One of his boys came in at the moment, and said, that the workmen, who were building a fence about the yard, wished to see him. He put on his hat, and, giving me his scrap-books and asking me to amuse myself by looking them over until his return, left the room. He stayed so long, that I went down into the hall to smoke. Going to the door, I saw the general himself helping the workmen with the palings and posts. When he saw me, he remembered, that he had left me waiting, and at once came up to excuse himself: "You see we have a new place here, and I am trying to get it fixed up. I came here, expecting to spend a quiet vacation; but, when the nomination at Chicago dropped on me, it found us all upside down. So many people are coming constantly, I want to get it in order, and am pushing it all I can by superintending the work personally." He expressed great willingness to attend to me. I told him, however, that I had already taken quite enough of his time. He decided to go up-stairs and write; and I went with him to get my hat. He pointed to a sheet of paper lying on his desk, which, I saw from the different headings and divisions, was the outline of his letter of acceptance. "A tough job," I ventured.

"Yes, rather a tough job," he replied, laughing, as he took leave of me at the door.

G

CHAPTER XXV.

TWO PEŃ PORTRAITS,

EORGE ALFRED TOWNSEND drew this picture of General Garfield in the Cincinnati Enquirer:

The writer has known General Garfield pretty well for thirteen years. He is a large, well-fed, hale, ruddy, brownbearded man, weighing about two hundred and twenty pounds, with Ohio German colors, blue eyes, military face, erect figure and shoulders, large back and thighs, and broad chest, and evidently bred in the country on a farm. His large mouth is full of strong teeth; his nose, chin and brows are strongly pronounced. A large brain, with room for play of thought and long application, rises high above his clear, discerning, enjoying eye. He sometimes suggests a country Samson-strong beyond his knowledge, but unguarded as a school-boy. He pays little attention to the affectation by which some men manage public opinion, and has one kind of behavior for all callers, which is the most natural behavior at hand.

There is an entire absence of nonchalance or worldliness in his natnre. He is never indifferent, never vindictive. A base action of ingratitude or cruelty may make him sad, but does not provoke retaliation, or alter that faith in men or providence, which is a part of his sound stomach and athletic head. Garfield is as simple as a child; to the serpent's wisdom he is a stranger. Having no use or aptitude with the weapons of courser natures, he often avoids mere disputes;

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does not go to the public resorts, where men are familiar or vulgar; and the walk from his home in Washington to the Capitol, and an occasional dinner out, comprise his life. The word public servant especially applies to him. He has been the drudge of his State constituents, the public, the public societies and the moral societies of his party and country, since 1863. Aptitude for public debate and public affairs are associated with a military nature in him. He is on a broad scale a school-master of the range of Gladstone, of Agassiz, of Gallatin.

With as honest a heart as ever beat, above the competitors of sordid ambition, General Garfield has yet so little of the worldly wise in him, that he is poor and yet has been accused of dishonesty. The people of his district, who are quick to punish public venality or defection, heard him in his defense in 1873, and kept him in Congress and held up his hand; and hence he is, by their unwavering support for twenty-five years, candidate for president and a national character. The average American, pursuing money all day long, is now presented to a man, who has invariably put the business of others above his own, and worked for that alleged nondescript-the public gratitude-all his life. But he has not labored without reward. The great nomination came to-day to as pure and loving a man, as ever wished well of anybody and put his shoulder to his neighbor's wheel. Garfield's big, boyish heart is pained to-night with the weight of his obligation, affection and responsibility. To-day, as hundreds of telegrams come from everywhere, saying kind, strong things to him--such messages as only Americans, in their rapid, good impulses, pour upon a lucky friend-he was with two volunteer clerks in a room, opening and reading, when suddenly his two boys sent him one-little fellows at school; and, as he read it, he broke down, and tried to talk; but his voice choked, and he could not see for tears. The clerks began to cry too, and people, to whom they afterward told it. This sense of real

SKETCHES OF GARfield.

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great-heart will be new to the country, and will grow if he gets the presidency.

He is the ablest public speaker in the country, and the most serious and instructive man on the stump; his instincts, liberal and right; his courtesy, noticeable in our politics; his aims, ingenuous; and his piety comes by nature. He leads a farmer's life, all the recess of Congress, working like a field-hand, and restoring his mind by resting it. If elected he will give a tone of culture and intelligence to the executive office it has never yet had, while he has no pedantry in his composition, and no conceit whatever.

A more elaborate picture of him was made by President Hinsdale of Hiram College:

His power of logical analysis and classification is very great; of rhetorical exposition hardly surpassed. He excels in the patient accumulation of facts, and in striking generalizations. As a student, he loves to roam in every field of activity. He delights in poetry and other works of the imagination; loves the abstruse things of philosophy; takes keen interest in scientific research; gathers into his store-house the facts of history and politics, and throws over it all the life and warmth of his own originality.

His moral character is the fit crown to his physical and intellectual nature. No man has a kinder heart or a purer mind. His generosity of nature is unstinted; all his life, public and private, is marked by great unselfishness. For the most part, he has neglected material acquisition; but his means, as well as his time and talents, are at the call of those, who need them. I fearlessly say, that the nearer men have come to General Garfield, the greater has been their confidence. I may say, that he has inspired unusual respect and faith in all largeminded and generous men without regard to politics.

I am far from indorsing all of General Garfield's public acts. Those, who know me, will hardly charge me with being a fulsome eulogist. He has said and done some things, that I have been sorry to have him say and do. He has failed to say and do some others, that I have had much at heart. But this I see: He has served the public with conspicuous ability and a single eye. He has moved all the time in the right direction. He has striven to make the public service clean and honorable; to make the government one of statesmen and patriots, not of demagogues and place-men; and in every way to dignify and ennoble the republic.

A newspaper man from a distant city asked me the other day: "How do you explain the common lack of confidence in Mr. Garfield's courage?" I said: "Who doubts his courage ?" He answered, that he had heard in Washington and in other places, that he lacked backbone. A few questions revealed, that those, who held this opinion, thought that he did not denounce "the Solid South" with sufficient severity, and was not properly active in stirring up the brigadiers. If I may parody Madame Roland, "O courage, what folly is committed in thy name!" I have known a minister of the Gospel to be called a coward, because he could recognize the worth of those, who did not worship in his conventicle. Similarly, eager partisans charge with cowardice the man, who, loyal to his own convictions of truth and duty, dares to think and act for himself. In both cases what is called cow

ardice is the genuine moral courage. To go with the stream -to bless with your sect or to hurrah with your party—is slight proof of courage; but to stand out by yourself in moral isolation, to bear the jibes of those, whom you call your brethren, is a very high proof of character. Such a man is General Garfield. He has uttered many noble words; but none nobler than these, spoken in the Ohio Senate Chamber just after his late election:

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During the twenty years that I have been in public (almost eighteen of it in the Congress of the United States), I