The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1906-10-03
A Famous Journalists Story Of
the Rise of a Poor Boy to
High Public Honor.
"NEVER 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
stanLard-bearer:
AT the close of the gubernatorlal
campaign four years ago it was OBJ
served that the Republican candidate
came out of it without having been
con PEELED even once to defend his per-
sonil character. Amidst all the gibes
that were cast at Judge Pennypacker
and all the controversies over his po-
litical status, his record as 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 a 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 30 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.
| ne wan III Ine Waxing.
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 q
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, fol-
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 haoit
of those who criticise him to call him
'over-discreet' or too n-committal.
a merely political trait or the result ot
political life. Caution is an instinct
with him. 1t was natural to him wheq
he was earning his SO or 81 a week anC
carrying his coffee every morning from
his downtown home to warm it up il
the middle of the day at the Fallor
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 a!
careful to see that they were made
quite as secure in protecting the ant
10-cent stock as he was that the rares
editions on the inside should be safe
guarded from theft or fire. And ye
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 o.
hurtful habits which most lads contrac
in the growing age, no one thought o
associating him with the idea of {
milksop or pretender. To everybod!
about Fifth and Walnut streets he wa
Ed Ned or Eddie, and even theI
there was a sort of intuition among tn,
denizens of the corner that he had tn,
making of somebody in him.
"Mr. Stuart was at one time, whel
still young a Sunday school teacher
Some years ago he told me hov
amused and pleased he was one day IL
finding among the books which cam
to his store on Ninth street a copy o
a little Testament which contained tn
inscription that he had written on it
fly-leaf in the early '70's when he pre-
sented it to one of his pupils. In hi
relations to his mother, who was o
sturdy, religious stock, he was sig
nal example of the loyalty and graft
tude of the son who honors the chic
author of his being; he lived as mucl
for her as for himself; the pride whicl
! she might find in his ambitions wa
not the least of his motives in court
ing public advancement, and when h
had almost reached the mayoralty o
his native city, the sorest blow of hi
life was that death should rob him o
her in their little home on Tenth street
and that he should be cut off, on tn
eve of his triumph, from sharing
with her. Stuart had little schooling
except what he got in the SOuthwes