CAME BACK FOR MORE.
Financier Who Retired from Business at
Forty Assumes Direction of Great
Railroad at Fifty-Seven.
Alexander Johnston Cassatt retired independently wealthy at the age of forty, and seventeen years later he returned to dominate one of the largest railroads in the country. He was born in Pittsburgh. Though poor, his parents gave him a good education. He became a civil engineer, and the first work he got to do was on a road being built in Georgia. He remained in the South two years, but on the breaking out of the Civil War he returned North, and entered the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Cassatt's ability won rapid promotion. In nine years he built new roads, reorganized the company's shops, and improved the construction of cars and locomotives. Then, when he was thirty-one years old, the position of general manager was created for him.
One of the first things he did in this position was to introduce the air-brake, which at that time received scant encouragement from railroad men. Cassatt was told that it was useless. His experiments cost thousands of dollars, but they established the practicability of the air-brake.
It was Cassatt also who developed the idea of combining individual roads into one great system. In 1872 he executed a grand coup and purchased for the Pennsylvania the controlling stock of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Road, a line the Baltimore and Ohio people had tried to obtain. It took Cassatt one night to engineer the deal, and in payment for the stock a check for $14,549,052.20 was drawn—up to that time the largest on record.
Cassatt was first vice-president of the road when he withdrew in 1882, and for seventeen years he remained out of railroad affairs. When he returned it was as president of the Pennsylvania system, a position he still holds.
A "YELLOW JOURNAL" GLOSSARY.
This Sort of Language Doesn't Wear Any Dictionary Harness, So It Has to Be Put in a
Class by Itself, and Made the Subject of Special Study.
One of the characteristics of the "yellow journal" is that while it usually says what it means, it does not always mean just what it says. It has a system of phraseology that is peculiar to itself, and one who would read it intelligently must familiarize himself with the idiosyncrasies of "yellow" expression. Some of these idiosyncrasies have been carefully collected by the New York Sun:
PRETTY GIRL—Any unmarried human female less than thirty-five years old who gets into the news.
SOCIETY MATRON—Any married woman, from a bartender's wife up through the social grades, who gets into the news.
SOCIETY GIRL—Synonymous with "pretty girl." See above.
NOT EXPECTED TO RECOVER—Phrase applied to the condition of all persons injured in course of news story.
PROMINENT YALE GRADUATE—Any one wearing a boiled shirt, arrested for anything above a misdemeanor.
MULTIMILLIONAIRE—Person possessed of property worth fifty thousand dollars or over, or a relative of a person listed in the Social Register. Up to three years ago "millionaire" was used in the same sense.
THIRTY-TWO CALIBER, PEARL HANDLED—Phrase which must always be attached to the noun "revolver," unless otherwise ordered.
TOT—Any child under seven. In a pathetic story the adjective "tiny" must always be prefixed.
PLUCKY WOMAN—Any woman who did not scream.
HEROINE—Principal female character in any burglary story. Otherwise synonymous with "plucky woman," q.v.
PROMINENT CLUBMAN—Any bachelor leasing apartments at thirty dollars a month and upward. Also members of the Paul Kelley and Timothy D. Sullivan associations who happen to be arrested while wearing dress suits.
FATALLY INJURED—See "not expected to recover," above.
FASHIONABLE APARTMENT HOUSE—Any dwelling which has an elevator.
TODDLE—Verb applied to the walk of a tiny tot. See under "tot" for correct usage.
WELL DRESSED—Phrase always applied to a woman who, when arrested, is comparatively clean. Must be used in a story about a prominent clubman, q.v. as above.
SNUG SUM—Money.
RAFFLES—Any thief who wears a collar.
CRISP FIVE-DOLLAR BILL—Five dollars.
COZY.—Adjective always applied to home to which the remains are taken.
WUZ—Synonymous with "was," but indicates dialect.
HURLED—Motion of passengers, cars, and cabs at the time of the accident.
FAINT—Course taken by all the women within six blocks of the accident.
SCREAM—See "faint," above.
DASH—Gait of the crowd at the time of the accident. "Rush" is synonymous. "Run" is not good usage.
HEIR—Child having three hundred dollars coming to him from a life insurance policy.
RING OUT—What shots always do.
HURTLE—Verb used of motion of any falling object, especially a brick or a suicide.
HAVOC—Good word to use almost anywhere.
HIGH—Adjective which must be prefixed to noun "noon" in the account of a fashionable wedding.
SLAY—Synonymous with obsolete verb "kill."
JUGGLE—What is always done with the funds of a bank or trust company.
COLLEGE GIRL—Any woman who has ever gone to school.
BANDIT—Person guilty of crime against property for which the penalty is more than ten days in jail.
BURLY—Adjective always applied to a male negro.
PROMINENT—Descriptive adjective applied to farmers, plumbers, and dentists.
BOUDOIR—Any bedroom the rent of which is more than one dollar and a half a week.
GLOBE TROTTER—Any one who has been to Hohokus, N.J., Kittery, Me., or Peru, Ind.
GEMS—Personal ornaments worth more than one dollar and seventy-five cents.