Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-11-04
ABOUT TELEGRAPHERS
Clarke e. Diehi a Manager for Forty
Years-charlie Adams and His
Career - Public Men Who
Loved the ouIet Life
BY GEORGE NOX MCCAIN
NLARKE u. DIEHL. in point of cor

4 NLAhhE II. DlEttlJ, IN point OF cOntinu-
~ Gus service in one office, Is, / think, the
Oldest telegraph manager in Pennsylvania.
He has been In charge Of the Postal Tele-
graph Office in Harrisburg for about forty
years.
Mr. Diehl is also chief electrician for the
city of Harrisburg He knows about every
city official and political leader in the capital.
BY the same token, he has a personal ac-
quaintance with most of the political lead
ers Of the state His experience gained as
telegraph manager has been wide, varied
and unique This is largely because he has
been located in the capital city.
Clarke +. Diehl has seen young fellows
come from remote rural counties, heads high
with hope and eyes bright with ambition,
as members Of the lower house; and then,
after the lapse of years, he has hailed them
as Supreme Court judges and United States
senator's.
He has seen generation of political lead
ers rise, flourish, fall and pass away.
LyROM bare little Office with three or four
l. instruments. a counter and four or five
cheap tables for newspaper correspondents,
he has watched his Office grow till it Is filed
with great switchboards and a company OF
clerks, operators and messengers.
He is the repository of more political Sc
crets, perhaps, than any other man in the
state. Rut no one knows them from his lips.
His Office and that Of his neighbor, the
Western Union, Is deserted now by news
paper writers. There iS no more hurrylnR
downtown to file dispatches.
There's newspaper room In the Capitol,
with telegraph offices 100 feet away. The
system Of news gathering has not changed,
but the system of telegraph service has been
rcvO!utioniZcd.
Mr.. Diehl is Rockefeller. John d.
Rockefellers grandfather four times re-
moved, viz, Johann Peter Rockefeller, was
Mr.. Diehl's grandfather four times removed.
He is a member of the Rockefeller family
association and occasionally attends its gath
erings in eastern cities.
His family tree dates back for 200 years
in Pennsylvania. Some family record, you
will agree.
CHARLES c. ADAMS is still remembered
~ by hundreds of Philadelphia's business
and club men. He was for years manager
Of the Postal company's Office in this city.
He was rotund, afable. ambitious young
fellow Of twenty four in charge of the Mu-
tual Union Telegraph Office in the old Ger
man Bank building on Wood street, Pitts
manager of the Harrisburg Office forty years
ago.
He entered the Postal service and rose
steadily from one managerial position to
another till he came to Philadelphia.
Then Mackey, the controlling power in the
Postal company, aftcrward succeeded by his
son, saw great possibilities ahead for
Charlie Adams. In few years he was
made fourth vice president of the company,
with headquarters in New York.
Years went by and Adams rose step by
step till he became first vice president, really
the actual head and controlling power of the
great corporation.
His success left him unchanged. AS first
vice president of the Postal he was, to his
friends, the same Charlie Adams that he had
been forty years before in the little 15x2O
Mutual Union Office in Pittsburgh.
year or more ago he resigned to become
president of bank at Elmhurst, N. Y. His
beautiful home there is a Mecca for old
friends.
He is one man whose successes have not
turned his head.
ONE of the outstanding features of public
" life is the tendency Of high state officials
to get away from the rush and crowds Of
the city. Most of them have country homes
or estates removed from the swift current Of
urban existence.
Deputy Attorney General Bernard J.
Myers is one of this number.
He comes Of an old Lancaster family.
His politics is matter of inheritance, for
his father was at one time sheriff of Lam
caster county. His love of rural life is also
q matter of heredity.
high state official he is also farmer. And
he is not gentleman farmer, either. His
attractive home on his farm five miles from
Lancaster Is beauty spot, and though he
does not say so. ] take it that he would
rather be out there in his leisure hours than
anywhere else in the world.
His library is larger than the more pre-
tentious that can be found in some city law
Offices.
On intricate cases, where scclusion and
quiet are prerequisites, he does much of his
work there.
NIIAUNCEY FORWARD RIACK, Lieu
~ tenant Governor from 1883 to 1897 ono
of the kindlest gentlemen and best loved
Democrats this state ever produced, was
iuraist.
After the expiration Of his term, Governor
Black retired to his beautiful home, Willow
Bridges, just outside York, where he spent
the remainder of his life in the midst of
his books.
He was massive, warm hearted, genial
man. He was student of politics. Not
in a merely superficial way. for he made an
intimate and detailed study of every great
national problem.
Charles A. Dana, of the New York Sun.
such a high regard for his political acumen
and breadth of view that he made him
member Of the Suns editorial staff.
do not think Governor Black ever spent
u day in the New York Sun office. All of
his editorial work was done at Willow
Bridges.
His newspaper connection was known onlv
to a few Of his intimatcs. 1t was congenial
work, for he was n graceful and accom-
plished writer, and his literary work brought
him an annual income for years larger than
he had received as Lieutenant Governor of
Pennsylvania.
His love for rural life lasted until his
death.
GOVERNOR SAMUEL W. PENNY
" PACKER and his family are affection
ately remembered by the boys and girls Of
Schwenksyille, though many of them are
now young men and women.
The Halloween festivities at the big man.
sion at Pennypacker's Mills are now thing
of the past, like the splendid collection Of
Pennsylvaniana that went under the hnm-
mcr in Philadelphia auction room recently.
For years 1t was the custom of Governor
4 al IL