sition they all ought to have been in.

Mr. Drexel said he would like me to explain how I had been able to
steer clear of these unfortunate troubles. I answered: by strict
adherence to what I believed to be my duty never to put my name to
anything which I knew I could not pay at maturity; or, to recall the
familiar saying of a Western friend, never to go in where you couldn't
wade. This water was altogether too deep for me.

Regard for this rule has kept not only myself but my partners out of
trouble. Indeed, we had gone so far in our partnership agreement as to
prevent ourselves from endorsing or committing ourselves in any way
beyond trifling sums, except for the firm. This I also gave as a
reason why I could not endorse.

During the period which these events cover I had made repeated
journeys to Europe to negotiate various securities, and in all I sold
some thirty millions of dollars worth. This was at a time when the
Atlantic cable had not yet made New York a part of London financially
considered, and when London bankers would lend their balances to
Paris, Vienna, or Berlin for a shadow of difference in the rate of
interest rather than to the United States at a higher rate. The
Republic was considered less safe than the Continent by these good
people. My brother and Mr. Phipps conducted the iron business so
successfully that I could leave for weeks at a time without anxiety.
There was danger lest I should drift away from the manufacturing to
the financial and banking business. My successes abroad brought me
tempting opportunities, but my preference was always for
manufacturing. I wished to make something tangible and sell it and I
continued to invest my profits in extending the works at Pittsburgh.

The small shops put up originally for the Keystone Bridge Company had
been leased for other purposes and ten acres of ground had been
secured in Lawrenceville on which new and extensive shops were
erected. Repeated additions to the Union Iron Mills had made them the
leading mills in the United States for all sorts of structural shapes.
Business was promising and all the surplus earnings I was making in
other fields were required to expand the iron business. I had become
interested, with my friends of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, in
building some railways in the Western States, but gradually withdrew
from all such enterprises and made up my mind to go entirely contrary
to the adage not to put all one's eggs in o