The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1906-10-03
TRIUMPH OF WORTH
IS WELL EVIDENCED
IN EDWIN s. STUART
A Famous Journalists Story Of
the Rise of a Poor Boy to
High Public Honor.
sNEVER MADE A PROMISE
THAT WAS NOT FULFILLED"
Emerged From Trying Term Of
Office With EchOing Plaudits
OF a City.

There was no more aggressive sup
porter of the fusion state ticket and the
City Party movement in Philadelphia
last fall than the Philadelphia Even
ing Bulletin" Its editor in chief,
William Perrine, author of the famous
Penn" comments upon men and meas
ures in that Independent journal, gave
this word picture of the Republican
nominee for governor in mis- character
istic, frank and manly manner, shortly
after the selection of the Republican
standard-bearer:
"At the close of the gubernatorlal
campaign four years ago it was OBJ
served that the Republican candidate
came out of 1t without having been
con PEELED even once to defend his per-
sonll character. Amidst all the gibes
that were cast at Judge Pennypacker
and all the controversies over his po-
litical status, his record as a man was
proof against reproach. 1t is alto
gether certain that his successor as a
gubernatorial candidate will repeat
this experience in the coming campaign.
For the life of Edwin S. Stuart in
Philadelphia from his boyhood has
been so clear. clean, simple and open
that it would be hard even for the
adroitest of slanderers to fasten upon
him the suspicion of an Illicit or dis
reputable act In his early manhood
he framed for himself a code of up
right and honorable dealing in his
business ambitions and in his daily
relations to men; he had sterling
reputation for his squareness and sin
cerity among those who knew him
when he was only In his teens, and In
the course of the more than 80 years OF
his comings and goings among the peo-
pie, and largely in public life, none has
been able to note in him any essential
deviation from the principles and the
habits which marked him in the hum
BILE beginnings Of his career.
The Man In the Making.
when as lad he had hardly ceased
doing chores in the old Leary book
store at Fifth and Walnut streets, he
was almost as big and strapping fell
low physically as he is now. At II
or Is he had the frame and girth of a
six-footer, the level-headed sense OF
judgment of a veteran in the book
business when he would go to Thomas
auction rooms on Fourth street, for
example, to do the buying for his
house, and an unusual facility, for a
youth, of knowing how to hold his
tongue and yet winning friends with
perfect ease. 1t is sometimes the habit
Of those who criticise him to call him
'over-discreet' or too non-committal.
But this sort of prudence is not
a merely political trait or the result OF
political life. Caution is an instinct
with him; II was natural to him when
he was earning his SO or 81 a week and
carrying his coffee every morning from
his downtown home to warm it up in
the middle of the day at the Fallon
shoe store, and when at night time the
row of tall boards which encased the
cheap stalls on the outside walls were
fastened together. young Stuart was as
careful to see that they were made
quite as secure in protecting the and
10-cent stock as he was that the rarest
editions on the inside should be safe
guarded from theft or fire. And yet
with all his circumspection in speech
there wasn't more cheerful or more
sunny-faced lad in the neighborhood
He worked all day long and frequently
we'll into the night as If he never knew
what it was to be tired, md although
he was singularly free of the loose OF
hurtful habits which most lads contract
in the growing age, no one thought OF
associating him with the idea of a
milksop or pretender. To everybody
about Fifth and Walnut streets he was
Ed Ned or Eddie, and even then
there was a sort of intuition among the
denizens of the corner that he had the
making of somebody in him.
"Mr. Stuart was at one time, when
still young, a Sunday school teacher
Some years ago he told me how
amused and pleased he was one day in
finding among the books which came
to his store on Ninth street copy OF
a little Testament which contained the
inscription that he had written on Its
fiy-eaf in the early '70s when he pre-
sented 1t to one of his pupils. In his
relations to his mother, who was oi
sturdy. religious stock, he was a sig
nal example Of the loyalty and graft.
tude of the son who honors the CHIEF
author of his being; he lived as much
for her as for HIMSELF the pride which
she might find in his ambitions was
not the least of his motives in court
ing public advancement, and when he
had almost reached the mayoralty oi
his native city, the sorest blow of his
life was that death should rob him OF
| her in their little home on Tenth street
and that he should be cut off. on the
eve. of his triumph, from sharing ii
with her. Stuart had little schooling
except what he got in the Southwest