going through these twenty years without her.
Nor can I endure the thought of living after her. In the course of
nature I have not that to meet; but then the thought of what will be
cast upon her, a woman left alone with so much requiring attention and
needing a man to decide, gives me intense pain and I sometimes wish I
had this to endure for her. But then she will have our blessed
daughter in her life and perhaps that will keep her patient. Besides,
Margaret needs her more than she does her father.

[Illustration: MRS. ANDREW CARNEGIE]

[Illustration: MARGARET CARNEGIE AT FIFTEEN]

Why, oh, why, are we compelled to leave the heaven we have found on
earth and go we know not where! For I can say with Jessica:

"It is very meet
The Lord Bassanio live an upright life;
For, having such a blessing in his lady,
He finds the joys of heaven here on earth."

CHAPTER XVI

MILLS AND THE MEN

The one vital lesson in iron and steel that I learned in Britain was
the necessity for owning raw materials and finishing the completed
article ready for its purpose. Having solved the steel-rail problem at
the Edgar Thomson Works, we soon proceeded to the next step. The
difficulties and uncertainties of obtaining regular supplies of pig
iron compelled us to begin the erection of blast furnaces. Three of
these were built, one, however, being a reconstructed blast furnace
purchased from the Escanaba Iron Company, with which Mr. Kloman had
been connected. As is usual in such cases, the furnace cost us as much
as a new one, and it never was as good. There is nothing so
unsatisfactory as purchases of inferior plants.

But although this purchase was a mistake, directly considered, it
proved, at a subsequent date, a source of great profit because it gave
us a furnace small enough for the manufacture of spiegel and, at a
later date, of ferro-manganese. We were the second firm in the United
States to manufacture our own spiegel, and the first, and for years
the only, firm in America that made ferro-manganese. We had been
dependent upon foreigners for a supply of this indispensable article,
paying as high as eighty dollars a ton for it. The manager of our
blast furnaces, Mr. Julian Kennedy, is entitled to the credit of
suggesting that with the ores within reach we could make
ferro-manganese in our small furnace. The experiment was worth trying
and the result was a great success. We were able to supply the ent