OUR FOREIGN-BORN CITIZENS
Underwood and Underwood
EDWARD BOK
OUR FOREIGN -BORN
CITIZENS
WHA T THEY HA VE DONE FOR
AMERICA
BY
ANNIE E. S. BEARD
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK
THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
COPYRIGHT, 1922,
BY THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY;
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES Off AMERICA
PUBLISHERS NOTE
We believe that the author is rendering a
double service in this series of life sketches of
"Foreign-born Citizens." One service is to the
"stranger within our gates" who is too often
misunderstood and allowed to remain the stran
ger; and the other service is to Americans them
selves in making them acquainted with the po
tentialities of the alien, of the right kind.
The author chooses a few typical examples-
citizens of foreign birth who have done things
and tells their life stories in brief but highly in
teresting chapters. Many of these men will not
be recognized as foreign, so closely have they en
tered into, and become identified with things
American.
CONTENTS
PAGE
THE FIRST NATURALIST OF His TIME Louis Agassis 1
A FAMOUS GREEK-AMERICAN Michael Anagnos . . 11
THE MAN WHO INTRODUCED Us TO THE BIRDS OF
AMERICA John James Audub^on 20
THE INVENTOR OF THE TELEPHONE Alexander Grn- ~
ham Bell 30
f . THE MAN WHO MADE THE FIRST REAL NEWSPAPER
James Gordon Bennett . 40
ANOTHER GREAT INVENTOR Emile Berliner ... 46
IN THE FOREMOST RANKS OF SCULPTORS Karl Bitter 52
/ -.. THE MAN WHO MADE THE MOST OF OPPORTUNITIES
Edward Bok 58
THE MAN WHO SAVED THE UNION NAVY IN 1862
John Ericsson . ..... . , . . . 73
.A SCOTCH-AMERICAN PHILANTHROPIST Andrew Car
negie . . , . . .83
A FRENCH AMERICAN WHO AIDED THE UNITED STATES
Stephen Girard . . . . . . ... . 94
/ THE BUILDER OF THE PANAMA CANAL George Wash
ington Goethals . . -* 100
THE LABOR STATESMAN OF THE WORLD Samuel
Gompers . . * . . ... * . . . 109
A JOYOUS MUSICIAN Percy Aldridge Grainger . .118
A PLANT EXPLORER Niels Ebbesen Hansen . . . 123-
viii CONTENTS
PACK
A GREAT LINGUIST AND SCHOLAR Michael Heilprin 132
EMPIRE BUILDER James Jerome Hill . . .138
--T--THE INVENTOR OF THE SUBMARINE John Philip
Holland ...... ...... 149
- -THE INVENTOR OF THE FICTION SYNDICATE Samuel
Sidney McClure * . . ....... 155
THE MAN WHO REVOLUTIONIZED TYPESETTING
Ottmar Mergenthaler ......... 167
A GREAT AMBASSADOR Henry Morgenthau . . .175
^ THE FATHER OF THE YOSEMITE John Muir . . . 184
-t A GREAT JOURNALIST AND PHILANTHROPIST Joseph
Pulitzer ............ 194
A SERBIAN-AMERICAN SCIENTIST Michael Pupin . 202
FROM A SYRIAN VILLAGE TO BOSTON Abraham Mit-
rie Rihbany .... ....... 208
A PIONEER IN GOOD CITIZENSHIP Jacob Riis . .219
A GREAT AMERICAN SCULPTOR Augustus St. Gaud-
ens ..... . ........ 227
A TRUE PATRIOT Carl Schurz ....... 235
FRIEND OF THE IMMIGRANT Edward A. Steiner 241
MANY-SIDED GENIUS Charles Proteus Steinmetz . 253
FAMOUS MERCHANT Alexander Turney Stewart . 259
THE SAVIOR OF BABIES Nathan Straus .... 266
A GREAT ORCHESTRAL LEADER Theodore Thomas . 272
AN ELECTRICAL WIZARD Nikola Tesla .... 284
OUR FOREIGN BORN CITIZENS
"THE FIRST NATURALIST OF HIS
TIME"
LOUIS AGASSIZ
44 T WISH it may be said of Louis Agassiz
A that he was the first naturalist of his time,
a good citizen, and a good son, beloved of all who
knew him." Such was the expression of the life-
purpose of a young man at the age of twenty-
one, and in every way Jean Louis Rudolphe
Agassiz attained the goal he had set before him
self.
Switzerland was the land of his birth. His
father was a clergyman, his mother the daughter
of a physician. They were his only teachers for
the first ten years of his life. His love of natural
history was early evident. The pet animals he
had were not only an amusement and a pleasure,
but also a source of information, for he was ever
eager to observe their habits. From the fresh
water fish in the Lake of Morat, on the shore of
which was his home, he gained the beginnings of
the wonderful knowledge of their characteristics
which later in life so astonished the audiences to
whom he lectured.
2 LOUIS AGASSIZ
At the age of ten he was sent to the boys
school at Bienne, where nine hours of study
daily, alternated with intervals for rest and play,
kept him busy and happy. At fifteen, when his
parents planned for him to enter commercial
life he begged for two more years of study, and
his request being granted, he went to the college
at Lausanne. His uncle, a physician in that
city, noting the boy s interest in anatomy, urged
that he be allowed to study medicine, and there
fore at the end of his college course Louis
entered a medical school at Zurich.
Here fortune favored him, for his professor
of natural history and physiology gave him the
key to his private library and his collection of
birds. As Louis was without financial means
to purchase books, he made good use of this
kindness by spending hours in copying the books
he could not otherwise obtain, aided in this by
his brother Auguste.
In the spring of 1826 the young student went
to the University of Heidelberg. There he was
specially interested in the magnificent collection
of fossils belonging to Professor Bronn, the
paleontologist, which, in 1859, was purchased by
the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cam
bridge, Mass., and Agassiz had the satisfaction
of using it in his work with American pupils.
Through a friendship formed at the Univer-
LOUIS AGASSIZ 3
sity of Munich, Agassiz found the first stepping-
stone to his later fame. The King of Bavaria
had sent on an exploring expedition to Brazil,
two naturalists, Von Martius and Spix. They
purposed on their return to publish a natural his
tory of Brazil, but Spix, dying before the com
pletion of the plan, Agassiz was asked by Von
Martius to prepare the part relating to the fishes.
The work was written in Latin, and did much
to establish for him a reputation for accurate
and thorough research. At that time he was
under twenty-two years of age.
An amusing incident of his student life is re
lated by a friend: "Under Agassiz s new style
of housekeeping the coffee is made in a machine
which is devoted during the day to the soaking
of all sorts of creatures for skeletons and in the
evening again to the brewing of our tea."
April 3, 1830, Louis Agassiz received the de
gree of doctor of medicine, having already won
that of doctor of philosophy. He was told by
the dean that "the faculty congratulate them
selves on being able to give a diploma to a young
man who has already acquired so honorable a
reputation." Seventy-four theses were prepared
by Louis in connection with the taking of the
medical degree. At twenty-three years of age
Louis Agassiz had won unusual honors, but un
fortunately they did not furnish him with
4 LOUIS AGASSIZ
sufficient income. He was receiving at that
time only forty dollars a month, out of which
he was paying twenty -five dollars to the artist
who illustrated his books. He expressed re
gret at not possessing a suitable coat to wear
when presenting letters of introduction. At
this critical moment, when he feared he should
have to give up the studies in which he was
becoming famous, to teach in order to earn a
living, Von Humboldt sent him a letter of credit
for one thousand francs. Through the influence
of this friend he obtained a professorship in nat
ural history at Neuchatel, where he helped to
build up a museum of natural history, and to
make the town a center of scientific activity.
A great trial now came to him, for his eyes,
injured by the long strain of microscopic work,
compelled him to stop work for several months
and live in a darkened room. During this pe
riod he practiced the study of fossils by touch,
using even the tip of his tongue to get the im
pression when his fingers were not sufficiently
sensitive. He felt sure he could cultivate such
delicacy of touch that if eyesight failed him he
would not need to abandon his beloved research
study. In time, to his great joy the condition
of his eyes improved. Von Humboldt wrote.
"For mercy s sake, take care of your eyes; they
are ours."
LOUIS AGASSIZ 5
Recognition of his scientific ability and offers
of cooperation came to him from all over the
world. The Wollaston prize of one thousand
pounds sterling was bestowed upon him by the
Royal Society of London, of which he was later
made a member. It aided in continuing the
production of his famous book entitled "Re
searches on the Fossil Fishes," describing over
seven hundred species. It took ten years to
complete this work. He made a new classifi
cation of the whole type of fishes, fossils and liv
ing. He was an opponent of the Darwinian
theory, believing that development meant de
velopment of plan as expressed in structure, not
the change from one structure into another.
He had learned to know accurately one thou
sand five hundred species of fishes, and "his
studies were to him incontestable proofs of the
existence of a Superior Intelligence, whose
power alone could have established such an order
of things."
The science of conchology had hitherto been
based almost wholly upon the study of empty
shells. Considering this as superficial, Agassiz
adopted the method of obtaining casts from the
inner molding of the shells, by which the perfect
form of the animal was reproduced. This
method is now universally used.
His visit to England at the urgent invitation
6 LOUIS AGASSIZ
of leading men who offered him the use of valu
able collections of fishes, brought him both honor
and enjoyment. Offers of professorships at
Geneva and Lausanne did not tempt him to
leave Neuchatel, and the appreciation of the citi
zens was expressed in a letter of thanks in which
he was asked to accept a gift of six thousand
francs.
In 1846 he sailed for America, the King of
Prussia having given him fifteen thousand
francs to pursue investigations in the ichthy
ology of this country. On his arrival he began
a course of lectures at the Lowell Institute, on
the "Plan of Creation, especially in the Animal
Kingdom." His power as a teacher and his per
sonal charm won his audiences despite his un-
familiarity with the English language, which fre
quently compelled him to pause till he found the
right word. In 1848 political changes in Eu
rope caused his honorable discharge from the ser
vice of the King of Prussia, and he accepted the
chair of natural history in the Lawrence Scien
tific School, with a salary of one thousand five
hundred dollars. From there he went, in 1851,
to the medical college in Charleston, S. C. In
May, 1854, an invitation to the University of
Zurich, Switzerland, and in 1857 one from the
Emperor of France to the chair of paleontology
LOUIS AGASSIZ 7
in the Museum of Natural History in Paris,
testified to the desire of European men of sci
ence to win him back from America. But he
declined both offers, saying he felt the task here
would take a lifetime. Despite his twice-re
peated refusal, the Emperor bestowed upon him,
a few months later, the order of the Legion of
Honor. Von Humboldt, writing to George
Ticknor with reference to this declination, said:
"I have never believed that this illustrious man,
who is also a man of warm heart, a noble soul,
would accept the generous offers made to him
from Paris. I knew that gratitude would keep
him in the new country where he finds such an
immense territory to explore and such liberal aid
in his work."
Public interest in his work was freshly aroused
by the following incident. His friend Francis
Gray left a legacy of fifty thousand dollars for
the establishment of a museum of comparative
zoology at Cambridge; the State University
gave land for a site, and the Massachusetts
Legislature granted land to the value of one
hundred thousand dollars for buildings, on con
dition that private subscriptions should supple
ment the grant. In addition to $75,125 given,
Agassiz gave all his collections of the last four
years, estimated at ten thousand dollars. Agas-
8 LOUIS AGASSIZ
siz insisted that the museum should not be named
for him, although popular wish has invariably
called it the Agassiz Museum.
From this time on, his college lectures were
open to women as well as men. He had great
sympathy with the desire of women for further
study. Agassiz believed in teaching his stu
dents to learn by observation and comparison.
His first lesson was simply one in looking. Left
with a single specimen, the pupil was told to use
his eyes diligently and report what he found.
Agassiz never asked a leading question of the
pupil; never pointed out a single feature in the
specimen ; never prompted an inference or a con
clusion.
Previous to this event Professor Agassiz
planned a series of volumes entitled "Contribu
tions to the Natural History of the United
States." Subscriptions for this work far ex
ceeded his expectations, for 2,100 at twelve dol
lars a volume were secured before publication was
commenced.
The Civil War began, and no American cared
more than he did for the preservation of the
Union and the institutions which it represents.
He urged the founding of a national academy
of sciences, and was active in its organization
and incorporation by Congress. As an evidence
of his faith in the Constitution of the United
LOUIS AGASSIZ 9
States and the justice of her cause, he formally
became one of her citizens. Writing to Sir
Philip Edgerton^ Agassiz says: "I feel I have
a debt to pay to my adopted country, and all I
can now do is to contribute my share toward
maintaining the scientific activity which has been
awakened during the last few years. j
In 1865 Agassiz planned a trip to Brazil for
scientific study, and Nathaniel Thayer, of Bos
ton, offered him six assistants with all expenses
paid; the Pacific Mail Steamship Company in
vited him to take the whole party on their fine
steamship, the Colorado, as far as Rio de Jan
eiro, free of charge, and the Secretary of the
United States Navy desired all officers of vessels
of war stationed along the coast to give him aid
and support. (^ Agassiz wrote: "I seem like the
spoiled child of the country, and I hope God will /
give me strength to repay in devotion to her in- )
stitutions and to her scientific and intellectual
development, all that her citizens have done for
me." i
With characteristic ardor he pushed a plan of
a summer school for teachers for the direct study
of nature. John Anderson, of New York, of
fered to Agassiz a site on the island of Penikese,
in Buzzards Bay, with an endowment of fifty
thousand dollars for equipment. Again Agas
siz refused to have his own name given to the
10 LOUIS AGASSIZ
school, and suggested that of the Anderson
School of Natural History. It was opened in
June, 1873. From the hundreds of applicants
the zoologist selected thirty men and twenty
women. Whittier s poem, "The Prayer of
Agassiz," commemorates the opening.
At length the busy, enthusiastic life closed on
December 14, 1873, and he was buried at Mount
Auburn. The bowlder that marks his grave
came from a glacier of the Aar, not far from
where his hut stood when he was on one of his
exploring expeditions ; and the pine which shel
ters it was sent from his old home in Switzerland.
"The land of his birth and the land of his adop
tion are united at his grave."
A FAMOUS GREEK AMERICAN
MICHAEL ANAGNOS
IT is not possible in these days to live in or near
a large city in the United States without be
coming aware of the presence of Greeks. The
names above the stores and shops, particularly
in the more crowded and less prominent streets,
indicate how many men from Greece are now
among the business men of America. New
York and Chicago each have some twenty thou
sand, while Lowell, Mass., has about eight thou
sand. In the bigger cities they are mostly in
confectionery and fruit stores and in restaurants.
But there are also Greek physicians, dentists,
lawyers, pharmacists, bankers, and newspaper
editors. Greeks have distinguished themselves
in the United States Navy service, and as pro
fessors in our colleges and seminaries. Wealthy
and educated Greeks conduct large commercial
houses, among them being the world-famed Ralli
Brothers, who own one of the largest in the
world.
To one Greek, the son-in-law of Dr. Samuel
Gridley Howe and Julia Ward Howe, America
11
12 MICHAEL ANAGNOS
is indebted for his wide service to humanity. As
successor to Doctor Howe as head of the Per
kins Institution for the Blind, he was indefatig
able in furthering the interests of blind people.
By them his name will always be gratefully re
membered.
He is known in this country by the name An-
agnos, but originally it was Michael Anagnos-
topoulos. He was born November 7, 1837, in a
mountain village of Epirus, called Papingo.
His father was a hard-working peasant, whose
flocks the boy tended, studying meanwhile the
lessons given him in the village school. By the
advice of his teacher he sought a scholarship in
the Zozimaea School in Janina. Through rain
and storm he walked for sixteen hours to his des
tination. The same indomitable courage and
determination carried him on until he succeeded
in entering the University of Athens. Few stu
dents would have persevered to this happy con
clusion if, like Michael Anagnos, they had to
copy the required text-books by hand because
poverty prevented the purchase of them. At
the university he earned his way by teaching lan
guages and reading proof. He graduated at
the age of twenty-two. He then spent four
years in the study of law, although he never prac
ticed it.
MICHAEL ANAGNOS 13
Accepting a position on the editorial staff of
the Ethnophylax, the first daily paper of Athens,
he soon became its editor. Political affairs led
him into a stormy experience. He opposed the
government of King Otho because of its failure
to give the people their rights. Arrest and im
prisonment followed. In 1886 he espoused the
cause of the Cretan revolutionists, but as his fel
low editors were not in sympathy with him, he
resigned the position of editor.
The active interest of Michael Anagnos in
that affair proved to be a lodestar, for it brought
him into association with Dr. Samuel Grid-
ley Howe, the husband of that other lover of
freedom, Julia Ward Howe. Doctor Howe
about this time arrived in Greece to help the Cre
tans, and soon engaged the young man to be his
secretary and assistant in the work of relief.
When Doctor Howe returned to America, Mr.
Anagnos accompanied him to assist the Cretan
committee of New England.
Doctor Howe, who had grown to have a
strong liking for the young man, made him
teacher of Latin and Greek in the Perkins In
stitution for the Blind, in Boston, of which he
was himself the founder. He also made him
private tutor in his own family. In this way the
connection began which resulted in an oppor-
16 MICHAEL ANAGNOS
accurately, acts promptly, and works diligently.
He is honorable, faithful, straightforward, and
trustworthy in all his relations."
Beautiful testimony to the influence of Mr.
Anagnos was given after his death by one blind
graduate of the institution: "His strength com
forted our weakness, his firmness overcame our
wavering ideas, his power smoothed away our
obstacles, his noble unselfishness put to shame
our petty differences of opinion, and his untiring
devotion led us all to do our little as well as we
could. . . . Better than all, he taught us to the
best of our ability to be men and women in our
own homes."
Although he became a citizen of the United
States, Mr. Anagnos always kept a warm interest
in his native land and made generous gifts for
Greek education. He made one gift of twenty-
five thousand dollars toward the support of
schools in his birthplace. He did much also for
his immigrant countrymen in America. He was
president of the Boston Community of Greeks
and founder and president of the National Union
of Greeks in the United States, the predecessor
of the present Pan-Hellenic Union.
In 1906 Mr. Anagnos went to Europe as he
had frequently done in the past years. He
visited Athens and was present at the Olympic
games, and then traveled through Turkey, Ser-
MICHAEL ANAGNOS 17
bia, and Roumania. There he suffered from a
disease of long standing and died under an opera
tion, June 20, 1906. Memorial services were held
both in Boston and Lowell, and the Boston Even
ing Herald of July 16 printed the following trib
ute from T. T. Timayenis, of that city:
"He was the man who taught the Greeks of
America to learn and adopt everything that is
good in the American character, the only man
whom all Greeks revered and implicitly obeyed;
the man who did good for the sake of the good;
the man who conceived the idea of establishing
a Greek school in Boston; the man who expected
every Greek to do his duty toward his adopted
country America."
Expressions of respect and appreciation came
from institutions and teachers of the blind all over
America. Governor Guild, of Massachusetts,
at a memorial service in Tremont Temple, Bos
ton, said: "The name of Michael Anagnos be
longs to Greece, the fame of him belongs to the
United States; but his service belongs to hu
manity."
No words can more fitly close our study of this
world-worker who, though of foreign birth and
education, gave of his best to our country, than
those of Bishop Lawrence, on the same occasion:
"We in America are a little jealous, are we
not, of the love and loyalty which some of those
18 MICHAEL ANAGNOS
who come to us show toward their home and na
tion? We want them to become fully and com
pletely and suddenly American. Are we right
in this? Is it not the fact that a translated tree
grows better when with it comes a great clod
of its native earth to nourish and support it un
til its roots are thrust into the new soil? Is it
not well that immigrants sustain and nourish the
memory of their old traditions and home associa
tions, and was it not one of the fine features of
Mr. Anagnos that while he gave himself to the
work in this land, he so loved his native people
that he both in his life and death gave an endow
ment and education to them and their children?
We are richer for his continued association with
his people, and they are richer for the larger
conception of life which he gave them. . . . Who
would have thought that the young Greek, bom
in a valley of Epirus, educated in the literature
of Greek and other languages, saturated with
the philosophy of the university, would have be
come the sympathetic friend of the little blind
children of Puritan Massachusetts, the head of
a great New England educational institution,
and the man to plead successfully with Yankee
legislators for aid in his work? It is interesting
to us, for we are receiving from eastern Europe
thousands upon thousands of people. We are
wondering, sometimes, with dread, what their
MICHAEL ANAGNOS 19
influence will be on our American civilization.
Granted that the mass of them have not the
qualities of the Greek Anagnos, nevertheless the
fact that he has lived here and done his work here
gives us hope and confidence that from these
other thousands may arise those who will make
noble contributions to our American life."
18 MICHAEL ANAGNOS
who come to us show toward their home and na
tion? We want them to become fully and com
pletely and suddenly American. Are we right
in this? Is it not the fact that a translated tree
grows better when with it comes a great clod
of its native earth to nourish and support it un
til its roots are thrust into the new soil? Is it
not well that immigrants sustain and nourish the
memory of their old traditions and home associa
tions, and was it not one of the fine features of
Mr. Anagnos that while he gave himself to the
work in this land, he so loved his native people
that he both in his life and death gave an endow
ment and education to them and their children?
We are richer for his continued association with
his people, and they are richer for the larger
conception of life which he gave them. . . . Who
would have thought that the young Greek, bom
in a valley of Epirus, educated in the literature
of Greek and other languages, saturated with
the philosophy of the university, would have be
come the sympathetic friend of the little blind
children of Puritan Massachusetts, the head of
a great New England educational institution,
and the man to plead successfully with Yankee
legislators for aid in his work? It is interesting
to us, for we are receiving from eastern Europe
thousands upon thousands of people. We are
wondering, sometimes, with dread, what their
MICHAEL A1STAGNOS 19
influence will be on our American civilization.
Granted that the mass of them have not the
qualities of the Greek Anagnos, nevertheless the
fact that he has lived here and done his work here
gives us hope and confidence that from these
other thousands may arise those who will make
noble contributions to our American life."
THE MAN WHO INTRODUCED US
TO THE "BIRDS OF AMERICA"
JOHN JAMES AUDUBON
6 ri^HE king of ornithological painters," was
JL the flattering salutation given on October
1, 1828, by the great Italian painter Gerard to
John James Audubon, after looking at his
wonderful lifesize drawings of the birds of
America. Baron Cuvier, a noted Frenchman,
spoke of them as "the most splendid monuments
which art has erected in honor of ornithology."
The man who won this high praise was born in
Lousiana, May 4, 1780, but he was really a
Frenchman, as his ancestors were all French ex
cept his mother, who was Spanish. His father
was the twentieth child of a poor fisherman in
the Department of Vendee, in France. At the
early age of twelve he set out to seek his fortune
and became a sailor. Finally he was given com
mand of a small vessel of the Imperial navy and
frequently visited America. So it happened
that his famous son, John James, was born there,
although a few years later he was taken to the
home at Nantes, in France.
20
JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 21
He spent a happy boyhood, for through his
stepmother s indulgence he was not kept strictly
at school, but was allowed to spend much time in
the woods watching the birds and gathering
their nests, thus early showing the interest which
became the dominant influence of his life. His
father, on his return home from a voyage,
finding the boy was missing the benefits of an
education, sent him away to school. Among
other studies he had the advantage of drawing
lessons from the celebrated painter, David, from
whom he learned how to sketch from nature.
When at the age of seventeen, his father, being
disappointed that his son did not wish to serve
under Napoleon as a soldier, sent him to
America to look after his property at Mill Grove,
near the Schuylkill Falls, he had made sketches
of two hundred varieties of birds.
At Mill Grove he spent his time hunting, fish
ing, and drawing. Love at first sight resulted
from the first visit made at the home of his next-
door neighbor, an Englishman, and after an in
terval of a few years, Audubon married his
.daughter, Miss Lucy Bakewell. Both before
and after his marriage various ventures into
business ended disastrously. He had no apti
tude for a commercial life and devoted himself
far more assiduously to outdoor occupations,
studying with eagerness the habits of the birds
22 JOHN JAMES AUDUBON
and animals found in the woods. His father s
death brought him no financial gain, for the
merchant with whom his father had deposited
seventeen thousand dollars, refused to hand the
money over to the son until assured of his legal
right to it. Meanwhile the merchant died pen
niless and John James never recovered any of
the money due him. With a singular disregard
of his own interests he did nothing with the
estate left by his father in France, but in later
years transferred it to his sister Rosa.
Another business venture turning out badly,
he commenced portrait-painting. In this he
succeeded remarkably well. Soon afterward he
was offered the position of curator at a museum
in Cincinnati, receiving liberal compensation for
his preparation of birds. He also opened a
drawing-school in the city and for a while did
well financially.
On October 12, 1820, Audubon started on an
expedition into Mississippi, Alabama, and
Florida, in search of ornithological specimens.
His Journal gives interesting descriptions of
what he saw in his wanderings, and the reader is
impressed with his enthusiasm over the birds and
their habits. At Natchez he was in need of new
shoes, and so also was a fellow traveler.
Neither had the money to purchase them, but
Audubon went to a shoemaker and offered to
JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 23
make portraits of himself and wife in return for
a new pair of shoes for each of them. The offer
was accepted and both men went on their way
newly shod.
Upon arriving in New Orleans Audubon
sought vainly for employment. He secured a
few orders for portraits, which relieved his
financial need, and he continued his work of
painting birds. He also had an engagement to
teach drawing at sixty dollars a month for half
of each day. Some fourteen months later he
sent for his family to join him in New Orleans.
He rented a house for seventeen dollars a month
and began life therein with forty-two dollars.
In order to get money sufficient to educate the
children Mrs. Audubon took a position as gover
ness. Depressed in spirit because of his lack of
success in earning money, her husband again
went to Natchez, paying his way on the boat by
a crayon portrait of the captain and his wife.
He taught drawing, music, and French in the
family of a Portuguese gentleman, and drawing
in a neighboring college.
After various trying experiences Audubon
reached Philadelphia in the hope that he might
obtain help to complete his work on birds.
Through an old friend he was introduced to men
of standing and influence, especially the por
trait-painter Sully, who aided him greatly by
24 JOHN JAMES AUDUBON
giving him instruction in oil painting. With
kind letters of introduction he went next to New
York City, but being unsuccessful there went
West, mainly subsisting on bread and milk.
Arriving at Bayou Sara he found his wife had
earned three thousand dollars which, with wifely
generosity, she offered to him to help the publi
cation of his book. He resolved on a new effort
to increase the amount and engaged to teach
dancing to a class of sixty men and women.
This brought him two thousand dollars. His
determination to persevere in accomplishing the
great wish of his life, in spite of these many
hardships, is really remarkable.
Fortunately, at the age of forty-six, the tide
of fortune turned and he started for England,
where he hoped to win for his book on birds the
appreciative help he had failed to find in
America. In England he met a welcome that
was very grateful to him. From the exhibition
of his pictures in Liverpool he received five
hundred dollars. In Edinburgh the Royal
Institution offered the use of its rooms for an
exhibit which brought in from twenty-five
dollars to seventy-five dollars a day. He wrote
to his wife, "My success borders on the
miraculous. My book is to be published in
numbers, containing four birds in each, the size
of life, in a style surpassing anything now ex-
JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 25
isting, at two guineas a number. I am feted,
feasted, elected an honorary member of societies,
making money by my exhibition and my
paintings."
March 17, 1827, he issued the prospectus of
his book, which was to cost him over one hundred
thousand dollars. But his joyous mood could
not last long, for hard work and disappointment
were still ahead of him. He visited several
cities in the endeavor to secure subscribers to his
work, at one thousand dollars each. Simulta
neously he painted pictures and then spent the
evenings trying to sell them. He said he never
refused the offers made him for these pictures.
He often sold five or seven copies of one
painting.
Audubon next went to Paris, where he much
appreciated the acquaintance of the famous
scientist, Baron Cuvier. Among other pleasing
events was the subscription of the King of
France for six copies of his "Birds of America."
In May, 1829, he returned to America, full of
delight at seeing his family again. During the
next three months he hunted for birds and
animals with which to enrich his collection for
publication.
Returning to England, accompanied by his
wife, he found that he had been elected a Fellow
of the Royal Society of London, a great honor,
26 JOHN JAMES AUDUBON
as only persons of recognized merit and talents
were admitted. In 1830 Audubon began to
prepare his " Ornithological Biography of the
Birds of America." This contained nearly a
thousand pages, and he wrote industriously, a
Mr. McGillivray, of Edinburgh, assisting him
in preparing it for publication. In March,
1831, his book was about completed and he
speaks in his Journal of spending a few days in
Liverpool and "traveling on that extraordinary
road, called the railway, at the rate of twenty-
four miles an hour." He also says, "I have
balanced my accounts with the Birds of
America, and the whole business is really
wonderful; forty thousand dollars have passed
through my hands for the completion of the first
volume. Who would believe that a lonely indi
vidual who landed in England without a friend
in the whole country and with only one sovereign
in his pocket (when he reached London), could
extricate himself from his difficulties, not by
borrowing money, but by rising at four in the
morning, working hard all day, and disposing of
his works at a price which a common laborer
would have thought little more than sufficient
remuneration for his work? . . . During the
four years required to bring the first volume be
fore the world, no less than fifty of my sub-
JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 27
scribers, representing the sum of fifty-six
thousand dollars, abandoned me."
Audubon felt that he must return again to
America to explore for new birds to add to his
book. He went to Florida and later to
Labrador, where he collected one* hundred and
seventy-three skins of birds and studied the
habits of the eider-duck, loons, wild geese, etc.
Returning to London once more, in 1834 and
1835 he published the second and third volumes
of his "Ornithological Biography," going again
to America in 1836 for further research.
Another trip to England saw the finish of his
great work. It is noteworthy evidence of the
indomitable perseverance of the man that he
persisted in this frequent crossing of the ocean,
for the sake of his work, although he suffered
great misery and discomfort from the sea voy
ages.
In 1839 Audubon came back to New York,
purchasing a home on the banks of the Hudson,
to which he gave the name of Minnie Land, in
honor of his wife, Minnie being the Scotch word
for mother, and the name by which he usually
addressed her. He had for many years desired
to visit the Rocky Mountains, and in 1843 he
went to the Yellowstone with a party, in order
to gather material for a book on the "Quadru-
28 JOHN JAMES AUDUBON
peds of America." From the results of this ex
pedition, undertaken when he was sixty years
old, three volumes were published. He was
only equal himself to the preparation of the first
volume, his sons completing the others after his
death in January, 1851.
Of John James Audubon one writer has said:
"Of the naturalists of America, no one stands
out in more picturesque relief than he. He un
dertook and accomplished one of the most gi
gantic tasks that has ever fallen to the lot of man
to perform. For more than three-quarters of a
century his splendid paintings . . . which for
spirit and vigor are still unsurpassed, have been
the admiration of the world. As a field
naturalist he was at his best and had few equals.
He was a keen observer, and possessed the rare
gift of instilling into his writings the freshness
of nature and the vivacity and enthusiasm of his
own personality. His was a type now rarely
met, combining the grace and culture of the
Frenchman, with the candor, patience and ear
nestness of purpose of the American." As a
pioneer in an unknown field he naturally made
some mistakes but he was always sincere and
honest in presenting his convictions. Another
writer says; "He has enlarged and enriched the
domains of a pleasing and useful science ; he has
revealed to us the existence of many species of
JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 29
birds before unknown ; he has given us more ac
curate information of the forms and habits of
those that were known; and he has imparted to
the study of natural history the grace and
fascination of romance."
The National Association of Audubon Socie
ties is a fitting monument to this lover of birds.
It sustains the Audubon wardens, the minute
men of the coast, whose duty it is to protect the
waterfowl from destruction because of their
service to humanity as the scavengers of the
coast region. It maintains havens for the birds
at nesting time; and in many ways protects our
feathered friends.
THE INVENTOR OF THE
TELEPHONE
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL
"TT TALKS!" exclaimed Dom Pedro, Em-
JL peror of Brazil, when at the Centennial Ex
position in Philadelphia he took up a telephone
receiver and put it to his ear. Then Lord Kel
vin, electrical scientist of the first rank and engi
neer of the Atlantic cable, took his turn at the
strange new instrument. "It does speak/ he
said. "It is the most wonderful thing I have
seen in America." And so one after another
notable man listened and was astonished. Thus
the telephone made its first public appearance.
It was the most dramatic event of the exposition
which displayed many remarkable inventions.
The man who had invented this m arvelous in
strument was Alexander Graham Bell, who was
born in Edinburgh, Scotland, March 1, 1847.
He was educated at the Royal High School of
his native city and in London. But his relatives
had the largest share in preparing him for his
after success in life. Grandfather, uncle, father,
and two brothers had all specialized in the study
30
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL 31
of the laws of speech and sound, and had taught
and written on that subject, so that through
them he secured knowledge that was of great
help to him in his discovery of the principle of
the telephone. In London, soon after he
reached the age of twenty-one, and while teach
ing elocution, experiments in producing vibra
tions on tuning-forks by means of an electro
magnet aroused in him an enthusiasm for scien
tific discovery.
But it was hindered by illness. Tuberculosis
caused the death of two brothers, and he himself
was threatened with the same dread disease. In
hope of averting the danger, he and his father
and mother left Scotland for Canada, where at
Brantford he fortunately succeeded in over
coming the trouble, meanwhile interesting him
self in teaching a tribe of Mohawk Indians a
sign-language invented by his father and called
"Visible Speech," each letter representing a
certain action of the lips and tongue. He had
previously, in London, been particularly suc
cessful in using it to teach deaf-mutes to talk.
This led to an offer of five hundred dollars from
the Board of Education of Boston to intro
duce the system in a school for deaf-mutes which
had been opened. Alexander Bell gladly ac
cepted, with such success that he won a pro
fessorship in Boston University and also
32 ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL
started a school of vocal physiology which proved
profitable.
These occupations interfered with the pur
suance of his inventive ideas, but at the end of
two years he found opportunity to carry on his
experiments in the home of a deaf-mute pupil in
Salem. The father of the boy, Thomas Sanders,
became deeply interested and eventually was
closely associated with the development of Bell s
great invention, paying practically all his ex
penses until success was attained. The father
of another deaf-mute pupil, Gardiner G. Hub-
bard, a well-known Boston lawyer, also co
operated largely in carrying out Bell s plans.
His daughter Mabel became the wife of the
young inventor four years later, and was very
helpful to him. But for the assistance of these
two men it would have been almost impossible
for Bell to have succeeded, for he had given up
his professorship and his school in order to have
time for his experiments. He was convinced
that it would be possible to construct an instru
ment that would actually convey the sound of
the human voice, and patiently toiled by day and
by night to find the principle on which it could be
done.
At the suggestion of a friend, Dr. Clarence
Blake, he experimented with a real ear cut from
the head of a dead man. From that he conceived
Underwood and Underwood
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL 33
the idea of a telephone formed of two discs, or
ear-drums, far apart, and connected by an
electrified wire that would catch the vibrations
of sound at one end and reproduce them at the
other. It was on an afternoon in June, 1875,
that Bell caught the first faint sound over the
wire, but more patient study and effort had to be
made before words were audible. At last, on
March 10, 1876, to the almost wild delight of
Bell and his assistant, Thomas Watson, the
words "Watson, come here, I want you," spoken
by Bell in a room up three flights of stairs, at
109 Court Street, Boston, were heard distinctly
by Watson in the basement. On his twenty-
ninth birthday Bell received the patent securing
his rights as inventor of the telephone.
With the exception of the few scientific men
who heard it at the Centennial Exposition, no
one put any faith in what Lord Kelvin described
as "the greatest marvel yet achieved by the
electric telegraph." Men of business said, "It
is only a scientific toy ; it can never be a practical
necessity." It seemed so absurd to speak into
a tube or box that Bell was ridiculed as "a crank
who says he can talk through a wire." Yet so
confident was the young inventor of the ultimate
results of his discovery, that in a public address at
Kensington, England, in 1878, he said: "It is
conceivable that cables of telephone wires could
34 ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL
be laid underground or suspended overhead, con
necting up by branch wires private dwellings,
country houses, shops, manufacturing establish
ments, etc., and also connecting cities and towns
and various places throughout the country. I
am aware that such ideas may appear to you
Utopian and out of place, but I believe that such
a scheme will be the ultimate result of the intro
duction of the telephone to the public." His
faith has been abundantly justified.
The Bell telephone as first exhibited was
simply an old cigar-box and two hundred feet of
wire, with a magnet from a toy fishpond, but it
demonstrated the possibility of making the
human voice audible to a person at a distance
and out of sight. On October 9, 1876, the first
conversation between two places was conducted
over a wire two miles long, from Boston to Cam
bridge. The actual words spoken and heard
were published in the Boston Advertiser of
October 19, and a little later the Boston Globe
reported a lecture delivered in Salem and trans
mitted by telephone over a space of sixteen
miles. In 1880 there was speech over a wire
forty miles long, from Boston to Providence;
and in 1885 a long-distance line was built from
New York to Philadelphia, and in 1893 one
from New York to Chicago. In 1896 the Rocky
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL 35
Mountain Bell Company had erected a seventy-
thousand-mile system for the far West.
But before all this happened many disappoint
ments and discouraging experiences had come to
the men who had so persistently believed in and
worked for the great discovery. For a long
time it was almost impossible to persuade
business men that the telephone could be of
practical use to them. Then the Western Union
Telegraph Company realized that it had a com
petitor and proceeded to fight it with all the
means at its command. It induced Thomas
Edison, Amos Dolbear, and Elisha Gray to in
vent an instrument which it advertised as the
only original telephone. Its action, however,
stimulated interest, and capitalists began to take
hold of Bell s patents, organizing a company to
develop the business in New England. Mr.
Theodore Vail was made general manager and
he started to create a national telephone system.
For seventeen months after Bell s invention was
known no one disputed his claim, but as its value
began to be appreciated other claimants ap
peared, and the Bell company had to engage in
a patent war that continued for eleven years and
included six hundred lawsuits. At last, in
1879, the Western Union acknowledged it could
not prove its case, admitted that Bell was the
36 ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL
original inventor of the telephone, and that his
patents were valid.
"Every telephone in the world is still made on
the plan that Bell discovered. In the actual
making of it there was no one with Bell or be
fore him. He invented it first and alone."
Others have made it more perfect and useful,
until to-day "a telephone on a desk, instead of
being the simple device first in use, contains no
less than one hundred and thirty pieces, with a
salt-spoonful of glistening granules of carbon."
After years of struggle and hardship success
came rapidly. Bell and the men who had helped
him during those years of poverty, one after the
other, sold out their interests in the telephone
company and became millionaires. Mr. Bell
himself refused an offer of ten thousand dollars a
year to be the chief inventor of the company,
saying he "could not invent to order." He has
now a handsome house in Washington and a
summer home of seven hundred acres at Cape
Breton, Nova Scotia, where he devotes his time
to researches for the benefit of the human race.
He has invented the photophone and the induc
tion balance. Men on the battlefields and in the
hospitals of Europe are grateful to him for his
invention of the telephone-probe for the painless
detection of bullets in the human body. For
this he was given the honorary degree of M. D.
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL 37
by the University of Heidelberg. The Emperor
of Japan bestowed on him the highest order in
his gift that of the Rising Sun. The Royal
Society of Great Britain and the Society of Fine
Arts of London gave him medals. The Govern
ment of France made him an officer of the Legion
of Honor and awarded him the Volta prize of
fifty thousand francs. He devoted this gift to
the establishment and endowment of the Volta
Bureau in Washington, for the "increase and
diffusion of knowledge relating to the deaf."
He also founded the American Association to
Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf,
to which he contributed two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars.
Rarely does any man within his own lifetime
see such an extensive and wonderful develop
ment of the product of his own brain and hand
as Alexander Graham Bell has witnessed. It is
one of the marvels of our age. It is really a
fascinating story and is well told by Herbert
Casson in his book, "The History of the Tele
phone." In brief, it may be thus described:
The Bell telephone secured its first million of
capital in 1879; its first million of earning in
1882; its first million of dividends in 1884; its
first million of surplus in 1885. It began first
to send a million messages a day in 1888; had
strung its first million miles of wire in 1900, and
38 ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL
had installed its first million telephones in 1898.
At the end of 1921 there were 13,380,000 Bell
stations in the United States, with a total of
twelve billion calls for the year.
Big business is dependent on the telephone.
E. H. Harriman, the great railroad chief, found
it necessary to have a hundred telephones in his
house at Arden, sixty of them linked to long-dis
tance wires. A firm of Wall Street brokers will
send fifty thousand messages in a year, some of
them double that number. The Standard Oil
Company sends two hundred and thirty thousand
messages in a year from its New York office
alone. The Electric Light Company in New
York has twelve private exchanges and five
hundred and twelve telephones. In greater or
less degree like statements may be made of
business concerns all over the country.
In times of fire, flood, and danger of any kind
the telephone is instantly called into use and
proves the salvation of many people. In war it
is *of invaluable service. In 1909 it saved a
three-million fruit crop in Colorado. The spring
frosts had frequently done much damage. But
in that year the farmers procured three hundred
thousand or more smudge-pots and arranged
with the United States Weather Bureau to send
them warning. The first word came when the
apple trees were in bloom. "Get ready to light
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL 39
your smudge-pots in half an hour," was the word.
Immediately the farmers telephoned to the
nearest towns for help, and hundreds of men
and boys came quickly. Then came the
warning: "Light up; the thermometer registers
twenty-nine."
At the National Geographic Society dinner in
Washington, March 7, 1916, U. N. Bethell,
senior vice president of the American Telephone
Company, proposed a toast to "the foremost
figure in the creation of this American art, that
distinguished American, Dr. Alexander Graham
Bell, of Scotland. We all know, though, that
Doctor Bell is an American as much as any
Pilgrim Father ever was. Americans of his
type, who could not control the accident of birth,
have helped to transform a wilderness into
sovereign states, and to create great industries,
important cities, vast empires, and all that sort
of thing. They are proud of America and
America is proud of them."
Of the wonders of the modern world the tele
phone takes almost the first place and its in
ventor must needs be always recognized as one
of the greatest benefactors of mankind.
THE MAN WHO MADE THE FIRST
REAL NEWSPAPER
JAMES GORDON BENNETT
nnHE man who first introduced people to
JL the modern newspaper was James Gordon
Bennett. Before his venture the daily papers
were not news papers. As one writer puts it,
"he paved the way for things that were revolu
tionary in that day, though commonplace now."
Bennett recognized the great change that was
coming to this country through railroad, agri
cultural and industrial development and felt that
people in everyday life needed to be brought into
touch with the daily happenings arround them;
so he made and published the first real news
paper.
It is particularly interesting to learn that it
was not a native-born American, who did this
service for the people of this country, but a
Scotchman born in 1800 at Newmill, Banff shire,
James was sent to the seminary at Aberdeen to
be educated for the Roman Catholic Priesthood.
He had an absorbing love of reading and was
strongly impressed by reading the life of Ben-
40
JAMES GORDON BENNETT 41
jamin Franklin, written by himself. Singularly
this proved to be the loadstone that drew him to
this country. Meeting a friend one day in 1819
he found that he was planning to come to America
and immediately James told him that he would
come with him as he was anxious to see the place
where Franklin was born. He arrived in Hali
fax, Nova Scotia, without knowing any one in
this land and with only twenty-four dollars in his
pocket.
During the next sixteen years he had varied
opportunities to get in touch with journalism,
working first as a proof reader for the publishers
of the North American Review, in Boston; then
in 1822 as Spanish translator and assistant for
the Courier of Charleston, S. C. In 1827 he was
Washington correspondent for the Inquirer of
New York. In 1833 he became part owner and
principal editor of the Philadelphia Pennsyl-
vanian. In these connections Bennett was a
vigorous supporter of President Jackson and
vice-president Buchanan, but his experiences
with politics were so disappointing that he finally
abandoned them entirely.
On May 6, 1835, he issued the first number of
the New York Herald, a small sheet of four
columns, from his office in a cellar. For some
time he did all the work on it himself, rising early
and retiring late. He collected the news, wrote
42 JAMES GORDON BENNETT
the whole paper, kept his own books and made
out his bills. The paper attracted attention be
cause it dealt with people and things without
gloves. It was extremely frank in its comments.
Some of the editors of the six-cent dailies
were heavy speculators and printed articles in
tended to affect the value of certain stocks. Mr.
Bennett did not hesitate to assert that these
editors were "truly unfit by nature and want of
capacity to come to a right conclusion on any
subject. . . . They pervert every public event
from its proper hue and coloring, to raise one
stock and depress another. There is no truth in
them."
It was the custom at this period for editors to
engage in mud-slinging to a large extent.
Horace Greeley, Joseph Pulitzer, James Gordon
Bennett, James Watson Webb, William Cullen
Bryant, and others did not hesitate to attack
each other physically as well as verbally. On
one occasion Bennett was knocked down in the
street by Webb, and he retaliated by writing up
the event in his paper, the Herald, in the follow
ing fashion; "The fellow no doubt wanted to let
out the never-failing supply of good humor and
wit which has created such a reputation for the
Herald, and appropriate the contents to supply
the emptiness of his own thick skull. He did
not succeed however in rifling me of my ideas.
JAMES GORDON BENNETT 43
He has not injured the skull. My ideas in a
few days will flow as freely as ever and he will
find it out to his cost."
This method was an innovation and it proved
a success, for it sent the circulation of the issue
containing it up to 9,000 copies. Another
assault by Webb occurred again a little later and
was reported in similar style, ending with the
statement, "As to intimidating me or changing
my course, the thing cannot be done. I tell the
honest truth in my paper and leave the conse
quences to God. Could I leave them in better
hands?"
At the time he started the Herald he stated
that it would be independent of any party and
that his endeavor would be to record facts on
every public and proper subject. "I feel my
self in this land to be engaged in a great cause,
the cause of truth, of public faith against false
hood, fraud and ignorance." The egotism of the
man was colossal, but even his former enemies
who were many, stated later that "we know that
Bennett violated no law other than the canons
of good taste." Oswald Garrison Villard, a
noted journalist, considered that he "lacked
moral fibre," but that he "revolutionized the
whole science of newsgetting."
It is this feature of his work that is most
notable. He introduced into the Herald many
44 JAMES GORDON BENNETT
new things that have now become common to
almost all dailies. He was the first newspaper
editor in the United States to print Wall St.
financial articles; he started modern reportorial
methods in his graphic accounts of a great fire,
with a picture of a burning building and a map
of the devastated district ; his was the first paper
that published a telegraphic report of a speech
spoken at a distance; the speech of Henry Clay
on the Mexican War, delivered at Lexington,
Ky., in 1846, was sent by express eighty miles to
Cincinnati, and thence telegraphed to New
York.
In 1841 Bennett published reports of the con
gressional debates without any cost to the
United States Treasury; he organized a corps
of reporters at an expense of nearly $200 a week,
to give these reports from both houses. To put
the news from everywhere within the reach of all
the people was his chief aim, so he chartered
vessels to meet ships coming from Europe and
gain the latest information from across the sea;
in 1838 he visited England and France and
engaged at a liberal compensation correspondents
of literary ability. During the civil war he
employed a corps of sixty-three correspondents
at an expense for four years of $525,000. Sys
tematic distribution of his paper by newsboys
was also a new feature introduced by him.
JAMES GORDON BENNETT 45
It is not surprising that by these means he
made the New York Herald a success and
acquired a large fortune which he used generously
for the public good. Among others it is note
worthy that when David Livingstone, the famous
missionary and explorer, had not been heard
from for six years, Mr. Bennett sent Henry
Stanley to Africa to search for him, at a cost to
himself of $500,000.
Any bad things that were said of Bennett in
his earlier years were due largely to the sensa
tional methods he adopted to make his paper a
success, but he himself said that no one in the
city could say aught against his private character,
and his rivals who were strong in their opposi
tion to him, did him justice to the same effect.
By his indomitable energy, his Scotch shrewd
ness, and his spirit of enterprise, he won a dis
tinguished place as an editor and did a service to
Americans in giving them their first real news
paper and at much personal expense providing
opportunities for a knowledge of world events
that since he initiated them have become a daily
thing for every man and woman.
ANOTHER GREAT INVENTOR
EMILE BERLINER
4 <T 11 7ONDERFUL as was the invention of
VV the telephone by Alexander Graham
Bell, the work of others was necessary to im
prove and perfect its parts and its machinery.
Practically the part of the telephone which is
called the receiver comprised the whole of Bell s
invention." It introduced to the world a new
capacity to hear. It conveyed sounds across
long distances in a marvelous way.
The first important improvement upon Bell s
invention was made by a young foreigner, Emile
Berliner, a German born in Hanover in 1851.
He graduated from the Samson School of
Wolfenbiittel, and came to the United States in
1870. His early years in this country were full
of difficult experiences. He began life here as
a "sort of bottle-washer" in a chemical shop in
New York City at six dollars a week. His
evenings were spent in studying science in the
free classes at Cooper Institute. He also re
ceived help and inspiration from the gift of a
copy of Miiller s book on physics.
46
EMILE BERLINER 47
The telephone attracted his interest and he
started out to make one. As a result of his
efforts the part called the transmitter was in
vented and he obtained a patent upon it in 1877.
He was then twenty-six years old, and was
employed as a clerk in a dry-goods store in
Washington. It seems remarkable that he
should have been able in the limited time at his
disposal to acquire sufficient knowledge to un
derstand and apply the scientific principles
necessary to the development of such an instru
ment.
He had learned telegraphy as an aid to his
investigations, and while practicing at the
central fire-alarm station in Washington was
told by the operator there that by greater
pressure upon the keys the current became more
intense and the sending distance was increased.
Instantly he grasped the idea of the transmitter,
the basic plan of which is the "varying of the
electric current by carrying the pressure between
two points."
Berliner was poor and had no means by which
to push his invention. Other scientists had seen
the need and had been studying the same
problem. Two weeks after Berliner had
secured his patent, Thomas Edison also invented
a transmitter, and for a time the prior claim of
the young German- American had no chance.
48 EMILE BERLINER
Finally the Bell Telephone Company bought his
patent and fought for his rights as the original
inventor. After fourteen years of waiting the
Supreme Court of the United States declared
that he was justified in his contention that his in
vention was prior to that of Edison.
In 1888, Berliner foretold in a lecture that the
time would surely come when singers and
speakers would be able to make their voices
heard around the world; and he himself was one
of those who helped to make this dream come
true. Leon Scott had discovered that sound
waves projected against a diaphragm having a
hog-bristle glued thereto caused vibrations that
made undulatory marks upon a moving paper
covered with lampblack. Edison improved
upon his method by using a needle attached to a
diaphragm to produce the undulations, and so
discovered the power of reproducing sounds.
From these discoveries were evolved the grapho-
phone and phonograph.
Berliner invented still further improvements
by making the stylus which records sounds
vibrate laterally, reproducing them by a stylus
which is guided only by the groove of an even
depth in which it moves. He named his talk
ing-machine the gramophone. It is also known
as the Victor. For this invention he was
awarded the John Scott medal and the Elliott
EMILE BERLINER 49
Cresson gold medal by the Franklin Institute of
Philadelphia.
A writer in the Scientific American, in June,
1889, tells an interesting story of his first ex
perience in hearing a talking-machine. He
says: "I visited Berliner s laboratory and sat
some twenty feet distant from his large trumpet.
Berliner sat by the table behind the trumpet
and slowly turned a small crank. I heard all
around me the following music : a little German
march by four brass instruments, Warrior Bold,
a Venetian serenade, and a cornet solo. The
execution was excellent and the tunes so loud
that I heard well while walking about the room
and in the passage.
"Berliner showed me the process. He took a
small flat disk of zinc, twelve inches in diameter
and one-eighth of an inch thick. He poured
upon it a liquid which looked like pale oil, which
he termed "digested fat"; a very slight film re
mained on the disk, having become dry in half a
minute. He repeated the same operation, and
after about one minute plunged the disk into
cold water for half a minute. The disk, also
the water at its surface, was coated with a
fatty substance. He then placed the disk on
the revolving table. I was asked to speak
against a small tympan about two inches in
diameter, having a point of a common darning-
50 EMILE BERLINER
needle projecting from its center resting on the
disk which was revolved by Berliner. When I
finished speaking, Berliner placed the disk in a
basin filled with acid, where it remained for
about twenty minutes. Then he took the disk
out of the acid, and washed off the remaining
fatty substance, and with a magnifying glass I
saw the wavy curved lines which had been eaten
into the disk, which was then put on the turning-
table. The same device into which I had spoken
was set with the point of the needle in one of the
concentric lines; the disk was turned, and I
heard all that I had said clearly and distinctly
and loudly reproduced. I could not recognize
my own voice; no one can recognize his own
voice. About two hours afterward I took a
lady to hear it, and she at once said, Why, that
is your voice.
Another of Berliner s well-known inventions
was the duplicating of disk records.
In 1917 he began the manufacture of an air-
cooled engine with revolving cylinder, which is
now extensively used in aeroplanes.
Dr. Emile Berliner s early commercial train
ing and his good judgment, assisted by a keen
intuition, enabled him to foresee the need for his
inventions and to place them where they would be
of immediate practical use. In this way he suc
ceeded in making them very profitable. The
EMILE BERLINER 51
Bell Telephone Company spent about forty-
one million dollars in sustaining his patent on
the transmitter and found themselves amply re
paid, while the inventor himself had a generous
share in the returns for his invention. The
Victor Talking Machine Company also ex
pended half a million dollars in support of his
rights on the basic patent of the disk-talking
machine.
To him we are indebted for a wonderful means
of communication with our fellow men when
they are out of sight, and also for an immense
amount of pleasure in being able at a compar
atively small cost to hear celebrated singers and
speakers whose faces we may never have an op
portunity to see.
Not all of Doctor Berliner s time and effort
were expended in scientific studies and his
inventions which have proven valuable to his
adopted country. For several years he was
interested in pushing an educational campaign
showing the danger of raw milk and other dairy
products; he planned and was a member of
the Washington conference, held in 1917, for
the advocacy of safe milk. He was also in
terested in efforts to abate the evils of tuber
culosis.
IN THE FOREMOST RANKS OF
SCULPTORS
KARL BITTER
A FUGITIVE from Austria because of mili-
A~JL tary oppression, who at the age of twenty-
two, entered the United States in 1889, and al
though he had to work at stone cutting to relieve
his poverty, yet within one year won over older
and better known men in a competition for the
designing of the bronze doors of Trinity Church,
New York City, certainly gave satisfactory evi
dence that he was an unusual man and a rare
artist.
Karl Bitter was born at Rudolfsheim, near
Vienna, in 1867. He studied at the Academy of
Fine Arts in Vienna and early showed his
artistic talent and also his democratic tendencies
toward freedom of speech in political affairs.
As usual in his native land he had to enter the
army at the age of nineteen but it was sorely
against his will to serve in it for three years,
there being at that time no release after one
year s service, for an art student on passing a
given examination. He begrudged giving three
good years of his youth to army life.
52
Underwood and Underwood
KARL BITTER
KARL BITTER 53
Unfortunately also, or perhaps fortunately as
it resulted, he was under a lieutenant who was
of the domineering type, who subjected Karl to
many unnecessary humiliations. He bore them
as well as he could, until one day his captain sent
for him and voluntarily gave him a brief
furlough, saying significantly "I suppose when
this is up we shall not see you again." It was a
surprise but not unwelcome, so Karl fled to
Germany, and thence in 1889 to the United
States. It is interesting to know that although
as a fugitive, he could not enter Austria without
the royal pardon, that pardon was freely ac
corded him in later years when he had won fame,
and upon returning to his native land he was
given a warm welcome by his former friends.
It was really a dramatic event when in Bitter s
studio in New York City there appeared one
day this same lieutenant who little dreamed that
he was asking assistance of the very man whom
he had treated so meanly during his army life.
Nevertheless in a truly Christ-like spirit, Karl
Bitter not only fed and clothed him but engaged
him as his servant for two years.
About the same time that he won the competi
tion for the work on the doors of Trinity Church,
which brought him fame, he won also the friend
ship of William Morris Hunt which was inval
uable to him. Through him he received a com-
54 KARL BITTER
mission to decorate the Administration Building
at the World s Fair, Chicago, in 1893, and later
also that of the Machinery Building. Thus suc
cess fully started, Karl Bitter had no further
difficulty in obtaining opportunities for his
sculpture work. He was truly American in
spirit and entered so completely into a high
conception of the ideals which should govern his
art, that he was called upon to execute numerous
public works. One of those widely known is
that in the Broad Street station, Philadelphia,
of Mercury and Athena advancing in the chariot
of civilization. On the St. Paul Building in
New York City are three colossal caryatides in
stone, which represent the white, negro and
Malay races. He also did significant work in
adorning with sculpture the residences of many
noted men, notably, that of George Vanderbilt,
at Morency.
In the memorial for William H. Baldwin, Jr.,
at Tuskegee, and the exquisite medallion
presented to Robert C. Ogden, Bitter gave con
vincing evidence of his keen understanding of
the great race problems of our country. In the
wonderful panels of the monument to Carl
Schurz he exhibited this same quality of con
ception of a pressing problem. He showed his
freedom-loving spirit and also his appreciation
of art in relation to municipal life, in giving to
KARL BITTER 55
this statute and that of General Franz Sigel a
character that perpetuates that for which each
of them stood. To municipal art he gave much
time and thought, believing that he could truly
serve this country by giving to its people the
best that was in him, that which should develop
their artistic sense for the future as well as the
present. His work on the Municipal Art Com
mission of New York is typical of the re
sponsibility he felt as a citizen of America.
As an interpreter of American history this
foreign-born citizen has exhibited his remarkable
power in a superb group in the "Signing of the
Louisiana Treaty" and in that of the "Winning
of the West." It is a striking testimony to this
power of Bitter s to express by his art our
national life, that he should have been given
charge of the sculpture in three of our great ex
positions Buffalo, St. Louis and San Francisco.
It is significant of the strength of his personality
that the appropriation for the sculpture at Buf
falo was only $30,000 but when the directors saw
his enthusiasm and energy it was immediately
raised to $200,000. Bitter was strongly con
vinced that American sculpture should represent
the highest ideals that could control our national
life. It is noteworthy that in all his public work
he never sought to find what he as an artist could
get out of it but gave himself most thoroughly to
56 KARL BITTER
do the best work he could for the public good. It
is in this respect particularly that his early death
at the age of forty-seven, when he was suddenly
taken away in the zenith of his fame by being
struck down by an automobile, was universally
recognized as so great a loss to this country.
It was a remarkable event in Bitter s life that
when he was still in the early thirties, and had
been in this country only eleven or twelve years,
he was chosen to superintend the sculptural
decoration of the arch in celebration of Admiral
Dewey s victory for America in the Philippines.
"In the group he himself contributed he has by
his portrayal of a virile gun crew gathered about
a quick firer and his shield, typified in a wonder
ful way the spirit of duty and daring of the
American sailor." "It is one of the finest works
of our day."
It was not in Bitter to do any work that was
not honest. Even in the days of poverty before
he was known to fame no money or influence
could persuade him to do any work that would
flatter or misrepresent the true spirit of the
personality portrayed.
At the age of forty he was elected head of the
National Sculptors Society and at his death he
was holding this position for the second time.
The last great work in which he was engaged
was the Hendrick Hudson statue at Duyvil Hill
KARL BITTER 57
where Hudson had his first encounter with the
Indians. It is the general verdict that it is im
possible to think of this foreign-born citizen as
"anything but American." "In the very best
sense of the word he was a great American."
THE MAN WHO MADE THE MOST OF
OPPORTUNITIES
EDWARD BOK
4< 1\>TAKE you the world a bit more beautiful
IT JL and better because you have been in it."
This was the message given by the grandmother
of Edward Bok who is known to so many
thousands of people as the editor of the Ladies
Home Journal. Through that magazine he
endeavored to carry out his grandmother s advice.
Few boys have made so much of opportunities,
a habit that was naturally continued when he
reached manhood and which undoubtedly oc
casioned his wonderful success. It is so unusual
a story that it is worth telling.
In 1870 there landed in America, from the
Netherlands, a family of four father, mother,
and two boys, one eight and a half, the other,
Edward, almost seven. A reversal of fortune
had brought them here and for some time the
father and mother had a hard and difficult ex
perience in exchanging a life of wealth and ease
for poverty in a new country. The mother s
health failing, under the burdens she had to
58
EDWARD BOK 59
carry, the two small boys decided to relieve her
of the morning s housework and also to give up
their play hours after school to aid her.
Edward also sought to add to the family in
come. He was standing one day before the
window of a baker when the owner came out
side to view the assortment he had just placed
there. "Look pretty good, don t they," he said,
and Edward, with the Dutch boy s training in
cleanliness, answered, "They would, if your
window were clean." "That s so," replied the
baker, "perhaps you will clean it." "I will,"
was the answer, and thus Edward Bok got his
first job, for the baker arranged with him to
clean the window each Tuesday and Friday
afternoons after school, for fifty cents a week.
This opportunity led to another, for one day he
ventured to wait on a customer when the baker
was busy. He did it so well that he was engaged
to come each afternoon to sell goods, for a dollar
a week. Edward agreed to the bargain on two
conditions, one, that each afternoon he should
take home to his mother a portion of unsold
goods, and the other that he should be excused
from service on Saturdays, because he had
agreed to deliver a weekly paper for the entire
neighborhood. This brought him another
dollar, thus giving him a weekly income of $2.50.
Edward s next opportunity came when he dis-
60 EDWARD BOK
covered that the men on the horse cars that ran
past his home to Coney Island, were accustomed
while the horses were being watered, to jump off
the cars in the summer time to get a drink of ice
water before going out on the long ride. He
thought that the women and especially the chil
dren, who could not get off the cars, would be
glad of a drink, so the enterprising youngster
bought a new pail, screwed three hooks on its
edge, from which he hung three glasses, and one
Saturday afternoon he jumped on a car, offered
the conductor a drink, and sold ice water at one
cent a glass to the passengers. He soon found
that he exhausted the contents of one pail for
every two cars and each pail netted him thirty
cents. Sunday afternoon was still more pro
fitable, and after attending Sunday School in
the morning he refreshed tired mothers and
thirsty children, He made a profit of six dollars
for his two afternoons of work.
When competitors started in to challenge his
trade, he added six lemons and some sugar to
each pail and charged three cents a glass, finding
by this means he still had the monopoly, as more
people wanted lemonade than water.
His next scheme was carried out by our little
Dutch friend by writing a report of a party of
young people which he attended, taking care to
insert the name of every one present. Then he
EDWARD BOK 61
took it to the editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, re
marking that every name mentioned represented
a buyer of the paper, who would like to see his
or her name in print, and if the editor had
enough of these reports he might easily increase
the circulation of the Eagle. The editor ac
cepted the suggestion and offered to pay Edward
three dollars a column for such reports. The
young fellow soon organized a group of boys and
girls who promised to write an account of each
party they attended. Within a short time Ed
ward was turning in three or four columns a
week, his pay was raised to four dollars a column,
and the editor was delighted to have in his paper
a department which other papers did not have.
Thus young Bok early started his journalistic
career as a reporter.
With so many occupations on hand, Edward
found it increasingly difficult to keep up his
school work and he wanted to give it up. His
mother objected but soon after, a vacancy oc
curred for an office boy in the Western Union
office at $6.25 a week, and she consented to his
taking it. He was now thirteen years old.
Edward had by no means sought release from
school with the idea that he had enough educa
tion. He at once planned how to get more
while he was working. He determined first to
find out how some of the big men whom he saw
62 EDWARD BOK
every day in the office, and whom he knew had
missed a college education had yet risen to the
top. Not being able to get separate biographies,
he tried to find one book that would tell him of
several successful men, and finding it, he saved
his luncheon money, walked instead of riding the
five miles to his Brooklyn home, and finally had
sufficient to purchase Appleton s Encyclopedia.
He decided to test the correctness of the biogra
phies and with the simple directness of a Dutch
boy he wrote to General James A. Garfield
asking if the story of his once being a boy on the
towpath was true, and telling him why he asked.
General Garfield answered him fully and
cordially. Then the idea came to the boy to
procure other letters from noted men, not only
for their autographs, but also for the sake of
learning something useful. It never entered
Edward s mind that possibly they might not
take the trouble to answer him.
So he started, asking why one man did this or
that, or the date of an occurrence in his life. The
replies were of course interesting, for General
Grant sketched on a map the exact spot where
General Lee surrendered to him; Longfellow
told him how he happened to write his poem,
"Excelsior," and so on. Among others he re
ceived one from General Jubal A. Early telling
the real reason why he burned Chambersburg,
EDWARD BOK 63
and a friend suggested that as a bit of history it
might be published in the New York Tribune.
Naturally it attracted national discussion and it
led the editor to send a reporter to Edward to
see if he had other interesting letters. The result
was that a long story was published about the boy
autograph collector. Other papers followed
suit and wrote about him. Several authors
asked Edward to come and see them, so the boy
watched to see when distinguished men arrived
in Brooklyn and he then would go and call on
those to whom he had sent letters and thank them
personally. In this way Edward made friends
of General and Mrs. Grant, President Hayes,
General Sherman, Mrs. Abraham Lincoln,
Jefferson Davis, and many others.
Edward one day got an idea that it would be
a good plan to have a brief biography on the
back of each picture of a noted American. He
went therefore to Mr. Knapp, president of the
Knapp Lithographic Company, and stated his
idea. He was at once asked to write a one
hundred word biography of one hundred famous
Americans at ten dollars each. Edward had
in this his first literary commission more than he
could accomplish; when he completed the first
hundred Mr. Knapp called for a second, and
then for a third. So Edward engaged his
brother to write for him at five dollars each bi-
64 EDWARD BOK
ography. Three journalists on whom he could
depend he also engaged to do the work for him;
so he started on his first work as an editor.
In the evenings he learned shorthand at the
Y. M. C. A., and at a business college, and at
sixteen was given by the Eagle an order to report
two speeches at a dinner; one that of the
President of the United States, which he was to
give verbatim, and the other of General Grant.
That of President Hayes was too rapidly de
livered for the boy, but undaunted, he sought the
President afterwards and asked if he could not
give him a copy of his speech. Mr. Hayes took
him with him in the carriage and gave him a
copy, but not until he had asked him why he re
quested the waiter to remove the wine glass from
his place at the dinner. Edward explained that
he felt he needed a clear head for his work and as
he had never tasted it, he decided he would not
begin then. The next evening he was surprised to
receive a note from the president, asking him to
call that evening upon Mrs. Hayes and himself
as they were interested in what he told Mr.
Hayes. Needless to say the boy did so and
spent a delightful time and this was by no means
the only visit he was asked to make at the White
Hous e. Almost every month a letter came to
Edward from the President until in 1892, the
last letter was very short, saying he would write
EDWARD BOK 65
more if he could, and was signed "thankfully
your friend, Rutherford B. Hayes," with the
postscript, "Thanks, thanks for your steady
friendship."
During his vacation which he took in the
winter for the purpose of spending a week in
Boston and seeing other noted men, Edward was
invited to breakfast with Oliver Wendell Holmes
and went to the theater with Longfellow. The
authors seemed to have enjoyed the simple
ingenuousness of the boy. At this time he saw
also Phillips Brooks, Emerson, Louisa Alcott,
Wendell Phillips and Charles Francis Adams
who secured autographs for him of John Quincy
Adams and his father.
The next opportunity of which Edward made
good use, came to him as he was reporting the
news of the theaters for the Brooklyn Eagle.
One evening he noticed the restlessness of the
audience between the acts, and the thought came
to him that a smaller program with a cover and
attractive reading matter would be profitable.
He offered to supply it to the manager of that
theater without cost, and realizing that the idea
would soon be taken up by other theaters, he
proceeded to secure exclusive rights. He also
took a friend, experienced in publishing and ad
vertising, into partnership. They solicited ad
vertisements as they went to and from business
66 EDWARD BOK
mornings and evenings. The scheme was suc
cessful, giving a fair profit each week.
This led to his entrance into a debating society
of young men in Plymouth Church, and it was
not long before he was elected president. Then
the two partners started the Philomathian
Review, as an organ for this society, Edward
being its editor. Gradually he broadened its
scope and in 1884 its name was changed to that
of The Brooklyn Magazine. The Plymouth
Pulpit was publishing verbatim reports of Mr.
Beecher s sermons, and Edward thought it might
be combined with this magazine, only it would
require more capital than the two young men
could furnish. This was furnished them by
Mr. Beecher s aid. Bok sought the help of his
autograph friends and soon an issue of the
magazine contained a contribution by President
Hayes. This was quite unusual, for presidential
writings had hitherto been confined to official
announcements. The magazine became a de
cided success.
During this time Edward was still in the
employ of the Western Union, but in 1882 he
took a position with the publishers, Henry Holt
& Company, as a stenographer. Edward now
started to furnish the newspapers with articles
on the syndicate plan, for which they paid. Mr.
Beecher was secured for a weekly comment on
EDWARD BOK 67
current events. The plan worked well and
Edward organized the Bok Syndicate Press,
with its office in New York and his brother,
William J. Bok, as partner and manager. At
this time he thought of trying to get women to
read the newspapers by having the editors pub
lish matter in which they would be interested.
He foresaw also that an increase of women
readers would benefit the advertising immensely.
He secured a letter entitled "Bab s Babble" con
taining New York news, and this was a wonder
ful success. He syndicated it among ninety
newspapers. He also obtained from Ella
Wheeler Wilcox a weekly letter and syndicated
that with the other. That suggested a whole
page given to women s interests, so he made
arrangements, to have noted women writers and
also the best of men writers to write on women s
topics. This came to be called the Bok page.
He always kept up a high standard in the ma
terial furnished.
After Bok had been with Henry Holt & Com
pany for two years he entered the employ of the
Scribner firm as stenographer with a salary of
$18.33 per week. He was now twenty-one years
old. His position with the Scribners was an
education in itself, for he came in touch with the
leading authors of the day, and when the firm de
cided to establish Scribner s Magazine, Bok was
68 EDWARD BOK
given charge of the advertising department.
In 1889 Cyrus H. K. Curtis, owner and pub
lisher of The Ladies Home Journal,, suggested
to Bok that he would like to have him take the
editorship of the magazine, and he did so. He
started the work with some new methods. One
of his first acts was to offer prizes for the best
answers to three questions: what in the maga
zine did they like least, and why; what did they
like best and why; what omitted features would
they like to have included. Thousands of an
swers were received and Bok gave his readers
what they desired but always on a higher plane.
Under the name of Ruth Ashmore he started
a department entitled "Side Talks with Girls"
and persuaded Mrs. Isabelle A. Mallon, the
"Bab" of the syndicate letter, to take the posi
tion of its editor. She held it for sixteen years,
during which time she received 158,000 letters,
keeping three stenographers busy answering
them. Bok had divined a great need of the
American girl for a confidant, and innumerable
girls were helped through this department.
Mrs. Margaret Botomme, President of the
King s Daughters, he secured as editor of a de
partment entitled "Heart to Heart Talks," to
meet the spiritual needs of mature women, and
this became as popular as the other. He
EDWARD BOK 69
employed an expert for each line of feminine
endeavor, building up this service until he had
a staff of thirty-five editors on his monthly pay
roll. In each issue he urged the readers to write
for information on all topics, until during the last
year when it was stopped by the great war, the
yearly correspondence totaled almost a million.
Cases of confidential nature were entrusted to
Mrs. Lyman Abbott ,whom Mr. Bok selected for
the delicate work of investigation and personal
contact. The good thus accomplished cannot be
overestimated.
Edward Bok s own lack of opportunity for
an education, led him to seek some way whereby
it might be obtained without expense by any one
who desired it. He offered scholarships in all
girls colleges and later in those of men, to all
who secured a certain number of subscriptions
for the Ladies Home Journal. Up to the close
of 1919, 1455 scholarships have been awarded.
Another plan of his was to engage a noted
woman physician, Dr. Emeline L. Coolidge, to
tell young mothers how to care for their babies,
and this department was very successful, re
ceiving the warm approbation of physicians all
over the country. At the end of the tenth year
over forty thousand mothers had been advised
and the number of babies actually raised by Dr.
70 EDWARD BOK
Coolidge s directions through the correspondence
of the Journal, approached eighty thousand.
The magazine in these ways became a vital
power in the lives of its readers.
In seeking to carry out his grandmother s in
junction to make the world a bit more beautiful,
Mr. Bok did constructive work in the magazine
by publishing a series of houses which could be
built for $1500 to $5000 each. He offered to
supply full building specifications, and plans to
scale, of houses, with estimates of four builders
in different parts of the United States, for five
dollars a set. Slowly he won the approval of
leading architects who saw that he might become
an influence for better architecture. For nearly
twenty-five years Mr. Bok published pictures of
houses and plans. Entire colonies of these
houses have been built. He printed photographs
of the inside of houses, giving instances of good
and bad taste in furniture. These methods
raised the circulation of the journal to one
million copies a month. Then he sought to put
good pictures into the homes. Over 80,000
persons visited the exhibits of pictures in four
leading cities. Next he produced in the original
colors the world s finest pictures, and the suc
cess of this plan resulted in seventy million of
them getting into American homes.
It is impossible in this sketch to enumerate the
EDWARD BOK 71
many other methods by which Mr. Bok improved
living conditions in the United States, as, for in
stance, the banishment of the public drinking
cup through the influence of the articles he
published.
The secret of Mr. Bok s success in life was due
to the fact that he "used every rung in the ladder
as a rung to the next higher. He always gave
more than his particular position or salary asked
for. He never worked by the clock but always
by the job and he saw that his work was well
done regardless of the time it took to do it."
Bok was a man of strong convictions, and when
he felt he was doing the right and helpful thing
by exposing some wrong custom or fashion, he
did not hesitate to continue even if the magazine
lost subscriptions. At one time he stated that
7500 subscriptions were dropped because of his
exposure of an evil which later his readers
acknowledged to be right.
At the end of thirty years of editorship Mr.
Bok retired from the control of the magazine
that he might be free to render public service.
In the last issue before he left it was oversold
with an edition of over two million copies. He
closed his work with an exposition of Americani
zation which was peculiarly gratifying to him as
a foreign-born editor. He says himself that he
"owes to America the most priceless gift that
72 EDWARD BOK
any nation can offer, that of opportunity. In
no other country in the world is the moral con
ception so clear and true as in America, and no
people will ever give a larger and more per
manent reward to the man whose effort for the
public has its roots in honor and truth. The
sky is the limit to the foreign born who comes to
America endowed with honest endeavor, cease
less industry, and the ability to carry through.
And I ask no greater privilege than to be allowed
to live to see my potential America become actual.
It is a part in trying to shape that America, and
the opportunity to work in that America when
it comes, that I ask in return for what I owe to
her. A greater privilege no man can have."
THE MAN WHO SAVED THE UNION
NAVY IN 1862
JOHN ERICSSON
JOHN ERICSSON began inventing things
early in life for when he was only nine years
old and had no tools but a quill and a pencil, he
made compasses of birchwood with needles in
serted in the end of the legs ; he turned a pair of
steel tweezers into a drawing pen and robbed his
mother s fur coat of hairs sufficient to make two
small paint brushes. And all this for the sake
of the designs and drawings to which he gave
much time even as a boy.
His earliest years were spent among the
machinery of the iron mine and foundry of which
his father was superintendent, and he eagerly
learned all he could about it. Then his father
removed to Forsvik, a hundred miles away from
his first home among the wild mountains and
dark forests of northern Sweden, only six de
grees from the Arctic Circle. At Forsvik John
had the opportunity to have lessons in chemistry,
algebra, geometry, French and Latin, from
men of ability who came from England to assist
73
74 JOHN ERICSSON
in the building of the Gotha ship canal. He
learned to speak English well through talking
with these men, and being already a good drafts
man he soon gained a knowledge of field draw
ing from a friend. From his Flemish- Scotch
mother he inherited tireless energy and strong
will-power.
During the winter of 1813, when he was ten
years old, John built a model of a sawmill,
entirely of wood except for the bandsaw which
he filed from a watch spring, and the crank which
operated it he made out of a tin spoon. The
tools he used for this purpose were a file borrowed
from a blacksmith, a gimlet and a jack-knife.
When the water was turned into the little water
wheel, the model worked perfectly. He next
proceeded to make a pumping engine turn by a
windmill, but as he had never seen one he did
not know how to make it turn according to the
changing wind. But it happened that his father
in describing one he had seen, used the words,
"ball and socket." This was sufficient to give
the boy the needed information and he speedily
added this device where the connecting rod of
the driving crank joined the pumping lever, so
making his engine complete. Thus as a boy of
ten he started on his great career of invention.
Evidence of his unusual ability in another
direction was given when at the age of fourteen
JOHN ERICSSON 75
he was put in charge of six hundred Swedish
troops working as laborers on the ship canal.
He was so small of stature that he had to stand
on a stool to reach the eye of his levelling instru
ment.
When his father died he felt he must help his
mother and sister financially, and he decided to
enter the Swedish army. He was soon acknowl
edged to be an expert in everything connected
with the science of artillery. It might have been
imagined that Ericsson had now given up the in
ventions in which he had been so interested but
he was really making a special study of guns and
explosives, and gaining a broad knowledge of
naval and military practice which proved of
value to him in later life.
In 1826 he turned definitely back to an in
ventor s career and went to England to intro
duce a new type of engine with a working
cylinder in which the horsepower should be fur
nished by flame instead of steam. In Sweden
where the fuel used was wood, it had been a suc
cess but in England where coal was in use it was
a failure. Ericsson therefore entered the employ
of John Braithwaite of London, a master
engineer and manufacturer, who recognizing the
abilities of the young man soon took him into
partnership.
This gave him a fine chance to develop
76 JOHN ERICSSON
his ideas. He installed an air compressor
as motive power for a pump at consider
able distance, the first occasion in which com
pressed air had been used in such a way. From
his knowledge of a blacksmith increasing heat
by means of a bellows, he invented a centrifugal
blower, a device which introduced the method by
which a mechanical draft increases the value of
all fuels and makes it possible to burn thoroughly
refuse material and low-grade peats.
Ericsson built in 1829 for the ship Victory
which Captain Ross commanded on his Arctic ex
pedition, a surface condenser for the steam boiler,
an invention which is to-day considered indispens
able on all steamships and vessels of war. He
also devised for that ship the plan now universal
on board ships of war, of protecting machinery
from the enemy s fire by placing it below the
waterline. The first steam fire engine, a port
able one, which threw streams of water over the
tall chimney of a London brewery, was invented
by him in 1829, but the city authorities could
see no advantage in it and actually stuck for
years afterward to pumping by hand.
The next thing which attracted Ericsson s
attention was a competition with George Ste-
phenson who had been building small locomotives
for years for use in coal mines. The contest was
to be for the best steam locomotive that could
JOHN ERICSSON
draw a weight of twenty tons at the rate
miles an hour, and the prize offered was $2500.
So small do these efforts seem nowadays and yet
they were the beginnings of great things. Erics
son had never built a locomotive and he had not
known of the competition until within five weeks
of the time set for its completion, but that did not
deter him from attempting the task. The Rocket
built by Stephenson won the prize, nevertheless
the Novelty designed by Ericsson was notable for
the speed it attained of thirty miles an hour that
was really surprising for those days. His loco
motive went steadily on its track because he had
used a blowing machine for his chimney while
Stephenson s swayed from side to side, he hav
ing employed a steam blast.
In 1833 he began experiments that led to dis
tinctive success. Others had introduced the
screw propeller for steam-driven vessels, but in
1835 he invented a rotary propeller that marked
the end of the days of sailing vessels. He built
a steamboat forty-five feet long that moved at
ten miles an hour, with a rotary propeller, and
invited the Lords of the British Admiralty to
take a trip in it on the Thames River. They
accepted but were unconvinced by the plain proof
submitted to them. Their verdict was thus
voiced by the Surveyor of the Royal Navy:
"Even if the propeller screw has the power to
78 JOHN ERICSSON
propel the vessel, it would be found altogether
useless in practice, because the power being ap
plied at the stern, it would be absolutely impos
sible to make the vessel steer." It was years be
fore England decided to adopt the screw pro
peller although it is now everywhere used.
The American consul at Liverpool was much
interested in the trip of this vessel which had
been named after him, the Francis B. Ogden,
and he introduced Ericsson to his friend, Rob
ert Stockton, of the United States Navy, who
immediately ordered two iron steamboats to be
fitted with Ericsson s machinery and propellers.
The trial trip of one of them so impressed those
who witnessed it that the London Times pro
phesied "an important change in steam naviga
tion." This same ship was the first screw-driven
steamship that ever crossed the Atlantic, going
from Gravesend, England, April 13, 1839, to
New York City, successfully.
Upon Stockton s assurance that he would be
permitted to build one of the new warships
ordered by the United States government, Erics
son sailed for America, November 23, 1839.
There were no steam vessels in the navy when
Ericsson arrived here and it was not until 1842
that he received orders to build the Princeton, a
small iron war-ship of 600 tons, which marked no
table progress in naval construction for speed,
JOHN ERICSSON 79
and its equipment of screw propeller, a gun car
riage of new design, and cannon reinforced by
steel hoops shrunk onto the breech of the gun,
which is to-day a feature of all modern high-
power naval guns.
His versatility enabled him to produce inven
tions of various kinds. Among them was a ther
mometer that registered the degree to which heat
expanded confined gas. This has been found to
be the most satisfactory instrument ever invented.
He also perfected a caloric engine in which hot
air is used as the motive power in place of steam.
Within ten years over 2000 of these engines were
sold.
October 28, 1848, Ericsson became a natural
ized citizen of the United States. In 1861 when
civil war began, Ericsson took the side of the
Union, for to a man of his type slavery of one
man by another was inconceivable. At this time
the United States navy was composed entirely
of wooden vessels, but early in the war the Con
federates began the construction of ships heavily
armored with iron. The frigate, the Merrimac,
which had been sunk in the Norfolk navy yard,
was raised and encased in iron plates.
On September 14, Ericsson went to Washing
ton and laid before the naval department his
plans for a ship to be called the Monitor, which
were so simple that it could be executed within
80 JOHN ERICSSON
three months from the time the work was begun.
Receiving a contract for her construction, the
keel was laid October 25, and she was launched
January 30. She was 172 feet in length, her
side armor was five inches thick, her deck plat
ing one inch. In the center of the deck was a
revolving turret protected by eight inches of iron
plating. On it were two heavy guns. The
vessel was operated by a steam engine placed
below the waterline and therefore well protected
from the enemy s fire. The Monitor arrived in
Hampton Roads March 8, after a stormy pas
sage. The next day she fought the Merrimac
for three hours and worsted her, so that she with
drew. In 1872 her commander, Gatesby Jones,
remarked to Alban C. Stimers, chief engineer of
the Monitor,, "The war has been over a good
while now and I think there can be no harm in
saying to you that if you had hit us twice more
as well as you did the last two shots you fired,
you would have sunk us."
So the Federal blockade remained unbroken
although the Merrimac had destroyed two of its
vessels the day before her encounter with the
Monitor. Ericsson had saved the Union, and
much rejoicing was felt throughout the North.
Congratulations from State Legislatures, cham
bers of commerce and public meetings poured in
to Ericsson and the ship officers. On March
ERICSSON
JOHN ERICSSON 81
28, 1862, Congress passed a joint resolution ac
knowledging the enterprise, skill and foresight
of John Ericsson displayed in the construction
of the Monitor which had saved the Union fleet
from destruction, and according him thanks for
his great service to the nation. In 1882 Senator
Platt of Connecticut proposed that Congress
should present Ericsson with some material rec
ognition of his services but the inventor declined,
saying "Nothing could induce me to accept re
muneration from the United States for the
Monitor invention once presented by me as my
contribution to the glorious Union cause, the
triumph of which freed four million bondmen."
During the years following the war Ericsson
was called upon to build several vessels of the
Monitor type. This he did at personal sacrifice
and much financial loss. Later he brought out
many other remarkable inventions, investing in
his experiments over a hundred thousand dollars.
For his native land, Sweden, he planned means
of defense for her coasts and made many con
tributions towards it. At the request of Spain
he arranged a scheme of gunboats to help her in
her war against the Cuban insurgents; in less
than five months he launched and completed the
thirtieth and last of these gunboats.
Honors of many kinds came to him in his later
years. Sweden, the land of his birth, specially
82 JOHN ERICSSON
honored him in every way possible, and when his
old neighbors at Langbanshyttan unveiled in
1867 a shaft of granite bearing the words, "John
Ericsson was born here on the 31st of July,
1803," he was much moved. He learned that an
old playmate was present on that occasion and he
sent him a gold watch inscribed "To Jonas Olesen
from his old playmate, John Ericsson." He was
troubled over the distress from the famine in
Sweden and sent $5,600 for the purchase of grain
best suited to its soil. On his death in 1889, in
response to the desire of the Swedish nation the
United States Government sent the cruiser Balti
more to bear the remains of her famous son back
to his native land.
A SCOTCH-AMERICAN
PHILANTHROPIST
ANDREW CARNEGIE
FULL of fascinating interest is the life story
of the boy who at twelve years of age en
tered a cotton factory as bobbin boy at $1.20 a
week. Without any school education, by his own
alertness to seize and make the most of every op
portunity that came his way, he rose rapidly to
world-wide fame as a philanthropist who dis
tributed millions of dollars for the benefit of
others.
Andrew Carnegie was born at Dunfermline, in
Scotland, November 25, 1835. His father, in
consequence of the introduction of the power
loom, was the last in a long succession of skilled
hand weavers of damask. Thus deprived of his
employment, he was compelled to seek a new
home and he decided to do so in the United States
of America. He and his wife, with their two
boys, settled in one of the centers of the cotton
manufacture Allegheny City, where they lived
in a neighborhood called Barefoot Square, Slab-
town. William Carnegie and his son Andrew,
83
84 ANDREW CARNEGIE
found work in the same factory. The latter was
soon promoted to the position of engineer s as
sistant and given the weekly wage of $1.80 for
twelve hours a day of hard labor.
From this he was transferred at the age of
fourteen to be district messenger for the tele
graph company. His appreciation of the change
was expressed by his saying that he was the hap
piest boy alive on finding himself in a clean office
with books, pens and pencils around him. One
day Andrew was told to wait after the other em
ployees had gone. He was puzzled and anxious
at the request until the manager said: "I have
noticed your work and consider that you are
worth more than the other boys, so instead of
$11.35 a month I am giving you $13.25." .
Before he had been long at his new place he
asked his employer to teach him to telegraph.
His freshly acquired knowledge was quickly put
to good use, for one morning a message was sig
nalled from Philadelphia before the operator
had come into the office. Andrew took the mes
sage accurately, and by thus showing his willing
ness to help where he could, he obtained the post
of telegraph operator at a salary of three hun
dred dollars a year. He was not however spend
ing all his energies upon earning a living and
pushing ahead for promotion. He was a diligent
reader of good books, through the kindness of
ANDREW CARNEGIE 85
Colonel Anderson who offered a few boys, among
whom was young Carnegie, the opportunity to
visit his private library each week-end and take
certain books home with them. To this kind ac
tion he attributed his own benefactions in later
years, in the establishing of libraries.
Thomas A. Scott, divisional superintendent of
the Pennsylvania Railroad at Pittsburgh, became
interested in Andrew and gave him a position as
operator in his own office. An accident was re
ported one morning while the superintendent was
absent. The consequent blockade was likely to
cause the road considerable trouble if the situa
tion was not relieved at once. Andrew knew
exactly what his chief would do if he were there,
so he assumed the responsibility and signed the
superintendent s name to the orders that would
straighten out the trouble and set the trains
again in motion. When he was sixteen Mr.
Scott one day proposed to him to invest six hun
dred dollars in ten shares of Adams Express
Company s stock, offering to loan him one hun
dred dollars if he could find five hundred. His
father having died, Andrew told his mother, and
she at once decided that their house must be mort
gaged to allow her son to accept the superintend
ent s suggestion. A proud boy w r as he when he
received a check for his first dividend payment.
Thomas T. Woodruff, inventor of the first
86 ANDREW CARNEGIE
sleeping car, having shown his model to Carnegie,
was introduced by him to Colonel Scott who had
been advanced to the position of vice-president of
the railroad, Andrew succeeding him as divisional
superintendent. Organization of the Woodruff
Sleeping Car Company resulted and Carnegie
took several shares, borrowing the money from a
bank and giving his first note to repay the loan
at fifteen dollars a month. By this investment
and another in oil, he made his first large profits.
At the beginning of the Civil War Carnegie was
put in charge of the military railroad and govern
ment telegraph where he did important and valu
able work. At the opening of the period of re
construction, his quick perceptions recognized the
large future which was before the iron business,
and he lost no time in organizing a manufactur
ing concern, The Keystone Bridge Company.
At the age of thirty-three he visited England.
At this time there were fifty -nine Bessemer steel
plants in Europe while there were only three in
the United States. England was mistress of the
iron business of the world, but it was not long be
fore Carnegie brought about a reversal of affairs.
He saw the economic advantages of the Bessemer
process and upon his return home, introduced it
into his mills and revolutionized the industry.
Within a few months he was controlling seven
great plants operating within five miles of Pitts-
ANDREW CARNEGIE 87
burgh. Immense railroad development required
rails and structural iron, and the profits became
very large.
His optimism was unconquerable and he was
intensely practical ; he had unlimited faith in his
own ability to carry out his purposes. Certain
business interests sought to prevent the rapid
development of his manufacturing concerns, but
Carnegie met that action by declaring that if
they did not sell him iron ore and coal at the
right prices he would provide his own supplies;
and he made good his words. In 1889 he in
vited Henry Clay Frick who at that time con
trolled the coke-making industry, to join forces
with him. He consented, and the result was that
the Carnegie Companies soon "owned and con
trolled mines producing 6,000,000 tons of ore
annually; 40,000 acres of coal land and 12,000
coke ovens ; steamship lines for transporting ore to
Lake Erie ports ; docks for handling ore and coal
and a railroad from Lake Erie to Pittsburgh;
70,000 acres of natural gas territory with two
hundred miles of pipe line; nineteen blast fur
naces and five steel mills producing and finish
ing 3,250,000 tons of steel annually. The pay
roll exceeded $18,000,000 per year."
It is remarkable that a man who had no tech
nical knowledge or experience in steel manu
facturing should have accomplished building up
88 ANDREW CARNEGIE
so great a business so successfully. The secret
seems to lie in his selection of men who were
skilled in the necessary arts and sciences, and
enlisting their loyal support by calling out their
best efforts. At the memorial service for Mr.
Carnegie, held in Carnegie Music Hall, Pitts
burgh, Charles M. Schwab, who worked with
Carnegie for forty years, spoke particularly of
this characteristic of his and quoted him as
saying, " Always remember that good business is
never done except in a happy frame of mind."
Mr. Schwab told an interesting incident which
revealed a prominent trait in Carnegie s charac
ter. A man who had done great injury to him
came to Mr. Schwab and told him things were
going badly with him and spoke of the wrong he
had done Mr. Carnegie. Mr. Schwab replied:
"You mustn t tell me about Ut: go and tell Mr.
Carnegie."
"Oh," he said, "he will not receive me."
"Yes, he will; just go and tell him what you
have told me."
And he did, and Mr. Carnegie put his arms
around his shoulders, and said, "I am glad to see
my old friend come back here again, and we
will be better friends than ever before." And
as a matter of fact they were.
To one of his workmen, Morgan Harris, fore
man at the Braddock works, Carnegie said one
ANDREW CARNEGIE 89
day, "Morgan, I am glad to see you. You are
one of the best workmen and one of the most
straightforward men that it has ever been my
pleasure to know. I am honored to have you
associated with me."
Another marked characteristic of his was that
he considered nothing too expensive if it was for
the perfecting of his undertaking. "He was the
first steel maker in the country who flung good
machinery on the scrap heap because something
better had been invented. He was the first to
employ a salaried chemist and to appreciate
science in its relation to manufacturing." The
Carnegie policy was to rank improvements above
dividends. At a time when money was not too
plentiful in the Carnegie Company, Mr. Schwab
had asked permission to put up a new converting
mill. It was built and Mr. Carnegie came out to
see it. He noticed a look of disatisfaction and
questioned Mr. Schwab as to what was wrong.
The latter replied: "It is built just as I told you
it would be, and we have reduced our costs just
as I said we would, but there is one thing recently
discovered that if we had it to do all over again,
I would introduce and I m sure it would result
in further economies." Mr. Carnegie said: "Can
you change this work?" "No, it would mean
tearing this down and rebuilding it." "Well,"
he replied, "then that s the right thing to do. It
90 ANDREW CARNEGIE
is only a fool that will not profit by anything that
may have been overlooked and discovered after
the work is done. Tear it down and do it over
again." It had been running only two months
but it was rebuilt and the return from the money
thus expended repaid the company many times
over.
Every workman in the company was asked
to deposit part of his earnings, not exceeding
$2,000, and was given six per cent, interest, which
was then a high rate. Many a workman who
rendered exceptional service was taken into part
nership. For Mr. Carnegie believed in service
emphatically. To an interviewer he said: "In the
final aristocracy the one question will be, what
has the man done for his fellows ? Where has he
shown generosity and self-abnegation?" Accord
ing to his own statement his methods of manag
ing his great business were as follows : first, hon
esty; then industry; then concentration. "I do
not think that any one man can make a success of
a business now-a-days. I m sure I never could
have done so without partners, of whom I have
thirty-two the brightest and the cleverest
young fellows in the world all equal to each
other as the members of a cabinet are equal. The
chief must only be first among equals." In his
book, "The Empire of Business," he concludes
that "capital, business ability and labor must be
ANDREW CARNEGIE 91
united, and that he who seeks to sow seeds of
disunion among them is the enemy of all three."
And now began for Andrew Carnegie the hap
piest part of his life. He was happier in giving
away his wealth than he had been in acquiring it.
His first act was to establish a great fund, the
income of which was to be used in caring for aged
employees and those dependent upon them, in the
industrial concerns with which he had been con
nected. The roll of his private charities showed
hundreds of pensioners of whom he never spoke
except confidentially. Having derived all the
education he had, from the reading of books, he
now sought to put the use of them within reach
of everybody. He therefore contributed for
public libraries about $60,000,000. He gave
$24,000,000 to Carnegie Institute at Pittsburgh;
$22,000,000 to Carnegie Institute at Washing
ton, D. C. He was loyal to his native land, giv
ing $10,000,000 to Scotch universities, and in
Dunfermline, his birthplace, he established a trust
fund of $2,500,000. In Pittsburgh where he had
made his first great success in life, he did much for
its development. In 1892, when there was lack
of employment in the city, he gave $250,000 to
duplicate the gifts of others, to provide work
by the laying out of parks and roads. He pro
vided a library system for Pittsburgh, adding a
fine arts department, a museum, school for train-
92 ANDREW CARNEGIE
ing librarians, a hall for free organ recitals, and a
system of technical schools constituting the Car
negie School of Technology. He loved music in
tensely and aided 6,879 churches to secure organs,
over 4,000 of them being in the United States.
He hated war and did much to foster the cause
of world peace. With the purpose of teaching
that heroism is not limited to times of war, he in
stituted the Carnegie Fund to reward heroism in
civil life. This fund is today caring for hundreds
of widows and educating fatherless children, in
addition to rewarding living heroes.
During the later years of his life honors came
to him. He was made Lord Rector of the Uni
versity of St. Andrew, in 1903, and in 1905 re
ceived the degree of Doctor of Laws from that
institution. In 1907 France appointed him a
commander of the Legion of Honor, and the
Queen of Holland conferred on him the Order of
Orange-Nassau. In his adopted country he
was made an honorary alumnus of Princeton.
Mr. Carnegie was never ashamed of the poverty
of his early life, and his democratic spirit was
indicated by the crest which he himself designed
for his own use. It bore a weaver s shuttle, a
crown turned upside down, surmounted by a
liberty cap and supported by the flags of Scotland
and the United States. It had on it the motto,
"Death to Privilege."
ANDREW CARNEGIE 93
After his death Eugene Schneider, head of the
Creusot Steel Works in France, wrote as follows
of Mr. Carnegie: "He gave the little recognized
contribution to the progress of the world, namely,
that he popularized steel, and showed that cheap
steel is one of the greatest gifts ever produced
for mankind. . . . He has been the world s
biggest educator, and his endowments leave the
same benefit for posterity."
A FRENCH-AMERICAN WHO AIDED
THE UNITED STATES
STEPHEN GIRARD
IN 1776, during the War of Independence be
tween this country and Great Britain, a
young Frenchman, captain of a small trading
vessel bound from New Orleans to a Canadian
port, found himself lost in a fog off the coast of
Delaware Bay. His flag of distress brought to
his aid an American captain who told him there
was danger of his ship being seized by the Brit
ish.
"What shall I do?" asked the Frenchman.
"You have no choice but to get into Phila
delphia as soon as possible."
"How can I get there? I have no pilot."
A pilot was found who demanded five dollars
for the job, but the Frenchman had not that
amount of money with him. The American
captain went security for him and so the French
man, Stephen Girard, landed in Philadelphia
where he decided to make his home, $nd which
through this simple incident, benefited so greatly
in after years by his large contributions to her
institutions.
94
STEPHEN GIRARD 95
Stephen Girard was born in 1750 in Bor
deaux, in France, where his father was a pros
perous merchant. When he was twelve years
old his mother died. He had but little educa
tion but his father s connection with the trade
with the West Indies gave him a liking for the
sea, and at the age of fourteen he shipped as a
cabin boy on a vessel bound for Port-au-Prince.
Nine years later he was licensed to "act as cap
tain, master, or pilot of any merchant ship."
In 1774 he had the misfortune to lose heavily
in disposing of the goods he carried to the West
Indian islands, a loss he knew he could not at
that time make good to the Bordeaux merchants
to whom he was indebted for his cargo. Fear
ing to return lest he be imprisoned for debt, he
obtained his discharge from his ship and started
trading for himself, sailing for New York City
with a small cargo of sugar and coffee. He
steadily added to his profits on each voyage he
took between that city and San Domingo.
Throughout his whole life he was always known
as a man of scrupulous honesty and in later
years he paid in full all he owed to- the Bordeaux
merchants.
In 1776 he found himself in Philadelphia as
described at the opening of our story and stayed
there during the remainder of the war. At its
conclusion Stephen Girard became owner of a
96 STEPHEN GIRARD
small vessel called the Twin Brothers which took
flour and lumber to Le Cap in San Domingo
where his brother was living with whom he had
formed a partnership. On its return voyage it
carried molasses, sugar, coffee and soap. He
made large profits and continued the trips.
In 1778 Girard became a citizen of the United
States and he began to share in the commercial
opportunities which opened up under the pres
idency of George Washington. France had
suffered from crop failures and was offering a
premium to any one who would send her wheat.
Girard was one of the first to start his own ships
and others he chartered, with grain for France
and a big profit was gained.
And now for a time the successful money
maker became the humanitarian, for from San
Domingo was imported the yellow fever and it
quickly spread through Philadelphia. Few hos
pitals existed in those days and the one in that
city was in bad condition. Girard was put on
a committee to aid but he far exceeded his duties.
He and a fellow townsman, Peter Helm, im
mediately took charge of the hospital and worked
night and day among the sick and dying. The
following mention of their self-sacrificing labors
is quoted from an account of the plague; "Ste
phen Girard, a French merchant, long resident
here, and Peter Helm, born here of German
STEPHEN GIRARD 9T
parents, men whose names and services should
never be forgotten, had the humanity and cour
age constantly to attend the hospital and not
only see that the nurses did their duties, but they
actually performed many of the most dangerous,
and at the same time humiliating services for the
sick with their own hands."
During the war between Great Britain and
France in 1793, the law of nations was disre
garded, and Girard lost five ships that were seized
by the British. Again in 1810 he lost another
five by their seizure by the Danes. Unable to
continue trade with Europe, he turned his vessels
to South America and China, sending them to
Valparaiso and Canton. In 1812 tea was sell
ing at war prices, what he had on hand he sold
for four times its cost in China, thus making
some half million dollars.
Once again did war interfere with Girard s
business, so at the age of sixty-three he opened a
bank with a capital of over a million dollars.
This gave him opportunity to render an im
portant service to his adopted country. War
expenses had strained the financial resources of
the United States and it became necessary for
the government to borrow money. Twice was
the effort made to secure the required amount
by a loan but less than six million dollars was
subscribed and ten million more was needed.
98 STEPHEN GIRARD
With two other wealthy men Girard offered to
subscribe this amount and thus he saved from
embarrassment the country where he had been so
successful in making a fortune. This war
brought heavy losses to him in the having to pay
a ransom of $180,000 for his ship Montesquieu
and also by the loss of his vessel, Good Friend,
nevertheless he was still a very wealthy man for
in 1830 he paid $30,000 for coal lands which to
day have an almost unbelievable value, and in
all he owned in real estate, 200,370 acres.
When in 1831 Stephen Girard reached the end
of his long and busy life, his will contained many
charitable bequests. Up to that time he had
acquired the reputation of being a man who
rarely gave away money. He always scrup-
uously paid the last cent he owed and he likewise
exacted from others the last one due to himself.
But he was a morose man who shut himself away
from all social life owing probably to the fact
that early in his young manhood he had to endure
much ridicule because of his peculiar appearance
due to the loss of one eye. He lived for over
fifty years in an inconvenient house near the
wharves. His clothes were old-fashioned in
style and often shabby. His chief delight seemed
to be the making of money but he certainly did
not spend it upon himself. He took real satis
faction however in his farm just outside the city
STEPHEN GIRARD 99
where in later life he spent a portion of each day.
It is worth while to find out what Stephen
Girard did with his immense wealth. The greater
portion of it was left for the founding and main
tenance of a college for poor orphan boys to pro
vide them with a better education and a more com
fortable living than they would usually receive
from the public funds. Although he would not
permit any minister or missionary to hold office
of any kind within the college or even to be
admitted inside its walls, because he did not wish
the minds of the boys to be influenced by sectarian
controversy, yet he did strictly require that all
instructors should instil into the minds of the
scholars the purest principles of morality, rever
ence, honesty and obedience. Hundreds of boys
who otherwise would have had no opportunity for
an education have graduated from Girard college.
To his surviving brother and to eleven nieces
he left four or five thousand dollars apiece; to
one niece who had a large family he gave $60,000.
To his captains who had taken two voyages in
his ships and had safely brought them into port,
he gave $1,500 each, and to other servants and
dependents similar amounts. Several charitable
institutions in Philadelphia received gifts; the
city fund for relief of the poor in winter, $10,000,
and $500,000 went for the improvement of Phila
delphia s streets and buildings.
THE BUILDER OF THE
PANAMA CANAL
GEORGE WASHINGTON GOETHALS
EARLY in the nineteenth century there came
to America from Holland a man and his
wife, whose family name was the Dutch trans
lation of a nickname given to a Roman ancestor.
For his fighting qualities he had been called Boni
Coli, meaning good or stiff neck. Rewarded for
his valor by the grant of land in Holland, his new
name, Goet Hals, became that of all his descend
ants. And many of them have lived up to its
significance. This is particularly true of the
son of these Dutch immigrants, who was born
in Brooklyn in 1858. Americanized, the name
is pronounced Go-thals.
George Washington, as these Hollanders, in
patriotic devotion to their adopted country, called
their son, began work as an errand boy in a
broker s office at the age of eleven. At fourteen
he entered the College of the City of New York
and became cashier and bookkeeper in a market
for five dollars a week, giving his time after
school and on Saturdays.
100
GEORGE W. GOETHALS 101
In 1880 he graduated from the Military Aca
demy at West Point, ranking second in a class
of fifty-four men. He studied in the Engineer
ing School of Application at Willett s Point for
two years. Then he was chief engineer on gov
ernment work in the Department of Columbia,
which includes the States of Idaho, Washington,
and Oregon, for two years, and in charge of
dikes and dams on the Ohio River for one year,
after which he was engaged as assistant in
structor and professor in civil and military en
gineering at West Point. Five years were spent
in government duty in Tennessee, and the four
years following as assistant chief engineer of the
United States Army. When the Spanish War
began he was made chief engineer of the First
Army Corps, and went to Porto Rico. In the
fall of 1900 he was promoted to the rank of major
and ordered to Newport, R. I., to take charge
of river and harbor fortifications. He regretted
these frequent changes and would have preferred
to be allowed "to stay on the job until the day
of results." But the variety doubtless better
fitted him for the great achievement of his life,
in which his wish was fulfilled. The testimony
of Gen. J. M. Wilson indicates the thoroughness
with which he did all his work: "Whatever I
gave him to do, I relieved my mind of it. I
knew it would be done right."
102 GEORGE W. GOETHALS
In April, 1907, President Roosevelt appointed
Lieutenant-Colonel Goethals chairman of the
Isthmian Canal Commission and chief engineer
of the Panama Canal. It was a tremendous task
to which he was called. For three centuries sur
veys had been made and various routes considered
by Spain, France, Columbia, and the United
States, with the object of finding a much-needed
link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In
1903 by treaty and payment of ten million
dollars the United States became the possessor
of the strip of land ten miles wide, running from
ocean to ocean, which forms the Canal Zone.
An Isthmian Canal Commission had been ap
pointed by President Roosevelt in March, 1904,
with John F. Wallace as chief engineer of the
canal. He was succeeded by John F. Stevens.
When in 1907 Colonel Goethals took hold of the
gigantic task of building the Panama Canal
valuable preparatory work had been done.
American civilization had been introduced into
a tropical jungle, disease had been overcome,
sewers, water-works, paved streets supplied,
homes for employees provided, commissary and
hotel systems organized, and transportation facil
ities made satisfactory. A police force, courts,
post-office, and fire department had been insti
tuted.
The Panama Canal has been called the greatest
GEORGE W. GOETHALS 103
engineering work in the whole world. Impor
tant changes in the plans were made within
eighteen months after the colonel took charge,
so that it became a far more tremendous under
taking than as originally planned. The canal
is forty-seven miles in length, and occupies
ninety-six square miles. The Culebra Cut, nine
miles long, has been an immense piece of ex
cavation. With the exception of one month in
1908, one million cubic yards of earth were re
moved each month from December, 1907, until
the cut was completed. Other big tasks were the
building of a dozen huge locks, each containing
more solid concrete than there is stone in the
great pyramid of Cheops.
In these locks were erected forty-seven pairs
of steel gates, each as tall as a six-story building.
For power to move the elaborate machinery that
would open and close these gates and tow ships
through the locks, the Chagres River was turned
into the concrete-lined spillway of the Gatun
Dam. In addition fourteen million dollars
worth of fortifications had to be built.
A remarkable characteristic of the chief engi
neer was his detailed knowledge. "He was mas
ter of his business." He made himself familiar
with every part of the work. When Congress
ional committees came to inspect and criticize, if
division engineers or department officers were un-
104 GEORGE W. GOETHALS
able to answer some question of detail, Colonel
Goethals was ready with the desired information,
showing he really had a more intimate knowledge
of each special part of the work than the man
at its head.
He was not only a great engineer; he excelled
as an administrator. He is quoted as saying:
"The canal will build itself if we can handle the
men." That this was no easy task is evident
when we realize what a heterogeneous crowd of
men he had to deal with, for not less than forty-
five languages were spoken in the Canal Zone.
He always required strict obedience to his orders.
A few days after he had taken charge of affairs,
a superintendent of a certain branch of the work
called.
"I received your letter, colonel," was his open
ing remark.
"My letter," replied the chief engineer, "I have
sent you no letter."
"Yes, a letter about the work down there."
"Oh, you mean your orders."
"Well, yes; I thought I would come and talk
it over with you."
The response of Colonel Goethals was illum
inating: "I shall be glad to hear your views, but
bear in mind that you have only to carry out my
orders. I take responsibility for the work itself."
It was not his way to threaten any conse-
Underwood and Underwood
GEORGE WASHINGTON GOETHALS
GEORGE W. GOETHALS 105
quences of failure to obey his orders. The men
soon learned, however, that disobedience meant
dismissal. And when they came to know him,
they recognized the justice of his actions. His
comprehensive knowledge of every detail and the
personal attention he gave to all parts of the work
commanded a respect for his decisions.
No man worked harder than he did. He was
always on the job, and sometimes, to use his
own phrase, he "took the canal to bed" with him.
He was as absolutely fair as mortal man could
be. Testimony from employees shows this: "He
talked the whole thing over with me and when
we got through I saw that I had no grievance.
Oh, he s square, I tell you. He talks the thing
right out with you and doesn t dodge." "The
squarest boss I ever worked for," said a member
of the Brotherhood of Engineers.
As day by day the chief engineer went from
place to place, inspecting the progress of the
work, it was his habit to greet every man,
woman, and child he met, white and black.
Many of them he called by name. In friendly
fashion he would talk over the work with the
men and he so inspired them that they worked
harder and better because he had been with them.
His own words are significant: "To successfully
accomplish anything it is necessary, not only
that you shall give it the best that is in you, but
106 GEORGE W. GOETHALS
that you should obtain for it the best there is
in those who are under your guidance." The
result was evident. The men were ready to give
every ounce they had for the colonel because the
colonel believed in them and they believed in
him. He made them feel it was their job, their
responsibility, their trust. He said: "We are
all working together for a common cause and we
are alike wage-earners." He encouraged per
severance by giving a medal to every man who
had been on the job for two years, and a bar was
placed on it for every additional two years.
Colonel Goethals positively forbade the use
of profane and abusive language by foremen or
those in authority when addressing subordinates,
because such conduct engendered feelings that
^sened efficiency.
^ notable characteristic of George Wash
ington "oethals is his genuine desire to keep
himself in the background. On the occasion
when most men in his position would have
planned a big demonstration, he permitted noth
ing of the kind; not even when the first vessel
passed through the Gatun locks on September
26, 1913, or when the canal was thrown open
to the commerce of the world on August 15,
1914. Instead of being on the prow or the bridge
of the first vessel passing from ocean to ocean,
GEORGE W. GOETHALS 107
as the grand mogul of the event, he was down
on the locks, watching the operating machinery.
To the Congressman who introduced in the House
of Representatives a bill providing for his pro
motion to the rank of major-general of the army
as honor due him for the building of the canal,
he wrote:
"I am not insensible to the honor to be con
ferred upon me by the bill and appreciate the
motives friendly to myself that inspired its in
troduction, . . . nevertheless, it has always been
my position that the army officers assigned to
the canal are amply compensated, not only by the
additional pay they receive but by the honor of
being associated with the undertaking. . . . We
are doing nothing more than that for which we
have been educated and trained by the govern
ment. According to my view we are not deserv
ing of recognition or reward for our services here,
and I do not think that I or others of the com
mission should be singled out for honors. Neither
do I think that army officers should receive any
special consideration for their service here in con
tradistinction to the civilian employees."
In January, 1914, Colonel Goethals was ap
pointed by President Wilson the first governor of
the Canal Zone. Honorary degrees were con
ferred on him by Harvard, Yale, and Columbia
108 GEORGE W. GOETHALS
universities. President Lowell, of Harvard, in
conferring the honorary degree of LL. D.,
spoke as follows:
"George Washington Goethals, a soldier who
has set a standard for the conduct of civic works ;
an administrator who has maintained security
and order among multitudes of workmen in the
tropics; an engineer who has completed the vast
design of uniting the oceans through a peak in
Darien."
And to this man whose personal appearance
indicates the typical Hollander, a gold medal
was presented by President Wilson, thus in
scribed :
"The special medal of the National Geogra
phic Society is awarded to George Washington
Goethals, to whose ability and patriotism the
world owes the construction of the Panama
Canal."
Percy MacKaye has effectively described his
achievement in the following lines:
A man went down to Panama
Where many a man has died,
To slit the sliding mountains
And lift the eternal tide;
A man stood up in Panama
And the mountains stood aside.
"THE LABOR STATESMAN OF THE
WORLD"
SAMUEL GOMPERS
A BOY, aged thirteen, in 1863, entered
the United States as an immigrant from
London. His only schooling was obtained in
a day school from his sixth to his tenth year, with
four years of evening school later. But he was
ever eager to learn, often forgetting to eat in his
absorption in his books. Today he is the most
influential man in the Labor movement and he
has been given the title of "Labor Statesman of
the World."
Formerly an object of supercilious contempt,
laughed at by capitalists and government officials
for his visions of the future status of the working
man and his untiring efforts to secure fair treat
ment for him, today Mr. Gompers, as president
of the American Federation of Labor, is the ac
knowledged leader of nearly three million men
organized in labor unions. Not very long ago
the London Times devoted an editorial to an
eulogy of him, and another "influential journal"
has said that "no man in the United States except
109
110 SAMUEL GOMPERS
President Wilson wields such power as does Mr.
Gompers." Here is an illustration; A former
Commissioner of Indian Affairs prepared
plans for a series of public improvements on a
certain reservation, purposing to use Indian
labor at the current hourly wage. As most of
the red men had to come a long distance from
home, it was found necessary to substitute a ten-
hour day for the legal eight, with only five work
ing days in the week. Some one called attention
to this plan as a violation of the statute limit
ing government employees. The Commissioner
therefore endeavored to procure an amendment
making the statute non-applicable to work done
by Indians on their own reservations for their
own benefit. Bringing his measure before the
appropriate Congressional Committee he was
asked, "Have you seen Gompers?" There ap
peared to be no alternative, so Gompers was
seen and he promptly vetoed the project which
therefore had to be abandoned.
As the Commissioner s plan obeyed the law in
spirit by lessening the number of working days,
doubtless many persons would consider that a
good plan for the Indians was unfortunately
lost because of Mr. Gomper s literal adherence
to his principles, even while they admire the
staunchness of his fidelity.
Recently at a great gathering in Chicago,
SAMUEL GOMPERS 111
attended by the governors of a dozen states, he
received a hearty endorsement and appreciation
of the work he had done to unite the labor leaders
of Europe in whole-hearted support of the war.
It has been his quiet determination, his te
nacity of purpose that has brought him to the
place of honor and influence which he now holds.
Although born in London in 1850 he is a Hol
lander by descent. He attributes to his mother,
whose parents, he says, were highly educated, his
own love of study and his desire to benefit his
fellowmen.
His first impulse in the direction of the cause
to which he has devoted his life, was received
when as a boy he saw thousands of silk weavers
in Spitalfields deprived by the introduction of
machinery, of work in the trade to which their
fathers and grandfathers had belonged for years,
marching under banners declaring "We are
starving." "Labor organization is the bulwark
of democracy" is his theory and practical faith.
He began early to work toward its realization.
A cigar-maker, at fifteen, he helped to organize
the first cigar-maker s union of New York. Ten
years later he was elected its secretary. He also
served as its president for six successive terms.
For thirty- six years he worked at his trade, after
wards devoting his time and strength to the bet
terment of the condition of the working classes.
112 SAMUEL GOMPERS
In 1881 his local union took part in the for
mation of a national organization. It was a day
of small beginnings, for there were but seven
delegates, of whom Mr. Gompers was one. He
has been its president continuously with the ex
ception of one term. Under his efficiency and
personal power its membership is now nearly
three million. At an annual meeting of the
American Federation of Labor in 1908 his rule
of action, "Partisan to no political party but
partisan to a principle" was approved by the
organization. It was also in accord with him
when he urged upon working people "the im
perative necessity and solemn duty of resisting
by all means at their command the tendency on
the part of the employers and princes of finance
to establish in some form or other in this country
political and judicial despotism."
When the war began his devotion to democracy
inspired him with enthusiasm for the cause of the
Allies. He was eager to have Labor help
America show herself to be efficient in war as
in peace. It was an indication of the force of
his personality that he secured from the Federa
tion a pledge of undivided support in carrying
forward the war to a successful conclusion, but
he demonstrated also his skill as a strategist in
demanding as a fundamental pre-requisite to
cooperation, recognition by the government of
SAMUEL GOMPERS
SAMUEL GOMPERS 113
employees as a group having common interests;
thus maintaining the union principle. The
result has been a closer relation between Labor
and the Administration than had ever existed
previously. It has been said that Mr. Gompers
is a member of the Cabinet in all but the name.
He furthered the creation of a Federal Depart
ment of Labor and it became the chief agency
of the government for dealing with labor dis
putes relating to war-time production. Mr.
Gomper s office was a center of great influence
in supplying initiative for important decisions.
In a speech at Buffalo President Wilson took
occasion to speak of Gomper s "patriotic cour
age, his large vision, his statesman-like sense and
mind that knew how to pull in harness."
For many years he endeavored to secure for
labor unions exemption from the operation of
the Sherman anti- trust act, and also from in
junction by the courts of law, and he was finally
successful. He argued that "business cannot be
property and therefore whenever the courts issue
injunctions which undertake to regulate our re
lations with our employers or those from whom
we may or may not purchase commodities, such
courts are trespassing upon relations which are
personal relations and with which equity power
has no concern."
Gompers is not a Socialist and it has been his
114 SAMUEL GOMPERS
constant endeavor to keep the Federation of
Labor from endorsing Socialistic policies. He
frankly says that he is at variance with the
philosophy of Socialism and its doctrines.
"Economically they are unsound; socially they
are wrong; industrially they are an impossibil
ity." He does not approve of force or violence;
despite his ardor for the success of the war for
democracy, he is a pacifist, a peacemaker. His
declaration to the Chicago Federation was thus
worded: "We cannot win by thuggery or vio
lence. Brutality only grows. If we had to win
by that method, it would be better to lose. Vio
lence and thuggery only hurt our movement."
"When compulsion is used, only resentment is
aroused and the end is not gained. Only thru
moral suasion and appeal to men s reason can
a movement succeed."
The I. W. W. receive no support from him for
he does not agree with their theory that one class
must be uprooted to give place to the other.
Give the working men good wages, homes and
living conditions and Mr. Gompers sees no oc
casion to disturb any one. "There would not
have to be any labor unions if every employer
were like Henry Ford" is his declaration.
His attitude in regard to the prohibition of
liquor is to be regretted. That he should oppose
a movement so evidently for the real good of the
SAMUEL GOMPERS 115
laboring classes is surprising when one considers
the sane position he has taken on other questions.
The beneficial results already apparent, will
lead him, it is to be hoped, to ally himself with
a movement so manifestly improving the con
ditions of the working man by removing what
has been a curse and hinderance to his prosperity.
The personality of Mr. Gompers is, of course,
largely revealed in what has been already said of
him, but it is interesting to have a pen picture
of him. He is short and heavily built, with mas
sive head and broad shoulders ; his hair is long and
gray, brushed back severely from his forehead.
He wears spectacles over eyes that are keen but
kindly. Determination and benignancy are both
evident in his features. Englishmen are sur
prised that he did not match up to the press
portraits of the labor boss; and noted that he
did not wear any heavy gold chain or gaudy
vest, or carry a half-chewed cigar stub tilting
upward from his lips. He is quiet in manner
and unobtrusive in appearance.
Deliberation is a prominent characteristic and
he is cautious in the extreme. William Hard
described him as going out on a new idea as
cautiously as an elephant going over a new
bridge. He has proved himself to be an incor
ruptible leader and a master strategist. His
methods of accomplishing his aims are by prepar-
116 SAMUEL GOMPERS
ation, patience, conciliation and delay. In de
bate he waits until his opponent has exhausted all
his arguments and then adroitly Mr. Gompers
successfully turns back the same arguments.
He knows well how to concentrate all his efforts
upon a single purpose ; it is the secret of his bril
liant career. He has suffered nothing to divert
his mind from his one aim of helping the work
ing man to better his condition. "Gomperian
forcefulness" is the name given by one writer to
his way of steadily pushing forward to his goal.
An Englishman says: "The most persistent
journalist cannot sidetrack him where he does
not want to go. He quietly, so to speak, shunts
himself back onto the main line, pushing the
journalist before him."
For a man who has had little schooling it is
remarkable that he has acquired such correct use
of the English language. He is thoroughly
familiar with the best literature in three lan
guages besides English and he has unusual
ability in the writing of pamphlets. He has
lectured at Harvard, Cornell, Michigan, and
Wisconsin universities.
Although now receiving a yearly salary of
$7,000, as president of the Federation of Labor,
Mr. Gompers is by no means even a well-to-do
man, for he gives so largely to union men who
are in need that his own family are sometimes
SAMUEL GOMPERS 117
decidedly limited in their expenditures. For the
first four years of his presidency he received noth
ing; for the next five, he had $1,200 a year.
Knowing his poverty, previous to his taking of
fice with the Federation, Governor Hill of New
York offered him the post of Commissioner of
Arbitration at a salary of $3,000 a year; yet,
though he was earning scarcely twenty dollars a
week, he refused the offer. Other advantageous
positions were suggested to him, among them a
nomination to congress and a place on the Indus
trial Commission, but one and all were declined,
a striking evidence of his steadfast adherence to
his life purpose. The records- of a manufac
turing association give proof that he was also
offered $4,500 in cash and a sinecure for life,
which was likewise refused. Is it any wonder
that he is devotedly loved by hundreds, if not
thousands of American working men?
A man of such self-sacrificing devotion to a
cause surely deserves the honors that have lately
come to him, both in this country and abroad,
and congratulations on at least approaching the
accomplishment of his desires so that he can say :
"We are about to reap the harvest of what we
sowed; a sowing of ungrudging sacrifice and
brave devotion to the principles of humanity and
brotherhood."
A JOYOUS MUSICIAN
PERCY ALDRIDGE GRAINGER
44 r 1 1HE only happy composer living," is the
JL verdict of the British critic, Runciman, in
commenting upon the Australian musician, Percy
Aldridge Grainger, who, we understand, has
now dropped the use of the middle name, after
the fashion of Grieg and other prominent com
posers and musical men. According to all ac
counts he certainly seems to be an individual who
is overflowing with vitality. The London
Times, after he had attracted large audiences
in England, said of him: "He plays as he writes,
with an air of breezy enjoyment."
From his mother, it appears, he inherits this
joyous temperament, and also his musical abil
ity. His father passed on to his son a keen
brain and an exactness of knowledge. Born in
Melbourne, Australia, about forty years ago,
Percy Grainger began to play at five years old,
studying music with his mother until he was ten.
For the next six years his education was carried
on at Frankfort-on-Main, in Germany. When
he was seventeen he went to London. He has
118
PERCY ALDRIDGE GRAINGER 119
since played at hundreds of concerts in Great
Britain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany,
Switzerland, Russia, Austria, Finland, Hol
land, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.
He has performed before fourteen royal person
ages.
In 1912 his compositions began to be published
and quickly attracted attention. Even that
well-established society, the London Philhar
monic, and other leading organizations, took
them up and engaged him as a soloist. His
"Mock Morris" and "Shepherds Hey" each had
more than five hundred specific performances in
England alone in 1914. The London Telegraph
gave its impressions thus: "Such humor and wit,
such enthusiasm, such virility and such masterly
musicianship are met with only on the rarest
of occasions in a musician of any country."
Grainger has made exhaustive research into
folk-song music. He has collected from the na
tive music of Great Britain, Scandinavia, New
Zealand and the South Seas some five hundred
examples by the aid of a phonograph and by
precise notation. He says himself: "I am not
folk-song mad, for other music I like just as well,
but folk-song music is an unconscious art and
dies away, and it is wise to record it while we
may." When he came to America the negro
melodies had a strong fascination for him. The
120 PERCY ALDRIDGE GRAINGER
composer, Grieg, said of Grainger, "He plays
my Norwegian peasant dances as none of my
own countrymen can play them. He has the
true folk-song poetry in him, and yet it is quite
a way from Norway to Australia."
He is a lover of and believer in popular music
from everywhere and so when he went into the
American Army he found army music was folk
song music to him. He has always loved un
usual combinations of instruments. "Sounding
brass and tinkling cymbal are not empty, futile
things to him." One of the first things he wrote
had mandolins and guitars in it, and he delights
in the introduction of bells and gongs into his
compositions. He frankly confesses that he has
an unquenchable hunger for every sort of sound,
large and small. So he uses xylophones, saxo
phones, oboes, the glockenspiel, the marimba,
and other queer ly-named instruments.
"In a Nutshell" is one of the unusual sort of
compositions produced by Percy Grainger. One
critic describes it as "alertly cheerful; it has -a
vigor and freshness amid its cacophonous clatter-
ings." "A man who can play a long minor con
certo so that one is genuinely sorry when it stops,
and can write music that will stimulate a sym
phony audience into demonstrative good humor,
is a great man." The same critic says; "A Grieg
minor concerto revealed Mr. Grainger as a pianist
PERCY ALDRIDGE GRAINGER
PERCY ALDRIDGE GRAINGER 121
of genius a phrase that can fairly be used of
very few living pious virtuosos."
Another writer speaks of him as a creative
musician and executive artist of rare accomplish
ment and describes him as in the first rank of the
world s militant musicians. That word militant
suggests a peculiar characteristic of his which has
been accounted for by his athletic inclinations
and his dislike of the artistic, and that is his use
of odd words and phrases that border on the
slang order. His directions for playing his com
positions are thus expressed; "bumpingly";
"louden lots"; "hold till blown," which are strik
ingly singular. He is certainly unique in him
self and in what he does. The writer who par
ticularly comments upon Grainger s tendency to
be vulgar, nevertheless has this to say: " His
Warriors is incomparably far and away ahead
of any modern music with possibly one excep
tion. As a blender of tones he is unequalled.
As a pianist he is extraordinary."
It is very interesting to hear from himself why
he gave up for a time concerts that brought him
$1,000 each, for the thirty dollars a month he re
ceived as a member of the United States Army.
He says: "I am very happy here. I have very
much wanted to give any musical gift which I
have, to this country; to serve this country in a
musical way. Also I wanted to enlist under
122 PERCY ALDRIDGE GRAINGER
Resta who is bandmaster here; he is a particu
larly brilliant musician. I enlisted because I
love America, its generous humanitarianism, its
wondrous kindliness, and broad tolerance. I
took out my first papers soon after I arrived,
and wish to make America my home. It is only
natural that in times of trial like these, the mu
sician should long to pass on to others in as
broad, as public, as democratic a manner as pos
sible, that message of calm comfort, optimism
and courage that is the very soul of music,
whether it be of Bach, or Wagner or Chopin, or
of a military band playing Somewhere on
Broadway or Over There. My life in the
army here is deeply happy and I should be con
tent to remain here always."
After the war, he returned to the concert stage
with technique unimpaired, and has since toured
the world with his piano. But the major part
of his time he spends in America, which he now
calls "home."
A PLANT EXPLORER
NIELS EBBESEN HANSEN
TENS of thousands of miles of travel through
foreign lands, a night spent out on the
steppes of Siberia in a piercing wind cold enough
to freeze the mercury in the thermometer, and
often in danger of losing his life from pneumonia,
cholera and bandits such were the experiences
of a young Dane in the endeavor to find an
alfalfa that would stand the extreme cold of
our great Northwest and the extreme dryness of
the American desert.
Why did he do it and what was the use?
He is a man who when he sees a need starts to
fill it if there is any possibility of doing so, and
there was a great need of supplying the farmers
of the West with some means of making a success
of their farms. In 1898-9 they had lost millions
of dollars because they had not the right kind of
grain to stand the below-zero cold that exists
for so long a time in that region. The kind
of alfalfa known to them would not grow in such
weather, but if the right kind could be found, it
could be made to yield one hundred dollars per
acre.
123
124 NIELS EBBESEN HANSEN
This was the belief of Niels Ebbesen Hansen
who was born near Ribe, Denmark, January 4,
1866. His father brought his family to the
United States in 1873, and in 1877 settled in Des
Moines, Iowa. At seventeen years of age Niels
entered the Iowa agricultural college at Ames,
graduating in 1887. He spent four years in
large commercial nurseries where he gained much
experience in the hybridizing and crossing of our
native fruits. Then he was appointed assistant
professor at Ames. In 1894 he was sent by
Professor Budd, the head of the department,
on a four months trip to eight European
countries for ptant exploration and study.
In 1895, he was called to Brookings, South
Dakota, to be head of the department of horti
culture in the Agricultural College and State
Experiment Station. There a plant-breeding
greenhouse, the first of its kind in the world, was
established. In it Hansen accomplished much
toward improving the fruits of the Northwest.
Few of them could be cultivated in the extreme
weather conditions of that territory. It is
fascinating to hear how he has patiently and
persistently experimented in hybridizing and
crossing of the usual varieties with more hardy
kinds that would stand the below-zero cold and
the long drouth of the desert. By hand he has
carried the delicate dust of the pollen from one
NIELS EBBESEN HANSEN 125
blossom to another and inserted it with knife
point or camel s hair just where it would most
surely fructify. Out of 8,000 blossoms hybrid
ized, only 225 were considered worthy of further
propagation, and even this number were finally
much reduced, so much effort and patience does
this work demand.
The professor has succeeded in producing
a luscious strawberry by crossing the wild plant
with the ordinary commercial varieties; a rasp
berry of North Dakota with the Shaffer berry
of New York ; and the native Indian plum with
the California plum, with the Chinese apricot or
the Japanese plum. All of these new fruits will
stand a temperature of forty degrees below zero
without any covering whatever. Through
Hansen s efforts the Experiment Station at
Brookings has become second in the country to
that of Luther Burbank.
But it is in relation to his discoveries of a new
alfalfa that he has most largely benefited the
farmers of the Northwest.
Alfalfa is a forage plant of unusual nourishing
qualities; it gathers nitrogen from the air abun
dantly and so restores and renovates the soil. It
is long-lived and is extremely palatable food for
cattle. Long before the Christian era it was the
chief crop for subsistence in the region between
India and the Mediterranean. In the fifth cen-
126 NIELS EBBESEN HANSEN
tury B. c. it was carried into Persia and from there
into Greece, Italy and Spain. Centuries later it
was taken into South America and from there
found its way into California. But when finally
it reached the Northwest this kind of alfalfa did
not flourish there. In many districts the
financial results were uncertain and often caused
faihire to farmers in consequence of the alfalfa
being killed by extreme frost or by lack of suffi
cient moisture in summer.
Professor Hansen was convinced that a
hardier variety could be found in the countries
where alfalfa originated. He is a quiet man
who has imagination but is logical in his con
clusions, and once he has decided on a certain
course, he pursues it without faltering until he
has attained his aim. In 1897 James Wilson,
U. S. Secretary of Agriculture, asked Hansen to
go to Asia as the nation s first plant explorer, the
object being to secure drouth and cold-resistant
seeds and plants of commercial value.
The journey was full of adventure. He first
went to Russia to secure information; then
crossed the Caspian Sea and reached Turkestan.
He traveled hundreds of miles along the Tian-
Shan mountains and then went into China where
he found the object of his search the hardy
alfalfa the blue-flowered variety, at Kuldja, in
the province of Hi. But this did not satisfy
NIELS EBBESEN HANSEN 127
Hansen; he wanted to find the hardiest of all
alfalfas. He was told it was to be found at
Kopal, in Turkestan. He hurried northward
across deserts and wild mountain ranges, tracing
it by caravan for 1,300 miles, to latitude 45
degrees north by 75 degrees east longitude. Here
he and his company gathered the seed out on the
steppes, but winter suddenly interfered in the
form of a violent blizzard. At the risk of his life
he pushed on to Omsk, on the Trans-Siberian
Railroad, a 700-mile trip. His Tartar drivers
lost their way and he had to spend the night out-
of-doors in a piercing wind cold enough to freeze
the mercury in the thermometer. All that saved
him from death which overtook two men in an
other caravan was his reindeer suit which covered
him from the top of his head to his knees whence
fur boots reached to the end of his toes.
In the morning they found shelter and warmth
in the posthouse at Sergiopol, but pneumonia had
taken hold of Hansen and compelled him to stay
at the military hospital there. At the end of a
week he pushed on but was again obliged to stop
for drastic treatment at Semipalatinsk. After a
terrible drive for three days and nights, he
reached Omsk, whence he hastened by train to
Bremen, from which he sailed for home.
In 1906 he made a second trip for the U. S.
Department of Agriculture to Siberia where he
128 NIELS EBBESEN HANSEN
discovered the hardiest alfalfa the yellow-
flowered species. These were good forage
plants, one variety growing on the steppes be
tween the Irkutsk and Obi rivers in central
Siberia, the other 1800 miles farther east in Mon
golian Manchura. On this trip he also visited
Lapland, Russia and Japan.
On some of his journeys he had to travel in
a tarantass a four wheeler without springs, the
bed being swung on long wooden poles, a most
uncomfortable conveyance. In his search for
information he was much handicapped by having
to use three interpreters ; one to translate Chinese
into Tartar, another to turn Tartar into Russian,
and a third to change Russian into German,
which he could himself speak and understand.
The United States Department of Agriculture
evidently considered the results of Professor
Hansen s explorations very much worth while,
for in 1908-9 he was asked to make a third trip,
this time including Mongolia and North Africa.
On this occasion he found that the northeastern
limit for the yellow-flowered variety of alfalfa
was in the vicinity of Verkhoyansk, 68 degrees
north said to be the coldest spot on earth. The
seed he brought home came however from latitude
50-55 degrees. During this journey Hansen
was in constant danger from bandits and he also
came in close contact with an epidemic of Asiatic
NIELS EBBESEN HANSEN 129
cholera, but fortunately reached home safely.
Now came the task of developing the valuable
seeds he had obtained into a sufficient supply for
the use of the farmers of the United States.
Here again is a wonderful story of results.
From one spoonful of seed secured in 1906 in
Turkestan, no less than 1000 bushels of seeds
have been produced. One plant of Cossack
alfalfa in 1911 yielded 41,430 seeds, and 500
stems to one plant have not been uncommon.
The sturdy growth of the new kinds of alfalfa
has been proved repeatedly in all sorts of
conditions. Good crops are produced under
adverse experiences of drouth and extreme cold;
it grows up again freely after being cut off by
hail, eaten by rabbits and trampled down by
horses. The South Dakota Legislature appro
priated $1,000 a year for two years to aid the
farmers in making tests of the new alfalfa.
Their reports were very satisfactory. In con
sequence the demand for seeds was large and Dr.
Hansen foresaw it would increase rather than
diminish. He therefore set himself to find a way
by which the demand could be met most quickly,
and here the genius of the man was called once
more into play.
Having proved that sowing seed broadcast
was wasteful, he decided that by transplanting
he could make one pound of seed go as far as
130 NIELS EBBESEN HANSEN
840 pounds under the broadcast method. Then
he introduced transplanting by horse-power
machinery. An adapted tobacco planter was
used by him for the purpose, with which plants
can be set at the rate of 6000 per hour. In 1913
the Legislature appropriated $14,000 to push the
production of alfalfa seed, and $10,000 to send
Hansen to Russia and Siberia to procure more
seed. Before starting he pushed the work of
transplanting, having more than 500,000 plants
set out.
Professor Hansen did not confine his search
in foreign countries to alfalfa alone. Specially
he sought for more hardy fruits with which to im
prove the native supply of the United States.
On the borders of Persia he found a large and
delicious grape of which he obtained 500 vines.
In the Altai mountains he discovered seeds and
plants of a wild currant larger than the cherry
currant known to us ; also he found a wild hardy
blackberry and a Persian clover, one of the finest
of plants for forage, which perpetuates itself for
five or seven ye-ars.
In 1917 the Massachusetts Horticultural
Society gave Hansen the George Robert White
gold medal in recognition of the benefits he had
brought to the United States and in the same
year the University of South Dakota conferred
on him the degree of Doctor of Science. He
NIELS EBBESEN HANSEN 131
might have won a fortune for himself with his
discoveries, but he has not chosen to do so, pre
ferring to benefit his fellow citizens. He has
proved himself loyal and devoted to the interests
of this country which is not his native land, but
for which he has sacrificed and endured. The
secret of his success lies undoubtedly in his
reverent, philanthropic spirit and his modestly
declared belief that he is doing the Lord s work,
helping to make life easier for hundreds of men.
A GREAT LINGUIST AND
SCHOLAR
MICHAEL HEILPRIN
THE first twenty years of Michael Heilprin s
life were spent in Russian Poland, where he
was born at Piotrkow in 1823. His father was
a merchant and also a Hebrew scholar of high
rank, who did business in Tomaszow, where
Michael spent his youth. The boy began the
study of Hebrew as was customary among the
Polish Jews, at the age of four or five years.
He never attended any school, his father being
his only teacher. German was his mother
tongue but he had a thorough knowledge of
Polish also. He studied Latin, Greek and
French simultaneously, rising every morning at
two o clock and beginning at once with his books.
The oppression of the Russians grew to be so
burdensome that in 1842 he and his young wife
went with his parents to Hungary. This was
the country of his devoted service and love. He
established a bookstore in Miskolcz, and he was
included in the local club of nobles. His sym
pathies were with the national liberal movement.
132
MICHAEL HEILPRIN 133
In 1848 when the revolution broke out, his revo
lutionary poems were popular. He accepted
the secretaryship of the literary bureau of the
department of the interior, but the revolution
collapsing, Mr. Heilprin barely escaped capture
by the Austrians. Finally he succeeded in mak
ing his way to Paris, later returning to Hungary.
While teaching a school there he made a special
study of the English language with the thought
of going to America. He came to this country
in 1856.
At first he found some difficulty in getting
employment but in 1858 he was given the task
of revision of alt the geographical, historical and
biographical articles in "Appleton s New Ameri
can Encyclopedia," for its editors were greatly
impressed with the extent and accuracy of his
scholarship. His great service to the publication
was in the line of verification and unification.
In 1861 Mr. Heilprin began writing for the
weekly paper, The Nation, of New York City,
also for the New York Tribune, principally
upon European politics and literature. From
1863 to 1865 he lived in Washington, where he
kept a bookshop and came in contact with many
noted men. He was deeply interested in the
Civil War, being an ardent anti-slavery man.
The restoration of political liberty to Hungary
was a great joy to him, and had he desired to
134 MICHAEL HEILPRIN
return to that land he doubtless would have held
a prominent place in the Hungarian parliament,
but he was so happy in America, his adopted
country, that he did not entertain the idea.
While a resident in Washington he began to
produce much anonymous critical work. The
only exception to these anonymous productions
was his Historical Poetry of the Ancient He
brews, which he considered to be a standard work
on the subject. His critical work for The
Nation continued for more than twenty years.
No man was ever more careful to be accurate in
his statements as he was in his criticism.
In 1872 the editors of "Appleton s Encyclo
pedia" desiring to revise it, sought his services
again. Their estimate of his powers was thus
expressed "A man of boundless erudition ; master
of all languages, eastern and western." He was
entrusted with the final revision of the encyclo
pedia, after the proof sheets had been examined
by every one else. He had authority to make any
corrections he saw fit, and to reject or rewrite
the whole or parts of any articles. Because of
his failing sight his daughters and sons were his
faithful assistants. His knowledge was nothing
short of marvelous. He would look over a
dictionary of dates and make half a dozen or a
dozen corrections upon every page. He could
name the time and place of each of the six hun-
MICHAEL HEILPRIN 135
dred battles and engagements of the Civil War
in the United States. He had a reading knowl
edge of eighteen different languages and ac
quired Roumanian in the last weeks of his life.
Pie could speak eight, it is said, and he was ac
customed to say that he could think with equal
ease in several different languages. His con
versation was very unusual, for his enthusiasm
was so intense that he swept his hearers
along with him. Yet he was so modest a man
that he never appeared conscious of his vast
knowledge and he always made it easy for thoce
who knew less to talk with him.
In 1881 Mr. Heilprin s soul was greatly stirred
by the persecutions of the Jews in Russia.
They began to flock to America. He was not
himself a Jew by profession and he had not ob
served in his own home any of the ceremonies of
Jewish faith, but he deeply sympathized with
them. He devoted himself to planning for their
succor and aided in planting agricultural colonies
for them. He collected funds to help those in
want. He spent many hours of each day in a
dark basement office working in their behalf,
making efforts to house them, giving relief to
those needing it and arranging for transportation
for those willing and able to leave the city. As
a result of these heavy labors Mr. Heilprin s
health was much impaired. In January, 1888,
136 MICHAEL HEILPRIN
four months before his death, he wrote a letter
to Mr. Oscar S. Straus, stating the conditions
and needs of the Jewish fugitives. This state
ment was the direct cause of the establishment
of the Baron de Hirsch fund, with an endow
ment, later increased to four millions. It was
a great agency for aiding the Russian Jews.
Throughout the country thousands of Jewish
farmers have given convincing evidence that Mr.
Heilprin s belief in their ability to become success
ful agriculturalists was not ill-founded.
He was a most lovable man, of quiet nature
and scholarly attainments. "The pure patriot
of two countries, with a heart for the humblest
fellow man whatever his race or faith."
His son Angelo who came to the United States
when only three years old, was distinguished for
his scientific knowledge which won for him the
Forbes Medal for proficiency in biology and
paleontology. He was appointed professor of
invertebrate paleontology in the Academy of
Natural Science in Philadephia, and later, to
the chair of geology. In 1883 he was made
curator in charge, serving until 1893. His ser
vices were very valuable to the Academy, and he
secured from the Legislature appropriations for
its needs. He was an intrepid explorer and be
came world famous for his daring ascent of Mont
Pelee on June the first after the eruption of
MICHAEL HEILPRIN 137
May 8th, 1902. He was the author of several
scientific books and was a prodigious worker
with a wonderful memory and an extraordinary
accuracy on details. All his life he gave freely
of his time and advice and was always ready to
do a service for a fellow man.
Louis, the other son, had, like his father, a
marvelous memory, probably strengthened by
the fact that owing to weakness of eyesight, he
was unable to read for more than a few minutes
at a time, and was dependent upon his sisters
for his reading. Nevertheless he was a fine
scholar in history and geography and an
cyclopedic expert of whom it is said there was
no man equal to him in that capacity. His "His
torical Reference Book" has become a standard
manual of unrivaled accuracy although all the
consulting of authorities had to be done by others
under his minute direction. He contributed
frequently to the newspapers. He devoted much
time and thought to civic affairs and the vote
was to him a sacred performance. He always
responded to the call of those in trouble and had
no thought of himself in anything he did. Both
sons were worthy successors of their father.
AN EMPIRE BUILDER
JAMES JEROME HILL
OUT from the edge of the Canadian wilder
ness in 1856 traveled a boy of eighteen,
with little money, but with great dreams of what
he would do in the future. The glamor of the
Orient attracted him and he started to go to the
Atlantic coast of the United States and enlist
as a sailor, but finding no opportunity to carry
out his plans, he changed them and went west
ward across the prairies, intending to go to the
Pacific Ocean. Arriving at St. Paul, at that time
only a little trading settlement which lately had
dropped its first name of "Pig s Eye," he found
he was too late to join the band of troopers and
traders who had already started for the West.
So he decided to remain there for the winter and
began work on the Mississippi levee as clerk for
J. W. Bass and Company, agents for the Dubu-
que and St. Paul Packet Company of Mississippi
River steamboats.
After a year s experience his viewpoint
changed. All the life of the community centered
round the levee. To such an eager mind as his
everything about him challenged investigation.
138
JAMES JEROME HILL 139
He gave up his idea of going to the Pacific coast.
He still had his visions of a big future and as in
his Canadian home he had seen the wilderness
gradually yielding to man s control, so he began
to dream of what might be accomplished with the
vast territory around him if transportation were
developed.
This young man, James Jerome Hill, was of
Irish and Scotch descent. His grandfather was
a man of great force of character, with a power
ful will and a hatred of any form of injustice.
These qualities were particularly noticeable in
his grandson. The mother of James, a Dunbar
by birth, was a woman of intense temperament;
from her, her son derived many of his leading
characteristics. He was born in 1838 on a farm,
in a little log house, near Rockwood, forty miles
from Toronto. His father desired for his boy
the best education available, so after attending
district school until he was eleven he was sent
to a private school, Rockwood Academy, kept
by William Wetherald, a Quaker and an
Englishman of college education who believed
in the best things of life and in mental discipline
as a means of fitting the mind for all that might
come before it. Under such a man James spent
four happy years studying in addition to the
elementary subjects, Latin, a little Greek,
algebra and geometry.
140 JAMES JEROME HILL
While working as a clerk on the Mississippi
levee James J. Hill studied everything he could,
specially transportation, engineering, history and
science. For recreation he took up work in
water colors. What he read, he made his own
most thoroughly.
An incident will show his characteristic way
of doing things. The business house for whom
he was working was asked to take the agency
for a threshing and reaping machine. At that
time such machines were not known to many
people. Hill was asked if he could set up the
machine. He thought he could if he shoul d see
one at work. He went to a farm where a thresh
ing machine was in use. After looking it over,
he said, "I felt quite competent to set one up in
running order, and within a few days, a customer
came along and I sold him a machine. I felt a
good deal of confidence in my ability to run a
threshing machine. There is a good deal in hav
ing nerve." And so it proved, for the machine
worked satisfactorily.
The outbreak of the civil war made Hill eager
to enlist but he was much disappointed when he
found that the loss of one eye through an accident
in childhood, disbarred him from entry to the
ranks of the First Minnesota Regiment.
In 1865 James Hill went into business on his
own account, in forwarding and transportation.
JAMES JEROME HILL 141
Extracts from daily newspapers of those years
show how well he succeeded. " J. J. Hill beats all
his competitors when it comes to making the very
lowest rates on freight shipments to all points
east and south. He also guarantees that all
freight consigned to him will be transferred at
the levee free of charge. This saves the shippers
five cents per hundred pounds and in return Mr.
Hill gets the bulk of the transportation business
for the various lines he represents." Upon the
closing of navigation Hill converted his immense
warehouse into a haypressing establishment,
whereupon a newspaper comments: /"It is a
noticeable fact that when Mr. Hill starts to ac
complish a thing, he does it complete and s-ingle-
handed, asking no aid from any one. He says
that all hay offered will be taken and if his present
warehouse is not large enough, there is plenty
of lumber to build others, and plenty of vacant
land to erect them upon. This remarkable young
man evidently means to keep abreast of the
times."
Meanwhile J. J. Hill was letting no opportu
nity escape him of studying the development of
that wide territory by railroad systems and lay
ing plans for them. In 1862 ten miles of track
was the extent of the railroad in the whole state
of Minnesota, and he endeavored to open the
eyes of the people to the big results of an increase
142 JAMES JEROME HILL
of railroad facilities in lessening freight rates.
He made a special study of fuel provision for
he was convinced that coal would take the place
of wood as a motive power. He became an ex
pert as to the quality and quantity of coal to be
found in the Northwest. He laid his plans for
control of coal mines so that thirty years later
the northern transcontinental railroad found its
fuel requirements provided. This was one
beginning of his empire building and another
was the establishment of a regular line of boats,
carts and steamers operating between St. Paul
and Winnipeg. He familiarized himself so
thoroughly with local conditions that he was able
to forecast and provide at the right time the
particular arrangements needed to improve trade
and enlarge its extent. One great secret of
this man s success was the thoroughness with
which he did everything.
In 1869 he was unanimously chosen president
of the Democratic county convention and in 1871
he was nominated for the office of alderman.
This led him to take out his naturalization
papers, a matter he had long purposed as he had
often proved his interest in and loyalty to this
land.
During the next few years he made several
trips through the N.orthwest that he might know
better the exact conditions of that part of the
JAMES JEROME HILL 143
country. Various were his experiences in these
journeys, by boat, or on foot with snow shoes,
or sometimes by sleigh or railroad train. On one
occasion Mr. Hill was obliged to perform a sur
gical operation in setting a dislocated arm of his
half-breed guide. His description of this pro
ceeding indicates his own ingenuity and foresight.
He says: "I cut a box elder stick with a crotch or
fork at one end. I took my underclothes and
bound them in a roll and put it under the man s
arm and got him under the cart with a stick
between his legs. I put the fork against this,
cut a notch in the end and let the rope twist in
through the notch and back to the wheel. Then
I got a stick and took a twist on the rope so that
the same power that hauled his arm ahead pressed
through the fork on the notches and pushed the
end of the stick down tight. I took care to sit
across him. I had his head under the cart. I
felt reasonably sure that there would come a time
when it would become necessary for me to keep
him in that position. I gave him a stick to hold
and he thought that possibly if he let go of the
stick he would be able to let go of the rope, but
I had several turns of it around his wrist. When
I got a good strain on him, he began to yell, but
I kept going until I felt that the bone pressed
into its place. I got him out from under. He
found the joint was back. Then the poor fellow
144 JAMES JEROME HILL
wanted to say his prayers and Mr. Hill says,
"and I wanted to give him an opportunity, but
I was ready to go on, and suggested that if he
would repeat after me I could do it more
quickly." So Mr. Hill took the man s little
French prayer book and read the prayers for
him.
In 1873 he obtained the opening for which he
had been looking, by the bankruptcy of the St.
Paul and Pacific Railroad Company. It was in
an unfinished condition. Only two lines were
really completed, that from St. Paul to Sauk
Rapids and to Breckinridge. Of other lines
fragmentary portions only were graded or laid.
There was but little of value but the land grant
and the right of way. But to Mr. Hill with his
intimate knowledge of everything involved in the
venture, there were great possibilities. So with
four other men he purchased the bankrupt rail
road, putting his entire fortune into it. He took
over its immense debt of thirty-three million
dollars. Within six years he had extended the
road to the Red River, and connected it with the
government line to Winnipeg.
In his purchase of this railroad may be found
the beginning of his Great Northern railroad
system which made him known all over the world.
By this extension of his road he opened up the
rich land opportunities of Minnesota and Dakota
Underwood and Underwood
JAMES
JEROME HILL,
JAMES JEROME HILL 145
which had long been waiting for immigrants.
Trade was developed, connecting the wheat pro
duction of these lands with the markets where it
must find purchasers. In 1883 Mr. Hill ex
tended his railroad to Helena, Montana, and ten
years later he began to carry out his long-time
dream of a railroad stretching clear to the Pacific
coast. Almost insurmountable obstacles had to
be overcome, but J. J. Hill was a man who knew
not the impossible, and he succeeded.
Here is the statement made by an authority
on railroad building, A. B. Stickney; "That Mr.
Hill had the genius to build a line across the
unsettled plains and the mountains to the Pacific
in 1890-93, without a land grant or other
government aid a feat never before ac
complished and to build in sixteen years over
three thousand miles, and make the improve
ments specified by only doubling the capitaliza
tion, seems to the people of the West a wonder
ful exhibition of economic achievement."
J. J. Hill was a master of efficiency in every
thing he undertook simply because he made it a
rule to understand fully all about each thing he
had to do with. Here is the reason why he was
so successful as a railroader. "Every day ob
servation," he wrote in a letter, "convinces me
that in a new country a railroad is successful in
the proportion that its affairs are vigilantly
146 JAMES JEROME HILL
looked after," and if ever a man were vigilant, he
was that man. In some diaries of his we find
mentioned certain things he desired to remember :
location of gravel pits ; side tracks, water tanks,
lay of the country with reference to the line, con
dition of crops, rough places in the track; con
dition of track joints, where cars were standing
unloaded and idle; wasted effort by hauling in
gravel when the same material might have been
obtained from the side of the track, etc.
A note in another diary says that "everything
lying around but not needed for operation must
be picked up and put away ; platform east end of
depot wants one 18-foot plank for repairs; flat
1269 has two broken truss rods and should be
repaired."
Few men show ability to put through such
immense tasks as Mr. Hill successfully carried to
completion, and at the same time have "such in
finite capacity for taking pains."
His vision of developing the Northwest in
cluded making the settlers prosperous; he saw
that few farmers understood how to save them
selves from ruin in a bad wheat year. So he
bought fine cattle and bred them on his farm,
giving away more than eight thousand head to
farmers to encourage the raising of livestock and
promote the dairying industry. He gave these
cattle to responsible farmers who were to allow
JAMES JEROME HILL 147
other farmers to use them for breeding purposes
without charge. For years he employed Thomas
Shaw, an expert in animal husbandry, to instruct
the farmers.
Hill dreamed when a boy of going to the Ori
ent ; now his ships were to go instead. He sent
men to China to study the needs of that country
and they reported a demand for flour and steel.
Then he organized the Great Northern Steam
ship Company and built two huge ships, the
Minnesota and the Dakota and sent them to
Yokohama and Hongkong, to take to those ports
the goods brought from the East in the trains
that had been returning empty after taking
lumber from Oregon and Washington. Unfor
tunately he was forced to withdraw them from
overseas trips on account of the unfavorable rates
and regulations required by the United States
government which made the cost too excessive.
Mr. Hill became greatly in demand as a public
speaker, and he always attracted a large audi
ence. He knew how to express himself with
lucidity and to the point. His book, "Highways
of Progress," has an economic value that makes
it authoritative. Many honors came to him in
his later years, among them was the degree of
Doctor of Laws, conferred by Yale University, in
1910. In anouncing it, Professor Perrin said:
"Mr. Hill is the last of the generations of wilder-
148 JAMES JEROME HILL
ness conquerors, men . . . who blazed all the
great trails which determined the nation s fu
ture. . . . Every item of his colossal success
rests upon series of facts ascertained by him be
fore they had been noted by others, and upon the
future relations which he saw in those facts to
human needs and national growth. . . . The
greatest things in all his greatness are his belief
in the spiritual significance of man and his long
ing for the perpetuation of American institutions
at their highest and best."
In his address Mr. Hill said these memorable
words; "I have never found where a lie would
take the place of truth. In nearly fifty years of
rather active business I have never found a trans
action that was worth following when it led under
the shadows of a deception of any kind."
Certain it is that this empire builder was an
unselfish citizen of the United States who made
thousands of men and women happier because
of his clear vision and his faith in the future of
the great Northwest. These have been a legacy
of immense benefit.
THE INVENTOR OF THE
SUBMARINE
JOHN PHILIP HOLLAND
IF EVER a man persevered in spite of re
peated discouragements it surely was John
Philip Holland, but he won out at last when his
model of a submarine was accepted as the stan
dard of the United States Navy. It was an
other instance of this country being indebted to
a foreign-born citizen for something of real
value.
John Philip Holland was born at Liscannor,
County Clstre, Ireland. He received his edu
cation in the Christian Brothers Schools in
Ennistymon and Limerick. His father s death
obliged his going to work and he did so in a
tobacco shop. In 1858 he aspired to something
higher and became an instructor in the school in
which he was educated, but his health failing,
he was transferred to a school in Waterford in
hope that he would be benefited. Then still not
in good health, he went to Cork. Soon after,
the Civil War started in the United States and
the naval battle between the Monitor and the
Merrimac turned his thoughts to some way of
149
150 JOHN PHILIP HOLLAND
combatting such ships. His father having been
a coastguard naturally gave his son a love for
the sea and all connected with it. So he stu
died and thought of the possible means of over
coming an ironclad ship, and the idea of a sub
marine first came to him. He did not give it up
but commenced a systematic study of the sub
ject. In 1863-4 he drew his first plan of an
under water boat.
But his ideas were too novel for him to be able
to secure the necessary financial backing for the
carrying out of his plan. He therefore aban
doned further effort for awhile, although he con
tinued to study the matter and continued his
teaching.
In 1873 he came to the United States, set
tling at first in Boston where an accident by fall
ing on the ice confined him for some time to the
hospital. This gave him a chance to devote his
mind again to the subject of the submarine. He
was accustomed to say that this accident was the
luckiest thing that ever happened to him, for
it gave him opportunity to discover and remove
some defects in his original plans for a submar
ine and aided greatly the ultimate success of his
device.
Holland was an ardent Irish patriot and his
submarine plans were made largely with the pur
pose of reducing England s sea power. His
JOHN PHILIP HOLLAND 151
first attempt to build the boat he planned was
made at Patterson, N. J., where he went to teach
in St. John s Parochial School. Old residents
of the city long remembered the curious sight
that passed along the streets. On a truck was
a cigar-shaped boat drawn by sixteen Rogers
locomotive horses to the Passaic River. It cer
tainly was not a success, for it stuck in the mud
when it was launched; it leaked constantly; and
the petroleum engine broke down frequently.
It was generally regarded as a joke. Finally
Holland himself towed it out and sunk it in four
feet of mud off Lister s boathouse.
It was a discouraging result, but nothing
daunted, Holland set to work at once on plans
for a second boat, endeavoring to profit from the
defects of the first one. The Fenian Skirmish
ing Fund was raised by Irish patriots in America
for the purpose of aiding their native land, and
sympathizing with Holland s idea of combatting
England, they furnished him with the financial
backing he needed, although he was not himself
a Fenian. This boat was an advance over his
first one, because it was built on correct prin
ciples ; it sailed more easily ; it stayed under water
in the desired position ; the operator had no diffi
culty in breathing, and the compressed air cham
bers worked exactly as wanted. But it was not
a perfect boat as the machinery was badly placed.
152 JOHN PHILIP HOLLAND
A newspaper reporter named it the Fenian Ram
and the name pleasing Holland, he adopted it.
Financial troubles now annoyed him, neverthe
less he built a third submarine at Fort Hamilton,
but unfortunately it was wrecked in launching
by a collapse of the ways. This hindered his do
ing anything further for awhile, but he continued
to endeavor to interest the United States govern
ment in his submarine plans. Then the Navy
Department began to investigate the subject and
in 1888 asked for designs. The Holland Com
pany, which had been formed, submitted those of
Mr. Holland, but neither his nor those of any
other competitor were accepted at this time, al
though Holland s were unanimously declared to
be the best. In 1893 the Navy again asked for
designs, and in competition with nine others,
those of John Philip Holland were accepted and
a contract was given him. To comply with this
order he started to build the Plunger but it was
never completed as improvements were contem
plated.
Another was built at the company s own ex
pense and named the Holland; it was fitted
with gas engines instead of those run by steam,
and it proved to be the first really successful
submarine. It was accepted by the United
United States Navy as its standard in 1900. It
JOHN PHILIP HOLLAND 153
was only fifty feet long and carried only one
torpedo tube. It came to the surface quickly
to take observations and took only five seconds
to disappear, dropping below the waves before
an enemy could fire a shot. Mr. Holland is
said to have taken the porpoise as his diving
model. In the manoeuvres off Newport when
it was tested, everything worked most satisfac
torily. The warships knew this new strange
vessel was after them and they had their search
lights out, but they failed to discover her, yet
she sailed up to the New York and fired an im
aginary torpedo at her, and she did likewise with
the Kearsage.
Admiral Dewey said, on witnessing the per
formance, "If they had had that sort of thing
at Manila, I never could have held it with the
squadron I had. The moral effect is immense.
It is wholly superior to mines or torpedoes."
The government ordered more submarines at
once. After all his disappointments, Holland
had at last won, and proved his faith by his works.
Others had preceded him in attempts to make a
submarine, notably David Bushnell and Robert
Fulton, but Holland was the first to make the
idea really work. Arrangements were made by
England to purchase the rights to all his patents,
and since then, the English submarines have
154 JOHN PHILIP HOLLAND
been developed from Holland s designs. Aus
tria also built many for other countries under a
license from him.
Holland benefited this land by giving it the
means to protect her coasts against all attacks
of her enemies. A fleet of submarines on each
coast would effectually keep this country from
bombardment by foreign ships of war.
THE INVENTOR OF THE FICTION
SYNDICATE
SAMUEL SIDNEY McCLURE
"T71ARLY ever y night the pail of water
f^ in my room used to freeze solid and swell
up in the center. I had a fur cap by this time
and I always ate my meals walking up and down
the room, with my cap and woolen mittens on.
I seldom had anything to eat but bread, and it
froze so hard it was full of ice and hard to chew.
I cannot remember anything more dismal than
those meals in that terribly cold room. Going
to bed, however, was the greatest hardship.
The sheets were so cold, and had been for so long,
that getting into bed was like plunging naked
into a snow drift."
What young man nowadays would care enough
about going through college to be willing to go
through such experiences as these told by S. S.
McClure in his autobiography? He had many
hardships for long years, but he bore them all
with a remarkably cheerful spirit, without any
idea of giving up the particular thing he was
aiming to do ; be it a college education or getting
155
156 SAMUEL SIDNEY McCLURE
started his invention of the newspaper syndicate.
Samuel McClure was born in Antrim, County
Tyrone, Province of Ulster, in Ireland. His
ancestors on his father s side were Scotch, and
on his mother s, French Hugenot. His home con
sisted of only two rooms in a stone cottage, with
an earth floor and a thatch roof, but it was warm
and comfortable, and he seems to have been very
happy there, especially when he began going to
school at four years old; he says himself that
he cannot remember a day when he did not want
to go to school. He found it very hard to get
enough books as he could not enjoy reading a
book twice, with the exception of "Pilgrim s
Progress," which he read two or three times with
delight. After his father died when he was eight
years old, hard times began, and his mother de
cided to take her four boys and go to America,
where her brother and sisters were settled. Dur
ing the next four or five years he did chores and
helped on the farm. At fourteen his mother told
him he must go away and try and get an educa
tion. So he started for Valparaiso, Ind., where
he entered the High School, being boarded in
return for helping in the house.
An odd occurrence led to his adoption of a new
name. The Professor asked each new scholar
to give his name and Samuel noticed that each
of them had a middle name. He did not want
SAMUEL SIDNEY McCLURE 157
to be conspicuous by having less than the other
fellows, so as he greatly admired General Sher
man, of whom he had read in a history of the
Civil War, he gave his name as Samuel Sherman
McClure, but later changed the middle name to
Sidney.
Various and many hard experiences followed.
Then he decided to enter Knox College in Gales-
burg, 111., reaching there with only fifteen cents
in his pocket, and the one suit of clothes which
his mother had made for him. He was then
seventeen and as he had to enter the third pre
paratory year, he had a seven years job before
him. It was hard work for him for he had to
do chores every day and be a farm hand in vaca
tions.
When he had finished his second preparatory
year his mother having sold the farm, decided
to revisit Ireland and took Samuel with her. He
enjoyed seeing relatives and friends again. For
some reason his mother did not think it best to
take him back to America, but he had made up
his mind that he wished to continue his college
course at Galesburg. Moreover a certain young
lady was there with whom he was very much in
love. Samuel had no money, but as he went to
wish his relatives good-by one and another gave
him money, so that finally he had thirty dollars.
He was determined to return on the Illinois, the
158 SAMUEL SIDNEY McCLURE
same boat by which he had come from Phila
delphia. He was also determined to return
without paying his fare. He expected to get off
as a stowaway but he was ordered off the vessel
by one of the officers. So he went on shore quite
dejected. Feeling that he "simply had to cross
on that boat," he bought some writing paper
and wrote to the first officer, telling him that he
had to get back to America to finish his college
education. Then he sat on the dock overcome
by despondency. He had written the letter, he
says, to relieve his feelings, but with no expecta
tion that it would influence the officer. How
ever, it did, and the result was that he was made
mess boy and had to work for his passage.
Stormy weather caused sea sickness but he had
nevertheless to scrub the corridors, serve meals
for the officers and wash all the dishes. More
over he had to make fifty pies every day which,
he states, he soon learned to do very well. His
only time off duty was one hour in the afternoon.
His berth was next the smoke stack and was
too hot to sleep in and the mattress was covered
with cockroaches alive and dead; so he took his
blanket and laid down in the hall, getting such
sleep as he could between midnight and morning.
It was no wonder he "thought that the ten days
of that crossing very long."
From Philadelphia he had to pay his fare,
SAMUEL SIDNEY McCLURE 159
getting off the train in Galesburg with exactly
one dollar in his pocket. Finding the students
were excited over a gymnasium building going
up on the campus, he at once gave his dollar to
the fund for it, for he thought he * might as well
start even." Then he went to call on Harriet
Hurd, the professor s daughter, and asked her
if she would marry him in seven years if he
turned out to be a good man. She said Yes.
The audacity and simple faith of the youth make
one smile and admire simultaneously, for the
young lady was a senior at Knox while he was
only in his last preparatory year. Naturally as
she was a student of unusual promise her parents
and friends did not favor the arrangement.
The winter went badly with him for although
he could have done work for his living, doing
chores had become hateful to him, having been
at that job since he was eleven years old. He
became absorbed in his college work and was
fascinated with Virgil s "^Eneid." He also
read Richter s "Titan" and Goethe s "Wilhelm
Meister." Carlyle and Emerson he discovered
for the first time. And yet he had no money
and rather than earn it he suffered the experi
ences described at the opening of our story.
The next summer he had to part from his young
lady friend as her father was sending her east
to school and she had promised not to see or
160 SAMUEL SIDNEY McCLURE
write to McClure. For four years he did not
see her again.
Samuel graduated from Knox College in 1882,
having dropped out one year to teach school at
Valparaiso. He spent the summers peddling,
which he enjoyed as it gave him the opportunity
to be in the open country. He got acquainted
with the people of the small towns and comuni-
ties so that in later years when he was editor of
a magazine, he felt that he knew what they liked
to read. He got his initiative in magazine writ
ing by editing the Knooc Student, the college
paper. His senior year was distinguished by
a renewal of his friendship for Miss Hurd who
informed him that things had never changed be
tween them. He went east to visit her in June,
1882, but she had changed her attitude and re
fused to see him, therefore he did not care where
he went, so took the first train from Utica which
chanced to be going to Boston.
Here he got employment with the Pope Man
ufacturing Company, teaching beginners how to
ride a bicycle. He had never been on one in his
life nor even close to one, but he was in the pre
dicament of the dog who had to climb a tree.
So in a couple of hours he had learned to ride
a Columbia wheel the high old fashioned kind
and was teaching other people. At the end of
a week Colonel Pope engaged him to take charge
SAMUEL SIDNEY McCLURE 161
of the rink over the office of the company. Not
long after Colonel Pope asked McClure if he
could edit a magazine. "Why yes, Sir," was the
quick response, for the youth was afraid that his
questioner might change his mind. Then he
added, "I could edit a monthly; I hardly think I
could manage a weekly." The result was that
McClure was made editor of the Wheelman.,
published in the interest of the Pope concern,
within two months after he had left college.
In 1883, at the end of seven years lacking
three days there came to McClure the thing he
had longed for, marriage to Miss Hurd. She
had waited a reasonable time hoping to have her
father s consent, but she at last fett that if he
did not give it, it was right for her to marry
the man who had waited for her so long. They
settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was
then making fifteen dollars a week and the rent
of the house took half of it, and they lived on
the other half. A combination of the magazine
Outing with the Wheelman under the joint
control of McClure and V. B. Howland, made
the former look for other employment, for he
felt he could not work well under such an ar
rangement. He secured a place with the De-
Vinne Press at twenty-five dollars a week, and
his wife had work on the Century Dictionary
at fifteen dollars weekly. But he did not like
162 SAMUEL SIDNEY McCLURE
his work there and changed to the Century Com
pany; unfortunately that did not mend matters
for him. He was not adapted to work under
other people. His daughter was born in July,
1884, and during a two weeks vacation at that
time, he invented the newspaper syndicate. He
submitted his plans to the Century Company,
and by the advice of Roswell Smith, owner of the
Century Magazine, started in business himself.
Feeling that he must have an office of his own,
he took an apartment of four rooms in New
York City, one of which was his office. They
were almost penniless when he had paid the first
month s rent in advance. He had numerous dis
couragements in the launching of his syndicate.
He got into debt at the start, for he agreed to pay
H. H. Boyessen $250 for a story, but his returns
amounted to fifty dollars less than he had to pay
out. He was twenty-seven years old at this time
and utterly without resources. He had not even
a day s credit at a grocery store. He and his
wife cooked on a one-burner oil stove badly worn,
and he did the washing to save his wife. Five
months after he had started, he had owing to
him $1,000 and he owed $1,500 to authors. At
that critical moment, Harriet Prescott Spoff ord
sent a two-part story as a gift; he sold it for
$275 and two months later his accounts showed
a balance of $161 in his favor.
SAMUEL SIDNEY McCLURE 163
Nevertheless the couple were very happy.
His wife helped all she could. Postage was one
of the heavy items of expense but "when they had
to decide between postage stamps and steaks for
dinner, she always decided for postage." Hus
band and wife did all the office work between
them. When he was serving forty papers a
week, forty copies of the story had to be sent out.
Making these duplicates was harassing, for to
have them printed would have been ruinous, so
he supplied one paper with the story free, and
in return it would be set from the author s copy
and supply him with the required number of
galley proofs. Sometimes these came too late
for the more distant papers and then he lost
heavily for that week. McClure had a wonderful
faculty for securing leading men and women as
writers, such as Julian Hawthorne, Louise
Chandler Moulton, Frank R. Stockton, Octave
Thanet, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Brander
Matthews, Joel Chandler Harris, Margaret De-
land, Charles Egbert Craddock, and others.
At the end of a year McClure felt that he
could afford a downtown office. John S.
Phillips, a former classmate, came into the busi
ness with him and seven years later became his
partner. He took the management of the office,
leaving McClure to travel over the country, in
terviewing editors and authors and securing
164 SAMUEL SIDNEY McCLURE
material for publication. In 1887 he went
abroad to get stories from English writers. He
made the acquaintance of Robert Louis Steven
son to whom he became personally very strongly
attached. He went on commission from Joseph
Pulitzer, editor of the New York World, to
offer him $10,000 a year for a short essay every
week, to be published in the World. It was
therefore a great thing for McClure to be able
to offer him $8,000 for a serial story, entitled "St
Ives." In 1888 he and Mrs. McClure went to
Italy. Never before had he time to look at
pictures and they opened a new world to him.
After this he secured stories from Rider Hag
gard, Conan Doyle and Rudyard Kipling.
Early in 1892 he began to plan for a maga
zine, for after eight years of work in the syndicate
he found himself only $2,800 ahead and realized
that not much further growth could be looked
for in that direction. He had no capital to start
on, but he planned with Mr. Phillips to begin
it by reprinting some of the best stories and
articles used in the syndicate. Then came the
collapse of the syndicate work in consequence
of the financial panic in 1893, but fortunately a
loan of $1,000 from Henry Drummond with the
purchase of $2,000 stock by him in the new maga
zine tided them over for awhile. Financial
difficulties pressed hard for the next year, but
SAMUEL SIDNEY McCLURE 165
help came from Conan Doyle and others who
believing in the new venture, enabled them to con
tinue publication.
About this time McClure discovered the
ability of Miss Ida Tarbell arid engaged her to
write for the magazine. Within a few months
in 1894 the circulation doubled because of the
interest in "The Life of Napoleon" written by
her. Then the "Life of Lincoln" caused it to
go up to 25,000. In 1896 McClure s Magazine
was clearing over $5,000 a month. McClure was
then thirty-nine years old, and this was the first
time he had been out of debt. The history of
the Standard Oil Company was another great
success, and so also was an investigation of crime
in the large cities, and a study of city and state
politics. It was the belief of McClure that the
fundamental weakness of modern journalism-
was that men were uninformed in the topics on
which they wrote. He therefore adopted the
plan of paying his writers a salary while they
studied the subject upon which he desired them to
write. The articles written in this way were
generally regarded as authoritative.
McClure had a purpose in view in editing his
magazine. He says "As a foreign-born citizen
of this country I should like to do my part to
help bring about the realization of the very noble
American Ideal which when I was a boy, was
166 SAMUEL SIDNEY McCLURE
universally believed in, here and in Europe."
He believes that the dishonest administration of
public affairs in our cities is due largely to care
lessness and that the remedy is simply what in
this land is called the commission form of gov
ernment.
THE MAN WHO REVOLUTIONIZED
TYPESETTING
OTTMAR MERGENTHALER
IN these days of the multiplicity of the printed
page we may well remember the man who
invented the linotype which enables an operator
to turn out printed matter four or five times
faster than it can be done by hand. From Ger
many came in 1872 the young man who was
the inventor of this machine. He was born in
May, 1854, at Bietigheim, located some twenty
miles from Stuttgart. His father was a
teacher, his mother also belonged to a family
which for long years had practiced that profess
ion. The boy was educated in his father s school,
while he had at home work that did not permit
much time for play. He helped cook the meals,
wash dishes, build fires during the winter and
take care of the garden in the summer. The
year round he was expected to feed the pigs and
cattle.
At the age of fourteen Ottmar was to begin
his training as a teacher but that occupation did
not offer any attractions for him. He had a
167
168 OTTMAR MERGENTHALER
special liking for mechanics, having kept clocks
in repair and made models of animals out of
wood. Finally he decided to become an ap
prentice to a Mr. Hahl, a brother of his step
mother, and a maker of watches and clocks.
The terms were four years service without wages ;
the payment of a small premium ; provide his own
tools, but be furnished board and lodging by his
employer. Ottmar had a pleasant home with
him, enjoyed his work and the company of the
other young men workers. He developed un
usual skill and mechanical talent, and succeeded
so well that Mr. Hahl paid him wages for a year
before the expiration of his apprenticeship. The
rarity of the young man s ability is evident from
the fact that this was the first time in a business
life of over thirty years that Mr. Hahl had found
occasion so to recognize talent in any youth.
Ottmar sought to improve all opportunities
open to him in the night school, getting in this
way, his first lessons in mechanical drawing
which later proved to be of much advantage to
him in the drafting of his inventions. In 1872,
at the close of his four years apprenticeship, he
had to decide where to locate for starting in busi
ness on his own account. The close of the
Franco-Prussian War had left conditions in
Germany very unsatisfactory. There was a
large amount of unemployment, and increased
OTTMAR MERGENTHALER 169
military duties were causing many young men to
leave the country. Ottmar therefore decided to
do likewise, and applied to August Hahl, a son
of his late employer, and a maker of electrical
instruments in Washington, D. C., for a loan of
passage money to be repaid by working in his fac
tory. The money was promptly sent and Mer-
genthaler landed in Baltimore in October, 1872,
going at once to his destination at Washington.
Electrical instruments were unfamiliar to
him, but he soon mastered their workings, and
within two years was made foreman of the shop,
even acting as business manager when Mr. Hahl
was absent. The United States Signal Service
had only been established a short time and Mer-
genthaler s work was largely the making of stan
dard instruments for it, for which he appeared to
have special fitness. Washington was a place
where inventor s models, which were required
whenever any one filed an application for a
patent, were particularly built, and this brought
Mergenthaler into contact with many inventors
and naturally stimulated his own talent in that
direction. In August, 1876, his attention was
attracted to an invention of a writing machine.
He examined it and saw how to remedy its de
fects. He was commissioned to build a machine
of full size, which he did in 1877. But though
much improved, it never could be a real success.
170 OTTMAR MERGENTHALER
Then an attempt was made to have stereotypy
take the place of lithography in the making of
an impression machine, but after several efforts
Mergenthaler told his employers that it could
never be brought to perfection.
Finally in January, 1883, J; O. Clephane and
others who were interested in backing these var
ious attempts, told Mergenthaler to devise a
machine to take the place of typesetting done by
hand, which was a slow and laborious process.
On New Year s Day he had dissolved the part
nership with Mr. Hahl, which had existed for
two years, and started in business for himself.
He had been for some time in Baltimore and
there he proceeded to work out the desires of his
Washington friends. His own plan was to
imprint a matrix a slight bar of metal in which
is sunk a character to serve as a mold line by
line, each line being justified as a unit. Experi
ments were tried, but without success, until one
day the thought came into his mind; why not
stamp the matrices or molds into type bars and
pour fluid metal into them, as is done by type
founders ? In this case he desired to do the whole
process in one machine.
His backers needed persuasion before they
were willing to endorse the new idea, but finally
they gave the order to Mergenthaler to build two
machines according to his plan. In 1884, when
OTTMAR MERGENTHALER 171
the first of these machines was ready to be tested,
a dozen spectators came to see the operation.
Everything went off well. The line of type was
composed by touching a keyboard. Then the
fluid metal was poured over it and a finished
linotype, shining like silver, dropped from the
machine, while each matrix was sent back to its
own receptacle. All was done within fifty
seconds. It was a notable event in the history of
printing.
During the next two years the inventor im
proved and simplified his linotype. In Feb
ruary, 1885, he exhibited a much improved
machine at the Chamberlain Hotel in Washing
ton, printers from all over the world being inter
ested. A banquet followed in honor of the in
ventor s great achievement. But still later
Mergenthaler saw that to make it more perfect
he must give visibility to its motions so that the
operator should be able to see what he is doing.
He also aimed to produce a single-matrix
machine. Other inventors were at work on sim-
lar ideas, but the invention of Mergenthaler had
points of excellence which gave it first place,
chief of all being that the three processes of type
setting, typefounding, and stereotyping are com
bined in one machine. Whitelaw Reid, editor
of the New York Tribune, gave the linotype its
name. He was the first to use the new machine
172 OTTMAR MERGENTHALER
in printing his newspaper. At the close of 1886
a dozen of them were at work in the Tribune
offices. The Chicago Inter-Ocean and the
Louisville Courier- Journal also adopted it.
In 1880 big profits were gained from the linotype.
The New York Tribune saved within twelve
months $80,000. And yet the inventor s royalty
was only fifty dollars per machine.
Still Mergenthaler continued to make improv-
ments until he had at last a wonderfully perfect
machine. As it now stands, its method of work
ing, briefly told, is as follows: The operator has
before him the control of about 1500 matrices.
Each matrix or mold is a small flat plate of brass
which has on its outer edge an incised letter, and
on its upper end a series of teeth for distributing
purposes. As the operator touches a key the
letter desired is set free and glides in full view
to its assembling place, which supplants the old-
fashioned stick. In like manner each letter
reaches its destination until the word is completed.
Then the operator touches a key that inserts a
space shaped like a double wedge. When the
line of type is full, it is justified by moving a
lever, and it is carried automatically to a mold
where liquid metal is forced against the matrices
and spaces. Then the line of type is ready to be
printed. This slug, as it is called, in a moment
OTTMAR MERGENTHALER 173
is hard and cool enough to pass to a tray where
other slugs are swiftly added to form a page or
column ready for the printing press. A set of
matrices often replaces a font of type weighing
two hundred times as much. A section of the
machine returns the matrices to their boxes as
quickly as 270 a minute, and unerringly, unless
a matrix is bent by accident or otherwise injured.
In a linotype three distinct operations go on to
gether : composing one line, casting a second and
distributing a third, so that the machine has a
pace exceeding that at which an expert operator
can finger his keys.
Since Mergenthaler s work was finished, his
linotype has been adapted to composing books
of the most exacting kind, mathematical treatises,
and the like. It has also been arranged for
printing in many languages, and for casting
letters twice the ordinary length for use in news
paper headings.
Mergenthaler was beloved by all the men who
worked for him. He was good to all of them
and no matter how humble their station, he always
had a kind word for them and a friendly word to
say of them.
When worn out at last with hard work, tuber
culosis developed in 1894 and five years later he
passed away, but not before he had been glad-
174 OTTMAR MERGENTHALER
dened by recognition of his great ability by the
award of a medal from the Cooper Institute of
New York; the John Scott medal by the City
of Philadelphia; and the Elliott Cresson gold
medal by the Franklin Institute of Philadephia.
A GREAT AMBASSADOR
HENRY MORGENTHAU
A GERMAN-BORN citizen who would not
JL\. permit a German- American newspaper to
enter his home, and who when asked to assist in
establishing a German-speaking theatre in New
York City, refused, because he said, "New York
is no place for either of them. There is room here
for only one language and one people," has
emphatically declared himself a loyal American.
That man is Henry Morgenthau who was born
in Manheim, Germany, in 1856, and came with his
parents and thirteen other children, to the United
States in 1865. He was educated in the public
schools and in the College of the City of New
York ; he studied law in Columbia College where
he graduated in 1877. Through twenty-one
years he practiced law, becoming sufficiently
prominent in his chosen profession to be
associated with Elihu Root in a noted law suit.
He then went into real estate business, in which
he distinguished himself by his foresight and
sagacity in building up neighborhoods and in
taking the initiative in the erection of some of
175
176 HENRY MORGENTHAU
the city s greatest buildings. He was considered
an authority on financial questions. The upright
straightforward character of the man is to be seen
in his handling of the invitation to become a
member of the policy holders commission to pro
tect their interests in the investigation of the
Equitable Life Insurance Society. Although
big men in that company were his business as
sociates and members of the board of his own
company, he felt it to be a public duty to serve as
asked and to take an active part in protecting the
policy holders. So he notified the officials of his
own company of his views and told them that if
not satisfactory, he was ready to resign as its
president. However they felt that they could
not afford to lose him as its head.
Henry Morgenthau has always been active in
philanthropic movements and civic affairs. He
founded and was the chief support for several
years of the Bronx House settlement which has
been a factor in making life more comfortable
for Jewish immigrants upon their first arrival
in this country. He has been president for many
years of the Free Synagogue of New York, which
he founded, and of which Dr. Stephen S. Wise
has been the preacher and leader. It is regarded
as one of the foremost Jewish synagogues in the
city.
In 1913 Henry Morgenthau felt he had reached
Underwood and Underwood
HENRY
MORGENTHAU
HENRY MORGENTHAU 177
the point where having acquired all the money
he needed, he decided to devote the rest of his
life to the service of this, his adopted country.
The first thing that occurred to him was to help
elect Woodrow Wilson president of the United
States. He had sympathized with his efforts
while president of Princeton University, to break
up the caste spirit and to do away with the ex
pensive upper class clubs, and as a Democrat he
believed he would render a service to the country
if he succeeded in getting Wilson in office. He
therefore undertook the chairmanship of the fi
nance committee of the campaign. By his
influence about 80,000 small contributions were
secured, instead of the money being procured
mainly from the financial centers of New York.
Mr. Morgenthau was appointed ambassador to
Turkey in the Fall of 1913, a position he held
until 1916. He distinguished himself, while
holding this office, by his wise and conciliatory
way of handling the duties that came to him.
He interested himself in the business affairs of
Turkey. The Turkish officials found he was not
seeking political advantage and he won their
admiration. They made it possible for him to
tour the country and he was so impressed with
its vast expanse of rich, undeveloped territory,
that on his return he offered to assist in the
instruction of the people in American methods of
178 HENRY MORGENTHAU
agriculture, although he declined the cabinet
position of minister of commerce and agriculture
urged upon him by the Turks.
When Turkey entered the Great War on the
side of Germany, Mr. Morgenthau was intrusted
with the interests of nine other nations. His
first act was to get safely out of Constantinople
the ambassadors of the Allies. The Turkish
government agreed to furnish two trains, one for
the English and French residents, and one for
the diplomats and their staffs. He knew that
Germany was seeking to influence Turkey to
retain the foreign residents as hostages for the
good behaviour of their countries, and
particularly to protect themselves against the
allied fleet. Consequently Mr. Morgenthau felt
that much depended on his being able to get
these people out of the city. But the arrange
ment was not being carried out, and the Ameri^
can ambassador asked Bedri, the Turkish pre
fect of police, what the trouble was. "We have
changed our minds," he replied, "We shall let the
train go that is to take the ambassadors and their
staffs, but we have decided not to let the unofficial
classes leave; the train that was to take them
will not go."
This produced great confusion and conster
nation, for the ambassadors of England
and France did not wish to leave their people
HENRY MORGENTHAU 179
behind them, and the latter were unwilling to
believe that they were not to be allowed to go.
Bedri refused to let any one get on the diplomatic
train until Mr. Morgenthau had personally
identified him, so he had to stand at a little gate
and pass upon each man. Laughable incidents
occurred, for Sir Louis Mallet, the British
ambassador, engaged in a set-to with a Turkish
official, and came out best. Bompard, the
French representative, was vigorously shaking a
Turkish policeman. In his story, Mr. Morgen
thau reports that one lady dropped her baby into
his arms, another handed him a small boy, and
later, one of the British secretaries made him the
custodian of his dog.
The position of the foreigners was pitiable, for
they had given up their quarters in Constanti
nople, and now found themselves stranded.
They did the best they could for the night, and
later the American ambassador succeeded in
persuading the Turkish officials to arrange for
their departure the next day. He and Bedri
went to the station and saw them off, as happy
as it was possible for them to be. Many testi
monials of gratitude were sent to Mr. Morgen
thau, one letter being signed by more than one
hundred persons.
There were still other foreigners who desired
to go, and he called on Talaat, the Turkish Min-
180 HENRY MORGENTHAU
ister of the Interior, who told the ambassador
that the cabinet had decided to let the English
and French residents remain or leave as they
might choose. He said that Mr. Morgenthau s
arguments had greatly influenced them. In
return for this promise he wished the ambassador
to see that Turkey was praised in the American
and European press for their leniency. Mr.
Morgenthau immediately communicated with the
representatives of the foreign papers, praising
the attitude of Turkey. He also cabled to Wash
ington, London, Paris, and the consuls. But he
had hardly done this when he was alarmed to
learn that the Turks were refusing to vise the
passports of those who were to go. It took a
long argument and much plain speaking to get
Talaat to order a change, for he said that the
German staff had countermanded his order, but
finally Mr. Morgenthau after an interview of
two hours succeeded in getting the train started.
Shortly after this event the American
ambassador felt he ought to go and see if the
French Sisterhood in charge of a school for girls
in Constantinople was having any difficulties.
His wife went with him, and as they ascended
the steps five Turkish policemen followed them
and crowded into the vestibule. The govern
ment had ordered all foreign schools closed that
day, intending to seize the buildings. The
HENRY MORGENTHAU 181
seventy-two teachers and sisters were to be shut
into two rooms, and the two hundred girls
were to be turned into the street although it was
extremely cold and raining in torrents, Mrs.
Morgenthau went upstairs with one of the sisters
who showed her a hundred pieces of flannel, into
each of which had been sewed twenty gold coins.
They had also several bundles of valuable papers
and securities. Mrs. Morgenthau concealed as
much as she could on her person and
then descended the stairs, walked past the police
men out to the waiting auto, drove to the Ameri
can embassy, placed the money in the vault, and
returned to the convent. She told her husband
afterwards that inwardly she was terribly
frightened. Yet again she went upstairs and a
sister lifted a tile from the floor of the gallery of
the cathedral which stood behind the convent, and
showed her a heap of gold coins. These Mrs.
Morgenthau hid among her garments and again
walked downstairs and passed the policemen, to
the auto.
By this time Bedri, the chief of police, had ar
rived and told the ambassador, Talaat had given
the order to close the school and that they had
expected to get it done before Mr. Morgenthau
heard anything about it; he added "but you seem
never to be asleep." The ambassador responded,
"You are very foolish to try such tricks. The
182 HENRY MORGENTHAU
sisters here have always been your friends.
They have educated many of your daughters.
Why do you treat them in such shameful fash
ion?"
Bedri consented to suspend the order until he
could get Talaat over the wire. The latter told
Bedri to wait awhile, but the chief exclaimed, "we
will leave the sisters alone for the present, but we
must get their money," so Mr. Morgenthau had
the pleasure of watching Bedri search the es
tablishment and find only a box of copper coins
that they disdained to take. Finally the Ameri
can ambassador persuaded Talaat to allow the
sisters who were neutral to remain in pos
session of that part of the buildings adjoining
the cathedral, on the ground that the Turkish
government could not seize property facing Vati
can land. The French nuns were given ten days
in which to leave for France, which they reached
safely.
These are instances of the interest Mr. Mor
genthau took in protecting those that needed
help, and indicate the influence he had with the
Turks. The three great American colleges are
emphatic in asserting that no one could have
better served their interests or those of the suffer
ing races of Turkey. Although technically he
had no right to interfere, he certainly used all the
persuasion possible to save the unfortunate Ar-
HENRY MORGENTHAU 183
menians, but without avail, for the Turks were
determined to keep their country exclusively for
the Turks.
Upon his return to the United States Mr.
Morgenthau was welcomed by a thousand mem
bers of merchant associations, to whom he said,
"I went there every inch an American; every bit
to protect American ideas, and therefore I met
the various representatives of countries who came
to see me, on an equal basis." It was in this
spirit, when he learned that Sir Edmond Pears, a
well known Englishman, had been arrested, he
turned to Talaat and said; "You have violated
your word to me, the ambassador of the United
States, and I intend that that word shall be re
spected." And Talaat gave in and promptly
released Sir Edmond.
THE FATHER OF THE YOSEMITE
JOHN MUIR
AMONG the wilds of Scotland, at Dunbar
by the stormy North Sea, was born in 1838
a boy who always delighted in adventure and who
even in his old age climbed almost inaccessible
mountains and traveled long journeys into un
frequented places. John Muir was the eldest
son of hard-working Scotch people and had few
pleasures. He was sent to school when only
three years old, his grandfather having pre
viously taught him the letters of the alphabet
from the street signs opposite his home.
School was not a place of enjoyment for John,
for, like many another boy, he was mischievous
and venturesome and paid the penalty by having
frequent thrashings. Between the age of seven
and eight he left the "Auld Davel Brae Schule"
for the grammar school. Here he had three les
sons a day in Latin, three in French, and as
many in English, in addition to spelling, arith
metic, history, and geography. At home his
father made him learn so many verses of the
Bible that when he was eleven years old he knew
184
JOHN MUIR 185
by heart three quarters of the Old Testament
and all of the New Testament. As he himself
quaintly puts it: "By sore flesh I was able to
recite the New Testament from the beginning to
the end without a single stop, for the grand,
simple, all-sufficient Scotch discovery had been
made that there was a close connection between
the skin and the memory, and that irritation of
the skin excited the memory to any required de
gree."
Boys of to-day would surely think themselves
badly treated if they were given the meals John
Muir and his brothers and sisters had. For
breakfast they had oatmeal porridge with a little
milk or molasses. Dinner consisted usually of
vegetable broth, a small piece of boiled mutton,
and barley scone. For tea they were given half
a slice of white bread without butter, barley scone,
and a drink called "content," which was simply
warm water with a little milk and sugar. For
supper they had a boiled potato and barley scone.
The only fire for the whole house was in the little
kitchen stove, the fire-box of which was* eight
inches long and eight inches in width and depth.
Into the monotony of this life came one day
a joyous surprise when Father Muir said,
"Bairns, you needna learn your lessons the nicht,
for we re gaen to America the morn." For many
years after that Jo hn s home was at Kingston,
186 JOHN MUIR
near Fort Winnebago, Wis. The heavy burden
of clearing and plowing the land fell on him, al
though he was only twelve years old. One of
his particularly hard experiences was the digging
of the well, into which he was lowered every
morning at sunrise, and there spent the day chisel
ing away the hard rock, except for a short inter
val at noon. This slow method occupied many
months and was a great trial to a boy who loved
outdoor life. When he had reached a depth of
eighty feet he nearly lost his life by being over
come with gas. In that pioneer existence there
was muc h hardship. He was sick with the
mumps at one time, but was kept at work in the
harvest field even though he fainted more than
once. For several weeks he was ill with pneu
monia, but he had to struggle through without
any aid from a doctor.
At fifteen years of age John Muir became
eager for an education. He borrowed such
books as he could get, and because his father
would not let him stay up at night rose at one.
o clock every morning, studying in the cellar as
the warmest place in the cold winter days. He
developed a talent for invention, making his own
tools out of the materials at hand. He made a
fine saw out of strips of steel from old corsets;
bradawls, punches, and a pair of compasses from
wire and old files. He constructed a time-keeper
JOHN MUIR 187
which indicated the days of the month and of the
week as well as the hours. One of his clocks
kept good time for fifty years. He also built a
self-setting sawmill and an automatic contrivance
for feeding horses at a required hour.
Soon after Muir became of age he left home,
with only fifteen "dollars in his packet, with which
to make his way in the w r orld. He went to the
State Fair and exhibited his inventions, which
elicited much wonder and interest. At the age of
twenty-two he entered the University of Wiscon
sin, discovering that although he had not attended
school since he left Scotland except for two
months in a district school, a few weeks in the
preparatory department enabled him to qualify
as a freshman. He spent four years at the uni
versity. In his book, entitled "My Boyhood and
Youth," he says.: "I earned enough during sum
mer vacations to pay thirty-two dollars a year for
instruction, my books, acids, retorts, glass tubes,
etc. I had to cut down expenses for board to
half a dollar a week."
During this period he invented an apparatus
which, when attached to his bed, not only awak
ened him at a definite hour, but simultaneously
lighted a lamp. After so many minutes alloted
for dressing, a book was pushed up from a rack
below the top of his desk, thrown open, and al
lowed to remain there a certain number of min-
188 JOHN MUIR
utes. Then the machinery closed the book,
dropped it back into its place, and moved the
rack forward with the next book required.
Having completed his work at the university,
John Muir started on a trip to Canada on foot.
He worked in a mill there for a year, improving
its machinery and inventing appliances for in
creasing its product. Then he went to Indian
apolis and in a carriage and wagon factory was
offered the position of foreman with a prospec
tive partnership. But one of his eyes through
an accident was injured, and after several weeks
of confinement in a dark room, he determined
"to get away into the flowery wilderness to en
joy and lay in a large stock of God s wild beauty
before the coming on of the time of darkness."
He therefore went on foot on a botanizing tour
to Cedar Keys on the Gulf of Mexico, and later
traveled to Cuba. In 1868 he went to California.
There in the Yosemite, he lived for many years,
occasionally taking trips to still wilder places,
He climbed the most inaccessible mountains and
discovered some sixty-five glaciers. One of
his remarkable feats was crawling along a
three-inch ledge to the brink of the 1,600-foot
plunge of the Upper Yosemite creek to listen,
as he said, "to the sublime psalm of the falls."
In 1879 he to went Alaska, and, while there
he had an adventure which revealed the indomi-
JOHN MUIR 189
table character of the man. Mr. Muir and his
friend, S. Hall Young, were together on a moun
tain-climbing expedition. In brief the story as
told in Mr. Young s book, "Alaska Days with
John Muir" is as follows :
"Then Muir began to slide up that mountain.
A deer-lope over the smoother slopes, a sure
instinct for the easiest way into a rocky fortress,
an instant and unerring attack, a serpent glide
up the steep ; eye, hand, and foot all dynamically
connected, with no appearance of weight to his
body. . . . Fifteen years of enthusiastic study
in the Sierras had given him preeminence over
the ordinary climber. . . . No Swiss guide was
ever wiser in the habits of glaciers than Muir. . . .
Not an instant when both feet and hands were
not in play; often elbows, knees, thighs, upper
arms, and even chin must grip and hold.
Clambering up a steep slope, crawling under an
overhanging rock, spreading out like a flying
squirrel, and edging along an inch-wide pro
jection while fingers clasped knobs above the
head, bending about sharp angles, pulling up
smooth rock faces by sheer strength of arm, and
chinning over the edge, leaping fissures, sliding
flat around a dangerous rock breast, testing
crumbling spurs before risking his weight, always
going up, up, no hesitation, no pause that was
Muir."
190 JOHN MUIR
While climbing Mr. Young met with an
accident which deprived him of the use of his
arms, both shoulders being dislocated. In this
dilemma he was practically helpless, but Mr.
Muir was equal to the occasion and in a marvel
ous way climbed over glaciers and down the
steepest crags, supporting his friend. It took
all night to do it, but he succeeded. The story
is a thrilling one. It concludes thus: "Some
times he would pack me for a short distance on
his back. Again taking me by the wrist he would
swing me down to a lower level before descend
ing himself. Holding my collar by his teeth as
a panther her cub, and clinging like a squirrel
to a tree, he climbed with me straight up ten or
twelve feet, with only the help of my ironshod
feet scrambling on the rock. All night this man
of steel and lightning worked, never resting a
minute, doing the work of three men, always
cheery, full of joke and anecdote, inspiring me
with his own indomitable spirit. He gave heart
to me."
In one of his climbing expeditions he suddenly
found the ground under him slipping. Instantly
he threw himself on his back, spread out both
arms, and so took a ride on an avalanche.
But though Muir was so great a traveler,
going in 1903 and 1914 to Europe, the Caucasus,
Siberia, Japan, China, India, Egypt, Australia,
JOHN MUIR 191
and New Zealand for botanical study, and even
at the age of seventy-three making a trip to the
wilderness on the Amazon River and then to the
jungles of Africa, it is to his love for and in
vestigations in the Yosemite that we are indebted
for our possession as a nation of the most noted
and wonderful of our national parks. Largely
because of his earnest and persistent efforts the
Yosemite was made a national reserve in 1890.
It is thirty-six miles in length and forty-eight in
breadth. The Yosemite Valley lies in the heart
of it. It includes two rivers, innumerable lakes
and waterfalls, forests, ice-sculptured canons,
and mountains twelve thousand feet high. In
his book, "The Yosemite," the wonders and
beauty of this marvelous region are fully des
cribed by this man who had given years of study
to it. Other books written by him are "Moun
tains of California" ; "Our National Parks" ; "My
First Summer in the Sierra"; and many maga
zine articles. His story of "Stickeen," a favor
ite dog in Alaska, ranks with "Rab and His
Friends," and "Bob, Son of Battle." In each of
these one glimpses the far-reaching knowledge
of nature and animal life that he acquired.
In the spring of 1880 Mr. Muir married Miss
Louise Strentzel, daughter of a Polish physician
who had come to California in 1847. Muir had
a happy home, but much as he loved it and his
192 JOHN MUIR
friends, he loved nature more ardently. His
devotion to it was the master passion of his life,
and he himself recognized that he was "hopelessly
and forever a mountaineer." "Few have loved
beauty as I have, enough to forego so much to
attain it." His home was a ranch forty miles
from San Francisco. As soon as his vineyard
was ready for the summer he would go to his
loved mountains, where for three months he en
joyed every moment, living mainly on bread and
tea. He fairly reveled in an earthquake that
he might see the changes wrought by such a con
vulsion of nature. He would climb to the top
of swaying branches to feel the pulsing of the
heart of a storm. After these experiences he
was wont to say, "We have met with God."
Tyndall said Muir was the greatest authority on
glacial action the world has known, and Agassiz
and Le Conte held a similar opinion. To the
largest glacier Muir s name has been given.
When he discovered it, it was fully a mile and a
haif in width and the perpendicular face of it
towered from four to seven hundred feet above
the water.
A writer in the Craftsman has well said : "Muir
was Scotch to the backbone, yet America claims
him as her own, so earnestly has he studied our
trees, so closely is he identified with the wonders
of the great West, so loyally has he labored to
JOHN MUIR 193
preserve our natural beauties when from time to
time there have been those of our countrymen
who would have wrested them from us. A
mighty Alaskan glacier bears his name, a noble
forest of California redwoods Muir Woods
and it is likewise fitting that a little mountain
daisy is his namesake," for he would speak of a
tiny fern as "one of the bonnies of our Father s
bairns."
A GREAT JOURNALIST AND
PHILANTHROPIST
JOSEPH PULITZER
A MAN of remarkable characteristics, a very
dynamo of mental and physical force, was
developed in a young immigrant lad, aged seven
teen, who landed in Boston in 1864. He was
born in Mako, in Hungary, the son of an Irish
mother and a Jewish father. Upon the death of
the latter Joseph decided not to be a burden to
his mother and therefore attempted to enter the
army. He was rejected, however, because of a
defect in one eye. Still cherishing the idea of a
military life and hearing of the war with Mexico,
he started for the United States. He was prac
tically penniless when he arrived in Boston, and
could speak only a few words of English.
Meeting a fellow countryman who had just
enlisted in a German cavalry regiment being
raised in New York City to take part in the
Civil War, he concluded to do likewise, and as
men were much needed he was enrolled and
served until the end of the conflict.
Joseph, full of fire and energy, was always
194
JOSEPH PULITZER 195
ready to take the part of the weak and helpless.
One day he could not endure seeing the brutal
treatment of a fellow soldier, and without regard
to army discipline dared to knock down the officer
who was inflicting it. Of course this action
involved him in trouble and he was arrested and
imprisoned to await court-martial. Meanwhile,
an old general who was very fond of a good game
of chess heard that this young Hungarian was
a clever player of it. He sent for him and many
hours were passed in chess-playing, during which
the general became interested in the young man,
quickly discovering that he had a bright mind
and could think well. Fortunately for Joseph,
his new friend determined to obtain his release
and accomplished his purpose.
After the army was disbanded, the immigrant
lad had several hard experiences. One night,
having no other place in which to sleep, he chose
the public park as the only one available. But
he did not know that the city did not permit
people to make it a resting-place at night, and
when the policeman ordered him to move on he
did so, until he came to French s Hotel, in Park
Row. Learning of his plight, a man in charge
of the furnace told him he might sleep in the
furnace-room. Before the night was over, how
ever, he was again sent on his way by another
man who later came on duty. Like a veritable
196 JOSEPH PULITZER
fairy-tale was the experience of Joseph Pulitzer,
for in after years he became owner of the build
ing out of which he was so unceremoniously
turned during his homeless wandering.
Soon after this adventure he decided to go
West. What little money he had took him as
far as East St. Louis. He desired to go across
the Mississippi, but could not pay the ferryboat
fare, so he offered to serve as fireman on the ferry
and pleased the captain so well that he continued
to work at that task until he later secured a
place as stevedore on the St. Louis wharves.
Various positions did he fill, but he was fre
quently handicapped by his defective eye-sight.
A dangerous and hard task was given him
by a St. Louis man. The charter of the St.
Louis & San Francisco Railroad had to be
recorded in eveiy county of the state and the
papers in the case personally filed with the clerk
of each county. As Missouri was at this time
infested with bushwhackers and guerrillas it was
a risky undertaking for any man to make the
trip. Joseph was entirely ignorant of the
conditions and eagerly started out on horseback.
He completed his task and returned safely with
valuable knowledge, which no other man then
possessed, of every county in the state. Real
estate men found the information he could give
them of great value.
Underwood and Underwood
JOSEPH PULITZER
JOSEPH PULITZER 197
Even during his hard experiences he had been
a great reader and he now began to study law,
his late journeyings having naturally given him
an insight into some of its phases. In 1868,
four years after he landed in this country, he was
admitted to the bar. Ambitious and full of
energy as he was, he soon found that life as a
young lawyer was altogether too tame for him.
Gladly, therefore, he accepted the post of
reporter on the Westliche Post, a daily news
paper of which Carl Schurz was at that time the
editor. So well did Mr. Pulitzer succeed in this
new undertaking that before long he became
managing editor and obtained a proprietary
interest in it. He was never afraid of any
one s opinion and never hesitated to say what
he believed as to the right or wrong of any public
affair.
The tide of fortune had now definitely turned
for Joseph Pulitzer. He had found what he
could do successfully, the work which later
brought him fame and riches.
In 1869 he was elected a member of the
Missouri Legislature, and in 1874 to the State
Constitutional Convention. In 1872 he was a
delegate to the Cincinnati Convention which
nominated Horace Greeley to the presidency,
and in 1880 was a member of the platform
committee of the Democratic National Con-
198 JOSEPH PULITZER
vention. He forged ahead so rapidly that
honors came to the immigrant and destitute lad
of so short a time ago.
In 1878 he founded the Post-Dispatch by
buying the Dispatch and uniting it with the
Evening Post. This brought him a yearly in
come of $150,000, and as he was now thirty-
six years old he decided to go to Europe for
study and rest. But just then he learned that
the New York World was for sale, and despite
the warnings of his physician that health and
eye-sight might be sacrificed if he did not rest,
the temptation was too great to be resisted. In
the twenty-three years of its existence it had not
been much of a success, but Mr. Pulitzer soon
made a change. With all the energy at his
command he worked until he made it one of the
leading papers of the country.
He has been called "a great journalistic force
whether for good or evil." Unquestionably he
had high ideals. The following words expressed
his conception of a great newspaper: "An
institution which should always fight for progress
and reform; never tolerate injustice or
corruption; always fight demogogues of all
parties; never belong to any party; always op
pose privileged and public plunder; never lack
sympathy with the poor; always remain devoted
JOSEPH PULITZER 199
to the public welfare ; never be afraid to attack
wrong."
Unfortunately he, like many another man, did
not always live up to his ideals; he permitted in
the World a notable disregard for truth in its
news columns, and failed to observe the rights of
privacy in his eagerness to obtain information
that would attract popular attention, so that this
part of the paper was often by no means a
creditable production. It was frequently public-
spirited in its editorials. In relation to a pro
posed Government bond issued in 1893 he de
manded that it be thrown open to the people at
large at its real value, instead of permitting a
group of financiers to reap a large profit and thus
rob the government. To prove his honesty of
purpose he offered a million dollars in gold for the
bonds. He succeeded in his aim, for the public
were given fair opportunity to purchase the
bonds. Mr. Pulitzer did loyally live up to his
ideals in regard to fighting against special rights
and special classes and as champion of the op
pressed. He insisted always upon liberty being
a reality and not merely a name. An advertiser
who paid a big price for his pages was not allowed
to influence the editorial policy in the slightest
degree.
Even after he was stricken with blindness
200 JOSEPH PULITZER
Mr. Pulitzer s activity and energy were marvel
ous. His health by this time was broken and he
suffered so greatly that he was compelled to live
away from his family and friends much of the
time, mainly on his yacht, for there he could
secure the quiet he needed. He kept three
secretaries with him, whose duty it was to keep
him fully posted as to what was happening all
over the world. At breakfast they had to furnish
him with a review of new books, plays, music,
and art. At lunch they were expected to supply
descriptions of important persons and events.
He was continually absorbing knowledge and
then dictating material for his paper or sending
cablegrams to the office. Thus for years did
he wonderfully control and really edit the
World, although he rarely entered its offices.
In his adopted country Mr. Pulitzer had made
millions of money, and while remembering
generously his family and those who had served
him he was anxious to benefit his fellow citizens.
He gave Columbia University two million dol
lars to establish a school of journalism, that men
and women writers might have special training
for their work. This school has had a large
number of students and has attracted wide
attention and approval. He also provided the
Pulitzer Scholarship Fund of $250,000 and funds
for the support of three graduates of the school
JOSEPH PULITZER 201
who should pass examinations with the highest
honors, to enable them to spend a year in Europe
studying the political, social, and moral
conditions. In all his planning for the School of
Journalism, he said, his chief end in view was the
welfare of the Republic.
He left an annual prize of a gold medal to be
given for the most disinterested and meritorious
public service rendered by any American news
paper during the year. A prize of one thou
sand dollars was to be awarded annually for an
American novel that should depict the whole
some atmosphere of American life and the
highest standard of American manhood and
womanhood.
To his sons and sons-in-law he left his capital
stock in the two papers he had founded, enjoin
ing upon them the duty of preserving, perfect
ing, and perpetuating the New York World
newspaper, which he had striven to create and
conduct as a public institution from motives
higher than mere gain.
To the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New
York City he bequeathed $500,000, and to the
Philharmonic Society a like sum.
A SERBIAN-AMERICAN
SCIENTIST
MICHAEL PUPIN
A MERICA worked considerable trans-
.xV. formation in a Serbian lad who ran away
from his native land in 1874, and nine years
later graduated from Columbia College, won a
PH. D. from Berlin in 1889, and within fifteen
years from the time he landed, became a member
of the faculty of Columbia.
This lad, Michael Pupin, by name, was born
in Idvor, Hungary, descended from Serbian an
cestors who settled in the Province of Banat,
north of the Danube, and were guaranteed
political and spiritual freedom on condition that
they should defend Austria against the Turks.
They kept their contract but the Emperor broke
his end of it by turning them over to Hungary
and making them vassals of the Magyars. His
father saying "The Emperor has betrayed us.
I will see that you never serve in his army," made
a vivid impression on the boy s mind. He had
heard of America and of Lincoln, "the greatest
man," he calls him, "who ever lived, because he
202
MICHAEL PUPIN 203
kept his pledged word." So the United States
attracted him and while a school boy at Prague,
he one day, sold his watch, his books, all his clothes
except those he wore, and with the proceeds and
the small monthly allowances received from
home, ran away to America. When he landed,
he had just five cents in his pocket.
Ellis Island and immigration officials did not
exist in those days so he had no trouble in getting
admitted. He was hired by a Delaware farmer
who treated him well. The daughter of the
house taught him English in the evenings. But
he came to the conclusion after a while that farm
ing did not appeal to him, so he went to Phila
delphia where his talents for drawing secured him
a place with a photographer, retouching nega
tives. Later, he went to New York and took
work in a cracker factory.
He had made good use of the short time he had
been in this countiy for he was now able to read
English with ease. He became interested in the
scientific articles, published in the Sun, a daily
paper of New York, and he decided to get an
education and become a scientist. It was con
siderable of an undertaking but he was not afraid
of the hard work involved. He had already been
improving his opportunities and had read the
speeches of Webster, Clay, Calhoun and Lincoln.
The Gettysburg speech of President Lincoln
204 MICHAEL PUPIN
he had committed to memory, and also Bryant s
"Thanatopsis." This was good training for his
English, but he felt his pronunciation was faulty,
so he went to the top gallery of the theater where
he could hear Edwin Booth, Lawrence Barrett
and John McCullough. In the same year he
began attending night school, taking lessons in
drawing, physics and chemistry.
When he was twenty he had saved $311 and
entered Columbia College, working his way by
various jobs. During the first summer vacation
he earned $75 besides his board, by hay-making
in New Jersey. For the remainder of his col
lege course he undertook coaching for fellow
students. The indomitable perseverance of the
young man is evident in the steadiness with which
he pursued his aim of getting an education, for
he triumphed over all difficulties and graduated
from college in 1883. Then he went abroad and
studied mathematics and physics in Cambridge,
England, and Berlin, Germany. He received
the honor of the John Tyndall Fellowship from
Columbia College.
\ Returning to America, this foreign-born young
man who had so signally made good, was ap
pointed instructor in mathematical physics in his
alma mater. In 1892 he continued his upward
climb for he was made adjunct professor of
mechanics, and in 1901 professor of electro-
MICHAEL PUPIN
MICHAEL PUPIN 205
matics; in 1911 director of the Phoenix research
laboratories. Before this in 1906 he had been
elected a member of the National Academy of
Sciences.
To-day Professor Pupin is known the world
over wherever electrical problems are being
solved. He is a scientist who delights to unravel
complex problems. He makes investigations
simply because he desires to know things, not
because with the knowledge gained he will have
a commercial advantage, although he claims
" there is no worth while purely scientific prob
lem, the correct solution of which will not some
day have a practical value." His discoveries
in pure physics have frequently been the foun
dation on which others have built, as for instance,
his theory of selective tuning for separation of
mixed electrical operations was completed two
years before Marconi announced his wireless, and
was used by Marconi and Co. as a basis for selec
tive tuning by which the messages of different
wave lengths can be received. "Long before the
wonder working vacuum tube rectifier was
brought out, Professor Pupin had developed the
principle and apparatus for rectification of alter
nating electrical forces."
His most important contribution for prac
tical purposes are his researches in electrical
resonance and the magnetization of iron. In the
206 MICHAEL PUPIN
beginning of long distance telephony there was
great trouble with interference by unaccount
able noises as buzzing, singing, clicking sounds.
This difficulty was solved by the application of
Pupin s theory of the propagation of electrical
impulses over a non-uniform conductor. This
practically worked out was called "Pupin s coil,"
and the patents were acquired by the Bell Tele
phone Company, and the German Telephone
Company. The coil consists of insulated wire
wound on very finely laminated iron cores en
cased in water-tight boxes.
The professor takes out few patents because
he wants to be sure that what he patents is of
value. As he puts it, "I d rather have a few
good children than a lot of poor ones." After
Roentgen s discovery the first X ray for surgical
work was made by Professor Pupin. In 1917
he presented to the United States Government
the use of his invention eliminating static inter
ference with wireless transmission.
Pupin s work with his class of students has
been of immense value to the world for he has in
spired them to do good and valuable work. He
is a strong teacher, having not only intellectual
power of unusually high degree, but he has a
personality that attracts. He has also a fine
sense of humor, and is a great athlete as well as
a great scientist. He feels honored in being an
MICHAEL PUPIIST 207
American citizen but he has by no means forgot
ten his native land and has been active in the in
terest of Serbia. At the outbreak of the Balkan
war in 1912 he was appointed by the Serbian
government honorary consul general at New
York. In 1915 he organized among Columbian
students relief workers for Serbia.
Honors have come to him not a few; he was
given the degree of Ph. D. by Berlin; an honor
ary degree from Johns Hopkins; the Elliot
Cresson medal for distinction in Physics; the
Hebert prize of the French Academy in physics,
and the gold medal of the National Institute of
Science. Thus the Serbian boy has made good
in his adopted country.
FROM A SYRIAN VILLAGE TO
BOSTON
ABRAHAM MITRIE RIHBANY
FROM a Syrian village home where the life
was so primitive that he knew not "what a
library was; where he never saw street lights,
glass windows, iron stoves, public halls, newspa
pers, structural iron of any kind, or anything
that rode on wheels; where he never heard a
piano but once (in the home of an American
missionary) and where public education, citizen
ship, a national flag, and political institutions of
any description," were unknown to him, is
indeed "a far journey" to a pastorate of a well-
to-do church in Boston, but that is the actual
experience of Abraham Mitrie Rihbany.
He was born in the town of El-Shweir, in the
province of Mount Lebanon, Syria, in Asiatic
Turkey. His father was a stone mason, a con
tractor and builder, highly respected by his busi
ness associates, a man of simple, unaffected dig
nity and remarkably industrious. His mother
was alert, resourceful, and absolutely fearless.
In the family she was generally regarded as a
208
ABRAHAM MITRIE RIHBANY, 209
i
wise counsellor. Their home was a typical Syr
ian one-story building of rough hewn stone and
consisted of two rooms a living room and a
store room. It had one door and two windows
without glass but with wooden shutters. The
earthen floor was painted frequently with mud,
and rubbed with a smooth stone until it shone. It
was furnished with straw mats and cushions, and
in the winter season with soft and fluffy sheep
skins. There were no chairs and no bedsteads.
The family sat and slept on the earthen floor.
The bed was of thick cushions for a mattress,
stuffed with wool or cotton, a pillow of the same
material, and a quilt for covering.
Abraham was sent to a school kept by his
uncle, Priest Michael of the Holy and Apostolic
Greek Orthodox Church, when he was only three
years old. Here he was taught the alphabet.
In those times very few men in El-Shweir could
read or write. The uncle combined the duties
of teacher and of weaver, giving his eyes to the
weaving and his ears to his pupils. At the end
of the first year English missionaries opened a
school in the town and therefore his uncle had
to abandon his educational work as the mission
school was far better equipped than his. Abra
ham went to this school which interested him
much. It was a revelation to him to see the clock
that struck the hours and "the stove which had fire
210 ABRAHAM MITRIE RIHBANY
inside of it, and from which a long pipe carried
the smoke outside the room." Fancy pencils,
writing paper, chalks, new clean little books and
a large Bible, the first he .had ever seen, were all
marvelous wonders to him. The devotional serv-
ive held every morning made a strong impres
sion on the boy.
When he was six years old his parents removed
to Betater as his father was in charge of the
building operations of a silk spinning factory
there. In the second year of their stay in the
town an American mission school was opened so
he was transferred to it from that of the Maro-
nite priest. At the age of nine his father took
him out of school and had him begin to learn his
trade of stone making. As the son of the
"Master," Abraham was allowed special privi
leges. At the age of fourteen he was allowed to
do actual building and at the age of sixteen he
was classed and paid wages as a "Master."
His father was much pleased with his son s
progress, but Abraham himself was discontented
for he did not enjoy the prospect of being a stone
mason all his life. He had made the acquaintance
of Iskander, a boy of about his own age, who was
attending an American boarding school, ten miles
from Betater. The two boys practically lived
together during Iskander s vacation and often
stayed up the whole night talking, for Abraham
ABRAHAM MITRIE RIHBANY 211
craved knowledge. The outcome of this friend
ship was that he was permitted to go to the same
school. This news was the talk of the town for
several days. "Just think of it! Abraham, the
Master s son, ds going to school at the advanced
age of seventeen."
In October, 1886, he became a student in the
high school of Suk-el-Gharb. His experiences
there were very strange to him. He says in his
book, entitled "A Far Journey," that the first
elevating influence he felt was having a bedstead
of three pine boards and two saw-horses. From
force of habit he found himself on the floor twice
during the first night. The study of the Bible
the great and holy book of his own Church-
interested him more than anything else. It was
the wonder of wonders to him that he might
himself read and study it. After a year in the
school he joined the Protestant Church, without
consulting his parents, who upon learning it did
not seem to raise much objection.
At the end of the second school year his father
told him he could no longer afford to keep him
in the school. Of his twelve children, six were
still to be cared for and he was getting old, and
had suffered serious business reverses. Abra
ham consulted the head of his school and was of
fered the position of a teacher in the primary
school attached to the high school. This offer
212 ABRAHAM MITRIE RIHBANY
was promptly accepted at a salary of three dol
lars a month and his board. He taught there
for two years, and one year in the city of Zahlah.
During this period he devoted himself parti
cularly to the study of the Arabic language and
literature. He also began to realize that an edu
cated youth in Syria had no opportunity to de
velop the higher qualities and that he was
watched by the government as a possible revo
lutionist. Naturally therefore he was eager to
emigrate and it seemed to him "a moment of
divine significance" when, meeting two friends,
he learned that they were on the point of starting
for America. They urged him to go with them,
promising to lend him such financial aid as he
might need until he reached New York. He at
once decided to go with them, first making a visit
home. His parents, although surprised, were
not averse to his going, and with a devout prayer
from his mother, imploring "the all wise Father
to guide and prosper him," he left his native land.
On the evening of October 6, 1891, he reached
New York, with only nine cents in his pockets,
and owing forty dollars to his friends. The day
after he was impressed with the contrast between
his own country and the liberty allowed in Amer
ica, by witnessing a parade and mass meeting of
a labor union. His friends introduced him to a
countryman who kept a restaurant and lodging
ABRAHAM MITRIE RIHBANY 213
house, and then left him, after he had given each
of them a note due in six months for the amount
he owed them. By a fortunate circumstance he
met a former acquaintance who lent him five
dollars. He had to pay fifteen cents for a
night s lodging and decided that was more luxury
than he could afford, so leaving his host, Abra
ham, he sought the abode of one named Moses,
who offered him a platform for five cents a night,
upon which he could spread the Syrian bedding
that he had brought with him. But finding that
he had to share his platform with two other men
who had been stealing and who had a fight over
it until late at night, he felt obliged to pick up his
bed and return the next morning to Abraham.-
Through Moses, however, he obtained his first
position, that of bookkeeper. He found that it
included duties of sweeping out the shop, and
building a fire in the stove and carrying out the
ashes, which seemed to him a humiliation. His
salary of twenty dollars a month did not allow
him money with which to buy clothing suitable
for winter, for he had to keep some to pay back
his friends. By advice from an acquaintance he
bought a heavy coarse shirt, said to be made of
camel s hair.
Not quite six months after he had landed in
this country he applied for admittance to Ameri
can citizenship. Thrilling with emotion he took
214 ABRAHAM MITRIE RIHBANY
the oath of allegiance, for he felt that now he had
become a "citizen of a country whose chief func
tion was to make free, enlightened and useful
men." Early in the spring Mr. Rihbany was
offered a position which he felt was more in sym
pathy with his ideals and his desires. He was
invited to become the literary editor of "Kowkab
America" (the "Star of America"), the first
Arabic newspaper ever published in the western
hemisphere. But the dreams he entertained of
glory and fame were destined not to be realized,
and at the end of a year he decided to go to Pitts
burgh, where an acquaintance, a graduate of the
Syrian Protestant College at Beirut, was en
gaged as a missionary among the Syrians there.
The reason for his decision was that he felt he
was making no progress in the real life of
America as long as he remained in the Syrian
colony. During his stay of eighteen months in
New York City he "did not have occasion to
speak ten sentences in English."
Mr. Rihbany and his friend planned to travel
together to lecture before churches and societies,
sell silk goods, and by other means to secure
financial aid to enable them both to enter a great
university, but the plan failed completely and
Mr. Rihbany found himself left alone. He tried
to get engagements to lecture but did not succeed
very well, as his command of the English Ian-
ABRAHAM MITRIE RIHBANY 215
guage was imperfect and this made it difficult.
His lack of familiarity with American social
customs also caused him embarrassing moments.
In Syria it is customary to remove one s shoes
at the door but keep the fez or turban on your
head. Mr. Rihbany states that upon going into
American homes it was not easy for him to real
ize instantly which extremity to uncover. "Eat
ing butter on bread, a dessert with every meal,
and sitting in rocking chairs seemed to him to be
riotous luxuries," and it took him a long time
to get accustomed to them. His story helps one
to understand how difficult it is for the foreigner
to familiarize himself with our ways and customs.
Although unable frequently to obtain money
enough to live without the strictest economy, he
gained much during these travels from the con
tact with good men and women and by admit
tance into homes of culture. American churches
and public schools also stirred him greatly. In
1903 Edward Everett Hale said to Mr. Rihbany,
4 How in the world do you manage to speak
English so well?" He feels that he owes a great
debt to his study of the language of the English
Bible, and from living men in all walks of life he
increased his vocabulary. Occasionally however
he would misapply ordinary words in a way that
was laughable, as for instance after eating a well
appointed dinner in the home of the Lutheran
216 ABRAHAM MITRIE RIHBANY
minister, he said to the hostess, "Mrs. S., I have
greatly enjoyed your grub."
In the early autumn of 1893 he first felt that
he was really able to hold the attention of an
American audience. It was at a union meeting
and his subject was "Turkey and America Con
trasted." The applause of his audience told him
that he was making an impression and this was
emphasized when the minister told him that he
would soon make a very effective public speaker.
It was in the same town that he heard sung for
the first time the song "America." The line,
"Land where my fathers died" made him envy
every one who could sing it truthfully. For
years afterwards he seemed to himself to be an
intruder whenever he tried to sing those words
but at last he came to realize that all those "who
fought for the freedom I enjoy, for the civic
ideals I cherish, for the simple but lofty virtues
of the typical American home which I love, were
my fathers and therefore I could sing Land
where my fathers died, with truth and justice."
In 1895 Mr. Rihbany matriculated in the Ohio
Wesleyan University, but at the end of his second
term he had to quit college because of lack of
money. In 1896 he was invited to supply as
regular pastor the Congregational Church in
Morenci, Mich., for the winter, but he de-
lined, feeling that he was not fitted for such a
ABRAHAM MITRIE RIHBANY 217
position. He then Went west on a lecturing
tour and on his return the church repeated its
offer, but though he took it for a brief season, he
again declined it as he felt he wanted to devote
himself to speaking for the gold standard in the
political campaign. He studied the monetary
question thoroughly and had the satisfaction of
knowing that his speeches had the approval of the
Republican leaders, and of having helped to save
his country from impending ruin. He says
"Just think of me, the child of ages of oppression,
now having a great country to serve, to defend."
This campaign over he finally accepted the call
from the church in Morenci, Mich, to become its
pastor. At this time he married an Ohio lady.
When a war between this country and Spain
seemed impending, he felt he must enlist as a
private soldier and wrote to his father to ask his
opinion and consent. He replied in a remark
able letter telling his son that "as long as you
are an American citizen, you must fight for your
exalted government. "America has done much
for you and you ought to pay her back by fight
ing her enemies as an honorable man." He was
not called upon however to render this service,
as Spain gave up the fight. During the years
he was in Morenci the church prospered so that
an addition had to built to accommodate the
growing congregation.
218 ABRAHAM MITRIE RIHBANY
In 1875 he and his wife visited Syria and re
ceived a royal welcome. All the clans of the
town called upon them in groups of fifties and
hundreds. Upon their return to America he
spent two years with a church in Mount Pleas
ant, Mich., and nine with one in Toledo, Ohio.
Then he was called to the Church of the Disciples,
in Boston, where he is endeavoring to serve his
adopted country as a minister of the gospel,
helping "to solve America s great problems and
to realize her wondrous possibilities." He says,
"I have traveled from the primitive social life
of a Syrian village to a great city which embodies
the noblest traditions of the most enlightened
country in the world. I have come from the
bondage of Turkish rule to the priceless heritage
of American citizenship."
A PIONEER IN GOOD CITIZENSHIP
JACOB A RIIS
IN THE quaint old town of Ribe, on the Danish
seacoast ,was born in 1849 a boy named Jacob
A. Riis. When he was fifteen, to the great dis
appointment of his father, who was senior mas
ter in the Latin school of Ribe, he decided to be
come a carpenter. At the end of four years he
received the certificate of the guild of his trade
in Copenhagen. Shortly afterward he sailed for
America, arriving in New York in 1870.
It was not easy for him to get work in New
York, so he joined a gang of men going to
Brady s Bend, on the Allegheny River, where he
started to build huts for the miners. That was
followed by brick-making and by work in a lum
ber-yard. He had various hard experiences in
which he knew not where to earn enough for
either food or lodging. Often he slept in door
ways and suffered much because of insufficient
clothing. He wandered from place to place, get
ting a job now and then, oftentimes hungry and
often cheated out of his earnings.
After three years of this sort of thing he was
219
220 JACOB A. RIIS
fortunate in being offered employment as a re
porter in New York City. This was the begin
ning of his success. He spoke out of a hard ex
perience when he said: "As to battling with
the world, that is good for a young man, much
better than to hang on to somebody for support.
When you have fought your way through a tight
place, you are the better for it. I am afraid
that is not the case where you are shoved
through."
Jacob Riis was a man of overflowing vitality
and great energy, who, when he saw a wrong,
was immediately seized with an intense desire to
set it right. Sometimes this brought him trouble,
but that in no way abated his ardor to make the
world better.
An opportunity to become editor and then the
owner of the South Brooklyn News naturally
appealed to a man of his type. After becoming
his own editor, reporter, publisher, and advertis
ing agent, he exerted all his energy in making his
paper "go."
Two things of great importance in his life oc
curred about this time. In a Methodist revival
meeting Mr. Riis decided to live the life of a
Christian man and straightway consecrated his
pen to the exposure of evil and the support of
good. He had been sorely troubled by lack of
letters from home, his anxiety being augmented
JACOB A. RIIS 221
by the fact that from boyhood he had set his
heart upon winning the love of the daughter of
a wealthy man in his native town. Since his
absence from Ribe she had become engaged to
another man. Shortly before Mr. Riis became
an editor, however, he received word that her
fiance had died. Thereupon he sent a loving let
ter telling her of his unchanged love. The sum
mer and fall had passed, but no word of any
sort had reached him from his home town. At
last, to his great joy, the message came for which
he had been so ardently longing, the promise
that made his stormy life full of happiness.
Fortunately he had a chance soon after this to
sell his paper for five times the amount he paid
for it, and after disposing of it, he took the first
steamer for Denmark. Three months later he
brought his bride to America.
For several months Mr. Riis earned their sup
port by advertising merchandise by means of a
stereopticon. But he was desirous of getting in
again as a reporter on one of the metropolitan
newspapers and finally succeeded in obtaining a
position on the New York Tribune. It was hard
work with little pay, not enough to live on.
After some time he was assigned to police head
quarters on Mulberry Street, where he found his
life-work. It is interesting to note that Mr. Riis
confessed to being almost afraid of the hard task
222 JACOB A. RIIS
before him, but in his characteristic way he said :
"I commended my work and myself to the God
of battles who gives victory, and I took hold. If
I were to find that I could not put the case before
him who is the source of all right and justice, I
should decline to go into the fight." The secret
of Mr. Riis success in his reform work is doubt
less to be found in that decision. It was charac
teristic also that he did not wait until his return
home to tell his wife, but before he began his new
work he telegraphed her, "Got staff appoint
ment. Police headquarters. Twenty-five dol
lars a week. Hurrah."
Out of the experiences he met in this new task
he became familiar with the terrible conditions
existing in the slums of New York City, and did
not rest until he had brought them to the atten
tion of the public to have them remedied. He
was a very thorough man in all his work. One
summer there was fear of an epidemic of cholera.
Picking up the weekly analysis of the water of
the Croton River, the source of the city water-
supply, he noticed that for two weeks there had
been "just a trace of nitrates" in it. His suspic
ions were aroused and he at once questioned the
health department chemist. He received only
an evasive reply. Within an hour Mr. Riis had
learned that these were indications of sewage
contamination and realized the peril. He spent
JACOB A. RIIS 223
a week, following to its source every stream that
discharged into the Croton River and photo
graphed evidence of what he discovered. He
told his story in the newspapers, illustrating it
with his pictures. The city was startled and the
board of health sent inspectors to the watershed ;
their report was that things were much worse
than Mr. Riis had said. The city took preven
tive action at once at the cost of several million
dollars.
Interesting as the story is, space permits only
a brief summary of the good things in the ac
complishment of which Mr. Riis was the moving
spirit. He persisted in showing the dreadful
conditions in the police lodging-houses, where
dirty tramps and castaways, old and young, lay
at night on planks or on the stone floor and then
went out in the morning carrying the seeds of
disease to the homes where they begged their
living. Finally by a change in the laws the care
of vagrants was taken out of the hands of the
police, and provision was made for the care of
the honest, homeless poor. Separate prisons for
women, with police matrons in charge, also re
sulted from the investigations made.
With a camera Mr. Riis took evidence of the
overcrowding in the tenements in Mulberry
Bend. To cite but one instance, fifteen were
found in a room which should hold only four or
224 JACOB A. RIIS
five at the most. There was no pretense at beds.
The lodgers slept there for "five cents a spot."
In the twenty years that Mr. Riis was a reporter
in that neighborhood not a week passed without
a crime or murder. At last, after long fighting,
the city bought the Bend and the old houses were
torn down. A small park was placed there, and
the section that had been noted for its crime and
wickedness became the most orderly in the city.
Mr. Riis home was in the country and his
children gathered flowers for their father to carry
in to the poor people. The joy with which they
were received led him to enlist the help of the
King s Daughters in receiving and distributing
flowers. Practical assistance followed in the
hiring of a nurse to visit in the homes and give
the friendly lift so often needed. From this be
ginning has grown the King s Daughters Settle
ment House at 50 Henry Street, New York.
The name of Jacob A. Riis has been given to the
present abode.
Realizing the effectiveness of his newspaper
and magazine articles, publishers asked him to
write in book form. His first response was en
titled, "How the Other Half Lives." This was
followed by "The Children of the Poor," "The
Battle with the Slums," "Children of the Tene
ments," his autobiography, "The Making of an
American," and "Theodore Roosevelt, Citizen."
JACOB A. RIIS
JACOB A. RIIS 225
He was much stirred by the sight of the little
children in the East Side factories. False cer
tificates asserting they had reached the age of
fourteen were permitted because of lack of birth
registration. With characteristic thoroughness
Mr. Riis learned from a doctor that the latest
age at which a child cuts his "dog teeth" is twelve
years. Then he visited the factories and obliged
the children to let him see their teeth; if they had
not their "dog teeth," that was conclusive evi
dence that they were not yet fourteen. The in
vestigation resulted in a change in the law that
freed the children from factory work.
Good teaching and decent schools were other
demands made by Mr. Riis. He was ever work
ing for the good of the boys and girls. Too
many schools were overcrowded and there was
insufficient light for the children to see slates and
blackboards. Dark basement rooms, thirty by
fifty-two, full of rats were the only playgrounds
for a thousand children. In the whole of Man
hattan there was but one outdoor playground at
tached to a public school and that was an old
burial ground. Mr. Riis showing of the facts
aroused the city. The whole school system was
remodeled and sixty new schoolhouses were built.
The Playground Association was formed and
small parks created to let daylight into the slums.
This resulted in the reduction of the death-rate
226 JACOB A. RIIS
from 26.32 per thousand in 1887 to 19.53 in 1897.
If you wish to hear more of it, read Mr. Riis
book, "The Making of an American." All this
and much else were the outcome of the patient
efforts of a poor immigrant, who came to Amer
ica from Denmark at the age of twenty-one, with
all the odds against him at the start, but of whom
ex-President Roosevelt has said "he was the
most useful American of his day. He came the
nearest to the ideal of an American citizen." It
has also been said of him that "no man has ever
more vitally and faithfully expressed and inter
preted the American spirit. He was a brother
to all men and especially to the unfortunate."
His love for his native land was deep and loyal.
His enthusiasm for all that was connected with it
was strong, and he never permitted any slight
put upon its national flag to go unrebuked. But
when he lay ill at the home of a friend in Den
mark, after he had gone home to visit his mother
once more, he suddenly saw from the window a
ship flying the United States flag. "Gone," he
said, "were illness, discouragement, and gloom.
Forgotten weakness and suffering. I shouted,
laughed, and cried by turns. I knew then that
it was my flag; that I had become an American
in truth. And I thanked God, and, like the man
sick with the palsy, arose from my bed and went
home healed."
A GREAT AMERICAN SCULPTOR
AUGUSTUS ST. GAUDENS
"X7"OU CAN do anything you please; it s the
1 way you do it that makes the differ
ence." That significant saying of Augustus St.
Gaudens was well proven in all his work for he
was never satisfied until he had made it as nearly
perfect as possible. It was this thought that led
him from boyhood up, to be so intensely active,
that while apprenticed to a cameo cutter, and
working very hard all day at a monotonous,
wearisome task, he yet devoted his evenings to
the study of drawing in the free classes at the
Cooper Institute. Appreciating the opportun
ity, he took hold with such vigor that he himself
said: "I became a terrific worker, toiling every
night until eleven o clock, after the classes were
over. Indeed, I became so exhausted with the
confining work of cameo cutting by day and
drawing by night, that in the morning Mother
literally dragged me out of bed, pushed me over
to the washstand, where I gave myself a cat s lick
somehow or other, drove me to the table, adminis
tering breakfast, and tumbled me downstairs out
into the street, where I awoke."
227
228 AUGUSTUS ST. GAUDENS
Augustus St. Gaudens father was French and
his mother was Irish, and he inherited from them
a love of the beautiful and the still more valuable
asset of character, yet he was essentially Amer
ican both in his way of thinking and in his art.
He came to this country while he was a baby in
1848. In New York City his father, Bernard
St. Gaudens, opened a shop where he continued
his trade of making French boots and shoes.
He had the wisdom to ask his son, Augustus,
what kind of work he preferred to do when at the
age of thirteen it was necessary that he should
quit going to school. The boy s reply that he
should like to do something which would help
him to be an artist, added to the advice of Dr.
Rea Agnew, who had recognized the talent in the
youth s rough sketches upon neighboring walls,
led to his apprenticeship to a French cameo
cutter named Avet. Under the control of this
violent-tempered man Augustus had a hard time
of it for a few years. Then in a fit of temper
Avet discharged the boy who at once went home
and told his father what had occurred. It was
evidently to the satisfaction of the man that his
son, when a few minutes later his employer came
and sought to get him to return, firmly refused,
and soon obtained work with another cameo
cutter, Jules Brethon, a man of very different
disposition. His evenings were now spent at the
AUGUSTUS ST. GAUDENS 229
National Acadamy of Design instead of at the
Cooper Institute.
The stirring days of the Civil War, with the
recruiting of troops and the excitement attend
ing the election of Abraham Lincoln, with a sight
of that hero himself, made indelible impressions of
patriotism upon the lad which later doubtless
helped to make strong his work on the statues of
our national heroes.
In 1867 his father offered Augustus a steerage
passage to Europe and the young man arrived in
Paris with $100, saved from his wages. There,
earning his living by cameo cutting in the after
noons, he devoted his mornings and evenings to
study at the Petite Ecole, and later under Jouf-
froy at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He endured
these long hours of work by frequent athletic
exercises, swimming and walking excursions.
When in 1870 war was declared between
France and Prussia the inclination of St.
Gaudens to enlist on the side of France was very
strong, but a pleading letter from his mother
decided him to give up the idea and he went to
Rome, where for about four years he struggled
with poverty while pushing his studies. He pro
duced his first statue that of Hiawatha "pon
dering, musing on the welfare of his people" ,
but it was only through the orders given him by
an American, Mr. Montgomery Gibbs, that he
230 AUGUSTUS ST. GAUDENS
was able to secure enough money to have the
figure cast. Going back to New York for a
brief period he did not at first find it easy to get
commissions for work that were really worth
while, but an order for a bust of Senator Evarts
encouraged him.
After another visit to Rome, he returned
again to the United States in 1875 and for a time
had to take up teaching to supply himself with
the means for living. A fortunate thing hap
pened to him when he came in touch with the
artist, John La Farge, for he said himself that
the intimacy between them spurred him to higher
endeavor. Good luck followed, for Governor
Morgan secured for him the order for the statue
of Admiral Farragut. It certainly was a tri
umph, for five of the committee voted for giving
the commission to a sculptor of high distinction,
and he won by only one vote. Mr. La Farge
also commissioned him to execute some bas-re
liefs for St. Thomas Church, New York. In
1887 St. Gaudens helped to found the Society of
American Artists which was important as mark
ing a vital change in American painting and
sculpture, which hitherto had been very conven
tional in style.
Soon after he married, and he and his wife
started again for Paris, where for three years he
worked on the bas-reliefs, which when sent to
AUGUSTUS ST. GAUDENS 231
Mr. La Farge were said by him to be "a living
work of art." The Farragut statue was also
completed, and then St. Gaudens returned to
New York and took up his work definitely as an
American sculptor. In his studio there he gath
ered about him a circle of men who became ad
mirers and life-long friends, such as Stanford
White, Charles F. McKim, H. H. Richardson,
John La Farge, and others. While the result
of his foreign studies was evident in his
work, he used it skilfully in establishing
a distinctive American style and was the first
artist to lead sculpture away from an imitation
of the classic Greek forms. His Farragut
statute is thus well described by Royal Cortissoz :
"He has produced a figure instinct at every point
with the energy and strength of a man fronting
perils in the open air amid great winds and under
a vast sky."
His medallion work was most charming, very
delicate and beautiful. The Robert Louis
Stevenson medallion in St. Giles Church, Edin
burgh, is one of the finest examples. "He de
lighted in giving a clear, even forcible impression
of the personality before him. It is portraiture
for the sake of truth and beauty, not for the sake
of technique."
Fourteen years of his life were given largely
to the modeling of the monument of Robert
232 AUGUSTUS ST. GAUDENS
Gould Shaw in Boston. There were times when
he dropped work on it for the fulfillment of many
other commissions; at other times he worked
arduously upon a high scaffolding in the hot
summers, seriously injuring his health. This
monument is generally considered to be one of
his greatest works in imaginative power, skill of
composition and perfection of technical detail.
It was characteristic of St. Gaudens to spare
himself no pains if thereby he might improve his
work. Shaw was a young Bostonian, "killed in
action while leading his regiment the 54th Mas
sachusetts of colored men led by white officers.
Across the relief march the troops to the rhythm
of the drum beat; there is a martial animation,
but in the faces is the tense look of anticipation
of the impending battle. Occupying the center
of the panel, Shaw rides beside his men, an ex
pression of sadness on his face. Above, floats
a figure to which the artist gave no name, but
which his interpreters have called Fame and
Death."
St. Gauden s statue of Abraham Lincoln in
Chicago is universally beloved for it reveals the
very soul of the great emancipator as he lives in
the hearts of millions of people. "Simplicity is
its predominating characteristic." "The tall, un
gainly figure embodies in its attitude and in
every hanging fold of the unfitted garments, the
AUGUSTUS ST. GAUDENS 233
spirit of infinite tenderness, melancholy and
strength."
The Logan and the Sherman monuments are
both fine interpretations of the men they repre
sent. General Logan rides with "the air of a
conqueror. The body seems a living thing."
The Sherman statue "is infused with the spirit of
invincible determination."
Other notable works of this great sculptor are
his "Puritan," which illustrates his aptitude in
the presentation of a bygone personality; the
Adams memorial in the Rock Creek Cemetery
near Washington, D. C. ; St. Gaudens once spoke
of this figure as symbolic of the mystery of the
Hereafter; it is beyond pain and beyond joy.
Royal Cortissoz says that it is "the finest thing
of its kind ever produced by an American
sculptor, and an achievement which modern
Europe has not surpassed." And then we should
not overlook his statue of Phillips Brooks in front
of Trinity Church, Boston, which so well depicts
the noble spirit of the man.
St. Gaudens was appointed one of the com
mittee upon laying out the World s Fair grounds
at Chicago and personally designed the figure
of Columbus in front of the Administration
Building. He was always interested in further
ing the cause of American art. He helped
largely in founding the American Academy of
234 AUGUSTUS ST. GAUDENS
Fine Arts in Rome, and in developing the artis
tic beauty of the National Capitol at Washing
ton.
Honors began to press in upon him. Har
vard, Yale and Princeton gave him degrees. At
Paris in 1900 he was awarded the medal of honor
and at Buffalo a special medal was given him by
his fellow artists who "sought lovingly to exalt
him as the master of them all." In 1904 he was
elected honorary foreign academician of the
Royal Academy of London and the French
government made him an officer of the Legion of
Honor, and a corresponding member of the So
ciety of Fine Arts. But ever the United States
grew more dear to him. "No native-born
sculptor was ever more American than he, and
none has ever succeeded in bodying forth, in stone
or bronze, such magnificent visions, such sympa
thetic and powerful presentations of the nobility
of American manhood." "Although of foreign
birth and for many years resident abroad, he re
mained as distinctly American in his art as if he
had come from a long line of native ancestors."
A TRUE PATRIOT
CARL SCHURZ
ONE whose migration to America must be
put on the credit side of the immigration
account." This was the comment of a leading
weekly of the United States upon the life of Carl
Schurz, who, throughout his residence in this
country, gave in all things full proof of his
patriotism.
Carl was born in 1829, in Liblar, which is about
three hours ride from Cologne, and was the son
of a peasant schoolmaster. At that time France
ruled this part of Germany. But after awhile it
passed under the control of the King of Prussia.
This was not pleasing to the people, and at the
gymnasium, where he was in school, the desire for
more freedom was much talked about, Carl him
self giving expression to it in one of his composi
tions. For this the professor rebuked him, and
told him that it must not occur again. How
ever he consoled himself with the thought that he
was still free to think and talk.
In 1846, upon entering the University of Bonn,
he was invited to join the Franconia Society,
which was composed of students from all parts
235
236 CARL SCHURZ
of Germany. This was a great advantage, as
well as an honor. At the home of Prof. Gott
fried Kinkel he met many men and women who
earnestly discussed the need of greater liberty
for the people. Soon a revolution broke out
and Carl left the university to fight for the rights
of his countrymen. He was made a lieutenant
in the revolutionary army. But all too soon it
was overpowered, and the young man realized
that he must escape before surrender was de
manded, or he would be shot as a rebel.
He resolved to try to get out of the village
through a new sewer which was as yet unused.
With his servant and a friend he reached the
opening unnoticed and crept inside. As they
were crawling through, a heavy rain suddenly
filled the sewer so that only their heads were above
water. At last, after many difficulties, they
reached the outlet only to find a Prussian guard
on duty there. This meant that they must go
back to town. There they hid in a ditch covered
with brush until Carl attracted the attention of a
workman, who led them to a small loft where
there was just room enough for the three of them.
Prussian soldiers, however, came into the shed be
low them, and for three nights and two days
they were forced to remain there without food or
drink.
At length, becoming desperate, Carl s friend
CARL SCHURZ
CARL SCHURZ 237
managed to get down from the loft and ove*r to
a near-by hut while the soldiers were asleep. He
returned with a piece of bread and an apple, and
the promise of the man who lived there to bring
them food, and also information as to a possible
way of escape. With his aid they got away the
next night, again crawled through the sewer,
which was no longer guarded, and after an hour s
tramp found a boat waiting for them on the bank
of the Rhine, which took them across to France.
Thence Schurz went to Switzerland.
After some months he heard that his friend
Kinkel was in a Prussian prison, and felt that
it was his duty to try to rescue him. It was a
difficult and dangerous undertaking, but it was
finally accomplished. The act was so daring that
it created a sensation in Europe.
The next two years Schurz spent in Paris and
London, where he supported himself by teaching
and as correspondent for German newspapers.
He then decided to go to America, and with his
young bride, the daughter of a merchant of Ham
burg, he reached New York in September, 1852.
During the next three years he endeavored to
learn all that he could about the government and
laws of the United States, visiting Washington
and hearing the senators and congressmen speak
on the affairs of the day. He studied law, and
also the conditions and needs of this country.
238 CARL SCHURZ
He made public speeches to help accomplish the
changes he saw were necessary. As soon as he
had lived here long enough he became an Ameri
can citizen. He was strongly opposed to slavery,
and in 1858 spoke in English on this subject so
effectively that his speech was published all over
the United States.
Schurz soon became noted as an orator, and
did much to bring the Republican party into
power and to elect Abraham Lincoln president
of this country. He was appointed United
States minister to Spain, but he did not remain
there long, for the Civil War broke out and he
felt he could serve his adopted country better on
this side of the water.
Immediately upon his return he entered the
army and was made brigadier-general. Later
he was promoted to the rank of major-general,
and took part in several dangerous engagements.
During and after the war he helped the cause of
freedom by frequent public speeches. As editor
of influential newspapers and as an orator, Mr.
Schurz aided in the election of General Grant
to the presidency. In 1869 he was himself
elected to the United States Senate, being the
first man born in Germany to attain that honor.
He held this office for six years.
He rendered great service by exposing public
abuses and simultaneously imbuing the people
CARL SCHURZ 239
with national ideals of a high order; he put a
corrupt civil service upon a more elevated plane
of operation. He aided in destroying the boss-
ism of the political machine, and always strove
to inspire others with his own principle of coun
try above party, bettering Stephen Decatur s
axiom by his own : "My country, right or wrong.
If right, to be kept right; if wrong, to be put
right."
As Secretary of the Interior under President
Hayes, he did much to better the condition of
the Indians and to bring them in closer touch
with civilization. It has been well said that "no
one could question the unselfishness of his de
votion to his adopted country, the non-partisan
temper of his critical judgments, and the nobil
ity of his political ideals." Surely it would be
difficult to win higher praise.
V Carl Schurz was distinguished as a linguist,
amazing his brother senators on one occasion by
translating at sight lengthy passages on a techni
cal subject, which he had never seen before, into
four different languages. "He was the only
statesman of his generation who could make an
eloquent speech either in English or German
without revealing which was his native tongue."
Toward the end of his life, at the request of
his children, Mr. Schurz wrote the story of his
life experiences. These are entitled "Reminis-
240 CARL SCHURZ
cences," and fill three large volumes, containing
many interesting incidents, for which there is no
space here. He died in 1906.
The tribute given him by W. D. Howells we
quote in part: "Schurz s character had the sim
plicity which mates with true greatness. His
was a tender, affectionate nature, though never
a weak one. You knew where to find him al
ways, and that was the right place. This fighter
for freedom in two worlds, this just advocate, this
honest politician, this conscientious journalist,
this wise statesman lived with all the honor that
a man could wish."
THE FRIEND OF THE IMMIGRANT
EDWARD A STEINER
HROUGH hunger, homelessness and lone-
A liness; the drudgery of work; the pangs of
poverty and even the fire of affliction, has Ed
ward A. Steiner been led in his experiences from
"alien to citizen" and from his birthplace in
Austria to the position he now holds of professor
of "Applied Christianity" in Grinnell College,
Iowa. The words used in this title explain ex
actly his mission in this country, for he has been
"pleading with voice and pen and soul, for an
understanding of and a brotherly attitude to
ward the immigrant." He has asserted that it
ought to make no difference because they are
Hungarians, Italians or Jews, "for after all,
they are human, and this immigration problem
is a human problem with far-reaching conse
quences." He has tried to "humanize the proc
ess of admission to this country ; expose and abol
ish the worst abuses of the steerage and to in
terpret the quality and character of the new immi
grant to those Americans who believed that these
newer people were less than human."
241
242 EDWARD A. STEINER
The story of his experiences is an interesting
one. In this short sketch we can only tell some
of its incidents. His boyish longing to get to
America was fulfilled by the threat of one of
his countrymen to reveal to the Hungarian gov
ernment the awful fact that he had been guilty
of sympathizing with and aiding the oppressed
Slovaks. So Edward s mother was informed
that for a certain sum of money his offense would
be kept a secret until the youth was safe across
the border on his way to America. Needless to
say, his poor mother felt that she must part from
him and was eager to get him out of danger.
To him as to others, the entrance to this land
was a rapture, for he felt he had come to the
"magic, holy country." He says because he has
felt this rapture, he has gone back and forth, and
would like to go on unwearyingly to guide men
into this rapture and to interpret to them its
meaning. This feeling he appears to have kept
despite all the hard experiences which he met
in tijis land. The next morning after he reached
New York he awoke without money and without
friends. Naturally he had hoped that his knowl
edge of languages would be useful to him in ob
taining employment. But he soon found that
he must take any kind of work that he could get.
All that day he walked the streets looking for
work and all day he had nothing to eat. He
EDWARD A. STEINER 243
knew he was "in a free country but the only
thing which was free was ice water." Fortun
ately at evening time he remembered that his
mother had given him the address of a distant rel
ative who- lived in the city. It was eighty blocks
away, and he had to walk the whole distance, but
when he got there, more dead than alive, he was
received with cordiality and revived by delicious
food.
In a few days he obtained work as a presser of
coats, which was an exhausting and trying task
under the iron hand of an Irish forelady. He
earned for his week s work the sum of $3.50
which made him "supremely happy, for he
knew he had really earned every cent of it." "^He
was eager to learn the English language, so he
began attending the evening classes at the Cooper
Union, but the fir-st result was unfortunate, for
he spoke to the Irish forelady English words of
which he had not fully learned the meaning, but
they had the effect of making that individual
so mad that he was discharged. Again he had
the disheartening work of hunting a job, and be
ing hungry and homeless, for he had exhausted
the patience of his relatives. A Russian presser
offered him a bed and a home and he secured work
as a cutter in a clothing shop. This time he re
ceived $7 as wages. After five weeks of satis
faction, he was notified that there was no more
244 EDWARD A. STEINER
work for him, for it was a slack time and every
body was laid off.
He then determined to leave New York and
started across the ferry to Jersey City. His
first experience was on a farm, doing chores and
helping generally. To his unaccustomed hands
the work proved very hard, but Maria, the house
keeper, gave him books from her employer s table
to read. Shakespeare, Emerson and J. G. Hol
land were a source of great enjoyment to this
university -trained youth. Finally after various
distressing experiences, of which one was having
to take the place of the cook which he found par
ticularly humiliating because of his ignorance as
to how to do things, he was discharged.
He next entered a Christian home, into which
he was taken when the conductor of the train put
him off because he had no money to ride further.
Here he was hired to help in the tobacco field
until the autumn, when he went to Pittsburgh and
obtained work in a steel mill. It was a bitter
winter for Steiner, not so much because of the
hard labor and small wage, but because of his
utter isolation, and he felt that no one had faith
in him or his kind, for immigrants were regarded
simply as "cattle." He had to live in a board
ing house where he was one of twenty who
shared two living rooms in which there was not
the simplest appliance for the common decencies.
EDWARD A. STEINER 245
Life was merely, as one expressed it, "work, eat,
drink, getta drunk, go to sleep." Just because
he was a foreigner he found it impossible to get
a bath anywhere, for the boarding house did not
provide one and he found it impossible to pur
chase one in any decent place. Now through
Mr. Steiner s efforts the appeal for decency has
been heeded, and his "contemporaries of the Pitts
burgh period are living under the best Ameri
can ideals. The year book of the Slavonic Na
tional Society marks the distance which these
pioneers have traveled in less than a quarter
of a century."
In the spring, floods closed the steel mills,
pestilence developed and his boarding house was
quarantined on account of contagious diseases,
of which small pox was the worst. When at
last he was permitted to leave, he walked to Con-
nellsville, among a maze of railroad tracks. It
was very late at night when he reached there and
in attempting to get out of the way of a switch
ing train, he slid down an embankment and lit
erally fell into a house where an old woman was
washing clothes. With hands dripping with
soapsuds she lifted him to his feet, and then with
out waiting to hear his story, she brought him a
good hot meal of sauerkraut, his first meal that
day. She made him lie down on her bed and
when he awoke he found her "old man" was lying
246 EDWARD A. STEINER
beside him without being undressed or washed,
but black and ugly just as he had come from his
work of tending the fires of the Coke and Steel
company.
The son-in-law engaged Steiner to be his
helper in the coal mine at a dollar a day. Every
evening his boss took him to the saloon where he
drank at Steiner s expense. In the third week
of his being there, a strike occurred, resulting in
his being beaten and left insensible. When he
came to consciousness he found himself in a pri
son cell in a vermin-infested building, crowded
by strikers and strike breakers who did all
they could to make his life miserable. For
more than six weeks he was left in the jail
without knowing why. His letters to the
Austro-Hungarian Consul were unanswered.
At last he was taken before the judge charged
with carrying concealed weapons, and sentenced
to three months in jail with a fine of $100. The
revolver he had with him was one given him by
a fellow boarder in Pittsburgh, who died. For
more than six months, for he had to work out his
fine, no one came to see, to comfort or to explain.
He was left alone in the company of thieves,
tramps and vermin.
Mr. Steiner was later led by this experience to
visit prisons and penitentiaries where wardens
told him of aliens who were suffering imprison-
EDWARD A. STEINER 247
ment because they had broken laws of which they
had never heard. For example, six Greeks were
imprisoned in a Kansas town, because they had
bought beer in Nebraska and had drunk its con
tents on a Sunday in their camp by the rail
road. Steiner s plea for them was effective in
leading the judge to free them although he re
quired them to pay a fine of $100 each. In many
similar instances has Mr. Steiner been influential
in getting innocent immigrants set free.
Chicago was the next point toward which "the
immigrant s friend" made his way, and his ex
perience there was not encouraging. An offer of
work from a man who took him into a saloon led
to his being drugged and robbed and then taken
to the police station. Fortunately his search for
work led him into the Bohemian district where
he found work and a lodging in a place that was
scrupulously clean, and to his joy the home had
music and good literature in it. Association with
people of some education was most grateful to a
man like Mr. Steiner. At a free thinkers club
he gave a series of talks on Bakunin and Tolstoy.
A year of great industrial depression led him
to leave Chicago and go to the harvest fields of
Minnesota. There he found real enjoyment in
the outdoor life and under an employer who was
a typical American with a good education. He
lived in the home, where he had a clean, orderly
248 EDWARD A. STEINER
room, a hearty supper, a romp with the children,
a family prayer and a hymn sung before retiring
for the night. "Out in the glory of God s fields
he forgot his wrongs and his sufferings, and some
thing of faith and hope" came back to him. He
was able to get books from a public library and
he reveled in Carlyle and Ruskin. When the
frost came he was homeless once more, with only
a happy memory of delightful experiences.
Then again he began life as a miner in Illinois,
joining a party of Slovaks with whom he had
crossed the ocean. Those with whom he associ
ated were a superior class of men, all of them
teachable. Mr. Steiner started English classes
among them, wrote their letters and helped them
with their shopping.
Going to a neighboring town to see an Ameri
can girl who had once visited in his native town,
he obtained work in the factory of her father,
finally gaining sufficient courage to call at her
home and make himself known. Her parents
had not forgotten the poor relatives who lived
across the ocean and whom gradually they had
brought to America. They saw very quickly
that Edward Steiner ought not to return to the
factory and suggested that he study law, but he
had reasons for not wishing to do so. Then they
suggested that he enter a Hebrew college and
prepare for becoming a rabbi or take a position
EDWARD A. STEINER 249
as instructor. So at last he started east in charge
of a load of cattle, in the sale of which his new
friends were interested and which secured him
a free trip. On the train an Irish lad, who was
one of a group of professional cattle keepers who
resented the presence of an amateur because he
had taken the place of one of themselves, stole a
twenty-dollar gold piece from Mr. Steiner who
threatened to have him arrested when they
reached their destination. Consequently this lad
was anxious to prevent Steiner from doing that,
and so he tripped him up as he was running
along the top of the train to reach his own cars
of cattle, and he fell to the ground, while the
train rushed on. Having twisted his leg he could
not rise at first, and he could not make anybody
hear his cries, but he was able to limp after a
while to a little town where a Jewish woman took
him into her home and nursed him back to health.
She procured him a clerical position, and once
again he was in a life where he was in touch with
persons of culture with whom he formed invalu
able friendships.
A number of public school teachers organized
a modern language and literature class which he
taught. A group of women teachers read philo
sophy with him, and then they did for him what
he most needed, helped to develop his religious
life. The minister of a church became his friend
250 EDWARD A. STEINER
and the Christian atmosphere of his home cap
tivated Steiner. Together they organized a
public reading room, at the opening of which he
made his first address in English. Here also he
began his work for the immigrant.
In this town came the turning point of his life
when through the influences around him he was
led to become a Christian a converted Jew.
Then he decided to enter a Presbyterian Theo
logical Seminary but found himself out of sym
pathy with its teachings. Here however he
found a pastor of a church who asked him to
assist him in his work. He succeeded in winning
people from the places of sin and wretchedness
and bringing them into the church, but the church
members objected strenuously to being associ
ated with such people and the sainted minister
felt compelled to stop the work. This caused
Mr. Steiner to determine to sever his connection
with the seminary and to abandon his relations
with the ministry. But that very morning he met
a Jew of wealth and culture and full of the
Christ spirit. He suggested to Mr. Steiner to
go to the Seminary at Oberlin, Ohio, and offered
him all the financial help he needed.
Going there, he found just the atmosphere that
was helpful to him. The dean of the Theologi
cal Seminary gave him a hearty welcome and he
took his place as a student. More and more he
EDWARD A. STEINER 251
found himself in harmony with his surroundings
and in the place for which he was fitted. It was
during this period that he became an American
citizen a never-to-be-forgotten day to him.
Another great day for him was that on which he
graduated from the seminaiy. He left Ober-
lin with profound gratitude and joy, for after the
extremely trying experiences he had gone
through since he landed in this country, he was
now no longer a stranger, but "fellow citizen with
the saints."
To his first parish he brought his bride, but
both of them craved a more difficult field. So
after two years they accepted a call, although it
meant a smaller salary and plenty of hard work.
Here his parishioners were wage earners of sev
eral races, and he had the joy of seeing a vital
unity created between people of different nation
alities. An amusing incident, which he thinks
somewhat typical of his work there, occurred at
the baptism of a baby of Irish-Jewish parentage.
Relatives on both sides claimed the privilege of
naming the child, and decided on Patrick and
Moses respectively. A conflict appeared to be
iminent, but Mr. Steiner suggested naming the
child with one syllable from each name, which
suited both factions and the child was baptised
with the name Patmos.
Two other churches were served by Mr.
252 EDWARD A. STEINER
Steiner and then he was engaged by the editors
of The Outlook to go to Europe and write the
life of Tolstoy, which he gladly consented to do.
While there he received a call to the professor
ship of Grinnell College which he still fills. He is
in great demand as lecturer and preacher and is
constantly called upon to help in solving the prob
lems of wage workers. He has written several
Jbooks on topics relating to the immigrant, and at
the close of the one entitled "From Alien to Citi
zen," which is really his autobiography, he says
that when the end comes, he shall say with his
last breath,
"Thank God for the Christ,
Thank God for America,
Thank God for Humanity."
A MANY-SIDED GENIUS
CHARLES PROTEUS STEINMETZ
A GREAT mind in a small body he stands
only four feet high and carries an enormous
head between high shoulders one of the world s
greatest mathematicians, a mental dynamo, is a
fair description of Charles Proteus Steinmetz,
professor of electrical engineering in Union Col
lege, Schenectady, N. Y., and the highly valued
consulting engineer of the General Electric Com
pany of the same city. Distinguished as he now
is, he came from a poor family in Breslau, Ger
many, where he was born April 9, 1865. His
father, a lithographer by trade, but later a rail
road employee, was determined that his son
should be well-educated and did everything in
his power to that end. In order to test fully his
tastes and capabilities Charles took preparatory
courses in medicine, political economy, mechani
cal engineering, and other studies in the Uni
versity of Breslau. Finally he gave himself to
full and comprehensive work in mathematics,
higher chemistry, and electricity.
How he used his acquired knowledge for the
253
254 CHARLES P. STEINMETZ
benefit of a friend is an interesting story. As
a member of a socialist club he had himself been
arrested and, later, been released; but a medical
student was convicted. Steinmetz felt sure that
the government would grant his friend privileges,
such as writing materials so that he might
finish his doctor s thesis, blotting paper and tooth
paste. He was also permitted to have books
regularly, the government agent rigorously in
specting each one before they were taken by
Steinmetz to his friend s cell. After the trial
at which this medical student was acquitted, the
prosecuting agent was dismayed to discover that
he had passed upon books whose blank pages
were covered with invisible writing that the pris
oner had been able to develop with a solution
made from toothpaste and blotting paper.
From suggestions thus made to him, he had been
able to work out his defense. Steinmetz who
had made the invisible ink and had planned the
whole affair, found the country an unsafe place
to stay in and escaped to Switzerland in 1888.
A year later he emigrated to the United States.
Here he worked for a time at twelve dollars a
week with Eickmeyer and Company at Yonkers,
N". Y. While there his loneliness as a stranger
in a strange land was relieved one evening by an
acquaintance inviting him to his home for supper.
In grateful recognition of this act of friendliness
CHARLES P. STEINMETZ 255
he adopted a son of the family and it is believed
that he has assisted in the education of others.
"In 1894 after the General Electric Company
had consolidated the Eickemeyer business with
its own, the headquarters were transferred to
Schenectady and soon after Steinmetz became its
Consulting Engineer at a salary which has stood
for some time at $100,000 a year. In 1902 he also
accepted the professorship of electrical engineer
ing in Union College. There he has made his
teaching very valuable and enjoyable to the stu
dents by the clearness of his exposition so that
even undergraduates can grasp and carry away
the solution of intricate problems. Consequently
the college is now considered one of the best for
the study of electrical engineering.
Dr. Steinmetz is a scientist with a passion for
work, uniting the imagination of an artist with a
force and intensity that compels him to make a
thorough search into all that is involved in any
subject that presents itself to him for observa
tion. Being gifted with a ready command of the
English language and the ability to make difficult
things easy to understand, he is noted as a lecturer
and a writer for magazines. At meetings of the
American Institute of Electrical Engineers, of
which he was for some years president, he is
usually called upon to close the discussions be
cause of his power of lucid description and ex-
256 CHARLES P. STEINMETZ
planation, given in forceful and clean-cut phrases.
What has this remarkable man done to benefit
practically the people of America?
For many years electrical engineers have been
puzzled over the control of the wonderful forces
they had discovered in the rivers and waterfalls,
which continually broke loose in unaccountable
ways, surging along the wires, breaking insulators
to pieces and destroying generators and power
stations. After a profound study of the problem
Dr. Steinmetz brought to these engineers a
method by which they could restrain these forces
so that to-day it is possible to transmit electrical
power at high pressure without damage. This
is technically called high voltage for power trans
mission, and it is not unusual now for 200,000
volts to be safely used.
He has shown us the possibility of abandoning
the use of generating plants of small capacity
and the furnishing of electrical power by substa
tion service from the big trunk supply lines.
Much has already been done in this direction in
consequence of the work accomplished by Stein
metz.
He has greatly benefitted all industry by his
invention of various motors, such as the induction
and polyphase motors. These have made cheap
carlighting and quick elevator service possible
and perfected street lighting. The Steinmetz
Underwood and Underwood
CHARLES PROTEUS STEINMETZ
CHARLES P. STEINMETZ 257
Law of Magnetism is a method by which engi
neers can figure how much magnetizing current
they should use to magnetize a given piece of iron
to be used in an electrical generator or motor,
and how hot the iron will become when used in
certain conditions. This is considered one of the
most valuable things he has done.
Dr. Steinmetz is a man of remarkable humility
despite his wonderful scientific ability. He has
invented many things in addition to the motors
mentioned above, particularly a magnetite arc
lamp and a mercury arc rectifier. But it is a
notable characteristic of his that he is continually
giving suggestions to others which assist them in
perfecting their own inventions, thus bringing
out the abilities of others in a helpful way. He
is so highly regarded, not only by members of his
own profession, but also by his townsmen that he
has held for some years the office of President of
the Board of Education of Schenectady and since
1916 he has been President of the Common Coun
cil of that city.
He is much interested in the National Associa
tion of Corporation Schools, of which he is pres
ident. The object of this organization is to cor
relate the educational opportunities of all who are
engaged in industrial work, so that illiteracy and
inefficiency may be lessened and production
speeded up, and thereby compensation and the
258 CHARLES P. STEINMETZ
standard of living be raised. He is a Socialist of
the kind indicated by the following words of his ;
"We must let the big corporations alone . . .
no use in breaking them up into smaller units
which cannot be controlled. As soon as the big
ones combine under stricter government regula
tions, the sooner we shall have better working con
ditions."
The house, laboratory and greenhouse of Dr.
Steinmetz are among the show places of Sche-
nectady.
The benefits conferred by him upon America
may well cause Germany to regret that she com
pelled him to leave his native land.
A FAMOUS MERCHANT
ALEXANDER TURNEY STEWART
ON" a British packet ship in 1818 there came
into the port of New York an Irish boy of
sixteen whose name is known the world over as
that of a great merchant, great not only for the
size of his business but also for the sterling prin
ciples of commercial integrity which he estab
lished and upon which he insisted.
Born in Belfast, Ireland, October 12, 1802, of
Scotch-Irish parentage, Alexander Turney Stew
art, in consequence of his father s death when he
was still a little child, was brought up by his
grandfather who purposed that he should become
a minister and therefore educated him well,
finally sending him to college. But the grand
father died and the boy gave up all thought of
carrying out his wish, and soon after crossed the
Atlantic Ocean, landing at New London, Conn.,
whence he went to New York City to his mother
who having married again, had some years pre
viously come to America.
Alexander obtained a position as teacher in a
school kept by a Mr. Chambers, whose name was
259
260 ALEXANDER T. STEWART
given to Chambers St., New York. Then he
changed to one of more note where he taught
boys who in later years had business relations
with him. His salary was $300 a year, which at
that time was considered a good one. With the
belief that he could better himself he opened a
small dry goods store. Not long after he sailed
for Ireland to claim $3000 left him by his grand
father. Acting upon advice given him, he in
vested this amount in Irish linens and laces and
returned to New York, where he rented a store at
283 Broadway, sleeping in a rear room. Here
he began what eventually developed into a large
and lucrative business. In the New York Daily
Advertiser he put the following advertisement
on September 2, 1825;
"A. T. Stewart offers a general assortment of
Fresh Dry Goods at 283 Broadway."
He developed a talent for business, showing
his stock to advantage and selling at a good
profit. He replenished his stock, in those early
days, with goods picked up at auctions which
again yielded a fair profit at retail. It was in the
beginning of his business that he adopted the
principles which were the foundation of his suc
cess. He foresaw the rapid growth of this coun
try and the extensive use of credit and the prob
ability of panics and business failures. He
therefore always bought for cash and gave credit
ALEXANDER T. STEWART 261
to no one. This course frequently enabled him
to buy out his competitors when they failed and
had to sell at a sacrifice. It was noticeable how
many men who had once been in active business
for themselves were to be found in his store, where
they were glad to accept positions.
Alexander Stewart s good sense, sound mer
cantile judgment, his native shrewdness, and
constant industry were strong factors in his im
mense business success. The four principles
from which he never swerved are worth noting;
they have been adopted by leading commercial
houses.
I. Honesty between buyer and seller. He
never asked and never permitted a clerk to mis
represent merchandise. He rarely gave a seller
a second opportunity to misrepresent goods to
him. His salesmen acquired a reputation for
trustworthiness which by degrees spread through
out the country.
II. Selling at one price to every one. This was
a new rule at that time. Country people came to
understand that they could depend on getting the
value of their money at this store as fully as
could people of wealth.
III. Requiring cash on delivery. This rule
applied alike to every one.
IV. Conducting business as business, not as
sentiment. His aim was an honorable profit and
262 ALEXANDER T. STEWART
he did not allow any other consideration to inter
fere with that aim. Having fixed the price of
the goods he had to sell at a fair figure, no amount
of talking would induce him to make any change.
A. T. Stewart was a pioneer in commercial
methods that had never been customary or ap
parently even been thought of by merchants up
to his time. Now having seen the immense suc
cess that has resulted from their adoption, they
are no longer strange or unusual. He believed
emphatically in treating his customers with strict
justice and honesty.
In 1848 he had acquired so much money that
he erected a large building frequently spoken of
as of marble but the framework was really iron,
painted white. It was located on Broadway
between Chambers and Reade streets. Later,
this became the wholesale house, and he built
another for the retail part of his business, between
Ninth and Tenth streets, Broadway and Fourth
avenues. In 1862 when it was built, it was the
largest retail store in the world. It cost nearly
$2,750,000 and about 2000 persons were em
ployed in it. Six elevators ran from top to bot
tom, of which three were for customers and three
for hoisting goods. Everything in the store was
systematized and well administered. Thirty
ushers answered inquiries. The windows on all
four sides of the building were so numerous that
ALEXANDER T. STEWART 263
it might be said to be of glass. Of course, to peo
ple familiar with the immense and costly mercan
tile structures of to-day, with their luxurious
furnishings and equipment, such a store does not
seem remarkable, but in those days it was con
sidered one of the wonders of the commercial
world.
For the three years prior to his death in 1876
the aggregate sales in the two buildings
amounted to about $203,000,000. His annual
income during the war of 1863-5 averaged nearly
$2,000,000. He established branch houses in
different parts of the world and was owner of
numerous mills and factories.
It is to be regretted that A. T. Stewart s great
talent for detail and his absorption in his business
prevented his making wise plans for the disposi
tion of his great wealth after his death, although
he left a letter addressed to his wife requesting
her to provide for various public charities if he
should fail to complete his purpose concerning
them. Unfortunately his wishes were not car
ried out as he desired.
During his lifetime his charitable gifts were
mainly as follows; in 1846 at the time of the fam
ine in Ireland he sent a shipload of provisions to
his native land and gave a free passage to as many
emigrants as the vessel could carry on its return
voyage, taking precautions to assure that they
264 ALEXANDER T. STEWART
should all be of good character and able to read
and write.
After the Franco-German war, he sent to
France a ship loaded with flour, and in 1871 he
gave $50,000 for the relief of the sufferers from
the Chicago fire.
Prince Bismarck sent Mr. Stewart his photo
graph, asking for his in return, but as the latter
had a very decided objection to having any por
trait of himself taken, he sent to the prince in
stead, 50,000 francs for the relief of the sufferers
from the floods in Silesia.
He showed his loyalty to the United States by
being one of the largest contributors to the fund
of $100,000 presented by the men of New York
to General U. S. Grant as an acknowledgment
of his great services during the Civil War.
At the time of his death he left uncompleted a
home for working girls in New York City which
cost one million dollars. He was also building
at Hempstead Plains, N. Y., the town of Garden
City to give his employees homes at moderate
cost.
In 1869 President Grant appointed Mr. Stew
art Secretary of the United States Treasury, but
it was not possible for him to accept it because of
an old law excluding from that office any one en
gaged in the importation of merchandise. The
President recommended to the Senate the repeal
ALEXANDER T. STEWART 265
of the law so that Mr. Stewart might be eligible,
but although the latter offered to transfer his
immense business to trustees and devote the en
tire profits to charity during his term of office,
the law was left unchanged as it was not thought
that his plan would remove the difficulty.
America owes much to the Irish lad who crossed
the ocean and by his management of a great
business introduced and made popular high prin
ciples of commercial integrity and fair dealing.
THE SAVIOR OF BABIES
NATHAN STRAUS
A BIG brother to everybody he could help was
this "Savior of Babies." Nathan Straus
was his name and he was born in Otterberg, Ba
varia, in 1848. The country in which the Ba
varians lived was beautiful, yet the people were
not happy because they had unjust laws and the
oppression of their rulers increased until the in
habitants could not bear it any longer and re
belled. Then Nathan s father decided that he
must take his family to America where they could
live under happier conditions. They came to the
United States when Nathan was six years old and
settled at Talbotton, Georgia. The Civil War
interfered with the father s business, after a
while, and therefore he moved to New York City
where he and his eldest son, Isadore, started a
business in pottery and glassware. After going
to a business college Nathan joined his father s
firm, which prospered so well in a few years that
the debts of the family were all paid and they
were comfortably established.
Nathan married, had a home of his own and
266
NATHAN STRAUS 267
gained wealth rapidly but he did not become
selfish or unmindful of the troubles of others.
The children of the slums particularly excited his
pity, and he resolved to do what he could to help
them. The babies especially were ailing and
sickly. Mr. Straus was convinced that the rea
son why so many of them died one hundred out
of every thousand each year was that the milk
that they drank was not good enough for them.
It was about this time that scientists were at
work discovering ways to make milk pure and
safe, for nothing absorbs so quickly harmful
odors and germs. A Frenchman named Pas
teur was the man who finally discovered a method
of rendering the milk harmless by heating it to a
certain point and keeping it at that point for
twenty minutes.
Nathan Straus heard of this man and his dis
covery, and he went to Europe on purpose to
learn more about it. A congress of men skilled
in such things was held at Brussels in Belgium
and Mr. Straus attended it. Although not a
scholar along scientific lines himself, he had
learned enough to believe in Pasteur s method,
and so when the opportunity came for him to
speak, he made an earnest plea for the sick babies
who would be helped by it. His speech was
effectual, for his faith was contagious and the vote
was favorable to Pasteur s plan. They agreed
268 NATHAN STRAUS
that milk when so treated was harmless and could
not impart disease.
As soon as he reached New York he started to
supply the pure milk for the babies. He set up
depots in the public parks where the mothers
could get it for half price. The Health Depart
ment also furnished it, and it was supplied to doc
tors who practiced in the wretched districts of the
city, where the poorest families lived. The effect
of his good work was soon noticeable. Babies
got strong and well. Mothers were speaking the
name of Nathan Straus with affectionate appre
ciation of what he had done, and they gave him
the title of "Savior of Babies." After a while
the good results were evident in a decreased death
rate.
Chicago, Philadelphia and other cities began to
notice what had been accomplished in New York,
and Mr. Straus was ready to help them with
money and advice. He also endeavored to help
the sick and poor babies in Belgium, Germany
and Great Britain, and there also he was known
as the "Savior of Babies." And yet there were
people so selfish and critical that they found fault
with Mr. Straus for the way in which he did his
good work, but he refused to change his methods,
for he believed it not wise to put the distribution
of milk under institutional supervision nor to pay
big salaries to individuals to do the work. He
Underwood and Underwood
NATHAN
STRAUS
NATHAN STRAUS 269
enjoyed giving his own time and effort freely to
this work of providing and distributing pure
milk.
His next brotherly act was the establishing of
lodging houses in various places in the city where
homeless persons could find shelter in cold
weather. He also set up depots for the supply
of coal at cost for the poor people.
In 1909 a great earthquake in Messina, in
Italy, made many people destitute and homeless
and Mr. Straus lost no time in rushing supplies 1
and clothing on board ships for their relief.
A Congress for the protection of infants was
arranged by different nations to be held at Ber
lin, and President Taft appointed Mr. Straus
as the representative of his adopted country, the
United States. He was made a member of the
New York Forest Preserve Board for he loved
the beautiful forests and was instrumental in
keeping them from destruction. He was also
appointed as a park commissioner in New York
for he believed in having parks for the pleasure
they gave people.
Mr. Straus finally decided to give all his time
for the good of others, so he gave up his busi
ness. He did not need to earn more money; he
he had already given away some two million dol
lars, now lie desired to help in other ways. Go
ing on a visit to Palestine he was distressed with
270 NATHAN STRAUS
the conditions he found in Jerusalem and re
solved to make it a liveable place, for as a Jew he
was naturally interested in the Holy Land.
First, he saw they needed pure water so he
sought the help of men in America in establish
ing a water system there. He paid men to sweep
three times a day the street leading to the Wail
ing Wall where the people go to pray and which
was in very bad and dirty condition. Many of
the natives suffer from blindness, so he sent for
an eye specialist from Europe to give treatment
to those who had the disease. Then because he
found the people very ignorant, he established
schools for the education of the children, and
bought a house which he fitted up for a house
hold school where girls should be trained in
domestic science, how to keep their rooms tidy,
and how to wash and iron clothes. He pur
chased also another building for a nurses settle
ment. He supplied a soup kitchen for the poor
and he set up a factory to provide work for those
needing it, where mother of pearl souvenirs are
made. This has proved to be very successful.
In his adopted country, in addition to the many
other good and helpful things he has done, he
has established a Preventorium for tuberculosis
patients at Farmingdale, New York, and also
an institute for the cure of hydrophobia by the
Pasteur method. Surely this foreign-born citi-
NATHAN STRAUS 271
zen is to be credited with many noble deeds for
the benefit of the people of the United States,
making them happier and more comfortable, and
also saving thousands of lives.
A GREAT ORCHESTRAL LEADER
THEODORE THOMAS
A BOY who at the age of five played the
violin in public and at seven was able to
read and execute any piece of music put before
him such were the beginnings of the great musi
cal leader, Theodore Thomas, who thrilled im
mense audiences with his concerts. The blind
king of Hanover was so impressed with the boy s
ability that he offered to provide for his education
but as the family was about to emigrate to
America the offer was declined.
In 1845, when Theodore Thomas entered the
United States, there was no general knowledge
of good music, and orchestral music was un
known. When he died at the age of seventy he
had spent fifty years in developing the musical
taste of its people and be had made "the art of
music known and loved by tens of thousands of
men and women who had had no technical train-
ing."
Theodore was born at Esens, by the North
Sea, East Friesland, October 2, 1835. His
father was the stadtpfeifer, or town musician,
272
THEODORE THOMAS 273
an office of honor which was held by leading
musicians in different places. His mother was
the daughter of a physician. Theodore was the
only one in a large family who had any musi
cal ability. When they reached New York City,
no openings for an instrumentalist were avail
able, except to join a brass band and play for
parades or theaters. Theodore had to help his
father support the family by playing wherever
he could get a chance. This meant much night
work for the theaters of that day were open
long past midnight, and balls and parties later
still. Attendance at school by day was therefore
impossible for so young a boy. He endeavored
to train himself musically by using every op
portunity to play with strict attention to rhythm
and the various shades of expression, so that
every note rang pure and true. It was his artis
tic sense that led him thus to prepare himself
for his future work.
At the age of fifteen Theodore was free to
make his own plans, his father no longer needing
his financial assistance. So the boy started on
a concert tour of the South, with a horse and his
violin, a little box of clothing, and some printed
posters announcing the concerts of "Master
T. T." He would engage the dining room of his
hotel, tack up his posters around town, stand at
the door and sell tickets until he thought his
274 THEODORE THOMAS
audience had all gathered. Then he would
hastily run upstairs to put on his concert clothes,
soon appear and begin to play. At the end of a
year he returned to New York, and was engaged
as the leading violinist in a German theater.
Through his engagement with the Italian Opera
Company in New York in 1851, he had the op
portunity of hearing Jenny Lind, Mario Grisi,
Sontag and others, learning the value and beauty
of tone-quality. He endeavored to produce on
his instrument the soft velvety tones then entirely
lacking in the best German violinists.
During succeeding years he had the opportun
ity of working with Karl Eckert, conductor of
the Italian Opera Company, who appointed him
leader of the second violins. This taught him to
maintain system and order and to manage musi
cians with tact and justice. Arditi succeeded
Eckert, and promoted Thomas to the position
of concert meister, the highest in the orchestra,
and also gave him the responsibility of engaging
all the other members of the orchestra. He was
at this time only eighteen years old.
In 1854 he was elected a member of the New
York Philharmonic Society and for thirty-six
years was associated with it, first as a violinist,
later, as its leader. In 1855, William Mason,
a highly educated musician, organized a quartette
of stringed players to give a series of chamber
THEODORE THOMAS 275
concerts in New York City, and invited Thomas
to be its first violin. Mason wrote of him that
"he was a born conductor and leader." One of
the members of this quartette, Frederick Berg-
ner, is reported to have said of Theodore Thomas
that "one of the greatest violinists in the world
was spoiled to become one of the greatest con
ductors." Association with men of the refined,
scholarly type of those in the Mason Quartette
did much to strengthen the high standards at
which Thomas aimed.
As a youth he often indulged in wild pranks
and escapades, but as he himself said, "I never
did anything which I would be ashamed to tell
my boys." As he grew older he was especially
careful of his thoughts as well as his actions and
words. He refused to listen to vulgar talk, read
bad books or go to doubtful plays, because he
felt "the musician must keep his heart pure, his
mind clean, if he wishes to elevate his art." Be
cause he always regretted his loss of a university
education, he tried to make up for it by wide and
extensive reading and thus became a very well-
informed man. Not only did he take every op
portunity for severe musical training, but he used
all the time possible in the study and science of
music. In 1859 it was said of him that he was
"America s most accomplished violinist."
One evening when he was only twenty-three
276 THEODORE THOMAS
years of age, Thomas received a message saying
that Anschutz, who was conducting opera in New
York City was ill; would he come and conduct
for him? This was something he had never
done, and the work for the evening, Halevy s
"Jewess," was unfamiliar to him, but at once he
said, "I will," and did it with success. This led
to his being made conductor permanently. He
was always ready for every opportunity.
Recognizing the need of the country to make
it musical, was a good orchestra, and plenty of
concerts within reach of the people, Thomas in
1862 gave an orchestral concert under his own
direction, the first "Thomas Concert." Its pro
gram contained two compositions never before
played in America, an indication of his life
policy of giving the people the best cultured
music, often before it was completely recognized
in Europe. One of these was Wagner s "Flying
Dutchman," music which was then ironically
called "the music of the future." After giving
several concerts he decided he must have an
orchestra of his own, and proceeded to
form one, without waiting for financial back
ing or endowment. This was the beginning of
his life work, and also of the Theodore Thomas
Orchestra. In 1866 he was elected conductor of
the Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn. In 1867
he took a short trip to Europe where he heard
THEODORE THOMAS 277
the best orchestras and brought back much in
formation that was valuable to him.
The aim of Theodore Thomas was to raise
music from the place simply of entertain
ment, to the level of the other arts paint
ing, sculpture, and architecture. In appre
ciation of his efforts, the business men of
New York offered to build for him a hall.
It was ready for use in May, 1868, and
was opened in Central Park Garden with the
first of the Summer Night Concerts Which were
continued for some years. In the winter months
Thomas took his orchestra, which had now been
enlarged to sixty men, to various cities. For
thirty-six years he toured the whole country, thus
becoming a national figure. The result is shown
in the words of a musical man of Boston who
said, "We thank him for setting palpably before
us a higher ideal of orchestral execution. We
shall demand better of our own in the future."
Thomas himself felt that the support of the pub
lic was increasing.
In the seventies, P. T. Barnum invited
Thomas to star the country under his manage
ment. Thomas humorously speaks thus of the
incident: "Can anybody blame me for feeling
properly elated that the greatest manager of the
greatest menagerie on earth considered me
worthy of his imperial guidance and was willing
278 THEODORE THOMAS
to place me advantageously before the public, be
side the fat woman and the elephant. This
was a high tribute, but what had I done to deserve
it?" It was indeed an instance of descent from
the sublime to the ridiculous.
Musical festivals in which his orchestra co
operated with several hundred voices were estab
lished by him and proved very popular. They
were given in several large cities. In May, 1875,
at the second Cincinnati festival, an incident oc
curred which Thomas turned to good account,
and which is still remembered with interest by
many members of the old chorus. The country
had been suffering from a long drought and dur
ing the day the clouds had been gathering. Just
as Thomas gave the signal for the chorus in
Mendelssohn s "Elijah," "Thanks be to God,"
the rain came down in torrents. The coincidence
was an inspiration to him, and he gathered all
his forces chorus, orchestra and organ in one
sublime outburst of thanksgiving: "Thanks be
to God, He laveth the thirsty land, the waters
gather together, they rush along, they are lifting
their voices. The stormy billows are high, their
fury is mighty, but the Lord is above them, and
He is ALM.IGHTY!"
Thomas was the first to make a speciality of
presenting Wagner music, so that he made his
audiences very familiar with it. He was elected
THEODORE THOMAS 279
president of the New York Wagner Verein when
it was organized. He was always determined
that this country should not be behind any Euro
pean land in any musical way, so it is not sur
prising to learn that he was able to forward to
Wagner ten thousand dollars as the gift of the
Verein for his festival performance. In 1873,
Rubenstein and Wienawski, world famed leaders
in piano and violin, participated in a series of
concerts with the Thomas Orchestra. Ruben-
stein wrote thus to Mr. Steinway: "Little did
I dream to find here the greatest and finest or
chestra in the whole world. Never in my life
have I found an orchestra and conductor so in
sympathy with one another, or who followed me
as the most gifted accompanist can follow a
singer on the piano."
Another trip to Europe gave him much satis
faction. Particularly did he enjoy meeting
Liszt. While in London he was offered the con-
ductorship of the Philharmonic Society of that
city, but brilliant as the offer was, it was declined
for two strong reasons: First, his patriotism
toward the land of his adoption and the desire to
complete there the work with which he had been
long identified; second, his inalterable resolve to
pay his heavy load of debts, which he could only
accomplish by remaining in this country.
As leader of the New York and Brooklyn
280 THEODORE THOMAS
Philharmonic Societies Mr. Thomas s absolute
integrity in financial matters was shown in an
unusual way. In accepting this engagement, it
was arranged that the financial compensation
should be $2,500 from each society annually, but
in the case of the New York Society this amount
was to be paid in the form of shares, of which
Thomas considered twenty were a fair equivalent.
But he agreed to release the Society from obliga
tion to make good any deficit should the shares
fail to yield the expected sum. Nevertheless,
when through his leadership, the dividends in
creased from $18 to $125 a share, frequently even
reaching $200, Mr. Thomas refused to accept
more than the $2,500 which his contract intended
to provide, and he yearly turned back into the
treasury of the Society whatever surplus there
might be from his own shares. And this he did
when he had long carried a heavy load of debt
through his noble endeavors to increase the musi
cal knowledge and elevate the musical taste of the
people of America.
Part of the work he undertook during this
period was the training of large choruses of sing
ers, which culminated in gigantic festivals with
some three thousand singers and three hundred
players in the orchestra. In no one of the
twenty-one programs were there any duplicates.
The detail work was therefore very great. An
THEODORE THOMAS 281
unusual incident illustrates the character of the
man : One night a blizzard prevented the street
cars from running and hardly a dozen people
were in the audience. The manager asked
Thomas if under the circumstances the concert
should be given. "Of course?" was the prompt
reply, "it will not only be given but I shall try
to make an especially good performance, for
the people who have braved such a storm as this
to hear us, must surely be music lovers who de
serve the best we can give them."
Late-comers to a concert were a special aver
sion to Mr. Thomas. At the first Cincinnati
Festival in 1873, he said to the committee,
"When I commence the Te Deum you will close
the doors and admit no one until the first part is
finished." The committee remonstrated, fearing
the effect upon the public. Mr. Thomas replied
firmly, "It must be done. When you play
Offenbach or Yankee Doodle you can keep your
doors open. When I play Handel s Te Deum
they must be shut. Those who appreciate music
will be here on time. It makes little difference
to those who come late how much they lose."
During his long service as conductor he not only
never was absent but he was never tardy at a
rehearsal. He demanded that his players should
be equally prompt. "Never was a leader more
strict, never was there a leader more kind.
282 THEODORE THOMAS
The personnel of the Thomas orchestra was
composed of the finest musicians Europe
and America could produce. Its membership
changed little from year to year. In April,
1883, he started on a tour of thirty cities for
seventy- four concerts. For three months he
could not take a day for rest, for he was traveling
or conducting without an hour s intermission.
In 1889, there came to him invitations from a
number of cities, asking that Mr. Thomas give
a concert in which those who appreciated his
work might have the opportunity to show him
the "high esteem and sincere admiration felt by
the people everywhere for the man and his
work." The invitation from New York was
signed by fifty men of national fame, such as
Theodore Roosevelt, Grover Cleveland, John
Pierpont Morgan, Cyrus W. Field, W. D.
Howells, etc.
Two years later the Chicago Orchestral Asso
ciation was organized with fifty-one men as its
financial backers. At much personal sacrifice
Thomas consented to leave New York and go to
Chicago to be its conductor, for he saw his op
portunity to do the highest class of musical work.
Through a period of twelve years he aimed at
the attainment of the highest standard of artistic
excellence, giving himself unstintingly to the fur
therance of his art in all possible ways. It fi-
THEODORE THOMAS 283
nally became necessary to raise money for a per
manent building or else abandon the Association,
but to the appeal issued for a popular subscrip
tion the response was so great that the amount
of $750,000 was raised and the subscription list
contained no less than eight thousand names,
among which were found those of janitors, scrub
women, and wage earners of all sorts, besides
those of the wealthy people of the city. Never
was there a greater tribute to any man.
December 14, 1904, the first concert was held
in the Thomas Orchestra Hall and on January
4, 1905, the end of the great leader s life came.
Musicians, newspapers, men of prominence,
ministers, all spoke in appreciation of him. Al
though of German birth and retaining many
German traits, his whole life was devoted to the
service of the American people. Mr. George P.
Upton says: "Many a time have I heard him
resent slurs upon American institutions and de
fend the national government and policy against
its critics. His love for the United States and his
respect and admiration for the broad minded
views of its people, as well as their public spirit,
were deep, sincere and hearty."
AN ELECTRICAL WIZARD
NIKOLA TESLA
A DREAMER of dreams is Nikola Tesla.
JL"V Wonderful dreams they are, and many of
them have come true, while others are only parti
ally realized and have yet to be shown to be really
practicable and feasible. He is a great enthu
siast, and can tell thrilling stories of what he is
going to accomplish some day. This, and other
countries, are indebted to him for some remark
able discoveries connected with electrical power.
Nikola Tesla was born on the border of
Austria-Hungary at a place called Smiljan, in
Lika, in 1857. His father was a Greek clergy
man and orator, and from his mother, whose
father and herself were both inventors, he in
herited his love of and ability in invention. His
parents were desirous that he should follow his
father s profession, but the youth himself found
this prospect distasteful. After eleven years
spent in the public school and higher institutions,
he obtained his certificate of maturity and knew
that he must decide on a career.
Just at this time he was stricken with cholera,
284
NIKOLA TESLA
NIKOLA TESLA 285
an epidemic of which was then raging in his
native land; he was seriously ill for many months,
and his recovery was considered doubtful.
Finally heroic treatment restored him to health,
and his father, in fulfilment of a promise made to
his son during his illness, sent him to study en
gineering at the Joanneum in Gratz, in Styria.
As a boy he had been impressed by the possi
bilities of will-power and self-control by reading
of a person in whom they had been remarkably
developed. He therefore trained himself in
these characteristics until he found that his will
and wish coincided, and to this severe discipline
of himself he attributes whatever success he has
achieved.
In his classes at the Joanneum he was one day
convinced while watching experiments by one of
the professors that the commutator device at
tached to the motor was unnecessary, and might
with advantage be omitted. He set himself to
work out the problem, but had to wait awhile be
fore he succeeded in proving his contention. In
1880 he went to the University in Prague, Bo
hemia. The following year he resolved to relieve
his parents of the burden of his support, and go
ing to Budapest he secured a position as chief
electrician to the telephone company.
In 1882 his duties called him to Strassburg,
in Alsace, and here he constructed his first motor.
286 NIKOLA TESLA
Although crude it gave him satisfaction, as it
was the proof of the correctness of the theory
he had held while at the engineering school. It
secured rotation affected by alternating currents
without a commutator. Unsuccessful in his en
deavors to obtain capital for its practical intro
duction, he resolved to come to the United States.
He reached here in the summer of 1884, and
somewhat later became a naturalized citizen of
our country.
The Edison Machine Works was his first des
tination, and there he was employed in designing
dynamos and motors. In 1888 he signed a con
tract to develop an arc-light system, and a year
and a half later was free to devote himself to the
development of his rotating field motor and the
rotary transformer.
Perhaps his discovery of the principle of the
alternating current has been as important as any
thing he has done. Without it long-distance
transmission of electric power would be impos
sible. It is a simpler and more economical
method of converting electrical into mechanical
energy than by the direct current. The prin
ciple of his rotary field motor is in use at
Niagara Falls for transmitting power to near-by
cities.
Tesla invented a wonderful little turbine on
a new mechanical principle. In it steam goes
NIKOLA TESLA 287
around in special circuits several times instead
of once, as in the old-style engine, thus conserv
ing much energy that otherwise would be lost.
Its normal speed is about nine thousand revolu
tions to the minute. Inside the casings of the
engine there are simple disks of steel mounted
on the shaft. The steam, entering at the peri
phery, follows a spiral path toward the center,
where openings are provided through which it
exhausts. As the disks rotate and the speed in
creases, the path of the steam lengthens until
it completes a number of turns before reaching
the outlet, and it is working all the time. This
method has the advantage of simplicity, and of
being comparatively inexpensive to construct,
with nothing to get out of order. Tesla has
embodied the principle in a variety of machines,
such as gas and steam turbines, pumps, air-com
pressors, hot-air engines. It is capable of de
veloping ten horse-power from each pound of
weight.
Tesla has also produced a fountain in which
remarkable results are obtained with very little
water. A shaft runs vertically through the cen
tral column of the fountain, carrying at its lower
end a propeller, and at its upper end an electric
motor. As the propeller is made to revolve the
water is sucked in by the propeller blades through
inlets at the bottom of the tube in which the pro-
288 NIKOLA TESLA
peller is contained, and is urged upward. As
the circulation is extremely rapid, the total quan
tity of water required is comparatively small;
about one-tenth of that delivered per minute is
generally sufficient. A great mass of water is
propelled by the movements of such power as is
required to lift it from its normal level to the
height from which it descends in cascades.
Tesla has done much to develop a wireless
system which differs basically from that of Mar
coni. He has invented a system of transmission
of power without wires, and the transmission of
energy through a single wire without return.
Many of his discoveries have been of scientific
and practical value to the world; others, such as
a transcontinental and transoceanic wireless tele
phone, and the transmission of pictures by the
ordinary telegraph method, have not yet been
proved practical. He dreams also of one day
making it possible for us to communicate with
other planets. As one of his grandfathers lived
to be one hundred and ten years old, and the
other was over one hundred, Nikola considers
that he may yet do wonderful things in invention
and discovery.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
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