hands made it seem as if he were already on the threshold of old age."
He had, however, a remarkably sound constitution, a medium sized,
muscular frame, and clear, steel-gray eyes.

[Illustration: OLD STATE HOUSE IN 1793.]

Among those closely connected with Adams in the public service, which,
from this time on, became his only thought, were John Hancock and James
Otis. Adams contrasted strongly with both of these men. Hancock was the
richest man in the province and as liberal as he was wealthy. In the
general jubilation that followed the repeal of the Stamp Act, he opened
a pipe of Madeira wine before his elegant mansion opposite the Common,
and so long as it lasted it was freely dispensed to the crowd. The dress
of Hancock when at home is described as a "red velvet cap, within which
was one of fine linen, the edge of this turned up over the velvet one,
two or three inches. He wore a blue damask gown lined with silk, a white
plaited stock, a white silk embroidered waistcoat, black silk
small-clothes, white silk stockings and red morocco slippers." Adams was
in marked contrast with Otis in temperament. The former, always cool and
collected and his words based on deliberate reason, was the extreme of
the other who carried his arguments in a flood of impetuous eloquence.
"Otis was a flame of fire," says Sewall. But although Otis was once
almost the ideal of the people, his erratic tendencies at last unfitted
him for a leader.

One reason of Sam Adams' prestige with the masses was his common and
familiar intercourse with mechanics and artisans. Hancock, Otis, Bowdoin
and Curtis, on account of their wealth and ideas of aristocracy, kept
more or less aloof from the workmen; while Adams, plainly clad and with
familiar but dignified manner, was often found in the ship yards or at