200 



THE HOMES OF HA YES AND GARFIELD. 



In the library various agricultural ahd horticul- 

 tural works and the current records of the experi- 

 ment stations testify the intelligent interest with 



The LiTiLE Office. 



which General Hayes keeps " in touch" with such 

 subjects, while the thoroughly cultivated farm, in 

 which he takes great personal interest, entitles him 

 clearly to rank as a representative farmer. But it 

 would be considered an infringement of the rights 

 and dignities of " Jimmie," for seventeen years the 

 head gardener and out-of-door factotum, if credit 

 were given to any but himself in such matters as 

 the care of the garden, farm and grounds. The 

 ex-president's relations with his employes and those 

 about him in his home are simple and kindly, and 

 each, from stable- 

 boy up, feels a per- 

 s o n a 1 interest in 

 properly doing the 

 honors of the place 

 to the casual visitor. 



It was mid-Octo- 

 ber, and the day was 

 such an one as we 

 associate with the 

 season, when I vis- 

 ited the homestead 

 of the late President 

 Garfield. There 

 are few homes in 

 this country which 



have sprung so suddenly into prominence, and so 

 quickly acquired a fame that is beyond mere noto- 

 riety, as this unpretentious dwelling at Mentor. To 



reach it I drove out from the little city of Paines- 

 ville, in northern Ohio, along a road flanked on 

 either side by comfortable farm-houses surrounded 

 by well-tilled fields, while here and 

 there a vineyard gleamed purple 

 with its harvest. The maples wore 

 their autumn colors, and splotches 

 of yellow and red and brown loomed 

 up beside and before us. The vil- 

 lage of Mentor is not much more 

 than a single long street, and as we 

 drove through there came to mind 

 Tennyson's line — 



" Through the long street of a little town." 



Well out upon the western end of 

 this street, and somewhat isolated 

 from the others, stands the house 

 to which so many pilgrimages were 

 made during the memorable politi- 

 cal campaign of 1880. The house 

 has been changed somewhat since 

 that time, but yet has no particular 

 feature to distinguish it from others 

 about, except a stone addition upon 

 the north-east, which has been built since the presi- 

 dent's death for the purpose of housing safely his 

 books and manuscripts. The front of the dwelling 

 shows what it was and still is — -an unpretentious 

 brown frame farm house, adapted to the changed 

 conditions that have been wrought by the encom- 

 passing of the farm into the village. The marked 

 feature that impresses one here, and for a long dis- 

 tance along this lake shore, is that the country is 

 almost a continuous village. The farms which lay 

 upon either side of the road upon which the Gar- 



The Historic Lane. 



field place fronts seem to partake more of the char- 

 acter of comfortable suburban houses than of the 

 farm, per se. The road, which should be called a 



