" 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.
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