Page:American Boy's Life of William McKinley.djvu/30

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AMERICAN BOYS' LIFE

The day upon which William McKinley was born was probably not unlike hundreds of other wintry days—cold, blustery, perhaps snowy, making the pedestrians gather their clothing tighter around them and hurry home faster than usual, giving no thought to the fact that in that unpretentious frame cottage a babe had been born whose name was to go down in history alongside that of the immortal Washington and Lincoln, a babe that was to become an earnest, far-seeing man, a soldier bent upon the task of saving this glorious Union to itself, a statesman, a governor, and at last a President who should guide this Nation through a war against oppression, giving to one set of people their liberty, and to another the opportunities of an enlightened civilization.

William McKinley came into a family of strong religious convictions, and the prayers learned at his mother's knee were never forgotten. The family were Methodists, attending church regularly, also the weekly prayer meetings, and the children seldom missed in their Bible Class or Sunday School work. In fact, so strong was the church tendency of the family that Wil-