sitively ill with excitement; he could talk of nothing but politics.
Party emblems decorated his coat; every pocket was full of pamphlets--he
had been working night and day to defeat Bryan. His valet, no doubt, was
sleeping soundly the sleep of indifference--nothing to lose or nothing
to gain should Bryan succeed. The silver scare of Bryan's touched the
pockets, not the politics, of the prosperous; and that touch is the one
touch that makes the whole American world kin.

[Illustration]

It happened that I was dining at the house of the chairman of this
unique dinner ten days before the election, and he was telling us of the
coming election-night dinner as the most extraordinary in the history of
their politics. To my surprise, days afterwards, I received an
invitation. They all had to be consulted, and agreed that I was the only
outsider they would allow to be present.

The dinner was held in an hotel in the centre of New York, and special
permission had been given to have the room next to the one in which we
dined turned into a telegraph office, where all the messages going to
the central office were tapped, and we knew the result in the room as
soon as it was known at the central office. Perhaps I was the only one
present thoroughly indifferent, and certainly the only one who enjoyed
his dinner. Speeches were indulged in even earlier than usual, and one
of them had the portentous title of "England" coupled with my name! I
rose and said that I felt exactly like a man who had been invited to a
country house, and on his arrival was met by his friend on the doorstep
with a long face and a cold, nervous hand. He was glad to see you, but
had sad news: his wife was lying between life and death, and the doctors
were round her bedside. Now, under such circumstances, one does not
exactly feel one can make one's self at home. I assured my listeners
that at the moment the Republic was lying in a critical condition,
doctors were at her bedside, and it would be settled before midnight
whether she was to live or die. If they would allow me I would rise
later, and I trusted then my friends would be in a more genial and less
excited mood. I had the pleasure of continuing my speech late that
night, and congratulating them on the Republic having survived the Bryan
crisis.

To describe the scenes after dinner when the results were announced, if
I had a pen capable of so doing, would simply dub me in the minds of
many readers as a sec