Although I tried earnestly to get the great iron-king to talk of this,
he said little, because the matter has been fully dealt with by him in
his “Triumphant Democracy.” From his own story there, it appears that,
one day at this time, when Mr. Carnegie still had his fortune to make,
he was on a train examining the line from a rear window of a car, when
a tall, spare man, accosted him and asked him to look at an invention
he had made. He drew from a green bag a small model of a sleeping-berth
for railway cars, and proceeded to point out its advantages. It was Mr.
T. T. Woodruff, the inventor of the sleeping-car. Mr. Carnegie tells
the story himself in “Triumphant Democracy:”—
“He had not spoken a moment, before, like a flash, the whole range of
the discovery burst upon me. ‘Yes,’ I said, ‘that is something which
this continent must have.’
“Upon my return, I laid it before Mr. Scott, declaring that it was one
of the inventions of the age. He remarked: ‘You are enthusiastic, young
man, but you may ask the inventor to come and let me see it.’ I did so,
and arrangements were made to build two trial cars, and run them on the
Pennsylvania Railroad. I was offered an interest in the venture, which,
of course, I gladly accepted.
“The notice came that my share of the first payment was $217.50. How
well I remember the exact sum! But two hundred and seventeen dollars
and a half were as far beyond my means as if it had been millions. I
was earning fifty dollars per month, however, and had prospects, or at
least I always felt that I had. I decided to call on the local banker
and boldly ask him to advance the sum upon my interest in the affair.
He put his hand on my shoulder and said: ‘Why, of course, Andie; you
are all right. Go ahead! Here is the money.’
“It is a proud day for a man when he pays his last note, but not to
be named in comparison with the day in which he makes his first one,
and gets a banker to take it. I have tried both, and I know. The cars
paid the subsequent payments from their earnings. I paid my first note
from my savings, so much per month, and thus did I get my foot upon
fortune’s ladder. It was easy to climb after that.”
“I would like some expression from you,” I said to Mr. Carnegie, “in
reference to the importance of laying aside money from one’s earnings,
as a young man.”