The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-04-04
wATTERsoN ON CARNEGIE.
Eulogy Of the Trans
planted Scot.
louisville Courier-Journal)

louisville Courier-JOurnaL)
The career of Andrew Carnegie, con-
sidered with reference to What he has
already done, was sufficiently resplen-
dent; but by his latest act this extra
ordinary man quite beggars the worlds
preceding knowledge of public benefac-
lions. At a single stride he takes his
place upon the elevation created by
George Peabody, and hitherto occupied
by him alone; a fitting companionshlp
and of international. hardly less than
benevolent, significance; the just Oc-
casion of pride to two great nations,
for it was America that gave to Eng
land the one, whilst in giving the
other to America; England seems to
say, "nolJlesse Oblige," and to make
tender of squaring the account. Let
us rejoice and give thanks to God, and
not more for the gift of the great IRON
master, than the lesson which 1t en-
braces as we have long been used to
do for the example and largesse en-
bodied by the far reaching testament
of the older capitalist. We have lived
to see strange things, and, seeing them,
to realize that life is worth living.
Truth is, indeed, stranger than fiction.
AS was said of George Peabody, may
we say of Andrew Carnegie when he is
gone: He added another night to the
thousand and one"
When Edmund DanteS had made his
dangerous and tortuouS way from the
Chateau diff to the isle of Monte Carlo,
and had found the treasure exactly as
the Able Ferria had described it, piles
of golden coin, bars of I'M
polished gold handfuls of
diamonds, pearls and rubieS, which, as
they fell on one another sounded like
hail against glass''-it is related that
''he rushed through the caverns like a
man seized with frenzy; he leaped upon
a rock whence he could behold the
sea- and then his. Veracious biOgrapher
remarking that he could have no rea-
son to spend his days idly looking at
this vast hoard of riches, sententiOuSly
observes. 1T was now necessary for
him to return to life, to be among men,
and to assume in society the rank, in
fiuence. and power which in the world
wealth alone can giYe-the first and
grandest of the forces at the disposal
of man. When he returned to life,
mark how he squandered his money
upon reyenges. irritated by a few triv-
ialities Of vanity and gratitude, though
Alexander Dumas, his creator, was
something of a humanitarian, NhO
might have OWNED better uses for it.
The sum total of the accretiOnS of
the Spada family, thus revealed and re-
stored amounted to 100, 000. 600 francs.
French money, ar about 20,000,000 of
American dollars. Such was the Ulti-
ma Thule of the stretch of fancy the
most imagina tive of romancistS was
willing to allow himself in cOnceiVing
wealth possible 10 the dreams of ava
rice in that day and generation. Though
this was less than sixty years ago,
there are actual men now living whose
annual income approXimates these fig
ureS. IF the Count of Monte Christie
were alive today he would find himself
fairly well-tO-do, indeed, but quite out
classed, as the saying hath it, by the
BOOKSELLERS and the Carnegies. the As
tors and the Vanderbilts and the many
multi-miIlionaires in the United States
alone.
of these, Mr. Andrew Carnegie alone
has given US some glimpse of his. own
personality. He has been delightfully."-
communicative. He has told us frankly
of himself. Indeed, he is far and away
the most picturesque and interesting
among the men who, beginning on
nothing compounded the interest
thereon so well as TO end with the rea-
sonable competency of five, six or a
dozen millions "a year, the administra-
ton of which entails a problem and i'm
poses "a burden, because since it is con-
stantIy coming in, and must be in some
way disposed of, the question recurS
whether it shall be q. master or a serv-
ant. and in either event, how to make
the best Of it.
In a brief Introductory chapter to a
volume of essays on The Gospel of
w GdiIn. MI. carnegie takes us lllLO
his confidence and tells us of the be
ginning of his big earnings, and most
inspiring and touching, albeit graphic
and unaffected story he makes of it.
No good man or woman, rich or poor,
can read it without a thrObbing at the
heart and a moisture of the eyes. With
out the least egotism or vanity the
great ironmaster gives us the picture
of a prosperous Scotch weaver, COM
PEELED by a revolution in working meth
DDS to seek a home in the new world
how the little family of four comes TO
Pittsburg; how each member of this
household has to contribute something
to the common lot; how the older boy.
Andrew, gets bit of work to do, a wee
lad, with a turn for expression, with d
temperament fore the sentimental and
ideal-the artistic temperament sub
dued, perhaps, by circumstances, and
guided by the mother instinct of his
race, as the sequel showed, doomed TO
riches, to fabulous riches, still recall
ing the MOL and toll of heaven-sent
labor, with childlike simplicity and en-
thusiasm. We read with .bated breath
and we see it all-the mother bless
heri (did she ever fail in anything?)
the father, the sturdy Scotch weaver;
the cabinet councils of three, for the
younger brother is scarce yet old
enough to be a member of the cabinet;
the beautiful first eaknings of the boy;
the glorious dawnings of ambition to
the youth; the accidents of fortune:
Tom Scott, the wizard: woodruff the
miracle; success: fortune. fortune ga
lore fortune till it avaS IL bor TO count