Page:American Boy's Life of William McKinley.djvu/187

Rh him with bouquets which they had picked, and he would always give them a little money in return. Once one of the janitors of a building near the court-house had a case against a man who had run over him in the street and knocked him down. The janitor didn't have any money, and he went to McKinley and told his story, saying all he wanted was his doctor's bill paid. McKinley took hold of the case, wrote the other fellow several letters, and threatened to sue him, and the consequence was that the janitor got his doctor's bill paid and got somethmg like fifty dollars for loss of employment in the bargain. And McKinley didn't charge the janitor a cent."

During those five years the rising lawyer was much in demand as a public speaker, and his speeches were so good that even the older public men began to listen attentively to what he had to say. He had an excellent command of language, and his facts and figures, as one of his friends has said, "never got away from him." His capacity for figures was really remarkable, something which, later on, attracted even the attention of James G. Blaine, who was