and greatest leap. Farthest down from the village is Hearts Falls. Here, in an overhanging part of the cliff, the limestone has been hollowed out in some way in the form of hearts, which fact gave the name to the falls. Unfortunately, the same causes which created the cavities are still at work, and the result is that all resemblance to hearts will soon be lost. The action of the atmosphere produces another singular effect-that of decomposing ledges of rock in the cliff in such a way that it appears to be the work of waves in past ages. Indeed, this cause is gravely put forth as a theory by many visitors, but they fail to note that some names painted on the rocks, certainly not of antediluvian date, are disappearing in a way that is rather shattering to their argument.

"The students of the college at Hanover have for many years made use of these falls to bring their names, for a time at least, before the public. At Butler's Falls, but a half mile or so from the village, three ambitious students. one day decided to head the list of names scattered over the side of the cliff. Accordingly they procured a rope and a pot of paint, and swung one of their number over the brink. While dangling in the air, he managed to scrawl their initials upon the rock. Upon drawing him up, his comrades, either through awkwardness or with malice aforethought, got him under the stream of water and treated him to a gratuitous shower-bath.

"Old students going back to Hanover will miss one of the most famous of all the old time land-marks and curiosities. Chain mill has been torn down and carted away. Right on the brink of the falls the mill building stood, and the motive power was furnished by a novel contrivance which, it is safe to say, one would have difficulty in finding duplicated. An opening was blasted through the overhanging ledge, and through this there passed an endless chain of buckets. As the buckets filled with water they went down, of course, and of their own

weight turned a huge wheel. At the bottom they upset, and came up empty. Daring students used to climb down the chain when the mill was idle, and thereby caused the miller much vexation of spirit, as he was liable at any time to have a corpse on his hands, to say nothing of damages to the buckets. A young man once undertook the descent without first ascertaining whether the wheel was blocked-which it was not. Consequently he descended with rather more precipitancy and eclat than he calculated upon. Very wroth was the miller, who lived near at hand, upon hearing the creaking of the machinery and conjecturing the cause. Leaning over the brink he proceeded to launch a philippic upon the head of the æronaut below. Somewhat faintly came up the following response:

'Well, you see, I didn't know-I thought-I didn't know

'Yes, I see you didn't know,' roared the miller. You don't know anything. You are a hopeless idiot!'

"The village of Hanover is a beautiful place, especially during the summer. The main street is overshadowed with huge elms. The college building is located upon The Point, a part of the bluff with a deep gorge on each side and looking down upon the Ohio, some four hundred feet below. From the college cupola one can see the city of Madison, five miles above, in a line; and looking down, the river can be traced for many miles, until in its last curve it looks like a lake in the hills. When the river is at a fair stage, there are steamboats passing up and down at all hours of day and night. To one who has lived for years within hearing of their deep, sonorous whistles, answering to each other and echoing from bluff to bluff, there is a positive sense of regret at being located at a distance from the river; and one hears the familiar sound, after an absence, much as he would recognize the voice of an old friend.

"The approaches to Hanover are interesting, unless you make a flank movement and come up by stage, ten miles, from Lexington. Coming in by way of Madison affords one the novelty of a trip down one of the steepest railroad grades in the country, three hundred and twelve feet to the mile, through a deep cut in the bluff. The entire height of the hill is four hundred and sixteen feet. Formerly it was customary to cut loose the engine at the summit and allow the train to descend by its own weight, it being held in check by the brakes; but on one or two occasions there was some hitch in the machinery, which rendered the brakes of no avail, and the cars distributed themselves and their contents over the region contiguous to the base of the hill. Fortunately, there was no one on board on the occasion except a drove of hogs, and they were speedily reduced to sausage meat; and some parties were unreasonable enough to assert that this would be the fate of human passengers, some day, without any hope of the miscellaneous remains being utilized. So the accommodating railroad company had an immense engine built, which has sufficient weight to hold a train in check without its wheels slipping. From Madison to Hanover the drive is very fine; the road ascends the hill, gradually winding in and out the ravine, until after a six miles' ride the village is reached. Fishing is good in the river, and there is an excellent pebbly beach for bathers, although a treacherous step off' has caused more than one death. The hunting is also good in the woods near Hanover."

Once when Governor, after the lapse of about a third of a century since his graduation, Mr. Hendricks visited the old college at commencement time, and delivered an address to the students and visitors. What a college education may or may not do for a man, accordingly as he uses or abuses its advantages, was a theme which he developed strikingly and beautifully. He portrayed vividly three classes of college men, illustrating each with

the life story of a fellow student of old time, showing what each of the three boys had done with his opportunities. In his travels in California, the speaker had met the brilliant leader of the old students, a fascinating young man of rarest natural endowments and brilliant prospects in youth, now an abandoned wreck without home, fortune or friends. Two others, of less promise in college days, illustrated success; one in a splendid public career, the other in a less conspicuous course of life. Memories of college days were always very dear to Mr. Hendricks; and his instructors, his fellow students, and especially his class-mates, were always cherished by him with deep affection. Hanover was to him in the truest sense of the term, as it has been to so many others of worth and fame, an Alma Mater.

CHAPTER V.

STUDY AND PRACTICE OF THE LAW.

The close of college life found Mr. Hendricks again at his old home to the east of Shelbyville, enjoying the association of old neighbors and the scenes of early years. Arrived at the age of twenty-two, it was time to choose his vocation in life. His relatives among both the Hendrickses and the Thomsons had achieved honor and distinction in the profession of law; and to this he had been predisposed from childhood, proving an interested observer and auditor in the legal contests at the court house, even at the age of ten years. He determined to be an attorney, and earnestly set about the preparation for his life-work.

In 1842 he commenced to read law in the office of Stephen Major, a young and brilliant lawyer, nine years his senior, who had resided in Shelbyville since 1834, and had been for six years a practitioner in the Supreme Court of Indiana. Mr. Major was an interesting personage. By birth an Irishman, he was descended from the Scots who entered the Green Isle under Cromwell; and he traced a still more remote ancestry among the old Norman conquerors. He was possessed of the spirit, the dash, the eloquence of the Irish, with the applica tion and perseverance of the Anglo-Saxon. A close intimacy existed between the two young men in the law office. Hendricks was by far the more scholarly, while Major possessed a world of tact and experience. Having confidence in his powers, the latter determined, ere long,