The Monitor-register., 1896-05-22

don. OF course, her visit was successful
where did she ever fail?
The money was procured; paid over
ten shares of Adams Express Compan!
stock was mine, but no one knew on
little home has been m~ortgaged 'to Civ
our boy a start"
Adams Express stock then paid MONTH!
dividends of n per cent, and the frs
check for ten dollars arrived. l can Sc,
it now, and l we'll remember the sigma
ture Of 81. G. Babcock, CASHIER" Wit
wrote a big "John Hancock" hand.
The next day being Sunday, we boys
myself and my ever. constant companions
took our usual Sunday afternoon stroll
IN the country, and sitting down in the
woods showed them this check, saying
"Eurekal We have found it."
Here was something new to all OF US
for none of us had aver received anything
out from toll. A return from capital wal
something strange and new.
How money could make money, how,
without any attention from me, this mys.
FERROUS golden visitor should come. led to
much speculation upon the part of the
young fellows, and 1 was for the first
time hailed as Capitalist"
You see, l was beginning to serve my
apprenticeship as a business man in a
satisfactory manner.
BUILDING H FIRST sLEEPINe.CAR,
A very important incident in my life
occurred one day in a train, q nice,
farmer looking gentleman approached
me, saying that the conductor had told
MIN l was connected with the Penn.
sylvania Railroad and he should like to
how ME something. He pulled from a
small green bag the model of the first
s~leeping-car. This was Mr.. Woodruff.
the inventor.
Its value struck me like a flash, l
asked him to come to Altoona the follow.
ing week, and he did 30,
MIR. Scott, with his usual euickness,
grasped the idea. A contract was made
with MIR. Woodruff to put two trial cars
on the Pennsylvania Railroad. Before
leaving Altoona Mr.. Woodruff came and
offered me an interest iu the venture,
winch l promptly accepted. But how l
was to make my payments rather troubled
me, for the cars were to be paid for in
monthly instalments after delivery, and
my first monthly payment was to be
Two hundred and seventeen dollars and a
half.
mad not the money, and l did not see
any way of getting it. But l finally
decided to visit the local banker and ash
him for a loan, pledging myself to repa!
at the rate of fifteen dollars per month
He promptly granted it. Never shall
forget his putting his arm over m
shoulder, saying, "Oh, yes, Andy, 20
are all right"
l then and there signed my first note
Proud day this; and surely, now, no ont
| will dispute that 1 was becoming a "busi'
ness man." I had signed my first note
and, more important of all, for any
| fellow can sign a note, | have found a
banker willing to take it as good"
My subsequent payments were made
by the receipts from the s~leeping-oars,
and l really made my first considerable
| sum from this investment in the Wood
ruff Sleeping Car Company, which was
afterward observed by Mr.. Pullman-a
| remarkable man who is now known all
over the world.
Shortly after this l was appointed
superintendent of the Pittsburg Division,
| and returned to my dear old home, smoky
| Pittsburg. Wooden bridges were then
used exclusively upon the railways, and
the Pennsylvania Railroad was expert
menting with a bridge built of cast-iron.
l saw the wooden bridges would not do
for the future, and organized a company
! in Pittsburg to build iron bridges.
Here again I had to o u to the
bank, because my share of the capital
was twelve hundred and fifty dollars and
I had not the money; but the bank lent
it to me, and we began tho Keystone
Bridge Works, which proved a great sue
cess. This company built the first great
bridge over the Ohio River, three hun
bred feet span, and has built many of
the important structures since.
This was my beg inning in manufacture
| ing: and from that start all our other
works have grown, the profits of the one
works building the other. My "appren-
| ticeship" as a business man soon ended,
for I resigned my position as an officer OF
| the Pennsylvania Railroad Company to
| give exclusive attention to business.
L war no longer merely an official work.
ing for others upon a salary, but a full
| aedeed business man working upon my
own account.
1 never was quite %reconciled to working
for other people. AT the most, the rail
way officer has to look forward to the
enjoyment of a stated salary, and he has
a great many people to please; even If he
gets to be president he has sometimes
| board of directors who cannot know what
is best to be done; and even if this board
be satisfied, he has a board of stockhold'
| ers to oriticise him, and as the property ID
| not his own he cannot manage it as he
pleases.
always liked the idea of being my
own master, of manufacturing some
thing and giving employment to many
men. There is only one thing to think
of manufacturing if you are a Pitts
| burger, for Pittsburg even then had
asserted her supremacy as the "lror
City,"-the leading iron and steel manu-
featuring city in America.
EARLY DAYS OF A GREAT INDUSTRY.
So my indispensable and clever part
ners, who had been my boy companions,
/ am delighted to say,-some of the very
boys who had met in the grove to won
der at the ten.dollar check, began bust
ness and still continue extending it, Il
meet the e~ver-growing and ev%er-changiue
wants of our most progressive country,
year after year.
Always we are hoping that we need
expand no farther; yet ever we are find
ing that to stop expanding would be tt
fall behind, and even to-day the success
sive improvements and inventions follow
each other SO rapidly that we see just al
much yet to be done as ever.
When the manufacturer of steel ceasei
to grow he hegins to decay, SO We mus
keep on extending. Tho result of al