“By the way,--Mr. Garfield, next to the Colonel, is the most likeable, lovable man I met on this trip. He has a face that you like to watch silently, and contemplate, because you know how fine and corking he must be. I never heard such a long demonstration as the one which greeted the Colonel as he stepped out before 18,000 men and women, each of whom seemed to have a small flag. It began at three minutes before eight and it stopped at thirty-two minutes past eight. In that long interim you could hear nothing but one continuous roar of cheering shouts and stamping feet. There was nothing articulate, no special cries distinguishable from others, just one blast as though some Titan engineer had tied down the heavy chain which released the whistle of 100,000 voice power. All efforts to stop it were futile. There was nothing to do but to let it run down. The band played ‘Gary Owen’ and the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ and other selections,--T. R. beating time with a large replica of a ‘Big Stick’ which had been handed to him. Meanwhile, in this bedlam, Cronin and I were writing new ‘leads’ to our story on pads in our laps. A Western Union man was sneaking up to the platform every ten minutes to get copy which was placed on wires on the pavilion. By writing this way, we got the story into New York before eleven o’clock, that is, when the meeting was over, by ten o’clock in Chicago; then there was the rapid shooting ride back to the hotel, a little grub and bath, and to bed. I _was_ tired.