Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/186

 his friends in a wicked attempt to destroy the government, and in order that he might be continuously and forever repressed it was necessary to purify the Republican party by the elimination of Cameron and of those in combination with him.

Later I went to the city. In the boarding house on the north side of Chestnut Street below Fifth there boarded a man named O. G. Hempstead who had been appointed from some interior county to a position in the custom house, nearly opposite. Later he grew into a large business connected with importations, and his sons are prosperous. On one occasion Hempstead had me appointed a clerk of a precinct election board at which I earned five dollars and started me on my official career. Afterward, taking rooms on Eighth Street below Walnut and becoming a resident of the first division of the Eighth ward of the city, I sought the opportunity to participate in its local affairs. John C. Martin, member of common council, a native of Maryland, partially paralyzed, keen, bright and active, was the ward leader of the Republican party, and he lived in the same precinct. I was fortunate enough to get into his good graces, although we had a superabundant supply of ambition and capacity. Among those taking an active part were: A. E. Smith, a small contractor, whose sons I believe have made fortunes out of the business as it extended; and Charles A. Porter, who had lately arrived from Ohio, barefooted and penniless, and by doing little chores around the house of a fire engine company, had found there a place to sleep. Later he acquired a fortune, bought an expensive house on North Broad Street, secured extensive contracts for sewers and reservoirs, developed into a power in the politics of the city and state and became a member of the state senate.

Charles H. T. Collis had just returned from the war. An office boy in the office of John M. Read, who became Chief Justice, that influential gentleman made a pet of him and advanced his fortunes. Collis took a regiment of 172