The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1886-07-17

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| know James C. Clarke and no man who ever lived
| in the county has warmer place in the hearts of
those who remember him than has Mr.. Clarke
His history is well known to most of the readers of
| The UNIoN-how he sprang from the hnmblest
walks of life to the exalted position he now holds
as president of one of the largest railroad corpor-
atoms in the Countrywide Illinois Central. Mr..
Clark has three sons, all born at Ashland, Balti-
more county, and these young men have been
trained in the same kind of school that brought
their worthy father from obscurity to distinction.
The Chicago Tribune of June goth gives an inter-
esting sketch of these young men, which we copy
below:
"Mr. james G. Clarke, president of the Illinois
Central Railroad Company, has three sons, Horace,
Wendell and Charles, and he has every reason to
be proud of them. Unlike the sons of most rich
men, these boys are brought up to work. From
boyhood they have been educated to depend upon
themselves, and all three are now fighting the
battle of life on their own merits The result of
these teachings is that instead of graduating into
mere society noodles, with no ambition but to
waste their fathers wealth in riotous sprees they
developing into sturdy, hard working business
men. Like their father, who worked his way up
to his present high station from fireman on loco
motive, all three began at the lowest round of the
ladder. Two mechanics by trade. Horace,
the eldest, left school when II years of age and
entered the locomotive shops of the Northern
Central Railroad at Baltimore as an apprentice.
After serving a period of three years, for which
he was paid SIS month, he came to Chicago and
obtained employment in the Illinois Central round
house as a machinst. At that time his father
was general manager of the road, but Horace was
treated with no greater consideration than any
other workman in the shop. In 1877, when the
Southern extension of the road was opened to
McComb, Miss, Horace was sent South as FORE
man of q steam-shovel. For six months he lived
in the swamps of Mississippi, experimenting the
ballasting of the track from New Orleans to Can
ton. During the fall of that year Col. Brinn, as
sistant general manager, appointed him train
master and assigned him to the Jackson and
| Cairo Division. Shortly after his promotion the
yellow fever scourge came and all but two of the
men under him were either stricken down or fled
| in terror. Horace showed what he was made. of
| by sticking to his post and although his duties
called him into the very hotbed of that fatal dis
ease, he never linched. For this fidelity to duty,
as well as his adaptability to the work, he was
made assistant division superintendent, posi-
ton which he now fills to the complete satisfac-
ton of his superiors. General Manager jeffrey
| says there is not more conscientious or harder
| working man in the employ of the road, and says
| that Horace would occupy even higher position
than he now holds if his father was not president
of the company. President Clarke, however, is
| by no means insensbe to the worth of his eldest
son, and recently he presented him with $50 shares
of Illinois Central stock.
"Wendell, the next oldest, is 26 years of age.
| From infancy he has been in rather delicate
health and this alone has prevented him follow
ing in the footsteps of his brother. He is at pres
ent employed in his fathers office, and can be
found at his desk from early morning until late
at night. His Office associates speak of him in
the warmest terms. In fact, he is universal
favorite. There is hardly a child on Michigan
avenue that is not on intimate terms with him.
| He mends their toys, teaches them to ride the
| bicycle and entertans them with his inexhausti-
| BILE fund of stories. Almost every evening he can
be seen seated on the front steps of his fathers
| handsome residence with crowd of youngsters
around him. They call him Wennie, and there
is not child among them but that loves him to
| distraction.
"Charlie the youngest of the three boys is not
| quite % years old. The neighbors call him a
model young man, and many of them point him
out pattern for their own hayward offspring.
He is as modest and gentle as as girl, but as
strong and healthy as blacksmith close STU
dent, he devotes all of his spare hours to his
! books, and is far more intellectual than most
| young men of his rank Four years ago he came
home from school, and without consulting his
father entered the Illinois Central machine shop
as an apprentice. The first year he earned seven
cents an hour and he worked six days week,
from seven O'Clock in the moring until six o'clock
at night. The second year he was paid eight
cents an hour. 1t was small pay for the son of a
| great railroad magnate, but at the end of two
years and half he had deposited in savings
| bank S15O of his earnings, besides buying his own
clothing. Of course he did not dress so stylish as
| some of the young dudes that lived in the same
neighborhood, but he always looked neat. In the
| shop he wore blue overalls and canvass jacket,
but he looked manly in them and he had the sat-
isfaction of knowing that they were paid for out
of his own earnings. His foreman says he was
the most attentive apprentice that ever came into
the shops. He was quick to learn and ambitious
to excel, and made such rapid progress that at
the end of his first eighteen months apprentice
ship he took the separate parts of a locomotive
and put them correctly together without any in
structions. He never complained of hard work,
| but rather seemed to court it. Many nights
when an emergency arose. he has lain in pit OF
water for hours at a time fastening bolts on the
inner side of locomotive. When the greasy
| young mechanic could return home to his fathers
brownstone front residence on Michigan avenue
some of the neghbors would make comments and
say it was shame to put young man of his
capabilities to such mental toll, but he went about
his work just the same, and his father was insen-
| sible to all comment. After serving his appren-
ticeship Charlie devoted year and six months to
studying mechanical engineering, and last Janu-
airy was promoted to the position of master me.
| chanc. At the same time his father made him a
present of fifty shares of Illinois Central stock,
and today he has charge of 312 men,"