No series of sketches of Alabama's great men would be complete with the omission of the name of Gov. George Smith Houston. His services were distinguished, and were rendered at a time when they could not have been more prized. This applies with special force to his services as governor. Endowed with peculiar powers which fitted him for a crisis, these powers were brought into active requisition during his incumbency of the gubernatorial chair of the state. Alabama was confronted by a dire crisis, and a man of many-sidedness and unique force was needed to meet it. The state had been gutted of its means and facilities of operation; the treasury was empty; the people demoralized, and the credit of the state sadly impaired. To fail under conditions like these, would have been fatal, and yet the lowest point of depression had been reached. The situation called for exalted and peculiar virtues. Robust manliness, rugged pluck which stood not on the order of its going, ability not only to compass a situation, but to grapple with it, a force of statesmanlike constructiveness, and a spirit which would not quail before colossal difficulties--all these were needed to revive a suspended interest, which is the most difficult of all tasks. To enumerate these is to describe Gov. George S. Houston. He was gifted with a power to sway men, had an eye to details the most minute, business acumen, familiarity with public affairs, patience to labor and to wait, and not least of all, physical endurance. He was an extraordinary man, and no governor has had more odds to encounter, nor has one ever met his obligation with more fidelity. With the state palsied in every pulse by misrule and wanton waste, he seized the reins, and from the outset guided the affairs of the commonwealth with the skill of a trained statesman.