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DEATHS OF GOVERNOR FOSTER AND GOVERNOR BUSHNELL.

It was a singular coincidence that almost contemporaneously with the death of Senator Hanna the deaths also of Governor Foster and Governor Bushnell should have occurred.

On his way to Columbus to attend the inauguration of Governor Herrick, Governor Foster stopped over night at Springfield with his old-time friend, General J. Warren Keifer. While thus visiting he was suddenly stricken and died the following day, January 9th, 1904, at General Keifer's residence.

Governor Bushnell attended the inauguration and was on his way to the depot to take the train for his home at Springfield when, while alone in his carriage, he was fatally stricken. Instead of taking the train he was taken to a hospital, where he died a few days later, January 15th, 1904.

To have two such distinguished ex-Governors of Ohio pass away so suddenly and unexpectedly at practically the same time gave a severe shock to the people of our State, which was still more keenly felt when Senator Hanna so quickly followed them.

These were all great men and good men.

They were often opposed to each other in our factional contests, but almost without exception they were warm personal friends until there came a break between Governor Bushnell and Senator Hanna in connection with Senator Hanna's first election to the Senate. Their names will always be associated in a distinguished and honorable way with the history of the State they served so long and so faithfully,

SINCE

CHAPTER XXXVI.

JOSEPH BENSON FORAKER, JR.

INCE dictating the foregoing chapter a deep sorrow has overtaken me and all my family. Our first-born lies cold and rigid in death; his marble-like face looking up to the stars he so loved to study.

For years I have cherished the thought that I had a strong staff to lean upon in my last days. Now it is broken, and the fond hopes and bright promises of a vigorous manhood are withered and scattered.

Friends were more than kind and hundreds of telegrams and letters expressing sympathy for the living and tender tributes of praise for the dead have been pouring in upon us from every direction.

His casket was literally embowered with floral pieces of the most beautiful design.

The dear Bishop who officiated spoke words of comfort and consolation and everything was done that could be suggested by the most sincere friendship and thoughtful kindness to assuage the grief of the hour. But all in vain! He is gone! Henceforth he sleeps with the dead—forever out of sight, but never out of memory.

His work seemed only begun, when like a young tree snapped by the storm he was cut down; yet he did not live in vain.

He leaves a precious memory that will forever teach to all who knew him patience, kindness and consideration for others.

Such a life cannot die. Its ending here is but the beginning yonder; for such a soul there must be a glorious rising on the shores of immortality, where all will meet again.

From earliest boyhood he was one of my closest companions. In the public schools, in the university, in the law school, in the law office, as the Secretary of the Senate Committee of which I was Chairman, and as a soldier in the Spanish-American war, his record was one of uninterrupted achievement, of which any father might well be proud.

He had a strong intellectual endowment, a remarkable memory-remarkable not only for its power of retention, but for its accuracy.

He delighted not in a close study, but in the acquisition of a general knowledge of most of the natural sciencesgeology, mineralogy, chemistry particularly astronomy. He was acquainted as though they were neighboring friends with the planets, constellations, and great central stars and suns of other solar systems. Their immensity, relative positions in the heavens, and their respective distances from the earth measured in miles and light years were as familiar as the map of the world with its great cities and territorial subdivisions.

He was in the same general way familiar, too, with the political history and governments of all the great nations, both ancient and modern.

In literature he delighted most in political history, but kept abreast with current events. During his last illness I found him, as I thought, unduly taxing himself with war news and magazine articles. I suggested that in his situation it might be better if he would spare himself somewhat in that respect. He rather vigorously for a sick man argued that he should not allow himself to stop such work because of his ailments.

He spoke of Lucretius and the beautiful tribute paid him by Ferrero, who said of him that, notwithstanding his physical difficulties and humble station, he yet wrote De Natura, a work of such wonderful quality that it has lived and perpetuated his name through all the centuries that have followed as the author. of one of the greatest literary achievements of not only his but of all time

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