JOHN ELBRIDGE HUDSON. 563 



■well-nigh done it. But he was persuaded to remain, arranging at that 

 time to withdraw in the year 1900. Doubtless, like all strong men, he 

 enjoyed the exercise of his strength. Moreover, the development of the 

 business and increasing complications seemed to demand his personal 

 attention just a little longer, — and so the end came as it did. He 

 seemed, for the most part, to bear it all easily enough, but the strain was 

 immense, incessant, increasing ; and before he knew, it was too late. 



A word or two more should be said as to Mr. Hudson's mental habits, 

 and his methods of working ; and a word or two also as to the personal 

 qualities that made him much beloved. 



At home Mr Hudson used to have by the side of his plate, as he sat 

 at table, a pencil and paper, for he knew the worth of a memorandum 

 taken at the moment. In his business he was in the habit of causino- to 

 be taken and preserved such memoranda of all that took place at each 

 stage of any particular affair. This full record, perfectly arranged and 

 indexed, was of the utmost service to him in handling his great business. 

 He had only to turn to his books to find a record of everything. Often, 

 indeed, he had no need to turn to his books, unless to convince his inter- 

 locutor ; for he had an extraordinary capacity of remembering facts, of 

 visualizing them, and holding them all mapped and co-ordinated in his 

 mind. 



In his private studies he was apt to begin by preparing a chart of the 

 subject, with names and dates and the order and place of leading facts 

 and events, all set forth with extraordinary neatness, open to inspection, 

 and speaking volumes to a glance of the eye. These things, thus quickly 

 visible, passed over into his mind and stood there fixed permanently in a 

 rational order. It was so with places. London and Paris and all their 

 streets he saw. He had explored the maps so that he hardly needed them 

 longer. His mind held the maps. 



This faculty gave an extraordinary interest to his conversation. Last 

 summer I passed several days with him at his house, and he, later, a week 

 with me at mine. He had been reading Plutarch, and everything about 

 him that he could lay hands on. He was trying to place him and his 

 thought in their true relation to the men and the ideas of the time just 

 past and just to come. He had been reading also of Alexander, and 

 reading with equal ease in the Greek and Latin authors as in those in 

 our own tongue. It was a pleasure of the highest sort to listen to his 

 talk. The precision and extent of his knowledge, the way in which it 

 lay in his mind, co-ordinated with whatever related things tlnew light 



