He was a lawyer and solicitor for the borough of Lansdowne, Pennsylvania (1899–1900) and served as president of the Law Academy of Philadelphia.

The bill would have made it illegal for publishers to print cartoons depicting politicians as animals.

It was inspired by a series of cartoons depicting the 1902 candidate for governor, Samuel Pennypacker, as a parrot.

[3] The bill did not become law, but it inspired a whole new series of cartoons depicting politicians as vegetables and inanimate objects.

[1] He died at Naval Hospital Philadelphia on September 6, 1936, and is buried in Cumberland Cemetery in Media, Pennsylvania.