Memoirs of an editor : fifty years of American journalism / Edward P. Mitchell.

320

MEMOIRS OF AN EDITOR

Mr. Blaine was then summering at "Stanwood," his
villa near Bar Harbor. As it happened, the letter was not
needed or delivered, and it has remained in my possession.
Mr. Blaine welcomed me to "Stanwood" in his habitually
charming manner. He insisted on waiving all the customary immunities of an invalid for the benefit of his
guest. He talked with unrestrained frankness for several
hours altogether, avoiding no subject, speaking freely of
every aspect of the situation. Of President Harrison he
had nothing but good to say. Of the Force bill issue I
have mentioned as being so near to Dana's heart he spoke
with candor as to its effect on the solidity of the Democratic South and.disclosed sentiments that were far from satisfactory to my principal of The Sun. About an attempt in
New York to enact a certain Republican gag-law experiment-a measure now forgotten but at the time of great
concern to The Sun-he expressed his thorough disapproval, but did not wish his opinion published, as Dana
had desired, on the ground of political etiquette, it being
a question local to New York.
Mr. Blaine's interest in everything seemed unabated,
his grasp of ideas unimpaired. I thought he conversed
with a little less verve than formerly, but there was no
marked sign of enfeeblement. I thought, too, that his
face was grayer, and the familiar puffiness beneath the
eyes much more pronounced than when I had seen him
last. But he positively reiterated, over and over again,
the assertion that he was getting better daily, that there
had been no diagnosis showing Bright's disease, and that
the published analysis was false and infamously forged.
At his suggestion and request, on returning to the city
I wrote and the paper published an editorial of which this

was the substantial passage:
The exact truth about Mr. Blaine, as we understand it., is
that he is neither in a precarious physical condition nor in mid