Boies Would Be Boies

POWER AND GLORY, The Life of Boies Penrose -- Walter Davenport -- Putnam ($3)-- Many a rough, brutal life is epitaphed into marmoreal propriety; but this biography of hardboiled, cynical Boies Penrose fits its subject. From the typical disillusioned newspaperman's attitude, with no kinship to the polished Lytton Strachey school, Power and Glory sets forth briefly, competently, in blunt, sensational journalese, the true story of a bold, bad man.

The late Boies Penrose (1860-1921), born to wealth and position in Philadelphia, Harvard-educated, wanted to be a leader but disliked respectable people. So he went into politics. A big fellow (6 ft. 4 in.) with big appetites, a cold heart, a shrewd head, he took to low life like a hippopotamus to water. When he was sent to the State Legislature he refused to truckle to Pennsylvania Boss Matthew Stanley Quay. Quay was impressed, made Penrose first his protege, then his partner. The Penrose path was broad and easy: he ambled into the U. S. Senate, into the counsels of Big Republican Business, into the Republican National Committee. But the one thing he most wanted, the mayoralty of Philadelphia, he never got. Quay's enemies kept Penrose from the nomination (which meant a sure election) by threatening to give the newspapers a photograph of Penrose leaving a well-known bawdy-house at daybreak.

Penrose ''never married. He never kept a mistress. When he wanted a woman, he rented one--a professional. He scorned amateurism in everything." As a tosspot, as a trencherman he was Gargantuan. In 1887 (when U. S. Senators were still elected by State legislatures) Penrose supervised a 48-hour party for doubtful legislators at the Lochiel Hotel, Harrisburg. ''In addition to other entertainment, the guests were provided with all the food they could eat, all the liquor they could drink, beds, valets, and music. And inasmuch as at no time were all the guests incapacitated or otherwise absent, Penrose never left the ball room, the center of the merry-making." Typical Penrose meal: "A dozen raw oysters, chicken gumbo, a terrapin stew, two canvasback ducks, mashed potatoes, lima beans, macaroni, asparagus, cole slaw and stewed corn, one hot mince pie and a quart of coffee. All of which he stowed away while he drank a bottle of sauterne, a quart of champagne, and several cognacs."

One of Penrose's more respectable pastimes was giving houseparties on his yacht to fellow-legislators and lady friends. On one occasion Penrose emerged on deck completely ready for a swim. A lady screamed at the sight. "Madame," said Senator Penrose, "I grant that mine is not the form of Apollo, but it is too late for either of us to do anything about that. But if I present what to you are strange or unfamiliar phenomena, it is you who should be ashamed, not I." The rise of Philadelphia's Vare brothers worried Penrose's declining years; more & more he found he had to do business with them. But he was still technically Boss of Pennsylvania when Death, which had long been stalking him, came at last.

*Published Oct. 16.

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