As a man of letters. Governor Long has achieved a reputation. Some years
ago, he produced a scholarly translation, in blank verse, of Virgil's
_Æneid_, which was published in 1879 in Boston. It has found many
admirers among students of classical literature. Governor Long, amid
busy professional and official duties, has also written several poems
and essays which reflect credit upon his heart and brain. His inaugural
addresses were masterpieces of literary art, and the same can be said of
his speeches on the floor of Congress, all of them, polished, forceful
and to the point.

Mr. Long is a very fluent speaker, and, without oratorical display, he
always succeeds in winning the attention of his auditors. It is what he
says, more than how he says it, that has won for him his great
popularity on the platform. When, in February last, the Washington
monument was dedicated, he it was that was chosen to read the
magnificent oration of Robert C. Winthrop.

As a specimen of Mr. Long's happy way of expressing timely thoughts, the
following passage, selected from an address which he delivered at
Tremont Temple, Boston, on Memorial Day, 1881, deserves to be read:--


"Scarce a town is there--from Boston, with its magnificent column
crowned with the statue of America at the dedication of which even the
conquered Southron came to pay honor, to the humblest stone in rural
villages--in which these monuments do not rise summer and winter, in
snow and sun, day and night, to tell how universal was the response of
Massachusetts to the call of the patriots' duty, whether it rang above
the city's din or broke the quiet of the farm. On city square and
village green stand the graceful figures of student, clerk, mechanic,