raise a whole block several feet high,
an enterprise which was accomplished without hardly a break,
discontinuing none of the business firms who occupied the building,
their business being carried on uninterrupted.

George M. Pullman had a perceptive mind--so have all truly successful
men. He perceived that while the railway coaches were far superior to
the old stages, yet they were far inferior to what he imagined they
ought to be. He at once applied to the Chicago and Alton railway
management and laid his plan before them. They furnished him with two
old coaches, with which to experiment. These he fitted up with bunks,
and while they were not to be compared with the elegant palaces which he
has since constructed, still one could lie down and sleep all night,
which was so far in advance of anything the people had seen, that they
were very highly appreciated.

He now went to Colorado, and engaged in various mining schemes, but here
he was out of his sphere, and after a three years' sojourn, returned to
Chicago. His active imagination had thought out many improvements on the
cars he had previously constructed; and he had also secured capital with
which to carry out his ideas. Fitting up a shop on the Chicago and Alton
road, he constructed two coaches, at the then fabulous cost of $18,000
each. The management of the various western roads looked upon such
enterprise as visionary. George M. Pullman, however, cared but little
about their opinion.

The Union and Pacific was then exciting much attention. He knew that on
the completion of such a road, travelers would appreciate a car in which
they could enjoy the comforts of home for the entire tedious trip. To
say that his hopes were fully realized, would be inadequate. So popular
did they become, that his shops at Chicago could not begin to fill the
demands made upon it for his parlor, dining, and sleeping cars. Branches
were started at Detroit, St. Louis, Philadelphia, and various places in
Europe.

These establishments, of necessity, could not come under his immediate
supervision he, therefore, conceived the idea of concentrating his
business into one vast establishment, and gathered about him a force of
skilled workmen. He looked upon Chicago and its locality as the coming
center of population in the United States; but a site in that city would
be far too expensive, if indeed one could have been found sufficient for
his purpose. About twelve to fifteen miles from Chic