The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 12, 1901, Page 4

HE transpiration of a great man. The time when he escapes from se- crecy to notice. The time when the chicken leaves the shell: when ihe traveler on life’s road leaves the broad, well-beaten boulevard which leads to faflure and starts out on the lonesome trafl of difficulties which leads to success. That 1s the interesting point in the life of any one. For & man who has been so much in the public eye, whose name has become al- most a synonym in our English language for the phrase, “Protection of American industries,” Willlam McKinley is a singu- larly unknown person as regards his early life. Every ax that Lincoln used for hewing, every plank he hewed, has been written up and pictured. Not a child in America but knows that the first path in life which led Garfield toward prominence was the towpath of a canal. It is the small things about great people that serve to connect with humanity and to make hu- understand and love them. From the scarcity of anecdotes relating to the youth of our President one thing is certain, that he must have led a compara- tively placid early life. He never ran away from home or chopped down cherry trees. He was, by report of all of those who knew him in his youth, a studious, digni- fied boy of the kind that any one would expect to see grow up and make a Presi- dent. The old saying that the good die young has perhaps come from the fact that many of them are good simply from inanl- lack of vitality and physical inabjl- tbem tion, ¥ to do wrong. They are good in a negh- tive way in that they do nothing. Our statesman warrior, a boy, was good for none of these reasons. He had plenty of will and vim and capacity He to when for a deal of right or wrong either. devoted himself seriously and broadly the good. narrow and bigoted way either. He did not drink, yet he was clad teetotaler, and would take a drink if but preferred a “den’t drink.” Not in g no i wished to, Appar the principal reason W' there is su s love of reading Poland was always t one at night to re- tween him and another stu- ived ss the street there was ould be the ning, for it alry as to who light in the m ustom to study at that peace- when the mind, refreshed t returned from ie of comprehensions f which no understand- uld be had at any other time of the Gay . During the vacations he was busier than en he acted as clerk in the rganizing se! q tions toffice and assisted in es on which the preceding genera- debates probably did more t en of the time than all cation of to-day Is do- cast the student entirely and, immediately in the own resources, put =] competition. what was him isco has been the home of s Two br nley, came together with his un- cle, Benjamin F. McKinley, who is now Assistant Postmaster of San Franclsco. The brothers, Jame d David, are both , David , now Mrs. George T s of his family. h- ers, David A, and James ) here in early days lea g surviving a daugh- Mo le Benjamin McKinley is a familiar the streets to old San Fran- ns, who are always pleased to trace ure on in his keen, merry gray eyes and stvong eatures the characteristic McKinley type of face which is so accentuated in the Presi, . To the great mass of the young genera- tion rim he is incognito, and nothing pleases mcre than to pass unnoticed on the gtreet by people who would twist their necks if they knew who was who. Another San Franciscan who, whil2 not a relative, Is an esteemed visitor o the McKiniey household, either at Canton or the White House, is Josepn §. Spear Jr., Surveyor of Customs. From him have been obtained many of the following stories which he has heard in the home of the President, from old friends of his boyhood days, whose talk would naturally turn upon the host at any time when he was not immedlately present. One narrative In particular of Mr. Spear’s is interesting, as it explains the friendship between Mark Hanna and the President, which has probably been the cause of more picture drawing, caricatur- ing, paragraphing and speculation than any other friendship that ever existed. It is usually supposed that it began as a political association, but the reverse is the case. “Like others, I was curlous to know,” sald Mr. Spear, “how the intimacy sprang up, and conversing at one time with Mr, Hanna, I asked him the question, THE SUNDAY CALL., RN \‘-\\\‘r s % Whilliam MCTRinley, President of the United States. “He stated that years ago, while Mr. McKinley was practicing law and before he had arrived at political prominence, a dispute arose concerning some mining property fn which Mr. Hanna was inter- ested. William McKinley was the attor- ney for the parties opposed to Mr. Hanna and won the case for his clients, but did it with such a show of gentlemanliness to his adversaries that Mr. Hanna was completely won over to him and has been his friend since on every occasion.” William McKinley seems to have made his triumphal entry into history’s blaz- ing calcium light mounted on an army wagon which charged into the field of pat- tle at Antietam, loaded with hot coffee and sandwiches. E> was at that time only a boy under 21—a commissary sergeant. The ermy had been fighting in the field since before sun- up with nothing to eat. Many stragglers had found their way back to where the commissary was locat- ed. The young sergeant pressed them into duty as cooks and soon had two wagdns loaded with steaming hot coffee and hot meat sandwiches. Then, securing cne of the bravest of the stragglers, he led the with his wagon and, despiteé the warnings of superior officers, he drove down through the lines, dodging bullets, as all men will when they hear the zip- ping close to their necks. To every man in his regiment he gave food and drink, way It was not such a great thing to do, yet it was the first time in the history of war that it had ever been done. And it was just like McKinley to do it. A thougnt- fulness for the little comforts of others, a disregard for the great dangers that threatened himself. The way to win a man is to feed Lhe brute and that little feed won for Sergeant McKinley promotion’ to a lieutenancy; took him from the ranks of the hired man to the position of the officer and gentle- man. Not to say that he was not these things already. But every man who enters the army as a private leaves behind him all that he has been. and must again work himself to the top in a new line of life. See what another President said of Mc- Kinley long years before he was called to the Presidential chalr. President Hayes thus tells the story of how he helped to effect the promotion of Sergeant McKinley: “When I became commander of the regiment he soon came to be on my staff and remalined there for one or (wo yeurs. “From that time he naturally pro- gressed, for his talents and capacity could not be unknown to the commander of the army of West Virginia, George Crook. He wanted McKinley and, of course, it was my duty to tell McKinley he must leave me. “Later on, coming to Ohio to recover from wounds, I called upon Governor Tod and told him of the incident of young Bergeant McKinley risking his life to feed his brother soldiers. “With the emphasis that distinguished that great war Governor he sald: ‘Let McKinley be promoted from sergeant to lieutenant.’ ” This was one of the first steps that helped te lead Sergeant McKinley of the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteers out of the broad road Into the narrow. It was only a step, but he has never yet stopped. While the name McKinley strongly sug- gests the old country from which it was derived, as a matter of fact the first McKinley setiled in America long be- fore the American Revolution, and a son of his. Davil McKinley, tain served in Cap- McCaskey’'s compuny of Pennsyl- vania troops and fought through the Revoiutionary war under America’s first general, the immortal Washington. After the war David McKinley settled in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. There he wedded with a Miss Sarah Gray, and their second son was James McKinley, who married a Miss Rose of Mercer County, Pennsylvania, and they became the parents of William McKin- ley Sr., our President’s father, who died in 1892 The entire family of MecKinleys, while never rising to individual greatness, were always solid men of respectability and extreme activity. They inherited the firmness which marks all of the old Scotch presbyters of the race from which they sprung. Those men were natural pioneers. ‘When no longer allowed to worship in their own way, they went from Scotland to Ireland, from Ireland to America, and as fast as they could push Westward they pioneered the path of civilization. Their ax was ever at the root of the smothering forest that pressed upon thelr clearings. Between the fierce red- skinned sons of the wilderness and the long, ice-locking winters, the sturdy an- cestors of William McKinley found plen- ty of exercise without calisthenics to harden them into the form that gave him his sturdiness. William McKinley Sr. was raised at New Lisbon, Ohio, where he learned the trade of an iron worker at the furnace of one Gideon Hughes. On January 6, 1829, Willlam McKinley Sr. married a Miss Nancy Allison, and shortly afterward went into business for himself as an iron founder at Fairfield, Cclumbiana County, Ohlo. He continued in the iron business un- til his retirement from active life In 1876. - ‘William McKinley, the seventh child, was born January 29, 1843, at Niles, Ohio. ‘While his family did not suffer from pov- erty as it was then known, nevertheless: the hard work and privations of the times would be locked upon at the pres- ent time as sufferings too much for hu- man_ endurance. The parents of the coming President were determined that their numerous family of chiliren should have all the educational advantages which were to be had at that time on the Western Re- serve, where time was scarce and books almost unobtainable. For this purpose they moved to the town of Poland, and here again is an instance of the scarcity of knowledge at that time, when it is stated that tne town was so named Poland because that was an easy word to spell. Poland, however, at the time the Mec- Kinleys moved there, had an academy, and at this place the children received thelr educations. e It was a continual struggle between the growing boy, William, and his family as to whether he should continue his educa- tion. He declared it his duty to assist in the support of the family, while his older brothers and sisters as steadfastly in- sisted upon doing that and assisting him to get his education as well. for even at that time he gave great promise of abil- ity in all local debates and literary con- tests. It is a great test of a boy—what his own family thinks of him. ‘William McKinley was the idol of his brothers and sisters. One of them in particular, the eldest, David McKinley, who was so well known to San Franciscans as Consul-General of Hawall, was laughed at for the adoration which he paid to his younger brother. More than twenty years ago David Mec- Kinley prophesied that his brother Wil- liam would one day be President of the United States. It has been fortunate for Willlam Mec- Kinley that he has had such an under- standing, encouraging family. They have one and all been firm in their faith In him, and that must have gone far to give him faith in himself. Before he was seventeen the coming statesman had advanced himself so far i his studies that he was engaged in teach- ing school. He was even at that time a boy of great natural dignity. This unassuming manner of his, tcgether with a certain bashful- ness and a fondness for listening rather than talking, unless actually making a speech, has won hir an undeserved rep- utation for taciturnity and assumption of importance that is not merited. His school teaching was but a means to another end, for he had shown such skill in winning debates that it was determined by his family that he should be educated for the practice of the law. In the midst of all came the war, and away he went with the impetuosity of a boy kindled to the blazing point by tales of the old Greek heroes studled at schooi, and stories of his warrior ancestors who had fought for American freedom, which were heard about the fireside. Fighting under Hayes and Crook, he rose from a private to the ranks of major. At the time of Sheridan’s famous ride he was in the thick of the fight, and when one of General Hayes’ regiments was through an oversight left posted like Cas- ablanca, McKinley, then an ald, rode through the enemy’s zone of fire, hidden at times by the smoke of a shell. Pell- mell he went to give the order without which the fearless regiment would not re- treat. At another time in this same battle he was sent to order a regiment to take a new position. It was a post of apparent danger and the road which led to It was worse than the position itself. The officer ¥ d refused to move unless he > in comman anding had specific orders from the comm general as to which road he was to take. There was no time to be lost. If the position was to be occupled it must be done at once. McKinley took upon himself the risk of ordering by which route the detachment should proceed. The position was taken up accordingly and a succéssful termination came about. The general afterward sald to him 1t was a success you did rightly. Ifit had been a failure —!" Later on in the day he met Sheridan on his rhyme-famed rids, and Sheridan him- gelf refers to the name of McKinley in his memoirs. Through the long, weary war he served, always winning friends, and becoming so enamored of the soldler’s life that he de- * sired to follow it. Again, though, he had the good sense to follow his family’s counsels and returned to his law studles, entering the office of Judge Charles E. Glidden at Poland. This gentleman was a master of his pro- fession and an orator of ability as well, and It is sald by those who have heard both men that much of the beautifully sympathetic modulation of McKinley's voice was acquired while listening to Judge Glidden’s comsolatory addresses upon the return of the bullet-torn war- riors and battle-thinned regiments. In the spring of 1867 the young lawyer was admitted to practice at Canton, and i bade adieu to his old friends at Poland to go to the former place, then containing a population of five or six thousand, to ‘open his law office. Here was assoclated with him his younger brother, Abmer McKinley, and there is still a sign upon the door of alaw office in the McKinley block in Canton which reads: “W. and A. McKinley, Law Office.” Defore he had been two years in Canton he had been offered and had accepted the Republican nomination for Prosecuting Attorney. g The county being hopelessly Democratic, this was held but lightly as an honor, but young McKinley took to the stump with a fury of logic and oratory that won him the position by a handsome majority. By 1576 he had won the first place In his profession in the town. In 1871 he was married to the wife who 1as ever since been his constant encour- ager. There must have at all times beén a se- Q@ cret romantic admiration in his heart for California, for when he was first engaged he sent to his sister-in-law, Mrs. David McKinley, then living in San Francisco, and had her buy a wedding ring of Call- fornia gold with which to seal his be- trothal—a small ring, a ruby set round with diamonds. Apropos of this, another story {llustrat- ing his brother David's admiration. Shortly after the engagement ring pur- chase and before William’s marriage there was born to David a cute little roly- poly nativa daughter. David, brimful of W the love and devotion to his brother, per- i haps with a prophetic eye to that broth- Q. er's greatness, Insisted upon naming the little daughter Ida McKinley, Ida being the first name of the future President’s betrothed. To this day the President has not for- petten the compliment, visit which he will look forward with pleasure 1s that to his niece, now Mrs. Ida Me- Kinley Morse, and her witching six-year- Marjorle McKinley Morse, ) in their home that fronts the park. -~ The history of the statesman after he became such is a part of the history of the country. It is easy to follow the path when once it has been found, but the find- ing it. Oh, that seeking for the royal road that leads to fame! ‘ See where McKinley found it. Do you see? Right in his own .home, among his W brothers and sisters, he began his upward & course: got his footing. By kindress, by diligence, by filial respect. Among his schoolmates, by earnest work in his studies, by vanquishing them in good-natured debate. Among his war mates on the fleld of battle, when as a boy officer he risked his life that they might drink hot coffee. Among the other lawyers at the bar and among clients and opponents when he fought opponents so flercely as to win cases for his clients, yet handled oppo- nents so gently withal that he won them, t0o, as he did Hanna. Those faraway little things; way back in the unheard of village of Poland, wher- ever In Ohlo it may be; those small gen- tlenesses and strong efforts to do well In small things. The gentle strokings of an old mother's head; the kindly offered cup to.the choking soldier. Those were the steps that took Willilam McKinley out of the broad boulevard which %9 per cent of us are traveling toward the great eternal faflure, and put him on the lonesome trail that led to success. and a to old daughter,