his opinion of the value of personal magnetism in
political life.]

It may be difficult to define what personal magnetism is, but I
think it may be defined in this way: You don't always feel like
asking a man whom you meet on the street what direction you should
take to reach a certain point. You often allow three or four to
pass, before you meet one who seems to invite the question. So,
too, there are men by whose side you may sit for hours in the cars
without venturing a remark as to the weather, and there are others
to whom you will commence talking the moment you sit down. There
are some men who look as if they would grant a favor, men toward
whom you are unconsciously drawn, men who have a real human look,
men with whom you seem to be acquainted almost before you speak,
and that you really like before you know anything about them. It
may be that we are all electric batteries; that we have our positive
and our negative poles; it may be that we need some influence that
certain others impart, and it may be that certain others have that
which we do not need and which we do not want, and the moment you
think that, you feel annoyed and hesitate, and uncomfortable, and
possibly hateful.

I suppose there is a physical basis for everything. Possibly the
best test of real affection between man and woman, or of real
friendship between man and woman, is that they can sit side by
side, for hours maybe, without speaking, and yet be having a really
social time, each feeling that the other knows exactly what they
are thinking about. Now, the man you meet and whom you would not
hesitate a moment to ask a favor of, is what I call a magnetic man.
This magnetism, or whatever it may be, assists in making friends,
and of course is a great help to any one who deals with the public.
Men like a magnetic man even without knowing him, perhaps simply
having seen him. There are other men, whom the moment you shake
hands with them, you feel you want no more; you have had enough.
A sudden chill runs up the arm the moment your hand touches theirs,
and finally reaches the heart; you feel, if you had held that hand
a moment longer, an icicle would have formed in the brain. Such
people lack personal magnetism. These people now and then thaw
out when you get thoroughly acquainted with them, and you find that
the ice is all on the outside, and then you come to like them very
well, but as a rule first impressions are lasting. Magnetism is