Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/394

 As I have written, at the head of the National Guard when I became governor, was Major General Charles Miller, born in Alsace, a stout man, fluent in speech, agreeable in manner, with much bonhommie, and a faculty for getting along. Starting with nothing, he rose to association with Joseph C. Sibley and became a magnate of the Standard Oil Company and enormously wealthy. He had great capacity, was always helpful and knew how to get along with men. At the hotel he would say to the waiter: “There is no ten-cent tip this time,” and putting down beside his plate a two-dollar bill, our party would receive with promptness the best that could be secured. He drank good wines and owned speedy horses. I am grateful to him for much assistance many times rendered in the work of the Guard. But he had neither the training of a soldier nor the special knowledge necessary to fit him for the command. General J. P. S. Gobin of Lebanon had seen real service in the war of the Rebellion and the war with Spain, had been lieutenant governor of the state and had been ranking brigadier general of the Guard, something of a martinet, with that rigidity and inadaptability which led men to call him a “crank,” but able and in love with the work. Whenever the Guard was called into the service it was always Gobin and his brigade that received the encomiums of the military experts. But he was no match for Miller in the practical affairs of life. Miller had held no higher rank than that of colonel on the staff of Brigadier General John A. Wiley. With abundant tact and abundant means, he made very large contributions to the political campaigns, and in Stone's administration he had been elevated over the head of his own chief, over the head of Gobin, and was made the major general in command. It was a rank injustice, but he had the support of all of the political forces and seemed secure. He made me some presents of bronze statuary, and in a hearty way would have done much more had it been permitted. I sent for him and explained to him, in as kindly a way as I knew how, my 378