Early Work and Wages
“Where did you begin life?”
“In Dunfermline, Scotland, during my earliest years. The service of my life has all been in this country.”
“In Pittsburg?”
“Largely so. My father settled in Allegheny City, when I was only ten years old, and I began to earn my way in Pittsburg.”
“Do you mind telling me what your first service was?”
“Not at all. I was a bobbin boy in a cotton factory, then an engine-man or boy in the same place, and later still I was a messenger boy for a telegraph company.”
“At small wages, I suppose?”
“One dollar and twenty cents a week was what I received as a bobbin boy, and I considered it pretty good, at that. When I was thirteen, I had learned to run a steam engine, and for that I received a dollar and eighty cents a week.”
“You had no early schooling, then?”
“None except such as I gave myself.”