inds in
his region. Strong men became interested in the boy, and advised his
mother to take him to a relative in Canandaigua, N. Y., where there was
an excellent academy. At seventeen he entered a lawyer's office,
attended every trial before the justice of the peace or the county
clerk, and made a local reputation as a student of politics and law. At
twenty years of age, he started West, to make his fortune, but fell ill
in Cleveland, O., and all but lost his life. A few months later he
entered the town of Winchester, Ill., a stranger, in a strange land. He
carried his coat on one arm and a little bundle of clothes on the other.
There was a crowd on the corner of the street, where an auctioneer was
selling the personal effects and live stock of some settler, and within
a few minutes Douglas was engaged as clerk at the auction. At the end of
three days he found himself the possessor of six dollars, which was the
first money he had ever earned, and what was far more important, he had
by his accuracy, good nature and kindliness won the hearts of the
purchasers, and attracted the attention of the two or three leading men
of the town. That winter he opened a private school, in which forty
scholars were enrolled, while he continued his studies of law during the
long evenings. Ten crowded and successful years soon swept by, and those
years held remarkable achievements. He was admitted to the bar, elected
to the Legislature, made Secretary of State, judge of the Supreme Court,
and at thirty was sent to Congress. He spent three years in Congress; at
thirty-six was chosen to fill out an unexpired term in the Senate, was
reelected to represent Illinois, and a third time was chosen senator--a
career of uniform and splendid success from the material view-point.

But the career of Douglas in Washington was the career of an
opportunist, at once full of good and full of evil, full of right and
full of wrong. He was a born politician, an expert manager of men and a
natural machine builder. Many others outranked Douglas in set speeches,
but few equalled him in "catch as catch can" methods of the politician.
What Douglas prided himself upon was his skill in getting through the
committee measures that were difficult to pass. When it became necessary
to get a man's vote for his measure, Douglas would put that man up as a
leader, give him the glory, obliterate himself, and after the bill was
passed, hop up like a jack in the pulpit, as the re