Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/435

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GOVERNOR, 1906

attorney general of my successor, was opposed to the passage of the act, declared that there was no such thing as a divorce evil, and nothing further was done in the state where the movement originated. Others lost heart and thus Pennsylvania lost the opportunity of leading to success a great moral and material advance in social conditions. Nevertheless the discussions of the congress had a good effect and were not without result.

On the 14th of March, after a dinner with Penrose and Olmsted at the Willard Hotel, the Pennsylvania Club of Washington held a reception in my honor, intended to be a significant affair, attended by a great throng which included the Vice President, the Speaker of the House, Cannon, and a number of senators, and members of the cabinet. Two days later followed an entertainment at the Zembie Temple in Harrisburg by the Imperial Potentates of the Mystic Shrine, generally called, in order to escape the prolonged magnificence, “Shriners.” I made an address to them and the event made an impression on me for two reasons: Among those participating was Admiral W. S. Schley, who attained too much distinction and was the subject of much controversy in the Spanish-American War. Upon a number of occasions I had met also Admiral Sampson. Unfortunately for the latter, he had taken himself and his battleship away at the time the Spanish fleet came out of the harbor, and Schley was left to conduct the fight. No amount of arguing can escape the consequences of these underlying facts. The great misfortunes which come to men in life, and surely this was woeful, can generally be traced to some failure of conduct due to temperamental defects. Sampson did not need to take away his battleship. Schley, beside whom I sat at dinner and with whom I had the opportunity to chat, appeared to be a plain and substantial person. The other fact that made an impression was to see Bishop Darlington of the Episcopal Church, at the head of the Diocese of Harrisburg,

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