sponded with unequivocal demonstrations of cordiality.

His appearance astonished us even more than it had done in the moonlight. By the light of day we saw that his skin was a light green color; his lips were violet; his eyes strangely round and flat, with scarcely any white, the iris being the color of a carbuncle and the pupil indented and very large. Added to this there was a peculiar gracefulness and lithesomeness in his movements. I examined him at length and attentively, especially his eyes, the like of which I had never seen in any human being.

After tying Geo on the raft he signed to us to board it, too. We complied, though not without a certain distrust, which was accentuated when he disappeared under the water again, and the raft began to move off in the singular manner in which it had come to us.

We caught sight of our conductor now and then in the thick, slimy water, encumbered with vegetation, and although we had been floating along for twenty minutes he had not risen to the surface. Our camping ground of the previous night was left far behind. The scenery began to change. The water was clearer, and we skirted several delightful little islands.

The head of the Man of the Waters, as we had decided to call him, presently bobbed up. He pointed to the southward, and went under again. The breeze brought a cooler, purer air with it. Soon the stretch of marshes became narrower; we passed through a shallow channel and found ourselves scudding over a magnificent lake of cold, limpid water in an atmosphere that was positively heavenly.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

W

ITH his inauguration as Governor of New York on January 1st, Charles Evans Hughes, utterly unknown to the public a few months ago, again comes before the public eye. Politicians of the "honest" and dishonest graft type, who have pursued their sinister calling in Albany for so many years with little molestation; representatives of what Mr. Hearst termed "predatory corporations;" public officials whose administrations would be blackened by the light of day, await with anxiety the coming of this quiet, forceful, determined man. The great mass of the people of the State, particularly the thousands of Democrats who cast their votes last November for a Republican nominee, will watch the preliminary moves of the new Executive with intensified expectancy.

The keen eyes of Mr. Hughes's august patron, President Roosevelt, who told the wavering leaders and delegates at Saratoga that Mr. Hughes must lead the Republican forces against Hearst and Hearstism, are fixed on Albany, and for two years will search every act of the Governor. Tentative and actual candidates for the Republican Presidential nomination in 1908 will look jealously upon Charles E. Hughes's success and will inwardly rejoice if he fall. The nation itself, busy as it is with its own affairs, will direct at least an occasional glance upon New York's Governor while a very possible Presi

dent of these United States is undergoing a crucial test.

Rarely has a man had such an opportunity as Charles E. Hughes. True it is that a capable administration as Governor of New York does not mean necessarily elevation to the Presidency. Mr. Hughes's opportunity does not lie alone in the fact that the country usually turns instinctively toward this State for one or more of its candidates. His greater strength as a Presidential possibility is that he is representative of the new order in politics; a product of the popular wrath against political bossism. It is ridiculously early and futile to discuss Mr. Hughes seriously or at length as a possible Presidential candidate, before he has made his record as Governor of New York, but it is not amiss to say that if he continues his dissociation from political chicanery and meets in other ways the expectations of those who elected him he will be a formidable factor in the contest, if it be a contest, for the Republican nomination eighteen months hence.

Leaving Mr. Roosevelt out of consideration, and accepting the wellgrounded opinion that the present popular temper will not be changed in a few short months, the people will have none of an Elihu Root, brilliant and capable as he is, but reeking with past corporation affiliations; none of an "Uncle Joe" Cannon, vainly trying to conceal with the cunning of a fox, his predilection for the trusts. This is an

era of reform in politics, and no mere politician nor corporation advocate nor (blatant reformer need cast envious eyes upon the Presidency. Mr. Hughes is none of these, and therefore will be among those to whom the country will turn in 1908-provided, in the parlance of the day, he "makes good" as Governor of New York.

This man who is taking the Governor's chair is, indeed, an anomaly in the way of a Chief Executive of this State in that he has had no political experience. Some great men have held this high office-Tilden, Cleveland, Roosevelt, but all had been politicians before their election. Until the legislative investigation of the lighting situation in New York City in the spring of 1905, Charles E. Hughes was not known outside of the legal fraternity and his immediate circle of friends. Close application to his profession gave him little time for club life or social relaxation, yet while he is not what is colloquially known as a "good fellow," he is by no means an ascetic. When the New York Assemblymen were looking for a lawyer to conduct the investigation of the socalled Gas Trust they called on a number of attorneys, but each, for some reason, declined to accept the appointment.

"Charles E. Hughes is the man you want," said two or three of them. They went to see him. He thought that it was to be an investigation of the political whitewashing kind and he declined. Then the committee sent this message:

"We are after the truth. We mean to find it. No one can call us off." "That's different," was the reply. "I will serve on those terms."

His skillful handling of the probe astonished the committee and the opposing counsel. Figures did not seem to trouble Mr. Hughes any more than they would a practical accountant. He appeared to be as familiar with the intricacies of gas engineering as an expert in that profession. His reputa

tion as a lawyer was enhanced, but the public took little interest in the inquiry, dealing largely, as it did, with dry statistics and technical subjects.

Charles E. Hughes might never have been heard of again, nad it not been for his second great opportunity in the insurance investigation a few weeks later.

As a large part of the civilized world knows, it was Mr. Hughes's brilliant work in that inquiry that focused national interest and admiration upon him. It was here that he achieved the national, nay, international, distinction that made him an inevitable political possibility and established his reputation for courage, clear-sightedness and marked ability. The public was eager to know more of the personal side of this man who had suddenly risen to such heights of fame, and the newspapers, as is their wont, supplied the information to the minutest detail. Much foolish and ill-informed biographical matter, concerning him, appeared in the daily prints and in the "Sunday supplements," but in the maze of flattery and insignificant detail about his home life, it was made clear that Mr. Hughes's character was as solid as his intellect; that his record was clean; that his moral convictions were deep and sincere; that his ideals were high; that he was neither a prig, a pedant nor a Puritan.

Mr. Hughes was recognized as a political potentiality even before his work as counsel for the Insurance Investigation Committee was completed. All unsought he was nominated by the Republicans for Mayor of New York in the summer of 1905. Three days later, knowing that his insurance work was still incomplete, he declined the nomination, which was then given to William M. Ivins. His election in this heavily Democratic city would have been practically impossible, and there are good grounds for the suspicion that the purpose of the nomination of Mr. Hughes was either to preclude further revelations in the insurance inquiry

that might bring down other high political leaders in the great wreck of reputations that it had caused, or to discredit Mr. Hughes politically by his leadership of an inevitably losing battle. The last-named theory is easily credible.

Barring President Roosevelt, whose power in New York politics is virtually invincible, and his young protege, Congressman Herbert Parsons, the Republican leaders of the State looked with alarm upon the rise of Mr. Hughes. He was not of their kind. His evident honesty and tenacity of purpose were recognized and feared. Utterly untutored in politics, his course in office, perhaps, could not be guided by the unseen hands that so often have directed public policies in this State along the line of "practical politics." In other words, these politicians believed, and with justification, let us hope, that Mr. Hughes could not be controlled, that he would even throw party expediency to the winds. Such fears existed before the nominating convention at Saratoga and they exist now. Determined as they were to retain control of the machine the politicians were ready and willing to risk defeat by nominating Gov. Higgins, the weak and vacillating, or Lieut.-Gov. Bruce, the impossible, or that able but crafty spoilsman, former Governor Black.

President Roosevelt read aright the temper of the people. He recognized the danger of Hearstism and commanded the nomination of Mr. Hughes. The election proved how accurate was the judgment of the President. Mr. Hearst's personality caused his defeat; Mr. Hughes's personality won him the victory. The election of Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler as Lieutenant-Governor and all other Democrats on the State ticket of the Democratic party, except Mr. Hearst, shows conclusively that any reasonably strong Democrat, with Mr. Hearst's support, could have been elected, and that a machine Republican to whom independent Democrats would

not rally, as they did to Mr. Hughes, would have been defeated. Democratic votes elected Mr. Hughes, and he is, therefore, under a moral obligation to give an administration that is at least measurably nonpartisan. That will be one of the standards by which Mr. Hughes will be judged.

With all his independence and strength of character, the promise of his achievements and Mr. Hughes's own promises on the platform it is by no means certain he will emerge from this ordeal unscathed. His opportunity is great, but so is his task. New York has never known a situation like this. It has never enjoyed the luxury of a nonpolitical Governor, of having in its Chief Executive chair a man who had not sought public acclaim, who had been literally drafted for this high office.

One must hark back to the days when Grover Cleveland suddenly sprung from the obscurity of a law office in Buffalo to the highest place in the State's gift for a comparison, but that is not excessively apt, as Mr. Cleveland had known public life as Sheriff of Erie County and Mayor of Buffalo before his election as Governor. The greater similarity is that Mr. Cleveland, like Mr. Hughes, was called to save the State from ignominy. Cleveland rose to his opportunity, but is Charles E. Hughes another "man of destiny"? There is no good reason why he should not prove such, but the difficulties he will face will require even greater courage and moral stamina than he was called upon to display in the insurance investigation. Many times there will be an issue between the public interest and his party organization, and Mr. Hughes must take his stand, Present standards by which an executive is judged are different from those of old days, when a man whose allegiance was equally divided between the people and his party could be called "a good Governor." From Mr. Hughes, especially, more is expected. He is in office