“As to the quality of his courage--I never knew a man more fearless. In the dark days of the Ohio gerrymander, when, as author of the McKinley bill, he lost his seat in Congress, he was cheerful, in a defeat that had cut a Democratic majority of 2,000 down to 300. He had fought an uphill fight, and, although defeated, was elated over the confidence which his home people expressed in the principles which he represented. The defeat had no depressing effect on his mind and energies, but spurred him to greater effort. And in every serious emergency that confronted him he was prepared for the event--always calm and courageous. Even amid the onslaughts of campaign abuse, he never uttered in my presence one retaliatory word, but always referred to the enemy as ‘our opponents,’ while I must confess I used stronger adjectives at times. “There was nothing that he enjoyed more than a social time with friends at dinner. He always entered into the spirit of the occasion and contributed his full share of merriment. And once aroused he showed a side of his character that few were acquainted with. He enjoyed jokes to the full measure, and was a pleasant tease. When he once had a joke on me he rung all the changes; and no one enjoyed a joke on himself more thoroughly than he did. “In 1897, when I was a tenderfoot, recently arrived in Washington, he asked me to give up a dinner engagement with some gentlemen to fill up the table as an emergency man at a dinner to be given at the White House that night. I declined, saying I had a better thing--not knowing that an invitation from the White House was equivalent to a social command. This joke on me was a delight to him. “When he was a guest at my house for several days, or a member of a house party, his flow of genial spirits began at the breakfast table and continued uninterrupted all day. He seemed to feel as if he were on a vacation, and had the joyous spirit of a big boy home from school, always looking after the comfort of others, with never, apparently, a thought for himself. An ideal home body was William McKinley, and the American fireside was a shrine of worship with him. “At one of our house parties we had a flashlight photograph taken of the dinner guests. He was particularly fond of this dinner picture because it contained a splendid likeness of Mrs. McKinley. “When McKinley laughed, he laughed heartily all over, and was a perfect boy in his enjoyment. In all the social visits to my home it was an inspiration to me to see the way he could throw off the cares of the day. It always made me feel twenty years younger to spend a social evening with him, and I cannot begin to measure the depth and value of this friendship, to me, entirely aside from his public career.