The subject of my article was upon the attitude of the city toward the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company. It was signed anonymously and I was
surprised to find it got a prominent place in the columns of the
"Journal," then owned and edited by Robert M. Riddle. I, as operator,
received a telegram addressed to Mr. Scott and signed by Mr. Stokes,
asking him to ascertain from Mr. Riddle who the author of that
communication was. I knew that Mr. Riddle could not tell the author,
because he did not know him; but at the same time I was afraid that if
Mr. Scott called upon him he would hand him the manuscript, which Mr.
Scott would certainly recognize at a glance. I therefore made a clean
breast of it to Mr. Scott and told him I was the author. He seemed
incredulous. He said he had read it that morning and wondered who had
written it. His incredulous look did not pass me unnoticed. The pen
was getting to be a weapon with me. Mr. Stokes's invitation to spend
Sunday with him followed soon after, and the visit is one of the
bright spots in my life. Henceforth we were great friends.
The grandeur of Mr. Stokes's home impressed me, but the one feature of
it that eclipsed all else was a marble mantel in his library. In the
center of the arch, carved in the marble, was an open book with this
inscription:
"He that cannot reason is a fool,
He that will not a bigot,
He that dare not a slave.
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