The New York herald., 1922-01-01
PENROSE A PROMINENT
FIGURE IN PUBLIC LIFE
Won Fame as Lawyer Befors
Going to Senate.

4
1897, was born in Philadelphia in 1860.
He was born in the house which he
made his home all his life and was the
eldest son of Prof. r. A. p. Penrose
of the University of Pennsylvania. who
| before he became member OF the uni
! versity faculty was distinguished
physician and surgeon The family Is
ono of the oldest and most highly re-
garded in Pennsylvania; its founder en-
tered the State with William Penn. and
1t has enjoyed wealth and fine social
position for generations
| Boies Penrose was one of six brothers
and showed ability from boyhood. He
entered Harvard University when he was
| 16 was graduated when he was 20 and
was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar In
| 1881, He remained for a year In the law
office of Wayne Macveagh. then United
| States Attorney General, and In 1882
| entered law partnership OF which s.
| Davis Page was the head and which
thenceforward became, Page, Allinson &
| Penrose.
He never, however, became a devoted
practitioner of the law. for politics had
attracted him long before he cast his
| first vote. Various young men have
chosen various methods of gaining their
first foothold in politics. Penrose chose
that short cut which consists in starting
| some form Of opposition to the controll-
| ing organization. keeping steadfastly at
| 1t until your opposition has assumed for
midable proportions and then permitting
the machine to invite you In. a
Matt Quay. who was running Pennsyl-
vania politically when Penrose was an
upstart in the wards. took notice
quickly. Penrose had allied himself with
camp of reformers. which had no
special significance until young Penrose
with his social and family prestige came
along to give 1t some. Quay sized the
situation up carefully, counted the prob
able. worth of Penrosc to his own organ
ization and then took Penrosc in on his
own terms. He gave him the regular
Republican nomination to the Legisla-
ture from the Sixth ward and Penrose
was elected in due course. His name and
the name of reform were never, asso-
ciated again. Another legislator who
travelled to Harrisburg with him said
afterward that he saw Penrose take his
reform principles. wrap them In a bundle
and throw them from the train.
One OF the first things he did in Har-
risburg was to vote for the reelection
of J. Donald Cameron to the United
States Senate and the second was to
take a leading part I'm the enactment
OF the BullItt law which amended the
city charter OF Philadelphia. In the
following year he was sent to the State
senste where ne added to his reputation
as an iron bound and copper riveted
organization man and In 1887 he was
selected TO second the nomination OF
Matt Quay TO the United States Senate
and was made member OF the city
convention which nominated Edwin n.
Filter as the first Bulltt-bIl Mayor Of
Philadelphia.
Friends OF his family and other high
caste citizens OF Philadelphia had grown
fond OF saying about this time that
Boies Penrose seemed to have forgotten
the traditions OF his birth and his Har-
ward culture and 10 have become meta
morphosed ino a common" politician or
the kind for which Philadelphia had
long enjoyed what was the reverse of
renown. And while they were discuss
ing his case and iamenting II the trus-
tees OF Johns Hopkins University de-
clded that the world needed a History
of the City Government OF Philadelphia.
They selected Penrose to write II, not
out of any admiration for him. but be-
cause they felt that he combined first
hand knowledge with the necessary
scholarship and they wanted the book.
He took up the work with enthusiasm,
had Edward y. Allinson. one Of his law
pbftneFs, COlidUoTate WIN HiItl, anu tiic
pair produced n scholarly. unprejudiced
and valuable piece of literature.
For several years after that Penrose
continued his party activities In the
State Senate. There was "A great cry
against the trusts at that time. but II
the measure. whatever IL was. was a
party measure Penrose voted straight
with the organization and let the world
howl that the influence behind II was
the Standard OIL. the Steel Trust, the
Pennsylvania road or the coal interests.
as the case might be. And SO until
1896 his political fortunes went pros
perously along
They had a temporary setback about
then. He was selected by Quay and the
other bosses as candidate for the
Mayoralty OF Philadelphia. There was
no special opposition TO him from the
press or elsewhere until the eve of the
party convention. when an influential
newspaper sent word TO Quay that if
Penrosc was named the paper would
begin a campaign against not only him,
but his sponsors, and print certain mat
ters which they could not afford to have
become public. Quay never revealed
Just what was threatened, but he and
his advisers withdrew Penrose's name
and declared themselves for Charles II.
Warwick who was duly elected.
Immediately afterward Quay and his
forces went back to Harrisburg and q
ranged for the appointment OF the legls-
Y