"But my story is a simple one, dear friends, and not nearly so wonderful as you may imagine.

My father had a big family that kept him poor, and I was a tinsmith with little work to be had in the village where we lived.

So I started west, working my way from town to town, until I got to Portland, Oregon.
"There was work in plenty there, making the tin cans in which salmon and other fish is packed, and as I was industrious I soon had a shop of my own, and supplied cans to the packers.

The shop grew to be a great factory, employing hundreds of men.

Then I bought up the factories of my competitors, so as to control the market, and as I used so much tin-plate I became interested in the manufacture of this product, and invested a good deal of money in the production and perfection of American tin.