An American merchant in Europe, Asia and Australia: a series of letters
(An American merchant in Europe, Asia and Australia: a ser...)
An American merchant in Europe, Asia and Australia: a series of letters from Java, Singapore, China, Bengal, Egypt, and the Holy Land ... etc
by Train, George Francis
(Excerpt from Observations on Horse Railways
Time is econ...)
Excerpt from Observations on Horse Railways
Time is economized by regularity of transit; the cars being quickly stopped by the application of the brake, the most refractory horses are immediately arrested while the whole operation becomes so mechanical, that the horses, when accustomed to the signals of the bell, stop or start without any action on the part of the driver, by which means a time table can be effectively used, and business men are not subjected to delays incident to the old and we trust soon to say obsolete omnibus system.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Speech Of George Francis Train: On Irish Independence And English Neutrality (1865)
(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
(Excerpt from Young America in Wall-Street
I am a Bostoni...)
Excerpt from Young America in Wall-Street
I am a Bostonian, and know how hard it is to penetrate through the powerful freemasonry of a Boston firm. Returning from abroad after an absence of several years, I find the same clerks on the same wharves, in the same counting houses, with the same thread-bare coats on the same salaries - living from year to year on pro mises - promises that cheer them till life is worn away in the service of others, who, when at last an Opportunity arrives to advance them, have not the. Will to do it 1.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
George Francis Train was an American entrepreneur.
Background
George Francis Train was born on March 24, 1829 in Boston. He was the only son of Oliver and Maria (Pickering) Train, and a descendant of John Traine who settled in Watertown, Massachussets, in 1635.
Oliver was a merchant who moved from Boston to New Orleans, and whose last traceable act was to send his son back to Boston by sea and alone, the child's mother and his three sisters having been victims of a yellow fever epidemic. Train was finally delivered to his maternal grandmother in Waltham, and on her farm he lived until he was fourteen.
Education
He attended the district school at Waltham and, for three months only, an academy in Framingham. In 1843 he left his home to escape being apprenticed.
Career
He found employment in a grocery store in Cambridge. A year or more later a relative, Enoch Train, called to inquire about him, and the next day George betook himself to his visitor's shipping-office in Boston and demanded employment there. His insistence overrode all objections, and he was soon actively engaged in the management of the business.
Enoch Train had established a packet line to Liverpool and had recently commissioned Donald McKay to build a ship for him. Commissions for other ships followed and young Train acquired some prominence in connection with them. It was he, according to his own account, who ordered for the firm, in 1848, the building by McKay of the famous Flying Cloud, which the Trains sold at a huge profit.
In 1850 he was sent to England as manager of the Liverpool office. Three years thereafter he went to Melbourne, Australia, where he established a shipping firm, and is said to have earned commissions amounting to $95, 000 in the first year. He now began to show an increasing tendency to become associated with the sensational and spectacular.
Leaving Australia in 1855, he toured the Orient, the Levant, and Europe, establishing connections in Paris with the entourage of Queen Maria Cristina of Spain, from whose banker he later secured funds to build the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad in Ohio. On his return to America in July 1856, the New York Herald printed many columns by him, and during the next eighteen years he wrote extensively, producing such books as Young America in Wall Street, Young America Abroad, in Europe, Asia, and Australia, and An American Merchant in Europe, Asia, and Australia, all published in 1857, and Spread-Eagleism, a collection of his speeches with press accounts of the writer and his books, which appeared in 1859. In addition, he issued innumerable pamphlets, leaflets, and fugitive pieces.
In the late fifties and early sixties he was in England seeking capital for American railroads, and endeavoring to promote the construction of street railway lines in Liverpool, London, and Staffordshire; after the outbreak of the Civil War he also made stirring speeches in behalf of the Union.
His return to Boston in 1862 was signalized by his being put in jail--one of numerous such experiences-for disturbing a public meeting. He continued to attract attention by his financial undertakings and other spectacular activities: he espoused the Fenian cause; built an elaborate villa in Newport; in 1870 he made a trip around the world in eighty days.
He championed the cause of Victoria Woodhull after her arrest for the character of her published charges against Henry Ward Beecher, and printed in his paper, The Train Ligne, passages from the Bible demonstrating that Victoria's language was well within Biblical limits. This publication resulted in his arrest for obscenity, and he was confined in the Ludlow Street Jail for several months, refusing to avail himself of means of release. Against his protest, his counsel entered the defense of insanity, on which he was discharged. A sheriff's jury then found him sane and not subject to confinement in an asylum. The case is of interest historically, because it marked the beginning of the campaign against obscenity carried on by Anthony Comstock.
After the above episode in his career, Train's status was somewhat equivocal, and his business activities were curtailed. He still attracted notice from time to time, however, by trips around the world and sensational lectures. In his last years he seldom spoke to any adult, but lived quietly and frugally at the Mills Hotel in New York, spending much of his time among children.
His autobiography, My Life in Many States and in Foreign Lands (1902), shows a willingness on his part to claim full credit for the success of any enterprise with which he was at all connected.
He announced himself a candidate for the presidency in 1869 and made speeches in his own behalf for the next three years except when otherwise engaged; joined the French Communists in 1870 and was expelled from France;
Views
Quotations:
"Strange times are these, in which we live, forsooth ;
When young and old are taught in Falsehood's school:–
And the man who dares to tell the truth,
Is called at once a lunatic and fool. "
"The great Pacific Railway is commenced. .. Immigration will soon pour into these valleys. Ten millions of emigrants will settle in this golden land in twenty years. .. This is the grandest enterprise under God!"
Personality
In spite of his eccentricities and mad escapades--he styled himself the "Champion Crank"--Train was a man of no small ability nor unimportant achievements. That his influence on American shipping and British street railways was considerable is recognized. In his sensational performances, moreover, there was an element of practical joking that gave them a touch of humor and satire. He was tall and dark, and once humorously designated himself an octoroon.
Connections
On October 5, 1851, at Louisville, Ky. , he married Wilhelmina Wilkinson Davis, who died in 1879. They had four children, including daughter Susan M. Train Gulager.