merica. No large concern could very well get on without being
represented there. My brother and Mr. Phipps had full grasp of the
business at Pittsburgh. My field appeared to be to direct the general
policy of the companies and negotiate the important contracts.

My brother had been so fortunate as to marry Miss Lucy Coleman,
daughter of one of our most valued partners and friends. Our family
residence at Homewood was given over to him, and I was once more
compelled to break old associations and leave Pittsburgh in 1867 to
take up my residence in New York. The change was hard enough for me,
but much harder for my mother; but she was still in the prime of life
and we could be happy anywhere so long as we were together. Still she
did feel the leaving of our home very much. We were perfect strangers
in New York, and at first took up our quarters in the St. Nicholas
Hotel, then in its glory. I opened an office in Broad Street.

For some time the Pittsburgh friends who came to New York were our
chief source of happiness, and the Pittsburgh papers seemed necessary
to our existence. I made frequent visits there and my mother often
accompanied me, so that our connection with the old home was still
maintained. But after a time new friendships were formed and new
interests awakened and New York began to be called home. When the
proprietors of the St. Nicholas opened the Windsor Hotel uptown, we
took up our residence there and up to the year 1887 that was our New
York home. Mr. Hawk, the proprietor, became one of our valued friends
and his nephew and namesake still remains so.

Among the educative influences from which I derived great advantage in
New York, none ranks higher than the Nineteenth Century Club organized
by Mr. and Mrs. Courtlandt Palmer. The club met at their house once a
month for the discussion of various topics and soon attracted many
able men and women. It was to Madame Botta I owed my election to
membership--a remarkable woman, wife of Professor Botta, whose
drawing-room became more of a salon than any in the city, if indeed it
were not the only one resembling a salon at that time. I was honored
by an invitation one day to dine at the Bottas' and there met for the
first time several distinguished people, among them one who became my
lifelong friend and wise counselor, Andrew D. White, then president of
Cornell University, afterwards Ambassador to Russia and Germany, and
our chief delegate to the Hague Conferenc