Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/117

 98 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS gested that he could acquire ten shares in the Adams' Express Company for $600, and that if he could raise $500, he (Mr. Scott) would advance the remaining $100. Andrew Carnegie consulted his parents. mortgage the house." The thing was settled. Andrew Carnegie owned his first shares. What was of more importance, he had learned his first lesson in finance, which he was later to turn to such ad- vantage. One of Mr. Carnegie *s noblest traits is gratitude. He never forgets a service. **One good turn deserves another" is an aphorism he has ever beUeved in and Uved up to. This he was soon to show. In the course of a railway trip he chanced to meet Thomas T. Woodruff, who showed him the model of a sleeping-car. Recognizing the value of the invention the young man introduced the inventor to Mr. Scott. The out- come was the organization of the Woodruff Sleeping-Car Co. Mr. Carnegie, greatly daring, decided to take up as many shares as he thought he could handle, borrowing the money from a local bank and signing his first note for that purpose. He was not afraid. He was not made that way. He knew his men, he knew what he was getting, and he knew himself; in all three, particularly in himself, he had ample confidence. Other investments followed, and Mr. Carnegie was fairly launched upon his golden career. Meanwhile, however, he prudently continued to associate himself with his proven friends, men of experience and worth. In 1860 Andrew Carnegie persuaded President Scott and Superintendent Woodruff to join him in acquiring the Storey Farm, on Oil Creek, Pa., where petroleum had been located. The purchase price was $40,000. The enterprise developed until the company ^s shares aggregated $5,000,000 value, and $1,000,000 cash dividends were declared in a single year. All this time, the young man *s interest in railroad work remained unabated. Here we have a good instance of another of Mr. Carnegie *s chief characteristics, constancy of purpose. Reach-
 * It must be done," decided his resolute mother, **we must