DENVER AND BEYOND 21 



work till it reaches perfection, and he will not 

 exhibit it to the wise ones, the sarcastic ones 

 or the supercilious ones. He reserves it for simple 

 souls, like myself, who are credulous and love to 

 be lied to. 



The story that Mr. Harriman did not recognize 

 his own road leads me to some observations on 

 this new Union Pacific. When Harriman took it, 

 it was bankrupt — the traditional "two streaks of 

 rust and a right-of-way." It had been the play- 

 thing and victim of the stock market, the looter 

 and the wrecker. It had an enormous debt, but 

 it was one of the great links of commerce. Its 

 terminals were fine. It ran through a rich 

 country. It was the first really, truly great rail- 

 road that Mr. Harriman controlled, for his very 

 own, with an absolutely free hand. He had a large 

 hand in other railroads — a long education in trans- 

 portation — but the U. P. was the first to be called 

 by the now familiar name, "a, Harriman road.'' 

 Not that he owned it — Mr. Harriman, I imagine, 

 does not own any road — but, through affiliations 

 and stock control, it was his as much as though he 



