Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/285

 regard for the physical capabilities of those taking part, the itinerary was arranged so as to provide for much of the traveling by night. The changes were so sudden and continual that nothing made a distinct impression. The crowds were pretty much alike, made up of the same kind of faces and shouting the same shouts. One of the serious annoyances was, that on getting off the train at a station, the assembled partisans, loud and enthusiastic, all wanted to shake hands, and while this proceeding was in progress, some one, whom I did not know, would grab my valise and make off with it, and what was to become of it I never could tell. Generally he soon wearied and put it in some corner. Governor Hastings, who gave me a reception at Bellefonte, said to me: “If you do not get a private car and have your doctor with you, you will break down before you get half the way through.” He had pursued that policy and, though a powerfully constituted man, his voice failed and he had to quit. While those who were with me occasionally withdrew for repairs, I was able to keep it up to the end, and on the last day made three speeches. My explanation of the fact was that, after speaking in the evening I insisted upon going around to the hotel and up the stairs into my room to bed and positively refused to go into the bar-rooms. Sometimes I was called a crank, but my night's sleep was saved.

I wrote no speeches, made a different speech at each place, often suggested by the surroundings, and depended upon trying to think straight and telling the people exactly what I thought. This was relieved to some extent by the adaptation of a store of anecdotes. One illustration was used often and generally with good effect. It was the season of the year when the katydids were singing in the woods. Pattison had a stereotyped speech which he had committed to memory, telling of the many ills which had befallen the state under Republican rule. I likened the Democrat to the katydid. There never was any Katie— Rh