HIS LIFE AND WORK 



All this shows the heroic side of McCormick; 

 but he was not always heroic. He was a giant, 

 but a most human and simple-natured giant. 

 Strange as it may sound to those who knew him 

 only with his armor on, it is true that he could 

 be tender or humorous. There were tears and 

 laughter in him, There was no cruelty in his 

 strength and no revenge in his aggressiveness. 

 He was a big, red-blooded, great-hearted man, 

 who might to-day be threatening to cane a poli- 

 tician who had deceived him, and to-morrow be 

 playing with his younger children and letting 

 their two pet squirrels, Zip and Zoe, chase each 

 other around his shoulders. 



He was fond of power, not because of its 

 privileges and exemptions, but because it fur- 

 thered the work that he had in hand. He was 

 often surrounded by sycophants by men who 

 said yes to his yes and no to his no; and while 

 he accepted this homage with a certain degree 

 of satisfaction, he was not deceived by it. On 

 one occasion, when he was attending the Demo- 

 cratic Convention at Cincinnati the con- 

 vention that nominated Hancock as candidate 



[171] 



