A Prophet In His Own Country

All his life, until the last five years, Mr. Stuart has been a man of affairs. He went to work at fourteen years of age under his father, and was gradually compelled to do the work of both, with the result that before his twenty-first birthday he had become freight traffic manager for Central America’s most important railroad. He has also been in charge of various consular and diplomatic offices from time to time. He was land commissioner of the Panama Railroad; and has also been in the real estate and mining businesses, and factor of an important shipping company. He brought the Salvadore Railway Company out of bankruptcy, and reorganized the Port of Champerico. He has also been general counselor for Spanish-American affairs in New York City. But it is not only the able administration of such matters that proves the capacity of a man. Many a muddler has gone through public life on the shoulders of competent subordinates without too great a loss of reputation. But there is one sterling and indubitable proof of the administrator. If he orders his own house well, it is certain that what reputation he may have made in public affairs is a deserved one. I have never met any man with the sense of order so admirably developed as Mr. Stuart. He can lay his hands on any scrap of paper at a moment’s notice. Every book in his shelves has its proper place. His house is fitted with every convenience and even luxury, yet entirely without ostentation or extravagance. Nor is the order in which things are kept a visible order. No one would suspect it. It is