Show VISIT TO TO CANTON copyrighted 1896 1696 by frank G Q carpenter CANTON ohio may syd 1896 HAVE COME to canton in order to tell you how the leading li lie c a an n candidate for the nomina tion looks acts d talks talk within a few days of the convention at st louis major mckinley is today the foremost man in the thoughts of the american people there are millions of republicans who believe that nothing but bul death can prevent his being the next president of the united states I 1 have no doubt but that he holds the same opinion and that he feels himself face to face with the problems and responsibilities bili ties of one of the most trying times of our history within the next three weeks the most momentous questions of his life are to be decided and in the r minds of many the future prosperity or the reverse of the american people depends upon him you would imagine that a man in such a situation would have his nervous system keyed up to the highest tension you would picture him surrounded by an army of lieutenants and wire pullers bullers your mind would suggest a great literary bureau a corps of telegraph operators connecting his offices with all parts of the union and the other political machinery which is supposed to be connected with every great ante presidential campaign I 1 expect to find something of this kind myself but if major mckinley has it he does not keep it at canton the working part of the machinery may be in operation at cleveland where mark hanna is in charge at mansfield or Colum columbus buss where colonel william hahn 5 pulls ils the wires or but I 1 trust not at r washington va where the genial general grosvenor blows predictions covered with figures like soap bubbles into the air each bubble iridescent with the glowing future of mckinley major mckinley to all outward appearances pe arances has more leisure then than any other of the presidential candidates I 1 have spent a day clay with him and he is as cool as the center seed 0 of a cucumber he has time for plenty of long ion walks afternoon and he takes a drive every afternoon with mrs mckinley McK luley in the evening he goes g 0 e on out t to call upon his friends and he spends s p e S d a part of each day with his moth mother er w who ho lives here within about a mile 0 of f his house he rises at abo about ut every morning breakfasts at 8 lunches at x and has his dinner at he goes to bed every evening at about ix 1 I and sleeps like a baby he has no trouble whatever with his digestion eats what he pleases and smokes ad without fear of affecting his nerves the chief part of his time is taken up in the receiving of callais cal lars and he s spends ends hours in chatting with his friends orientis fri entis on the veranda which runs around the front of his house his life today seems to be diore more that of rest than of work for the past dozen odd years he has been in the thick ot of political life and he seems today to be taking a vacation the excitement in regard regard to his nomination has not phased him J and I 1 have never seen him in better physical and intellectual condition than he is now he has you know a wonderful power of endurance and as a public speaker he be can talk for hours without tiring I 1 have heard striking sto stories ries of his oratorical feats and it if he should become president and take a swing about the circle he will break the record in his trip through kansas last year he spoke to people in two days he spoke twelve times in one gays day and during another part of the journey he made twenty one speeches in sixteen hours and looked as fresh as a daisy at the close during another tour he made speeches and at another time for eight weeks he averaged more than seven speeches a day speaking to more than people within two months he takes no stimulants during his campaign he isnora is not a drinking man in in any sense of the word though he is not a prohibitionist he speaks easily but has no special methods of training braining nor any rules of diet in order to keep himself in trim he once told me that he did not like to speak and that he trembled whenever he had to appear before a new audience he said that his heart went down into his boots whenever he rose to speak and that this was the case not withstanding the fact that he had been making speeches for more than a score of years the man who knows mckinley only upon the stump however has not the proper conception of the man he is far different in private conversation his speeches sp are serious matters with him he prepares tor for them and never jokes nor tells stories during them it is different when chatting with his friends he is then perfectly at home and he illustrates many of his points by aneca dotes he tells a story well but never relates anything that could not be told in the presence of ladies during my stay here such conversation as I 1 have had with him has been with the under standing that it is not for publication the situation is such that anything he might say today would probably be misconstrued by his opponents and he has so far refused all attempts to draw drav him out there are not a half dozen newspaper pews paper men here representing journals in all parts of the country from boston to san francisco the governor over is polite impolite and friendly witha with all all but he be will talk politics with none but let me tell you how governor mckinley lives at canton his home is a house with a history every room in it is associated with the life of the governor and his bis possession of it today is to a large extent a matter of sentiment he does not own the house I 1 think but rents it when I 1 met him at columbus during the last days of his governorship he told me that he had arranged to lease it and said that he and mrs mckinley were anxious to get back to it it is the house in which they first lived after their marriage this occurred when mckinley was a young lawyer and his wile wife miss ida saxton was one of the belles of stark county she was the daughter of one of its richest and most influential citizens citizen sp john saxton the editor and founder of the canton repository tory a paper which begun its publication away back in 1815 and which to day is one of the leading newspapers of ohio it was in this house that they aey spent their honeymoon here on christmas day in 1871 their first daughter a sweet little girl was born and here three years later she died here mrs mckinless McKin leys second daughter and only other child died when yet a little baby and here today the ex governor and his wife lead as loving a domestic life as they did a score and more years ago the house is a yellow frame cot tage like structure of two stories it is about three blocks I 1 judge from the public square and is situated on ion north A market arket etin the heart of the fashionable quarter of the city the street iq in front of it is paved with canton brick for which the city is noted and of which it makes about every year governor Gov einor McKin mckinley leys s home is on the corner the lot is about fifty teet feet front and a beautiful lawn surrounds the house thes the cottage has a porch in its front upon which there are half a dozen comfortable rocking chairs here the governor receives his callers during these hot summer days and here he be chats in the evening with his cantoni friends entering the front door you come into a wide hall with parlors at the ri right ht and left it was in the one at the right right that I 1 chatted during a part of my stay with major mckinley it was plain ly furnished and the only large pictures upon its walls were a portrait of mrs mckinley and an engraving of Abra abraham hanh lincoln lincoln at the back of the hall there is is a stairway leading to the second floor here I 1 found major mckinless McKin leys office offic mp and here are the only evidences that you can see in canton of of the mckinley liter ary bureau it is merely a bed ro room om carpeted with matting and furnished with a wall of shelves a typewriter table and a flat top desk the bed which is used chien the house is crowded with visitors still stands in the room but all day long the governors pretty stenographer clicks away on the typewriter answering the mail of a bial candidate the correspondence is necessarily enormous and as the convention approaches it increases every day nearly everything requires an answer and there are from fifty to sixty letters every mail ranging from twos two hundred to three hundred a day 0 oa the day of the illinois convention ahia which instructed the delegates to vote for M mckinley more than two hundred telegrams of congratulations were received and every mail brings letters of this nature the majors gubernatorial secretary has the correspondence ia in charge and and d dictates the answers to most of it after direction given by mckinley the mail when it first comes to the house is opened by mrs mckinley she and the governor loo looking king over it toW together ther and the governor then givings his directions as to how if itis is to be answered from long experience in public life amr dr mckinley N has learned how to usi use the work of other men and he answers himself only such letters as are necessary much of the mail is made up of begging letters people from all parts of the country write for money though it is not known that mckinley is a comparatively poor man many letters came from politicians who claim that they have done or can do a great deal for mckinley and every day or so a letter appears from a man who insists that he is the original mckinley man and that he was the first to present his name to the country as a candidate for the presidency during a drive this afternoon I 1 saw the church in which major mckinley was married it is the presbyterian church of canton it is situated on the main business street of the town miss ida saxton was then one of the sunday school teachers of that church and major mckinley was superintendent of the sunday school of the methodist church further down the way since the marriage mr and mrs mckinley have attended the methodist church and during their stay in washington they went I 1 believe to the foundry metho dist church which is on the corner of G band and irth streets not tar far from the ebbitt house where the mckinless McKin leys lived mrs mckinley on account of her poor health is not always able to attend church the major usually goes and here in canton he may be seen every sunday at the methodist church he believes you knowin know in christianity he has never made capital of his religion however howe and there is nothing of the pharisee about him on the other hand he has a deep religious side to his nature he has nothing to do with the infidelity and free thought which are so common among many of our public ment men and he never says anything against religion even in jest he only says that there are many things in this life which he be cannot explain and that though religion is in some respects res a mystery t to 0 him he has nevertheless implicit faith in it I 1 have been told that he is very fond of methodist hymns and that he often hums them over to himself while he be is at work Hs hi s mother hoped that he would be a methodist minister and she had an ambition of some day seeing him a bishop of the methodist church mckinley however the law rather than to theology he studied law while he was teaching school in in a little country district not far from here then took a course at the albany law school and began his practice here in canton chave have chatted with a nu number aber of the old lawyers here about mckinley as a lawyer he had a fair practice when he went into politics and was making woney money one of the law students who is now a leading practitioner here said fMc mckinley Kinley was I 1 think the equal of any ny lawyer in ohio at the time he went to congress he was at one time prosecuting attorney of this country which then had about people and his business was vet very y large he had also a large pr private vate practice rac tice and was an allaround 11 fa aro N good lawyer a wyer V was he much of a money maker I 1 asked 1 91 I dont donot know about abai that was the reply 1 I judge he would have made money at the law lam had he stuck to it tie he was a hard worker and studied his bis cases As heedt he went on OB however he became interested in politics and after he be entered centered congress he paid but little at vendon to the law I 1 it was an old judge who told me about mckinless McKin leys first law case it was in a suit for replevin and mckinley received 25 for his bis work he was at the time a student in the law office of judge george W belden he had been admitted to the bar but having no clients was still reading law in beldens beldena Bel dens office one day it the he old judge came in and said to william I 1 want you to try the blank case for me tomorrow I 1 find that I 1 wih not be able to attend to it but judge said mckinley 1 I don dont ft know anything about it il I 1 have never tried a case in my life I 1 am afraid I 1 cant do it R oh yes you can said the judge you have got to do it I 1 must go away and that case is sure to come up here are the papers and with that the judge threw a lot of papers on the table beside mckinley and left mckinley took up the case and went into it he sat up all night and worked at it at io 10 the next day he was on hand when the court opened he took the place of judge belden made an argument and won the case As he was speaking he happened to look at the back of the court room and there he saw judge belden sitting this seemed rather queer to him but he after ward found that belden had bad put up the job to test what he could do as a la lawyer w yer the next day the judge came into the office and said to mckinley well william youve won the case and here is your tee fee As he said this he took out his pocketbook and handed mckinley 25 but said young mckinley 1 I cant take that judge it ft was only a nights work it aint worth it and I 1 cant take it and with that he offered the bill to the judge oh yes you can was the reply You have earned the money and you must take it besides it is all right I 1 shall charge my client roo loo for the work and it is only right that you should have this 25 5 31 this T is argument overcame mckinless McKin leys scruples and he took the money during my stay here I 1 have made a most pleasant call upon mrs nancy allison mckinley the aged mother ot of the governor she lives at some distance from mckinless McKin leys home in a very pretty two story cottage with her daughter miss miss H helen elen mckinley I 1 made the call in company with mr george frease the proprietor of the canton repository and the most enthusiastic mckinley man you will ill find in ohio the door was opened by miss mckinley a bright eyed rosy young lady who led us into the parlor and I 1 who a moment later introduced me to her mot mother fier I 1 wish I 1 could show you mai maior or mckinless McKin leys mother as she came into the parlor yesterday afternoon I 1 imagine in a bright eyed motherly old lady dressed in soft black with a white lace collar about the throat and a cap of snow white on her head let her be straight well formed and of medium height beight let her hair be the color of frosted silver and have it combed so that the white strands curl just over the ears before they are tucked into the snowy cap let her face be strong but at the same fame time sweet and motherly and let her eyes smile as cordially as those of a young girl when she takes your hand and gives you a cordial grip which makes you think more of youth than of age mrs mckinley is eighty seven years old physically and intellectually she does not appear to be more than sixty she walked into the room with a firm step and stood for a moment talking after my introduction before she sat down she pulled her chair close to mine as we |