New-York tribune., 1908-09-06

81 sold the business in Canada 20 my brothers
and went to Portland Me-, arriving there the day
after the assassination of President Lincoln we
had gone into the publishing business. getting
views of scenery along important railroads ana
sending the photographs to Germany, where they
were printed in colors and bound into books. L
carried on that business in Portland and also owned
the trading rights many miles of railways In
New England. At the age of forty, 1 was ready
to retire. had planned while a boy. In iact
getting my affairs arranged to that END when
friend of my own introduced me to friend OF ms
who had tinr.ntee wooden lamp with tin reser-
voir. / let the lamp man have some money by
and by 1 investigated my security don hke
to refer TO the episode because my cohouc' III 'ie
beginning was foolish and unbusinesshke, even II
# did lead to the greatest undertaking ana lhe ieA
work of my life
We'll the security was bad and / had TO take
the lamp to save the money had loaned But L
couldn't make 1t go Glass lamps were selins lor
30 cents q dozen It was impossible to meet the
price and tin. Moreover, persons VINO usou
lamps wanted to see the oil 1t occurred 10 ING
that 1 might substitute wood pulp for tin. put
chemists to work, and finally produced pup iese
yoir that would hold oil-something that iron won't
do. The company reorganized, other men
Joined me- and we soon had factory ana ousl-
ness that cost US sl50000- L meant 10 see 'haI VIC
got our money back. While in Ne" organs now
ever 1 heard that our plant had been destroyed oy
hurry home or worry over the loss felt tnae
our wood pulp process valuable When re-
turned to Maine / started to make WOOD nore water
buckets. wash basins, etc. We cleared slooVv 'iie
first year. The factory has paid III per cent an
nualy since However, soo my s''cA III
the company long time ago
MY practice has been to make the things use
and to get as many different profits as are teaslpie
Publishing requires paper. Furthermore mao
been doing something with wood pulp. So bought
a little mill at Iivermore Falls. in Maine, and
discovered that paper making interested me moro
than anything else in the world. L took up the
business with enthusiasm and gave IT all OF my
time and ability Luckily l was enabled to lm-
prove the machine which made our paper also
put some of my ideas into water wheels. Go
ing on the river, drew plans for dam. although
1 had never taken any instruction in hydraulics
We built another mill at Livernore Falls presently
the Otis MILL and of the largest in the coun-
try. i had much money invested In busl-
ness and was SO heavily in debt that forgot all
about retiring and starting search for knoWl-
edge. Up the beginning Of my paper making
experience / had kept out of debt and been a
lender of money. 1 reversed my policy through
necessity and became an extensive borrower. Then
I determined to develop the water power at Rum
ford Falls 1t required ten years TO obtain the lzo0
acres OF land owned by 1872 persons, each OF whom
thought his property to be worth fortune. l kept
in the background most of the time. The previous
experience in New England was for the developers
of water power TO lose their money and for the
second owners, buying at a knockdown sale, to get
the profit. My lawyer warned me. but told him
that with ten years of time and good health
should win.
"A paper mill built that power sold for