The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1902-04-13

ness. Il b wsrs called On 70 g1vs It. He
smiles At the thooght that . youth fixs0 his
eager eye on the very pinnacle Of thu lame
to which he has resolved to climb. Be-
yond q boyish wish to become IN architect
Mr.. Elliott confasses that he has never had
architecture was Q degree IN civil engineer.
Ing.
Was Never Builder
Of Air Castles.
Which brings one t. the poknt that Ma
Elliott has not been Q castle builder. He b
70 matarialisuo a. to have notions which
on Inspiration. He cannot believe IN short
cuts to reward. Hard work u ths only In
spiration he has DISCOVERED. It 10 largely
accidental that every man dndS his gait
When 1t u struck keep to the liz and never
lag. The idea Of being born to Do . great
surgeon or q distinguished lAwys1 u taken
very much on trust
II had no idea that I would wander into
the business end OF . failway when I spent
one summers vacation from school. in an
engineer corps right here In Missouri" he
said Blu I did drift from tho surveying
Geld into q clerknhip d thu finance depart
ment OF what IL to-day the Burlington
There I did al sorts Of odd jobA I juss took
what was given me to do and did 1t to tbs
best Of my ability"
Mr.. Elliott the man. - . very simple
proposition He IN unassumtnS d dtreok.
He Is self-posessed D digniaed. He has
IN enormous capacity for work There are
those who say that they have little under
stood his seriousness Of manner. This Is
nothing moro than q part Of the honesty Of
the man It u the calmne1s which goes
with judgment There II 4 pride In being
right which goes to the verge Of being ab-
solutely sure that one Il right Such . hab-
- ---A-AA a. CtNN>AAs
business alone. He has been known to
study tho minute book Of the Executive
COMMITTEES of the Worlds Fair for an
hours stretch. after an absence from q
meeting, just to become familiar with the
lapse in his knowledge Of Exposition affairA
This t-horoughness. which Mr.. Elliott
places in his philosophy Of honesty. began
with the mental discipline borne In by the
exactions OF the engineering profession. To-
day he looks back on that experience a. the
laying Of . foundation which has bred In
him AZ accuracy Of thought and expression,
since then the watchword Of his LIES work
and the only open sesame to reward for the
conscientious performance Of duty. While
he Is not now practicing his profession,
he has never forgotten how to interpret 4
profile mao or a location survey with the
grasp his engineers have come to respect.
Mr.. Elliott 10 q dtsciplinarian. Honesty
Of purpose ia coupled with honesty Of serv-
ice. Because he has learned to discipline
himself. no great effort was needed to bend
his energies to the direction Of supsrion
The reputation for exact system which
maintains on the Missouri division of the
railway. is credited to his methods. Disci-
pine brings out merit The cry that merit
Is distanced in the race by favorftism was
not borne out in Mr.. Eliott's case. That
merit Is often pushed aside in the strong
competition Of to-day. b confessed BY him.
but he believes that II y oniy for q time.
More to-day han ever. he believes merit
has al the best Of the struggle. The nsld