The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-05-15
AT THE UNION LEAGUE
President Mcleod, the Great
Reading Magnate.
EDMUNDS is FAILING FAST,
Senator Hale's Outrage Upon Clerk
foung-Tho Interesting Career
OF General d'Utassy.

New YORK, May Especial Correspond
ence II had the pleasure, on General
Grants birthday of dining with the
Union League Club in Philadelphia. In a
strictly political sense, the Union League
/ club is historic organization. 1t was be-
? gotten in the spirit of war, and was one
Of the first of the organizations in the
North which combined social intercourse
J with tho development of loyalty and
p steadfast support of the Union
cause. After it came the Union
League Club of New York city, which
also rendered most valuable service to the
government and the armies. The club
house of the Philadelphia League is beau
tifully situated on Broad street and is a
fine, old, capacious structure, but already
there is a movement on foot in the club to
sell and build elsewhere or enlarge. 1t
would be pity to disturb the present
building, because of its history and tradi-
tons. All the great generals of the Union,
from General Grant down, have received
ovations within its walls, and its pictures
and historical works pertaining to the
war are not only valuable of themselves,
but greatly SO by reason of association
J. AT this dinner to which have referred I
met a number of conspicuous and distin-
kuicHcu Among tnem MT. n. n. NC
Leod, the giant president of the Reading
railroad system, who is mainly responsible
for the marvellous advancement of that vast
corporation which has come up through so
much trlbulation. Mr.. Mcleod looks to
be about 40 years of age, and is certainly
not over AZ. He shows his sturdy,
Scotch lineage in every aspect of form and
figure. He is a man built for work and
endurance. / had expected to see a raw
boned Scot with a vlsage as stern as the
storm-end of one of the Hebrides, but in
stead found very pleasant, affable gentle
man who is inclined to listen as we'll as
talk. Certainly at the dinner table he is
anything but an absorbed magnate. He
seemed to be rather pleased when
Il suggested that in all my travels
throughout the world | had come in
contact with the fact that Sandy McPher-
son." or rather the Scotchman, was the
: great tinancIer. bookkeeper and general
manager of everybody's business. | said
that wherever l had found an English
commercial house of any distinction there
was always a Scotchman in the firm or
Gaelic boss in the back room keeping
books. / had also discovered that on all
the railways in remote sections of Europe
and Asia the Scotchman was nearly always
found at the throttle of the locomotive
The shrewdness. persistency, long-head-
edness and cold bloodedness which had
enabled the Gael to build cities and ar
goses in the bleak sections of Scotland
had made him the master of finance and
mechanics all over the world, and thrift
followed in his wake. This tribute to Mr..
McLeod's ancestors brought out this story
from Henry Watterson, who was OF our
table group: "A daughter of Lord Dun
das one day fell into the Serpentine in
Dc. Ion. oh, bod
Irish lad who happened to be
near by, jumped into the water
and rescued the damsel. Next day Lord
Dundas sent for him to thank him, and,
being pleased with his appearance, in
quired of the lad what favor he could do
him. With instructive humor the boy
said: Il wish your lordship could make
me Scotchman.' His lordsbip, not in
the least questioning his prowess in the
matter, replied with great gravity: Il
Gamma, my lad; Gamma gle We the pru-
dence.'"
Mcleod, who seems 10 be veritable Nc
Leod of Dare Most-Anything is. believe,
anative of Pennsylvania. He was origin
ally associated with Mr.. Austin Corbin in
the construction of his great Rockaway
Beach hotel. He was afterward associated
with the Long Island railway system. and
still later with railroad interests at Elmira,
n. y. He is q practical. mechanical,
business railroad man. While Frank
: lin Gowen, the great legal theorist and
philosopher, was wrestling with the Read
ing system and plunGlng IL into compllca-
tions of all kinds. Mcleod was looking
after the everyday ends of things, study
ing roadbeds. TRACTION subjects, the weight
OF rails. frogs ana couplings. and brakes.
He slowly rose from place To place until,
all of Il sudden the country heard of him
ss the head and front of this gigantic cor
poration whose system and methods of
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT have at last attracted
she attention of congress. Today the
Reading system embraces fully 1900 miles