She was
never able for years to induce me to partake of a meal in her house. I
had great timidity about going into other people's houses, until late
in life; but Mr. Scott would occasionally insist upon my going to his
hotel and taking a meal with him, and these were great occasions for
me. Mr. Franciscus's was the first considerable house, with the
exception of Mr. Lombaert's at Altoona, I had ever entered, as far as
I recollect. Every house was fashionable in my eyes that was upon any
one of the principal streets, provided it had a hall entrance.
I had never spent a night in a strange house in my life until Mr.
Stokes of Greensburg, chief counsel of the Pennsylvania Railroad,
invited me to his beautiful home in the country to pass a Sunday. It
was an odd thing for Mr. Stokes to do, for I could little interest a
brilliant and educated man like him. The reason for my receiving such
an honor was a communication I had written for the "Pittsburgh
Journal." Even in my teens I was a scribbler for the press. To be an
editor was one of my ambitions. Horace Greeley and the "Tribune" was
my ideal of human triumph. Strange that there should have come a day
when I could have bought the "Tribune"; but by that time the pearl had
lost its luster. Our air castles are often within our grasp late in
life, but then they charm not.
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