making a nice couple of fools of ourselves?" He was not disposed to
admit anything and said:

"What do you mean?"

I explained the situation to him. We were destroying by our rival
propositions the very advantages we desired to obtain.

"Well," he said, "what do you propose to do about it?"

"Unite," I said. "Make a joint proposition to the Union Pacific, your
party and mine, and organize a company."

"What would you call it?" he asked.

"The Pullman Palace Car Company," I replied.

This suited him exactly; and it suited me equally well.

"Come into my room and talk it over," said the great sleeping-car man.

I did so, and the result was that we obtained the contract jointly.
Our company was subsequently merged in the general Pullman Company and
we took stock in that company for our Pacific interests. Until
compelled to sell my shares during the subsequent financial panic of
1873 to protect our iron and steel interests, I was, I believe, the
largest shareholder in the Pullman Company.

This man Pullman and his career are so thoroughly American that a few
words about him will not be out of place. Mr. Pullman was at first a
working carpenter, but when Chicago had to be elevated he took a
contract on his own account to move or elevate houses for a
stipulated sum. Of course he was successful, and from this small
beginning he became one of the principal and best-known contractors in
that line. If a great hotel was to be raised ten feet without
disturbing its hundreds of guests or interfering in any way with its
business, Mr. Pullman was the man. He was one of those rare characters
who can see the drift of things, and was always to be found, so to
speak, swimming in the main current where movement was the fastest. He
soon saw, as I did, that the sleeping-car was a positive necessity
upon the American continent. He began to construct a few cars at
Chicago and to obtain contracts upon the lines centering there.

The Eastern concern was in no condition to cope with that of an
extraordinary man like Mr. Pullman. I soon recognized this, and
although the original patents were with the Eastern company and Mr.
Woodruff himself, the original patentee, was a large shareholder, and
although we might have obtained damages for infringement of patent
after some years of litigation, yet the time lost before this could be
done would have been sufficient to make Pullman's the great company of
the country. I therefore earnestly a