established
clothing house of Wanamaker & Brown, 1861; established department store
in Philadelphia, 1876, and in New York City, 1896; Postmaster-General,
1889-93; founded Bethany Sunday School, 1858; president Philadelphia Y.
M. C. A., 1870-83.

MORGAN, JOHN PIERPONT. Born at Hartford, Connecticut, April 17, 1837;
entered banking business, 1857, and developed present firm of J. P.
Morgan & Co., largest private bankers of the United States.

HILL, JAMES J. Born near Guelph, Ontario, September 16, 1838; removed to
Minnesota, 1856; entered transportation business; general manager St.
Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Ry. Co., 1879-82; president since 1883;
built Great Northern, with steamship connection with Japan and China,
1883-93; president of Great Northern system since 1893.

HARRIMAN, EDWARD HENRY. Born at Hempstead, Long Island; entered Wall
Street as clerk at age of fourteen; entered New York Stock Exchange
eight years later; was president and chairman of the board of directors
of the Union Pacific, Oregon Short Line, Southern Pacific, Texas & New
Orleans, and many other great railway systems; died near New York City,
September 9, 1909.

CHAPTER X

INVENTORS

It is a curious fact that the men to whom the world owes most generally
get the least reward. The genius in art or letters is seldom recognized
as such until long after he himself has passed away--his life is usually
embittered by derision or neglect. But, in the history of civilization,
the lot of no man has been harder or more thankless than that of the
inventor. Poverty and want have always been his portion, and even after
he had won his triumph, had compelled public recognition of some great
invention, it was usually some one else who won the reward.

America has been especially strong in the field of invention. Indeed,
practically all the great labor-saving devices of the past century and
more have originated here. "Yankee ingenuity" has passed into a proverb,
and a true one, for the country which has produced the steamboat, the
cotton gin, the sewing machine, the electric telegraph, the phonograph,
the telephone, the typewriter, the reaper and binder, to mention only a
few of the achievements of American inventors, may surely claim first
place in this respect among the nations of the world. There are few
stories more inspiring than that of American invention, and as
benefactors to their race, the long line of American inventors may
rightly