“He that cannot reason is a fool,
    He that will not a bigot,
    He that dare not a slave.”

These noble words thrilled me.  I said to myself, “Some day, some day, I’ll have a library” (that was a look ahead) “and these words shall grace the mantel as here.”  And so they do in New York and Skibo to-day.

Another Sunday which I spent at his home after an interval of several years was also noteworthy.  I had then become the superintendent of the Pittsburgh Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad.  The South had seceded.  I was all aflame for the flag.  Mr. Stokes, being a leading Democrat, argued against the right of the North to use force for the preservation of the Union.  He gave vent to sentiments which caused me to lose my self-control, and I exclaimed: 

“Mr. Stokes, we shall be hanging men like you in less than six weeks.”

I hear his laugh as I write, and his voice calling to his wife in the adjoining room: 

“Nancy, Nancy, listen to this young Scotch devil.  He says they will be hanging men like me in less than six weeks.”

Strange things happened in those days.  A short time after, that same Mr. Stokes was applying to me in Washington to help him to a major’s commission in the volunteer forces.  I was then in the Secretary of War’s office, helping to manage the military railroads and telegraphs for the Government.  This appointment he secured and ever after was Major Stokes, so that the man who doubted the right of the North to fight for the Union had himself drawn sword in the good cause.  Men at first argued and theorized about Constitutional rights.  It made all the difference in the world when the flag was fired upon.  In a moment everything was ablaze—­paper constitutions included.  The Union and Old Glory!  That was all the people cared for, but that was enough.  The Constitution was intended to insure one flag, and as Colonel Ingersoll proclaimed:  “There was not air enough on the American continent to float two.”

CHAPTER VII

SUPERINTENDENT OF THE PENNSYLVANIA

Mr. Scott was promoted to be the general superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1856, taking Mr. Lombaert’s place; and he took me, then in my twenty-third year, with him to Altoona.  This breaking-up of associations in Pittsburgh was a sore trial, but nothing could be allowed to interfere for a moment with my business career.  My mother was satisfied upon this point, great as the strain was upon her.  Besides, “follow my leader” was due to so true a friend as Mr. Scott had been.

His promotion to the superintendency gave rise to some jealousy; and besides that, he was confronted with a strike at the very beginning of his appointment.  He had lost his wife in Pittsburgh a short time before and had his lonely hours.  He was a stranger in Altoona, his new headquarters, and there was none but myself seemingly of whom he could make a companion.  We lived for many weeks at the railway hotel together before he took up housekeeping and brought his children from Pittsburgh, and at his desire I occupied the same large bedroom with him.  He seemed anxious always to have me near him.