hat time to intimate friends that his
health was seriously impaired.

The last time I saw him was at lunch at his house, when the
Arbitration Treaty, as amended by the Senate, was under the
consideration of President Roosevelt. The arbitrationists, headed by
ex-Secretary of State Foster, urged the President's acceptance of the
amended treaty. We thought he was favorable to this, but from my
subsequent talk with Secretary Hay, I saw that the President's
agreeing would be keenly felt. I should not be surprised if
Roosevelt's rejection of the treaty was resolved upon chiefly to
soothe his dear friend John Hay in his illness. I am sure I felt that
I could be brought to do, only with the greatest difficulty, anything
that would annoy that noble soul. But upon this point Hay was
obdurate; no surrender to the Senate. Leaving his house I said to Mrs.
Carnegie that I doubted if ever we should meet our friend again. We
never did.

The Carnegie Institution of Washington, of which Hay was the chairman
and a trustee from the start, received his endorsement and close
attention, and much were we indebted to him for wise counsel. As a
statesman he made his reputation in shorter time and with a surer
touch than any one I know of. And it may be doubted if any public man
ever had more deeply attached friends. One of his notes I have long
kept. It would have been the most flattering of any to my literary
vanity but for my knowledge of his most lovable nature and undue
warmth for his friends. The world is poorer to me to-day as I write,
since he has left it.

The Spanish War was the result of a wave of passion started by the
reports of the horrors of the Cuban Revolution. President McKinley
tried hard to avoid it. When the Spanish Minister left Washington, the
French Ambassador became Spain's agent, and peaceful negotiations were
continued. Spain offered autonomy for Cuba. The President replied that
he did not know exactly what "autonomy" meant. What he wished for Cuba
was the rights that Canada possessed. He understood these. A cable was
shown to the President by the French Minister stating that Spain
granted this and he, dear man, supposed all was settled. So it was,
apparently.

Speaker Reed usually came to see me Sunday mornings when in New York,
and it was immediately after my return from Europe that year that he
called and said he had never lost control of the House before. For one
moment he thought of leaving the chair and goin