ct under excitement is an unknown quantity. When
the Omaha Railway General Offices in Saint Paul took fire, at the first
alarm E. W. Winter, then General Manager, ran for the stairway, emerging
on the street. Then he bawled up to his clerk on the second floor
excitedly, "Charlie, bring down my hat!" But his clerk, young Fuller,
with more presence of mind, was then at the telephone sending in word to
the fire-department. Everybody got out safely, even to the top floor,
but the building was destroyed.

One night about ten o'clock, the St. P., M. & M. Ry. offices at Saint
Paul caught fire. The smoke penetrated the room where Mr. Hill with his
Secretary, Will Stephens, was doing some work after all others had
departed. They had paid no attention to the alarm of fire, but the smell
of smoke started them into action. Young Stephens hurriedly carried
valued books and papers to the vault, while Mr. Hill with the strength
of a giant grasped a heavy roll-top desk used by A. H. Bode,
Comptroller, pushed it to the wall, and threw it bodily out of the
second-story window. The desk was shattered to fragments and the
hoodlums grabbed on to the contents. No harm was done to the railway
office, save discoloring the edges of some documents. The next morning
when Bode, all unconscious of fire or accident, came to work, Edward
Sawyer, the Treasurer, said jokingly, "Bode, you may consider yourself
discharged, for your desk is in the street."

When Conductor McMillan sold his farm in the valley for ten thousand
dollars, he asked Mr. Hill what he should do with the money. "Buy
Northern Securities," was the answer. He did so and saw them jump
one-third. Frank Moffatt was Mr. Hill's Secretary for some years. Frank
now has charge of the Peavey Estate. C. D. Bentley, now a prominent
insurance man of Saint Paul, a friend of Frank's, used to visit him in
Mr. Hill's private office. Mr. Hill caught him there once and said,
"Young man if I catch you here again I'll throw you out of the window."
Bentley thought he meant it, so he kept away in the future. He told the
story once in my presence, when Mr. Hill was also present. Mr. Hill
bought red lemonade for the bunch. A porter on his private car was
foolish enough to ask him at Chicago once at what hour the train
returned. That porter had all day to look for another job, and Mr.
Hill's secretary provided another porter at once. Mr. Hill can not
overlook incompetency or neglect. Colonel Clough engineere