Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-09-19
kEely A,woRLp TRAVELLER
Col. Mccain Tells OF Philadelphia 5o-
hemian Group Of Which Doctor Is
the only survivor-Man Who
Found Woodrow Wilson
nv GEORGE NOx MCCAIN

by GEORGE NOX Mccain
DR. ROBERT n KELLY was a rare
Afgure on Chestnut street the other day.
He lives nt Browns Mills in the Pines,
New Jersey, although he spends about one
third of the year in Philadelphia. The Art
Club is his headquarters.
Doctor Kcely was surgeon of the first
Pcary Relief Expedition That was in the
summer and fall of 1892. He came back
and wrote an interesting book of his expert
ences that had n large sale. Everything
about the Arctic was seized upon greedily in
those days.
l fancy that his experiences up in the
white north gave DR.. Bob Keely the taste
of travel that he has developed in succeeding
years.
He has been almost everywhere. His record
along the northern coast of South America
is six voyages. He has visited practically
every habitabe island from Cuba to Barba-
dos
Two months were spent by him in our
new possessions, the Virgin Islands, last
spring, where he had an opportunity to study
conditions in these Pearls of the Spanish
Main,' so called.
AS pearls they are pretty badly damaged,
the doctor says. The United States took
them over three years ago and has permitted
them to shift for themselves ever since. BY
them is meant the inhabitants. The doctor
is of the opinion that unless Washington
wakes up and manfests some interest and
puts the population to work and extends
some substantial aid to them, it will one
of these days be called upon to send n few
relief ships to the islands We did to Porto
Rico in 1899.
NTHEN Melville L. Phillips was literary
w editor of the old Press under Bradford
Merrill, now general manager of the Hearst
newspapers in New York, as managing
editor, his room was a rendezvous for
group Of young fellows who comprised the
only real set of Bohemians it was ever my
fortune to know.
There was Dr. Bob" Keely, ready for
any adventure that might drift his way.
Dan" Dawson, athlete and man about
town, of whom it was said that he addressed
young ladies boarding school in the morn
ing, had a four round setto in the after
noon, and made up party of a dozen at
private dinner at the Bellevue at night
Will Garrison, writer himself and
delightful talker with a most remarkable
vocabulary. He was brother of Secretary
of War Garrison.
Joe Sinnott, slender, handsome, wealthy
and as companionable chap as one could
find in a weeks travel. Then there was
O'Brien Moore, of Ireland, one of the
gentlest and most kindly souls ever knew;
soft voiced and sympathetic, but ready to
fight at the drop of hat.
Moore went back to Ireland, / believe,
to an unexpected title of some sort. DR..
Bob Keely is now the sole survivor OF that
brilliant little company
Two or three times a week they would
tak ka 1nnnh 6
a salad, at the Holly Tree Inn.
1t was on Sixth street below Arch. It's
n plumbers shon now. The little long
narrow saloon disappeared ten years ago. x
lunch with two glasses of beer in those DAYS
cost a quarter.
This group, all brilliant young men in
their way, were Bohemians by nature. They
did not wear bow ties, long hair and wooden
shirts.
They were gentlemen.
T HAVE known several men in my day who
had an uncommon faculty for sizing un
political situations. The late Congressman
Ernest f. Acheson, of Washington county,
was one of these wise men.
One time in particular was the presidential
campaign of 1892. Acheson went to Min
neapolis as a Blaine adherent. He said
Harrison could not win. And he was right
about it. Harrison was nominated and
slaughtered at the polls.
Henry 4. Alexander was one of Acheson's
intimate friends. He was newspaper
man, but is now Il publicst with residences
in Washington, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
20 1t was Alexander who really first sug-
gested Woodrow Wilson for political ad-
vancement. He was then Professor Wilson,
of Princeton.
Hall Alexander was editor of a daily
newspaper in Trenton when he became OBJ
sessed with the idea that Wilson could be
nominated and elected governor of New Jer-
sey.
In league with Colonel George Harvey in
New York, former Judge James Gay Gordon,
of this city, and some other friends he work.
ed up his ideas.
i presume one reason was that Hal Alex
ander comes of long line of PRESBYTERIAN
ancestors. The Presbyterian Banner still
belongs to and is published by his family.
Wilson was Presbyterian and a rising man
and conditions were favorable for the stroke
that ultimately headed Woodrow Wilson for
the White House.
Alexander, like his personal friend, Con-
gressman Acheson, has been successful in
predicting political events. Wilson, for in
stance. Edwin S. Stuart was picked by
him for Governor at a time when things
looked rather dark for the Republican party
in the state.
incidentally, Mr.. Alexander when I met
him on Broad street the other day pre-
dicted j. Hampton Moore would win.
T S. SCATTERGOOD knows as much
e about Photographic cameras and sucb
things as any man in Philadelphia. He has
been handling them and selling them for
nearly a quarter of a century. He knows
all the big lecturers and has outftted some
of them, to say nothing of hundreds of
travellers.
Mr.. Scattergood is of the opinion, Judged
on the camera basis, that this government
need have little fear of Germany not being
able to dispose of her products now that the
war is over. Already in the camera trade
there is great demand for German cameras.
There is one in particular-small, com
pact, with an exceedingly fine lens-that is
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