immediate prominence and a large fee.

Senator Conkling's career at the bar was most successful, and
there was universal sorrow when his life ended in the tragedy
of the great blizzard.



VI. HORACE GREELEY

While secretary of state of New York, the decennial State census
was taken, and the appointment of three thousand census takers
involved as much pressure from congressmen, State senators,
assemblymen, and local leaders as if the places had been very
remunerative and permanent. I discovered what a power political
patronage is in party organization, because it developed that
the appointment of this large number of men, located in every town
in the State, could easily have been utilized for the formation
of a personal organization within the party.

I was exceedingly fond, as I am still and always have been,
of political questions, issues affecting the general government,
the State, or localities, party organizations, and political
leaders. So, while devoted to my profession and its work and
increasingly enjoying its labor and activities, politics became
an interesting recreation. With no desire for and with a
determination not to take any public office, to be called into
party councils, to be at an occasional meeting of the State
committee and a delegate to conventions were happy relief and
excursions from the routine of professional work, as golf is to