The Newtown bee., 1905-02-10

stopped to chat with him. By that chance meeting, though the boy little realized it at the time, his whole after career was shaped.
 This reads so much like the be. ginning of fairy tale that ought tc be able to say that the friend was really a good fairy. Perhaps, if fairies adopt the disguise of cowhide boots and whiskers, the statement may be allowed to stand. At any rate, he had just been appointed cashier of the Northern Railroad of New Hampshire, and he offered the boy place as clerk in his office. The chance of position outweighed the attractions of college. The offer was accepted promptly, and it was settled that Charles s. Mellen was to be a railroad man. A railroad man he has remained ever since, rising from an unimportant clerkship in the offices of the little country road to the head of one of the great systems of the country, with salary equal to that of the President of the United States. WORKED AND STUDIED, TOO. While the ambitious New Hamp- shire boy gave up his dreams of college when he took up railroading, he con- tinued his education hy reading and study and thought, so that after 35 years he is not only the admins trative head of big railway system, but is also able to make an address so sound and well-expressed that the President has paid him the unique compliment of quoting portion of it verbatim in his message to Congress.
 Most boys would have regarded po- sition in the employ of the Northern Railroad of New Hampshire as an un- promising beginning for career of importance in the railroad world. It was little road with only about a hundred miles of track all told, run ming from Concord to White River Junction on the Vermont borders. But it gave the boy experience in the keeping of railroads accounts and in the financial side of it's activities that was exceedingly valuable to him later on.
 For three years young MT Mellen re- mained in this position, and then he went into the employ of the Central Vermont road as clerk to the chief en- gineer, posi- tion in which he was able to become familiar with the working of another departmenti in the complex organizat tion of a railroad. After two years he returned to the company that had first employed h1m, this time as superintendent's clerk. Presently he was promoted to the place of chief clerk and later to that of assistant treasurer. He was slowly working his way up from one position to another as an office man, learning the details of departmental work.
 In 1880 began new chapter in his railroad experience when he was ap- pointed assistant to the manager of the Boston and Lowell. A year later he was made auditor, then superin- tendent, and in 1884 he became the roads general superintendent. In the operating department he found oppor- tunity to make record that soon at- tracted atention.
 The Boston and Lowell was then an old-fashioned. unprogressiver road, built on the English model, with unelastic granite cross-ties, which the new superintendent promptly yanked out, substituting wooden ones for them. One season, when the winter time tables went into effect, it was found that instead of reduction in the local trains the number had been increased. This was altogether contrary to established practice, and railroad men said that MT Mellen must be crazy. But the roads business increased and the judgment of vle superintendent was vindicated.
 l One of the reasons why MT Weller has held many different admins trative positions in the course of hi! railroad experience, so that instead o1 being traffic man or an operating man or financial man he is all three and something more, undoubtedly ii to be found in his intensely methodica mind and his consequent value as al organizer. When he took hold of ; new department he at once set abou the task of putting it in good runnin, order. His success in accompliShin. this in very short time frequently le' to his being transferred to some othe branch th~t needed similar treatment An incident that illustrates this habi of doing the thing that needs to b done, without regard to extraneou considerations, occurred while he wa
 with the Boston and Lowell.
 A train on which MT Mel]en was ric
 ing was derailed while crossing
 bridge. The coach in which he sa
 tipped up to an alarming angle an
 seemed likely to go over at any instant
 There was lively panic among tn
 passengers and mad scramble
 reach the door. In the midst of th
 confusion MT Mellen calmly picked U
 the chimney which had fallen off tt
 lamp at the end of the car and replace
 it, thereby preventing a fire. IT
 newspapers commented on the extr
 ordinary coolnes of the young off1cia
 and some of his associates asked hi