of his own country by heart, in the literal sense of the phrase; he had a considerable and loving acquaintance with the greatest English writers; he read French with ease and pleasure; he had picked up some Latin; but above all he absorbed into his very imagination a great mass of Scotch and English songs, which he pored over, verse by verse, separating the weak phrases from the strong, the tender from the sentimental, the true from the false, and thus learning not only the secrets of his own craft, but the practice of a sound criticism. It was to this education quite as much as to his native gift that Burns owes the great place which he holds to-day.

There is some difference of opinion between the great host of the readers of Burns and those who endeavor to estimate his poetry with reference to absolute excellence. "The Cotter's Saturday Night" remains one of the domestic idyls of Scotland, and deserves the place which. it holds. It is, from every point of view, a beautiful piece of work; and yet it is by no means representative of Burns's genius in its fullest, freest, and most individual expression. That will be found in some of those terrible satires like "The Jolly Beggars," "Holy Willie's Prayer," and "The Holy Fair "-satires which cut to the very heart of the things in Burns's own day which he was attacking, and which have by no means lost their power of shocking both the hypocrite and the sensitive in this day. That genius is seen, however, burning with pure and benignant ray in that group of songs which the English-speaking world knows by heart, "Oh, Wert Thou in the Cauld Blast," "To Mary in Heaven," "John Anderson, My Jo," "Auld Lang Syne," "Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon," and "Mary Morison." The writer of these songs will not be forgotten while life has its pathos, its humor, and its tragedy.

The Witness of Character

One of the most significant facts in connection with high development of character is the standard which such an attainment instantly imposes on a community. Every good man and woman brings the community in which he or she lives to judgment by defining a moral and personal standard. Just as Christ brought the whole world to judgment, not only by the truth which he spoke but by the life which he lived, so in lesser degree every noble person brings the world to the bar of judgment. Michael Angelo, pursuing his task with a noble fidelity in an age of corruption, unconsciously imposed a judgment on many of his contemporaries. Dante, preferring exile to the compromise of his convictions, by the greatness of his career and the arduousness of his work, set a standard which was in itself an inexorable judgment upon many of the men and women of his time. It is, therefore, always perilous to associate with superior people, because the moment we know a superior person we greatly enlarge our own responsibilities. Every disclosure of truth, whether in abstract

or concrete form, imposes a new responsibility upon those to whom the knowledge is brought home. To live in the intimate relations of the family with a noble character is to bring one's self daily to the judgment bar. Goethe once said that the only protection against great superiorities is love; that is to say, men can free themselves from envy and jealousy and the habit of detraction when they stand in the presence of those who tower over them only by loving that which they recognize is higher than themselves. In like manner one can disarm moral and personal superiority only by emulating it. There is nothing

more beautiful than the influence which a noble character exerts in the way of constantly raising the standards of others. It is impossible to live comfortably with an unselfish person unless one also endeavors to be unselfish; and so beautiful character becomes contagious, and, by constantly, although unconsciously, holding up an ideal, transforms those who are brought into association with it.

The Outlook Vacation Fund

Judging from several letters received in connection with The Outlook's Vacation Fund, it is very evident that there is a misconception in regard to Santa Clara. In some letters received during the past week it has been referred to as a Consumptives' Home. Santa Clara is in no sense a Consumptives' Home. Every girl who goes to Santa Clara goes there after examination by an expert, who decides that a two months' residence at Santa Clara may cure the girl, or so far cure her as to enable her to return to her work in safety, with the prospect of a two months' residence in Santa Clara every summer preventing the growth of the disease. The Working-Girls' Vacation Society has not the means to maintain a home for incurables, nor is this the purpose for which it was organized, nor for which it is maintained. The purpose of the Working-Girls' Vacation Society is to keep girls well; to make sick girls well; to give a chance to the girls working under unfavorable conditions—a chance of from two weeks' to two months' residence in the country in the regions best suited to their particular physical needs. Even limiting its work in this way, the demands upon the Vacation Society are so great, and the number of girls who need just what the Vacation Society can do are so numerous, that never yet has it had more than half money enough to meet the demands made upon it. This week to The Outlook alone there have come appeals from six girls, two of them in hospitals; one of them has been in but a week; one of them would have been in bed if it had not been that she did not wish to disturb her mother; and two are kept out of hospitals only by what the Vacation Society can do for them. The Outlook Vacation Fund is devoted to the support of the three houses, Cherry Vale, Elmcote, and Santa Clara, and the paying of railroad expenses.

The needs of this summer are greater than ever before in the history of the Working-Girls' Vacation Society. No one who is not in the city in these months, and in close touch with the working-girls, can know what a vacation means to the girls compelled to live under tenement-house conditions, and on the wages paid to the unskilled worker. This last week a girl was sent away who has been out of work six weeks. During this time the mother has had a few days' work each week to support a family of five. The girl is worn out by anxiety, and ill for lack of nourishing food. Her comment when told she was to go away for two weeks was, Well, there will be one less to feed at home." That comment shows what life can be at seventeen.

66

T

HE platforms prepared under our system of government and custom of political expression, on the approach of elections that decide the fortunes of candidates and the fate of principles, are, as a rule, drawn rather to be attractive to voters than to determine policies. There is that which, in considering the claims of parties or the adaptation of men to meritorious public service, is of moment beyond all phrases of the promise of measures or men-something more profound in affecting public judgment than anything a party can say for itself, or that a candidate's friends can say for him-and that is the character of the party, the character of the man. There is an underlying and an overtopping understanding to this effect, and the people at large know it to be rather of weakness than strength in a candidate to manifest a deferential sentiment toward the platform on which he is alleged to stand. Horace Greeley once found no difficulty in reviling a platform, while he gave hearty support to the candidate. When Chief Justice Chase was thought of as the nominee of the Democratic National Convention assembled in New York in 1868, he was willing to accept the nomination if he could approve the platform; and yet the true test of the candidacy of the Chief Justice, if the Convention had carried out the plan much discussed, would not have been the nature of the platform, but the character of the party naming the candidate, and of the candidate himself. Anything decidedly excellent or otherwise in the party or the candidate, lighting up in confidence or shading in dark distrust, could not have been changed by the language of the resolutions.

Major William McKinley, of Ohio, is the candidate for the Presidency of the Republican party, and he has expressed his regard for the platform, which received unusually close attention and was drawn to be candid with the people; but it is the character of the candidate that imparts to the campaign the glow of life, and it is upon his reputation the country relies more than on any words in the declaration of principles, when the people are thoughtful of the future, and study the influences of the next Administration upon 66 We, the people of the United States." Major McKinley is a man of most attractive character. He was a bright and serious boy, whose first severe labor and strife were to educate himself. The children in Ohio were, from the days of the pioneers, specially instructed by their parents that, if they would better their condition, they must be educated. Few of them had no other occupation

Hard work on the farm in summer, and at school in winter, was the fate of the offspring of farmers, but the time of others of the children of artisans-was not so arbitrarily divided; and perhaps they had greater latitude and were subjected to a larger variety of influences. McKinley's intelligent zeal and incessant effort were manifest in his ability to make an early start in the nearest academy; and he was there interrupted by one of those sharp illnesses that so often strike sturdy boys, and remind them, until they get well, of their limitationsand it is fortunate the lesson is not too well learned in youth. Soon there rolled over the country the sound of the guns that played on Sumter, and the school-boy, McKinley, attended a meeting where there was to be raised a company of volunteers for the war, and, quietly enlisting, became one of the boys in blue. How well I remember, one summer day, by the river at Cincinnati, seeing two steamboats covered with soldiers, and, asking the number of the regiment, made a note that for several reasons became memorable. The answer given was, "It is the one that Hayes and Stanley Matthews are in." The first Colonel of this regiment became General Rosecrans. We knew him in Cincinnati before the war as a West Pointer, who had left the army and invented a coal-oil lamp, an explosion of which, in course of experiment, had burned and scarred one of his hands; and he was remembered as the young lieutenant who, when rioters, upon the visit of Bedini, nuncio of the Pope, to the Archbishop of Cincinnati, threatened the Cathedral, organized and armed a company of defenders. It was the regiment of Rosecrans, Hayes, and Matthews in which William

defended from it by the National arm that was extended to protect them in the first law after independence was real, and how the protected industries were identified with the farms in a common weal or woe; and when, in the natural order of events, he became a Congressman, it is not surprising that he spoke of the tariff, and put into his speeches the inner fire of impressive conviction and the intimacies of personal acquirement that kindled enthusiasm, until the story became one familiar to the Ohio people that the young Congressman made his speeches on protective tariffs intensely interesting, and swept away the mists of prejudice, making all clear, and commanding that we return to the policy of the fathers when the Revolution made the colonies free and independent.

It is in the course of the nature of nations that there shall be evolved in their emergencies men fitted to meet them, as the empowered agents of the people. There is provided by naturalism-we need not invoke the supernatural that so often does not enlighten the obscurewe find in the vital sunshine of the every-day globe we inherit, the qualities, the forces, the aptitudes, the characters, that are the requirements of leadership, in the times of trial for the forms and the spirit of popular government. Each chapter of the life of Major McKinley seems to have been prepared in regular logical course, fitting him for the destiny of exceptional responsibility now close at handthe last, not least, of the studies in his preparatory course, his terms as Governor of his State; and in it is written, as with a pen of iron on a rock, the resolute stand of a soldier when there was a question of the suppression with the strong hand of the bloody craze for vengeance by lynchlaw a resolution that saved the honor of the State and conferred renown upon the Magistrate. View the character of William McKinley on all sides, and it will be found one that is symmetrical, gracious in its firmness, genial in its gravity; and there is in the history of his life, as in the tones of his voice, the dominating, thrilling note of absolute probity and sincerity.

thyself," but self-knowledge does not flash upon the gifted. and reveal with a search-light the hidden stores and springs warranting the presumption of uncommon excellence and fame. The men as well as the maidens tarry with "reluctant feet," and have to learn to labor while they wait. Kinley became the prosecuting attorney of his county; and the young man who had carried a rifle for his country, and was proud of his uniform when there was not a strap to show rank, and was commissioned for meritorious conduct and bravery in the field by the good old war Governor Tod, of his State, and wore her sword for the people of the Nation, became the sword of the law. Thus far advanced, strong and prosperous and starlit with hope changing to confidence, the air became fragrant and radiant, and the fair fields and woods of Ohio touched with rarer beauty in the rosy light of love; and the lover became the husband of his beloved, and the world was altogether lovely. Sorrow came with its chastening-the children of the house were called away, but love remained and was holy and grew fonder, and there was yet the divinity of duty. Where there is love the paths of life are not lonesome, and the affection that endures grief and inspires endeavor, sanctifies the ambition that walks with righteousness.

McKinley first saw Washington City when a soldier, ordered there for its defense; and the monument of the Father of the country and the dome of the Capitol were unfinished, and like broken fragments of some vast beneficent conception arrested and shattered. Who shall say what the ardent young soldier dreamed by the Potomac, when Virginia led the war against the Union? When at last there was peace, and the law and love and sorrow informed and elevated and consecrated, there was a glimpse through a tearful atmosphere of a possible larger public life. As a child McKinley absorbed an education that has influenced his manhood to study and grasp the principles of the field of statesmanship that allured him, and where his usefulness was broadened to the National boundaries. He knew, in his early days, how his own parents and brothers and sisters and neighbors were influenced by the prosperity or the inability of the manufacturing industries that are among the resources and celebrities of his State. There are not in New England or in Pennsylvania clusters of cities busy in supplying the American markets with home-made goods that exceed those of Ohio, and the manufactories were, indeed, to McKinley those of home. They were sure enough "home industries." He knew how they were stricken by foreign competition or

N personal appearance Mr. Bryan bears a strong resemblance to Samuel J. Randall when the latter was in the prime of life; in profile he most nearly resembles the bas-relief portraits of Cicero. His head is massive, but not too large for his body; his forehead is broad and full; his hair is black as jet, rather coarse, and is allowed to grow to a greater length than fashion dictates. A swarthy Anglican complexion, an aquiline nose, a heavy lower jaw, a square chin, a wide mouth, perfect teeth as white as milk, thin lips, and full dark eyes that are never dull, all tell the physiognomist of a strong character, an iron will, an equable temperament, denoting also intellectuality and fluency of speech.

The sturdy figure of Mr. Bryan is such as can be had only by a man of perfect physical development and having perfect health. In height he is five feet ten inches, and weighs 180 pounds. He dresses plainly but never slovenly. His appearance is rather statesmanlike or judicial than clerical. He is a man of wonderful energy and great physical endurance. His perfect physique he owes to his sturdy Scotch-Irish ancestry; his perfect health he owes largely to his excellent habits.

His father, Silas L. Bryan, came from Virginia. He was a Circuit Judge in Illinois from 1860 to 1872. In the latter year he ran for Congress on the Greeley ticket and was defeated.

Mr. Bryan's mother was Maria Elizabeth Jennings, of Marion County, Ill. She died at Salem two weeks previous to her son's nomination for the Presidency. Mr. Bryan's father and mother were both deeply religious, and he in

herits their characteristics in this respect. He joined the Cumberland Presbyterian Church when he was fourteen years old, and is now a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Lincoln, Neb. This church has been without a regular pastor for nearly a year, but the church organization has been maintained. Mr. Bryan takes an interest in its affairs, and both himself and wife teach classes in the Sunday-school. In morals he is almost a Puritan. He does not use tobacco or liquor in any form, never utters a profane or vulgar word, and has such perfect mastery of himself that no one ever saw him angry. Keenly appreciative of humor, he never indulges in humorous statements except to illustrate a serious fact; in appearance, in word, and in act he is earnest, sincere, and intense.

William Jennings Bryan was born March 19, 1860, in Salem, Ill. His boyhood was passed on a farm near that place. At ten years of age he was sent to the public school in that town and attended it for five years, having previously been tutored by his mother. He then took a two years' academic course at Whipple Academy, and completed his education by a four years' course at Illinois College. During his college life he gave many evidences of forensic ability, taking part in inter-State oratorical contests and being selected as class orator and valedictorian in his graduation year. As a student in the law office of Lyman Trumbull he attended the Union College of Law in Chicago until June, 1883, when he removed to Jacksonville, Ill., and practiced law there for four years. In October, 1887, he located in Lincoln, Neb., and opened a law office with a former classmate, A. R. Talbot.

His