I was now performing a man's part, no longer a boy's--earning a dollar every working day.
[Footnote 18: "I liked the boy's looks, and it was very easy to see that though he was little he was full of spirit.

He had not been with me a month when he began to ask whether I would teach him to telegraph.

I began to instruct him and found him an apt pupil." (James D.Reid, _The Telegraph in America_, New York, 1879.) Reid was born near Dunfermline and forty years afterwards Mr.Carnegie was able to secure for him the appointment of United States Consul at Dunfermline.] The operating-room of a telegraph office is an excellent school for a young man.

He there has to do with pencil and paper, with composition and invention.

And there my slight knowledge of British and European affairs soon stood me in good stead.