ing Mr. Coleman was at work
trying to secure the property. Mr. McKinney, the owner, had a high
idea of the value of his farm. What we had expected to purchase for
five or six hundred dollars an acre cost us two thousand. But since
then we have been compelled to add to our original purchase at a cost
of five thousand dollars per acre.

There, on the very field of Braddock's defeat, we began the erection
of our steel-rail mills. In excavating for the foundations many relics
of the battle were found--bayonets, swords, and the like. It was there
that the then provost of Dunfermline, Sir Arthur Halkett, and his son
were slain. How did they come to be there will very naturally be
asked. It must not be forgotten that, in those days, the provosts of
the cities of Britain were members of the aristocracy--the great men
of the district who condescended to enjoy the honor of the position
without performing the duties. No one in trade was considered good
enough for the provostship. We have remnants of this aristocratic
notion throughout Britain to-day. There is scarcely any life assurance
or railway company, or in some cases manufacturing company but must
have at its head, to enjoy the honors of the presidency, some titled
person totally ignorant of the duties of the position. So it was that
Sir Arthur Halkett, as a gentleman, was Provost of Dunfermline, but by
calling he followed the profession of arms and was killed on this
spot. It was a coincidence that what had been the field of death to
two native-born citizens of Dunfermline should be turned into an
industrial hive by two others.

Another curious fact has recently been discovered. Mr. John Morley's
address, in 1904 on Founder's Day at the Carnegie Institute,
Pittsburgh, referred to the capture of Fort Duquesne by General Forbes
and his writing Prime Minister Pitt that he had rechristened it
"Pittsburgh" for him. This General Forbes was then Laird of
Pittencrieff and was born in the Glen which I purchased in 1902 and
presented to Dunfermline for a public park. So that two Dunfermline
men have been Lairds of Pittencrieff whose chief work was in
Pittsburgh. One named Pittsburgh and the other labored for its
development.

In naming the steel mills as we did the desire was to honor my friend
Edgar Thomson, but when I asked permission to use his name his reply
was significant. He said that as far as American steel rails were
concerned, he did not feel that he wished to connect