CHAPTER VIII
COLONEL HARRIS RETURNS TO HARRISVILLE
The strong will of Reuben Harris was to meet its match, in fact itsdefeat. His plans for a well rounded life were nearing a climax when thetelegram from his manager Wilson changed all his plans, and standing onthe pier, as his family steamed away, he experienced the horrors of aterrible nightmare.
Mechanically he shook his white handkerchief, saw his family carriedfar out to sea as if to another world, and he longed for some yawningearthquake to engulf him. He stood transfixed to the dock; theperspiration of excitement, now checked, was chilling him when Gertrudecaught his arm and said, "Father, what is the matter?"
Colonel Harris's strong frame trembled like a ship that had struck ahidden rock, and then he rallied as if from a stupor, and taking Mr.Searles's arm was helped to a carriage.
He said, "You must pardon me, Mr. Searles, if for a moment I seemedunmanned. It is a terrible ordeal to be thus suddenly separated from myfamily."
"Yes, Colonel Harris, I had a similar experience recently on the docksin Liverpool when my family bade me adieu, and I came alone to America.Separation for a time even from those we love is trying."
The heroic in Colonel Harris soon enabled him to plan well for theafternoon. He telegraphed Mr. Wilson of his decision to return, and thensaid, "We will leave New York at 6 o'clock this evening for Harrisville.Mr. Searles, we will try to use the afternoon for your pleasure. Driver,please take us to the Windsor Hotel, via the Produce Exchange." Thecolonel having left the Waldorf did not wish, under the circumstances,again to enter his name on its register.
The ride down West Street, New York, at midday, is anything butenjoyable, as few thoroughfares are more crowded with every kind ofvehicle conveying merchandise from ship to warehouse, and from warehouseto ship and cars. However, the ride impressed Searles with the immensityof the trade of the metropolis. West Street leads to Battery Park, theProduce, and Stock Exchanges, which Colonel Harris desired Mr. Searlesand his daughter Gertrude to see in the busy part of the day.
Colonel Harris explained that here in Battery Park terminated theMetropolitan Elevated Railway. A railway in the air with steam-enginesand coaches crowded with people interested Mr. Searles greatly.
"In London," he said, "we are hurried about under ground, in foul air,and darkness often."
"Here at Battery Park, Mr. Searles, November 25, 1783, Sir Guy Carleton'sBritish army embarked. Our New Yorkers still celebrate the date asEvacuation Day. Near by at an earlier date Hendrick Christianson, agentof a Dutch fur trading company, built four small houses and a redoubt,the foundation of America's metropolis. In 1626 Peter Minuit, firstgovernor of the New Netherlands, bought for twenty-six dollars allManhattan Island."
Mr. Searles visited the tall Washington Building which occupies theground where formerly stood the headquarters of Lords Cornwallis andHowe. He told Gertrude that he had read that, in July, 1776, the peoplecame in vast crowds to Battery Park to celebrate the Declaration ofIndependence, and that they knocked over the equestrian statue of GeorgeIII., which was melted into bullets to be used against the British.
"Yes," replied Colonel Harris, "in early days, Americans doubtless lackedappreciation of art, but we always gave our cousins across-sea a warmreception."
"Colonel Harris," said Mr. Searles, "it has always puzzled me tounderstand why you should have built near Boston the Bunker HillMonument."
"Mr. Searles, because we Americans whipped the British."
"Oh no, Colonel, that fight was a British victory."
"Father," said Gertrude, "Mr. Searles is right; the British troops, underGeneral Gage, drove the American forces off both Breed's Hill and BunkerHill. The obelisk of Quincy granite was erected at Charlestown, I think,to commemorate the stout resistance which the raw provincial militia madeagainst regular British soldiers, confirming the Americans in the beliefthat their liberty could be won."
Mr. Searles thanked Miss Harris for her timely aid and added that apatriot is a rebel who succeeds, and a rebel is a patriot who fails. Heobserved also the witty sign over the entrance of a dealer in Americanflags, "Colors warranted not to run."
The party drove to the Produce Exchange, one of the most impressivebuildings in New York. It is of rich Italian Renaissance architecture.Beneath the projecting galley-prows in the main hall, the fiercebargaining of excited members reminded Mr. Searles of a pitched battlewithout cavalry or artillery.
Gertrude was anxious to climb the richly decorated campanile that risestwo hundred and twenty-five feet, which commands an unrivalled bird's-eyeview of lower New York, the bay, Brooklyn, Long Island, and the mountainsof New Jersey. All hoped to catch a glimpse of the "Majestic," but shewas down the Narrows and out of sight.
Mr. Searles desired to see Trinity Church, so he was driven up Broadwayto the head of Wall Street. Its spire is graceful and two hundred andeighty-four feet high. The land on which it stands was granted in 1697by the English government. There were also other magnificent endowments.Trinity Parish, or Corporation, is the richest single church organizationin the United States, enjoying revenues of over five hundred thousanddollars a year. In Revolutionary times the royalist clergy persisted inreading prayers for the king of England till their voices were drownedby the drum and fife of patriots marching up the center aisle.
It was now past two o'clock and the Harris party was driven to the HotelWindsor for lunch. Promptly at six o'clock the conductor of the fastWestern Express shouted, "All aboard," and Colonel Harris, Gertrude, andMr. Searles in their own private car, left busy New York for Harrisville.
The Express creeps slowly along the steel way, under cross-streets,through arched tunnels, and over the Harlem River till the Hudson isreached, and then this world-famed river is followed 142 miles toAlbany, the capital of the Empire State. This tide-water ride on theAmerican Rhine is unsurpassed. The Express is whirled through tunnels,over bridges, past the magnificent summer houses of the magnates of themetropolis that adorn the high bluffs, past wooded hill and winding dale,grand mountains, and sparkling rivulets. Every object teems with historicmemories. This ride, in June, is surpassed only when the forests are in ablaze of autumnal splendor.
For twenty miles in sight are the battlemented cliffs of the Palisades.Mr. Searles was familiar with the facile pen of Washington Irving, andfrom the car caught sight of "Sunny Side" covered with nourishing vines,grown from slips, which Irving secured from Sir Walter Scott atAbbottsford.
Passing Tarrytown Colonel Harris said, "Here Major Andre was captured,and the treachery of Benedict Arnold exposed, otherwise, we might to-dayhave been paying tribute to the crown of Great Britain."
"Yes," replied Mr. Searles, "George Washington, patriot, hung MajorAndre, the spy. You made Washington president, and we gave Andre amonument in Westminster Abbey."
Sing Sing and Peekskill were left behind, and the Express was approachingthe picturesque Highlands, a source of never failing delight to tourists.West Point, the site of the famous United States Military Academy, is onthe left bank of the Hudson in the very bosom of the Highlands.
The sun set in royal splendor behind the Catskills;
"And lo! the Catskills print the distant sky, And o'er their airy tops the faint clouds driven So softly blending that the cheated eye Forgets or which is earth, or which is heaven."
"Mr. Searles," said Colonel Harris, "before leaving America you mustclimb the Catskills. Thousands every summer, escaping from the heat andworry of life, visit those wind-swept 'hills of the sky.' There they findrest and happiness in great forests, shady nooks, lovely walks, and finedrives.
"There are several hotels in the vicinity. From one hotel on anoverhanging cliff you behold stretched out before you a hundred miles ofthe matchless panorama of the Hudson. The Highlands lie to the south, theBerkshire Hills and Green Mountains to the east, and the Adirondacks tothe north. The latter is a paradise for disciples of Nimrod and of IzaakWalton, and a blessed sanitarium for Americans, most of whom und
er skiesless gray than yours do their daily work with little if any reservevitality."
Gertrude, who had excused herself some minutes before, now returned. Shehad been visiting in an adjoining Pullman a friend of hers, whom she hadmet for a moment in the Grand Central Station before the train started.Calling Colonel Harris aside, she said, "Father, Mrs. Nellie Eastlake, myclassmate at Smith College, is going with friends to the Pacific Coast;shall I ask her to dine with us?"
"Certainly, child, invite her, and I am sure, Mr. Searles, that youconcur in my daughter's plan to increase our party at dinner, do younot?"
"Most assuredly, Colonel."
A little later charming Mrs. Eastlake followed Gertrude into the"Alfonso," and soon dinner was announced. The steward, thoughtlessly, hadforgotten in New York to purchase flowers for the table, but they werenot missed.
There are women in this world whose presence is so enjoyable that theyrival the charm of both art and flowers. Their voices, their grace ofmanner, their interest in you and your welfare, laden the air with anindescribable something that exhilarates. Their presence is like thesunshine that warms and perfumes a conservatory; you inhale the odors ofroses, pinks, and climbing jessamines. Such a woman was Nellie Eastlake.She was tall and winning. The marble heart of the Venus of Milo wouldhave warmed in her presence. Shakespeare would have said of her eyes,"They do mislead the morn."
Mrs. Eastlake was in sympathy with the Harrises in their keendisappointments. She possessed the tact to put Mr. Searles in thehappiest frame of mind, so that he half forgot his mission to America.The Colonel also forgot, for the hour, that his family were absent, andthat his workmen in Harrisville were on a strike.
Mrs. Eastlake in her girlhood had converted all who knew her into ardentfriends. While at school on the Hudson, she met the rich father of aschoolmate. Later she was invited to travel with this friend and herfather, Mr. Eastlake, a widower, among the Thousand Islands and down theSt. Lawrence River. She so charmed the millionaire that after graduationat Smith College she accepted and married him. She was now journeying toher palatial home on the Pacific Coast. She skilfully helped to guide thetable-talk, avoiding unwelcome topics. The dinner over, a half-hour wasspent with music and magazines, and the party retired for the night.
Breakfast was served as the Express approached Lake Erie. It was agreedthat Mr. Searles should accompany Mrs. Eastlake and Gertrude in the car"Alfonso," and spend a day or two at Niagara Falls.
Colonel Harris kissed Gertrude, said good-bye to all, and taking a seatin a Pullman, continued alone on his journey to Harrisville. Returninghome he hoped, if possible, to set matters right at the steel millsbefore Mr. Searles arrived.
Left to himself, he now had opportunity for reflection. The time was,when he was as proud of his ability to do an honest day's work at theforge as he was to-day proud of his great wealth and growing power in themanufacturing world. Then he was poor, but he was conscious of forceshidden within which if used on the right things and at the right time andplace he believed would make him a man of influence.
He was able then with his own hands to fashion a bolt, a nail, orhorseshoe, unsurpassed in the county. He was handy in shaping andtempering tools of every kind. When he ate his cold dinner, reheating hiscoffee over the forge coals, he often thought of the dormant fires withinhim, and he wondered if they would ever be fanned to a white heat. Foryears he had toiled hard to pay the rent of his forge and home and hismonthly bills. His wife was saving and helpful in a thousand ways, butlife was a hard struggle from sun to sun.
One summer's day when work was slack, there came to his shop a tallEnglishman to get a small job done. So well was the work performed byHarris that the Englishman, whose name was James Ingram, said to Harris,"I believe you are the mechanic I have long been looking for. In earlylife I was apprenticed in England to a famous iron-master, and when theBessemer patents for converting iron into steel were issued, it was mygood fortune to be a foreman where the first experiments were made byHenry Bessemer himself, and so I came to have a practical knowledge ofBessemer's valuable invention; but my health failed, and for six monthsI have been in your country in search of it, and now being well again,I plan to start if possible a Bessemer steel plant in America. Can youhelp me?"
Reuben Harris was quick to see that great profits might be realized fromBessemer's patents and Ingram's ideas, and promptly said, "Yes, but Imust first know more about these patents and their workings." Before aweek had passed, he had learned much from Ingram concerning the practicalworking of the Bessemer process of converting iron into steel. Bessemerclaimed that his steel rails would last much longer than the common ironrail then in use.
Reuben Harris easily comprehended that the profits would be large. It wasverbally agreed between Harris and Ingram that they would share equallyany and all profits realized. Ingram had contributed reliable knowledge,Harris was to enlist capital, and both were to make use of all theirtalents, for they were both skilled mechanics.
It was not an easy matter for Harris to secure capital, for capital isoften lynx-eyed, and usually it is very conservative. It was especiallycautious of investment in Harris's schemes, as the practical workings ofthe Bessemer process were not yet fully understood in America.
The profits promised by both Harris and Ingram to capitalists were great,and this possibly made capital suspicious. Finally enough ready money wasobtained to make a successful experiment, which so convinced a few richmen that more money was immediately advanced, and the steel plant wassoon furnishing most satisfactory steel rails at greatly reduced cost forboth the manufacturer and consumer.
Harris's ability to manage kept pace with the rapid growth of the newenterprise, while Ingram's knowledge and inventive talents proved that assuperintendent of the steel plant he was the right man in the rightplace.
At first Harris found great difficulty in convincing railway managersthat the steel rail would render enough more service to compensate forthe additional cost. The most anybody could say in favor of the steelrail was largely theoretical. The Bessemer steel rail had had only a fewmonths of actual service, long enough, however, to demonstrate that atthe joints it would not batter and splinter like the iron rail. This was,indeed, a desideratum and many orders came in. Not only was the steelmill kept running day and night, but orders accumulated so rapidly thatlarge additions were made to the mills.
Money for all these improvements and the capital necessary to carry onthe increasing business were matters of vital importance to the successof the company. To manage a business with greatest advantage quite asmuch ready cash is needed as is invested in the plant, otherwise thebanker's discount becomes a heavy lien on the profits, and thestockholders grumble at small dividends.
Possibly Reuben Harris overestimated the value of his service infinanciering the business; at least he came to believe that he earned,and ought to have a larger interest than James Ingram. Ingram, becameso cramped by assessments and money obligations that he was obliged tosell to Harris most of his interest in the steel plant. Harris'sinterests increased, till practically he was the owner of the HarrisvilleIron & Steel Works, and much property besides. He was quoted as amillionaire, while James Ingram was superintendent of only a departmentof the steel works, and his income was nominal. Often he felt that greatinjustice had been done him. Several times he had talked the matter overwith Colonel Harris, but with little satisfaction.
The great wrong done to James Ingram, to whom Harris was so largelyindebted for the initial and practical knowledge of successfullymanufacturing steel rails was uppermost in Reuben Harris's mind asthe express hurried him back to Harrisville.