pulled easily its first load, he has no fear of the next.
One of the higher officials of the Union Pacific says
of his first days, it was the young man's thorough-
ness in doing unimportant things which first impressed
him. He recalls the enthusiasm with which the boy,
fresh from college, took on any new work that was
put in his way. To be eager and painstaking about
bits of drudgery, to do them "almost too well," did
not pass unnoticed. This officer gives three reasons
why the young man so early attracted the attention
of his superiors: his enthusiasm, his entire thorough-
ness, and his faculty of application. A little later
another gift is noticed: the indefinite thing called
tact. While still at Omaha, it was reported at the
Boston office that this rare quality had saved him in
situations of special difficulty. The West gave him
his chance. He won there his first spurs with these
varied efficiencies, enthusiasm, thoroughness, capa-
city of application, and tact.

His advancement from "the hack work of making
figures connect" to higher positions, comes so fast
that an onlooker wonders how it will be taken by
older men and by those far longer at work. That a
well-groomed Harvard boy, believed by those above
him to be a pet of the chief officer of the railroad,
should shoot so rapidly beyond his fellows was likely
to excite protesting jealousy. Yet one (not a Har-
vard man) who was long with him, Mr. Josiah H. Hill,
wrote: "He had succeeded in every position, and

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