Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/383

 leader, accompanied by two members of Parliament—Captain A. J. C. Donehan of Cork, and Patrick O'Brien of Kilkenny. Archbishop Ryan, an exceedingly able, bland and persuasive man, participated.

On the 6th of October I was at York to attend the fair, the guest of Senator E. K. McConkey. At the horse race the driver of the leading horse, as he approached the goal, gently dropped the lines. His arms fell to his side and he rolled out upon the track dead.

On the 18th of November Mrs. Pennypacker and I, upon the invitation of Mr. George W. Atherton, the president of the State College, attended the dedication of the Carnegie Library connected with that institution. Mr. and Mrs. Carnegie and Mr. and Mrs. Charles M. Schwab were there and since we spent a day or two with them in the same house we reached a stage of acquaintance. We found Schwab healthy, hearty and earnest, and Carnegie shrewd and agreeable. The latter gave much attention to Mrs. Pennypacker and told her many incidents of his early life, and she has never been willing to listen to critical comments concerning him since. The coat of my evening suit of clothes was missing and I was compelled to appear at the table in street costume. Mrs. Pennypacker made her own explanations to account for my costume and Mr. Carnegie accepted and covered them up with both graciousness and adroitness. Carnegie, Schwab and I made addresses and Mrs. Carnegie expressed pleasure at seeing and hearing such an exhibition of state pride—a feeling, she said, utterly non-existent in New York.

On Sunday, December 4th, I had a personal adventure. William D. Hunsicker, the farmer at Pennypacker's Mills, drove me in a buggy, with a rather wild horse, “John,” to Phœnixville. A mile from that town the elevated divide between the Perkiomen Creek and the Schuylkill River falls abruptly toward the river. There is a very long, steep and dangerous hill, the road in the valley below Rh