ent upon religious subjects. She never mentioned these to me nor
did she attend church, for she had no servant in those early days and
did all the housework, including cooking our Sunday dinner. A great
reader, always, Channing the Unitarian was in those days her special
delight. She was a marvel!

[Illustration: ANDREW CARNEGIE'S MOTHER]

During my childhood the atmosphere around me was in a state of violent
disturbance in matters theological as well as political. Along with
the most advanced ideas which were being agitated in the political
world--the death of privilege, the equality of the citizen,
Republicanism--I heard many disputations upon theological subjects
which the impressionable child drank in to an extent quite unthought
of by his elders. I well remember that the stern doctrines of
Calvinism lay as a terrible nightmare upon me, but that state of mind
was soon over, owing to the influences of which I have spoken. I
grew up treasuring within me the fact that my father had risen and
left the Presbyterian Church one day when the minister preached the
doctrine of infant damnation. This was shortly after I had made my
appearance.

Father could not stand it and said: "If that be your religion and that
your God, I seek a better religion and a nobler God." He left the
Presbyterian Church never to return, but he did not cease to attend
various other churches. I saw him enter the closet every morning to
pray and that impressed me. He was indeed a saint and always remained
devout. All sects became to him as agencies for good. He had
discovered that theologies were many, but religion was one. I was
quite satisfied that my father knew better than the minister, who
pictured not the Heavenly Father, but the cruel avenger of the Old
Testament--an "Eternal Torturer" as Andrew D. White ventures to call
him in his autobiography. Fortunately this conception of the Unknown
is now largely of the past.

One of the chief enjoyments of my childhood was the keeping of pigeons
and rabbits. I am grateful every time I think of the trouble my father
took to build a suitable house for these pets. Our home became
headquarters for my young companions. My mother was always looking to
home influences as the best means of keeping her two boys in the right
path. She used to say that the first step in this direction was to
make home pleasant; and there was nothing she and my father would not
do to please us and the neighbors' children who c