The Ways of Men

Eliot Gregory (1854-1915) was an American artist, critic and author. He was born in New York but he travelled to Paris to study and practice art. He specialized in drawing portraits of famous people. He also wrote short stories and critical essays. His works include: Wordly Ways and Byways (1898) and The Ways of Men (1900). "The gentleman who graced the gubernatorial armchair of our state when this century was born happened to be an admirer of classic lore and the sonorous names of antiquity. It is owing to his weakness in bestowing pompous cognomens on our embryo towns and villages that to-day names like Utica, Syracuse, and Ithaca, instead of evoking visions of historic pomp and circumstance, raise in the minds of most Americans the picture of cocky little cities, rich only in trolley-cars and Methodist meeting-houses. "