compared to the citizens of the French Republic because of our nervous
force, our restlessness, but we were more patient. In 1887, the
resignation of President Grévy in France re-established this fact.
Though an American President becomes offensive to the people, we wait
patiently till his four years are out, even if we are not very quiet
about it. We are safest when we keep our hands off the Constitution. The
demonstration in Paris emphasised our Republican wisdom. Public service
is an altar of sacrifice for all who worship there.

The death of Daniel Manning, ex-Secretary of the Treasury, in December,
1887, was another proof of this. He fell prostrate on the steps of his
office, in a sickness that no medical aid could relieve. Four years
before no one realised the strength that was in him. He threw body and
soul into the whirlpool of his work, and was left in the rapids of
celebrity. In the closing notes of 1887, I find recorded the death of
Mrs. William Astor. What a sublime lifetime of charity and kindness was
hers! Mrs. Astor's will read like a poem. It had a beauty and a pathos,
and a power entirely independent of rhythmical cadence. The document was
published to the world on a cold December morning, with its bequests of
hundreds of thousands of dollars to the poor and needy, the invalids and
the churches. It put a warm glow over the tired and grizzled face of the
old year. It was a benediction upon the coming years.




THE TWELFTH MILESTONE

1888