give and which he himself might condonebut he would not let himself escape the penalty he believed he should exact of his ambition.

"Please do not interrupt me, my friends," he said. "What I am about to tell you is a difficult thing to phrase. But you must know it. I have never before bared my soul to any living being, except my old friend, Mr. Lapham. My wife and children do not know what I am going to say, but it hurts me more to say it to you than it does even to them. They will be more sympathetic, perhaps; but I feel that in having to give you this information I stand in the place of a man who has cheated his neighbors and—” he paused brokenly-"himself!" he managed to

utter.

THE

HE reporters were writing furiously now, eager to get every word of what promised to be a most sensational story, and the crowd stood spellbound.

"To accept this nomination," Coulton began, "would be like obtaining a thing of precious value under false pretenses. You have known me as a hard worker, as a successful business man, and you have given me your friendship as well as your complete confidence. I cannot betray that confidence. Under the surface which you admire is a shame of which you do not know."

He paused for a moment, set his jaw firmly, and then said slowly, but very distinctly:

"I have been in jail."

The crowd gasped, and Mrs. Coulton swayed a little as her son slipped his arm firmly about her.

"It startles you, but it is true," Coulton continued, "and, because it is true, I must refuse the high honor you offer me. I do so not because my political opponents might make capital of it, but because my own conscience forbids my running for office. It is a penalty I must inflict upon myself, an example of self-chastisement and true repentance I owe to others in the unfortunate predicament in which I found myself.”

TH

HEN, as his audience listened spellbound to his dramatic, pathetic narration, Coulton told them of the hungry lad, desperate and despondent. "It was probably because of my shame that I must have impressed the police magistrate as being a degenerate criminal. I was bitter at first: but, during my term in jail. I took sober council with myself. I prayed for guidance, and it came. I stepped from prison with a fresh point of view and a fresh determination to begin again. The boy I once was had died. I will not dishonor him by telling you

Coulton shook his head. "I have not related this painful story in order to gain your sympathy, but in order that you may know the truth about my life before I came to Meadville. Since that day, thank God, I have never had cause to feel ashamed. My life, since that day, has been an open book. I've been able to look every one of you squarely in the face; I've enjoyed the happy life of a man who lives rightly."

For a moment there was silence after he had finished. The crowd stood staring at him unbelievingly. If these words had come from the lips of another, or if they had been printed in the columns of a newspaper, they would instantly have been branded as infamous lies. Yet these hundreds of men and women had just heard Samuel D. Coulton deliberately and in detail blacken his own character.

Then the reaction set in. The crowd seemed to see the flash-back of that picture of the hungry youth, out of work, stealing fruit to keep from starving. His hearers could well-imagine that young Coulton's shame had made him seem a sullen, hardened criminal, who had deceived judge and jury. And, suddenly, there startled a ripple of good-natured laughter. It brought the flush of shame to Coulton's cheeks, for he misunderstood it.

Mrs. Coulton stepped hastily to his side and slipped her hand into that of her husband. His son and daughter drew closer in a bond of sympathy and sorrow.

But it was the president of the bank who stepped forward and took the stage.

"My friends," Mr. Lapham began. "You have heard what Mr. Coulton has said. It is but another proof of his great conscience and his absolutely flawless character. Who among us has not committed as great or greater crimes at some time in his life? We all know that our punitive system makes mistakes, and, sometimes, unjustly punishes. To-day the young filcher of fruit would have been helped by reform agents, and not penalized as was this man when he was a boy. His indiscretion was committed thirty-five years ago! Things were different then."

A great shout of approval went up. Coulton stood with bowed head and closed eyes, but Lapham did not intend to let his control of the crowd escape him now. He had that crowd in the hollow of his hand, and he knew it.

"When the news of the nomination first came

to him," he said, "Mr. Coulton told me this story, that had been buried in his heart in all the years he had been building up the wonderful career that has resulted in his nickname 'Old Integrity.' I begged him to say nothing of it. I tried to assure him that other men with real stains on their reputations have held officemen far less worthy than he. But this marvelous man would not hear of it. It was not the fear of exposure by his opponents during the campaign, but the deep-rooted thought that he must not run for office. He wished to decline without revealing his true reason. That was but natural; for he did not care to pain his wife and children with the story he has so fearlessly told you. But when you pressed him, as you had every right to do, he said-just what you have heard to-night

"Coulton! Coulton! Coulton!" roared the hundreds of voices. "Coulton's good enough for us!"

A

LOOK of ecstacy came into Mrs. Coulton's eyes as the tears welled from her husband's. They were the tears of a strong man moved more deeply than he had ever been moved in his life.

"What did I tell you!" shouted Judge Morrison eagerly in Coulton's ear. "Now you've had your way. Let me go on with my notification speech and then you talk to 'em again and accept, man, accept. It's a walkover!"

All was babel for a few moments, during which Coulton tried to get a new grip on himself. At length he did so.

As the crowd realized that he was about to speak, it became silent, and his words rang out with a new crispness, a new joy, a new ton of conviction.

"You cannot imagine how my heart has responded to your wonderful vote of confidence, your wonderful forgiveness, and your evident love for me," Coulton began. "It has been balm to the pain that was torturing me when I spoke, and which has tortured me for days and nights, as I thought of these dreaded moments. But I am going to ask you to bear with me just once more, and that you will think carefully of what I am going to say now."

He paused, evidently overcome with emotion, yet clear in his diction and erect and soldierly in his poise. There was not a sound until he began again.

"Perhaps because of my own early experience, I have been keenly interested all my life in the reform and the future of those discharged from our prisons. I have had opportunity to be helpful to many such unfortunates, and I have had

the great delight of seeing many of them become earnest, law-abiding, useful men, happy in their new life of right doing. I have rejoiced in it, as I have in my own successful and honorable walk through life's long path.

"But often in the still of the night, I have thought that this experience might come to me one day. And I prepared, yes, steeled myself to face it. Greater than individual virtue, greater than ability and industry, are the institutions of our great nation. Every office within the gift of the people, from the highest to the lowest, is an office of grave responsibility. No man should be elected to any post of public trust unless that man in every daily step of his life has walked in such a manner as to reflect credit upon the office and the electorate that places him there.

"It may be true that dishonest men have held office. It may be true that some of the great have had stains on their shields. Perhaps their subsequent careers have more than condoned for their early offenses. It may be true that I have done so. It may be that I would make an able and conscientious Senator. I hope to God I would-and-before God, I wish I could. you must bear with my firm and unbending belief. The shadow of prison bars-no matter how faint-has no place on the form of a Senator of the United States. That is why I cannot and will not accept this nomination. That is why I will not serve as United States Senator from this State!"

TH

But

HERE was fire in his eyes as he finished, and the crowd stood there in dumb amazement. Slowly Coulton turned away and looked with emotion into the blazing eyes of his wife.

Lapham stepped to the edge of the porch, and his deep voice made itself heard above the enthusiastic din.

"Fellow citizens," he said, "I believe you will agree with me that Samuel D. Coulton is a greater man this moment than he ever would have been had he sat in the United States Senate or even in the Presidential chair. He has set this country-and particularly its office seekers -an example from which it can never swerve. The man must measure up to his office to the last inch."

The wildest cheers confirmed these words, and Coulton bowed, deeply affected, as he walked slowly in doors with his wife and children.

"Sam," said Mrs. Coulton, as he took her in his arms, "I was never so proud of you in all my life. You're bigger than the biggest man I ever dreamed you'd be!”

THE END.

W

HAT a lot of people need is a good live hobby," declared Rowland Haynes emphatically.

"I have in mind folks of middle age who have acquired sedentary habits even in their recreations," he continued. "Both business and society have laid cramping hands on their freedom, and the very suggestion of exercise is repugnant to them. The athletic and outdoor activities of youth have given place to committee meetings, club gatherings, dinners, business and social affairs. In none of these things are they required to put forth very much mental or physical effort, and the result is that many are living in the early stages of intellectual and bodily stagnation. This sort of life eventually ends in some disease of the heart, lungs, arteries, nerves, or stomach. No man thus afflicted is able to do good work.

"A person engaged in a sedentary occupation may grub along for some time just about half alive, not really understanding what ails him, until he goes to smash, and has to be sent to a sanitarium for repairs. A few wake up before the crash comes and save themselves by going in for golf, tennis, and other forms of recreation. A much larger group dope themselves with all sorts of patent panaceas, while others try indoor gymnastics. But the mass of indoor workers do not pay much attention to such matters. If they ever get out of the ruts at all somebody will have to 'do some cranking.' Such folks need a hobby -something that will take control of them, and give a different twist to their lives."

Clark, and served as a professor at Chicago University and the University of Minnesota without becoming a "highbrow." Indeed, his fondness for people caused him to abandon his "professorial career," as he terms it, and invest five years of his time as field secretary of the Playground and Recreation Association of America. For two years, he was secretary of recreation for New York City, under the Board of Estimate and Appropriation, and, later, director of war-camp activities in New York. Last March, he stopped off in Cleveland to put in a few years coordinating and developing the play facilities and play leadership for adults as well as children:It is a "whale" of an undertaking, and has already brought forth five or six books by way of getting a good start.

"What is your definition of a hobby?” I asked Mr. Haynes.

"A favorite pursuit which a man enjoys during his spare time," was the quick response. "One would hardly think of a hobby as a moneymaking affair, or as a rival of the main business of life, and yet, it can be made profitable. It should involve some physical effort, preferably in the open air. A mind worker can best rest himself by performing light outdoor work. The point is not so much to engage in violent exercise, as it is to get the mind entirely off the strain and demands of the regular job. Very often just 'puttering' around the house or yard, mowing the lawn, tinkering with an automobile, or making playthings for the children, will give the mind the desired relaxation.

"As you probably know, President Wilson and former Justice Charles E. Hughes rested from affairs of State by reading detective stories full of hair-raising action. Grover Cleveland, when he was President, found relaxation in fishing and in painting children's toys and odds and ends of household furniture. George Washington loved to train baby foxes. On the other hand, William

the Conqueror enjoyed a dog fight, and kept dogs for that purpose. Napoleon relieved his jaded mind by constructing puzzles, and Daniel Webster made a hobby of painting the faces of his cattle. He gave them frequent changes of color and laughed heartily at the bewilderment of his friends who did not know of his skill with a paint brush.

66

"A

The Hobbies of Great Men

DISTINGUISHED Boston preacher had a most unusual hobby. He was a man past middle age, but there were times when he wanted to be a boy again. He gratified his longing by playing with toy locomotives and trains. Two rooms on the third floor of his home were devoted to his railroad system, and when he felt in need of mental relaxation he would amuse himself by the hour with his little cars. Nobody knows how many ideas for sermons and addresses flashed into his mind while he was thus engaged. There was very little physical exercise in what this preacher did, but there was an immense amount of real rest in it.

"In New York, a former prosecuting attorney found relaxation in a basement carpenter-shop. He loved to get away from his law books, and the strife of the court room, and 'make things' with saw, plane, and hammer.

"There is a man in Cleveland who recuperates in a similar way. One Christmas, his wife, in an effort to be original, presented him with a box of tools. He did not know a brace and bit from a jack plane, but he made up his mind to learn. During the day he is employed at a brainracking job, but he plays with his tools at night. He has designed and constructed bedroom furnishings, music cabinets, lamp stands, card tables, and other useful articles with his own hands.

"In another part of the city, is a widely known scientist who plays with a fully equipped machineshop which he has set up in his own house. That shop is a place of joy to him, and he comes out of it greatly refreshed. In contrast. I recall a machinery manufacturer whose hobby is astronomy. At quite an outlay he has built an observatory and installed a powerful telescope, with which he takes photographs of the sun, moon, and stars. Now and then he invites in the neighbors and gives them free lectures on the heavenly bodies.

"A piano dealer, in a city of the Northwest, makes a hobby of inviting children to his Sunday school. Every Saturday he closes his store at

tend Sunday school and church task or matter of duty with hi of getting recreation.

66

“IN

Adults in Games with 'N connection with our play I have heard of instances years of age and upwards have in the games of children at the streets that have been roped off with a large ball and a short ba with these older men, who d strenuous exertion of the regula This is the kind of hobby that I Those who participate will be thereby.

"I know a woman who jus around' as she calls it. Her three ducks, twenty-one chick pigs, thirty cabbage plants, a She gets a lot of fun out of wha

"Another instance comes to has made a hobby of his front the care of the grass and tre children until, one day, he aw that he needed light exercis health, so he decided to get it lawn. His property now ha pearance, and the owner is a cent more efficient. He is st trees, the development of g keep a lawn-mower sharp.

"A lot of fellows shrink from kinds of physical exercise, w playing a lone game. The hobby I can think of is to be and walk. Set an easy stride a miles right through the cit country. There are a lot of m selves in fair working condi But plan to end your journe store. If you walk part way, in a car, you run the risk o have heard of a very succes who recovered his broken three miles each morning, dri water daily, eating light meal at nine. He is now a vigo pointed out as a pacemaker men in the business."

How a Hobby Affec R. HAYNES went on veloping this idea of finally he struck off on a new

bition. The point I am about to make has been developed by experiments in a big manufacturingplant. Men are induced to take up something outside of their regular work, as a means of recreation. Quite a number have gone in for raising chickens. Some have tackled bees, while others are trying something else. The company pays half the cost of the hobby.

"Riding a hobby during your spare time ministers to your self-satisfaction. It gives a feeling of success. Defeats and failures are the

common lot. Many men are restless under the exactions of a boss. It irritates them to be obliged to take orders. Did you ever feel cramped or choked, as if you wanted to express yourself and could not quite find a way? Suppose you should go home in the evening all out of tune because of the irritations of the day? You have failed and you feel humiliated. You have a hobby which takes you into a different world. You begin making something. Your mind travels in an entirely new groove. The thoughts and feel