room to secure, the amount was not inconsiderable.  I think it was on this trip that William Jennings Bryan got on the train and enlivened the journey for us.  The stories he and the Doctor hammered out of the long hours of travel were entertaining.  We exchanged invitations to the dining car so as not to stop the flow of conversation between Mr. Bryan and the Doctor.  We would invite him to lunch, and Mr. Bryan would ask us to dinner, or vice versa, so that the social amenities were delightfully extended to keep us in mutual enjoyment of the trip.  Dr. Talmage and myself agreed that Mr. Bryan’s success on the platform was much enhanced by his wonderful voice.  The Doctor said he had never heard so exquisite a speaking voice in a man as Mr. Bryan’s.  He always spoke in eloquent support of the masses, denouncing the trusts with vehemence.

Travelling was always a kind of luxury to me, when we were not obliged to stop over at some wretched hotel.  The Pullman cars were palatial in comfort compared to the hotels we had to enter.  But Dr. Talmage was always satisfied; no hotel, however poor, could alter the cheerfulness of his temperament.

In January, 1901, Queen Victoria died, and Dr. Talmage’s eulogy went far and wide.  I quote again from my scrap-book a part of his comment on this world event: 

“While Queen Victoria has been the friend of all art, all literature, all science, all invention, all reform, her reign will be most remembered for all time, all eternity, as the reign of Christianity.  Beginning with that scene at 5 o’clock in the morning in Kensington Palace, where she asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to pray for her, and they knelt down imploring Divine guidance until her last hour, not only in the sublime liturgy of her established Church, but on all occasions, she has directly or indirectly declared:  ’I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son.’

“The Queen’s book, so much criticised at the time of its appearance, some saying that it was skilfully done, and some saying that the private affairs of a household ought not to have been exposed, was nevertheless a book of rare usefulness, from the fact that it showed that God was acknowledged in all her life, and that ‘Rock of Ages’ was not an unusual song at Windsor Castle.

“I believe that no throne since the throne of David and the throne of Hezekiah and the throne of Esther, has been in such constant touch with the throne of heaven as the throne of Victoria.  Sixty-three years of womanhood enthroned!”