A Secret Life_ The Lies and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland - Charles Lachman [6]
Rogers pointed to a spare desk tucked into the corner of his office. “Well,” he said, “there’s a table.” An understanding was reached. For the first two months, Grover would work for no pay, but once he had proved his value, they could talk salary. No promises were made; apparently, Rogers wanted to leave all options open in the event that this Grover Cleveland did not prove to be as smart a boy as his uncle had said he was.
The law firm was located at Spaulding’s Exchange, a five-story office building owned by the former mayor of Buffalo, at 162 Main Street. It was a hub of business and commerce. On the ground floor were the Bank of Attica and an array of shops and stores. The second floor held the offices of Farmers and Mechanics Bank. On the upper floor was the law firm of Rogers, Bowen & Rogers.
On Grover’s first day at Rogers, Bowen & Rogers, he immediately realized that no one wanted him there. Old Man Rogers set the tone when Grover introduced himself; he responded by tossing a copy of Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England on the desk that had been set aside for the new boy. The book was, of course, the foundation of all the laws in the United States and England. It landed on the desk with a loud thunk and a cloud of dust.
“That’s where they all begin,” Rogers informed the confounded young man and, with that, walked away. Thus was launched the legal career of Grover Cleveland. He opened the book with what must have been total bewilderment and began to read. For the rest of the morning, the other partners and clerks ignored him. Around noon, the office cleared out. Everyone went to lunch, but no invitation was extended to the new clerk on tryout. When evening came and it was time for everyone to go home, Grover waited at his desk for a summons or some signal that it would be appropriate to leave. Before he knew what was happening, the office was empty. The last man out actually locked the door. Grover was trapped inside. Whether this was another act of humiliation or he had just been forgotten, no one can say. Surely Grover felt hurt by the way he had been treated, but to his credit, he took it as another challenge. “Someday I will be better remembered,” he recalled thinking that night. He was stuck in the office until the following morning.
Several days later, Lewis Allen asked his nephew, “How are you getting on at the office?”
“Pretty well, sir. Only, they won’t tell me anything.”
The next time Lewis came face-to-face with Rogers, he repeated his nephew’s complaint.
“If the boy has brains, he’ll find out for himself without anybody telling him” was Rogers’s crusty response, but it belied the realization he was coming to that the boy was worth mentoring. He told Lewis that Grover could stay on. As for salary, Lewis told Rogers to pay his nephew what they could afford. It came to $6 a week, which Grover found to be “very satisfactory.”
Grover was at his desk one Thursday afternoon in mid-October, bleary-eyed from work and feeling a little out of sorts because he had received just one letter from his family in two weeks. So he put Blackstone aside and wrote a letter to his sister Mary, who had recently given birth to her first child who, in jest, Grover