The mere politician allies himself to the man who is prominent for the time being, but Mr. Stow looks to the men who really control.

4. He instinctively discerns, with true generalship, the special aptitudes of individuals, and he knows exactly what each can and cannot do. He therefore gathers about him from all parts of the State the most efficient men, and thus wisely marshals, drills He is also familiar with the names, persons, and characters of all the rising men of the commonwealth.

and combines his forces.

5. He knows the exact strength of his own forces, and that of his opponent. 6. He is conciliatory in his relations with men, and never antagonizes, nor foments discord for any purpose. When possible, he places men under obligation to him by kind words and timely encouragement; and, when he can do so, he furthers their ambition. In this way he links his own plans with the hopes of others. He has many ways of creating cordial relations with men. He accepts the advice of the humblest, and never despises any man. He is scrupulously polite to his subordinates, and requests the performance of duty as a personal favor to himself. He gives to his co-workers the credit that belongs to himself. He originates plans and allows other men to think that they are their own. He thus seems to follow when he is really leading. In this way he wins alacrity. He reserves to himself simply the quiet enjoyment of work.

This leader makes his combinations in advance of all other leaders, and at a time when other men are waiting for events. Most men collapse after a victory or a defeat, and do not soon renew their efforts; but Mr. Stow makes his combinations while others are asleep. He is aggressive, intrepid, has faith in himself and in men, and he pushes on through day and night, calm and storm. There is no enterprise that daunts him, and he dares to undertake seeming impossibilities.

In the following amusing recital, from Grey's "Pioneer Times," a rare old book of reminiscence, the "S" referred to is no other than our friend, Mr. Stow:

After the organization of the State under the first Constitution, a lawyer by the name of Pur Lee, was appointed County Judge of Santa Cruz county, and a man by the name of Peter Tracy was elected County Clerk. The Judge was an American, and the Clerk was Irish by birth. When sober they were both refined gentlemen in appearance and manners, but, unfortunately, they were equally opposed to long spells of sobriety, which was often the cause of the most ridiculous scenes in the Judge's Court.

Soon after Pur Lee went on the bench in Santa Cruz, there came to the county, to try his luck in the practice of the law, a Mr. S., a finely educated young lawyer, who is now well known among us as one of our most wealthy citizens. He was of fine appearance and pleasing manners, so he was not long left briefless. The very first case given in his charge was an important one, and involved a considerable amount. It was to be tried before Judge Pur Lee. S. prepared it with great care, and as it was a jury case, he thought over the speech he was to make on the occasion. In fact, he rehearsed it in a lonesome spot on the seashore, like the orator of old, where, amid the sullen thunder of the dashing wild waves of the Pacific, he gave his voice full vent. The trial day came; the case was an interesting one, and the court room was well filled with spectators. The evidence was all taken, and looked favorable to our friend S's side. He arose to sum up; and after reviewing the testimony, dashed right into his seaside speech.

All now appeared to be in wild excitement in the court room, to his imagination. His memory did not fail him, and he had just entered on the Fourth of July part of his speech, which he considered most beautiful, and was away up among the stars in the are firmament, when, to his consternation, the Judge interrupted him with:

"Mr. S., I have an authority here which I would like to consult before we proceed further, as to that last statement you made to the jury."

S. is almost thrown into despair at this unexpected blow from his honor, the Judge, but, wiping the perspiration from his forehead, he stammers out:

"Well, your honor, what is the authority you wish to look at?”

The Judge quietly looks down from his bench upon Tracy, the Clerk, who was seated at his desk, before him, saying in the coolest way:

"Peter, hand out that authority."

Peter, equally unmoved, without answering, drew from under his desk a well filled demijohn, three or four glasses and a pitcher of water, placing them all on the bench before the Judge. The Judge, then, while deliberately helping himself to a well filled glass, says:

"Come, Mr. S., I know you must be dry, and you have over-excited that jury, so they had better come too. And Mr. Crane, your opponent, had better come also; for I see plainly that he has lost this case and needs a little consolation."

In astonishment, up walks S., in company with the jury, officials, lawyers and all, to enjoy the refreshment of the demijohn.

After a second round of drinks the Judge exclaimed, addressing the jury:

"I believe, boys, you are going to give this case to S."

To this the jury all assented; so the Judge, turning to George Crane, continued: "That being the case, George, there is no use in pressing the matter further; it would only be a loss of time, and, besides, I see it is dinner hour."

Then, turning to S., he said:

"You can just reserve the rest of that speech for your next case; I see you have it well committed, and are not likely to forget it. It will do for almost any occasion, you know, and I thought it a pity to let you throw it away on a case already won."

This created merriment at S's expense, which he quieted by taking Frank Alzina's hint. Frank was the Sheriff, and in social tastes was something of the same sort with the Judge and Clerk.

The hint he gave to S. was that as soon as they reached the hotel for dinner, a basket of champagne would be in order.

S's friends in Santa Cruz county, when telling this story, always add that S. did in fact utilize that broken-off speech afterwards, on the occasion of his being elected Speaker of the California House of Assembly, two years later.

Be this as it may, it is certain that to this day the usual way of asking a friend to drink in Santa Cruz is, "let us consult an authority."

CHAPTER XXX.

Selden 8. Wright-A Vice-Chancellor in Mississippi-Probate and County Judge in San Francisco-Defeated for Supreme Judge-His Clever Critique on One of Starr King's Lectures-Incidental Allusions to the Great Orator and Divine-Some Notes of His Family.

Selden S. Wright is one who, whether at the bar or on the bench, has always been an exceptional favorite with the profession and the public-a quiet, genial character, yet a man of painstaking effort, always pursuing worthy ends and accomplishing good work. He was born in Virginia, on the 7th of March, 1822, and graduated at, William and Mary College at the age of twenty. Going to Mississippi to practice law, he followed the profession there, at Lexington, from 1843 to 1851. He then removed to Yazoo City, and within a year was elected vice-chancellor of the middle district of that State. In 1855 he was re-elected, but in the same year resigned, and resumed law practice at Carrollton, and pursuing it until his removal to California, which was in 1859, he taking up his residence in San Francisco in January, 1860. In that city he practiced law until his election as Probate Judge in 1868. He served a full term of four years. In 1874 he was commissioned by Gov. Booth, who was of opposite politics, to fill a vacancy in the office of County Judge of San Francisco, and in 1875 he was elected to the same position for a full term of four years.

In 1871 Judge Wright was the Democratic candidate for Judge of the Supreme Court, for the long or full term, and was defeated by A. L. Rhodes, Republican. He resigned his place on the Probate bench when nominated for the higher office. It was before him, as Probate Judge, the celebrated Hawes will case was tried-stated in the chapter on Gen. Barnes. He has been associated in law practice at various times in San Francisco with D. P. Belknap, John F. Swift, George A. Nourse, and his own sons, Stuart S. and George T. Wright. He has been successful in his practice, and his residence is one of the most delightful in the metropolis, where he has raised a large family.

In early manhood Judge Wright contributed largely to the secular and religious press, in which connection it may be stated that he is an active member of the First Baptist church of San Francisco, having been baptized into that denomination in Mississippi at the age of twenty-one.

I have desired occasion to connect the commanding name of Thomas Starr King with my work, and Judge Wright has given the opportunity. Thomas Starr King was not a lawyer, but he enjoyed peculiarly the admiration of the bar, and is often associated with lawyers in the public

mind, especially with Baker-See Chapter I. The great man died at San Francisco in 1864, at the age of thirty-nine. His only son, Frederic R. King, is a lawyer in that city, and pressing into prominence as a member of the law firm of Fox, Kellogg & King. This son was born in San Francisco on April 4, 1862, was educated at the public schools of that city, and graduated from Harvard College with the class of 1884. He was married in 1885 to a daughter of S. B. Boswell, and has two children, both boys, the younger bearing his grandfather's name in full. Thomas Starr King's widow married Mr. William Norris, Secretary of the Spring Valley Water Company of San Francisco, in 1866. The only daughter of Mr. King is the wife of Hon. Horace Davis, President of the University of California. There is one child of this union, a boy, born in 1876.

I have said this much by way of introduction to a very pleasant critique by Judge Selden S. Wright upon one of Thomas Starr King's most noted lectures. The subject of the lecture was "Personal Power and its Voices." Judge Wright gave his observations at the time to the old Daily Herald, May 30, 1860. I now reproduce them:

When the lecturer announced his theme, and went to his work, there was that about him which gave assurance of a man. Those who had heard him knew what to expect, and those who had not, felt, before the first page of the manuscript was flirted over, that their thoughts were held captive by a master mind.

The theme was one calculated to call out the highest points of the speaker-"Personal Power and its Voices." He speaks with ease and grace; words with him are the signs of ideas, and none of them are wasted. Each one in its appropriate place is significant. His voice is clear and strong-silvery in its tone, rather than deep and melodious. He is almost entirely free from affectation; his articulation is very distinct; his language chaste; his style easy and flowing, as smooth as a mountain lake, and sparkling and bright as the rivulet which leaps to its embrace. Some droll humor and some keen wit are mingled in his discourse, with occasional flights into the sublime, when you are borne up as on eagle's wings, and with blood pressing at the heart, and suspended breath, you are relieved, when, with the eagle's swoop, you are brought down again,

Many and great were the truths, both new and old, brought out and illustrated for the benefit of the admiring and appreciative audience. A vast storehouse of food for thought and reflection was unlocked and distributed.

There would be material enough for a book. It may suffice to say that the lecturer proceeded to show that the voices of personal power are as numerous as the callings and occupations of man. That it utters itself not only in books, or essays, or speeches, or paintings, or sculpture, but in all the acts of life. That it is this personal power which painted on the imagination the steamship, battling with tempests on the stormy ocean, whilst the steamship itself is the voice or expression of that power, by which the world knows of its existence. That those who manifest the possession of this power by words written or spoken have received more than their due proportion of praise. That we are accustomed to award the meed of greatness to the impassioned orator who can embody the very spirit of justice, and hold it up for our contemplation, whilst the man in humble walks, who has the same exalted conception, and has expressed it in all the arts of his life, is the greater of the two.

Many and beautiful were the illustrations of this personal power and the voices which utter it. From the bright group we can only choose a few. Among them were the flash of Webster's eye, the tones of Henry's voice, the sweep of Clay's arm, the pallor of Choate's face, the almost transfiguration of Booth when he repeated the Lord's Prayer, the light that beamed from Wordsworth's eye, and the pouring out by David upon the parched earth the water which had been offered to his more parched lips.

Truth, abstract truth, is nothing, argued Mr. King. It must be embodied in the man, and the man must be big enough to hold it, or he could never utter it with power. It must take hold of and develop the latent heat, and be illumined by its flashes before it can be effective. The sublimest truths read even from the word of God, or repeated in sermons, are but as lullabies to soothe an audience into sleep, unless embodied in the man and sent forth accordingly.

The sublime lesson is taught from the Bible and the pulpit that the world shall be saved, not from the fact that the Word was written, or that the Word was eloquent, or that the Word was made literature, but that "the Word was made flesh."

With these last words the lecture was finishe. As a whole, it was a loud voice which attested the great power of the speaker. From some of the details of the conclusions and illustrations I could but dissent. One was the illustration taken from Scott's character of Jeanie Deans, and Shakespeare's Cordelia.

If, argued the lecturer, to draw such a character as Jeanie Deans manifested so much power, even more would that power be manifested by acting the life of Jeanie Deans.

This conclusion is incorrect, and would lead to absurdities. For instance, Dickens has displayed as much genius in drawing the character of the elder Mr. Weller as in any of his characters, except, perhaps, in the few lines he has given us of "Tom's all alone." The same process of reasoning would lead us to the conclusion that if we could find the embodiment of Mr. Weller, Senior, or the lowly Tom, we should have in each a greater man than the immortal Boz.

Mere words, argued Mr. King, are nothing. The truths which they express, to be effective, must be embodied in him who utters them. Whilst this is true, as a general rule, the lecturer furnished a remarkable instance proving that it is not true always. Coleridge and a nameless individual are made to meet in view of a mountain cataract. Coleridge fails to remember the word adequate to express the idea which fills his mind. The word comes from the lips of the unknown with power and effect. "This is majestic," says the nameless one. Coleridge, with his very soul touched, shakes him by the hand, filled with admiration. See what power is in a bare word! That which follows shows that it was pushed out by no surcharged thought. But in attempting to improve his hold upon Coleridge's admiration, he says: "Yes, it is the majesticest, prettiest thing," etc. Of course admiration vanishes, and disgust fills its place. Now, had the unknown been struck by lightning immediately after uttering his first sentenceand it is a pity for his reputation that he hadn't been-Coleridge would doubtless have placed his name in song along with the Ancient Mariner, and embalmed it with the oil of immortality, and Mr. Starr King would have said over the stricken corpse, "There dwelt personal power, and that word majestic was its voice." Oh, the weakness of mere words, according to Mr. King's theory; and yet, Oh, the strength of mere words according to Mr. King's illustration.

We think there is a stratum of thought connected with the subject which Mr. King has not yet explored, which is necessary to mix in with the soil whence he takes such a noble crop of ideas and truths.

It is that ability itself, especially in oratory, is dependent in no small degree upon