He wanted to know just what that word "net" meant.
"Well, Colonel," said my brother, "it means that nothing more is to be
added."
"All right, Thomas," said the Colonel, entirely satisfied.
There is much in the way one puts things. "Nothing to be deducted"
might have caused a dispute.
[Illustration: THOMAS MORRISON CARNEGIE]
He was made furious one day by Bradstreet's volume which gives the
standing of business concerns. Never having seen such a book before,
he was naturally anxious to see what rating his concern had. When he
read that the Keystone Bridge Works were "BC," which meant "Bad
Credit," it was with difficulty he was restrained from going to see
our lawyers to have a suit brought against the publishers. Tom,
however, explained to him that the Keystone Bridge Works were in bad
credit because they never borrowed anything, and he was pacified. No
debt was one of the Colonel's hobbies. Once, when I was leaving for
Europe, when many firms were hard up and some failing around us, he
said to me:
"The sheriff can't get us when you are gone if I don't sign any notes,
can he?"
"No," I said, "he can't."
"All right, we'll be here when you come back."
Talking of the Colonel reminds me of another unusual character with
whom we were brought in contact in these bridge-building days.
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