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Scott was one of the most delightful superiors that anybody could have and I soon became warmly attached to him. The intimacy did not cease for many years, and re-reading some of her letters in 1906 I realized more than ever my indebtedness to her. From that date it was very seldom that Mr. Scott gave a train order.

THOMAS A.

SCOTT

JOHN EDGAR THOMSON

The greatest man of all on my horizon at this time was John Edgar Thomson, president of the Pennsylvania, and for whom our steel-rail mills were afterward named. I have always been able to sleep at any time. I felt I had gone too far, but having taken the step, I informed him that all that had been settled.

Being served by others is a poor substitute for a mother's labor of love. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie Author: Andrew Carnegie Editor: John C. Van Dyke Release Date: March 13, 2006 [EBook #17976] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ANDREW CARNEGIE *** Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Linda Cantoni, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

OF

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

London
CONSTABLE & CO.

Limited
1920

[Pg v]

PREFACE

AFTER retiring from active business my husband yielded to the earnest solicitations of friends, both here and in Great Britain, and began to jot down from time to time recollections of his early days.

I grew up treasuring within me the fact that my father had risen and left the Presbyterian Church one day when the minister preached the doctrine of infant damnation. All that was disagreeable in my experience has long since faded from recollection, excepting the night we were compelled to remain upon the wharf-boat at Beaver waiting for the steamboat to take us up the Ohio to Pittsburgh.

We are all to follow him soon and live forever together." I had then no doubts. my son a peddler and go among rough men upon the wharves! It was serious. He embraced technological advancements and introduced innovative processes, such as the Bessemer process for mass steel production, which significantly lowered production costs and increased efficiency.

The success of the J.

Edgar Thomson Steel Works led to the formation of the Carnegie Steel Company in 1873, cementing Carnegie’s status as a major player in the steel industry. A list of the names of the signers had come into our possession in the meantime, and this fact was announced. He was the only man living who did.

My power to memorize must have been greatly strengthened by the mode of teaching adopted by my uncle.

One day I was surprised by one of his assistants, with whom I was acquainted, telling me that Mr. Scott had asked him whether he thought that I could be obtained as his clerk and telegraph operator, to which this young man told me he had replied:

"That is impossible. She opened a small shop in Moodie Street and contributed to the revenues which, though slender, nevertheless at[Pg 13] that time sufficed to keep us in comfort and "respectable."

I remember that shortly after this I began to learn what poverty meant.

I had time to regain control, and biting my lips till they actually bled, I murmured to myself, "No matter, keep cool, you must go on"; but never can there come to my ears on earth, nor enter so deep into my soul, a sound that shall haunt and subdue me with its sweet, gracious, melting power as that did.

By that curfew bell I had been laid in my little couch to sleep the sleep of childish innocence.

Mr. David Bruce, a well-known solicitor of Scottish ancestry, and his sister happened to be passengers. The expenses[Pg 78] connected with his illness had to be saved and paid and we had not up to this time much store in reserve.

And here comes in one of the sweet incidents of our early life in America.