g, beaming face of
dear old Judge Greenwood in the portrait gallery of my recollections.

The national event of this autumn was President Cleveland's message to
Congress, which put squarely before us the matter of our having a
protective tariff. It was the great question of our national problem,
and called for oratory and statesmanship to answer it. The whole of
Europe was interested in the subject. I advocated free trade as the best
understanding of international trading, because I had talked with the
leaders of political thought in Europe, and I understood both sides, as
far as my capacity could compass them. In America we were frequently
compared to the citizens of the French Republic because of our nervous
force, our restlessness, but we were more patient. In 1887, the
resignation of President Grevy in France re-established this fact.
Though an American President becomes offensive to the people, we wait
patiently till his four years are out, even if we are not very quiet
about it. We are safest when we keep our hands off the Constitution. The
demonstration in Paris emphasised our Republican wisdom. Public service
is an altar of sacrifice for all who worship there.

The death of Daniel Manning, ex-Secretary of the Treasury, in December,
1887, was another proof of this. He fell prostrate on the steps of his
office, in a sickness that no medical aid could relieve. Four years
before no one realised the strength that was in him. He threw body and
soul into the whirlpool of his work, and was left in the rapids of
celebrity. In the closing notes of 1887, I find recorded the death of
Mrs. William Astor. What a sublime lifetime of charity and kindness was
hers! Mrs. Astor's will read like a poem. It had a beauty and a pathos,
and a power entirely independent of rhythmical cadence. The document was
published to the world on a cold December morning, with its bequests of
hundreds of thousands of dollars to the poor and needy, the invalids and
the churches. It put a warm glow over the tired and grizzled face of the
old year. It was a benediction upon the coming years.

THE TWELFTH MILESTONE

1888

It seems to me that the constructive age of man begins when he has
passed fifty. Not until then can he be a master builder. As I sped past
the fifty-fifth milestone life itself became better, broader, fuller. My
plans were wider, the distances I wanted to go stretched before me,
beyond the normal strength of an average lif