The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-14

I
 of shoe samples from town to town. 1 At the end of three weeks he hadn't
 sold shoe. In despair he went into a
 store in Athens. Back by the window, | with his feet comfortably rested on | the counter, sat a man tilting back in
 his chair and reading a newspaper. The l young man ventured to inform him that | he had some shoes to sell, and was told l gruffiy that none were needed. Where upon the young man unstrapped his
 bag aad laid out his samples on the
 counter in as tempting a fashion as he
 could. When they were all ready the
 man. who had been eyeing him from
 behind the paper, strengthened out and ! remarked: -t~'-
 Young man. pack them shoes and get out of here"
 Inc young man lost interest in sell | ing shoes and went home. Next he
 tried the coal business Tor while and with little success. He heard that | small gas works was being built at l Ironton and went back to his earlier tools. pick and shovel, on the Ironton
 streets. That was the beginning. The young man became interested in chem- istry, especially the chemistry of gas. At the completion of the little works, he becames it's superintendent. He de- vised a method of purifying gas by | passing it through sand and filings. He was popular and became a member of the common council.
 Many men would have been satisfied with such local progress. He had learned the business or the little Iron ton n1-nt thoroughly, He wished to know more He fitted up little labo- ratory, and in every spare minute dur
 ing the day and far into the night he worked at the science of his new business Never was an hour thrown A at a nf works, 1t was with test tubes in the laboratory or with ammer studying geology in the country about Iron ton .or writing little articles for friends paper. In everything that meant perfecting his personal equip ment he was enthusiastically inter ested. He wrote an essay on the Ma turel Resources of Lawrence County for a prize in the annual Eisteddfod. or town contest, he didn't win the prize, but that didn't matter. It. was practice.
 So thorough were his geological in- vestigation that once when discus sion was on-about tne strata of certain district-between Dr Orton. the State geologist, and General Warner, who was in Congress the time. the young superintendent settled the point in question He revised the original geological survey of the State in one section It was he, too. who first dis covered what the reay stone forma- tions were in the Finley Gas Fields. Yet he studied geology from books but little until he was asked to make re- port on the geological sVrata of dis trict, aad he had never had tneodollte in his hand until he was asked to take charge of an engineering corps to sur vey a railroad It was not all observa- tion, however, for he read many hours TIa in succession general manager of the Lawrence Iron Works, of the Crescent Iron Company and general manager of the New 1ork and Ohio Steel Company, without, how ever, abandoning the gas management But his Aggression into the iron busi- mes failed to improve his finances.
 But because of the work he had done, by contributions to leading trade jour nals and by cleat-cut speeches before gas and other engineering association he had become known, and he was of fered in 1883 the general management of the Columbus Gas Company. He found that chronicle intemperance was hurting the works. ana immediately made d rule that any workman who touched liquor during working hours would have to go few went and then the drinking stopped The men could not be kept continuously at work in the summer, and the superintendent was kept busy getting substitutes. Mir McMillin offered each man a bonus for continuous service. If a man was reg ular for ninety days he received $10 besides his pay. If at the end of year he had been entirely regular an additional S25 was given, making to- tai of S65 The change was immediate.
 He believed in labor sharing profits with capital, and an early system was tried by which one half Of the per centage saved in the cost of the pro duct was added to the worker sal ary, The new method, which has been devised to meet present condi- tions, is to pay the satisfactory work men a yearly percentage dividend Tn proportion to salary equal to that paid to stockholders. To the end that the employees may become stockholders, the company pays the dividend in stock until the workman owns three shares After that cash dividends are paid.
 At Columbus, too, a laboratory was built. and he continued his studies Gas was lowered in price and brought larger profits under his hand. He had time for verything which he felt could add to his culture and capacity for work. He had passion to know why and how and where everything was, to get at the bottom of everything. to know it from bottom up, and then to turn it into practical use. Two inti- mate friends, who tried for q mum Der of years to catch him on test questions, gave it up finally and called him '.an encyclopaedia of universal knowledge"-this of a man who left school for manual labor when he was ten. He became so interested in an- cient history that he made a chart in colors, showing the rise and fall of empires. to prove the saying. West ward the star of empire takes it's way" He had always loved birds and read Audubon with all the eagerness Of a schooIboy And all the white he was carrying on his scientific investiga- liens. doing the routine of his businesA