not from choice, but from necessity, and was well content to remain in his home and at his law practice rather than to again enter the arena of politics.

Colonel Breckinridge was thrice married. First to Lucretia Hart Clay, granddaughter of Henry Clay and daughter of Thomas Hart Clay. Secondly, to Issa Desha, daughter of Dr. John R. Desha and granddaughter of Governor Joseph Desha. His third wife was his cousin, Mrs. Louise Scott Wing, daughter of Robert W. Scott and widow of Rumsay Wing, United States minister to Ecquador. Of his children, Desha Breckinridge, after graduating at Princeton, was educated in the law in his father's office and in the law department of the University of Columbia (now George Washington University), admitted to the bar at Lexington in 1892 and afterwards associated with his father, has for sixteen years been principal owner and editor of the Lexington Herald. Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge, a daughter, was admitted to the Lexington Bar in December, 1896, but after practicing there but a short time, pursued her studies to the Doctor's degree in the University of Chicago, and has been ever since connected with that institution. She has written much on economic and social subjects. Ella D. Breckinridge, another daughter, is the wife of Judge Lyman Chalkley, of Lexington. Curry Breckinridge, the youngest daughter, has interested herself in educational work.

TRIBUTES.

(BY JAMES POYNTZ NELSON.)

The simplicity of Colonel Breckinridge's life forbids any extravagant praise of him. The very language of justice to his character seems like an exaggeration. The portrait of one beloved, be it ever so perfect, is only an illustration of the original. To us who knew this great man, in his many-phased, wonderful life, any portrayal of him must be insufficient. This tribute is only the words of him who would speak not completely, but justly and lovingly. Carlyle, in his essay on Robert Burns, draws a fine picture of the storm-beaten vessel as it casts anchor at last in its safe harbor. What if its sails are rent and its rigging torn and its hull scarred by pitiless gales and relentless seas? The Master has brought his precious cargo safe and duty is fulfilled. Through

stress and storm Colonel Breckinridge brought the precious cargo of his soul safe into port and delivered it to the God who gave it. Conflicts beset his way, but we know the splendor of his courage. He was a man of incomparable gifts. Many and rare virtues shone throughout his life. In his great public career he was untainted by failure to fulfill the obligations put upon him. We take measure of his greatness should we look about us for some one to fill his place. The State is bereft and we are without a leader. Where can Kentucky find such another son? Where for her people is such another wise counselor? He belongs to a day of splendid things. He leaves us comfortless. We call the roll of those who once made Kentucky foremost in our nation's councils. No answer. Behold our house is left unto us desolate. Colonel Breckinridge was an analyst, pre-eminently a teacher. He loved to define and to instruct, and his instruction was a delight for its lucidity. He gave of himself always the best. Nothing was too simple for him to lend it his serious thought. Nothing too great for him to master. A child's question was as worthy of thoughtful answer as that of the most learned. The answer to the child was as full of the Master's wisdom as that to the seeker after profound truth. To him truth was positive and all truth momentous. His mind dwelt with truth and kept fellowship with wisdom. To one he was the brave soldier; to another the wise statesman, the convincing pleader, the orator with lips aglow with divine fire. To many he was a soul in love with the true, the beautiful, the good, a mind illumined by transcendent knowledge. His lips spoke only that which is pure and just and right. He was an honest man. He was beloved. He led us, and to follow him, whether in victory or defeat, was a privilege, our pride and our delight.

10minent among Colonel Breckinridge's virtues was his intellectual integrity, linked with lofty intellectual courage. Thoroughly equipped and disciplined, his mind met every question squarely, without prejudice, and then gave answer in language that left no room for doubt. Whatever he touched he illumined. The learning of others was purer from his using.

Men's hearts throbbed in response to the power of his words and he swayed them at his will. But he moved them with lofty motives, with sublime purposes, to right issues.

To think of him as gone is as though life had lost something of its strength and reality. Yet he is not lost to us, for our love for him has made him part of us. It enfolds and enshrouds him. His gentleness and courtesy, his sweetness and helpfulness, are as dear to us as his wisdom and greatness. Too sacred, save for tenderest recollections, are the evidences that he gave of his beneficent friendship. These we keep with those treasures that men hold dearest, and dying make mention of.

(BY DR. JOHN A. Lewis.)

On Saturday, November 19, 1904, at the silent hour of midnight, when the intelligence was flashed over our broad land that the noble and generous heart of Colonel W. C. P. Breckinridge had been stilled, and that his great brain had ceased its activity forever, deep sadness came to the heart of many a comrade who wore the gray. Others knew him and loved him and admired him as a politician, statesman, lawyer, orator, but none knew him and none loved him as did we, his old soldiers and comrades who followed him through long years of danger and privation on the tented field. As our captain, our colonel, our brigade commander, we had followed him upon many a hard-fought field. Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia had all been eyewitnesses to our conflicts. Nothing daunted us, neither the suns of summer nor the storms of winter, nor mountains, nor swollen rivers, nor miry roads, nor hunger, nor thirst, nor the battle, if he was at the fore. As Captain commanding his old company, or as Colonel commanding his own beloved regiment, the Ninth Kentucky Cavalry, or as Acting Brigadier in command of the Kentucky Cavalry Brigade; whether under the command of General John H. Morgan or "Fighting" Joe Wheeler, he never failed to receive from his superiors praise and recognition for his 'dierly qualities. He was a superb soldier, brave, faithful, constant, unfaltering, honored and beloved-even adored-by every good and true soldier in his regiment. His soldiers knew that he had a brave and generous heart, because he shared with them their every hardship and their scanty rations and braved with them the storm of battle on many a trying day. How I wish he could have bequeathed to some friend or comrade his noble and generous nature, his soldierly qualities and his great brain, with its store

house of knowledge. What a blessing it would have been to the human family! To me it has always seemed inexpressibly sad that for a human being gifted by nature, after being carefully reared and trained by loving hands at great outlay of treasure and labor, then having passed through the rich school of experience, going out fully equipped for the grave responsibilities of life, having arrived at that point in his existence when he might prove a real blessing to mankind, his time is up, the gavel falls and his voice is forever hushed in the corridors of time. To-day we stand in the presence of just such a picture. What a mine of treasure was lost to the world when the great heart of Colonel Breckinridge ceased to beat, and his great brain ceased to think! To-day peace to his ashes, and all honor to his illustrious memory.

JAMES ANDREW CURRY.

On March 29, 1909, at his home at 615 North Broadway, in Lexington, Kentucky, died, in his eighty-first year, James Andrew Curry, one of the best known and best-loved men of that city.

He was born in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, on January 23, 1829, and, after little more than three years of training in country schools of his native county, he secured, at the early age of fifteen, a position in the Harrodsburg Post Office. At sixteen years of age he was apprenticed to an uncle to learn the tailor trade. Completing his apprenticeship in four years, he then engaged in the merchant tailoring business on his own account. This lasted but a year or two, when he found his interest drawn to the drug business. He was connected with the drug business in Harrodsburg until 1878, when he sold out and moved to Danville, Ky. There he carried on the same business until 1883, when he came to Lexington. In this city he became a member of the wholesale grocery firm of Curry, Tunis & Norwood, the name under which the firm continued until Mr. Curry's death.

The name of James A. Curry is connected with practically all of the efforts for the better development of the civic life of Lexington that were undertaken after he came to make that city his home. He was a philanthropist of the noblest type, a prominent churchman, financier, public-spirited citizen and successful busi