THE CALL OF THE STREET 333 



to put the road in the hands of a receiver. The 

 Trust Company refused to lend the money, but 

 I took enough of the bonds to avert the receiver- 

 ship. General Devereux was a railroad man 

 from the ground up and his services as such to the 

 Union during the Civil War were great, but 

 when in behalf of a great road, driven by an ap- 

 parent necessity, he made that world-famous re- 

 bate contract with Rockefeller, he opened the 

 box of Pandora and laid up a store of remorse 

 that haunted him to his dying day. 



In a year or so as profits permitted I bought 

 a house in 49th Street, New York, to which I 

 put up a three story addition, fitting out the first 

 floor as a machine shop, with a twelve horse 

 power engine, and the second as a chemical lab- 

 oratory. Thereafter if matters were dull in the 

 street there was always something to be done in 

 the shop and often my engine ran half the night, 

 while if any worry interfered with my sleep it 

 was but a step from my room to the laboratory 

 which trouble never invaded. Among the thou- 

 sands of chemical experiments which I recorded 



