AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PENNSYLVANIAN
that I had proven to be “a wise, prudent, firm and conscientious executive.” On the invitation of “Uncle Jerry Roth,” an enterprising Pennsylvania Dutchman, I saw the Allentown Fair, generally regarded as the most successful agricultural fair in the state, and found thirty thousand people there. Colonel Henry C. Trexler, of my staff, a comparatively young man, who has made a great fortune in the manufacture of cement, having the largest cement works in Allentown, drove me through the country to see his large unfenced farms, and he entertained me at supper, where, in a stately home, his agreeable wife dispensed hospitality.
On the 29th, Major General Charles Miller, in command of the National Guard, gave an entertainment at Franklin to the governor and his staff. Miller, a poor boy born in Alsace, came over to this country and, little by little, by energy, activity and business sense, combined with a canny, worldly wisdom, he got alongside of the Standard Oil Company, was one of its magnates, and secured an immense fortune. Seldom are the fates altogether kindly to any man. With all his success, there was much unhappiness in his life. He was a captain on the staff of one of the brigadiers, was ambitious, made large contributions in the political campaigns, and was put in command of the Guard, over the heads of his general and many other officers. Elevations so obtained are ever more or less tottering. At Mount Gretna he said to me in the presence of Stewart, after exhibiting to us the antics of his beautiful and trained riding horse:
“Governor, I am going to send down to your home one of the finest pair of horses to be found in the state.”
I told him this story:
“General, when I was a boy I went to school among the Irish on Tunnel Hill in the town where I was born and had three fist fights with a boy named Bradley. Many years later we both drifted to Philadelphia, and I became a judge and he became a bartender in a liquor saloon. Much to his
