and waited, and the
+brave wife wrought and hoped, will live forever, both in history and in
+legend. It is not impiety to say that wheresoever President Garfield's
+story shall be told in the whole world there shall also this, that these
+women have done, be told for a memorial of them."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's From Canal Boy to President, by Horatio Alger, Jr.
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM CANAL BOY TO PRESIDENT ***
+
+***** This file should be named 14964.txt or 14964.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/9/6/14964/
+
+Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Josephine Paolucci, Joshua Hutchinson
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.