Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/70

 straps. When the Lewis & Clark Exposition was held here in Portland I met Mr. Hughes. He introduced me to Mr. Elliott, who had been the engineer when I was working for $1 a day in San Francisco. He was a brother-inlaw of Leland Stanford. The little engine used at the Cascades had been shipped back to San Francisco as a historic souvenir of the early days of San Francisco. I told him that we would like to have this engine exhibited at the Lewis & Clark Fair, as it was the first engine used in Oregon. He fixed it up in fine shape, gave it to me with his compliments and paid the freight on it to Portland. You probably remember seeing it standing beside the 120-ton engine of the Union Pacific at the Lewis & Clark Fair. As it was my personal property, I turned it over to the Oregon Historical Society when the Lewis & Clark Exposition closed and I understand that it was allowed to go to rack and ruin. It is too bad, as it should have been preserved because of its historical interest. After working ten days at this job in San Francisco at $1 a day, I couldn't stand the hotel off any longer, so I applied for my money. I was told that they paid off at the end of the month and not before, and that if a person didn't work a month they received no pay, so I quit then and there. I met an old-time acquaintance named Bendel of the firm of Tilman & Bendel, wholesale grocery merchants, who nearly laughed himself sick when he saw me, for my clothes were pretty well shot to pieces. He handed me $20 and told me to come around to his store. The merchants at that time had an agreement not to employ men who had not been passed upon by the secretary of the employment association. I invested my $20 in clothes and went up to see the secretary. He talked with me a few minutes and offered me my choice of seven different positions. It was a case of 'it never rains but it pours.' Here I had been running my legs off for a job without being able to land one and now I could have my choice of jobs. He told me that A. Cohn & Company were operat-