nterposed, whatever was being said or done automatically
stopped. Then, when he ceased, the case went on again as if nothing had
happened.

Only Scoville intervened between me and Guiteau and I had an excellent
opportunity to see, hear and size him up. In visage and voice he was the
meanest creature I have, either in life or in dreams, encountered.
He had the face and intonations of a demon. Everything about him was
loathsome. I cannot doubt that his criminal colleagues of history were
of the same description.

Charlotte Corday was surely a lunatic. Wilkes Booth I knew. He was
drunk, had been drunk all that winter, completely muddled and perverted
by brandy, the inheritant of mad blood. Czolgosz, the slayer of
McKinley, and the assassin of the Empress Elizabeth were clearly insane.

III

McKinley and Protectionism, Cleveland, Carlisle and Free Trade--how far
away they seem!

With the passing of the old issues that divided parties new issues have
come upon the scene. The alignment of the future will turn upon these.
But underlying all issues of all time are fundamental ideas which live
forever and aye, and may not be forgotten or ignored.

It used to be claimed by the followers of Jefferson that Democracy was
a fixed quantity, rising out of the bedrock of the Constitution, while
Federalism, Whiggism and Republicanism were but the chimeras of some
prevailing fancy drawing their sustenance rather from temporizing
expediency and current sentiment than from basic principles and profound
conviction. To make haste slowly, to look before leaping, to take
counsel of experience--were Democratic axioms. Thus the fathers of
Democracy, while fully conceiving the imperfections of government and
meeting as events required the need alike of movement and reform, put
the visionary and experimental behind them to aim at things visible,
attainable, tangible, the written Constitution the one safe precedent,
the morning star and the evening star of their faith and hope.

What havoc the parties and the politicians have made of all these lofty
pretenses! Where must an old-line Democrat go to find himself? Two
issues, however, have come upon the scene which for the time being are
paramount and which seem organic. They are set for the determination of
the twentieth century: The sex question and the drink question.

I wonder if it be possible to consider them in a catholic spirit from
a philosophic standpoint. I can truly say that