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

was now d telegraph operator That
made me Indignant. So l sat down and
wrote my first contribution to print in
a letter to the Pittsburg Dispatch.
insisted that any young man or boy
who worked. whether With his head or
his hands, was entitled to be known by
the honorable designation of Working
Boy" as / signed myself. After that
I had no trouble. Ard I found that
Colonel Anderson permitted us TO take
his books home with us. / saw how
much good he was doing, and l deter
mined then and there that if ] were
ever able to do it, l would provide free
libraries for people who worked. That
has been one of my hobbies that l
have carried out III Allegheny, Brad
dock, Jamestown, Pa. Fairfield, Ia;
Edinburgh. Dunfermline-the home OF
my boyhood-Aberdeen. Peterhead. In
verness, Ayr. Elgin. Wick and Kirk
wall And if 1 live, there will be more
| yet. especially in and about Pittsburg,
libraries combined with art galleries
and halls.
From Mr. SCOTS private telegraph
operator I became his private secre-
tary. / worked with him and under
him and ]. Edgar Thomson for thir-
teen years, from 1854 to 1867 l soon
became attached to him and learned to
look up to him almost as a father. /
went wherever he went, travelled with
him, slept in the same room with him,
and could not help feeling, from his
attachment to me-almost dependence
| on me-that 1 had won his affection.
ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY.
One morning Mr.. Scott was a little
/ late getting TO the Office, and there had
! been an accident on the eastern divis-
., Of .,
bridge had been burned, or washed
away, and the through express was
! away behind time. There was only one
! track and the freight trains We're on
| the sidings all along our western divi-
sion waiting for the express, which had
| the right of way. l CLEANED the stu
alton from the kilograms l found, and
! sat down at once to do what [ knew
/ Mr.. Scott would do if he were there.
/ wired to the conductor or the eX-
press that 1 was going to give the
! freight trains three hours and forty
minutes of his time, and told him to
answer me. so that / might know that
/ he understood the situation. He an
swered me that he did. | then wired
; to the conductor of each freight train
1 and started the whole string OF them.
! Every telegram was signed Thomas
| \. Scott"
Presently Mr. Scott. who had heard
! about the trains all being late and an
accident on the road came hurriedly
| in and sat down to the pile of tele-
g ans.
Here it is 10 o'clock. said he, land
the express not in and the freights
hung up and the devil 10 pay. Wire
Excuse me, Mr.. Scott said !. Il
wired the orders l thought you would
send. Here are the kilograms, and
| think you'll find the through freight
already in the yards.
He looked hard at me and never said
a word. He looked through the tele-
grams had sent in his name and he
kept on being silent. l wondered what
he was thinking, but I didn't say any
thing.
A few days passed. One morning ].
Edgar Thomson, the president, came
into our office in Pittsburg. l felt a
hand on my shoulder and looked up.
lis this Andy2" he asked. Yes; sir, -
said J.
We'll" said he, i've been hearing
about you. Scott told US the other
night about what chat little Scotch
devil of his had been doing And with
that he laughed and l felt had a
friend in him as we'll as in Mr.. Scott.
on another occasion, when Mr.. Scott
was away from the Office on business,
and had left me behind, l held court,
dismissed two men-there had been a
bad collision, and censured several
others. All this time l was alloy only,
looking even younger than | was.
CARNEGIE'S FIRST INVESTMENT.
One day Mr. Scott asked me if could
get $500 to invest. ! didn't have the
money, and / didn't know where /
could get il, but l wasn't going to