but I think it was well for the beast that he had slunk from sight. For days after, Mr. Scott could hardly speak of anything else. In the midst of his work he would leave his desk saying, "I cannot get that terrible picture out of my mind. Curses, curses on the base creature!" And out he would stalk to regain composure by tramping the hillsides. In multiplied other instances Mr. Scott's sympathies for childhood were prompt and vehemently declared. He had nothing of mock sentiment; indeed he never seemed particularly fond of children other thah his own. Yet the distresses of childhood from wherever they came, aroused him as nothing else ever did.
***
Statesman Mr. Scott was in the truest possible sense; but he was never, excepting for a time when he held an administrative office, an official factor in governmental affairs. He had little respect for ordinary officialism, and none at all for the type of man who contrives by hook or by crook to get himself elected to something, or who makes a trade of public office. Yet there was always in the background of his mind a certain yearning for the opportunities which only official station can give. "There is," he was wont to say, "but one platform from which a man may speak to the whole American people. A senator of the United States, if he have mind with knowledge and powers of expression, may have a great audience." But while Mr. Scott might again and again have been a senator if he had been willing to arrange for it, he could never bring himself to do so. In truth, he regarded with supreme contempt the concessions commonly necessary under our political system on the part of one who would take an active part in the responsible work of national legislation. I am sure that in the latter years of Mr. Scott's life if he had been invited, under conditions calling for no compromises, that he would have been very glad to have represented Oregon in the Senate. He would have eh joyed the associations and he would likewise have been glad to bear a part in the discussions of great questions. But he could never have yielded to the political game the pledges which it demands. Nor would he have given
