Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/274



During this year there appeared in the Atlantic Monthly a paper upon The Ills of Pennsylvania. It was published anonymously and was sufficiently dull and stupid, but it gratified the instincts of the people of a state more in debt and, therefore, more mismanaged than any other in the country. The paper in its contents set forth that it was written by a Pennsylvanian, which, of course, gave its confessions of iniquity an added zest. I have since learned, however, that it was really written by Mark Sullivan, the son of an immigrant from Ireland, who, after living a short time in Chester County, went away to seek his fortune and became the editor of Collier's Weekly. Indignant that the Atlantic Monthly should do anything so indecent, I wrote a historical parallel upon Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, pointing out the great comparative importance of the former in American affairs. It was published in many shapes and I really believe had an influence in giving me a representative position among the people of the state. 260