me good-night and told me to run back to my office. Those words
rang in my ear and warmed my heart for years and years. We understood
each other. How reserved the Scot is! Where he feels most he
expresses least. Quite right. There are holy depths which it is
sacrilege to disturb. Silence is more eloquent than words. My father
was one of the most lovable of men, beloved of his companions, deeply
religious, although non-sectarian and non-theological, not much of a
man of the world, but a man all over for heaven. He was kindness
itself, although reserved. Alas! he passed away soon after returning
from this Western tour just as we were becoming able to give him a
life of leisure and comfort.

After my return to Pittsburgh it was not long before I made the
acquaintance of an extraordinary man, Thomas A. Scott, one to whom the
term "genius" in his department may safely be applied. He had come to
Pittsburgh as superintendent of that division of the Pennsylvania
Railroad. Frequent telegraphic communication was necessary between him
and his superior, Mr. Lombaert, general superintendent at Altoona.
This brought him to the telegraph office at nights, and upon several
occasions I happened to be the operator. One day I was surprised by
one of his assistants, with whom I was acquainted, telling me that Mr.
Scott had asked him whether he thought that I could be obtained as his
clerk and telegraph operator, to which this young man told me he had
replied:

"That is impossible. He is now an operator."

But when I heard this I said at once:

"Not so fast. He can have me. I want to get out of a mere office life.
Please go and tell him so."

The result was I was engaged February 1, 1853, at a salary of
thirty-five dollars a month as Mr. Scott's clerk and operator. A raise
in wages from twenty-five to thirty-five dollars per month was the
greatest I had ever known. The public telegraph line was temporarily
put into Mr. Scott's office at the outer depot and the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company was given permission to use the wire at seasons when
such use would not interfere with the general public business, until
their own line, then being built, was completed.

CHAPTER VI

RAILROAD SERVICE

From the operating-room of the telegraph office I had now stepped into
the open world, and the change at first was far from agreeable. I had
just reached my eighteenth birthday, and I do not see how it could be
possible for any boy to arr