had not thought of the grand old Republican party for two years, and who had not cared much about it when they had entered the dooms, after an hour or so went mad with fervour.  The Hon. Joseph Mecklin, ex-Speaker of the House, with whom I traveled on occasions, had a speech referring to the martyred President, ending with an appeal to the revolutionary fathers who followed Washington with bleeding feet.  The Hon. Joseph possessed that most valuable of political gifts, presence; and when with quivering voice he finished his peroration, citizens wept with him.  What it all had to do with the tariff was not quite clear.  Yet nobody seemed to miss the connection.

We were all of us most concerned, of course, about the working-man and his dinner pail,—­whom the Democrats had wantonly thrown out of employment for the sake of a doctrinaire theory.  They had put him in competition with the serf of Europe.  Such was the subject-matter of my own modest addresses in this, my maiden campaign.  I had the sense to see myself in perspective; to recognize that not for me, a dignified and substantial lawyer of affairs, were the rhetorical flights of the Hon. Joseph Mecklin.  I spoke with a certain restraint.  Not too dryly, I hope.  But I sought to curb my sentiments, my indignation, at the manner in which the working-man had been treated; to appeal to the common sense rather than to the passions of my audiences.  Here were the statistics! (drawn, by the way, from the Republican Campaign book).  Unscrupulous demagogues—­Democratic, of course—­had sought to twist and evade them.  Let this terrible record of lack of employment and misery be compared with the prosperity under Republican rule.

“One of the most effective speakers in this campaign for the restoration of Prosperity,” said the Rossiter Banner, “is Mr. Hugh Paret, of the firm of Watling, Fowndes and Ripon.  Mr. Paret’s speech at the Opera-House last evening made a most favourable impression.  Mr. Paret deals with facts.  And his thoughtful analysis of the situation into which the Democratic party has brought this country should convince any sane-minded voter that the time has come for a change.”

I began to keep a scrap-book, though I locked it up in the drawer of my desk.  In it are to be found many clippings of a similarly gratifying tenor....

Mecklin and I were well contrasted.  In this way, incidentally, I made many valuable acquaintances among the “solid” men of the state, the local capitalists and manufacturers, with whom my manner of dealing with public questions was in particular favour.  These were practical men; they rather patronized the Hon. Joseph, thus estimating, to a nicety, a mans value; or solidity, or specific gravity, it might better be said, since our universe was one of checks and balances.  The Hon. Joseph and his like, skyrocketing through the air, were somehow necessary in the scheme of things, but not to be taken too seriously.  Me they did take seriously, these provincial lords,