laughter, and the train "pulled out" on its journey. All day it ran, and away into the night. Uncle Billy Jackson, John Morris, John Tarkington, David Macy and a host of others were on board. Nobody who was at that picnic will ever forget it, and the old settlers will talk of it, so long as they talk of anything.

Men shall hear of Walker's Rail Road
For a hundred-year.

There was no established course for the county seminaries, and no two were exactly alike in the advantages they offered. Everything depended upon the principal. Under the teachings of Coffman and Cummins, Mr. Hendricks enjoyed exceptional advantages; and when he had completed the work of the seminary, he left home in order to avail himself of a course of higher study.

A dozen miles away, in the direction of Greensburg, a school of high repute was conducted by a scholarly pioneer named John Robinson. The institution was called a "college," and the second teacher was a young man from Boston, who was dubbed a "professor." At this school Mr. Hendricks completed his preparatory work. A lady who was an inmate of Mr. Robinson's house relates that the student from Shelbyville protected from persecution and abuse a friendless orphan boy who had been the victim of unkindness from all the other boys of the school. He shamed them into kindness and friendliness toward one who had known only trouble and sorrow, and to whom kind words and deeds were as a healing balm.

It was the year preceding a gubernatorial campaign. The prospective candidates for the executive chair were both Whigs, for Indiana continued in her singular way to elect Whig Governors by Democratic votes. The contest was to be between David Wallace and John Dumont.

The latter addressed a large audience of country folk at the village of St. Omer, two miles from the school. All the boys of the Robinson school were in attendance. The discussion related entirely to State issues. The State was on the verge of bankruptcy, having undertaken a gigantic system of public works, which were destined. to prove unprofitable in a large measure. This system had grown in the Legislature, by a course of political log-rolling, into an extravagant and wasteful combination. of enterprises. Dumont foresaw at this time the inevitable end, and urged the abandonment of the works, that no further expenditure should result and the loss should be kept within the smallest bounds. Wallace possessed much of the enthusiasm of Governors Ray and Noble in the matter of public works, and was blind to the impending ruin. Dumont's address was an able appeal to the sober second thought of the people. It abounded in statistics of expenditure, interest and taxation. Such an address would seem "dry" to most boys, but it was not to the students at Robinson's. Hendricks, especially, was engaged as with a romance. He listened to every word, and seized every argument advanced, and became thoroughly conversant in the system of public works and the financial condition of the State. From that day he was an advocate of Dumont's views. David Wallace was elected in August, 1837. He was a pure and able man, but unfortunate in the time of his election and mistaken in his policy of State improvements. In Congress, subsequently, he rendered efficient service in promoting the magnetic telegraph. One of his sons-General Lew Wallace-has achieved an international reputation as a soldier, author and diplomat.

Mr. Hendricks's home culture was of great value to him. The Bible was the most loved of classics in the household. Its history, its poetry, its law and its philosophy were alike familiar to the Major's sons, and they

studied it with care. The Vice-President's searching knowledge of Scripture was often the subject of remark in later years. It might with equal truth be said of him, as has been said of Judge Jere S. Black, that he knew everything in the Bible and everything in Shakespeare. Milton was a favorite author with Thomas, and when a child he often read aloud to his mother the magnificent poem of "Paradise Lost," appreciating the majesty of its diction, and the solemn organ-tone of its measures. He was an enthusiastic admirer of Byron, the great poet of that day. He was fond of English history, and loved especially to review the history of Queen Elizabeth and Queen Anne and their times. In later years he projected writing a lecture on their reigns and that of Victoria, but had not sufficient leisure for such work. The present of a copy of Blair's Rhetoric from his uncle, the Governor, opened a mine of untold treasure. He made a critical study of authors, and carefully investigated the principles of taste and criticism. History and politics possessed enhanced value to a boy whose family were connected with them, and of the positions maintained in the field of state by his grandfather and his uncles he became generally cognizant.

<It was his desire to enter college as he completed the work of academic schools. His father had not designed to fit him for any of the learned professions, and was not the first to suggest the idea. The Major wisely gave his sons opportunities of making money for themselves on the farm, and Thomas earned a considerable sum for his own use, intending to apply it towards securing a thorough collegiate training. This fund the Major generously supplemented, and in the fall of 1836 the young student set out upon his journey from home.

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CHAPTER IV.

HANOVER COLLEGE.

The town of Hanover, the scene of Mr. Hendricks's college life, was a village of perhaps three hundred inhabitants, in Jefferson county, near the Ohio. It was about five miles west of Madison, and a good mile from the river. It was a neat village, with regular, wellshaded streets and substantial residences, and was in the midst of a region noted for the beauty and variety of its scenery. In 1836 it possessed a history covering a period of about a quarter century, and was widely renowned as a seat of learning. From the first it had been a leavening influence in the society of an extensive region. The population partook of the character which usually attaches to old college towns. The standard of culture and of morality was high. Religious observances were universal, and of the strictest type. There had never been a saloon in the township, and all traffic in intoxicants was prohibited.

Hanover College was the oldest denominational institution of learning in the State, having begun its career as early as 1827 as a grammar school of the Presbyterian pastor, Rev. John Finley Crowe, D. D., in a log cabin. A brick seminary building replaced the log structure in 1828, and the General Assembly at its next session chartered the institution under the title of Hanover Academy. Three years later a larger building was completed and a college charter was obtained from the legislators, against