The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1874-12-23

The baltimore a chic Railroad Ksas
George Alfred Townsend writes a
follows in the Chicago Tribune: !.
Waiting in the Library in Congress
last week | saw portly figure at th'
head of q body OF strangers, walk
ling up and down aud explaining
things. | recognized thas rubicunC
face, blush gray eye, and solid un
anxious tread and paee--ghe BalLi
more & Ohio Railroad magnate, }
w. Garrett.
lie has been in Europe for mere
than two years. la the aHterlm bis
fellow capitalist aud friend, John
Hopkins, has passed to the grave.
During his absence, although forbid
den to attend to business, Garrett
wrote by every mail, and had the
epitomized work sent out to him.
His kinfolks-John King and Mr..
Keyser-haTe been at the quarters
Of the presidency in his absence,
King exercising yiceroyalty, and
Keyser moving up aud down the
road and through the business CEN
tres.
Whatever the reasons or philOso-
ply, the management Of this railway
lis vindicated above everything in
the Western World. The great panic
swept over the country year ago,
and drove Vanderbilt TO Wall street
and Scott TO protest, while these
SeotchxIrish puiebmen Of Baltimore
we're as oblivicus Of the panic as
that Frederick county man who, hav-
ing plowed all day, said, as he came
home:
Il dinks | feels some little pebbles
10 my boots" and forthwith hanls
out a pair Of snuffers aud a cart.
wrench.
There was ho scrip or water in
Garrett's boots. All the stock there
was old and dry.
That is the only railroad in Amer
ica,p said Shanly, the Canadian, who
built the Hoosac funnel, cable in any
contingency to take care Of itself"
The power of this railroad is no
secret. 1t consists in learning what
ever is good from the present age,
forgetting nothing that was good in
the former ones. Once OF twice there
has been 9 movement to divide more
earnings or split the stock little
thinner, but the absolutism aud the
old fashioned sagacity Of Garrett
have prevented this going through.
His motto has been. Economy in
every detail, from pound Of nails
up" Time" says Garrett, ''is long
er than speculation. Sell nothing
restrict dividends for the sake Of the
long.credit Of the stock; wait togeth-
err, stockholders and oilicersl Invest
the surplus iu the system. Let poll
tics alone, neither conciliate it nor
aatagonize it. Particularly do not
corrupt it, or you will get its appetite
on edge and it viii gnaw you al
your days. Responsibility in the
working force conservatism in the
management; patience in the stock
list. Do not fool with loealisms.-
Side branches must construct them
selves. Push for large terminal
points, and the side places must build
toward the stem we extend in their
general direction
Mr.. Garrett took this road short
time before the war He was q pro-
vision dealer, the son of a banker
Scotch-Irish Presbyterian on one
side, Pennsylvania German on the
other. He bad hard, round head,
slow and gracious manner, a large,
rolling, acute plausibility, which re-
minded people Of q Holland burgo-
master. lie was never in q hurry,
but always very prompt; i've minutes
reflection he gave to every second of
speech, except when he had great
occasion, aud then be had done the
thinking Tor weeks before. He wss
never deficient in confidence, but IL
was diplomatic and graduated, anu
it embraced people unetuously in
stead Of carrying them by storm
His pertinacily was indescribable-I
He returned and returned again to
the same point, and by weight aud
tbe leaning power. net attritlon or
intrigue, carried the position or per-
sisted until it was lost. He had
great Baltimore appetites for food.
and bis steady animal heat counter
acted any intellectual relapse or mel
aneholy, it he could be capable of it.
Between work and eating, they say,
his organism for a time grew un-
strung. He worked on full stomach
for iifteen years around this railroad,
and then tendency to vertigo be-
came so manifest that he bad to give
over and go to Europe He told me
that he had perfectly capable assis-
tants, and should not resume his Ia
Dor with SO much willfulness.
Garrett is essentially merchant.
lie has led this railroad from thirty
FIVE cents on the stock up to $l.65
and more, where it stands, ike Mo-
bammed's coffin, against the ceiling.
From road badly off, between Balti-
more and Wheeling, it is now a road
to Staunton, to Danville, to Cinein-
natl, to Pittsburgh, to SanduskY, TO
Chicago 1t may yet be road to
Omaha and New Orleans. Its ambi-
ton stops ut Baltimore In that city
there is an UNDERGONE feeling that
John w Garrett may become a can