fuel! Oh, it is heartbreaking! After you have given all the money you
can spare you will come out of your editorial rooms crying.

Disraeli was seventy-five when "Endymion" was published. Disraeli's
"Endymion" came at a time when books in America were greater than they
ever were before or have been since. A flood of magazines came
afterwards, and swamped them. Before this time new books were rarely
made. Rich men began to endow them. It was a glorious way of spending
money. Men sometimes give their money away because they have to give it
up anyhow. Such men rarely give it to book-building.

In January, 1881, Mr. George L. Seavey, a prominent Brooklyn man at that
time, gave $50,000 to the library of the Historical Society of New York.
Attending a reception one night in Brooklyn, I was shown his check, made
out for that purpose. It was a great gift, one of the first given for
the intellectual food of future bookworms.

Most of the rich men of this time were devoting their means to making
Senators. The legislatures were manufacturing a new brand, and turning
them out made to order. Many of us were surprised at how little timber,
and what poor quality, was needed to make a Senator in 1881. The nation
used to make them out of stout, tall oaks. Many of those new ones were
made of willow, and others out of crooked sticks. In most cases the
strong men defeated each other, and weak substitutes were put in. The
forthcoming Congress was to be one of commonplace men. The strong men
had to stay at home, and the accidents took their places in the
government. Still there were leaders, North and South.

My old friend Senator Brown of Georgia was one of the leaders of the
South. He spoke vehemently in Congress in the cause of education. Only a