FIVE DAYS AT CLEVELAND. 229 



roadside, but not without a certain guilty feeling, and 

 sympathy for the cheated school ma'am. 



Passed through the village of ^NEentor, a pleasant lit- 

 tle place six miles from Cleveland, the home of Hon* 

 J. A. Garfield, then an Ohio Congressman. 



Noting much excitement as I approached Euclid, 

 I dismounted to learn the cause, and found it was due to 

 a rumor that General Custer and his entire command 

 liad been massacred by Indians. The source of this in- 

 formation made it appear reliable, and yet compara- 

 tively few were disposed to believe it. My long associa- 

 tion w^ith the General during the AYar of the Rebellion 

 led me to take the thought of his death very much to 

 heart, although I was yet unwilling to credit what I 

 had heard. At the Forest City House, whither I had 

 been escorted by a delegation of G. A. R. friends, the 

 truth of the report was discussed, and the deepest 

 regret manifested, should such a fate have befallen the 

 brave cavalryman. 



In the evenins: I lectured at Garrett's Hall, where 

 Major E. M. Hessler introduced me. Later, in behalf 

 of a number of citizens, the Major proposed a ban- 

 quet in my honor, but this I felt justified in declining, 

 owing to imperative duties in connection with my jour- 

 ney. The rest of my time here was passed in looking 

 about the city, and in talking with some of the " Forest 

 City " people, who are pardona'bly proud of their 

 home on Lake Erie. This part of the State was a great 

 hunting-ground for the Indiai.a in tormer days, who 

 came to make war on the bear and beaver. They 

 started eastward in the autumn and paddled down 

 the lake, entire villages at a time, to the mouth of 

 the Cuyahoga River, on whose banks they piled their 



