His home is always open to his neighbors and friends, and they walk into his doors, and intrude upon his time, without restraint. He has been so long in public life, that he seems to regard his possessions as something to be shared with his friends, and has long ago ceased to hope for privacy, such as less-known citizens enjoy. He has six children, viz: Walker Blaine, of Washington, D. C.; Emmons Blaine, of Colorado; Alice Blaine, now the wife of Col. Coppinger; Margaret Isabella Blaine; James G. Blaine, Jr., and Harriet S. Blaine. The last three named were living at home, with their father and mother, at the time of Blaine's nomination. Blaine's mother never made her home with him, but after the breaking up of her home at Brownsville, she went to reside with her daughter, in the West, where she died May 5th, 1871. Her remains were brought back to Brownsville, and buried beside her husband. A few years ago Blaine erected a substantial granite monument over their graves, in the old Catholic churchyard, and had this inscription wrought on one side of the shaft: EPHRAIM LYON BLAINE, Wife of EPHRAIM LYON BLAINE, Born May 22d, 1801. Died May 5th, 1871. Blaine is a most social man, and has the dignified, yet agreeable, manner of the good, old, hospitable days among the gentry of Scotland and early New England. Of his manners and peculiarities, one who knew him, long and well (Mr. Randall), gave a written sketch in 1880, and it applies equally well now. He said: "Mr. Blaine is the most popular of men. The charm of his manner is beyond expression, and nobody comes within the circle of his presence that is not overcome with his fascinations. With his great brilliancy he has that exquisite show of deference to his companions, a sort of appeal to them to verify or deny his words, that is very taking. He is also a very good listener, and has a familiar way of speaking one's name, and of placing his hand on one's knee, that is an agreeable salve to one's vanity. There is no acting in the heartiness of his manner. He is an impulsive man, with a very warm heart, kindly instincts and a generous nature. One element in his nature impresses itself upon my mind in the most emphatic manner, and that is his coolness and self-possession at the most exciting periods. I happened to be in his library in Washington when the balloting was going on in Cincinnati, on that hot July day in 1876. A telegraph instrument was on his library table, and Mr. Sherman, his private secretary, a deft operator, was manipulating its key. Dispatches came from dozens of friends, giving the last votes, which only lacked a few of a nomination, and everybody predicted the success of Blaine on the next ballot. Only four persons besides Mr. Sherman were in the room. It was a moment of great excitement. The next vote was quietly ticked over the wire, and the next announced the nomination of Mr. Hayes. Mr. Blaine was the only cool person in the apartment. It was such a reversal of all anticipations and assurances that self-possession was out of the question, except with Mr. Blaine. He had just left his bed after two days of unconsciousness from sunstroke, but he was as self-possessed as the portraits upon the wall. He merely gave a murmur of surprise, and before anybody had recovered from the shock he had written in his firm, plain, fluent hand, three dispatches-one to Mr. Hayes, of congratulations; one to the Maine delegates, thanking them for their devotion; and another to Eugene Hale and Mr. Frye, asking them to go personally to Columbus and present his good will to Mr. Hayes, with promises of hearty aid in the campaign. The occasion affected him no more than the news of a servant quitting his employ would have done. Half an hour afterwards he was out with Secretary Fish in an open carriage, receiving the cheers of the thousands of people who gathered about the telegraph bulletins. Mr. Blaine's knowledge of facts, dates, events, men in our history, is not only remarkable, but almost unprecedented. In his college days he was noted for his early love of American history, and for his intimate knowledge of its details. That field of reading has been enlarged and cultivated in all his subsequent years, until it would be difficult to find a man in the United States who can, on the instant, without reference to book or note, give so many facts and statistics relating to current interests, to our financial and revenue system, to our manufacturing industries of all kinds, to our river and harbor improvements, to our public lands, to our railway system, to our mines and minerals, to our agricultural interests-in fact, to everything that constitutes and includes the development, achievement, and success of the United States. This has been the study of his life, and his memory is an encyclopædia. He remembers because it is easier than to forget." When he was a member of Congress a correspondent wrote as follows of Mr. Blaine: "He has grown gray, but he is physically but slightly touched by the passing years. He looks surcharged with tremendous nervous energy, so irresistibly impelling him that the steam-brakes couldn't slow |