Thus, by the time he was twenty-six, Page, at any rate in respect to his Americanism, was a full-grown man.
II A few years afterward Page had an opportunity of discussing this, his favourite topic, with the American whom he most admired.

Perhaps the finest thing in the career of Grover Cleveland was the influence which he exerted upon young men.

After the sordid political transactions of the reconstruction period and after the orgy of partisanship which had followed the Civil War, this new figure, acceding to the Presidency in 1885, came as an inspiration to millions of zealous and intelligent young college-bred Americans.

One of the first to feel the new spell was Walter Page; Mr.Cleveland was perhaps the most important influence in forming his public ideals.

Of everything that Cleveland represented--civil service reform; the cleansing of politics, state and national; the reduction in the tariff; a foreign policy which, without degenerating into truculence, manfully upheld the rights of American citizens; a determination to curb the growing pension evil; the doctrine that the Government was something to be served and not something to be plundered--Page became an active and brilliant journalistic advocate.