ifornia audience was at the Unitarian church,
then in Geary Street near Stockton, on a Sunday evening, when he read
his remarkable essay on "Immortality," wherein he spoke of people who
talk of eternity and yet do not know what to do with a day. The church
was completely filled and the interest to hear him seemed so great that
it was determined to secure some week-day lectures if possible. In
company with Horace Davis, who enjoyed his acquaintance, I called on him
at the Occidental Hotel. He was the most approachable of men--as simple
and kindly in his manner as could be imagined, and putting one at ease
with that happy faculty which only a true gentleman possesses.

[Illustration: HORACE DAVIS--FIFTY YEARS A FRIEND]

[Illustration: HARVARD UNIVERSITY WHEN HE ENTERED]

His features are familiar from the many published pictures, but no one
who had not met his smiling eyes can realize the charm of his
personality.

His talk was delightfully genial. I asked him if his journey had been
wearisome. "Not at all," he replied; "I have enjoyed it all." The
scenery seemed to have impressed him deeply. "When one crosses your
mountains," he said, "and sees their wonderful arches, one discovers how
architecture came to be invented." When asked if he could favor us with
some lectures, he smiled and said: "Well, my daughter thought you might
want something of that kind, and put a few in my trunk, in case of an
emergency." When it came to dates, it was found that he was to leave the
next day for a short trip to the Geysers, and it was difficult to
arrange the course of three, which had been fixed upon, after his
return. It was about eleven o'clock when we called. I asked him if he
could give us one of the lectures that evening. He smiled and said, "Oh,
yes," adding, "I don't know what you can do here, but in Boston we could
not expect to get an audience on such short notice." We assured him that
we felt confident in taking the chances on that. Going at once to the
office of the _Evening Bulletin,_ we arranged for a good local notice,
and soon had a number of small boys distributing announcements in the
business streets.

The audience was a good one in point of numbers, and a pleased and
interested one. His peculiar manner of reading a few pages, and then
shuffling his papers, as though they were inextricably mixed, was
embarrassing at first, but when it was found that he was not disturbed
by it, and that it was not the result of an