Page:American Boy's Life of William McKinley.djvu/216

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AMERICAN BOYS' LIFE

their son. And then he saw an old army chum who had been wounded and sent home during the second year of the war, and he felt like leaping from the platform and embracing him.

"I felt a strange feeling come over me that I cannot describe," he said afterward. "I was home again, among the folks of my childhood. I could not help but contrast my position with that of the poor, shiftless fellow who had in years gone by taken such a delight in teasing and tormenting me. Yhat a gulf now lay between us! And my thoughts ran on so fast that they were in great danger of running away with me, so that it was only by the greatest of efforts I controlled my feelings and managed to deliver that address I had taken so much pains to memorize."

In that campaign McKinley was pronounced the best vote-getter in Ohio, and certainly the results would seem to justify that statement, for he had persuaded thousands of a different political faith to put their trust in him. Some, who were very bitter, predicted that his administration would be a one-sided affair, but he soon