I belonged in whole-souled fashion, was anxious to have Sloane elected, 

 the other party was as enthusiastic for Dr. Patton. The choice, to my 

 lasting regret, fell upon Dr. Patton; for a short time I was reconciled, 

 only to have my chagrin revived in stronger measure. Personally, I was 

 always very fond of Dr. Patton, who was a most lovable man, and ad- 

 mired him exceedingly as the most brilliant man, except perhaps Balfour, 

 whom I had ever known, but he was not a good executive and his defects 

 of temperament went far to neutralise his extraordinary powers of 

 mind. 



Most of the New York alumni were bitterly opposed to the election of 

 Dr. Patton on the ground that he was "a narrow-minded bigot," for 

 he had conducted the prosecution in the Swing heresy trial in Chicago, 

 before he came to Princeton; that he was a British subject, and that he 

 was many other things which I do not recall. At the dinner given him 

 in New York, on March 15, 1888, shortly after the election was an- 

 nounced, he temporarily conquered the opposition by a truly great 

 speech, the greatest I ever heard from any man. In the most skilful man- 

 ner and without appearing to do so, he took up and convincingly an- 

 swered, one by one, the objections that had been made to him by the 

 alumni. I remember only one passage sufficiently well to quote, but that 

 illustrates his method throughout: "When I think of Witherspoon and 

 McCosh, I am compelled to believe that there is more joy among the 

 alumni over the one president that is naturalised than over the ninety and 

 nine that need no naturalisation." 



When Dr. Patton began his speech that night, the atmosphere was so 

 palpably one of cold hostility that one could not but feel it, and I trembled 

 with the fear of a great fiasco. My fears were quite misplaced, for when 

 the speaker finished, his enemies were standing on the tables, waving 

 their napkins and yelling in a frenzy of enthusiasm. Such a personal 

 triumph I never witnessed before or since. He had converted his oppo- 

 nents and began his administration with the heartiest good wishes of 

 all parties. That the conversion was short-lived, was most unfortunate 

 and yet not to be wondered at, for the slackness of the new President's 

 ways very soon made themselves felt. 



To reach that Princeton dinner in New York, on Thursday, March 15, 

 Osborn and I spent six or seven hours on the way, travelling on the first 

 train by the Pennsylvania Railroad that reached New York that weeJ^. 

 The cause of this unique stoppage of communications was the tremen- 

 dous storm, ever since known as "the Great Blizzard of '88," which began 

 on Sunday night, March 11. Saturday, as I clearly remember, was a 



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