n America
to counteract the European war fever. It permeated the legislature in
Albany. One morning some members of the New York legislature inaugurated
a prayer meeting in the room of the Court of Appeals, and that meeting,
which began with six people, at the fifth session overflowed the room.
Think of a Gospel Revival in the Albany Legislature! Yet why not just
such meetings at all State Capitals, in this land of the Pilgrim
Fathers, of the Huguenots, of the Dutch reformers, of the Hungarian
exiles?

Occasionally, we were inspired by the record of honest political
officials. My friend Thomas A. Hendricks died when he was Vice-president
of the United States Government. He was an honest official, and yet he
was charged with being a coward, a hypocrite, a traitor. He was a great
soul. He withstood all the temptations of Washington in which so many
men are lost. I met him first on a lecturing tour in the West. As I
stepped on to the platform, I said, "Where is Governor Hendricks?" With
a warmth and cordiality that came from the character of a man who loved
all things that were true, he stood up, and instead of shaking hands,
put both his arms around my shoulders, saying heartily, "Here I am." I
went on with my lecture with a certain pleasure in the feeling that we
understood each other. Years after, I met him in his rooms in
Washington, at the close of the first session as presiding officer of
the Senate, and I loved him more and more. Many did not realise his
brilliancy, because he had such poise of character, such even methods.
The trouble has been, with so many men of great talent in Washington,
that they stumble in a mire of dissipation. Mr. Hendricks never got
aboard that railroad train so popular with political aspirants. The Dead
River Grand Trunk Railroad is said to have for its stations Tippleton,
Quarrelville, Guzzler's Junction, Debauch Siding, Dismal Swamp, Black
Tunnel, Murderer's Gulch, Hangman's Hollow, and the terminal known as
Perdition.

Mr. Hendricks met one as a man ought always to meet men, without any
airs of superiority, or without any appearance of being bored. A coal
heaver would get from him as polite a bow as a chief justice. He kept
his patience when he was being lied about. Speeches were put in his
mouth which he never made, interviews were written, the language of
which he never used. The newspapers that had lied about him, when he
lived, turned hypocrites, and put their pages in mourning r