The Evening post. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1888-1889, 1888-12-13
STORIES ABOUT QUAY.
SOME Thing or THE CHARACTER OF
THE GREAT SENATOR.
Incidents of His t5oyhood-Bls Political
Career and His rriumphs-A Man VINO
Foresees the Drifts of Popular Opinion.

Even up to election time many we'll
posted persons in this country were in
doubt whether 10 call his name Kwav or
Key or Kay, says the New York Press in
speaking of the Pennsylvania Senator
When tile b ggest Pennsylvania of them
all took his seat in the United State Sen.
ate last December people outside of the
Keystone State knew little about him
and when he came to New York to he
chairman Of the Republican National
Committee il was only the working poll.
ticians of his own party who knew what
was to DC expected The Democratic pol
iticians had word from their friends in
the Keystone State that"this man Quay"
must be looked out for. They kept real.
izing that more and more as the cam
paign progressed but they failed all
through to guage the full extent and
iineness of his movements. They don't
know TO this day exactly what struck
them. They only know that something
struck them very hard.
A stray story or two of the now great
silent man had found place in the news
mostly been forgotten. Some related to
the future practical politicians boynood.
This son of a Presbyterian preacher
the offspring of runaway match be.
tween country storekeeper and the
daughter of a Revolutionary captain
saw q pocket Bible and tin sword with
a red hilt brought home one day. He
could have his choice. His sister was to
take what was left. The youngster, with
n perspicacity which argued well for his
future success, even in New York city
politics, chose the Bible, because he
knew that his sister would have no use
for the sword. and that il could eventu-
ally be appropriated for his own uses.
While he was yet young enough to ad
mire new pair of copper toed boots,
with pictures of gilt dogs on the tops,
his father one Sunday kept his congrega-
ton waiting. The youngster in the
family pew went up into the pulpit,
turned the leaves of the big Bible and re.
arranged the book marks carelessly,
merely to divert attention from the de-
lay, and, of course, said nothing. Thus
early, it appears, he knew the golden
value of silence. He learned to play
seven up before he was IL. He left
pack of cards one day--a borrowed pair,
he always maintained-in the pocket of
his jacket.
That night, at supper, his mothe
CHANGED to deliver lecture on the evils
of gambling, and young Matt knew it
would never do to have her find the
cards about him. So he threw what APP
peared to be the pack-which he had
wrapped carefully in paper-under the
fence, out of the way. "A week after,
when he thought the storm had blown
over, he went TO find them. 1t was the
pocket Bible and not the cards that was
done up in paper! His mother had put
it nicely in the jacket pocket, and it was
that which he had thrown away.
Young Quay ran a stereopticon in
Louisiana, tried to start paper in Shreve-
port, but couldn't raise the money; taught
school in Texas, fought the Comanches
who we're threatening the border, re.
turned to Beaver. Pa, (where he has
lived ever since) was admitted to the bar
and made prothonotary, all before the
war. Before. the war, too. Quay carried
his county delegates for the nomination
of gallant old Governor Curtin. He
went to the front as Colonel of the One
Hundred and Thirty fourth Pennsylva-
mia Infantry. On his surgeons orders
he quit in go, for typhoid fever He
had resigned his command. but prepare
tions for Fredericksburg were making,
and he determined, in spite of the pro-
test of brigade commander and surgeons,
to stay and see it through.
81 would rather die like a fool" he
said to somebody. "than live like fool, !"
and he went through the fight with a
haversack and SIS, 900 in cash for the
soldiers in mis- old regiment on his
shoulder.
Then for the next twenty years fol-
lowed the wonderful political campaigns
of Colonel Quay in Pennsylvania. His
successes were brilliant; his defeats
| always in the end turned to advantage.
He was the Curtin candidate for Speaker
of the House in 1866, but the Camerons
won.
Then Quay was secretary of the State
Committee, Secretary of State, now Re
corder of Philadelphia, now winning,
now losing, but all the time learning from
the elder Cameron that enemies had best
be conciliated and friends rewarded, and
from the younger that some enemies are
not worth conciliating and can better be
crushed; till in 1885, when many of the
politicians were cold, he appealed to
the people. He announced in a thou
| sand personal letters to his friends in all
parts of the State that he was candi-
date for Treasurer. He was elected with
majority that only Grant and Blaine
have beaten.
"He is the durndest fellow you ever
saw" says Pennsylvania who knows
him we'll, ito turn up on top when you
least expect him to. He knows how to
sway the leaders of men, and so sway
them in bodies "If there were a bal
lot box," says another, Gin the middle
of square and artillery and infantry
were charging down four streets TO get
it and Quay thought the box belonged
to him, he'd stay there and keep 1t and
have IL if he died in his tracks"
Some have imagined during the cam.
paign that Senator Quay was only a
practical politician. Not so. He
makes science of politics. He knows
that the people cannot be fooled. He
seems TO lead Just as the great editor
does-and does lead AZ much as anybody
can be said to lead-by fOreseeing what
popular drifts are and simply helping
them along.
| Advice To Mothers,