t in as messenger, and
when there were no messages, to hang around the office and pick up the
mystery by induction. One great drawback to acting as messenger was that
Andy did not know the streets. So he started in memorizing the names of
all the business firms on Penn Avenue, up one side and down the other.
Then he tackled Liberty Street, Smithfield Street and Fifth Avenue. At
home nights, he would shut his eyes and call the names until the
household cried for mercy and shrieked, "Hold, enough!"

Before the operators got around in the morning, the boys used the keys,
calling up other boys up and down the line. Needless to say, young Andy
didn't spend all of his time on the streets. A substitute operator was
needed one day, and Andy volunteered to fill the place. He filled it so
well that the regular man, who was a bit irregular in his habits, was
given a permanent vacation. At this time all of the telegraph business
was taken care of from the railroad-offices, just as it is now in most
villages.

"Who is the sandy, freckled one?" once asked Thomas A. Scott,
Superintendent of the Pittsburgh Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
"He's a Scot from Scotland, and his name is Carnegie," was the answer.

The play on words pleased Mr. Scott. He got into the habit of sending
his messages by young Carnegie. And when one day he discovered that the
Scotch lad had spoken of him as "Tomscot" over the wire, the economy of
the proceeding so pleased him that he took Andy into his personal
service at a raise of ten dollars a month.

About this time there came a sleet-storm which carried down the wires.
Volunteers who could climb were in demand. Young Carnegie's work
indoors had reduced his physical powers, so climbing was beyond his
ability. It was a pivotal point. Had he been able to climb he might have
evolved into a construction boss. As it was he stuck to his desk, and
eventually owned the line.

Thus did he prove Darwin's dictum that we are evolved by our weakness
quite as much as through our strength.

Daniel Webster once said that the great disadvantage in the practise of
law is that the better you do your work, the more difficult are the
cases that come to you. It is the same in railroading--or anything else,
for that matter. Cheap men can take care of the cheap jobs. The reward
for all good work is not rest, but more work, and harder work. Thomas A.
Scott was a man of immense initiative--his was the restless, tireless,