Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-12-16
c, HUNTINGTON.

InaC the nelSnDOTS put SO IluCu "OTh On IDO shy boy that he had but little time left for study. Strange what a remarkable group of men, or rather boys, he was born among To say nothing of soldiers, senators and so on, there were r. T. Barnum, Brigham Young, Joseph Smith and such like strong natures. No, don't despise Barnum. A man who has made millions of little ones happy is neither knave nor fool. Brigham Young? He built city in the heart of the Great American Desert as it was then called that is a marvel, and Prophet Smith furnished the material.
 This man of Iron has probably buRt more miles of railroad than any other 10 men liv- ing or dead. Yet who ever heard of him or about him us long as he could hide himself and his marvellous works behind others? It was only when Hopkins, Crocker and Stan ford fell from the front and left him stand. ing all alone that we began to sec and heed the power behind the throne"
 If he had done not hing else but bore that hole through the Sierra \evadas and cross the sands of the continent, he would havehad fame enough and fortune enough, and it is a fact that the other three great builders wanted to stop there and then, but the greater force of this one man bore down all others, and he began building from Sacra- mento to the sea at once and from Arizona to Oregon.
 Have you any luSa what that nrSt road cost? The people laughed; the press of the Pacific coast jeered, derided, howled, and being disappointed in their prophecies are still bowling, jeering, derding. Hunting ton sat with his finger on the financial pulse of the world Crocker at the head of con struction, kept right with his men in the mountains day and night He too, had been day laborcr in his youth, and he knew what toll was. He once told me that for years he toiled so hard and necessarily that he scarcely had time or strength to throw of his clothes at night, but he fell ou his blankets and slept as he fell. When his tunnel was half through the mountains, he tapped it from the top, drew up his thousand tons of track and ran the rails away down the mountains in grooves of wood.
 The other day lady writer came to me, as they come to all scribes, I reckon, and begged me to tell her how to make some money with her pen. She had fine article dainty, delicate and so sensible that even the most shy man could not be afraid of it. Take that to Huntington or to his wife 1 never saw and scarce know him, said l. and get his permission to publish it as au- thentic; then l will give you letter to magazine"
 She came back in few days
 "Wellf"
 Well, saw Huntington, and got $50"
 Fifty dollars! Gee! Where do you want to publish it'"
 Publish it! He gave me the $50 to burn it upn'
 But this young woman had dug up a fact that l, as a Californian, don't care to have burned. To make certain of it went to a certain man. said, Look here, Hunting ton is the richest man in the United States and closest, eht"
 Sir, he may not be the richest but he is the freest handed of all the many free handed men in California. Why, sir, his benefactiops arc like a brook-they go on forever"
 And then this certain man, who has charge of his charities, wheeled about in his indignation at what had said and took an hour and a half to tell what he had dono only the last month.
 Thank you" I said; just the thing wanted"
 What What do you mean'"
 Well, 1t won't hurt Huntington to pub lish it.''
 Hurt? It will cnrage him, and it will ruin me, for he knows that I am the only one who could know all this, and he is a man who literally will not let his one hand know what the other does" So l am si fenced on that
 4ue one OLQeE InlnR aDOuI InlS great Californian that distinguishes him from all the railroad builders on the other side of the Rocky mountains, living or dead, is the fact that he is, was and ever has been from the first a builder from the ground up"
 Other men bought bankrupt or wrecked roads Yoa may put your finger on some who even made a profession of wreckinG roads in order to buy them and build up their fortunes on the ruins of others. But c. P. Huntington, If you except his road from Newport News to Huntington, Ky, took his ground fresh from the hand of God and turned the grass, roots and daisies where the buffalo and other wild beasts had fed only the day before. He has conquered and redeemed more land from the desert and sAvagery than care to estimate He is literally an Alexander the Great; greater than Alexander the Great, for when he reached the sea at the Golden Gate he did not sit down and weep. but right and left and up and down the Pacific sea banks he built and built and still is building. But he is & wise man, knows he is human, and l hear he is coming now at last to sit down with us at the Golden Gate and rest. May he come soon and rest long.
 JOAQUIN MILLER.
 Curious Specimens
 This curious specimen of orthography was displayed on house in a street in