AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PENNSYLVANIAN
fessional work. In a twinkling, within a period covering a few weeks of time, all of these conditions, plans and purposes were cast into the rubbish heap and I was out upon the broader sea of public affairs. As an illustration of how far was I from thinking of such a career, it may be told that just at this most inappropriate time I resigned my membership in The Union League, which I had held for fifteen years, upon the theory that it meant nothing in the pursuits of my life and was an unnecessary expense.
A long time ago, in the Far East, in the land where the Bulbul sings and the roses bloom and scatter fragrance, the soothsayers gave warning that upon a certain morning the man who was the first to see the sun rise in its glory was destined to be king. Upon that day all of the people gathered upon the plain and each man with neck stretched and eyes fixed upon the far East, intent and eager, watched to catch the first glimpse of the coming dawn. But there was one among them who, too proud and indifferent to enter into the contest, turned his back upon the sun and fastened his eyes upon the mountain tops of the far West where stood the hut in which he was born, and behold! when the sun rose its earliest rays glinted along these peaks and he was the man of destiny who first caught the light. It is a true story. Men never secure the great rewards of life through eagerness. Fortune, like a woman, despises those who crouch at her feet. Clay, Webster and Blaine hunted the presidency with great ability and unwearied zeal, only to fail. The only man who ever set about to get it, sacrificing old friendships and present duties in his thirst, who met with success, was Woodrow Wilson, and the fact that he reached it was due to entirely different causes. Chief Justice Edwin M. Paxson besought the politicians to let him have the Governorship of Pennsylvania as a climax to his career, and found their hearts hardened against him. Jonah V. Thompson, reputed to be worth thirty millions of dollars, hoped that the weight of wealth would secure it. John P. Elkin
