Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/21



HE life of every man has a value as well as an interest for his fellows. No matter how humble may have been the career, if the events are truly told they are a source of helpfulness to the race.

The book of the old gossip, Pepys, has outlasted and been oftener reprinted than many another of more apparent importance. Scientists search with the utmost care for the chips of stone which men, long forgotten, threw away as refuse, in order that their lost lives may be reconstructed.

My own life has been somewhat eventful, and in a certain sense representative. It presents many antitheses. It covers the period of the War of the Rebellion (I decline to use the euphuism of the Civil War, no such thing having been ever), the destruction of slavery, the centennial anniversaries, the publication of the Origin of Species, the introduction of electricity into the industries and the discovery of the North Pole. I have been brought into relations with the presidents, from Lincoln to Roosevelt, with the generals, Grant, Sherman, Hancock, Sickles, Howard and Sheridan, and have corresponded with Darwin, Le Comte de Paris, DeHoop Scheffer, Bayard Taylor and Lloyd Mifflin. I have made addresses at Stony Point and at Gettysburg. I have presided over the Law Academy, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the University of Pennsylvania, a court and the commonwealth. I have Rh