It may not
be generally known that the received car of the American
roads was devised to secure a premium offered by the
Pawtucket and Podunk Company. Their receipts were
growing so large that they feared they should forfeit
their charter. They advertised, therefore, for a car in
which no man could sleep at night or rest by day,--in
which the backs should be straight, the heads of
passengers unsupported, the feet entangled in a vice, the
elbows always knocked by the passing conductor. The
pattern was produced which immediately came into use on
all the American roads. But on the Cattawissa and
Opelousas this time-honored pattern was set aside.
Of course you see the result. Men went hundreds of
miles out of their way to ride on the C. and O. The
third mortgage was paid off; a reserve fund was piled up
for the second; the trustees of the first lived in dread
of being paid; and George's stock, which he bought at 3
1/4, rose to 147 before two years had gone by! So was it
that, as we sat together in the snuggery, George was
worth well-nigh three hundred thousand dollars. Some of
his eggs were in the basket where they were laid; some he
had taken out and placed in other baskets; some in nests
where various hens were brooding over them. Sound eggs
they were, wherever placed; and such was the victory of
which George had come to tell.
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