I have hardly seen my baby for six weeks; have been at the office from nine A.M. to eleven P.M. regularly.  And now that I am nearly dead a new campaign is on and I must run again.  And, of course, I have enemies now which I hadn’t last year.

Thank you once again for so kindly remembering me.

Yours sincerely,

FRANKLIN K. LANE

Lane’s first child, a son, was born in the spring of 1898.  He is the “Ned” of the letters—­Franklin K. Lane, Jr.  Lane’s attitude toward children is shown in many of his letters.  His own boy gave a strong impetus to his most disinterested social ideals.  In writing of the birth of a friend’s baby he said, “For the child we act nobly, its call to us is always to our finer side.

To John H. Wigmore

San Francisco, November 10

My dear Wigmore,—­This is to be a mere bulletin.  I am elected once again—­10,500 majority, the largest received by any candidate.  You expected me to run for Mayor I know.  Well, it was offered me—­the nomination, I mean—­and all my campaign expenses promised.  But I couldn’t accept, having told the Labor Union people that I was a candidate for City Attorney and not for Mayor.  This Labor Union Party is a new one, the outgrowth of the recent strike.  They have elected their Mayor, a musician named Schmitz, a decent, conservative young man, who will surprise the decent moneyed people and anger the laboring people with his conservatism.[Footnote:  Lane lived to smile at his too charitable characterization of this San Francisco Mayor.] I didn’t have one single word of praise from a newspaper in the campaign.  They hardly mentioned the fact that I was a candidate.  It was jolly good therefore to win as I did.

And my congratulations to you, my honored friend, Dean Wigmore.  Next year I am to publish my Opinions, a copy of which, of course, will go to you, but not by virtue of your office, old man.  You are arriving, of course, but there is something better in store.  A Federal Judgeship is the thing for you; and when I get into the Cabinet you shall have it.  But don’t wait till then.  I’m gray and bald now and my boy patronizes me.  So don’t wait, but get your lines out, and one of these days you’ll make it.  Where next I shall land I don’t know, probably in a law office, praying for clients. ...  Always yours,

F. K. L.

Lane’s first majority in 1898 of 832 votes was increased to 10,500 in 1899, when he was re-elected; and two years later he won by a still larger majority.  A number of his opinions, as City Attorney, were collected and bound in a volume, as none of them had been reversed by the Supreme Court of the State.