I have said often, in public speeches, that I had never heard of a lineage for which I would exchange that of a library-founding weaver.[16] I followed my father in library founding unknowingly--I am tempted almost to say providentially--and it has been a source of intense satisfaction to me.

Such a father as mine was a guide to be followed--one of the sweetest, purest, and kindest natures I have ever known.
[Footnote 16: "It's a God's mercy we are all from honest weavers; let us pity those who haven't ancestors of whom they can be proud, dukes or duchesses though they be." (_Our Coaching Trip_, by Andrew Carnegie.

New York, 1882.)] I have stated that it was the theater which first stimulated my love for Shakespeare.

In my messenger days the old Pittsburgh Theater was in its glory under the charge of Mr.Foster.His telegraphic business was done free, and the telegraph operators were given free admission to the theater in return.

This privilege extended in some degree also to the messengers, who, I fear, sometimes withheld telegrams that arrived for him in the late afternoon until they could be presented at the door of the theater in the evening, with the timid request that the messenger might be allowed to slip upstairs to the second tier--a request which was always granted.