AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PENNSYLVANIAN
fessional man. This is not due to the fact that he is of a different mold from his fellows, but is because his work is done in the face of the public, with all eyes fastened upon it and, therefore, his interest requires him to be more careful.
When the successful man in business trains up assistants who under his supervision learn the methods and become familiar with the custom, he always runs the risk of their going off for themselves and carrying the trade with them. In a greater degree the same danger confronts the successful party leader. There are ever around him ambitious men watchful to seize the power which he wields. Quay had long been in control and was growing old. John P. Elkin of Indiana County had been in Harrisburg through several administrations and had been assistant attorney general and then attorney general under Governor William A. Stone—a capable lawyer, an eloquent speaker, an affable gentleman; he had participated in many political campaigns and was known and popular all over the state. He had the state administration behind him and he proposed to be the next governor. His success would have meant the beginning of another régime and the bones of the old leaders would have been scattered along the plains. Quay accepted what was in effect a challenge, told Elkin definitely that he could not be the governor and sought for an available candidate against who nothing could be said and who could appeal to popular support. Philander C. Knox, of Pittsburgh, and Charles Emory Smith, the editor of the Press, who had been Minister to Russia and Postmaster General, were under consideration. General John R. Brooke, who had fought at Gettysburg and later had commanded our forces in Porto Rico, came pretty close to selection. One evening David H. Lane, representing the organization of the Republican party, came up to my house. Lane is a remarkable man. Slight in frame, sandy in complexion, with a face of the Shakespearean type, he is very much of a philosopher and has often been called the brains of the party in Philadelphia,
