Page:American Boy's Life of William McKinley.djvu/214

178 stopped in disgust. McKinley wished to depart, but the crowd, when it grew quiet, begged him to remain, and in the end he made one of the best speeches of his life.

"But while I was talking I was on my guard," he said, in speaking of it later. "And if any of those whistles had started up again, I would have been prepared to stop in short order." But after that the whistles failed to bother him.

Probably the greatest honor done to McKinley at this time was when he spoke at his old homestead town, Niles. A stand was erected near the house in which he was born, and people came from many miles around to see him and to hear what he might have to say on the great issues of the day.

For this occasion the candidate for gubernatorial honors had prepared a careful speech outlining the policy of his party. So interested had he been that he had committed the whole address to memory, so as to do away with the use of any manuscript in its delivery.

And yet when it came time to speak he