Once the following curious thing happened, and he wrote me all about it himself.
One morning he was a Republican, and upon invitation he agreed to make a campaign speech at the Republican mass-meeting that night.

He prepared the speech.

After luncheon he became a Democrat and agreed to write a score of exciting mottoes to be painted upon the transparencies which the Democrats would carry in their torchlight procession that night.

He wrote these shouting Democratic mottoes during the afternoon, and they occupied so much of his time that it was night before he had a chance to change his politics again; so he actually made a rousing Republican campaign speech in the open air while his Democratic transparencies passed by in front of him, to the joy of every witness present.
He was a most strange creature--but in spite of his eccentricities he was beloved, all his life, in whatsoever community he lived.

And he was also held in high esteem, for at bottom he was a sterling man.
About twenty-five years ago--along there somewhere--I suggested to Orion that he write an autobiography.