of office for a while. He laughed, and said:

"'They call a trip of this kind a vacation;' then with a countenance
of sudden gravity he added: 'We no sooner get through one great
question than another comes.' It made me think of the tension on
the President's mind at that time. There was the Venezuelan
question. There were suggestions of war with England, and then there
was the Cuban matter with suggestions of war with Spain, and all the
time the overshadowing financial questions.

"During our conversation the President referred to the conditions
ever and anon inflicted upon him by newspaper misrepresentations,
particularly those of inebriety, of domestic quarrels, of turning
Mrs. Cleveland out of doors at night so that she had to flee for
refuge to the house of Dr. Sunderland, my pastoral associate,
passing the night there; and then the reports that his children were
deaf and dumb, or imbecile, when he knew I had seen them and
considered them the brightest and healthiest children I had known.

"All these attacks and falsehoods concerning the President and his
family I saw hurt him as deeply as they would any of us, but he is
in a position which does not allow him to make reply. I assured him
that he was only in the line of misrepresentation that had assailed
all the Presidents, George Washington more violently than himself,
and that the words cynicism, jealousy, political hatred, and
diabolism in general would account for all. I do think, however,
that the factories of scandal had been particularly busy with our
beloved President. They were running on extra time.

"If I were asked who among the mighty men at Washington has most
impressed me with elements of power I would say Grover Cleveland.

"June 25, 1896. It seems now that Major McKinley, of Canton, Ohio,
will be elected President of the United States. I was in Canton
about three weeks ago and called at Major McKinley's house. He was
just starting from his home to call on me. He presided at the first
lecture I delivered at Canton in 1871. On my recent visit he
recalled all the circumstances of that lecture, remembering that he
went to my room afterwards in the hotel, and had a long talk with
me, which he said made a deep impression upon him.

"My visit at Canton three weeks ago was to lecture. Major McKinley
attended a