Columbia. He has always been independent in politics. His chief recreation has been work on his small farm at Tyringham, Massachusetts, and writing magazine articles. He chose journalism as a profession, he says, because all his tastes and such talents as he possessed seemed to point in that direction; and in his career as a journalist he has been largely influenced by association with Bryant, Godkin, George William Curtis and Theodore Roosevelt. The best motto for young men, in his judgment, is: "Do what lies nearest the hand, as well as you can, and leave the rewards to take care of themselves."
He was married October 13, 1874, to Ada Lewis Murdock, of New York city.
He became, on January 1, 1905, United States Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
He edited the "Memorial Volume to William Cullen Bryant" (1878); and he is the author of "Bagby v. Bagby" (1895); "How to Prepare for a Civil Service Examination" (1898); and "The Man, Roosevelt: A Portrait-Sketch" (1904).
