upporters
loyal and devoted to me who are now living, but I shall be pardoned,
I am sure, for saying a few words in reference to some of them at
present in Springfield, who are especially esteemed.

I have been away from Springfield most of the time for nearly thirty
years, and as I go back there during the vacations for brief periods,
I feel lonely, because so many of the familiar faces of earlier
days have passed away. As I walk the streets now it seems that I
know comparatively few people; but I have the best of reasons for
knowing that among them are many splendid men.

I like to feel, on the eve of visiting Springfield, that I shall
see my friend, Judge J. Otis Humphrey, United States District Judge
for the Southern District of Illinois. I have all the affection
and interest in Judge Humphrey that one could entertain for a
brother, and I know that he has the same feeling for me. He is an
able man, and is regarded by the Bar as the ablest judge who has
ever occupied the United States District Bench at Springfield. I
have known him from his boyhood, and knew his father before him.
It was one of the great pleasures of my public career to have been
able to secure from the late President McKinley his appointment as
United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, and
later to have secured his promotion to the position of United States
District Judge. He is now the senior United States District Judge
of the seventh circuit, and I regard him as the ablest judge of
them all. I sincerely hope that higher honors, which he so well
deserves in his chosen career, are still in store for him.

In connection with Judge Humphrey I am reminded of the late Judge
Solomon H. Bethea, who was appointed United States Attorney for
the Northern District of Illinois, and who was later promoted to
the Federal Bench. Humphrey and Bethea I have always regarded as
my two judges, as they were both appointed on my recommendation.
Bethea was a man of very strong and positive character. These
traits were so conspicuous that his manners were, by some, regarded
as extremely dictatorial. He was highly educated, a student all
his life, and a very cultivated man. At the same time he was a
first-rate politician. I do not know of two more useful men to
lead a floor fight in a convention than Bethea and Humphrey. Judge
Bethea was my friend and supporter from the time I was elected to
the United States Senate, in 1883, until his