Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-04-08

ing it. have heard stories of how be drove
dog sledge in carrying freight from one part Of
this country to the other and during nv visit
to his house here saw a great silver plate as
big around as a center table which Mr.. George
A Bracket and other citizens of Minneapolis
gave him as a testimonial Of their gratitude for
what he had done for their town. This plate
was made by Tiffany and cost more than
$4,000. and the engravings upon it represent
the different scenes of Mr.. Hills life work in
the Improvement of transportation beginning
with his dog sledges and ending with his great
railway.
THE GREAT NORTHERN SYSTEM.
The Great Northern system was begun by the
buying of the old st. Paul and Pacific road by
Mr.. Hill. This had been built and was owned
by Dutch bondholders, and Mr.. Hill raised the
money and bought it for song. It repre-
sented only few miles of track, and it had
been rather extensively built. 1t was not we'll
enough made, however, to suit Hill. and he tore
up the track and reduced the grades until he
made it so that one locomotive would do the
work of three in going over it, He gradually
extended his lines into the great Red
River valley. He saw that this was to
be the bread basket of the United
States and he has gridironed it with
railroads. Then he built. in connection with
the British government and others, the Cana
dian Pacific railway. And he was. I am told.
the practical man to superintend the construc-
ton of this road from Winnipeg to the west.
He had connection with 1t from Winnipeg for
his roads in Minnesota and Dakota but when
the Canadian government decided to extend
their line on toward the east he at once saw
that this would cut off his revenue from the
west and he planned the great trunk line which
was this month completed. He went
over the whole line on foot and ON
horseback. and he knows, / am told,
every foot of track and the character
of nearly every section Of land along his nearly
three thousand miles of main track. He has
made thorough study Of what is under the
soil as well wha. is in it. and q famous geoio-
gist who recently went over the road said that
Mr.. Hill knew as much as he did about the
geological nature Of the country. 1t was the
same with La Doux, the chemist OF national
note, and Mr.. Bracket tells me that Mr.. Hill
can describe to you the details of the construc-
tion Of every side track and every water tank
along this big line from the headwaters Of the
Mississippi to the Pacific.
HOW HILL BUYS STEAM ENGINES.
There is probably nothing connected with
railroad building that Mr. Hill does not know.
He has a mind which grasps a subject in all its
details, and he has made such a study Of rail-
roads and railroad management that he can
tell today Just how long each part Of one OF his
engines will last and TO pound just the amount
of wOrF it will do. A record is kept in the
Offices of the Great Northern OF the life and
work OF each part of every piece of machinery
connected with the road. and though Hill could
probably not build an engine himself
venture he could direct the construction of
one. Not long ago he was in New York and during
his stay there he contracted for fifty-seven en-
gines for his road. These engines cost about
S25. 900 apiece. and the contract represented
considerable money. In awarding he asked for
bids from the different works, and five
great companies submitted bids and specifca-
tons. Their agents brought in these bids.
They were sealed, Of course, and Mr.. Hill
opened them in the presence of the agents and
looked them over. After q few moments his
brows began to knit. and at the end Of half an
hour he said: Gentlemen, there is some
thing wrong about these bids. You
them, aud this is put-up job.
Now. / want to tell you you can't do work
for me in that way, and You can take your bids
and yourselves out OF the room" And with
that he threw their papers to them and showed
them the door. He then had his own engineers
draw up specifications of just the kind of loco
motives he wanted, and he went so the COM
panies and told them il they wanted to bid
honestly on them they could do SO, but he
would have nothing more to do with their
agents, and they must have honest bids or he
would send the work elsewhere.
At this same time, a friend of his tells me, Mr.
Hill went to T1fany's to buy some jewels for
his wife. He looked at . very expensive piece
OF workmanship and liked it and asked its cost
One OF the Tiffapys who was waiting upon
HIM asked him what he thought the cost would
be, and Mr.. Hill began to calculate. He told
the value and weight Of each stone. estimated
the cost Of the workmanship ard figured it ont
within Few dollars OF the actual price. Tiffany