New Britain herald., 1919-08-11
Andrew a1.1eoie

tonished his schoolmaster in Dun- fermline by reciting Burns long poem, Man Was Made to Mourn," without a break. There is an anecdote of how when asked in Sunday school to rccitc a proverb from Scripture, the young Scot unwittingly forecast his own fortune by giving the homely ad- vice-"Look after the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves"
 Father Was Weaver.
 Andrew was 12 when his father a master weaver, was brought almost 10 Restitution. The steam looms drove him out aaf business. The fam fly numbered four, including "Andy" and his younger brother William The parents decided to emigrate tp Am erica, whence some relatives had preceded them with success. They settled at Allegheny City, Pa, across the river from Pittsburgh, in 1S4S. The father and Andrew found work in q cotton factory, the son as bobbin ] boy. It was his first work. The salary was $1.20 week. He was soon promoted, at a slight adVanqe, to engineers assistant He Stoked the boilers and ran the engine in the fac tory cellar.
 In those dinGy quarters, where he worked twelve hours a day, came the l inspiration that later led to his li- l brary bencfactions. he said. X Col. Anderson, possessed of some 400 books, announced he would open his 1 library every Week-end and allow ] boys to borrow any books they 1 pleased. Carnegie was one of the l most eager readers.
 
 "OnV he who has longed as 1 did l for Saturdays to come he has said, ''can understand what Colonel Ander- l son did for me and other boys Of Allegheny. Is it any wonder that I 1 resolved, if ever surplus wealth came to me. I would use il initiating my ! benefactor?"
 At II Carnegie emerged from tho engine cellar and became a telegraph | messenger. J. Douglas Reid, Dun 1 fcrmline man. who had come to Am 1 erica carly, was head of the office 1 and he made Andrew his protege. Tel | egraphy was then almost a new thing. 1 Nobody ventured to read the dots and 1 dashes by sound. They were all inn | pressed on tape. Carnegie is said to have been the third operator in the l United States to accomplish the feat i of reading messages by sound alone. ] He Dractiscd mOrrinss before the regular operators came around. "One day a death message signal l came" he has related. before the 1 operators arrived" In those days 1 death messages were the most impor- | tant messages we handled. l Ven- turod to take this one"
 Wins Promotion.
 He did it correctly and delivered i the telegram before the regular force was on duty at all. Ii won him pro- m otiOn to the key and SOunder. When ! the Pennsylvania railroad put up i telegraph wire of it's own he became ] clerk under Divisional Superintendent . Thomas A. Scott His salary jumped ] to $35 a month. MT. ScOtt,' he Ob- | served was then receiving $125 a month, and | used to wonder what on earth he could do with so much , moncy.'
 1 Andrew was 16 when his father died and he became at once the brcadWinncr for the family and a true capitalist He had been told by his trusted employer that ten shares of ! Adams Express stock could be had for $500 and it was a good invest nent. At family council that night, Carnegie's mother decided she would ! mortgage her little home for $500.