Mr. Pullman, like every other man, had his difficulties and disappointments, and did not hit the mark every time.  No one does.  Indeed, I do not know any one but himself who could have surmounted the difficulties surrounding the business of running sleeping-cars in a satisfactory manner and still retained some rights which the railway companies were bound to respect.  Railway companies should, of course, operate their own sleeping-cars.  On one occasion when we were comparing notes he told me that he always found comfort in this story.  An old man in a Western county having suffered from all the ills that flesh is heir to, and a great many more than it usually encounters, and being commiserated by his neighbors, replied: 

“Yes, my friends, all that you say is true.  I have had a long, long life full of troubles, but there is one curious fact about them—­nine tenths of them never happened.”

True indeed; most of the troubles of humanity are imaginary and should be laughed out of court.  It is folly to cross a bridge until you come to it, or to bid the Devil good-morning until you meet him—­perfect folly.  All is well until the stroke falls, and even then nine times out of ten it is not so bad as anticipated.  A wise man is the confirmed optimist.

Success in these various negotiations had brought me into some notice in New York, and my next large operation was in connection with the Union Pacific Railway in 1871.  One of its directors came to me saying that they must raise in some way a sum of six hundred thousand dollars (equal to many millions to-day) to carry them through a crisis; and some friends who knew me and were on the executive committee of that road had suggested that I might be able to obtain the money and at the same time get for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company virtual control of that important Western line.  I believe Mr. Pullman came with the director, or perhaps it was Mr. Pullman himself who first came to me on the subject.

I took up the matter, and it occurred to me that if the directors of the Union Pacific Railway would be willing to elect to its board of directors a few such men as the Pennsylvania Railroad would nominate, the traffic to be thus obtained for the Pennsylvania would justify that company in helping the Union Pacific.  I went to Philadelphia and laid the subject before President Thomson.  I suggested that if the Pennsylvania Railroad Company would trust me with securities upon which the Union Pacific could borrow money in New York, we could control the Union Pacific in the interests of the Pennsylvania.  Among many marks of Mr. Thomson’s confidence this was up to that time the greatest.  He was much more conservative when handling the money of the railroad company than his own, but the prize offered was too great to be missed.  Even if the six hundred thousand dollars had been lost, it would not have been a losing investment for his company, and there was little danger of this because we were ready to hand over to him the securities which we obtained in return for the loan to the Union Pacific.