not a telegraph message was sent over the wires; soldiers and policemen halted, no matter where they were, uncovered their heads and placed their caps or helmets over their hearts; processions halted and stood so still that the men could almost hear each other's heart-beats. At the close of the five minutes, bands began to play softly, "Nearer, my God, to Thee," and voices joined them in singing the hymn. All the power of the government could not have compelled such an eloquent tribute.

The manly Christian qualities which won for Mr. McKinley the affection of the American people, won for him also the admiration of the world. The London Pall Mall Gazette expressed the sentiment of Christendom when it said: "We can only express the universal feeling of earnest prayerfulness that President McKinley may recover even yet. It is not too much to say that the whole Anglo-Saxon race is kneeling at his bedside, clinging to hope so long as hope exists."

The president's death called forth tributes never before bestowed upon a ruler. In England the daily papers were printed in mourning as if for the loss of their own sovereign, and the stock and commercial exchanges closed. King Edward commanded that the court go into mourning for one week, and wherever a public meeting of any kind has been held, or wherever a public man has had occasion to speak, expressions of sympathy have been heard. In every place of public worship from St. Paul cathedral and Canterbury cathedral down, the preachers made special reference to the terrible event, invoking God's blessing upon the United States and the American people. In accordance with a special army order to the guards at St. James palace and at all other points where guard was mounted throughout the United Kingdom, honors were rendered to the memory of President McKinley such as are usually accorded only on the death of royal personages. The troops wore crape and the bands played dirges. No such extended tributes of sympathy and respect ever marked the death of any person but a British sovereign.

The London Daily Chronicle, discussing the world-wide sympathy displayed, said: "This sympathy is intensified by a full realization of the calamity, until we are almost inclined to say that there is no precedent for such a display of emotion and fellow-feeling on these particular lines. It is not impossible that the assassination of Mr. McKinley will advance that 'international comity of governments' to which some political students look as the keynote of future peace and harmony." The London Morning Post said: "It is not too much to assert that all nations mourn by the bier in Buffalo. The American people have been robbed by an assassin of one of the greatest leaders the republic ever produced. When it was proposed that the Duke of York, who was then in Canada, should attend the funeral, the Times said: "All England would rejoice if we were able to give the Americans so signal a token of our desire to take part with them in paying every tribute in our power to the great citizen they have lost. Whether this wish be realized or not, we shall pay our homage of love and reverence for his memory not less sincerely than those over whom he ruled."

The boy McKinley, like the man, was thoroughly American. The following is the chronological story of his life:

1843. Jan. 29. William McKinley, son of William and Nancy (Allison) McKinley, is born at Niles, Trumbull county, O., being the seventh of a family of nine children:

1852. The McKinley family removes to Poland, Mahoning county, O., where William studies at the Union Seminary until he

is 17.

1859. Becomes a member of the Methodist Episcopal church in Poland.

1860. Enters the junior class in Allegheny college, Meadville, Pa., but poor health prevents the completion of the course. Subsequently teaches in a public school near Poland and later becomes a clerk in the Poland postoffice.

1861. June 11. Enlists as a private in company E. of the 23d Ohio volunteer infantry. 1862. April 15. Promoted to commissary sergeant while in the winter's camp at Fayette, W. Va.

1862. Sept. 24. Promoted to second lieutenant, in recognition of services at the battle of Antietam. Wins the highest esteem of the colonel of the regiment, Rutherford B. Hayes, and becomes a member of his staff. 1863. Feb. 7. Promoted to first lieutenant. 1864. July 25. Promoted to captain for gallantry at the battle of Kernstown, near Winchester, Va.

1864. Oct. 11. First vote for president cast for Abraham Lincoln, while on a march.

1864. Shortly after the battle of Cedar Creek (Oct. 19), Capt. McKinley serves on the staffs of Gen. George Crook and Gen. Winfield S. Hancock.

1865. Assigned as acting assistant adjutantgeneral on the staff of Gen. Samuel S. Carroll, commanding the veteran reserve corps at Washington.

1865. March 13.

Commissioned by President Lincoln as major by brevet in the volunteer United States army, "for gallant and meritorious services at the battles of Opequan, Cedar Creek and Fisher's Hill."

1865. July 26. Mustered out of the army with his regiment, having never been absent from his command on sick leave during morethan four years' service.

1865. Returns to Poland and at once begins the study of law. 1866. Enters the Albany (N. Y.) Law school. 1867. Admitted to the bar at Warren, O., in March. Accepting the advice of an elder sister teaching in Canton, O., he begins the practice of law in Canton and makes that place his home.

1869. Elected prosecuting attorney of Stark county on the republican ticket, although the county had usually been democratic.

1871. Jan. 25. Marries Miss Ida Saxton of Canton. (Two daughters born to Mr. and Mrs. McKinley-Katie in 1871 and Ida in 1873-and both lost in early childhood).

1871. Fails of re-election as prosecuting attorney by forty-five votes, and for the next five years devotes himself successfully to the practice of law, and becomes a leading member of the bar of Stark county.

1872. Though not a candidate, very active

as a campaign speaker in the Grant-Greeley presidential campaign.

1875.

Especially active and conspicuous as a campaigner in the closely contested state election in which Rutherford B. Hayes is elected governor.

1876. Elected member of the house of representatives by 3,300 majority, his friend Hayes being elected to the presidency..

1878. Re-elected to congress by 1,234 majority, his district in Ohio having been gerrymandered to his disadvantage by a democratic legislature.

1880. Re-elected to congress by 3,571 majority. Appointed a member of the ways and means committee, to succeed President-elect Garfield.

1882. The republicans suffer reverses throughout the country in the congressional elections and McKinley is re-elected by a majority of only 8.

1884. Prominent in opposition to the proposed "Morrison tariff" in congress.

1884. As a delegate-at-large to the republican national convention in Chicago actively supports James G. Blaine for the presidential nomination.

1884. Re-elected to congress by a majority of 2,000, although his district had again been gerrymandered against him.

1886. Re-elected to congress by a majority of 2,550.

1886. Leads the minority opposition in congress against the "Mills tariff bill."

1888. Delegate-at-large to the national convention in Chicago that nominated Benjamin Harrison, and serves as chairman of the committee on resolutions. Many delegates wish McKinley to become a nominee, but he stands firm in his support of John Sherman.

1888. Elected to congress for the seventh successive time, receiving a majority of 4,100 votes.

1889. At the organization of the 51st congress, is a candidate for speaker of the house, but is defeated on the third ballot in the republican caucus by Thomas B. Reed.

1890. Upon the death of William D. Kelley in January McKinley becomes chairman of the ways and means committee and leader of his party in the house. He introduces a bill "to simplify the laws in relation to the collection of revenues," known as the "customs administration bill." He also introduces a general tariff bill. The bill becomes a law Oct. 6.

1890. As a result of the gerrymandered congressional district and the reaction against the republican party throughout the country, caused by the protracted struggle over the tariff bill, McKinley is defeated in the election for congress by 300 votes in counties that had previously gone democratic by 3,000.

1891. Nov. 3. Elected governor of Ohio by a plurality of 21,511, polling the largest vote that had ever been cast for governor in Ohio. His opponent is the democratic governor, James E. Campbell.

1892. Made permanent chairman, Republican National Convention, at Minneapolis, and received 182 votes for the nomination for President.

1893. Re-elected Governor of Ohio, 80,000 plurality.

1896. Elected President of the United States, receiving 271 electoral votes.

1900. Re-elected, receiving 7,214,027 votes. 1901. September 6. Shot once in the stomach and once in the breast at a reception in the Temple of Music, Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo.

1901. September 14. Died at the home of John G. Milburn, No. 1168 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, from the effects of the stomach wound received on September 6th.

The father of William McKinley died a short time before the nomination of his son for President. His mother, who bore the favorite old name of Nancy, was enjoying good health. The father of Mrs. McKinley, Sr., was a German by birth, and her mother was of Scotch descent. Old Mr. McKinley's father was Scotch-Irish in blood and his mother was of English birth. His grandfather. David McKinley, came to America when twelve years old.

The boy was but five years old when lie entered the village school at Niles. Later he proceeded with his studies at a more advanced school in the village of Poland, to which place his parents had moved in order that their children might avail themselves of the better educational facilities which it afforded. Here he remained until his seventeenth year, when his father sent him to Allegheny College. He had completed an academic course and was already engaged in teaching when the guns of Sumter sounded the call to arms. He dropped his books, shouldered a musket and marched off into Virginia with the 23d Ohio. Col. Rutherford B. Hayes was the commander. A few incidents tell better the kind of soldier he was than would an extended account of his service. When the Battle of Antietam occurred he was a sergeant in the commissary department. That battle began at daylight. Before daylight men were in the ranks and preparing for it. Without breakfast, without coffee, they went into the fight, and it continued until after the sun had set. Early in the afternoon, naturally enough, with the exertion required of the men, they were famished and thirsty, and to some extent broken in spirit. The commissary department of that brigade was under Sergt. McKinley's administration and personal supervision. From his hands every man in the regiment was served at the front with hot coffee and warm meats, a thing that had never occurred under similar circumstances in any other army in the world. He passed under fire and delivered, with his own hands, these things so essential for the men for whom he was laboring.

The attention of Gov. Todd was called to this incident. With the emphasis that distinguished that great war Governor, he said: "Let McKinley be promoted from sergeant to lieutenant."

McKinley again distinguished himself. Sheridan, in his memoirs, alludes to the fact that he met McKinley on the day of his famous ride from Winchester. Sheridan says: "At Newton I was obliged to make a circuit to the left to get round the village. I could not pass through it, the streets were so crowded, but meeting on this detour McKinley of Crook's staff, he spread the news of my return through the motley throng there."

McKinley had just returned from planting the battery of Col. H. A. DuPont of the Fifth United States Artillery-part of Gen. Crook's corps. McKinley had planted the battery by direction of Gen. Crook.

He was made captain on July 25, 1864, and was brevetted major by President Lincoln for gallant conduct on the fields of Opequan, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek. He was with the old 23d in all its fights and was mustered out with the regiment in July, 1865.

After his military career, McKinley returned to Ohio, studied law, was admitted to the bar,

settled at Canton, was elected district attorney of Stark County, became thereafter steadily more active in politics, and in 1876 was elected to Congress.

It was particularly felicitous for Maj. McKinley that his first four years in Congress were coincident with the Administration of President Hayes. The youngest Member of Congress, he had the intimate and near friendship of the ruler of the Nation. Of course, no direct political advancement could, or did, grow out of this friendship. Those were questions that had to be adjudged by the jury that composed his Congress district.

The first act of Mr. McKinley in the House was the presentation of a petition from some of the workingmen of his district against a change in the tariff.

Gen. Garfield early manifested an interest in the young protectionist, and it was through his personal efforts that Mr. McKinley received an appointment upon the Ways and Means committee when Garfield was nominated for President. Judge Kelley of Pennsylvania, the inflexible advocate of protection, saw in the studious Ohioan a man upon whom his mantle was worthy to fall. "I hope," he said, one day, "that when I am no longer chairman of this committee, Mr. McKinley will be my successor." When, in 1889, a Republican House required a protectionist leader, Judge Kelley, though unquestionably entitled by precedence to the place, realizing his enfeebled condition. acquiesced most willingly in the appointment of Mr. McKinley.

New responsibilities brought out new traits in Mr. McKinley's character. He developed a remarkable ability for gathering and assimilating details. His penetrating intellect, rendered all the keener by long years of study. speedily grasped the intricacies of the innumerable schedules, and his well-balanced mind arranged in logical order the mass of information thus acquired. Above all things, he gave evidence of a remarkable even temperament. Its equilibrium was never disturbed. In the midst of exhausting inquiries, despite the importunate appeals of his colleagues to regard their personal interests and notwithstanding the turmoils of debate, he was always amiable, always good-natured, always kind.

Just here may be a good place to relate MeKinley's connection with the reciprocity feature of the tariff law which bore his name. William E. Curtis, who was a close friend to Mr. Blaine, says that he carried the reciprocity amendment from Mr. Blaine to Representative McKinley. He delivered it in person to the chairman of the Ways and Means committee, while that committee was in session, stating that Mr. Blaine desired that it be added to the tariff bill. Mr. McKinley said he would submit it to the committee. Asked if he would support it, he replied promptly in the affirmative, indicating by his quick response that he had already given the reciprocity scheme some thought and was favorably disposed toward it. It also developed that when the Blaine amend ment was taken up in the committee it was discussed but a few moments when a vote was taken and Mr. McKinley alone voted in the affirmative. From that time on Mr. McKinley consistently supported the measure, and

was the only member of the Ways and Means committee of the 51st Congress who did.

As early as 1884 McKinley was recognized as a national, rather than a mere State, leader. In the national convention of 1888 an incident occurred which furnished a fine illustration of his character. It was during the fourth ballot for President. There was a great sensation when Connecticut was reached and a delegate from the Nutmeg State cast a ballot for McKinley. The moment the announcement was made Mr. McKinley was seen to rise in his seat. A hush fell upon the multitude as he proceeded to make a statement. But before he had uttered half a dozen words a great storm of applause burst, and there was prolonged cheering for "McKinley." He said:

"Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the convention:-I am here as one of the chosen representatives of my State; I am here by a resolution of the Republican convention, passed without one dissenting voice, commanding me to cast my vote for John Sherman and use every worthy endeavor for his nomination. I accepted the trust because my heart and judgment were in accord with the letter and spirit and purpose of that resolution. It has pleased certain delegates to cast their votes for me. I am not insensible to the honor they would do me, but in the presence of the duty resting upon me, I cannot remain silent with honor. I cannot consistently with the credit of the State whose credentials I bear and which has trusted me; I cannot with honorable fidelity to John Sherman, who has trusted me in his cause and with his confidence; I cannot consistently with my own views or my personal integrity consent, or seem to consent, to permit my name to be used as a candidate before this convention. I would not respect myself if I could find in my heart to do, to say or to permit to be done that which could even be ground for anyone to suspect that I wavered in my loyalty to Ohio or my devotion to the chief of her choice and the chief of mine. I do request-I demand -that no delegate who would not cast reflection upon me shall cast a ballot for me."

This was no empty sacrifice. Those who remember the history of that convention will remember that at this stage in its proceedings the chances for a dark horse were unusually favorable. More than one shrewd observer had picked McKinley as presenting admirable qualities for a dark horse. His position was almost identical with that of Garfield eight years before. But McKinley was pledged to Sherman. No temptation could induce him to violate his trust.

Four years later at the Republican Convention in Minneapolis, Maj. McKinley had again an opportunity to show that he prized honor above personal advantage, even though it involved the nomination to the highest office in the gift of any people-the Presidency of the United States-and grandly he rose to the occasion. When the State of Ohio was reached on the call in the first ballot for President, the leader of the delegation announced its votes for William McKinley, Jr. This was the signal for a spontaneous burst of enthusiasm

MRS. WILLIAM MCKINLEY. Copyright 1901 by Clinedinst.

from the floor and galleries. Hurried consultations of the various State delegations were held, and, amid the cheers and applause which still continued, one leader after another rose to announce the change of the vote of his State to McKinley. The Major, evidently much affected, by the demonstration, but firm and composed, rose in his place as presiding officer of the convention. Immediately the tumult was hushed. All bent eagerly forward to hear what the great leader had to say. All felt that a most critical moment had arrived a moment which might decide who should be