Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 9.djvu/245

 Colonel Albert A. Pope.

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��rolling mill in the country that would at first undertake to roll the steel rims, and it was only by giving a large order far in excess of the demand that at last a rolling mill would consent to under- take to roll the felloes. He had the same difficulty with back bones, forks, rubber tires, and almost everything else that entered into the construction of the bicycle.

At last, having overcome all difficul- ties, he put on the market a bicycle en- tirely the product of American industry, which modestly he considers equal if not superior to the best that has ever been made. With its introduction arose several legal points ; even its right to be used on highways had to be es- tablished. All these points have been satisfactorily adjusted.

Since its organization Colonel Pope has been at the head of the Pope Man- ufacturing Company, which under his management ha'- become one of the most flourishing and best organized of corporations for the production and dis- tribution of fine machinery. It has a large factory at Hartford, stores and shops in Boston, New York and Chi- cago, and some four hundred agencies in the large cities and towns, and it controls nearly one hundred patents. The manufacture of tricycles it has more recently converted into a great industry.

This sketch, however, is a personal account of the founder of the business rather than of the business itself. A gentleman of fine executive and finan- cial ability, Colonel Pope's attention has not been confined to the manufac- turing of bicycles and tricycles alone, for he is largely interested in other bus- iness enterprises of magnitude, and is President and Director in several cor- porations. He is a member of several

��social clubs, and all organizations en- couraging athletic sports have his good will if not membership.

For two years after returning from the war he made his home in Brook- line ; since then in Newton until very lately he has taken up his residence on Commonwealth Avenue, in the city of Boston, to be nearer his place of busi- ness. A view of his house in Newton, his home for many years, accompanies this article. His Boston residence is a model for convenience and elegant ap- pointments. Here is displayed the fine artistic taste of its Qwner. The walls of the spacious rooms are hung with paintings of great merit — the produc- tion of home and foreign talent.

In politics Colonel Pope is an In- dependent, one of the original mem- bers of that growing party, and has always favored civil service reform. He has never had time to accept office from his fellow citizens, except a minor town office in Newton, and has shunned publicity except in the way of business.

In his domestic relations Colonel Pope has always been a kind and con- siderate son to his parents, a good brother, a father to his orphaned nephew and niece, a devoted husband, and a ten- der parent to his own children. To his own family he has been more than gener- ous, — he has been lavish. He is very hospitable and enjoys company at his home. He has a large, kind heart, is modest, liberal towards charitable ob- jects, good natured, fond ofa joke, full of fun in his hours of relaxation, unselfish, generous, not quarrelsome, true to his friends, kind to his employees, although a strict disciplinarian, and a good off- hand, after-dinner speaker. He is far- seeing in business, patient of results, with remarkable business and executive ability.

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