oldest son married Elkins's daughter. Elkins had started life as
an entry clerk in a grocery store, had made money in the butter
and egg business, had "struck oil" at Titusville in 1862, and had
succeeded in exchanging his holdings for a block of Standard Oil
stock. He too became a Philadelphia politician, but he had
certain hard qualities--he was close-fisted, slow, plodding--that
prevented him from achieving much success.

For the other members of this group we must now change the scene
to New York City. In the early eighties certain powerful
interests had formed plans for controlling the New York transit
fields. Prominent among them was William Collins Whitney, a very
different type of man from the Philadelphians. Born in Conway,
Massachusetts, in 1841, he came from a long line of distinguished
and intellectual New Englanders. At Yale his wonderful mental
gifts raised him far above his fellows; he divided all scholastic
honors there with his classmate, William Graham Sumner,
afterwards Yale's great political economist. Soon after
graduation Whitney came to New York and rapidly forged ahead as a
lawyer. Brilliant, polished, suave, he early displayed those
qualities which afterward made him the master mind of
presidential Cabinets and the maker of American Presidents.
Physically handsome, loved by most men and all women, he soon
acquired a social standing that amounted almost to a
dictatorship. His early political activities had greatly
benefited New York. He became a member of that group which, under
the leadership of Joseph H. Choate and Samuel J. Tilden,
accomplished the downfall of William M. Tweed. Whitney remained
Tilden's political protege for several years. Though highbred and
luxury-loving, as a young man he was not averse to hard political