I have nothing more to say."
They retired. It was about two weeks afterwards that one of the house
servants came to my library in New York with a card, and I found upon
it the names of two of our workmen, and also the name of a reverend
gentleman. The men said they were from the works at Pittsburgh and
would like to see me.
"Ask if either of these gentlemen belongs to the blast-furnace workers
who banked the furnaces contrary to agreement."
The man returned and said "No." I replied: "In that case go down and
tell them that I shall be pleased to have them come up."
Of course they were received with genuine warmth and cordiality and we
sat and talked about New York, for some time, this being their first
visit.
"Mr. Carnegie, we really came to talk about the trouble at the works,"
the minister said at last.
"Oh, indeed!" I answered. "Have the men voted?"
"No," he said.
My rejoinder was:
"You will have to excuse me from entering upon that subject; I said I
never would discuss it until they voted by a two-thirds majority to
start the mills. Gentlemen, you have never seen New York. Let me take
you out and show you Fifth Avenue and the Park, and we shall come back
here to lunch at half-past one."
This we did, talking about everything except the one thing that they
wished to talk about.
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