CYRUS HALL McCORMICK 



for President, he was beset by a court of 

 flatterers and lip-servers. After it was over, 

 he remarked simply to his valet, "Well, Charlie, 

 there is a lot of farce and humbug about this." 

 Dr. Francis L. Patton, who was for years the 

 president of Princeton University and also at 

 one time editor of The Interior, was especially 

 impressed with this direct naturalness of Mc- 

 Cormick. "One meets with all sorts of men 

 in the course of a lifetime," said Dr. Patton. 

 "There are patronizing men, pompous men, 

 men who habitually wear a mask of seriousness, 

 men who clothe themselves with dignity as with 

 a coat of mail lest you should presume too much 

 or go too far, men whose position is never 

 defined, and double-minded men with whom 

 you never feel yourself safe. But Mr. Mc- 

 Cormick was not like one of these. There is 

 that in the possession of power which always 

 tends to make men imperious. I do not mean 

 to imply that he was altogether free from this 

 tendency, for he was not. But he was approach- 

 able, companionable, and ready to hear what 

 I had to say. He was not one of those men who 



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