The San Francisco call., 1896-02-09

n advanced copy of Robert P.
IN Porter's Life of William McKin-
~ ley" has been received for review
Il lAfrom the publishers, n. G. Hamil-
ton Company, Cleveland, Ohio.
1t is voluminous work of 440 pages, finely
printed on heavy paper and handsomely
illustrated
Aside from the powerful political interest
attached to Mckinley, the publishers
aver IN PREDATORY note, "his life has
been one so typical of all that is best in
the self-made American, his career one
that affords such stimulus and inspiration
to the youthful brain and sinew of our
country, that it is with genuine satisfac-
ton We publish the stainless record of the
citizen, soldier and statesman
The biographer, Mr. Porter, is not a
stranger to the people of the Nation.
when We asked Mr.. Porter to under
take this work" say the publishers, "it
was with the knowledge of his peculiar
titness-as writer, economist and personal
friend of Mckinley for the task. For
years an investigator OF industrial topics,
as member of the Tariff Commission,
Superintendent OF the Eleventh Census
and active journalist, Mr.. Porter has had
unusual opportunities to observe the prog
ress of the Nation under a generation of
protection policy, and he, perhaps, more
than any other, save Mckinley himself,
has given the people an intelligent under
standing of its working"
In his Introductory remarks, Mr.. Porter
thus refers to Mckinley: Essentially a
man of the people, his rise from lad, born
in an Ohio village, to the position of one
of the foremost statesmen of the times, is
full OF interest to the American public
Still in the prime of vigorous and de-
veloring manhood, the subject of this
sketch presents alike to young and old the
possibilities of our free institutions, when
supplemented by patriotism, integrity,
courage, perseverance and unbounded
faith in the economic policies which best
promote the welfare of our common couu-
try. The story is that of a serious and
earnest life-a life of devotion to duty, to
principle and to the public service. Aided
by nothing, save an honorable parentage,
good constitution, quick perception, a
courteous bearing, a brave heart and a
high sense of honor, this youth in teens
was mustered into the army, and began
tle conflict of life on the Nations battle
tSelds-a conflict continued in the halls of
National legislation, and closely inter-
woven with the last twenty-five years of
National progress"
1t has been the biographers purpose to
make the volume under conside ration the
most complete life of Mckinley yet pub
lished. The work contains incidents
of the boyhood life of the subject
at Niles and Poland. Immediately fol-
lowing the war Mckinley laid aside
the accouterments of the soldier and
entered upon the study of the law, and
was graduated from the Albany IN. w
Law School. "One year after the close of
the war he was brieAess young lawyer
in the little town of Canton, Ohio, study
ing early and late, and endeavoring to exc
out somewhat scanty living by the aid of
such retainers and fees as would come to
one experienced in civil war but inex-
perienced in the practice of the legal pro-
fession." The biographer endeavors to
give the real everyday life of the Young
lawyer and to picture the surroundings
under which his fertile mind was deyel
oped and his sterling character built
up. The people of Canton recognized in
him man with future, and TWENTY-FIVE
years ago they elected him Prosecuting
Attorney of Stark County. Mr. Porter
opines that Mckinley would have made a
profound jurist had he not devoted the
best OF his life to statecraft, for when he
accepted the nomination to Congress his