The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-22
A REMARKABLE CAREER.
George NJ. Pullman, From Poor Boy
to Man of Millions.

W MAN Oh unions.
The story of the career of the late
George NJ. Pullman, whose death on last
| Tuesday was reported in our dispatches,
is one to inspire the youth of the land
with ambition to become great and rich.
OF Mr.. Pullman the New York World
says:
Fifty years ago a freckle-faced, bare
footed boy was playing on the pebbly
shores of Lake Erie, near Brocton, in
Chautauqua county. He was a stout
and self-assertive chap, afraid of no one
of his size-a lad of healthy parentage
and sturdy mould. His clothes were
patched. for his parents were poor coun-
try folk; his hands and feet were cal
loused, for he had to do the heavy
chores of a farm. But with it he laid
the broad foundation of health and
strength and willingness to work and
good habits which afterward carried him
up the ladder to an Aladdin-like fortune.
AT IA George NJ. Pullman had put shoes
and stockings on his feet and was drawing
| molasses and measuring muslin in a coun-
try store in Westield. not far from the
place of his birth His salary was $40 a
year and found. He kept the books, too,
in a handwriting neat and graceful, like
| a woman's. After three years of drudgery
his brother took him to his cabinet maxim G
establishment in Albion, N. Y, and there
he learned the trade of woodworking.
That trade was the golden key which
unlocked the doors to his subsequent sue
| cess and made the Pullman palace car of
to-day a treasure house of the WOOD
nymphs' richest gifts.
Upon his fathers death, when he was
q, he took on himself the support of
his widowed mother and her other chill
dren. How was he to do it? The silver
thread of the Erie canal running before
- l.
to increase his resources. 1t was being
enlarged. He sought and obtained con-
tracts to work upon it, and the work, su-
perintended by himself in person, was the
best done on it.
There were no callouses on his hands
nor patches on his clothes at this stage
of his career. Instinctively he realized
the value of a good appearance. 1t was
| business capital. He cultivated him
self. His hands were manicured He
wore clothing which gave him pros
porous look. He cultivated the soft
voice and courteous manner which af-
| terward became habitual to him save
when he was angry. Then he was as
sharp and dictatorial as a car. Though
generous to his mother, whom he
adored to the day of his own DEATH he
stored his money for future operations.
He never once forgot his lifelong purpose
TO become a millionaire.
In 1858 he saw a sleeping car-heaveh
save the mark!-on the Lake Shore rail-.
road. He tried to sleep in it, but his
sheep was mighty troubled. It was aboul
half as long as the modern Pullman. It
bumped over the short, unjointed rails of
that day worse than a caboose of the
present time jolts over the modern contin-
uous tracks. Click-ety-click it went, in
sort of rhythmic way, like the key of a
Morse instrument. The berths were
stationary, the mattresses hard the pill
lows like cold pancakes. 1t had cost 81
900 and was the wonder of the age.
why not build a sleeping car in which
one could sleep at night and ride by day?"
said Pullman to himself.
The following year he moved to Chicago
He invented the system of moving build
ings of brick or stone by means of. jack
screws, and made lots of money moving
them in that fast-growing city. If he had
been content with this, he would have
amassed a competence, but a mental
germ was teasing him He fashioned a
couple of sleepers out of passenger coaches
for the Chicago and Alton road which
made a great success.
A few years of profitable business in
Colorado brought the man with the idea
back to Chicago He went to work in the
Alton shops and built "The Pioneer IT
cost him $4,000. People laughed and mar
veed. They said he was a lunatc. But
when the so-called pullman Palace Car"
was run out of the shops there was a rush
to ride in it. This was in 1864
The funeral of Lincoln gave him an op-
portunity to place the car at the service
of the nation. 1t was the greatest adver-
tisement that a car ever received
Having made cars that people slept in
nights and rode in during the daytime. it
was natural in time for him to devise the
car in which they could eat in comfort
Every year marked a new era of luxury
and comfort. He heightened the cars He
put the best inventions for safety on them