In time a larger house was builded, and into it the family removed. It was really but an extending of the dwelling which had been their home in the old days. And it is the house to which unnumbered thousands made pilgrimages in 1896. It will be understood that Mrs. McKinley possessed a fortune in her own right. Her father died late in the seventies, following his wife’s demise; and the Saxton estate was divided between three heirs—a sister, a brother, and Mrs. McKinley. But the man who could attend her with all the solicitude of a mother was not the man to use a dollar he had not earned. When financial disaster came upon him, in 1893, his wife—for once opposing his will—turned over all her property for the benefit of those creditors whom a security debt had created. The good home went too. And the man who had done so much for his country, who was so nearly a model of American manhood, began paying rent as at the beginning. The debts were all wiped out, absolutely; and Mrs. McKinley’s estate was released to her, and the old home became again the property of the man who had earned it, and who so richly deserved it. But even in that hour of a new tribulation, he never faltered in his loving care for his wife, or the filial considerateness he had always paid his mother. When that mother fell ill and died, her son had reached the highest honor the greatest nation can bestow. But he hurried from the presidential mansion to her bedside at Canton, and sorrowfully followed her to the grave. It may seem by a reading of the domestic side of President McKinley’s life that it is more sad and somber than is the lot of most men to suffer. But this, a thousand friends will testify, is clearly an error. The home life of the President has been uniformly happy. Never an unkind word, never a frown, never a sorrow inflicted within the portals, and always the music of song and laughter, the perfume of roses and the blessing of loving words—there is no sadness in such a picture. CHAPTER XXVII. McKINLEY’S EULOGY OF LINCOLN. In self-sacrifice and patriotism, President McKinley reflected many qualities of Abraham Lincoln. How closely he had studied the character of the great Lincoln is shown in an address delivered by Mr. McKinley on Lincoln’s Birthday anniversary, February 12, 1895, before the Unconditional Republican Club of Albany, N. Y. Mr. McKinley said: “A noble manhood, nobly consecrated to man, never dies. The martyr of liberty, the emancipator of a race, the savior of the only free government among men may be buried from human sight, but his deeds will live in human gratitude forever.