tieth Ward,
and soon found his power extending even to Harrisburg. A few years ago
Widener presided over a turbulent meeting of Metropolitan shareholders
in Newark, New Jersey. The proposal under consideration was the
transference of all the Metropolitan's visible assets to a company of
which the stockholders knew nothing. When several of these stockholders
arose and demanded that they be given an opportunity to discuss the
projected lease, Widener turned to them and said, in his politest and
blandest manner: "You can vote first and discuss afterward." Widener
displayed precisely these same qualities of ingratiating arrogance and
good-natured contempt as a Philadelphia politician. He was a man of
big frame, alert and decisive in his movements, and a ready talker;
in business he was given much to living in the clouds--a born
speculator--emphatically a "boomer." His sympathies were generous, at
times emotional; it is said that he has even been known to weep when
discussing his fine collection of Madonnas. He showed this personal
side in his lifelong friendship and business association with William
L. Elkins, a man much inferior to him in ability. Indeed, Elkins's great
fortune was little more than a free gift from Widener, who carried him
as a partner in all his deals. Elkins became Widener's bondsman when the
latter entered the City Treasurer's office; the two men lived near
each other on the same street, and this association was cemented when
Widener's oldest son married Elkins's daughter. Elkins had started life
as an entry clerk in a grocery store, had made money in the butter and
egg business, had "struck oil" at Titusville in 1862, and had succeeded
in exchanging his holdings for a block of Standard Oil stock. He too
became a Philadelphia politician, but he had certain hard qualities--he
was close-fisted, slow, plodding--that prevented him from achieving much
success.

For the other members of this group we must now change the scene to New
York City. In the early eighties certain powerful interests had formed
plans for controlling the New York transit fields. Prominent among
them was William Collins Whitney, a very different type of man from the
Philadelphians. Born in Conway, Massachusetts, in 1841, he came from a
long line of distinguished and intellectual New Englanders. At Yale his
wonderful mental gifts raised him far above his fellows; he divided
all scholastic honors there with his classmate, William Graham S