The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-01-01

Having earned my own living for
fifty years, and been my own master
for thirty-one, I rejoice to look back
upon my start in the world, with no
other capital than honest poverty and
d good home. No boy can have greater
incentives to success in life than these.
Sharing TIE fruits of my father and
mothers industry, ! learned in my in
fancy to respect work and longed TO be
a contributor to the common purse.
We lived in Dunfermline. thirteen miles
from Edinburgh, Scotland. My father,
William Carnegie, was q successful
master weaver; my mother, q hard
working housewife, who yet found time
tic instruct me, until 1 was S, in read
ing, writing and ciphering-the equip
ment that gave me my first better
Inent.
II was my first ambition to be q mas
ter weaver, like my father; to have
four looms of my own; to employ APP
prentices; TO make speeches in the
evening, as ne did. on public questions
he was a consistent Radical. And l
might have become a weaver Dut Iof
something that happerod when l was
TO years old, and had already been go
ing to school for two years.
FIRST TURNING POINT.
One evening ] heard my father tell
my mother that steam looms were com
ing into the trade and bothering him.
This steam machinery, he said, was
best handled in big factories, which
made it bad Tor the independent master
WeaVers. His work was falling oil.
He was not getting so many orders
from the merchants, who had been in
the habit of sending him the raw ma
terial 10 be woven up.
Not very long afterward-it was in
1S47-he came in one day from deliver
ing some finished damask looked at
me quizzically, and said:
Andy, 1 have no more work.
Where should we go? The same con-
ditions that drove US from Dunfermline
might confront US anywhere else in
Scotland. But we remembered that we
had relatives who had crossed the At
lantic. and settled near Pt:sburS.
''Weli go there, too" said my mother;
its best for the boys to begin life in
new country.
We reached Allegheny City in 1913.
] was only Ii years old, but my heart
was big for the future: l was deter
mined 10 make my way in this new
country.
FARMING HIS FIRST MONEY.
My father went to work in a cotton
factory. and ! followed him as bobbin-
boy. From sunrise to sunset l worked,
glad to feel that each day added 20
cents to my credit on the book. Sat
Irday noon l drew $l2G, with a feel
ing not so much of pride as OF joy to
have money TO take hcme.
SIX days a week l breakfdsted by
candle light, and five days a week l
got home after dark. But nothing
could have induced me 10 give this up,
except an offer of better work. This
! soon get FROM good Scotch friend
of ours, John Hay, who had a bobbln
factor. / was SET to firing the boiler
with wood chips-and to tend the en-
gine-responsible work, too, for a boy
of Is, not big for his age Gradually l
grew nervous under the strain Of mind
ing this engine, and working all alone
down in Hays cellar. / would wake
up at nights sitting bolt upright in
bed. hands clcrched, brows knitted.
from dreams about trying the steam
gauges and finding them wrong,
Mr. Hay needed a clerk upstairs in
the office. He knew I could write
good hand. and he offered me this place
After filing this position for some
time l heard that boys were wanted
in the Ohio telegraph office in Pitts
burg. I felt rs though my fortune
would be made if l could get into that
office so my father went with me and
persuaded the superintendent James
j.. Reid, to employ me. Mr.. Reid ottey
lOld NE. III alter Ntes!S' lllctt ilC lCiiiCAA
bered exactly how | looked that morn
ing in my little blue jacket, with my
white hair.
PROUD OF A JOB AT $3.50 A WEEK.
Now that Ia got my job. at 80 per /
week. ] was on thorns for fear / /
couldn't keen II. I knew nothing about |
the streets OF PittsburS. and the bust |
ness houses. to which 1 had to delieer /
messages. So ! started in and learned /
all the addresses by heart, up one side /
of Wood street and down the other. /
Then ! learned the other business !
streets in tie same way. Then | felt /
safe How pleasant il was To me 10 /
work now il. q clean, bright office. with !
desks and paper and pencils about. in !
stead of down in a dinSy cellar or in /
noisy factory. The noise of the tele /
graph instruments fascinated ne. l |
u led to understand it, by listening. by |
going to the office early and playing /
with the key. Mr.. Reid finally agreed /
to help me TO learn. and / was soon /
able to receive any message by ear /
alone. and at that time there We're
possibly only two other people in the !
come an operator but 1 was still get
ting q messengers pay.
One morning. when 1 was in the Of
fee early, 7 heard a death message /
come over the wires from Philadelphia. !
I knew that sort of message required /
prompt handling, so 1 wrote it out and /
delivered il at the proper address
From that time the operators began to
use me 10 sub for them Then Ar
Reid made me an operator. and / had