COLONEL HARRIS RETURNS TO HARRISVILLE
The strong will of Reuben Harris was to meet its match, in fact its
defeat. His plans for a well rounded life were nearing a climax when the
telegram from his manager Wilson changed all his plans, and standing on
the pier, as his family steamed away, he experienced the horrors of a
terrible nightmare.
Mechanically he shook his white handkerchief, saw his family carried
far out to sea as if to another world, and he longed for some yawning
earthquake to engulf him. He stood transfixed to the dock; the
perspiration of excitement, now checked, was chilling him when Gertrude
caught his arm and said, "Father, what is the matter?"
Colonel Harris's strong frame trembled like a ship that had struck a
hidden rock, and then he rallied as if from a stupor, and taking Mr.
Searles's arm was helped to a carriage.
He said, "You must pardon me, Mr. Searles, if for a moment I seemed
unmanned. It is a terrible ordeal to be thus suddenly separated from my
family."
"Yes, Colonel Harris, I had a similar experience recently on the docks
in Liverpool when my family bade me adieu, and I came alone to America.
Separation for a time even from those we love is trying."
The heroic in Colonel Harris soon enabled him to plan well for the
afternoon. He telegraphed Mr. Wilson of his decision to return, and then
said, "We will leave New York at 6 o'clock this evening for Harrisville.
Mr. Searles, we will try to use the afternoon for your pleasure. Driver,
please take us to the Windsor Hotel, via the Produce Exchange." The
colonel having left the Waldorf did not wish, under the circumstances,
again to enter his name on its register.
The ride down West Street, New York, at midday, is anything but
enjoyable, as few thoroughfares are more crowded with every kind of
vehicle conveying merchandise from ship to warehouse, and from warehouse
to ship and cars. However, the ride impressed Searles with the immensity
of the trade of the metropolis. West Street leads to Battery Park, the
Produce, and Stock Exchanges, which Colonel Harris desired Mr. Searles
and his daughter Gertrude to see in the busy part of the day.
Colonel Harris explained that here in Battery Park terminated the
Metropolitan Elevated Railway. A railway in the air with steam-engines
and coaches crowded with people interested Mr. Searles greatly.
"In London," he said, "we are hurried about under ground, in foul air,
and darkness often."
"Here at Battery Park, Mr. Searles, November 25, 1783, Sir Guy Carleton's
British army embarked. Our New Yorkers still celebrate the date as
Evacuation Day. Near by at an earlier date Hendrick Christianson, agent
of a Dutch fur trading company, built four small houses and a redoubt,
the foundation of America's metropolis. In 1626 Peter Minuit, first
governor of the New Netherlands, bought for twenty-six dollars all
Manhattan Island."
Mr. Searles visited the tall Washington Building which occupies the
ground where formerly stood the headquarters of Lords Cornwallis and
Howe. He told Gertrude that he had read that, in July, 1776, the people
came in vast crowds to Battery Park to celebrate the Declaration of
Independence, and that they knocked over the equestrian statue of George
III., which was melted into bullets to be used against the British.
"Yes," replied Colonel Harris, "in early days, Americans doubtless lacked
appreciation of art, but we always gave our cousins across-sea a warm
reception."
"Colonel Harris," said Mr. Searles, "it has always puzzled me to
understand why you should have built near Boston the Bunker Hill
Monument."
"Mr. Searles, because we Americans whipped the British."
"Oh no, Colonel, that fight was a British victory."
"Father," said Gertrude, "Mr. Searles is right; the British troops, under
General Gage, drove the American forces off both Breed's Hill and Bunker
Hill. The obelisk of Quincy granite was erected at Charlestown, I think,
to commemorate the stout resistance which the raw provincial militia made
against regular British soldiers, confirming the Americans in the belief
that their liberty could be won."
Mr. Searles thanked Miss Harris for her timely aid and added that a
patriot is a rebel who succeeds, and a rebel is a patriot who fails. He
observed also the witty sign over the entrance of a dealer in American
flags, "Colors warranted not to run."
The party drove to the Produce Exchange, one of the most impressive
buildings in New York. It is of rich Italian Renaissance architecture.
Beneath the projecting galley-prows in the main hall, the fierce
bargaining of excited members reminded Mr. Searles of a pitched battle
without cavalry or artillery.
Gertrude was anxious to climb the richly decorated campanile that rises
two hundred and twenty-five feet, which commands an unrivalled bird's-eye
view of lower New York, the bay, Brooklyn, Long Island, and the mountains
of New Jersey. All hoped to catch a glimpse of the "Majestic," but she
was down the Narrows and out of sight.
Mr. Searles desired to see Trinity Church, so he was driven up Broadway
to the head of Wall Street. Its spire is graceful and two hundred and
eighty-four feet high. The land on which it stands was granted in 1697
by the English government. There were also other magnificent endowments.
Trinity Parish, or Corporation, is the richest single church organization
in the United States, enjoying revenues of over five hundred thousand
dollars a year. In Revolutionary times the royalist clergy persisted in
reading prayers for the king of England till their voices were drowned
by the drum and fife of patriots marching up the center aisle.
It was now past two o'clock and the Harris party was driven to the Hotel
Windsor for lunch. Promptly at six o'clock the conductor of the fast
Western Express shouted, "All aboard," and Colonel Harris, Gertrude, and
Mr. Searles in their own private car, left busy New York for Harrisville.
The Express creeps slowly along the steel way, under cross-streets,
through arched tunnels, and over the Harlem River till the Hudson is
reached, and then this world-famed river is followed 142 miles to
Albany, the capital of the Empire State. This tide-water ride on the
American Rhine is unsurpassed. The Express is whirled through tunnels,
over bridges, past the magnificent summer houses of the magnates of the
metropolis that adorn the high bluffs, past wooded hill and winding dale,
grand mountains, and sparkling rivulets. Every object teems with historic
memories. This ride, in June, is surpassed only when the forests are in a
blaze of autumnal splendor.
For twenty miles in sight are the battlemented cliffs of the Palisades.
Mr. Searles was familiar with the facile pen of Washington Irving, and
from the car caught sight of "Sunny Side" covered with nourishing vines,
grown from slips, which Irving secured from Sir Walter Scott at
Abbottsford.
Passing Tarrytown Colonel Harris said, "Here Major Andre was captured,
and the treachery of Benedict Arnold exposed, otherwise, we might to-day
have been paying tribute to the crown of Great Britain."
"Yes," replied Mr. Searles, "George Washington, patriot, hung Major
Andre, the spy. You made Washington president, and we gave Andre a
monument in Westminster Abbey."
Sing Sing and Peekskill were left behind, and the Express was approaching
the picturesque Highlands, a source of never failing delight to tourists.
West Point, the site of the famous United States Military Academy, is on
the left bank of the Hudson in the very bosom of the Highlands.
The sun set in royal splendor behind the Catskills;
"And lo! the Catskills print the distant sky,
And o'er their airy tops the faint clouds driven
So softly blending that the cheated eye
Forgets or which is earth, or which is heaven."
"Mr. Searles," said Colonel Harris, "before leaving America you must
climb the Catskills. Thousands every summer, escaping from the heat and
worry of life, visit those wind-swept 'hills of the sky.' There they find
rest and happiness in great forests, shady nooks, lovely walks, and fine
drives.
"There are several hotels in the vicinity. From one hotel on an
overhanging cliff you behold stretched out before you a hundred miles of
the matchless panorama of the Hudson. The Highlands lie to the south, the
Berkshire Hills and Green Mountains to the east, and the Adirondacks to
the north. The latter is a paradise for disciples of Nimrod and of Izaak
Walton, and a blessed sanitarium for Americans, most of whom under skies
less gray than yours do their daily work with little if any reserve
vitality."
Gertrude, who had excused herself some minutes before, now returned. She
had been visiting in an adjoining Pullman a friend of hers, whom she had
met for a moment in the Grand Central Station before the train started.
Calling Colonel Harris aside, she said, "Father, Mrs. Nellie Eastlake, my
classmate at Smith College, is going with friends to the Pacific Coast;
shall I ask her to dine with us?"
"Certainly, child, invite her, and I am sure, Mr. Searles, that you
concur in my daughter's plan to increase our party at dinner, do you
not?"
"Most assuredly, Colonel."
A little later charming Mrs. Eastlake followed Gertrude into the
"Alfonso," and soon dinner was announced. The steward, thoughtlessly, had
forgotten in New York to purchase flowers for the table, but they were
not missed.
There are women in this world whose presence is so enjoyable that they
rival the charm of both art and flowers. Their voices, their grace of
manner, their interest in you and your welfare, laden the air with an
indescribable something that exhilarates. Their presence is like the
sunshine that warms and perfumes a conservatory; you inhale the odors of
roses, pinks, and climbing jessamines. Such a woman was Nellie Eastlake.
She was tall and winning. The marble heart of the Venus of Milo would
have warmed in her presence. Shakespeare would have said of her eyes,
"They do mislead the morn."
Mrs. Eastlake was in sympathy with the Harrises in their keen
disappointments. She possessed the tact to put Mr. Searles in the
happiest frame of mind, so that he half forgot his mission to America.
The Colonel also forgot, for the hour, that his family were absent, and
that his workmen in Harrisville were on a strike.
Mrs. Eastlake in her girlhood had converted all who knew her into ardent
friends. While at school on the Hudson, she met the rich father of a
schoolmate. Later she was invited to travel with this friend and her
father, Mr. Eastlake, a widower, among the Thousand Islands and down the
St. Lawrence River. She so charmed the millionaire that after graduation
at Smith College she accepted and married him. She was now journeying to
her palatial home on the Pacific Coast. She skilfully helped to guide the
table-talk, avoiding unwelcome topics. The dinner over, a half-hour was
spent with music and magazines, and the party retired for the night.
Breakfast was served as the Express approached Lake Erie. It was agreed
that Mr. Searles should accompany Mrs. Eastlake and Gertrude in the car
"Alfonso," and spend a day or two at Niagara Falls.
Colonel Harris kissed Gertrude, said good-bye to all, and taking a seat
in a Pullman, continued alone on his journey to Harrisville. Returning
home he hoped, if possible, to set matters right at the steel mills
before Mr. Searles arrived.
Left to himself, he now had opportunity for reflection. The time was,
when he was as proud of his ability to do an honest day's work at the
forge as he was to-day proud of his great wealth and growing power in the
manufacturing world. Then he was poor, but he was conscious of forces
hidden within which if used on the right things and at the right time and
place he believed would make him a man of influence.
He was able then with his own hands to fashion a bolt, a nail, or
horseshoe, unsurpassed in the county. He was handy in shaping and
tempering tools of every kind. When he ate his cold dinner, reheating his
coffee over the forge coals, he often thought of the dormant fires within
him, and he wondered if they would ever be fanned to a white heat. For
years he had toiled hard to pay the rent of his forge and home and his
monthly bills. His wife was saving and helpful in a thousand ways, but
life was a hard struggle from sun to sun.
One summer's day when work was slack, there came to his shop a tall
Englishman to get a small job done. So well was the work performed by
Harris that the Englishman, whose name was James Ingram, said to Harris,
"I believe you are the mechanic I have long been looking for. In early
life I was apprenticed in England to a famous iron-master, and when the
Bessemer patents for converting iron into steel were issued, it was my
good fortune to be a foreman where the first experiments were made by
Henry Bessemer himself, and so I came to have a practical knowledge of
Bessemer's valuable invention; but my health failed, and for six months
I have been in your country in search of it, and now being well again,
I plan to start if possible a Bessemer steel plant in America. Can you
help me?"
Reuben Harris was quick to see that great profits might be realized from
Bessemer's patents and Ingram's ideas, and promptly said, "Yes, but I
must first know more about these patents and their workings." Before a
week had passed, he had learned much from Ingram concerning the practical
working of the Bessemer process of converting iron into steel. Bessemer
claimed that his steel rails would last much longer than the common iron
rail then in use.
Reuben Harris easily comprehended that the profits would be large. It was
verbally agreed between Harris and Ingram that they would share equally
any and all profits realized. Ingram had contributed reliable knowledge,
Harris was to enlist capital, and both were to make use of all their
talents, for they were both skilled mechanics.
It was not an easy matter for Harris to secure capital, for capital is
often lynx-eyed, and usually it is very conservative. It was especially
cautious of investment in Harris's schemes, as the practical workings of
the Bessemer process were not yet fully understood in America.
The profits promised by both Harris and Ingram to capitalists were great,
and this possibly made capital suspicious. Finally enough ready money was
obtained to make a successful experiment, which so convinced a few rich
men that more money was immediately advanced, and the steel plant was
soon furnishing most satisfactory steel rails at greatly reduced cost for
both the manufacturer and consumer.
Harris's ability to manage kept pace with the rapid growth of the new
enterprise, while Ingram's knowledge and inventive talents proved that as
superintendent of the steel plant he was the right man in the right
place.
At first Harris found great difficulty in convincing railway managers
that the steel rail would render enough more service to compensate for
the additional cost. The most anybody could say in favor of the steel
rail was largely theoretical. The Bessemer steel rail had had only a few
months of actual service, long enough, however, to demonstrate that at
the joints it would not batter and splinter like the iron rail. This was,
indeed, a desideratum and many orders came in. Not only was the steel
mill kept running day and night, but orders accumulated so rapidly that
large additions were made to the mills.
Money for all these improvements and the capital necessary to carry on
the increasing business were matters of vital importance to the success
of the company. To manage a business with greatest advantage quite as
much ready cash is needed as is invested in the plant, otherwise the
banker's discount becomes a heavy lien on the profits, and the
stockholders grumble at small dividends.
Possibly Reuben Harris overestimated the value of his service in
financiering the business; at least he came to believe that he earned,
and ought to have a larger interest than James Ingram. Ingram, became
so cramped by assessments and money obligations that he was obliged to
sell to Harris most of his interest in the steel plant. Harris's
interests increased, till practically he was the owner of the Harrisville
Iron & Steel Works, and much property besides. He was quoted as a
millionaire, while James Ingram was superintendent of only a department
of the steel works, and his income was nominal. Often he felt that great
injustice had been done him. Several times he had talked the matter over
with Colonel Harris, but with little satisfaction.
The great wrong done to James Ingram, to whom Harris was so largely
indebted for the initial and practical knowledge of successfully
manufacturing steel rails was uppermost in Reuben Harris's mind as
the express hurried him back to Harrisville.