The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-07-09
HOW ANDREW CARNEGIE MADE HIS FIRST $1,000.

/ bring the building crashing down
upon him-he stood this strain and
this worry very bravely, for one
reason, namely: that he was con-
tributing 81. so a week toward the
expenses of the Carnegie household.
Even then he managed to keep out
a few pennies every week for him
self, and, instead of spending them,
he put them away in a bureau drawer
that was all his own.
After months in the cellar he was
at last promoted to the office, and
his income increased to three dol
lars a week. As he was skilful
with figures, and could write a legi-
bic, ~schoolboy hand, he became his
employers only clerk, making out
bills and keeping crude accounts.
Thus he stood firmly on the third
step, and nickels instead of pennies
were deposited in the bureau-drawer
bank.
The fourth step, at the age of four
teen, brought him into a new realm.
The family had moved to Pittsburg,
and here he found a "job" as mes
senger boy. A stranger in the city,
his great anxiety was that he might
lose his position because he knew so
little about the names and addresses
of the men for whom kilograms came
pouring in.
NemOrizing Al Business AddreSSeS
IN TOtCn.-He spent the evenings,
therefore, wandering up and down
the streets, and before long he could
start at the head of any given business
street and, with his eyes shut, name
every firm on either side all the way
down. He was now earning only a
per centage on each message deliv-
cred or called for. When, at the
end of the week, the amount exceeded
$3 so he added the surplus to the
fund in the drawer when less, he
drew on the private bank to make
up the deficit,
While he sat on the bench in the
office, waiting his turn, the other
boys talked, but candy" listened
to the click of the telegraph instru-
ment. At last one of the men taught
him the mysterious alphabet, and
very soon he became one of the very
few Persons in the United States
who could take messages by carat
that time extraordinary.
The Futurc millionaire WOrK.s
Orertinje This led to his taking the
fifth step. He was made an opera.
tor, and his salary became enor-
mous-$25 Il month. With this he
could and would take almost entire
care of the whole family. But how
was he to pay the bills and save
mOney-even Il little-at the same
time?
One evening, reading as usual, he
came across the words "'extra COM
~pensatlOn for extra work" He began
thinking. The six newspapers in
P~ittsburg YER receiving their tele-
graphic news in common. Six copies
of each dispatch were made by the
operator at the next table, who re-
ceived six dollars u week for the
work. The next day the ambitious
young Carnegie told the six-dollar
man that he, candy" would copy
the dispatches for one dollar a week.
The offer was accepted, and thus a
hundred cents a week went into the
bureau drawer.
One day a locomotive came below
ing over new tracks into a new sta
ton, bringing the first train over
the Pennsylvania Railroad into Pitts.
burg. The Superintendent rushed
over to the telegraph Office and gave
Carnegie d message to wire to the
General Manager at Altoona.
The young operator who was then
only sixteen, clicked off the message
as fast as the superintendent talked.
Later, when the Pennsylvania