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To Colonel James Anderson, Founder of Free Libraries in Western Pennsylvania. He opened his Library to working boys and upon Saturday afternoons…

In this way I became acquainted with the world that lay behind the green curtain. The plays, generally, were of the spectacular order; without much…

She encouraged her boys to attend church and Sunday school; but there was no difficulty in seeing that the writings of Swedenborg, and much of the…

This was a trying position for a boy to fill, and at that time I was not popular with the other boys, who resented my exemption from part of my…

On Sunday morning with father, mother, and Tom at breakfast, I produced the extra two dollars and a quarter. The surprise was great and it took…

Having to sweep out the operating-room in the mornings, the boys had an opportunity of practicing upon the telegraph instruments before the operators…

The operating-room of a telegraph office is an excellent school for a young man. He there has to do with pencil and paper, with composition and…

The lines in those days worked poorly, and during a storm much had to be guessed at. My guessing powers were said to be phenomenal, and it was my…

The Pittsburgh newspapers had each been in the habit of sending a reporter to the office to transcribe the press dispatches. Later on one man was…

Another step which exercised a decided influence over me was joining the "Webster Literary Society" along with my companions, the trusty five already…

I finally became an operator by sound, discarding printing entirely. The accomplishment was then so rare that people visited the office to be…

The result was I was engaged February 1, 1853, at a salary of thirty-five dollars a month as Mr. Scott's clerk and operator. A raise in wages from…

I do not wish to suggest that the men of whom I have spoken were really degraded or bad characters. The habit of swearing, with coarse talk,…

This formed the subject of our Sunday afternoon conferences for many a week. Was that true or not, and what was to be the consequence of Tom's…

Once introduced, of course, the subject remained with us, and one after the other the dogmas were voted down as the mistaken ideas of men of a less…

My mother took the steamer the next morning for East Liverpool, arriving at night, and through her brother there the money was secured. He was a…

This was my first investment. In those good old days monthly dividends were more plentiful than now and Adams Express paid a monthly dividend. One…

It was the custom of our party to spend Sunday afternoons in the woods. I kept the first check and showed it as we sat under the trees in a…

Mr. Scott was promoted to be the general superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1856, taking Mr. Lombaert's place; and he took me, then in my…

The strike became more and more threatening. I remember being wakened one night and told that the freight-train men had left their trains at Mifflin;…

"I must not be seen with you, but you did me a favor once and I then resolved if ever I could serve you I would do it. I called at the office in…

And here I made my first note, and actually got a banker to take it. A proud moment that in a young man's career! The sleeping-cars were a great…

"Well," he said, "Mr. Potts" (who was then superintendent of the Pittsburgh Division) "is to be promoted to the transportation department in…

The first regiments of Union troops passing through Baltimore had been attacked, and the railway line cut between Baltimore and Annapolis Junction,…

Soon after this I returned to Washington and made my headquarters in the War Building with Colonel Scott. As I had charge of the telegraph department…

"Yes, I know that," he said, "but I know the men and Thomas will be the first to say that Sherman is the man for the work. There will be no trouble…

When I was called to Washington in 1861, it was supposed that the war would soon be over; but it was seen shortly afterwards that it was to be a…

I remember being deeply affected by the reception I met with when I returned to my division. The men of the eastern end had gathered together with…

During the Civil War the price of iron went up to something like $130 per ton. Even at that figure it was not so much a question of money as of…

In like manner the demand for locomotives was very great, and with Mr. Thomas N. Miller[24] I organized in 1866 the Pittsburgh Locomotive Works,…

In this way was organized in 1862 the firm of Piper and Schiffler which was merged into the Keystone Bridge Company in 1863--a name which I…

The Judge, however, lived to believe differently. The bridge remained until recently, though strengthened to carry heavier traffic. We expected to…

When the work was finished, I had the Colonel with me in St. Louis for some days protecting the bridge against a threatened attempt on the part of…

He put his finger there upon one of the secrets of success. They did belong to somebody. The president of an important manufacturing work once…

"Ah, gentlemen," I said, "there is the point. A little more money and you could have had the indestructible wrought-iron and your bridge would…

There was a pause; then the president of the bridge company, Mr. Allison, the great Senator, asked if I would excuse them for a few moments. I…

Mr. Garrett promptly replied that when the interests of his company were at stake it was the best always that won. His engineers had reported that…

The negotiation was still unsatisfactory to me, because we were to get all the difficult part of the work--the great spans of which the risk was then…

This was the arrangement which gave us what were then the gigantic contracts of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. It is needless to say that I never…

The Keystone Works have always been my pet as being the parent of all the other works. But they had not been long in existence before the advantage…

Andrew Kloman had a small steel-hammer in Allegheny City. As a superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad I had found that he made the best axles.…

"It is all very well for you, gentlemen, who work one day in the week and are masters of your time the other six during which you can view the…

As I became acquainted with the manufacture of iron I was greatly surprised to find that the cost of each of the various processes was unknown.…

The Siemens Gas Furnace had been used to some extent in Great Britain for heating steel and iron, but it was supposed to be too expensive. I well…

Our strict system of accounting enabled us to detect the great waste possible in heating large masses of iron. This improvement revealed to us a…

It was in 1862 that the great oil wells of Pennsylvania attracted attention. My friend Mr. William Coleman, whose daughter became, at a later date,…

What surprised me was the good humor which prevailed everywhere. It was a vast picnic, full of amusing incidents. Everybody was in high glee;…

To-day Oil Creek is a town of many thousand inhabitants, as is also Titusville at the other end of the creek. The district which began by…

This forty-thousand-dollar investment proved for us the best of all so far. The revenues from it came at the most opportune time.[28] The building of…

My investments now began to require so much of my personal attention that I resolved to leave the service of the railway company and devote myself…

Twelve years of pleasant intercourse have served to inspire feelings of personal regard for those who have so faithfully labored with me in the…

Thenceforth I never worked for a salary. A man must necessarily occupy a narrow field who is at the beck and call of others. Even if he becomes…

The sum was soon made in oil stock by the investment of a few hundred dollars which "Vandy" had saved. This was the beginning of our excursion. We…

Protection has played a great part in the development of manufacturing in the United States. Previous to the Civil War it was a party question, the…

Capital no longer hesitated to embark in manufacturing, confident as it was that the nation would protect it as long as necessary. Years after the…

We could now (1907) abolish all duties upon steel and iron without injury, essential as these duties were at the beginning. Europe has not much…

I was surprised to find how very different was the state of affairs in New York. There were few even of the business men who had not their ventures…

All these allurements I declined. The most notable offer of this kind I ever received was one morning in the Windsor Hotel soon after my removal to…

We have only started on our development of our country--we have not as yet, with all our talk of wonderful progress, done more than scratch the…

I have no quarrel with the general attitude of scoffing at new ideas. It is better to be skeptical of all new ideas and to insist upon being shown…