yes
were not for them. Directors were to us junior clerks, remote
personalities, mythical beings dwelling on Olympian heights.

[Sir James Allport: allport.jpg]

It was a great thing to see the future King and Queen of England, and our
loyalty and enthusiasm knew no bounds. They were young and charming, and
beloved by the people; but, hero worshipper as I was, our great general
manager was to me even more than royalty. I little thought, as I looked
on Mr. Allport then, that, twenty years later, I should appear before him
to give evidence concerning Irish railways, when he was chairman of an
important Royal Commission.

The great abilities which enable a man to win and hold such a position as
his fired my fancy. I look at men and men's affairs with different eyes
now; but Mr. Allport was a great personality, and youthful enthusiasm
might well be excused for placing him on a high pedestal. He was tall
and handsome, with well-shaped head, broad brow, large clear keen eyes,
firm well-formed mouth, strong nose and chin, possessed of an abundant
head of hair, not close cropped in the style of to-day, but full and
wavy, and what one never sees now, a handsome natural curl along the
centre of the head with a parting on each side. This suited him well,
and added to his distinctive individuality. When I entered the Midland
service he was fifty-six years of age and in the plenitude of his power,
for those were days when the company was forcing its way north and south
and widely extending its territory. He was the animating spirit of all
the company's enterprises. No opposition, no difficulties ever daunted
him. His nature was bold and fitted to command, and to him is due, in a
large degree, the proud position the Midland holds to-day. It was not
until late in life, 1884 I think, when he had reached the age of seventy-
two, that his great qualities were accorded public recognition. He then
received the honour of knighthood but had retired from active service and
become a director of his company.

There was another personality that loomed large, in those years, on the
Midland--Samuel Swarbrick, the accountant. His world was finance, and in
it he was a master. So great was his skill that the Great Eastern
Railway Company, which, financially, was in a parlous condition and their
dividend _nil_, in 1866 took him from the Midland and made him their
general manager, at, in those days, a princely salary. Their confidence