The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-08-16

All the people, in a general way,
know about Mr.. Carnegie but how
few really grasp the fairy-tale in all
its fulness 1t extinguishes the glory
of Cresus and makes the story of
Aladdin seem cheap. Think of his
toric old Fifeshire, Scotland, compos-
ed of equal parts of rocks and water
where the sea sends an arm into al
most every estate and where brains
are the biggest crop-Fifeshire, town
of Dunfermline, 1887, that is where
and when this favorite of fortune be-
gan his career He began as poor as
any little Scot who ever throve on
sea air and oatmeal. And now what
The name which above all others will
soon be found "blown in the bottle"
in the United States is that of Carne-
gie-the same Carnegie who began so
humbly in Dunfermline IS years ago.
George Washington and Christopher
Columbus will continue to be very
well-known persons. States, cities,
streets, institutions and cigars have
been named for them and they have
seemed almost beyond the reach of
rivals in the same line. But now
these great names are doomed to COM
parative disuse. They are to be dis
tanced by the name of Carnegie" /"
In few years this name will be pre-
sented to the eye and ear of the peo-
pie of the United States a thousand
times where the others are once.
There will probably be five thousand
Carnegie Libraries. These will con-
tain at least ten thousand books each,
or total of fifty million books-all
bearing the Carnegie book-plate.
These books will all be examined at
least one hundred times a year. This
would mean annually FIVE billion Wis
ual perceptions of the word "Carne-
gle" through library books alone.
Other repetitions of the word, writ
ten, printed and spoken, may be ex-
pected to occur annually in the rela-
tions and to the extent indicated as
follows: Acct Carnegie educational
gift to the Govt, one billion times;
Carnegie music and lecture-halls, hos
pitals, schools, and other similar in
stitutions, two billion times; Carne-
gle towns, streets and parks and
boulevards, one billion Carnegie
manufactured articles, one billion
and, finally, newspaper mention, five
billion-or grand total of fifteen
billion times. Perhaps these figures
cannot be proved-but neither can
they be disproved. They are near
enough right not to be misleading.
They assist us in forming a correct
notion of what will happen. From
the very nature of the case, the writ
ten, printed and spoken use of the
word Carnegie" must increase as
the years go by-and SO it is natural
to conclude that it has been fairly
"blown in the bottle" This is to be
the wonderful finish of the life of the
poor little Scot of Dunfermline. A
fairy-tale indeed
The people of Fifeshire are think
ers by birth and training. They are
hard-headed and thrifty, mathemati-
cal and managerial. They always
get rich if they try and if they can
find others to get tmoney from besides
one another. Mr.. Carnegie's father
was master-weaver, and a man of
exceptional intelligence-locally we'll
known for his public utterances on
political and industrial subjects. His
mother was fine, strong woman
with all the courage and foresight of a
natural fnancier. The senior Carne-
gle was driven out of business by the
development of steam-mills, and made
up his mind that the New World
must be his place of refuge. In 184S
he settled in Allegheny, Pennyslva-
MIA, and began work in cotton facto-
ry. A year later, the son entered this
factory as bobbin-boy, earning-or at
least, receiving dollar and twen-
ty cents per week. By the time he
was thirteen years of age he had
charge of stationary engine in a
bobbin factory. At fourteen years of
age he began work as messenger in
the Office of the Ohio Telegraph Com
pany at two dollars and fifty cents per
week. In short time he became an
operator, and acquired the then un-
usual accomplishment of reading by
sound. This triumph gave him $500
a year quite enough, he thought,
to support in luxury his recently
widowed mother and his little broth
er. When the Pennsylvania Rail-
road was built into Pittsburg, young
Carnegie came under the eye of the
preat railway oenius of the time Col