hoisted his name to their "mast-heads" as their choice for the Republican nomination for President in 1888. Besides this, there was much favorable talk among the politicians everywhere on the subject. On March 12, 1886, even the New York Sun permitted its Washington correspondence to say: "If the opinion of politicians who made Washington their headquarters during the sessions of Congress could prevail at the next Republican National Convention, John A. Logan would be the candidate of the party. He has undoubtedly gained strength among the leaders, some of whom have hitherto been accustomed to sneer at his pretentions to the Presi dency." But to attempt to give all that was said from that. time down, in all the journals of the land, favoring Logan for the Presidential nomination, would almost fill a volume. Suf fice it to say that when Logan reached Washington to attend the Congressional session of 1886-87, his name was on almost every politician's tongue, as the "coming man," and, although he refused to say much on the subject even to his nearest friends, his mind could not have been entirely free from a joyous anticipation of yet reaching that supreme position as the elected ruler of sixty million of people, in which he would have had full scope for the display of his remarkable executive genius, and intense love of his country, its free institutions, and people. But alas! it was not to be. All unknown to him, as well as to his friends, his days were numbered, and. were even now fast drawing to a close. PART VI. LOGAN'S LAST DAYS AND DEATH. LOGAN'S RETURN TO WASHINGTON-HIS LAST DRIVE-ATTACKED Early in December, 1886, General Logan was back again in Washington, looking as well and sturdy as ever. On Saturday, the 4th, he took the writer with him in his daughter's dog-cart, for an afternoon ride in the suburbs-the General driving. It was a very cold ride from Calumet Place, northward along Thirteenth Street, around the northern limits of the Soldiers' Home Park, to Metropolis View, opposite Edgewood, the residence of Mrs. Kate Sprague,—and down to the vicinity of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad depot, where the writer parted from him. As we drove past Edgewood the General remarked: "That is the place General Grant should have bought, and retired to, after his Presidential term was up, instead of going to New York. It was just the place for him. He would have been happy there; and, had he done so, I believe he would have been alive to-day." Little did either the General or the writer dream that this was the last time the former would ever drive out with a friend in this manner, or that in little over three weeks from then, Logan's own life would be rendered up. On the following Monday, the writer saw and talked with the General in his committee-room;* and again on the succeeding Tuesday. The next day, Wednesday, the writer * That on "Military Affairs." met him in the corridor leading from the lower east door of the Senate wing of the Capitol to the General's committeeroom, and, taking his arm, walked slowly with him. The General then limped slightly, and in reply to an inquiry said that he had a pain in his hip. "Sounds like sciatica," said the writer. "That's just what it is," the General responded. Otherwise, he seemed as well as ever. The next day, Thursday, December 9th, about 1 P.M., having business with him, the writer went to the east door of the Senate Chamber, and asked Captain John G. Merritt, in charge of that door, to tell Senator Logan that the writer would like to see him a few moments. The General soon came out, limping, and, after a brief conversation returned to the Senate Chamber. This was the last time General Logan entered that Chamber alive.* For several successive days after this, the writer made Captain Merritt,-himself an old Union soldier, crippled in the war,-has since told the writer that upon going into the Senate Chamber with the message, he found the General in the cloak-room on the Republican side of the Chamber, sitting on one chair, with his legs resting on another, smoking. What followed is thus told by Merritt : "I said to the General: Mr. Dawson desires me to say he would like to see you.' "At once, taking his cigar out of his mouth, and wincing with pain as he drew his legs off the chair, the General got up, and said: 'Where is he?'-and immediately commenced walking along the Senate floor to the door where you awaited him. "I noticed then that he limped as he walked, and said to him, without dreaming that he was suffering as much as he must have been,-‘General, you must take care of yourself; we can't afford to have men like you get ill,' "Said he "With the pain I have, I cannot help limping.' "Then he passed out, and met you. 66 was the last time the old General "That," continued Merritt, with moistened eyes, ever came out to see anybody; and now that he is gone, I feel a sort of mournful pride that to me the honor fell of calling him out of that Chamber for the last time." At the time of this conversation, the writer asked Captain Merritt, as there had been conflicting statements in the press as to the date of the General's last appearance in the Senate, to ascertain it definitely. The captain accordingly informs the writer as follows: "The day I called General Logan out of the Senate to see you, was Thursday, December 9, 1886, about one o'clock, and that was the last time he was called out of the Senate to see anyone, and it was the last day he was in the Senate. The Senate on that day (December 9th) adjourned over until the following Monday, December 13th, on which date the General was confined to his room at his home. He went home on the date mentioned about halfpast two." inquiry touching the General's health, at the Military Committee-room, but heard nothing from his secretaries that would awaken any apprehension of serious results. They mentioned that the General occasionally suffered great pain, and had restless nights in consequence of his rheumatism. The night of Wednesday, the 15th, was bitter cold, and a fierce snow-storm raged. Fearing that such a night must have been especially severe on Logan, as his attacks of acute rheumatism were most active in such weather, the writer went to Calumet Place, Thursday forenoon, to make personal inquiries. He was at once invited upstairs, and found the General seated in his bedroom-his daughter Mrs. Tucker attending him, Mrs. Logan being busy with certain matters. connected with a Fair for the benefit of the Garfield Memorial Hospital, of which she was a manageress. To see him, sitting there, before a blazing fire, in an easy-chair, looking hearty and well, with nothing unusual about him save a swollen right hand, wrapped with cotton-batting, no one could suppose for a moment that there was anything serious the matter with the General. His voice was strong, his eyes bright, and his manner alert as ever, and the writer could not help complimenting him on the fact, and adding that although the General had doubtless been through a siege of agony at times an inevitable accompaniment of such a disease—yet the rest from legislative labors and worries was probably doing him good. "Possibly," he answered dubiously, and then turned to the subject of "The Great Conspiracy" and the pecuniary worries and disappointments connected with the publication of that work. LOGAN'S GRAPHIC STORIES-LINCOLN AS A STORY-TELLER LOGAN'S GALLOP ALONG THE LINES AT VICKSBURG--HIS UNRECORDED WOUND. During a pause in the conversation, his daughter, Mrs. Tucker, mentioned that Mr. Jacob Wheeler--an old soldier who was with the General at Vicksburg-and Mr. Stevenson of St. Louis, were approaching the house, and asked if he would see them? "Yes," said the General, "tell them to come up," and soon they were ushered in and seated. Of what followed on this last really good day that the General had, Mr. Stevenson has given so admirably graphic an account in the Globe-Democrat, that the temptation to give it here is irresistible, especiaily as the writer of this work was present throughout, and can vouch for the verity of this report. Says Mr. Stevenson : Twenty-four years ago, at Huntsville, General Logan discovered that tramping around in the snow meant rheumatism. Since then he has learned that repetition of the exposure insures a return of the twinges. He sits now in an upper chamber at Calumet Place with his right arm twice its normal size and swathed in cotton. Occasional bad sensations in other joints than those most affected reveal the possibility of something worse than what he endures at present. Some of the time the pains are so severe they drive him to his bed, but when others would be down the General is up, in his easy-chair, with a screen between him and the draught. Around the open fireplace friends gather and help pass away the hours. The pains go shooting through the arm and the General growls. Then there is a respite and he tells a story. The harder the twinge the better the story. One standing just outside the chamber door and hearing the peals of laughter, would never imagine there was any suffering going on within. LINCOLN'S JOKES. Somebody told one of Lincoln's stories, and this started the General. "I had some doubts for a time about the authenticity of the stories attributed to Lincoln," he said, "until an experience of my own with him. I was sent from the West by Grant with some despatches which were to be delivered to the President in person. It was late Saturday night when I got into Washington. The next morning I went to the White House and there was nobody about. I made a noise at the door until someone came and said that Mr. Lincoln couldn't be seen on Sunday; it was against the rules. 'Go upstairs,' I said, 'and tell the President that Logan is here with some important despatches from Grant.' Pretty soon the messenger came back and told me to walk up. When I got into the room Mr. Lincoln was sitting in a chair with one foot on a table and his head thrown back. A barber was just getting through |