with the same detachment with which he would study an old campaign
of Napoleon. I do not know on what sedative Mr. Hughes wins his
diplomatic victories, as he does not smoke a pipe;--perhaps by
reading the Sunday School Times. But like the French Marshal, he
knows the secret of keeping his head. It is a great quality of mind
not to lose it when you most need it. Mr. Hughes has it. Perhaps
this is why Washington remarks his mind; he always has it with him.

"I am not thinking of myself in my work here," he said once. "I
don't care about immediate acclaim. I am counsel for the people of
this country. If a generation from now they think their interests
have been well represented, that will be enough."

He is coldly objective.

Mr. Hughes comes by his coolness naturally. He was born to it,
which is the surest way to come by anything. Men have hated him for
it, coolness being a disconcerting quality, ever since he emerged
from obscurity in New York during the insurance investigation,
calling it his "coldness" and adding by way of good measure the
further specification, his "selfishness."

If the last characterization is to stand, it should be amended to
read, his "enlightened selfishness." He has a good eye for his own
interests. Roosevelt disliked him for it, because when governor and
again when candidate for president, he refused to gravitate into
the Roosevelt solar system, taking up his orbit like the rest of
them about the Colonel. But think what happened to that system when
the great sun of it went out!