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Joseph Boggs Beale was a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, General John Hancock, many another bigwig. Yet elderly Philadelphians last week could remember but one political story connected with him. When James A. Garfield was offered the Republican nomination against Winfield Hancock in 1880, he wrote to his mother asking her advice. The Professor was having a dish of tea at the Garfield home when the letter arrived.
"What shall my boy do?" asked Mrs. Garfield.
Artist Beale put down his cup, scratched his chin.
"Well," said he, "it's worth a try."
Mr. Garfield was elected and assassinated within a year.