Most Americans are familiar with his speech nominating Mr. Blaine for the Presidency, in which he invested that brilliant statesman with the title “Plumed Knight,” a sobriquet that remained with him to the end of his career.

His great speech at the “Grant Banquet,” his thrilling epic “A Vision of War,” or “The Past Rises Before me Like a Dream,” delivered at a soldiers’ reunion in Indianapolis; his wonderful “Decoration Day Oration,” in New York, his tribute to his brother Ebon, his matchless memorial to his friend and associate, Roscoe Conkling, and the laureate crown he laid on the tomb of his friend and leader, the martyred Lincoln, together with many other eulogies of the noble dead that sprang from his generous and passionately patriotic heart, are today the treasured possessions of his countrymen.

His lips dropped polished pearls that will adorn and enrich the language of his day and of all time.