and El Paso, there was a cordiality in the reception that marked the new spirit of fraternity. In Vicksburg an arch of cotton bales, with the word "Expansion," typified the appreciation of McKinley's efforts to open for them new markets in the Orient. Throughout the journey the train was met by crowds of people, at all hours of the day and night, anxious to catch a glimpse of the President if they could not hear his voice, and content to see the train that carried him if they could do no more. When California was reached, the ovation took the form of a marvelous floral display, accompanied by generous hospitality.

Mrs. McKinley's illness began in El Paso and grew worse as the journey continued. At Monterey, California, the President was forced to give up all further plans and to take his wife to San Francisco, where they were cared for at the home of Mr. Henry T. Scott. For two weeks she hovered between life and death, her husband remaining constantly at her bedside, and doing all in his power to assist the physicians. Meanwhile all engagements for the President were canceled, Mr. Hay taking his place as the head of the party.

During these trying days the heart of the country beat in sympathy with the patient, loving husband. His closest friends had known how, when a Con

gressman at Washington, he seldom joined his associates in the clubs, hotels, or places of amusement, but, when not engaged in public duties, devoted himself to his invalid wife, preferring a quiet evening in his rooms to any of the ordinary social diversions. They alone knew how tenderly he had always cared for her, but now the whole country knew it. The veil, which for a quarter of a century had sacredly shielded from public view the sweet domesticity of his private life, seemed for a moment to be lifted, and the people saw, not the great statesman, moving in a sphere above and beyond their daily affairs, but one of themselves, living the ideal home life, which the truest and best type of American citizenship has always honored. The head of the nation, with hundreds of thousands waiting to do him honor, gave not a thought to the gratification of selfish pride, as many a man might have done, but unreservedly devoted his whole mind to the single task of nursing his wife back to health. And as he prayed for her recovery, the people prayed with him.

At last the crisis passed, and Mrs. McKinley began to regain her strength. As soon as she was able to travel, all plans for the return having been canceled, the train sped across the continent without the scheduled stops and the party went directly to Washington. The President and his wife remained

at the Capitol for rest until July 6, when they went to Canton for the summer. The original itinerary was to have ended at Buffalo on June 12, after a journey of eleven thousand miles, but the change of plans necessitated a postponement of the visit to Buffalo until September.

The two months at Canton were happy ones. Mrs. McKinley had fully recovered and the President was apparently in excellent health. He found pleasure in meeting his old friends and neighbors, in visiting his farm near Canton, and perhaps more than anything else, in the return to the old home on Market Street, which he had remodeled with the fond expectation of living there a quiet life, after the toil of the next four years was ended. Two years before, Mr. Cortelyou had made this note in his diary:

"Wednesday, July 5, 1899. The President talked this evening of his purchase of the Harter property in Canton his old home. He directed me to draw a check for the full amount of the purchase, $14,500, to the order of Austin Lynch, his attorney.

"I could easily see the extreme satisfaction it gave the President to get back his old place. He said, pathetically: 'We began our married life in that house; our children were born there; one of them died and was buried from there. Some of the ten

PRESIDENT MCKINLEY AND FRIENDS AT HIS FARM NEAR CANTON, OHIO

From left to right: Parmalee Herrick, Dr. P. M. Rixey, Farmer Jack Adams, President McKinley, Myron T. Herrick, George B. Cortelyou