Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie
fruit stores, where a pocketful of apples was sometimes to be had for
the prompt delivery of a message; bakers' and confectioners' shops,
where sweet cakes were sometimes given to him. He met with very kind
men, to whom he looked up with respect; they spoke a pleasant word and
complimented him on his promptness, perhaps asked him to deliver a
message on the way back to the office. I do not know a situation in
which a boy is more apt to attract attention, which is all a really
clever boy requires in order to rise. Wise men are always looking out
for clever boys.
One great excitement of this life was the extra charge of ten cents
which we were permitted to collect for messages delivered beyond a
certain limit. These "dime messages," as might be expected, were
anxiously watched, and quarrels arose among us as to the right of
delivery. In some cases it was alleged boys had now and then taken a
dime message out of turn. This was the only cause of serious trouble
among us. By way of settlement I proposed that we should "pool" these
messages and divide the cash equally at the end of each week. I was
appointed treasurer. Peace and good-humor reigned ever afterwards.
This pooling of extra earnings not being intended to create artificial
prices was really cooeperation. It was my first essay in financial
organization.
The boys considered that they had a perfect right to spend these
dividends, and the adjoining confectioner's shop had running accounts
with most of them. The accounts were sometimes greatly overdrawn. The
treasurer had accordingly to notify the confectioner, which he did in
due form, that he would not be responsible for any debts contracted by
the too hungry and greedy boys. Robert Pitcairn was the worst offender
of all, apparently having not only one sweet tooth, but all his teeth
of that character. He explained to me confidentially one day, when I
scolded him, that he had live things in his stomach that gnawed his
insides until fed upon sweets.
CHAPTER IV
COLONEL ANDERSON AND BOOKS
With all their pleasures the messenger boys were hard worked. Every
other evening they were required to be on duty until the office
closed, and on these nights it was seldom that I reached home before
eleven o'clock. On the alternating nights we were relieved at six.
This did not leave much time for self-improvement, nor did the wants
of the family leave any money to spend on books. There came, however,
like a blessing from above, a means by which the treasures of
literature were unfolded to me.
Colonel James Anderson--I bless his name as I write--announced that he
would open his library of four hundred volumes to boys, so that any
young man could take out, each Saturday afternoon, a book which could
be exchanged for another on the succeeding Saturday. My friend, Mr.
Thomas N. Miller, reminded me recently that Colonel Anderson's books
were first opened to "working boys," and the question arose whether
messenger boys, clerks, and others, who did not work with their hands,
were entitled to books. My first communication to the press was a
note, written to the "Pittsburgh Dispatch," urging that we should not
be excluded; that although we did not now work with our hands, some of
us had done so, and that we were really working boys.[15] Dear Colonel
Anderson promptly enlarged the classification. So my first appearance
as a public writer was a success.
[Footnote 15: The note was signed "Working Boy." The librarian
responded in the columns of the _Dispatch_ defending the rules, which
he claimed meant that "a Working Boy should have a trade." Carnegie's
rejoinder was signed "A Working Boy, though without a Trade," and a
day or two thereafter the _Dispatch_ had an item on its editorial page
which read: "Will 'a Working Boy without a Trade' please call at this
office." (David Homer Bates in _Century Magazine_, July, 1908.)]
My dear friend, Tom Miller, one of the inner circle, lived near
Colonel Anderson and introduced me to him, and in this way the windows
were opened in the walls of my dungeon through which the light of
knowledge streamed in. Every day's toil and even the long hours of
night service were lightened by the book which I carried about with me
and read in the intervals that could be snatched from duty. And the
future was made bright by the thought that when Saturday came a new
volume could be obtained. In this way I became familiar with
Macaulay's essays and his history, and with Bancroft's "History of the
United States," which I studied with more care than any other book I
had then read. Lamb's essays were my special delight, but I had at
this time no knowledge of the great master of all, Shakespeare, beyond
the selected pieces in the school books. My taste for him I acquired a
little later at the old Pittsburgh Theater.
John Phipps, James R. Wilson, Thomas N. Miller, William
Cowley--members of our circle--shared with me the invaluable privilege
of the use of Colonel Anderson's library. Books which it would have
been impossible for me to obtain elsewhere were, by his wise
generosity, placed within my reach; and to him I owe a taste for
literature which I would not exchange for all the millions that were
ever amassed by man. Life would be quite intolerable without it.
Nothing contributed so much to keep my companions and myself clear of
low fellowship and bad habits as the beneficence of the good
Colonel. Later, when fortune smiled upon me, one of my first duties
was the erection of a monument to my benefactor. It stands in front of
the Hall and Library in Diamond Square, which I presented to
Allegheny, and bears this inscription:
To Colonel James Anderson, Founder of Free Libraries in
Western Pennsylvania. He opened his Library to working boys
and upon Saturday afternoons acted as librarian, thus
dedicating not only his books but himself to the noble work.
This monument is erected in grateful remembrance by Andrew
Carnegie, one of the "working boys" to whom were thus opened
the precious treasures of knowledge and imagination through
which youth may ascend.
This is but a slight tribute and gives only a faint idea of the depth
of gratitude which I feel for what he did for me and my companions. It
was from my own early experience that I decided there was no use to
which money could be applied so productive of good to boys and girls
who have good within them and ability and ambition to develop it, as
the founding of a public library in a community which is willing to
support it as a municipal institution. I am sure that the future of
those libraries I have been privileged to found will prove the
correctness of this opinion. For if one boy in each library district,
by having access to one of these libraries, is half as much benefited
as I was by having access to Colonel Anderson's four hundred well-worn
volumes, I shall consider they have not been established in vain.
"As the twig is bent the tree's inclined." The treasures of the world
which books contain were opened to me at the right moment. The
fundamental advantage of a library is that it gives nothing for
nothing. Youths must acquire knowledge themselves. There is no escape
from this. It gave me great satisfaction to discover, many years
later, that my father was one of the five weavers in Dunfermline who
gathered together the few books they had and formed the first
circulating library in that town.
The history of that library is interesting. It grew, and was removed
no less than seven times from place to place, the first move being
made by the founders, who carried the books in their aprons and two
coal scuttles from the hand-loom shop to the second resting-place.
That my father was one of the founders of the first library in his
native town, and that I have been fortunate enough to be the founder
of the last one, is certainly to me one of the most interesting
incidents of my life. I have said often, in public speeches, that I
had never heard of a lineage for which I would exchange that of a
library-founding weaver.[16] I followed my father in library founding
unknowingly--I am tempted almost to say providentially--and it has
been a source of intense satisfaction to me. Such a father as mine was
a guide to be followed--one of the sweetest, purest, and kindest
natures I have ever known.
[Footnote 16: "It's a God's mercy we are all from honest weavers; let
us pity those who haven't ancestors of whom they can be proud, dukes
or duchesses though they be." (_Our Coaching Trip_, by Andrew
Carnegie. New York, 1882.)]
I have stated that it was the theater which first stimulated my love
for Shakespeare. In my messenger days the old Pittsburgh Theater was
in its glory under the charge of Mr. Foster. His telegraphic business
was done free, and the telegraph operators were given free admission
to the theater in return. This privilege extended in some degree also
to the messengers, who, I fear, sometimes withheld telegrams that
arrived for him in the late afternoon until they could be presented
at the door of the theater in the evening, with the timid request
that the messenger might be allowed to slip upstairs to the second
tier--a request which was always granted. The boys exchanged duties to
give each the coveted entrance in turn.
In this way I became acquainted with the world that lay behind the
green curtain. The plays, generally, were of the spectacular order;
without much literary merit, but well calculated to dazzle the eye of
a youth of fifteen. Not only had I never seen anything so grand, but I
had never seen anything of the kind. I had never been in a theater, or
even a concert room, or seen any form of public amusement. It was much
the same with "Davy" McCargo, "Harry" Oliver, and "Bob" Pitcairn. We
all fell under the fascination of the footlights, and every
opportunity to attend the theater was eagerly embraced.
A change in my tastes came when "Gust" Adams,[17] one of the most
celebrated tragedians of the day, began to play in Pittsburgh a round
of Shakespearean characters. Thenceforth there was nothing for me but
Shakespeare. I seemed to be able to memorize him almost without
effort. Never before had I realized what magic lay in words. The
rhythm and the melody all seemed to find a resting-place in me, to
melt into a solid mass which lay ready to come at call. It was a new
language and its appreciation I certainly owe to dramatic
representation, for, until I saw "Macbeth" played, my interest in
Shakespeare was not aroused. I had not read the plays.
[Footnote 17: Edwin Adams.]
At a much later date, Wagner was revealed to me in "Lohengrin." I had
heard at the Academy of Music in New York, little or nothing by him
when the overture to "Lohengrin" thrilled me as a new revelation.
Here was a genius, indeed, differing from all before, a new ladder
upon which to climb upward--like Shakespeare, a new friend.
I may speak here of another matter which belongs to this same period.
A few persons in Allegheny--probably not above a hundred in all--had
formed themselves into a Swedenborgian Society, in which our American
relatives were prominent. My father attended that church after leaving
the Presbyterian, and, of course, I was taken there. My mother,
however, took no interest in Swedenborg. Although always inculcating
respect for all forms of religion, and discouraging theological
disputes, she maintained for herself a marked reserve. Her position
might best be defined by the celebrated maxim of Confucius: "To
perform the duties of this life well, troubling not about another, is
the prime wisdom."
She encouraged her boys to attend church and Sunday school; but there
was no difficulty in seeing that the writings of Swedenborg, and much