ever since. George had responded to these home influences sympathetically, and had given early promise of that vital interest in politics for which Ohio mothers ardently look in their sons. His first experience in politics was in 1876, when he took an active part in the Hayes-Tilden campaign, crying after the little Catholic boys from the parochial school, on his homeward way at evening:
"Fried rats and pickled cats,
Are good enough for Democrats."
And once he marched with a party of his play-*mates in a torchlight procession, under a transparency which announced exultantly:
"Hurrah for Hayes! He's the man!
If we can't vote, our daddies can!"
That was a fine campaign, extending far beyond autumn, and during the long winter evenings he had been allowed to sit up, sometimes until after nine o'clock, to hear his father read in the Cincinnati Gazette, of the bloody deeds of the Ku-Klux Klan. The strange, cabalistic words froze the very blood in his veins. At night he would hear the drumming
