same year, 1875, he died-perhaps the least regretted of the men who by their own efforts have lifted themselves from poverty and illiteracy to the highest office in the gift of the people.

Disagreements among the Democratic members supplied matter for a cartoon on February 27, which presented for the first time the faces of Samuel S. ("Sunset ") Cox, Democratic congressman from Ohio, and that of Speaker Blaine. Cox wrote good-humoredly to Nast, enclosing a later photograph.

Loveliest of your sex and most ingenious in your business:

Allow me to send you a corrected edition of my phiz (made) since the one you evidently saw when you put me to holding John Young Brown in. If I am to be spanked, as the boy insisted, let it be with my stoutest pants on. Your picture of the Brown performance was relished all over the House. Adieu. I hope soon to be let out of this menagerie.

Ever of thee,

S. S. Cox.

Curiously enough the same cartoon brought from T. T. Crit

(Mr Bennett and Mr. Reid assailing the apparition of Cæsarism. In the eye of the spectre, the words

"Third Term " appear)

tenden, Democratic member from Missouri, a picture of John Young Brown. Crittenden said:

I have seen in Harper's an amusing caricature of my personal friend and fellow member, John Young Brown, of Kentucky. I take pleasure in sending you an excellent photograph of him-somewhat better than the picture you have drawn. He is a gentleman of much modesty and worth.

THE TRUNK IN SIGHT.

ANCE SINCE THE FALL (ELECTIONS)

Truly yours,

T. T. Crittenden.

The nation's representatives were desirous that their faces should be truly depicted, whether in approval

or censure.

Preparations for the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition were now in progress, and the disgust of Carl FIRST APPEAR- Schurz, who was reported to have said, "Let the Hundredth Anniversary of the Republic be a confession of its failure," once more introduced that cynical statesman's face into caricature. Once more, too, the bogus Ghost of Cæsar walked, to appall Park Row and Ann Street with its ghastly "Third Term " eye. The trunk of the Republican Elephant appeared from the pitfall, labelled "New Hampshire" and breathing "Victory." Grant offered the Civil Service Baby to both party-nurses, who said they loved it, but turned away. The Colored Citizen showing the Civil Rights Bill to St. Peter as warrant for admission through the golden gates, and Columbia exchanging with the White Leaguer the tools of agriculture for the arms of strife-these were a few of the pleasantries that furnished the public with amusement during that rather quiet spring.

CHAPTER XXXVI

POLITICS AND A NOTABLE ESCAPE

ANOTHER MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE

Meantime, Governor Tilden, who was now regarded as the logical presidential candidate, with the single war cry of "Reform," had attacked the already doomed Canal Ring, as in 1871 he had aided in the final destruction of the Tweed combination.

Mr. Tilden, perhaps more than any other politician of recent times, was the favorite of fortunate circumstances. The tottering

condition of the Tweed Ring; the extinguishment of the war debt, which would result in a reduction of the tax rate of nearly fifty per cent.; the amendment of the State Constitution (already passed) prohibiting any taxation or appropriation for canal expenditures-which meant starvation to the Ring by cutting off its chief source of revenue-these combined in a predestined and inevitable tide which Mr. Tilden had the shrewdness and ability to take at its flood. Holding the most important State in his grasp, and with a political genius of a very high order, he was transformed almost in a moment from a respectable figure-head

of a corrupt political organization into the absolute leader of National Democracy, with a policy of Reform.

As a master of political tactics, Tilden has rarely been equalled. His successful efforts in extinguishing the canal pirates won for him the respect of those who opposed him politically, while his own party rallied to his standard, as the one chief who could lead Democracy to National triumph. Even Nast, whose clear vision rarely failed to penetrate every political pretence, complimented him in a picture which portrayed the Governor as assailing freebooters of the canal, and as driving vultures from the horse of the tow-path. It is true he attacked Tilden's policy of pardon for certain members of the Tweed Ring,* though this could do little now to stem the current of public favor that was bearing the New York Governor toward Washington. Certainly, with the disturbed conditions in the Republican ranks, and the general harmony, save perhaps on the issue of finance, in the phalanx of Democracy, the prospects of the party of Jackson and Jefferson for a President in 1876 grew brighter with every passing day.

Indeed, the Republican Elephant seldom got more than the tip of his trunk out of the pitfall during this "off year" and more frequently showed the tip of his heels as he dived back, upon receipt of news from Connecticut or some other disappointing region.

On June 3, 1875, occurred the marriage of General Phil Sheridan-an event which Nast did not allow to pass unnoticed. He wrote early in May to know if the reports of the coming event were true, to which inquiry Sheridan sent a feeling reply.

On an average about nine out of ten men who were confessedly guilty of stealing were accepted as witnesses against the other one man, until the time came when there was but one man against whom any testimony could be used, and it was not considered wise to try him. It was a shameful condition of affairs.-Hon. Jno. D. Townsend in "New York in Bondage."

Sheridan had characterized the White Leaguers of Louisiana as "Banditti" and Nast cartooned him now as garlanded and led to the altar by little "Banditti " cupids-a picture with which General Sheridan was highly pleased.

It was during this summer that General Grant's letter to General Harry White of Pennsylvania, defining the President's position on the Third Term issue, was made public. It was a simple and noble document, penned by an American patriot. The following extract conveys fairly the style and sentiment of the whole:

In the first place, I never sought the office for a second, nor even for a first nomination. To the first I was called from a life position, one created by Congress especially for me for supposed services rendered to the republic. The position vacated I liked. It would have been most agreeable to me to have retained it until such time as Congress might have consented to my re