from the scene, and there are many living who
remember his pathetic parting words. "I have seen," he said, "the
statesmen and patriots of my youth gathered to their fathers, and the
government which they had reared rent in twain, and none like them are
now left to reunite it again. I stand almost the last of a race who
learned from them the lessons of human freedom!"

These events inflicted a mortal wound upon his great spirit, and when
he heard the roar of the cannon announcing the secession of Texas, he
turned to his wife and said, "My heart is broken!" The words were only
too true; for two years he lingered a sad and solemn old man, mourning
for the woes of his country and for the defection of his eldest son
Sam, who had joined the Confederates, and been taken prisoner by the
Northern army. He was also suffering from the wounds received both in
the war of 1812 and also at San Jacinto; and it was evident that he
had come to the close of life. He himself looked forward to the event
without fear, and with a wise and well-grounded hope.

On March 2, 1863, Houston was seventy, and in response to an ovation
in his own city of Houston, he made a short, broken little speech. It
was his last public effort, and from it he went back home to
Huntsville, to die. His last days were spent in incessant and
heart-broken prayers for his country and for his family; and on July
26, 1863, three weeks after the fall of Vicksburg, he breathed his
last to the words "_Texas! Texas!_"

So honestly and unselfishly had this great man lived that he died in
poverty, needing many comforts; this hero, who by his valor and
statesmanship had increased the territory of the United States by more
than _eight hundred thousand square miles_, or about the equivalent of
_the thirteen original States_! But the splendor of his name is not to
be touched by such an accident as poverty; to the people of Texas,
Houston will ever be a beloved memory; and on the Roll of Fame he
shines forth, the noblest, the most princely, the most picturesque and
chivalrous character in American history.

[Signature of the author.]

WINFIELD SCOTT[8]

By HON. THEODORE ROOSEVELT

(1786-1866)

[Footnote 8: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]

[Illustration: Winfield Scott. [TN]]

Winfield Scott was born at Petersburg, Virginia, on June 13, 1786. His
father was a gallant Revolutionary soldier, his mother one of the
well-known Virginia family of Masons. He