Blaine is a man of great physical capacities.  He has great powers of application.  His mind works quickly.  He is as restless as the ocean and has the power of accomplishing an immense amount of work.  Another quality which he possesses—­rare but invaluable to a public man—­is that of remembering names and faces, of remembering men and all about them.  This ability is partly natural, partly the result of his training.  He has made it a study to get acquainted with men.

His knowledge of facts, dates, events, men in our history, is not only remarkable, but almost unprecedented.  It would be difficult to find a man in the United States who can, on the instant, without reference to book or note, give so many facts and statistics relating to the social and political history of our country.  This has been the study of his life, and his memory is truly encyclopaedic.

Mr. Blaine was not a poor man when he entered Congress in 1863, and he is not a millionaire now.  For twenty years he has owned a valuable coal tract of several hundred acres near Pittsburgh.  This yielded him a handsome income before he entered Congress, and the investment has been a profitable one during his public life.  He is said to have speculated more or less, and to have made and lost millions.  Yet in general his business affairs have been managed with prudence and shrewdness, and he now has a handsome fortune.  His home in Augusta, near the State House, is a plain two-story house.  Several institutions in the State have received benefactions from him, and his charity and generosity are appreciated at home.  He is a member of the Congregational Church in Augusta, and constant attendance at divine service is a practice that he has always inculcated upon his family.  He has constantly refused to take religious matters into politics, but his respect for his mother’s belief has made him tolerant and charitable toward all sects.  In his own house he is a man of culture and refinement, a genial host, a courteous gentlemen.  No man in public life is more fortunate in his domestic relations.  He is the companion and confidant of every one of his six children, and they fear him no more than they fear one of their own number.  Mrs. Blaine is a model wife and mother.  The eldest son, Walker Blaine, is a graduate of Yale College and of the Law School of Columbia College.  He is a member of the bar of several States, and has been creditably engaged in public life in Washington.  The second son, Emmons Blaine, is a graduate of Harvard College and the Cambridge Law School.  The third is James G. Blaine, Jr., who was graduated from Exeter Academy last year.  The three daughters are named Alice, Margaret, and Harriet.  The eldest was married more than a year ago to Brevet-Colonel J.J.  Coppinger, U.S.A.