Another incident that comes back into my memory was an evening in Chickering Hall, almost immediately before Election day, at which many well-known speakers were to make their plea for the election of Theodore Roosevelt, and at which, also, that most brilliant of speakers and charming of men, Mr. Joseph H. Choate, was to bring the evening to a climax. As Election day drew near, the great boss of Tammany Hall, Richard Croker, forsook his usual methods of strict silence, and began to be loquacious. Croker, when running a candidate, was always very careful indeed to keep the mystery of the Wigwam (Tammany) wrapped closely about him, but as the fight waxed hot and heavy, he lost his control and said many a foolish thing, and the Republican papers jubilantly announced that when Croker began to talk, it meant that he knew that his cause was lost. At the meeting at Chickering Hall, when Mr. Choate rose to make the final speech of the evening, he said: “Ladies and gentlemen, it is late; you have heard many speakers and I shall be brief. All that I wish to do is to recall to your minds a certain Bible story--you may not have the incident clear in your memory. I refer to the story of Balaam and his ass!” Here the learned speaker paused and his audience concentrated their attention upon him, somewhat puzzled as to what he was about to say. He continued: “You may remember that Balaam was riding upon the ass through a dark forest, and that suddenly the ass stopped, and even more suddenly, _the ass spoke_!” Mr. Choate paused again, and the audience suddenly rippled out their mirth and their realization that the “ass” who spoke had a distinct reference to the utterances of Croker. As the laughter grew louder, Mr. Choate suddenly lifted his hand in the most impressive manner, and continued in a serious tone full of dramatic power: “But, ladies and gentlemen, you have perhaps forgotten _why_ the ass spoke. The reason that he did so was because directly in his path, in shining garments, stood a young man with a flaming sword in his hand!” As one man the audience rose to its feet! Simultaneously, a great cheer rose to the lips of every one present, for the figure of speech had done its work, and each person in the house visualized the figure of Theodore Roosevelt, ardent and young, courageous and honest, truly “a young man with a flaming sword in his hand!” Election day came and with it an overwhelming victory for the man who so lately had written to Douglas Robinson: “As for the political effect of my actions, I never can get on in politics.”